Last night before the storm blew in, we were sitting at a club our son belongs to waiting for one of the best fireworks shows to begin! As I sat there and “people watched” , it reminded me of years past! Families were gathered around on blankets while kids played tag, or ran around with glow in the dark necklaces, with their faces painted. The wind was cool and the laughter was rampant! Folks seeing other families they knew would stop and hug each other and visit! I didn’t see one iPad or game being played on any phone just phones out taking picture after picture! Was such a beautiful reminder of what we use to do on a daily basis and not just on a special day! It was so nice that one could almost forget the unrest, the mass shootings, the political lines, the anger, the depression that seems to be all around us and entitlement that we live with now on a day to day basis! It was a night that allowed us to just forget all the negatives and enjoy the sheer laughter and focus on what we could have if we could let our hearts to be led to the One who gives true peace and fulfillment! That our Land could be filled with His goodness and enjoy the benefits of all the blessings that He wants to give us! As everyone began to run for their cars, (I waddled quickly), there was still laughter and kids were still trying to play until the huge lightning that appeared made parents scramble to get their quilts and belongings. we realized that we would not be seeing any fireworks that night! But my spirit wasn’t any less dampened by the rain! It had been a joy to just be out and feel the coolness of the evening! But more than that, it gave me a picture of what America still is, in spite of the problems, it is still the land of the free and the home of the brave! We sometimes just have to be reminded of that! God bless America! Happy 4th!!!

This is a new twist of the original one that is made with chocolate instead of white cake mix. I made the original one last week for a lady who ordered it and as I began to mix it up, I started thinking of why couldn’t I make it with a chocolate cake mix…so today that’s just what I did! We have a birthday dinner tonight celebrating our sweet Payton who turned 9 yesterday and Randy’s also who’s is the 2nd at our son and DIL house! Payton requested her own cherry pie, so I made her that and am taking a cake for the rest of the family as well, so she doesn’t have to share her pie! I have not tasted the cake yet of course but just the smell and frosting has me thinking that this might become one of my favorite cakes. I used a Duncan Hines Devils food cake mix and white chocolate instant pudding mix for the cake. (To use the instand pudding g mix to the cake mix, yo Heiko add 4 eggs, room temp, 1 1/4 cups water and 1/2 cup oil) mix well and then add a cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of chopped up Oreo cookies to the batter before pouring batter in greased 9×13 baking dish. Baked it for 25 min at 350 and let it cool!

First layer of frosting, I spread some chocolate frosting over warm cake and let it the cool completely allowing the frosting to spread over top of cake with a knife and set before adding the vanilla frosting!

First picture is raw batter going into oven

Second picture is with the chocolate frosting

Third picture is with the vanilla and crushed Oreos.

Chocolate Oreo Cake

Next Layer was vanilla buttercream frosting and then sprinkled crushed Oreo cookies over the top. When we cut the cake tonight, I’ll take a picture of the finished product and will let you know how well it was received. I hope not well, so I can have some left over to bring home! I can be selfish like that as this is my birthday month!!!

It has been a while since posting! I’d like to be able to tell you that I have been busy traveling, or contributing to obtaining world peace or simply having so many social functions that I simply didn’t have the time to write! But that is not the case. The fact is that I have been very busy trying to age gracefully, all the while pretending that nothing had changed in our lives except the occasional Dr appointments or waking up to find a new little wrinkle that we hope no one will notice!

Aging gracefully is hard work. A very good friend of mine who is 10 years older than I am use to tell me “you just wait little missy, first it’s the ailment of the year, then the month and then the week”. I use to laugh at her. I’m not laughing anymore.

Yesterday I was determined to make enchiladas.

Days of planning what to cook use to be so simple, just decide to make what I wanted, check to see if I had necessary ingredients and if not, run to the store to get the necessary ingredients. Come home and make it! So very simple. Well having a “few” issues with my knees and sciatica the last few weeks, My diet consists mainly of ice tea, Advil and Tylenol! Oh and lots of chocolate! Just enough food to not allow all the Advil to destroy my stomach. Thank goodness chocolate is so healing.

So yesterday when we were headed home from Randys speech lessons (Parkinsons speech lessons) we stopped and picked up lunch, came home and ate and made our plan to make enchilada. But that didn’t happen. We did go to the store after taking a quick 30 min nap. It just took us a little longer than anticipated shopping. Because of my knee hurting and Randy walking slowly, we inched our way to the drug and cosmetic department. Friends, it is sad when you have to stop at the end of each drug aisle to see if you need anything down said aisle. And yes we did need something down most of the aisles . First there was the arthritis cream, more Advil, then the Fung Off for toe nail fungus, then wart remover for the wart that magically has appeared on my knee and we cannot forget the Icy Hot for the sciatica pain. By the time we had read all the labels to see which was best for each item, we were beginning to loose our ability to walk clear across the store for food! But we both swallowed another Advil, with our drink, and quoted Bob the Builder, “can we do it?…yes we can”. And yes we did. After an hr and a half, we drove home, put away the cold foods and collapsed on the couch. , I looked at Randy and said, I can’t make Enchiladas tonight. I’m just exhausted! We door dashed Chick Fila. We had spent $216 at the store, and came home too tired to cook any of the food we had just bought! We are now on a quest to see how others grow old gracefully. Apparently we didn’t take that class when they offered it at our over 55 clubhouse when we lived in AZ. Or if we did, we have forgot what they taught us! Tomorrow is a new day and since we won’t have to go to the store, maybe I’ll have the energy to cook! And Randy reads up on investing into Door Dash.

As we gather with family And friends to remember all the ones who have sacrificed for us to have the freedom we have, may we gather at the table to give thanks for their sacrifice! Thank God for the precious people who have sacrificed so much! May we never forget! Last night our Memorial Day began at some of our kids’ and had smoked ribs that were just delicious! I took dessert and this lemon blueberry biscotti!

All I can say is “this is good enough to start a biscotti company”. Thinking of calling it Biscotti Babe! Seriously a week or so ago (Mandy) one of my DIL’s ask me to make a lemon biscotti for her. I starting looking at different recipes and found this one. I added my own take on ingredients but it is simply divine (and that sweet friends is being typed in a most southern draw). This is one of the best recipes I have found in a long time. I took Mandy a plateful last night. I think she is now indebted to me forever! HA. It was a hit!

1/2 cup (room temp) of butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs at room temp

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

Zest of one large lemon

1/2 teas almond extract

1 teas lemon extract

Mix sugars with butter. Add eggs until well beaten. Add extracts and zest of lemon

In another bowl mix flour, salt and baking powder! Add to butter mixture. Stir in 1/2 cup chopped or slivered almonds, 2/3 cup dried blueberries and 1 cup of white chocolate chips. Divide dough into 2 equal amounts and Shape in to 2 football shaped logs on parchment paper on baking sheet. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of sugar over each log. I pat the sugar onto the dough assuring that the sugar stays on the dough Bake in 350 preheated oven for 25 min. Remove from oven and reduce oven temp to 325. Slice each log diagonally and place slices back on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 min. Remove from over and turn each slice over and bake again for another 8 min. Turn oven off, open oven door a little and leave in oven for 1-2 hrs. Remove and cool before placing in covered dish or bag to store.

Zest of one large lemon

1/2 teas

Made these last night (thank you Paula Deen) to have along side our buttered potatoes, fresh green beans with bacon and onion and broiled broccoli! There was enough left over for breakfast! Served slices with bacon and toast! Was almost like a quiche! One bowl recipe! Will be great to serve with pinto beans and flour tortillas, as wel

Why is it that each new season conjures up different foods that come to mind? This Spring season makes me want to have luncheons and get the pretty pink napkins out and plates that just scream “yea the sun is out!” One of the most favorite things of mine is to have ladies who share the love of gathering together and visiting over a table of good food. Lately I have noticed that there is a group of ladies all over the country who gather and have a Southern Living Luncheon. There are groups forming all over and they make all the recipes from SL magazines! So that is now a new bucket list of mine. To find ladies who would love to meet for lunch and eat all the wonderful SL recipes that have been given through the years. This recipe is a great spring dessert and comes from a Southern Living Sept 2005 magazine. Refreshing and oh so good!

15 lemon cookies, coarsely crushed (about 2 cups)

1 (21 oz) can blueberry pie filling

1 (8 oz) container extra creamy Cool Whip, thawed

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle Brand) not evaporated

1 (6 oz) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

Sprinkle 1 tables of crushed cookies (each) of 8 parfait glasses. Spoon 2 tablespoons of pie filling over crumbs.

Mix Cool Whip with condensed milk and thawed lemon concentrate together! Stir until well mixed spoon 2 tablespoons of this mixture over pie filling sun each glass! Repeat layers once. Top each glass with cookie crumbs. Cover and chill 4 hours before serving!

When MD is over and we have the opportunity to sit back and think over the years of raising children and now seeing them as adults themselves raising children, it is such a delight to watch them do some of the things we tried to instill in them! When I reread all the cards last night after the kids were gone and the kids that live OOT had called, it just made me realize that dispite the fact that mistakes were made, decisions were sometimes not the best, hard days were sometimes not dealt with in the best of ways, by Gods grace, our kids knew they were loved! They have grown up with the kindest hearts which forgive our mistakes, they are seeing that as they raise their children, they are learning how to respond to each new season of their children’s lives, just like we did. And continue to do. That as we taught them how to be independent of us, we then then had to accept their independence, they are now doing the same! It is a joy to now not only be their parent, but a friend as well! I remember that my dream job was to be a mom! That’s truly all I wanted to be! And here at 72, as I look back. That dream job has been so rewarding and such a blessing! We have a blended family of 5! And as that blending continues to just get better and better, Randy and I both know that it is truly a gift from the Lord that we can say, “behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man whose quiver is full of them: they shall not be ashamed. Psa 127:3-5

Some years ago when Randy and I went to visit friends in CA, we went to breakfast with them and had this dish, because of their recommendation! They were wonderful! We have made them from time to time but today I added some chopped fried bacon to them and now this is how we will have them from now on! It is such an easy breakfast and so filling! Because we just make them for 2, the ingredients will be of course different than if you are making breakfast for 4! But adjust to how many people you are feeding. Very easy!

Ingredients

2 corn tortillas , fried crisp and broken up in strips

2 eggs

2 pieces of bacon, fried and chopped

1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 cup mild green enchilada sauce

Directions

Stir 2 eggs until well mixed and scramble in pan you used to fry the bacon. Season with salt and pepper to your liking! Add cooked bacon and tortilla strips! (Because I was only making for 2 I used only one of the fried tortillas in the egg mixture and used the other one as a base in the bottom of the baking dish). Layer the one flat tortilla in bottom of greased small baking dish. Spoon the egg mixture over the tortilla! Drizzle the green enchilada sauce over egg mixture. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and place in preheated 350 oven until cheese is melted and mixture is bubbling! (About 3-5 min) Serve with soft heated corn tortillas that have been buttered and salted.

Some years ago when Randys parents were still living, they spent about 4 months every year in Colorado camping with friends at a campground! We use to love going up there and spending time with them! Each trip I came home with new recipes that I got to sample from the nights where everyone would bring a dish and we had dinner outside around a huge fire pit. It was one of these nights that a lady brought this casserole and I fell in love with it! It is one of those dishes that you will make for pot lucks, family dinners, or just yourself when you are wanting to have a meatless dinner. Just add a salad and you have a filling, comfy and flavorful dinner! It is called zesty because of the diced green chiles! If you like it mild then use the can of mild, if you like more “zesty” go wild and use the can of hot green chilies!

Ingredients

In a large bowl add together:

1 can of Rotel diced green chiles (your choice of mild or hot)

1 cup of raw macaroni (no need to cook before)

1 can (undrained) while kernel corn

1 can sweet cream style corn

1/4 cup melted butter

1 cup cubed velveta (this will melt as dish is cooking)

Stir ingredients until mixed and pour into a greased 9×13” baking dish. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven, covered with foil for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 350, uncover and bake an additional 30 min! casserole should be bubbling and macaroni is done.

A couple of days ago I called a dear friend in CA to wish her a happy birthday! She is the one the Lord used to let Randy and I know we had found our church home there in Pasadena, Ca. That is another story for another day! When we finished catching up on what has been going on in our families, she told me she had a very special testimony to tell me about. As she proceeded to share the story of how God had used the son of some friends of ours still living there in CA, I began to tear up just thinking about the faithfulness of our God and how we need to never give up praying for someone God has put on our hearts! This is the story…names have been changed due to the fact I don’t know the young man’s mom to get her permission to tell the story

David (our friends son) had gone into the hospital in need of open heart surgery! He had done well coming through the surgery but was still in the hospital recovering ! As only God can do, a young man close to David’s age was wheeled into David’s room ! They began to visit and the young man, named Mark, ask David why he was in the hospital! He told him he was in for heart surgery and Mark told him “same with me”. David began to share his story of how he had made some bad choices in his life, walked away from Jesus, and allowed alcohol to take over his life, causing him to loose his family, his wife, and his job. Mark told David that he had lied to him about why he was in the hospital, it wasn’t just his heart, but he had overdosed! David shared with Mark how he had come back to the Lord and ask Jesus to forgive him and to make him a new man! It was at this point that Mark said to David, “I want that same what you have”. David led the young man thru scripture and ask him if he wanted to accept Jesus as his savior and told him Jesus loved him and led him in a prayer of salvation! They both cried and the nurse attending them both was a Christian and had heard what had been happening in the room! A couple hours later things began to happen and doctors were coming in and out but there was nothing they could do! Mark died! After David was released from the hospital, he received a call from a lady. The Christian nurse that had learned of the wonderful salvation of Mark right before he died had talked to his mom! She ask if she could have David’s number and of course he gave permission to give it to her. When she called David, she told him that for years she had been praying for her son and that she was so grateful that David had shared the Lord with Mark and knew that now one day she would see him again in glory! What a beautiful testimony of answered prayer! It was no accident that both men were put in the same room! The song that “God makes a way when there seems to be no way”reminds us that The Bible tells us that “with God all things are possible” is also a wonderful reminder to me to always be ready to give the hope that is mine in Christ Jesus! How glorious to know the rest of the story, that not only did Mark come to know the Lord, but that his mom had the assurance of knowing her prayers had been answered! God is so faithful and so good to come after us even when we have not been looking for Him!

Grace grace, Gods grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace grace, Gods grace, grace that is greater than all our sin!