Pickeling Jalepeno's

Slice up a bunch of jalepano's (oh, and don't touch your face... argh!)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 tbsp peppercorns
2 bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp coarse sea salt
1 tbsp sugar

Pack the jalapeños in a glass jar.
In a saucepan, add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Pour the hot pickling liquid over the jalapeños and let it rest for a few hours. Shake it up a little so that the peppercorns are evenly distributed.
Keep refrigerated for upto two months or can it.
They are a fun gift for the holidays!

Dog Shaming - It's a shame

Meet Jeff. He is our new dog.
He was flown up from a high kill shelter in California to Spokane and we brought him home to his "forever home" last month.
From day one Jeff has never jumped on anyone, tried to climb on our furniture, growled at the kids (ever after the little one pulled his tail), begged from the table or even slept in our bedroom (yes there is a bed in there...). We have beds in every room, a dog door for him to go out and play and lots of treats and love for him. He prefers to lay in the sunshine on warm days and snuggle up on his bed by the fire on cold ones. It is like we won the dog lottery. Jeff is so kind, obedient, smart and gentle - taking treats from a three year old with care.
But... he is a lab "mix". Yes, probably with some pit bull mixed in. Does that mean everyone is scared of him or feels it necessary to point that out? Yes. Everyone feels it necessary to walk into my home look at my docile dog sitting proudly by the door (not jumping or barking) and say - "ohhhhh... he is part Pit!". Um, thanks? I will take that as a compliment...

It's a chip kind of day

Keeping my snack portions under control is a discipline I still have yet to master, especially when I feel the need to finish things like chips before they go stale. A great solution for what to do if you have extra tortilla chips — freeze them!
Since I happened to have some corn tortilla chips lying around, I threw them in an airtight bag in the freezer and sampled one a few days later. Still crunchy and fresh! You can also buy larger bags of chips without worrying that you'll have too many of them left that will go stale.

Egg McMuffin Eggs

The Pin: Put and egg in a top of a jar and you will get a circular egg for your English muffin. Looks good right?
Tip: do NOT get cocky and put more sausage in it... it overflows.

Candy tray for the holidays

Here are the details:
Unwrap candy, put on pan on parchment paper, and bake for 6 minutes....

I missed the part of put in a ROUND cake pan... oops.

Ham in the crockpot

This is just an awesome recipe - not even on Pinterest. You will be asked again and again where you got it (you can tell them you made it up... that is OK!).

Bone in butt ham
Apple Cider
handful of cloves

Put the ham in bone side down
fill with apple cider
toss in a handful of cloves
Cook on low all day

Pull it out and slice. It is amazing.

2015 - The year of Pinterest Pins.

I said in 2014 I would try all of the pins I had pinned... I did put in a disclaimer that I may not get to all of the pins I pin after December 2014 - as they seem to accumulate rapidly. So here goes! A year of pinning... and other disasters.