In the Kitchen

Recipes that are quick, easy, and cheap, and other great kitchen ideas

A Sweet Surprise! ~ A unique little treat for those you love!

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Don’t you love getting those great little fortune cookies when you eat at Chinese restaurants? Well here’s a few great ideas to put an element of surprise in your life!

Fortune cookie recipe:
1/2 C flour
1/2 C sugar
2 egg whites
a bit of almond extract & vanilla extract

Beat egg whites until light, slowly add sugar – then flour.

Add extracts – Batter will resemble a runny pancake mix.

Pour onto heated pan cook watching closely – turn.

As soon as you take cookie from pan, lay message strip in the middle & carefully bend in half, then pull ends together in the fortune cookie shape.

Here are some ideas for how you can use your batch of fortune cookies:

* Put them in kids lunch boxes – tell them you love them, or write secret messages.
* Put them into hubbies lunch – you’ll know what to say 😉
* Use them as party favors
* Send them as invitations
* Door prizes
* Scriptures for church dinners, or Sunday school class
* It’s a boy or girl – give birth information
* Do home parties? Use them for coupons!
* Teachers gifts – let the kids tell them how much they like their class 😉
* Boy scouts, girl scouts
* Tea & garden parties – personalize them to your group

Have Fun!

Who Says You Can’t Play With Your Food!

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Kids inside with nothing to do? Why not make up a quick batch of play dough? You probably already have the ingredients on hand. It’s easy, contains no harmful ingredients, and if they decide to lick their fingers while they play, well, you don’t have to worry about that one 🙂

2C dry milk
2C creamy peanut butter
3Tbs honey

Mix together to make a play dough consistency. Add dry milk as needed. It might be good to bring out this recipe right before lunchtime. The smell of this dough is bound to make them hungry enough to eat their lunch like good little artists 🙂

Pictured: Here is a whimsical snowman from my collection. We’ve gotten so much snow over the past few days (approx. 18 inches), that I thought I’d share some snow with you today 🙂

How Pearl Makes a Perfect Cup of Tea

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My perfect cup of tea…

– Place a tea bag in your cup – add hot water.
– Allow to sit for a few minutes – squeeze & remove.
– Add a spoon of splenda, a bit of milk, and a dash of vanilla – stir.
– ENJOY!

Pictured here is a pair of vintage tea bag holders that I picked up for a dollar at a local shop. I loved the colors! I’ve pictured them in front of a piece of vintage pottery.

Re-purposing – Vintage Sewing Machine Drawers

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While visiting local yard sales, auctions, thrift shops, etc, look for items that catch your eye! You might think to yourself… I really like that piece, but I don’t really have a use for it. I want to encourage you to look through “creative eyes” when you are making a decision about a particular piece.

If you really put your mind to it, you could almost always come up with an idea about how to use a piece creatively.

As an example, here is an item that I picked up at an auction for just a few dollars. It’s original purpose was a set of drawers on a vintage sewing machine, but I have found many other uses for this piece!

I’ve used it as a place to store silverware, cloth napkins, napkin rings, letters, lace, and most recently it is standing in as my tea caddy 🙂 I love getting up in the mornings, opening a drawer & selecting whatever tea I happen to be in the mood for. There is lots of room for many different types of tea, as well as tea bag holders & a tea ball for the loose leaf varieties.

Here are the main questions I ask myself before purchasing an item.

1. Can I afford to spend the money on this piece?
2. Do I really love it?
3. Do I have room for it?
4. Then – what can I use this for?

I have found, that if I really love a piece, I usually find many different uses for it over the years.

Now… I think I’m off for a cup of tea 🙂

How to Organize Your Kitchen Drawers

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Organizing Your Kitchen Drawers

Organizing the drawers in your kitchen is a wonderful feeling! Have you ever gone to the drawer to find something and spent several minutes and had to sift through all of the little goodies that you’ve collected & added to the drawer over the years just to find that 1 item that you’re looking for?

There is one thing that I have learned over the last few months, cooking in the kitchen goes much smother when you can go right to the location of the tool that you need – and actually find it right away! The holiday season means much more time in the kitchen, so there’s no great time than the present to tidy up your creative cooking space!

Here are a few helpful tips for organizing your drawers:

1. Empty the drawer of all contents
2. Thoroughly clean the drawer
3. Go through the items one at a time
4. Put the items into different boxes – 1 to keep, 1 to pass, 1 for trash
5. Line drawer with non-slip material (I’ve purchased this in rolls at the $1 store)
6. Place clean items in drawer in a tidy organized way
7. Rinse & repeat on all of your drawers 🙂

I love having nicely organized drawers in our new kitchen!

Soup up Your Soup – Easy touches that make soup great!

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Nothing seems to warm your insides like a bowl of homemade soup. Instead of having soup as usual, why not add a little pizzazz to your next pot? Your family will love you for it!
Homemade chicken soup

Here are just a few ideas to help make your homemade soup a little more special.

* Mix 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, 2 eggs, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup milk. Then, right before you turn your stove off, whisk this mixture into the pot (make sure that the soup is still slightly boiling so the mixture will “cook” into the soup broth. I use this technique with our chicken soup.

* Add vinegar, balsamic vinegar, or wine vinegar – adds a great taste! * My kids don’t think they can eat their soup until we add the balsamic vinegar 🙂

* Add small cooked meatballs to any kind of soup. You can use this instead of other costly meat. A little goes a long way!

* Noodle drops – 1 1/3C flour, 1C milk, 1 egg, salt, pepper, mix & drop into boiling soup. They float when done.

Homemade soup…it warms the heart & soul 🙂