Cabin Fever

I think I must be suffering from cabin fever. Every cell in my body is crying, "Get out of the house and get away today! Do something fun and spontaneous!" After working six nights in a row straight, I'm on my third day off and I want to do something different today!

Yes, winter is fiiiiiiiii-nally winding down and I'm looking so forward to warmer weather and getting outdoors more and opening windows and letting fresh air in! My only plans today are for grocery shopping, but still, it would be a nice change of pace to do it during the daylight hours God has given us!

I awoke to rain yesterday early....I tend to be a night owl anymore and that can be anytime between midnight and 4 AM. I chose to do my homey chores and get them out of the road in the morning just so I could chill in the afternoon.

I got a lot accomplished, from laundry to stripping the bed and flipping the mattress, to vacuuming and mopping the kitchen floor. I have to confess, the mopping of the kitchen floor? That was a necessity after last week's rains. Cady has yet to figure out how to wipe her paws and so I had paw prints all over the kitchen floor. Me and my Swiffer Wetjet took care of that in no time! (I love my Swiffer Wetjet!)

Dinner was a white bean chili (of sorts) done in the crockpot. I had only put out some pork stew meat to thaw, so I got creative!

Of course, it has to start with an onion. I love onions! I recall not liking them so much when I was younger, tho! Now...yeah, they are a staple in my house. And can I just say, I love using my cast iron skillet? Love it, love it, love it....easily the most used frying pan I use! I've read pros and cons on how to keep them clean and I go with what my mom does and that's just washing it with water. Yep, that's pretty much all I do. It's been used enough that it's well-seasoned and I love using it!

So....while the onion was browning, I added the cut up pork stew meat (cut up again for smaller chunks), grabbed my crockpot and got it ready and started to add ingredients for my chili. No recipe, just an idea....

 Using the Wal*Mart Great Value brand of Black Bean/Corn Salsa, I added that to my crockpot, added a couple of cans of Northern beans, some chili powder, and the browned onions and pork to that. Turned it on low and walked away.

I knew I wanted to bake bread yesterday. I had seen an awesome pictorial how to on The Country Blossom for Amish White Bread that I wanted to try. Talk about easy!!!!! And those pictures helped, too! (Thanks again, Katy!)

While I waited for the bread to raise before baking, I came across another idea for making fry bread. I was craving fry bread yesterday and this was sooooo simple! And I had the ingredients on hand! Just the thing to go with my chili, especially when the 2nd raising of the bread in the loaf pans was taking longer than I liked!

Simply, I just took a package of jumbo buttermilk biscuits, flattened them out, and fried them (again using my wonderful cast iron skillet!) in about a half inch of vegetable oil for about 30 seconds on each side. Ta da! Light, flaky fry bread! Don't they look delish?!

And they were awesome with the chili!

Final results on the bread.....yummy.....great with melted butter just out of the oven.....and later when they were cooled down! I am looking forward to making sandwiches with the bread later today!

Today's plans are simple - taking some time outside my home! Normally, I stick pretty close to home on my days off. But I'm feeling antsy today and would like to get out and about. No real urgent matters to take care...well, I may want to put gas in my car (can you beleive the price of gas?!?!) and pick up a few groceries to restock the pantry. The Lord has blessed me this pay with a bonus from work and so I will use some of that to restock items like the salsa and beans. And I think more yeast to make more bread! ☺

Well, for now, that's it! I'm off to see what blessings I can find today! Oh, and happy Saint Patrick's Day!

May you always be blessed beyond measure!

An Irish Prayer

May God give you...

For every storm.... a rainbow,

For every tear... a smile,

For every care... a promise,

 And a blessing in each trial,

 For every problem life sends,

 A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh...a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.