Would love to hear back from you. As I share thoughts and stories with you, I would love to hear some from you. Please write some of your favorite cooking stories, funny or a great memory….would enjoy hearing back from you.

As many of you know, we have a tradition of going to El Fenix every Wednesday night for the $4.99 enchilada special. We meet friends down on Beltline and it has become a weekly bright spot. (does that tell you how boring our lives must be when the enchilada special is a bright spot, ha)

Anyway, my mom had left to go back home to Corpus this afternoon and I was excited about going home tonight to a quiet and empty house, just Randy and myself. So when we pulled out of the parking lot of El Fenix, I was laughing and telling him some funny story about my mom when I noticed out of the corner of my eye the young man who faithfull guards the parking lot every Wednesday night. We always speak to him and smile and he smiles back. I knew that there was a little pocket Bible which my mom had left here. She knows that I love to give these out to people that the Lord lays on my heart. But I didn’t want to do it. I kept telling myself that I could give it to him next Wed, but my heart, oh it kept nudging me to go back. So finally before  Randy pulled onto Beltline, I told him to “go back around, I need to give that young man this little pocket Bible” so he did. We pulled around and I got out of the car and told him that he might think I’m weird, but that the Lord had told me to come back and give this to him. I handed it to him and told him to please read it and he said to me, “I Need to read it” I asked him his name and he said that it was Riley. I will be praying that he reads it and that the Lord will speak to his heart. When I feel the Holy Spirit telling me to do somthing like that, I feel assured that it was truly God leading me to do this. Some of us are planters and some of us are the harvesters. I think I have been called to be a planter. God continues to open doors for me to do this in so many strange places. It seems that I am “led” to do this in airports, hotels, restaurants

or grocery stores. Each time, it seems that it gets easier and easier to do. It use to really be hard for me to do this. I was afraid of what people thought, the ones receiving the Bible, but also the ones watching me give it. It has become truly a blessing for me to hand out something that could impact a person’s life. Each time I hand one out, I get excited about praying for them to have their eyes opened to God’s saving knowledge. What a priviledge to be a part of someone we might see in heaven, just for handing them a Bible. Riley, “I hope to see you one day.” You can continue guarding the parking lot right beside the pearly gates, it will be a joy to share heaven with you.

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The day began meeting 3 friends for brunch and just sat and talked and enjoyed the moment. It was cold outside this morning, so we decided to go where there is a fireplace and just had a great time. They made fun of me because when Randy and I first married, I asked him to take me to buy a pumpkin but it couldn’t just be any pumpkin. We went to about 3 pumpkin patches before finding just the right one. When “Patti Pumpkin”  got a little should we say “moldy” we had to say goodbye. But……I couldn’t just throw her out since she had been a big part of our dinner table for two months, so I told Randy he was just going to have to go bury her. We lived in a townhouse by a golf course, so he took her over to the golf course one evening and “disposed” of her. Somehow that made me feel a little better than just thinking about her being in a stinky old garbage can…….So the girls got a good laugh about that. I think at this point it is appropriate to share another Pumpkin dessert recipe. You are going to love these. Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies! Yum……..

Tried something different today and it worked! You will remember that I added 1/2 lb of breakfast sausage the other day to my 1 lb of ground round for the meatloaf. Well, it was so good that I tried it today in spaghetti sauce and it gives it a little “kick”. It is really so good. I just used a pound of ground turkey and added the 1/2 lb of the Jimmy Dean Mild breakfast sausage and have it in the crock pot cooking all day. But had a sample for lunch and it is really very good. Wanted to share the idea!.

The rain is gone and the sun is shinning and it is day to celebrate! My mom is coming into town for a few days and I know she will enjoy seeing the grandkids and the great-grandkids. I learned much of my “cooking for others” from her. We always had someone living with us, as I was an only child and she felt that it was up to her to entertain me with opening our home to anyone needing a place to live for a short time. As I look back and remember some of the “company” which stayed with us, I think I learned something from each one. Some negative things, but also some postive things. As I think back to some of the young ladies who stayed with us, it has taught me how to be a guest in someone’s home. We had some doozies sometimes! Some that thought they couldn’t go to sleep unless they were listening to Led Zepplin, others would insist that their days were not complete unless I played the piano while they sang (and trust me, they did not have the “gift of singing”). Others were short term missionaries who taught me that each day should begin with reading God’s Word just by watching them do so. They didn’t have to say a word. It was always fun at meal time, because we always had someone having dinner with us. I loved that. I was determined that when my children were born that we would make meal time a happy occassion. I pray that they have that memory as they are now raising children of their own. Of course there were nights when we ate Taco Bell in the car on the way to practices, but we had many nights when we did have dinner together. I did not want the television on during dinner. It was fun to hear about their day and to hear them harrass each other and to kid and tease each other.

It is a blessing that I have a husband who feels blessed to have a home, which we know is given to us by the Lord, opening it to young men or women who feel called to the ministry. We are housing our third intern at the present and it is a joy to not only see how God is using this young man and to hear what all he is learning, but to see him excited about his future and where God might take him. We have had dinners with him which have kept us around the table for an hour after dinner, laughing and talking about great memories he has had and us as well. We feel so blessed that the Lord has directed him into our lives. We pray that as he has been a blessing to us, that we will be a blessing to him. The scripture comes to mind, Romans 12:13, “Distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality.” That is my prayer, that God will use our home for His purpose!

Just shoot me if I even mention going to the fair again next year! We drove at record speed down the tollway trying to get home to the Rolaids. I forgot to put them in the car before leaving. We “ate” our way through the tents, sampling on anything they poked in front of us. Here is a summary of the food ingested in the 5 hours we were there:

Corny dogs, cheese melted in a flour tortilla,  little smokies, marinated chicken, which we watched being cooked on a grill that we “just had to have”, pizza, from the cooking demo, which, actually I did learn a lot about tomatoes, which I will share later, my FIRST funnel cake, ever, YUM, Texas nachos and ending the night right before we climb on the 221 ft Texas Star, the infamous cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting……..I sit here thinking that we paid good money to feel this way. You would think by the time we were this age, that we would know better. BUT…..isn’t that just part of living in Texas. We have the largest state fair, with the most fried food. And it would just really bother me to hear people talking about their visit to the fair and I would not be able to join in with my experience. We did not taste the “fried butter” That is really nothing new to this family. Randy tells people that I have a cube melted for him in a cup to drink on his way out the door in the morning, just to be sure he gets his quota of butter each day. We are Plano’s answer to the “Butterkin Family”………As soon as one of my kids come over to show me how to download pics from my phone to the computer, I will post a couple of pictures of our day, wandering around, trying to sniff out what we would try next!  I did however decide to have my picture taken with Big Tex, it made me feel so small, I loved it!

Have heard back from a few of you who have made the meatloaf and have gotten great positive reviews, this really is a great recipe, try it! A great fall night easy meal…….

Well, we are headed to the fair this afternoon. What a great day to go, the weather is cool, which means that the “fried butter” will taste so good. We start off right when we walk in having a corny dog. We walk around, see the exhibits, I think a promise to myself that next year, I am going to enter some of the food contests (which I promise myself that every year) and then head over to get a taste of what ever is new to taste. We sit in every car at the auto show, go to the petting zoo and act like we are 6 yrs old, feeding the baby pigs and lambs. Then after thoroughly washing our hands, we get either a dessert of either ice cream, caramel apple or fried pie. We walk around some more, sometimes going to the bird show, or go through the tent where all the “junk” is for sell and then all of a sudden, we realize it has been almost an hour since we have eaten, so off we go to the food tent. We walk around and see what smell entices us. After that, it is usually getting dark and I make Randy ride the ferris wheel with me. I love riding that when it is getting dark and the lights of the fair are on and it just reminds me of how wonderful the day is when you can grab hold of your sweetie’s hand and climb up in the cage, letting the wind blow through and watching all the sights down below. It makes you fall in love all over again. We end our trip eatting the Texas shaped nachos and of course the infamous cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting. Then we head back to the car, open up the container of Tums and eat them on the way home, so by the time we get home, we can go to bed without heartburn…….what a day!