Recipe - Hot Dog Stew

This is one of those great recipes that (almost) everybody loves, is fairly nutritious, uses ingredients you probably have on hand, and is FAST.

• 1 large can Campbell's tomato soup (the 'family size' can)
• milk
• 3 cans corn
• 3 cans green beans
• 6-9 carrots
• 1 onion, chopped
• 24 (or so) turkey hot dogs

First, open all of the cans and drain the veggies.  Pour the tomato soup into a large pot.  (If you have a canning pot, this is an excellent alternative use for it!)  Fill the tomato soup can with milk.  (I use 1% milk, myself.  My mom uses water instead of milk.)  Add milk (or water) to tomato soup.   Turn stove on low heat.



Peel and chop carrots and onion.  (I forgot the carrots, which is why they aren't shown in the picture. Oops.)  I use my pampered chef Chopper, so it goes quickly!

Add the chopped onion and carrots to the soup.  Add the canned corn and green beans.  Stir. 

Turn the stove up to medium heat.  Stir periodically.

Cut the hot dogs up.  I cut them into little circular discs, with each hotdog producing 8 or so discs.  You can cut them up smaller if you prefer.

Add hotdogs to soup.  Continue to stir periodically.

Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer.  Check the tenderness of the carrots.  As soon as they are tender enough to chow down on, dinner is ready!

Summer Projects Begin

My nieces, Makayla and Madeline, are visiting with us for the next couple of weeks.  Aged 11 and 7, they have fun with my girls, Katie Rose and Ellie, ages 7 and 4.  Since today was the last day of school for my school-age kiddo, we have been planning out our summer activities. Once again, Pinterest is a fabulous resource!

Among the fun things we have planned, we'll be learning a few things -- whether they know it or not!

Our first 'big' summer project: homemade laundry detergent

Imagine, if you will, five girls ages 11 to 4, sitting in a row across the kitchen island from me.  They took turns helping.  (AKA - In between the yelping and fussing, I'd allow the next kid 'in line' to help with the next step.) 

Wait! you say, interrupting me.  Five girls?  My two girls, my two nieces, and my oldest daughter's best friend.  Question answered.  Let us proceed with story:

Each girl took at least two turns grating the Fels Naptha soap into the laundry bucket.  A couple of them couldn't wait for their turn to come again.  And a couple of them only wanted to take a turn when someone it was someone else's turn.

We added each additional ingredient, then started stirring.  They got a big kick out of that.  They were so interested in how it smelled that Katie Rose inhaled too deeply (despite Mommy warnings, I promise) and had a coughing fit. 

By the time it was done, we were the proud creators of a large bucket of laundry detergent -- and I was the weary referee ready to stick her head in said large bucket!

Our next project will be sewing.  My niece, Makayla, almost twelve and preparing to move up to middle school in the fall, has a more complicated project.  She is making a ruffled purse as her first sewing project.  (She will get to use the sewing machine, as well as doing hand-stitching.)  My cadre of seven year olds (Katie Rose, Madeline, and KR's best friend) will be making fabric bookmarks to start.  (Simple straight stitches.)  If it goes well, we will move on to basic embroidery.

When I was just little, my grandma started me on crafts.  I did a little stamped embroidery picturing a kitten and ball of yarn.  I also remember making canvas 'coasters.'  At around age 8, she then taught me how to crochet. My mom has never been fond of crocheting, but her mother and grandmother have both made many blankets.  It's cool to be part of a legacy like that, isn't it?


What were your first craft projects?  What did you like and which did you not like?  Why?

Mission: Sewing II - Girls Dresses

Both of these dresses are crafted from 'reclaimed' clothes.  (I recently learned 'reclaimed' is the PC term for clothes you were going to take the thrift store but before you could load those boxes into the back of your van and take them, you stumbled onto some great projects on Pinterest and discovered how to use them to make clothes instead of paying for new fabric.)

This dress started with a lace-sleeved shirt.  I had cut the bottom half off of a tank top (more on that, next project) and sewed that onto the bottom of the dress.  Then I did use some 'new' fabric, creating a ruffle on the bottom, as well as trim where the top and bottom of the dress meet.  I made a fabric flower and used a sparkly 'gem' for its center.  I appliqued leaves and a stem in an alternate fabric.  (I know 'alternate' is the wrong word, but I have no blessed clue what the right word is at the moment.)  The finished product is fairly form fitting, but it's very stretchy and comfortable.  She loves wearing it to school. 

Closeup of flower

This is the second dress.  Remember that shirt I mentioned in the paragraph above?  The top of this dress features the top half of that shirt.  Folding a piece of fabric square, then folding it again, I cut an arc. Then I cut a smaller piece out at the top. (Poor man's circle technique.)  I basted pleats at the top/center of the circle, then sewed a band of the same pink fabric to it.  Hemmed the hem. Then I sewed the other end of the pink waist band to the bottom of the shortened shirt.  I made long straps that I sewed onto the back of the waist band on the hips, which were used to tie around to the front in the big bow.  I took a piece of the same bow fabric to applique across the chest, just under the lace panel. 

Matching Headband

Then I took a plain, deeply boring headband and wrapped it with fabric and sewed the underside to secure it and tighten it.  Then I made a fabric flower and sewed it on.  It was so much fun!

Mission: Sewing Commences - Pantalets

My family is filled with talented artists and musicians. I used to equate artistic ability with the ability to draw and play instruments.  I didn't inherit either of those talents.  But I have recently rediscovered an instrument I really enjoy 'playing' - my sewing machine!

I am going to keep track of projects as I create them.  Some will be pretty good and others will be less good (read: "bad").  But it's a journey, right?

This is my first completed project, a pair of white pantalets.  Here is my confession: I had planned on them being a girl's size 7 and they turned out to be a girl's size 4.  Gotta pay attention to those pesky seam measurements! It worked out, though.  They didn't fit my older daughter, but they fit the younger perfectly!

February 10, 2010

So today is 02102010. Weird, huh?

Anyway, I started off on a good note and totally got smacked down. Of course, the individual had no way of knowing the effect their words would have on me, but it still sucked...

I've been busting my butt over midterms. Got my first test grade back: 97%! Woo-hoo! So excited. I EARNED that darn grade.

Then studying at school today a man I've never met before stopped to chat. That's ok in and of itself. People who are comfortable striking up conversations with strangers are usually pretty entertaining individuals. (Not always for the reasons they think, but entertaining nonetheless.) He was complaining about tuition going up next year. "If they'd stop paying for all the Welfare Hos to come to school, they wouldn't have to raise tuition." I can understand the frustration of someone paying out of pocket to attend every quarter. But it is hard enough on my pride to be here as a "Displaced Homemaker," let alone hear myself called (albeit unknowingly) a "Welfare Ho."

Did I call him out on it? No. Should I have chewed him out? You bet. But I was experiencing SHAME at that moment, rather than anger.

It is a common belief that everyone on welfare is out to bilk the system. And OF COURSE there are people who take advantage. But that is true in EVERY situation where advantage might be gained. Usually when I call someone on an "anti welfare mom" rant, I hear, "I wasn't talking about you. Your situation is different." But I am willing to bet that MOST situations are different.

I am grateful to be receiving the help that will get us back on our feet and self-sufficient again - hopefully for good. I am grateful that I don't fit whatever stereotype that man has about "Welfare Hos" as it obviously didn't occur to him that he was having a conversation with "one of them." But I have to wonder, how many other students wander these halls busting THEIR butts to gain/regain self-sufficiency -- and no one knows it because they too are ashamed.

Crap. Does that mean I have to become the poster child for "Welfare Hos" at my school? Man, I hope not! :)

Monday, February 1st

Another Monday. Woke up with a funky neck. Can't move my head to the right. Had to have Sweet Hubby drive me to school. Thankful I'm caught up on homework. (Mostly.) Arrived half an hour later, but I made it to school. We shall call it good.

January 27, 2010

Three weeks between posts. Not good. Hopefully, that will not be a normal interval.
I arrived at school today to learn my professor (for both classes) is out sick today. So here I am in the library, studying. Well, eating my lunch and blogging, then studying.

I finally had the chance to walk through the school bookstore. Ah, the smell of books! Found the blue books for exams. However, they are green. “You’ll need a blue book for the test.” “What do they look like?” “They’re green.” No chance for confusion there.

I’m carrying 21 credits. (One credit is for an all day seminar this Friday.) I have one professor for both Technology in the Law Office and Contracts & Negotiation. She is awesome. Keeps the class on track without being obnoxious. Has great real life stories. And, as I believe I said before, very clear on expectations.

My professor for Civil Procedures I is a different story. He seems rather annoyed that his students don’t come into class already knowing what we are there to learn. I’m not talking about being annoyed because we didn’t come to class caught up with assigned reading, either. We had an in-class assignment that required us to know things we won’t learn until next quarter, in Torts. It doesn’t help that he looks and sounds like Truman Capote. I would invest in a sense of humor if I had that working against me.

And then there is my Introduction to Law class. The sad thing is, I probably could have talked my way out of taking that class. But I wanted a full basic overview. Ha, ha. Too bad that’s not what I’m getting! Instead of focusing on what we’re supposed to be learning, we get lib ideology sermonizing. Last night, we were covering Article II of the U.S. Constitution. We got to hear all about how (in his opinion) the 2000 election was stolen. How Clinton didn’t hurt anybody, but Bush “lied” and got us into a “fake” war. How the electoral college should be done away with, because “those people in the middle” of the country are making decisions for all of us. If I want opinions from either end of the political spectrum, I’ll listen to talk radio or NPR. In Introduction to Law, I want to learn about the law. The other issue I have with his class is how the Constitution is treated. It seems he feels it is an outdated document and we are blessed with all the laws that have come since to make some sense of it. I honor the U.S. Constitution as the finest legal document in the history of mankind. The wisdom of the “rich white guys” who wrote it is astounding to me. To witness it be disparaged in an educational setting grieves me. Do I say anything in class about this? No. Why not? Because I’m a coward who cares about her grade. Anyway, the professor really is a nice guy. Very personable. We just have very different political views. I am sure he would be writhing if he had to sit and listen to me emote, too.