Holiday Cranberry Bread

January 30, 2010

larsinnh recipes 3 Comments

Recipe time! This recipe is called “Holiday Cranberry Bread.”  I usually make it around Christmas, but I didn’t have enough time in December, so I made it recently. I think I was too busy rolling balls to make this bread.

Ok, get your mind out of the gutter about the balls. Really.

This bread is not too difficult, the worst part is cutting up alllll those little cranberries.  Also, this recipe includes some weird ingredients.  Use them all.  I know it looks weird, but it works.

Holiday Cranberry Bread

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspon salt
1 well beaten egg
1/3 cup orange juice (yes, orange juice)
3 teaspoons vinegar (yes, vinegar)
water
1/4 cup melted shortening
1 cup fresh cranberries, halved
1 cup chopped walnuts

I rinse the cranberries, then cut them in half. This takes a few minutes, but it’s really better if they are halved.

I also use the Pampered Chef food chopper to chop the walnuts. You don’t want to turn them into dust, but make them small-ish:

Place flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl. In another bowl, mix the well-beaten egg and orange juice together.

Take the three teaspoons of vinegar and mix it with enough water to make 2/3 of a cup of liquid. (I know this is weird, just put 3 teaspons of vinegar into a mixing cup, then sloooowly add water until it reaches the 2/3 cup mark).

Add the water and vinegar mixture to the egg and orange juice mixture. Add the melted shortening to the wet mixture as well. Mix wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir only until dampened. Add halved cranberries, chopped walnuts, and mix lightly.

Bake for about 1 hour at 350 degrees, in greased 9 x 5 loaf pan.

Ok, so it’s not all purty, we had already dug into it…so there! ;-)

Holiday Cranberry Bread
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspon salt
1 well beaten egg
1/3 cup orange juice (yes, orange juice)
3 teaspoons vinegar (yes, vinegar)
water
1/4 cup melted shortening
1 cup fresh cranberries, halved
1 cup chopped walnuts

Rinse the cranberries, then cut them in half.  Chop the walnuts. Place flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl. In another bowl, mix the well-beaten egg and orange juice together.

Take the three teaspoons of vinegar and mix it with enough water to make 2/3 of a cup of liquid. Add the water and vinegar mixture to the egg and orange juice mixture. Add the melted shortening to the wet mixture as well. Mix wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir only until dampened. Add halved cranberries, chopped walnuts, and mix lightly.

Bake for about 1 hour at 350 degrees, in greased 9 x 5 loaf pan.

Follow Handy Man, Crafty Woman on Twitter

January 29, 2010

larsinnh Miscellaneous Leave a comment

I’ve set up a Twitter account for us.  Our name on there is: @HandyCrafty

Come on over and “follow” us there, if you also Tweet.  I’ll be posting there when I update the blog (as well as on Facebook still), and I’ll also do a few random Tweets from time to time.

Fun stuff, this technology…

Kitchen Renovation: Part 2,387

January 28, 2010

larsinnh before & after, kitchen, renovations 5 Comments

Back to the kitchen renovation.  You can click on the “kitchen” category to the right to see more photos, and I’ll be expanding and updating the “Before and After” page to add these photos eventually.

As a reminder, we did our initial renovation in December of 2008.  We removed everything, and laid down new wood flooring.  Handy Man installed a new soffit and put the cabinets back together in a slightly new configuration.  He also moved the sink.  And there everything stopped, until a warm day in Spring of 2009 when Handy Man put a window into the wall above the relocated sink.

Fast forward to July 2009…when Handy Man had started painting the kitchen cabinets.  He painted them a glossy white.  We had white cabinets in our last house, and loved them.  It brightens up the kitchen, and the glossy paint is wipe-able.  (Is that a word?)

Notice the two drawers that were missing at the moment. That is because those two drawers were “false” fronts, as they were under the original sink. Handy Man took the false fronts out and built new cabinet boxes for them, so we could have drawers there. Hey, he’s not called “Handy Man” for nothing.

You’ll probably also notice that the panels on the sides of the cabinets are still bare. This was because the wood there had a very smooth finish that we decided would be difficult to paint. Handy Man decided to put some beadboard panelling over the cabinet sides, which we also painted white. It solved a problem for us and helped the cabinets to look more “finished.”

Another thing you’ll notice is that the toe-kick under the cabinets wasn’t yet painted.  Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day!

By now, the kitchen was really coming together. Just a few more minor painting details to go, and it was 95% done.

What are we planning for the other 5%? You’ll have to stay tuned for details…!

365 Items Decluttered: The Rules

January 26, 2010

larsinnh 365 Days of Decluttering 4 Comments

Perhaps some of you have started your “Declutter 365 items in 365 days” challenge.  Or maybe you are thinking of starting.  In either case, have you thought about the rules or guidelines you will use in counting your items?

With this challenge, you can make up your own rules as to what counts as an “item”.  I’ll tell you about our rules.  You can use them, or not.  Feel free to make this up as you go along.

I wanted to count things that were somewhat substantial. Yes, we did get rid of some large items, like the dresser shown here.  Several of the items we got rid of were on the small side.  Even small things add up (especially 365 of them!), but I made the following rules for our challenge:

- We didn’t count stuff we would have thrown out anyway.  Like a paper plate.  ;-)   That’s garbage.  If you have an issue throwing away garbage, you need help that you aren’t going to find here.

- We didn’t count pieces of paper.  Catalogs or binders, yes, but not single pieces of paper.  If you have a bad paper problem, you may want to try a “Toss 365 pieces of paper” challenge.

- I also didn’t count tiny things as 1 item, like Handy Boy’s tiny McDonald’s toys.  I put them into a bag and counted the bag as 1 item.  We found a big pile of packing peanuts in the basement.  I put them into a bag and counted them as one item.  Again, your mileage may vary.

- I counted a pair of items that go together, like shoes, as ONE item. (Ha, you thought I’d miss that one!)

Those were pretty much the only rules we made.  Another thing that I wanted to do was to dispose of all these items in a responsible way.  Items that could be recycled were put into our recycling bin for curbside pickup.  Some items were passed on to other adults or children who could use them.  Some items were sold to people that Handy Man knew; others were sold on Craigslist.  Several things were donated to Goodwill.  Yes, there were a few items that were put into the garbage, but we tried to recycle and donate when possible.  Some things are just beyond repair!

If you are taking this challenge, what are your rules?

Small Giveaway: Coupons from All You Magazine!

January 25, 2010

larsinnh giveaway, thrift 2 Comments

I will be getting back to my “Declutter 365 items in 365 days” series soon; and I’ll be wrapping up our “After” kitchen photos soon, too. 

Today I want to try something a little different: a small coupon giveaway.  I signed up online to get two years of “all you” magazine for WICKED cheap.  It’s your typical women’s magazine; with articles about parenting, saving money, health tips, etc. But, this magazine is JAM PACKED with loads of coupons!  I was so excited to try and find coupons in this magazine that I could use when I went grocery shopping.

Then I got the magazine…the magazine is great, mind you…but the coupons?  There are loads of them (worth $47.13 this month!), but they are for items or brands I don’t buy, and some are for items that I don’t even think they carry in our area.

So, what am I going to do?  I’m going to cut them out and mail them all away to one lucky person.  You can see the list of coupons available in this month’s February issue of All You here on their website. 

Now, you may not be able to use all of the coupons, but maybe you can trade some, or share them with family or friends who might use them.  Here’s what to do to enter into this small giveaway:

- Enter a comment for this post. You must enter your email address; only I will see your emal address, it won’t show to “the world”

- In your comment, please type one quick and easy tip that you use to save money when grocery shopping.

- Comments will be accepted until 10 pm eastern on Wednesday, January 27th.

- I will randomly choose one commenter, and will mail all of the coupons from the magazine to the winner by the end of the week.  Entries from the United States only please!

Good luck!

Another New/Old Bookcase

January 23, 2010

larsinnh antiques, books 3 Comments

I recently discovered that we are outgrowing our space for books, and decided that I wanted to buy a smallish book case for our upstairs guest room.  Right now, we have Handy Boy’s old changing table up there.  Yes, an old changing table!  It’s really a dresser with a top that you can use for a changing table.  We bought a soft pad to put on top, and changed Handy Baby on it.  We stored some diapers, pajamas, and other baby things in the drawers.   It was a handy item for us back then, but it’s not really serving a purpose now, since I have another dresser in that room.  I thought a book case would go nicely in that spot.

We went to an antique store last weekend.  Handy Man took measurements with us.  Usually when we go on a hunting mission, it can take weeks, or even months of on-and-off hunting to find the right item.  However, I found this book case right away in a local antique shop that we had never been to before.  There were several small objects and books on it.  I told Handy Man that it looked like the right size, but there was no price on it.

I asked the workers at the shop what the price was, and they weren’t sure.  They called the dealer to find out what he would sell it for.  Now, this is not a “priceless” antique…and it doesn’t even have a real back on it; it only has a piece of plywood on the back…and it’s painted a shade of green that we are not in love with.  However, we knew that painted white, to go with our other guest room furniture, it would look much better!  We would just be placing books on the shelves, so the back piece wouldn’t even show (although Rob would paint it white also.) 

I was trying to think of how much I would be willing to pay for it, when the shop worker told me the dealer would sell it for $35.  :-O  That was well under what I was willing to pay, so we bought it!  Here it is, in all of it’s dirty, green, glory.  (Seriously, there’s a lot of dust and dirt on it, but it will be cleaned up and painted.)

I think that people can be afraid of the prices in antique stores, but they shouldn’t be!  Sure, there are some stores with items in them selling for a minimum of $500.  And yes, some antiques are worth a lot and should be priced accordingly.  But usually, antique stores have a good variety of both expensive and inexpensive pieces.  This book case might not even be that old, or worth a whole lot, but it’s perfect for us.

Stay tuned for pictures of the cleaned up and painted book case…and don’t be shy about wandering into local antique stores to look for bargains.  You never know what you may find.

How to Get Organized the Easy Way

January 21, 2010

larsinnh 365 Days of Decluttering, organizing Leave a comment

I meant to post about “Getting Organized” for the year earlier in January, since that seems to be the time when people talk about getting organized.  However, there’s still enough time in 2010 to get things organized in your home!

I’m going to write a series that addresses how Rob and I worked on decluttering this house (and our previous homes).  We did several different things which I’ll also go over, but one of the most helpful things I did was a challenge called something like “Declutter 365 items in 365 days.”  I think this is from another web site or magazine, but I can’t find the source.  If someone knows where this idea came from, can you email me to let me know?  Thanks.

So for a year, from about mid-2008 until mid-2009, we decluttered the house a little bit at a time, and kept track of the amount of items we got rid of.  Since we had made previous attempts to pare down, Handy Man didn’t think we’d make it to 365.  There were some days or weeks where I didn’t get rid of much, but by the 365 day mark, we made it to 365.  I even made a list of the items we decluttered, which is amusing to read, especially when you look at the whole list.  I’ll be sharing that list on future blog posts, as well.

So, why do I say this is how to get organized, “the easy way?”  This is because I found this way to be pretty simple: there was no pressure, I had a whole year, and I didn’t have to do something every day.  When I found something we didn’t use any more, I put it into a pile in the basement to take to Goodwill.  Before long, it piled up. Of course, we made trips to the Goodwill through that 365 day period…but I didn’t have to devote HOURS and HOURS to decluterring.  It really only took a few minutes each day that I worked on it, and I didn’t even declutter every single day.

Do you have “stuff” to get rid of?  It’s still only January; it’s early enough in the year to make a difference.  Go through one drawer, one pile, one shelf at a time.  You don’t have to list every item like I did, (I did that knowing I wanted to blog about it), but maybe put up a tally sheet near your giveaway pile, to see if you can make it to the 365 mark. In on year, without devoting a ton of time, you will notice a huge difference in your home.  More details on our methods will come, but I’m looking for people to join in on this challenge.  C’mon, you know you need to!

You can do it…ready, set, go!

Blog Under Construction

January 19, 2010

larsinnh Miscellaneous 1 Comment

Hello All!   

Over the next week, this blog will be under construction.  I’ll be adding things, and moving other things around.   I’m going to be working on organizing the house “before and after” photos, and the recipes.  Some of the recipes may disappear for a short period of time, but they will be back!

If you need a recipe that has temporarily disappeared, you can email me and I can send it to you. 

I will continue to add posts, but a few things may look funky for a bit.  I’ll try to minimize the disruption.

Thanks for your patience.

New Kitchen Window

January 19, 2010

larsinnh before & after, kitchen Leave a comment

In April of 2009, Handy Man broke a hole into the kitchen wall, and put up a new window. We moved some cabinets around in December 2008, but had to wait for better weather to tear a hole in the wall. Here is a reminder about the “before”:

Here is Handy Man, covered in dust. He had to take down several rows of siding, and break a huge hole in the wall for the new window. The small hole is just the beginning, he made the hole as big as the larger opening you can see here:

EEEEEk, there’s a huge hole in the wall! Thankfully, it was a nice warm day that day:

After a long day of construction work, here is the window, from the outside:

Here is the view from the inside, taken today, on a snowy day in January (since I apparently forgot to take a photo of the inside last spring!)

Friend Moving? Just Replace Them

January 17, 2010

larsinnh kid stuff 2 Comments

Here is another letter that Handy Boy, age 8, wrote in school.  I had to post it here, it just cracked me up. I abbreviated the names for privacy. 

Dear Mom and Dad,

At recess I played tag with my friends and then played football.  I had a lot of fun doing that stuff.  The friends I played with were B, T, M, R and ummmm….K and C. 

T is moving on Tuesday and I will miss him alot!!!  But…I could replace him with someone when he moves away.  Luckily he will come to my birthday party!! Yay!!!

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