Thursday, September 26, 2013

Slow Cooker Meatloaf

Can you do it?
Yes! You can!

I made my Thanksgiving Meatloaf
but any meatloaf recipe will work.

I layered some sliced potatoes and mini carrots
on the bottom then gathered up my 
mixed up meatloaf blend
and just set it on top.

I set it on low for about 7 hours
and there you have it!

This is a turkey meatloaf so there was
not much fat, just some liquid that gathered 
at the sides towards the end. 
If I was going to use a beef blend I 
would probably use very lean beef.
A grease slick on top might be less than appetizing.

I wish I would have figured this out years ago, 
but hey, 
better late than never :)

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Some Before And Afters

A very beige home office.
 I managed to talk them into a little color,
the ceiling was his idea. 
It looks great, but oy, my neck!
 The best part of this is not the paint job
but rather the removal of that door!
 Shower curtains have way more personality!



Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Birthday Backdrops

We have had a few 
first birthdays 
around here. 
I may or may not
have gone a little overboard with
 Maddie's.
But I'm her grandma.
She's our first. 
And her mother said I could.

Something I have noticed in checking out all the 
fun party ideas on line is the use of 
backdrops.

I think they really help to set a
table off and make a fun
focal point for the festivities.

For Maddies' party I hung
streamers from a curtain rod.

I helped Viki out for 
Eliana's birthday with this:
That is just two colors of table coverings
 that I stapled
 (one on top of the other)
to thin latice strips.
I cut them into strips
and then knotted the two colors together at the top.

Here Viki tacked balloons to the wall:
This was in the garage which is probably the 
only place you could do this. 

That would be a lot of holes in your
dining room wall.





Monday, September 23, 2013

Salsa Chicken and Pasta Salad

I didn't get a pretty picture, but hey, 
at least I got one.

It was delicious. 
The only problem I had was the chef
who *tweeked* the recipe said to switch
chipotle chili powder for the regular
that the recipe calls for.
The chipotle was a good call, it has a smokey flavor
that plain chili powder just doesn't have. 
He neglected to adjust the amount of 
chili powder to take into account
the excessively hotter heat 
from the chipotle.
 I'll adjust that here.

Salsa Chicken Pasta Salad

2 cups cooked pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
6 ounces sliced black olives
3 tomatoes, diced
2 cups chicken breast, chopped

Feel free to add in or take out any
vegetables.

The dressing:
1/4 cup fresh cilantro 
(I didn't have any and it was still great)
1 lime, juiced
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. chipotle chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 cup mayo
(I went light on the mayo)

Mix it all together and enjoy!



Friday, September 13, 2013

God Never Gives You More Than You Can Handle

That's not true.
God gives us more than we can handle 
ALL THE TIME.

He does it on purpose. 
It's not to be mean. 
It's to grow us. 
It's to help us flex that 
part of ourselves that turns to Him. 

I can do all things through
HIM 
who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13

...Just sayin...

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Dinner Fail

So, people think I'm a marvelous cook.
I tell them I don't advertise my failures.
Well here you go:
The salmon was good.
It was an asian kind of thing.
The problem was in the salad.
I had an abundance of cucumbers
along with a couple of avocados.
I really and truly found a recipe that used both
ingredients.
As the main ingredients.
To be served with salmon.
No.
The textures were wrong.
The flavors were wrong.
It was a bust.

There may or may not be a trip to
Dairy Queen in my near future.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

BBQ Chicken Salad

In a jar!
Unfortunately I didn't think to get a picture of them
on their own, but that's them there in the back.
This is the picnic I packed for
Symphony On The Prairie
down in Indy.
Shanna sprung for tickets, 
I provided dinner.
Thing is, dinner had to survive a 3.5 hour car ride 
down to Indy.
Read: NO MAYO!
My solution was making the BBQ chicken
salad with the substitution of mini pasta
for the quinoa 
(Shanna may or may no be allergic),
packing it in 16 ounce jars, 
about 2/3 full, topped off with some chopped
romaine and a wedge of lime.
My theory was, squeeze a little lime onto the 
lettuce and then  dig down to 
combine the lettuce and chicken salad.
It was a bit messy until you get a few bites out of there, but
then it was great!

Dinner was fun, the symphony?
Well, the *symphony* was a Beatles
cover band and the sky was a
symphony of lightening. 

It all works out.....




Thursday, September 5, 2013

Christenings

 Going through some old photos I came
across this one:
That's me and Big, and Ruth and Mark.
This is Shanna's.
Things sure change.
Where are the hats?
The corsages? 
But hey, we had a little Peter Max.
And then we have Leslie's.
This may or may not have been taken on the actual day
of her christening but this was the location.

No hats, 
no corsages, 
not even a little Peter Max.

But 
love,
family, 
connection,
blessings. 

Hmm, the more things change,
the more they stay the same. 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Savory Zucchini Bread

It's that time of year when we are all
pretty much looking for something, 
ANYTHING
new to do with a zucchini.
I've made some baby food 
and the mandatory zucchini bread
but I wanted something different.
How about savory?
A little surfing the
World Wide Web
(and I don't mean Pinterest)
and I came across this recipe.
It's a great savory bread.
It has a little heat from cayenne but not too much.
You can use any combo of herbs you want. 
I chose thyme and rosemary
(mostly because they are right on my patio)
and it turns out that is a good mix. 
I went easy on the rosemary because I think it 
overwhelms most other flavors.

So, to list, I have made:
baby food,
sweet zucchini bread, 
savory zucchini bread, 
and still have about 2 cups of grated 
zucchini left.....
People have to learn to pick these things sooner. 
Just sayin....