Every time we watch the Progressive Insurance commercials, we laugh and laugh at the people they are trying to keep from becoming their parents! Today as we sat in our car in the lube bay. while the young man was performing the checklist to pass our car for inspection, the realization that I was one of those that would have failed that class on How Not To Become my parents! While Jayden (yes of course I noticed his name that was on his shirt), began to follow the necessary routine of going thru the steps to be sure our car passed, I realized i had been telling him that our oldest grandson’s name was Jaden also but it was spelled differently. When i started to explain to Jayden that I wish I had known my great great grandfathers name was Jeremiah before “our” Jaden was born, or I would have suggested to Jodi she used that name before naming Jaden, Randy grabbed my arm and shook his head “no…the young man doesn’t care why Jodi named Jaden, Jaden.” As Jayden with a Y opened the drivers door to plug in something that i have no idea what it was, I began to ask questions about what he was looking for and started talking about why carmakers didn’t put them in the same spot so they didn’t have to go looking in different places! Jayden just smiled and looked at me like “lady I really don’t care about having a conversation with you, I just want to get your car inspected and get to the next car in line”. So I tried to quit talking, I really did but…well, I just couldn’t! As he finished with all the checkpoints to pass our car, I thanked him for directing me into the lube bay as I always get nervous when I drive in car washes or oil change places where you have to drive straight into a track. Jayden with a Y didn’t seem to care about that! But I finally said goodbye , each of us thanked the other and I drove away! I headed to a grocery store across the street to pick up whipping cream that I had forgot to order in my grocery delivery the day before! But after grabbing a qt of whipping cream, I happened to see they had strawberries for $1.99. Well who can pass up a deal like that? So i grabbed a couple of quarts of those and headed for the checkout line! Since there was only one checker, of course there were about 5-6 people in line to check out! When the lady right in front of me, with a full basket, noticed i had only 3 items, she told me to go ahead of her. Well you don’t have to tell me twice that now it gave me the opportunity to go ahead and start up a conversation with her! So of course I thanked her so much for letting me go ahead of her, as I had left my husband in the car when I ran in for whipping cream. I went ahead and began to explain to her that I was wanting to make a cake with mascarpone frosting. Apparently she had failed the “How Not to Become Your Parents” as well, as she ask me what cake I would be making, which led to me telling her. She proceeded to tell me she liked to bake also, but had come in to buy healthy snacks because her sister was coming into town this week to help plan a wedding for their father who was 94, and was getting married in a month . We began to discuss why would any adult children want their aging parents to be lonely and not find someone to love and be with the rest of their lives. Unfortunately they opened up another line and checker so we both ran to that line to check out. We wished each other a blessed weekend and I waddled out! Upon arriving home, we walked thru the main building on the way to the elevator which takes us to our place when a friend (we knew her but not well) ask how we were doing and noticed we had a bag full of items! Becuse we were in a hurry to get upstairs to put away the whipping cream, I began to tell her about the strawberries being on sale at Aldi. i noticed Randy looking at me with a look that said “let’s not go into the long version of that! just tell her the strawberries are on sale at Aldi and let’s go home”! Well, as luck would have it, we saw a dear friend as soon as we got off on the second floor…..don’t get me started on our conversation! Let’s just say that Randy walked by himself to our apartment with the whipping cream! He knew it would be warm by the time I got home!

I think it’s too late for me to not become my parents! Besides this way our kids have something to learn from me in case they don’t get to take the class!

Yesterday we had a sheet pan recipe swap meet where we live and this was one of the recipes that was shared. Thanks June for bringing this to share! Can’t wait to make it! Will post another one tomorrow as they sound so good and such a great and easy way to cook dinner! Love the “one pan” clean up !!!

Made this cake last week and took it to a lunch we had with friends! Both men had two pieces and I left some for them when we left their house so I forgot to take a picture of it! But it was delicious and so moist. just add all ingredients together except the strawberries which are added after batter is mixed well! then fold in the strawberries before pouring in baking pan. either greased 9×13 or 2 9″! bake in preheated 350 oven u til cake test done. I always remove from oven when cake is still a little shiny on top so that it isn’t dry! Frost as desired!

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