I've got a major complaint!

Not too often do I rant on here, but today..it's rant time!

What's the subject you say?? CANDY CORN!

I can't find any. NONE!
Not one single piece of good old fashioned, yellow, orange and white candy corn!
Can someone please explain this? IS there a candy corn shortage? Why was I not informed of this?

Ohh sure, I've looked, been to all the local stores. They have candy corn.....it's what they call 'DESIGNER CANDY CORN"..(WTH?)
It's chocolate, it's caramel, it's multi flavored and NOT ONE piece is yellow, orange and white! It's brown, it's green, it's red.......dammit! Where is my candy corn?
The real stuff..the stuff that's normal...the stuff I'm used to.

(stomping off, still in search..mumblin') "designer candy corn, how ridiculous..why can't people just leave things alone"



See ya next time......down on the farm!

Sage

Roasted Chicken and Scalloped Potatoes!

Ok..here it is..the roasted chicken and what I did.

H eat the oven to 350.

Salt and pepper inside and out. Drizzle olive oil over top, rub all over. Yeah, you're gonna get your hands dirty!

I cut up one clove of garlic into small slices and shoved it under the skin of the chicken. (Yeah..shoved)

Place in the roasting pan, , set your timer for 1 hour. :) Easy peasy!

Once you get your chicken in the oven start on your potatoes. Slice about 5 or 6 potatoes and one onion into thin slices.

Melt about 3 T butter in a large oven capable skillet (I used cast iron). Add salt and pepper. I use a big spoon, but I would guess it's about 1/4 C of self rising flour. Sprinkle flour into the melted butter. (HINT: This dish WILL take a good amount of salt)

Whisk it about, don't let it brown too much, you're making a white sauce. Some would call this bechamel sauce, some would call it white sauce, us country folk, just call it milk gravy!

I've added a bit of powdered chicken bullion in here too.
Now we're ready to add the milk. I've used 4 cups of milk, whisking the first two in. Pour and whisk at the same time. Once the first two cups of milk get incorporated and start to thicken, add the last two and whisk away till it starts to thicken.

TASTE IT!! Don't feed it to anyone until you've tasted it. It may need more salt, pepper or flavoring. Add some spices if you want, the option is yours. Make it spicy, make it Italian, make it however you want, but TASTE IT!

Now take those lovely sliced onions and potatoes and start slipping them into that hot gravy/sauce.

Get it all in there, and it'll look like this! Stir well making sure each slice is covered/coated in sauce.

Now, slip it into the oven beside the chicken. This process should not have taken much more then ohh 15 minutes or so. You should have about 45 mins or so left on your time, Go read a book, sew a seam or heck..write me a note!

Here's the done chicken, with all those lovely pan juices. DO NOT TOSS THOSE! I poured them over into a small container to safe for the next meal made with this very chicken. WHY in the world would you toss away flavor like that??..NO NO NO! Save it..we'll use it tomorrow!

When I took my chicken out, I added about ..ohh maybe 1/3 of a cup of grated Parmesan cheese to the top of my potatoes. This is not a necessity..it's just something I wanted to add. You could add anything you like, cheddar cheese, pepperoni diced up, bacon, green onions...or NOTHING..play with your food! (mom's not around to fuss!)

So...here ya go. Potatoes..scalloped Sage style!

Here's the completed dinner. I made some steamed broccoli and biscuits while I had all that time. I hope you enjoy!

Roasted chicken, scalloped potatoes, steamed broccoli, sliced tomatoes and biscuits. WHAT A MEAL!

SAGE

Day TWO..Keeping it REAL

As I promised yesterday, here is the 'AFTERMESS" of dinner. It's not pretty, but this is not as bad as I have seen it either!!

(this is most of it, there are a few more pans that just wouldn't fit in the picture!)

Let's go back to the laundry room for a minute. I have two cats. My cats are primarily outside, but they do come in on a pretty regular basis to eat, to nap in the window or even hide from the outside weather once in a while. Since they do come in to eat, and I do have dogs that love cat food, their food has to be 'up'. I've opted to put it on the dryer..like this................

Sure..see the rest of the stuff in my laundry room? The basket holds stuff like vacuum cleaner bags and rags for cleaning. Ohh look, there's a flashlight (right next to the door! how convenient!), lamp oil, hangers, extra shelf brackets..yep, all stuff that may need to be used or stored SOMEWHERE!..you tell me..where do you store yours? (I have VERY VERY FEW CLOSETS!)

See this towel?? It's there for a reason! Look closely..cats have dirt on their feet! I change it out once a week..but it saves me from getting dirt on the dryer!

KEEP IT REAL! Show me your dirt! Show me you're real! :) ENJOY!

Ok..here's a few shots to..KEEP IT REAL!

Ok, here we go. When you walk into my back door, you walk into my laundry room.
Is it decorated?? some
Is it busy? ALL the time.
Is it USEFULL? You betchya

On the wall, here are our jackets, a rain coat, a headlamp (to put on your head, turn on and keep your hands free when you have to walk out on the little farm at night..we live in the boonies...it's dark our here!), a few leashes and looky looky..even binoculars.

Would you see this in a magazine? NO.




Here's the top of my washer. On the back I have things at hand that I use on the laundry.
Bleach, Laundry detergent (homemade by the way), fabric softener (homemade too) and stacked baskets that have blueing, powdered laundry detergent (homemade) a salt shaker full of baking soda, scrub brushes, toothbrush, and even a softer ball.

Is it pretty? Not really?
Is it useful? You betchya
Is it handy? YEP!

Would you see this in a magazine? NO. So tell me..where do they hide it? Better yet..WHY? Makes more work for yourself if you have to 'drag' it out to use it as often as I seem to! Laundry is an ever present EVIL around here! (VILE DEMON!)



I have grand babies..I have a deep freeze, chest type. It makes a GREAT place for the little ones to be able to use those magnetic letters and numbers.
Do they love it? You betchya
Is it handy and useful? YEP
Would you see this in a magazine? NADDA!
But you'll find it here at Mimi's house. Just the way I want it!

Here's a good shot. This what my kitchen looked like BEFORE I started making dinner!

Tune in tomorrow to see the 'aftermess' shot! LOL

Keep it real ladies and gents! We 'LIVE" in our house. It's clean, but it's surely surely lived in!

Sage..the Hedgewife

Keeping it real

OK, next week down here on our little acre I'm gonna 'keep it real'! I'm encouraging everyone to 'keep it real'. What do I mean by keeping it real?

Well, much as I would LIKE for my house to always look like it's ready for the President to walk in, it doesn't. This is a 'working house'.
We are in and out every day, tracking in dirt, leaves and what not. The dogs and cats are in and out tracking in whatever sticks to them.
We cook, we clean and we create, we put aside, we build..well, to put it mildly, we WORK around here. We don't live in a magazine picture.

I visit a lot of blogs that show the house all nicely decorated up and in pristine condition and that's great if that's what you want to spend your time doing, but honestly, we have much more going on then making sure the books are on the shelf straight!
Sooo I put out the challenge to all the bloggers out there who like 'life', especially 'farm' life and the dirt that goes with it. Show us the REAL stuff! (I may start as early as tomorrow..who knows!)

DISCLAIMER:
By no means am I saying that if your house is pristine that you have nothing better to do. Maybe that IS what you do, maybe it isn't. Great. Either way, around here, we get dirty. By no means am I saying my house is a mess. It isn't. I clean every day, but I SURELY don't do it every minute.

What's for dinner??

CHICKEN!!! Ok..no pics yet, but for today, I'll be cooking for 3 days!

Yep, this morning, I took a 'whole' chicken out of the freezer. I'll be oven roasting it tonight for dinner, mix it up about and creating something different with the leftovers for Friday's dinner and finally, on Sunday, we'll be boiling up the bones and random leftover meat for some soup!
(Yeah, I missed Saturday but we wont' be here for dinner on Saturday..got a Halloween party to attend so will be eating there!)

SO check back in for our 'roasting' time!

CHEESEDIP!

Ok..don't have a pic of this today, but thought I'd give you a recipe for our cheese dip.

Now, mind you we don't call this cheese dip, we call it something else..you really don't want to know what we call it, cuz it doesn't sound very appetizing, just know this..it's GOOD STUFF!!

Ready? Set? GO!!
This makes a LOT so use a big skillet......matter of fact, make it a LARGE Skillet!
Here's what you'll need:

1 lb hamburger
1/2 a large package Velveeta cut into 2" squares
1 small can green chillies
1 package taco seasoning mix (you can make your own if you prefer, just use cumin, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and extra cilantro)
1 jalapeno
1/2 bell pepper
1 onion
1 medium can tomatoes (cut, stewed doesn't matter)
1 Reg sized can refried beans or spiced black beans * (optional)
1/2 C water (or more depends)
Salt
Small bunch of cilantro chopped.

OK..brown your hamburger, onion and green pepper together. Add the green chillies, taco seasoning (or your own personal mix), tomatoes and one chopped up jalapeno (you can add more if you want it hot..HINT: If you want it real hot, put the seeds in, if you want it medium, take the seeds out) Add beans and water mix well and let this come to a simmer. (add more water if you need to) Add the cut up Velveeta and stir good. Turn the heat down and get all that cheese melted and mixed in with your meat. Add water if it's too thick.
Finally toss in the cilantro and give it a stir. Let it sit for about 5 mins, stir again.
Do the taste test. Does it need anything? Add salt, pepper, hot cayenne, red peppers, cumin more cilantro..whatever you think it needs.
HINT: This will thicken up as it sits on the heat, so you'll need to add water occasionally.

Enjoy with your favorite corn chip. I suggest the white corn chips, restaurant style! (you can even get them a little warm in the oven.
This dip can make a meal in itself if you have some burrito wrappers on the side! :)

This was one of our standards for Halloween. It has a slightly orangy-red color and well you can give it your own name, but you'll make it more then once a year I promise!

Past Halloweens

Down here on the farm, many many full moons ago we used to have annual Halloween parties. These were no ordinary 'parties' mind you. We usually started on a Friday and ran them for three days! (true fact)
We always picked the closest weekend to Halloween of course and set up began Friday, those who helped, partied. The big night was Saturday, costumes and all and final farewells and clean up was on Sunday. In the slide above you'll see just a few highlights from one of our past Halloween parties, setting up, singing and so on. Once it got dark and the party starting rolling, we usually didn't pull out the cameras (too much to black mail with you see).

I haven't done a Halloween party here in a long time (at least 4 or 5 years) but the ones we had were usually VERY memorable! Maybe someday, I'll do it again. Enjoy the past for now though!

See ya next time......down on the farm!

Sage

Catching Time

I once heard it said, "If you want something done, give it to a busy person."

True statement, really.

Am I a busy person? Not always, but I have learned that 15 minutes can create lots of time slots in your day if you'll just use them. So..here are some ideas to help you out with that 'busy-ness' and getting things done, without even realizing your getting it done.

Are you a crafter?
How bout just needing to catch up on the housework?
Do you watch tv? Chat on the phone, stand in line? Here ya go.

While at home:
If you're a crafter and a tv watcher or movie lover here are some hints and tips:

If you have a specific area where you do your crafting, get all the 'big' stuff done in the time slot you've set aside ..such as 'cutting out a pattern, or sewing all of it up except for the 'hand work'. Then have yourself a big basket that sits by your 'tv watching' chair. Once a project has gotten to the point of the sit down and hand do the rest, toss it in the basket, with all the materials you'll need to finish it. (ziplock bags work great for this) This goes for ANY project you're doing. Hemming, stuffing, sewing up a stuffing seam, applique, cross-stitch, crocheting...(even cutting out a paper pattern) whatever.

I keep a very large basket by my chair. The things I always keep in the basket are:
All my embroidery thread, good scissors (small and large pair) pin cushion and extra pins. Needles, pencil and paper, a repositionable glue stick and sometimes even small pieces of material.

Hubby and I are avid M.A.S.H watchers, as well as a few night time shows and movies. We don't always watch them, but on most days we do.
When the shows are running, I'm sitting in my chair with basket at hand. I grab up the first project in the basket and work on it. Whether it's hand sewing or cutting out scraps for an applique or even charting out a cross-stitch design I work on it, while the show is on. For 30 minutes, I can 'listen' and not always have my eyes on the screen. In 30 minutes you can accomplish a lot on a project. TRUST ME! Imagine, 30 minutes every day, 5 days a week..wow! That's really a lot of time!

While out and about:
Keep a small bag packed and ready with a small project you're working on. For instance, I have many squares cut out for a scrap quilt. All the squares are cut already (from the tv time) and I have placed them in a ziplock bag and put them in the 'to go craft bag'. In that bag I also have, white thread, scissors, pencil and small 5" ruler and paper. (always keep paper and pencil handy just to jot down ideas you may see while your out on your adventures)
If I'm sitting at the doctors office, I'm sewing squares together. If I'm in the passenger seat, I'm sewing squares together (not everyone can do this due to motion sickness, but give it a try). How about sitting at DMV?
Sometimes we don't realize how much of our time is used while waiting on SOMEONE ELSE. Don't let ANYONE steal your time.
If your a crocheter, keep crochet stuff in your bag, even a small cross-stitch project, it doesn't matter..any small hand work can be kept in your 'on the go bag'. If you only work on for 15 minutes, that's ok..it was 15 minutes worth of work you put into it that wasn't in it earlier right?
Don't let others steal your time.

Use this basic idea to create many little slots of time for your crafts. You'll get lots of things done before you know it.

This method can work for helping clean up your house too.
We'll use the TV scenario again. You need to clean up from dinner, the kitchen is a mess but a special is coming on about Ancient Egypt that you wanted to see. It's ok. go turn on the tv..set yourself up (Dont' forget your hand basket) ..watch and work. WOW...commercial!! Get up and get started. Start cleaning up that kitchen (or whatever), set a 5 minute timer if you have to, but for 5 minutes work as fast as you can doing what you can. When the timer goes off, STOP..go back to your show and your hand work.
I bet you dollars to donuts when that show is over, your kitchen will be cleaned. If it isn't you probably only have a few more minutes worth of work left.
Didn't know you could do things like that did ya?

TV time is a GREAT time for folding laundry, or even prespotting your laundry. Get your prespotter ready, your basket of dirty clothes and go through each piece..spray where needed then during a commercial..toss them in to wash! How easy is that?

ON THE PHONE?? Do hand work or clean your house while your chatting away on the phone..you'll find that you can create LOTS of little time slots while on the phone..ESPECIALLY when you're on HOLD!

Don't let others steal your time!
USE IT!


Happy Crafting....I hope you can find 15 minutes of stolen time today to get something accomplished.
Have fun with it, make it a challenge, FIND the 15 minute slots. Create them..use them..just don't let anyone steal your time, not even yourself!

Sage

Yes, I have been crafting!

I know, I know..no posts in a long time. Many of you must think I've given up on the 'crafting' but I have not. Trust me.

As of recently here is what has been 'crafting' around at my house!

First off..I've made this

She stands about 24inches High, has bloomers, shoes and plenty of lace!!

The doll of course, is for my first Granddaughter, Ciannon Bailey (my wild Irish Rose!) who will be celebrating her first birthday this Thanksgiving. I'll be traveling to upstate NY with my sister to visit and celebrate the grand event. . So you know..I had to make her an Irish Miss, red hair, green eyes and even a tartan plaid dress. I hope she will have many years of enjoyment from her.

Christmas as we all know, is soon to follow so I'm trying to make her some Christmas gifts to take along on the trip.
Here's the beginnings of a few items.

While sitting at the doctors office and the hospital the other day (and a few hours at home) I made an appliqued flannel cat pillow front, and even cut out a second cat (in the opposite colors) to match and go onto the front of some PJ's I plan on making for Ciannon. I'll probably have these things finished up by the weekend. Then of course, I had to cut out a stuffed 'cat' pattern to go along with all the 'kitty' theme. We'll see what I come up with for those! :)

Here's the pattern I plan on using for the kitty cat..lower left hand corner. I plan on using the same pattern for the dog (lower right) to make for Brayden, grandson #1, who's now 1 1/2!!

Of course, in between and before all these things were put together, I made up some things just for randomness and fun. Thing such as these:

Stuffed kitties, just the right hand size for toddlers, a quilt square pillow, fall/halloween potpourri bags filled with all natural potpourri, a doll quilt and even some lip balm.

So see..it's not like I haven't been crafting..I just haven't been posting pics of all the stuff!
I'm sure if I think about it, there is even more things I've been doing but not taking pictures of and posting about. Oh yes..I know. I've made an appliqued pumpkin quilt square as well as cut out many many many 4inch squares for the new baby's arrival..due Dec. 25 no less.

I hope to post more pics as soon as I can..enjoy the crafts!!

Wanna see the new additions to the Farm??

FUZZY BUTTS!!

See ya next time......down on the farm!

Sage

Fall happenings!

What's been happening??!!! It's FALL! Oh yeah, my favorite time of the year. The weather here has not always cooperated with the 'idea' of fall..matter of fact it was 92 just a few days ago. (that surely doesn't sound like fall weather to me!) Our nights are getting much much cooler, the rains have started (which is a southern fall/winter norm) and the days are on a gradual down slide in heat.
Fall is garlic planting time so we loaded a garden box full of garlic the other day.
I sat at the table last night and planted many many herbs for indoor growing this winter.
We've got one last batch of pears to put up this week.. I will probably put this last batch in the freezer. I'm glad the pears are almost done..sure is a lot of work!

Hubby has already prepared the garden for next years bounty. All the weeds are gone, boxes are ready to plant again. Now, we'll have to cover it all in newspaper and hay to keep the weeds from creeping back in. We will be expanding our garden next year, tilling up a new area to fill with garden goodies.
OH YES..something new! I ordered more chicks for our little farm. We've got 15 more coming this week, they are being shipped today so we should have them tomorrow! WOOHOO!! Come spring, we'll have twice as many layers! (we even bought a roo or two).

Christmas is looming closer and closer. I've got lots of things to get busy making, so my sewing machine is going to be humming along in these upcoming weeks!

Fall, it's always a busy time isn't it?? But then again, so is spring and summer.

See ya next time......down on the farm!

Sage

All PEARED out

All well, the day has come finally..it's a rainy day and I don't even have a good book to curl up to!! The day of 'boredom'. Yep, we all have them and this one is mine. I'm not sure what to do next.

(besides mopping up the mud after the dogs go out to do their business!)

See the boychild is sleeping in the guest room, so I can't go into the craft room and work, it'll be too loud I'm afraid (and since he has to drive 16 hours tonight, I certainly don't' want to wake him). It's raining so can't work outside. Could watch an old movie on TV, good day for it I suppose or could curl up to a good book, but alas I don't believe I have any on my shelf that I haven't already read! Does this mean it's computer game time??


So tell me ..what have YOU been up to?

I did decorate the house a wee bit for the fall season. I need more fall decorations for sure.
In the past week we've put up 17 pints of pears, 6 quarts of pears, 4 pints of pear sauce and one quart of pear juice. Ya know what?? I"m about 'peared' out! Sad thing is, there are tons more on the tree and one batch 'ripening' in the bedroom as I type. They'll be ready next week. I think I'll let the animals have the ones left on the tree.

I guess it's time to peruse my bookshelf again and see if there's something hiding that maybe I could read ..or read again.
Don't ya just hate these type of days?

See ya next time......down on the farm!

Sage