The Allred Home

Christmas in August

When I first unpacked my sewing materials I cranked out a few cute birds. I have yet to write about them because I have yet to perfect them but I decided they would make good Christmas ornaments (once I figure out how to attach them to a tree…). That got my mind thinking about other ornaments I could make.

Jacob bought me a giraffe ornament for our very first Christmas when we were dating. And our first Christmas after we were married he got me a jiggly turtle ornament. I love my ornaments but in the hecticness of the holiday right before we were married there was not an exchange of ornament. So I made one to remind us of that beautiful January a year and a half ago.

I don’t remember doing much hand embroidery as a child. I wasn’t quite patient enough for almost any kind of handwork. But I did remember some stitches my mother (who is AMAZING at embroidery!) taught me so I just took an idea and drawing I made and drew it with thread, freestyle. It was really fun! The stitching took me so long, all of one morning actually. But I think we look adorable in stick-figure form.

Once I made up for our missing year of ornaments I decided I’d better get a jump start on this year, especially considering we are actually going to have a tree this year, yay! The second ornament is inspired by these amazing ornaments. I’m not quite that pro yet; I can’t really sew a decent circle. But I had fun making my wonky version and love the outcome. Although I machine stitched the larger heart ornament, I practiced my hand-work by attaching the back of this one by hand.

I love ornament that have a personal touch, either homemade, a gift, or something I like, animals, sports, pictures (is it weird to have pictures on the tree?). My sister collects older ornaments from garage sales and thrift stores. She finds the cutest stuff like bears on sleds. I also have a friend who collects ornaments from all her vacations. I would love to hear how you like to decorate your tree. Do you like it all to match? Do you have a theme like festive wreaths and stockings or a color like blue?

Our First Furniture Refinish

Jacob has been dreaming of a use for all the free electronics he snagged a few weeks ago on freecycle. The collection included a tape deck, a retro reciever, and a pair of speakers. This past weekend we searched our local thrift stores for a bookcase or a desk maybe with a hutch to set up our new digs on. At a local goodwill we found an old entertainment center. It wasn’t too impressive but it was just the right height to put a monitor on for some video game action (for all two of the video games we own, ha). So we brought it home and decided to freshen it up with a few coats of paint.

Here is the before, minus the cabinet doors on the bottom. We had already yanked them off and tried to spray paint them. The red spray paint looked pink so we switched up the game plan and painted it with brushes. In the home improvement store the paint shopping went like this:

Me: How about this one? (dark red)

Jacob: Ok.

Me: Oooh what about this? (Dark blue)

Jacob: That looks great.

Me: I am quite a fan of this though… (Bright Bright Bright Blue)

Jacob: I like that one better than the one before.

And in 30 seconds flat we picked the brightest color our house has ever seen not on a canvas. I made sure, though, to in my head blame Jacob for the color choice since he made the “decision” (i.e. made a comment that encouraged me to stop picking up color samples), just in case it turned out to be horrible.

After

Thankfully, it did not. I love how the hardware looks on the front. And now that Jacob has set it all up with our radio and such sometimes we just walk in there to admire our handiwork, haha. Our second bedroom has now be renamed our “play room”. Maybe just because of the color choice alone.

We are now really happy with this purchase. At first we were worried about another piece of used furniture to add to the apartment of misfit toys but with a bit of love and attention this turned out great for two reasons 1) it isn’t ikea (boxy particle board with a paper front) and 2) that blue goes with everything, or rather nothing and by doing so everything! Well and maybe a 3) Jacob and I worked on it together, we love team work.

Sunday Afternoon Tote

I was browsing the web just yesterday, while my Jacob was napping all afternoon and evening, and started falling in love with handmade purses. Now I’m not really a purse girl, I mean I use one but by one I mean one. I don’t have a crazy collection, one for every outfit or anything. But some of the purses I saw are so cute and useful. During my browsing I found a simple tote bag tutorial on Sew Mama Sew. Since I’ve never made a bag before simple was important.

I haven’t yet unpacked my craft corner. I’ve been looking for a sewing desk since I arrived here in Connecticut but haven’t found an acceptable one yet. But today, after church, my man fell back to sleep for the afternoon again so I decided to rip apart our second bedroom looking for all the equipment for this simple project. The only thing I never found (yet) was my long 6″x24″ quilting ruler, which would have been uber handy. So my project may not have ended up perfectly square but that’s alright for my first try.

I whipped this up during Jacob’s nap. It was hours long so don’t think I’m bragging but some instant gratification is an awesome motivator to get back into project mode. The tutorial was great and easy to follow. I left out the pocket for simplicity. And although I had never used french seams before, I didn’t feel like pulling out my serger too yet so I went along with them. I actually really love how they look in this unlined tote, definitely the way to go.

I think I’m going to use this as my new Sunday bag. I’ll be teaching a primary class again so I need something for my binder and crayons. I really love how the handles are the perfect length to fit over my shoulder for a purse feel or I can hold it by my side without it dragging like a typical tote. Happy Sunday!

Gravy

Gravy = 1 part butter + 1 part flour + all the flavor you can stand!

Today I made a crock-pot chicken. Whenever you cook a whole bird or a large cut of beef or pork, there are plenty of juices left over. I try to save these juices for use in soups, stews and gravies.

I removed the bird from the pot and deboned the meat. But all of the juice was still in the pot, I just strained it (so I don’t get large chunks of skin or bone) and did my best to scoop the fat off the top. Using the juices the next day is optimal because the fat solidifies in the refrigerator and is very easy to just scrape off; but who makes turkey the day before Thanksgiving, for instance? So just get creative or ignore the fact that the liquid is nearly half fat, eek.

But that juice is approximately 100% flavor. Amazing, I say. You won’t need chicken broth for chicken soup if you have a cup or so of that goodness. But gravy is not just flavor you see, it is also texture. And the perfect texture, for this house at least is a 1:1 ratio of butter to flour.

2 Tablespoons of each butter and flour will make a meals worth of gravy for a small family. Just melt the 2 T of butter in an omelete pan (or whatever you heat up your spaghetti sauce in) using medium to medium low heat. Once it is melted add your 2 T of flour, and WHISK! This is the base for a white sauce but instead of milk or cream, we’ll add that flavor, the meat juices. Milk does increase the creaminess of the gravy and spices can be added (if your meat wasn’t heavily seasoned), but I tend to just leave it be. Add as much juice as you want to attain the desired consistency, and that you will have to find out for yourself. Jacob likes it quite thick so I’ll only add a cup or so of liquid, but I would say 2 is more normal. This is another kind of food I love because I always have the ingredients on hand.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

I grew up on the taco seasoning packets. You just dump it into your cooked meat and bam, the smell of tacos fills the whole kitchen. Very convenient, however last night as I was browning the meat I realized two things: 1) I don’t have a packet, and 2) I probably have all the right stuff to make it anyway. I know I have cumin the main flavor of Mexican food (at least the variation I’m inclined to) and so I decided to find a decent replacement. Why pay for stuff I already have in my home? And it was easy to get it together while the meat was browning.

Ingredients:

2 t dehydrated onion (or heaping 1/2 t of onion powder – 1:3 ratio of powder to flakes)
1 t chili powder
1/2 t red pepper (I didn’t have any so I used cayenne pepper)
1/4 oregano
1 t salt
1/2 t cornstarch
1 t garlic (that jarred minced stuff) (or 1/2 t of garlic powder)
1 t cumin

Directions:

mix all the ingredients in a bowl
add mixture and 1/2 c of water to cooked meat, simmer for 10 minutes (or so)

Source: The Homesteading Housewife’s recipe

Jacob loved it. I found it a bit spicy but Jacob didn’t taste any bite at all. I won’t change a thing about it. Plus, I really like finding uses for my dehydrated onions from the cannery as well as for the jarred minced garlic, both add more flavor, I think, than their powdered counterparts. You should try making your own, and feel liberated from packets!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

My husband sometimes has a hard time waking up in the mornings. To be honest I sleep through his shower, so I suppose I have a harder time getting up. But early in the marriage it was important for us to share our mornings (like every other moment of our day) so we would get up together, I would pack lunches and get breakfast together while Jacob got ready for work.

Things haven’t changed much, except that we really tired of boxed cereal. So we tried other things like eggs, oatmeal, bagels, and muffins. I think we really like the convenience aspect of the latter two. Jacob can grab his lunch and breakfast and eat them on his way or when he gets to work. Yes we loose a bit of together time in the mornings but we agree that we get more out of our evenings together and if he leaves early he can get home earlier.

Back in August, when we were road-tripping through Pennsylvania we picked up a giant muffin tin. It makes 6 muffins. This doesn’t quite get us through the week but we don’t want to eat the same thing everyday anyway. Be warned these muffins are more than one meal. They are huge and we both usually break up our breakfast muffin into a 6:30 am meal and a 9:30ish snack.

We are still experimenting with recipes, they don’t all translate well from regular muffin size to giant size. I think more structure (i.e. dry ingredients like flour and oats) and additional leavening (baking powder etc) are necessary.

We have tried a variety of recipes but haven’t had much luck. This week we made some chocolate chip muffins. They were really good! So here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups bleached all-purpose flour (I never use straight white flour)
2¾ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (this was way too many!)
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 cup milk

Directions:

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. (Feel free to go wild with your 3 cups. I keep oats, wheat bran, wheat flour, and flax around and I am never shy to substitute parts of the flour amount with any of these. I think this time I used about 2/3 a cups of wheat bran with a few table spoons of flax. This always gives body and flavor to the baked good)
Toss the chocolate chips with a tablespoon of the dry ingredients. I have no idea what this does but Jacob liked the results (not that we have anything to compare to, I forgot to run a control experiment). Remember to cut the chocolate if this is not a treat but a meal, 1/3 cup of chocolate per muffin is quite a lot!
Mix the sugar and butter, by hand or mixer. Add the vanilla extract and add the eggs one at a time. Whip or beat until well mixed.
Alternately add the dry ingredients and milk. 3 additions of the former and 2 of the latter (i.e. dry, milk, dry, milk, dry). This mixes everything consistently. And remember to scrape those sides.
Finally, toss in the chocolate.
Evenly distribute batter into lined muffin tin.
Bake the muffins at 375˚F for 30 minutes, or until risen, set and a toothpick inserted into the center of each muffin withdraws clean. It’ll be hard to tell with all the chocolate but look for gooey light colored stuff and ignore the dark.
Enjoy muffins for days on end!!

Modest Bargain

With a Temple marriage comes new definitions for things. One of those things for me was modesty. I have always been a huge HUGE advocate of modesty. It was quite a struggle to agree to play volleyball for me because of the uniforms. And throughout my high school years I made a lot of clothes, with my mother’s help of course, including all of my formal dresses because of my obsession with the idea of keeping covered what should be covered. I believe my body is a gift from God and I do all that is in my power to keep it clean and free from anything that defiles it. I also know that all God’s children are beautiful, and I do not need to make sure other people can see all of my beautiful parts to feel beautiful.

Anyway, although I already had these foundations in place that lead me to only buy shirts with sleeves and shorts that went to the knee, it seems to have still fallen short of the modesty lines drawn by the church (if you get my drift). So I have been searching for ways to extend my wardrobe’s life as well as new clothes to add that are full modest in and of themselves. I feel that both routes are necessary, especially because I do not want to get rid of my lovely dresses that I stitched myself in high school that still fit!

My first attempt at increasing the length/life of my wardrobe was undershirts. Nice ones that have enough coverage on the arms and chest and mid-drift that they can cover any piece of clothing’s “short-comings”. The shirts I get are from Down East Basics. I love these shirts. They are too tight, for me personally, to wear by themselves but I just adore their perfect cap-sleeve length and perfect neckline. I buy both the wonder-tee and the crew-neck tee. The wonder-tee is just a bit more dressier, but pinches more under the arm (on occasion). I buy the maternity kind for the length, and this lets me wear absolutely ANY of my shirts with jeans. Being a tall-torsoed woman means I loose a lot of coverage especially with nice blouses, but who cares as long as there is an undershirt there instead of your skin or underwear. And the length also give the option of layering, instead of tucking in, for a nice modern look.

But the origin of this post idea was my awesome bargain find! I’m always looking at their site, well every couple of weeks recently I’ve been looking for deals and beautiful items. And not long ago they had a sale: the shirts I love were half-priced! Jacob found me a coupon and got an additional 30% off! So with shipping the normal shirt of $10 plus shipping were each $5.25 even. Oh my gosh I wish they had had more than 5 colors in my size, I would have bought them all! But it’s probably good that I was able to spend less that $30.

Mild Jambalaya

I love kielbasa. I’m like half-Polish, so I blame it on that. Also, game day meals at my parents house always consisted of this awesome meat on sub sandwiches, at least until Roethlis-burgers were invented!

I still love this meat, however it is new and different to my new husband. A sandwich of only this meat is too foreign for him just yet. So our current favorite way of enjoying my favorite meat is in Jambalaya! But, if you know me you know I need a class of water when I walk past cajun seasoning; I just do not like spicy food. So this idea would seem counterproductive. However, I found a really nice, calm/mellow recipe that we just love.

We started with using a box-rice dinner that I just had to add the meat too. But with a bit of extra chopping, I get some (real) vegetables and a spice combination that I control, which is crucial for this genre of food.

The original recipe was submitted to allrecipes by Grant Michael.

2 t olive oil
1-2 cup chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 lb kielbasa, diced
1 onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup diced celery
1 t garlic powder
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t onion powder
dash of salt and ground black pepper

2 cups uncooked white rice
4 cups chicken stock
3 bay leaves

2 t Worcestershire sauce
1 t hot pepper sauce

Saute first set of ingredients until onion is translucent (a few minutes). Then toss in rice and broth/stock and bay leaves. Bring to boil, reduce heat for simmer, continue simmer for 25 minutes (that’s how long I cook all of my rice, it is always perfect). Stir in sauces before serving.

I ususally have cooked chicken in my freezer and kielbasa is already cooked, so I just saute the vegetables with their spices for a few minutes, maybe toss the meat at the end with it all to heat it up (but the meat warms up in boiling water just fine). But bite-size is the best way to cook up a couple chicken breasts quickly. We used this amazing kielbasa that we found at our local warehouse store which had plenty of kick all in itself.

I actually left out the hot sauce (mainly because we don’t own any and I couldn’t see using it on other things) and it was still amazing. Well, for me. I would not recommend leaving this part out for the majority of families. But it helps for picky eaters and can be added on a plate by plate basis.

Some possible yummy additions include: red beans, shrimp, Cajun seasoning, or a can of diced tomatoes.

Haircut: Hers

I have cut Jacob’s hair many times. I love the ease that our flowbee delivers (even if it does seem so very cheaply constructed, grr). But I did not always use that aide. The very first time I attempted to trim him up I did it free-hand. What did this mean for Jacob: fear, pure fear. It didn’t turn out too bad, thankfully we had a trip planned to my parents soon, and we used their flowbee.

Last night, I learned the meaning of the saying: turnabout is fair play. I have been needing a hair cut for a while, and have most recently been contemplating donating to locks of love. But after measuring, I decided I would prefer a trim. So Jacob grabbed our hair scissors and I brushed my hair and now my hair is quite a bit shorter. He had to cut off more than I asked because there was so many dead ends, eek. But I’d say he cut of around 4 to 5 inches and I’m so much happier. I have no idea what he did. I told him to cut a curve, but he rebelled and say straight would be easier for him. Well, whatever he did was loads better than my hair was. And no one has even noticed, which I’m taking as a good sign.

Maybe this isn’t the economy to be trying to do everything from home, but I have never been one to allow (meaning: pay) someone else to do something I am able to do myself. That is how I was raised and I am happy to have a home where I can have room to make my own curtains and dinners and to cut our own hair. I love doing things myself. At Sam’s on Saturday Jacob and I had a discussion (meaning: disagreement) about rotisserie chicken. I am against it on principle: I don’t want to be charged extra for some man hours they must put into it. But Jacob had a good point in that recently I haven’t really had time to cook a chicken, or bake bread, which means that buying it, even at elevated costs, could prove necessary (bread, not chicken, I’ll find something, anything else to eat). And I, maybe wrongly, believe that there are plenty of people still getting highlights, layers, and swept bangs that my sense of “duty” to the community is quite diminished.

Now for what you have all been waiting for:

BEFORE imgp2479

AFTER

After Haircut

It is still long enough for my knot I love to wear, but waking up with Jacob on it and not being able to move is, I hope, a thing of the past.

I wonder what things other families are taking on the responsibility of in their homes that they used to go out for, or delegate to others. I know one prevalent change I’ve seen wide-spread is eating. Food and families have been brought together, sit down dinners are not just for the 1950′s any more. Families are growing closer and getting back to the basics, by learning cooking (if not gardening as well). What a beautiful thing, conversation, work and creativity rather than a hurried drive-thru.

Immediate Food Storage

Jacob and I have been meaning to get out to the cannery. We really like being prepared, and although I love our Sam’s membership, they don’t sell beans or wheat. I talked Jacob into a short 3 month supply because I really didn’t want to move a year’s supply of food (like he wanted), and we have a lot of food stored, stuff we regulary rotate, that could probably help us last for 6 months. Anyway, Jacob was very excited about the idea that professionals packed our storage so it could actually last the 30 years that is claimed. I personally do not want to haul around these boxes for 30 years but I think it is wise to have some emergency food.

So we bought all this for ~$250:

imgp2415

The boxes constitute the minimum food necessary for 2 people for 3 months, the flour is just an add-on we needed. I must admit, I’m happy we have them. But I am also excited to start stocking up on some things that will make life pleasant for those three months, not just bearable. I mean we do have things to make bread, necessity but also yummy, and cookies, 72+ oz of chocolate chips, I think some more tomatos and sauce to go with our pasta, and some variety in vegetables, past canned peas, corn and green beans, but it’s a good start, eh?

It was a cost that was hard to swallow but it was definitely cheaper that we spend on even 2 months of food, and it gives a feeling of preparation. And although we did jump in with food storage, it was not our first time near the “water”, we’ve been buying extras of canned goods since before we were married and we did not go into debt just to gather these things we came to feel were necessities.

Although they were a bit too tall to fit under our bed, we found a home for them under my hugely tall craft table, yay! We use the half gallon mason jars to store the flour we got from Sam’s. It is perfect for our bread flour because the jar holds exactly what I use to make bread, amazing.

I’m really working hard to incorporate beans into our every day diet. Yesterday we put a can of kidney beans, warmed, on our taco salads. Oh they were so yummy! I’m really struggling with trying to figure out what to do with beans! I love chili and I have enjoyed making Cajun Red Beans Lite (I’m not the hugest fan of spicy). But what else to do with them? I still need to do some research. Everyone talks about puting them on salads but beans cold, that does not sound appealing to Jacob and I. I don’t mind cooking them with some meat and onions, maybe making a bit of soup. But I’ll have to see if I can find some more ideas. I loved the warm beans on the salad though!

Oh and btw, popped wheatberries do not equal popped corn kernals. >.<