Looking for a Special Gift for that Hard To Buy For Person? Consider this..

For the nominal fee of $1 you can purchase a copy of Patrick Hamel's 1 page story:  The Golden Sword and The Sword of Darkness.   Each story is illustrated with a pencil drawing and each of the 10 copies thus far printed of the story has a unique picture.  Shipping for each story is .44 per address. 

"Behold the story of mideval times about the most powerful swords in the Universe!"
-Patrick Hamel

"It's two stories rolled into one!"
-Patrick Hamel

One of the illustrations .

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So this is what Patrick worked on this morning. Now he has the copies of his story in a folder and is looking for an outlet to sell them.  He asked if he could go sell at the Speedway Gas Station.  Obviously I had to say no to that idea. I wonder if he could technically list it on amazon.com....

How to make your Thanksgiving Feast A success by Patrick Hamel.

Tips on planning your Thanksgiving  from Master Patrick Hamel

Today we were in the car going to pick up The Man from the Train and I flipped through the radio station and found that WLIT 93.9 has turned on the Holiday Lite.  This means from now until 12/26 it's all Christmas Music all the time. Patrick does not approve:

What You Should Be Doing Now by Patrick:

Well you know they shouldn't be playing Christmas songs now, and like, you shouldn't be focusing on buying presents for Christmas now. 

You should be focused on food. What kinds of food you are going to buy?  Get dresses and clothes if you are going to be fancy for Thanksgiving.  Don't forget to get silverware and Thanksgiving decorations like pictures of pilgrims.  You should invite family members and people over for Thanksgiving and get everyone nice and clean for it.

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On the Turkey front I see that Target has turkey for 79 cents a pound (Limit 2) and wait here I have a flyer for a small local supermarket, Fairplay, and they have Premium Butterball Turkeys (and a mighty fine website) for 98 cents a pound. (Limit 1).

Or you can go totally organic and free range with your feast, by having a special Thanksgiving Box of Organic Fruit, Veggies, Herbs and a plumb free range turkey delivered from Timber Creek Farms out of Yorkville.  We get an organic produce box delivered from Timber Creek and it's always full of great stuff to play with even if I don't know what the heck it is that I going to be cooking with before it arrives at my door.

Mystery Squash from a Timber Creek Organics box.  I roasted it with just a sprinkling of Seasoned Salt and it was delish!.

Grocery Shopping Woes

I need to go grocery shopping, not the grab a few things kind, but the overflowing cart kind. A shoebox stands in the way of me shoppping.  Why you ask?  Well the shoebox is full of all my coupons which need to be gone through and organized and I need to match up the coupons with the deals. I can't go to the store and buy a few items knowing that in the shoebox is a coupon for say 50 cents off.  I just can't!

And then there is the Thanksgiving factor! When can I get 'the best' deal on a Turkey?  That time is not here yet.  But it is coming, I know it! I love a yummy turkey dinner, so I'd like to plan my shopping to allow for purchasing two turkeys at rock bottom prices.  And then I've been thumbing through the beautiful chock-full-of-awesomeness that is the Food Network Thanksgiving issue.  So many sides and so little time!

This leads me to rant-like statement.  You know what I don't get?  Meat in stuffing.  Why put sausage (for example) in stuffing?  It's a side dish.  Side dishes should be meat-free--only exception being the addition of some bacon.  Bacon is always welcome.

Lastly I have one major wrinkle to consider in this weeks shopping, and that is that the microwave has gone kaput.  Poorly played Kenmore Microwave.   Just when it's your time to shine as we make our way through the whirlwind that is holiday cooking, you go and kick the bucket! 

Quick Recipe
We had a couple uncarved decorative pumpkins so today I cut the top off one and Anna scooped out the guts and we made a batch of late-season Roasted Pumpkin Seeds:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Totally Tastefully Simple
1 batch of washed pumpkin seeds
2 tbsps of  Our Roasted Garlic Infused Oil
a sprinkling of our Seasoned Salt

Mix the first 2 ingredients in a small bowl then take a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam and spread out the pumpkin seeds.  Sprinkle on our Seasoned Salt and roast in an oven for about 15 minutes at 425.  The seeds are done when they are golden brown and a little crunchy.  Watch time, do not let them overcook because they are so much better before they are burnt. :-D

How's Your Holiday Shopping going? Of Grandmas and Applesauce

But before I chat about shopping, I would like to share a picture from my recent trip to see my Grandma in Youngstown, OH.  If we are friends on facebook or you are a subscriber to my Gabby Gourmet Newsletter then you have probably seen my 2011 Four Generations picture, so please bear with me.

Thinking about this picture showing 4 generations of women in my family, I have two thoughts.  The first is, I really should have done something with my hair. 

The second is that I am reminded of late summer 2004.  Why then you ask?  Back then my mother organized a little party for my parents wedding anniversary and at that time Anna was an infant, and we have another one of these pictures. A casual picture outside the restaurant where the Wedding Anniversary party was held.

The day before the party, other pictures had been taken as well. My mother declared that  for her wedding anniversary she wanted a family portrait and scheduled a photo shoot. My mom doesn't frequently make requests, so obviously it was important to her.  During the shoot, I remember several unruly toddlers on the scene. Oh yes, they would be my boys. I also recall that Anna was a couple months old and I didn't have any non-maternity clothes that fit.  Icing on the cake of the ill-fated family photo was that my brother Karl wasn't able to come in town to be part of the picture. 

Now here we are 7 years later, and I realize,  I've never seen the family photo shoot pictures.  Since they have never seen the light of day, hanging over the mantle at my parent's home, I can only assume they much be terrible pictures.
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How is your holiday shopping going?  According to a news report I glanced at, most shopping is done during November.  Last week I was at a large shopping event in Evergreen Park held to benefit Christmas 4 Kids .  As you know, I'm commited to a preowned Christmas, so I stayed at my table and shared the Tastefully Simple with everyone who stopped by and avoided shopping myself.  Well, except for one purchase, and I think you'll be with me on this.

Have you ever heard of Chicago's Finest Applesauce?  It's made by Officer Jim Mullen, he was injured in the line of duty and paralyzed.  Being an amazing entrepreneur, and creator of one most awesome applesauce, he is the owner of Mullen Foods.  His's very enthusiastic marketing director was at the event sharing samples of the all-natural applesauce.  One little spoonful and I knew I had a grab and jar and do some kitchen experimenting. 

Now the Man-of-the-house got ahold of my jar and helped himself so when I made the recipe below I had about 1/2 a jar left.  So we know it is acceptable to even the pickiest of palates.  If you want to try some for yourself, you can check out the retail locations that carry Chicago's Finest Applesauce on the website for Mullen Foods.

Baked Butternut Applesauced Squash

1/2 a jar of Chicago's Finest Applesauce
1 med to large butternut squash peeled and diced, feel free to make the chunks the size you like.
1/2 a teaspoon ground nutmeg
1-2tbsp Tastefully Simple Caramel Cinnamon Sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, my oven runs cooler, so if your oven runs hot, try cooking at 375.
Spray 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan with Pam.
Mix the first 3 ingredients right in the pan and then bake for 15 minutes.
Take out the pan remix, enjoy the delicious smells wafting in your kitchen, sprinkle the caramel cinnamon sprinkles on top and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the squash is tender.

Serve with a nice pork chop.

Heading Out Of Town

Happy Halloween, almost.  Well I think we can all agree that most of the festivities for Halloween will be had this weekend, so let me say Happy Halloween! 

Above is a Jack O Lantern Tastefully Simple style.  It is a cheeseball rolled in crushed doritoes with a Blue Aztec Corn chips face and the stem of a green pepper for the pumpkin stem. 

I am getting ready to head out of town with Ms. Anna to visit my grandma.  We are leaving today, just her and I, and heading over the river and through the woods all the way to Youngstown, Ohio.  Looks like we will have good weather and I've taken a nap.  Plus the Tollway in Ohio upgraded to Starbucks so I see an evening latte in my future. 

The boys will be here this weekend and I am hoping the homework will get done any maybe when we get back Sunday night there won't be a pile of dishes.  I have so many things I feel I should be trying to do before we leave in a bit that it's very hard to put together a nice blog post.  Yet here I am!  I'm clinging to my lappy as in about an hour I will be heading out and w/o any of the technology--except a very basic cell phone for over 48 hours.  *sigh*  how will I survive. :-D

Driving Driving Driving

Tales from the Frugal Side

If I had a dollar for everytime someone I saw in my daily travels remarked upon how bad the economy is currently; I'd have a nice Christmas fund at this point. Maybe I should get a portable credit card scanner, see if I can collect on that "if I had dollar for everytime." Much to my dismay, I'd have to say the odds of collecting those dollars would be very slim. So let's get onto my patent pending Tales From the Frugal Side.

  This week in Frugalville* had it's ups and downs.

1. Once again this year, I used a few coupons and purchased Halloween candy well in advance of the holiday. Once again I planned to hide the candy. Once again this year, the candy I bought is gone before Halloween. The lesson here is that planning ahead when it involves chocolate or Twizzlers is a bad idea. Procrastination has its place.

  Score on purchasing Halloween Candy with coupons: C

2. I met The Man for a fine dining secret shop at a steakhouse downtown. The requirements for what needed to be ordered were not in line with the reimbursment. I will only be reimbursed for about 50% of the total cost of the meal, which is not the goal. The goal is to be reimbursed for the meal as a payment for a detailed report. Icing on the cake was that the steak wasn't good and the service was subpar. We could have had a fantastically yummy meal at  Coopershawk Winery AND  Chucks Southern Comforts Cafe!

Speaking of Chucks, clear your schedule and set the DVR! Chucks Southern Comforts Cafe will be on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Monday October 24th at 9pm! If you have ever been to Chucks you know Guy Fieri is going to love everything!

Score on secret shop steakhouse: D

Score on Chucks being on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives A+!

3. Making bread from scratch. Many a frugal living blog talks about how much cheaper and awesome it is to make your own bread. I was looking in the cabinet and saw that I had 2 packets of active dry yeast that were fixing to expire. Normally I don't say fixing, but making your own bread will turn you all kinds of country. I googled 'easy homemade bread recipe' and I was off to the races. All went well until I noticed my bread wasn't rising. At this point I could have thrown in the towel and threw out the dough, however, since I had spent 10 minutes kneading the dough, I wasn't ready to quit. I returned to google 'my bread won't rise.' and found out that if your bread won't rise it can be salvaged! You have to take more yeast, one or two tablespoons and mix that with a teaspoon of sugar and 2 oz of warm water and mix that together. Next wait 10 minute to make sure the yeast gets foamy, that's how you know it is active. It was active! The next step was to mix that into the dough. This step was gooey and icky. But it worked!

Score on Baking Bread: B- (great sense of accomplishment, but time consuming!)




*Frugalville where are the women are Couponers, the men cut their own grass, and the children wear hand-me-downs.

Hallo-Win-A-Kindle and More Giveaway Time!

I have teamed up with Jennifers Savings and Angela Newsom, author of the Coupon Quick Start Guide, to provide you with this wonderful giveaway of many prizes! The Grand Prize will be a Kindle, a free eBook of the Coupon Quick Start Guide, and a $20 Amazon.com Gift Card!!! The blogs participating in this have provided $25 Restaurant.com Gift Card, L'Oreal Youth Code Serum Intense, $25 Paypal Cash, $25 Restaurant.com Gift Card, Fully-Stocked Coupon Binder, Conair Purple 1" Curling Iron (new in box), Starbucks reusable tumbler and gift card, $25 Amazon.com gift card, Avon watch-Mother of Pearl face and "diamond" accents, $15 Target Gift Card, Cozy Comfort from Tastefully Simple, and 4 more of Angela Newsom's eBook: Coupon Quick Start Guide!!!! As you can see, we have got some great prizes! This giveaway will run from October 19th through 12:01am on October 31st. Good Luck to everyone! Make sure to do the mandatory entries first, then do all of the optional entries too for your chance to win one of these great prizes!

It's almost time for the Hall-O-Win a Kindle and More Giveaway! My first blog hop!

Very soon the little halloween'y button  will be active and you can click and enter to win a Kindle as well as a bunch of other prizes including my contribution to the the giveaway, some yummy Tastefully Simple .  So click and enter, the odds are way better than the lottery!

Chilly outside, Chili inside!

Today was good chili weather so I threw together a veggie chili with what I had in the house:

Here is the easy peasy recipe:

In the Slow Cooker:

2 small onions chopped.

3 nice red bell peppers chopped

1 tomato chopped.

1 can chili beans

2 cans roasted diced tomatoes.

1 can light red kidney beans (rinsed)

1 capful of Wahoo! Chili

and our Seasoned Salt to taste.

Cook all day and serve over noodles if you like or add in meat if that is your thing or top with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese.

Wahoo! Chili is a complete must have in my kitchen, it is the key to a great chili around which I build my everchanging chili meals.

We have finished Olivia!

You had a chance to see the before pumpkin pic...and I have a reprise of that picture below. 

And after some supplies picked up from WalMart during a mad dash through the store last week while Bryce was at Cub Scout Den Night....along with zealous assistance (aka nagging) from Anna... we have created our pumpkin version of the much beloved book character Oliva!

There she is hanging with her biggest fan!

Perhaps you view the pumpkin and think, really that's it, how hard was that?  Let me tell you, I'm feeling very good about this achievement.  The literary pumpkins aren't even due until next week, We finished way before the due date!  But wait there is more!   So far this month I have managed to get Bryce his Weblos uniform and even put the patches on in the right places.  Patrick finally got a haircut and we even got him a few blue highlights.  Both boys finished their book report projects and turned those in on friday. Tonight I ironed-onto Anna's brownie sash the troop numbers. And last but not least, I have everything ready for Patrick to make his Diary of a Wimpy Kid pumpkin this week as well as the carving supplies for Bryce to carve his pumpkin. 

Most of the time, I am thisclose to feeling completely overwhelmed with all that I should be doing and with that, some of the little things get over looked. Something like an optional school project would fall to the wayside and that would make Anna, Bryce or Patrick disappointed and meal feel like 'the worst mom ever'.

I have no clue how so many parent manage multiple activities for multiple kids.  I'm happy to tread water with school and one outside activity per kid.

pinked out.

It's October and we are in the midst of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I suppose one could say that it is great so many companies have jumped aboard the bandwagon and are offering so many different promotions seeking to raise funds for Breast Cancer Awareness.

For me, I am finding this preponderance of  BUY PINK, makes me very cynical.  Especially now that the football players are wearing neon pink.  It doesn't ring sincere.  Let's say there is a player whose mom is a breast cancer survivor.  Him wearing pink shoes, what the point.  Him sharing in a post-game interview that he wants to give a shout out to his mom who is a 20 year cancer survivor and showed him what determination means--now that is impactful and true cancer awareness.

What's the difference between the two?  Pink paraphernalia, driven by a nameless/faceless corporation that in my opinion is more driven by free PR=more sales OR a unsolicited testimonial.  

Give me the unsolicited testimonial any day of the week and keep the pink gear. 

Don't even get me started on the guilt-inducing "Save Lids Save Lives" campaign run by Yoplait.  Look, how about instead of asking people to mail in their aluminum foil lids that they licked clean, how about if you just give 5 cents from every sale to the SGK foundation for a cure.  If I was in charge I would happily give 5 cents from every sale of my yogurt during October.  Then I'd ask everyone to recycle the aluminum little tops.  I'd even have a contest to aware a year of free Greek style yogurt for great crafty ideas on how to reuse the yogurt containers.  

Hmm how to reuse the yogurt containers...how about, put glue on them sprinkle em with glitter, add a hook and use them as ornaments.   And then let's go out an give proper homage to the women out there who have kicked cancer's ass!