Heart Shaped Eggs

Making Heart Shaped Eggs are a nifty and a creative way to show your love to your family. Making your heart shaped eggs is pretty easy to do.

What you will need for this project is:

Eggs

Milk carton or any juice carton or a thick card stock (cut open, washed well and dried). Note your paper needs to be thick. Cindy and I tried a few different paper types and they did not do so well. Thicker is better in getting the heart shape you want.

Chopsticks (you will want them round and thick).

Rubber Bands

First Step: Make your hard boiled eggs. Make as much as you would like.

Second Step: While your eggs are cooking you will want to cut out your milk carton and fold it in half lengthwise. If you do not have a milk carton I would use a very thick card stock. You will want to cut it at least 3inch wide and 8 to 9 inches long

Third Step: While your eggs are still warm, you will want to peel your eggs and put them on your folded paper. Make sure the egg is freshly boiled and still warm. Otherwise the egg might not hold it shape and break from the pressure. also make sure eggs are not to sof.t when cutting they may fall apart.

Fourth Step: Place your chopstick on the center of the egg, push chopstick down softly on top of egg, and put your rubber band on both ends of your chopstick ( Do not want to break egg when pushing down. It is only to help secure chopstick into place).

Please note that this was one of our first attempts on making heart shape eggs. We did not use thick enough paper. Cindy and I found out that the key to this is how thick your paper is.

Fifth Step: once you are done with putting your eggs in the milk carton you will want to leave them for at least 10 minutes. (Cindy and I found out that if you put them in the fridge for 20 minutes it gives you a better result).

Sixth Step: Once your eggs have been able to set, you will want to take the chopsticks off and cut your eggs in half.

 

Every Pair of eggs are very unique, so no other pair of eggs will be alike. Like I said this was pretty easy to do. This would be fun to do for any party you are having, or just to serve to your family. Your Kids will be sure to eat them up!!. You can also spice them up by adding some salt and pepper or making deviled eggs with them.

Cough Syrup That You Make At Home

Do you hate the preservatives, alcohol and dyes that come with the high cost of cough syrup? I sure do. My daughter's good friend makes her own cough syrup and she let me take a spoonful. Sure, it taste like a medication but it worked instantly in freeing my throat and lungs from that congested feeling. It is so simple to make that I want to share it with you.

The ingredients are: Honey, onion and dry herbs of licorice root, horehound or cherry bark. (I used only the cherry bark and you can pick the herbs up at a Health food store and they really don't cost too much.)

Dice a onion and cover with raw honey in a double boiler. Once the honey is liquefied, add 1/2 -1oz. of any combination of the herbs. Cover and simmer 4-5 hours. Strain. Store in fridge.

I used an old medicine bottle and labeled it with the name and date.
Use 1-2 tsp every four hours when needed. You can use more this won't hurt you and you will get relief.

Can You Say Chicken Pot Pie! Yummy!!!

I have been wanting to make chicken pot pie for a while now and I finally got Cindy to show me how to make them. Remember if I can do this so can you. I am very excited to share this with you.

 Recipe for Flaky Pie Crust

You will need:
12-1/2 cups for all purpose flour         5 cups vegetable shortening   2 tablespoons of salt
First Step: you will want to combine your flour and salt in a large bowl. Mix well. With your pastry blender, cut in your shortening until evenly distributed. Mixture will resemble cornmeal in texture.

Put in a large airtight container. Label. Store in a cool, dry place. use withing 10 to 12 weeks. Or put about about 2-1/2 cups mixture each into 6 freezer bags. Seal and Label your bags. Freeze. Use within 12 months. This makes about 16 cups of Flaky Pie Crust Mix, enough for 6 double-crust pies or 12 single- crust pies. Please note you do not need to freeze before using.

Second Step:

You will need 2-1/2 cups of your Flaky Pie Crust Mix   1 Egg, beaten 1 tablespoon white vinegar

1/4 cup of ice water.

 

Put your mixture into a medium bowl. In a small bowl, combine ice water, egg and vinegar. You will want to sprinkle a spoonful of water into mixture at a time over the Flaky Pie Crust Mix and toss with a fork until the dough barely flings together in the bowl. Roll out your dough to desired thickness between 2 sheets of lightly floured wax paper.

Third Step:

Place your dough in a 9-inch pie plate without stretching. you will want to flute the pie edges. Please note if filling recipe calls for you to bake the pie crust, preheat your oven to 425f. You will need to bake 10 to 15 minutes, until it is very lightly browned. cool. Fill and bake according to directions for filling. For double- crust pies, place top crust over filling and press flute edges, and cut slits in top of your crust. Makes enough crust for one 9-inch double pie or two 9-inch single -crust pies.

Now for my favorite part the Pie Filler!

Recipe for your Pie Filler.

What you will need is: 1 (15oz) pie crust  1 1/2 cup or chicken broth. 1/3 cup butter. 2/3 cups of milk

1/3 cups of chopped onions. 2 1/2 shredded chicken or turkey.  1/3 cups of flour. 1/2 salt. 1/4 tsp pepper. 2 cups of your favorite thawed veggies.

First Step: Preheat your oven to 425f.  Note: This is for a double Crust Pie.

Second Step:  Melt your butter on stove. Make sure your heat in on medium. Add your onion. Cook your onion for 2 minutes or until they are tender. Add flour. salt, pepper and stir. You will want to blend gradually. Stir in your broth and milk. Cook and stir until your mixture bubbles and thickens. You will want to add your chicken. Mix well. Remove from heat. Spoon your filler into your crust-lined pan.

 

Third Step: For your double- crust pie, place top crust over fillings, press and flute edges, and cut slits in top of crusts.

 

Fourth and Final Step: Bake your pie at 425f for 30 to 40 minutes. Let your pie stand for 5 minutes. This will make  6 servings.

This may seem like there is a lot of steps, but it really is not. This is relatively simple and quick to do. The best part of making a homemade pot pie is that I can make it the way that I want it. I have not bought a chicken pot pies for years because the have peas in them. If you know me you know that I despise peas .  I am diffidently hooked on the homemade ones now. Thanks Cindy!!! I hope you like as much as I do. Please try and let us know what you think!

Quick and Easy Pork "canning"

Pork was on sale for only $1.99/lb so I had to fill some of my empty bottles.
Step 1: cut meat into 1/2 inch slices.
Step 2: Lightly grill on both sides This step is optionally.

Step 3: Place sliced meat into clean mason jars. You may need to trim meat to fit. I love the wide mouth for this but if you have small mouth then meat may be cubed.
Step 4: Have a pan of water boiling, ready to go and fill the jars down 1 inch from the top and optional is to add 1 teaspoon of canning salt to each jar.

Step 5: place new lids and rings onto jars (just lightly tighten so air can escape from jars)
Step 6: Place 7 jars into your pressure cooker and pressure at 12 lbs for 1.5 hours
            (you need to know what elevation you're at to adjust the required pressure).
This is an ideal way to have meat ready to go in minutes. I use the pork as dinner steaks, mix for a sandwich spread and my husband tells me it will make good soup. Bottle meat stores a long long time.