Snowy Wednesday

FOR TODAY...

Outside my window... Snow. Snow. SNOW!!!! Snow everywhere. We survived the blizzard of '11. I think we probably got at least 15 inches. It is hard to tell, as it has drifted so much.

I am thinking... of how grateful I am to be considered "non-essential" personnel! Thankfully, I don't have to work today.

I am thankful for... all of the blessings that my wonderful Jesus gives us daily. A warm house, good jobs, good health, travelling mercies - Those are but a few.

I am wearing... black knit skirt, red t-shirt, cream sweater and pink housieslippers. I am dressed to stay home! I couldn't get out if I tried!

I am remembering... snow days when I was young. Sledding outside - no matter what the temps it seemed - hot cocoa, wet things hung over heat vents to dry, curling up to read, hot chili or soup - those were the days!

I am going... nowhere at all today!

I am currently reading... a bit of this and a bit of that. Most likely will curl up with my latest Pennyfoot Hotel this afternoon!

I am hoping... that Honey will stay warm today - he is at work, scooping out the lot so everyone can get in and out.

On my mind... a precious co-worker - her mother is in the hospital after having had a stroke.

Noticing that... the more I get to be home, the more I want to be at home!

Pondering these words... Love isn't love until it is given away. You can't take it from someone, you can only give.

In the kitchen... Hmmmm. . . I think maybe some lemon curd, a caramel cake, pork chops in the slow cooker with mashed potatoes, homemade bread . . . endless possibilities!

Around the house... nice and tidy - for once!

One of my favorite things . . . a nice, lazy day like today, a blank slate that I can use to write whatever I wish

From my picture journal...






Some friends of ours adopted 9 children from Columbia - after raising 2 of their own. They are going back to adopt 5 more! These children were orphans, I believe they are 2 separate families, brothers and sisters, whose parents died. Aren't they beautiful? Such precious children.

Thanks to Peggy for organizing the daybook.

A quickie recipe to share - so easy crockpot meatloaf!

2 lb ground beef
2 eggs
1 package stovetop stuffing - your choice of flavor, but beef is good
1 can golden mushroom soup - divided

Mix beef, eggs, stuffing and 1/2 can of soup. Grease your crock. Mound the mixture in your crockpot- you don't want it touching the sides if you can help it, so mound it up in the middle. Spoon the rest of the soup on top - can mix with a bit of ketchup if you wish. Cook on high for 4 hours or so. I usually put this in at 8 AM on a Sunday morning, and when we get home about 12:30 it is done to perfection. Serve with mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and butter and a nice fresh salad. A lemon pie for dessert goes nice. This is great winter, spring, summer or fall. If you put mashed potatoes in the crockpot as well before you go, all you have to do is heat up the green beans and toss the salad!

I would love to say that I will be back tomorrow, but I do not yet know what tomorrow will bring. I have come to the conclusion that just like our lives, our blogs go through seasons. Some seasons we are prolific, some we are just now and again. So I WILL say that I wish each and every one of you a blessed day today. The sun is shining brightly here today - trying to make up for not even peeking out yesterday at all! I must be up and about, making bread, baking a cake, doing all of the little things that make a house a home. Much love to all who read this!
~Raquel~

My Wonderful Life

My life has not always been wonderful. But, that was my own doings. Thankfully, I have learned from my mistakes and right now I feel my life is pretty wonderful. No, it may not always be this way, but for now it is pretty good.

I have peace and contentment. While I may not have everything I want, I have everything I need and that is okay with me.

These are the halcyon days to bask in, to fling wide open the doors to your soul and drink in the vastness of beauty that is God. There is a freshness in my heart. A yearning for simplicity.

I have never been one to much care what anyone else thought of me, or of what I wore or of what I did. Who cares what anyone else thinks, they are not living my life, they are not in my same circumstances.

I know that this post is pretty random, just trying to get a few things out of my head!

As much as I love Chinese take-out, it is expensive. Last night we had family over for dinner. I made some sweet and sour pork (blushing here - from a mix), fried rice and this easy-peasy dish below.

Empress Beef
Serves 4-6

1/2 pound boneless sirloin steak (I think I used closer to a pound)
oil
1/4 pound fresh snow pea pods, trimmed (I used broccoli)
3 celery stalks, julieened
Fresh mushrooms, sliced - probably about half of an 8 ounce container - we like 'shrooms!
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 can water chestnuts
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
Hot cooked rice to serve

Slice steak in 1/4 inch strips. Pour oil in wok or heavy skillet. Heat. Add steak, stirfry for 5 minutes. Take steak out. Add veggies, stirfry until moderately tender, about 3-5 minutes. Combine water, soy sauce, cornstarch and sugar. Mix well. Remove veggies from pan. Pour cornstarch mixture into pan and whisk to deglaze the pan. Cook to thicken. Add beef and vegs back to pan, stir to coat with sauce.

I added some carrot, julieened and 1/2 can of bamboo shoots, julieened. I also added in 2 fat cloves of garlic, minced fine when I added the vegs.



My SIL could not believe how easy this was! It is even easier if you don't burn yourself like I did! I had the bowl with the beef and vegs behind my burner when making the sauce. Duh - it was getting hot! I grabbed it and ow, ow, ow, burned my thumb pretty good.

Back from vacation

I am back. I had such a great time, I wish that you all could have been there. I got to see a lot of my cousins that I haven't seen in a while. And aunts and uncles, etc. The old home place has not changed much. It was so good to see. We went into the town where I lived in grade school and so many of the places I remember have not changed at all! I got some pictures and I will be sharing them with you as time goes along.

We had an eventful trip on the way up, it rained on us about half of the way, we got kinda lost because we had an old atlas and they moved the Missouri River bridge at Lexington so we had to detour about 40 miles out of our way, and in Kansas we had a tire belt that busted so we had a blow out, had to change the tire and buy a new one. But all in all, it was ok.

The weather was gorgeous the whole time we were there, sunny during the day, but not too hot, cool at night and not a lot of wind. No bugs. I had forgotten how beautiful Nebraska was. The rolling hills of prarie. You can see, literally, for miles. The miles and miles of crops. Corn, wheat, soybeans. The breadbasket of the nation. Amber waves of grain. Towns are usually few and far between. The farms are big. The home place is half a mile wide and a mile long. Half of a section.

We had a beautiful drive, the wild flowers are all in bloom. Queen Anne's lace (white), chicory (blue), black-eyed Susans (yellow and black), Indian paintbrush (bright orange), clover (purple and white), bird's foot trefoil (golden yellow), daisies (white and yellow), purple coneflower. God has been busy with his paintbrushes!

The drive back was very nice, we took the sceneic route, stopped a few times and took pictures, stopped and ate. All in all, we had a lovely trip. It was just too short, but aren't they all?

Before we left, Dad requested that I make him a Cottage Pie to "tide him over" while we were gone! Mind you, this is a short-cut version!

Cottage Pie

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, diced
1 can beef or mushroom gravy
1 (1 pound) bag frozen mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, peas, green beans and lima beans)
1 can mushroom stems and pieces, drained
5-6 medium-sized potatoes, mashed with milk and butter
Shredded cheese (I used mozarella and cheddar)


Brown the ground beef and onion in a skillet and drain. Meanwhile, cook the mixed vegs in a small amount of salted water and drain. Cook your potatoes and mash. Season well.

Mix the beef, vegs, gravy and mushrooms. Season well. Put in a greased casserole dish. Pile the potatoes on top. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for about 30 minutes, until cheese is melted and pie is hot through. Serve with crusty bread and a green salad.

Father's Day

I know, a day late and a dollar short. But I just thought that I would share with you about my Dad. My Dad is wonderful! He is old-fashioned and kinda grouchy sometimes, but he is great. I am a lot like him. We are both pretty laid-back, not real excitable. He helps me out and I cook for him and tease him. He likes plain, old-fashioned cooking, meat and potatoes. I like exotic things, different things all the time. But for Father's Day, I cook meat and potatoes.

Actually, this year Father's Day kinda snuck up on me, I had forgotten when it was. We usually have company, my brothers and some of my nieces or nephews. Sooooo. . . when I went to the freezer (thinking I was going to cook roast beef) we only had a very small roast. Hmmmm . . . what can I do (mind you this is at 6 AM on Sunday morning, I have until 9 to get the meal ready, as we are headed off to church) Then I spied a package of hamburger patties. Ok, that was good. Now, I know what I can do, what to go with it? Mashed potatoes, of course. Frozen green beans - check. and for dessert? Strawberry-rhubarb pie. I also made a fresh vegetable plate, some marinated tomatoes and a fresh fruit plate (well, melon and cherries anyway).



Now, the recipe I am going to give you today is nothing more than gussied-up hamburgers. But men love it and it goes together quick.

Salisbury Steak
6 servings

1 package of 6 frozen hamburger patties
1 can condensed french onion soup
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 can mushrooms

Brown hamburgers in large non-stick skillet. Remove from skillet and drain off all but 1 tablespoon of drippings. Sprinkle flour over the drippings and cook to make your roux. Meanwhile, combine ketchup, water, soup, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Stir into roux and cook for 2 minutes or until thickened. Return hamburgers to skillet. Add mushrooms. I usually add in a little coarsely cracked pepper.



Now, I have adapted this recipe from TOH, just streamlined it a bit. You can make your own hamburger patties, using some bread crumbs and the like. If that is your inclination:

Use 1-1/2 lb. hamburger, 1 egg, 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs and use 1/3 cup of the soup in the patties, reduce the flour to 1 tablespoon. Just combine these ingredients, brown the hamburgers and otherwise make as above. Also the original recipe does not call for the mushrooms, so that is your call, too.

As for the fruit plate, I chunked up some cantaloupe and put it in a ring around some fresh Bing cherries. Simple, but pretty.

The fresh veg tray I lined a plate with fresh leaf lettuce. I then raided the refrigerator (good thing I had went to Farmer's Market on Saturday!) We had cauliflower, snow peas, celery, carrots, radishes, cucumber, spring onions, green pepper and I threw some black olives on for good color contrast. That was good for the guys to munch on while we were doing last minute fixins.

The marinated tomatoes? A fresh ripe tomato, sliced in thin wedges, then just squirt on some bottled italian dressing and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese. Quick and pretty. Did not taste bad, either.

Just plain mashed potatoes and cooked green beans.

I try to go the extra mile to make everyone's day special. It does not take a lot, just a little extra effort.

I will be sharing the recipe for the strawberry-rhubarb pie later. It was really good, even my brother who does not like sweets wanted another piece! Made with some lovely frozen rhubarb I had and fresh strawberries from our tubs.