PINTEREST RECIPE TEST #3

This evening I tried the Lemon Chicken recipe that I found on Pinterest.

To make a long story short, I didn't care much for it. It was a long process and there will be a lot of clean up. Don liked it, he actually ate two big helpings, but I thought it had a salt-like taste that I did not care for. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. The breading was corn starch, egg, and baking powder. Plus, the sauce had a lot of corn starch in it too. That may have been the flavor, or maybe it just had too much salt.

To sum it up; not a bad recipe, just not my taste.

Pinterest Recipe Test #2

Tonight we tested a recipe for HAMBURGER SOUP. Let me just tell you, this soup is FAN.TAS.TIC! The recipe was easy and Don rated it a two thumbs up, two bowls gone, and a mm mmm mmm mmm mmm! This will definitely be added to the favorites cook book.

If you decide to try it I recommend you not deviate from the recipe. We really like pasta so I put twice as much pasta in. I wish I would have just put in the amount called for in the recipe. As the pasta expanded it was not as soupy so I added another can of beef broth. It tasted even better before I made this change.

Pinterest Recipe Trial #1

Lately I have been spending a lot of time on Pinterest. In an attempt to make this seem less of a waste of time I have decided to try out some of the recipes that I have pinned. This does make sense, right?

Tonight I tried a Sloppy Joe recipe and a recipe for Baked Fries. Usually Sloppy Joes and French Fries is our go-to meal when we have very little time to prepare and eat. These recipes would NOT be suitable for a quick meal. Each recipe requires at least 45 minutes to prepare. Here is how they turned out:




And the verdict is: A huge 2 thumbs up (well 4 if you count Don's too) for the Sloppy Joes. They were so delicious. No more mixes or cans for us. As for the baked fries; they were not such a hit. Because you put oil in the baking pan and mix the potatoes in oil before baking, I doubt that they are any healthier than frying. They were overcooked inside and pretty dry on the outside. Maybe I overbaked them, I'm not sure, but I would just as soon have the 3 minute fried version and not spend all that time taking the pan in and out of the oven to take the foil off, turn the pan, turn the potatoes . . . too much trouble!

So there you have it, one recipe to add to "My Favorites" recipe book and one to never make it again.

Now to Pinterest to post comments on the recipes. Hey - it is NOT a waste of time. :-)

Craft Night with My Niece, Christy

Tonight Christy came over and we spent the evening sewing cute DESIGNER CAR TRASH BAGS to put in our cars. This was an idea we found on pinterest.

Check out how cute they turned out:

The Mystery of the Sticks

This blog has been a long time coming. You see, we tried to solve this mystery before I shared the story. But alas, it still is a mystery.

A few months ago we started seeing sticks on the porch. Every day there were a few more sticks. We could not figure out where these sticks were coming from or why they were being left on our porch.

There were sticks by the swing:


Sticks on the welcome mat:


Big sticks and little sticks:


Pine cones:


A cigarette:


A black walnut shell:


A thing from a tree and a piece of chalk:


Some time passed and the sticks continued to come. Then, one day I saw Bella coming to the door - and she had something in her mouth. There it is, a stick! Bella is the one bringing these sticks on the porch. I opened the door to let her in and she quickly dropped the stick on the welcome mat and ran inside. OK!

So now we know where the sticks are coming from, but WHY? This mystery is yet to be solved. Why in the world is Bella bringing home sticks (8 or 10 every day) and leaving them on the porch?

In my desire to blog about this (and to prove to you that my lovely cat Bella does indeed carry sticks to our porch) I spent several weeks trying to get a picture of her carrying a stick. Of course every time I saw her and ran to get the camera, she saw me, dropped the stick and ran to the door.

While I was watching Bella play outside today, I saw her working very hard. She left the house, walked down the sidewalk, and then crossed the street to look in the storm drain. She then walked around the corner checking out several things on the ground in David's yard and crossed the street again to look in the storm drain on the other side of the street. She then jumped up on the curb and began looking at things on the ground in the park. She milled around looking for several minutes, then headed back towards home. Then I saw it, she had a stick in her mouth - so I grabbed the camera and took her picture.

FINALLY! Clear and undeniable proof that our precious Bella does carry sticks to our front porch!


So the question still remains . . . WHY? Why is she bringing sticks home and placing them on the porch? We have no idea.

There is one theory (from our 8-year-old niece, Jenna). Jenna believes that Bella is bringing sticks to the porch so that she can build a fort. Then, she can hide behind the fort, and when a mouse runs by - she can jump out and get it! Of course! Why didn't we think of that?

I will leave you with one last visual, one that sticks in my brain. I just keep thinking about that cigarette. What must Bella have looked like with that cigarette hanging out the side of her mouth as she ran down the street on her way home?

More Christmas Fun

We were truly blessed this year with so much fun and love this Christmas.

As you may recall, I had a fantastic 3 days with Paige and Haleigh at the end of November and then we were able to have Jenna come stay with us for 3 days before Christmas.

We got Jenna on Wednesday afternoon and she and I promptly went shopping for baking supplies and pizza for supper.

Thursday I gave Jenna the choice of activities for the day. She chose to have us stay in our PJs all day, play with the pets, and watch cartoons. We sure did have a good time just hanging out.

While shopping Wednesday evening we had purchased a hat and scarf set for the kittens to share. It was quite amusing to let Jenna try the scarf and hat on each of the kittens and see their responses. Not one them particularly cared for the hat but Sami seemed to enjoy wearing the scarf. Jenna swears she was showing it off in the photos she took. Yes, there was quite the photo shoot at our house throughout the day.

We did wind up staying late Thursday night and doing some baking to get started on the work needed to prepare goodie trays for our neighbors. We baked 3 dozen sugar cookies and made turtles out of pretzels, rolos, and pecans.

Friday Don took us out for breakfast and then we spent most of the day decorating the baked sugar cookies to look like melted snowmen. It was so much fun, even Don had fun helping us, and they really did look like melted snowmen. We packaged up 10 goodie trays and set out to deliver them. Unfortunately a lot of our neighbors were not home and their goodies were delivered by Don and I later.

Thankfully, we were able to deliver Lori's goodie tray to her. Lori is this wonderful elderly woman who lives three doors down from us. We visit with her as she walks her dog, Pal, by our house and we occasionally share home made soups and chili with each other. Lori is hard of hearing so we went to her back door to deliver the goodies. As usual, she saw us coming around and opened the door and invited us in. Since we had all the other goodies to deliver we did not go in, but her face was all lit up at the sight of Jenna. She gave each of us a hug and gave Jenna an extra hug and a kiss on the cheek. Jenna was so gracious and loving to Lori (a total stranger to her) and I know she blessed Lori beyond measure. Jenna was beaming as we walked to the next neighbor's door, I think she realized what her visit meant to Lori. She is such a blessing to us and to her family.

Friday night we met my brother to reluctantly let Jenna go home. It was a bit easier knowing we would see her in just 2 days at my parents house for Christmas.

Sunday morning we went to church with my parents and then headed to Dexter for the family Christmas get-together. All of us were there and we enjoyed a great meal, exchanged thoughtful gifts, and had a great time visiting and playing cards all evening.

A slide show of our Christmas fun is shown below. Since it was Lynnli's first Christmas you will see her a lot! :-)

Personalize a digital slideshow

LEAF PILES AREN'T ONLY FOR CHILDREN YOU KNOW

You may recall from a few blogs back that we had Jenna here one day and she worked diligently to create a large leaf pile to jump in. Amazingly enough, a large portion of that leaf pile survived the crazy winds and is still all heaped up in the middle of the back yard.

Today Roxie went outside and was out there much longer than usual without barking her request to come back in. I walked to the back door to see what she was doing and this is what I saw:
So now you know - leaf piles are not just for kids!