Banana Chips and Homemade Crackers!

Yesterday I decided to try my hand at dehydrating some fruit... and also make my own homemade crackers. Here are the bananas getting ready to be dried! I am still waiting for them to complete, so I don't have any "after" pics. I did snatch one earlier this morning just to check and they taste pretty good!!
The crackers weren't as hard to make as I was expecting. I started out rolling the mixture and cutting them with bite-size cookie cutters. The kitchen was so hot though... I petered out after filling one cookie sheet. So the other way they say to do it is to press the mixture into a cookie sheet and then score it with a knife. The finished products were a little thicker than I think they should be... but it was a learning process!! The taste is also a little bitter, but I think that is because it has wheat flour and wheat germ in the mixture. They are still good though and I sent Cory some crackers along with some Cooper cheese in his lunch today!! I enjoy making things in the kitchen... and it's always a learning process since I'm kind of new to it!! On Monday I made peach cobbler, which was rather tasty! I just have to be careful not to make too many sweets!!

And... here is my pitiful pooch! She really isn't pitiful.. she was just hanging out with me in the kitchen..... ok, maybe a little bored. hee hee!

Happy Wednesday!!

A Place to Hold My Treasures!

I am an absolute sucker for little useless pieces of junk. I prefer to call them trinkets or treasures!! I just find something interesting in old, odd or eccentric items. A couple of years ago, my mom and I were at an antique mall (Cory and I went there on my birthday this year and found an old glass candy jar that I bought to put my buttons in)... anyway, I found this great old printer drawer. I'd been on the look out for one, but was a little picky on the style and look. Some were more "modern" (like from the 50's with bright colors and silver handles) which is not what I wanted. Some were broken. Some had weird slots. When I found this one... I hit the jack pot! And it was a decent price (WOOT!). It has some imperfections, as you can see by the picture... but that's part of it's character! Anyway... Now the fun part is filling it! I have been gathering things here and there at shops and yard sales... and some things that were just cluttering my own house. (The little elves, angel and santa are old bells that my grandma gave me... and on the far right is a tiny white bird--kind of hard to see!) (If you can't tell, I love little bottles... and do you see the armadillo? The snail? The scottie dog?)
Sitting on the couch right now, it looks pretty full... but when I look at the picture(s)... I can see that I have a long way to go! I want to get it totally filled up! It's just so much fun!! Do you have a shelf like this? If so, I would love to see what little odds and ends you fill it up with!

Also while at the Antique place on my birthday, Cory and I saw this AWESOME old typewriter! I really wanted it... but couldn't justify spending the money... and not knowing if we could find a replacement ribbon for it. It was definitely old--but so full of character. Sure, you can type on a computer and use all sorts of fonts and extras... but there is something nostalgic and exciting about using a typewriter to me. It just seems CLASSIC! I am a big letter writer... and I think it would be so neat to sit and type out a letter on a typewriter. Maybe I'm just weird! LOL!! If it would've had a manual with it, I have no doubt that Cory would've been all about getting it and finding a replacement ribbon--but it was just too risky not knowing much about it! Did I mention that I LOVE the sound the keys make on a typewriter? Heehee!

Ok, I am off to make some chocolate chip cookies. Yesterday I made Cory a pie (just because)... Yesterday was my nephew's 6th birthday and we are going to an amusement park on Saturday to continue the celebration--so I'm in charge of making and bringing the cookies! I'm going to turn up the Bluegrass Station and enjoy my afternoon!!!

Happy Friday Eve! (LOL--compliments of That Chick Over There)

Oh, the Humidity!!

I have been keeping pretty busy lately... although I don't have anything overly exciting to write about.

I have been going to Physical Therapy for my back issues... which has been helping TREMENDOUSLY!!! Other than that I have been cooking and cleaning and sewing. I sewed a couple of aprons... and gave one away as a bridal shower gift before I remembered to take a picture of it. It was cute though... not exactly what I was hoping for... but the bride seemed to like it! That's the important thing!

Cory and I splurged a little and went to the county fair, which is only about a 3 minute drive from our house. I admit, there wasn't a whole lot to do because we don't ride the rides... and the food is so expensive! But we walked around and checked out the animals and the Expo building. We went into the ride/game area and found... of all things... the CRANE games! We are crane game addicts... so we played that a number of times--which was considerably cheaper than playing regular carnival games. We kept winning!! We seriously had 6 stuffed animals... ... so we traded in 5 of them for this big Care Bear! Just what we need, I know... but it was fun!!! Oh, I almost forgot... earlier in the week, my mom brought my sister's kids out for the parade. Despite a limo breaking down at the very beginning and having to be jumped by another limo... it was a pretty decent parade. We left before it ended because we were tired and my mom had a long drive back home. Here are the kids with their cotton candy... That's right.. Sugar them up and send them home! LOL!

Cory finished the chicken run and it took awhile for the girls to realize it was OK to come outside! Once they came out though, they didn't want to go back in!! I have to wait for some nice weather so that I can stain the coop. I probably should've done it right off the bat, but oh well.

Yesterday we had a tornado warning... which wasn't surprising since the weather was so wacky and humid!! I closed the chickens in the coop... and Cory rounded up the dog and cat to take to the basement... and I gathered up some photo albums (don't want to lose those!) just in case. We waited until the warning was over before we went back to "normal" life. It didn't even rain or anything... so we were lucky... although I could go for a nice cool rain shower right now!! I spent the morning cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming and doing dishes. I was drenched in sweat from the stifling heat upstairs!!! I had lunch with my cousin, who was on her way through... and now I'm back home getting ready to hang up my "printer's drawer" shelf (for all of my little knick knacks). I usually don't do these things without Cory for fear I'll mess up and put too many holes in the wall. But, I want to get this thing up and since I have the motivation, I am just going to go for it!

I hope everyone is staying nice and cool in this HOT and HUMID weather!!