Sabby Ann

Earlier this year, during my travels to the U.P., I discovered Dobber’s Pasties - a tiny restaurant that serves delicious chicken pasties! The pasty is the perfect wintertime food, and although winter is still a couple months away, I decided to try and replicate their recipe.

I started with the Cornish Finnish Michigan Pasty Recipe, then modified it to include only the fillings that Dobber’s lists on their website:  chicken, potatoes, rutabaga, carrots, celery, onion, salt, pepper, & cream of chicken sauce. However, I didn’t have any celery, so I opted to substitute the cream of chicken sauce for cream of celery soup (which took care of two ingredients!).

Fillings:
1.5 lbs of chicken (diced)
1/2 cup of diced rutabaga
5.5 cups of diced potatoes
1/3 cup of chopped carrots
1 onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 can of Cream of Celery soup

Crust:
4.5 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of shortening (Crisco)
1.5 cups of very cold water

Here’s how to make it:

1. Whisk together flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut shortening. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and quickly stir in ice cold water. Form dough into a ball. Set aside.
2. Combine uncooked vegetables, chicken, salt, pepper, & cream of celery soup.
3. Roll out pastry dough into 6 x 8 inch rectangles. Place about 1-1.5 cups of filling in the center of each rectangle. Bring 6 inch sides together, and seal. Cut a slit in the top of each pasty. Wrap individually in tin foil. Place on baking sheets.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 60 minutes.

I don’t often cook vegetarian meals, but tonight was an exception to that. Natalie came over for dinner and she doesn’t eat meat… So we attempted a new recipe for black-bean burgers. It turned out absolutely delicious, although I wasn’t able to convince Eric to try it!

Here’s the recipe, taken from this month’s All You magazine:

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed & drained
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• Salt & Pepper

1. Pre-heat oven to 375.
2. Warm oil in a skillet over medium-high.  Sauté celery, onions, & garlic (about 5 min).
3. Pour beans into a bowl and mash into a paste. Stir in sautéed vegetables, egg, bread crumbs, and seasoning. Form into 4-5 patties.
4. Place patties on a baking sheet and place in oven. Bake until firm, about 10 minutes per side.

For 2010, Disney’s big promotion is the “Give A Day, Get a Disney Day” program. They are trying to get 1 million people to volunteer a day of service (in their local communities), and in exchange they are giving each volunteer a free one-day ticket to Disney World or Disneyland.

Since we’re planning a couple of trips to the Cape Canaveral area this year, this seemed like a great way to get a free pair of tickets to Walt Disney World (and save $150!). I signed us up for the program, and then registered to volunteer with a local chapter of Project Linus. They’re a national non-profit whose mission is  … to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.”

While I’d originally planned on crocheting two small afghans to donate, I had a difficult time getting the yarn to cooperate. I had purchased two types of yarn, both ones that I’ve never worked with, but that felt extra soft & cozy.

So Plan #2 was to make fleece no-sew blankets. Eric & I went out shopping and picked out some kid-friendly fleece prints, with matching solids for the back side. The fleece that I used had pink & purple kittens, while Eric’s was mostly rocket ships and robots.

Eric & I had chicken drumsticks for dinner on Tuesday. 

Mistake #1:  Not doing dishes after dinner, or at least scraping our plates into the garbage. 

Sometime Tuesday night the cat helped herself to the leftovers. She’s not allowed on the kitchen table or countertops, but somehow one of the partially-eaten drumsticks (our dirty dishes, including what was left of the drumsticks, had been placed on the countertop) ended up on the kitchen floor. Most of the meat had been gnawed off, but the bone was just laying there on Wednesday morning. So when I woke up and discovered what the cat had done, I of course went to find Eric. 

Mistake #2: Not picking up what was left of the chicken drumstick and immediately throwing it away. 

I told Eric what had happened, and when I returned to the kitchen a few minutes later, the drumstick was gone. I figured he tossed it into the garbage, and all was well. 

Mistake #3: Assuming that my husband thew away the drumstick remnants. 

When I came home from work yesterday night, and released the dog from his crate, he disappeared for quite awhile. That probably should have been a sign that something was amiss, but it wasn’t until I started hearing funny sounds coming from the sunroom that I went to check it out. I found the dog chewing on something. When I attempted to snatch it from him, all I could find was tiny fragments of chicken bone. I confiscated what I could find, and hunted around for the drumstick itself, but with no luck. 

A few minutes later, I found the dog gnawing away on yet more slivers of bone. I located a few tiny pieces on the rug, and a few more on the couch, but I have absolutely no idea what happened to the rest of the drumstick. 

I’d be surprised if he ate the whole thing, but I can’t find it anywhere. Not under the couch, or buried in a blanket, or hidden outside in the pen.

Most grocery stores around here will double manufacturer coupons up to fifty cents, with some allowing store coupons to be stacked on top of manufacturer coupons. Not bad, but not really great either. 

Over the summer, I discovered that some of the Kroger stores in Michigan will double manufacturer coupons up to $1 - so my $1 off instantly becomes $2 off!  :)  The nearest stores that offer that are about an hour drive (each way), so I would only shop there if I had a reason to head out that way… but when I do, I’ll sort through my coupons and stock up!  

Unfortunately, they went back to just doubling up to fifty cents a few weeks ago… just as my non-perishable stockpiled supplies were starting to run low. I figured that, especially with so many Michigan families unemployed right now, too many people were hitting up the handful of stores that offer the $1 double, and they were losing money. 

BUT - this week the circular shows that the $1 double is back! I don’t know how long it’ll be around, but I’m definitely planning to go shopping and get all the freebies that I possibly can!

With Eric taking night classes twice a week, I have a few hours to myself in the evening. When the weather is nice, I usually just play work in the garden, or take the dog for an extra-long walk. When it’s cool & rainy out, I just run errands and pick up around the house a bit. Either way, I have plenty of time to ponder. 

Tonight I went grocery shopping. Armed with my reusable grocery bags and coupon pouch, and throwing food items in the cart, I started thinking about what constitutes a good wife. 

Is it a good wife that buys her husband hot dogs and potato chips for dinner… knowing that he likes them far more than a stir fry or pasta salad? 

What about a wife who stocks the fridge with Lunchables for her husband… to make sure that he has something to eat at work when there isn’t enough time to make a PB&J sandwich in the morning? 

How about a wife that, when cleaning out the closet, doesn’t throw away the pile of raggedy too-small T-shirts from her husband’s high school clubs/teams… because she knows they have sentimental value? 

Who complains about her husband spending $8.99 on iTunes, but then spends $30 on some sexy sleepwear…?

A few weeks ago I decided to tackle a new craft project: crocheted curtains. I started off using some multi-colored crochet thread with varying shades of blue, purple, and green. I was a bit iffy on it at first, and quickly grew to hate it. I like the colors, but they looked more like a camouflaged ocean. And the camouflage color pattern seemed to obscure the ‘block’ pattern that I was attempting to crochet. 

So I decided to start over, using a solid thread color instead. It’s a fun project, and since I’m using thread instead of yarn, it’s much more portable. The down side is that since the stitches are so tiny (at least in comparison to yarn) that my hands start to cramp up after an hour or two. I’ve used 350 yards of thread so far, and the new curtain consists of a panel approximately 2.5′ long and 9″ tall… and it’s taken about 13 hours of time. 

Here’s a photo of the two attempts, side-by-side.  Opinions? 

Knowing that pork chops were the only defrosted possible dinner item, and that my husband doesn’t really like them, I decided to swing by the grocery store on the way home to pick up some beef. I’ve had a bit of a craving for beef stroganoff lately, so I decided to give it a try. 

I looked up the recipe on my new favorite website, Cooking for Engineers. It’s meant for “people with an analytical mind“, and each recipe is filled with pictures at each step. And to make it truly geeky, each recipe also has a gantt chart listing each ingredient, how to prepare it (i.e., chop, dice, cook, etc.), and when to add it. 

I think it turned out pretty well, though I should have used heavier noodles. I used generic-brand egg noodles, and they broke into several tiny pieces while cooking. The stroganoff itself was good though. 

What I didn’t realize is that Eric dislikes beef stroganoff (or at least “my” beef stroganoff) even more than he dislikes pork chops. And it probably didn’t help that I added a ton of mushrooms. So not even two hours after eating dinner, he made himself a couple of hot dogs for Dinner #2… 

Oh well, I’ve certainly never claimed to be good at cooking!

After crocheting a few doilies, and getting accustomed to working with crochet thread, I decided to tackle a new crochet project. I thought about making placemats or a tablecloth, then I stumbled upon crocheted curtains. In particular, I found a geometric block curtain pattern, pictured below: 

I absolutely love the look of this, and thought I’d give it a try. Judging from what little progress I’ve made on it over the past week, despite hours of crocheting, I’m guessing this project will keep me busy for weeks (maybe even months!). 

The particular thread that I’m working with is multi-colored and is called “Ocean” - it’s a blend of blues, green, and lavender. I have about 4″ complete on a single panel, and I’m not sure what I think of it yet. I definitely like the pattern, I’m just not sure of the color scheme. I think I’ll probably stick to solid colors next time.

One of the blogs that I read recently had a snippet about how to save money on cleaning supplies. She suggested mixing your own cleaning solutions, using household products like  vinegar, lemons, & baking soda. Her other tips were also pretty basic - use washable mops and rags for dusting, instead of buying disposable items. Duh? 

I’m all about saving money! Just ask anyone who knows me. But moreover, I just hate cleaning. My house is usually messy because I have so many other things that I’d rather do. Really. It’s not that I’m trying to prevent my parents or in-laws from coming over… and I wasn’t planning to claim a Guiness Book record for that monster-sized furball behind the couch… 

Maybe I ought to have a print made of this, and hang it somewhere in the house.

Anyways, here’s my take on how to save money on cleaning supplies:  

Clean less often!