Where in the World.....

have I been? Sorry, it is so crazy here getting ready for graduation and going through a box a tissues a day drying all my tears. My family thinks I'm nuts, which is probably true, but I have always worn my heart on my sleeve (not literally, cuz, eeewww) but every day it is one day closer to her graduating, one day closer to college, one day closer to her not being here everyday. We unfortunately have also have a couple deaths in the extended family and problems with schedules. Feast or famine.

I will be back soon with some recipes, and probably some pictures of my graduate. I finished her posters to decorate the barn with for the party. 10. Yes, I made 10 posters. Baby, grade school, her sports pictures, her awards, high school years, senior year. Dude looked at me and asked where they were going to fit on the walls-they are only 40 foot long. Shut up.

Please don't give up on me-I promise I will be back soon and I miss you all terribly, but have been trying to check in every couple days on your sites to see what is up.

See you soon,
Love, me

Cheers

Hi all, how is everyone? Been MIA since my birthday, but have been working and still planning the party. No help is being offered and I'm losing my patience. To drown my sorrows, I whipped up a cocktail that Rachael Ray had on either "$40 A Day" or "Tasty Travels". It is called a Dark and Stormy. Pretty simple cocktail and it had a different vibe to it. I'm usually all about the sweet drinks-I don't like something that slaps me across the taste buds and makes my shudder. Except Kamikaze's-those are like heaven on a warm summer night!

Dark and Stormy

Ice

1/4 of a lime, wedged

2 oz dark rum

10 oz ginger BEER (not ale)

Fill large glass with ice (the recipe said a 12 oz glass-math wasn't my strong suit, but I know a little about mass, and 12 oz of liquid plus ice will not fit in a 12 oz glass!) Squeeze the lime over the ice and throw in the glass. Add the rum and the ginger beer. Give it a stir and enjoy. The ginger flavor is much more evident in the ginger beer than in ginger ale. It was good and refreshing....

and enjoyed it here........

This is my anniversary present. I had to paint it and put it together myself....hmmmm, WTF?

Hope everyone has a nice Memorial day and eats lots of good food!

They say it's my birthday.....

happy birthday to me.....c'mon, you know you were singing along. Okay, I changed the words.

Yep, today I celebrate the 43rd anniversary of my birth. Or as they said at work last night, the 14th anniversary of my 29th. Either works. The cake I brought in was wiped out in 2 breaks and the hubby at least saved the last piece for me! Thanks again Donna-everyone had nothing but praise for it!

We were off today so I had lunch with a friend, mailed Hermit Crab's party invites, ordered her grad cake and went to dinner with the Dude and Hermit Crab. Drama Queen was too busy with friends to bother coming to dinner. Oh well. After our anniversary splurge last week, we went to one of my favorite places. King's in Miesville, MN. Awesome burgers; over 45 on the menu! All of them have cool names: Rook, Knight, Pawn, MVP, All-Star, Slugger. Most deal with either Chess or Baseball. Some with the usual toppings: cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato. Others have a fried egg with cheese, bacon and a hot dog on top, or the one with coleslaw and cheese, or another with cottage cheese, marinara, mozzarella and jalapenos!

For me, it is always the Pawn: bacon, BBQ sauce and Swiss cheese

excuse the toothpick-Hermit Crab is a comedian

I also tore the bun off and it ripped the cheese

Dude had a loaded burger, the Knight-and he upsized it to a half pounder:

Hermit Crab got the Pawn Chicken Sandwich sans the BBQ sauce:

After a leisurely drive home, I popped the cork on this bad boy:

Now I am headed out to the garage to paint my Mother's Day Adirondack chair I got and the rest of the cupboards for the laundry room. Hopefully tomorrow I will be ambitious enough to clean?

If you live in the Midwest....

chances are you have a recipe for Tater Tot Hotdish. I think every blue-collar family grew up having this dinner. I didn't know any white collar people growing up, so maybe they had it too. Around my neighborhood, all the dad's worked in factories, automotive industry, truck driving, etc. None of my friends (except one) had a dad that was a lawyer, doctor or an accountant. We had block parties, BBQ's, lemonade stands, played softball and swam at the 'rich kids' house. And we all ate Tater Tot hotdish. Not casserole-not in the Midwest-say hotdish with me people.

It is easy, tasty, and fast.

Tami's Tater Tot Hotdish

1 pound ground beef, browned

1 can Cream of Celery soup

1 can Niblet corn, drained

1/2 package Tater Tots

Brown the ground beef. Stir in soup, corn and half a soup can of water. Warm through.

Pour into a 9x9 pan. Top with Tater Tots.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. Serve.

I sprinkled some onion powder and a Penzey's blended spice on the ground beef to give it some flavor. I drain the corn and rinse to get rid of some of the salt, since the potatoes have quite a bit of salt in them. I don't salt and pepper the meat for the same reason. Once I have it on the table, I taste and let everyone decide if they want to salt and pepper their own.

I've made Donna's Stepgrandma cake to share at work tonight. Yum!

Roast Chicken, Part Deux

Okay, tenth grade French was.......2009 minus.....carry the three......well, a long time ago-did I misspell the word? Is it a big deal if I did? Does anybody really care what time it is? Oh, sorry, I got a bump on the head today and I'm feeling a little off :)

It was a beautiful day here finally. Not overly warm-maybe 65, but at last there was NO WIND!! We have had gale force winds for days and my poor plants have taken a beating; the veggies look wilted-or actually, sideways. But today was awesome. Got Hermit Crab up and her and I went to church. I know, not a big deal, but with our work schedule we rarely get there anymore. It was such a great sermon and great songs. After feeling such joy we decided to go get more things for the yard to get ready for her party. Joy ended soon after. She had to do all the lifting since I have the restrictions for another week and a half. Hmmm, maybe joy had returned? No lifting-bonus! We picked up some more veggies for the garden. My seeds didn't sprout so well this year, so went and bought some cukes, zucchini and cantalope. I told Hermit Crab that the last time we grew melons they ended up the size of a softball and hard as rocks. She was persistant so they came home with us. We also bought a couple of pavers for in front of our shed. I added a window box and some flowers-thought it would be a fun addition to the back yard, kind of brighten it up where it looks a little junky. She also had to help Dude with the pavers he got for a little patio outside our back door, plus she planted 3 trees. I supervised Dude as he planted some shrubs next to the barn in his little garden he created with his 25 cent retaining wall blocks he picked up. Can't beat making a garden bed for under $20. Dude and I sat down and had a bonfire, roasted some weiners and had a beer. Hmm, still hungry. Ahah! Chicken left over from last night. Okay, it is 10:30 at night. I wasn't up for trying to come up with some kind of fancy left over. Took the easy way out-warmed up the chicken breasts in the oven, made a nice big plate of salad greens, sliced the warm chicken, sprinkled with some nice cheeses and had a terrific salad. Trying to negate the weiners and beer.

yum, melty cheese

Here are a few pics from today:

Hermit Crab laying my new pavers

The pavers are laid and the window box is planted

Inside the shed we found a nest with 3 baby birds.

Mama was busy squaking at us all day.

Pan roasted chicken

Okay, I have no clever title for dinner tonight. I'll just call it was it is. I had taken some chicken out of the freezer this morning with no idea what to do with it. I thawed it a bit in the microwave and then put in the fridge to finish thawing out. I tried to do chores one armed/handed. It is really hard to wash a dish or fold laundry with one hand! I picked some lilacs, covered all my plants in the garden because we are suppose to have FROST tonight. C'mon, it is the middle of May!! Took all my pots off the deck and stuck them in the garage. Tried to get kids to help me clean for the party, but how convenient for them that they had plans already. Sigh. So I decided to go back and figure out what to do with this chicken. Still had no ideas. I took out some bacon and crisped it up in my new cast iron skillet that I got for Mom's Day. Threw some creamy Italian dressing on the chicken parts. After the bacon was crisped, I threw in some butter, then the chicken pieces that I had marinated, sprinkled on some spices (it was a mix of paprika, garlic salt, celery salt) and browned it on both sides. I stirred in a can of Italian style diced tomatoes that I drained and put the crisped bacon back in pan on top of chicken pieces. Stuck the whole pan in the oven along side the loaf of beer bread. I made myself a salad with some nice crunchy romaine lettuce and I was a happy camper! Dude is working OT, Hermit Crab went to dinner with a bunch of kids from her class for a birthday party and the youngest has barely grunted at me in the last 5 days. It was tender and had a mellow flavor. I bet it will be even better on the second day.

Speaking of the non-speaking to me Drama Queen, here she is ready for her spring concert at school. They did a Disney medley so the choir dressed up as Princesses, which worked since most of them wore their prom dresses. This was the dress she was going to wear to prom but didn't as the whole works got screwed up.

Off to do some more one-handed cleaning. It may take me awhile......

What to do when you need a cookie fix

and it is 2 o'clock in the morning and don't want to wake up (or get yelled at by) your children?

yep, a couple mix ins, a little vanilla added also. A tall glass of milk. Yum.

Here is us last night going out for dinner for the anniversary. My sleeves aren't as puffy as they were 19 years ago! We went to one of our favorite spots to eat-Rudy's Redeye Grill. We had Flirtini's (I'll post my version soon), I had a marinated sirloin, he had a pork porterhouse and we shared some cheesecake for dessert. We then went to see "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past). It was cute, but not as good as I had hoped. But not complaining-I love it when we can squeeze a movie OUT into the schedule. Normally we are hopping in bed watching them at 3 in the morning.

Spent a large part of the day at the doctor's office yesterday. Nothing serious, but they taped up my foot to see if it is Plantar's Faciatis (murdered that spelling) to see if I need custom orthodics for my shoes. I can't believe the relief I got in one day from being taped up (No Donna, not THAT way!). I have also been having problems with my elbow. I thought it was Tennis Elbow but the sports doc said it has something to do with my shoulders that is causing the pain. Gave me a shot of cortizone in the elbow and also feels much better. Got a note from him that I can't use my left arm at work for two weeks; no lifting with it, only 10 pounds with my right arm and I have to wear a brace for 3 to 6 weeks and go to PT to learn some strengthening exercises for my shoulders. I really need to win the lottery so I can stay home and eat bon bons and not stand for 12 hours a day!

More posts this weekend; in between the cleaning, gardening, laundry and Tami losing her mind over this darn party. Calgon, take me away!

Today, I marry my friend

the one I laugh with, live for, dream with, love

May 12, 1991

Today, the Dude and I celebrate 19 years of wedded bliss. Yes, bliss. Pretty much, usually. I always tell him that the day he was born, God created me to be his partner since we are exactly 9 months apart. We were 23 and 24, mere babies. What did we know? But when he took my hand and placed a ring on it and promised to love me forever, that was all I needed. I knew. He was the One. 19 years later he still gives me butterflies. I smile whenever he walks in the room. He makes me laugh everyday. He makes the bad days good and the good days better. It hasn't always been easy. It hasn't always been fun, but there has never been a day when I wanted out or wondered what else might be out there. He is my best friend, my sounding board, my comfort zone. I love you Randy more than I did 19 years ago when I said "I do", but not as much as I will love you in another 19 years. Here's to us Babe-I love you!





























Our wedding cake was a white and chocolate marbled cake with chocolate frosting. On the middle tier you can kind of make out cows-bride and groom cows my Step-Mom found for us. To the right is a cardboard cutout of a cow that Sue (step mom) found and made a garter (you can see it around the leg) and a veil and a bouquet of flower and glued to it and used at my wedding shower-told you, I have a thing for cows. My Mom, you know, Sylvia Buchman, looked at me when I told her we ordered a cake with chocolate frosting and said "Chocolate? But what will people think?!" Well, we hope they think it's good. It was.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

I posted the other day during our shortened version of Mommy and Me day that we were able to stop at Penzey's and pick up a few things. I get their catalog in the mail, but picked one off the counter since mine had not arrived yet. In it I found a recipe from a reader called Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch. It is very similar to one I cut out of a newspaper about a hundred years ago. I will give a nod to the Penzey's mag since it is so close. The newspaper? Don't know for sure which one it came out of.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup oatmeal (not quick cook)

1/2 cup butter, softened (Penzey's said melted)

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp allspice (Penzey's used cinnamon)

3 cups rhubarb, chopped small (P had 2 cups)

2 cups strawberries, sliced

1 cup water (I steeped a little mint in the water)

2 TBSP corn starch

2 tsp vanilla (P used 1 tsp)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a big bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, oatmeal, butter, sugar and allspice. Mix until crumbly. Press half into a 9x13 pan. Cover with the strawberries and rhubarb. In a small saucepan, combine water, corn starch and vanilla. Over med heat, cook and stir until it becomes clear, 6 to 7 minutes. Pour over the fruit. Top with remaining crumb mixture and bake at 350 for 50 to 60 minutes.

The house smelled incredible! It was a thumbs up at work; however, Bob wanted more rhubarb. He said he likes it tart. Taken under consideration, Bob.

Time to get ready for work. My kids are nowhere to be found and my present is just sitting on the living room floor, not even wrapped. Can you feel the love? Hope all you Mom's had a nice day being pampered and doing nothing-you deserve it!

Creamy Strawberry Pie

I know I said I had a rhubarb/strawberry dessert coming, and I do; it's in the oven now, so that will go up tomorrow. This recipe is from my Step-mom Sue and I found it in the old church cookbook. It is so simple and easy and got good reviews from my co-workers. The only thing I didn't like was as soon as I cut it and served the first piece, the creamy filling oozed out and made it difficult to serve-and not attractive on the plate. I believe Cody said "it all goes to the same place, pretty or not". Wise words young man. I don't have a photo of it cut as again, we were at work and I had 3 seconds from getting up till getting out the door to work. Plus, since it wasn't pretty, I would have been sad to post it.

Creamy Strawberry Pie (from Sue)

1-1/2 cups cold milk

1 (3 oz) package of vanilla instant pudding (I used cheesecake flavor)

2 cups sliced strawberries

2 cups Cool Whip

1 baked pie shell

Make pudding according to box directions. I put in fridge to set it up while I sliced the strawberries. Stir 1/2 cup of Cool Whip into pudding mixture and then mix in the strawberries.

Pour filling into pie shell. Smooth top and then top with remaining Cool Whip. Garnish with sliced berries.

As you can see, my decorating skills are more than lacking~

Off to check the dessert and get ready for work. We had a nice soaking rain yesterday so I don't need to water the garden or the grass seed before work. It is a gorgeous day today-thank goodness as it is Prom night. Neither of my girls are going. Hermit Crab is working but then going to the after party when she gets home and the youngest was asked by 2 different people and things didn't work out so she is pouting in her room. Thank goodness we borrowed a dress and didn't buy one or I would have been one steaming Mama!

The best laid plans....

why do they always fall apart? Today HC and I looked forward to having our day together, shopping, eating, bonding. What happens? I get sick-4 times-at the Mall of America. Nothing like a crazy looking woman running through the mall looking for a bathroom. We never made it to Ikea, so no meatball for lunch, half the items on our list are still on the list, and 12 hours later I still feel like doo-doo.

We did manage a few tasks before it went to hell in a handbasket.

We found this:

This is her Graduation dress. We went through about 18 before this became the winner. Please ignore the shampoo and squeegee behind it-I cropped a photo, but accidentally trashed it and didn't want to start all over since my head is bobbing up and down now......

I found a few lame things for my hubby for our anniversary next week-after all this time together you wouldn't think we would each need a list-we did, and I couldn't find the stuff on his. I improvised!

We also made it to Penzey's

and found some great smells I can't wait to use.

My garden is showing a little progress.

Got in some tomato plants, the peppers were expanded and the onions are starting to pop through the earth.

I also picked this tonight

and am trying to come up a recipe to use this and the strawberries in the fridge. I have a recipe, but want to jazz it up and hoping inspiration will come to me soon and my sheets are in the dryer and I want to put them to good use!

I hope to have some inspired dish up tomorrow, but it is our weekend to work so sometimes sleep just takes priority over cooking :)

Now I am looking at a disaster of a house and no one is inclined to help me pick it up. These next 4 weeks will probably kick my butt. I'll be so glad when 6 o'clock rolls around on June 13-there will be a cooler of beer next to my lawn chair that is sitting by the fire pit.

I tried something new on Tuesday for dinner, but have no photos of it. I put it in the crock when we got home for work and before crawling into bed. I dished it up and popped it in the lunchbox while my camera sat in the bedroom. I was going to make some individual pot pies for dinner the night before, but we worked in the yard so long we ended up with a beer and a hotdog. I couldn't do them in the individual baby pie plates I bought since I couldn't warm them up at work in metal. I took all the ingredients I was going to use in the pot pies and put them in the crock pot. I cut up 4 potatoes and put in bottom of crock. I took a bag of mixed frozen veggies and pour that on top of the spuds. I took skinless, boneless thighs and breasts and placed on top of veggies. I took a large can of Cream of Chicken soup and poured on top, spreading it over all the meat and squished it down in the pockets of space. Put that baby on low and slept for 7 hours. It was so good! The chicken was tender, the veggies were tender and the soup made a nice sauce. I will definitely make it again as I got thumbs up from everyone at home.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's out there-hope you have a great day being treated to all sorts of fun stuff (we work-yippee!). Call your Mom, if you are able to, and say thanks.

I'm off to bed-only 1.5 hours of sleep in last 40 plus hours, so I think my head may have hit the keyboard a time or two, as this post is all over the place. Had it not taken me well over an hour to get all the photos and such in, I would probably delete it. Hope you can make heads or tails out of it!

Caramel-Cinnamon rolls

I have spoken of my hubby wanting me to learn how to be a pastry chef. I don't see that happening-any time soon. So I tried to make him feel better with some caramel rolls. I like to use a frozen sweet bread dough for the rolls-it is easy and gives consistent results. I usually wing it when I make the rolls-they are never the same twice.

Caramel-Cinnamon Rolls

1 loaf sweet bread dough, thawed (I used Rhoades)

2 TBSP melted butter

Cinnamon-sugar mixture (I keep a sprinkle top jar full in cupboard)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

When dough is thawed, roll out into a rectangle that is approximately 10 by 14 inches. Brush the dough with the melted butter. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar over the butter. Leave about an inch unbuttered around the edge of the dough so it will stick to itself when rolling up. Sprinkle with a handful of walnuts. Roll up the dough jelly roll fashion. Slice roll into 12 equal pieces. In bottom of baking dish, sprinkle the remaining walnuts.

Melt the 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar together and spread in pan. Sprinkle walnuts over caramel in pan.

Place the 12 pieces in pan. Spray a piece of plastic wrap with some cooking spray. Cover the pan and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

The amount of time will depend on how warm it is in the kitchen. When doubled in size, bake in a oven that is preheated to 350 degrees F. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Sorry-the 'after' shot is a little blurry

Here are a couple shots in the yard today. I shot some photos of our plum trees and our apple tree.

Plum Tree

Apple blossom getting ready to blossom

Today (now that it is 2 AM) is my Mommy and Me day with the Hermit Crab. We did a little shopping tonight and got her an outfit for open houses, some towels for college and a few decoration for the bathroom that I just painted. Tomorrow (today) is going to be spent looking for a dress for her for graduation, a new pan for me and lunch at Ikea. Yes, Ikea-she is ga ga for the Swedish Meatballs, mashed taters and lefse!

The cookie isn't crumbling....

but the blueberries are. I was inspired by Heather at Diary of a Fanatic Foodie when I saw her Strawberry Crumble recipe the other day. I had used my strawberries to make the sauce for the angel food cake, but I had blueberries. I mentioned crumble to the Dude, and he said 'crumble is always good'. Man of few words.

Blueberry Crumble

(adapted from A Taste of Tradition cookbook)

1-1/2 cup flour

1-1/2 cup quick cook oatmeal

1-1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup shortening

pinch of salt

small pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp salt

blueberries* I added some raspberries as the blueberries didn't cover crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, combine all ingredients except berries. Press half of crumble mixture into bottom of 8x8 glass pan. Pour berries on top, cover with rest of crumble mixture and bake for 25 minutes.

Spent a good portion of today outside again. It was a perfect day-sunny, light breeze and not too hot. I weeded the small flower garden (that I don't tend to very often which is why it looks so bad) and added some new bulbs. The nice people who own the place where we store our street rod gave us some bulbs last year when we brought the car over for storage. I have no friggin' idea what they all are or not and was confused looking at some of them-I couldn't tell which end was the root end! For all I know the flowers will be growing into the dirt. I also planted some pots for the deck.

I love pansies, which I have spoken about many time before. They just fill me with happiness every time I look at them. I planted some marigolds, which my Mom says were my Dad's favorites. I like them as they help repel mosquitoes (or so I am told). I also planted some snapdragons and geraniums (no photos). I bought a few baskets to hang-petunias, some violas, a begonia basket, and one with geraniums and some white flower that escapes me. Hope to have some color around for the grad party-5 weeks and counting. As I speak (or rather type) the Dude is out in the pole barn power washing walls. We are having the party out there as it is 3 times the size of our garage plus we have a fridge and sound system out there-better for a party! On Thursday, Hermit Crab and I are having a Mommy and Me day. We are going to buy her graduation dress, some bedding for college, some decorations for the party (we are doing a Mexican fiesta), and just hanging out. I am hoping not to cry like a baby all day. When you see the cartoons with sprinklers or water fountains coming out of crying peoples eyes? They based that on me. Honest to Pete. Mom-who's Pete? Sorry-inside joke at our house. Every time I say 'honest to Pete, you people are going to be the death of me' they ask me who Pete is and why is he always here. Just a little glimpse into the freaky world that is my house.

Have a wonderful day everyone. Long week at work so new posts probably Weds and Thurs this week.

My favorite salad

I first had this salad-or a version of it-about 5 years ago when a friend from work was getting married. Funny, my love of the salad has lasted longer than their marriage. Sad, but she is sooooo much better off without him. Off my soapbox.


It is so simple, but it is so fantastic. I made it for work on Wednesday. Unfortunately I don't have a 'finished' product photo since I was at work and you combine it right before serving and I can't have a camera at work. But being that you are all foodies, I know you can picture it in your minds!



Mandarin Orange Salad
1 large can of mandarin oranges, drained (the recipe calls for small can-but I love them!)
1 bag of mixed greens lettuce in a bag (can use a head of lettuce of your choice if you want)
1 TBSP chopped parsley-I didn't have any
slivered almonds, toasted in sugar-amount is up to you (I used about 5 TBSP)
Add in-grilled chicken breast, cut in bite size pieces
Dressing: 2 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP white vinegar
1/4 cup oil (your choice)
1/2 tsp salt
dash fresh cracked pepper
2 to 4 dashes Tabasco sauce (depends on your preference of heat)



For sugared almonds, place the almonds in a small fry pan. Cover with 1 to 2 TBSP sugar. Over medium heat, stir until sugar melts and coats almonds. Watch carefully as they will burn quickly. Pour out onto a sheet of waxed paper.




In bowl, pour in salad greens, top with orange segments, chopped up chicken and almonds. Sprinkle on parsley.



In a container that has a tight fitting lid that you can shake, add the dressing ingredients. Shake well to combine all ingredients. Pour over salad and enjoy!


Been working in the garden and cleaning our downstairs all day. Here is a little progress in the garden.




I put in the lettuce, onions and peppers today. The metal structure is a gate the Dude is making to I don't have to try and hurdle the fence. I normally just step over it, but since we made it raised and found a new type of fencing, I would probably hurt myself. He is quite talented. He and the youngest put a new cement slab today and have been working on putting a small retaining wall next to the barn so we can gussy it up with some bushes. I'm eyeing some hydrangeas (sp).



breaking up concrete to make way for new stuff (picturing her sister I am sure!)


smoothing out the concrete





Working on the retaining wall

In two weeks I will put in the rest which includes tomatoes, cukes, zucchini, peas, beans and radishes. I can hardly wait until I can use all of it's gifts on my table~