Refried Beans and Things

I definitely love owning a crock pot. (Thanks mom for giving me your old trusty. I still use it!) Today I decided to make my own refried beans since Andrew likes them so well and it is cheaper. You all probably already do your own version but Andrew said it tasted just like the beans in the can so I thought I would share my version:

Ingredients: (feel free to double this)
1 lb. dry pinto beans
8 cups water
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced (I used 1-1/2 tsp. garlic powder instead)
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt (Feel free to use less)
1/2 tsp black pepper


Preparation: Combine all ingredients in a crock pot or slow cooker. Cover and cook on medium-high for 8 hours.
Drain out most of the water. Blend the beans with a Cuisinart hand mixer or mash with a potato masher, adding back in some of the liquid if needed.

My other adventures this week included cooking zucchini, yellow squash, and green bell peppers. And to end this post with a sweet note, I made a small apple crisp for Easter out of my homemade apple pie filling.

Adventures in House Cleaning

Previously I cleaned the house thoroughly about once a week. There was no particular day or anything. I just did it when I could. I decided to make a schedule to break the duties down so that I only had to do certain tasks each day. Today was "thorough vacuuming day". This included vacuuming the cracks along the ceiling. This is particularly important as we seem to have daily influxes of ladybugs and flies that congregate upstairs. Upon getting to one of the upstairs rooms I found this little present:
Now you have to understand that being from Arizona I have seen my fair share of scorpions and know that the smaller they are, the more poisonous. Not expecting to find such a creature in our home in MN surrounded by 32 degree temps, I was taken aback. You might have thought my first reaction was to squash the thing but I decided I wanted to blog about it so I ran to get my camera. Upon returning it had vanished. (the weird thing is there was nowhere for it to go anywhere near and I ran for the camera!) The thing that struck me was the size of this thing. It was only 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch. (no longer than the width of my wedding band!) I also noticed quickly that it did not seem to have a tail anymore. This, I supposed, was a good thing. I quickly got on the Internet and searched for bugs that looked like a scorpion and trusty google came through again (which is where I got the above photo). It is a Pseudoscorpion. There are 3 types:The one I saw looked like the one on the far right, color:dark brown. What really got me was how the thing kept opening and closing its pincers. Upon reading on I found that these things "hitchhike" on the legs of flies. THAT must have been how it got in because as I said before, we have an abundance of flies... They do contain poison in their pincers but it is only effective against very small bugs. Apparently they do have silk glands with which they make cocoons to spend winters. Also it seems that Pseudoscorpions are considered beneficial to us since they are aggressive predators on clothes moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, ants, mites, small flies and even small earthworms. Here are some pictures to help you understand the size: Well there is your homeschooling lesson for the day:)

Quick and Easy Cooking

I like sharing cooking ideas on our blog. I have been married for only 10 months whereas many of you have been married many years, so my ideas may be old hat to you but here they are anyway:

Idea #1: Broiled Island Burgers

Now I know what you are thinking, "Crandall's don't eat much meat do they?" As I have learned, turkey is one of the "okay" meats to use from time to time :)

All you do is buy frozen turkey burgers (they come in a 12 pack for around $5) and a pack of buns. To broil them simply stick desired number of frozen burgers on broiler for 4 minutes (no preheating necessary). Flip and add a pineapple ring on the top of each. Broil 5-6 more minutes until done. Add any desired toppings and serve. I suggest adding sweet and sour or teriyaki sauce to it. Tasty.

Idea #2: Crock Pot Spaghetti Squash
Choose a spaghetti squash from your local farmers market or store. ($1.28 a pound at Walmart)Make sure it will fit in your crock pot with the lid on. Wash it and poke it with several holes. Place in crock pot and add 2 cups water. Place on low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours. Cut in half. Take out seeds with a grapefruit spoon. Use a fork to scrape out the spaghetti like pulp. Dress as you would pasta. You can make a homemade sauce or brush with butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Either way is tasty.

*These are not my photos. I just like to illustrate my recipes.

Baking Something New

I signed up to bring some bread to our Lenten dinner at church for Wednesday. I decided to make some bread today just in case it did not work out since I was making it from scratch for the first time. I decided to try "Rustic Italian Bread". Here is how it turned out.

MinneSNOWta

Here is our current weather in Minnesota. All the schools are closed. We were supposed to get about 12 inches of snow today. When we woke up we had about an inch. Andrew decided he could still go to work. Off he went in my truck. I hopped around the yard taking snow pictures while trying to protect my camera from the elements. At the moment the snow level is rated "winter wonderland". We are still predicted to get 11.5 inches by tomorrow morning. When that comes I will rate it "don't bother getting out of bed".This happy little snow heart is NOT how I feel about more snow... but I thought it was a nice picture of sarcasm.The house and truck through the trees are our neighbors' the Millers. Here is our driveway heading out to highway 23. My phone rings... The truck decided to die just beyond view. I believe it is related to the distributor cap crack I had about a year ago but we shall see. Well the tow truck is on its way. I think I will just take a few more shots. I prefer to shoot Macro. So this was my favorite shot of the morning.

This was the whole plant to the above close-up.

Our Home - Part 2

This is another doorway in the kitchen. It leads to this small sink space. I placed a bookshelf there to use as a pantry due to lack of space. It is working out great. The door beyond leads in to the stairway area.Our stairway area has a miscellaneous toilet. (the only one on this floor) I consider it a good conversation piece :) I really like the hardwood floors and stairs in this house.Up the stairs and to the right you find out room.Lucy loves looking out all the windows in this house. Our bed looks like it is tipping in this photo. It is mostly the perspective (I had to stand on the dresser) but we are pretty convinced the room does slant some (this house is about 90 years old).

The bathroom is to the right of our bedroom. It has a tub. Andrew is still getting used to this. I use our clothes drying rack to dry our towels.

I use the "over the toilet" shelf to go over the sink because we did not have space for our morning routine items.

This house has its charms and challenges. We are finally mostly settled in now.

Our Home - Part 1

Here are the first picture of the inside of our "vintage" house. (The rest will come later when I figure out where things belong.)
This is our kitchen. When you walk in the door you enter the kitchen on the left. (Near the microwave) Also note, the "vintage" fridge. :) The cupboards are all basically on the one side of the room. It has been a challenge getting everything to fit, particularly because I cannot reach the top cupboards unless I climb on a chair and then climb on the counter. The stove is on the other side of the room. The doorway to the right of the stove leads to the living room.Here is the living room:
Our futon is also in this room but it has stuff on it... The doorway to the left leads in to a 2nd living room of sorts. We have a desk and shelf for Andrew's office and my craft stuff. More later.