It’s amazing how “company coming to town” will inspire me to clean house. It’s so easy to look past dusty baseboards and dirty windows. We seem to think that eventually it will rain and get the windows either dirtier which makes us think it’s no use wasting our energy, or the rain will kind of clean at least the outside of the window. But, the last couple of days, as I began to look around and try to look at our house through the eyes of company, I began to panic. When was the last time I actually dusted the whole house, not just dusting the table that we would be putting our feet on, alas, not wanting our socks to get dust on them?

Not wanting our friends, who are coming, to think we qualify for the Hoarders Program, we have been busy this week throwing out things that have been…

Mr. Smarty Pants made his point that he was tired of running back and forth to get baking items for me when he brought this home this weekend. I put it beside the 25 lb sack of sugar that he made me buy and told him that I had had enough of his smart alec suggestions, that unless I got the desire to make 100 dz hot tamales, he can just march right back to the store and buy my butter flavored Crisco, which I’m sure is much more healthy than the bucket of lard.  So while I wait for him to get back with my Crisco to make these cookies, I don’t want him to know that I am actually using the lard to make pie crusts. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.  It truly makes great pie crusts but when people comment and tell you that that…

Last evening we went to watch the Ranger vs Angels play. We were excited to be going out to an evening of eating junk food without guilt. Why is it, when you are enjoying sports events or carnivals, car shows or festivals, we eat as though none of the calories will turn to fat? We pigged out on two tubs of popcorn, peanuts and foot long hot dogs. But we did have the sense to wash it all down with a diet Pepsi, after all, we do have to watch our cholesterol. We didn’t concern ourselves one iota with the fact that we had consumed more calories in one night that we had all week. But it was ok, we were watching baseball.

It was at this point in the evening, when we realized that we had eaten our way through the first 4 innings. We then began to notice two…

Taken from our Frisco Style Magazine I tore this recipe out and can’t wait to make these cookies. Our daughter from Phoenix is coming in for a few days on Thurs. I told her that in celebration of her sticking to a new exercise program and following a healthy diet plan, I will have cookies and pies ready to celebrate her weight loss. She didn’t sound very excited when I shared that with her on the phone just now…but maybe she just wasn’t fully awake yet.

Cookies:

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed solid

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 cup pumpkin

2 cups flour

1 teas baking soda

1/2 teas nutmeg

1/4 teas round cloves

1/2 teas ground ginger

1/2 teas salt

1 tables ground cinnamon

Frosting:

3 table butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teas…

I baked this last night to take to the famly reunion and it was just delicious. I heard people all over the room asking, “who made this cake, it is so good!” I was so proud to have been the one who brought it. When you bake it, you will know why it was the favorite dessert at the reunion. It is in the latest Southern Living Magazine. October Issue, 2010

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 lb Gala, or Granny Smith Apples (about 4 large) peeled and cut into 1/4 in thick pieces

Preheat oven to 350. Bake in pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 5 to 7 min or until lightly roasted and fragrant, stirring halfway…

This past weekend, we were invited to a friend’s house up in the mountains at Big Bear Lake. We were told, “well, you poor things, you have had so much company and must be tired, why don’t you and Randy come up for the long weekend so you can rest, sit out on the patio and read and we will just relax and have lots of quiet down time.”

Well, my goodness, did that sound like a great weekend or what? So Randy and I headed to the mountains Friday afternoon, with nothing packed except lots of books to read, an extra pillow for those long afternoon naps and pen and paper for writing some long overdue letters. After all, we would have plenty of time to write, being that we would be sitting outside with our feet up, laying our heads back to soak up the gorgeous sunlight, all…