Works for Me Wednesday (Clogged Sink Miracle)

I made the biggest bone head move while making dinner a few nights ago.  I was already late cooking dinner so I was trying to get dinner done as soon as possible. I suppose that was mistake number one. Here is where mistake number two comes in. I peeled 5lbs. of potatoes and put all the peels in the sink, ran water, and turned on the garbage disposal… BIG mistake!

I looked down in the sink and all the ground up potato peels and water were swirling around and around but not going down. OH NO! You have got to be kidding me not this week!! I knew I didn’t have time to wait around for a repair man and I needed to get dinner done but it wasn’t happening with this sink disaster. I got the plunger and went to work on the sink… nothing. I started the dishwasher hoping it would push through… nothing. I plugged up one sink and plunged the other at the same time… nothing. Then I had a meltdown…

I had my laptop sitting on the kitchen cabinet so I went in search of a fix for this problem. I have used Draino more times that I care to share, but it NEVER works I mean never! I hate spending all of that money for something that doesn’t work and stinks up the kitchen. Plus you have to let it sit forever and I am sure it’s terrible for the environment.

I can across an article that mentioned using baking soda and vinegar to unclog a clogged sink. At this point I was willing to try just about anything although I KNEW it wouldn’t work.

The instructions were pretty simple.

1. Remove as much water out of the sink as possible
2. Heat 1 cup of vinegar in the microwave for 1 minute
3. Pour 1 cup of baking soda into the clogged hole
4. Add vinegar to the clogged hole and watch it bubble up (OK the bubble up is kind of cool) Make sure all the baking soda has gone down the hole.
5. Then walk away and (My instructions here) take a deep breath. Maybe scream into a pillow, or have a drink whatever you need to do.
6. Wait 5-1o minutes before turning on the garbage disposable

5-10 minutes later I went to check out what I hoped would be the miracle I needed. I certainly needed one at that moment. Both sides of my sink were full (almost to the top) with water. Wow where did all of this extra water come from? Remember I drained the sink first?

I held my breath and turned on the garbage disposal. Suddenly everything went down. It was a miracle!! In 10 minutes I saved over $100.00 and a ton of time. I didn’t need a repairman … heck I didn’t even need my husband for this one, but was sure proud of my accomplishment! I was pretty proud of myself too.

I had exactly 1 cup of vinegar and 1 cup of baking soda left to use for this miracle. Right after dinner that night I ran to the grocery store to stock up on baking soda and vinegar. I think we are set for awhile.

I looked at so many articles I don't even know who to thank. Whoever you are out there thank you for saving me a ton of time and money!!

It worked for me! I hope it works for you too!! 

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Corn and Cheese Enchiladas

We loved this recipe! The corn in the enchiladas adds such a nice change to your “typical” enchilada recipe. One thing I will say is you are not expecting the corn yet the sweetness from the corn paired with the spiciness from the enchilada sauce is a nice combination.

I have been dying to try this recipe for a long time, but for some reason I kept forgetting to make it. I am so happy I did and I can’t wait to make it again. It’s probably my new favorite enchilada recipe. It’s going to be hard for any other recipe to top this one. Delicious!

Directions:

• (8) 6-inch corn tortillas
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 5 scallions, white and light green parts, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (from 2 medium ears) $
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• Salt (Just a few dashes or leave it out)
• 2 cups grated pepper Jack or cheddar (I used cheddar)
• 1 10-oz. can enchilada sauce (I used Homemade Enchilada Sauce)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Stack tortillas, wrap in foil and bake until softened, 8 to 10 minutes.
2. While tortillas are baking, oil a 7-by-11-inch glass baking dish. Warm 1 Tbsp. oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add scallions and garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in corn and milk and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 7 to 10 minutes. Season with salt.
3. Remove tortillas from foil. Set aside 1/2 cup cheese. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of corn mixture in center of a tortilla. Sprinkle with a heaping tablespoon of cheese. Roll up tortilla and set in dish, seam side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas, overlapping them slightly. Pour enchilada sauce over tortillas and sprinkle with reserved 1/2 cup cheese. Bake until bubbling, about 20 minutes.

Original Recipe Source

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Christmas Gift Card Savings Plan

A year or so ago my friend Krista gave me a great idea that she lives by. I thought it was such a great idea that I am going to give it a try this year. She calls it her Christmas Gift Card Savings Plan.

Every payday she buys a gift card that does not have an expiration date like for instance a Wal-Mart Gift Card. She stores her gift cards in one place and then stores a sheet of the gift card numbers in a different place just in case something happens to them.

She knows her daughter Casey loves Macy’s so she will go buy a $25 gift card there one pay day, and the next pay day she might get one at Sephora. Nope none of them expire.

Krista buys a lot of stuff at Wal-Mart during the holidays, in truth I think she does the majority of her shopping there, so she always make sure she purchases the majority of her gift cards from Wal-Mart.

She also knows that her Dad always wants a gift card for a sporting goods store, her mom a hobby store, her sister and brother in law love to eat out, that’s another gift card, her kids love iTunes, and Amazon, and her Mom loves anything from Bath and Body works.

When Krista walks into Bath and Body Works right before Christmas she can pick her Mom up some sweet deals and pay for it all on the gift cards she may have bought in June! The great thing is she stays within her budget, and the money has already been set aside for her Mom’s gift.

By the time Christmas Rolls Around in 2013 Krista will have 25 Gift Card because she doesn’t buy any in December. At $25 each that’s a grand total of $625 dollars.

WOW that’s a lot of money you don’t have to worry about at the last minute. She is so smart that she even buys two gift cards from Home Depot throughout the year because she knows they are going to buy their Christmas tree there. No cash needed she just whips out her Home Depot Gift Card! 

Okay so you know the critics are going to have something to say about this…

“Why not just put the money in the bank and draw interest on it?”  

Although I would agree with you … you could put it in the bank, but how many people are so disciplined? If you are GREAT! That is wonderful, but if you know yourself better than that you could always try the Christmas Gift Card Savings Plan. You are not going to be losing much in interest anyway!

Just remember to do your homework and only buy Gift Cards that don’t expire. Do you think this is something you could do? I think the biggest problem I would have would be remembering to buy the gift cards each payday!

Thoughts?

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Molasses Cookies

My husband loves molasses cookies so this year for Christmas we decided instead of making both molasses cookies and gingerbread men we would make molasses men. We didn’t want to have all the extra cookies around the house. They actually turned out really cute and killed two birds with one stone. I really like this recipe because it has (to me) just the right amount of spices and they stay soft for a long time which I love.

I live in a very humid climate so it normally doesn’t take long for cookies to get hard. These cookies are still fantastic two weeks later. We really enjoyed this recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 3/4 cup coarse sugar

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
2. Beat in eggs and molasses. 
3. Combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. 
4. Fold in pecans.
5. Shape into 2-in. balls and roll in coarse sugar. 
6. Place 2-1/2-in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 13-15 minutes or until tops are cracked. Remove to wire racks to cool. 

Yield: 2 dozen.

Original Recipe Source 

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Swedish Rosettes

My husband grew up with a Scandinavian mother who always made rosettes for Christmas. He loves rosettes because of the wonderful memories that go with them. This is a really wonderful cookie that is light and delicate, and to be honest with you a real pain in the rear to make.

These cookies are so delicate that any wrong move while removing them from the rosette irons will cause them to break. If the batter is too thick the cookies don’t turn out, if you fry them too hot they don’t turn out, and if you live in a humid climate like I do they take forever to dry out enough to stay crispy and half the time they don’t stay crisp.

If you have the time and patience to make these I highly recommend doing so. They may even become a tradition in your home like they are in ours.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
•  1 tablespoon white sugar
•  1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
•  1 cup milk
•  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  1/4 teaspoon salt
•  Vegetable oil for frying
•  Sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Combine eggs, sugar and salt; beat well. Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.
2. Heat a rosette iron in deep, hot oil (375 degrees) for 2 minutes.
3. Drain excess oil from iron. Dip in batter to 1/4 inch from the top of the iron, then dip iron immediately into hot oil (375 degrees).
4. Fry rosette until golden, about 30 seconds. Lift out; tip upside down to drain. With fork, push rosette off iron onto a rack placed over paper towels.
5. Reheat iron 1 minute; make next rosette.
6. Sprinkle rosettes with confectioners' sugar.

Original Recipe Source

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Late Night Slim Down Check In... Day 2

You know losing weight could be easier than I thought considering I didn’t have time to eat much today. This is what happens when you are trying to accomplish a lot in a week because school starts back next week. The bad thing is life becomes a whirlwind again.

In some weird and psychotic way I am looking forward to school starting again. I don’t know why I guess because it’s just the norm for me now. Then I will feel like life is back to normal and we can move on from the holidays and vacation and so on…

Although this week is kind of a watch what you are eating low impact exercise week next week will be a much more productive week on the weight loss front. At school we have an incredible gym I will be utilizing as normal. Hey if you are paying for it you better use it right? I am looking forward to my workouts as usual. My new goal is to try yoga so that will be fun and interesting.

As I stated above I didn’t have a lot of time budgeted for eating today so it wasn’t a bad day in the food world. I missed breakfast, and had a potato for lunch. For dinner I had  sandwich and some potatoes. One thing I had way too much of was diet soda!

Why is it so hard to walk away from soda? In 2000 I stopped drinking the sugared up soda for good, but for some reason now I can’t walk away from diet soda. I am thinking about making a bit pitcher of ice tea to see if that will help me back off the soda. I can’t help but believe it will certainly help.

I hope everyone who has been emailing me about their journey this week is doing well too. Hit me up if you need help from jumping… into a cake or a pan of cookies!

Photo Credit

Although I think the Biggest Loser is a bit extreme when it comes to weight loss I always find it exciting to see how much weight each person loses. I also find it very exciting to see if they can keep the weight off. That is always the tough part isn't it?

If you need some weight loss inspiration check out these Biggest Loser weight loss pictures. They are mind blowing and extreme weight loss pictures from Biggest Loser contestants. 

Wouldn't be fun to lose all the weight without all the work hahahaha! I guess there would be no reward in that!

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Beef Asian Meatballs

I have made these meatballs before …the recipe was called Tangy Asian Meatballs. I got a ton of emails asking me if I have ever made them with ground beef, it seems many people don’t care for ground pork. Other than it being inexpensive I have to agree with them. I am not a fan of pork for the most part. Bacon is pretty much it for me.

I decided to reinvent this recipe using ground beef in place of pork and I made this recipe on the stove top in place of the crock pot. Sometime I forget to put them in the crock pot.

The recipe actually turned out fantastic much better than the original recipe. I like the beef in place of the pork by far. It had a much better flavor, and I really liked making it on the stove top because it was quick … super quick! Best of all it was not as greasy because I used the ground beef this time.

I highly recommend giving this recipe a try… quick… easy and inexpensive! If you want to try the crock pot or pork version you can find the Tangy Asian Meatball recipe here.

Ingredients:

• 1  pound  ground beef
• 1/3  cup bread crumbs (use any flavor)
• 3  scallions, white and light-green parts, chopped
• 1  large egg
• 1  tablespoon  soy sauce
• 1  tsp.  ginger powder
• 2  cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2  cup  barbecue sauce
• 1/4  cup  jarred Chinese plum sauce 
• 2  tablespoons  hoisin sauce

Preparation:

1. Combine ground beef, bread crumbs, scallions, egg, soy sauce, ginger and garlic in a large bowl; mix gently but thoroughly with your fingers. 
2. Roll into 1-inch balls.  Add meatballs to a large pot placed on medium.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together barbecue sauce, plum sauce and hoisin sauce; pour over meatballs. Gently stir to coat.
4. Once the meatballs are in the pot covered in sauce do not stir again for 30 minutes this will prevent the meatballs from breaking. After 30 minutes turn the meatballs. 
5.  Cover and cook on medium until meatballs are cooked through around another 15 minutes. 

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Orange Candy Cookies

If you like orange slice candy you will probably love these cookies. These are a staple in our family for the holidays. I don’t particularly like them, but then again I don’t like orange slice candy. I will tell you that I am in the minority in our family because everyone else loves this recipe. 

It’s a very old fashioned recipe that was my Papa’s favorite cookie during the holidays. I don’t think it would have been Christmas in his heart without Orange slice candy cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound bag orange candy slices (jelly candy)
• 2 cups flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 pound box brown sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 oz. of whisky
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Cut orange slice candy into small pieces, coat with ¼ cup of the measured flour
2. Beat eggs till lemon colored
3. Gradually add sugar to the eggs, and continue beating as you are adding sugar.
4. Add vanilla and whisky
5. Stir in flour, salt, baking soda, pecans and candy
6. Mix well
7. Spread ½ inch thick into a 17x11x1 pan (Jelly Roll Pan)
8. Bake at 275 degrees 20-30 minutes.
9. Cut into bars while hot then roll into powdered sugar
10. Cool then seal in an air tight container. 

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Peanut Butter Fudge

I am not a fan of Peanut Butter fudge but my husband loves it and so does my Uncle Floyd. We thought it would be a fun addition to Uncle Floyd’s gift this year. It actually set nicely for once. Normally it’s too warm to set up well, but this year we got lucky and it turned out perfect. I highly advise that if you are going to make this recipe make sure that your kitchen isn’t piping hot or it will take forever to set.

This is a simple recipe to make and in truth you don’t even need a candy thermometer you just have to watch it and never walk away from it while it’s on the stove top. My best advice is to have every ready to go and premeasured and stir … stir … stir… You don’t want it to burn!

According to my husband this is delicious and extra creamy!!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sugar 
• ¾ cup butter
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 7oz. jar of marshmallow cream
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Spray a 13x9 inch pan with cooking spray and set aside
2. Combine sugar, butter, and milk in a heavy 2-1/2 quart saucepan and place on a medium heat
3. Bring to a full rolling boil (important) stirring constantly
4. Continue boiling for an additional 5 minutes (no less) once it’s at a rolling boil
5. To prevent scorching remove from the heat and stir in peanut butter (stir well) next add the marshmallow cream (stir in well). Then add the vanilla and beat until well blended.
6. Pour into your pre-sprayed 13x9 pan cook to room temperature and cut into squares.

Makes approximately 3 pounds.

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(Not So...) Wordless Wednesday -Childhood Memories

After too many mornings of my favorite Flintstones Alarm Clock waking me up it would eventually die on me. I loved this clock. I think it was the only reason I got to high school every morning. It had a relentless bell on it that wouldn’t seem to stop ringing. There were many mornings I wanted to throw it. The day it stopped working I was heartbroken.

Fast forward (a lot of years) …. Imagine my surprise when I opened up my Christmas gifts and there was my beloved Flintstones Alarm Clock. OK so it wasn’t my original alarm clock, but it was one my husband found online. I couldn’t have been happier! After all these years here it was again!

This was my favorite Christmas present for so many reasons. It proved that my husband actually listens sometimes when I tell stories. I know he went through a lot of trouble to make sure he got it for me. Best of all this is my favorite Christmas gift because it means I get to enjoy something I loved from my childhood all over again.

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

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