Food Tip – Working with Dried Fruit
Dried fruit is so nice to have around for cooking and baking. They take very little space to store and can add a lot of nutrition to your dishes. Here are a few tips that can make them easier to cook with:
1. If you like to use a food processor to chop your dried fruit, partially freeze the dried fruit before processing, and use the pulse button, with quick on/off pulses, to chop.
2. To keep dried fruit from sticking to your sharp knife when chopping, sprinkle a small amount of flour over the fruit first.
3. Squirting a small amount of lemon juice over your dried fruit before chopping in the food processor will help to keep the fruit from sticking to the metal blade.
4. Before adding dried pieces of fruit to your baking, sprinkle with a small amount of flour. This keeps the fruit from sticking together in your batter.
My favorite things to use dried fruit in is oatmeal, granola, muffins and scones, cookies and trail mix. Also a great snack on their own!
Progress – Part 2.. Getting the House Ready
In the last post, I told you about progress on the house and some of what we hired out to have done by others that have more expertise in the areas of construction, window repair, plumbing and tiling, than we have. This time I thought that I would share the things that we are doing ourselves to get the house prepared to put on the market for sale.
One project, that has turned out to be fairly extensive is to refinish my front entry door.
Front Entry Door - Partially Stripped
The door is oak and gets a fair amount of sun daily, especially during the summer months. The sun damage to wood here can become quite extensive and although I did treat the door to a heavy coat of varathane a couple of years ago, I decided that it needed to be striped down and sanded and given a new coat of stain and protective seal. So I have been stripping, and stripping, and sanding………..
This is where I am now. If the weather cooperates this weekend, (I started this post on Friday, and the weather did not cooperate!) I should be able to finish the stripping and sanding, and have it ready for a good coat of stain. We also purchased all new entry hardware for all of the outside doors and had them re-keyed to match. I will have to try to get to this door during the week after work I guess!
Other things we have completed include the installation of new landscape lighting and wiring in the back and side yard of the house, a new pump on our spa, a new reverse osmosis system in the kitchen (this was a replacement), new paint in the second bath (my daughter’s bathroom), repainting the baseboards in my bedroom, and some touch-up paint in the kitchen.
This weekend I did get my walk-in closet all painted, and cleaned up. It looks so great! One more project bites the dust!
Next weekend I am planning on getting my daughter’s room painted and cleaned out, and then we will be ready for new carpet.
We are almost there! Yea!!!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful week!
Cheryl
Progress – Part I. Getting the House Ready….
I have been so busy doing things, and not writing here on the blog! I know that I told you that I would be posting our progress on our quest (I guess you might call it that) to move back into the Northwest. I have been so immersed in getting everything done to sell the house, find another house, do taxes, etc. etc. that I haven’t shared any of it. Shame on me for not getting back here! There is so much going on that I thought that I would write it in sections. That way I can also share some things that I’ve learned along the way.
So here is where we’re at…..still working on the house. We have made some excellent progress here. We hired out some of the things we wanted to get done, to make sure that they were done the way they should be. That included a new kitchen sink and faucet, new faucets in the master bath sinks, tub (needed to take apart the marble surround on the tub to get to the plumbing!) and in the master shower.
Master Bath Roman Tub Faucet
Master Sink Faucets
Also some new faucets in the sink and tub in the second bath. We had a new door put in to the back patio, which included doing some rough-in work. The doors here are custom made because of the height of the ceilings and doorways on the house. We also replaced the triple-section door from our bedroom out to a courtyard, which is in the front of the house. This also included some rough-in work, the door was slightly different in size.
Bedroom Courtyard Door
We had our old tile torn out of the master bath, and new tile installed.
Master Bath Tile
I absolutely love how it turned out! There is also a new sink and faucet in the laundry room. And we had some windows repaired that didn’t open right, or the seal was gone in them. Here you have the sun and the heat to deal with, and it seems to be hard on everything!
I know that it sounds like the house was totally falling apart when you look at everything that we have been working on. Really, we have lived in it for 12 years, and some of this is just the everyday wear. We also live in an area where the snowbirds that come in for the winter own homes, which are only lived in for part of the year. This puts us in direct competition in a market where a house the same as ours, is not as ‘lived in’.
I think that I’ll stop here for now. I will be back to share the parts of the remodel/upgrading that we are tackling ourselves right now!
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing this journey with me.!
Cheryl
Quick and Easy Oatmeal
I started making my own ‘instant’ oatmeal, when I got tired of buying those instant oatmeal packages in the store. If you read the labels, they are loaded with sugar and expensive!
Quick and Easy Oatmeal
Here is my substitute:
1/2 c. quick oats (regular will work if you cook longer. Note: this is not instant oatmeal)
1 tbsp. oat bran (you can use raw or toasted)
water
raisins, dried cranberries or other dried or fresh fruit
milk
microwave oven
I put the oats and oat bran in a microwave safe bowl. Add the raisins or other dried fruit. Cover with water, stir to make sure that there is enough water for the oats to soak up while cooking, the oat bran soaks up a fair amount of water.
Place in the microwave and cook on high for about 30 seconds. Take the bowl out and stir. If you need to add more water, do it now. You can make it as creamy or thick as you like. Place the bowl back into the microwave and cook on high for 30 seconds more.
I then stir it up, sprinkle about 1/2 tsp. turbinado sugar and add milk.
Variations: add any dried fruit you prefer or cook and then add chopped fresh fruit. You can also substitute apple juice for the water, and add brown sugar, or cinnamon. Use your imagination!
If you take your breakfast to work, pour the dry ingredients into a small plastic bag or container. Use a mug at work to cook your cereal in.
Eat healthier and save money at the same time!
Enjoy!
Frugal Hacks
I Pledge to Buy Handmade
The Stitchin Chicken Etsy Shop- Rustic Tea Dyed Flag Fabric
- Striped Ticking Shoulder Bag
- On the Go Handbag w/Shell-like Handles
- Pillow Cover - Blue, Turquoise and Brown Square
- Rustic Girl with her Cat Embroidered Picture
- Pillow from Burlap Coffee Sack and Ticking
- Large Pastel Pink and White Fabric Bucket
- Red Dotted Needle Keeper
- Blue Multi-Colored Handbag
- Joseph and Isaac Fabric Panel by Joan Kessler
Frugal Plus!
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