 It is long past time for a giveaway. How about a ‘Baking Giveaway’? We have a set of two, brand new square cake pans that are nice and smooth and ready for somebody’s favorite cake recipe. This giveaway will go through March 31st. Just leave a comment in the comment section of this post and any upcoming posts and your name and email address will automatically go into the drawing. Only one comment per post will qualify for entry. So, enter away!!   OK. Now, I have to tell you our tornado shelter story, for those of you prepared for any event. And just know, Mr. Fix-It was not happy. Being the prepared one in the family, (I was a Girl Scout all the way through Senior Scouts, don’t you know?) I put together a backpack filled with “necessities” – you know, a change of clothes for each of us, medications, a first aid kit, toilet paper and etc. I also include a bag of M&Ms, dried fruit and nuts. Oh. And a deck of cards. You NEVER know when you might need a deck of cards. This big bag sits by the back door, ready to grab as we vamoose out the door to head to the shelter at the sound of the sirens during tornado season. . Back in the fall, we had a new, larger shelter installed and we feel like regular gophers. It is a flat-top job that drops 8 feet underground and is big enough for several cots so that we can sleep down there during a long night. There are also folding chairs, a table, shelves and various and sundry emergency paraphernalia like lamps, a radio and paper towels. The door to the cellar is flush with the concrete top at ground level and lifts open to reveal a long set of narrow, metal steps to descend into our “fraidy hole” and they are quite a bit steeper than our old, small shelter. Since you already know about my lack of grace and poise, I’m still waiting for the outside handrail to be installed so that I don’t have to slide down each step on my butt. Heh! It’s a long, long jump to that concrete floor there, I’ll have you know!!     Now, prior to getting the new shelter furnished, all of our emergency stuff was still in the old, small cellar. It isn’t as fancy as the new one and is drastically smaller.  Instead of the nice, large folding chairs we have in the new place, we’ve always had some buckets of grains (you know I grind the grains to make the flour to mix the bread that MB builds). The coolness of the shelter offered a nice place for storage. The buckets were handy for putting a board across to make a bench to sit on. When I needed to get grain, I just lifted up the board and pulled off a lid to whichever type I needed. Besides our bench sitting arrangement, we also had a portable fan, a blanket that zips into a cushion, a couple of small, wooden folding chairs for extra occupants, lanterns, LED lights and radios. With tornado season having started March 1st, this past weekend we decided that we had better get everything out of the little cellar to move to the big cellar to prepare for this year’s possibilities. Soooooo, it appears, that stupid me forgot to bring up my famous emergency backpack last June after our last trip to the “fraidy hole”. It has been sitting down there all Summer, Fall and most of the Winter. And, evidently, some little field mice were tired of being bopped on the head by Little Bunny Fu-Fu, who lives under the deck, and, were hypnotically lured by the fragrance of hot, melted chocolate M&Ms (they may not melt in your hand, but there must be a caveat about backpacks in the summer). They chewed a hole through the screen on the cellar ventilation turbine and dropped their little vermin bodies onto the shelf that held our “emergency” equipment. They must have had a jolly time sliding down the metal posts of the shelving to the “bench” below to a feast of chocolate, dried fruit and mixed nuts. I bet you didn’t know that mice are crazier about chocolate than even you are!! So, those uninvited critters must have had a blast because not only did they tear up the backpack and everything in it, but having full bellies, they then tore into the package of 8 rolls of paper towels. They chewed, burrowed and chewed some more to make nests in order to have babies and then to raise those little tikes to make more nests to make grandbabies and great-grandbabies. There must have been ten generations because the entire floor of the cellar was covered in mouse droppings and urine….all the way to the corners. EVERYTHING was covered. And they messed all over the shelving, the radios, the lanterns, the fan, the wooden plank and even the buckets. As we stared at the total destruction before us, Mr. Fix-It muttered to me how insanely stupid it was to have an emergency backpack with M&Ms, dried fruit and nuts. He wanted to know exactly why I felt the need to have such a backpack. I meekly pointed out so many of our neighbors who, two years ago in the May 19th tornado, had their homes totally destroyed – nothing left, no clothes, no food, no meds, no nothing. We had been very fortunate. In a case like that, my backpack would at least keep us from being naked and, I smiled, we could always stay entertained with the cards. He was not amused. Mr. Fix-It donned a mask so he wouldn’t catch Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome which I have no idea what it is or what it does. He put on tall, rubber boots and rubber gloves and headed down into the abandoned concrete mouse mansion. He dragged everything out, throwing away what could not be salvaged and stacking what I was to scrub with bleach water and soap. For hours I scrubbed items, sprayed them down, dried them off and then put them into the direct sun, while he continued carrying things up the stairs to me. What items I could throw into the washing machine, I did so in hot bleach water. The backpack was a total loss and was tossed in the trash – clothes and all. Evidently, the rodents had gotten tired of living in filth because we did not find one, single animal, although we gingerly pulled everything apart, fully expecting to be startled by an escaping mouse. Finally, Mr. Fix-It got the shop-vac and sucked up anything loose, tossing the filter when he finished. Next, the floor, walls and ceiling of the cellar were scrubbed with bleach water and soap. We left the door opened the rest of the day to dry the shelter out and crawled to the house, exhausted. So, the old cellar, which is in like new condition (if nobody knows about its recent inhabitants) is now clean and ready to be dug out to hopefully go to the daughter’s family backyard. And I have my new, big cellar all ready to have a tornado party. Oh yes, and for that party, I AM putting together a new backpack with a change of clothes, a first aid kit, meds, a bag of M&Ms, dried fruits and mixed nuts…and a deck of cards. I might even add the game, Taboo. But I won’t be leaving it in the shelter, ever again. Heh heh.  |
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Archive for the ‘Giveaways!’ Category
New Giveaway And A Prepper Reality
Monday, March 14th, 2016
New Giveaway and Salad Recipe!
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014
 It’s tomato season again!! I love, love, love home grown tomatoes. They actually have flavor!! And tomatoes are so good for you. According to Tomatofest.com • Eating tomatoes, ketchup, tomato sauce and tomato paste-topped pizza more than two times a week can reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 21 to 43 percent according to Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard University School of Public Health. • “The only nutrient that turned out to have significant preventative value (against prostate cancer) was lycopene,” writes Dr. Giovannucci who also found that lycopene was most efficiently absorbed into the body when accompanied by dietary fats (lipids). • “Cooking tomatoes in oil encourages intestinal absorption and results in a two-to-threefold rise in plasma lycopene concentrations,” • Men who eat two or more servings of tomato products average a 35 percent reduction in prostate cancer risk. • Tomato products are beneficial in aggressive cancers that have also spread to other parts of the body. • The best food sources of lycopene according to the Tomato Research Council in New York City: ( Amount of lycopene in one ounce) Tomato Sauce, Spaghetti Sauce, Ketchup (5 mg); Tomato Soup, Canned Tomatoes, Tomato Juice, Vegetable Juice (3 mg); Minestrone Soup, Vegetable Soup, Pink Grapefruit (1 mg) • Lycopene helps women guard against cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia, (CIN), tumorous tissue growth in the cervix according to research from the University of Illinois at Chicago. • Lycopene is a powerful inhibitor of the growth of breast, endometrium (inner lining of the uterus) and lung cancer cells. • Tomatoes are good for the eyes. Lycopene, the most abundant carotenoid in the blood serum, was found to be the key antioxidant that guards against ARMD ( Age-Related Macular Degeneration), a condition that may cause blindness. • Tomatoes are high in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium and Potassium • Lycopene is an inhibitor to heart disease. So there you go…eat your tomatoes and you’ll outlive Methuselah…well…maybe.  To celebrate the venerable tomato and to support our favorite tomato packagers, Red Gold Tomatoes along with out favorite chili creators, Willis Chili Seasoning, we are having a giveaway that will make your mouth water. The winner will receive a can of Red Gold tomato sauce, a package of Willis Chili Seasoning and a lovely Red Gold Tomato apron to wear while making chili. I know it is summer, but we eat chili all year round and it is one of our summer favorites. So leave a comment below and on following posts and your name will automatically go into the drawing that will be held on August 20th. Good luck!  To make you hungry for tomatoes, here is something new that we have tried and love. I can totally admit that I am an Okie country girl. I’ve never been to Italy and, up until recently, I’d never heard of a Caprese Salad (you have to say “Caprese” with your hand slightly waving next to your cheek with your thumb touching your index finger to add emphasis). The daughter, Mrs. Wonderful Mommy, is well acquainted with this salad and rolled her eyes at my delight at my new find, but I had been totally ignorant of this epicurean delight. Evidently, (and the home school mom is now coming out in me) Insalata Caprese is a salad in the style of the island of Capri and is usually served as an antipasto (first course), not a contorno (side dish). Oh yeah. Wish you could hear this Okie accent butcher THAT! Insalata Caprese is sometimes called Insalata Tricolore, because it is the three colors of the Italian flag – red, green and white. It can include avocado as well. from Foodielady.wordpress.com We have had an incredible tomato season in Oklahoma with the wonderfully cool weather and my Roma Tomatos have done exceptionally well. I love to dehydrate Romas and, of course, they make superb spaghetti sauce, but they are great just to eat! So, when a friend posted a photo of a Caprese Salad on Facebook, I had to try it. As is usual with me, though, I had to add my own flair! A recipe? I don’t need no stinkin’ recipe. Ha! Usually, only a fine olive oil is drizzled over this fresh vegetable and cheese dish, but I gotta dress it up. So here is my version of a Caprese Salad. Ingredients: Red leaf lettuce and butter crunch or Green leaf lettuce One Roma tomato per person Package of Buffalo Mozzarella cheese (the very soft, fresh mozzarella) Fresh Basil leaves 1 Tbsp Olive oil per person 1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar per person ½ tsp Dehydrated garlic pieces per person Salt and pepper Instructions:  In a heated skillet, pour dried garlic pieces onto the dry surface with no oils. Quickly toss around with a spatula until pieces are lightly browned and toasted.  Mix olive oil and vinegar with a small whisk and add browned garlic pieces. Set aside. Cut thin slices of mozzarella and tear basil leaves into about 3 pieces. If the mozzarella is large, cut it into pieces that match the width of the tomatoes. Set aside. With each Roma tomato, carefully slice off the stem end of the tomato and then cut a thin layer, lengthwise, along what will be the bottom in order for the tomato to sit flat on a surface. Carefully make slices across the tomato, about ¼” thick, stopping slicing before you go all the way through the tomato. Gently spread the sections of tomato and insert a slice of mozzarella and basil between the tomato slices at the same time.   On salad plates, arrange torn pieces of lettuces to cover the plate. Place a stuffed tomato in the center of the lettuce. Drizzle 2 Tbsp of the vinaigrette dressing over the tomato, salt and pepper to taste, and serve.  Isn’t that pretty? And just to let you know, we went to a VERY nice Italian restaurant this week and there on the menu, under the salads, was “Caprese Salad”. I smiled very knowingly at the waiter and considered stating, “I know what a Caprese Salad is – (while holding my hand to my cheek with my fingers touching.) I make them alllll the time. I just don’t choose to have one at today.” I’m sure that he would have been duly impressed!
Veggies! |
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A Winner, A New Give Away and A New Recipe for Your Canned Meats!
Thursday, August 8th, 2013
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On August 1st, we drew a name out of the hat and Frankie, from Silver Spring, Maryland, won the gift certificate to the Grangeville Rose Tea Room and Emporium. The gift certificate has been mailed to her sister, who lives right here in Oklahoma City, as an early birthday present. Lucky her!! And so, another Okie will get to experience the lovely atmosphere of our newest tea room. Congratulations Frankie and sister, Liz. And thank you to all who entered the drawing.   Now, we have a new giveaway. Red Gold Tomatoes, the best canned tomatoes in the world (if you can’t do your own!!) has sent me a couple of items that I thought I would give away to a lucky reader. On August 21st, we will be giving away this Red Gold Apron and a bottle of their Mama Selita’s Jalopeno Ketchup. Just comment at the blog and you will be entered. Plus, Red Gold Tomatoes is having their own celebration. I will post here exactly what my letter from them says:“Come join our Red Gold Summer Grillin’ Party that will run from July 24th through August 30th on Facebook — #RGParty. During this period, we will share our new RG Tomato Grillers Recipes. They are tomato-licious!…As part of this promotion, we will be giving away 1,000 Red Gold “Summertime Tomatoes All Year Long” Aprons every week via a random drawing – that’s 5,000 total winners! There will also be one grand prize winner who will win a large Big Green Egg Grill – that’s a $1,000 value. Anyone who registers for our promotion is automatically entered into both the weekly drawing and grand prize drawing. Here’sthe twist – anyone can earn additional entries into ourgrand prize drawing! For each person they refer, who opts to participate in our promotion they will earn additional entries int the grand prize drawing. Our goal is to have 150K Red Gold Facebook Fans by the end of the summer. Each week we will be releasing new recipe videos, as well as sharing summer grilling tips.” You can also find them on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/RedGoldTomatoes And by the way, Red Gold is an Indiana based, 3rd generation Family-Owned company that has been making premium quality tomato products since 1942!! We need to support small businesses!! 🙂 Now, on to cooking….in the past, I have shown how to can meats like chicken breasts, ground beef, sausage and etc. I even can my own chili, a recipe that I am not at liberty to share because it is not my own. However, my point is that meat is an easy staple to put up for long-term storage much longer than freezer times. Many of these meats can be bought as well, canned, off of the grocery shelf, but sometimes we are at a loss what to do with them. Here, I am going to show you a quick way to make enchiladas with your canned chicken breasts, canned chili or canned roast beef. You can even use your canned cheeses and dehydrated onions, rehydrated with water. You will need for 4 people: 8 – 10 White corn tortillas (yellow corn are fine but I like the lighter texture of the white corn tortillas) Olive Oil 1 pint canned, boneless chicken breasts 1 pint canned chili or canned roast beef 1 package taco seasoning mix (I prefer Taco Bell) 1 8 oz sour cream (light is fine) Buttermilk 1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese 1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese (you can use your canned cheddar) 2 slices American Cheese (You can use your canned Velveeta) 1 small onion chopped 2 tbsp. chopped green pepper 1/2 tsp garlic powder salt 1 jar salsa verde 1 can red enchilada sauce (not picante sauce)   Place canned chicken breast with broth into a small sauce pan and add 1/2 pkg of taco seasoning. Stir until chicken is shredded and mixed with seasoning. Add a little water or broth if the meat is too dry. Simmer until liquid is reduced to a thick sauce. Set aside. Put 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil into a skillet and heat. Place one tortilla at a time into the hot oil and sear lightly. Turn and lift out to a paper towel to drain. Do each tortilla, placing a paper towel between each one.  Place a line of hot, seasoned chicken mix down the center of each tortilla. Roll tightly and place on a microwaveable platter, seam side down. Repeat until desired number of chicken enchiladas is achieved.  In a bowl, add sour cream, chopped onions, chopped green peppers, garlic powder, 1/2 cup Monterey jack cheese and salt to taste. Stir and add just enough buttermilk to make a nice, thick sauce. Spread the sour cream sauce over the chicken enchiladas, evenly.  Spoon salsa verde down the center of the enchiladas.  Now, with remaining tortillas, (here I am just making two for the two of us but you can make more) we will make beef enchiladas. If using canned beef, do the same as with the chicken breasts and place into a pan with the broth and 1/2 pkg of taco seasoning, simmering until hot and liquid is reduced. If using your canned chili, heat it first, cooking it down to very thick and then spoon onto the tortillas. Roll the tortillas tightly and place onto the platter with seam side down.  Slice the American cheese into strips and lay the strips down the tops of the enchiladas. Sprinkle with a mixture of the cheddar and Monterey jack cheeses and then spoon red enchilada sauce over the top of the cheese.  Microwave the enchiladas a length of time according to your microwave’s power level (you can carefully cover these with foil, making the foil stand up away from the enchiladas and heat in the oven) I usually microwave about 2 minutes or until the cheese is melted and sour cream sauce is hot. Remove from the microwave and sprinkle a mixture of cheddar and Monterey jack cheeses over the chicken enchiladas.  Serve with Mexican rice and refried beans and you’ll think you are at a restaurant! |
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We Have A Winner!
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
 The evening of February 11th saw the fanfare of our drawing for the February Valentine’s Day Giveaway. And….drum roll please…we have a winner. Say “Congratulations” to reader Micheala Johanson of Ohio. She has won the basket of our handmade, Castile, goat milk soaps and has made her choice of our two minty ones: Eucalyptus/Tea Tree and Peppermint (with hand rolled oatmeal) and also a bar of Rosemary/Peppermint with real, rubbed sage grown right here at the Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ gardens. A scrubby is included and all is wrapped in shrink wrap packaging with a big, gingham bow. Micheala’s gift is already winging its way to Ohio and she will be soaking in a tub with lucious soaps soon! Thanks to all of you for entering and watch for the next giveaway coming up in March, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day!!   |
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Enter The Valentine’s Day Giveaway!!
Thursday, January 31st, 2013
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It’s nearly February and time to start thinking about hearts and flowers and smelling good because you took a bath. It’s hard to have a Valentine if you aren’t clean and you don’t smell good. So I am going to help you out in that department. For our Valentine’s Day Giveaway, the winner will receive a heart decorated basket with a shower scrubby and choice of two 4oz Prairie Blessings soaps. Yep. The winner gets to choose whichever soaps desired. Of course, the winner can use this as a gift for his or her Valentine to make THEM smell good!! Our soaps are made right here by our hands (and with stainless pots and stuff) of hand rendered pure tallow, olive oil, coconut oil and infused with pure, steam-distilled essential oils, organic herbs and spices, fragrance oils and flower petals. Just leave a comment below and at any following posts until February 11th when the winner will be chosen. Good luck to everybody! (And if you don’t win, you can still purchase the soaps so you can smell good too.) |
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We Have A Winner!!
Thursday, December 20th, 2012
 We had the drawing last night and our lucky winner is Kelly from Texas. Kelly has been notified and has responded and her package of short bread mix and cookie cutters will be heading her way. She even ordered soaps to throw into the box! Thank you, Kelly!! Oh!! And to make it even better, Kelly informed me that her birthday was yesterday – the day she won! So Happy Birthday too and Congratulations!! Couldn’t make it any more perfect a pick! And just a little announcement – The Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™, our Prairie Blessings soaps and our rolling pin covers have gone international! We can now ship these items to Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Austrlia. More countries will be added soon. So, for those of you who have inquired regarding international shipping, it is now available! Later this evening, I will be posting a new appetizer recipe so stay tuned! |
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Christmas Giveaway!!
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012
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OK!!! Time for a giveaway. Yes, it is. Tis the season to be jolly and that time to give stuff, right? Well, I think that you are going to really like this “stuff”! Leave a comment below or on any posts until December 19th and you will be entered to win a lovely set of cookie cutters that you can use to create the coolest cookie Christmas tree. But on top of that, you will also win a bag of our Aberdeen Shortbread Cookie Mix, which makes the most lucious and buttery shortbread and can be found at the shopping page. The drawing will be held on the 19th. So get to commenting and maybe you will be our lucky winner!!! Ho, ho, ho!! |
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Fall Giveaway
Monday, October 15th, 2012
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It’s time for a new giveaway and since it is Fall, I guess we’ll call it our 2012 Fall Giveaway! And since Fall means cool nights, football games and food, I’m thinkin’ fresh, hot bread is the order of the day. So, comment here or on any other post until Novemeber 1 and you will be entered for two large packages of our Frontier Fixin’s bread mixes. These savory breads are great with spicy cheese spreads, meats or pestos or just plain ol’ butter. So enter as many times as you wish by commenting!! Good luck.  |
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New Giveaway!!
Thursday, August 2nd, 2012
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First on the agenda – there is a glitch here at the blog and I am very aware of it. In fact, I’m kind of overwhelmed by it. When I started writing way back in 2009, I was green as a gourd and had absolutely no idea what I was doing. The blog is powered by WordPress.org and is quite different from Blogger and other sites. I have to write much of the blog in HTML and when I post pictures, there has to be a host site for the photos with accompanying HTML to assign a spot for each picture. I know now that I can host my own photos at my own FTP site, but am just now trying to figure out how to do that. Soooo, way back then, after figuring out that “hosting” didn’t have anything to do with my penchant for laying a table of edibles for a party, I put the first two years of blog post photos at a site called ImageHost.org. Well, Imagehost is no more. It is gone. Finis. Kaput. And with its demise, so go my photos hosted. I still have the photos, but now I am going to have to go back one post by one post to reload pictures and retype HTML. It is gonna take awhile because we are talking some 400 photos, but it will get done. I got the first 5 posts done last night. It was kinda fun going back that far and reading what I was doing. My, my. How far we have come!! Anyway, if there is a particular post that you are needing and the pictures are gone, email me and I will hop over to that post and get it fixed first. Second order of business – it is high time for a giveaway!! And I am hoping you are REALLY gonna like this one. It will go until Labor Day and on that day, a winner’s name will be drawn. All you have to do is to leave a comment at any of the posts and your name and email address will be entered. The winner will receive this lovely marble rolling pin with stand, and a package of biscuit mix to roll out with the rolling pin!  So start commenting! And you can enter as many times as you wish. Good luck to everybody! Update: If you are having trouble posting, go to the very bottom of the post and click on the blue link that says, “Comments” with the number of comments in front of it. It appears that the link in the box is bad. |
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Winner In The Mother’s Day Giveaway!
Monday, May 7th, 2012
 Surprise – surprise! As Mr. Fix-It was doing his due dilligence in drawing a name out of the bucket for the winner of our Mother’s Day Tea Party gift, I decided, on a lark, to give away TWO gift sets. Mr. Fix-It generously agreed to draw out a second name. And so, I am proud to announce that the winners of our May giveaway are Ryan Gott and Gayle Jones. Both will be receiving a box with the tea party gifts in the photo above, just in time for Mother’s Day. And for the rest of the month, in honor of Mother’s Day and Spring, our Apricot Orchard tea will be on sale at 15% off. A $4.25 tin of loose tea will be $3.60 through the month of May. This tea is just amazing and makes wonderful hot tea or iced tea, depending on your mood. |
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Homestead Revival
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