Home Improvements

Phil and I have been wanting to do some improvements on the fifth wheel and we finally got most everything done.  It was tedious dealing with contractors, and frustrating at times.  But in the end we were very happy with the results.  We replaced the tile in the kitchen with laminate and the carpet in the bedroom with laminate and got new carpet in the living area.  But that’s not all.
Stairs before with tile


Stairs after with laminate

Bedroom floor with laminate

Kitchen floor with molding and new carpet.

New dining room chairs and new cat tower

All models compensated for posing!
New TV cabinet

New cabinet for receiver and blu ray player.  Thanks to Mark Bruss for the idea of putting screen in the doors to let air flow

New refrigerator

I love the freezer on the bottom and the icemaker and water in the door!  We also replaced our old water filtration system so no more bottled water!
New dishwasher

The dishwasher wasn’t on the list of things to replace until we found out that a piece of glass had propelled itself through the back of the old one and had left a hole that water was leaking through!
So it became a necessity to replace it.  We both feel like we are living in a new house!
I went to Indiana, PA, with Phil to watch them load separators.




Luckily I had my Kindle and my camera when I got bored.



I went to Debra’s for lunch for Hanukkah.
She made a delicious lunch of latkes with sour cream and apple sauce and a fruit salad.
Isn’t her table setting beautiful?

Then we exchanged gifts.  She gave me a beautiful blue and silver bracelet and I gave her a vintage necklace.

We’ve had several days of snow flurries already.

The recipe I’d like to share with you this week is Apple Glazed Cornish Game Hens with Wild Rice stuffing.  This is so good.  And no it doesn’t make the meat sweet, it just makes the skin on the hens very brown and crispy.

Apple Glazed Cornish Game Hens with Rice Stuffing

Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Hour 50 Minutes

Ready In: 2 Hours 10 Minutes Yields: 4 serving

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons slivered almonds 2 tablespoons chopped onion 1 box Uncle Bens Wild Rice Chicken Flavor 2 cups chicken broth

Seasoning pack from Uncle Bens 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 Cornish game hens salt to taste 1/4 cup melted butter

 
DIRECTIONS:

1.	Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the almonds, onion, and uncooked wild rice . Saute 5 to 10 minutes. Mix in the chicken broth and seasoning package. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook 45 minutes until rice is tender and easily fluffed with a fork.
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3.	Season the Cornish game hens inside and out with salt, and stuff with the rice mixture. Place the hens breast side up on a rack in a baking pan.
4.	Apple Glaze 12 ounces of apple juice concentrate, thawed 3 tablespoons of water 2 teaspoons of cornstarch 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 1 teaspoon lemon juice Mix 1/2 cup of the apple juice concentrate with water and pour over the hens. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. While the hens are baking, prepare the sauce on your stovetop. Combine the remaining apple juice concentrate, cornstarch, cinnamon, and lemon juice in a small saucepan and mix well. Simmer over medium heat until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. When the hens have been in the oven for 45 minutes, remove them and brush them with the apple and cinnamon glaze. Return them to the oven and bake for approximately 10 or 15 minutes longer. When ready, the hens should be browned and the internal temperature should be 180 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.   I won several thing this week. I won this beautiful watch from Bejeweled Beads by Chelsea

She offers many styles of watches to choose from. I loved all of her watches and had a hard time picking just one.
I won a pair of Mary Jane Crocs from www.mamalovesherbargains.com

I won a Miche Bag Medium Sized Classic Set – Retail value of $169.80 from Eighty MPH Mom

A  gorgeous wallet from Plum Crazy Boutique

And finally a watch from

Chunky Bling. This is another site that lets you pick your watch band and face. They are fun and very affordable watches.
Books this week.
Reading a series by John Levitt