Use it up, Wear it out, Make do or do with out

             I find myself despite always having trying to rebel against it- wanting to be more green. I don't know if it is cause I am moving toward a more simple life style or I am obsessed with the Amish way of life or i just plain old got some crazy pretty reuseable grocery bags for Christmas this year?

              I have an amazing amount of reuseable bags to begin with- but since I started part time at a grocery store ontop of my regular day job, I know how much easier these are to pack for the cashiers- I love when people come thru my line with the sturdy bags- the cat hair lined ones- not so much- but I am customer service oriented so I suffer thru that with a smile! 

              I think that my New Year's resolution is to not waste- like Connor told me- " waste not want not" he learned it in school- he was so proud to tell me that- and I am starting small with the reuseable bags, I reuse my plastic ones- believe me.. for numerous things- but it seems I have a glut of them right now.

               I want a simpler life, we have had almost a week off from work and Brian and I have cooked, ground 20 lb of venison, food savered meat, made our own deer bologna( a separate post soon to come) and pretty much i have started cleaning out cupboards.... any way this is a short post about becoming more simple and more nondependant on the outside world I suppose.. so here are 2 pics of my new reuseable bags which I adore!

This is an adorable 10x8 bag my Mom got me for Christmas perfect for one or two things or a fast short trip and even though I love the simple life- I love the pics from Breakfast at Tiffanys!

I love love love this bag, it was from my boss at work - Susan, I have used it quite a bit since she gave them to us all at work....

What little ways did you all decide to become "green" or simple- you know I have also decided thru making this post - I do not like the word "Green" LOL- I like Simple or Homesteading/Homesteader, Frugal or Acting Amish .....

Smoked Chicken Leg Quarters~mmmmmmmmm

             So Brian got a Brinkman Smoker, the gas one, for Christmas... well we have been smoking everything we can get our hands on! I got Chicken Leg Quarters for 99 cents a lb... which is really cheap. Normally I won't pay more than that for chicken, since we buy our beef from a farmer for way cheaper than a grocery store, I try to get our other meat when it is marked down at the store then freeze it.

So far we have smoked ribs- literally awesome- we had to tell Max to come up for air during dinner, My mom bought salmon for Christmas and we smoked it ( my Step Daughter and her Boyfriend loved it so much they bought one for us to smoke for them to take home to D.C) I will take pics this time around to do a post on it. 

              And we have been doing the Chicken Leg Quarters.... which this post is all about!

Here is the recipe:

4 Chicken Leg Quarters

Marinade in 1 cup Olive Oil-2 TBSP Bells poultry seasoning, pepper,and salt

1 TBSP of Garlic Powder

You want to put the marinade mix in a large ziplock that will hold the chicken then add the chicken and marinade for at least 4 hours.

 Brian bought some sprayers and added olive oil and vinegar to it - and sprayed the chicken every hour with it to keep it moist.

He used Apple wood  and in the liquid pan put water and 1 Lager beer....

the target tem we had was 250 degrees and the target inside meat temp was 180 degrees.

Feel free to ask me questions and I can ask Brian the answers- since this is my first post on smoker recipes!

on that note - here are the pictures:

Spraying with the olive oil and vinegar mix to keep the chickens moist

My Adorable Hubby Brian

The wood Chips soaking in water

Spraying again

I wish I had smell-o-vision

The Happy flashlight holder Max

Almost done! See the liquid bubbling?

You can't see the temp but it is right!

Plated up and totally gorgeous!

Venison Jalepeno Poppers!

             It has been way too long since I posted~ a whole summer and fall too long. We have been so busy gardening, canning then school started for the kids and I got a part-time job on top of my regular day job.... but I am gonna make it my New Year resolution to post more! Plus all my pictures normally came from my old phone, which died on my and I have been using my son's hahahah- which I think is even older since he got an upgrade, sooooo I started using Brian's camera- hopefully the picture quality is better now for the blog.

               So- I frequent Homesteading websites alot- and since we got some venison this year from  wonderfully generous friends, I have been looking up neat, cool, frugal fun recipes- and someone suggested making Jalapeno Poppers (our friend gave us their favorite venison potpie recipe- which when I make I will post it as well). This is right up the boys and my alley... I couldn't wait to try them:

                First the recipe- then the pics taken by my lovely assistant Brian (I told him he was my new Blogger Photographer)

I only made a few since it was a new recipe and I wanted to make sure if it worked out I would have enough ingredients left on hand for appetizers on Christmas Day:)
Plus this is a pretty frugal recipe- I got the bacon for 99 cents- the Jalapenos were 80 cents for 15 of them the cheese was on sale for 2.50 (sad that I think 2.50 is a good sale price I remember when it was like 1.25 on sale- cheese making is next on my list of things to learn to do) the venison was gifted-

Venison Poppers:

5 Jalapenos~ Cut in half lengthwise and seeded

5 slices of bacon~ Cut in half

10 quarter inch wedges of sharp cheddar cheese

10 quarter inch slices of venison

In each half of jalepeno put a slice of venison, then cheese, then wrap in a half of a slice of bacon secure with a toothpick.. bake at 350 degrees for approx 20 min, then broil until bacon is crisp. Keep an eye on them when you broil them, they will burn!

Enjoy- They lasted all of about 4 minutes in my house- and that was with Brian and Max eating them hot out of the oven!

The Pretty Peppers all washed and ready to go!

Bacon from the freezer- of course cause I buy it on sale for about 99 cents a package and then freeze it

The venison butterfly steaks pack, that we foodsavered and then froze

Extra Sharp cheese mmmmm my favorite! Cheese should be SHARP unless it is Brie of course

Cutting and seeding the peppers- see- I am wearing a glove- I managed to slice my index finger this morning using a new razor, no way I wasn't wearing a glove.

Cutting the venison to fit into the peppers

Love this picture- I think it is so pretty the venison is soooo red and lean

Brian does a pretty good job of picture taking mid-point dontcha think? this is the cheese on half the peppers

Wrapping the peppers

All snuggled ready for the oven!

How awesome do they look? mmmm

2 minutes later on the plate

Four minutes later after I called Brian and Max to try them!