Cottage Sweet Cottage

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Computer Desktop Organizer~

I've been doing quite a bit of digital scrapbooking lately and having such a great time! I started about a week ago and love combining colors and textures into something visually pleasing.

And now I can add a little bit of practicality in organizing my computer desktop with wallpaper! Yay!

Here's my basic layout for a computer desktop organizer.

(click to enlarge)

I've added various headers to each frame and will set each folder in the proper place for organization.

If you'd like to download this I'd love to hear about how it works for you.

You'll need to click on the photo while in blogger to enlarge it and download it to your computer by right clicking on it and clicking 'save as'. Click on the file and open it in your photo viewer. Right click on the image and then click on 'save as desktop background'.

If the above works for you can you please let me know? Also I'd love to know if there are any difficulties. I'm not sure if it will work for everyone since screen resollutions can vary.

If you want to add text to the six frames there are many free online editing sites such as picmonkey and photoflexr.

This desktop organizer is free, is not for sale or to be sold for profit in respect to the people who have so kindly shared free graphics, papers and elements on various digital scrapbooking sites.

Mondays~
I Should be Mopping the Floor

Homemade Mondays
The More the Merrier Monday
Motivate me Monday at Keeping it Simple
Making your Home Sing Monday
Tuesdays~
One project at a time at A bowl full of lemons
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Frugally Sustainable (first Tues of every month)
Wednesdays
Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home
Thursday
Grace at Home at Imparting Grace
Creative Homeacre Hop
Friday
Flaunt it Friday
Food Waste Friday
Fellowship Fridays
Feathered Nest Friday
Weekend Potluck at the Country Cook
Saturday
Pink Saturday
Show and Tell Saturday

A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Lane Cottage

Women Living Well Monthly Link Up

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Pasta Alfredo

We've been so busy lately! So so so busy! Time has been flying by and it's been difficult to blog too.

I made hubby a big pot of spaghetti sauce the other day and I"m not too fond of red sauce. Whenever I make the hubs a meal that isn't my fave I usually whip this up for my dinner.

It's super fast~

Enough time to boil the pasta and about 3 minutes to whip up the alfredo sauce.

It is SO easy! I aint gonna lie. Hubby had spagetti 2 nights in a row and I had this. ;)

1/3 cup of whipping cream

6 ounces of favorite frozen ravioli (or other pasta of your choice)

1 1/2 ounces of mozzarella cheese (I've used Monterey Jack in a pinch and it works fine)

Butter

Bring water in a saucepan to boil and throw in ravioli.

Boil for a few minutes. Drain and Set aside.

Using the same pot that you boiled your pasta in melt about 1 tsp- 1 tbsp of butter. Add cream and cheese. Over very low heat stir until cheese is melted. If you turn up the heat too high the cheese will get grainy. Add more milk if neccesary to desired texture. Add ravioli to sauce and toss to coat.

Top with cracked pepper and Parmesan Cheese if desired.

Eat!

Been toying around with making some recipe cards. ;) Here's my first one!

Mondays~
I Should be Mopping the Floor

A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Lane Cottage

Women Living Well Monthly Link Up

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Oven Chicken Stew

I've tried Chicken Stew in the crockpot and it wasn't as good as this. I've also tried it in a Dutch oven on the burner and, again, it wasn't as good as this. I don't know why, but the flavors are wonderful in this when it's cooked in the oven. I make this the same with Pork cubes for Pork Stew and it's even better.

It's not an exact 'by the book' recipe and I 'm sure if you personalize it to your liking using seasonings you like you can make it yours! I love recipes that come out exactly the same every time. It's easy and makes for some good home cooking.

Black Pepper

Season Salt

Cajun Seasoning

One bag of Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs

One bag baby carrotts

1-2 cans of tomato sauce

One Bag of Mixed Veggies

flour (not shown)

1-2 cans of sliced potatoes or you can cube and cook your own

or you can use 1 cup of coked elbow macaroni) (not shown)

Wash chicken and place in greased 15 by 10 pan.

Season your chicken well on all sides.

Sprinkle some flour on top. Depending on how much juices and water are in your pan, you want to absorb all the water with the flour. This will thicken the stew later on.

Mix it in really good and make sure there are no dry spots on the bottom of the pan. Yes it's kind of like glue but this really simplifies everything since nothing has to be browned before putting it in the pan.

Add 1-2 cans of tomato sauce. I used 2.

Mix it all together.

Add baby carrots and coat with tomato sauce.

Cover and cook at 350.

About an hour later remove from oven and break chicken apart with a spoon. If it's still tough put it back in the oven till tender.

Add potatoes and mixed vegetables and mix everything together.

Put it back in oven for another 20 minutes or so until everything is heated through. I put mine back in for about another 30 minutes because I love my chicken when it shreds.

The baby carrotts will have cooked to perfection and are SO yummy!

Mondays~
I Should be Mopping the Floor

A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Lane Cottage

Women Living Well Monthly Link Up

Thursday, June 6, 2013

No Knead Butter Rolls

Easy No Knead Buttery Rolls. I can eat these for breakfast, lunch and dinner... in fact I'm getting ready to fry up an egg for the hubs to have on top of one of these for a quick brekky. Yummo. I won't tell you how many of these I ate when they came out of the oven yesterday. Okay. I ate 4! haha!

The dough can be mixed together and kept covered in the refrigerator and dough can be pulled off, let rise and bake for easy fresh rolls.

A quick word about flour. I've noticed that in the bag of flour that I am currently using I need less flours when making bread so for this recipe I'm using 6 cups. Use your own judgement and use the amount that works best for what you have. Every flour brand is different and, every bag as well.

3 cups Warm Water
2 Tbsp yeast

½ cups Sugar

½ cups Vegetable Oil (canola Works Best)

2 teaspoons Salt

6 cups To 7 Cups White Flour

1 stick Butter

375 degree oven. Measure out water in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water, add the sugar and salt and whisk together using wire whisk. Let sit for a few minutes to make sure yeast is activated. Add enough flour till dough is moistened and incorporated. Dough will be sticky and not dry like traditional bread doughs.

Cover dough and let rise till double about an hour or so but I don't wait that long. ha! Melt butter in microwave for a few seconds just until it melts. If you overmelt it then it will seperate. Grease cookie sheet and hands and pull off chunks of dough of equal sizes and dipping them in butter then put them on the baking sheet. I make about 26 rolls per recipe but mine are pretty big. Pour the remaining butter over rolls.

Let rise 20 minutes and bake for 20 minutes. I cooked two trays in one oven and won't do that again. One at a time for great ventilation and so they dont get too brown on the bottom. But....that being sad... the brown on the bottom was crunchy buttery good and not burnt so whatever yur preference is.

If you make these on a cookie sheet they tend to spread out. I mad these today in good quality muffin pans and~ wowser~ they were much better. The bread became crusty and golden and they were able to rise and be fluffy. I'm definitely going to make these ONLY in the muffin tins. (I uploaded new pics too!)

Mondays~
I Should be Mopping the Floor

A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Lane Cottage

Women Living Well Monthly Link Up

Friday, May 31, 2013

10 Things that make me happy!

1~ My husband.

Having him here with me in this world is one of life's most precious gifts! I almost lost him last year and I appreciate him so much more!

2~ Sitting down to dinner as a family.

We can talk, eat and enjoy our meal with one another. It's priceless!

3~ Being Clutter Free!

It's a daily process but so freeing!

4~Being Organized. It's an ongoing journey but there is so much more peace without clutter and streamlining our household as much as possible.

5~ Baking bread from scratch.

It isn't necesarily free, but with the money we are saving from not buying store bought breads, it is saving us bunches! It's better than store bought bread and much cheaper! And did I mention Satisfaction?

6~ A smile.

Given and Recieved. It makes a world of difference.

7~ A word of kindness.

How I love Encouragement~ to both give and to recieve.

8~ Health. Things could be better but I have so much to be grateful for!

9~ Tragedy.

I can truly say that good things have come from it. It might have taken time for me to be able to realize it, but the rose does bloom again.

10~ Faith. Resting in the Promises of God is a wonderful thing.

What about you?

What are ten things that make you Happy?

I'd love to hear your list so please leave a comment or link to your blog!

Mondays~
I Should be Mopping the Floor

A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Lane Cottage

Women Living Well Monthly Link Up

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Creating a Home Binder~Part 2~ Weekly To~Do List

f you haven't seen the first installment on Creating a Home Binder you can find it here.

The next portion of my Home Binder is a weekly To Do List.

It's a working journal and so it's not very pretty. It works for me. ;)

This list might seem long but it only takes a few minutes to do these things. Two things I get done every week are change my sheets, vacuum and a detailed wiping down of the floors in the main bathroom. I might not get everything else finished in a week so I check everything off that I complete and finish it the following week.

No stress and no pressure with rotating tasks.

Here's my list in detail.

Vacuum

Dust all surfaces

Clean all Window Sills and Blinds

Condensations on all Windows

Wash Bedding/Change Sheets

Thoroughly clean floors in bathroom

Wipe down laundry room

Quick Clean Basement and Guest bathroom

Wipe down Furnace

Clean Windows downstairs

Love these Vintage Home Journal covers!

(vintage photos courtesy of Ladies Home Journal)

I'd love to hear about your Home Binder! Do tell!

Mondays~
I Should be Mopping the Floor

A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Lane Cottage

Women Living Well Monthly Link Up

A Vintage Quilt

I posted this Tuesday but wanted to post it again because I wanted to share it at other linky parties and be a polite participant. ;)! I promise this will be my one and only repeat!

Goodness~ this post is going to be image heavy. I took out a vintage quilt out of the hutch and took out my camera with my wonderful 105mm macro lens that I've kept on it. I love that lens. And how can I pick just one photo? Who am I kidding? How can I pick just a few? It's impossible!

I think the fabric in this quilt is 1930's. If you know of a more exact date I'd love to know.

Which pic and fabric is your favorite?

This is one of my faves because of all the irregular quilt stitches and the 'hidden' quilt stitches. It would have been so easy to give up on the applique because the stitches aren't perfect but the stitcher continued on. How I can relate to that! And I love the character of the imperfection!