Joyful Abode

A neighbor of mine sells Usborne books and offered to let me host an online book show (like when people do Pampered Chef or Mary Kay). She is donating ALL of her profits for the care and treatment of our rescue dog. So 25% of every purchase will help this sweet animal get his health back and find his “forever home.”

Just click through to the website and purchase some children’s books by September 9th to make your contribution!

Here he is, taking a nap without having to worry about bugs biting him or cars hitting him. His tummy is full and he’s out of the hot summer sun.

At the same time, our dog Zora took a nap in the kitchen.

You are invited to an Usborne Books eShow to explore the world of Usborne Books. A child’s interest in reading and learning is stimulated by the lavish illustrations and informative content. There are over 1300 bright, colorful and fun titles covering activities, puzzles and a wide range of subjects for children of all ages.

Usborne Books - the books kids love to read!

Hosted by: Emily Chapelle
Place: www.ubah.com/HOS122770
When: Today through 9/9/2008 11:59:00 PM

Everyone is welcome, so invite a friend.

Books ship to your house (USA and APO addresses)!

It’s a rewarding experience when a child opens a book and discovers the magic of reading.

Check it out. They even have dog books!

Of course, they have tons of regular kids books on every topic too, even Spanish language books, flash cards, and value packs.

If you’d rather just make a donation, please click here.

And be sure to check out more photos of the dog, his story, and craft raffles here.

Zora and I were going for a walk the night before last when this dog came up to us looking for love. He and Zora sniffed each other, played a little, and then coexisted nicely. The dog followed us. No collar, skinny as anything, not neutered.

I borrowed a collar and leash from someone who lived nearby, we fed him and gave him water, then put him in the back yard where hopefully he could spend the night. He hopped the fence twice though. The first time he came right back when my husband went outside, and the second time we looked for a while before we found some neighbors who had found him and fed him (again).

They had called security, and someone was going to come get him to put him in a kennel.

So he spent the night at the police station, and we picked him up in the morning to take him to the vet. The security officer said that if we hadn’t claimed him, he would’ve been sent into town to be euthanized the same day.

Here he is, in the back of my Jeep. I have two leashes on him so he wouldn’t climb into the front while I was driving. It mostly worked, but he did manage to lick my head a little bit. The bowl had 2 cups of food in it. It was gone in about 10 seconds.

The veterinarian cleaned him up and gave him a flea and tick treatment. For the next 24 hours, hundreds of tiny dead ticks fell off of this poor dog… he had obviously been wandering in the woods. We kept vacuuming up the ticks, and now he seems to be pretty tick-free. He was not micro-chipped (If you have a pet, please microchip it!).

We’ve put up “Found dog” signs around the base, at the pet store, at the vet’s office, and at Wal-Mart. We’re also contacting the base newspaper and town newspaper to run classifieds for him. I really get the feeling that his owner isn’t looking for him though. So many animals here get dumped if it’s not convenient to keep them, whether because the family is moving, money is tight, or whatever.

The rescue where we got Zora is full, … I’d rather keep him temporarily than send him somewhere where he’ll have an uncertain future (I think none of the other shelters in the area are no-kill shelters). So we bought him his own kennel, food bowl, leash, collar, and food. And a Kong toy, because every dog needs a Kong toy.

He is so sweet… calm and sweet. I wish I knew where he came from.

The night we found him, I had a dream that, to raise money for vet bills and food and kennel and all of that, I went through all of my craft stuff and picked out stuff to raffle.
It was a good idea, so I woke up at 6:30 yesterday and went through my craft things and books for an hour, picking out things to raise money for this sweet stray. If his owner claims him, I will donate the money to the East Mississippi Animal Rescue (EMAR), which is where we got Zora.

If his owner doesn’t claim him,we will take him to the vet again, make sure he is updated on shots, get him tested for heart worms (and treated if he has them), and get him neutered before adopting him out. If there is extra money, it will, of course, go to EMAR.

I know we can help this sweet thing.

Here are the raffles I’ve set up to raise money for him and EMAR. The drawings for each raffle will be held when the tickets sell out, or on September 12th, whichever happens first. Winners will be announced here and the packages will be mailed to them, free of charge.

Click each link or photo for more pictures of the raffle items, and to purchase tickets. You can, of course, purchase more than 1 ticket for each item.

I’ll type out a list of the ticket-buyers for each package (with someone’s name listed 3 times if they buy 3 tickets, and so forth), cut it up, and choose a name at random as the winner.

Fabric scraptastic: Over 4 pounds of fabric scraps, and 20 1-yard samples of handmade cotton bias tape. $3 a ticket.

 Crochet explosion: A ton of great yarn, 3 fantastic crochet books, and a brand new project bag worth $59.99 from coco cesca (I JUST bought it and haven’t used it or even taken the tag off yet). $10 a ticket.

 Creative Crafts: “Where Women Create” book, 2 embroidery hoops, lots of foam state shapes, bells, fabric yo yos, a tatting shuttle, craft wire, and artificial sinew. $4 a ticket.

Paper Crafts: Easter/Spring greeting cards and envelopes, feathers, rubber stamps, metal word embellishments, metal hinges, wire frames, and more. $5 a ticket.

Not crafty… but…

Military Wife Books: Army Wives, The Homefront Club, and Heroes at Home. $2 a ticket.

Please link to this post from your blogs, websites, etc, to spread the word and help raise money for this sweet rescue dog and for the East Mississippi Animal Rescue!

Edited to add: My sister put up a facebook event about this fundraiser. Thank you, Caroline! It’s an open event, so if you have facebook, you can join and invite all of your friends to let them know about it!

Edited again to add: Two people have asked to donate (without buying tickets) so far, so I figured it would make sense to add a “donate” option here if you’re interested in helping, but not interested in winning craft things and books! You can donate any amount you’d like to.

Joyful Abode now has writing kits! Each kit includes 12 pieces of writing paper, 6 matching envelopes, and 12 matching stickers. The paper and envelopes are 30% post-consumer recycled paper, and acid-free, too!

We’ve got adorable owls perched on cherry trees…

…nostalgic roller-skates and jacks…

…and the most precious hedgehog ever, in a tire swing.

For a limited time, these sweet writing kits are on sale for only $10 each! Hurry to snatch up your favorites!

PS If you signed up for my email newsletter, I apologize for your email having the wrong subject line… it used the same subject line as my FIRST mailing, which I’m now confused about. Still trying to get used to this emailing program! Bear with me!

When you’re finished with your engagement chicken and there are just shreds of meat leftover on the carcass, you can pull them off and save them in a little container for later. And when you’re ready, these chicken quesadilas are a yummy way to use it.

Just warm up a tortilla in a pan, add cheese, sauteed onions, and chicken, fold and heat through.

Mmm… the best kind of leftovers.

Engagement chicken is basically a roast chicken with lemons shoved up its butt (or neck, or whatever).

Whether or not it’ll magically get your boyfriend to propose to you… I have no clue. But it is pretty darned good. And easy.

I stabbed my lemons before shoving them into the (rinsed, guts removed) chicken.

And did the whole oil/salt/pepper thing on the outside.

And when it was done? It didn’t look like a chicken from a magazine, but the lemon-infused flesh was very tasty.

I served it with veggies… zucchini and onions sauteed together with some cumin and olive oil.

And egg noodles… and some gravy I made from the lemony chicken drippings (which was soooo good).

It’s an easy homey meal, and even if no one proposes, it’s worth making.

OK this is pretty odd… I have “a way” that I like to make boxed macaroni and cheese. Which is kind of ridiculous, but it always turns out really yummily.

YES! Spiderman!

I cook the pasta in salted water…

And meanwhile, I mix the milk and fake gross cheese powder.

I use a small whisk or a fork to combine it really well… this way you don’t get powder chunks in your noodles.

Then when the noodles are done, I drain them (and do NOT rinse), put them back in the pot,  and add the butter… with the heat still on low.

When the butter is all melted and every noodle is coated with it, I add the cheese liquid. And stir until it’s all combined. Then turn off the heat and let it thicken for a couple minutes.

It’s soooo delicious. I like mine with a little bit of ketchup on top (but not mixed in). When I was little sometimes I’d eat it with Lawry’s Seasoned Salt.

How do you like your boxed macaroni and cheese? Do you have a method you use every time?

Or do you only eat the “real” good stuff baked in the oven with actual cheese from a cow?

You will NOT be sorry if you marinate your steak in:

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
•  Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 clove of minced garlic or some garlic powder

When I read a similar recipe, my jaw dropped. It’s like… everything good in one marinade! Yum! I adjusted the ratios a little bit to suit my tastes… the original was a bit heavy on the Worcestershire sauce.

We made these steaks when we  had just moved in to the house, didn’t have any pots, pans, or the grill, and really wanted to eat something “real”… we found the broiler pan in that drawer under the oven and rejoyced!

To broil a steak, first turn on your broiler and put the pan in the oven to preheat.

When everything is super-hot, plop your marinated steaks on the pan and return to the oven (don’t forget oven mitts!)

After about 4-6 minutes (depending on how you like your steaks cooked), flip over your steaks.

And another 4-6 minutes later, you’ll have delicious steak.

I like mine on the rare side, so I kind of under cooked it… The edges were really good but I did have to cook the middle a bit more.

But… yuuuum.

So, I’m really really bad at doing follow-up posts, post series, etc.

Case in point: This hummus post from APRIL, in which I said I’d also be posting my tapenade recipe and how to make pita chips. I haven’t forgotten about those other posts, but the passage of time has also sort of… gone really fast.

So, Tapenade, huh?

This is a great spread to make for crusty breads or pita chips, and though it’s typically made with anchovies, mine doesn’t have anything like that.

Here’s how I do mine:

1. Haul out the food processor.
2. Chuck in a ton of olives… If you don’t want it to be super-salty, make sure to use more black olives than green. Kalamata olives are always nice (and really the best for this), though I didn’t have any. Pulse.
3. Throw in a spoon of minced garlic. Don’t add too much at once… you can always taste and add more, but you can’t take it out once it’s there! Pulse.
4. Throw in a whole bunch of capers. Pulse.
5. Turn the processor on while you drizzle in extra virgin olive oil.  You can add some lemon juice too, if you’d like.
6. Taste, and decide if it needs anything else.
7. Serve and enjoy!

If “serve” is too vague, try some of these ideas:

1. Cut horizontal slits in chicken breasts and fill with a dab of olive tapenade before baking.
2. Serve broiled fish with a dollop of tapenade on top.
3. Use olive tapenade to stuff mushrooms as delicious crowd pleasers.
4. Find some delicious crostini (little pieces of crusty toasted bread) and spread with cream cheese, feta, or goat cheese, then top with tapenade.
5. Make summer appetizers by layering a bagel chip, a slice of mozzarella cheese, a slice of a Roma tomato, and tapenade.
6. Toss mixed greens with olive tapenade as a salad dressing.
7. Try a little bit in your morning omelet.
8. Add tapenade to angel hair pasta, chopped tomatoes, and fresh basil. Toss.
9. Serve with pita chips and yummus hummus, of course.
10. Make a delicious sandwich on focaccia with salami, pepperoni, cream cheese, fresh tomatoes, and olive tapenade.

I finally decided to get my butt in gear and get a mailing list service. I had wanted to figure out how to do it manually… to set up a form on my site where people could sign up, to send out pretty picture-filled emails, etc… but guess what.

I’m not that code-savvy. Really.
Mother, are you listening? I’ll never hack it as a web designer.

So I decided to suck it up and pay for an email service. It’s only about 4-5 dollars a month, but all of these little things (web hosting, shop fee, etc) add up!

So please please please, if you like my things at all, sign up for my mailing list so I’ll feel like it was worth it! I have an email going out on Wednesday which will have an awesome coupon code in it, just for email subscribers (so you’ll feel like it was worth it too).

I also haven’t decided on a good format for the emails… should it just be about the shop (with discount codes or sales), or also include hostess tips / quick cooking tips / whatever else? What do you think? What would you be excited about getting in your inbox?

You can sign up right here in this post, or in the widget on the left sidebar!

 Look what we got! Guess where we got it! Yeah, our garden. *blush*

So I put it to work for dinner, veggie-nacho style!

I cut up the tomatoes and de-seeded them (because I can’t stand the seeds and seed snot).

And peeled, chopped, and salted/oozed the eggplant (you know, the whole leeching out the bitter juices thing).

Heat some olive oil in a pan and throw in the eggplant. Toss it around, and sprinkle liberally with chili powder and cumin.

Then, add about 1/4 cup of water and cover to let it steam for a while. Keep checking it ever couple minutes, until it’s pretty easy to pierce with a fork or butter knife. Remove the cover and let the rest of the water evaporate (which should be really fast).

In a casserole dish, layer corn chips, cheddar cheese, eggplant…

…tomatoes…

…and whatever else you’d like. I added spinach, and the guy suggested black olives for next time.

Sprinkle with a little more cheese (I used Mexican Blend, just because I had it lying around) and bake about 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or until all the cheese is melted (even in the middle).

Serve it up! Looking at this picture makes me want a margarita.

Enjoy!