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I tried to resist… (Vision Forum)

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December 31, 2005 By kimc

I tried to resist posting about another Vision Forum sale, but today is the last day and they have a bunch of our old favorites at great discounts, along with some brand new items!

You get the idea. I’m not going through all 13 pages with my dial-up connection – you’ll have to do your own shopping. But if you’ve drooled over their catalog for the last few years, this might be a great time to shop for birthdays – or next Christmas.

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Chicago Style?

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December 30, 2005 By Perry C.

My wife just posted her very very good pizza dough recipe. (see my last post)

I love her pizza. I’m not at all complaining, but last year I was introduced (thanks to my bud Peter Pallock) to Chicago style pizza.

Right here in San Antonio – native Chicagoan Peter found a better than average (in fact he thought it was pretty good) Chicago Style pizzeria. Now being the frugal father of seven that I am I asked my wife to go on a search for a similar crust that we could make at home.

She has with reasonable success replicated the TASTE but not the consistency.

Does anyone out there have a good Chicago Style crust recipe? It needs to be thin but strong. Not crunchy not doughy…Almost like a cracker.

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Pizza Night !!!!!

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December 30, 2005 By Perry C.

Life in a shoe: the methods and madness of one mother of 7: Friday Night Pizza

My wife just posted her better-than-pizza hut recipe for pizza crust.

I love my mom AND her cooking but (don’t anyone tell my mom I said this). I like Kim’s crust better!

It’s cheap easy and we’ve been enjoying friday night pizza fellowships for years.

Now if I can just get her to make a deep dish too!

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Friday Night Pizza

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December 30, 2005 By kimc

Every Friday night, we have pizza.

This was the tradition of hubby’s family for many years, and it has been faithfully practiced in our house as well.

We usually have company, but if the children are sick or it has been a very long week, we might eat alone.
Sometimes we had pizza Thursday, and maybe even Wednesday.
No matter – on Friday, we have pizza.
Friday night is Pizza night.

Pizza Crust
makes 2 large or 3 thin crusts

2 cups flour
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. yeast
2 Tbs. sugar
1/2 cup cornmeal, opt.
1/2 cup powdered milk, opt.

Stir, then add:

2 cups warm water
1/2 cup oil

Beat til smooth.
Stir in 3-4 cups add’l flour until dough is stiff enough to turn out and knead.
Knead 3-5 minutes, til smooth and no longer sticky, adding flour as necessary.
Let rest 10 minutes, or let rise for an hour in oiled bowl.
Pat into pans greased with shortening. Trust me on this: for a nice crispy crust, use shortening! Be careful not to make holes by pulling or stretching. Rather, press down with hands and fingers, forcing the dough to squish where you want it to go.
Top as desired and bake ~20-25 minutes at 375.

We like to prebake our crusts, as it gives us more flexibility in our schedule and a crisper crust. I guess that means the pizza has less flexibility.
To prebake the crusts, let rise a few minutes then cook 10-12 minutes at 325.
Top and bake an additional 15 minutes at 400, to desired doneness (we like our cheese melted and slightly browned).

Enjoy – my dough has rested long enough. I’m off to pat and squish.

Filed Under: food 5 Comments

My Advertisers

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December 29, 2005 By kimc

I want to make sure all my readers notice my Blogads on the sidebar.
I don’t get paid by commission or per-click on Blogads, and nobody put me up to this, but I’m very thankful to have ads that I can fully stand behind – no ethical dilemmas here!

  • We all know and love Crystal, right? So check out her books and other materials; they all reflect reflect the same values and lifestyle you see on her blog.
  • If you scroll a little farther down my sidebar, you’ll see another ad for Crystal’s own E-books. You will have a choice of 2 titles, and each currently comes with free downloads of 2 additional titles! I do get a commission from Crystal if you buy through this link.
  • And my new ad from the Homeschool Magazine looks so good, I’m going to click on it myself! 19 free gifts with a $39 2 year subscription, including a $10 gift certificate to Christian Book Distributors, which effectively reduces the subscription price to $29. Does everyone order from CBD at least quarterly, or is just me?

It took me a while to warm to the idea of letting businesses advertise on my blog, but I am truly excited to be able to help spread the word about worthwhile materials. Now if I had an offer for television ads…nyah…don’t think so…

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Checkbook tips?

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December 29, 2005 By kimc

I laughed when I first came across a description of the split-covers idea for sharing a bed with a blanket-grabber or a sheet-kicker-offer. Have you ever heard of that? You make up a king size bed with 2 sets of queen size top sheets and comforters, tucked securely on both sides and overlapping in the center. That way you can still meet in the middle, but you each have your own. The grabber can’t roll himself up like a burrito in your share of the covers, and the kicker can only kick the covers off of one side of the bed.
It sounds silly, but proponents claim it really works, and I think it’s actually quite ingenius. Whoever made it up, please step forward and accept your next challenge:
I need a great idea for keeping track of the transactions of two debit cards, when there’s just one checkbook to be carried. I mean, something other than “remember to write them in the checkbook as soon as you can get your hands on it,” or “just use cash for everything.”
Yes, those are very practical ideas, but not very creative.
I need somebody to come up with a split checkbook system. Who’s up for it?

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Merry Christmas!

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December 27, 2005 By Kittykait
MERRY CHRISTMAS  
EVERYBODY !!!!!!
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my first audio blog post

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December 27, 2005 By Perry C.
this is an audio post - click to play

this is my first audioblogger.com post

sweet technology! take a look and give it a try

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proof of life on mars?

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December 27, 2005 By Perry C.

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Thank you

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December 27, 2005 By kimc

I’m so thankful for a husband who understands me. He asked what I wanted, and I told him: something practical; useful; something that will make my daily life easier.
He took me at face value – how many men will truly do that?
My hubby understands me: New is far more expensive, and would not please this frugal housewife nearly so well.
Who else would buy his wife a used dishwasher for Christmas, and know that it was the right gift?
I love you, Honey.

Like Blessed With Sons, I’m spoiled rotten. From Hubby, I also got a refrigerator upgrade (not officially a Christmas gift, but hoo-boy am I happy: he brought home a ginormous *used* fridge, and my sister is buying our smaller one); and a copy of Candy’s Home Management Binder, which he printed and put in a binder, had the children decorate, and presented to me along with all the materials Candy recommends for setting up one’s own home management system.

Filed Under: frugal, sweet lovin' 7 Comments

Merry Christmas!

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December 25, 2005 By Perry C.

Remember the coming of Christ.
Remember that God in His great mercy sent his son to us!
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Health food for Christmas

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December 24, 2005 By kimc

mmmm…
Nothing says, “You’re special” like a box of Godiva Dark Chocolates. A true friend is concerned about one’s health, and it was so kind of the Horn family to consider my special needs in their gift to our family.
Since the gift was presented on the day that I had no voice, I could only smile and try not to swoon when I saw the Godiva bag – but lest Mr. Horn mistake my silence for lack of enthusiasm, I want him to know that:
(a) I would have been speechless even if I had woken up with my voice that morning, as I have never before had in my possession more than 4 oz. of Godiva chocolates.
(b) I tried to wait until Christmas, but the wrapping was utterly ineffective at keeping the fragrance locked inside. It haunted me all the way home. It haunted me at night. The chocolates have been well-sampled today.
(c) I did save Perry some. Well, if he gets home soon…

Filed Under: chocolate 3 Comments

Effortless Eggnog and Chai Tea mix

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December 24, 2005 By kimc

I found this easy recipe for a thick, creamy eggnog in the December issue of my Taste of Home magazine, a gift from my grandparents for the last several years.
We modified the process slightly, mixing it up directly in a half-used jug of milk. Perfect! A bit of rum flavoring might be a pleasing addition for some palates…

Effortless Eggnog

1/2 gallon milk, divided
1 package instant French vanilla pudding mix
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

In a large bowl, whisk 3/4 cup milk and pudding mix until smooth. Whisk in the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in remaining milk. Refrigerate until serving.

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And here, for your drinking pleasure, is our newest household addiction: homemade chai tea mix. Quite delightful!

Chai Tea Mix

1 cup powdered milk
1 cup dry creamer
1 cup vanilla flavored dry creamer
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened tea mix
2 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cardamom (or allspice)
opt. 1 Tbs. vanilla pudding mix

Stir to combine all ingredients. Use 3 Tbs. in 8 oz. of boiling water.

Options:

  • For a prettier mix, you can run it through the blender a cup at a time.
  • Allspice is easier to find and can be substituted for cardamom to make a very nice spiced tea, but it’s *not* the same. Cardamom has a very distinctive taste and aroma, even to our uncultured tongues. We found cardamom in bulk for a great price in the local health food store.
  • The vanilla pudding mix is optional but does help the mix to dissolve better.
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Happy Birthday to me!

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December 24, 2005 By kimc

My middle name is Noel.
Today is my birthday.
A lot of people felt bad for me when I was a kid. “What a time for a birthday. Do you ever get a party? Do you get many presents, or is everyone too busy with Christmas?”
But I always thought it was a great time for a birthday. I thought I was very popular in my town: the whole city was decorated every year for my birthday.
And when I tell them my birthday, people always smile – it’s special!

Hubby and the girls gave me 5 – count ‘em – 5 books by Madeleine L’Engle. I have grown to love her fiction lately, but hadn’t looked further into her works, so I was surprised to learn that she has many non-fiction books as well.
Here’s what I received this morning:

  • a hardback copy of Many Waters to replace my cheap and chintzy permabound paperback
  • Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
  • The Summer of the Great-grandmother: the story of the author’s mother, and her descent into senility during her 90th summer. I’ll be starting with this one. It looks to be full of memories of a large and happy and thoroughly human family.
  • The Irrational Season: an autobiography of sorts, built around the seasons of the church calendar
  • The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L’Engle
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You’ll have to use your imagination

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December 24, 2005 By kimc

The cat knocked the digital camera off the counter and now it’s dead. Er – the camera, not the cat. We forgive the cat. The dangling wrist strap was just too much for a cat to resist, even if he’s huge and fat and lazy and gives his mice to the other cats when he’s done playing with them.
But the upshot is, you’ll have to look at this crummy phone-camera photo and imagine just how beautiful and creative and lovely our 7 foot tall oil-based enamel tree really is.
Now imagine it with a stained-glass style star at the top, and cord run up over the 7 ft. wall to plug in on the other side – no visible wires, and the star is all lit up.
The tree is draped in strings of beads (or, if you’re young and naive, pearls).
All of our ornaments are hung from thumbtacks, with the oldest and most precious up out of the reach of little hands.
There is the ornate 8″ violin from my grandparents (I took 8 years of lessons & played briefly in the Albuquerque Youth Orchestra);
There are the flat gold-toned ornaments in the shapes of angels, stars and wreaths, one for each child for each year, hand engraved by Yours Truly at WalMart;
And a few surviving ornaments from hubby’s childhood.
In other parts of the house, we have crocheted patchwork stockings, patterned after the ones that hubby’s Pampa made for hubby and the other grandchildren – one for each child, and a huge one to replace hubby’s that I lost while using it to design the pattern for the others; the don’t touch delicate white nativity that holds a tealight candle inside (actually a set of 3); my Father Christmas snowglobe (we don’t “do” Santa, but do enjoy the Old World portayal of Father Christmas – so much classier than our own Santa Claus); and several more nativities, the Advent calendar, and other odds and ends.

In other news, the in-laws arrived tonight so I may be scarce for the next week. We’ll be working on the finer points of 13 people, 1160 square feet, way too many Christmas gifts, and one bathroom! Never a dull moment!
Have a Merry Christmas!

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