A recipe and some good old fashioned cleaning advice

This is one of those recipes that makes a good "comfort" type side dish.  I'm sure most of you have heard of this one before, but I hadn't made it for awhile and served it last week when we had tacos.  It was a hit.

Corn Muffin Casserole

2 eggs
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can creamed corn
1 - 8 oz. container sour cream
1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix

Beat the eggs and add the cans of corn.  Make sure you drain the whole kernal corn.  Add the sour cream and melted butter.  Mix well.  Stir in the muffin mix. 

Grease an 8 x 8 inch casserole.  Bake at 350 degrees for between 45 and 55 minutes per your oven.  (We all know that our ovens are different.)

This is relatively inexpensive and it is moist and tasty.  I know some cooks that sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top, but we like ours without. 

I have a friend who recently doubled this recipe and poured it into her crockpot and cooked it on low for around 5 hours and it turned out perfect.  I haven't tried it yet, but it is worth a go.  The only change that I would make is whenever I make something like macaroni and cheese or stuffing in the crockpot, I lay a paper towel over the top of the crockpot and put the lid on the paper towel.  The paper towel does not touch the food, it is held in place by the lid.  The steam droplets rise to the top and are absorbed by the paper towel.  You may have to change the towel twice, but it works very well.

Now on to some good old fashioned cleaning advice.  Are you ready? Pick up as you go, clean up as you go and stop the mud at the door.  Then plan two - 3 hour sessions of cleaning each week.  This is the way that I am keeping my house clean and in order.  

First of all the "pick up as you go, clean as you go and stop the mud at the door" is something that my grandmother always proclaimed.  With only the 3 of us living in our home, it was easy to keep the place clean even without doing the pick up as you go, etc.  Now with the college students living with us and usually another 2 of their friends showing up during the day or at dinner time, I have changed the game plan. 

Please understand that the girls do clean up and pick up after themselves its just that things can get chaotic with other people coming and going during the day, more dishes being used and more people in the house.  Soo - I now value the pick up as you go, clean up as you go and stop the mud at the door. 

As for the stop the mud at the door -- I really had a problem there.  We have two dogs and our backyard has been a muddy mess since last fall.  We had a drought last year and our grass all but died which led to a backyard of mud.  Now that the snow is melting and we have some unusually warm days ahead of us, our dogs (and people) come into the house with muddy paws or shoes.  The large rug by the back door wasn't doing a good job so I went out yesterday and bought a cheap area rug for my kitchen floor.  I know, it isn't that pretty but it is functional and I need functional. 

Now when a large group of people come in the back door, they can move to the larger rug to wipe their feet and I can easily vacuum up the dirt later.  This is easier than constantly mopping a floor.  So it may not be pretty, but boy does it save me time. 

So I/we pick up as we go, clean as we go (bathrooms and countertops) and we stop the mud at the door.  Then I add to this two - 3 hour slots of cleaning or in some cases four cleaning slots of 1 and 1/2 hours (depending on when we have the time clean) to keep the rest of the house in order. 

I am a slob and a messy person but I want an orderly home.  My home isn't perfectly clean at all times, but it is orderly.  This is working for all of us.