What's For Dinner?

I just made these delicious Mini Pepperoni Calzones last night! They are from Sandra Lee, but I can't find a picture or link anywhere online. So here ya go, old fashioned style:

My notes in italics

1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1/3 c. diced onion or onion some flakes
8 oz. pepperoni/ham/sausage (each or combination) I use pepperoni and cooked ham
2 t. bottled garlic blend (Gourmet Garden Brand) I used some garlic powder
1 c. shredded 5 cheese Italian cheese blend - I used mozzerella and more of it
1/2 c. pizza sauce - I used my own that I canned last summer :)
1/2 t. italian seasoning
salt and pepper
1 - 16.3 oz. can of refrigerated biscuit dough - Pillsbury all the way
1 egg
1 t. water

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray baking dish with cooking spray
• For filling, in medium skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion; cook for 3 minutes. Add pepperoni (i quarter them) and garlic (and other meat here too); cook for 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 cup of cheese, pizza sauce and italian seasoning. Add S&P. Set aside.
• Separate biscuits and roll into a 6" circles. Divide filling among circles. Combine egg and water and brush edges of dough. Fold in half and crimp edges with fork. Pierce top of calzone with fork and brush with egg mixture.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Here's what else were eating lately:

Pork Loin
Roasted Garlic Mac and Cheese

Photo from Annie-Eats

Pork Chops with Pineapple Fried Rice

Photo from The Pioneer Woman

French Onion Soup with Autumn Chopped Salad (this salad outside my comfot zone, folks)

Photo from ExpressoandCream.com

Photo from The Pioneer Woman

Slow Cooked Cheese Stuffed Meatballs and Sauce with Spaghetti

Photo from Paula Dean

Mexican Chicken Casserole

Photo from Paula Dean

There you have it. Along some other traditional meals, that will be us for the next 2 weeks.

Anyone really LOVE French Onion Soup like I do? Please come over and help me eat it :)

DIY Project - Fabric Softener

This is fantastic! I just made this today and tried it out. Yo - check it out dude (in the words of Randy Johnson) tehehe

6 cups water
3 cups white vinegar
2 cups Suave Conditioner (I used Refreshing Waterfall Mist). The original post called for Mint/Rosemary but my lovely Walgreens didn't have it. This conditioner only cost me $1.

Combine in a 1 gallon bucket

Looks kinda weird.

Stir it around. I had to use a whisk to get all the "chunks" out. The original post said to warm the vinegar and conditioner for a bit before combining. But I didn't read it carefully enough.

And tada! Almost 1 gallon of fabric softener for under $2! I tried it today and was pleased. I filled up my slot in the washing machine and the scent wasn't very strong at all. The original post called for 1/2 cup per load.

Here is the original post

This girls got some great ideas! Homemade dryer sheets?? I'm not sure about those yet.... Hubbs would get a kick out of that one for sure!





What's For Dinner?

It's raining. I'm drinking hot tea and listening to Fernando Ortega on Pandora. It is lovely :)


I'm also making my meal plans with all this loveliness!


Ranch House Crock Pot Chops

Photo from Chef In Training

Laundry Room Curtain

I needed a curtain for my laundry room to add some color to the room and block some of that great afternoon sun. So wall-ah! You may recognize this fabric from a project I did a few months ago.

A Christmas Quilt and a Muffin

So 3 years, 6 months, 23 days and 33 seconds later, I can finally say I have finished my Christmas quilt. (slight exaggeration)...

My Favorite Bargins

I am always looking for a great bargain. I don't want to be known as a tight wad but as someone who is a good steward with God's money! I love to see how far I can stretch a paycheck, because my hubby works so so hard for them!

Warning - I AM AN AMAZON JUNKIE. Just wanted to throw that out there.

1. Diapers - I get my Pampers, size 4, diapers for $0.20 a piece at Amazon. I have not found them cheaper anywhere else.

Amazon has this great "Subscribe & Save" program. If you sign up to have automatic delivery of household/baby items, Amazon knocks off 20%. And you don't have to do anything to reorder. They just come how often you like (1 month/3 months/etc.)

2. Toilet Paper - My hubby is a Charmin Man :) I get my Charmin Ultra Soft from Amazon too. For $28.56, I get 10 packs of 4 double rolls for a total of 40 double rolls. That is $0.71 a roll. Who wouldn't like getting 40 rolls of TP delivered to your door? And it doesn't take up any cart room.

3. Laundry Soap - I don't pay anything for my soap, other than the original cost to make it. Make your own - use this link

4. Chicken Stock - instead of buying chicken bullion cubes, I buy Instant Chicken Broth (it's a powder) and use 1 tsp. per 1 cup of water. For $2.60, you can make a lot of stock, and have no more aggravation trying to break up that dry cube. A lot of folks make their own broth, but this works great for me!

5. Milk - I love getting my milk at Walgreens. The normal price for 1 gallon of milk is $3.79 (Or around there) and every couple weeks, it goes down to $2.79. Now that's a low price. Our Wal-Mart milk is $4.04.

If I think of any more, i'll let you know. But those are some of my favorites. I would love to hear yours too :)

DIY Project - Help Needed

I got this great stool from Goodwill for $2.50! It's so awesome. Now, I plan on painting it and stenciling a word/phrase on the seat. This is where I need your help!

An example, that I don't want to use, is TIME OUT.
Ryan's suggestion was HAUNCHES HERE. Yeah I don't think i'll use that either.

DIY Project

So I've been wanting to spruce up Oliver's room and needed something for his walls. I plan to get a shelf of some sort for his tractors. But I also wanted something else too. So I made this...

Organized Fabric

I finally have organized my fabric...

I found these white boards on Amazon. I thought they would be a lot thicker, but they are more of a very heavy card stock. So I used 2 for each piece of fabric.

I feel so much better now. Oliver can no longer string my fabric all over the house. When my hobby room is finished, I will store these on some type of bookshelf.

On another note, why hasn't anyone told me about The Nate Show on FOX at 1:00 every day? I absolutely love it!!!



What's For Dinner?

One thing that I want to work on is listening more - talking less. When those two are switched, I seem to either get myself in trouble or end up looking stupid. (Which after years of experience of making myself look ridiculous, I have learned to accept those times with grace). 


Nonetheless - Talk Less. Listen More. Or at least, carefully examine what i'm going to speak, before it gets spoken.


Conclusion - cooking doesn't require talking. Just smelling, tasting and drooling.
Here's what I've been cooking...

Photo from Lauren's Latest

Guy Food

Over the last seven years of wedded bliss, I have had the priviledge of cooking for my husbands friends. (Well, they're my friends too but you get the idea) And as much as I love to cook for girls, cooking for guys has some great advantages: