Useful Kitchen Gadgets: Part One: Tupperware Hamburger Press

There are so many kitchen gadgets available on the market today, many of them quite useful, many more of them not. I thought I'd write every now and then about some of my favorite kitchen gadgets.

First up is my Tupperware Hamburger Press system. As far as I know you can't get these new anymore, but there are many available on Ebay and other sites. Now, of course you can make patties by hand, but when you have seven people to make patties for these make the work a lot quicker, easier and cleaner!

The set includes a press, sleeve/ring, patty freezer keepers and lid(s).

Start off with your ground meat mix. A perfect mix is made of either ground beef or turkey, egg and spices.






Insert sleeve/ring into one of the patty freezer keepers. Scoop out some of the meat mix (about 1/3 cup) into the keeper.





Get your press....








And press and turn gently.








The result :)








Remove sleeve/ring.








Snap another keeper onto the bottom keeper.








Repeat, and then snap on the lid. If you plan on using the burgers immediately, put them in the freezer for half an hour or so to firm them up before grilling. Otherwise, put in the freezer and remove when needed.

Memorial Day Weekend

Our Memorial Day long weekend has been quite the busy one. We decided to buy a dog run kit as a run for the chicks. At least this way we can easily break it down and take it with us when we move. It is 7.5' x 13', and 6' high and was quite easy to put up, everybody helped :)

Getting it located was a little bit of a mission, but we managed okay and finally got it where it belongs. We had to bury the one side a little to get it level, but all in all I think it looks great, and the chicks think they are the bees knees! Once they were released into it they ran around like hooligans chasing each other and attempting to fly all over the place. Funny chicks :)

Because of the roof overhang on the front of the coop and the height of the run, we couldn't have the run right against the coop, so we had to make a caged tunnel from the coop to the run. Hey, you do what you have to! LOL!

We left as much greenery as possibly for them to peck at, I'm sure it won't be long before it's all gone and just dirt.

I also took some time to plant the pots out front.... because of our huge tree I can only put in shade plants. I LOVE hosta, and got two different types.

I think I prefer the first one, but variety is the spice of life, or so they say! We've also reseeded the grass out front, so it should be looking real pretty this summer!

And, as always, Impatiens in the two big wooden barrels :) I also love Impatiens, so pretty.

I found a stripey pink one, pretty eh?


Well, that's our news for this weekend. We hope those of you in the USA have had a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend, and took a moment to remember the fallen.

Chicken coop - complete! (Well, almost!)

We finished painting the coop inside and out, still have to add a bit of framing here and there to pretty it up, but it's in place and the chicks went into it this morning for the first time.

We still have to build their pen for outside, but they have to stay in the coop for the first couple of days anyway, so this works fine. The poor chicks are convinced they are going to fall through the mesh on the bottom... in a few days they should realize they are perfectly safe!

Hard to believe they were tiny little bundles of fluff just a few short weeks ago!

My Birthday

I had such a lovely day on my birthday. Since it was on the weekend hubby was home and that always makes the day extra special. My hubby and children treated me like a queen all day. Thank you to my family and friends for their gifts, phone calls and lovely emails :)

Hubby spoilt me.. he won a gift card to Best Buy from his work and he used it to buy me a new laptop. He also got me a laptop bag for my birthday, so now you know where I'm writing these posts from! LOL!

Our church had a function on Friday night and part of it was a Bake sale, and I bought my birthday cake there. It was made and decorated by our Pastor's wife. Talk about yummy!

All in all, a lovely day!

Soil... and lots of it!!!

On Friday we received our 15 ton delivery of topsoil. That is a LOT of topsoil.

We've added bunny poop to it and put it into our boxes. Whew, talk about a lot of work!

Over the last couple of days we've started planting out the boxes with out seedlings. Quite exciting to see everything going in :)

Mother's Day

I am fortunate enough to have not just one or even two wonderful women to say Happy Mother's Day to, but THREE of them.

My mama - my biological mother. A lovely lady who understands me like no other.

My mother-in-law - I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful MIL. She made me feel like part of her family from the very start and I love her and the rest of my DH's family as if they were my own blood relatives.

My USA mama - a precious lady who started out as a family friend of my DH's family. She quickly became just as dear to me as my other two mothers.

Each of these dear ladies holds a very special place in my heart and I am so blessed to have them as part of my life.

I was terribly spoiled by my family for Mother's Day. DH let me sleep late and woke me at 9 am with a cup of coffee. Once I was awake my children came in with hand made cards (my favorite kind!) and little gifts from each of them. My hubby gave me a new quilting rotary cutting mat that has all the quilt template shapes on it. It's a nice size for quilt cutting.

When I came downstairs the children had two lots of handpicked flowers waiting for me. Aren't they lovely? I especially like the simplicity of the first arrangement.

After a quick breakfast of fruit we left for the historic farm museum. I LOVE it there. There are two different homesteads there, the one is from the 1860's and the other from the 1890's. We usually start with the 1860's farm, but this time we decided to start with the 1890's farm. It has a fully functional Barn, Blacksmith Shop, Farm House, Coop, Garden and Fishing Dock.

After that we broke for lunch. We had a picnic in the park. Fishing sandwiches - yum!

After lunch we toured the 1860's farm, also fully functional. It consists of an Orchard with bee hives, Cow Paddock, Pig Pen, Cabin (tiny!), Barn, Root Cellar, Coop/Shed, Sheep Shed, four crop fields, School House and an Ice House.

It really is a wonderful place to spend a lovely day.

My DH always insists that I not do ANY work on Mother's Day, so I had the day off from everything. He and the children really treated me like a queen all day, it was wonderful and I feel truly blessed to have the family I have.

Chicken Coop

We spent the evenings of last week and this weekend building our new chicken coop. It's going to be quite a bit bigger than I first imagined!

We based it on some of the coops on http://www.backyardchickens.com/ using the 4 x 8 size to best utilize 4 x 8 plyboard pieces.


DH and DD13 hard at work.


View of the nest boxes.


My wonderful DH and beautiful DD13.


While we were outside I saw this bug carrying this huge worm. It appears to be some kind of flying ant, but much bigger than any ant I've ever seen, and it has huge pincers. It obviously had someplace very important to get this worm to, so I followed it.


And I was surprised to find that it was on its way to this hold in the ground. It pulled the worm in after it. If you know what this interesting bug is, please let me know!

Anyway! More about the coop.


Our little chicks are so big now! They spend days outside, either in their brooder or else in a little pen I have set up for them. We decided to see what two of them would think about their future living quarters.


Awwww... they're so cute.


LOL. DD13 peeking through the chicken entrance door.


And here is the back of it, as you can see we have it painted with the primer coat, and we have the roof on. The door on the back is for cleaning and "human" access to the coop.

It's not finished yet, this week we'll finish the painting (it will be green) and add the final touches. Once we have it moved to it's final home we'll add the outside pen.