Well, will be out of pocket this week. Am going with Randy to California to relax, drive around beautiful San Francisco and just enjoy my husband. We are so blessed to be able to go visit some beautiful places and eat lots of great sea food. Will be hopefully posting some great new restaurant finds when we get back, plus maybe a few new recipes from friends we will visit. Talk to you when we return on the 20th……….Signing off, California Crusin Chick

 

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CLEVER IDEAS WORTH KNOWING
Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen  faster. 

  

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. 
It will stay fresh much longer and not mold! 

  
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for  eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking. 

  
Add a teaspoon of water when  frying ground beef. 
It will help pull the grease away from the  meat while cooking.

 To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a  couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream  in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty  frosting. 

                                                

Reheat Pizza 
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. 
This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I  saw this on the cooking channel and it really  works. 

  
Easy Deviled Eggs Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. 
Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy,  squeeze mixture into egg. 
Just throw bag away when done easy clean up. 

  
Expanding Frosting 
When you buy a container of cake  frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. 
You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving. 
                                              

Reheating refrigerated  bread  To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were  refrigerated, place them in 
a microwave with a cup of water. The  increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat  faster. 

  
Newspaper weeds away Start putting in your plants, work  the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers,put layers around the  plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about  weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will  not get through wet  newspapers. 

  
Broken Glass 
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the  small shards of glass you can’t see easily. 
   No More Mosquitoes    Place a  dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel  Away! 
To keep squirrels from eating your plants,  sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t  hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t come near it.
   
 Flexible vacuum 
To get something out of a heat  register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty  gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in  narrow openings.
   
Reducing Static Cling 
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your  slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works  with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of  slacks and … ta da! … static is  gone. 

  
Measuring Cups 
Before you pour sticky substances into a  measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter,and watch how easily it comes right  out. 

  
Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub  with the eraser! Works better than a cloth! 

  Reopening envelopes 
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily. 

  
Conditioner 
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs.  It’s cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth.  It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t  like when you tried it in your hair. 

  
Goodbye Fruit Flies 
To get rid of pesky  fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2′ with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You’ll find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever! 

  
Get Rid of Ants 
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it ‘home,’ can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don’t have  the worry about pets or small children being harmed! 

   
   INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS 
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material ..  I’m sure you know what your dryer’s lint filter looks like. Well  ..! . the ho t water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn’t go through  it at all! He told us  that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh  that’s what burns out the heating unit. You can’t SEE the film, but it’s there. It’s what is in the drye r sheets to make your clothes soft and static free … that nice fragrance too. You  know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box …  well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen.  This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house  down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very  longtime (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other  brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?!  Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn’t know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I’d share! 
Note: I went to my dryer and tested my  screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but  mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with  warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then  when I rinsed it .. the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn’t any  puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking

OK, now I have heard everything. On the way to Randy’s office a little while ago, delivering 30 homemade enchiladas for him to share with his co-workers, I was listening to the radio. All of a sudden this commercial comes on that asks if sometimes I had the “feeling that my body wanted to sleep, during the hours that I was suppose to be at work?” Well, who hasn’t? It went on to say that this is now a diagnosed sickness which can be treated with medicine, after, of course, consulting with your dr.  about “stress work disorder. So…..I headed home to call my dr. to tell him that there are many times that I am baking, cleaning and hauling grandkids to the park to feed the fish, when it is 100 degrees outside, or cooking for a family of 10 for a memorial service, all the while, unbeknownst to me, Randy has volunteered me to make enchiladas for the office, yes, all in the same day, but, all I want to do is sleep. I cannot believe that I have been under the impression that I was just in overload and needed to be whisked away to the Bahamas for a week. NOW, I know that that is not what I need, I just need to take a pill and I will never be sleepy while completing my chores. How wonderful is this. So am getting off the computer, finish my meal to take to the sweet friends, complete my laundry, go water the plants outside before they wilt, go to Jaden’s awards ceremony at 2:30, stop at the grocery to pick up a few items that I need for the company coming tomorrow night, deliver the meal, come back and make dinner for Randy, fold the laundry, work with him outside tonight in the yard (yes, he likes me outside with him so we can talk) and just thinking about how much more fun  this will all be, after I get that magic little pill which will keep me from getting tired and sleepy….wow, maybe now I can add more activity to my list of chores…….I wonder if I will be so “unsleepy” that I will then need a pill to let me fall asleep at night? Hum……….

I just returned from assisting Jodi, our daughter, in a wedding. She has been coordinating weddings at their church and since the lady who usually helps was not able to be there, Jodi asked me if I would like to come and help. It was such a delight to see my daughter as a “grown up” who was telling people when to enter, when to exit, where to stand, where to go after the wedding and it allowed me to see just a little more of her as someone other than my daughter. We sat over to the side during the ceremony and she was telling me what we would do between the ceremony and the reception, but all I could do was stare over at the beautiful wedding cake. It also brought tears to my eyes thinking back to when Randy and I married and how we are planning on renewing our vows next year. I sat there and began to think of what I would like to say to him, and I started to tear up, just thinking of how different we are now than we were 15 years ago. We thought we loved each other then, but because “life happens” and memories, tears, laughter, pain, sorrow and joy weave throughout the years, the love that we have now, is so much deeper than I had ever imagined. Maybe it is our age, but lately, even just sitting with him at night watching American Idol, or making a sandwich together in the kitchen, him asking how he can help or both of us outside mowing and sweeping, I have had feelings that I have just never experienced. It is just amazing to look over at someone that you wake up to every morning and still be overwhelmed at the love that you feel for the tenderness, the selflessness, the protection that he shows me. I wonder how long it will be before the couple we saw united in marriage today will truly feel that deep abiding love that has been showing up between Randy and I lately. When does it happen, did we just wake up one morning and poof, there were those feelings? Or do they gradually sneak up with each passing memory, circumstance and new season? Regardless, it made me cry today, thinking of what I wish I could convey to my husband, but words just never seem to portray what is in my heart. Maybe that is why we get kinder and more tender as we age, because the love we have and feel, cannot be expressed in words, we just have to put them into action…….I guess God knew what He was saying when He told us that, “faith, without works, is dead” It is the works, the little acts of kindness that show our spouses that we do have faith in the love that is being felt and growing, day by day……Thank you Jodi for asking me to help today. It was an honor to see you in a different light, but also a great reminder of the beautiful gift of marriage which God ordained for us.

Last night, Jodi calls and asks if she and the kids can come spend a couple of hours here since their house was being shown twice between 3-6 p.m. When I said of course, she immediately asked what I was planning for dinner. I had taken out some spaghetti sauce out of the freezer to fix for Randy and I, so I just added more sauce, bell pepper, onion and a little “spinach mixture” that I had in the fridge that I stuff mushrooms with. That was a great addition, by the way to the sauce. Anyway, when Eric got off work, he headed over here and by that time, Jodi had left the kids here and headed off to a meeting, so it was Randy, I, Eric and the kids. As soon as Jodi returned, she ate and left with Caleb to head home to give him a bath and put him to bed, leaving Eric here with Jaden. It was just so nice that Eric was here and we enjoyed visiting with him and Jaden. I was sitting there thinking about that and how we don’t have many opportunities to just visit with our son-in-law. What a blessing it is to have him feel comfortable to be here without Jodi and to sit and just visit. We get to hear from him (now Jodi, this is not saying that you monopolize the conversation) and he and Randy just had a nice time talking about work and children and it made me realize that when Jodi and I are here at the same time, we do overpower the topics of conversation and they always are kind enough to just let us dominate the table. So Eric…….thank you for coming over, thank you for taking the time to just sit and visit and share with us your interests and questions concerning work. What a nice memory it created for us all. We love you and thank you for your friendship…..it was a very nice evening! (and now, I don’t have leftover spaghetti to try to use up over the next couple of days).HA

Today was wonderful. Went to art class and painted and learned and laughed and ate. Today, each of the ladies in our class brought a food native to their home country, so we had potato balls (I call them that because I cannot pronounce, much less spell their real name) with cilantro parsley dip, poppy seed cake from Croatia,  a dip of beans and ground turkey from Turkey, Banana chips from Columbia, fruit and cheese from Plano, and Pineapple Bundt cake, which came from my kitchen. It is just a joy to see the different foods that come together from the ladies in our class. What a sweet time as each of us explains our dish and tells how it might be served in their country. One of our ladies is going home to Turkey for 5 months, so we will miss DeMar. Most of us in the class have been together for the last 3 years, some a little longer. We have bonded so much, that when one of us is gone, it is just not the same. We laugh at our mistakes, encourage each other when a painting is finished and help each other pick out the appropriate frames. This has become a treasured time in my life. Not just for the painting, but also for the friendships which have been such a blessing. We are all from diverse backgrounds, but when we are there for the two hours, it is as though we have grown up together. We have laughed together, cried at different times from circumstances with our children, or families. This is indeed a special gift to my life. Just like church, we all have our places we sit each week. Our teacher, Rosie, is not only our art teacher, but a precious friend who we hold in high esteem. She is just amazing. Thank you Rosie for sharing your talents and your time to give so many the pleasure of learning how to put down on paper, in color, the thoughts that are in our hearts. What a treasure, as I am now able to walk through my house and look at pictures that I have painted. Each one holds a memory of class time with these women who have become an important part of my life.