When Live Gives You Cabbage...

Well here I am with another picture of FOOD! What is up with that? Any Freudians out there want to take a stab at that?

Well, while you are concocting a mental evaluation of me, here is what I took a stab at this morning:

Cabbage Rolls!

Or at least that is what I called them. I had odds and ends and a mish-mosh of stuff in the fridge from when my lady's daughter let me empty out her fridge after she went into the 'pital with her broken hip. I had things like a half a pound of ground round, a half of a cabbage, a can of Pillsbury Bread Sticks, and a whole lot of mayo and cheese.

So here's the RECIPE for these utterly DELICIOUS if I DO SAY SO MYSELF Cabbage Rolls!

Brown and drain 1/2 lbs. Ground Round and 1/2 small Onion, diced.

In large frying pan, put finely diced cabbage with 1 cup water and 2 bouillion cubes. (I used beef this time but chicken or veggie would work just as well.)

Let the cabbage boil and simmer until tender. Add the burger/onion mix and stir it up with  1/2 cup Mayo, 1 slice swiss cheese, 1 slice medium cheddar cheese. (These cheeses were those packaged deli sandwich slices. Use whatever you have on hand.)

Cook just until the cheese is melted and the mayo is well blended.

Then, open up a can of whoop-ass. Oh no I mean open up a can of Pillsbury's Breadsticks. Don't separate them out into breadsticks, just lay the two pieces of  dough out and spoon the meat/cabbage mixture onto them. Carefully roll them up and you will see the lines for where to cut once they are baked. It's totally cool like that!

Bake at 375° for 13-15 minutes until dough is golden brown. Lay on cutting board to cool before you slice them.

I carefully calculated all these ingredients and then divided by 12, since that is how many you would get when you cut them, and I came up with 216 Calories per roll.

I'll be having 2 of these for lunch with a cup of celery soup which basically has NO calories or so few that you don't have to care about it.  Bone Apple Tight!

Puzzled

I've had about enough football today.

Time to get out an autumn activity!

Just so I don't screw up and eat a puzzle piece instead of a pretzel.

Paper Pleasures A-Plenty

Ah, mucking about with paper! I do love it!

Lately I've noticed I just cannot sit down to the television unless I have something else to do at the same time. It's like it's just not enough to hold my attention; plus I feel like it's a waste of time so I'd better be multi-tasking. After all, idle hands are the Devil's Workshop.

Earlier this week I got out my scraps of cardstock and cut them to size for fun gift tags and wee notes. I made sure that the darker papers had a nice white lining.

Then last night I sat and made oodles of decorative hand-made gift cards. Mind you, I don't use them myself on gifts, I GIVE them as gifts.

Because, as a gift-giver, who wouldn't love a stack of ready-made labels on hand to put on a present?

In this way I get to use up tons of scraps AND make something creative that doesn't take a huge amount of planning or fussing.

Fortunately, Mackie was asleep or outdoors or something during this crafting mela, because he just HAS to stick his nose in stuff and whatever it is, try and LAY on it!

He's so damn cute!

HOWEVER,  I had to give up on making this apron for a friend because, obviously, he kept lying on the fabric anytime I tried to lay it out and pin the pattern to it. This is why I never had a 2 year old!  All my imaginary children were adorable infants and then instantly 3 years old and talking.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Everyone asked what I'd done over the Labor day weekend and I had to say I didn't do much: no funds for such amusements as the local R&B festival or Pioneer Days down in Old Sac.

In fact all I had funds for gasoline for my car. And it's a happy thing that I did go out and do just that because standing across from me at the pumps was a kindly gentleman who just finished his morning selling strawberries at the farmer's market...

Which he just GAVE me out of the back of his truck!

And when life gives you strawberries, you make jam!

All cleaned up and ready to go.

Bile them strawberries down, gals, bile them strawberries down!

Testing with an ice cube for consistancy. I never let it cook long enough, though! I always end up with runny jam.

Three jars at a time in my handy dandy too-small pot!

Never too early to get started on home-made Christmas presents.

However, I seriously doubt if anyone is going to want my pickled cauliflower. Guess I'll just have to keep it for myself.

And afterwards: Grilled Tuna in ginger sauce and a freshly-shaved parmeson cheese Caesar salad.

A Thrifty Surprise

I finally put up the plates I  got at the thrift store the last time I was there.

I love that blend of creamy white on white.

And today I had to go to the DMV for a licence renewal and since it's only a few blocks over from the thrift store I went again! This time I spent under a dollar. I just saw two patterns I could use so I got them.  

29 cents for a pattern, I just love it! If only fabric was as inexpensive!

But WAIT! There's MORE!

When I got home and  peeked inside the envelope to see if the pieces were all there (something I usually do before I buy them but for some reason I just didn't bother today) I noticed that the previous owner had left some of her work behind!

The yoke had been pinned cut out of  this cute blue with white daisies and red ladybugs fabric! And then carefully folded and stuck back into the pattern envelope. It was just a neat surprise, I thought.