Penny Pinching Pantry Raid

So as a follower of the lovely Susan of She's becoming Doughmesstic (here's the part where I wish I knew how to make that a link....) I thought I'd join her in her Penny Pinching Pantry Raid this month. (see, would have come in handy there too..)

Here is her URL instead :) http://www.doughmesstic.com/

Here's the deal. Set a budget. Ours is going to be 250$ for the month. That's on everything. Take out, perishable groceries, extra food items we may not need (like chocolate bars, sweet crunchy chocolate bars... Good thing my baking supply is stocked) Anyway. The goal is to use up that overstocked pantry and freezer. AND as an added bonus save a few coins while we're at it :D

Join us in this fun! The party starts July 1!! Be there or go broke! ;)

Passing on the skillzzzzz

I spin yarn. Most people find that weird. If it is, then so be it. I know I'm not alone.

The other day The Duck wanted to spin. He got a hang of treadling the wheel and let the pencil roving take the twist and feed onto the bobbin. Here is his handy work.

Not bad for a 5 year old, if I do say so myself!

Fun Fathers Day Festivities

Nothing like alliteration to start the day eh?

Happy belated fathers day to all those Fathers out there!

For fathers day I (we, I suppose... the kids and I) bought (read picked out) my husband a Bradley Electric Smoker. We got it a few days early, mind you, so that we we could have smoked prime rib on Sunday.

Well, I kind of killed the roast.... I way over smoked it, but the roaast was big enough that we could just cout off the out side and enjoy the meat on the inside. I suppose next go i'll read the directions alittle closer, instead of skiming them. We also had wilted cabage and carrots, BBQ's Mushroom caps and roasted potatoes. It was a great meal (less the edges of the roast....)

I also had the brilliant idea to make Tart Key Lime Squares. Oh my. Were they ever tart!! They look alright, but man oh man! You can't eat much more then an inch square at a go, unless you are me, when I was pregnant with The Duck.

It was an alright day, The Hub went golfing al day and came home to a good meal. Can't get much better then that, can it?

To keep us sane

*

On lovely days when I really don't want to go enjoy the back yard, we bake. To keep us sane. Although, it kind of drives me nuts none the less, what with the 2 boys taking turns spilling, erm pouring the ingredients, shaping the dough, and eating more dough then cookies. Yesterday was one of those days.

We made gingersnaps. Well, they turned out more like soft ginger cookies full of delicious spicy undertones that don't hit you until you've swallowed, which if you want my opinion (you are going to get it anyway wether you want it or not ;) ) is way better then basic ginger snaps. I didn't change anything from the recipe so I'll give you the book I got it from. Cookies, brownies and bars By Elinor Klivans.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/14165635

63/ref=cm_rdp_product

Nothing overly exciting happened until the dough was well mixed and ready to be shaped. My 5 year old (The Duck) says as he's rolling the happy little balls of dough in sugar "Mom, they look like poop nuggets!" Oh my... Well, it's true, they did.

But they turned into yummy cookies. For which I got the response of "Well, you're not fired Mom. I'm impressed these are really good." Oh? I laughed at him, secretly of course, as to not offend him. But that made my day. I'm not fired. So I did good by my oldest boy. And that's likely all I can ask for right now.

So there they are, and that's by no means is all of them... This was taken well after most were distributed to neighbours and the post mistress and a friend who lives far away that I haven't seen in over 2 1/2 years (man do I miss that girl...) and devoured by me, my boys and the Hubby.

oh and yay! 3 followers huzzah! you guys rock!

* The first picture was taken by The Duck. Isn't he a great photographer?!

And so it begins......

Perhaps this will fuel me. Perhaps it will not. Let's see where this goes.

My goal with this blog is to share the chaos of my life and how it influences my creativity. On the outside, it is chaos. On the inside, it is brimming ideas full of promise. Join me on this adventure that life is.

I leave you with a quote from JRR Tolkien that more or less describes it all:

"Not all who wander are lost"