SEW MAMA SEW GIVEAWAY IS HERE!!!**INTERNATIONAL** YAY!!!

Hi peeps! 

This is my giveaway package!

Welcome fellow travellers, to my stop on the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway train!!! Thanks for coming to my little blog, Quilt, sew Happy!  ;-)

For those of you who don't know, the Sew Mama Sew blog hosts a semi-annual(May and December) giveaway spree each year and that means there is lots of swag to be won!!! Woo-hoo!!! 

The Sew Mama Sew blog allows us blog writers to post a photo of what we are giving away as well as a link to our blog, on their website. This helps all sorts of new people to get to know different blogs and hopefully the participating blogs will gain new followers…so it's a win-win situation for everyone! 

We can choose to offer quilting/crafting supplies(like me) and/or a homemade item like a quilted pouch or mug rug. There is a USA-only mailing section, for those who prefer to mail the winnings to USA addresses only, and an International section…which is where I am, as I am a Canadian blogger! 

I have won a few prizes offered by several individuals over the last few years, and this is the first time I am offering a prize! I hope you'll agree, it's a goodie!

This is my one and only award-winning quilt, called "Kitty-Cat Chat"; I won a third prize ribbon at our local fair! I bought the cute cat print while on vacation visiting an Aunt and Uncle.

I thought you might like to get to know a little about me: 

I am a late-40's Christian wife and mother who loves to quilt, cook, and go thrifting/garage-saling for vintage finds. We live in a small town about an hour east of Vancouver, BC and have 2 sons, aged 24 and 16. The eldest is going to University in Eastern Canada and my youngest is enjoying having his first job!

I have been blogging for just under a year(my 1st blog-iversary is May 17th!); I've made more than a few beginner mistakes! Eek! Would you believe that I actually started this blog without owning a digital camera??? Ha ha ha!

Part of the over 4,000 x 1" hexies I made for a new quilt for my youngest son.

I am really enjoying getting to know the people that I come into e-contact with through this blog and have already held several giveaways(there might be another one coming on May 17!!…hint hint!)!

I guess you could say that my quilting style is Traditional-Modern. I love colour and have slowly begun to embrace solids, but my true love is scraps and scrappiness! I love all scraps equally; mine, from pen pals and scrap bags from thrift stores!

I like to make quick things, but am not deterred by a longer project. I have made so many quilts, including 6 full-sized ones for a women's shelter, but rarely photograph them(didn't have a camera). Everyone in my family and my in-laws have a bed-sized quilt that I made especially for them.

Wall-hanging I made with blocks from a block raffle at the Lions Gate Quilt Guild(I made the top right one). I got the little red sailboat buttons from a pen pal in France!

Come have a look around my blog! Under the various tabs you'll see I like vintage things, sharing recipes, thrifty tips and even have a few tutorials under my belt…yay! 

Last Wednesday, I started my very first quilt-a-long, with a block I designed, above. I'm so, so excited that one of my designs will actually be published, even though it is only being self-published!

Maison de Provence…the prints are so beautiful in person that it was hard to cut them up!

Here are part 1 and part 2 of my Country Village Quilt-A-Long, featuring the Maison de Provence fabric collection by Connecting Threads.  You can also find all the steps as they are posted under the QAL tab just below my blog name header.

So, without further ado, let's get to the giveaway!!!

GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED AND PRIZE HAS BEEN AWARDED

*Just to remind you!*

This is what one lucky individual will win from me:

-half-yard of the pink/black floral fabric with gold accents that is the background of the above photo,
-2 spools of Essentials-brand thread by Connecting Threads(black &white),
-Olfa-brand rotary cutter(45 mm blade),
-pack of Olfa-brand replacement blades,
-6-pack of handy Craft Clips(I use these to hang orphan blocks up in my sewing room),
-mini screwdriver with a big, chunky handle,
and,
-pair of metal thread snips.

…gee, I wouldn't mind winning a prize like that!!! Hee Hee Hee!

Here's the rules:

1. I am always very curious as to where my blog-readers are located(especially which country)…so, for your first entry, please tell me where you live, for ex: Vancouver, BC, Canada.

2. For a second entry, you can follow my blog via E-MAIL* or BLOGLOVIN' only and tell me how you do so. There is a follow-me window to enter your e-mail address and a follow by Bloglovin' button near the top right area of this blog, just below my profile blurb. 

-Those who follow my blog elsewhere(G+, Tw, FB etc.) must sign up to either above-mentioned method, to gain this second entry. 

*If you choose to follow me by e-mail, you will be sent a confirmation email from Feedburner(the e-mail sender). This is not spam. You must click on the link provided to activate you subscription to Quilt, sew Happy!, or you won't get my blog posts. I usually post only 2-3 times a week, so I won't be flooding your inbox!!!

(I know that most of you are here because of the SMS giveaway, but it would be great if you continue to be a follower of Quilt, sew Happy! even after the giveaway is over). ;-)

****2 entries ONLY per person, please****

This giveaway runs from Wednesday, May 6, 2015 to Sunday, May 10, 2015 at midnight, Pacific Time. My Hubs will choose a comment number as the winner on Monday, May 11, 2015. I will email you to let you know that you have won my prize and ask for your full name and snail-mail address.

***Please, please make sure I have a way to contact you, or you can't win. So many people are classified as a "no-reply blogger", which means there is no e-mail addy connected to their profile. If you are not sure, please include your email(I promise I will never use it, share it, sell it, whatever!!!). An easy way to type your email would be "your e-mail name (at) yahoo (dot) com", that way you shouldn't get anyone spamming your e-mail address.

Thanks for entering and good luck!

Sharing is caring!!!
Don't forget that I am happy to share with your friends…feel free to pin to Pinterest, post on Google+ and Facebook, and Tweet away! Just please play fair and make sure your posts link back to this blog. 

*If you mouse/hover over the top right corner of my photos, a red "Pin-it" button will show up and all you have to do is click it to be taken to Pinterest. There is also another red button right beside it for posting to Facebook and Twitter. Or, you could always use the little square grey buttons at the end of this post. 

Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

Quilty Huggs, 

Jacqueline 

PLEASE NOTE: This blog accepts forms of compensation such as, but not limited to; fabric/notions/patterns/books in exchange for a posted review and/or tutorial. All comments/critiques/opinions are completely my own and are not those of the provider. This blog may also contain affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of my links. Thanks so much!

Happy May Day!!! Foodie Friday and Country Village QAL Reminder!

Hi peeps! 

I thought I would start some blog posts with photos of the quilts I have in my house. These three are "rescue" quilts. 

I found the lighthouse one at a community services garage sale. They only wanted $2 for it, so I happily opened my change purse and walked away with someone's artwork. It is dated 2000 and has the initials of the maker on it too. 

The Santa wall-hanging is a small panel, and the maker had added 2 log cabin blocks on the top and bottom as well as a border. It even has 2 plastic rings sewn onto the backing for hanging! 

The third quilt is a pretty Dresden Flower block in 1930's style reproduction prints. If you look closely at the centre, you can see she stitched a 9-patch block then trimmed it into a circle-very original! 

I found both the Santa and Dresden at Value Village(of course!!).

Do you remember back in this post and this post, when I shared about making vegetable and meat/chicken stock? I extolled about the healthy benefits of consuming homemade stock/broth and showed a Vancouver business which sells cups of broth to drink. I even made a batch for my Dad to enjoy when he got out of the hospital a few weeks ago…and he has requested more!!!(He is doing very well, now that he is at home-thanks for your enquiries…huggs!)

Well, the above photo was in the Vancouver Sun today. Writing about this local company that has been making scratch-made stock-based soups and now sells it in the USA at Costco and Whole Foods. Even though they are located in the Vancouver area, they chose to start marketing their products in the USA and Japan. The soups are in the frozen section of the grocery stores and now they are about to start selling fresh soups in grocery deli's and local hospitals.

Here is the article, if you would like to read it:

Healthy soups boil down to big business for Richmond company

Global Gourmet Foods banks on fresh ingredients, homemade stock

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Healthy+soups+boil+down+business+Richmond+company/11018257/story.html#ixzz3Yv2G0dXx 

The other day, I tried a new recipe...and it's a hit! Yumm! 

I found it on my favourite recipe site: allrecipes.com and I thought I would share it with you here:

Salisbury Steak with Mushrooms

1 lb lean ground beef

1/3 cup breadcrumbs(I used the seasoned ones)

1/4 cup chopped onions

1 egg, beaten

1 t. salt

pinch ground black pepper

2 cups beef broth

1 lg. onion, thinly sliced

1 cup sliced mushrooms

3 T. cornstarch(I ended up using more as I had added more stock than required)

3 T. water

1. Combine gr. beef, bread crumbs, chopped onion, egg, salt, and black pepper in a bowl until evenly mixed. Shape into 4 patties, about 3/4 inch thick.

2. Fry patties in a large frying pan until browned on both sides-about 10 mins. Add beef broth, sliced onion, and mushrooms, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to Low, cover and simmer until patties are no longer pink in the centre-about 10 mins. Transfer patties only to a platter and keep warm.

3. Bring beef broth mixture to a boil. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl(this is called a slurry and I use a fork to do this) and stir into the broth mixture. Cook and stir until broth mixture is thickened like gravy, about 1 minute or so. Pop patties back into the pan and warm through, coating them in the beef/mushroom gravy.

Serve with veggies(I served our with scalloped potatoes and corn niblets).

Makes 4 servings.

Enjoy!

I just love, love this stack of fat quarters…deee-lish! It will be so hard to cut into them. 

**Don't forget about my Country Village Quilt-A-Long featuring the above Maison De Provence fabric line from Connecting Threads. Part 1 can be found here, and you can also click the Country Village QAL, 2015 tab (found under the blog title) to find all the steps as they are posted (on Wednesdays). This tab will stay up indefinitely, so if you miss a post or need to be reminded about something, you can go to the step with ease!

Sharing is caring!!! 
Don't forget that I am happy to share with your friends…feel free to pin to Pinterest, post on Google+ and Facebook, and Tweet away! Just please play fair and make sure your posts link back to this blog. 
*If you mouse/hover over the top right corner of my photos, a red "Pin-it" button will show up and all you have to do is click it to be taken to Pinterest. There is also another red button right beside it for posting to Facebook and Twitter. Or, you could always use the little square grey buttons at the end of this post.

Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

Quilty Huggs, 

Jacqueline 

PLEASE NOTE: This blog accepts forms of compensation such as, but not limited to; fabric/notions/patterns/books in exchange for a posted review and/or tutorial. All comments/critiques/opinions are completely my own and are not those of the provider. This blog may also contain affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of my links. Thanks so much!

A New Addition to the "Family" and a recipe!

Hi peeps! 

So…can you guess what I just got???

I found this vintage Singer on Craig's List, and my Uncle went to pick it up for me! She was a little bit dusty so I gave her a good clean. The wooden base has that slightly musty smell that wood gets when it is in storage for too long. That doesn't bother me so much, I can always stick a dryer sheet in there, to soak up the smell.

Here you can see most of her decals...they are in excellent condition, and are quite pretty.

Here's a close-up of the decals and her serial number. I had a look online and found a site which can help you date your machine and find out the model number. I think this is a 15-90 model, made in 1948…but I am not totally sure, so I also emailed Singer to see if they could help date her for me.

On the bottom of the foot pedal it says "Made in Canada", but that is probably only where the foot pedal was made.

The box with the accessories in it also said "Made in Canada"…so the mystery deepens! I'm hoping Singer will be able to give me some info on where she was made.

I managed to get her threaded and popped in the bobbin, but the stitches are not completing, so I'm not sure if it is the new needle I put in it, or possibly I threaded it incorrectly. All in all, still a good deal for only $45!!! I don't mind putting some $$ on her to make her run like a dream. 

So many people say how wonderfully these old cast-iron machines run. She sure is heavy though, the Hubs had to oomph a little to get her onto the kitchen table!!!

This recipe was in the Vancouver Sun this past Wednesday,though it is actually from the Portlandia Cookbook. We defrosted a small chicken overnight on Thursday and made the soup on Friday. We all ate a hearty bowl of this soup on Friday for supper and there was enough soup leftover to be an accompaniment to a sandwich on Saturday night for all 3 of us.

Tortilla Soup with Chicken

2 T. vegetable oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 large Poblano peppers, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped*

2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 t. ground cumin

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

kosher sale and black pepper

4 corn tortillas, cut into 1 inch strips

1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, plus more for garnish

4 cups cooked & shredded chicken(we used a small chicken and it was fine)

1 cup hominy, rinsed & drained**

Sour cream and broken tortilla chips for garnish

*we used a small can of mild green chilies as there were no Poblanos in the store

**There was no Hominy to be found so we subbed in a can of corn niblets

In a large pot, heat the oil and add the onions, chilies, garlic, cumin and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until softened-about 5 mins.

Add the broth and tortilla strips, cover and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat until the vegetables and tortilla strips are very soft-about 5 mins.

Add the 1/4 cup of cilantro and using a stick blender, puree the soup until smooth.

Add the chicken and hominy and simmer uncovered for 5 mins.

Ladle the soup into shallow bowls and garnish with sour cream, cilantro and broken up tortilla chips.

Note-I would not omit the tortilla chips at the end as they add some needed salt taste to the soup.

This was a fast and easy soup to make and is now a favourite. I hope it will become yours too!

***********************

Question of the day:

Does anyone out there own a vintage seeing machine, and if so, which one?also, what shall I name my new-to-me vintage Singer?

Sharing is caring!!! 

Don't forget that I am happy to share…feel free to pin to Pinterest, post on Google+ and Facebook, and Tweet away! Just please make sure your posts link back to this blog. 

*If you mouse/hover over the top right corner of my photos, a red pin-it button will show up and all you have to do is click it to be taken to Pinterest. There is also another red button right beside it for posting to Facebook and Twitter. Or, you could always use the little grey square buttons at the end of this post.

Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

Quilty Huggs, 

Jacqueline 

PLEASE NOTE: The writer of this blog accepts forms of compensation such as, but not limited to; fabric/notions/patterns/books in exchange for a posted review. All comments/critiques/opinions are completely my own and are not those of the provider. 

This post may also contain affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my link. Thanks!

Giveaway, Giveaway, Giveaway!(…and a recipe too!!!)

Hi peeps! 

I'd like to extend a warm welcome my new sponsor, Connecting Threads.

Connecting Threads has graciously offered this 27-piece fat quarter bundle of their brand-new Luminescence fabric line as a giveaway to one of you!!! 

…and it's primarily purple…mmm! Wish I could enter this giveaway myself!

Here's a little bit about them:

Connecting Threads offers quality cotton fabric, designed specifically for quilters. Connecting Threads is an online and catalog retailer selling quilting fabrics from some of the industry’s most popular manufacturers like RJR Fabrics, Cotton + Steel, and more. Connecting Threads also sells our own exclusive fabrics, with limited-edition designs that you won’t see anywhere else. Each of our exclusive fabrics are created according to our exacting standards and finished with our top-secret formula to create a flawless and amazingly soft finish.

We are proud to offer our exclusive fabrics at a price that fits within most budgets without sacrificing quality one iota. How do we manage this? We go directly to the mill, taking the middleman out of the equation. By sourcing and selling our fabrics directly, we are able to offer our customers wholesale prices on fabrics that won’t be found anywhere else. We believe that convenience shouldn’t cost extra, so we never charge for cutting. This means that our charms, strips and other precut fabric bundles have the same per-yard cost as our normal yardage cuts. Because affordability is one of the core values at Connecting Threads, we also do our best to offer fabrics from outside manufacturers at the lowest prices possible.

I love, love that their in-house lines retail at $5.96(US$) a yard…and they have Cotton & Steele basics at only $9.96 a yard! They also have an amazing Clearance section with deep discounts on Fabric, Books, Tools and Patterns…so many deals to be had! 

Connecting Threads often has excellent sales with up to 40% off regular retail prices. For example, right now they are offering 30% off their EssentialPro polyester thread and 40% off specialty rulers and pressing tools! WOW!!!

They offer free shipping within the continental US with any order over $50. Shipping to Canada is only $7.99 with your $60+(US$) order. They also collect any duty and taxes owing so that we Canucks don't have to pay Canada Posts's onerous $5 "collection fee"..a personal pet peeve.

I have been shopping at Connecting Threads for YEARS, since before they had their beautiful website! As a matter of fact, I always have an open shopping cart and wish list to dream about!

To find out how to enter the giveaway…read on, McDuff!!!

Photo: Vancouver Sun website

Do you remember when I mentioned making vegetable stock(or broth) in this post? Well, there was a feature article and recipe in yesterday's Vancouver Sun about just that. They said there are studies where it's been shown that homemade broth has extremely good restorative properties and can help mitigate many medical conditions. Sports doctors regularly recommend drinking broth to help heal injuries faster and cut the length of the common cold and flu.

The young guys above have a shop which specializes in making/selling their homemade stock which they simmer for 4-5 days!!!

Photo: Vancouver Sun website

There are even "broth bars" popping up around Vancouver where you can buy a steaming cup of homemade broth to enjoy…watch out Starbucks!!!

I decided to give the Hubs a break from cooking and made a big pot of chili con carne yesterday. I can't give you a cost-per-meal on this one as I had everything in my pantry. I do know that the cans of beans were $0.99 each, the paste was $0.75, and the tomatoes were around $1.25…just can't remember what I paid for the juice. The lean hamburger meat was also on sale and I had the spices in-house.

When specific canned goods(like the ones above) go on sale, I grab the limit allowed to stock my pantry.

My 'secret ingredient' is Clammato juice, but we didn't have any and I wasn't going to head to the grocery store for one thing that was probably not on sale. So, I subbed in the V-Plus juice.

I browned 2 pounds of lean hamburger meat then placed the cooked meat on a paper-towel-lined plate to absorb the excess grease. Then I caramelized 2 medium, chopped onions in the same pan. While I was sautéing the onions I was dumping the contents of the canned goods into my large pot…making sure to rinse the goo off the beans in a colander beforehand. I added generous portions of cumin, chili powder, dry mustard and black pepper as well as 5 cloves of well-chopped garlic. I forgot to add red pepper flakes!!!

Then I added the drained meat and cooked onions into the large pot and heated to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. I love how the above photo shows the steam rising!!! Then the hard part…turn the burner down to medium and keep stirring for at least a half an hour. Then I just leave it to cool on the stove.

About a half an hour before suppertime, I crank up the heat to rolling boil again and continue stirring for about 30 minutes…this allows the chili to thicken and the flavour also intensifies.

The end result…a steaming bowl of chili to knock away the winter chill! There is enough in the pot for 3 suppers for 3 people.

Now, for the giveaway!!!

-Leave me a comment telling me what you would make with this lovely 27-piece bundle of Luminescence!

-For a second entry, follow this blog and indicate how you follow(i.e.: by email or via Bloglovin'). The Follow windows are on the upper right sidebar of this blog. 

Please note: with the follow by email option, they(Feedburner) will send you a confirmation email…you have to click the link they give you in that message to become an actual follower who receives my blog posts in their inbox.

*Two entries per person please.*

*For Canadian and USA residents only.*

*Giveaway closes at NOON, MONDAY MARCH 9, 2015

Connecting Threads and Jacqueline Frances are not responsible for lost or stolen mail.

Feel Free to share with your friends, post to Facebook, pin to Pinterest and Tweet away!!! There are little grey sharing buttons in the box at the end of this post.

***GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED AND THE PRIZE HAS BEEN AWARDED***

Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

Quilty Huggs, 

Jacqueline 

Foodie Friday, a recipe, FREE stuff and GIVEAWAY Reminder!

Hi peeps!

Well, this was supposed to be a "Finish it up Friday" post, but I just didn't get to it this week…grrr…though I did manage to finish drawing all the sewing lines on the citrus charms for the table topper I first mentioned here. 

I also managed to clean up the mess I have been making on the kitchen table, so I can finally get back to some actual sewing!!!

I had two, yes TWO, foodie flops this week…arggh! The above casserole was a Velveeta cheese recipe I have been wanting to try. I decided to make a basic cheese sauce instead of using the Velveeta…wrong!!! Then the Hubs said he wanted chicken in it too. I thought that would be okay, so I sauteed up a couple  of chicken breasts and chopped them into the casserole dish. This recipe also calls for medium salsa. Really, it is basically 3 ingredients-Velveeta, cooked pasta, salsa and a few spices…how could I get it so wrong??? My guys liked it, but to me it tasted weird, and not in a good way. Maybe it was because I had been thinking about using the Velveeta and the real cheese sauce tasted different…who knows…I sure won't be using that recipe again.

Fast forward to two days later…I got a craving for Sloppy Joes and didn't want to use the crappy powder mix you can buy in the store. No, I wanted it to be more healthy and less chemically…wrong, wrong, wrong!!! I searched for a recipe online and found one with mostly whole ingredients. So, I cooked it all up and called everybody for supper. O.M.G., it was awful…really gross. BLECK!

The recipe called for some vinegar(which I did think was odd at the time) and some brown sugar. There was no chilli powder mentioned, so I just added some. Well, the chilli powder was the only thing that tasted good! The mix was vinegary and overly sweet, all at the same time. UGGGG!

We had sandwiches for supper. 

I am banished from using recipes I find online for a while. (OOPS!!!)

We went to Costco this week, and among other things I picked up a big package of lean hamburger meat, and a couple of jumbo cans of diced tomatoes. I did the math before we went and there is the equivalent of 3.5 x 28 oz. cans in one jumbo one(100 oz.) at Costco. So, it is way cheaper to purchase the jumbo can and divide it up into 3 freezer bags, than it is to buy 3 x 28 oz. cans. There is a lot less packaging used as well.

The next day I set myself to making up a jumbo batch of spaghetti sauce base.

Here's my recipe and cost breakdown…in CA$:

4 lbs. lean hamburger meat(~$15)

1 jumbo can of diced tomatoes($4)

3 cans of tomato paste($1 ea=$3)

1 20 ox. can tomato sauce( $2)

1/3rd of a jar of roasted red peppers(on sale $3, so $1), chopped*

4 onions($1), chopped

half a bunch of celery($2), chopped

4 cloves of garlic(in house), grated

pepper, half a handful of italian spice mix, 1 T pepper flakes(all in house)

* I use roasted red peppers in the jar as fresh red peppers are overly expensive here at this time of the year.

Total cost $28.00

Here's some basic instructions:

Cook hamburger in large skillet. Transfer well-cooked(i.e.: no pink showing) hamburger to a large plate lined with several paper towels to drain out some of the fat. Saute the chopped onions and celery in the skillet with the leftover fat. Pour the entire contents of the can of diced tomatoes into a very large pot. Add your tomato paste, tomato sauce, chopped roasted red peppers, sautéed onions and celery, grated garlic and spices. 

Bring the ingredients in the pot to a simmer, stirring everything together. You can see that I have 2 spoons in the pot; I find it much easier to mix/stir such a heavy sauce with a spoon in each hand, stirring two figure-eights. Once all of your ingredients are well-mixed, add the cooked and drained hamburger meat. Now here comes the long part! Stir the contents of the pot, while at medium-high heat. Keep stirring till the sauce starts to boil…this will take a while, so put on a CD of your favourite tunes-I am partial to Frank Sinatra while I am at the stove! Once the sauce boils, turn the temperature down and let simmer uncovered for an hour, stirring often. 

Now your spaghetti sauce base is done! Let cool on the stove(or you could spread it out in a large lasagna pan so it will cool faster). Once totally cool, separate into 4 large zip-style freezer bags(I use my 2-cup pyrex to do this). Flatten the bags full of sauce somewhat and pop into the freezer. The reason you flatten it out is so it freezes quicker and it also defrosts quicker(just in case you forgot to take something out of the freezer for supper)!!! 

We used a quarter of the base for supper that night, so now have 3 in the freezer. The reason I call it a "base", is because you are going to want to add a 20 oz. can of spaghetti sauce to the base when you warm it up, to make a nice rich sauce.

So, for cost per meal for a family of 4(we are 3, but had more than enough leftover for the Hubs' giant lunch the next day) would be $12, as below:

Base $28/4= $7

Spag sauce tin $2(but is often on sale)

Pasta $1

Garlic bread $2

..not a bad price..a good meal and healthy too!

What do you think about FREE food? Like it??? Last post I told you how to save your herbs before they go bad, and today I'll show you how to make FREE vegetable stock! 

Did you know that every time you cut up vegetables for supper, or as an ingredient for a certain dish, you are throwing food away? You cut the tops and bottoms off of celery, carrots & etc. and throw them away. Same goes for vegetable and fruit peels.

The next time you have to prepare some veggies, you can follow this neat trick…put all the off-cuts into a zip-style freezer bag, and keep it in your little freezer on the top of the fridge. That way it is readily accessible and you won't forget about it. You can do the same with peels(though not citrus or banana…that would be yucky) too, as long as you clean the vegetable first! I also add cut up apples, herbs that are a little old and anything in the crisper that is starting to go off. I just cut the nasty bits off and throw it all into my freezer bag. The above bag only took about a week to fill!

So, what do you do with it? Make vegetable stock!

Fill a large pot with water, empty your frozen veggie bag into the water and put it on high heat. Then you can add some pepper corns, several bay leafs and a little bit of red pepper flakes. Let it boil for at least 30-45 minutes. Then put a large, empty container in the sink and position a sieve or strainer on top of it. Carefully pour the vegetable stock over the strainer. Discard the cooked vegetable ends. Now you have a lovely stock, with no chemicals or salt to use when you make chicken soup or anywhere you would need to use a cooking stock. I like using this broth to cook rice in, instead of plain water!

I found a few FREEBIES around the web and though you might like them too!

Craftsy has a lot of FREE little classes(I like Bag-making Basics by Kristen Link) and e-guides(like the one about using your scraps)…just waiting for you to enjoy. It's a great was to try out Craftsy before purchasing to see if you like it(though I am sure you will). 

If you do find a class that you'd like to purchase, the greatest part is that you will own it forever and can keep on going back to watch it for as many times as you like! I know I have gone back to Playful Piecing by Camille Roskelly more than a few times!!!

There are several e-guides and mini-classes on quilting/sewing/crafts too, but I thought you might like to check these ones out(all are completely FREE): 

Photography eGuide: Understanding Exposure for Better Photos Now: Beginner Photography Tutorials Cake Decorating eGuide: Not-So-Basic Buttercream Decorating Ideas Food & Cooking eGuide: Delicious Doughnut Recipes You Can Make at Home Paper Crafts eGuide: 6+ Stash-Busting Paper Craft Projects Drawing eGuide: Drawing the Human Face: A Primer Painting eGuide: Beginner's Guide to the World of Watercolor Gardening eGuide: Success With Container Gardening Woodworking eGuide: Woodturning Basics for Beginners Have you heard if ISSUU? This is a FREE online magasine-sharing site. Check it out!!! http://www.issuu.com Just enter what you are looking for in the SEARCH window at the top of the page. I found several quilting/sewing/embroidery/crafts titles and I am still looking! You just create a free account and save the titles you like so that you can look at them later…cool eh? Sew Sister's Quilt Shop has all their Christmas fabric at 40% off! Select patterns are 40% off! I'm loving that Giggles pattern by Jaybird Quilts! But then again, I am a real Jaybird junkie!!! I have 3 of her rulers and several patterns. Don't forget their awesome Clearance section, where prices average $7.99(CA$) a meter! Check out their value-priced shipping: Order Total Canada USA International* $0 - $19.99 $4.99 $12.99 Actual Postage $20.00 - $100 $8.99 $12.99 Actual Postage Over $100 Free $12.99 Actual Postage and... Don't forget to enter my Sew Sister's giveaway here! Giveaway is closed and has been awarded. Thanks! Thanks for reading and have a great day! Quilty Huggs, Jacqueline