Thrifting!!!

I have been thrifting for over 30 years. I love it. It must be the thrill of finding the deal or something. I do buy new things too but I love thrift stores. Today I bought my grandson a new spring jacket, a winnie the pooh hat for my niece's new baby (don't know if it is a boy or girl - won't know until the birth), a Christmas cookie jar that I find adorable, a snowman case (love snowmen too), also some new puppy dog socks, a baby music player, measuring spoons (few sets), bottle opener, coffee measure spoon (all of the small things in one bag for .99). I am pleased with this small haul.

Recipe for Duchess Potatoes

This is the best video I could find to show how to make duchess potatoes. Mom and I did this a while back, made a large batch, flash froze them and them divided them into freezer bags & froze them. These are great to have on hand, just grab a few, put them in the microwave to defrost a little and then heat them a little. I suppose you could also heat them in the oven. I am too inpatient for that..lol. Anyway, changes we made: we just did however many potatoes we wanted but roughly the size pot the guy has in the video per batch. I didn't have a pot that could go into the oven so we just dumped the potatoes on a parchment lined cookie sheet to dry in the oven. Did the same procedure for whipping up the potatoes but we did not pipe them (messy and a lot of fussing). We used an ice cream scoop to make individual mounds on lined cookie sheets and then like I said earlier, flash froze them to make them still enough to go into a bag with others without sticking to each other.

Mom picked up a 10 pound bag of russetts (best kind for this, we find) for $2 at the Superstore yesterday. We have a date for Monday to make duchess potatoes.

I realize this video is cut off at the end, there is a second part but it goes into the whole steak thing and I wanted to show the potatoes. The only part of the potatoes that you are missing is the piping part (that we got frustrated with). Use the ice cream scoop; it's way easier...unless you are a professional piper.

Once a Month Cooking??

So...been thinking. A while back I mentioned that my freezer died (wasn't very old either) and I went 2 months without a big freezer, blah, blah..anyhoo...I ended up back at something I did a few years..freezer bag cooking. I notice as I am looking up recipes online, a lot of the recipes will fall under "once a month cooking" or "freezer crockpot meals"..things like that.

I have only started in a small way so far. It is normally my MO to dive head first into something and go a little over the top with it before I pull back...lol. I made 2 shepherds' pie last weekend, froze them. I have 2 and 1/2 buffalo chicken dips and today I made 2 chicken/rice bakes, froze them.

When I did this a few years ago, I got into the freezer bag recipes where you get a large recipe, divide it into gallon freezer bags, get air out, label..all that stuff and you lay them flat to freeze and you can stack them easier and store more of them that way. I don't know how I got away from it, because it really is convenient. I use my crock pot just about every day but yesterday my daughter and grandson were here and we were busy all day with visits and an appointment, I had to work @ 5, so I threw one of the shepherds' pie in the oven and ta da!! Everyone said it was really good and it must've been because by the time I got off work, none left. I'm glad they loved it. Anyway, if anyone is interested, I can post the recipes that worked for my family. I didn't use a recipe for shepherds pie, just made it up like my Mom does...hamburger and gravy on the bottom, whipped potatoes on the top. Of course, spices in the meat and a little sprinkle of love.

I'm Back & I have an idea

Wow, the holidays just came and went that quickly. It was lots of fun to just kick back in pj's, sip coffee and surf the net, try out my new camera gear (external flash & tripod). I am enjoying those gifts soooo much. The flash is awesome and I can tell the difference in my photos..for sure. Anyway, so I spent a fair amount of time on photography and took up a very old hobby (knitting) which I haven't done in...hmmmm 35+ years. Anyway, getting a little hooked on that too.

Anyhoo...it occured to me yesterday as I was pouring melted beeswax & bacon grease into a jar, tying a tampon string to a pencil and placing it atop the jar, centered and leaving it to harden......hmmm....I wonder if I should just do all of this stuff I have always been doing for a living?? It just might work. Why not. I am doing it anyway.

PS: I love my bacon scented candle.