WFMW: 5 Ingredients or Less

Ok, ok. I know it's Thursday, but I was gone all day yesterday. I was at the North American Christian Convention hanging with my homies. I saw people I hadn't seen in years! It was tons of fun.

But Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer asked for recipes this Wednesday of 5 ingredients or less. I am all about 5 ingredients or less. So here you go:

CHICKEN SALAD

3-4 Chicken breasts, cooked and pulled apart into shreds

1 cup pecans

some grapes, cut into half, about 2 cups

an apple, diced

mayonnaise or Miracle Whip

Mix it all up and use as much Miracle Whip as you need to make it creamy. Serve it with an ice cream scoop onto a bun.

Yummy.

WMFW: The Pappy Popper Solution

We eat a lot of popcorn in our house. It is the all-purpose-fill-you-up snack. We make in our Pappy Popper. The Pappy Popper is actually something called "Stir Crazy" by West Bend


We used to always have microwave popcorn. And we'd only have Pappy's corn at Pappy's house (where he lives with Grandma, my mom). However, during one of Pappy and Grandma's visits to our house, we saw the need to purchase a Pappy Popper -- in order to preserve the tradition of Pappy Corn when he visits us. We've had one ever since. We've been using it since Pappy's last visit here, and all those microwave popcorn people at the factories have been getting sick. Don't ask me about that, all I know is I heard something. From someone.


Whatever. Anyway.

The only trouble with this Pappy Popper is that everything we need for popcorn gets strewn all throughout our house and kitchen. The oil is either in the pantry or next to the microwave on the shelf. The salt is in the spice cabinet or next to the oil. The cord is in the drawer of the electric griddle in the laundry room. Seems like all I ever hear from the kitchen is endless calling out to me: "Mom! Where's the popcorn salt?" and "Honey, where's the popcorn oil?" and "Mama, where's the popper cord?"


So I have a solution: put it all in the popper and store it all together.

Right next to all the popcorn bowls. Problem solved. Now quit bugging me and go make me some nice, hot Pappy corn. And pour me some Diet Coke, please . . .

WFMW: Easy Valance

Easy curtain valance for your little girl's room:

1. Use your choice of rod the length of the window. A pole rod works best.

2. Use several sized 18mo - 2T dresses. Thread the sleeves through the rod. Use as many as will cover the length of the window.

3. Hang. Voila! I saw this in a magazine once and copied it. It was adorable.

WFMW: Easy Cookies

I don't remember where I read this, but it's an excellent way to always have great cookies available.

You will need some frozen juice containers for this, preferably large ones, which have been thoroughly rinsed and still have the metal tops.

Make up a batch of your favourite dough. Place it into a used juice container, put the lid on, and freeze.

When you want cookies, simply slice off as many as you want to bake, and then refreeze the rest. If the dough "discs" are too large, then cut them into fourths.

Note: this won't work for peanut butter cookies if you want that crisscrossed fork thing going on. But it will if you are patient and let the dough warm before baking.

Enjoy --

P.S. It occurs to me that you are in dire need of my fabulous chocolate chip cookie recipe, which follows:

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 1/2 cups butter blend**

2 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or more)

Mix these ingredients up in a bowl in the order listed -- drop onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake 13 minutes at 375 degrees.

**Butter blend: I make my own butter blend by whipping up equal amounts of regular butter and olive oil in my mixer. Just put in 1 lb. of butter to 1 cup olive oil, and whip until light. If your butter is cold or frozen, cut into small pieces and whip that first before adding the oil.

If you like, you can substitute butter-flavoured shortening for this in the recipe.

0 calories and serves about 3 before you run out and have to make more. :)

WFMW: The Peanut Butter Solution

That would be "Works for Me Wednesdays" from Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

For my peeps -- this is just a collection of tips from her readers that Shannon posts every Wed. Sometimes there's a theme. Other times it's just a potpourri of good advice.

This happened about 6 years ago -- at 3AM, my 7-year old woke up with Silly Putty in her hair. No kidding. Apparently she put it on her pillow and then fell asleep.

So she woke me up. Did I mention that it was 3AM?

What do you do with Silly Putty hair at 3AM? You get online! A quick internet search revealed that peanut butter was the answer. So I got out the Jif and went to work. It took about 15 minutes and voila! No more silly putty in the hair! Now it was peanut butter in the hair!

I was sorely tempted to put her back to bed with peanut butter hair just to teach her a lesson. After quickly realising that it would only make more laundry for me and she wouldn't care -- I washed her hair. The whole process only took about an hour (thank God, especially thanking Him at 3AM whilst cursing the makers of Silly Putty under my breath).

So there you go. Got Silly Putty in your hair? Try peanut butter. I think this also works for gum and other things that are gumlike.