How I spent my Saturday morning...

I haven't been to a garage or estate sale since last year, so since I didn't have to work, my mom and I decided to brave the heat.  We had to battle road work and dig through dozens of unmarked boxes, but I think I found some good stuff.  I only spent $8 on everything I've included here.

Hope you have a great weekend!

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Tomatoes

I finally ate my first home grown tomato of the season.  These are some of the tomatoes my grandparents shared with me, they make gardening look so easy!  I love eating them sliced with salt and pepper, but my favorite way to eat them is here.

 

Pinterest FAIL: Cleaning Old Bottles with Alka Seltzer

I saw on pinterest (and a few other sources) that Alka Seltzer can be used as a cleaning agent.  One pin specifically, claimed that it could be used to clean the gunk out of a narrow vase.  Hmm, vase..old bottles..similar right?  I had a few old glass bottles that my dad found on our property in "the country", and a box of Alka Seltzer that I couldn't stomach, so I thought I'd give it a try.  

1. Fill bottle/vase half full with warm water.

2. Drop in 2 Alka Seltzer tablets.  These are the kind I had:

I had to break the tablets into pieces to fit into the opening.  

3. Cover the opening and give the bottle/vase a good shake.

*Use caution.  My shirt looked like this after shaking:

According to the internet, you just rinse and voila, it's miraculously clean.  Since these bottles have been sitting on the side of Highway P for Godonlyknowshowlong, I let them soak for about 30 minutes.  After changing my shirt, I went back to my bottles and repeated steps 1-3.  Round 1 had loosened a little bit of the gunk, but nothing noticeable.  After round 2, I decided to use a q-tip to wipe out what I could reach.  This helped, but still no miracle was happening.  I squirted dishwashing soap and hot water in each bottle and let that sit for another 30 minutes.  Looks like I'll be buying a bottle brush.  :)

This may work better on a freshly used vase, and maybe it was the type of Alka Seltzer that I used.  I also found a pin that said it could be used to clean your toilet.  Guess what I'll be trying next!  And no, I will not be sharing those before pics.

Wordless Wednesday: Instagram Collage

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Photos found here

Power Outage

After several weeks of triple digit temps and no rain, we finally got the storm we've been waiting for.  The lights were flickering and then it went dark.  For hours.  Why does the power go out at the most pivotal moment of a TV show.  Seriously?  Every time...


Josh was at band practice and I got to play Pioneer Woman (and I don't mean Ree).  Alright, I did have my cell phone to entertain me for a couple of hours, and half of my candles were battery operated, but it was HOT.  I attempted to entertain myself by reading magazines, shining a rinky dink flashlight onto the pages until my arm got tired.  


I ventured into the dungeon with said flashlight to retrieve my sheets from the dryer.  What else was there to do in the dark of night with no TV or internet, but sleep?  If you were a ghost in my house, you would have seen me racing up the stairs like Freddie Cougar was chasing me.  


I put out all of the real candles (a house fire is the last thing I need), and lined up the battery ones so that I wouldn't go stubbing my toes in the middle of the night.  My phone only had 20% battery life and the flashlight app would be lost to me!

In the dark (without flash) my house looked like a miniature airplane runway.  I flopped around in bed for a few minutes, bored out of my mind and wishing my fan worked.  What can I do in the dark....ROLL COINS.  So I sat like Scrooge with my candle and my coins.  With the help of glasses and stereognosis, I rolled $52.  And then I was so bored that I passed out.  THE END.


Power is back on and phone is now charged!  Hope no one has any significant damage to their property.  I know part of my parents' fence is down.

Banana Berry Bread

I had a couple sad bananas and some berries I wanted to use up so I made this quick bread, perfect for breakfast!  I found the recipe here and modified it.  I will add my modifications in RED.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries (1 cup fresh mix of blackberries and blueberries)
• 1 5/8 cups all-purpose flour (Just realized this says 1 5/8.  I did 1 1/2 OOPS...that's what I get for making bread before bedtime.)
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (I skipped this step)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening (I did a combo of butter and applesauce instead)
• 1 cup white sugar (I used 3/4 cup)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• (2 T ground flax meal)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl, dredge ("coat" I had to google this hehe) blueberries in 2 tablespoons flour. Gently stir blueberries together with oats, nuts, 1 1/2 (SEE!) cups flour, soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, cream shortening. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in mashed banana. Add blueberry mixture to creamed mixture, and stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the loaf. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack.

I tried a slice after letting it cool for 10 minutes and it turned out to be pretty yummy!  Hope I still think that at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning when I'm eating it for breakfast.  Nighty Night!