- Good food, good company, good advice from Grandma

Some Nice Inexpensive Ways To Brighten Up Your Kitchen

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Whether you have lived in your house for twenty years or for just a few months like I have, I know you are still looking for some colorful new items to brighten up the kitchen. Even in my old house, where I lived for more than sixteen years, I was still wanting to glam it up a bit the month before we moved out. I was pleasantly surprised to find some cute little things that are useful, too at The Lakeside Collection.

If you cook out a lot, this buffet caddy is just the thing you need. I think it would come in very handy when we have company indoors or outdoors, when grilling or for holiday celebrations.

What a cute way to hold all the things you need for the dinner party! I love that it holds the silverware and napkins.At $12.95, that’s a very good deal.

My mother used to have a cloth plastic bag keeper. I have looked for one of those, and thought about making one, but look at this cute version from The Lakeside Collection. This would be adorable on the wall, and be useful too. Only $9.95, can you imagine?

I am a sucker for casserole dishes. I have to many now, but if I could get these with handles, I would find a place to put them. These are only $19.95 for the set of three!

The Lakeside Collection website has lots of items for the entire house. From furniture and rugs, bed and bath,cooking supplies, housewares and dining, and much more. With their affordable prices, you can pick up some great gifts too.

Our Chunky Monkey Grandson

Karen · 18 Comments

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Just look at his happy little self. His Mommy and Daddy took him on a little trip to Pigeon Forge before school started for big brother. It is hard to believe that Parker is six months old already and 22 pounds!

Look What’s New From Chex! Win Some For Yourself

Karen · 49 Comments

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Look what I got in the mail! I received a couple of boxes of the brand new Vanilla Chex from the folks over at Chex! This flavor is just as good and crunchy as all the rest. It might even become my new favorite, kicking the Chocolate Chex down to second place. Those two boxes of cereal were gone way too fast.

About Chex

Chex cereals, made by General Mills, have been a family favorite for decades. Today, General Mills makes a total of eight delicious Chex cereals, including seven gluten-free flavors – Rice Chex®, Corn Chex®, Honey Nut Chex®, Chocolate Chex®, Cinnamon Chex®, Apple Cinnamon Chex®, and Vanilla Chex® – as well as Wheat Chex® which is not gluten-free. To learn more about Chex, visit www.Chex.com.

Look at this great giveaway! Through August 18, 2013, you can enter the Vanilla Chex Sweepstakes on ModernMom.com just by sharing which Chex Cereal you love best. One Grand Prize Winner will be awarded a year’s supply of Vanilla Chex and 150 first prize winners will receive a coupon for a free box of Vanilla Chex. To learn more and for official contest rules, visit ModernMom.com. I’m going over there right now and enter to win that myself. Vanilla Chex for an entire year? Yes please!

Win some here! One lucky reader of Fabgrandma will win three coupons, each good for a free box of Vanilla Chex. Enter using the Giveaway Tools form below. Ends 8/31/2013.

Entry -Form

Wholly Wholesome Gluten Free Pie Crust Review

Karen · 15 Comments

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I received some of these Wholly Wholesome Gluten Free frozen pie crusts for review. To do the review, I decided to make a two crust Home Made Peach pie, and a one crust Lemon Meringue Pie. This would give me some idea how the crust would work with each techinque.

First, I have to say that this frozen pie crust tastes good. It does not have any of that “bean-y” aftertaste you sometimes get with gluten free foods. It just tastes like pie crust. Second, if you are going to use them to make a two crust pie, you have to let the crust thaw out completely before you can work with it. I didn’t do that, and because of it, I had a really hard time getting the top crust out of the foil pan it came in. For that reason, it sort of fell apart on me. All in all, though, if you can get the top crust out and placed on the pie, it does taste good. And if you are better at handling the pie crust dough, it should look good, too. The Wholly Wholesome Gluten Free Pie Crust browned up to a golden brown and would have looked so good if I had not messed it up.

The Lemon Meringue Pie came out perfect. I browned the crust first before making the filling, and as you can see, it made for a beautiful presentation of the pie.

I was happy that the crust stayed put together when I cut pieces to serve it. Some of the pie crusts I have tried don’t.

My husband said the crust was too hard, but that could have been because I cooked it too long. It did taste good to me and was easy to use.

Find out more about Wholly Wholesome, and where to purchase them, at their website.

Glutino Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Karen · Leave a Comment

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I received a sample of Glutino Gluten Free Pantry Chocolate Chip Cookie mix to review. I have tried other chocolate chip cookie mixes, and have been pleased with them. These, however, have a really nice, buttery flavor, and are flaky almost like wheat flour cookies would be. The package included all the ingredients to make them except for an egg, butter, and vanilla.

The instructions on the box said this mix would make 22-25 cookies, and it probably will. I decided to make bigger cookies, though, because I wanted to use them to make some ice cream sandwiches. I used a “handful” of the dough and formed it into balls, then flattened them out some before I put them on the cookie sheet. I got 12 cookies of the larger size, so I was able to make six BIG ice cream sandwiches. They turned out a little bit too big, so I have to cut them in half before eating them. Well, at least I should.

These cookies taste good all by themselves, but as the basis for ice cream sandwiches? Terrific!

Check out Glutino.com for more information on their gluten free products.

Bloggy Buffet: Chicken Chicken Chicken

Karen · 2 Comments

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I’m hosting a new Blog Hop that I hope you all will want to join in. It is named The Bloggy Buffet and it will go live each week on Thursday. There will be a prompt every week for bloggers to share a recipe with us, using that prompt ingredient. The idea here is to show how many different ways you can prepare the same thing.

For instance, this week, the first week, the prompt is Chicken. It can be a recipe for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It can be an old post. It can be main dish, salad, sandwich, soup, or side dish. As long as it has chicken in the recipe, you can link it up. There aren’t too many other rules for participation:

1. Create a post with a picture of your prepared chicken dish, and share the recipe.

2. Put the Bloggy Buffet graphic in your post

3. Include the linky code. That way, everyone can hop from one blog to another and see all the recipes for the week.

<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” media=”all” href=”http://www.blenza.com/linkies/styles/default.css” /><script src=”http://www.blenza.com/linkies/loc_en.js“></script><script src=”http://www.blenza.com/linkies/opt_defaults.js“></script><script src=”http://www.blenza.com/linkies/misterlinky.js“></script><script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.blenza.com/linkies/autolink.php?mode=standard&owner=Fabgrandma&postid=07Aug2013“></script>

4. If you link up, try to visit all the blogs in the linky to comment, pin, tweet, or share in some way.

5. I will post the next week’s prompt on this weeks post, so be sure to look for that.

6. You do not have to participate every week, but I hope you will want to.

So, here is my first contribution to the buffet:

Chicken and Rice with Salsa

This is one of my favorite chicken recipes. I got it from my mother-in-law. She told me that when she and my father-in-law used to travel in their RV, they would meet up with their friends in the desert out west. They parked their RV’s in a circle and everyone contributed something to the dinner meals. That is where she learned to make it. I can see why, because it is so easy and so quick to fix.

Chicken and Rice With Salsa Recipe

4-6 pieces of chicken

1 cup uncooked rice

1 jar of salsa, your favorite brand

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups water

Salt and pepper to taste

Salt and pepper the chicken pieces. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet with a lid. Add the chicken pieces to the skillet, and brown slightly. Add in the rest of the ingredients in the skillet, stir to mix well.

Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer. Cover and cook for thirty minutes, stirring once or twice.

Chicken and Rice with Salsa

I serve this with a salad or sliced cucumbers.

The prompt for next week is Soup. Show us your soup next week!

National Take Your Parents To Lunch Day

Karen · 190 Comments

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Did you know that there is a National Take Your Parents To Lunch Day? I didn’t know that either, but there is. It isn’t until October 16, but I have a very good reason to tell you about it today. Rudi’s Organic Bakery is celebrating National Take Your Parents to Lunch Dayto help support healthy, active kids.

amelia with sandwich — My sweet Granddaughter, Amelia enjoying her sandwich

As part of the celebration Rudi’s is hosting a fun back-to-school Say Cheese Photo Contest from Aug. 1 through Sept. 15. Parents can submit photos of their children eating a yummy sandwich for the opportunity to win the grand prize of being featured in a Rudi’s ad and a $500.00 Whole Foods gift card! In addition, fans can enter for weekly prizes like iPad Minis, Amazon gift cards, and North Face backpacks on the Say Cheese Microsite and can download a $1 off coupon for Rudi’s Gluten-Free products. Thats some good reasons to take part in the contest. Even if you don’t win the grand prize, you will get a $1.00 off coupon for some good tasting Rudi’s products. Find out all the details about entering the contest here.

And here is another good thing: One lucky reader is going to win a North Face Backpack

Prize Pack full of back to school fun stuff, valued at $75!

To enter, just use the entry form below. Good Luck!

Entry -Form

This giveaway is open to residents of the United States 18 and over. It ends on August 31, 2013. The prize is 1 Northface Backpack provided by Rudi’s Organic Bakery. The winner will be notified via email. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of prize. The sponsor is responsible for shipping the prize to the winner.

Back To School With Crafts From Michael’s

Karen · 14 Comments

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Michael’s provided me with a gift card to purchase supplies for the project in this post.

School is starting up again, and when it does, my daughter Emily will be going back. The fact that she is going back is so special for us this year, because she had a stroke back in February after her son, Parker was born. She has been a teacher for a few years, and we were really worried that the stroke would affect her ability to teach. I am so very glad to say that it has not.

In recognition of her return to work, to her school, to teach again, I wanted to make something for her classroom. I decided to make a patchwork poster with one of her favorite quotes to hang on the wall. She chose this quote:

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ~Albert Einstein

After choosing the quote, it was time to go to Michael’s to get some supplies. I found some solid red and some solid black fabric, which are the school colors for the high school where Emily teaches. When I saw those, more ideas came to me about how to make the project. I also found a pretty red, black, and white print. Next I got a 18″ X 24″ poster frame in white. I also picked up some glue sticks and some duct tape for another project I had in mind. Oh, and I couldn’t resist buying some extra fabrics in a variety of colors. They package the fabric in 2 yard pieces, which is plenty for any project I could think of using them in.

The quote and graphic I used for my project.

To make this project, I had to figure out a way to print the quote and a graphic onto a piece of white fabric. The tutorial I found said to use freezer paper, and iron it onto the back of the fabric, then cut the piece to the size of a piece of printer paper. I didn’t have any freezer paper, but I did have some Wonder Under, so I used that. I practiced printing onto paper until I had the graphic and quote exactly how I wanted them, then I printed it on my white fabric.

Next, I had to come up with a design that was somewhat like was floating around in my head. That design process is the hardest part for me. I can think of something and see it in my head, but getting it out into the real world, sometimes that is a different story.

After a couple of days of fiddling around with the concept, I finally figured out how I wanted this to look. I stitched it all together, and put it in the frame, and uh-oh! it turned out too crooked to even think about letting anyone see it in person:

This meant I had to take the whole thing apart, put it on the cutting board, and cut with the ruler and rotary cutter, then sew it all back together again. When it was all done, I put it back in the frame, used some of a glue stick to set it on the frame backing. All done:

I am really happy with the way this project turned out. I made mine for my adult daughter, using one of her favorite quotes and her school colors. I think this type of project would be great for any child’s room with an inspirational quote, or what about a birth announcement, or a wedding invitation, or…..What would you make? Who would you make it for?