Cooking Question: Moist Chicken Breasts




Sarah wrote:
  I am discouraged. When I cook chicken breasts they usually turn up dry inside. What am I doing wrong?

You don't mention if you're cooking boneless/skinless breasts or bone-in breasts, Sarah, but I'll lay odds you're cooking the boneless skinless.  You are right in thinking that too high a heat will dry them out and cooking them for too long will do the same.  I understand the reasoning.  No one wants to eat undercooked chicken, but the trouble is, too many of us swing too far in the opposite direction.  Boneless/Skinless breasts don't have bone or skin to prevent the drying out.  When you have bone and skin you're adding in much needed moisture (from the bone) and fat (from the skin).

Weekly Menu Plan

The grands are here...and I am blissfully tired.  The twins are walking and they've been all over the house this evening.  It was fun watching Zach trying to walk out of the back entry with one leg in Grandpa's work boot and one foot in Daddy's shoe.  Hailey still has a Weeble sort of walk.  Daniel is a the best picker upper of toys there ever was.  His 'job' at home is to pick up the play room each night and I can tell he knows his stuff.  He gathered up all the toys and put them away tonight.

So it's a little late and I'm more than a little tired.  Let me get this meal plan going and let's finish up for the night.

Staying Out of Debt for Good: The Last Little Piggy



Well here we are down to our last little Piggy, the one who cried "Wee Wee Wee" all the way home.

Now I don't know if you know anything at all about pigs but far more than "oink" they tend to squeal and it sounds a good deal like "Wee wee wee"...It's not a happy sound.  It's generally a form of protest, a complaint,  over being pushed away from the slop trough or herded back into the pen they happily rooted their way out of.  Nope, not happy in the least!

Budget Stretcher: Leftover Makeover - Calzone

Last weekend I made meat sauce over spaghetti.  John loves spaghetti and I try to make sure and have it at least once a month.  I had a bit of leftover meat sauce, about 1 cup.  I debated the best way to use up that last bit and I thought Calzone would be ideal, especially since I had some cottage cheese that had been about to expire that I'd frozen.

As I shared with Louise last week, freezing cottage cheese works just fine.  The water in the cheese freezes and when you thaw, the curds of cheese are a little dryer than when fresh.  I like this dryer cheese to use in Lasagna and Calzone because it isn't watery.

A Year of Savings: 2013

July 15:  John and I seldom go out to eat breakfast these days.  Locally, our options are down to Subway and the local diner.  Well neither one is much fun for dining in and neither offers up a breakfast worth going out for.  Love both for takeout dinner or supper but not so much for breakfast.  However, John does surprise me now and then with a homemade breakfast that I don't have to cook myself.  Today was such a day.  Savings $11 what it used to cost us to eat out in our former local place.  These days it would be more, plus the cost of gasoline, but we'll settle for that old amount as savings since we did buy our own breakfast makings. By the way, the man makes the most awesome hash-browns from scratch! 

I cooked a big pot of pinto beans this morning. I'd meant to make Cowboy Beans, a recipe I found earlier last week.  Well I couldn't find that recipe for love or nothing!  In the meantime, my husband saw the cooked beans and exclaimed over them asking if I were making baked beans...Well yes, you breakfast making husband, I am! lol.  I made Bbq beans to be exact, with cornbread and a big green salad, since peach coleslaw seemed a bit too much sweet for my taste.  I made my own Bbq sauce savings of $.99 seasonal sale price just now.

Shabat Thoughts - Valley View



I said earlier this week that I was having a difficult time of late.  And so I am.  But, you know, the past five years have been harder than any I think I've experienced in my lifetime.  I had different expectations of where I'd be just now, of what my life would look like, of who I'd be.  Need I say that my expectations were apparently very far off target?  In fact, the past five years seem to have been all about subtracting out every single element of what I thought.  Being obtuse, I didn't begin to take the hint until this year when those mountaintop experiences began. 

I have been ready for a positive major life change for years.  You name it and I've dreamed it.  This past year, in that first experience on the mountain, I laid down  my dreams,  my plans, my wants and told God I'd be, do, whatever He wanted.  That was scary enough all in itself.  There's that old thing I hear from so many, "But what if God asks me to go to Africa?"  Well... what if He didn't? 

Just a Filling Station


This Morning I was up bright and early.  I was mindful of all the things I wanted to get done in the kitchen before the day got too hot.  I was busy as I could be when it occurred to me that I don't run a home at all...I run a filling station!

Weekly Meal Plan



Another week...and do you realize that in just ten days more we'll be in August?  Indeed, school will be starting in less than 2 weeks time. 

Budget Stretchers: Leftover Makeovers: Corn Chowder, Squash Casserole



 I have two Leftover Makeovers to share today.

I believe that we can get double mileage from our food dollars if we creatively use leftovers.  It's my theory that starting with a plain cooked dish and morphing it into a not so plain dish is the way to insure I get more for food dollar.

Iced Tea Chat - Calm Cool Collected





Now doesn't she just look like she's got it altogether?  Sigh.  I so wish I felt I did!  But do come on in and have some tea with me, won't you?  There's mint to go in the tea, or fresh lemon slices.  I like to do both. There are sugar cookies in the cookie jar, nice crisp, sugary ones.   I don't know why I don't make sugar cookies more often.  I really like them, simple as they are.  I'm finding more and more of late, I want simpler things.

Getting Out of Debt For Good: This Little Piggy Had None

You'll find me hard hearted with this little piggy.

Once upon a time I knew a family who worked  at two jobs and lived in the worst possible conditions at all times.  They hadn't a decent stick of furniture and what they did have that might have been decent was so ill treated and so abused that it soon fell to pieces.  The house was poorly kept.   Food upon their table was a strictly feast and famine sort of thing.  When they had grocery they ate every last bite, never bothering to stretch to cover more than one meal, were very casual about putting away any leftovers, and were wasteful as could be.  The adults never instructed by example and lacked the discipline to set rules.  There was no stocked pantry in their home nor even a full cupboard. Most meals were planned daily a half hour or so before one would normally eat.   If meals weren't forthcoming from their own resources they went off to visit friends and hung around waiting for a meal to appear.  I soon learned that once fed a meal, they saw no point in going home at all and hung around hopefully waiting upon the next one!

There was no regular bedtime and no regular meal time and no regular routine of any sort.  Their home was seldom clean and it wasn't uncommon for Mama Pig to show up on a friend's doorstep complaining that the children hadn't done chores, so she'd left home without doing her chores or making supper to punish them. She would stare blearily at you mid morning and say she'd been up doing laundry until wee hours of night because it was discovered around midnight that no one had clean undies or jeans to wear the next day.

No one bothered to keep check of the budget, they spent until the last dime was gone each pay period and then they suffered and complained and sobbed and wailed until someone took pity on them.  Only to complain and sob and wail that they didn't LIKE that item or this!

Each pay period before bills were paid or groceries bought, they promptly went off  and offered two thirds of their cash  to a local merchant in exchange for a few more pieces of battered furniture or a car that had mechanical troubles galore and needed a  new battery and tires as well.

If an extra paycheck or windfall came their way, they took off to go spend a weekend in the mountains or at the beach, took the kids to horseback riding lessons, bought rather than rented a band instrument, or shopped for new clothes for the whole family and never set aside a dime for future needs.  Things like school supplies were expected to magically appear at the beginning of the school year and if they had to purchase them on their own, they wailed and gnashed their teeth and bought a bare minimum of each required item and groused  when it was used up and had to be replaced.

I was well acquainted with this family.  My own family and I were struggling along at the time so I  tried to lead by example, I tried to instruct, I tried to help, but alas these Piggies were pretty much entrenched in having NONE and meant to stay there.  Last I heard they'd bought their own place and in 5 years time it was falling down around their ears for lack of routine care.

Even now, some 30 years later, I shake my head remembering how very foolish they were.  These little piggies perpetually had NONE.  And it was all their own fault!  They had better income, far better opportunities job-wise and were not lacking in intelligence.  These None pigs had no desire to live differently than they did.  They were forever waiting on a lottery win or an unknown wealthy uncle to toss them a pile of money.  However, that wouldn't likely change their lives much because they refused to learn the basic skills of money management.  They absolutely refused to believe it wasn't a matter for luck alone.  What's more, they had no respect for money, things, or others.  They were and are still much upon my mind when I feel too inclined to complain of any lack in my life.

And I suppose on that score I should congratulate myself that I knew them.  Because of their example I've been far more prone to look about and see what I might do differently.  Which just goes to show, even a bad example is still an example.

A Year of Savings: 2013

July 8:  I've lost a day somewhere along the line...I kept thinking today was Tuesday all day long.  No clue why, but it's left me feeling very confused.

Made my own barbecue sauce earlier this morning.  I incorporated some jelly that was starting to sugar up.  It was a homemade jar of Blackberry/Apple jelly that was given to us.  It provided a nice sweetness to the homemade sauce.  Savings $.99 the current sales price of store bought name brand sauce.

Shopped at home today for ketchup and regular coffee.

Weekly Menu Plan



I know my photo is askew...frankly at the moment it is about how I feel, slightly not right.  Here's hoping whatever it is passes quickly, but as I've said a half dozen times or so: Neither hail nor sleet nor rain nor snow...Nope that's not it!  But it does fit in with that idea as well.  "The world may end and someone will still want  a meal, the dishes must be done."  That's it.  Does sort of fit in with that stalwart postal carrier's slogan doesn't it?  And isn't it a shame that today the postal service (not just picking on them, mind you, but lots of folks) can't see their way clear to keep to that old fashioned statement of duty?  Call me old fashioned, but I do believe that a woman's place in the home is head cheerleader, bottle washer, bed maker and in my instance this morning, turtle saver. 

Morning Song

                                                                Morning Song
                                           Rise, oh Lark, on eager wings,
                                                     Above the night's dark hollow.
                                           Fly into the edge of Dawn --
                                                     I have wings to follow!
                                           Dip into the golden scent
                                                    Of cloud's ethereal flower.
                                           I have wings to touch the stars,
                                                     To race a comet shower!
                                           Sing, oh Lark, of sky and star
                                                     And the wind's soft thunder,
                                           And sing of how my heart shall leap
                                                     At seeing morning's wonder!

                                                            Edith Grames Schay
                                                             (c) July 1937 The Farmer's Wife Magazine
                                         

My Latest Pinterst Inspired Craft


I knew the moment I saw this wreath on Pinterest via Marlen Diaz-Sanchez


that I had to make one for myself.  I had all the components on hand...but ended up buying the wide burlap ribbon, instead of cutting a strip off my length of burlap as I'd originally planned.  Total cost to make: $1 for the section of ribbon used (you'll find it in Hobby Lobby in the sewing area for $5.99 for the spool).

Staying Out of Debt for Good: This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef

It's easy to be  of two minds about this little piggy....Was she indulgent, a spendthrift?  Or was she a wise Piggy who knew that buying a premium cut of meat would be a good investment that netted many more meals than just roast, if portioned wisely?

It's easy enough to suggest the first, isn't it?  I've found that while Roast Beef can be a pricey cut at first glance it often became more economical as the days  went on.  Seldom did it cost more than ground beef per pound, but because it is bought in a greater quantity at once, the price might cause you to stagger a bit.

Wandering Thoughts

Curious things:  I know every one has certain things that they are odd about.  I have my share.  For instance, I dislike organ music mightily.  I can't tell you why, but it just grates upon my nerves.  I've never been in a church or concert where an organ was played, but to hear it on radio, CD, or in a movie,   I literally want to cover my ears and scream until it's over.  Now I've seen master musicians playing the organ and  I'm awed by their skill and ability in pulling stops and working pedals and striking keys on multiple rows.  I can honestly say that it's a very complicated instrument and a great mystery to me.  I truly am amazed by the coordination it takes to play, but there my appreciation ends.   Listening to the music that comes out of that instrument is about as much fun to me as listening to fingernails on chalkboard.  I just don't like it.

A Year of Savings: 2013

July 1:  Well Hello, July!  The year is half over and it seems I work more and more to make a savings for us in our household.  Today's work was done in a hurry in the early morning hours.  I'd meant to be home all day but John asked me in the last minutes before a friend arrived to run an errand with him.   I went along with an ulterior motive: I wanted some more of that good fresh corn.  $6 for two dozen ears is what it cost me and worth every single penny.  I've posted already about how I processed it on July 2.

Before we left home I was able to call two agents and get them started on quotes for insurance for our cars.  We've been with the same group for a long time now, but our rates increase every single time the policy comes up for renewal.  We haven't had any violations, claims, or anything to account for those increases.  I felt it was time to check around and I'm glad I did.  We changed companies, with a resulting savings of $456/year.

Weekly Menu Plan

Wow what a resounding round of votes to keep the menu plans coming!  Thank you all for letting me know how much you enjoy this feature.  I'll definitely keep it up.  It helps me, too, because when I'm stumped about what to make I dig out the cookbooks and look up ideas for meals.  I stumble upon new ideas and old ideas I'd forgotten all about. 

Last week was just an easy week overall.  There was no outdoors work as we've had loads of rain.  I've focused on the indoors and it's looking pretty good.  I'm very restless to start a new project.  I have one nearly completed that I hope to finish up this week.  And I had one completed but might tweak it a bit more.

Staying Out of Debt for Good: This littlePiggy stayed home...


Remembering that childhood nursery rhyme, I couldn't help but contemplate on the deeper meaning of it, from a budgetary standpoint.  Especially the current little piggy, the one who stayed home...

While the Little Piggy who went to Market used wisdom in purchases, the little piggy that stays home shouldn't be discounted.  The majority of savings are generated in the home.

Leftover Makeover: Oh What Have I Done?!

This isn't a leftover per se....It's more a mistake in purchasing that I was trying to save from being waste.  We like Honey Roasted Peanuts, so I bought a big can at Aldi.  It's one of the few product disappointments we've had from Aldi.  The nuts had no salt in them and tasted more like raw peanuts.  They stayed on the pantry shelf for months, open, uneaten.  I noted the expiration date was coming up this month.  I racked my brain for ways to use them.  I thought of brittle or some other form of candy.  It wasn't until I bypassed the boxes of Fiddle Faddle (I love those popcorn treats) that I thought I might make caramel corn.

Southern Style Cream Corn


 Yesterday, we had a day away from home, so no working on posts as planned...It wasn't a planned trip on my part but it worked out just great for me anyway.  I was busy in the kitchen when he came in and asked if I'd go along with him on an errand.  I wasn't thrilled, given that I had a whole 15 minutes to put on makeup, finish my kitchen task and get a couple of phone calls made.  John vacuumed and I swept floors.  We had a little more time than expected, so I even had time to make my two calls, send info via internet to another person, and pick a handful of blackberries.