Cover Love!

One of the best, easiest and inexpensive ways to update a room is to cover your furniture.  Chair covers are one of the very first items you will see discounted especially on internet stores. I have found them for as low as $7. Since there are so many bargains out there, my theory is they languish in stockrooms with most people not realizing how quickly they change the look of a room.  These black check covers are some of my favorite because they can, with the right pillows and accessories, give your room a new lift in any season, Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter.  If you caught me on facebook, you know that my crock pot literally goes all the time as its the only way I have time to cook.  I even make my mashed potatoes in the slow cooker so I don't have to baby

the  potatoes on the stove or take time to cut into little chunks.  Here we have "Spaghetti Night" on my good ole standby white ironstone plates, paper napkins and a simple basket of apples for the center of the table. Spaghetti in the crock pot recipe is at the bottom of the page.              

      The felt place mats were $20.00 on Amazon and since guests from Jeff's office were coming, I dolled the table up a bit with my little chalkboards and string for place markers on the wine glasses.

My old wood kitchen chairs with upholstered seats were made about the turn of the century between 1900 and 1910 and they aren't really very special, except to me because they came from my mother who used them in her dining room.  They do have a really sweet little shell in the middle of the front of the seat.  When you lemon oil the wood, they can be very pretty, but when I get tired of them, I throw on a cover or even a chair sash (more about those later)

    

Spaghetti In The Crock pot

The wonderful bread comes locally from Food Lion, their new pretzel rolls!

2lb bulk Italian pork sausage or ground beef (or meatballs already prepared and frozen (Food Lion Italian brand are awesome)

1 large onion, chopped or onions to your taste

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 can diced tomatoes, un drained

2 cans (15 oz each) tomato sauce

1 can (6 oz) tomato paste

1 tablespoon dried basil leaves

1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

In your skillet, cook sausage, onions, mushrooms and garlic over medium heat about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sausage is no longer pink; drain. 2 Spoon sausage mixture into cooker., adding remaining ingredients. Or use frozen meatballs and simply place your onions, mushrooms and garlic directly in the cooker with the other ingredients. 3 Cover; cook on Low heat setting 4 to 5 hours or longer. Noodles can also be cooked right in the slow cooker, about 30 minutes before your are ready to serve, turn it up on high, break your noodles in half and stir them into your sauce. Just watch for them to become Al dente and you are done!