Domestic Diva

Go ahead and call me Domestic Diva, Molly Mormon, Queen of the Kitchen, Food Storage Freak or whatever you would like. But, I just have to tell you about my productive weekend! I am quite pleased with the success I had with trying new things and being thrifty.

Friday evening I went to the grand opening of a grocery store in Provo, called Buy Low Market. They had skinless, boneless chicken breast for 99 cents a pound. The only thing was you had to buy 40 lbs of it. I decided that I would try my hand at canning with a pressure cooker and bottle the chicken. I found a recipe on the internet and it looked super easy, well it is super easy! All you do is cut up your chicken into 1" cubes. Place 1/2 tsp of salt in the bottom of a Quart bottle (I added some additional seasonings) and fill it up with chicken. Put a lid and ring on the bottle and place it in the pressure cooker. Cook it for 90 minutes and let it sit in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes. Then remove it...and the chicken has cooked and made its on broth in the bottle. I opened one up and the meat was really tender and really good, it tastes like the chicken in the can but I think mine I had better flavor.I also used my dehydrator for the first time. I picked up some mushrooms that were on sale and dried those. It kind of stunk up the house for a while....next time I do mushrooms I will have to put it in the basement. I also used some of my bread that I made and turned it into breadcrumbs in the dehydrator.
I also went shopping at Smith's Grocery store...in order to get my 10 cents of my gas fill up. I stopped by the service desk and picked up my beer rebate and found out that I would get $10 if I buy salty snacks or condiments. I bought items that were on sale and with my coupons it came to $20...so when I get my rebate back I spent $10 for all this stuff! Pretty good deal if I don't say so myself.This morning I made whole wheat pancakes from my wheat in my food storage. I followed the recipe that I got of the recipe from my new favorite food storage site. It was absolutely delicious and super easy! I ate my pancakes with the apricot jam that I made this fall...that didn't really set so it is more like syrup. I highly recommend this recipe for anyone that wants to try using up some of their wheat in their food storage.
http://everydayfoodstorage.net/2008/02/20/better-than-a-popular-roller-mills-pancakes/food-storage-recipes

Food storage

For those of you who have not already heard of the fun with food storage web site, I would like to tell you about it. A friend of mine told me about the site and I pretty much haven't gone a day without looking at it. If you are interested in building your food storage or in learning how to cook from your food storage then this is the site for you!

What has impressed me most is how organized they are and how easy they make it. The recipes are not difficult and are not for strange food that you would never want to eat.

I have placed links on my blog for you to click into their sites. Check them out and tell your friends.

Selling my car

So, I have sold my Passat. I have to admit it was a little sad to see someone else driving in the car that I so loved. But, I was relieved and considered myself blessed for selling it quickly.

So I listed the car on KSLcars.com and it was up for 4 days before I sold it. I had 164 hits on the ad and 2 people come and drive it. The guy who bought my car seemed pretty excited about it and knew a lot about VW. Which might make this the perfect car for him if he can fix the stuff without paying a mechanic!

Selling a car is an interesting thing. I was wondering if you should just trust people with your vehicle. I mean do you really let them take off in your car with no collateral? What if they steal it, what if they wreck it? Do you dare take a personal check? How do I answer all their questions...I try not to remember all the things I have replaced on the car and how much money I have spent. How am I supposed to remember when and where it was all done? I didn't even know you were supposed to change some of the stuff unless it was broken. I was even asked what kind of spark plugs were in the car...how in the world was I supposed to know that?

So the first person who drove my car had it forever! He drove it for about 45 minutes and wanted to take it to a mechanic. I said that was fine...took his name and number. He did leave his vehicle in the parking lot...but, didn't leave me with his keys. He said it would take a couple of hours. I said that was fine...as I wasn't going anywhere. Well, 4 1/2 hours later he had not come back. I started to wonder if he drove to Logan. Should I charge him a rental fee for the day? I decided to call him and he said he was just finishing up and would be back her in half an hour. When he got here he wanted me to fix everthing on the car to make it "up to snuff" so he wanted me to drop my price by at least $1500. I told him no, as it is a used car and it isn't in perfect condition and that is why I am lower then everyone else on KSLcars. So he obviously did not buy the car.

The second guy was really nice. He left his car keys as collateral to his landrover...even though someone was sitting in it. Kind of funny. He drove the car and went home to talk it over with his wife. He asked how I would like the payment, I of course said I would take a cashiers check. Well, that evening he sent me an email with a million questions about the car. I could only answer a few of them because I don't know anything about cars. He also said they want to buy the car in the morning and come before work...so they wouldn't have a cashiers check due to the banks being closed. But, he would bring a print out of their checking account balance. He also included a link to his family blog page. Okay, so I thought that was interesting....was it to show me that they are honest people? Or did this brief encounter make us friends? So, I looked at his blog and saw that they had a fun day at boondocks with their kids. But, felt a little odd looking at a strangers blog page.

He came the next morning and bought my car. HOORAY! He did have a print out in his hands...but, I didn't ask to look at it. I noticed that his check had a Blackfoot Idaho address on it. So I asked if he grew up there and he said yes. So, I told him that I was born there and my dad grew up in Blackfoot. Come to find out his parents are good friends with the Ellises, which are really good friends to my family. Now that I knew that information I just prayed that he would like the car and it would last a long time for him and not give him problems.

I seriously, have prayed for that daily. Yesterday I recieved a text message from him....and guess what. He wanted to thank me for selling him my car, with a few repairs it is running great and he can see why I liked it so much. So, I guess I have gotten the answer to my prayer. Even though I find it a little wierd that he sent me a text message.

I am hoping that he doesn't send me a text the first time the car needs something fixed on it and it costs him $600 to repair it. I also would find it strange if I get a christmas card from him next year. Just kidding, I really don't think that would happen. But, then again he gave me his blog page.

2009 New Year, New Car

Can it really be 2009, already? Seriously, where has the time gone. It just seems like a couple years back we were all anxiously awaiting the clock to strike midnight and it would be the new millineum. Would the power grid shut down, would the computers stop working, would the banks lose all our money, would the airplanes fall out of the sky? Those were some of the big questions...but like every where the clock struck midnight and nothing happened. The lights didn't even flicker. So hear we are 8 years later which fly by at rapid speed!

I started the year off by looking at cars. I decided that it was time to invest in a car with less miles than my Passat. I have been wanting to purchase a new car for the last year or so...but, just couldn't bite the bullet. I really didn't want to be committed to a car payment. I loved having my car paid off the only problem was everytime I had to make a repair to my car it was like making 3 car payments and it was getting often enough that it was time. The other problem has been my pride. I have LOVED my Passat because it had all the bells and whistles. So, when I would drive other cars I didn't like them as much. I wanted a car with lower miles, with all the features for around $10,000. Yeah, I discovered that pretty much wasn't going to happen.
So on January 1st of 2009, I let my pride go and I ended up purchasing a 2006 Toyota Camry. I felt like I got a pretty good deal since I was able to talk them down $4,000 off the asking price. It has everything that I need: power windows and locks, cruise control, CD player. I don't really need the leather seats and seat warmers, although I did LOVE my seat warmers in the winter months. But, I feel like this will be a reliable car that will last a long time and will cost less to repair when I get to that point. I did purchase the warranty that covers my car for the next 4 years and will pay for most of my maintenance costs. The best part of this purchase is that I will not have to buy premium gas anymore! HOORAY!!!!

Now I get to go through the agony of selling the car. I guess if all else fails I can make a trip to car max and sell it to them.

I will post pictures of the car once I get the icy snow off of it. :)