jennifer, Author at Hopeful Homemaker

Blue bowls… what a find!

October 30, 2009 jennifer Color, Dishes

All of a sudden, whenever I need a bowl I find myself reaching for one of these little blue ones.
And every time I put something in one, I want to take a picture.
And several times I have. Perhaps you’ve noticed these little beauties in recent posts.
I really like these bowls.
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Today was no different. Not only are they the perfect size, I’m loving how food looks in them.
It’s a color thing.
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Do you want to hear something funny about me and hard boiled eggs?
Earlier this year I set out to come up with a Potato Salad that I love. Well, we all know that potato salads need hard boiled eggs. For years I’ve tried to get my hard boiled eggs to be perfect, without the ugly greenish-gray color in the yolk, without any cracks, and so forth, but perfection always eluded me.

Until this summer. One day I put a bunch of eggs on the stove to cook, and then promptly forgot about setting my timer and went to do other things until suddenly I remembered the eggs. I figured they must be done so I removed them from the heat and placed them in ice water.

They were the most perfect hard boiled eggs ever! The funny thing is that this has happened to me every time I’ve cooked eggs since. Now I’m at the point that I don’t know if I dare to actually pay attention to how long they’re cooking for because I’m just sure I’ll ruin them. Today was no different. And the eggs were perfect.

But I digress. We were talking about my blue bowls.
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Let me just say here that I bought these bowls over a month ago, and have stored them stacked like this in my pantry since then. Every time I look at them I have to smile because they’re so pretty! And every time I’ve looked at them I want to take a picture.

So today I gave in and did it. Some a pale blue and some are a deeper aqua color. I like them together.
Here’s the best part of all: I got them at the dollar store! That’s right, Dollar Tree.
Like I said, I found them about a month ago and bought a nice, tall stack of them (remember dishes need to come in sets of at least ten at my house). This morning I was there looking for something else and they had a few more.

I bought them all. Okay, it was only five of them. I couldn’t help it! They were so cute!
And, I must say they’re a pretty amazing find for $1.
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Did I mention that I love the colors? Wow, I’m such a sucker for blue.

2 comments blue, thrifty

Soup for Lunch

October 29, 2009 jennifer Main Dishes

Picture this: my 3 little ones have eaten and gone upstairs to play. The baby is asleep and my husband is working from home. I like moments like this, when there is a brief pause in the hubbub of a busy day. The sun is shining, but it’s cold and windy outside.

On most days, I don’t eat much of a lunch. Oh, I don’t mean for it to happen that way, but more often than not, it does. I get the food ready for everyone, and while they eat I sit down in the other room to feed the baby, and when she’s done eating I go back to the now empty kitchen and clean up. A couple of weeks ago I was so hungry around 8 pm and couldn’t figure out why. After all, I’d spent much of my day in the kitchen preparing food for everyone! Then I realized that when the food was being eaten I was in the other room with the baby and I hadn’t had a bite to eat all day!

Well, this day is different. My pause was spent making lunch for my husband. Leftover soup from last night, with crispy quesadillas made with provolone and cheddar cheese. It was so nice to sit in the sunshine and eat!
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It made me happy just to look at it… the soup in my lovely blue bowl, one of my favorite vintage place mats, the color of the soup with the spices and a sprinkling of cheese on top… what is it with me and color?

The soup was made last night using mostly what was in my fridge. No recipe, just a little of this and a little of that… but it tasted really good! This is basically what I used:

Leftover Soup 1 cup chopped cooked chicken (it was originally cooked in lemon seasonings for a different recipe) 1 cup chopped steamed carrots (carrots were steamed with a little bit of butter and some green onions) 1 cup sweet corn 1 cup chopped celery 1 large russet potato, peeled and chopped 2 cups cooked fettuccini noodles, cut into 2 inch long pieces 1 can great northern beans 1 can evaporated milk 1/2 cup sour cream 1 1/2 teaspoons rosemary 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon basil 1 tsp. salt 3 tsp. chicken bullion 3 cups water I brought the water to a boil, added the bullion, potato and celery. Cooked until potato was tender.
I then added everything else except the milk and sour cream. I heated it through and added the evaporated milk. Heat and add sour cream. Ladle into bowls and serve. Garnish with a tablespoon of shredded cheddar cheese.

Apple Slices

October 28, 2009 jennifer Snacks and Appetizers

We woke up this morning to the wonderful smell of apples.

Dehydrated apples. So good!
Yesterday my seven year old daughter took charge of the apple peeler/corer/slicer and filled my dehydrator with apple slices. She sliced a large bag of apples that were a little past the crisp, crunchy stage. If you have a dehydrator, don’t forget to use it to preserve fruits that are just past the point of eating fresh. When it’s a little on the ripe side, the natural sweetness of the fruit will be even better.

I love to dehydrate fruit. I don’t put anything on it. We’ve never had a problem with the fruit browning too much. Just peel, slice and turn it on. Sometimes I don’t even peel the fruit. I always get wonderful results. When I dehydrate fruit, I slice it up before we go to bed and it’s ready when we wake up in the morning.

It’s such a tasty, natural snack. And today, it was a great snack to nibble on while we watched the first snowfall of the year.

Apples, anyone?