The Mobile Home Woman | Our journey from urban homesteading to rural homesteading at Windhaven farm…

Problem Solved

Posted on May 31, 2010 by MobymomMay 31, 2010

I started to learn how to hook rugs. And I really like it.

And so I bought a couple stash starters of the wool strips to give me a nice range of colors to play with. Bought a nice piece of monk’s cloth and want to start a few pattern ideas that I have.

Problem is, it was all just a jumbled mess of strips. I was keeping them in an old paper bag and it was just not appealing to design with. What to do!

I was starting to think about a plastic box, or maybe envelopes or something and they just didn’t appeal to me. I am trying to stay away from plastic as the solve-all to any organizational project. But popping them all in glass jars, not very efficient or usable. I knew that I wanted them all laid out so that I could pick and choose from the strips and also, that I would know if I had enough for an area in the design or not.

And then it came to me! How about something like a knitting needle holder, or a paint brush holder! Yah! So I dug in my fabric pile and had a nice half yard of pretty swirly purple cotton and a matching half yard of some old curtains gone bad and I got busy.

And hour later… poof! Problem solved…

Actually, the case was done in about an hour, and then later on in the evening, I sat down to a netflix movie online about a hippy commune (very interesting, but too much nakedness running around for me to want that sort of lifestyle… I don’t do naked good! hahaha) and I sorted all the strips and put them in color groups and such.

How lovely! Now I suppose that once you really get into rug hooking, this is not a very large stash of strips! But it’s definately enough for me to get started and I just love how they are all laid out and ready for the picking. And when I’m done, I just roll it up and tie it shut with the little fabric ties. I think it’s just adorable. Makes me want to start designing and hooking something tonight!!!

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Making Hamburger

Posted on May 31, 2010 by MobymomMay 31, 2010

When you bring a new toy into the kitchen, you must play with it for a few days and really enjoy it’s addition to your stockpile of gadgets.

So, we had to make and grill burgers!

Figgered it was going to be easy just grind up some good beef, add some flavorings and additions and grill!

We had 5 pounds of good mid grade beef, some stew beef and a small round roast as well as a couple cubed steaks. It was one of those combo packs that had been marked down on the last day. Still looked great, and it was half price, so we went with it. Jessy chopped it all up, and Maggie cranked.

We added Mexican shreded cheese to the mix, about 2 cups… and 8 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon… 4 tablespoons of fresh ground garlic and some season salt and BBQ sauce! Ground it again with the mix and made burgers!

I meant to take a lovely picture of the grilling burgers, or maybe one all dressed up and ready to devour, but we were hungry and I forgot! They were tasty!

However… they could have been better and after a bit of reading I found that our choice of beef to grind was probably the worse possible… very very very little fat. The burgers were tasty, but they lacked a certain well, taste or texture, not quite sure what. I’m sure, it was the fat content, it was too low. It made the meat almost crumbly, not as moist as you would think a burger should be. Taste was great, just texture and such was not quite right.

I did some reading afterwards and yep, just like the sausage, you need a heavily marbled piece of beef for really juicy ground beef. LIke a shoulder or butt roast, rump roast, something with a high content of marbling fat. I suppose in hind sight, we could have added some fat, but who just has fat laying around? I wondered if you could just add a couple spoons of lard, but I think it would be better to just start with the right kind of beef to begin with!

Next time… we’ll get it perfect! That’s the fun of learning to do stuff yourself, you tweak with it and make it work. And the flunked tests always still taste pretty good!

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Tea Syrup

Posted on May 31, 2010 by MobymomMay 31, 2010

If you are a iced tea drinker, like I am, you loved fresh brewed ice tea but you can go through a pitcher in a day! And then you forget to make more and end up drinking pop instead!

Well my friend Tim reminded me about making tea syrup! I used to do this and then got away from it. It’s a great way to extend your tea and not have to make it every single day.

Just warm up a pot of water, I used my 3 quart saucepan, filled with about 2 quarts or a bit more of water. Add three large teabags to the boiling water and turn off the heat and let steep for a good hour or so.

Remove the bags, warm up the water a bit and add sugar. I add about a cup to a cup and half of sugar, stirring and incorporating the sugar into the warm water. I don’t actually boil, just warm it a bit to make sure the sugar dissolves good. Let cool. Pop in a a pitcher or a couple quart jars and chill in the frig.

When you want a nice iced tea, fill a big glass with ice, add about 1/3 a glass with your tea syrup and top off with cold water. Give a little stir and enjoy!

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