Finding Contentment

Le Rooster is in the kitchen

It all started back in September or October, when I found this guy at our local Goodwill for a couple of bucks. I don’t know why I bought him, he just spoke to me. We had purchased our first chickens about six months earlier, and I was in love.

We can’t have a rooster because of the noise ordinance in our city, so maybe I thought I would substitute with this guy. Not to mention that his patriotic colors spoke to me of a love of our nation. I bought him and hung him in an empty spot on the kitchen wall.

After weeks and weeks of looking at him, I guess I decided somewhere in my subconscious that I needed to redecorate my kitchen in chickens and roosters. For me, redecorating a room is a labor of love that often takes years. That’s because I’ve never been able to afford to just go buy everything I need to redecorate. Instead, I start looking everywhere for frugal finds and treasures. I purchase things at thrift stores, yard sales, and occasionally, at an actual store. Bits and pieces at a time. And it takes forever. But I don’t mind – I love the joy of the hunt and the treasures are more precious to me because I couldn’t just go out and buy them on a whim.

Over the last few months I have hit the jackpot several times. Here’s what I’ve bought since the patriotic rooster came to my kitchen.

First my husband and I picked out this picture among many on clearance for about $10 at Wal-Mart (I had to take the photo at an angle to avoid a glare).

We both fell in love with it because it represents what we view as the perfect home. It gives me a feeling of peace every time I look at it. And yes, you probably can't see them but there are some tiny chickens running around the barn yard.God hasn’t decided we need that home yet, but he did bless us just weeks ago by allowing us to purchase the home we have been renting for the past seven years. This spring we will be repainting every room in our 1605 square-foot, 4-bedroom home. No more blah, boring, beige walls!

Shortly after Christmas I was in Wal-Mart (once again) when I saw these kitchen curtains.

How perfect are they with their patchwork chickens and roosters? Unfortunately, the curtains were definitely not frugal at $20 per set. Still, I had some Christmas money to spend, and my husband encouraged me to spend the money on something I really wanted, even if it wasn’t frugal. So I purchased three sets of the curtains (the last they had at the time) and brought them home. Two sets went here on the double windows over my kitchen sink, and the other set will soon hang over the window on my back door. If I get an extra $20 any time soon, I may go buy another set to go over the window in my pantry (the pantry has a window because years ago it was a back porch).

With the roughly $15 I had left over from my Christmas money, I purchased these three metal canisters from a Burke’s Outlet.

They had a lot of “chicken décor” so picking something was hard. But I liked the old-fashioned feel to these and the fact that only one of them had a rooster on it – I didn’t want too much of a good thing!

And then came the treasures I found today. My husband and I went to Home Depot to price some materials we would need for a few projects around the house, and he offered to stop by my favorite store – Goodwill.

That’s where I found these brand new items for $4.

They were beautiful, and would fit perfectly with my new theme. On the bottom of one was written the name of the artist – Susan Winget. I looked her up on the Internet when I got home and discovered I loved all her stuff! And then, through her Web site, I discovered that she lives and has her studio on a farm 30-45 minutes from my home! I will definitely be on the lookout for her stuff now, and have bookmarked her Web site just in case I get any more “mad money” as a gift one day.

However, I have a mystery you may be able to help me solve. The two smaller Susan Winget items are obviously salt and pepper shakers, but I have no idea what the larger one is. It has holes in the top and a place to pour stuff into the bottom. Any suggestions on what it could be or what I can use it for? It would have to be something that wouldn’t “clump” as the holes in the top mean it is not airtight.

I looked all over Mrs. Winget’s Web site and found the collection (it’s called “Le Rooster,” isn’t that cute?) but couldn’t find these particular pieces. I thought about emailing and asking her. Do you think it would be offensive to an artist to know I got her stuff at Goodwill?

Oh, and here is what else I got at Goodwill: Martha Stewart’s “Good Things” and a book called “Grandmother's Kitchen Basics & Solutions.”

The “Le Rooster” items, two good books, a board game for the kids and a paperback book for my daughter – all for about $8. Not bad, huh?

Pumpkin pies galore

Here is what I have been doing for the last two days:

I made 10 pumpkin pies. Yes, 10! Every now and then a kid would wander in the kitchen and ask if they could help. I would then put them to work opening cans of pumpkin or stiring. Then they would get bored and wander out.

I didn't use real pumpkins - I used canned pumpkin, along with sweetened condensed milk, eggs, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon. And I must admit that I used ready-made crusts. I have not yet mastered the art of making pie crusts - actually, I haven't even tried yet! My goal next year is to make the pies and the crusts from scratch.

Here's the breakdown on the reason I made so many pies: One pie went to my brother Jonathan and his family, one to my brother Timothy and his family, one to my MIL as my contribution to the dinner she hosted last night, two to the elderly neighbors next door so they have something to offer all their kids and grandkids as they stop by on Thanksgiving, and two to take to our friends' house when we cook and eat with them on Saturday. My family already ate one and will likely eat another, which leaves me with one extra to give to whoever we drop in on or to offer whoever drops by our house.

Mmmm, I made myself hungry. I think I'll go have myself a slice of pie!

Roll update

Yea, we did it! Alli (dd, 15) and I baked fresh, made-from-scratch roles. My husband said they're not really made from scratch because I didn't grind the grain myself... phooey! I say they are made from scratch!

These tasted great. I made spaghetti for dinner, and just in case the roles didn't turn out well I heated up our regular frozen garlic bread to go with it. The garlic bread was passed over in favor of the rolls by everyone! Hubby also said the roles would be great with some honey butter like the kind they have for yeast roles in steak houses. Anyone know how to make or where to buy honey butter?

We followed Michelle's great tutorial almost exactly. I put the rolls in my electric oven with just the light on for the second rise. I'll have to remember that for other bread too, as it worked well.

The only thing we did differently was that we didn't bother to weigh out the dough when shaping the rolls. We did a "Rachel Ray" move and just eyeballed it. That's why they are all different sizes!

I also put one unbaked role in the refrigerator and three unbaked roles in the freezer to see how they would come out if I try to bake them later.

In the Kitchen "rolls"

For today's edition of "In the Kitchen" I would like to cheat, and share a recipe that is not my own.

I was very intrigued by this recipe for yeast roles from Life's Accidental Journey. So intrigued, in fact, that I am at this very moment trying my hand at them.

Now, although I have tried, I have not found that I have a knack for baking any kind of bread - yet. I am sure I can do it, but baking bread takes a lot of time and practice and I am not there yet. Hopefully these roles will turn out well. Michelle says you can also use this recipe to make hamburger buns, which I find to be ridiculously priced for the frugal family. Let's cross our fingers and hope this bread project turns out better than my previous ones!

3-Ingredient Fudge

Okay, I actually made this one up on my own several years ago. It makes a very rich fudge that even kids can easily make. No stove-top required!

3- Ingredient Fudge

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pour everything together in a microwavable mixing bowl. Place it in the microwave on - I don't know.. - maybe five minutes. But take it out every minute and stir, then put it back in and start it up again. When everything has melted together, take it out. Line a square or rectangular dish (I use glass Pyrex) with wax paper. Pour the chocolate in and smooth out the top. Refrigerate for 24 hours. Remove from dish, peel off wax paper and cut into squares.

Keep refrigerated as this stuff melts easily!