News From the Nest, January 13

Good Morning, Loveliest of People!

First things first, my heart aches for those on the West Coast, in the Los Angeles area, who are dealing with these fires. I have friends in the area who, so far, have been lucky but know it is a day-by-day situation. Kudos and thanks to the rescue workers who are working tirelessly. Way up there with our military heroes are the firemen and women who see danger and go headlong into it to save people, pets, and their belongings. If you are reading this from that area, know that we hold you and yours in our hearts.

This past week felt like the first ‘normal’ week since before Thanksgiving. I feel like I finally have my life under control and am getting back to ‘normal.’

Well, it is as normal as life can get with a little construction project going on. We are covering a portion of our back porch, which up to this point has been a rather large, but unused space. Now that we are about halfway through the project, it seems this minor improvement was always supposed to be.

We are also heading to Charleston for a few days this week to catch up with Terry’s longtime best buddy and his wife. I have always loved Charleston so that it will be a lovely, albeit very cold, visit.

Table of Contents

For those of you, like us, who slowly added TV apps over the year, now is a good time to delete them all! It’s easy to accumulate a bunch of channels and forget about them, except when the monthly charge comes. We cancel them all at the beginning of each year and then add a channel as needed.

New on the Blog

Whether you have a cold or the flu or it is just cold outside, sometimes, you feel like something that, in my mom’s words, will ‘warm the cockles of your heart.’ I define this ‘something’ as a food that nourishes both my body and soul. This Italian Pastina Soup, sometimes known as Italian Penicillin Soup, does just that.

A little retrospective of your most visited posts of the past year. It’s fun to look back to see what struck your fancy over the past year. You’ll realize that we are quite an eclectic group with various interests!

#10 Slow Cooker Pulled Beef

Let chuck roast slowly simmer in garlic, onion, Worcestershire, and soy sauce for the day, and you’ll have the best fork-tender, pull-apart beef for sandwiches, enchilada or burrito filling, and more. Add this Slow Cooker Pulled Beef recipe to your recipe stash; it will be one you return to repeatedly.

A bbq sandwich sitting on top of a wooden plate.

#9 How to Fix Moth Holes

I’ll let Nancy’s review do the work here.

Thank you profusely for this helpful guide to repair my precious cashmere sweaters, all of whom succumbed to a massive moth attack this year.

Using needle and thread to mend a hole in knit fabric.

#8 The Very Best Margarita Recipe

I consider myself a bit of a margarita snob because of my dad and his oh-so-perfect margarita recipe. I can’t just order a margarita in a restaurant without interrogating the server about the specific ingredients in their restaurant margarita recipe. There’s a reason this Margarita Recipe, published initially almost eight years ago, remains in the top 10 most popular recipes year after year.

Two Margarita glasses with tequila and limes.

#7 Tricks to Fill a Large Planter

If you know me, you know I love a planter filled to the brim with seasonal colors. I have a variety of planters in just about every size on the stairs to and from our home and right outside our screen porch. I collect container garden ‘recipes’ just as I do food recipes. With all these pots comes a whole bunch of expensive potting soil…right? Nope! You can easily partially fill a large planter with an assortment of items that would typically find their way into your trashcan or recycling bin, saving you money…and your back.

#6 DIY Gift Ideas That Don’t Scream ‘DIY’

Currently, the number of ideas on this list of handmade gifts stands at thirty-two, but don’t blink, or it’ll be at thirty-three. This list is constantly being added to, so check back often. The handmade gift items are grouped into Bath + Body, For the Kitchen, Food Gifts, Decor, and Other Useful Gift Ideas.

#5 Pickled Jalapeño Pepper Rings

This easy recipe for canning jalapeño peppers is perfect for first-time or experienced canners. With this jar-by-jar recipe, you can easily alter the recipe for as many pounds of peppers as you have. This jalapeño recipe gives directions for refrigerating your canned pickled jalapeños or water bath canning jalapeños; it’s up to you which direction you choose!

jar of pickled and canned jalapeno peppers

#4 Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough

If you’ve already had sourdough pizza and love it, or you think the sound of tangy, flavorful pizza dough is pretty darn good, this post is for you. Making sourdough discard pizza dough is quite simple, and the good news is that it stores well in your fridge!

#3 All the Knit and Crochet Dishcloth Patterns

These free, knitted dishcloth and washcloth patterns are always some of my most popular patterns. Knitted dishcloths and washcloths are easy and quick projects; you could quickly knit up a dishcloth stash for gifting or keeping for yourself.

A stack of dishcloths in beige and white.

#2 Three-Ingredient Dog Treats

These 3-Ingredient Dog Treats are easy to make with items you most likely have in your kitchen. The ingredients for these homemade dog treats are easily substituted, and suggestions for substitutions are included.

#1 All-Natural Vinegar Weed Killer

This post has more than double the views of #2! It isn’t even close.

I’ve been using this homemade vinegar weed-killer recipe for over four years now and have figured out what works, what doesn’t, and what your expectations should be. Read on for the recipe and the facts if you are interested in a natural weed-killer recipe.

Weeds before being sprayed with homemade weed killer and after.

A Few Tried and Trues

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We joke that Elsa, like many young women, likes to shop. She is particularly fond of clothing; she won’t take food off the counter but place anything fabric up there, and it’s gone in a second. When all else fails, she figured out how to pull clothes off the rod…hanger and all! (How can you not love that face!) We are getting pretty good at keeping our clothes behind closed doors, necessitating her to shop elsewhere. When she came into the den with a used razor cartridge in her mouth that she had retrieved from the bathroom trash, the trashcan was relocated to the counter, which isn’t always the most convenient place for a bathroom trashcan. So, I treated us to a lidded trashcan. But I didn’t want one with foot control. This motion-activated trashcan was surprisingly affordable and does the job perfectly. I ended up buying a second for the guest bathroom! Thanks, Elsa!

For the price and quality, my husband swears by Amazon Essential Jeans. He has several pairs in different colors.
These found their way into three stockings in our home this year. I’ve become a fan of candle warmers as they eliminate fire risks and warm your candles. The bonus is that you can put them on a timer, filling your home with your favorite fragrance every day!

From the Knit Studio

With a large swath of the U.S. trying to keep warm with unusually cold temperatures, it seems like a good time to knit a warm hat. I am a sucker for cables, so it was only natural I worked some into this easy-to-make cable knit hat pattern. And while technically not cables, the additional twists in this pattern mimic the texture and movement cables provide to your knit project.

For a refresher on knitting in the round, check out this post.

One full round of knitting in the round.

This Easy Garter Stitch Dishcloth Knitting Pattern is perfect for new knitters. Using only knit or purl, this pattern allows you to practice and perfect one stitch and create something useful.

garter stitch washcloth and a bar of soap

In the Kitchen

Use any leftover cranberries in this Cranberry, Apple, and Banana Bread. Thanks for the great review, Vickie!🫶🏼

5 STAR REVIEW

“I love anything cranberry and was excited to try this recipe. So with leftover cranberries from Thanksgiving that needed to be used or frozen, and being snowed in for the first time in years–I put my husband to work chopping apples and cranberries. We loved it so much we didn’t stop until we had eaten over half the loaf. We used a Granny Smith apple and well over the amount of cranberries called for so I anticipated I might have to make a glaze for my hubby to enjoy it. But the ripe banana did a great job adding to the sweetness. It was absolutely delicious!”

-Vickie

Sliced Cranberry Apple Banana bread on a cooling rack, with fresh cranberries sprinkled around.

Ginger Lemon Tea, simply crafted from ginger root and lemon juice, has been a healing staple for centuries, tracing its origins back to ancient China and India. And while it tastes like a warm ray of sunshine, the health benefits of this delectable concoction extend far beyond its enticing flavors. This post shares some of the Ginger Lemon Tea Benefits and my recipe for quick, make-ahead ginger lemon tea, hot or iced.

I fully accept that these little fiber-rich snacks will never win a beautiful cookie contest. But this gluten-free, low-fat, high-fiber cookies recipe is chock full of soluble and insoluble fiber. Both fibers play a role in keeping constipation at bay and helping with regularity. And not for nothing, these high-fiber snacks are moist and quite tasty, with hints of cinnamon, vanilla, and orange.