Sew God's Grace

Fall, to me, is the beginning of "slow cooker" season.  With all the fun pins I am seeing on Pinterest, I'm itching to get my crockpot out several times a week.  This recipe is one that my whole family enjoys!  I have adapted it from a Taste of Home recipe.  I like to make a big batch--we use half and then freeze the leftovers for another time.  The taste is slightly different than barbequed beef, and it turns out very moist and delicious.  My kids love them on homemade buns with cheese and pickles.  See here  for the recipe I use for the buns.  Instead of making 12 rolls, I make about 10 buns and adjust the baking time a bit longer.  Super quick and easy, too! Since I have been trying to cut down on my carbs (it's been taking a while to get the baby weight off!), I just ate the beef plain, and it was very satisfying.  Here's the recipe: Shredded Beef Sandwiches 1 12 ounce can cola 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce 4 ga...

  If you are looking for a little bit of a twist on the traditional pasta salad, well, this is it!  I love how simple this is because you are starting with a kit, and the dressing that is supplied with it is scrumptious--it reminds me of Olive Garden's salad dressing.  This is the sort of thing that I don't measure for; I just throw things in.  You can adjust the amounts according to your own taste preferences.  Don't have access to Schwan's?  No problem, just use frozen or fresh tortellini.  Prepare and rinse in cold water.  Then use your favorite Italian or Greek Salad dressing. Quick and Easy Tortellini Pasta Salad 1 24 ounce package Schwan's Six Cheese Tri Color Tortellini Salad Kit 1/2 - 1 cup of each or any of the following:      Grape tomatoes, halved      Cucumber, peeled and diced      Green bell pepper, diced (Red bell pepper is great, too!)  ...

Here's another bread that I like to make often.  Since I use the bread machine to make the dough, it is a no-fuss recipe.   Right now I am trying to avoid dairy products to attempt to help with Grant's fussiness.  This bread contains no milk ingredients.  You can substitue sugar for the honey as well if you would prefer! Soft Oatmeal Bread 1 1/ 4 cups plus 2 tablespoons warm water 1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup vegetable oil 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon lemon juice 3 cups flour 1 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast Place ingredients in bread pan in order suggested by the manufacturer.  Select "dough" setting.  When the cycle is complete, punch dough down.  On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 9 inch by 18 inch rectangle.  Starting with a short end, roll up the dough.  Pinch ends together to seal.  Place in a greased 9 by 5 inch bread pan.  Cover and let rise in a...

Recently, I was visiting with a friend and her daughter about what they had been doing the day before.  With a sigh, her daughter told me that they had been working outside.  She seemed to think that whenever her dad was home on a Saturday, all they did was "work."  I told her that it may seem tough now, but those times will be good memories for her later. This led me to start thinking about some of my own memories of childhood--when the "work" we did as a family seemed never-ending.  Things like painting the house, shingling the garage roof, and canning jam came to mind.  However, I think one of my favorite family work traditions would be "walking the beans." I grew up on a small farm in south-central Kansas.  (Read:  more rain than what we get here in western Kansas!)  I prided myself on knowing a little bit about farming when I was dating and later married to my husband.  However, I learned that what ...

Since we welcomed a new little one into the family just one week before Maddie's eighth birthday, we didn't celebrate her birthday right on time.  We had a party with just family, but I told her that we would invite some friends over for a get together sometime.  Well, this Thursday was it.  With a two week old, I tried to do fun activities that the girls would enjoy, but I did not want to go over the top with time-sucking preparations.  Here's what we did. We started with the girls making personalized bead bracelets.  I bought a little kit in the kids' craft section of Walmart for $10.  The girls had a great time.  I set out paper plates for the girls to put their beads on and taped their elastic cords to the plates so the beads would not come off of the ends.  Very little prep, and the girls had a great time with it. Next we painted toe nails--very girly and easy to set up for.  I have lots of fast dry nail polish which I highly re...

Okay, it's not the prettiest picture--I had to lay it out on the floor in my basement--but here is the finished quilt top for Grant's quilt.  In a frenzy of nesting energy, I got most of it done the week before he was born.  I just had to add the borders and sew the back for the quilt, a feat I accomplished one night when Matt had a meeting and I got all the kids into bed!  I'm going to take it to my friend Kristy to get it machine quilted.  She owns a quilt shop and has great taste.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I will post an update when it is finished. Our little Grant came two and a half weeks early on June 29th, 2012.  It wasn't that big of a surprise because our last two kiddos were two weeks early as well.  However, for some reason I had decided that he was going to be a while.  He was born on a Friday, and I had made plans to have Maddie's eighth birthday party the following Sunday.  Needless to say,...

I usually don't make cinnamon rolls, but I found a recipe on pinterest for Cake Mix Cinnamon Rolls that I wanted to try.  Since we had a bake sale coming up last Saturday, so I decided to give it a go. I found the recipe on Six Sisters Stuff.  I love their blog.  I've made several of their recipes, and my family has raved about them.  I love the idea of using canned frosting on the cinnamon rolls.  By the time I have made rolls, I don't feel like making frosting.  I will be keeping some cream cheese frosting on hand from now on!  I also added some sprinkles to these rolls because I thought it looked fun.  Our bake sale was a great success.  We raised almost $4000 for our friends' adoption costs.  As a side note, we had 7 dozen cinnamon rolls sell within fifteen minutes after we began the sale.  I would say we could have sold at least 5 dozen more.  Something to keep in mind!