Saturday, May 10, 2014

Outdoor Dining is the BEST!

 

I Love our new 19" portable barbecue grill!

 
My family enjoys outdoor dining and have made this a weekly tradition. We look forward to each weekend and coming up with new ideas for meals to grill.
 

Some of our favorites

 
  • Grilled Salmon
  • Mushroom-Bell Pepper-Tomato-Jalapeno-Zucchini-Steak-K Bobs
  • Hamburgers
  • Steaks
  • Sausage
  • Fried potatoes, onoins, beef from an iron skillet
  • Chicken wings
  •  
 
Remember those restaurants where you pay a small fortune to have someone cook in front of you? Well you can now save your money and enjoy fine dining at home!
 

Grilling our food table top provides us with extra benefits

  • Mosquitoes don't like sticking around for dinner
  • Flies hate the smoke too
  • Food tastes better!
  • Spending more time with family around the table
 
 
 
 
This handy little grill has legs that fold underneath, giving us the ability to cook at eye level on our table. We purchased this grill from our grocery store for $24. I've found some online at Amazon GRILL
 

Check out the table I got from Craigslist for FREE! I was online looking to buy a used metal table as I had sworn off owning another glass table. (We've lost 2 glass patio tables to hail damage in the past.)

Was planning to touch up the table with some spray paint, but have since fallen in love with the rustic charm.

Hard to burn dinner when it's cooking from the table!

 
What I especially love about this small grill is that we are saving money on charcoal. We own several barbecue grills of varying sizes and some of the larger ones uses up a lot of charcoal.
 
With the smaller grill, we are able to grill more often and use less.
 
There are also added benefits of being able to continue cooking during a major power outage. We've grilled in freezing temperatures and the table setting keeps us warm and cozy.
 
Using less charcoal and being able to cook when there's no power is an added bonus for me. I'm really sold on this grill! 

Friday, May 2, 2014

Recycled Gift Wrap

 Anyone else a Prime Member on Amazon?

I had originally signed up on the free 30 day promotion, and ended up keeping the 1 year subscription after being billed. Considering you can buy virtually anything on Amazon and get "free" unlimited 2 day shipping, I have been buying everything from books, appliances, and garden seeds, to groceries and 50 lb bags of dog food! All with freeeee shipping! I have already earned all my money back. Oh not to mention, Prime member free ebooks, and movies to watch.

Okay, I need to stay on topic. I didn't post this to sell you to Amazon Prime membership. I actually wanted to point out that I have been getting a LOT of paper in my Amazon shipments. I've noticed in my shipments they use wads and wads of brown paper to protect the packaging (instead of bubble wrap) and I've started to smooth out the paper and roll it onto some old boards I've had leftover from my bolts of fabric.
 Some of the paper I've smoothed out has been up to 4 yards long uncut. That's 12 feet long of quality brown paper.
One of my projects is turning the packing paper into wrapping paper. With crayola, I can make birthday paper, Christmas paper, or any other type of occasion. Any other ideas on what to do with the paper? Again, this is all freeeee stuff from my Amazon Prime membership.