Just wanted to post that I have started a YouTube channel with cooking videos. Have made a couple with some great recipes in the last couple days. One being Cheese Potato Soup and Antique Tea Muffins. Am not allowed to post videos on WP so please go To Sassy Southern for these great recipes! They are Butterful!!!
And no, I wasn’t around then to make this recipe up….it appeared in my email this morning as a recipe someone found in Taste of Home. I have not tried it yet, but it does sound really good and so easy to have on hand during the holidays when you have cooked so much that you feel like you are old enough to have been born in the 1800’s. Just get your slow cooker out and add ingredients and sit back and make your Christmas list to give to everyone.
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium sweet red bell pepper
2 teas minced garlic
3 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tables curry powder
1 teas ground cinnamon
1 teas ground ginger
1 teas dried thyme
1 tables light brown sugar
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
Hot cooked rice or noodles
Place onion, pepper and garlic in 6 qt slow cooker. Arrange chicken pieces over this.
Whisk the next 5 ingredients with the chicken broth. Pour over the chicken. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Add the raisins and tomatoes. Reduce heat to low and cook until chicken reaches 165 (about 2 1/2 hours).
Serve hot over rice or noodles. Sprinkle with parsley if desired or tops of green onions.
Well, for years I have been hearing that getting older was very hard and took lots of time during the day just to keep Dr appointments, be sure you are taking prescriptions at just the right time and then trying to keep up with your daily routine without having to lay down between doing dishes and finishing the laundry. But this week, was especially hard. I’m not use to going to the doctor. Truly, I have been so blessed with great health, even though my cholesterol is higher than how much money is in my checking account. Maybe it is all the chocolate I have eaten through the years, but while our friends are in the process of having shoulders, knees and hips replaced, my biggest concern has been being sure that I was well stocked with chocolate chips and cream cheese. As I would waddle around the grocery store picking up whipping cream, more butter and of course, Diet Dr Pepper (can’t have too much sugar you know), I felt pretty spiffy always walking around in cute little sandals, thinking to myself, “oh those poor old ladies who have to wear those awful looking shoes”. As I would walk past them, always trying to walk a little faster then they, to show what great health I was in, I would glance back at them and give them that smile. You know the one. The one that says, “I might be over 65, but I can still walk faster than you, even in my cute blingy flip flops.” Until this week…………
let’s just say that my whole self image has been shattered. All this time, when I saw on the paperwork that would come home with me the letters, BMI, I thought that it stood for Beautiful Magnificent Individual. So all these past years, I thought it was such a kind gesture that doctors would include this to still make us think we were still beautiful people, no matter our health problems. So when a nurse this week told me that I needed to get my BMI down, I ask her why. I told her that I always worked at getting the percentage higher because I thought I was trying to get to 100%….She looked at me with the strangest look. She informed me that my BMI number was showing that I was OBESE!!!!! WHAT?????? I’m OBESE!!! when did that happen? How could eating butter instead of unhealthy margarine make me obese? Randy and I have been trying to eat veggie meals at least 3 days a week, which we then knew would allow us to eat, (without worry) buttermilk pie or apple cobbler on those days. We don’t eat bought bakery items, we make all our own pies, cakes, cookies, biscotti and cobblers. We never order anything but diet drinks and use Stevia in our ice tea which we drink with our chicken fried steak dinners. We never use sugar in our tea. We have even begun a exercise program which includes parking as far away in the parking lots when we go to our favorite restaurants, Babes Chicken, Kenny’s Hamburgers and Maggianos for lasagna.
This was just a shock to my system. No longer will I assume I know what the letters stand for when the Doctors hand me their reports telling me all the things that the blood work shows is wrong with me. So I guess now, I need to order some of those pretty awful looking shoes to hold my obese self up. Obese ladies don’t look very nice in blingy flip flops. From now on, I guess I can just wear my pajama bottoms like the rest of the obese when I go to Walmart. I will fit right in. Am thinking of starting a BMI support group. Maybe just maybe, we will at least order matching T-shirts with our logo,
I am a….
“Beautiful Magnificent Individual”
until we get the next Doctor report!
As the weekend approaches and we are getting excited about going to AZ for Thanksgiving to visit, we have had a “to do” list that we are checking off little by little. One of the items was to get a RX refilled before leaving town, so today we went to pick it up. As I walked up to the pick up window inside the store, the young man ask for id and for insurance. He quickly informed me that if I didn’t have insurance my medication would cost $140.00. And they wonder why we have headaches. Anyway, since I did have insurance the medicine cost $ .39. Yep, that’s right 39 cents. The only catch was that with the insurance card, instead of getting the 50 which the prescription was for, they could only give you 9 pills and you would have to come back every 3 days if you needed more. So let’s see. I can get all 50 of them for $140 now, if I don’t use insurance or get 9 at a time, every 3 days for 39 cents. This just does not make sense to me, but we took my 9 pills and left.
On the way home, I began to tell Frosty that I just couldn’t sleep last night. I was up half the night thinking about my new book that will be coming out soon! . I know it will include different trials that we go through along with great dessert recipes. Well, you know women, that made me think of the season which we went through the year. 2015 and Randys retirement. I had this thought that just won’t leave my mind. Why don’t people start out retiring? Think about this. Remember when you were first married and you couldn’t keep your hands off your new mate? You walked them to the door when they left for work in the mornings, after making anything they wanted for breakfast. During the day, I just couldn’t want until hubby walked in the door at 5, throwing my arms around his neck and smothering him with kisses before leading him to the dining table where his favorite meal would be waiting. I cried when he had to leave town for 2 days. Anything he wanted to watch, of course, I “wanted” to watch. It was important to learn all about the people at the office so I could feel like I was apart of his daily world when he was at work. If I made his lunch, I put little love notes in the sack. We called back and forth during the day just to say hi and ask what was going on. He would call me on his way home every day and talk to me until the car pulled into the garage.
So my thoughts are this. Why not have retirement at the beginning of marriage when we are so in love we want to be with them 24/7? We wouldn’t mind them standing right in the middle of the kitchen blocking us from opening the dishwasher. We wouldn’t mind them falling asleep in the lazy boy as they are watching the 5th football game of the day. It would just give us more of a chance to wait on those precious young men that we couldn’t wait to attach their last names to our first name.
That way, they would be at home with us when we are needing help raising children. They would be around to take out the dirty diapers, take the kids for a walk so we could take naps, entertain the little darlings outside while we cooked dinner.
After the kids are grown, and we really are empty nesters; THEN send our hubbies to work. Why this might even cut down on office romances. I just bet that those cute little office girls wouldn’t be as quick to grab on to the “oldies with the hair growing out their ears. Their bellies that shakes now like a bowl full of jelly, just isn’t as appealing as the tight chested hunks that they use to be. Did I mention that we would then have the house to ourselves. That because they worked all day, when they got home, they would be so tired that they wouldn’t even be able to stay awake to watch every football game, so we would still be able to watch House Hunters or Castle. Am I the only one that this sounds like a great plan? That instead of having to dodge the yellow tape that divides our house to keep us from killing each other during these “golden years”; I would be thrilled when he drove into the garage, knowing that he might be even to tired to think about wanting dinner and go straight to bed. Not having to share the remote or the recliner again tonight. And that would be true “golden years”.
Retirement & Insurance
https://chocolatecastles.com/2015/11/06/retirement-insurance/
— Read on chocolatecastles.com/2015/11/06/retirement-insurance/
This song came to my mind this morning as I sat here thinking about tomorrow and the election. “From CA to the Gulf Streams Waters, this land was made for you and me.”
Tomorrow will be one of those days that will mark, in so many lives, a day which will not soon be forgot. No matter your political preference, it will certainly be a day that might change the course of the America that we have known for hundreds of years. It dawned on me as I sat with the Bible in my lap reading in 2 Chronicles 7 today that I have been thinking about the outcome all wrong. This scripture in Chapter 7 of Chronicles says, “if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and seek my face, I will hear from Heaven and heal their land.” In my mind, I have been thinking that the only way God can heal this land is for the party which represents my core values, to win tomorrow. But God……..God will be on HIs throne no matter the outcome. He can still heal this land though ways which we might not understand. Like the Bible tells us, “His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.” We, as people who have proclaimed that God is our Lord and have tried to live according to what we feel represents Him, have the idea that we can only be healed if the person who leads the Republican party, wins the election . But God…maybe, just maybe, God will allow America to go through some painful years of seeing just what happen when we have sat back and allowed God to be pushed out of every aspect of our lives. We have told God He was not invited in our schools, our politics, sometimes even our churches and yet, even not in our homes. We say that we want to live in a “Christian country” but we live as though we don’t need Christ. We have become hard hearted, and have tried to live in such a way that most days, we don’t give Him a thought. We think it is because of the hard work we have done that we have what we have. The road rage that fills our highways, the anger we see in protesting, the disrespect we see in the political debates and the political commercials. Is this the America that was “made for you and me?”
Is this the country we want our kids and grandchildren to grow up?”
A sweet friend of mine has a book coming out tomorrow which is called 24 Karat. It is a study on how to shine for God. Tomorrow will give Christians an opportunity to truly shine for Him. How will you respond to the results? How will I respond to the results? Will our lives shine in such a way that points others to God?
Yesterday our pastor shared that no matter the outcome of the elections, we are to look upward, outward and inward. Will my actions be to look up to the God who is still on His throne. Will I look outward to others to show that Christ is in my heart and gives me a love for others who might have totally different opinions that mine. Will I look inward to my heart to see who is truly on the throne of my heart, leading me to shine His light as I live each day, showing God’s love to everyone I meet, no matter their thoughts, their actions and their political opinions.
Yes, this land was made for you and for me. It was given to us to enjoy, to take care of and to love and give back what we have to the One who created it. To truly heal this land, we all need, myself included, to allow God to heal our hearts and for us to humble our selves until the mighty Hand of God. Then and only then will our land be healed…….
Since I’m not able to write blog on Apple computer now on WordPress I will post from my phone. Am missing sharing and posting especially during this time of year that we love to call Fall (aka eat everything you want that has pumpkin, apples or ginger in it). And of course butter. I know I have already posted these a few years back but in making them today I thought I would share the idea again with you as they are so easy and so good. Makes 24 mini muffin pan size cups!
1 large bag of unmade Betty Crocker Oatmeal cookies mix
Follow directions on back of mix
Place a medium cookie scoop (about 1 tables) in each mini muffin cup
Bake in preheated 375 oven for about 12-13 min. Or until they feel solid when u touch the top. Remove from oven.
Immediately use back of jigger or a Thumpkin (if u have one) to indent the “cookie”
Place about a teas of apple filling *(see below)in each cookie. Cool and serve with drizzled caramel over the top or warm with a scoop of Blue Bell ice cream.
Apple filling
Using a can of apple slices Lucky Leaf is a good brand, cut each apple slice in time pieces. Place apples in about 2 Tablespoons of melted butter in a small skillet. Add 2 teas cinnamon and 1/4 cup brown sugar to apples! Cook over low heat until butter and sugar are melted and apples have softened a bit! 
Working on the web site to see if we can get it to work.
Before you stick out your tongue and start saying you don’t like cabbage, let me just say that even if you don’t, I promise this is a casserole that you will love. Someone told me that I needed to watch Cooking With Brenda, a little lady from Alabama. Well, I did today. I’m not much for watching a bunch of videos, but I couldn’t help but watch when she started making several Southern casseroles that just screams, “yes, I belong on the veggie table at every church put luck or family reunion!” Immediately I ran to the kitchen and made it. Then when we had it for dinner, we both knew that this would be at our Easter meal with ham and a pot of green beans, and, at Thanksgiving with turkey and dressing. Trust me on this, it is just delicious! As Ms. Brenda said on her video, just always use what you have in the pantry and you can’t go wrong. (unless you are like some of our family members who don’t have anything that resembles any Campbells cream soups or a stick of butter in the house. But….this casserole will make it worth the trip to the store to get some soup and butter.
I used a 9×9″ baking pan, Brenda used a oblong casserole baking dish. Because there are only two of us, I figured that how much damage can a 9×9 do to Randy’s cholesterol as he goes at 9 am in the morning to get it checked. So here it is folks and you can thank me later.
1 small head of cabbage, cut into pieces, no certain size, just chopped up, not real fine or small. But not too big. Ask the papa bear how to get it just the right size.
1 small Vidalia onion or 2 small onions, chopped
Place the cabbage in the dish, place the chopped onion over the cabbage. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.
Stir 1 can of Cream of Chicken ( i only had cream of celery on hand so used that)
1 cup of Mayo
1/4 cup melted butter.
Stir the soup with the mayo and melted butter. Spoon over the onion-cabbage mixture being sure and covering all over.
Using 1 sleave of Ritz crackers, smash the crackers and put in a clean bowl. Pour 1 stick of melted butter over the crackers and stir to combine.
Sprinkle 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese over the cabbage-onion mixture. Then sprinkle the butter-cracker crumbs over the cheese.
Place in preheated 350 oven for 45 minutes. Remove when casserole is bubbling and cracker crumbs are golden brown. Thank you Ms. Brenda for sharing this awesome easy casserole with us. It is my new favorite veggie.
We have been trying to have more meatless meals these last few months and with dishes like this, it is just amazing how much we do not miss meat.
Had this dish tonight with cornbread dressing, baked sweet potato, black eyed peas. It was a feast fit for anyone who loves Southern Cooking!
Last week I picked up a box of Krusteaz Cornbread mix. We were having a pot of beans and wanted to have cornbread. For some reason when I saw this box, it dawned on me that I had never made this brand before. Knowing that I do love the Krusteaz brand of other items like their muffin mixes, I decided to throw caution to the wind and get of out my comfort zone of just always making Jiffy cornbread. Actually, it was good, but maybe it is just me getting old and set in my ways, but I still like the Jiffy the best. BUT…..on the back of the box was this great sounding salad. So (please forgive me Krusteaz people) I will be making this recipe, but using Jiffy cornbread instead.
Dressing:
1 cup Mayonnaise
1/4 cup sweet pickle juice
Salad:
3 cups baked Cornbread, cubed in 1″ squares
12 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
3 cups chopped tomatoes
1 cup finely diced celery
1 cup finely chopped purple onion (I think I will use 1/2 cup purple onion and 1/2 cup chopped green onion)
1/2 cup chopped sweet pickles
Dressing: Whisk together the mayo and juice and set aside.
Salad:
Layer half of the cornbread in a large bowl. Combine remaining salad ingredients; spoon half over cornbread. Drizzle half of dressing over these vegetables. Repeat the layers. Chill 2-3 hours before serving.
Makes 12 servings
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