Yesterday A dear friend told me about how God used a lady who, by all accounts, was someone we wouldn’t think could be used by God to change someone’s heart!

My friend was sharing how her Father In Law, who was a pastor, had a lady in his church who continued to ask him if she could sing a solo in church. The pastor kept finding excuses that he used to keep her from singing! He didn’t want her to be embarrassed and he didn’t want to put the congregation through having to sit and listen to her less than “pretty voice.”

Finally, he couldn’t think of any more excuses and he came to feel led to allow her to sing a solo!

There was a man in the congregation that had come to a few of the services! He was not an atheist, but he didn’t feel like he needed God or the church in his life. He was there the Sunday that this lady was going to sing. She was certainly not known for having a solo voice by any means. At the close of that service and the invitation was sung, this same man walked the aisle and gave his heart to the Lord! He joined the church and became a faithful member. The pastor was amazed at the change. The man shared that during the song the lady sang, God spoke to his heart and he felt the call of God upon his life.

All this to say that even when we don’t feel that God is using us, He is! We hear the saying that “God doesn’t just call the qualified. He will qualify the willing.”

We seem to think we always know what or who God will use. We look at peoples talents or power or status! God is the God of impossibilities and can use anyone who wants to be used!

Never feel that God cannot use you just because you feel unqualified. Allow Him to lead you to opportunities that will not only bless others, but in so doing, your faith will grow and you will be blessed! Satan wants you to feel unqualified and unusable. But God….He has a purpose for your life….surrender each day to Him to be used! Like a dear friend, Debbie, once taught me, “tell God yes, even before you know the question.”

After buying the frozen Walmart pie crust, I was dying to make a pie to try it out for myself. When I realized i had two regular size cans of peach chunks, I got to work. The pie was delicious and we have two pieces left for dessert tonight. I have to admit this was the very first time I had used a bought pie crust! Wow, so excited to have found a great and easy pie crust to have when time or energy is spent.

1 Walmart deep dish frozen pie crust

2 regular size cans of peach chunks, un drained

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 heaping teas cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tables butter

2 tablespoons of corn starch dissolved in 1/4 cup water

Topping:

1 stick butter, cold cut into small chunks

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar

Using a pastry cutter, blend in the butter with the flour and sugar until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. set aside

in heavy saucepan, pour both cans of peaches in sauce pan and add the butter, the cinnamon, brown sugar and then cook over medium heat until mixture begins to boil. Stir the cornstarch in the water and mix well. pour into boiling mixture and stir until mixture becomes a little thickened. Removed from heat and add vanilla. Pour into the pie shell which is probably still pretty frozen at this point if you removed it when you were beginning to make the pie, and top with the crumb mixture. Placed pie crust on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated 350° oven for about 50 minutes depending on your oven. When pie crumbs and crust are brown lightly remove pie from oven set aside to cool!

A few nights ago when we were still confined to indoors because of the ice/snow that lingered on the ground, (don’t be misled by the negative words, I loved this past week as it gave me excuse for staying in and baking until I ALMOST ran out of butter and eggs) The thoughts of beef stew just kept going through my mind. I had ordered something I had not ordered before with my grocery order so found the stew meat in the freezer and went to work! Normally, for some reason when I make soup or stew it seems like I use chicken and chicken broth but because I had ordered this new item, I decided to try something new. I shared a little bit of the stew with a friend that came to help me repair a leg on a antique chest that broke when I was rearranging furniture the day before. Even he said he had not had a beef stew that he loved as much as this one and both Randy and I agreed that this was some of the best stew I had ever made. And we owe it all to this new ingredient and trying something different.

As we sat and enjoyed the stew, I was reminded of the vegetable beef soup we used to have when I was in elementary and it was then that I began to love having Fritoes with it instead of crackers. So that’s exactly what I did the other night. I topped it with Fritos and Randy used his crackers. We were both happy campers!

1 lb of stew meat chopped up into tiny pieces,

1 small onion, chopped

3 medium size carrots, sliced

1/2 green bell pepper cut up (optional as I know some people don’t like bell pepper or they have trouble digesting it)

2 celery sticks sliced

3 medium size potatoes cut in small cubes

1 teas thyme

1-2 teas diced garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teas Lawrys Seasoning salt

1 14.5 oz can of petite cut tomatoes

2 tablespoons of beef stock (pictured below the type and brand)

2-3 cans of water depending on how many veggies you have in crock pot but enough to completely cover them

pepper to taste. no additional salt will probably be needed as the beef stock has salt plus the Lawrys

Brown the meat in a little Oil and butter (yes butter) and cook until meat is no longer pink. set aside

chop and cut veggies and add to crockpot with the tomatoes, water and beef stock! add seasonings and meat!

Turn Crockpot on high for 2 hrs then check to be sure you do not need to add additional water . Turn crockpot on low and continue cooking until veggies are done! This beef stock added amazing flavor and cutting up the stew meat into small pieces allowed the stew meat to be so tender.

Avenida is hosting a breast cancer awareness breakfast for the ladies here tomorrow! When I was ask to make cookies for it, I responded with a quick YES and ordered the needed cookie cutter immediately! Well, I am so thankful I started the baking yesterday just in case of any last minute necessary changes! My pink ribbon cookies ended up looking like the Easter bunny so they immediately went in the trash! trying to figure out what to do, I opted to make some homemade sugar cookies instead of the packaged sugar cookie mix I tried in the first place! this recipe turned out so so good, I ended up making another batch after sampling (ok i did more than sample. i had 4, thus the need to make more dough)

The recipe is from an old cookbook i have had since the 70’s. and it was so easy and tasted so good, it is now my favorite sugar cookie recipe! it’s actually one of those recipes you can take a stick of butter out of the fridge for an hour and an egg and then mix it up and have cookies within 30 minutes. if you choose you can substitute the vanilla extract for almond extract. this time I use the vanilla .

a friend dropped by last night to drop off candy we are collecting for the Prestonwood pregnancy center! i gave her a few of the cookies for her to snack on for her drive home. When she got home, she texted me to tell me how delicious the cookies were! So if you’re looking for a great old-fashioned sugar cookie that’s easy to make make, try this one. I think you’ll be very pleased!

*** only used about 1/4th cup of milk. did not need the whole 1/2 cup!

***notice the change of the amount of milk above in my post!

Bunny Cookies. (saving the cookie cutter for Easter

Signs & Taste of Fall
Caramel pumpkin spice rice crispy treats:

Today certainly doesn’t feel like Fall, but when I looked out over our balcony and saw that hay and pumpkins had been delivered out front, it spurred me on to think “what can I make today that taste and makes me think that Fall is here?” And then I remembered that our daughter, Christi, texted me something that she and our granddaughter Kenley made last week that sounded like the perfect Fall snack that possibly wouldn’t send us to ER with sugar overload! I have to admit that I’m not a huge rice crispy fan, but because this recipe had a layer of melted caramel in it, I figured that it might win me over! And win me over it did! Admitting that I cut 3 pieces to place on a plate for a picture, telling my self that after taking the picture, I would just put the 3 pieces back in the pan to share with our grandson tonight at dinner! Two of the pieces didn’t make it back in the pan, nor did the first piece I cut to get out the following three for the picture!
My name is trudy and I’m now a pumpkin spice caramel rice crispyholic. These are delicious and took all of 15 min to make! Beware that you will end up running to store to buy more marshmallows, caramels and rice crispies to make anothe batch after you have devoured the first pan!

Caramel Pumpkin Spice Rice crispy Treats!

6 cups rice crispies
1 package caramel bits or individually wrapped caramels (I used the bits and followed directions on back in melting them)
5 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
3 tables butter
2 tsp pumpkin spice seasoning
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt caramel bits with 2 tablespoons water to pan and melt over low heat stirirmg often. While caramels are melting
In small pan, Melt butter over low heat in another pan, adding the pumpkin pie spice seasoning and vanilla! Stir until combined and add marshmallows to pan. When marshmallow mixture is all melted and combined, pour over the rice crispies and stir until well mixed. Put half of the marshmallow mixture and a 9 inch square ² pan that you have sprayed with Pam then pour the caramel mixture over this bottom layer evenly distributing it over the crispies, then top with remaining rice crispy mixture.
It was easier to spray my fingers with Pam before trying to put the rice crispy treat mixture into the pan and then over the caramel layer ! Worked like a charm!
Sprinkler fall sprinkles over the top!
Made a pig out of myself but you can forget that part!!

Funeral Sandwiches…. No they dont kill you , ( well maybe if you ate them everyday the cholestrol might) but Because we love Funeral sandwiches, I took them to a social here where we live. They are called Funeral sandwiches because they were often served at funeral gatherings since the recipe makes so many. Taken from Southern Living Magazine:
So here is what I did and everyone loved them.�*There are made with Hawaiian rolls which come in packages of 12 or 24! I made 24. Cut the rolls horizontal and lay the top of the rolls to the side. �Melt 2 sticks of butter. Add a heaping tablespoon of mustard and 3 tablespoons of honey. Using a small yellow onion, chop it very small and saute in the butter honey mixture. Stir for about 5 min. Brush the inside of roll with butter mixture and then place slices of ham over the rolls and then cover ham with cheese slices. (Recipe calls for swiss but i used provolone). Place top on rolls. Brush tops of rolls with the butter mixture. Because I had Everything but the Bagel seasoning, I sprinkled that over the top of the buttered rolls before baking them. Place the pan of rolls in a preheated 350 oven for 15-18 min. I covered the rolls with foil the first 10 min and then continued baking for the remaining 5 min until i saw that the cheese was melted. Serve warm.
Makes 24 sandwiches!