Crock Pot Sloppy Joes

Crock Pot Sloppy Joes

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-2lbs. ground beef
-1 large onion
-1green pepper
-a bit of Worcestershire sauce
-about a cup (less for chunkier, more for soupier) ketchup
-1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
-1/3 cup brown sugar, packed tightly
-a little bit of garlic powder
-salt and pepper to taste



Directions
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1. Cook the ground beef in a pot until browned and crumbled.
2. Stick your onion and pepper into a food processor (cut it into large chunks first) until it's finely chopped.
3. Stick the ground beef, onion and pepper mixture, as well as the remaining ingredients into the crock pot and stir well.
4. Cover with a lid and cook on LOW for 4-6 hours. (If you decide to do this on high, cook for 2-3 hours)


I love sloppy joes, but unfortunately, my husband doesn't. That doesn't matter tonight! He won't be home for supper, so I'm going to indulge!



And of course, here's your sneak peek for today!
What a lovely bow!

Anyways, I need about 2 more days until I can show you the staircase. My mom's snaking out my drain tonight, and then I'm knocking out all of my laundry. But I promise I won't make you wait much longer.

And it will be about 1 more week before I do the BIG REVEAL!

Stick around!

Fridges, washers, and headaches

I told you that I was getting two major purchases soon. Well, it's a new fridge and washer.

Here's my new fridge:

Yes, there's already all of my junk all over it.

Two problems: 1. I didn't have a water hook-up for the water and ice dispensers , but I installed the plumbing ALL BY MYSELF!!! 2. The outlet is on the side of this "fridge cubby" in my walls. The cords get in the way of moving this all the way back, so now it's sticking halfway out into my kitchen. My step dad is re-wiring that this Sunday, THANK GOODNESS!

But it wasn't easy going to get this fridge. I had to learn a very useful Craigslist lesson. Don't buy anything electrical if it's far away! I asked this guy 5,000 times if the fridge I was purchasing worked well. He assured me that it did. I get there, it doesn't work. I'm so pissed that he says he'll give it to me for free. My brain fogged over with the word free.

Did anyone else know that it costs money to drain the freon in order for a fridge to go to the dump? I forgot =P So now I'm paying $30 for a fridge that I got swindled into taking:

There it is hanging out in my driveway waiting to be taken away.


And you all saw my Yooper fridge. It's still hanging out on my back deck waiting to be delivered to my in-laws' house. Their garage fridge tanked on them.

So with the two fridges that I'm getting rid of, my new fridge, plus my garage (beer) fridge, there are FOUR fridges here! It's looking pretty white trash around here.....lol.

Anyways, so with that headache done, I finally got my new washer. I'm so excited because my laundry is piled to the rafters.

We run the first load......and OF COURSE my pipes are clogged. Luckily, my mom has a crazy heavy duty snake, so she's coming to snake out my drains tonight.

Do you ever have one of those days (or 2 weeks....) where it seems nothing can come easily? Or go right?

Stick around for some awesome things I have brewing.

Energy Efficient Yooper Fridge

I have this awesome energy efficient Yooper fridge. Your fridge may use very little electricity, but mine uses NO electricity. Only works well in late fall through winter in the northern states.
There's my husband grabbing a beer from our new Yooper (upper peninsula of Michigan) deck fridge.





Alright, seriously, we were just moving our old fridge out. I have a new white side by side that we just installed, and we found our Yooper fridge to be quite comical. I hope you did, too! =D

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie

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Yay! I finally found my pumpkin pie recipe!

Ingredients

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-1 pre-made crust (someday I will make a homemade crust, but I wasn't that ambitious this time around)
-1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin (again, someday I'm going to do real pumpkin, but this BIG REVEAL is sucking up my time)
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. ground ginger
-1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
-2 eggs, beaten
-3/4 cup milk

Directions
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1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir until well blended.
3. Pour the mixture into the pie crust. To prevent burned crust, line the edges with aluminum foil.
4. Bake for 50-60 minutes (take the aluminum foil off halfway through), or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Serve with a dollop of Cool Whip on top.

It's my favorite pie. It goes well in my favorite season: autumn.

Stick around for: Chronicles of "31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest," two major purchases that I need to show off, some more sneak peeks (sorry, none today!), a look at my new staircase, and of course, the BIG REVEAL!

Instead of a sneak peek, I want to show off my little buggers from this past Halloween. There's my kiddos (Luigi, Jason, and the bumblebee), and my nephew (the pup). Aren't they adorable?

Boo!

The air is cool, the season is fall,
Soon Halloween will come to all.
Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...
Tricky witches at your door.
The spooks are after things to do,
In fact, a spook brought this "BOO" to you.
The excitement comes when friends like you,
Copy this note and make it two.
We'll all have smiles on our faces,
When we see who Boo'd who's places.

I was Boo'd by Heidi at the Craft Monkey. Now I get to pass the Boo onto 4 of my favorite blogs.


1. Roeshel at The DIY Showoff- Obviously one of my favorite blogs, if you are an avid reader of mine. Not only does she have awesome projects and remodels of her own, but she showcases tons of other people's projects and remodels. Her blog is my go-to site whenever I need a little inspiration.

2. Whitney and Ashley (sisters) at Shanty2Chic- These girls can turn ANYTHING into something gorgeous! I've been breathless at some of their projects. Everytime I read their blog, I want to head to a salvage yard. Their taste is so elegant!

3. The Nesting Place- I wish I knew her name. She refers to herself as "The Nester." Her projects and advice are amazing, and also the inspiration to one of my coming-up posts. I'm posting my chronicles of her "31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest."

4. Kim at Twice Remembered- Her home transformations are amazing. She recently did a brick backsplash that I'm completely jelous of.




This BOO party was started by Toni@The Tattered Cottage.
Please keep the fun going by following these instructions.

1. You have 24 hours to work your spell

2. Copy and post the Halloween Boo Poem with the instructions for playing.

3. Pick 4 blogs you enjoying visiting and tell why you enjoy visiting them, with a link to their blog and remember to link back to me.

4. Go to the original BOO Party post at the Tattered Cottage and add your MckLinky.

5. Let's see how fast and far this spreads between now and Halloween.