The Hippie Cookbook or Don't Eat Your Food Stamps

I found the coolest cookbooks at the giant Half Price books the other day. We ended up in the cookbook section on the way to checkout because Roberto wanted a cookbook to make something "new". We make boring stuff according to him. We ended up with a cookbook for the crockpot - cuz I love crockpot cooking, lol. Fix it and forget it. My favorite is my Beefy Onion Pot Roast - and here's the recipe. My children devour this meal.

Beefy Onion Pot Roast
2 lb chuck roast
Large bag of baby carrots
4-5 potatos, peeled and cut
1 package of Lipton's Beefy Onion soup mix
1 heaping spoonful of cornstarch
4-5 cups of water
Optional: Spoonful of Garlic

Put the roast (defrosted) in first, then throw in the carrots and potatoes around, then mix Beefy onion soup mix in 2 cups of hot water and pour around the roast and veggies. Mix 2 cups of hot water with a heaping spoonful of cornstarch and then pour around the roast and veggies. Add some more water if you think it needs it (but the more liquid, the longer it takes to cook). If you love garlic like we do, I add a regular spoonful of minced garlic. Turn crockpot to high.

To be done by around 6 PM, you need to do put this in the crockpot by 11 AM or 12 PM at the latest. You can make this even earlier, like before work if needed and it will still be perfect when you get home. The cornstarch thickens the soup mix and makes the juices like a gravy, you can skip the cornstarch and the juices will be watery if you prefer.

So I found the vintage cookbook sections, and I loved it. You know those spiral bound cookbooks from organizations or churchs, I have tons of them, mostly stolen from my mother, lol. As we were looking, I found an autographed little vintage cookbook by Jacques Pepin, signed to a Lizette, and we picked up a 1971 vintage copy of the 1934 recipe Hershey's cookbook. My mother-in-law swears by the Hershey's original chocolate cake recipe they used to print on the cocoa tin way back when, she had to call them and request a copy of it a few years ago since they quit printing it on the tin. She's going to be thrilled with that cookbook.


And then tucked out of the way, I picked up this strange little cookbook with a very odd front cover. It's called The Hippie Cookbook or Don't Eat Your Foodstamps. It seemed very intriguing with lots of neat recipes. It's the size of a book of postcards. I paid about $5 for it and looked it up online and most are for sale for between $40-$50. I read it has a great cheesecake recipe.

What a loser am I

Sorry I've been ignoring this little place o'fun. I have been so busy. I swear the last month of school for my kids, they rev it up to overdrive. We had to go to stuff every week - sports banquet, preschool party, field day, a field trip to the zoo...AHHH!

Then I am on the last sections of my school work, so they expect like perfect since you are so close to graduating and the amount of work has literally quadrupled, like from 15 assignments to 65!!

Ugh, so that's where I've been, working, driving kidlets around, and my new crafty obsession (read below). That and reading. I have some wonderful new books to share in a post later this week. I need to get a job at Half Price Books - that or buy stock in them.

Ok, ok, so I finally remember to take a picture of my pink hair. I have totally cropped this picture because #1 my hair looked like crap that day, and #2 I had not bathed when I took the picture, so you get to a see a small section of my pink hair. Enjoy, lol! I'm thinking of changing colors when I get my hair done in a couple weeks, for some reason blue has been calling my name...I'm not sure why.



So my mother, the craft ADHD lady that she is, taught me a new craft. She learns all these totally awesome crafts, buys all the supplies, then she quits making the stuff and I steal all her supplies. It's a great thing for moi, her - not so much, lol. Or maybe she quits making them because I steal her supplies....hmm? I'm not sure. Though I do have a little story about being 3 months pregnant, and my mom wanted to sew the entire nursery for my first born, and so we bought TONS of fabric and what happened? Well, let's just say...my child was 5 yrs old when my mom finally finished the crib quilt. The one and only thing that came from all the fabric. Then she gave me the rest to sell on eBay.

Anyway, so she taught me how to make Altered Domino's with alcohol inks and I've become obsessed. Forget sewing...I LOVE making these things. So here are a couple of my faves. Sorry it's kinda dark, my dear husband has lost my Corel Suite software - though he told me he was putting them somewhere for safekeeping when we got new carpet, he now has no idea where that was.







When I have about a dozen made up in the next week or so, I am going to finally open up my Etsy store.

Oh and yes I am not a total loser, I swear to the flying spaghetti monster that the nursing apron top is coming very, very, very soon.

And more books, of course!

So I haven't posted any reviews on books I've been reading. This one is the latest in my mission to read everything by Philippa Gregory. It's about Robert Dudley the rumored lover of Queen Elizabeth and their relationship and how he basically dumps his own wife for the new queen. His wife ends up depressed and dies. I'm still reading it, but I've started another book and haven't picked it up lately. I don't think it's as good as her other works. It seems a little ho-hum, nothing really scandalous is happening to keep my attention yet.
This is the book I'm reading now, and I can't put it down. It got really bad reviews on Amazon.com and I'm not sure why. I love Alice Sebold's works. I devoured Lucky, her memoir, and The Lovely Bones. I really like her writing style, and I like this new one, The Almost Moon, too. It's like a horrible traffic accident and you can't look away. I guess you could call it a train wreck. The first sentence of the book, Helen tells you she's killed her mother. And so far it's been just a trainwreck after that. I'm not sure she's crazy yet or not. Her mother was mentally ill her entire life and she hated her for it, and it seems at this point her mother was in her 80s and had dementia and it was somewhat of a mercy killing. I'm about 80% through the book and it's been a real page turner wondering if she's going to get caught or what. I have really enjoyed it and so far haven't agreed with the crap reviews for it on Amazon.

Crappity Crap Tax Stimulus Rebates

Apparently, in order to get a direct deposit stimulus rebate, you must balance on the head of an circus elephant wearing a tutu (the elephant not you), while you do high kicks while holding a top hat, as it prances around the room. Now remember if filing jointly, you and your husband and if you have children -- ALL of you must do this on the same elephant at the same time. Otherwise, you're getting a paper check. Yep, I just read it over in the "am I getting a stimulus rebate" at the IRS. It's a new rule they just added.

Sheesh, it is amazing the US government can even function. So I went to TurboTax after checking the bank only to learn on TurboTax that if you had your tax refund direct deposited --- BUT it was split into more than 1 account...you get the freakin' check this summer. That's what I get for putting most of it into savings.

Not that I was depending on it because I had an odd suspicion that the government would f*ck something up. I was planning to use it for homeschooling books and supplies, so this summer is ok too, but I would really like to just give the government a big kick in the butt for their complete ineptness. According to the SS#'s we get ours on June 20 -- though I'm not holding my breath.

If you filed with TurboTax and would like to view their long list of questions to see if yours is screwed - here is the link

On a great note though - I just got off the phone with Lowe's and my carpet is IN! Yay!! That's almost 2 weeks early, so next week I get some lovely plushy carpet installed. All thanks to my wonderful mother. Oh boy, I think I need to get an awesome mother's day present for her. Hmmm....

A nursing apron top coming soon and all you ever wanted to know about nipples

So I've had a sudden ton of requests for the nursing version of an apron top. I'll create the tutorial this weekend and have it ready next week. It's very easy to make in an afternoon.

This is the same style of apron top that is backless just to warn you. I personally have been blessed with boobage that requires wearing an over the shoulder boulder holder at all waking hours but those of you who can get away with backless, braless this is a fun quick little top -- and I am envious of you. I never dreamed a day would come I would want a smaller chest, but breastfeeding makes you want weird things -- like little boobs yet with giant nipples for instance, for easy latch on.

It wasn't til I had nursing problems with my first baby that I learned I had flat nipples which meant she was essentially trying to latch onto a wet balloon. Not fun for either one of us - we both cried. Thankfully her successful years of nursing lead to me getting regular ol' nipples and not a single nursing problem with baby #2. Nursing babies can cure flat nipples because they are flat from adhesions under the nipple holding it flat, once the nursing baby sucks frequently, it breaks those adhesions so it becomes a normal nipple. (yeah I know TMI...but to educate the masses on flat nipples and breastfeeding is my mission in life).

Ok...so back to the nursing apron top....You'll need 2 1/2 yds of fabric or 1 yd for lining and piece the top from scraps, and 2 buttons or snaps. I prefer snaps, but I have a heavy duty industrial snap press from my cloth diaper biz days still in my garage on my hubby's workbench. If you have a serger that will make it go faster, but just a sewing machine is fine too.

Howdy peoples!

So...I know long time since I updated. But I've busted by rear and I'm almost done with school. Yippee!! I've been really busy finishing that and it has been dance competition season so we've been out of town going to dance competitions for weekends and now this weekend is the dance recital.

Oh and I redid my pink hair with even more hightlights. I love, love, love it! My hairstylist got a permanent pink dye and it looks great, it's been a week now and no fading. yay! I think I'm brave enough to post a pic tonight.

I'm working on my big 200th post goodies. I have them, just need to make them cute and presentable and photographed for a contest or 2 to win them. So look for the contests next week as this week with rehearsals and recital is too busy.

And to add some sewing fun...here is an adorable little tutorial for sock monkeys. Really cute and you can make them out of just about any kind of sock, not just a red heeled one.

As soon as this stupid school stuff is ovah, I'm going to be a mad sewing woman. I'm changing our lives. I've been listening to Dave Ramsey way too much and we are getting out of debt. I'm not a christian so I kinda throw that stuff out the window, but the rest of it sounds pretty good.

Oh yeah....our debt had an additional $5000 added to it and it is the reason why life is mostly upside down lately. About 3 weeks ago, sewage water...yes SEWAGE started seeping into the carpet along one wall of our family room and along the same wall in Miss Em's room. So the plumber comes and the main drain pipe under the house has collapsed and is seeping through the foundation. So they have to create a totally new drain and the choice is to go around the house instead of through it jackhammering up the foundation. Our yard still has a giant tunnel from one side to the other and they are still not finished because of all the rain we've had lately. And part of this new drain involves our washing machine, so we've had no washing machine for weeks now. So twice a week I get to drive across town to the scary laundromat...the fun part is homeless drug addicts come in and want to fold your clothes for money. It's like those window washing guys that just come up to your car and start doing it, yep, I have these crazy homeless people that pick up clothes and start folding. Not to mention that worker lady that locked my 4 yr old son IN the store when my husband was loading laundry baskets in the car. LOCKED HIM IN!! My husband had to bang on the door to get her to unlock it.

Oh the other fun thing lately is my diarrhea dog. My sweet little black labrador ate a 2 lb uncooked roast I was defrosting on the counter and then 1/2 of a gourmet dark chocolate bar. I freaked, we called the vet and made her throw up with hydrogen peroxide and then she had diarrhea all over the house for days. She's been on a diarrhea diet -- she loves it with baked potatoes and eggs and yogurt, lol - for a few days and is finally better. The highlight of my days has been running outside in the rain to check her poop consistency - fun.

Needless to say between the sewage and diarrhea dog, we are getting new carpet in 2 weeks. It's been ordered and we're just waiting for delivery and installation. My wonderful dear sweet mother is paying for it after we spent everything on the plumber. Someone needs to canonize her. And she got me the top of the line stuff! How cool is that? I can't wait to get it. But I'm covering it with rugs to prevent diarrhea dog and my children from destroying it.

Well gotta finish working, i'll be back later to post a pic of my pink hair.