French Onion Soup

I love a great bowl of french onion soup.  There's just something about it.  I've been searching around for a good recipe and ended up just coming up with my own version.  Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

French Onion Soup

2 TBSP Butter
1 Medium Onion, Sliced
2 C water
3 cubes beef bouillon
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Pepper

Saute onions in butter on medium heat until onions begin to soften and are translucent in color, you do not want them to get brown.  Then add water, bouillon, and seasonings.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  Serve with cheesy bread.  (Makes 2 servings)

French Bread Pizza

Let's face it, sometimes I just don't have time to make extravagant meals.  Between work, kids, school, church responsibilities, soccer, dance, and everything else we have going on, sometimes I am just exhausted by the time I get home.  These are the nights I really need my "go to" meal.  You know, the meal you can put together in under 15 minutes.    I admit, I have several of these meals.  I usually keep the ingredients on hand for the times that we just need something to eat and fast.  This is one of our favorite "go-to" meals. 

French Bread Pizza

1 Loaf French Bread
1 jar favorite pizza sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Pepperoni
(any other toppings you like)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cut loaf of bread in half lengthwise.  Place on cookie sheet, crust side down.  Spread sauce evenly over bread, top with cheese and pepperoni.  Bake in oven for 10-14 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden.

Oven Baked Ribs

Mmmmm... Ribs.  There is not much more I need to say about these bad boys!  They are fall off the bone goodness.  My hubby got this recipe years ago and It's the only way I cook them now. 


Oven Baked Ribs

2-4lbs pork ribs
1/4c. salt
1/4c. sugar
18oz bottle of BBQ sauce
Paprika

Preheat oven to 250* F.  Mix equal amounts of salt and sugar, add paprika to taste.  Roll each portion of meat in sugar/salt/paprika mixture. Place meat in a large baking dish in about 1 inch of water.  Bake for 1 hour. Remove. Drain water and add BBQ sauce as needed.  Increase heat to 400* F. and Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove and Serve. 

Deep Fried Zucchini

Is your garden overflowing with zucchini?  Are you starting to see your friends and family post pictures on Facebook for free zucchini?  Well, welcome to zucchini season.  At least here  in Utah.  This time of year we literally have zucchini all over the place.  If you are like me, you might be completely sick of zucchini bread and in need of some other way to use your zucchini.  This recipe is an old one, but we love it.

Deep Fried Zucchini
1 or 2 zucchini
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 c flour
1 egg
2 TBSP milk
1 c Italian bread crumbs

Peel and remove seeds from zucchini, cut into sticks.  In one bowl, combine flour, salt, and pepper.  In a second bowl combine egg and milk.  Put the breadcrumbs in a third bowl.  Roll zucchini sticks in flour mixture first, then egg mixture, then bread crumbs.  Lay on wax  paper and chill in the fridge for 1/2 hour. Then fry in oil until light brown.  Drain on paper towels.  Serve while hot with a side of ranch.

As a side note:  if I have extra zucchini I usually peel, remove seeds, and grate the zucchini.  Then I put it in zip lock bags and freeze it to use during the winter months when I really want zucchini bread.

How to: Clean Microfiber Couches AND get the water spots out too!!

 

 HI ALL!  It's been a while!  We have taken a summer hiatus around here.  July was busy to say the least,  full of reunions, vacations, swimming, hiking, camping, holidays, traveling, moving/helping move, and a big yard sale at the end to top it all off!!  Well we are back, not so rested and relaxed, but we are full of new recipes and awesome ideas.  This one today is both gross and amazing all in one!

I got these beautiful new microfiber couches a month before I had my twins.  Microfiber wont stain they said, microfiber holds up to kids they said, it will always look new they said,  WELL they obviously didn't have kids or family or pets or anything sitting on their microfiber couches!  Because look what 4 years and tons of sippys of water, milk, juice  and who knows what else has been in there can do!   YUCK!  (ps.  the flash on my camera seriously makes it look more awful than just looking at it with your eyes! but still... gross!!)

 

So I did what any normal person would do, I got on pinterest and found so many amazing before and after pictures of couches that were nasty and then transformed into beauty! 
They all used rubbing alcohol and so I got all the necessary scrubbies and spray bottles and worked away and they still looked like this.....

I thought that I must have done something wrong so I read and reread and found different posts and finally I found a post that said the alcohol is for dirt and grime but WILL NOT get out hard water stains... UGH!  Hard water is all we have in Southern Utah.  I figured I was doomed until my better half on this blog Donna was out looking at couches and told the salesman that she would not be getting microfiber because of how my couches have turned out.  He then asked if I'd ever tried distilled water...? 

I hadn't but I figured that they couldn't get any worse than they already were so I got out my daughters water bottle that I use for her hair and filled it with some distilled water that I already have on hand to use in my steam mop and sprayed my couch down... not to much but enough that it had an even soak.....

Then I just got a light colored rag and scrubbed away until I couldn't see any of the water rings

When I was done it looked like this.. a little damp.

Then it dried and looked like this... it felt a bit crusty...

So I got a hard brush and fluffed up all of the fabric.....

And the end result was amazing!!  Water spots mostly gone and looking fresh and new:)

Now I just need to do the rest of my couches :/