Crock Pot cooking.....might as well... to cold to do anything else....

I know it's a super long title...but says exactly how I feel today. -9* below(without the winds) and just plain icky! Hubby just took off for the store....asked me to come along...ya..right. I'm like a bear, hibernating till warmer weather heads our way. THOUGH..I did receive 5 new seed catalogs in the mail this week!! That is always a good sign to me....lets me day dream of those fabulous, bug free, weed free gardens I'm going to have this year. Those Martha Stewart gardens....you know the ones...huge, perfect rows....no bugs..and not a weed to be seen. I just feel sorry for the gardener that has to do all that. Her doing it?? Spare me!!

Anyhoo.....Crock pot cooking it is today. In the last blog I told you I was cooking a wonderful roast. It came out so yummy, and with half of it leftover,I decided to today make BBQ Beef! Sound good?? So I'm sharing with you both my recipe for the roast and my BBQ recipe. Something yummy to warm away those cold evenings!

PJ's Roast
1- nice sized roast (4-6) lbs
1- small onion finely chopped
1- bag of carrots peeled and quartered
6-7- large potatoes peeled and quatered
1 tsp- salt
1/4 tsp- pepper
1/2 tsp- garlic powder
4- chicken bullion cubes
1/8 tsp- cajun seasoning
1/4 tsp- celery seed
1/2 tsp- dried ground mustard
1/2 tsp- ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp- ground cinnamon
enough water to just cover the roast

Place your roast in your pan or Crockpot. (I use a pan that has a lid if your cooking it in the oven)
Sprinkle all of your seasonings on your roast, and place the bullion cubes on both sides in the bottom of the pan/Crockpot. Pour enough water to just barely cover the top of the roast.
Add your carrots & potatoes and cover.

Depending on the size of your roast:
cook till beef is tender, should fall apart with a fork. At any time, add more water if needed.

Crockpot-cooking time for a 5-6lb roast: high 5-6 hours/low 7-8 hours
Oven - cooking time for a 5-6lb roast: cook at 350* for 7-8 hours


Pj's BBQ
1- large onion finely chopped
1-1/2 cups- catsup
1/2 cup- water
1 tsp- liquid smoke(at any grocery store by the seasonings)
2 tsp- celery seed
3 T- brown sugar
3 T- Worcestershire sauce
3 T- dry ground mustard
1 T- vinegar
1 T- lemon juice
1/3 cup- butter
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

combine all ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low for 4 hours. Add your cooked shredded beef(4-5lbs) and cook on high for 1-2 hours.

If your using less meat, take out and save some of the BBQ sauce in a covered container for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Use the remaining as you would store bought BBQ sauce. Only this is better!

I hope you enjoy both recipes. Please let me know how they turned out for you. I've now added the ability for you to post your comments to my blogs, so share! Love to hear from you.

Now..onto life adventures.
The snowmobile saga continues......(deep sigh)
After the heater idea was kiboshed by myself.....I thought the whole machine deal was over till Spring thaw. I was wrong.

Hubby and son dragged out the water hose from the basement, and hooked it back up to the facet outside. Hubby's idea......to stretch out the hose(and it WAS a stretch) to the machine, and let the water melt the ice off the track.
Now, here is where I have to get on my knees and hail hubby because for the first time EVER, a stupid idea actually worked!! Yes, the water did melt the track, and the machine was lose from it's hold to the ground. Next came the part where they hooked the machine to my SUV and dragged it to the basement door...rather quickly before the water froze again. Did I mention that they got my SUV stuck....and had to dig it out of the 5 foot high snow pile..and then AGAIN remelt the frozen ice which was deeper now because of the flood they caused with the hose!

After releasing the machine, and carefully dragging it with my SUV...I'm having heart pains even as I write this.....manage to drag it to the basement door. They unleash it, turn it so it's heading DOWN the basement stairs, and son jumps on for the ride of his life!

WE HAVE LIFTOFF!!

The house shakes as the machine rubbles down the set of 12 steps to the basement....son holding on for dear life...me praying to God..and hubby laughing hysterically! The bug eyes on my son says it all as he finally comes to rest balancing between the last step and the basement floor.

NOTE the silence that hung in the air for a very long time....then suddenly son jumps off..and yells...DAD, that was a blast! Can I do it again!?!

Lord help me.

So now the snow machine is down in the basement being repaired. I shall update you on 'HOW IN THE WORLD ARE THEY GETTING IT OUT OF THE BASEMENT'!!

AAhhh...just checked out temp.....it's NOW -4* below. We're having a heatwave....


I'm off to check on the BBQ sauce and toss on an extra pair of socks.

Hugs to all!

Clear Blue Skys'.....

The storm has passed after 3 days of dark sky and snow. It looks so pretty outside, but in reality it's 7* above 0... and you sure don't want to run out and get the mail with wet hair. The sun shines down on the snow and gives such a warm glow to everything around. And the snow.....with the winds howling and whipping all the fresh fallen snow around last night...it looks like waves on an ocean of white. But I think I'll just snuggle down today and NOT go outside. Hubby picked up a huge roast for dinner tonight, so I don't even need to go to the store...and we even have toilet paper...so I'm set.

For the gals that emailed asking how the snow machine came out.....it didn't. Literally. After all the freezing rain we had, it froze it right to the ground.(evil laugh). BUT..I did have to tag dive hubby to the ground when he tried to sneak out with our electric heater. HA...he didn't think I'd realize it was an extension cord under his coat. It was either that or we were expecting twins!! What was he thinking??!!

Anyhoo.....today is 'put away the rest of Christmas day.' Don't say it...I know it's almost the middle of January and it's STILL not down, but hay, atleast I'm not the only one. Yesterday I saw a house lite up to the nighs, inside and out!! Now I don't feel so bad. It's just that it feels so naked when it all comes down. And it was so warm and cozy feeling. Now it'll be all bare....and cold(pouting)...BUT I did go treasure hunting AND I do have a bunch of new stuff sitting on the porch just itchin' for a new space....SOOOO..maybe I'll just look at this as a decorating challenge.

I'd better get the roast in the oven.....yummy....it's one of my favorite comfort foods. Hubby's to work early tonight so we need to eat early.

Till next time,
Paula

Winter is still here....(sigh)..

Ok girls...this isn't going to be good. Snow machine broke down and hubby needs to fix it.. right....well with no heat in any of the sheds and below 0* temps, he's not fixing it outside. SOOO...a light bulb goes off in his head, and he announces that he's going to put it down in the basement. Now, I must have had the (your doing what)look on my face because he started laughing and gives me his smooth...'Don't worry'. routine!
Now I'm worried.
'How?' I ask him.....'we'll just open the basement door, and push it down the steps'. 'And how, Pray tell, are you getting it to the steps?' 'We'll pull it with your SUV!' This gave me heart pains...or maybe it was gas, but either way I knew it wasn't a good thing.
So then I ask (as if all this just wasn't enough..)and then how are you getting it OUT of the basement?' and right on cue(you know he was practicing this) 'we'll DRIVE it out'.

Dear Lord, please give my husband some more brains as I'm afraid he's farted his out!!

I promise to keep you posted on this one...till then I'm now crock-pot happy! Today I'm using the 4Qt. bowl and zippin' up a batch of scalloped potatoes and ham. Have to use that ham up somehow, and I'm tired of ham sandwiches. Note to self...next year purchase a new cookbook on how to cook up leftovers so you don't KNOW your eating leftovers.

Oh.. the other day I forgot to tell you another favorite goodie I received for Christmas. Any of you know me I'm like a crazy woman when it comes to handsoap. Where ever I go, if there's a new kind or it's on sale I buy it. Don't know where this comes from....but my Mom was the same way with cleaning supplies. Under our sink looked like a janitor's closet with everything under the sun. If a new product came out...Mom bought it. So anyway, my sweet middle child Ariel, purchased me a whole bag of goodies from my FAVORITE place in the whole world...'BATH AND BODY WORKS'. It contained Shampoo & conditioner(I know...right! Since when did they get Shampooo) and 4 different hand soaps. All in my most favorite flavor....'Warm Vanilla Sugar'...and one in a new kichen scent...called 'Kitchen Lemon'!! YYUUMMYY!!

So, there's a story with this awesome gift. Christmas day I open the bag and pull out all the yummy's from Bath & Body Works...and I grab the hand lotion and pump some on the back of both hands. As I'm rubbing, it starts to get just a bit sticky, but at this time I'm loving the smell and I pump a huge glob on my oldest daughters hands. We're both rubbing away and enjoying the smell...but it just seems to take forever to rub in..the oldest daughter now has it spread all the way up her arms and to her neck! I'm thinking to myself...'note to self.. don't purchase anymore lotion from Bath and Body Works as it really sucks'. Daughter is STILL rubbing the lotion in as I grab the bottle AND my glasses and see that it's NOT hand lotion at all, but moisturizing hand SOAP!!!
Yelling I say..this isn't lotion!! And middle daughter, who by the way was sitting on the couch watching me the whole time says....'well DUHH Mom!! I knew it wasn't'.
Yes.. oldest daughter and I laughed so hard that our sides hurt...and yes we did fight to see who got to the kitchen sink first. Needless to say we BOTH weren't just sanitized for the rest of the day but we SMELLED just like sugar cookies all day long!!

Oh no, I hear hubby outside....I'd better grab the first aid kit and head downstairs. Please keep your fingers crossed and pray that God gives him those new brains right fast.

Happy New Year

The holidays are over and I must say that it was the best Christmas yet! Oh how I love the holidays and we sure had fun with all the kids here..plus their boyfriends, finances and friends! We did have a house full this year.LOL Our little farmhouse was creaking at the seams...we had them all in one bedroom with air beds all over the floor. There wasn't an inch of walking space. Each kid had to crawl over the other to get in or out. Ofcourse they were all above our bedroom so it sounded like worldwar 4 or is it 3...hhhmmm..above our heads!

Watching poopy(grandbaby) opening his presents was the best! At 1-1/2 he really doesn't understand the whole concept of it...but after a few slow starts, he got right into shredding the wrapping paper. He'd rip..hand the box over to his Mom and if it had clothes in it..he paid no attention to it what so ever. Ofcourse the ones with toys received the biggest grin ever.

So here is where the bitching starts.

It seems like every toy Poopy unwrapped had to be released from bondage by his Grandpa. WHY do those toy companies think that each tiny plastic farm animal has to be glued, zip-tied, wired and pretty much hog tied to the package?? It's like they think those poor toys are going to say 'AH_HA..nobody's looking..it's time to make our escape!' I mean, get real. Poor hubby had to have a set of pliers, bolt cutters, screwdrivers (one of each) and a blow torch just to free the toys!! AND it wasn't just ONE toy...OH NO...it was ALL of them!!!! I swear...that poor baby celebrated his 18th birthday waiting for his Grandpa to get those darn toys free!

Alright...enough said on that subject.
So..how many of you still have your tree up?? Oh please..don't even tell me I'm the ONLY one!! Well..I guess it is time. When you have to dust the ornaments before putting them away...I guess that's a sign? Ofcourse smart hubby says last night, we'll just leave it up and redecorate it for every holiday! Yup...point taken...time to take down the tree.

OK.. what was your favorite Christmas gift this year? Mine was my new coffee maker! Oh yes baby...it grinds the coffee and brews it all at the same time! I'm in heaven!!! Ofcourse the first time we used it the cats scattered like rats and I almost peed my pants...but the final result was awesome!! Yes, the grinding part is a bit loud...but come on....I don't have to pay $5.00 for a fresh cup of coffee anymore!! Sorry coffeehouse...I've found a new love!

Lets see...what else did I get?? Oh yes..a new crockpot! Love it! One that has 3 different pots for it! We made a huge pot of Chili in the 6 qt crock for Christmas eve and it was awesome! I live for my crockpot..I mean, who doesn't love them. Toss a bunch of stuff in it, close the lid and 6 hours later...WAALAA..a gourmet meal!

Oh yes..and a fuzzy pair of slippers. Love them! Ofcourse having my business at home does have it's perks. I can wear my Pj's and slippers to work. And yes I do brush my hair and teeth everyday! There was a point there when I hadn't left the house for quite some time. So going to the grocery store for toilet paper was an adventure. I got all dressed up and even put on some mascara. Son thought we were going out for dinner with as gussied up as I was...and we did. Right through McDonald's drive-thru.

Well friends.....I've put it off long enough. I'm off to take down the tree. And fight with those dry needles. I'd better put a new bag in the vacuum.

Happy New Year to each and everyone! May this be a very blessed year for us all!!

Paula