Sauce

Today was sauce making day. I make sauce only a couple of times a year because it's an all-day affair. I buy sauce in a jar the rest of the year. However, I think that I'll be doing this more often. When I make sauce, I know exactly what is going into the batch. You have to take someone else's word of what is in commercially made sauce. Then there's the 4% unknown allowance...That's enough to make one sick, if you have an overactive mind like I do.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

No. We didn't have spaghetti for dinner. We had leftovers. However, we had some Italian-style food last night for dinner.

Macaroni and Meatsauce

This is one of my favorites since I can put dinner on the table in 30 minutes.

MACARONI AND MEATSAUCE

1 jar spaghetti sauce, chunky is best
1/2 lb pasta, cooked
1 lb ground beef

Brown the ground beef. Pour off extra fat, if there is any. Add jar of spaghetti sauce. Stir until warm. Add cooked pasta. Stir until coated and warmed through. Serve!

As you can see, there are a few extras in my sauce. I add chopped onions, peppers and canned diced tomatoes. But, if you get a chunky sauce, you don't have to add extras. Easy!!!

Have a delicious day!

Take care.

Runaround Day

Today was a runaround day for us. We needed to go to get eyeglasses ordered. So we went to WalMart to get that done. They have a good selection plus a really great warranty on their glasses. We picked up a ham there for Easter dinner this Sunday. We're just eating in. No family plans.

Hubby took me to another really fun place to shop. OK. Call me a goofball. It was Harbor Freight. Oh, yeah! There are bunches of tools and stuff there for just about anyone who likes to mess around the house. I bought a whole box of 3" chip brushes for painting for $6. There are 24 brushes in the box. They are usually $1.29 each at other well-known stores. SCORE! Hubby got his sandblaster for $20 and an electrical tester for $5.49. There will be many more field trips to this place, I tell ya!

It was a day of using gas and having fun.

I hope you enjoyed your day.

Take care

Golf Day and Warehouse Club

I had a day off today so I went golfing with Hubby and his buddy. The wind was blowing, it was chilly, there were a lot of other nuts out there. We had fun. I sucked. Well, they were'nt great, either. They were just better than me.

After I taught Hubby to golf, he got hooked on it. I've golfed so much that I just don't care about it any more. I used to be pretty good when I was younger, but all of my skill went down the drain. I'm glad Hubby has someone who will go with him every week.

Then we went to a warehouse club to buy groceries. Of course, it was in bulk. Even though there are just two of us in the house, we spent most of our monthly budget on supplies. That's the bad thing about those kinds of places. The good thing is it is economical. You start buying because it's cheaper and you put lots of 'cheap' stuff in your buggy. Then, when you get to the register, the bad thing happens.

We started watching Netflix after we got home and we both fell asleep. Now I'm up trying to get my blog post in for yesterday.

So much for my exciting day!

Take care.

I've Created a Monster!

Yesterday, I got a router and USB adaptor. I connected it to the computer and our Wii. Now, this took a pretty long time to do as I am a novice geek. I'd say 1-1/2 hours to get my head wrapped around the whole thing and get it done.

Hubby and I are movie freaks and I got Netflix for us to stream to our TV in the den. We spent a couple of hours last night surfing the titles to get an idea of what we'd like to watch. OVERLOAD! We were amazed at what we had within our reach.

So, today, I figured Hubby would watch some movies. I was right. He got a couple of guy flicks watched. Then we watched a really hilarious movie (Play the Game) and a Bollywood flick (Outsourced) tonight. We never heard of either of them, but I'll recommend both. It was really nice not to have to watch commercials, too.

The only bad thing is that we'll probably be couch potatoes from now on. Not only have I created A monster, I've created TWO monsters!

Take care.

Gifties

Here are some gifties I made for the people down at work. They really loved them.

Chain Maille Keychains

I asked the maintenance engineer for some of the nuts and washers that were laying around the plant. I made these little cuties with aluminum rings. It is a foxtail weave in aluminum rings, stainless nuts and washers and nickel-plated split keyrings. Everyone got one. Even the President of the company liked it. I'll be making more of these as gifts and to sell. They did turn out pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

If you haven't read much of my blog, I make some Boho style jewelry and I love doing chain maille as jewelry pieces. I am just a novice at it, but I love incorporating it into jewelry. I prefer aluminum rings because they don't tarnish and are very light weight. I wash ALL of my jewelry in soapy water and rinse after I wear each piece. Sometimes it's just easier to wear it into the shower to do this. When you wash the aluminum rings, they shine like silver.

What really freaks people out is when they admire a piece I'm wearing, I usually take it off and say 'Be careful. It's pretty heavy.' When they get it in their hand, it's light as a feather. The look on their faces is...priceless!

My tip for all who wear jewelry, cheap or otherwise...WASH IN SOAP AND RINSE IN CLEAR WATER. This takes off all of the body oil, which is what tarnishes the metals. Even gold will tarnish with a buildup of body oils. If you're diligent about this, you can keep a piece of cheap jewelry nicely for years! I have 20+ year old cheap jewelry that I still wear!

Take care.

Enchilada Casserole

This is what we had for dinner Sunday night.

Enchilada Casserole

While this may not look so tempting, it really is tasty. This picture is straight out of the fridge and it loses some of the shiny yumminess to it.

 Hubby and I went for a visit to Florida this past Christmas. We visited his brother and family. My BIL's one daughter made this and I made a piggy of myself. Of course, I got the recipe from her. THEN, I took my liberties to make it mine. Here is my version of her recipe.

ENCHILADA CASSEROLE

1 pound ground beef
1/2 large onion, diced, optional
1/2 large green pepper, diced, optional
1 package taco seasoning, or similar seasoning
1 large can enchilada sauce, 20-24 oz
9 or 10 corn tortillas, the ones that are in a paper wrapper and lay flat
Cheddar cheese, shredded, optional
Salsa, optional

Brown the ground beef in a skillet. Add the onion and green pepper. Cook until the onion gets transparent. Add the seasoning and stir together. Add 1/2 can of enchilada sauce. Turn off heat.

In a greased 8" x 8" baking dish, put down one layer of corn tortillas. I put two whole ones in opposite corners and split a third one in half for the opposite corners. Layer on 1/2 of the beef. Add some cheese, if you want cheese. I used mozzarella for this one because that's what I had. Mozzarella gives a buttery taste and pretty much takes the flavor of the food. Layer more tortillas, meat cheese and ending with tortillas. Pour over the rest of the enchilada sauce. If you use a glass baking dish with a cover, use the cover. This is preferable. Otherwise, cover the pan with foil. The foil may stick to the corn tortillas.

This will bake and soak up most of the enchilada sauce.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes.

Serve with salsa, if desired. I like mine spicy, so I heat it up with salsa. If you want, stick on some fresh lettuce and tomatoes. Take liberties with this. This can be tailored to your taste very easily.

It makes a great and quick dinner.

I hope you enjoy!

Today's Stuff

This morning at about 6:20 am we had a really loud crack of thunder followed by lightning. It shook the whole house and woke Hubby. Hubby doesn't usually wake up for thunderclaps or anything. He sleeps through mostly anything noisy. He got up and put the dog in bed with us because she was nervous and pestering him.

This meant we had rain. BOY did we have rain! The whole yard was flooded to mid-shin. The garden out back was partially under water. That's not a good thing. The strawberry plants were the ones mainly covered. That is the bad thing about living at sea level. This happens a lot.

Then we helped a friend of mine move some large appliances. Luckily the rain stopped long enough to do that. Then it started sprinkling again, just as we finished. She gave Hubby and I a tour of her new house. It was very nice. If you like Japanese food, you've got to check out her blog here!

Today, our dinner consisted of enchilada pie and salad. I'll take a photo of that and show you how easy it is to make. It is so yummy, too!

Now it's time for nite-nite. I am waiting for the dogs to come in from outside as I write this.

I hope you had a nice day today.

Take care.