Cooking Tuesday - Peanut Butter Popcorn

I cannot believe I haven't share our favorite snack.  Peanut butter popcorn!!!!! 

My family was introduced to this yummy goodness in the Philippines on the island of Mindanao.  My mom and dad were dorm parents at a Wycliffe school.  My parents were just back from furlough and my mom was embarking on an adventure of another of her "things I'll never do". 

Mom became fast friends with one of the women on the base, Mrs. Bailey.  I will forever be grateful to her for inviting our family, by ourselves, to their house for dinner.  I can't remember if it was a break from school, or if someone came over to the dorm to dorm-sit for an evening. 

That was when we learned of this wondrous thing called peanut butter popcorn.  Amazingly, it's super easy.  Nothing like caramel popcorn which never gets made in this house.  I like to think that it's a step above caramel popcorn anyway because of the peanut butter.

So I will let you in on the secret of how to make this easy snack.  First, of course you must pop the popcorn.  I detest microwavable because it leaves it's tallow on the roof of my mouth which reminds me that I'm taking in a bunch of fat!!  Yuck!  Besides popcorn popped the old-fashioned way is much cheaper. 

I couldn't get a good picture of this with a lid on it, but make sure you use the lid.  The other key to having as few "old maids" as possible is to shake, shake, shake!!!!  Once the popcorn is done, pour it into a large bowl.  I love my Tupperware That's-A-Bowls for this.

Then you shake, shake, shake, again!  To get all the old-maids to the bottom of your bowl.  Next, very carefully, scoop out the popcorn.  Pouring works for the top, but the old-maids end up in your popcorn.  Crunching an oldmaid with peanut butter popcorn is not good for the teeth.

Now that you have your popcorn popped and ready.

In a pan, pour 1 cup white sugar, and 1 cup corn syrup (I just use the maple syrup that I have on hand).  I always do this part wrong, as you can see in my picture.   Bring the sugar and syrup to a boil.  Boil for one minute.  Then remove from heat and add 1 cup of peanut butter.  It works the way I do it too, but it's better if you wait to put the peanut butter in. 

The key is especially if you put the peanut butter in, DON'T leave the kitchen.  In fact, stand over the pot stirring till it boils which is only about five minutes or so. 

Then pour the mixture over the popcorn.  And voila!  Yummy goodness!

We will be bagging some up in some snack bags so we don't eat it all by ourselves.  It works in a baggie, but you probably will be throwing said-baggie away because it won't be fun to wash out. 

If you do it right, it won't leave your fingers too sticky, just enough that licking takes care of it. 

Peanut butter popcorn

1 bowl of popcorn, set aside

In a pan mix 1 cup syrup and 1 cup of sugar. Stirring continually, bring to a boil.

Remove from heat and add 1 cup of peanut butter. Pour over popcorn.  Enjoy!!!

I hope you enjoy this simple snack.

Making the most of today,
Steph

Project Monday - Greenhouse and gardening

Last week, we tried setting up the greenhouse.  The very next day we tore it down, because Carpenter was away at work and we didn't know how to keep it from blowing away in the wind.  Had Carpenter been here, he probably would have been able to reinforce it so that it would have worked.

But it's probably good that we tore it down because now it looks like this:

We have yet to put up the plastic and find out how it actually works, because we had a storm coming through.   Putting up plastic while the wind is blowing doesn't really work very well.  So we'll try next weekend when Carpenter is home, and it's nice.

This has gotten me into the mood to get started planting.  Actually, it wouldn't be too early to start planting some things inside our home, but finding a place to put them is the difficult part.  It would be good to start tomatoes, peppers, watermelon and canteloupe - the things that can be transplanted. 

Now if I can only find the seeds we bought.....  I put them in the perfect spot.  I wish I knew where that was.

A view from our dining room window.  Love the orange.  So thankful that God's mercies are new every morning.  With the time change, I'm needing lots of that!!!

Making the most of today,
Steph

Titus 2 Tea - Finances

As we move through my original plan, we've come to March.  March is about finances, but I don't, by any means, feel that I know what I'm talking about.  I've tried many different things and I'm still looking for the best solution for me.
The thought with Titus 2 Tea was to have a group of women sharing ways that things work in their households, knowing that each one would have different ways that work, and all would be good. 

So I will share what I do currently.  I've tried many different things.  One thing I have found is that if I track my spending I do better than if I don't track it at all.  When I stop tracking my spending, I start buying things that I could do without.

I use an excel spreadsheet right now and have some of Dave Ramsey's worksheets that I use to track income.  I would like to get a program that makes this easier, but haven't found one that works with what I'm looking for.  I did get a program for Carpenter for his business but when I went to get my taxes done, I was told that what I got was pretty difficult for her to use.

So someday, I would like to have a program where I can punch in the amount spent in each category and not have to think about it.  A program that does all the work.   For now I stick to put the numbers in the right columns and totalling them. 

My suggestion, if you don't have any kind of a system, is to start with just keeping track of what you are spending.  Don't include the income on that tracking sheet.  Figure out what categories you need.  Remember that you have some things that come out quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. 

If you don't keep receipts, maybe call your insurance agent and ask if he/she can give you a run-down of months when car insurance is due.  Get out a calendar and write this information down. 

So for this week, let's just work on that.  Maybe once a year get an idea of if things are still the same or if they've changed.  I will be taking the time to make sure that I do have my numbers current.  I'm going to put  insurance payments in my home-planning notebook calendar, so that I don't have surprises. 

Do you have any great ideas for budgets?  I would love to hear about them.

Making the most of today, (why?  Only for His glory and honor)
Steph

Thursday's Thoughts - A servant's heart

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

These last weeks I've been thinking about serving my family.  It has come up in posts of different blogs I read.  It comes up in the verses I memorize and in the scripture I'm reading.  Seems to me that I'm being delivered a message of something I need to be working on.

And tonight, after a long day of piano lessons and early-out from school and three kids in daycare instead of two, homemade pizza and starting to build a greenhouse, I looked at the pile of dishes and felt wiped out.

A picture came to mind of a scene from my earlier years.  I'm quite certain it happened on more than one occasion.  One of us or all three of us complaining about the dishes, and my dad waltzing into the kitchen didn't get mad at us or start ordering us around, just simply said "You go play, I'll do the dishes." 

Oh, man, did we ever feel awful!!  There's Dad whistling in the kitchen as he does the work of the three of us.  Sometimes, most times, we'd go back and beg to help feeling so guilty.  But no, he would have none of it.  And firmly and cheerfully, he told us he was going to finish them.

My dad gave us an example of Jesus washing His disciples feet.  He served us when it was really our responsibility to serve him and our family in this way.

I can just see the disciples (John 13:1).  It doesn't say much about why Jesus washed their feet except that He knew what was coming, and He loved them.  I've always wondered if someone hadn't done it when they entered the house.  I even thought that they had been arguing right before that about who was the greatest.  But it doesn't make that connection in John. 

I imagine that the disciples were looking around at each other and feeling a bit guilty about Jesus, the  master, doing a servant's job.  Peter's even bold enough to say something.  "Hey, Jesus, you're not gonna wash my feet."  He ends up turning it around after Jesus speaks to him about it. 

It wasn't the place of the master to wash the feet in their culture.  One of the servants would do it.  I'm not sure if there was no servant in that room because it was rented.  Or if Jesus was just making a point. Had no one stooped low enough to serve the others? 

My dad showed his servant's heart even more when my mom was slowly becoming more and more sick.  He didn't complain of the extra load.  He whistled and joked to help us through one of the toughest situations I've ever been through. 

When he was all alone caring for mom, with my brother in college and my sister married and me in missionary training again.  He didn't complain of the tasks, but was cheerful on the phone.  We never knew how hard it was because he was nothing like me.  He didn't complain.

    Proverbs 15:15 All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast.

I wish I would have recognized it sooner and learned at his feet better.  He served his family joyfully.  It seemed he recognized that this was God's will for him and he was willing.  He served my mom right through to the end. 

I have a great example, in my dad, of a servant.  I am so thankful to God for my dad.  And I'm also thankful that he's found someone new to share his life with.  They've been married just a bit longer than Carpenter and I.  And between the two of them they have six kids spread across the United States. 

My dad tickling my feet while my cousin laughs instead of rescuing me.

Making the most of today,
Steph

Wednesday's Household - the kitchen

 As I mentioned in my Titus2 Tea post, one of my goals is to work on certain area.  Well, my area right now is the kitchen and has been for weeks. 

It started with the spices in the spice cupboard.   Spice cupboard

Now the drawer looks like this:

And it has stayed this way (mostly) for over a month.  I love - absolutely love - finding something that works for me.  I have found so many things that don't.

Next was the cooking pots. Cooking pots and pans  And this too has worked well, with a bit of straightening by me every once in awhile.

 Then was the baking pans and a fun time with my man, Carpenter.  Baking pans, and that doesn't even need straightening. 

Last week I worked on the containers and mixing bowls. Containers and large bowls.

And today I cleaned out one of the few cupboards left.  This is where we keep the appliances.  Ugh, it was a grimy mess.  I was amazed to find it took me less than a half hour. 

It can't get too bad in here because things only fit a certain way, but it can get grimy.   Ugh, look at that mess.  While a fun project would be to change the paper in the cupboards, the budget can't handle anything new, so we'll be content with what we have and just simply clean.

I peeled off some of the paper where it was catching dirt and wiped the shelves down and put like-things together, and wiped down the doors and finally the floor.

The areas I still have yet to do are: the pantry, above the stove and fridge and the drawers, except for one.

This has taken me over a month to do, but this is a deeper clean.  I just do it when I have a few extra minutes.  I try to do projects as I go to make it better, but only if, the materials are on hand or inexpensive. 

It's been fun to make a small kitchen work for our big family and find ways to say as Paul did,
"I am content with little and with much."  And as the author to the Hebrews commands "Be content with such things as you have, for He Himself has said I will never leave you or forsake you." 

Making the most of today,
Steph



Cooking Tuesday - English Mufffin Bread

English Muffin Bread has only five ingredients, just five.  That is something that I love.  I also put all the ingredients together.  You don't have to wait five minutes for the yeast to bubble up.  Nor do you have to wait for the bread to rise, in fact, you'd better not. 

5 1/2 cups of warm water, 6 tablespoons of yeast, 1/2 c sugar, 2 tablespoons of salt and 11 cups of flour.  So put that all together in the bowl and start stirring.  Try to get it mixed up as much as possible. It may be wise to stir half the flour in, and then add the rest.  But it works fine like this too.

You probably want your bread pans greased.  I have a baster that I use and just "paint" margarine on the pan.  The kids love this job.  I don't know that it's cheaper, but it's one less thing on my list of groceries.

The bread looks like this when finished. Sticky and gooey.  The hardest part is getting it into the pan.  But resist the urge to add more flour.  It will lose some of it's characteristic moistness, and become more like regular bread, which is not bad, just not the kind of bread we're going for.

Resist the urge to try to shape the loaves into a prettier loaf.  It will only succeed in getting your hands more sticky.  You can actually drop some of the scraps into the pan on top of the dough in there and it will mold itself to the loaf and look like you actually did shape it.  So resist that temptation and save yourself the frustration.  Plus you'll get more dough stuck to your fingers and your loaves will be smaller. 

Then bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  At that time "paint" it with butter on top.  Put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes.  Sometimes I skip this step for the sake of less margarine on my waistline, but it makes for a yummy crust.

Finally take it out of the oven and let it cool on racks.

The best way to eat this bread is toasted.  And I just received recognition for being the "Best Garlic Bread-maker" ever....from Tractorman.  In all his five years it's the best he's ever tasted.  I would have to say I think it's the only stuff he remembers tasting, but we'll just forget that part.

Making the most of today,
Steph

Project Monday - greenhouse

Some of you knew that Carpenter and I went on our Valentine's Day date,over a week late and to our favorite place to go in the big city.   While there one of the big items on our list was the materials for a greenhouse.  We have a book of DIY projects and this was one Carpenter thought we should try.  

He's cutting the little thin CPVC for the stakes.

Tractorman was in on the project helping to pound the "stakes" in the ground.

Tank getting in on the action. Putting the pieces together.  The plan was to all work together and lift up on the stakes, but we couldn't.  We ended up putting up a section of two poles, then another and finally the last one.

Finished.  This PVC fit over the little CPVC underneath.

This was the first try with two pieces of plastic.  According to the instructions it was supposed to cover front and back sides as well.


We ran to Wal-mart and found almost the full size of what we needed.  It covered the back, but not the front.  So we took one of the sheets we had used and cut it in half and made a door way that overlaps a lot. 



The back side

 The doorway in this picture is not yet done. And now we have to start thinking about what to put in here. 

The other question and hopefully, we'll remember to let you know, is will it stand up to Nebraska winds. 

A future project is to build each of the kids a 4X4 box to plant their seeds in.  That won't go in the greenhouse as it will stay in the box all summer.  I'm excited about helping them learn about caring for their own garden.  They  have always helped in the past, but this will be theirs.

Making the most of today
Steph