A Proverbs 31 Kind of Day

Removing tomato paste from the can might be a wee bit of pain. The cans are small. The spatula needs to be smaller than the standard spatula size. Sometimes you might cut your finger trying to "clean out" all of the tomato paste. It would be nice if tomato paste was a bit easier to get out of the can; don't you think? I've been doing this trick to empty the tomato paste can for many years now. So it's neither new nor my own invention! Perhaps you already do this nifty little trick. But in case you don't, I wanted to post it for you! Yes, you!  You may be the one person who needs this handy-dandy kitchen trick. And you'll love it next time you open a can of tomato paste! You will feel like you have conquered the world! OK -- maybe not to that extreme. But you will do it and you will say to yourself, "Well, huh!  That's pretty neat!" Below are pictures and a brief description. Not that you couldn't look at

I'm tired of unpacking. I'm tired of heat.  I'm dreaming of Fall. I drive down the street and there are beautiful pumpkins at the garden centers. Gorgeous pots of mums line the drives. I'm beginning to think about Fall food . . . And I have the air conditioner on! Something is wrong with this picture! I want to wake up and throw the windows open and have a long sleeve shirt on. I want the days to warm to the perfect temperature. And I want to be able to sit with the family around the uncluttered table to a great bounty of fall food. But that's not happening right now. As I'm dreadfully unpacking yet another box, I had the idea of a "crustless apple pie." One reason for this is I have no time to make a pie right now. Another reason for this thinking is back to line #4 -- I'm dreaming of fall food. Apple pie is Fall! The third reason for this idea is being gluten free; I haven't attempted a gluten free pie cr

Last Christmas we spent a week away. It was a wonderful gift! We did very little while we were gone. We played games and watched moves. We made ourselves get ready and leave the condo 3 times during our 8 days. We weren't gone very long on those excursions . . . . we were rather content in the condo watching moves and playing games! One day, the Mr. made reservations at a restaurant on the campus of  The College of the Ozarks. On a side note, this college is founded on amazing principles.  If you have time, you ought to take a look!   https://www.cofo.edu/ College of the Ozarks, Keeter Center Image from the internet We had a great lunch and we even ordered dessert. Two reasons: We were on vacation; when on vacation we can do whatever we want. They had a gluten free option. When you eat gluten free, it is always exciting to go to a restaurant and have "normal" options! We ordered the chocolate something or 

It is so simple, and often overlooked. But honestly, I love pudding. Seriously! Good , no, Great pudding is awesome! I really only like the boxed stuff in recipes. Just to make a dessert of boxed pudding isn't really appealing to me. But make homemade pudding, count me in! One reason why I like pudding is that most of the time I have the ingredients on hand. Especially for vanilla pudding. The ingredients are pure and simple. If it's been awhile since you've had "great" pudding, try this soon! I might just make a believer out of you! Vanilla Pudding 2 1/2 cups milk, divided pinch of salt 1/2 cup sugar 3 TBSP cornstarch 2 egg yolks, beaten 1 tsp. vanilla 1 TBSP butter Place 2 cups milk and salt in a saucepan. Sprinkle sugar and pinch of salt on milk and do not stir; heat over medium-high. Quickly combine cornstarch with remaining 1/2  milk; add egg yolks and mix well. When milk comes to a full boil, remove saucepan from the heat

It's been awhile since I've posted. One might think that we haven't been eating!  While we surely haven't been trying new recipes or being creative in the kitchen, we have been maintaining a caloric intake! What's really been going on is that we've been in the process of moving! "Process" is a long word! And so is "moving!" In late Spring, we put our home on the market and it sold rather quickly. That was the easy part! The Mr. took a month off between job changes; we had hoped it would be a time to unwind. It was anything but that! Since June 1st, we have: made inspection repairs on our Dallas home cleaned our Dallas home when we moved out met movers to pack our Dallas home moved into temporary housing moved out of temporary housing cleaned our temporary home when we moved out gone on vacation started homeschool for the cherubs bought a house cleaned the new house so we could move in painted rooms at our n