Humor at Home

Ok, so today Daddy was called and asked to pick up Costco pizza. It's REALLY healthy *rolls eyes*. Mama was talking to my dad on the phone. I heard her say, "Don't you dare get anything else! (nicely of course)". So Daddy just got home a few minutes ago. After saying hi and giving everybody hugs (you know that routine I hope!) he went into the kitchen and sets his bag on the counter....and.....pulls out a box of cookies! LOL!! That is the first time he used his bag to smuggle! I wasn't very helpful and (upon my 10 yo sisters suggestion just so you know *wink*) quickly stuck the box in the pantry. Daddy does stuff like that a lot. Mama just laughs and says, "You bad man" or something like that. I'm so thankful for my parents.

The Joy of Cleaning House

Anybody here not like to clean? I'll say it: I don't like cleaning day!! But then, I like the smell and the look of a clean house or room! Backward, ain't it? (I know, "ain't ain't a word to be used!) My mom loves to clean and she loves to do laundry. I think that she knows how to appreciate the ability to do work because she has had that ability taken away. It's funny how when something is taken away you suddenly realize how much you really love doing whatever was taken away! With that in mind, I'd better start liking cleaning. God might decide that I need to know how much joy is in keeping a house clean!

A handy napkin trick!

Here is a really fun napkin trick that is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. First get yourself a nice bunch of napkins. Probably should be more napkins than seen here.

Now start twisting. Twist your hands alternately like you're winding a clock or something. While you're twisting turn the napkins to where you twist all of the edges. Twist and turn. Twist and turn some more.

Keep twisting the sides in and turning until......

........you have the finished product!!

My first experiences in the kitchen

The first thing that I made was always salad. So here I was (probably 7 at the time) standing on a chair tearing up salad into little pieces. My legs would usually start hurting because I dawdled (I had a bad attitude LOL) and I was standing right beside the register. Then I graduated to oatmeal. It was a disaster to put it in a light term. Mama told me put 3 cups of oatmeal and 6 cups of water. I got the numbers switched. 6 cups of oatmeal and 3 cups of water. YIPES!! Thankfully my big sister appeared on the scene and (as always) fixed it up for me. Next was cornbread and to this day I am the 'cornbread girl'. Probably the third thing that I learned how to make was muffins. Then pies. I'm waiting for the day I con do meats. LOL I usually let my cats meat go bad because I don't take care of it soon enough. That's probably why Mom's not starting me on that yet! JK

The recipes

Ok, so somebody wanted the pie recipes. Here is the Lemon Meringue filling.

Ingredients
Lemon Filling:
4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1 (9-inch) pre-baked pie shell
1 recipe Meringue, recipe follows
Directions
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.

Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour mixture into pie shell and top with meringue while filling is still hot. Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure pie is cooled completely before slicing.

Meringue Topping:
4 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar
2 tablespoons sugar
Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Use to top lemon filling.

Yield: topping for 1 (9-inch) pie

AND here is the chocolate pie filling:


Ingredients

3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) pie shell, baked
Directions

Combine sugar, flour, milk, and chopped up chocolate in 2 quart saucepan. Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble. Continue stirring for 2 minutes.
Mix a little of the hot mixture into the egg yolks, beating rapidly to avoid cooking the yolks. Stir the warm yolk mixture into the remainder of the chocolate mixture, and cook for an additional 90 seconds. Remove from heat, and stir in butter or margarine and vanilla.
Pour filling into pie shell, and chill until set. Top with whipped topping, and a little grated chocolate.

A couple things: stir it almost CONSTANTLY. I think that was part of my problem with my pie.

Here is the pie crust:

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
6 Tbsp. shortening
1/4 cup hot water
1 Tbsp. milk
2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Preparation:

Place shortening in large bowl. Pour hot water and milk over the shortening. With a dinner fork, break up the shortening. Tilt bowl and beat quickly until the mixture looks like whipped cream. Pour flour and salt over shortening mixture and beat well with the fork, forming a dough that cleans the bowl.
Divide the pie crust dough into two parts and roll out between two sheets of waxed paper. Fit into pie shell and use as directed in recipe. Makes enough pastry for a filled 2 crust 8" or 9" pie.

To bake a single pie crust to be filled with an unbaked filling, line the pie crust with foil and pie weights (or dried beans), OR prick it with a fork. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F. oven for 13 minutes for the lined pie crust, then remove the foil and weights and bake for 7-13 minutes longer until the crust is light golden brown in spots. For pricked pie crust, bake for 20-25 minutes, pricking again halfway through baking time if the crust starts to puff up. Cool completely and fill.

A few tips on the pie crust: don't put ant more water that the recipe says. It'll be crumbly but that's OK. Also, refrigerate before you roll the pie crust out. Refrigeration kinda helps to cement it all together. When you roll the pie crust out roll it out on wax paper so that when you are ready to put it into the pie dish you can just 'flip' the dough into the dish. I'd love to know how your pies turn out if you make any (hint hint!).

Okay...

I'm going to combine Sewing Sensations with Helping at Home. I like Helping at Home a lot better so that's where everything is going to go. Both are kinda on the same subject anyhow! Oh, and I'm going to make the comments available to anonymous pple. I'm also going to start a sign language blog. I'm going to start designing after I get off here. TTYL!

A Thought and a Confession

I was thinking about what else I could post about on this blog. Then this thought all of a sudden occurred to me: being a homemaker is not only on the outside, it's on the inside, too! Yowzers (that's my language for YIKES!)!! So, here comes my confession. Yesterday, I posted on how I sometimes got on the computer instead of doing the upstairs chores. Well, it's not just the fact that I didn't do it. It's that Mom doesn't come up here very often so I can get away with it. OUCH!!!! That one hurt. Here I am a young lady and I'm STILL doing that!! I couldn't believe it!

Here's my repentance prayer:
God please forgive me for being sneaky (ouch). Please cleanse my heart and make me new.
Amen

Tell Me What You Think!

I'm thinking of putting up an American Sign Language blog where you can learn sign language with me. I'm thinking that would be pretty fun! Tell me what you think!

Doing the little hard things around the house

I was just reading on Beyond the Cover. They were discussing about how hard it is to do small things. I can totally relate to that!! It is so easy for me to NOT do what I'm supposed to and go do something I know I shouldn't. I get so frustrated sometimes. The only way to overcome this problem is through the Lord Jesus Christ and His cleansing blood.

A Success and A Failure

My first pie ever was a chocolate cream pie that I made for Thanksgiving this year. THAT was a failure!! the crust was super tough. My bro. made funny faces while trying to make his teeth sink into the flat rock that was the crust. Yepper, it was bad. The filling had lumps but tasted really good. So at one point we scooped the filling out and used it as a pudding! LOL it was funny. One thing that I've learned that helps when you are in a large family is laugh at your own mistakes and move on. So that is what I did. Then, I made the lemon meringue pie. That was pretty near a perfect pie. I love it when something turns out really good the second time around!!