Author Archives: explorenewness

Yummy (and TOTALLY EASY) Apple Butter

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Hi all!  Ok…today I’m going to share with you the easiest recipe EVER!!!   It is definitely NOT gourmet…for gourmet, I’d recommend you hop over to NR11: English Kitchen Baking for a great recipe for Quince Chutney!  Maybe someday I’ll get to that level.

BUT…this stuff is really yummy on breakfast toast!  I should really call it Dump-Apple-Butter, because all you do is:

Dump one 2-3 lb jar of applesauce into a microwave-safe bowl.  Dump 1 cup sugar into the bowl. Dump 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice into the bowl.  Stir and microwave until a bit thicker (I cook mine about 10 minutes).   That’s it!  You can definitely use homemade applesauce if you’d like to!

Try something NEW today….even if it’s REALLY easy :o)

a NEW Christmas tradition

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I once heard that if you do something more than twice it’s a tradition :o)!  Well, I guess I have a NEW Christmas tradition!  I love the looks of cross-stitched pieces and although I can’t seem to do too many of these projects (because I get a bit annoyed after a while at the monotony of the up/down motion)….the last two or three years I’ve managed to finish one each year.  Woo hoo! Right?!?  I’ve decided to continue this ‘tradition’, because if I make Christmas themed cross-stitch projects, maybe they won’t end up at the GoodWill after I die.  Maybe , just maybe, my great-grandchildren will cherish them….(as long as they only have to display them about 4 weeks each December).

The BELIEVE cross-stitch piece above is last year’s project and I just finished framing it today.   Here’s pics of the process….I REALLY recommend DIY picture framing!!!  (Yes, I use our ping-pong table for mat cutting).

It’s ready to go on display in December!  Yeah!  Now it’s time to decide on this year’s project.  I’m contemplating this project below.  What do you think?

I found it at ABC Stitch Therapy

Five NEW sites to visit to be Well-Rounded

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Before I started this blog, I was a huge fan (well, I still am) of READING blogs because of all the NEW things I could learn!  I’d try to check a blog every day for each area of my life (physical, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, financial etc).  If I limited the blog reading to five areas each day, I could be motivated in each area, plus I could get away from the computer and actually have a life too! I thought I’d share some of the great blogs I’ve found…and there are so many, that I think this may be an ongoing series….at least for a while.

PHYSICAL: Melina’s Fitness Blog (She posts often and is fun and motivating)

SPIRITUAL: The Redheaded Hostess  (I love her ideas for scripture study)

INTELLECTUAL: Light Stalking  (I’m studying photography these days)

EMOTIONAL: The Generous Wife (This one keeps me from taking my terrific husband for granted)

FINANCIAL: Advice From Dave Ramsey (Love his radio show too)

So check out some NEW sites today, and be a WELL-ROUNDED blogger!

{pic source}

a NEW method for whipping cream

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You may already know this about me…but I LOVE efficiency! I have so many things I want to be doing and if I can do things quicker and more efficiently, it’ll totally make my day! A few weeks ago, my two youngest sons had their birthdays (same day…three years apart), so I was busy making a cake and an ice cream cake. The ice cream cake had whipped cream as ‘frosting’, and so I tried whipping the cream in my blender since I had just read this post on One Good Thing By Jillee blog. OH.MY.GOODNESS!!!!!….It was whipped within SECONDS! I’ll admit it wasn’t totally light and fluffy, but for the purpose of frosting an ice cream cake, it didn’t need to be. A few weeks later, I experimented, and timed myself as I whipped it my ‘old’ way, and the new way:

Old Way = 7 minutes, 11 seconds = light and fluffy, and my 1 cup of cream about doubled to 2 cups.  Tip:  Put a metal bowl and beaters in the refrigerator to chill before whipping your cream.  (They say it whips faster). The picture of this method is at the top of the post.

Quick Way – 18 seconds!!!! = not as fluffy, but it all tastes the same, right!?  Here’s a pic of the blender batch.  18 seconds!!!  I do have  a pretty powerful blender (Vita-Mix), so that probably helped.

If I need totally gorgeous, fluffy cream, I’ll take the time and beat the cream…but when it doesn’t matter….I’m totally going with my NEW method!  Have a great day y’all!  Try something NEW!

a NEW recipe from Pinterest

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I guess I’m not the only one with lots of ‘pins’ on my Pinterest boards with REALLY good intentions of making or baking or trying out whatever we pinned! But ya know…..there’s only so many hours in a day, right? However, I got just the kick in the pants I needed when I saw this post at Miss Marzipan.  She was trying out the same Blueberry Danish  that I had planned to.  The recipe was originally posted at Chef In Training  and I had already bought all the ingredients, so after reading that post, I commented on her site that she inspired me to get busy….right then!  It’s a good thing to get a kick in the pants now and again!

Learn something NEW

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My curiosity got the better of me again today…I wanted to learn something NEW!  It just so happens that I just got off the phone with my doctor’s office. I called to request a prescription for the anti-motion sickness patch. Yes, we’re going to the Caribbean on a cruise soon….can’t wait!!!…and I’m quite susceptible to motion sickness. So I have been wondering how, exactly, does this patch work????? Well, I learned that the drug blocks signals from the inner ear to the brain that typically would tell the brain that you are off-balance.  So, I guess when the brain doesn’t know any better, it won’t tell your nervous stomach to get queasy etc!  Amazing!  Check out:  How Does a Motion Sickness Patch Work? and the Wiki.  You know, one thing about being a curious cat is….I could spend my entire day finding out about NEW things!  If you read the Wiki article, you might be tempted to research more about biosynthesis, the relationship of the motion sickness patch to The Truth Drug, and how the Communist Secret Police used it….(and on and on and on)!!!

Research something NEW today!

a NEW yummy recipe

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Hi all! A few weeks ago, my good friend brought me over the yummiest pumpkin bread! The texture was soooo perfect! I know I clicked a picture of it, because I thought to myself….I’ve got to share this on my blog! Well….it took a while to get the actually recipe out of my friend, and now….hmmmm…..ok, where is that picture I took???? No where to be found! So I googled pumpkin bread, and this pic looks pretty close. But believe me….this recipe is a GOOD one! Perfect consistency and texture. So yummy! {source for pic}

So, here is a PDF printout of my friends recipe!  Try it….or something else NEW today!

pumpkin bread recipe