A Proverbs 31 Kind of Day

Pinterest is the "in" thing! Everybody, who's anybody, is on Pinterest ! I'm a nobody. I'm not on Pinterest . Well, yes I am. I'm a ghost pinner. That's right, a ghost pinner. My mom is on Pinterest . She had followers. She had NO pins . . . NO bulletin boards . . . NO repins . . . Nothing! So in an effort to keep her cool and her followers intrigued, I've started pinning for her! It's great! She's looking cool and I'm seeing some neat things! Like the salad in a jar. Not my idea, but I sure thought it was clever. So I tried it. That's right. Made my salad right in the jar. It was great. Actually, my girl cherub tried it first and she really thought it was great. I couldn't let her have a great experience by herself, so I tried it too. It was great. Here's the concept. Use a mason jar, with a lid, and make your salad u...

 Image from The Lion King; taken from the Internet; www.glimpsefilms.com We've been gluten free for one month! Today starts our fifth week of a radically difficult way eating but we've seen instant results! On Monday, January 2 we woke up to a new way of doing business;  no gluten for our girl. It's been hard and it's been difficult and we keep learning about this opportunity for alternative living. But the best thing is that it's been successful! Since the very day we started we've had not one, I tell you, not one experience with allergy, rash, itching, swelling, or tingl-y feeling. Not a smidge of benedryl has been used.  Matter of fact, I don't even know where the benedryl is at our house! So while I know it seems a little "voodoo-momma" to jump off into a world of self diagnosing, at least I've not made things worse! We have lots to learn about this gluten-free living and there's a bit of difficulty for our bo...

Every year we I send out Christmas cards. Ummm, that's not exactly the truth anymore. Let me re-phrase: I now send out e-Christmas cards. We I started doing this 2 years ago. I figured up exactly how much time and money we were spending on sending out cards and I decided we could do more with the money. Like give it to ministry. So we've started a new family tradition. The e-Christmas card goes out and the money and time goes to a ministry that our family chooses. It's great. It's freeing. It's a blessing -- really! But here's what happened this week. A nice little surprise was in our mail box. I looked at the return address and thought, "Oh, I bet Heather has sent a New Year's card." That's the kind of envelope it was in. I opened it and found this: "Thank you so much for sharing your 2011 Christmas greetings with us! We prayed for your family this week. 'In this is love, not that we loved God...

You'll never go back after making your own . . . ok, maybe in a pinch, but not very often! I love pudding. But you know what I really love? Warm pudding. Weird. I know. Blame it on my mom. Or my dad. I remember eating pudding warm when I was a kid. Specifically, banana pudding. Without the bananas. That's how my dad liked it. Without the bananas. Weird. I know. Blame it on . . . Forget it -- go make some pudding. And eat it warm! Homemade Vanilla Pudding 3/4 cup sugar 4 TBSP cornstarch 1/8 tsp. salt 3 1/2 cups milk 3 egg yolks 1 TBSP butter 1 TBSP vanilla Combine sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a pan. Whisk in the milk and egg yolks.  Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly for 3-5 minutes or until thickened . . .kind of like the pudding you would make if it were from a box.  You'll know what it should look like! Remove from the heat and add the butter and vanilla.  Whisk until the butte...

I love fresh herbs. In the Spring, we always plant a variety of herbs. It's so exciting . . .  . . .at first! Then, I forget to water them. I end up with "herb sticks." You know what those are, don't you? It's limp, dry, sunburned, unusable wanna be herbs that suffered at the hands of me. It's sad. Every year, I vow to do better. I don't! But I do try!  That's worth something, isn't it? Remember, my trips to the grocery store are purely perfunctory. I rarely buy "new and great, just discovered" things because I don't take time to look around. I'm working on that -- there really are some great things to try. But old habits are hard to break and all I want to do is get out of there and get the junk put up at home. However!  One day at the store, while trying to be interactive with my surroundings, I did find something new! And boy!  Is it a treat! It's basil in a tube! It's great!  N...

On a whim, I whipped this up. I started with the cream cheese. Thought I'd add a bit of stuff to it. But didn't really know why I was making it. Didn't have a plan. Didn't have a reason. That makes cooking fun sometimes! I thought to myself, "Self, I think an orange cream cheese would taste good." I was thinking this while cleaning the bathroom and folding laundry. I gathered my ingredients and I made it. Viola!  Done! Now what? We don't have any bagels to eat it on. What am I going to do with this stuff, I thought? Here's what I did. I put a dollop on top of the bite-sized chocolate rice cake. Tried it. Liked it. Posted it. Orange Infused Cream Cheese 4 oz cream cheese, softened zest of one small orange 1/8 tsp. fiori di sicilia (King Arthur; citrus extract) 2 TBSP powdered sugar Place cream cheese in bowl large enough that you can stir your stuff. Zest the orange.  I used the entire zest of the orange ...

There's a lot of chicken salad recipes out there. From the very basic to the very creative. Most of us have our "trusted" chicken salad that we always make. But I want to share another option: This one is simple. This one taste really good.  . . .and I was very surprised! I'm a chicken "with grapes and nuts and apples and other fun stuff" salad  girl. We needed lunch one Saturday and I had all of the ingredients to make this salad.  It's from the 2011 Southern Living cookbook. Cathedral Chicken Salad 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 TBSP lemon juice 2 tsp. Dijon mustard 1/2 tsp. ground pepper 1/2 tsp. seasoning salt 3 cups chopped cooked chicken 1/2 cup chopped celery Place chopped chicken and celery in a bowl.  Mix in mayonnaise, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt & pepper.  Toss until well combined. Serve with pita chips, Hawaiian roll, or on a lettuce leaf with a side of fruit.  Makes a great l...

Our cherub, with her favorite baby in all the world; Gabby Grace Today, our girl cherub turns 10! It's been a Birthday-Palooza all weekend! She has opened presents for 3 days straight! Last night, she crawled into bed with us and said, "In 12 hours I'll turn 10!" "Oh baby, I know .  .  .won't that be fun!"  I said to her. "Yeah.  But guess what, in 1,800 in something days, I'll be able to drive a car!" " WHAT !" "Yeah, mom.  Just doing some math in my head; in 6 years, that's  a little more than 1,800 days, I'll be driving!" " OH MY WORD!  HAVE YOU TOLD YOUR DADDY THAT????" "Yeah!"  my sweet, 9 year old cherub says . .  . "MR!  Did you hear what she just said?" "Uh huh.  I'm ignoring it!" So goes the ways of the daddy!  The Mr. thinks if he ignores it -- maybe it won't happen! But guess what!  She speaks the truth! But, in my quiet ...

Image used from Betty Crocker.com Not all recipes are new to us. Some are a flash-back to the past; something we had a long time ago. Something that we ate for the first time, maybe even lived on it for awhile, But now we never make anymore. Matter of fact, some recipes that we share start a story with, "I remember . . . " This little treat is one of those "I remember . . . " recipes. I was in college when I first ate it with some friends. One of those friends is now my Mr.! How 'bout that! Now that I'm trying to cook ourselves gluten-free, it has me looking back through recipes. Which caused me to find this!  Which will be my girl cherub's birthday treat at school on Tuesday! Yeah, Me! Puppy Chow 4 cups corn chex 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1/4 cup peanut butter 2 TBSP butter 3/4 cup powdered sugar Place corn chex in a large bowl, maybe even one that is fitted with a lid. (Makes clean up that much easier!). Place choc...

Photo from Southern Living On Wednesday nights, I usually try to make easy, kid-pleasing food that I may not otherwise make. One cherub gets home from school early. The other gets home late. One cherub goes to choir at 5:30. One cherub doesn't go to church stuff until 6:30. The Mr. is never here for dinner on Wednesdays . . .because it's Wednesday and there is no time to run home from church before having to be back AT church! In the new 2011 Southern Living cookbook, this recipe caught my attention; thinking the cherubs would probably really like it. So I made it. I made some alterations, and will tweak it again, for our own personal tastes. If you want the original recipe, you can search it at this web address: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cheesy-chili-hash-brown-bake - Here's my adaptation to the recipe -- with some notes on what I'll do differently next time.  Cheesy Chili Hash Brown Bake 1- 6 oz c...

I can't believe this recipe hasn't been posted! YIKES! I was at the store, looking at the blog for the recipe because I needed to make sure I had all of the ingredients . . .and it wasn't there! Oh my! This soup was served at one of my bridal showers. At the time, I had never had this soup before and it was delicious! We've been making it every since! Pasta Fagioli 2 lbs. ground beef, cooked and drained* 1 can Rotel tomatoes 2 cans RanchStyle beans 3 cans Campbell's condensed Minestrone soup 1 can tomato juice Place all of the ingredients in a large stock pan and heat. You can also place all of the ingredients in a crock pot and have a hot soup when you come home. Serve with a side salad and breadsticks or cornbread. When my family cooks the meat, we add chopped onion with it.  We also lightly salt and pepper the meat too. There ya go!  Dinner's ready!

I am a kid at heart. I like peanut butter. But now I'm all grown up and I like other butters. Like almond butter. I usually don't buy almond butter from the store. Reasons why I don't purchase nut butters from the store: It's cheaper to make my own. It tastes better when I make it. I have greater control over added salt, sugar, and fat. I've made almond butter several times and this last batch of butter was the best!  I was looking on-line for some "almond butter help" when I discovered this website: http://www.rawmazing.com/raw-recipe-almond-butter/ She has pictures of the "stages" of almond butter-making. It was very helpful, I must say! First, it takes time to make great almond butter!  Matter of fact, if you'll take the time to let the almonds "do their thing" you're going to end up with a great jar of butter. Also, you're going to use way less oil than you originally thought you'd nee...

Image from the internet Not one of my favorite things to eat. Not this recipe . . .but Spanish rice, in general. I've never been a fan. Until I made this. This is what the Mr. grew up on, I'm guessing.  You know, I've never asked him if he ate this as a kid, but his mom is the one who gave me the recipe. Maybe she just liked they way it sounded . . . No, I'm sticking with the thought that it was a family favorite! Again, like most things I make, it's easy! You can serve it along side your Mexican food, or add ground beef to it and have a one-pot meal, if you're into those sorts of things! Spanish Rice 1 cup uncooked rice (instant or long-cook*) 1/4 cup butter 1 onion, chopped 1/2 green pepper, chopped 1 can stewed tomatoes, with the juice 1 tsp. salt dash of pepper 1 cup water Melt butter in a sauce pan, add the onion, green pepper and rice.  Stir over high heat until the rice is lightly browned.  Add the tomatoes, water, sal...

We love Mexican food. All sorts of Mexican food: Tex-Mex Northern New Mexico authentic Mexican food Sometimes I think salsa courses through my veins! I have an interest in preparing authentic, simple and delicious Mexican food. The food where ingredients are simple and the spices are rich and the taste is out of this world. I'm not wanting the famed, and often confused for "Mexican" food of Tex-Mex.  Although, I do love this too!  What's the difference? Tex-Mex is often spicier, cheesier, and "full."  Authentic Mexican food is often subtle spices that build a complex taste and fresh, simple ingredients. Here's a recipe I found on-line for enchiladas.  I adapted it just a bit for our needs.  The changes were subtle and didn't affect the end product!  It made a large pan full -- and enough left-overs for the cherubs to have for lunch the next day! Chicken Enchiladas 12 corn tortillas 3 cooked chicken breast hal...

You've seen those glazed almonds in the bag. They're usually in the produce department -- by the salad fixings. Sometimes they're in the salad dressing/pickle/olive aisle. It's a small bag of sweet crunch. I love to put nuts on my salads. I love to use the glazed almonds. But I get tired of buying those things because I think it's expensive for the amount you get in that little bag. The next best thing -- make your own.  It's so easy and it makes so much more!  I made these and I know I didn't use them all . . .I'm wondering what little container I've put them in?  Better yet, I wonder WHERE I've put them?  I think I'll go look! Glazed Almonds 4 tablespoons butter (not margarine) 2 cups almonds; whole, chopped, or slivered (I used slivered) 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 -1 tsp. vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. salt, optional    Line a baking sheet with foil. Grease the foil with 1 tablespoo...

This is Veggie Chili before I used the blender . . don't let the picture of it keep you from trying it! This isn't a recipe I'd normally give a second glance.  But being fair to all recipes in my new cookbook, and a secret commitment to myself to try new recipes this year, even when they're "not my style", this recipe was the first of the test. I was all self-talked up when the cherubs asked what I was making. Very confident, but not overly so, in a gentle, "we have this all the time" kind of voice, I said, "Chili." It was truthful -- in a "it wasn't my fault" kind of way. Honestly, I'd call that a lie by omission, and if it had been my children doing it to me, I'd have given a dose of vinegar. But it wasn't, and I'm the parent, and I have a secret commitment to myself to try new recipes, and I need them to be supportive of that endeavor, and not make snap judgements if they're going ...

My cherub, who got 5 inches cut off of her hair!  I love this style on her!  Seriously! It's the new year and I've got a new cookbook, kitchen tools, and King Arthur supplies! This is NOT, I repeat, NOT what I want to do . . . but for the sake of our girl cherub, we must. We must be gluten-free. That's right. I hear your gasp!  You feel my pain! Together, we grieve! But for many months, the Mr. and I have discussed this option. We've -- no, that's not right, I've read and researched and shared vital information with him. After tubs of benedryl cream and a tingl-y tongue, and itch-y, rash-y neck, it's time we do what's best for our cherub and we see if gluten is the culprit. Do you know what gluten is in? EVERYTHING! E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G!  I tell you! But after 2 hours at the grocery store for only 1 week of food, I think we're going to make it! Today, for the first time in a very long time , there's been no...

Not my picture -- this was found on the internet. I've posted a "blondies" recipe earlier -- but it was a cinnamon sort of dessert. This is just plain 'ol blondies.  Easy. Delicious. Quick. If you have company coming or just need a fast dessert, this is a keeper.  All of the ingredients are basic and if you have the time, energy, or interest to throw some "extras" in -- the recipe is both forgiving AND accepting! When my boy cherub and I made these, we threw in a small ton of chocolate chips . . .just because we could!  It was a Friday night and we were livin' on the wild side! Blondies 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 tsp. vanilla 1/8 tsp. salt 1 cup flour Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8X8 pan with cooking spray. Beat butter and brown sugar together until fluffy. Beat in egg until well incorporated.  Stir in vanilla. Add salt and flour and mix well, but no need to over-mix.*  If you want to a...