What's cookin?

I found a new weakness. I'm afraid it's going to take over my life. Apple Crostatas! Wow, these are good. And easy to make, too! I spent the day trying to get it figured out, and I think I found a really easy, and tasty, recipe!

Honestly, I rarely measure things when cooking, so I'll do the best I can with sharing this. I looked at a few Apple Crostata recipes online, and just kind of threw it together from there. Each one makes either one good sized Crostata, or can be cut in half and still have a good sized portion.

Preheat your oven to 375F. Unroll one pre-made pie crust, Betty Crocker's are pretty tasty. These come in a nine inch round, and are already rolled out to just the right thickness. Spray a cookie sheet with no-stick cooking spray and lay it out on the sheet.

Peel, core, and dice two to three medium sized apples. I chopped mine fairly small, compared to what I would make for an apple pie. Put them in a good sized bowl, and sprinkle pretty heavily with sugar, brown sugar, about a Tbs of flour, cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg. Stir until it's all coated pretty well. Taste, and adjust seasonings if desired.

Plop the apples right onto the middle of the pie crust. Spread out the apple mixture to within about two inches of the edges, leaving a slight mound in the middle. Very carefully fold the edges up and over, overlapping and pinching any areas that break. You can make this as ornate or as plain as you like. I went with a somewhat scalloped edge look. The middle area will remain open throughout baking.

Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes. If the edges of your Apple Crostata are browning a little too quickly, cover them loosely with foil. It's finished when the crust has a nice golden brown color.

While hot, top with Caramel sauce and chopped pecans (optional.) Serve with a side of Vanilla ice cream. Caution: these are highly addictive!! I can imagine this way of making Crostatas would work with just about any fruit, and can't wait to try to make it with berries sometime!   

Another Alice.com order!

I was so impressed with Alice.com that I've decided to do another order with them. The first order came on the third business day, and everything was just how it should be. Not to mention all item but one had a coupon, yay!

This time I branched out a little more. I got bleach, diapers, toothpaste, dishwashing liquid, some snacks for Gracie, air freshener, and a couple other things. All told, I ordered nine items, and saved only $2.05 in coupons. But the regular prices seem to be pretty good, too. The Luvs diapers were a full dollar cheaper than the dollar store, without a coupon! My total order was $27.85, and the shipping was still free. PLUS there was a note with the order that there will be free samples included, yay!

So I'm working my way to that first $50, at which I'll get a $10 discount. So that takes an extra 20% off everything I've ordered to that point. When you sign up through the referral program, both the referred person gets the discount. The referrer also gets a little cash, so that's nice, too!

Alice.com is great for those of us that have a long drive to the store, for minimizing trips and saving gas to just pick up a few items. Not having to clip coupons is also nice, but I generally don't mind that. It's nice that they have so many products with coupons right on the site!

     

Cleaning is so not fun

I feel like I finally caught up a bit on my cleaning fiasco over the weekend. At least enough that the dishes aren't talking smack as I walk by anymore. If anything I'm a little smug when I pass the empty sink, thinking to myself, "Ha! Take THAT!"

So I get all the general housework caught up and I realized how far this house still has to go to be, well, CLEAN. In a nutshell (pun intended,) we're finishing up remodeling the other house. So, this one has to do in the meantime. Putting all the time into the other one, there's a lot of odds and ends here being neglected.

I really hope Santa brings me one of those Shark floor cleaners this year for Christmas. The linoleum is old and has cracks and tears in many places, making it a nightmare to mop. It will be perfect for the new house, too, as it will have hardwood and tile floors. 

So this week, I'm focusing on getting these floors in shape. Or at least, not so gross. There's still a long way to go to achieve that! Thankfully, Mother Nature is cooperating with me, so I can hang the rugs out to dry and freshen up while the floors dry. Did I mention how much I like the Fabuloso cleaner? It's not the best product on the market, but wowza it smells fresh!

Playtime is over, it's back to the grind. Or the mop, as the case may be.

Pets get sick, too!

With a tighter budget as a stay at home mom, I'm looking for ways to cut costs on just about everything these days. And that includes pet meds. Prescription pet medicine can be every bit as costly as people meds, so cutting corners when possible is important.

With a dog and a cat, fleas are taking over the house! Frontline is awesome stuff, but it's price tag reflects how well it works. Thankfully, with the Internet, it's easier than ever to find pet meds at a reduced cost. There are many websites that offer pet medicine at an impressive discount, and eBay often has it at a great price.

Amazon often has good deals, too, so it's always worth checking out when comparing prices. It might take a little work finding the best deal, but when the savings are big enough, it's a great investment of time.

One thing to watch out for when buying discount pet medicine online is to make sure the produce is not damaged or out of date. This is especially true on eBay. Just make sure you are buying from a reputable seller, no matter where the deal is found.

Coloring book fun!

Today we're going to have a little fun. Gracie's discovered the joy of coloring, and we are just plain out of coloring books. So why not make our own? Downloading coloring pages is a great way to make a customized coloring book, and it's free, too! There are pages with just about any theme you can think of out floating around on the net, waiting to hit your printer and make your child as happy as can be.

Today we're going to focus on finding Elmo and Spongebob coloring pages, two of the favorite characters in this house. I'll be putting them together into a binder so Gracie can have her very own coloring book, customized just for her.

I think these will be much better to save in a hope chest than a ratty old coloring book. Somewhat of a better protected "best of," in a sense. We already have a spare binder laying around, so they'll be protected and kept neat.

The only dilemma is whether to start a new folder of coloring pages with each topic or season, or just keep adding to the original one. Either way, it will be neat to see how her coloring abilities progress throughout the years. 

Now if we could only keep the coloring limited to the coloring pages or books. Oh boy, if I could count all the surfaces G has colored on in this house! And for the record, Windex will take Sharpie marker off a computer screen. I found this out the hard way!

All in all, downloading coloring pages is an affordable way to have a little bit of fun, customized for each child. What could be better than that!