A Proverbs 31 Kind of Day

About a week ago, the Mr. and I headed to the Texas Hill Country for a little get away. It was a perfect weekend! We went with some friend; we shopped, we ate, we laughed, and we listened to great music each night! One of the places that we ate, served cranberry salsa and chips. It was phenomenal! I knew I wanted to make it for the holiday season . . . . and with 8 bags of cranberries in my freezer, I knew I had enough ingredients! The minute I see cranberries in the store, I start buying! There are several great recipes that I like to make during this time of year, and this is one to add to the list! The Mr. had the recipe on his phone, but when I started to make the salsa, I didn't have the recipe. But I remember reading it -- so I just started making it! I mean, how hard can it possibly be? While I didn't make it exactly like the recipe, it was pretty close, and we all devoured it! Here's the real recipe!  What I love about this ...

Today, we cleaned out the freezer. The big freezer. The one in the garage. It needed to be defrosted, which took a good amount of time since it is in the 30's today! Ice doesn't melt too fast when it's cold enough to freeze! Along with the defrosting came the Mr. being all productive! Like making me create a list of all the things in the freezer. So, I willingly agreed! As a result, we're having for dinner tonight something from . . . the freezer! I surely wasn't planning on having brisket tonight . . . or tomorrow night, or the night after that! I just went to the grocery store yesterday and I clearly didn't buy anything that would be a great side to brisket! However, I remember Auntie Ronda making a BBQ green bean bundle. But we're just eating -- not being fancy tonight, so I took a spin off of her idea and put these ingredients together for our side to go along with our brisket! BBQ Green Beans 2 cans green beans, ...

Saturday mornings used to be sorta lazy. Meaning, there was time to get up, have some coffee, and the Mr. would make a "traditional" breakfast, as the cherubs like to tease him about. But now, we have baseball and ballet and other what-nots that start earlier than I'd prefer and our lazy Saturday breakfasts have sorta gotten . . . lazy. But this morning, I decided to make pancakes before everybody scurried off to their activities. Since both of my cherubs like pumpkin, I decided to do a quick pumpkin pancake. I've posted before a quick pumpkin waffle and a pancake, but this is even easier! That's great for a Saturday breakfast! Pumpkin Soda Pancakes 2 cups buttermilk pancake mix 1 bottle pumpkin pie soda Heat a pan or griddle with a bit of oil or Pam. In a bowl, stir together the pancake mix and enough soda to make the batter the consistency it should be.  I used nearly the entire bottle . . .there may have been 2 or 3 drinks left in th...

I think I have said it before, but it's worth saying again. I really like my crock pot! My cherubs aren't too fond of it! They say they get tired of crock pot food! I say you aren't old enough to appreciate a crock pot! Since there is a small battle that surrounds the crock pot at our house, I try to make our crock pot meals "worthy." This recipe has made it's rounds 'round town, but I've never made it until now. I'm so sad that I've missed out all these years! Easy French Dip Sandwiches 3-5 pound boneless beef  roast 1-2 envelopes Lipton onion soup mix 2 cans beef broth 1 tsp black pepper Ciabatta rolls  ("hard" bread absorbs the au jus!) provolone cheese Combine the dry soup mix, broth and pepper, pour over roast. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until meat is tender. Remove meat from slow cooker and shred with two forks on a cutting board. Place the meat back in the crock pot with the liqui...