Christmas High Tea

Last year, I was invited to a Christmas Tea sponsored by a local church. At the tea, there was an opportunity to volunteer to host a table for the following year. Guess who signed up!

I've always loved entertaining and have been sad the last few years having a smaller abode without room to host parties. This was a great outlet for me.

There is one hitch! I do not have any China or elegant dishes anymore. I've moved so frequently from city to city and state to state that I've given a lot of it back to my mom for safe keeping.

I had to find a way to get a hold of dishes for this event without breaking the bank.

I went to work visiting thift shops and online postings on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.

That did the trick and allowed me to acquire beautiful dishes at a low cost. 

I was able to host 8 ladies with whom I work. What a lovely evening of fellowship, worship songs, an encouraging speaker in a beautiful setting. Each gal felt like a precious jewel! I was so pleased to be part of this lovely event! Perhaps I'll host next year!

Thanksgiving 2017

I have to admit that it has been difficult to be back in the habit of blogging since the hurricane in September. Where does the time go? 

Here we are in the midst of the holidays spanning from Thanksgiving until New Years.

This was the first year in almost 6 years that I did not have to work on Thanksgiving. The previous years I worked in the Canadian division and observed Canadian holidays. 

We had a mini-banquet with my department this year. I brought a veggie tray decked out like a turkey. Thank you Pinterest!

On Thanksgiving Day, we had a small celebration with some friends from church. It was nice to stay local. I refreshed the veggie tray from the previous day and brought a pumpkin pie. Since my husband does not eat eggs, I found a recipe that is eggless. Amazingly delicious!!!

Now we're in a mad dash with Christmas around the corner. I love all the activities this time of year!

Air Guitar

On a business trip recently, I spotted this sign in a trendy spot. 

Mysteriously, I did not see anyone with an air guitar. 

Spring Rolls

My parents are great cooks. 

My mom is a comfort food kind of cook. My father likes to experiment with dishes from around the world. It is part of what inspired me to explore the globe.

A dish that we would make as a family was spring rolls. It was everyone's responsibility to assemble the spring rolls. 

I still make them! This time I chopped cabbage, carrots, green onions, bean sprouts, soybeans, garlic, ginger, and tofu. 

I mixed olive oil, natural peanut butter, salt and pepper for flavor. Toss it all in a bowl with the veggies and give it a good stir. 

I buy these spring roll pastry packages at our local market which caters to mostly Caribbean customers but has a lot of Asian products as well. I paid $2.29 for this package of 25 wraps. 

Scoop a spoonful of the veggie mix onto a wrap. Tuck the sides in an overlapping pattern. Roll the rest from bottom to top. 

Place all the rolls onto a baking sheet. To make the rolls crispy, use egg white or olive oil. 

Bake the rolls for 25 minutes at 375°.  Serve with wasabi, soy sauce, horseradish, salsa, or any other tasty dipping sauce. 

An Office with a View

I have been blessed in so many ways with my new job (as of December). I now have a laptop which gives me the ability to work from home. 

While I like the discipline of going to an office and talking with people, staying home to work is nice, too. I find that I get interrupted and distracted less at home than at the office. 

I got so much work done the other day staying home. I was doing laundry at the same time as office work. 

Multitasking ninja in the house!

Shopping: Matching Accessories

I was given this cute purse for Christmas this past year. It is a really cute medium sized bag. 

While this isn't my every day purse, I do use it a lot to add some splash to my outfits. My challenge is matching colors with shoes and accessories when those same shoes and accessories are not with me. 

The benefit of this purse is that it came with a swatch! I can put it in my every day purse and have it on hand next time I'm shopping. 

Why don't more manufacturers provide a swatch? That would be amazing!

Space Saving: Fruit Baskets

For the last few years, I've used a large plastic bowl and 2 small glass bowls on the countertop for fruits and vegetables.

Since the countertop is rectangular and the bowls are round, there was never a good fit for the fruit bowls on the countertop. I decided to look for a rectangular basket of sorts to make better use of the space. 

I found this double decker sliding drawer-basket at Marshall's for under $10. (Typically, you get Shopkicks for walking into Marshall's as well).

My countertops are not as spacious as I would like, so I am not able to use this basket system as drawers. It works well on the countertop as is.

I like that it is double decker and a wired basket. With the other bowls being opaque, I would lose track of the produce I had. This basket system allows me to see the produce with no barrier. 

Crystal Light Containers

I had shown these containers in a previous post that discussed repurposing containers. So many great ideas out there!

These Crystal Light containers are my favorite because they are tall and slim. They stack easily, too. Many containers I have are short, wide, and take up a lot of space. 

I use them in the kitchen to store dry goods. There are great ideas using them in the office, workshop, craft room, etc. There are great ways to paint them, cover them with contact paper, washi tape, and other materials. 

The dry goods I currently store in these containers are sunflower seeds, bulgar, and sliced almonds. 

Looks like I'm running low on sunflower seeds!

Badge Protection Hack

Many organizations require employees to wear a badge for identification purposes. It serves as a safety measure to ensure who belongs in that location. 

Going through the daily tasks of a job can result in a beat up lanyard and badge. Here is a solution to keep your badge clean and free from scuffs: a luggage tag holder. 

Make sure the luggage tag holder has a clear window. Mine has a clear window front and a leather back. My current workplace does not have a double sided badge. For those who require this, there are fully clear luggage tag holders. 

Place the badge inside with the photo identification visible through the clear plastic. I flipped mine over for this post because much like my driver's license, my badge photo is not the most flattering. 

Attach the lanyard to the luggage tag holder and the badge will be protected! 

This is a fun way to jazz up the ubiquitous badge. Having an interesting luggage tag holder can also be fodder for water cooler conversation as well. It may break the ice with someone who will become important to you. 

Pudding Dessert

I posted a few months ago about a great deal on Simply Jell-O pudding (read more here).  

I finally made the pudding. That's the nice part about non-perishable items in the pantry. I rarely have milk in the house so that was another challenge. 

Once I made the pudding, I let it set overnight. I was about to dish it for dessert and felt blasé about the pudding. I decided to added bananas and almonds. 

It was delicious! 

Tasty + quick prep + cheap = winning!

Reheated Pizza

We have pizza periodically sometimes with leftovers and sometimes not. This occasion left us with leftovers. 

I like pizza crust crispy and tend to reheat it in the oven. Since the temperatures are heating up, I'm not sure I want to heat the oven for pizza. 

I have read alternatives by adding a cup of water in the microwave. I still am not convinced that the pizza will be crispy enough in the microwave. 

Finally, I found a hack that might be a viable option. Reheating pizza in a frying pan on the stove. I decided to give it a try. 

Set the stove burner to medium heat and place the pizza in it.

Place the lid over the frying pan. It is helpful if it is a glass lid to ensure the cheese is melted. 

After about 5 minutes in the pan, the pizza was crispy and the cheese was melted. This hack works!

Buon appetito!

Run the Race

Life is a journey. Some view it as a race. 

Paul refers to life as a race in Acts 20:24 and in 1 Corinthians 9:24. 

Let us run the race with the Lord's help!

Healthy Breakfast

I have found that the individual packs of oatmeal are more expensive and more sugary. I have resorted to buying quick oats or steel cut oats. 

It is just as fast as the individual packs because the longest part of the prep is the hot water. I posted recently and showed a Starbucks oatmeal DIY.

This time, I switched it up by adding chopped pecans and agave syrup to the oatmeal. Since I was already boiling water, I added a cup of hot mint tea as a side kick. 

Quick, easy, yummy, and budget friendly!

Breakfast To Go

I wanted to make a breakfast that was filling and portable. After consulting the web, I decided to try my hand at egg muffins. 

I mixed a dozen eggs with chopped tomatoes, green onion, and basil. I added chives, turmeric, and ground mustard to the mix along with salt and pepper. 

 Next, I browned turkey sausage to add to the egg mix. 

Then, I poured in the egg and sausage mixture into a muffin tin. At 350°, they were baked for 25 minutes. 

Once they were done baking, I took them out to cool. 

Once they were cooled, I put them in a ziploc bag and placed them in the fridge. Now they are in individual serving sizes ready to go!

Salad To Go

Making lunches is the economical way to go as opposed to buying lunch every day. Finding time to make lunches and finding portable food is the key. 

I like salad for lunch. The thing about salad is that it can get wilted and soggy before lunchtime. I found a work around that helps a lot. Put salad dressing on the bottom of the container!

Salad on top: 

Dressing on the bottom: 

Hooked on Hooks: Part II

I mentioned in September that we love hooks in our home. They make things orderly and organized. To make this happen, 3M Command Strips are needed. 

It can add up when you're moving hooks around because the command strips are single use only. They're still worth it!

Recently, I found a rebate on the ibotta app (read more here) for $2 back on any command strips. I went to Walmart and purchased the lowest price strips at $2.38. It is like I paid 38¢!

Smelly Shoes Solution

My husband is such an amazing man. I respect him so much for his admirable and noble traits. He's kind, athletic, and funny. 

Let's stay with athletic for a moment. He's a soccer player which involves a lot of running which involves a lot of shoes which involves a lot of sweat which involves odor. [I've been practicing the 5 whys developed by Toyota's Taiichi Ohno.]

In need of a solution for stinky shoes, aside throwing them out and buying all new, I came across the Homemade Experiment that posted a solution for eliminating shoe odor. The solution? Tea bags!

The good news is that we are not short on tea in our home (see more about couponing adventures for tea: here and here).

The procedure is so simple I dare not make it out to sound like a procedure. Place 1 or 2 tea bags in each offensive shoe. Leave the tea bags in the shoes for 24 hours or so. It works better if the subject shoes are stored in a dry place. 

Update: 3 days later the shoes smell a lot better. A little like tea, but a lot better! The tea bags did not take on the shoe odor. 

Repurposing Containers

I've been seeing a lot of pins on Pinterest about repurposing the containers used to package products we buy everyday. I throw things out and recycle things like crazy. I decided to start thinking differently about how we approach containers in our household. 

Once such pin provided ideas of reusing plastic containers as storage containers (see more here).

I started to look at other containers after they were empty and saving them. Here are some ideas I came up with for sunflower seeds, rice, and dry beans.

Do You Tofu?

I was never drawn to eating tofu until I met my husband. We get protein from fish, seafood, beans, and tofu. We have tried various ways of eating tofu, but our favorite is fried tofu. 

The tricky thing about tofu is that it is so waterlogged. It is spongy by nature and absorbs a lot of water. Frying anything wet causes the oil to pop and spray. 

Another difficulty we face is the texture when it has been fried. The entire slice is crispy and loses the original texture. 

I went looking for recipes to see how I could prepare tofu better. I came across this article on seriouseats.com that provided instructions on how to get the water out of the tofu for a better final product. 

The trick is to dehydrate the very saturated tofu using hot water. Did you catch that? Add water to eliminate the water. Turns out it is basic chemistry (which I have a history of not mastering). 

I served up the fried tofu with a caprese salad, and leftover scalloped potatoes. Random grouping and delicious!

Wedding Anniversary

We celebrated our wedding anniversary recently. We're still young and in love!

I checked our mailbox that week and found this lovely card from my mom. She's so creative and crafty. The card is homemade by her. She even made the envelope! She can see the potential in so many things and will repurpose it for her works of art. The envelope this time is a page from a wall calendar. 

I have a box of cards that she's made for me from the last few years. My only regret is that I did not start saving them sooner.