Tips and Treats!

Healthy and Delicious

So, I had this whole blog planned out; I was going to share with you a lovely skirt and the bio of who made it. I made an announcement on FB yesterday on my weekly greetings video that I do there. Unfortunately, the lovely lady whom it was to be all about, had a bit of a family emergency, and well family does indeed come first. The blog is still going to happen...hopefully Friday. So then came the what to do for today?? Well I know all of you like the recipes and especially since I try to make them as quick and easy as possible. I decided rather late in the day to take a quick walk to the market and get the ingredients, even tho tomorrow is grocery day. The weather, tho we had been having lovely Autumn like days, even a thunder storm the other night is warming up again back to what is typical for October here in Sacramento, to the low 80's so I also took a little lunch break inside the local bagel shop where it was nice and cool before heading on back home. I had mentioned to my FB fans that I would do a post with some household tips, after all I have begun trying to brand myself, after five years of blogging and being all over the map, as the "Retro Housewife in a Modern World"....there is another blog out there in the world called "The Modern Retro Housewife" , so I have to be careful with this whole branding thing as to not cause any confusion. But I have gone down a rabbit trail, back to the tips. I have just two simple ones right now for you.

Tip One....

Muse Cottage , when we bought it had a functional kitchen, but one that no matter how hard I scrub and scour is never quite as clean looking as I would like it to be. The sink is horrible, even tho it is stainless. I have used everything...and I do hate chemicals if I can avoid it. SO when I was looking through my Classic Household Hints by Susan Waggoner for a couple tips to share, as I have run through most of my own, I spotted one that mentioned cleaning a stainless sink with club soda! Well I just happened to have some on hand from when we made port wine spritzers, and had a half bottle left. Now my sink is not something that is a horror story mind you, but as I said I can not seem to get it as clean as I like, so it was worth a shot. I put on my gloves, I poured some on my sponge, the soft side, and went to work. Almost instantly I saw dirty, grimy water appear and I continued to wipe, and before I knew it, I had a sparkling sink! No chemicals, no hard abrasives and with very little effort. There are a few spots that seem to be old age stains... or perhaps chemical stains ( the former owners used to work on motorcycles in the kitchen..don't even get me started on the counters) , but see for yourself....no tarnish, no food grime, no grease..ok I know there is not a huge amount of those things that show up in the photos, but just trust me! So I would say this tip is Ruby's Musings Approved!!!

Tip Two

You ever curse at your roll of plastic wrap? you know how it does not roll out properly, is hard to tear or won't even unroll at all and just starts to tear? Well, the second tip is for easier to roll plastic wrap, store it in the fridge. Yep, you heard me, in the fridge! Then it is easy peasy. In the photo above I popped the box in the freezer to be able to get results quicker, and thus the photo above, but it did not work quite as well LOL!! I guess it had to be in there longer. Yes, I have loads of plastic wrap issues!  What if you have a waded up piece...yeah that happens, at least to me, a lot ..but come on admit it, we have all had it happen to us where suddenly it gets hopelessly stuck in a ball form, after fussing with it to get it out of the package in the first place and suddenly it is not user friendly and you have to start the process all over again? Well according to the book, if you pop it into the freezer, for just ten minutes it will come undone! So I wadded up some plastic wrap, good and scrunchy, then I tried it and you know what it works! So there you have it ...also "Ruby's Musings Approved"

Recipe Time!

So now the treat time!! It's Autumn, even tho it does not feel like it and odds are good it will be 90 degrees towards weeks end, but regardless it is, and that means pumpkin everything! I mean we can eat it year around, but it just seems to call my name " Ruby...Ruby...Ruby.." so for this weeks recipe I chose to make Carrot Pumpkin Muffins. I of course am a busy retro housewife, and it was late in the day and I had other things I needed to do, so it had to be an easy recipe. I happen, as many of my readers know, have cake mix on hand all the time for when I want to make easy whoopie pies, and this time of year I always have cans of pumpkin on hand. I also always have shredded carrots on hand as I use them in my vegi spaghetti sauce, and my base taco meat that I use for enchiladas and taco salads as well as tacos...even tortilla soup! You can find the recipes for the sauce and meat mix under the labels section if using a P.C. to view this post. I also love dried cranberries, so have those on hand. So really the only thing I had to buy at the market is the one thing I did not have, nuts. Normally I like pecans or walnuts, but while at the market I actually saw flavored pumpkin seeds, so grabbed those. I already also had this cinnamon nugget and jimmies carrot cake toppings on hand so used that too! You could also throw in diced apples and pineapple if you so desire!!! So below is the steps.

Gather your goodies, all these plus one cup of water or apple juice/cider,
pre-heat oven according to box instructions....as you can make this into
muffins, loaves and even a large cake/baking dish cake.

Dice/mince up the nuts/seeds and carrots,
 I used a large handful of carrots... you can use more,
and about 1/2 cup of seeds....set aside

Put craisens in glass measuring cup I used nearly a
cups worth, pour water or juice over and then microwave
until hot ....

Meanwhile mix all your other ingredients
until all the dry cake mix is absorbed.
It will be thick and sticky...you could actually
stop here if you are leaving out the craisens
and make a nice loaf or drop cookies with it
as is. 

Once craisens..or raisens if you like
them better  are plump, pour it all in.

It will look like this, and yes it will be
much wetter... but still thick!
Put into whatever vessel you plan to use, and add
any toppings you like. I added the sprinkles and a few extra seeds...
again follow the box directions for temp
based on your choice. Bake until toothpick comes out clean

Here is your final result!!! They will be moist, dense but oh so good and pretty healthy for the most part...oh and they freeze well . Store in an air tight container either in the fridge or the freezer to keep fresh...heat in the microwave when ready to eat! 

On Friday see more photos of this beautiful
skirt and learn about the lady who made it.