Back to the Grind

Well, it was back-to-work day. I got there a little late because I had to do a few chores before I left. I managed to feed the chickens, put clothes in the dryer, make coffee for hubby and clear the dishes out of the sink.

I give myself an hour to get ready for work. Here's how I spend my time.

Shower = 10 minutes
Hair & makeup = 10 minutes
Choosing and prepping clothes = 10 minutes
Getting breakfast and lunch ready to go = 10 minutes

OK. I have 40 minutes accounted for. Where does the rest of the time go? I guess playing with the dogs 5-10 minutes. Feeding the chickens for 5 minutes. Enjoying the outdoors before I go to work...maybe 10 minutes. That takes it over 1 hour. OK. I played around too much today.

After a long weekend, I really HATE going back to work. I really LOVE sleeping in a little bit. Mind you, I love my job and my co-workers, so it is not that. It's just that I got a bit lazy because I can call the shots with what I do at home. I work my butt off at home but it's something that I want to do.

Does anyone else enjoy doing hard work at home rather than at work? Or, is it me?

Take care.

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

Thanks to all Veterans who've so bravely served our country.

Take care.

Picnic Today

As I mentioned yesterday, we had a Memorial Day picnic today. All of the local relatives showed up. We had the BBQ ribs (my way), burgers, hot dogs, coleslaw, pasta salad, potato salad, veggie tray and a few other things. My nieces brought baked beans (really yummy!) and deviled eggs and pasta salad. So, we had two of the same pasta salads. The deviled eggs looked nice, but I don't eat them so I couldn't say. However, a lot of them disappeared.

Thanks to my nieces for bringing their goodies. They didn't have to but they like to. : ) They're both good cooks.

I made something different this time. I made a trifle. I was looking for a dessert other than just cookies that I made and froze. So, I got the pound cake I made for strawberries and made it from a recipe from a very old cookbook. Here's how easy it was to make.

Chop up the pound cake into cubes.
Spoon / spread some strawberry jam or jelly on it.
Add some fresh strawberries (my addition because I had them.
Spoon a prepared large package of vanilla pudding over the strawberries. I used sugar-free.
Cover with whipped cream or topping.
Eat and enjoy!

I thought it turned out really well. My young nephew made a comment it was good. That was a compliment!

I hope all of you have a happy and safe Memorial Day. Please celebrate safely.

Take care.

Got Company?

Our company came in yesterday afternoon. Yay! I'm glad they had a good trip up here. The weather was nice. We had lasagne and meatloaf with garlic bread and salad for dinner last night.

Today I took my niece shopping to an old-timey department store and a souvenir shop. We both got something at the department store. That was good.

Tomorrow, we're hosting a Memorial Day picnic at our house after church. I'll be making burgers, weenies and barbequed ribs...my way. We'll also have potato salad, a veggie tray and linguini salad. Our dessert will be cookies and maybe a trifle. I've been cooking all day for this and I expect to be cooking most of the night.

Take care.

Happy Memorial Day.

A big THANK YOU to all of you who've served in the armed forces.

God Bless Oklahoma!

I was so amazed when I heard about the tornado in Oklahoma yesterday. It's crazy the amount of power wind can have. How much destruction can it make? Well, we saw a good chunk of it yesterday. What hurts is how many people are displaced because of it. AND, the amount of deaths from it. This is something the survivors will never forget.

Growing up in Pennsylvania in the outskirts of the towns of Freedom, Zelienople, Rochester and New Brighton, I remember how many times Mom would wake us up and take us downstairs because of bad weather. One time, a tornado actually hit about 200 yards away from our house. It picked up a roof off of a garage and moved it. I remember going with Dad to see it. At the age I was, I didn't understand.

Then we had one again several years later. This time, it followed a path between hills. This one really caused a lot of destruction. It knocked over trees all over the place, where it touched down again and again. It demolished a shopping plaza that was on top of a hill. That was one of my favorite stores. I got a really pretty winter coat there, one year. It was a copper colored corduroy with creamy fake fur at the collar and wrists. We're talking early 70's. I was old enough to understand, but really didn't comprehend it.

About 10 years ago, in South Carolina where we live, we had a tornado touch down in a heavily populated area. This was just a few miles from where we lived. However, there wasn't a whole lot of destruction. Lucky for us.

In Zelienople, a lot of trees are still leaning the direction of the path the wind took. Just like us, the people in Oklahoma will have reminders of the destruction for many years down the road. We can offer all the assistance we can. But our best bet is to start with a prayer for the victims and survivors of this terrible force of destruction.

At my much advanced age, I can see the pictures on TV and memories come back. I can comprehend and feel what it must be like to go through it even though I've never gone through it at my age. I hope I don't...either.

May God Bless Oklahoma!

Take care.

Been a While

It's been a while since I last posted. We are getting company for Memorial weekend. My BIL and his granddaughter are coming. So this past weekend I've been busy cooking and cleaning for them. I made cookies and a couple of pound cakes for shortcakes to put into the freezer. I also have some garlic bread ready for the oven in the freezer. I would still like to make some biscuits and scones for the freezer. I can just take them out and put them on my baking stone to warm in the oven. Out will pop warm and freshly baked tasting stuff!

For Memorial Sunday, we're inviting over the rest of the relatives. I'm planning to have BBQ ribs and either burgers or weenies. To go with these, I'll make coleslaw, linguini salad, potato salad, a veggie tray and a few other things.

I am SO looking forward to having company!

Take care.

Sad News Today

Earlier today we received news that Hubby's brother passed away. He had not been doing well, lately. He was in a care facility for nearly a year. He was a very talented man. Hubby has told me many stories about him and when they were growing up. Now there are 4 left in his immediate family.

If you get a chance, please say a prayer.

Thank you.

Take care.

Lettuce Today

Today was lettuce day. I picked quite a bit of Black Seeded Simpson today. I only picked half of what was there. After I cleaned it, I mixed it with some Romaine from the store. It was really nice to see the light greenish-yellow mixed with the darker green sitting on our plates tonight. I make a large salad and put meat, cheese and oven baked french fries on it. Served with a favorite dressing and you have a whole meal in a bowl. The heck with the meal in a bowl you see on TV. This is much better tasting and has everything in it you want. Yum!

Take care.

Peas, Please!

When I came home this evening, Hubby and I went out back to pick strawberries and PEAS. I love to put peas in my soups and some potato dishes. These were an experiment this year. I don't remember if I mentioned this previously. Bear with me if I did. Anyhow, we could never get peas to grow. This year I planted when the people on TV said so. Well, we got a lot of peas this year. I put in one packet of seed from the discount store and we were rewarded with beautiful plants. We have lots of pea pods. But when they're shelled, you don't get so much. Right now, I have two cups in the freezer. There are more pods on the vines, but the aphids are starting to find them to suck out the juice.

Next year, I'm going to get my seeds from Heirloom Seeds and I'll be planting about 2 rows of them. That will be a lot of peas!

Now, I'll have to figure out what we're going to plant in their place. I may put in another round of lettuce.

Speaking of lettuce...my Romaine is doing well. I'll plant some more of that with the hopes of another small bumper crop.

Take care.

Salad Dressing Recipes

One of my good friends gave me this idea. I mentioned to her the other day that I made salad dressings for greens over the weekend. She said it would be good on my blog. Hmmm. Something I didn't think of. I have them on my Squidoo pages, but not on my blog. I've stopped buying dressings and saved some of the nicer bottles to put them in. So here are my favorites as of this time.

Now, to be fair, I've gotten these recipes from allrecipes.com. However, I've adapted them a bit to my tastes.

This one tastes like a very famous brand of sweet and sour dressing. It is really good!

HONEY MUSTARD DRESSING

1 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing that looks like mayo
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons dijon-style mustard
1/4 teaspoon celery seed

Put into a container that will hold all of this. Blend with a stick blender. Bottle and fridge.

My version of Tangy French Dressing. The onion in this gives really good flavor. The finished product is a bit thick and needs stirred before putting on your salad. Totally worth having a little onion breath afterward.

TANGY FRENCH DRESSING

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup ketchup
1/4 - 1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon paprika


Put into a container that will hold all of this. Blend with a stick blender. Bottle and fridge.

I just made a new batch of both of these before I started blogging tonight. They are so easy and tasty. I don't think I'll ever buy either of these two dressings from the store again.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

Take care.

Rainy Day Work

We've had a run on rainy days here, in the South. Mostly everyone thinks these kind of days are miserable. Not me! I love rainy days! I guess I should since I'm a Cancerian.

Anyhow...yesterday we went to Sam's Club to stock up on some items for the house. We live a LONG way from the nearest store and it's a really big chore to drive there and back. Sam's is a love / hate relationship with me. I love to go to Sam's Club. But I hate spending all that money in one place. But I love getting things I can't normally get elsewhere. But I still hate dropping a ton of dough there. Oh well! We decided to splurge on an item for ourselves. Hubby has been wanting a larger TV for in the bedroom. We had a 19" job we used in our travel trailer. I agree it was hard to see without straining. So we picked up a 32" Vizio. It was nice, but we couldn't easily get Netflix on it. So, we packed this little beauty up and returned it to Sam's Club for a Smart Vizio. Now we can get Netflix. It was nice to retire early and watch a flick from the comfort of the memory foam mattress. Hubby didn't make it too far. I watched 2 movies. Well...sort of. I watched 2/3 of the second movie. I have to go back to finish it. It was pretty good.

Today was clean the pantry / laundry room / kitchen day. I tore apart the pantry closet and rearranged cans and jars and threw away extra junk. It took a few hours to do it, but now it's done. Yay! The laundry room got a bit of a cleaning even though I've been washing clothes all day. We defrosted the fridge in there and I scrubbed it out before I plugged it back in. That was quite a chore! Then I put some petroleum jelly on the seal of the freezer and fridge. I learned this from somewhere...it is supposed to make the seal tighter until you can replace the worn seals. Here's to hoping that works!

I also made some Italian sausage and meatballs with sauce for dinner. I served it over gnocchi I had previously made and put into the freezer. Yummy! Now a pound cake is in the oven for strawberry shortcake for snack tonight.

Busy day!

Take care.

All is Well and Gardening

All worked out well at work re: yesterday's post. Hooray!

We've been picking a lot of strawberries lately. Today was about 1 quart. Yesterday about a pint or two. Same for the day before that. All in all, we've been having loads of strawberries to eat. More is on the way. AND the next round is coming on. The plants are growing large leaves which stand really tall. Some of them have thrown up flower stalks already. This is a good sign! I will also have enough to either freeze or make more jam. Hmmmm. Not bad either way.

Today I also picked a handful of leaf lettuce and the last few radishes to mix with our salad this evening. 

This weekend we'll be picking more peas. There are a lot of full pods out there. I should pick tomorrow when I pick berries.

I made a really yummy chicken pot pie with some of the peas. You know, it feels pretty good when you can cook with food you grow yourself. It also tastes a whole lot better, too.

I hope your garden is prosperous this year.

Take care.