Canux : Home Sweet Home

Archive for January 13th, 2012

Many people hesitate to cook meat in the microwave. However, if done correctly it works fine. It is nice in the summer so you don’t have to turn on your hot oven. I recommend using a silicone loaf form to make the meatloaf in the microwave. You can purchase a silicone loaf pan in specialty cooking stores. You may also find one at a Department Store such as Mervyns. Silicone is a nice way to go because they are very easy to clean. All you have to do is turn them inside-out to get all the leftovers that store themselves in the corners of your loaf pan. Another thing I like about silicone pans is you can fold them up for easy storage. Hence, they work great if you have limited cabinet space. If you are unable to locate a silicone loaf pan, or simply don’t want to purchase one, you can try a glass loaf pan. My only complaint with glass loaf pans is that they tend to dry the meatloaf a little.

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1/4 cup chopped onion

3/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 egg

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine ground beef, 1/4 cup of the barbecue sauce, onion, bread crumbs, egg, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Stir until well blended. Press mixture into microwaveable loaf pan. Spread remaining barbeque sauce over mixture.

Microwave on high 5 minutes; rotate 1/4 turn. Microwave an additional 5 minutes; rotate another 1/4 turn. If necessary, repeat until center is done.

Fancy pillows to enhance your decor can be expensive. In fact, you may get a shock when you look at them online to find some costing as much as $1700 for just one pillow. Knowing that that pillow would set you back a month’s salary you will then start you looking for discounts on throw pillows, accent pillows, and floor pillows, and it is possible to find high-quality pillows at discount prices. Look for local sales in your newspaper, scour nearby stores for sale bins, and keep your eye peeled on the Internet which is where you can often find the best bargains.

Websites where you can generally find great prices on beautiful pillows include overstock.com and eBay. At any given time you can find pillows from many different manufacturers and designer labels for discount prices just by keeping watch of their fluctuating inventories. Just make sure that you can’t buy the same item on another website for less prior to staking your claim on either of these sites.

Other ways you can get throw pillows, decorative accent pillows, and floor pillows at discount prices is by either buying pillow shams and stuffing them yourself or actually making your own pillows. If you have access to a sewing machine and basic sewing skills, you’ll be able to make as many throw pillows as you want inexpensively. This is especially important if you need a large number of pillows, such as for a child care facility. The simplest washable pillows you can make involve sewing two washcloths, fingertip towels, or hand towels together while leaving a small space for stuffing. Turn the towels inside out, stuff with poly-fill, and then sew up the opening. Instant pillows!

Once you find a discount pillow website, you’ll want to take your search a step further. Most online shops have clearance items available, and you could find something great for a very small amount of money. For example, on designerlinensoutlet.com, I found a selection of decorative Christmas pillows marked down from $20 to $7.99. At prices like that, you can afford to have different pillows for Christmas display, and you won’t feel quite as bad if someone happens to spill their eggnog on one of them. On this same website I found Croscil pillows for half price as well as dozens of different types of Nautica throw and accent pillows for a fraction of their original cost.