Loving your Kitchen ...

Hello my dears.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth .. 

This was looking out of my kitchen window today..

Another blizzard on Sunday for the Eastern provinces of Canada.. 

Which means most of us are tucked away and waiting it out.. 

Just praying for those who have to be out in it including our sons.. 
We are certainly looking forward to the end of these storms.

Spring will arrive, though in due time..
Her arrival date is this week but she may be just a bit late..
I believe she must be changing her clothes into something a little more spectacular for us here in the Maritimes and it is just taking her a bit longer.. grin..
  
Now, to change the subject.. 
You know Canadians and their weather stories.. grin.

I happened across a list of kitchen perk ups the other day HERE..

I think it was on the news page.. 

I found it interesting and thought perhaps I would do a post of my own little perk up ideas.. smile.. 

First... 

My kitchen is not one of your beautiful farm style or modern kitchens.. 

It is just ordinary..

Just like me.. 

I read somewhere that your kitchen is a reflection of your personality..hmmmm..

Here are some things I gleaned off the list and some of my own.. 

A dozen ways to love your kitchen.. 

  1.  If you are expecting company... 

Buy a nice fresh pineapple and display it as a sign of welcome..

It is the traditional sign and then make a smoothie after they leave.. grin... 

2..  Personalize your home with little redo thrift store buys.. 

A wood stand that these earthenware jars just happened to fit into.. 

Filled with mismatched silverware for everyday.. 

3.. Buy some new cereal bowls to brighten your mornings.. 

These were from Home Sense and only cost five dollars each.. 

4.. Place some of your pretty dishes on open shelves.. 

Or in a kitchen hutch.. 

5..Collect vintage fabric napkins or make a pile of your own fabric ones.. 

I really dislike paper ones, don't you?  

These just wash and wear.. 

I don't iron them but fold them straight from the dryer and they are great..  

6.. Bake a cake or make a loaf of bread.. 

It will make your house smell lovely in an hour.. 

7..  Take off a couple of cupboard doors.

And display a collection of everyday dishware.. 

I collected these white ones over the past few years.... 

The easy shelf liner tutorial is HERE..

8..  Every once in awhile buy something that you love for your kitchen.. 

It doesn't have to cost a lot but just makes you fell good when you look at it ...

Like my chicken egg basket there.. 

I know I didn't need it but eggs need to be room temperature to make a cake, eh?? smile.. 

 9..  Perhaps you could sew up a bunch of recycled dish cloths.. 

I made these a while back.. 

Tutorial link found here..

10.. Buy a new cannister set or perhaps start collecting copper.. 

I find it gives my kitchen a nice warm feel and they are useful, too.. 

And... 

They are well worth the thrift store prices.. 

When I was at Home Sense the other day I found a set of wee molds like I have and they were about 5 times more then I paid for them... 

That's my story and I am sticking to it.. grin..  

11.. Grow herbs on your window sill..

It won't be long and they will be outside but they are so handy when they are on the sill.. 

They smell good, look good and taste good.. 

This used to be an old fashioned touch but I notice that all kitchens have them now.. 

12.. A little trick I found to do.. 

Put a suspension curtain rod above your stove and hang kitchen tools.. 

Terry made my S hooks but you can buy them and it is really handy... 

And last but not least I have included my stove top potpourri recipe for you once again.. 

2 long cinnamon sticks, broken

2 T. allspice whole

2 T. cloves

1/2 nutmeg

1 bay leaf

1 T. dried cranberries (opt)

1 dried orange slice

1 dried apple slice

1 star anise...

Directions to use..

Place contents in 2 cups of water and bring to simmer on low heat..Keep adding water..

This lasts for 3 days..

And that is that my friends.. 

I also added  little lamp to my windowsill and is so cosy in the early mornings or evenings.. 

Please note my Pregnant Onion plant that was given to me last Fall at Kings Landing.. 

Lookin' good, eh?  

Well, thank you so much for stopping by and I hope this inspires you to give your kitchen a little love.. 

It is the heart of the home and like my Mom says.. 

It is your own little palace, Faye... 

Looking forward to hearing from you and may God bless and keep you... 

Till next time.. 

xo

Joining up with JES at The Art of Home-Making Mondays..

and with Stephanie at Roses of Inspiration..

Easy Bread Making...

Hello everyone.. 

Happy Weekend to you.. 

The weeks seem to fly by and the weekend is here before you know it, eh? 

We had a lovely day but the weather station is calling for us to have another blizzard.. ugh... 

I am not saying anything else but just pray we do not get as much as they are forecasting.. 

It is supposed to start overnight Saturday and on into Sunday.. 

Anyway on the home front.. 

I made a new kind of bread today and it was a success.. 

It was in one of my Canadian Mennonite books by Edna Staebler.. 

Sometimes I get tired of only getting one loaf of bread at a time and prefer several loaves that I can freeze and have .. 

If you have company then it is nice to dig out a loaf and have it for a meal or just a lunch.. 

Serve it up with a couple of boiled eggs, homemade jam or sliced tomatoes and cheese ... 

I made it in a large bowl as it calls for up to 9 cups of flour.. 

And I made 3 different types.. 

Onion... 

Pumpkin Seeds... 

Rosemary... 

The recipe says you do not need to knead it but I did for a few minutes and it came out light and fluffy.. 

Here is the recipe.. 

Easy Bread.. 

1 cup warm water 

1 T. sugar

2 T. instant yeast.. 

Put in bowl and let the yeast rise for 10 minutes.. 

Then add 2 cups warm water 

1/4 cup of honey or sugar.. I used honey

1 T. salt

1/2 cup Canola oil or veggie oil

Stir well.. 

Add 1 cup of flour at a time and stir after each cup until it is hard to stir.. 

I added 8 cups of all purpose flour.. 

*You can use whatever kind of flour you like and add 1 cup of flour at a time and stirring each time until the mixture loses it's shiny wet look..

I kneaded this dough for several minutes until well mixed.. 

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled... 

Divide dough into 3 loaves.. 

Shape into round loaves or put into tins.. 

Rise until double again.. 

Bake at 375 degrees F. for 30 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped.. 

Tip onto racks to cool..

Some ideas for the loaves.. 

1.  Knead a Tablespoon of fresh chopped herbs to one loaf ..

Scatter a few chopped onto the top and let rise..  

2.. Knead a few tablespoons of onion soup mix to the loaf  and scatter a bit on the top and let rise.. 

3.  Sprinkle some nuts on the top.. 

4.  Knead raisins and 1 tsp. of cinnamon into the loaf.. 

There are many ideas for this bread.. 

Terry just had a big slice and said he loved it and it was a keeper.. smile.. 

Well, my dears this is all for tonight.. 

Thank you so much for stopping by.. 

I hope you enjoy your weekend with your families.. 

Do something special tomorrow and make a few memories or loaves of bread. smile.. 

And if you can get to church on Sunday in your part of the world it will enhance your life and that of your children.. 

He makes the difference and benefits your family.. 

Our families need every bit of stability we as parents can add and Christ adds that to your home.. 

Take care, my dears and I look forward to your little notes and comments.. 

God bless.. xo

Catching up..

Hello everyone.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth tonight.. 

Hope all is well with you dear ladies.. 

We are having wonderful Spring like weather here in the Maritime Provinces.. I only wore a sweater today when we went into the city as it was so warm.. 

Snow is melting and the wind is blowing and we even had a bit rain today.. 

Yesterday, I had a couple of friends in for lunch.. 

It was great catching up as we have not been together for awhile.. 

Lots of talking, laughing and of course a bit of eating.. 

Nothing fancy... 

Just home made tomato basil soup, artisan bread, salad and dressing.. 

I promised to share the recipes with them here so... 

Bread... HERE..

Home made Dressing.. 

6 T. Canola oil

1 clove of garlic, squashed and put in whole..

2 T. apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. Dijon Mustard 

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.. 

Whisk all together and pour over a mixed salad. 

This is best if you let it sit at room temp for a few hours.. 

Tomato Basil Soup

Thank you for dropping by.. 

This has been a busy week and I will do better next post, I hope..

Tomorrow night I plan on attending a book launching and am a bit excited.. 

The author is a local and her name is Beth Powning.. 

It should be interesting.. smile.. 

Well, dear hearts have a great week and I do have a few more interesting things for you soon.. 

God bless.. xo

A bit of Thrift and such...

Hello my dears.. 

I was going to say Happy Monday but I guess it is almost over.. smile.. 

I am usually tucked away in bed by this time but I was cooking a cake and decided I may as well say hello while it is baking.. 

I have some old friends coming for lunch tomorrow so I thought I would bake a cake.. 

Not very fancy but it will be fine with our coffee.. 

We went to town and I thrifted a few treasures.. 

Several plates, dessert dishes, cups and saucers to add to my blue collection.. 

Also, a lovely copper dutch oven... 

It is in excellent shape.. 

Inside and out.. It was only five dollars.. 

A doll that the girl at the thrift store gave to me.. 

She said she just wanted to get rid of her.. 

The poor dear.. 

This is her before pic for you and I will post another 

after she receives her make over.. grin.. 

I am turning her into a vintage girl, I am thinking.. 

Supper one night ... 

My version of Bubble and Squeak.. 

One of Terry's favorites.. 

Bacon, onion, cabbage, left over potatoes and a bit of parsley.. 

Not very complicated.. 

Then I had bought a package of Betty Crocker's Salted Caramel cookies.. 

They were a mix but sounded so good.. 

And yes they were delicious.. 

I baked them Saturday afternoon to have for our church fellowship on Sunday.. 

When they were cool I placed them in the can that I use most weeks and left them on the pantry counter.. 

The next morning after getting ready for church I forgot to grab the can and was part way there when I remembered they were still home .. 

I mentioned it to Terry and he didn't say anything.. 

Well, after lunch after church I thought a little cookie would taste good with our tea.. 

When I opened the tin I couldn't believe it.. 

Someone had ate almost half of them.. 

Now, it was a mix and not many in there but still.. 

I would have felt pretty silly taking the cover off of that tin if I had remembered it.. grin.. 

I know that he would not have said anything.. 

I kindly mentioned it to him and he just says.. 

No one asked me.. 

Ohhhhh.. what a man.. 

Do you have one just like him? lol.. 

This has not been much of a post but just a little check in.. 

We still have tons of snow although the weather has been great and warming up .. 

Snow is going down but there has just been so much.. 

I thought I would share this with you that was in our news today..  

We have had over 400 cm. of snow in our area..

This is one of the snow dumps.. 

Amazing, eh? 

Good night and God bless.. 

xo

In my Kitchen and a Pinterest issue...

Good Evening, my dears.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth this evening... 

Hope you all are enjoying the month of March thus far.. 

I think the weather is much better here in New Brunswick compared to February... 

Spring is surely on it's way and you can feel and smell it in the air.. 

We still have a huge amount of snow but it is melting.. smile.. 

Just sharing a few foodie pics with you today.. 

The above is just a simple chicken soup.. 

Made with leftovers...I am trying to use up Winter supplies.. 

Frozen zucchini in this pie.. 

You can find the recipe HERE..

Here  is another soup for another day.. 

Using up more zuchinni.. 

But this was a fresh one that was used.. 

Here is the recipe.. (which was in the Walmart free magazine)

Make up a pound of hamburger or ground turkey into meatballs .. 

I just added an egg, bread crumbs, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper...

In 5 cups of water add an envelope of onion soup mix, and a large can of diced tomatoes and a 1/4 tsp. chili flakes.. 

Stir well and bring to a boil.. 

Add your meatballs and they will cook right in the soup...

Add 1 chopped zuchinni and simmer away until meatballs are cooked.. 15 minutes or so.. 

You can spice this up in your own way but it really does not need much.. 

Then I found this little quiche breakfast recipe on YouTube and it works.. 

You can find that recipe HERE..

And... 

This delicious chocolate zuchinni bread... 

Wallmart free magazine, also.. 

Chocolate Zuchinni Bread.. 

1 small zuchinni unpeeled 

1 1/2 cups of flour

1/2 cup of cocoa

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. white sugar

1/2 cup of butter or margarine

2 eggs

3/4 cup of milk.. 

350 degrees F. oven

Grate zuke using large holes on grater.. Place into a clean tea towel and squeeze out juice.. 

Set aside.. 

Mix batter in the creamery style and add zuke last.. 

Place in a greased loaf pan and bake about 1 hour.. 

Rest 10 minutes.. 

Turn on rack and cool.. 

I only had 1 small piece of this but Terry loved it.. 

I am not a chocolate cake fan but this was so moist and good.. 

Well, my dears that is my foodie post and here are a few pins that are on my Pinterest boards that I particularly enjoyed this week.. 

This one with the place setting is pinned from this blog when we were at the farm.. .. 

And about Pinterest.. 

I found out something I did not know before.. 

Over the weekend I found a board that was exactly to my taste and pinned away to my heart's content having no idea that I was doing anything wrong.. 

That came later when I received a comment from the lady whose board the pins came from and she asked me not to take so many pins and to limit myself to 10... 

To be honest, I thought she was joking and commented back.. 

Are you serious?? 

I didn't hear back from her but decided perhaps she was.. 

I Googled Pinterest rules and found a forum where some felt that taking x amount of pins was breaching pinterest etiquette, shall we say... 

So... 

I erased my comment and sent a new one apologizing for my error and mentioning that I do not care how many pins anyone pins from me and just didn't realize.. 

Well, I have not heard back from her but was wondering if you feel that way, also.. 

I have ladies pin dozens of my pins and count it as a compliment.. 

I mean that they are not mine.. 

I just saw them and pinned them.. 

I thought that was the idea.. 

I know it takes time but really who cares? 

What is your opinion? 

I love Pinterest but I do it in spurts.. 

I may go weeks and barely look at it and then take a couple of hours and go at it..

I believe that is the first time that I found a board that I related to so much but now I dare not pin from there again.. grin.. 

Oh well.. Come si come sa... 

Right?  

Thank you, dearies for dropping by... 

Welcome to the new followers and all your sweet comments are much appreciated.. 

Take care now and God bless..  

Making Old Book Pages Shelf Liner....

Good Morning.. 

Hoping you are all fine and keeping well this week.. 

Just a quick post today to show you a little tweaking that I accomplished yesterday.. 

A couple of years ago I decided I needed the cupboard doors off of a couple of my cabinets.. 

Dear hubby did that for me and I lined the shelves with some home made shelf papers.. 

Well, they needed spiffed up for awhile so I just removed them but made some new ones yesterday.. 

I thought some of you new followers might like to try this.. 

I bought the hole puncher from Michaels with a coupon and have certainly received value for the money .. 

I use it to make shelf paper, of course but also to make gift bags, cards and such.. 

I just used an old book for the paper and after measuring I glued a couple of pages together and hole punched.. 

Easy, eh? 

Then I folded down the edge with a knife to make it stiff and placed them on the shelves.. 

A nice little change.. 

Do you have any other ideas for the hole puncher?  

I saw them lately at the Walmart and they were cheaper but about the same price if you have a coupon for Michaels.. 

Today, I hope to finish organizing a little coffee corner and will share that later.. 

We are in the midst our March break here in N. B. for our grand kids and it is a beautiful sunny day.. 

Thanking God today for His loving kindness... 

Sending you all a hug.. 

Linked with Stephanie HERE..

AND 

HOMEMAKING MONDAYS..