A Peek into My House and Basketball Room

Hi guys! I wanted to give you a peek into my living room today because I wanted to show your our most used "toy" in our home.

That's right. We have a basketball hoop in our living room. Or I guess it's not really a living room any more, because it's kind of like a gym.

Our house in New Mexico was much smaller than our new home in Washington, so we don't have living room furniture. My son looked at the tall ceilings and decided that the basketball hoop should go into the living room (not in the awesome basement because the ceilings aren't as high).

We've had this basketball hoop in our living room for the last four years (above the doorway to the kitchen in our last house).

Anyway....I just noticed today on slickdeals.net that that this hoop is on sale on Amazon just today for half off. Such a good deal! $14.99 . You can buy it on SKLZ.com for $29.99 regularly. It's a great hoop and has a really strong rim.

It's made to go over the back of a door, but we built a simple frame on the back of it, so we can screw it into the studs in the wall.

Here's another view of the frame we built.

Anyway...I just wanted to share this with you. Maybe someday we'll get living room furniture and take down the hoop, but not for a while. I can't wait to start renovating our house...new paint, trim, higher baseboards, refinishing the floor and banister, etc. I'm thinking about carrying the wood floor into the living room. That would be even better for basketball playing, eh?

One Hour Rolls

These rolls are amazing! I've been making these rolls since 2001 when I was a newlywed and my sister-in-law shared the recipe with me. The rolls are light, fluffy, easy to make and they only take one hour! And delicious too! I've made these rolls more times than I can count, so I've perfected the art of making them. Here are some step-by-step instructions with pictures for you. Here's what you'll need. I buy pretty much all of the ingredients in this recipe at Sam's club, thus the huge containers. You need warm water, yeast, oil, sugar, salt, egg and flour. In the mixer bowl, add warm water (not hot), oil, sugar and yeast. Mix together. After ten or fifteen minutes the yeast mixture should be puffed up like this. Time to add the salt and beaten egg. Then mix in the flour. (I've used a mixture of half wheat and half white flour successfully.) Keep adding flour until the dough is manageable. It will be a little sticky, b

Don't like your house to smell like food? I've got a kitchen tip for that!

I have a smallish, one story house and if I cook food that is kind of smelly, like onions, the smell tends to linger in every room. This is a pet peeve of mine and (also my husband's). Over the years I've found a few ways to cook smelly food without smelling up the kitchen. Use your garage! I use my garage quite often to cook things in. I open the window and it airs out, especially when you open the garage door. I'm sure my neighbors wonder what I'm cooking. I've used two different kitchen appliances in the garage: my crockpot and my food dehydrator. Crockpot - I did this very thing today since I'm simmering chicken, onions, carrots and celery to make chicken noodle soup tonight. I don't want my house to smell like onions all day, so I plugged it in on my husband's workbench. Food dehydrator - when I make jerky, I plug the food dehydrator in in the garage. I don't really want my house to smell like meat for hours

Chicken Angelo

Don't forget to enter the Whirley Pop giveaway . It ends tomorrow! Am I the only person that asks their friends what they're making for dinner all the time? That's kind of why I started this blog, because I want to know what my friends are making for dinner. The other day I asked my friend, Juli (who is great cook), what she was making for dinner. She told me she was making Chicken Angelo. Then she told me what's in it. I knew I had to try it too because she has some picky eaters at her house like I do. I figured if they'll eat it then maybe it was worth a try at my house. This Chicken Angelo pasta has my favorite things, artichoke hearts and mushrooms in it. But don't be fooled into thinking that my family likes these things too. Because they don't. They won't touch an artichoke or mushroom with a ten foot pole. That being said, my family loved this pasta dish. They even gave me the go ahead to make it again. They loved the ch

What is on your menu this week?

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