Recipe Wednesday - Beef and Quinoa

I realize I just posted a recipe yesterday, and a not so healthy one at that.  However, today I will redeem myself with a healthy, delicious option for dinner.  Did I mention it is also quick and easy?  I found this recipe a couple of weeks ago and tried it out last week for dinner. We had delicious meals for days of this recipe!  Keep in mind, it is just the two of us, so things tend to stick around a little longer than they would if we were feeding a few extra mouths.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as we did!

Back To Baking

I love baking, and we are headed into prime baking season.  Sadly, I think the art of baking, or the enjoyment of baking, is disappearing.  Everyone seems so busy these days that baking has turned into breaking off a square of the pre-made dough from the refrigerated section of the grocery store and throwing it on a pan to stick in the oven.   

I hope some day to pass along my love for baking to our kids just as my grandma and mother have passed it along to me; see evidence of my early baking below!  Since Halloween is right around the corner, I wanted to whip up a batch of sugar cookies to take with me to a work meeting this week. 

I like to say baking is in my blood; I remember baking with my grandma when I wasn't old enough to see over the counter yet.

I use the sugar cookie recipe my grandma used.  Nothing fancy, just traditional, delicious cookies!

 

 Halloween cookies in the works for this year!

Thanksgiving cookies from last year!

No, baking sugar cookies isn't a "quick" process, but it is totally worth it in the end!  

Grandma's Sugar Cookies- 

1 Stick of Butter (warmed to room temperature)

1 Stick of Margarine (warmed to room temperature)

2 tsp. Baking Powder 

1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla 

1 Cup Sugar

3 1/2 Cups Flour 

3 Eggs 

1. Mix sugar, margarine and butter in a mixer until well mixed.  

2. Add in baking powder, vanilla and eggs 

3. Slowly add in flour and continue to mix 

Chill the dough for at least four hours, I generally chill it overnight.  Roll the dough out onto a floured surface.  You can see in the photo above that I use a pastry cloth with a frame to hold it tight and keep it from moving around while rolling out the dough.  I also use a rolling pin sock to make sure the dough doesn't stick to the rolling pin.  I have tried rolling them out without the sock when I was in a pinch and it did not go well.  Roll the dough out a little at a time making sure the dough doesn't become to thin.  Depending on how long it takes you to roll out all the dough, you might have to put the dough back in the refrigerator from time to time to make sure it stays easy to work with.  

Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes until the edges just start to brown.  Spread out on the counter to cool.  

I generally frost the cookies the following night unless I'm making them over the weekend and then I just let them cool for about an hour before I frost them.  

Frosting: 

1 stick of margarine (melted), start with 1/4 to 1/2 bag of powdered sugar and 1 tsp. of vanilla.  Mix all the ingredients and slowly add in 2-3 Tbs. of milk until the frosting is the right consistency.  

Frost the cookies and have fun decorating! Make sure to let the frosting dry for a bit before putting the cookies away.  

The thing I like about these cookies and the frosting is that they aren't heavy.  They are both very light and don't hit your stomach like a brick... until you eat half a dozen of them at a time. 

Recipe Wednesday - Crockpot Cheese Tortellini

This recipe was a huge hit in our house.  It was just as good leftover, which is always a bonus.  Andrew isn't a huge fan of leftovers, so when I make something he will eat for multiple meals, I count that as a win.

This recipe was super easy to make and will be going on our regular dinner rotation. The only thing I changed from the recipe is using ground turkey sausage rather than links or slices.

Fall Favorites

I'm not sure I could pick one season as my favorite.  There are things I like about all of them.  Spring brings tulips and lilacs and new life.  Winter gives me an excuse to drink peppermint mochas, summer is full of color with all the flowers in bloom, and fall has tons to offer as well.

1. Pumpkins- I love going to the pumpkin patch and finding the perfect one for our porch.  We haven't been to a pumpkin patch for a couple of years.

2. Changing Leaves -

3. Pumpkin Flavors -

4. Scarves -

5. Football -

The Joys Of Homeownership

So, this happened today...

 

That would be two holes we currently have in the ceiling in our kitchen.  A little backstory on this is perhaps needed.  

One night in May, we came home from having dinner with my parents to find a puddle of water on the kitchen floor under the ceiling fan.  There was a visible wet spot on the ceiling, and when the fan was tipped water came pouring off.  To identify the source of the problem, we cut a small hole in the ceiling and postulated that it was the guest bathroom toilet.  You may recall this photo... 

We thought we had the toilet issue fixed, so we patched up the ceiling also and moved on with our lives.  Enter July amidst the furry of flooding in the basement, I again found water on the kitchen floor.  This time, I told Andrew we were calling in professionals.  As luck would have it, we had about one week remaining on our home warranty that came on the house when we purchased it.  HSA dispatched a plumber who "fixed" the toilet.  I say "fixed" because I honestly don't know what he did.  Not more than a week or two later, we again had water on the floor in the kitchen.  

Having passed the HSA expiration date, I call them again to explain that the issue wasn't fixed the first time they called someone out.  So, they dispatch the same company to come look at the toilet again.  Meanwhile, I'm not convinced the toilet is the issue.  I kept asking for someone to cut into the ceiling, but my plea was ignored.  So, the toilet was fixed a third time around.  I told Andrew we weren't fixing the ceiling again until we went sixty days without water on the floor. 

After taking a shower yesterday, I noticed a puddle of water on the floor.  However, it was in a different spot.  Andrew was convinced one of the dogs peed on the floor, or I flung water on the floor when I put a container in the recycling bucket.  I wish I could say I was as convinced.  

After showering today, I went downstairs and was working in the kitchen when I heard the familiar sound of dripping on the floor.  I looked over to see water coming out of the ceiling above the location where it was puddled on the floor on Sunday.  Andrew came down to investigate and I had him cut a hole in the ceiling.  Water pouring out of your ceiling isn't something you want to see, but that is what we witnessed today.  

After sitting on the phone with HSA for an hour on hold between speaking with someone who was no help and trying to speak with a supervisor, I was no further down the road to solving our water issue.  I insisted this time if they sent someone out they were cutting open the ceiling because they were going to identify the source of the problem.  I was told that unless it was related to the original toilet issue, it wouldn't be covered under the prior claim.  In addition, it had been more than 30 days, so the only thing that was covered were defective parts.  So, because the first person they sent out was too busy answering phone calls to actually figure out the issue, we are stuck with this issue which has likely been brewing for months.  Word of warning if you have an HSA warranty on your home and you have an issue.... be as vague as possible.  If I had said "we have water coming out of the ceiling" and not hypothesized about what it could be, we might not be in this mess.  

After calling a couple of plumbing companies in the area, I found one who was able to send someone out right away.  When I told them everything that had happened, the woman looked at me and said "cutting open the ceiling is the first thing they should have done".  At that moment, I wanted to throw my arms around this woman standing in my kitchen and thank her for using her brain!  Yes, we had a female plumber today and she was amazing!  She cut into the ceiling, all the while apologizing for making such a mess.  We exposed the plumbing from the guest bathroom toilet and discovered that wasn't the source of the issue.  We then moved over to where the water was coming from the last few days, which was directly below our master bathroom shower.  When we ran water through the shower, there wasn't an issue with the pipes.  The issue, we discovered, is either with a chip in the floor of our shower, or with the pan under the shower.  Either item doesn't bode well for us.  

There are a lot of things I want to re-do in this house, but being forced into redoing them earlier than we can afford isn't my preference.  While we were trying to identify the problem today, the plumber checked our toilets.  Turns out, the toilets are the original toilets that were installed when the house was built in 1986.  Needless to say, I think we will be replacing those soon as well.  This summer has been unintentionally expensive, and I'm not a fan.  Stay tuned for the bathroom facelift that may be coming soon.  Meanwhile, we are showering in the guest bathroom, and I'm thanking my lucky stars for having a second bathroom with a shower. 

Happy 3rd Wedding Anniversary

I don't have any exciting three things this year.  We don't have a third dog, unless you count our current foster dog.  We aren't moving again, so we are sticking to two houses purchased during our marriage.  All jokes aside, we made it to three years!  We count each year of marriage as a success.  One step closer to a lifetime of wedded bliss.  Each year isn't without its ups and downs, but it makes us stronger.  I know, it sounds like a greeting card, but it is true.   

We don't have anything exciting planned this year, unless you count constructing a storage closet in the basement as exciting.  Perhaps that speaks to where we are at in our marriage; adventurous in the projects we tackle!  We will celebrate with the usual anniversary cake.  Sadly, the man who made our wedding cake closed his business over the last year, so we will have to move our tradition to another local bakery.  Other than cake and construction projects, there isn't much on the agenda.  Perhaps a little r&r is also on the docket for tomorrow.   

 

 

 First anniversary trip to Green Bay!  

 Our amazing anniversary cake; sad our baker closed. 

Close enough to our second anniversary! 

Here's to many more memories to be made this year and in the years to come! 

A Work In Progress In the Basement

The basement wasn't really on our list of things to do this summer, but when it flooded we decided to move it ahead on the project list.  There is nothing like going down to do laundry early on a Saturday morning and feeling your feet squish into wet carpet.  It could have been a lot worse than it was, but it still spread far enough to be a total pain.  Turns out, the float on our sump pump got stuck, so the sump pump hadn't been running during a time when we had about two straight weeks of rain.  

We spent the better part of a weekend moving everything from one part of the basement to the other that wasn't as impacted by the flooding.  My office had to move up to the spare bedroom for most of the summer since what was my office turned into storage. 

We decided if we were going to redo the basement, we were going to make it what we had wanted to since moving in last summer; the Packer Cave!  I dreamed of having yellow walls with a green stripe across the room.  The room would be our game cave.  We would watch football games down there and have a table to play board games.  The room isn't totally finished yet, but we have come a long way with it this summer.  

What I came down to the carpet looking like.  The bare cement had snap 

together tile that was easy to pull up, so we salvaged it. 

 Carpet pulled up 

 

Carpet was throughout the hallway area in the above 

picture and in the large living room area. One whole piece of 

carpet that had to be torn up and moved outside. 

Painting the walls before the new floor goes in.

Second coat of gold 

  Time for the floor to go in! 

 Third coat and done with the gold.  

And for the finishing touch, Green Bay Packers green stripe! 

Since this picture was taken, we have mounted a TV on the wall, moved the table back down for playing games and doing puzzles, purchased a couch and put down an area rug.  Still on the list for the basement is: getting the table set up, installing a dry bar, and hanging my numerous items of Packers paraphernalia.  

Next project for the basement is.... 

Putting in a storage closet to span two walls and wrap around a corner.  Stay tuned for more on that project!