Lemon-scented Kitchen hand soap

I am in love with lemon scented products right now. Citrus scents have a way of invigorating me - somehow lifting my spirits.

I use Lemon Joy dish soap and keep Bodycology lemon-scented kitchen hand soap handy as well. I love the clean smell of lemons!

It is funny how small things like hand soap can bring such pleasure.

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Glass nesting prep bowls

Megan bought me these for my birthday, and I absolutely love them. I collect bowls - especially nesting bowls - but these are not only cute they are super useful!

The uses are limitless:

beat eggs
serve small portions of pudding
premeasure dry ingredients when baking
serve salsa or other dip
pretend you have your own cooking show on the Food Network!

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Pampered Chef Micro Cookers

Pampered Chef Micro Cooker

I don't own a lot of Pampered Chef items - in fact, since I dropped a cast iron skillet on my Pampered Chef pizza stone (oops!) the Pampered Chef Micro Cooker (large and small) are the only Pampered Chef items I own.

But I use them absolutely every day and thanks to Angel - whose party I bought them at and who told me about browning hamburger from a frozen state in 5 minutes - they have become my best go to kitchen gadgets.

How I use them:

- I use the small cooker every morning to make poached eggs (they taste like boiled eggs only they are flat). Crack two eggs into small cooker sprayed with Pam. Cook on high 1 1/2 minutes. Viola! Easy, healthy breakfast.

- I use the larger cooker to brown ground beef. Frozen to browned in 5 minutes! Use the chopper to break the meat up halfway through the cooking time and then once done. I love it that the lids have the strainer holes. Talk about easy!

- I use the larger cooker to microwave potatoes. Just place in cooker and use the potato button on the microwave. The cooker helps hold in the moisture and makes a much more moist potato.

- Forget buying expense steamer bags for vegetables. I use both the small and large cooker (depending on how much I am cooking) to steam vegetables. Fresh and tasty!

Don't overlook these awesome cookers at the next Pampered Chef party you go to - they aren't fancy, but they work great and are easy to clean!

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Meat Grinder

I don't have a lot of fru-fru in my kitchen.

One - there isn't enough room for extras; and two - I am just not a fru-fru kind of girl.

My kitchen has the basics and that's it. I don't have a garbage disposal (What would the raccoons eat?) and I don't have a dishwasher (Where would I put it?).

But one thing my kitchen does have is a meat grinder. I love this little baby. I picked it up at my neighbor's yard sale several years ago. Although a real bear to clean, three of my favorite recipes require it.

1. ham loaf
2. banana pudding with peanuts
3. Virginia's ham salad

Since I am highlighting each of these recipes, I decided to do a little post on the meat grinder itself.

This is similar to the grinder I have -
although I don't have the shredding pieces

My meat grinder is a Rival model and is probably from the 70's I am guessing. While not as old as the one my mom uses, I think it is a really nice grinder, and I am pretty pleased with my yard sale find.

This is similar to my mom's grinder

One thing that definitely helps with the grinding process - a teenage boy to turn the handle!

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