This is just a little reminder for everyone to take your turkeys out to start thawing Friday or Saturday if it is about a 20 lb turkey. I would start thawing all turkeys at the latest on Sunday. I like to have my turkey thawed at least a day or two ahead of time so I can get it all prepared, in the pan and ready to just pull out and stick in the oven. I have so many things to do the day before Thanksgiving that this is one less thing to worry about.

For all you new or inexperienced cooks be sure to take out the “guts” or giblets as most people call them and neck which are usually stuffed inside of the turkey.

If you are needing to dry bread for your stuffing lay it out this week end to get good and dry. Break it up, place it in the bowl you are going to be mixing it in and have that much done ahead of time.

This week end get your linens for the table washed and ironed and your silverware and dishes organized.

Do as much as you can ahead of time. Clean the veggies for the relish dish and salads or sides on Wed.

If you are making something like a sweet potato casserole get it all prepared and ready on Wed. so all you have to do on Thanksgiving is to pop it in the oven.

If you don’t want to be mashing potatoes two minutes before you sit down; mash them and place them in a crock pot on low to keep warm. You can keep them in there beautifully for 1 hour but no more because past that they get “yucky” fast.

Most of all for you new cooks or those of you doing your first Thanksgiving don’t panic. It is really no different or harder then any other regular meal, you just are maybe preparing more of everything.

If you are really nervous do a trial run this week end. Practice by roasting a chicken, making mashed potatoes, do one or two sides and a dessert. It’s just like a mini Thanksgiving.

If something goes wrong and most of us have had something happen once in awhile just laugh about it. It usually is the Thanksgiving everyone will remember and they will remember it with fond happy memories. It will give you something to tell your future daughter in law, granddaughter or daughter about.

I remember being so scared my first Thanksgiving cooking alone. My friend who was older and going to be one of my guests told me how on her first Thanksgiving everything was perfect, the table looked great everyone was laughing, joking and enjoying the food but half way through the meal she noticed something - she had forgotten the turkey. She had set it on top of the fridge to move it out of the way for a minute and had left it there. No one either didn’t notice or were too polite to say anything.

Things happen but you will do fine.

Jill

You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

Translated in “Jillese” If you pay for something on credit today you will have still have to  pay for it tomorrow. You aren’t getting it for free. The same goes for all those buy now and you don’t have to pay until the year 2011 ads.  Be careful.

I’m not sure why but when we started using credit cards we lost all responsibility for our money. Holiday shopping is already starting so be very careful and think about things each time you pull all that credit card to pay. You will be responsible for it tomorrow (or next month).

That quote goes for other things besides money. You may decide you aren’t going to do the dinner dishes today but trust me they will be there in the morning for you (I hate to be the one to break it to you but there really aren’t any house fairies who come in the night and do them) :) And one day you will have to break down and clean out that closet.

I think you get my drift. It’s Monday so try to get up, make a plan and then work it. Set your home in order for the week.

Jill

The other day my daughter, daughter in law and I went to the Parade of Homes in our area. For those of you who don’t know what that is it is the homes you always dream about but know you can never have. They are perfectly decorated model homes and some are quite expensively done.

My son and son in law were moaning as we trotted out the door all excited to once again get some new decorating ideas. They yelled all the way to the car “Don’t even think about moving when you get home and no more remodeling projects”. They know their wives oh so well.

Why we torture ourselves I don’t know but we do it every year. My daughter called the next day and said I get so discouraged looking at those houses and then I walk into my house and there is stuff every where.

I know what she was talking about because I felt it too but at that same moment in my minds eye I was thinking about my daughter’s home and the way it looked the last time I saw it. I then started comparing it to the model homes we had just seen and these words popped into my head, “Her home was decorated with love”.

When you walked into the living room of the model home there was a place for everything and everything was really in it’s place. I think they even measured the throws and pillows to make sure they were in the right spot. The pictures were beautiful landscapes and not a toy in sight.

Where as in my daughter’s home there was a music stand and chair in the middle of floor where sister who is just learning to play the flute had played Hot Cross Buns for the twentieth time and sat beaming as family members patiently applauded and praised her again and again and again after each attempt.

There was a very worn “security blanket” (not a throw) in a ball at the end of the couch with a favorite pillow laying half on and half off of the couch where middle brother had laid when he was sick and had been given special love and attention from mom.

Instead of landscapes there was mom and dad’s wedding picture, the kid’s school pictures along with family pictures scattered here and there. There was a dog chew in one corner where big brother had just finished playing with the dog and in another corner was the cat bed where a well loved kitty contently slept. There was a stray toy here and there, a few books, a couple of Bibles and magazines all having been shared and read together at different times.

When you walked into the kitchen of the model home there wasn’t a dish in sight or a thing on the counters. It was spotless and shiny.

My daughter’s on the other hand had a handful of dishes in the sink left from when dad took over and fixed lunch because mom wasn’t feeling good. There was a pan of water on the stove where sister had fixed a cup of tea for mom. There was a pan of burnt unrecognizable something that dad had burnt while trying to cope with lunch and feeding baby brother his bottle all at the same time.

The dining room chairs in the model homes were lined up in perfect position with a lovely arrangement taking up most of the table.

My daughter’s were all in a different place from having been used over and over that day. Some doing homework, others crafts, coloring, painting or fixing a broken this or that, having a snack together, and always at the end of the day sharing dinner together with everyone talking a mile a minute.

Last but not least there was total silence and quiet in the model homes. But at my daughter’s there was music all the time. Someone is always singing, whistling, humming and laughing. The dog is barking, someone is always talking and there are even a few boyish burps followed by mom’s scolding for doing it.

Yes those model homes looked beautiful on the outside but like your mom always said it is what is inside that counts. Inside the model home it was empty, cold and lonely. My daughter’s home certainly wasn’t empty, there were lots of “items of love” scattered everywhere, as far as being cold, all that love and laughter spread warmth to every corner of every room and as for being lonely, you couldn’t find one spot to be lonely in. Trust me my daughter has tried to find a quiet place to be alone in and they still seem to find her.

So here’s to all the homes decorated with love and the mom’s and dad’s who decorate them.

The Different Methods Of Freezer Cooking

Susanne, The Hillbilly Housewife here with some more freezer cooking tips. I would like to thank Tawra and Jill for allowing me to be a part of the Living on a Dime blog this week and not only share a thing or two about freezer cooking but also spread the word about Breast Cancer Awareness. Please take some time today to do a manual breast exam (only if you’re a woman of course) and help spread the word during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Yesterday we talked about how freezer cooking saves time and money , today we’ll dive into the various different ways you can start to freezer cook. My first exposure to this was the Once-A-Month (OAM) method where you cook all dinners for a month over the course of a day or two. It just didn’t work for me and I ended up giving up on freezer cooking completely. Before my daughter was born, I made a few casseroles and soups ahead of time and froze them to have during those busy first few weeks with a newborn.

I was nine months pregnant and constantly tired at the time, so I simply made double and triple batches of things I was already cooking or I would cook a similar dish along with the one I was making for dinner. It worked so well for me and my family that I continue to freezer cook to this day. Over the years developed several different methods of freezer cooking that fit our lifestyle.
Here are some of the most common ways to freezer cook.

Once A Week Or Once A Month Cooking
The main part of your dinner for the week (or even the month) are freezer meals. Your goal with this method is to cook all of them at once. Usually one day is reserved for shopping and one or two days are spent cooking all those meals. If you want to give this a try, I recommend you start with a week or less. It takes a lot of planning and preparation and the cooking day can be quite exhausting. Be sure you don’t have much of anything else going on during the day you are cooking, cooling and freezing all these meals.

Double or Triple Batches
A lot of freezer recipes can easily be doubled or tripled (or even more). Meatloaf for example freezes really well. The next time you make it double your recipe and freeze one for later use before you bake it. When you’re ready to use it just thaw it in the fridge and then bake as usual. This method also works really well for any type of casserole, soup or stew that freezes well.

Cook Along A Meal
When you know you’re going to be spending some time stirring pots, why not make another meal that uses some of the same ingredients. For example, if you’re cooking a beef stew, cook a pot of chili with stew meat at the same time. Allow the chili to cool while you enjoy your beef stew for dinner and then pack it up and freeze it when you’re done.

Cook Once Eat Twice
With this method you cook extra of one dish and then use the leftovers to make a freezer meal for later. A good example of this is meat sauce. If you are making spaghetti one night, make a double batch of meat sauce and put together a lasagna for the freezer after dinner.
Give these various methods of freezer cooking a try and see which one works best for you and your family.

Susanne Myers – The Hillbilly Housewife
http://www.HillbillyHousewife.com

P.S. As a special thank you for reading this blog and Tawra and Jill’s newsletter, we put together a deal on my popular Freezer Cooking ebook and the recipe collections I’ve developed for it. Until midnight on October 19th 2009 you can get my entire freezer cooking system for 75% OFF (yes, you read that right)
Here’s where you can grab your entire freezer cooking system for a fraction of what you’d usually pay for it:

I love collecting quotes, jokes and cartoons. Here are a couple I just recently found.

The first is a cartoon which my grandkids think is a hoot. It shows a little boy walking out of the kitchen carrying a huge plate of cookies and the caption reads, “Grandma doesn’t know the meaning of the word “No”.

Boy if that isn’t the truth. Is there anything harder then saying no to the grandkids???? Except when they are being little stinkers which mine never are of course???? : ) : )

This quote is for those of you who know you need to get up this morning and get busy but can’t figure out why you haven’t yet.

Procrastination was last seen trying to find motivation….. now they’re both lost. This is a good one for us with CFS and FM. : ) : )

Hope you have a week end full of laughter.

Jill

I was checking out at Jo Ann Fabrics today and the woman in line with me looked at the box of dye I was holding and asked what is that and what do you use it for? I have talked about dye before but thought maybe some of our new readers need me to mention it again.

I forget many people don’t have a clue on how to use dye or even that the average person can use it. It is one of those things which is thought of as having strange magical powers and if you aren’t careful it might explode or even worse change your favorite red top to purple.

Years ago when I was growing up, believe it or not, the average home had a small collection of several different colors of dyes on their pantry shelf. It was used all of the time. I think what happened is people were more of the mind you don’t throw anything out so to make those red towels look nice in your purple bathroom you would dye them to match. You wouldn’t dream of getting rid of them and buying more just to make everything match.

Now if a pair of pants fade we just toss them or wear them faded. But it really doesn’t need to be that way. I bought me a box of denim blue dye. I have 2 pairs of shorts and 2 pairs of jeans which are in perfect condition they are just faded really bad. I will throw them along with some faded navy socks in together and dye them and they will look like new.

The next time I go I will get me a box of black and do my black jeans, t shirts and socks. I also do this with my fabric. If I have some really ugly fabric I just toss it in with a color of dye or tea dye and usually come up with something really great.

I figure if I can’t wear the item except around the house anyway what do I have to lose if I ruin it although it really is hard to ruin anything. It is so easy to use. I would start simple like buy a box to dye all of your navy or black things. Follow the instructions on the package but they basically say to dissolve the dye, dump it in the machine with some salt, wash and dry. You can hand dye things too. It is about as easy as doing a load of laundry.

You can also dilute the dye in a cup or 2 (depending on how dark you want it) of water and use it as a stain for wood things like furniture. It comes in liquid or powder form and they both work fine. The liquid you don’t need to dilute to use as a stain. I like them both equally as well.

If you are throwing those pants away because they are faded, try dyeing them and see what happens. Dye isn’t expensive. I use my Jo Ann Fabrics coupon and get it for about half price ($1.25). You can get it at Wal Mart and even some dollar stores or grocery stores.

Jill

PS Another way to use dye is if you need 3 yards of orange fabric for a Halloween costume or green for a costume but you only have 3 yards of white muslin, cream fabric or even an old sheet, just dye those orange and then make your costume. The dye is much cheaper then buying new fabric. If you have some ugly brown fabric but need a black cape, dye the brown black etc. Maybe you already have a brown cape but need a black one just dye the cape or dress or what ever you are using for a costume the color you need.

From: Cindy M
This is an idea for handling laundry/clothes that
I wish I would have used when my kids were still
at home. It would require a good-size laundry room
but save a lot of bedroom space. There would be
cubbies for everyone - socks, underwear, t-shirts,
jeans, anything foldable would go in the cubbies -
being folded straight out of the dryer. This would
eliminate the need for dressers in the bedroom and
the space they would take up. Hanging clothes
could either go on a rack in the laundry room if
space allows, or in the bedroom closets.

I have to admit this would be my dream laundry room! Since my laundry room barely has room for me stand in I dream of this type of a laundry room everyday! LOL Tawra

My dream laundry room would have an eight foot long and four foot deep table that is the perfect height to fold my clothes on easily with the cubbies and rods above it to place things as I fold them. It also would have a place to keep the ironing board up all the time with a rod and cubbies by it to hang the clothes on. Last but not least it would have a rack to hang all those things like dirty dish rags or towels which need to dry before you dump them in the hamper.

To be honest I love laundry so much I wouldn’t mind dedicating one whole floor to a laundry room. I wonder if more people would enjoy doing it if they didn’t have to do it all in a little 5×3 closet all the time. Cooking and doing laundry are two of the main “have to do” things done in a home and yet they always make theses little tiny rooms to do it in but we create these bathrooms that are so big you could play tennis in them.

I mean how much room do you need to sit on a toilet or stand at a sink to wash your face??? They give you an 8 foot vanity just to brush your hair and put on make up and often don’t give you even one foot of space to fold clothes.

They even are now giving you an area in the bathroom so you can have a couch to sit and read on. I’m sorry but I can think of much more pleasant places I would rather read then laying and looking at a toilet that 4 male members of my family just used.  Makes no sense to me. Although if you are a mom with 4 little ones under the age of 5 that might be your only place to relax. : ) : )

Jill

Here is an odd collection of tips this morning which maybe some of you can use.

I went to buy eggs. I usually try to get them on sale but couldn’t find any and since I needed them I had no choice but to pay full price so I bought a cartoon of medium eggs. Sometimes we automatically always get the large (we do that with so many things) thinking those are the best but what I was using them for (baking) small or medium work better and they were cheaper.

Most recipes when they call for eggs mean small or medium ones unless otherwise stated. I have several recipes which by using a large egg it can really throw off the recipe. If you are having trouble with a recipe being extra sticky or not quite right you might change your egg size and see if that helps.

Another thing I did this morning was hang my clothes out. After writing an e-book on laundry and hanging out clothes I didn’t think I had missed anything but as I was hanging some T shirts one of them was sagging in the middle when I pinned it on the line and I re did it. You need to hang the items taunt on the line not stretched too tight but not sagging. This helps get rid of much of the wrinkling some of you have a problem with. Sometimes we tend to sag them in the middle to give us more clothesline space but don’t do this.

Odds and Ends Tips

If you lose the plug for your bathtub use a golf ball. If it happens to get dislodged it just rolls right back into place.

Rub hair conditioner on your shower curtain rod to make your shower curtain slide more smoothly.

Hope some of these ideas help make your day go more “smoothly”. : ) Have a super day everyone.

Jill

Many years ago, way way back in the last millennium : ) (that sounds impressive doesn’t it?), as a young bride (that sounds depressive - am I really that old?), I read on of the best tips on cleaning and housekeeping. The woman who wrote it was an older woman and said she had been an awful housekeeper until she asked her friend who had a spotless house what her secret was.

Her secret was that she never stopped picking up. No matter where she was walking to and from in her house, she automatically picked things up to take with her and put away. It really works.

Some of you are saying, “My kids and husband just need to pick up their own stuff.” I agree that the family needs to be responsible, but the reality is that kids and husbands have their heads in the clouds when it comes to these things. There could be an elephant in the room and if you ask them, “Why didn’t you pick that up?” they would say, “I didn’t see it there.” Duhhhhh!!!!

God has given us all different gifts and seeing the things that are out of place is not one He gave to kids and husbands so, in the same way I need them to help and do things in the areas where I’m not as gifted, I need to help them in their weaker areas. : )

That doesn’t mean they are off the hook when it comes to picking up. It just means I need to do a little extra. For example, each morning, before anyone gets fed, their rooms must be picked up. Sometimes during the day or evening if things are getting out of control, we have a “pick up ” time where everyone jumps in and helps. I usually try to make a game of this. Then at night before their snack and bedtime story the family room and, once again, their rooms get picked up.

I also taught everyone to clean up the bathroom after themselves, take care of all their dirty clothes and dishes, so as you can see I am not solely responsible for all of the picking up.

The type of thing I’m talking about is picking up that stray toy in the corner, that piece of paper or throw pillow on the floor and all those small odds and ends which so often get overlooked or that everyone refuses to claim as their own.

Those are the things that aren’t worth the time to wait until the family gets home and demand to know whose it is. It seems everyone in the family is waiting for someone else to do it and then it never gets done. As the mom, you have to just do it and pick it up. It saves so many headaches.

As I walk through a room, let’s say on my way to the bathroom, I will scan the room as I go through to see if anything is out of place. If it is, I pick it up to deposit where it should go on my way to the bathroom. When I come out of the bathroom headed back, I pick up things that need to go to the other end of the house. Most of the time this takes me less then a minute. It has become such a habit that I didn’t realize how much I did it until I was over at Tawra’s the other day and started doing it at her house.

As I was walking along, I spied a marble, then a Lincoln log and grabbed those up… next, a scrap of paper. I put the paper in the trash that I passed on my way to the boys’ room, where I put the other things. I was headed that way anyway and it didn’t take me 5 seconds to scoop, grab and put away.

It is such a habit that, even when I am tired, I do it without thinking. Try doing this with one room. If the room is mostly picked up, go in, scan the room and pick up those little overlooked things and see what a difference it makes in the room. Then get into the habit of always picking up those little “out of place” things. You will be surprised at how many little things there are laying around and out of place in your house.

One word of warning: Be careful of piles. I have the bad habit of piling things at the foot or top of the stairs and planning to take them up later, but that is my weakness - not seeing the pile when I head upstairs - so try to do as I say and not as I do and keep the piles under control.

Jill, lean, mean, picking up machine

I have just finished writing a future newsletter on breakfast and I realized one of the reasons we don’t often eat breakfast is time. Not only is timing things to get them done quickly important but timing things to get them all done at the same time is too. This can sometimes be a big challenge to a beginning cook, but practice makes perfect. Here are some things to help:

Here is a simple menu I will use for my example:

Sausage

Eggs, scrambled

Toast

Coffee

If time is truly tight, then get as much done ahead of time as possible. With our menu here is what I would do the night before: All of this should take not more then 5-10 minutes.

1. The coffee, and water in the pot

2. If in a roll, the sausage sliced into patties.

3. The eggs in a bowl, mixed and ready to go.

4. The bread and butter set by the toaster.

5. The pan or griddle on the stove ready for sausage and eggs and oil for cooking by pans.

6. Set table

In the morning:

1. Start coffee

2.  Put sausage patties in pans and start cooking

3. Pop toast in toaster.

4. Flip sausages and start cooking eggs

5. Butter toast, stir eggs, dish up sausages, dish up eggs.

6. Voila your done.

Of course this can vary from person to person. I’m sure some do it differently and I do it differently on some days, too. The point is to think through the order in which you do things. Start your longest cooking items or things that can be just popped into a pan and need no attention first.

Let’s say I’m making potatoes, hamburger patties, salad and green beans. The potatoes will take just a little longer than the hamburgers, so I start them first. Then I start the hamburgers and while they are cooking I place my green beans in a bowl, ready to warm. Then I make my salad.

If you find yourself running back and forth across the kitchen like a chicken with it’s head chopped off, here is a way to help control your steps. If I am making a salad, I open the fridge and take everything I need out of it at one time.

I don’t get out the lettuce, cut it, put it back and then get the tomatoes and cut them and put them back. I gather it all at once, chop it all and then put it all back. This also helps save energy with your fridge. Do this with anything you are making. Gather everything together at one time.

I also try to prepare things like salad as close to the stove as I practically can. This way, if something on the stove needs to be stirred, it is easy for me to stir it and come right back to my salad making.

Also, for something like the toast in our breakfast menu, I store my bread by my toaster and my butter in it’s butter boat by the toaster, which saves many steps.

Here’s another small time saver: When making something like mashed potatoes, you don’t need to cut the potatoes into a bunch of chunks. Cut them once lengthwise, in half or in quarters and they will cook just as fast and more even. If you normally cut each potato 6 times and you cut 5 potatoes, you make 25 extra cuts for each meal. Just think how much time you will save in a lifetime if you cut your potato once or twice.

Look for areas where you can save time. Most breakfasts for a family of 4 can be made in 15 minutes or less if you are organized.

Jill