Tuesday cleaning tip~Cocktail Meatballs~That dang Mouse part 5

A few tips you may find helpful.  As I say on my Web page, these are tips that have been emailed to me, or that I have found on the internet.  I have not tried all of them and cannot guarantee their success.  If you do try one and it works, or if you have another one that works for you, let me know.

Microwave Filth: Food splatters all over the inside of your microwave and cooks itself on after time. To easily remove this mess, place a sponge soaked in water or just a dish filled with 1/2 cup water in the microwave. Cook on high heat for 2 minutes. The filth is now ready to be wiped right off - no scrubbing!

I use this one all the time and it really works.  I much prefer doing this than spraying a chemical based cleaner in the same place I cook our food.  Adjust the time according to the amount of "gunk" and/or depending on the power of your microwave.  Be careful when removing the sponge or bowl of water, it WILL be hot! 

The following is a recipe for Cocktail Meatballs from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.  I am including this because I remember my mom making these every year for Christmas eve. 

Now I make it for the holidays.  No matter how many I make, it never seems to be enough.  This year I used 3 lbs of hamburg and added some cocktail weiners, and we still ran out.

1 lb hamburger   

1/2 cup dry bread crumbs   

1/3 cup finely chopped onion   

1/4 cup milk   

1 egg   

1 tablespoon snipped parsley   

1teaspoon salt   

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce   

1/8 teaspoon pepper   

1/4 cup shortening   

1 bottle (12 oz.) chili sauce   

1 jar (10 oz.) grape jelly  

Mix hamburger, bread crumbs, onion, milk, egg, parsley, salt, worcestershire sauce and pepper; gently shape into 1-inch balls.           

Cook meatballs in shortening in 12-inch skillet; drain fat.  Heat chili sauce and jelly in skillet, stirring constantly, until jelly is melted.  Add meatballs and stir until coated.  Simmer uncovered 30 minutes.  Serve hot in chafing dish.   Makes 5 dozen meatballs.

   I don't cook mine in shortening.  I make all my meatballs and put them on cookie sheets in the oven.  Much better than sitting over a pan of splattering grease.  I then let them cool, and put them in plastic bags and freeze them.  That way I can make a whole bunch and use them when I need them.  

It is now 3:55am.  Yes, the insomnia, again.  I've been up since about 3am.  I woke up and just lay there, wide awake, so finally I just went ahead and got out of bed.  It really stinks because then I get so tired around 6pm.    

I try to stay awake though, hoping that if I don't go to sleep until 11pm that I will be able to sleep longer.  Obviously it isn't working.  So...ya''ll are waiting to hear about our lil' fat friend, aren't ya?  I think I can hear Tilly giggling already, lol.  

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I went to Target last night to pick up a fewthings and found me some "humane" mouse traps.  They were sold in a package of 6 for $2.99, so I bought 2 of them.  I figured I would just put them all over the house.  EVERYWHERE! 

 

Haha!  I was going to get this lil' sucker.  Yes, I was.  Although, what I was going to do when I went and found him stuck on one of those glue traps had me a wee bit nervous.  I wasn't planning on picking him up if he got caught in the old trap, dead.  So I absolutely, positively was not going to pick up a trap with a live and probably very angry mouse on it!

 

They also had Rat traps in a box for $3.99, but there wasn't as many traps in the box.  Not a very good deal if you are a bargain shopper like me.  No, it seemed to make much more sense to get the other one where I would get more.

 

So I put 2 under the bathroom sink, 1 in my closet, 1 under my dresser, 1 under Ray's dresser, 1 along the bedroom wall where I thought he might be traveling, 1 behind the china cabinet, 1 under a shelf, 1 next to the refrigerator, 2 next to the freezer (one on each side of it) where he was last seen and I think 1 went under the kitchen sink.

 

So, of course, the first thing I did this morning (even before making my cappuccino) was walk around looking at the traps.  Rest assured I would have woke Ray up to take care of the trap if we had caught the lil' food monger.  However, there was absolutely, positively no need for that.

 

Nope.  Not with our especially talented, magical, well-fed, fat, piggy mouthed lil' "friend".  One of the glue traps was disturbed.  Disturbed my bum!  The freakin' thing was flipped over and move about 6 inches!  I had him!  I had the little sucker and he got off the dang trap!!!

 

Me and my need to save a few bucks!  This fella is either 1) really lucky 2) so dang big and fat that he got off there, or number 3) extremely talented and/or smart.

 

myspace graphics  To be quite honest, #3 is my biggest fear. 

 

Oh I bet he was just laughing his fat butt off when he got out of that trap.  Which reminds me, I am not going in there to turn over that trap.  There is the possibility that an itsy bitsy mouse foot remains on the trap, ewwwwwwwwwwww!  Nope, I refuse to touch it!

 

Okay, that's it for now.  Later!