TUESDAY TIDBITS

When it rains, it might pour... or just drizzle. 

All I know for sure, this past weekend, it did some of both of those!

And has continued into today as well!!!

So it goes!

(Rumor has it that the sun will come out... tomorrow!!)

I finally got around to doing some mending on my sewing machine on Saturday morning, only to have it break down on me. 

My poor ol' Singer has been acting up for several months now, but on Saturday, it decided it was time to pop the bobbin part and die. 

The poor thing has given me over 20 years worth of use, so I really wasn't terribly surprised.

Time to get a new one...

 I  did some online research and came across a Brother machine for sewing and quilting both. 

However, it was at the top of my price range of what I wanted/could spend - $200 on walmart.com.

I opted instead to travel to a nearby Walmart to see what they had in stock.

They did have a Brother on sale for under $100.

I looked at it and then went to look at what else was on the shelves.

Imagine my happy, happy surprise to find the exact machine I'd been looking at online on the shelf... on clearance!!!!

I got my new machine, not for $200, but for $124!!!

Brother SQ9285

It has a whole ton of different stitches (150+), different feet for different tasks, and even the ability to add lettering! 

And you can do quilting with it!! 

The pic doesn't show it, but it also came with an extended table for things like quilting.

I'm very happy with the purchase/investment!!

First project: sewing up the sides of a picture I embroidered years ago.

The end goal was to get into one of the frames I'd gotten at Dollar Tree a few weeks ago.

Happy with the result!!

I did do some baking and crockpotting on Sunday.

I'd  found a Mushroom Onion Boneless Pork Shoulder Roast at Giant Eagle on Saturday that was reduced, as well as some reduced pork spare ribs.

(I don't really like paying full price for meat - would rather save money by shopping the reduced meats!)

Into the crockpot they went, along with the inch of water that the roast directions called for.

I'd come across a recipe in a crockpot cookbook that gave me some ideas of what to add to this (Fix It and Forget It).

So.... I had a half a bottle of BBQ sauce in the fridge.

In it went!

Added some baby carrots that I cut in half and a drained can of mushroom pieces.

Next, I got creative.... I added pickle juice to the "empty" BBQ sauce bottle to get all the sauce out.

I added about a cup of Mt Olive Simply Vidalia Pickled Onion Strips to the mix (this is where I got the pickle juice from).

I let this all crock away for hours on low.

During the last 20-30 minutes, I turned it up to high and

added a bag of frozen egg noodles to the mix.

Supper was delicious and has given me several days of yummy leftovers!!

My baking was also successful! 

I'd come across a package of a half dozen glazed Persian cinnamon rolls at Walmart on Saturday that were.... you guessed it... reduced!

I knew what I wanted to make!!!

Gathered all the ingredients together.

Here's the recipe:

GLAZED DONUT BREAD PUDDING

Ingredients

• 6 Glazed Donuts
• 1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
• ½ cup milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon butter
• Powdered sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cut each donut into 6 pieces.
3. Place donuts in to a 8"X8" buttered baking dish.
4. In a large bowl combine milks, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine.
5. Pour milk mixture over the donuts making sure the donuts are submerged.
6. Let the donuts sit in the milk mixture for 1 hour.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until the middle no longer jiggles.
8. Once cooled, sprinkle powdered sugar over the top.

What it looked like while the sitting in the milk mixture

End product after baking.... those are pecans on top!!

While I was at it, and had my eggs out, I tested them to see if they were still fresh or not. 

This is something I do whenever my eggs have gone past the "use by" date.

Rule of thumb: If it floats, throw it out!

If it sinks, you can still use it!

Yesterday, I completed the other three embroidery projects on the new sewing machine and got them into frames.

Today's projects involved revamping some old pillowcases I'd made years ago for two big cushions for my couch.

This time, my goal was to make new pillowcases for the new pillows I'd gotten for my bed.

Regular pillowcases have been a pain to get on the new pillows, so I wanted to make something bigger that would fit.

End result:

A second project for the material was to make a dust cover for the new machine that would also be big enough to cover the larger quilting table.

I'm looking forward to going through my other fabric and seeing what I can use for that Grammy quilt project I shared about in an earlier post.

Hope to make some progress on that project and share that with you in the near future.

Feeling Blessed Beyond Measure today...

Have a great week, everyone!!

Love and prayers,

Sue