Random Thought Thursday

Have you ever thought about something, mentioned that could be really nice and then have it materialize? This last weekend that is exactly what happened!

Oh Little Squares of Goodness…

I was enjoying the speed of Hubby’s new pc and doing random searches. One of those searches ended up on Kitchenaid’s website searching all the fun accessories for the Kitchenaid mixer. I think my jaw hit the floor in excitement and wonder watching the little ravioli maker attachment start rolling out these perfect little squares. Thoughts of all the pasta recipes I’ve found and ravioli recipes would all be a possibility with this one little attachment!

The Problem…

Attachments add up quickly for the mixer, and I wasn’t positive if it is something I would use regularly enough to justify the expense. A few hours later I show up at our monthly couples dinner and find out that some friends love all the attachments for the mixer and are willing to let me borrow them for a few weeks to try them out, including other attachments!

I doubt if I thought about a million bucks it would materialize that fast, but I guess you never know 🙂

Black Thumb

Nicole rose bush.

I mentioned a couples days ago that we were blessed with a couple of rose bushes. Now as the weekend draws closer I’m getting a little nervous as I have tendencies towards a black thumb. If you don’t know what that is let me briefly explain. A green thumb can make any plant grow and flourish. The opposite would assume that I can make any plant die…I have killed a cactus, yes that can happen. I know that Hubby is primarily in charge of all things out doors but I really want to at least help with these and don’t have a clue where to start. If you know any blogs for gardening or have a great tip for getting started please let me know!

And those are my random thoughts for Thursday…let’s celebrate because Friday is tomorrow!

Sneak Peek for April!!!!

April is just around the corner! The days are getting longer and the flowers are starting to bloom. Spring break is starting in the area, and it is a sweet reminder of the summer freedom that is coming. Plus there will be a few new things coming up for the Fabulous 50’s Housewife!

1. Next month we will have our first give away! I’m excited to review a book and maybe even different products and then do a give away or two!  Details will be following…
2. Also, I will be looking to start having a guest post on this blog. It will be following the general guidelines of being a Fabulous 50’s Housewife and I can’t wait to share the first one!

Again if you have ideas of what you think it takes to be a Fabulous Housewife or projects that you would want to see covered, please let me know. I look forward to hearing your ideas and feedback!

Little Blessings

Where is the focus? So often we focus on the future. Where we want to be in 5 years, 10 years. What is the next step in getting the promotion? When do we get to go on our next vacation? When is the right time to start a family? Go back to school or stay home? Buy a house or save up money while renting? There are so many questions that always keep us looking for the next thing instead of enjoying where we are at.

RIGHT NOW

How often do we look at where we are right now and try to enjoy it all? I often find myself looking to the future and forget to find contentment in my day-to-day. Perhaps not everything in the current day-to-day is something to be excited about, it could be downright stressful depending on what you’re going through. HOWEVER…we need to be thankful for what we have NOW. For the blessings received NOW. For the friends that are family NOW. For the actual family we have left NOW. For finding a small reason to laugh NOW! Even for the fact that sometimes the weatherman is wrong! Yay for sunshine!

Little Blessings…

The last 2 weekends have brought to blessings that would be so easy to pass right by and just let it got lost in the daily life. Sometimes we need to stop and be thankful for godwinks (more than just a coincidence, learned the word here). I want to share with you a couple of little godwinks that remind me to be thankful NOW!

1. I needed to purchase paint for making the attic an office. Set aside 15.00 to start with and in hopes to find an oops can like I have in the past, I headed out to the Home Depot. I walked past the oops cans and grimaced, understanding why these choices were left here. Browsed the sample cards and looked at the Freshaire samples. (Amazing no VOC paint, environmentally friendly!) Then I saw this itty bitty notice. They are going to stop carrying it at the store and any colors that they had in stock were going to be 5.00 a can!! I was able to get 3 gallons of beautiful paint for 15.00, mind you normally that paint goes for 40.00 a can. So 120 vs 15 can we say AMAZING! If you are needing paint I’d check out your local store and see if perhaps they still have any left and have the same deal going!
2. Our yard is a bit sad place. It looks 100 times better than we purchased just for sheer fact that the grass was over 4 feet high in front yard and back and a home for local raccoons (I wish I’d taken pictures). But the little areas meant for flowers and all things pretty are still full of weeds and not yet tended to. Partly because we had no idea what we were going to do and partly because pretty plants add up. This Sunday afternoon friends dropped by unexpectedly, bringing with them 2 beautiful baby rose bushes. The Peace Rose and the Nicole Rose both of which are stunningly beautiful. This coming weekends goal is to get them both planted. Pictures will follow.

Sometimes we just have to take the time to stop and smell the roses. Both literally and figuratively and enjoy all the blessings both big and small that take place regularly in our lives.

What little blessings have you had in your life recently? When did you last stop to smell the roses?

Restaurant VS Home Cookin

The past few months I feel that my skills in the kitchen been steadily improving. I’ve made wontons from scratch, cheeseburgers that ooze mozzarella when you take a bite into them. A variety of sauces using all fresh ingredients and countless other kitchen experiements. Essentially the more I learn to cook and increase my skill set, the more I like to stay home and eat.

The Problem…

There are still many things that I enjoy eating that I have not found a delectable recipe for yet. So I am going to be making a list, starting here today of any items that cause me to want to go out to eat and see if I can’t beat it at home as a challenge! If you have a recipe for any item listed, or something that you enjoy from a restaurant and have been trying to find a recipe for, let me know!! I’d love to try and find something for you!

Spinach & Artichoke Dip

The List

• Spinach & Artichoke Dip (Personally shooting for something similar to Applebee’s)
• Coconut Shrimp
• A Steak that rivals the Keg chicago style
• Sweet & Sour Chicken
• Vegetable Egg Rolls (From scratch, I’ve found a decent freezer selection)
• Chow Mein
• Tiramisu
• Twice Baked Potatoes (Seem to have issues getting them scraped where they don’t fall apart)

Resolution

I want to find the best recipes for these above items and be able to serve them at home. I hope to have found the recipes and made the above list in the next 2 -3 months. Most of these recipes are not ones that would make regular appearance on the menu, but they are the recipes that make me want to go out to eat.

Conclusion

There are foods that families will only eat for the holidays, or other recipes that we will only crave just once a year or every few years. One of those items came up this last week as I finally got around to making Banana Foster. I haven’t had it in 2 years and I probably wont want it again for another couple years, but sometimes it just sounds SOOOOO good. It is just nice to have the recipe in your repitoire to be ready at a moments or cravings notice!

Bananas Foster...MMMM

Again, please let me know if you have any recipes for the above items OR have an item from a restaurant you’ve always wanted to learn how to cook!

Happy Monday!

Fave Kitchen Items: Part 5

We have reached Friday! Last day in the series and one of my favorite items to boot! In Fave Kitchen Items: Part 4 I mentioned our new favorite tradition of making pizza together. One of the key pieces besides the Kitchenaid is the…..

Pizza Peel

We were recently able to get a second peel. Perhaps you aren’t familiar with a “peel”. It is designed to either easily make your pizza on and then transport pizza to a stone in your oven. You can also lift the pizza from your kitchen surface and then transfer to oven. An interesting article on type of peels & processes is here.

Time to Serve

 

If this is a family tradition you want to start, or to be able to have friends over to pizza; I would highly recommend having 2 peels. That way you can build your next pizza on the peel, while keeping a peel free to remove the pizza that is in the oven. Due to our kitchen surfaces, we find it easier to build the pizza on the wood peel.  Just remember the cornmeal folks. It is ESSENTIAL!

I love being able to roll out, toss the dough and have it end up on the peel in a nice odd shape. Then I work it, adding all the delicious toppings that I choose, usually stuffing the crust and then it will come out of the oven in a delectable perfect, and most the time circular, pizza.

Has your family ever made homemade pizza together? Is that a tradition you would want to start?

Fave Kitchen Items: Part 4

We might scream for ice cream, but I will cheer for cookies any day of the week! And what is a family night with out pizza and a movie?? Who wouldn’t want to wake up to fresh-baked bread on a Saturday morning?? Do you have a guess as to what this wonderful item is???

THE KITCHENAID!!!

Just seeing the picture makes me excited for pizza later on this weeks menu!

The Kitchenaid usually gets pulled out between 2-4 times a month. Most often for making pizza dough (Hubby has mastered this….ooh just drooled a little thinking about the pizza) or cookies. I also enjoy making bread, but after last time I really need to find a good spot in the house to let it rise!

None of the items featured this week are “necessities”, but they do make life a lot easier. As part of a being a fabulous 50’s style housewife, I like having fresh-baked items in the house. We’ve also discovered how much cheaper it is for us to be making our own pizzas than going out for them. Plus there is the benefit of something fun to do together as a couple, and can cause laughs as I try to bring back my skills of throwing the dough from when I worked in a mom & pop pizza place in college. And now that we’ve gotten better at consistency, I really don’t want to go out for pizza because home style is the best style!

Do you use a Kitchenaid? Have you ever thought about using it for your own pizza dough?

Fave Kitchen Items: Part 3

Ahhh the secret to my deliciously smooth gravy from turkey drippings? The consistency in the chopped walnuts and pecans in cookies? The perfect creamy mashed potatoes? What can do this all and so much more? The Braun!

Growing up my great-grandparents had one of the original Braun and we would use it to make mini-milkshakes on a hot summer day. My mom used hers to chop walnuts for cookies. When I worked at Macy’s they had a sale on this handy-dandy item and I knew it belonged in my kitchen too. (You can see in the little chopper it still contains walnuts, I usually just keep it in my fridge ready to go when cookie cravings hit!)

The Braun & Helper Attachments

I have used this countless times for many different recipes. It seems that I run into a question about how to handle something and then the lightbulb goes off…bing…the Braun can do it! Most recently discovered using this for a Pomodoro sauce that I made. It is a red spaghetti sauce from scratch that is rather chunky to start with while the vegetables cook down. Then after a few hours it needs to be smoothed out, but I really didn’t want to attempt many batches in our blender like the recipe suggested. Lightbulb moment…the Braun…a couples minutes later a rich smooth sauce that you could just dip garlic bread into and skip the rest of dinner!

So while this isn’t used daily, I’m always discovering new uses for it and it tucks into a drawer quite nicely.

What is your favorite handy-dandy item with multiple uses?

Fave Kitchen Items: Part 2

While many men, including my hubby, are potatoes and steak type guys, sometimes a girl just needs a break from potato overload! And pasta is delicious but just doesn’t work with stir-frys, or terriyaki and well I think you get the picture. There is only one thing that will fit the bill…Rice

Rice cooked to perfection in rice cooker!

Growing up rice was a staple in our house. We were usually eating it several times a week and I was used to having it in a rice cooker. The first time I had the minute rice, I was like what the heck is this??? I guess I was spoiled with the rice!!

When I moved out on my own, I had a hand me down rice cooker from my mom. Still worked great but it was getting older and scratched up. Eric and I had an open house/house-warming about a month after we moved into our new home. We were blessed with a new Japanese rice cooker from Zojirushi!! I’m an emotional housewife, and of course started crying when opening it as the person who purchased it for us had remembered a conversation that I mentioned looking at new rice cookers!! 

With how often we cook rice, this is an essential for our kitchen that even stays on the countertop. (Most appliances go into the cupboards.) It is wonderful having fresh steamed sticky rice every time, not to mention the sweet rice for the holidays!

Does your family enjoy rice? Do you go with a rice cooker or minute rice? Can you tell the difference?

Fave Kitchen Items: Part 1

It seems that any great movie experience must always include one crucial item. Popcorn! When Hubby and I got married we had started doing some oil-popped popcorn in a pan. He has mad skills and always timed it to perfection. However there was a problem….

I wanted Popcorn more often than he did…

And as it turns out, my skills with oil-popping popcorn were somewhat lacking. Yes, this housewife burns the popcorn 😦 . Then came this amazing idea. The Air Popper!

Popcorn Perfection

Problem Solved

Now I no longer have to pester my dear husband to make me popcorn. I can do it myself! (Hmmm sounds like I’m a big kid now commercial.) So whether I’m making popcorn for 1 or 2, it can always be timed to perfection. While this isn’t a daily use product, and can’t be defined as a “necessity” I think we will always have one stored in the cupboard for all popcorn worthy occasions!

Added Benefit

For a little bag or bottle of kernels, it seems to be between 1-3 dollars and LOTS of servings. A bag usually lasts the 2 of us about one month to two. The boxes of microwave popcorn usually are between 3-4 dollars a box with about 6 or so packages in the box. So better taste, better value we chose to purchase one to help us save money over the long run.

And that is my favorite kitchen item for Monday! As this week goes by please let me know what are your favorite kitchen items that you wouldn’t want to live without! Is your family a popcorn eating family? Do you air-pop?

Watch out for Next Week!!!

It will be the first series for Fabulous 50’s Housewife. It will be a 5 day series on the 5 items I couldn’t live without in my kitchen. I probably could, but I wouldn’t want to. Keep a look out for it!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!