Giveaway: Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food for Rookies Course
| ~*~ | ||
| ~*~ | THIS POST WILL STAY STICKIED ALL WEEK. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE RECENT POSTS.
THIS GIVEAWAY ENDS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3RD AT 5PM EST. READ BELOW FOR 7 EXCITING CHANCES TO WIN! HALLEE |
~*~ |
![]() |
||
| ~*~ | ||
| ~*~ | ||
| ~*~ |
I am so excited to be doing the giveaway this month. Kelly at Kelly the Kitchen Kop is a fellow blogger and a dear friend. She has done so much to help me promote my blog that I’m just thrilled to be able to promote something for her.
Kelly is offering one of my readers a chance to take her online course, Real Food for Rookies, for free. This is a $120 value!
Click here to read more about this amazing class (that isn’t just for rookies!)
LEARN HOW CHANGING WHAT YOU EAT CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING.
Real Food for Rookies, a 12-week online class, starts Thursday, September 16th. Deadline for signing up for the class is September 5th.
This is what Kelly says about her course:
Do you feel overloaded with nutritional information and the conflicting advice from all the “experts”?
Are you overwhelmed trying to implement what you’ve heard, and without going broke?
Do you want to learn how to fit Real Food into your busy schedule?
Learn the concepts it took me years to learn — in just a few weeks.
I’ve signed up for it. I’m sure there is a ton of information there that I still don’t know, despite my “real food” path.
There are 7 ways to enter. Make sure you leave a comment for every entry, or it won’t count:
- Leave a comment to this post saying what you hope to learn in the class.
- Follow Hallee the Homemaker on Twitter here, and leave a comment telling me that you did.
- Follow Kelly the Kitchen Kop on Twitter here, and leave a comment telling me that you did.
- Tweet about this giveaway, adding @halleeb to the tweet, and leave a comment telling me you did.
- Subscribe to my RSS feed here (or if you already do, leave a comment telling me you do)
- Subscribe to my email updates here (or if you already do, leave a comment telling me you do)
- Google Friend me here (or if you already are, leave a comment telling me you are)
You have 7 chances to win! If you already do the above, leave a separate comment saying so to make sure that you don’t miss out on an extra entry.
International entries are always more than welcome.
Hallee
I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your
via email. You can also become a fan on
How to Make a Lattice Topped Pie
Lattice topped pies do nothing more than to make a pie visually appealing. You can perform the same function of creating a vent within the pie with several slits cut into the top crust of pie, or using a pie bird. However, I’m a big fan of visually appealing food, and I think that some pies (i.e. cherry pies) require the extra effort to make them taste better. (kidding) (well, mostly kidding)
This may be something I need to Vlog. If these instructions aren’t clear, then please let me know and I’ll video it.
Make a 2-crust pastry. Shape half of the pastry into the bottom crust and place in pie pan, filling with your desired topping. This particular pie is a cherry pie.
Roll a section of the remaining pastry into a rectangle.

Using a pizza cutter, or a sharp knife, cut strips.

Place one strip across the top of the pie, and another strip down the right side of the pie.

Lift up the top strip and place another strip horizontal to the one on the right side. This way, the end of that strip is under the one across the top, and the one next to it is on top of the strip across the top, creating a basket weave.


Lift up the strip you just placed on there, and place another strip horizontal to the one on top, so that it is under this one but over the one to the right.


Continue with this pattern, lifting strips and gently replacing them as you need to create the basket weave until all of the strips are in place.


Trim the ends and fold them under the edge of the bottom crust. Crimp the bottom crust and the ends of the strips together.

Hallee
I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your
via email. You can also become a fan on
Hearty Sweet Potato & Black Bean Hash
Hearty Sweet Potato & Black Bean Hash
I saw someone reference a sweet potato hash somewhere a few months ago, and I thought that sounded really good, so I came up with a recipe. This was so good – it was hearty enough to be the main dish of a meal.
![]() |
1 cup diced sweet potato
1 can black beans, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 TBS olive oil
½ cup onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp Kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ dried basil
![]() |
sharp knife/cutting board
measuring cups/spoons
skilet
![]() |
Dice sweet potatoes.

Mince onion.
Drain and rinse canned beans.
Drain and rinse canned corn.
![]() |
Heat your skillet to medium-high heat. Add the olive oil.

Add the potatoes.

Add the onion.

Add the salt, pepper, garlic, and basil.

Cover and cook, stirring regularly, until the potatoes are soft – about 6-8 minutes.

Add corn.

Add the beans.

Stir. Reduce heat to medium and cook until the beans and corn are heated.

![]() |
About 6 servings.
![]() |
I would love to hear any feedback about this recipe. Did you make it? Did you enjoy it? Did you make any adjustments to it?
Hallee
I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your
via email. You can also become a fan on
Hidden Nemeses
Always always always pick through your dried beans.

I have never looked through a package of beans that didn’t contain at least one rock.

I’d hate to think of you biting down on one of those things. Ouch!
Hallee
I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your
via email. You can also become a fan on
Bob & Mira
Yesterday, I received my little red Netflix envelope. I have the small Netflix account. Whatever the price is (less than $10 I think), I get one movie at a time and access to Netflix instant. When I opened the envelope, imagine my surprise when it was a movie I’ve never even heard of — The Last Templar.
I asked Gregg if he’d ordered it for me, and he said, “Yeah. It has Bob in it. You’ll like it. And it’s a great film.”
Anyone who enjoyed the first season of The Unit the way I did would know who Bob is. If you don’t know, then may I recommend the first season (and the first season only) of The Unit, and the ability to fast-forward through the wives? They were pretty much unnecessary to me and took away from the plots with Bob the men.
The Last Templar also has Mira Sorvino in it. About 20 minutes into watching it, Gregg called me. In the course of our conversation, I said that Mira Sorvino’s mouth bothers me. The way it moves when she speaks distracts me from what she’s saying and annoys me. He laughed and said, “What? I think she’s hot, personally.”
Now, that gave me pause. Gregg doesn’t say that about ANYONE. Well, except me. “You think she’s hot?” I said, not angrily, but curious.
“Sure. She speaks 6 languages and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard.”
HA!
Let me just say that I absolutely love and adore my husband. He fills my heart with such joy. And he loves me. But, I used to wonder all the time why in the world he loves me. I graduated from Spencer High School. That’s the extent of my education. And, I speak English. I don’t speak it well – I write it way better than I verbalize it – but I do speak that one language proficiently.
It took me several years to know that Gregg loves me because God designed him to love me. And even when he’s admiring another woman’s “hotness” by her academic accomplishments, I am still confident in his love for me.
And I still think her mouth is funny.
Hallee
I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your
via email. You can also become a fan on
Of Course It’s Not Easy! It’s Work!
In my “shut off your brain and just relax” mode – a time I rarely allow myself until I just desperately need it – I have been reading my America’s Housekeeping Book (published in 1941). I bought it while reading Grace at What if No One’s Watching go through 100 Days to a Happy Housewife. She referred to it often, I found it for some ridiculously low price (like maybe $3) and indulged in it.
I have LOVED reading it. It’s not like I can’t put it down. I have lots of reading to do. I read my Bible every day. At home I read the Old Testament (and am currently reading 2 Samuel). In waiting rooms or waiting in the car for Kaylee or wherever I am out and about, I read the New Testament (and am back to reading Matthew). I’m reading The Power of a Praying Wife and I’m reading Helper By Design. I LOVE reading my Bible, but that is study/worship time. The other books I read are being read with an eye for a blog post, for education, to retain information and digest it then do something with it.
This book is just to feed my love of mid-twentieth-century America. It’s as good as popping in an awesome film noir starring Humphrey Bogart or Spencer Tracy. I love seeing how life was lived back then, especially when it’s right then and not looking back. When it’s unadulterated with modern proclivities, assumptions, prejudices, political correctness.
As I was reading the chapter on how to manage household help (which was just hysterical to read, by the way), something rather profound occurred to me. It isn’t like it should have just occurred to me, but really I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it from this angle before.
Here is where I had my “ah-ha!” moment:
Experienced homemakers will tell you that if the employee does the washing and ironing, the homemaker must assume a major share of the other housekeeping jobs on laundry days.
And:
If your employee assumes most of the responsibility for the children, don’t expect too much else of her. She can’t do everything.
Know what those simple sentences tell me? That it’s ridiculous to expect that one person can do it all all of the time even when they’re a paid employee who is working from cooking breakfast time to washing dinner dishes time.
Homemaking is a job. It requires full time attention. It encompasses a huge amount of responsibility from maintaining a clean home, doing laundry, cooking, caring for children, caring for the spouse, gardening, preserving, etc. etc. For some of us, it also includes homeschooling.
If you don’t enter into it treating it as if it were a job, as in giving it your full attention and energy when it’s required, then it’s going to overwhelm you. One thing that this generation battles that the generation who read America’s Housekeeping don’t are too many outside distractions. You can allow yourself to be sucked into television or the internet and lose hours a day – hours that your home requires of you.
I think that people get the wrong impression thinking that a homemaker has loads of free time on her hands, with no responsibilities of a boss and co-workers and deadlines. But the fact of the matter is, it is a full time job. I could easily fill all of my waking hours with my homemaking responsibilities. I have to carve time out for blogging and personal correspondence, and I honestly don’t give those things the attention I need to give them.
If you are struggling with your homemaking, stop and analyze your day. How are you treating your duties? Are they something that just get done when you feel like it, or are you going into your day with the attitude of accomplishing your given tasks? Do you lose hours and hours one end in chatrooms, Twitter parties, message board conversations, or Facebook, TiVo, daytime television…or do you remove yourself from such outside distractions and keep them for your scheduled downtimes?
I encourage you to take pencil to paper or keyboard to spreadsheet and pound out a schedule. Work it out. What needs to be accomplished daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, annually? How many hours a day do you allow for your home?
Come at it like a job and see how your homemaking skills improve with just the simple shift of attitude.
Hallee
I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your
via email. You can also become a fan on
Draft of New Schedule – need feedback, please
If this were posted as my schedule under my schedule tab, would you be able to read it? Does it make sense to you? (Ignore the formatting gliches — Gregg is the one who knows code. This is a purely elemental attempt at it.)
|
|
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
|
4:30 |
Wake up – Bible reading/prayer time |
||||
|
5:00 |
write |
Write |
Write |
Write |
Write |
|
6:00 |
Make breakfast/ Kaylee’s lunch |
Make breakfast/ Kaylee’s lunch |
|||
|
7:00 |
Make breakfast/ Kaylee’s lunch |
Volunteer at Soup Kitchen |
Make breakfast/ Kaylee’s lunch |
Volunteer at Soup Kitchen |
Make breakfast/ Kaylee’s lunch |
|
7:30 |
Kaylee leaves/Daily chores/ free play for |
Kaylee leaves/Daily chores/ free play for |
Kaylee leaves/Daily chores/ free play for |
||
|
10:00 |
Preschool |
Preschool |
Library/park |
||
|
12:00 |
Lunch |
Lunch |
Lunch |
||
|
1:00 |
Nap time for boys. Work |
||||
|
3:00 |
Play time |
||||
|
4:00 |
Kaylee home |
||||
|
5:00 |
Dinner prep |
Volunteer at BINGO |
Dinner Prep |
||
|
6:00 |
|
Dinner |
|
|
|
|
6:30 |
Dinner |
Kitchen Cleanup |
Dinner |
Dinner |
|
|
7:00 |
Evening Devotions/ Book of Proverbs |
Church |
Evening Devotions/ Book of Proverbs |
||
|
7:30 |
2 mile Walk/Run |
2 mile Walk/Run |
|||
|
8:00 |
Bath |
Bath |
|||
|
8:30 |
Bedtime Boys |
Bedtime Boys |
|||
|
9:30 |
Bedtime Kaylee |
Bedtime Kaylee |
Bedtime Kaylee |
Bedtime Kaylee |
|
|
10:00 |
Bed |
Bed |
Bed |
Bed |
|
|
11:00 |
|
Bed |
|
|
|

























