All Things Hold Together

This week’s Works-for-Me Wednesday is all about 5-ingredient-or-less recipes. This is a good one! I am going to be checking out links all week.

One of my favorite recipes is Chicken Pot Pie. It can be as simple or complex as you like.

Simple Chicken Pot Pie

Refrigerated pie crust
Frozen mixed veggies, thawed
Diced (leftover) cooked chicken
Jar of chicken gravy

Press pie crust into pie plate. Fill with chicken and thawed veggies. Top with gravy. Bake according to crust directions until crust is browned and filling is bubbly.

I did not give amounts for filling ingredients because I have found that people’s preferences vary. I use more veggies. Some people like more gravy or more chicken. Just don’t over-fill the crust.

If you like less crust, do not line the pie plate with the bottom crust, only use the top crust. You can also use biscuits as a topping instead of pie crust.

For a more complex recipe, you can make your own crust, make your own gravy, or even make the whole thing from scratch beginning with raw chicken.

Another easy recipe I enjoy is baked ziti.

Easy Baked Ziti

1 box ziti
1 package Italian sausage
1 jar spaghetti sauce
Shredded mozzarella

Cook ziti according to package directions. Meanwhile, cut sausage into bite-sized pieces and cook until done. Drain ziti and combine with sausage and sauce in a casserole dish. Top with mozzarella, to taste, and bake at 350-degrees until cheese is melted and begins to brown.

Be sure to head on over to Rocks in My Dryer and check out all the great 5-ingredient-or-less recipes.

This week, Works-for-Me Wednesday has gone negative. No, I don’t mean that it has launched a cut-throat campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. This week, WFMWers are telling readers what didn’t work for us.

A while back, I tried what I thought was a great way to save money on cooking spray. I bought an oil sprayer. I got a great deal on it at TJ Maxx and thought it would pay for itself in no time. What a brilliant idea. I couldn’t wait to share it in a WFMW tip.

Well, it didn’t exactly work out. At first, I noticed that my eggs were sticking. I thought, hey, I can handle this. It’s not so bad. Think of the savings.

But then, my baked goods were coming out all stuck to the pan and broken (from trying to get them out). And let me tell you, you don’t mess with this mama and her baked goods.

Long story short - don’t bother. I still use mine, but not for much. And never for baking. (I think this is a good time to mention that PAM for Baking - the kind with the flour in it - R.O.C.K.S! It works so well that when I was looking at the bottom of my banana bread the other day, the thing flew out of the pan onto the floor. But don’t let that deter you from using it; just be careful!)

That is what doesn’t work for me. Head on over to Rocks in My Dryer for more Doesn’t Work for Me Wednesday.

A while back my sister told me that an old friend found her through her MySpace page. I decided that I would join and try to find some of my old friends.

I was totally shocked at the people I found. I always thought of MySpace as a place for high-school and college kids, and singles.

It turns out there are a lot of people I know who are using MySpace.

I reconnected with my best friend from high school, my cousin that I have not seen since high school, a best friend from college, my neighbors who moved to Seattle, and I found a couple of other people who I have not made contact with yet.

So, if there is someone you lost touch with that you would like to reconnect with, try MySpace. It’s worth a shot. It worked for me!

For more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips, head on over to Rocks In My Dryer.

This week, Works-for-Me Wednesday contributors are re-sharing their favorite WFMW posts of days gone by.

I actually had a hard time choosing just one, but I think this is the most life-changing. (You will laugh at that statement when you read what my tip is.)

This WFMW tip comes from August 2007.

I love my kitchen shears! I mean love them. I use them all of the time. In fact, I don’t know if I could live - or at least cook - without them.

I thought everyone felt the same way, but then my sister-in-law heard me raving about the many uses of kitchen shears and asked, “What are kitchen shears?” (Gasp!!)

When I explained that they are the scissors that usually come in a knife set, she replied, “Oh, I thought those were just scissors.”

Just scissors!

As I was cutting up boneless chicken breast with my kitchen shears, I decided to abandon my previously scheduled WFMW post in order to extol the virtues of kitchen shears, just in case there are others who, like my sister-in-law, are missing out on this handy kitchen tool.

Kitchen shears make food preparation a snap. They can be used for cutting up meat, such as chicken or sausage. I hate cutting meat, but the shears make it so quick and easy.

Kitchen shears are also great for cutting up vegetables and herbs. I love to use them to snip chives or scallions.

They are also great for cutting up dough for rolls.

There is really no end to what you can use them for, once you get going.

The shears are also great for those impossible-to-open plastic plastic packages that toys and electronics come in. They cut through anything!

As you can tell, I really do love my kitchen shears. I hope that once you start using them, you will too!

Be sure to head on over to Rocks in My Dryer and check out the rest of Works-for-Me Wednesday’s Greatest Hits.

This week, Works-for-Me Wednesday is going backwards! Bloggers ask for help, instead of offering a tip.

Here is what I need help with.

I am looking for jar mixes. You know, when you take a jar and layer ingredients in it to make it look really pretty, then give it as a gift?

I make these for my relatives at Christmas.

I have lots of sweet recipes, but I need some soup recipes.

There is a catch, though. I want ones that you have personally tasted the results of.

I made a bean soup jar for my parents for Christmas and I decided to cook it and taste it first. I am glad I did because it tasted like beans and water!

I added a second bouillon cube and it was great!

I am so glad I tried it first!

So, what I need from you all is your best soup (or other non dessert) jar mixes that you know taste good.

Thank you so much!

Be sure to head on over to Rocks in My Dryer and help out other bloggers with the dilemmas in their lives.

It’s Wednesday, which means moms around the blogosphere are sharing tips that work for them.

When I am cooking, I often have peels and other trash from my preparation cluttering up my work space. It’s either that or I have to make repeated trips to the trash can.

I discovered a trick that solves this problem for me: a bowl. I grab an empty cool whip bowl (we save all of our plastic containers) and put all of my waste in there. My work space stays neat and I just dump it out when I am through.

That works for me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, visit Rocks in My Dryer.

When muffins need a little extra incentive to leave the pan, the tempting thing to do is grab a butter knife and go around the edges to loosen them.

This usually does the trick, but it also leaves scratches on the pan.

My tip is to use a rubber spatula instead. Make sure it is heat-proof, or it can melt.

I even have a small rubber spatula to loosen goodies from my mini muffin pan.

While I am at it, I have to recommend the cooking spray with flour (Pam for Baking).  It works like a charm for baked goods.  They come right out of the pan.

That works for me. I hope you find it useful, too.

For more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer, where Shannon is recovering from her trip to Africa.

It’s been a while since I posted a Works-for-me Wednesday tip. Now that my new blog is set up (I moved here from Blogger), I can get back into a routine. Or get into a routine, finally. I am not so sure I have ever been in a routine.

Anyway, my tip for this week is on cleaning the bathroom mirror. I have a huge bathroom mirror behind a double-sink and it is always covered with water spots (from splashy kids), toothpaste splatters, and even hand prints.

And that is usually within hours of cleaning it.

It can be quite maddening.

So, a while back I realized that when I get out of the shower, that’s assuming I actually get a shower, and the mirror is all foggy, I can wipe it down with a cloth. When it dries, all of those nasty little spots, drops and spatters are gone!

And it only takes me a few seconds!

That works for me, and I hope it can work for you, too.

For more Works-for-me Wednesday tips, head on over to Rocks In My Dryer.

It has been a while since I did a Works-for-me Wednesday post. I am glad to get back into it.

A few months ago, we got rid of all of our non-stick cookware and bought a set of beautiful, Martha Stewart stainless steel pots and pans from Macy’s.

Cooking with stainless steel is much different from cooking with non-stick, which is what I have always used, but now that I am used to it, I love it. LOVE it.

The think I didn’t love was the clean up, until I learned this trick.

When you finish cooking something that is stuck to the bottom, add some hot water to the pot (or pan) and put it back on the warm burner, or of your burner has long since cooled down, put it on low-medium, just to warm it up a bit.

Scrape the bottom with a spoon - not hard - and the stuff should peel right off. (If not, heat a bit longer.)

Now that my stainless steel is so easy to clean, I will never go back to non-stick.

This is not professional advice, but it works for me!

For more Works-for-Wednesday tips, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer.

This week’s Works-for-me Wednesday was all about quick fixes for dinner.

We’ve all had days like this (if you haven’t, then really, I don’t want to hear about it): The day has been crazy, kids have too much homework, you have a sinus headache, laundry is piled high, you’ve been too busy to get to the store, 5:15 rolls around, and your in-home cook hasn’t shown up yet.

That’s when you remember that you don’t have an in-home cook, and feeding that rag-tag bunch is somehow your responsibility.

[…]

What are the catch-all, quick-and-easy-dinners-that-still-manage-to-taste-decent that you keep on hand?

Now, I did not participate this week because I couldn’t think of a recipe to share.

I am usually pretty good at sticking to my menu plan.

I am also pretty good at avoiding hectic days. When I know we have a lot going on, I try to pre-plan a crock pot meal or sandwiches.

Occasionally, I do find that I am not feeling well, or the kids are extra wild, the house is extra messy, and I am extra overwhelmed.

When that happens to me, I just throw in the chicken nuggets and frozen fries that I keep on hand. For Bob and I, I put the chicken nuggets on salads.

Which reminds me, for a quick Honey-Mustard Dressing in a pinch, or just because it is easy and yummy, just mix equal-ish parts of spicy brown mustard (deli mustard, or whatever you have), mayonnaise, and honey.

Finally, a good use for those Costco-sized jugs of honey I buy.

At any rate, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer, where you will find all of the links to the recipes that will save that hectic day from dinner-time disaster.