Sisters

Some you are born with.

God put you together.

No one can yank your chain like your sister.

Nobody else knows all your soft spots.

And if you are truly blessed you can work through 

your growing pains and come out with 

someone who will have your back.

Always.

 Some you choose.

God puts them in your path.

There is no rhyme or reason to the connection. 

It just happens.

And you know, no matter what distractions

 there are in life, you will remain connected.

She knows 

the good the bad and the ugly,

and loves you 

in spite of/ because of (?) 

it all. 

Some choose you.

God gives you each other.

You grew up together. 

You have shared stories and secrets.

The world would call you cousins.

God calls you sisters.

And I am thankful.

Thanksgiving Meatloaf

It's as good a name as any.

And I don't have a photo. 

Sometimes you just don't know 

how good something

is going to turn out.

I got the idea for this on the internet. 

I'm not sure if it was a Pintrest

thing or not, but here you have it.

I took 2 eggs, 1/2 cup chicken broth

and one package of Stove Top stuffing mix,

mixed them together then added 

3 pounds ground turkey.

Formed it into a loaf and baked it at 

350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

I mixed up a little combo of whole berry

cranberry sauce and barbecue sauce and

poured some over top for the last 20 minutes of baking.

Um, YUM!

It was a winner all around.

All the flavors of Thanksgiving

rolled up all together.

Race For The Cure

It's all in how you define

"race."

All four of us got up and bundled up.

And braved the crowd.

 Dirk crossed the finish line.

 Shanna crossed the finish line.

Mike did too.

I, on the other hand,

had more pressing things to attend to.

It's all in what you see as the 

finish line.

Roughing It

Anyone who knows my husband knows that  

his idea of "roughing it" is

The Holiday Inn.

 Well, this weekend we went

slumming.

To further the irony of this picture, 

that orange sticker on the red bag says

"priority".

It's from when my bag flew home first class

 from Disney World.

Please note, my BAG flew home first class. 

I flew Spirit.

This is my life, you can't make this stuff up.

Gotta love it :o)

Mini German Pancakes

Pintrest.

Found them this morning and made them for breakfast.

I make a standard German Pancake.

It's wonderful but not an every day sort of thing. 

These mini ones caught my eye  

because they were so stinkin' easy.

It's 3 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup flour

and a pinch of salt.

Mix it up, pour into a greased muffin tin

at 425 and 18 minutes later you have

mini german pancakes!

They are very similar to popovers in taste

and texture. 

And are keepers!

Erin's Shower

This is Erin.

And her mom, Carol.

Of "Cheryl, Carol and Val" fame.

A bunch of us threw her a shower. 

There's a picture of us somewhere but it wasn't 

taken with my camera and who ever has it 

hasn't shared yet so you'll just have to imagine us.

Kristie offered her home as our venue.

You could throw two helium filled balloons

over the table and buckets of KFC on the table

and it would look great with this house as a backdrop :o)

Erin's sister (and Maid of Honor) suggested a

Champagne and sweets party.

 It was a great idea and between the 5 of us and 

Pintrest we were set!

 With the amount of ideas we threw out during our 

first planning session I think we

 could have thrown 5 showers!

 But we showed restraint.

 Val made Cheese Cake Shots.

 Our token "health food".

 Kristie made Rosemary Shortbread Cookies.

 Here's where Pintrest really came in.

Those are frozen grapes suspended 

over champagne glasses, 

that were in turn the party favors.

(Goodwill, less than a dollar a piece)

 Unfortunately, the green grapes that were in 

keeping with our color scheme 

looked like olives

once frozen and put on a pick.

 You could make any kind of Champagne concoction 

your imagination could come up with.

This is the "savory" table.

In case people needed "real" food.

There was real food on it. 

And it was really good. 

It's just, you know,

Champagne and desserts.

:o)

There!

Use Your Imagination

I made polenta for the first time last night

and it won't be the last.

You'll have to use your imagination for how it looked. 

(new computer)

I *created* a mexican-y sort of stew

by browning off some ground beef, chorizo,

onions and bell peppers, then adding a can of tomatoes

black beans, tortilla strips, roasted corn, 

roasted butternut squash (just because I had it) 

and a bunch of spices.

I served that over the polenta and it was great. 

Could polenta be any easier?

You just boil some water, stir in the corn meal,

cook for about ten minutes

and then stir in some butter and cheese.

It kind of sets up at it sits and made a 

kind of a bed for the stew to sit on.

It would be kind of neat to 

line the inside of a bowl with it and

 then add the stew.

I have extra polenta so I spread it out on a sheet pan

and put it in the fridge. 

Tonight:

Fried Polenta!

I'll let you know how that goes.

New Computer

And no I-Photo, yet.

My posts are really photo driven so I find myself

at a loss for subject matter. 

I co-hosted an amazing shower this past weekend.

But you really gotta see the pictures.

I have a really big brand new computer and I would

show you just how big,

if I could hook up my camera to it.

Oh, but here's something it can do!

It can take pictures!

That's my IT guy.

My son. 

I love him.

He's gonna figure out the I-Photo for me.

What Goes Around

Comes around. 

I have noticed something very similar to this

showing up in Pintrest lately:

I was making these back 15(ish) years ago.

It's a great repurpose for chairs whose seats 

are busted up. 

I started out stapling a chicken wire "bowl"

to the seat and lining it with burlap and then 

planting directly into it.

I found that setting a hanging planter

(minus the hanger)

in the wire was easier and

didn't dry out as fast. 

Just a little heads up if you're thinking 

of doing a little garbage picking.

Er, I mean, recycling. 

Love how that term has evolved over 15 years. 

Ropa Vieja

In an effort to rid myself of stacks of magazines

I decided to purge my growing pile of 

Food Network magazines. 

Just rip out the recipes I had dog eared and get rid

of the rest.

This one caught my eye and I actually (actually) had

everything it called for in my fridge/freezer/pantry.

I didn't have as many olives as it calls for which

was unfortunate, but still good. 

I also used a top round steak that was in my freezer.

Why it was there I cannot tell you.

It was probably a bit leaner than it should be.

Mike rolled his in a tortilla. 

Because that's what he does.

I ate mine with a dollop of sour cream. 

Because that's what I do. 

All in all a productive day. 

Got rid of some clutter and

had a good dinner to boot!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/slow-cooker-ropa-vieja-recipe/index.html

Time Laps Photography

Kind of.

Circa 1992

(give or take)

2012

Nice to know the fountain hasn't changed. 

I've been to

The Happiest Place On Earth. 

For spring break. 

Along with a bazillion of my best friends. 

I learned a few things. 

A person (actually MANY people) will 

willingly wait in a 2 hour line. 

Standing up. 

A wheelchair bound companion will get your 

whole group to the front of the line. 

Disney employees have the uncanny ability to detect when a fraud

jumps in the chair to get to the front of 

Space Mountain's line. 

A wheelchair bound person should NOT ride 

Space Mountain. 

Even a fake one.

You can buy a margarita on the streets of Epcot. 

Almost any slow boat ride improves with a margarita in your hands. 

I may be willing to take It's A Small World off my

"I refuse to go on it" list if 

someone can find me a margarita in the Magic Kingdom.

Ladies, if you think that at some point 

during the day your

tiny over the shoulder bag is going to 

get too *heavy* for you

and you will ask your husband to sling it 

over his shoulder for you, 

try not to take the silver sparkly one. 

Just sayin...

And from the number of pictures I have of this:

I appear to have a thing for castles.

Or something. 

I'll leave you with this.