Best Cole Slaw Recipe Ever

Even if you are not a big fan of cole slaw, you will love this recipe... trust me! It is one my Mom made up, so in our family we just call it "Granny's Cole Slaw."  You will need:

• 1 package of cole slaw
• 2 Apples (whatever variety you like - I've used Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Jazz)
• Dried cranberries

Dump your cole slaw into a big bowl. Add dried cranberries.... just eyeball it, however much you like! I peel my apples, then use an apple corer to get rid of the core and it makes nice even pieces. Then thinly slice up the apple pieces into the cole slaw.

In another bowl, whisk together the following ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. sour cream
• 1 1/2 tbsp. mayonnaise
• 1/4 tsp. celery seed
• 1/4 cup sugar
• a pinch of salt
• a couple dashes of cider vinegar

Thin this mixture out with a little bit of milk... you don't want it too runny! Pour over your cole slaw and mix well, then keep refrigerated. I usually make this up in the early afternoon and serve it with dinner that night to allow time for the flavors to blend.

I made some yesterday and served it with BBQ chicken, corn and wheat rolls... yummy!

Here is the corer that I use (think I got mine at the dollar store and it works great).

I hope you try this... it really is delicious. Have a great weekend everyone.

Monday Stuff

Hi all! Hope everyone had a good weekend. I spent most of Friday in the pool practicing my snorkeling (Mr. S. and I are going to Hawaii and I want to be ready). Saturday we cooked hamburgers on the grill and Sunday was just a lazy day.

I have given up on Sarah L. She never responded back to my e-mail, so I guess she doesn't plan on giving me that free pattern after all.  One of my very nice followers sent me the pattern (thanks Linda!) so I got it despite her. I am boycotting her from now on... not a great way to do business if you ask me.

I have been getting ready for a craft show coming up in October. I want to try to sell some of the stuff I make. I'm going to sell items I have sewn, but may throw in some crocheted stuff if I have time to make any (and if the kittens let me). If you want to check out what I've been sewing, check out my other blog, Sandy Sewz. I have a button for it now, thanks to Pammy Sue from Scotty's Place.  She and her hubby were kind enough to help me out with my button.. thanks again Pammy Sue and Barnaby!!

Speaking of the kittens, they are growing by leaps and bounds... here are a few pictures.

That is Miss Ellie. And here is her sister, Sammi:

And finally, here is Cleo:

They are so much fun... we had forgotten what it was like to have kittens around. Right now I can hear them running through the house like crazy... they always do that right before bedtime.

Hope all of you out in blogland are doing well and that you have a great week.

Response to Yesterday's Post

I received an e-mail from Sarah London regarding yesterday's post. How she got wind of a post on my lowly little blog is beyond me... in any case, she stated that "Every one who either left a comment or emailed privately and stated which pattern they would like received a pattern. Perhaps as with Kate you did not state which pattern you would have liked??

I wrote her back and included the content of my original e-mail to her, which clearly stated that I would like the Ethel pattern. I also told her that based on the comments to my post, I wasn't the only one who did not receive their pattern, and that it was kind of disappointing. Have not heard back from her since.

Just Wondering...

if any of you did like I did and responded to Sarah London's e-mail request a few weeks ago to tell her about your favorite yarn? She said she would send a free .pdf pattern for responding, but I've never received mine... Just wondering if any of you who responded received yours.

Clever Ideas

Hi all! Hope everyone had a good weekend. I got these ideas in an e-mail this morning and thought some of them were really good, so I wanted to share them with you all:

CLEVER IDEAS WORTH KNOWING



Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil.
It will stay fresh much longer and not mold! (Same thing for celery!)


Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, add a couple of
spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.


For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.


Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste
of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.


Easy Deviled Eggs - Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done - easy clean up.


Expanding Frosting - When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.


Reheating refrigerated bread - To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.


Start putting newspaper in your plants to keep the weeds away. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic but they will not get through wet newspapers.

If you break something made of glass, use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge, add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to the end of the hose of your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!



INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS


The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material .. I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well .... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box ... well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very longtime (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!


Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it .. the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!



I'm definitely going to try some of these and will let you know if they work!

Airline Safety Video

If all the airline safety videos were like this, maybe I would watch it..... too cute!

100th Post Giveaway Winner Prize Reveal

Debi Y. was the winner of my 100th Post Giveaway. Since she has received her prizes now, I can show you what I made her. Debi asked that I make her a reversible tote bag. Well .... you know me ... I can't just make her a tote bag ... I gotta fill it with stuff too!

So here is what she got (and keep in mind that her very favorite color is pink!):

Here is the inside of her tote bag:

And the small zippered pouch I made to match it:

Since Debi likes to take her crochet projects with her, I decided to make her a crochet hook roll also.

I even found a pink crochet hook to tuck inside!

I also added a cup cozy that I crocheted awhile back, since it had some pink in it also. Debi wrote and told me that opening her package was like having a birthday without getting older... LOL! 

You never know when I'll have another giveaway, so stay tuned!  Have a great weekend all.

Easy No-Sew Tote Bag

I posted about this tote bag last night on my sewing blog, Sandy Sewz, and the more I thought about it, the more I decided this would be a good project to feature here. It's a neat way to jazz up a plain old canvas tote bag and no sewing is required.

I was inspired by this post at the Sisters Stuff blog. Here is how mine turned out:

Here is all you need to do this project:

• Tote Bag
• Fabric (You'll need 2 coordinating fabrics)
• Ribbon
• Flower
• Wonder Under
• Hot Glue Gun

If you are not a sew-er and don't have fabric on hand, go to Jo-Ann, Hancock or Hobby Lobby and buy a couple of fat quarters. They are usually only around $2 a piece and are a small 18 X 21 piece of fabric... that way you don't have to go pick out fabric and wait for it to be cut from the bolt (unless you really want to!).

Since I wasn't planning on doing a tutorial for this, I did not take pictures along the way. But if you follow the link above, they give you step-by-step instructions with photos to show you what to do.

They put their ribbon down the middle of the big piece of fabric and then added rick rack to cover the raw edges where the 2 fabrics meet. Since I did not want to cover up the pretty flowers in my fabric, I chose to use the ribbon to cover the raw edges and skipped the rick rack. It's your design... do whatever makes you happy! 

I did not use the Wonder Under on my ribbon; I just glued it right on and it worked great! In case you are unfamiliar with it, here is what Wonder Under looks like:

It has an adhesive on one side that allows you to iron it on to the reverse side of your fabric. Once it cools, peel off the paper and you can then iron it onto your bag.

This was a really fast, easy project and I love the way it turned out. If you make one, please let me know... I'd love to see a photo of it.

I'm Still Here!

I'm still around... just haven't been up to much lately, since it's too hot and muggy to do anything! I plan on doing a bunch of sewing tomorrow... have been working on Debi Y.'s tote bag and it is almost finished. I hope to get her package mailed to her by the end of the week.

My sister sent me this today and I really liked it... they are words of wisdom from a 90-year old lady and the lessons she has learned from life:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.



2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.


3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.


4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch...


5. Pay off your credit cards every month.


6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.


7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.


8. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.


9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.


10. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.


11. It's OK to let your children see you cry.


12. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.


13. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.


14. Everything can change in the blink of an eye.


15. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.


16. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.


17. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.


18. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.


19. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.


20. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.


21. Over prepare, then go with the flow.


22. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.


23. The most important sex organ is the brain.


24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.


25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'


26. Always choose life.


27. Forgive everyone for everything.


28. What other people think of you is none of your business.


29. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.


30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.


31. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.


33. Believe in miracles...


34. Don't audit life.. Show up and make the most of it now.


35. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.


36. Your children get only one childhood.


37. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.


38. Get outside every day. Enjoyment is waiting everywhere.


39. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.


40. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.


41. The best is yet to come....


42. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.


43. Yield.


44. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.