Baking fool!

Baking has always been a great part of my life! Yeast bread/rolls, sweets, etc..  Today I am all about trying to make english muffins.  As you can see my dough has risen greatly!

 I love my electric skillet, it gives me the opportunity to "bake" my english muffins.
One side flipped the other side baking.  Next after these is danishes.

 

They actually taste pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  The nooks and crannies were not as deep as the store bought kinds, but they looked pretty good.  I think next time that they will be a little bigger.  I used my medium biscuit cutter, my large biscuit cutter would be too big, we like breakfast sandwiches and the larger one would be too much.  Ah the experiment continues.

I am grateful I have found a few great baking groups on Facebook and have made some great friends and discoveries.  I am attempting to reduce some of the processed foods in my life and my latest experiments are helping!!  I have been baking bread for a while and am completely in love with Debra Collins Easy White Bread recipe.  I have turned it from bread to dinner rolls and others have made  hamburger and hot dog rolls from it.  Not sure about hot dog rolls, but hamburger rolls will be pretty easy!

I am not saying that all my food comes from a box, because it doesn't.  I do have  processed foods just like most people do, condiments, cheese products, pasta and sauces.  I do not rely a lot on store bought canned items as I have been a canner for years and have a great supply of veggies, pickles, salsas, fruit and the odds 'n ends.  This year my attempt is to get more tomato products canned.  Yes I put up 14 quarts of spaghetti sauce, and that was not enough!  Going for 28 or more sauce would be a great start!!  Along with whole and crushed tomatoes and other tomato products.. maybe I will try my hand at ketchup and bbq sauces, but that is a discussion for another day!

What have you completely removed from your grocery budget and make??  I would love to know.

Melissa

March Madness

Ok, so its not the typical March Madness surrounding basketball, my MMadness is around the weather!!  Mother nature has deemed that winter is not OVER regardless if the calendar says SPRING!!  Today's weather a mix of everything that is frozen!!  Yep snow, rain, mist you got it!  Tonight is suppose to have freezing rain and mist!! Yep slippery everything.

On another note, this past weekends spinning event went wonderfully!!!  I bought some amazing fiber from a few of our vendors.  Highland Handmades had this beautiful colorway that has the name "You never leave a party til the very, very, very end!" and HH Trees, pictured below!  The picture does not do it justice.. it is VIBRANT PINK.. blinding!! I am hoping once spun, the black, grey areas will tone down the vibrancy!!

Definitely  a color out of my comfort zone.. but it called to me!!   I wish Highland Handmades had the other colorway up on their website, you would love it!

Tonight will be family night.. and who knows.. I may just try a new recipe 

April Fool's Day

Good morning, how many of you play practical jokes because today is April Fool's Day??  Mother nature is definitely playing a joke on us. Maine weather today is going to be in the high 50's, but then turn bitter cold over the weekend, with I dare say it...SNOW at some point Sunday into Monday.  Yep the flowers are popping up, my peepers are peeping in the bog behind me.  A very happy welcome to warmer weather, but like I said Mother nature is playing jokes on us!!

Crafty wise I was able to sit with my friends and spin last night!  I finished one ball of this pale pink with white that will be amazing plied on itself after the other ball is spun.  Not quite sure what I am going to knit/crochet with it, but it will be soft and beautiful.  I have laid out the projects I have to make for this coming Christmas!  I know its only April 1, but spinning to knit isn't a one day thing, so I will start early.  I am actually pretty happy, I have been participating, over the last few years, in a secret Santa swap with my spinning group.  Well this year I am ahead of the game.  I have my fiber to spin and I have my pattern I am spinning for!!  If you knew me, you would know I never really know what I am going to make with my yarn as I am spinning, I just wait for inspiration to hit me.

My homestead is coming along...with the warmer weather brings coop cleaning!! Yep Sunday if its nice I will be cleaning out my coop!!  Yep get my coop clean from the winter poo pile up and give them some fresh footing and a "New" coop smell.  Egg production is on the rise as the longer warmer days help my chicks turn from heat production to laying!!

Cooking this weekend is a definite thing!!  Going to make another batch of homemade danish, Saturday night will make another batch of homemade yogurt, a new type of granola and whatever my fancy decides to whip up.  I might try my hand at donuts!! What do you have on your agenda this weekend?

Odds n Ends

What a weird weather pattern we have been having lately!!  One day 50, the next 30.. Mother Nature is definitely in an unbalanced time this month!!  I do know that I am not complaining!!  I love the warmth, but also love the SNOW!!  I know, don't hate me because I love it!!

How has your crazy craftiness been?  Mine is gearing up for the Maine Spinner's Registry annual meeting and spin-in Saturday!!  Wicked excited. Hours of spinning, shopping and of course talking with friends from across the state!  Did I mention shopping??  There will be vendors for all my fiber needs, of course along with yours!!

On a side note, my lil brother recently found out he is having a boy!!! YIPPEEE!!  Now to get my fingers and yarn a moving!!  A diaper cover, hat and boots are in the works.. Question is, hunting or Harley??  He does both!!

Which one would you choose?  Both? Camo? Harley?? decisions decisions!!!


This past weekend gave me the opportunity to try to create danishes from scratch!!  A friend from Facebook shared her recipe and I will tell you it was AMAZING!!  They came out sooooo good, even if I did miss a 30 minute rise before baking!  I was asked to make them again!! So this weekend I will make them again..

What are you crafting??

name change

A new title for my blog was a definite needed change!!!  I do coupon, but not as an extreme couponer that I used to be.  Yes I love extreme deals and will partake but my life involves so much more than that, and I love to share it all!!

I have had a love of crafts since I was at a young age.  I learned to crochet from a paternal aunt when I was about 10. I am self taught at knitting(and still learning new techniques), being told I am not the typical knitter!!  I am a 2-handed knitter, but I guess from the internet, I am not the only one!!  I was asking the school nurse that I work with if I was knitting a stitch correctly, as she is a profound knitter, and it so happens she decided to try to knit the way I did and she did and says its so much faster.  I guess I would say I am a Continental knitter!!  I hold my yarn as I do when I crochet!  And guess what it works for me!! Learning to purl was definitely one of those things that took concentration and the biting of the tongue!  Once I got the full hang of it, I just went to town.  Last year I taught myself how to cable.. LOVE IT!!  This year I am working on a KIL that is a shawl.  It will be one of the biggest projects I have done, knit wise.

I have further expanded my love for crafts with spinning!!  I  love spinning my own yarn and knitting with it!!  I have entered them into some contests at my local Fiber Frolic over the past years and have won a few ribbons!!  Its a relaxing craft where I can spin and watch tv, not worry about counting stitches or nothing, just drafting and letting my wheel do its job and twist away.

My life this time of year is definitely a busy one, working full time during the day, full time at my tax office, doing my Pampered Chef on the 2 nights that I am free!   Oh yeah, not sure if I have ever mentioned my love of Pampered Chef... I love it so much I decided to sell it!!  Yep and yesterday started the new season with the new Catalog!!  New Products, New promotions..  Have you Pampered Chef-ed lately? The new products are going to be amazing tools to help when canning season comes upon us!!

Until then
Craft On

Melissa

Some YUMMY Roving named Pissed off Hummingbird by Highland Handmades here in Maine

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

This week is February break here in the Northeast!!  I have the week off from school and  yesterday I had the complete day off from H&R Block!!  I enjoyed the day off by heading to Oxford Casino to earn the lunch buffet and try my luck at the slots!!  Oxford did not disappoint this trip.  


Today of course is another day in the tax office.. I am pretty excited though, I found out that I have had 4 clients win the 1000 people win 1000$$ giveaway that H&R Block was doing as a promotion.  4 clients.. OH MY I am excited for them, I have been able to take a photo with one, 2 others came in while I was at my full-time job and the last one will be in next week and I am hoping I am there to congratulate her and take our photo with her check!!


Daytona 500 is Sunday and I know what my husband will be doing, you guessed it, watching the race that starts the Nascar season!!  I will be working on my office/spare room/craft room.  Yep it is one room with multiple uses!!  Office for my Pampered Chef business,  www.pamperedchef.biz/melissagregoire  (didn't you like that plug?) spare room for guests and craft room for my sewing, rug hooking and other crafts.  Phew lots of stuff for a small space!! 


Monday February break is over and back to the grind stone for me!! FT day and FT night!!  I love it, I have been helping people for over 10 years with their taxes and love every minute of it.  I have families whose children are now in college, some are now married and have children of their own.  I always get excited when I hear the stories of their year, milestones, upsets and family trips. 


Thinking of changing my blog from Coupon Craziness to another name... Not quite sure what though.  What are your thoughts??  If I choose your idea, I will send you a goodie!!




Be well


Melissa

April 16, 2014

Got to love spring.. or wait winter??  Sprinter?? Either way my school's district had a 2 hour delay today due to some nasty stuff that came down overnight!!! Yep you guessed it SNOW!!!  My house had about 2+ inches and the city I work in looks like it got that much as well.  The sad thing is that yesterday was about 50 degrees then the wind picked up, cooled everything down and then the rain started!!! Some time after 9ish when I got home from the tax office the rain was heavy and the temp was cool... I would say we got a mix of freezing rain/snow until the wee early morning hours where it decided to switch to complete snow.. I know when I opened(forcefully) my screen door the crunch under the blanket of white was apparent!!  My road was a mess with areas of solid ice and slush!!   The sun has popped out through the clouds, the temps are suppose to rise, and the white stuff only adds nitrogen to my garden!!

Happy Couponing

Melissa