What a beautiful day. We have worked outside, pulled out the old flowers left over from last year and generally, just started trying to spiffy up the yard, getting ready for spring. This is just so much fun, to think about how pretty all the yards will look after everyone gets new spring flowers planted. I love this time of year. It also makes me want to clean out closets, loose weight, plan the meals instead of just walking in and opening up the fridge and taking out the first thing I see. But, that thought will not last long. As soon as we begin to work outside, due to the time change which occurs tonight, we find ourselves staying outside until dark. Then we walk in, dirty from pulling weeds and planting and are so tired that neither one of us want to cook, so we end up either grabing a hamburger, frying eggs, or making boxed macaroni & cheese. It is then that I remember my good intentions. We were NOT going to do this. We were going to plan our meals, buy the groceries accordingly, and stick to the plan. But, somehow, that just doesn’t happen. Then we sit in front of the television and watch all the cooking shows, as we are eatting our McDonalds, and I think, “man, wouldn’t it be fun to come in tomorrow night and grab some fresh veggies and make a stir fry, grill the salmon outside and light the candles out on the patio and we would be eatting healthy, and enjoying cooking together and….and….and………and then I remember that it is “us” we are talking about. The “us” that doesn’t stick to plans very well, yes, we have good intentions, but we so enjoy staying outside as long as we can, so I guess that we will probably continue to try to do what we should, but will end up at the hambuger joint, driving back to the house, sitting in front of the tv and start the routine all over again. Oh well, maybe next week, we will get more organized and cook at home more…..That’s it, next week….!
Made me Stop and Make A Phone Call
After reading this which Tina, one of my daughter in laws sent me today, I almost didn’t take the time to read this. I am so glad I did. It made me take 15 minutes and make a phone call to a friend who I had not talked to in over a month. We talked for an hour. It was just so good to hear her voice and we talked about time and how it seems that it just keeps going faster and faster. I want to make the most of the time God gives me. I want to not get down the road and wish I had taken more time for family and friends. Take a moment today and decide to do something that you have needed to do for quite some time. Write a note, or pick up the phone. Take a few minutes to show someone you care about them……It will bring joy to your heart, I know it did mine this morning…..
PERCEPTION
. . .Something To Think About. .. .
Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk..
6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition..
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment aboutperception, taste and people’s priorities.
The questions raised:
*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*Do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.
How many other things are we missing?
How many special persons pass us by and we do not MAKE ANY EFFORT TO get to know them?
Fresh Peach Pie
Fresh Peach Miracle Pie
This is one of the first recipes which I remember making as I entered into my late teen years. My Aunt Gladys, who was my biggest cheerleader, gave me a cookbook which now has old spills all through the pages. She showed me this recipe and it quickly became a favorite of our family.
2 cups diced peeled fully ripe peaches
¼ cup sugar, 1 ¼ cups water
1 small pkg of Jello Vanilla Pudding (not instant)
¼ teas salt,1/8 teas nutmeg, 2 teas lemon juice, 1 tables butter, ¼ teas almond extract
1 baked 8 in pie shell, cooled.
Combine peaches, sugar and 1 cup of the water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Combine the pudding mix, salt, nutmeg, lemon juice and remaining ¼ cup water. Stir to form a smooth paste. Add to boiling fruit, stirring to blend. Then cook and stir until mixture comes to a full boil.
Remove from heat and add butter and almond extract. Cool 5 mins. Pour into baked pie shell. Let stand about 4 hrs or until firm. Serve with sweetened whipped cream and additional sweetened sliced peaches if desired
Amazing and Easy When you are Craving Cinnamon
These are so good, I could not quit eatting them, and I didn’t even get to taste them until the next day. I can only imagine how good they were fresh and hot. They were served at our Bible Study and brought by Jerry McGraw. She has graciously shared her recipe. You will be hooked once you try them!
Miniblinis (rumor has this being one of Troy Aikman’s grandmother’s recipes….I have not confirmed this with him J)
2 – 8 oz. cream cheese softened (I use the 1/3 less fat)
½ cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 loaves bread (get the kind that is not rounded at the top) Cut off crust.
1 Cup butter melted
Combine cream cheese, sugar & egg yolks until smooth
Flatten bread with rolling pin. Just roll out a few slices at a time so it will stay flat.
Spread small amount of the cream cheese mixture on bread & roll up. If desired cut in half at this time.
Dip in melted butter, roll in cinnamon sugar.
Place on cookie sheet that has been sprayed with Pam or use parchment paper. I prefer parchment paper as they tend to stick even with using Pam.
Bake at 400 for 8 to 10 minutes.
YUMMY
2 – 8 oz. cream cheese softened (I use the 1/3 less fat)
½ cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 loaves bread (get the kind that is not rounded at the top) Cut off crust.
1 Cup butter melted
Combine cream cheese, sugar & egg yolks until smooth
Flatten bread with rolling pin. Just roll out a few slices at a time so it will stay flat.
Spread small amount of the cream cheese mixture on bread & roll up. If desired cut in half at this time.
Dip in melted butter, roll in cinnamon sugar.
Place on cookie sheet that has been sprayed with Pam or use parchment paper. I prefer parchment paper as they tend to stick even with using Pam.
Bake at 400 for 8 to 10 minutes.
YUMMY
Traveless Tuesday
Wow, what a whirlwind it has been the last 10 days. We have seen such miraculous sights, dined on the finest of foods and seen some of the sweetest family gatherings. We are back from California. Although it was good to sleep in our own bed last night, I missed waking up, knowing that someone would just come in and clean up our mess, make the bed and there would be coffee, fruit and hot tea waiting for me downstairs. I could get used to this traveling thing. We have had In And Out Burgers, twice, Pork Belly (which I had never had before), three times, pigeon, duck, cavier pizza, chocolate grilled shrimp, raw kibbi, lobster, the best tiramasu I have ever had in my life, had my picture taken with Ryan Seacrest, two other famous people who I didn’t know, but the group that I was with, was just so excited about seeing them and being with them at dinner, so I just went along with the crowd, and hooped and hollared right along with them (but even when they told me who they were, I didn’t know them, except one, who is the owner of Disney). The other guy was the guy in the Twilight Series of movies. The most favorite thing of the whole week, was spending all the time with my sweetie, and experiencing sitting out over the water at NewPort Beach, just enjoying the sunshine, eatting shrimp salad and just relaxing one whole day. We drove down to Laguna Beach, San Juan Capistrano and took some gorgeous pics of the mission there. So that will probably be my next painting. It was just an amazing week. Spending time with some friends, some old, some new. A family whose house we went for an Academy Awards dinner on Sunday to watch the awards, was one of the most fun families. There were all Armeanian and Italian. They treated us as their own and just made us feel so welcome. It was a great reminder of how easy it is to welcome others in our homes and to make them feel loved, special and wanted, if we just take the time. It renewed my spirit of desiring to make strangers who walk in my door feel like they are special and wanted. Yes, we are home, tucked away in our abode for awhile, feeling so thankful for people who love us, here at home, as well as in homes 1500 miles away. God is so good to us. He protected us, He protected our family here and our home. He gave us quite a lot of beautiful things to see, one being the most beautiful and largest rainbow we had ever seen, snow topped mountains….blue water, families getting together and enjoying each other and the feast which they had prepared, green valleys, magnificent architecture, and awesome sunsets………it was a most wonderful 10 days to remind us of God’s love to us. We are truly blessed.
Hello From Sunny California
Can I just write to brag about the glorious weather we are having out here? It has been just beautiful and we have sat outside drinking our coffee/tea, downing the most glorious pastries from Portal Bakery in Glendale, people watching (and yes, I have to admit, dealing with a “little?” deisel fumes from thousands of cars driving by, but still, you get the picture, you can take a few fumes when the weather is so gorgeous.
Anyway, I was reading in my new Paula Deen magazine on the plane ride here and say something that I wanted to share with you. When you are wanting to make meat pies, like chicken cobblers/pot pies or beef and you don’t want to take the time to make or roll out pastry, use crust croutons, mixed with French Fried onion rings you buy in the can. This makes a most tasty dish and you can mix these two and crumble them over the top of your pot pie. Bake at 350 for about 25 min and you have one delicious pot pie. Try it and let me know what you think. I cannot wait to get home and try this. Just knowing the two ingredients she mentions, you know it is going to taste great.
Sunny California
What a most glorious day. We awoke to the sun shinning and not a cloud in the sky. We decided to go to Lake Ave Church and was so blessed. After church Randy said that he had our whole day planned. We were now off to Marstens for breakfast and we sat on the patio and had breakfast, just enjoying the sunshine and the great food. Then we headed over to Simi Valley to tour the Ronald Reagan library. Unbelieveably beautiful. The grounds alone were worth the trip out. Then the Air Force One which was on site for us to tour was just a highlight for us. We had a picture taken of us going onto the plane, so we came away with a great picture of us both giving it the ole “Presdential wave”. We came home and walked around downtown Pasadena and stopped at Il Fornio for pasta and salad. Now, we are back at the hotel, just thinking back about our wonderful first day of vacation here in California. Will keep you posted on our adventures as we anticipate each upcoming day….gotta run, Brad and Angie just called and want us to come over for coffee……….talk to you tomorrow!
Old Fashioned Tea Cakes
1 cup butter (no substitutions)
1 3/4 up sugar
2 eggs
3 cups flour
1/2 teas baking soda
1/2 teas salt
1/4 teas ground nutmet
1 teas vanilla
In bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Stir into the creamed mixture. Knead dough for a few minutes on a floured board until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until firm.
Preheat oven to 325. On a lightly floured surface *(this is where I deviated from the recipe and used the shape and cut method), roll the dough hout to 1/4 ” in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 1/2 ” apart onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the oven. Allow to cool on cookies sheets for 5 min before removing and putting on a wire rack to cool completely. I sprinkled powdered sugar over half of mine and the other half, I used cinnamon sugar to sprinkle over before baking………
FYI on easy shaping and cutting cookies
OK, I discovered something today that I wanted to share with you. I am making old fashion tea cakes to take to one of our friends when we go to California tomorrow. He had told Randy one day that his grandmother use to make this wonderful little cakes that he always remembered, but had not had in years (this is after Randy had been talking about how much I like to bake and then offered to have me bake some for him). So…..I am off to the internet to find a recipe after not being able to locate them in any of mine. The instructions say to roll out onto floured board and cut into desired shapes. I did not have the time to do all that today, so……….I found a round can the size of what I wanted the cookies to be. Washed it out. Dried it and sprayed it with Pam. Stuffed dough in the can, making sure it was packed solid into the can, filling it up completely. Then I turned the can open side down onto waxed paper. I opened the closed end of the can, leaving the lid in place. Using my hand, I used the lid to slide out the dough onto waxed paper. I sliced the cookies 1/4 ” thick and laid them on the cookie sheet and baked them. It was so easy and fast and they are delicious. I sprinkled powdered sugar over them as they were cooling on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. So they are uniform in size, nicely shaped and a great little cookie to eat with hot tea of coffee. I hope our “friend” (that I have never met) is not disappointed. If he doesn’t like them, we will have them with our Starbucks while sitting on the California freeways this week. Will post the recipe after I take a break and have a cookie with my Dr. Pepper.
Rice Pilaf
2 cups rice
1 can french onion soup
1 can beef broth
1 can of water
1/2 cup of butter
Melt butter in dish which you have sprayed with Pam. Add all ingredients and cover and bake for 45 to 50 min in a 350 degree oven. Remove from oven and remove lid. Stir with a fork.
