Knowing that everyone who reads Chocolatecastles doesn’t live near a H‑E‑B, I still wanted to pass on some great finds.

Growing up in Corpus Christi, H‑E‑B wasn’t a big deal to us. They were everywhere and we just knew that we had a choice to shop there or go to Albertsons or KMart. (Yes I’m that old)

So when they began to pop up here in North Texas I really didn’t think too much about that. After all, what was the hype about? But then it opened…..what a difference! Each time we go we find more reasons to love it! Don’t get me started on the Mexican wedding cookies covered with cinnamon sugar! We almost eat the entire container on the way home!

But these newest finds are really something I just had to share. First of all store bought cookies are usually not my cup of tea, but on my,

And the Cowboy cookies…Randy fell in love with these so he eats those waiting on me to make his fav oatmeal cookies! Don’t tell our Dr!

So today when we were wondering what to have for lunch, I went to the pantry to look at what we had. There in the soup shelf was the new can of beef Taco soup from….you guessed it, H‑E‑B. What I want to tell you is this. Most tomato soups taste exactly the same. This taco soup was different and had such a great Mexican flavor I have not found in a canned soup. The other soup I have fallen in love with is HEB’s Cream of Poblano. I have used it In my enchilada sauce, in green chicken green chile soup and even just as a soup for lunch. Randy had the H‑E‑B brand of chile today. I crumbled up some tortilla chips in the bottom of the bowl, sprinkled sharp cheddar then poured the Chile over that. He said it was really good.

Have I realized what all the hype is about with H‑E‑B? You bet I have and always love our trips there to shop. Don’t forget to try their 1/2 corn 1/2 flour tortillas which you find on the International aisle! Makes great enchiladas!

Strawberry, Blackberry & Blueberry Pie

Because strawberries aren’t very sweet right now and H‑E‑B has Sweet Karoline blackberries that are AMAZING right now and I had frozen blueberries on hand, I decided to make a triple berry pie! Also FYI H‑E‑B has 1 lb containers of strawberries for $.97! So am I running back to the store for more strawberries at that price?? Yes indeed I am. Decided to make two strawberry pies for a dinner party Friday night. Topped with homemade whipped cream, it will be a wonderful way to end a meal with friends!
But tonight to have dessert while Mr Randy and I watch The Wheel & Will Trent, we will reward ourselves with this triple berry pie! Since we worked out in garage trying to reduce our 24 plastic tubs of seasonal decor down to 10 tubs, we feel that we should reward ourselves with a delicious and beautiful pie!
Bake a one crust pie crust according to directions (or make your own crust which always taste better)
Slice 1 lb of cleaned fresh strawberries and add 1/2 cup of blueberries (either fresh or frozen)
1 cup (the 8 oz container) of sweet Karoline Blackberries. (If you have not had these, run don’t walk to your nearest H‑E‑B and they are worth the $2.97).
Combine all berries in a bowl and while crust is cooling after baking it, make the syrup!
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
3 tables corn starch
1 small package of strawberry jello

Combine the sugar and cornstarch to the water over medium heat. Stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened!
Remove from heat and stir in the package of jello and mix until smooth.
Set mixture aside for 20-30 min (I put mine in fridge for 15 min)
After mixture has cooled a little. Pour over the combined bowl of berries. Then pour directly into cooled pie shell. Set in fridge and allow the syrup to thicken and keep in fridge until ready to serve. Make whipped cream and cover the top of berries.

A simple and light dessert after a meal makes this cake a winner. And if made the day before, keeps beautifully in the fridge so you don’t have to do all the cooking the day of serving!

1 Duncan Hines lemon cake mix

1 cup of water

1/3 cup oil

4 eggs at room temperature

1 small package lemon instant pudding

Mix all ingredients in large bowl for 2 min, and pour into greased baking pan

(I used a 9×13 pan last night)

Bake according to directions on box for the size pan you use. Mine baked for 23,min. When cake has cooled, I cut it immediately half (from long side to long side).

Frosting

1 can Lucky Leaf lemon pie filling

4 oz softened cream cheese

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 tables lemon zest to sprinkle on top

Beat the above ingredients together until well blended. Then add 8 oz tub of extra creamy Cool Whip. Stir well. Put between cake layers and frost top and sides as well! Sprinkle lemon zest on top.

Keep covered in fridge! Make at least 4 hrs (or up to 24 hrs) before serving!

Yesterday, because we are whimps, we stayed inside all day from the artic cold front that makes me want to just bake and bake. because we are staying home, I figured that I would make Angel Biscuits! But, when I realized I didn’t have any yeast, it dawned on me that i had everything i needed to make a cheesecake pie! So gathering the cream cheese, sour cream and graham cracker crumbs, I set to work making dessert which will last 3-4 nights. and i have to say, this recipe I found online from Sally’s Baking Recipes*is really good and really easy ! We ended up topping it with cherry pie filling!

16 ounces (452g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar

1/4 cup powdered sugar (I added this to give it more of a softer texture)

1/4 cup (60g) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

_ 2 large eggs, at room temperature

Either use a bought Graham cracker crust or make your own according to the directions on the box!

Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Make the filling in the next step as the crust bakes.

Make the filling: Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and granulated and powdered sugar together on medium-high speed in a large bowl until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon juice, and then beat until fully combined and very smooth. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed to combine—you don’t want any lumps. Then on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just blended. After the second egg is incorporated into the batter, stop mixing. If you still see some lumps at this point, switch to a whisk and whisk by hand just until you break up the large lumps. Some small lumps are OK. 396
Lower the oven temperature (from baking homemade crust from 350 to 325°F (163°C) and spread the cheesecake filling into crust.

Bake 35 min or until filling is set (check after 25 to see if you need to add a vented foil cover to prevent browning). I didn’t need one. It baked the full 35 min!

Remove from oven and set aside to cook for 1 hr then place in fridge for at least 2 hrs before cutting. If storing in fridge more than two hours, cover the pie! Top with cherry pie filling or topping of your choice!

Sally this recipe is a winner and thanks for sharing it!!!

Christmas 2023 is behind us and as we look forward to a new year ahead, it is always exciting to think of what may happen in the new year! As Randy and I sit each night (well not each night as we do get out of the house every few weeks to go grab a hamburger or pizza). But, as most evenings find us waddling to our comfy chairs after dinner and seeing if we can solve the puzzles on The Wheel (we feel that it makes us sound not quite so old to say The Wheel instead of Wheel of Fortune), we have now joined the really old folks and see if we can at least answer one question on Jeopardy, each night! We have finally figured out that we actually do know sometimes more than one answer, but we also realize that we are slower than the young whippersnappers that are vying for the money in actually understanding the question! As I listen to their answers, I’m still sitting there trying to figure out what the question is in order to see if I know the answer! So it is true what they ( whoever they are) say, your brain does slow down as we age! We sit and stare at each other and Randy says (I’m still trying to figure out what that last question is asking!

So we sit night after night and see if our brains actually might begin to turn from mush to Mensa brains ! We are still waiting!

But Christmas has come and gone and we have a stack of returns just like everyone else! A brand new toaster that worked for 4 days before shooting the bread slices out! A pair of jeans that I ordered for Frosty that are 10” too small in the waist! And one bottle of perfume that I received! We have both realized that no matter how expensive the perfume, no one can smell it on me as the Ben Gay that covers now 25% of my body covers up any attempt at trying to smell good. In fact, the drawer that is right beside my easy chair use to be filled with seasonal coasters I could change out as seasons changed. It had a fingernail file I kept so as I sat at night watching TV I could file my nails as needed! We kept the EarPods in it, a candle lighter for the nights we wanted the scented candles burning……but that was 2022! Just a year later, all these items have been replaced with: Triple antibiotic for when Randy falls and skins his knees (due to Parkinsons balance problems), lidocaine for our sciatica that pops up quite regularly, and the most pungent of them all…a giant tube of Ben Gay! In fact, as soon as I open the drawer, the aroma fills the living room and any scented candle is quickly overpowered! Our home has become the perfect advertisement of what it is like to walk into a nursing home! So I am giving up perfume! We figure with the money we save buying it, allows us to buy more Ben Gay and jars of lidocaine for our aches and pains! Besides, who needs perfume to watch The Wheel?

Shannon our new DIL requested some apple cookies she had seen ! ! I promised her I’d have them the next time they came for dinner which was tonight. Since it is December and I was wanting to bump them up a notch, I used minI gingerbread boys and Christmas tree 🌲 cookie cutters for the pie crusts for the top decor!

Using a can of apple pie filling, I emptied the can of fruit into a saucepan! Adding 3 tablespoons of butter, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, I chopped up the apple slices into small pieces! Cook over low heat heat until butter is melted and cinnamon is mixed with the chopped apples. Using a glass or biscuit cutter, cut circles of pie crust and press into cupcake (muffin) pans. Fill pie crust with about 1 heaping tablespoon of the apple mixture. Top with pie crusts and sprinkle with colored sugar! Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for about 25 min or until crusts are done ! Before serving, drizzle a little caramel over the top. Serve warm!

With Shannon and Jamin’s wedding rehearsal dinner, I had wanted to bake some good desserts for them. These gingerbread cupcakes were a hit! I had found the recipe which used a Duncan Hines spice cake mix as the starter! They were very moist and had so much flavor! Made a cream cheese frosting and topped each cupcake with a small gingerbread cookie we bought at Trader Joe’s!

September 27th was the day I went in for knee replacement! Because I’m pretty healthy (despite the amount of butter that flows in my veins), and pretty positive and energetic, I expected to come home the next day, preparing chocolate chip cookies within the week! It is such a natural thing to think that because we have planned, prepared and read everything given to us to read so we thought we what to expect, this would just be one of the bumps in the road for a week or so!

Without making you read the details, this is not what happened. Infection set in the new knee and I was told to sit and only get up as necessary! Going in every day for IV infusions, (I’ve had 10 with 5-6 more to go) and finding myself afraid of what might happen if the infection wasn’t stopped, each day found me a little more fearful than the day before! Yes, I am a Christian and I trust God who is my strength and hope! But as easy as it is to say that sitting in church in the east and good days with beautiful music playing and friends and family sitting around you, it’s a little harder to say “I Choose God”, when you are lying alone in bed at 2:00 am wondering what is happening and when is God going to answer my prayer of healing and will He answer my prayer of healing? It always amaze when people call or text and say “you have been on my mind and I felt led to call or text you!” It is just like the Lord to put us on others hearts when. We need to hear from someone and that happened several times during the last 3 weeks! Yes God is always near and He is always using us to minister to others if we allow Him to do so! On one of the hardest nights after coming home from ER the night before, I found myself feeling so alone. I cried out to the Lord to meet me at my point of need

And as He always does, He showed up! A dear friend had just lost her daughter and had this on her post, the following words!

Lisa Terkeurst wrote::

I trust God. Until I don’t. That doesn’t feel like a very Christian thing to say. But if I don’t acknowledge this struggle, I can’t address it.

I don’t think I’m the only one.

So many of us raise our hands high as we proclaim that our God is a “good, good Father,” but then we find ourselves lying in our beds at night with tear-stained pillows, facing realities that don’t feel very good at all.

It’s hard not to feel suspicious of God when our circumstances don’t seem to line up with His promises. And it’s difficult not to doubt the light of His truth when everything around us looks dark.

But we must know there’s purpose in every season — even seasons of darkness. And we must choose… Will we see dark times as a womb or a tomb? Is it a birth of something new or the death of what we thought should be? Will we fix our eyes on God’s goodness or give in to hopelessness and despair?

Oh, friends. I know the dark places are scary. But let’s ask God to bring good out of these difficult places we so desperately want to be done with. And instead of being suspicious of Him, let’s lift up our praises to Him.

Praise may not shift our circumstances, but it will definitely begin to change our hearts. We don’t always get to choose our situations, but we can choose how we live through them.”

As so many are going thru so many much more severe challenges, when things are going on with us personally, it is still hard to accept.

The purpose of this post is to sing the praises of the Church! People stay away from church saying they don’t want to go worship with hypocrites or they just don’t have time or they worship in their own way! Jesus knew exactly what He was Doing when He ordained the Church. This past 3 weeks have shown both Randy and I more love and kindness we have ever seen! Even friends from our last church in CA have reached out to us! The cards of encouragement, text, phone calls, gift cards for restaurants, dinners delivered to our door, visits and flowers and more food from family and friends have brought us to tears! Ladies have come to take me to get infusions every day for two weeks! That is the church!!!

David Jeremiah once said in one of his Sermons, that he prayed that he would not come out on the other side of his cancer unchanged. And that is my prayer. That the Lord will give me the opportunity, the strength and the desire to serve others as well as they have served us! Lord help us to look around us and see where we are needed! You created us for Your glory and purpose! Help me to live and serve in such a way that others may see You, and glorify You!

I choose God!!!

This morning as I read Joshua 5, I read a passage that stirred my heart . Joshua 5:12 “No manna appeared that day, and it was never seen again. So from that time on, the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan”.

As many times as I have read Joshua, that has not ever spoke to me before. As I have learned through the years, the Bible teaches us continually, something that we need to learn, at different seasons in our lives! As I sat and thought about this passage, You can just picture the people who have just crossed over into Canaan! For 40 years, they have had manna provided for them each and every day (except the Sabbath when they had been instructed to gather twice the amount the day before so they didn’t have to work on the Sabbath)

All they had to do was gather! They didn’t have to worry about where their next meal came from. It didn’t require faith (after the first day manna was given to them) to depend on God providing sustenance for them. They had learned through the last 40 years that God would provide! Their faith was grown thru different circumstances, of dealing with enemy armies, changing in leadership from Moses to Joshua, having faith to know God would lead them through the Jordan River on dry land even though the river was at flood stage! Our faith is tried and grows by way of enduring different circumstances at different times! But as I read this passage and realized that God was taking them into the promised land after 40,years and taking away the manna He had provided for them! Did the people begin to complain? Did they become fearful and wonder if they would go hungry? Did they get mad that they now had to work for their food? It was now beginning a new season of becoming responsible for their own food and depending upon the produce of the land! And that’s when it dawned on me! God still does the same thing with us. He sometimes takes things that he has provided for us, to take us to new levels of faith!

Isaiah 43:19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

When I think of former days and the different ways I was blessed to be a part of a ministry, which allowed me to serve, I have sometimes complained and grumbled that that ministry is no longer! Instead of seeking how to best serve The Lord now, I was still trying to make things happen to suit my perspective, not the Lords! He has us in places that He puts us! It is up to us to seek His will in how we are to serve and glorify Him best in the new stages of life! To not keep looking back and complaining that He isn’t still providing the “manna” To look ahead, to plant and harvest what is needed in this new season.

Lord, forgive me for wanting to have things like they always were! Forgive me for not trusting You to give me new ways of serving and new opportunities which would allow my faith in You to grow me more into Your likeness! Please help me to always depend on you for your faithfulness even when it looks different. You are still walking with me, no matter where I am or what I’m doing! You are the same God and You are my God!” Amen and Amen!