Foodie Friday

For my first Foodie Friday I would like to share my cornbread recipe. I am going to share the basic one that I use, I am thinking of trying to tweek it some but have not yet. This is where the recipe is from.

I'm not sure of the date on this due to it missing the first couple of pages, but I would guess the 70's. I acquired it for $3.99 at a thrift store. The recipe itself is called Perfect Corn Bread.

Now, someone has written in changes to the basic recipe next to it and next time I make it I intend to follow their changes and see if it makes a difference. The basic recipe itself works very well, tastes good and is moist, my only complaint is that the outside is a little crumbly, but maybe I should just shorten my cooking time. 

So here are the step-by-step instructions.

First, you are going to need a sifter and bowl;

into the sifter goes 1 cup all purpose flour,

1/4 cup sugar,

4 teaspoons baking powder,

3/4 teaspoon salt (I use sea salt for everything),

sift all of it together;

then stir in 1 cup yellow cornmeal.

Add 2 eggs,

1 cup milk,

and 1/4 cup shortening.

Beat with mixer until just smooth (I'm thinking maybe I over mixed, I've made this recipe several times and don't remember the crumbly part.)

Pour into greased (I use Bakers Joy spray) 9x9 pan (I don't have a 9x9 so I used a 10x6). Bake at 425 for 20 to 25 minutes.

Sorry about the bad photos, I need to do some serious editing next time. As a side note on the page there is a hand written recipe along the bottom and side for Fried Mush. I have not tried it yet but intend to do so one day, and I will let you know when I do.

Hope you enjoy the cornbread and let me know how it works for you.

Healthy Thursday

So as you can see by the heading Thursday will be Healthy Thursday.

For the first healthy Thursday I want to share with you something I tried yesterday.

First of all I hate harsh chemicals and cleaning supplies so am always looking for ways to replace them.

Yesterday I was cleaning my kitchen and took down the vent cover above the stove and it was nasty, as you can see from this pic.

Now its not as nasty as it could be or has been but it still needed cleaning. I had just cleaned a silver trivet with (you guessed it) toothpaste and there was still some left in the tube so I figured why not give it a try. Now I keep an old toothbrush under my kitchen sink for cleaning all sorts of things and had used it on this before so I knew it would work. And I have to say it didn't do to bad, here is the after shot.

It did take the rest of the tube I was using plus one more but this is the size of the "tubes."

Sorry about the quality but the flash kept washing it out entirely. I got these little gems in a big bag of samples from the thrift store for about $2.00. There are at least five more toothpaste samples in the bag plus quite a few shampoo, conditioner and body wash samples. I would say there were probably 30 samples in all. Not bad for $2.00. 

So I would say the toothpaste definitly worked, it got all the grease and nastiness out of there, I try and clean the screen once a month but to be honest it had probably been at least six months since I last did it. So I would definitly try this again. 

If you have a great way to clean these without all the harsh fumes please let me know about it in the comments below.

Here I am

So yes I am back, life had gotten a little crazy there for awhile. Since January I have gone back to school and completed the classes required for real estate license and gotten my license, found a broker to work for, sold and listed a house (yea me), found new schools for two out of three of my kids, been overly involved in Boy Scouts, stepped down from several of my positions in scouts that I held for years and am now trying to learn to balance work and family and a home while still trying to squeeze out some time for myself.

I had a great plan that I wanted to implement at the beginning of the year before life got away from me so I am going to go ahead with that and try and get back on track with the blog.

Its something that I always wanted to do but never got it to where I wanted it to be, so I am rededicating myself to it and hopefully someone will find me along the way and be willing to join me on the journey.

Wednesdays will be anti-procrastination wednesdays so it is only fitting that today is the day I jump back in with both feet.

In the future it could entail anything from a UFO (unfinished object) or any other task that I have been putting off doing. 

So here I am and off I go again delving into sharing my life online in hopes of finding others who may join the ride. I read and follow several great blogs done by amazing women that I can always aspire to be more like.

the pic at the top is an atc i did years ago.

week six of 365 pitch

sorry this post is a day late but without further ado here are last weeks items.

item one: hurts bees apricot baby oil. i have had this bottle for at least 7 or 8 years and isn't even halfway empty yet, so i decided that it was time to let it go.

item two: two power cords for phones we no longer have. unfortunately my husband pitched these before i could snap a pic.

item three: box and manuels for phone we no longer have.

item four:assorted pinecones that were beginning to fall apart. these got pitched in the fire while i went to get my camera, so there is no pic of them.

item five: tray that i ended up with in a cookie exchange several years ago, have not used it since so in to the recycle bin it went.

item 6: yes that is a bra, it is scratchy and tends to rub me raw in several places.

item 7: is a potholder that looks innocent enough
at first until you turn it over and see the back side.

project get rid of 365

so i realize that i forgot to post the last two weeks worth of get rid of.

so i will post both weeks in this post.

as you will see i cleaned out my bathroom cabinets and alot of the items came from there.

item number one is an old makeup bag from clinique

item number two is a foundation that i bought because i liked the sample but when i bought the full size i did not care for it so it is going to my mom

item number three is an empty bottle of nail polish that i had been holding on to in hopes of finding the same color again

item number four is an eye shadow from avon that i have never used in the last 10 years

item number five is also a avon eye shadow that i don't care for but held on to because i have the matching nail polish and lipstick

item number six are calm drops which i like but these have gotten old and taste funny

item number seven is the same but with moon drops

item number eight is a sample of burts bees face scrub that i never use

item number nine is a foot thing also from avon that i have no use for

item number ten is a lip serum that my mom gave me that i tried last night and this morning they were all chapped and nasty so bye, bye it goes

item number 11 is
a large pink ornament that i forgot to take a picture of


and item number 12 lastly is (was) a broken toy of my sons that i gave up on trying to fix, sadly he tossed it before a got a chance to snap a pic.
so the next 7 items will be posted on sunday. hope everyone had a great christmas.

week 3 of 357 items

so another 7 items are leaving (or have left) my home.

without further ado here are the items that got chopped this week.

item #1 is a pot of bliss youth as we know it eye cream. i love every other product in the youth as we know it line except for this eye cream. it caused me to get little bumps in the areas i applied it to. so it is going to my mom who loves it dearly.

item #2 is a book of internet sites that came with a laptop that i purchased around 11 years ago.

as you can guess many of the sites no longer exist today. so when i came across it i figured it was time for it to go. sorry i forgot to rotate it.

next item up is a clip thingy (yes that is a technical term). it was unclaimed by all three children.

each of them denied ownership so off it went.

item #4 is a strand of lights that was on a little tree that goes on my bathroom counter.

now, the lights have been on the tree for around four years, but i only lit them the first

two. i got tired of having to unscrew the back and put the lights in and then unscrew the back again after xmas to take the lights off. so this year i thought why am i even leaving them on there; and promptly took them off.

item #5 is another book. i have read it twice. so in all fairness it is time for it to migrate elsewhere.

it was a good book. i read it a few years ago and apparently held on to it. when i came across it the other day i couldn't remember exactly what happened so i read it again. it too will be migrating to my mothers.

item #6 is also a book. this one i have only read once. it was very quirky with a few unexpected twists.

it was good but odd. adios book set in wales.

and finally, alas, item #7 i did not document. it was two light strands that haven't worked in quite awhile that i had been using the bulbs off of. i said good bye to the pair of them.

and that rounds up week 3 of this project. don't have a clue yet what will go in 

the coming week. check back next sunday to find out.

sunday post 357 items

it is sunday once again and i have my items tossed/given away list for the past week.

item number 1 is a star that is no longer working, tried changing fuses and bulbs and it is still not working. have had this star in our christmas collection for at least the past 11 years.

items #2 and 3 are a star and an xmas tree that have suction cups on them. you adhere a 9 volt battery to them and they light up and you can stick it on the window of your car. have not used them for several years so i have let them go.

item #4 is a avon magazine that has been living in my closet for several weeks,

so in the recycling it goes.

item #5 is a necklace that i have had since high school. i am going to see if my daughter wants it if not it will go in the items to donate bag. you will have to forgive the photo, for some reason the camera wouldn't focus on it. i took at least five pictures of it and sad to say this is the best one.

items #6 and 7 are actually a box with old ornaments from my daughters trees when they were younger. this isn't even all of them so i figured they could count as two.

don't know what i will be getting rid of in the coming week but i will post again next sunday to let you know what i said good-bye to.