Black Friday Fun, Holiday Recipe Contest Closing Soon, and Being Thankful – HBHW Newsletter

November 24th, 2010

Editorial

Hello again and welcome to another edition of the Hillbilly Housewife Newsletter.  Before we get to the meat of the newsletter, I just want to take one moment to say how thankful I am to all of you;  my readers, my friends.  Hillbilly Housewife has become a wonderfully busy community of frugal minded people.  Without you, we wouldn’t be able to produce this website or newsletter.  So, thank you everyone for spending some of your precious time here with me.

Our Holiday Recipe Contest is coming to a close soon.  We’ve very much enjoyed reading your submissions.  Be sure to scroll down and read about this fun contest and for an important message for everyone who has already submitted your recipes.

Our featured article is about something a lot of us will be faced with this week – using up leftovers.  Our Thanksgiving always produces a heaping helping of leftover turkey.  Be sure to scroll down and click on the link to see a few great ways to use turkey in tasty new dishes.

This week’s quote and story shouldn’t surprise you as we are celebrating Thanksgiving this week in the United States.  It’s easy to be thankful for all the great things in our lives, but sometimes it’s from the hardships that we receive our greatest blessings.  I hope you’ll take a moment or two out of your busy day to read and reflect on today’s quote and story.

Thanksgiving is here and my friend Christine Steendahl – “The Menu Mom” – has just about reached her goal, thanks to all of you who joined in the fun on Facebook.  If you haven’t yet, won’t you help Christine out?  Here’s the fun:  Christine started Oct. 23rd with 1200 Facebook Fans and is hoping to hit 10K by Thanksgiving! All you need to do is visit www.facebook.com/themenumom and click the “like” button on her page.  For every 500 new friends she has a little drawing and if she reaches 10K by Thanksgiving, she plans to give away $10,000 in Lifetime Memberships to her Menu Planning Central Meal Plans.  Anyone who is a fan at the time of the drawing will be entered.  Lots of fun!  Go check it out at www.facebook.com/themenumom and help her achieve her goal!

Those are my thoughts this week. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions. Feel free to email me at susanne@hillbillyhousewife.com

Warm Regards,

Susanne – The Hillbilly Housewife

Inspirational Quote
In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
~ Albert Schweitzer ~

Black Friday Fun

I was starting to feel a little left out with all the advertising about sales going on this Black Friday.  The day after Thanksgiving is loosely considered to be the day that retailers are back “in the black” financially speaking; thus the term Black Friday.  So, I thought why not share in the fun and have a little sale myself!  I’m busy right now putting together a few specials I think you’ll enjoy.  Be sure to watch your email for our HBHW Black Friday sales.

Holiday Recipe Contest

All good things must come to an end.  As of Sunday, November 28th, we’ll be closing our recipe contest here at HBHW.  We’ve very much enjoyed all the family recipes submitted so far and now I have quite a list I’m going to try on my own family.

Besides the great prizes we are offering, we also have a special treat in store for everyone who has entered a recipe in the Holiday Recipe Contest.  My good friend, Patti Winker at www.RemarkableWrinklies.com, has been compiling recipes for many, many years; she says “more years than I care to count!”  Not only has Patti been collecting recipes, but she has been busy gathering some of her favorite recipes together in a neat little cookbook.

What Patti has done is put together a nice collection of dessert recipes and all sorts of other sweet treats into an eCookbook and is giving it away to each participant in the Holiday Recipe Contest.  It’s Patti’s, and my, gift to you for taking the time to enter a family favorite recipe for the Holiday Recipe Contest. I know you’ll love this ebook.  It’s filled with over 80 recipes for cakes, pies, cobblers, bars, candies, snacks, and more. Now remember, Patti has been collecting these recipes for some time, so you’ll find some of them a tad old fashioned, but don’t we love that!

Now, what we need from you is your email address. Many recipe submissions were missing the email address which causes two problems;
1) we won’t be able to find you if you win a prize, and
2) we won’t know where to send your free eCookbook from Patti.

So if you submitted a recipe for the Holiday Recipe Contest, won’t you please take a moment right now to email me at susanne@hillbillyhousewife.com and let me know what email address I can use to send Patti’s eCookbook as well as notify you if you win any of our prizes.

If you haven’t already submitted a recipe, you have until Sunday evening to do so, and have a chance to win one of many valuable prizes, like these:

From HillbillyHousewife.com

• A copy of the Crockpot Cooking Guide
• A copy of the Freezer Cooking Guide
• A copy of the Meal Planning Guide

From MealPlanningCentral.com

• Lifetime Membership
• Six Month Membership
• Three Month Membership

From DineWithoutWhine.com

• Lifetime Membership
• Six Month Membership
• Three Month Membership

From SavingDinner.com

3 month subscription (Value $15)

12 month subscription (Value $47)

Christmas for the Freezer menu (Value $10)

So, get your very favorite holiday recipe out and submit it to us here at HBHW.  Just click on the link here and look for the submission form.  It’s easy and fun… and you might just win a valuable prize!

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/favorite-holiday-recipes-contest.htm

Featured Article

We’ve featured crockpot cooking quite a bit here at HBHW lately for a lot of reasons.  Of course, saving time and money is important, and what better way to be frugal than to use up your leftover turkey in the most efficient manner possible?  In my book, using my crockpot to create another meal from my turkey is one of the most frugal things a cook can do.  Please click on the link below to find several of my favorite recipes for leftover turkey in the crockpot:

Using Up Leftover Turkey – Favorite Crockpot Recipes

Recipe Sharing

Before even thinking about using up the leftover turkey, I have to tackle the stock.  Here’s where I start:

Turkey Stock

One of the things I traditionally do the morning after Thanksgiving is to make a big pot of turkey stock. Depending on how early we eat our big Thanksgiving meal, I have even done it that evening. Here’s how I make it.

• 1 turkey carcass
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 3 ribs celery, cut up
• 2 medium carrots, cut up
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons dried leaf thyme
• 2 teaspoons salt
• dash pepper

Add your turkey carcass to a large stock pot. If needed, break it up into pieces. Add everything else to the pot and cover it with plenty of cold water. I usually fill mine up to 2 to 3 inches below the lip of the pot. Turn your stove to medium heat and allow the stock to come to a simmer, turn the heat down to low to simmer everything for 3 hours. During the first 30 minutes skim any foamy buildup from the top with a large spoon. The more you skim, the better your final stock will be.

Allow the stock mixture to cook, then strain it into another pot. Put the stock into the fridge overnight. This will allow all the fat in the broth to come to the top and solidify. In the morning, you’ll have a solid piece of fat on top of the pot. Gentry remove it and toss it. Use your turkey stock in your favorite soup and stew dishes. I like to use it in this crockpot turkey soup recipe.

Healthy Hillbilly Housewife

Here’s what’s new on the healthy hillbilly housewife section. You can also go straight to http://www.healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com

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Frugal Tips

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Do you have a tip to share? Fill out the submit a frugal tip form and I’ll be glad to add it to the site and share your tip in an upcoming edition of the newsletter.

Recipes

Here are some of the most recent recipes that have been added to the HBHW site. Enjoy!

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Do you have a recipe you would like to share? Click here to send it to me and I’ll be happy to add it to the website.

I’m Looking For:

This section is all about you. If you are looking for a particular recipe or a tip on how to do something, submit it here and I will post it in an upcoming newsletter. I’ll give you my input and other readers of the newsletter will have the opportunity to share their recipes and tips as well. So take a moment to post your questions and of course if you have a tip or idea for any question posted in this section feel free to leave a comment under the appropriate post.

I’m Looking For Requests
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I’m Looking For Responses
Below you will find some of the recent responses to the “I’m Looking For” Requests. You may also want to go directly to this section and browse through all the recent submissions and replies. To do so, click on “I’m Looking for” here, and start looking through them.
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Inspirational Story

Be Thankful
~author unknown~

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire;
if you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something;
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times;
during those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations;
they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge;
they will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes;
they will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you are tired and weary;
it means you’ve made a difference.

It’s easy to be thankful for the good things;
but a life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks.

Final Thought

That’s it for this edition of the Hillbilly Housewife Newsletter. I hope you’ve had as much fun reading it as I had creating it for you. I also hope that you have found the information helpful and useful. And by all means feel free to forward the newsletter to family and friends or even better, encourage them to subscribe to it.

Do you have a question, a tip, a recipe or a story you’d like to share with us? Email it to me and I’ll include it in a future issue. Can’t wait to see what you have to say.

Warm Wishes,

Susanne – The Hillbilly Housewife