Sunday, April 29, 2012

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.




Monday, April 23, 2012

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.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

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)







Friday, April 20, 2012

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!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

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)



Tuesday, April 17, 2012

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.

Monday, April 16, 2012

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.

Friday, April 13, 2012

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. 

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

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!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Time Laps Photography

Kind of.
Circa 1992
(give or take)
2012

Nice to know the fountain hasn't changed. 

Friday, April 6, 2012

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.