Went to a Southern Living Luncheon this past week. It is requested that All recipes that the ladies bring be from SL. This salad was a hit as well as all the other dishes that were served. The theme this month was “Picnic” and our hostess even found a small quilt that had watermelon material as well. We had mason jars of iced tea or strawberry lemonade! We feasted on fried chicken, ham sandwiches (also know as funeral sandwiches), baked beans, pickles, pasta salad and then topped it off with caramel corn and Angel Food Toasted Croutons with homemade Vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries! Need I say that each dish was simply wonderful and the talk around the table was just delightful! If all this sounds great, think of starting your very own SL Lunch group. You will love the fellowship and great food that graces the table. We keep our group to 6 as it makes it easy to manage no matter the size of the home. We take turns hosting and we also pick themes that then determine what dishes to prepare. We began the first meeting with salads, then this month the hostess choose Picnic! In Oct the Host has already choose Brunch as the theme. We meet every other month so is always great to catch up with each other and look forward to a great time together! This recipe I’m posting goes so well as a side dish for just about anything!

Ingredients

1 cup chopped pecans (toasted)

1 pound fresh broccoli

1 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup diced red onion

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

8 ounces bow-tie pasta, cooked (½ of a 16-oz.

package)

2 cups seedless red grapes, halved

8 cooked bacon slices, crumbled

1 cup chopped toasted pecans

Toast pecans in a preheated 350 degree oven for 3-5 min. Watching closely so pecans don’t not burn. Cool and set aside

Cook bow tie pasta according to directions and drain! Set aside to cool!

Chop broccoli Into small pieces.

Stir Mayo, vinegar, sugar (I deleted the salt but add if you wish) together until smooth!

Add the broccoli, pasta, onion, grapes and stir gently. Stir in most of the dressing if not serving rt away. Then right before serving add the bacon and pecans and rest of dressing. Or you can leave a little of the pecans and bacon to sprinkle over the top before serving. I made this about four hrs before serving!

Our Sunday School class at church (yes I’m old and still call it Sunday School) has been having members share their testimonies! It has been so wonderful to hear how God has worked personally in each of these we have heard thus far. My Testimony was going to include how I still try to tell the Lord what I’m going to do and still expect Him to bless it instead of asking Him what His plan is or for guidance. I’m a slow learner in that respect! Even after seeing how much smoother and easier things went when I followed His will, I would still fall back into…”I want to do this or that and live here or there”…without even thinking about what Gods will was for us! Well yesterday it was my turn! I had told our Director that I would give my story either Aug 20th of 27th! (See I told you I still tried to control matters). But he texted me on Thursday and ask if I could do it yesterday! I quickly began to read over the words I had written trying to memorize as much as I could! I worked all day Fri on it as I didn’t want to have to read it, I wanted to be able to just talk about it! We had been told to try to limit it to about 10-12 min still giving our teacher time to teach the lesson! Saturday morning at 5:30 am the Lord woke me up and laid on my heart a new direction that He wanted me to tell! So I got up and started all over, writing about all the ways God had led us to different houses in different cities and how He had used each of these houses for His purposes! As i began to think back over the last 27 years we had been married, there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to tell all the ways He had worked in our lives allowing us to use our homes for so many wonderful ministries! But after praying about it, I decided to use the ones that had the most impact on in Randys’ and mine lives! As I thought back on so many different stories, I couldn’t help but stop and thank Him for the many blessings we both had received when we allowed Him to guide us and surrender to His will instead of trudging ahead with what we wanted! First of all you need to know that I love to move and in 27 years we have moved 13 times! That was the old me. It’s not as much fun to the new me! Just having to now pack and unpack isn’t as much fun as sitting with a piece of pie watching Wheel of Fortune! BUT…..in each of those 13 houses God has gone before us and used each and every one in so many different ways! Instead of making you read about every one of them, I thought I would share just one that has meant so much to us both as it shows Gods Hand of guidance as well!

This testimony begins with the fact that right after Randy and I married in 1996, we realized that with our track record, it was going to take more than just love to make this work, so we walked down the aisle of First Bapt Dallas and surrendered our marriage and our hearts to the Lord! It brought a whole new meaning to our marriage. We told the Lord that we wanted to not only surrender our marriage but our home as well. That He could use it for whatever He wanted! Each house that we have lived in has so many precious memories! Each move to a new city gave us so many different ways in which we were allowed to serve! God is a God of not only forgiveness and grace! ( not to mention second and third chances) but He gives us so so much more than we ever deserve! He is the God of impossibilities that ultimately shows us that He wants to be involved in our lives! For the sake of time (if you are still reading this) , let me just tell you one story of how God blessed us in leading us to one of our many houses!

We were looking to move closer in from Frisco to Plano to Randys job! We found a house that seemed to be perfect for all the entertaining we loved to do. It was in an area of town that we had driven through many times, always dreaming of living in! Well a house became available in our price range. We put an offer in and it was accepted. We were both so excited that finally we were going to be moving to this neighborhood to a house that mentally, I had already arranged the furniture, started picking out wallpaper and began to plan the first party. When Randy went for the inspection, he called me to tell me that we would not be buying the house. It had to have structural repairs, all new wiring and so much more! I cried! We both were so disappointed! This dream house would have been a nightmare to repair! Well this inspection was on a Wednesday and on Saturday, we went back to a house we had looked at before putting in an offer on our dream home! When Randy ask me what I thought, my reaction was “I guess we need to take this one, it will be ok”. My heart was not in it and I was having a pity party. But we bought it, made it us with new wallpaper and paint and carpet! The Lord knew He wanted us there and before 6 months was behind us, different ministries began to ask us if they could use our house for different purposes. This house was right across the street from our church and it became a hub of activity! We housed summer interns, a friend used our home on Monday nights for a program for girls healing from abortions! The Women’s Ministry used our home for so many different aspects that it seemed like every week there was something The Lord used our home for! It was truly a glorious time in our lives and the last night before moving to CA for Randys new job, we sat there on the bottom step of the inside stairwell and cried. We both knew that Gods Hand of protection had been over us in not allowing us to buy a house that would have cost a fortune to repair but also was so far from our church that all these ministries would not have been able to use our house. He had led us to a home that we were so grateful to have lived! A home that had truly been used for Him and His purposes. As we locked the door behind us for the last time, we knew, God had been with us in that place as He would once again lead us to a new place that would be used for His glory for new purposes! And He did! That is the faithfulness of our God! He goes before us as He did the Israelites as He led them to a place of Hope and Promise!

His love endures forever!

Knowing that traveling is now a little more challenging with Randy needing a Walker, wheel chair and my knee needing a replacement in next couple of weeks, we had some concerns about how the trip would be!

This morning we left for Phoenix to go see our kids, a new family member (yes Jodi got married), meet some new extended family, watch a grandson play the role of Linus in Charlie Brown, celebrate Caleb turning 14 and test our surviving skills in 114 degree (but a dry heat, yeah like that really helps to stay cool) heat! (I hope I finish all the chocolate I brought with me before we get off the plane)

One of our kids. Jason, picked us up to take us to the airport so we didn’t have to worry about parking our car and then trying to load all our extra items onto the cute little polka dotted busses that drive you to the airport. We felt one concern was now covered. As we entered the airport, one of the SWA employees immediately came over with a wheelchair for Randy and took us over to the ticket counter.. He took care of the cane and Walker and got us checked in ever so quickly and then walked us over to another porter who pushed us thru security and all the way to gate 18. His name was Titus and we began to talk about the stack of Drivers License’s that he had a rubber band around. They were from 33 different states he had lived before coming back to Dallas. I ask him where he went to church and he told me that he went to a baptist church over in Richardson! It was then that I told him he needed to come hear our choir of about 300 one Sunday. He continued to push Randy to the seating area as we continued our visit where we discovered that some of his good friends and some of his family owned the first Mexican restaurant Randy took me to when I first moved to Dallas. Ojeda’s! He gave us a card with his family member that worked there and told us to tell them Titus sent us. He smiled the entire time that he was with us and told us how much he loved working in the airport and had been here for 4 years after retiring from a previous job! He then took Randys Walker up to the ticket agent to get it tagged and brought it back over to us. We felt like royalty! Back at security, while waiting for my bag to be screened, I was standing beside a most beautiful young lady who was so sweet and friendly and helped me gather my things since I had mine and Randys. As soon as Titus left us to go help others I couldn’t help but thank God for going before us today and taking care of each and every concern we had. Not only did He take care of some new challenges of traveling in a new season of Parkinsons, but we got to hear how the Lord healed Titus after a brain aneurysm! He was not expected to ever walk or talk again…..But God…. He is still a God of the impossible and is still in the healing business! What a joy it was to hear this sweet man’s testimony!

We are still in the plane headed to Phoenix and as I thought back over the entire morning, the blessings that we have already experienced were just a wonderful reminder of Gods presence and faithfulness to us! I thought about the conversation I had with 3 young ladies behind me when I went to buy us a coffee and pink drink to the sweet young lady at security, who told me how to do my eyelashes if I wanted to try them, after I complimented her on her eyes! Then Of course Titus! Before we left home this morning, we prayed and ask the Lord to go before us and help us! He did just that but also so much more. On FB this morning, I had read and took a picture of a list of ways to be kind to others. It is so good, I thought I’d share it with you at the end of this post! And of all the places that we sometimes experience people being rushed or sometimes rude because of altered or cancelled flights, today was just a morning of pure joy! And to top it off, we made sure we stopped by Sprouts last night for double dipped chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate covered covered gummie bears and butter toffee peanuts!

(Yes Dee, thank you for introducing us to those and we are still addicted to them). We are so excited to be able to come see family we have not seen in a few months! And my guess is that we will come home with some new great memories! But will probably need to stop back by Sprouts for more chocolate.

I truly love going grocery shopping! Right now until I get my knee taken care of I load up on pain pills and wait 30 min to take effect before heading out so it isn’t so painful to shop. Yes I know I can order online and I do that as well, but days like today I just want to go and do it myself. We didn’t need much so we headed out to pick up some frozen dinners for lunch to avoid having to cook with the heat and my knee! As I was looking at the Dolly Parton brownie mixes and the new Dolly Parton biscuit mix, a lady with bright blue hair came up beside me and we began to talk. And that is why I love going to the store! She was telling me she was planning on making hamburger steak tonight with gravy but it was so hot she didn’t know if she would make the hamburger Patty or just a salad. She ask me if we ever made hamburger Pattie’s and of course I said “yes”! Randy loves them cooked with onions and gravy. Well she proceeded to tell me that when she makes them she grates butter in the meat mixture and soaks some bread cubes in milk before shaping the meat into patties .

She said it keeps them so soft and moist. But she said to be sure to use a cheese grater for the butter. So that is what I will make for dinner sometime this week. I think for a pound of meat I’ll use 1/2 stick of butter and 2 pieces of bread cut up into cubes soaked in about 1/4 cup milk. Add 1 egg, pepper and garlic powder to taste! She didn’t give me the amounts she used but I think these amounts will be perfect for a pound of hamburger!

I’ll use Pioneer Brown Gravy Mix to add to the meat patties , cover and cook on low until meat is done. Serve with mashed potatoes, green beans or fried okra . Makes a great southern meal

And don’t be afraid to speak to others in stores. You never know what great cooking tips you might come home with!!!

Last night before the storm blew in, we were sitting at a club our son belongs to waiting for one of the best fireworks shows to begin! As I sat there and “people watched” , it reminded me of years past! Families were gathered around on blankets while kids played tag, or ran around with glow in the dark necklaces, with their faces painted. The wind was cool and the laughter was rampant! Folks seeing other families they knew would stop and hug each other and visit! I didn’t see one iPad or game being played on any phone just phones out taking picture after picture! Was such a beautiful reminder of what we use to do on a daily basis and not just on a special day! It was so nice that one could almost forget the unrest, the mass shootings, the political lines, the anger, the depression that seems to be all around us and entitlement that we live with now on a day to day basis! It was a night that allowed us to just forget all the negatives and enjoy the sheer laughter and focus on what we could have if we could let our hearts to be led to the One who gives true peace and fulfillment! That our Land could be filled with His goodness and enjoy the benefits of all the blessings that He wants to give us! As everyone began to run for their cars, (I waddled quickly), there was still laughter and kids were still trying to play until the huge lightning that appeared made parents scramble to get their quilts and belongings. we realized that we would not be seeing any fireworks that night! But my spirit wasn’t any less dampened by the rain! It had been a joy to just be out and feel the coolness of the evening! But more than that, it gave me a picture of what America still is, in spite of the problems, it is still the land of the free and the home of the brave! We sometimes just have to be reminded of that! God bless America! Happy 4th!!!

This is a new twist of the original one that is made with chocolate instead of white cake mix. I made the original one last week for a lady who ordered it and as I began to mix it up, I started thinking of why couldn’t I make it with a chocolate cake mix…so today that’s just what I did! We have a birthday dinner tonight celebrating our sweet Payton who turned 9 yesterday and Randy’s also who’s is the 2nd at our son and DIL house! Payton requested her own cherry pie, so I made her that and am taking a cake for the rest of the family as well, so she doesn’t have to share her pie! I have not tasted the cake yet of course but just the smell and frosting has me thinking that this might become one of my favorite cakes. I used a Duncan Hines Devils food cake mix and white chocolate instant pudding mix for the cake. (To use the instand pudding g mix to the cake mix, yo Heiko add 4 eggs, room temp, 1 1/4 cups water and 1/2 cup oil) mix well and then add a cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of chopped up Oreo cookies to the batter before pouring batter in greased 9×13 baking dish. Baked it for 25 min at 350 and let it cool!

First layer of frosting, I spread some chocolate frosting over warm cake and let it the cool completely allowing the frosting to spread over top of cake with a knife and set before adding the vanilla frosting!

First picture is raw batter going into oven

Second picture is with the chocolate frosting

Third picture is with the vanilla and crushed Oreos.

Chocolate Oreo Cake

Next Layer was vanilla buttercream frosting and then sprinkled crushed Oreo cookies over the top. When we cut the cake tonight, I’ll take a picture of the finished product and will let you know how well it was received. I hope not well, so I can have some left over to bring home! I can be selfish like that as this is my birthday month!!!

It has been a while since posting! I’d like to be able to tell you that I have been busy traveling, or contributing to obtaining world peace or simply having so many social functions that I simply didn’t have the time to write! But that is not the case. The fact is that I have been very busy trying to age gracefully, all the while pretending that nothing had changed in our lives except the occasional Dr appointments or waking up to find a new little wrinkle that we hope no one will notice!

Aging gracefully is hard work. A very good friend of mine who is 10 years older than I am use to tell me “you just wait little missy, first it’s the ailment of the year, then the month and then the week”. I use to laugh at her. I’m not laughing anymore.

Yesterday I was determined to make enchiladas.

Days of planning what to cook use to be so simple, just decide to make what I wanted, check to see if I had necessary ingredients and if not, run to the store to get the necessary ingredients. Come home and make it! So very simple. Well having a “few” issues with my knees and sciatica the last few weeks, My diet consists mainly of ice tea, Advil and Tylenol! Oh and lots of chocolate! Just enough food to not allow all the Advil to destroy my stomach. Thank goodness chocolate is so healing.

So yesterday when we were headed home from Randys speech lessons (Parkinsons speech lessons) we stopped and picked up lunch, came home and ate and made our plan to make enchilada. But that didn’t happen. We did go to the store after taking a quick 30 min nap. It just took us a little longer than anticipated shopping. Because of my knee hurting and Randy walking slowly, we inched our way to the drug and cosmetic department. Friends, it is sad when you have to stop at the end of each drug aisle to see if you need anything down said aisle. And yes we did need something down most of the aisles . First there was the arthritis cream, more Advil, then the Fung Off for toe nail fungus, then wart remover for the wart that magically has appeared on my knee and we cannot forget the Icy Hot for the sciatica pain. By the time we had read all the labels to see which was best for each item, we were beginning to loose our ability to walk clear across the store for food! But we both swallowed another Advil, with our drink, and quoted Bob the Builder, “can we do it?…yes we can”. And yes we did. After an hr and a half, we drove home, put away the cold foods and collapsed on the couch. , I looked at Randy and said, I can’t make Enchiladas tonight. I’m just exhausted! We door dashed Chick Fila. We had spent $216 at the store, and came home too tired to cook any of the food we had just bought! We are now on a quest to see how others grow old gracefully. Apparently we didn’t take that class when they offered it at our over 55 clubhouse when we lived in AZ. Or if we did, we have forgot what they taught us! Tomorrow is a new day and since we won’t have to go to the store, maybe I’ll have the energy to cook! And Randy reads up on investing into Door Dash.

As we gather with family And friends to remember all the ones who have sacrificed for us to have the freedom we have, may we gather at the table to give thanks for their sacrifice! Thank God for the precious people who have sacrificed so much! May we never forget! Last night our Memorial Day began at some of our kids’ and had smoked ribs that were just delicious! I took dessert and this lemon blueberry biscotti!

All I can say is “this is good enough to start a biscotti company”. Thinking of calling it Biscotti Babe! Seriously a week or so ago (Mandy) one of my DIL’s ask me to make a lemon biscotti for her. I starting looking at different recipes and found this one. I added my own take on ingredients but it is simply divine (and that sweet friends is being typed in a most southern draw). This is one of the best recipes I have found in a long time. I took Mandy a plateful last night. I think she is now indebted to me forever! HA. It was a hit!

1/2 cup (room temp) of butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs at room temp

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

Zest of one large lemon

1/2 teas almond extract

1 teas lemon extract

Mix sugars with butter. Add eggs until well beaten. Add extracts and zest of lemon

In another bowl mix flour, salt and baking powder! Add to butter mixture. Stir in 1/2 cup chopped or slivered almonds, 2/3 cup dried blueberries and 1 cup of white chocolate chips. Divide dough into 2 equal amounts and Shape in to 2 football shaped logs on parchment paper on baking sheet. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of sugar over each log. I pat the sugar onto the dough assuring that the sugar stays on the dough Bake in 350 preheated oven for 25 min. Remove from oven and reduce oven temp to 325. Slice each log diagonally and place slices back on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 min. Remove from over and turn each slice over and bake again for another 8 min. Turn oven off, open oven door a little and leave in oven for 1-2 hrs. Remove and cool before placing in covered dish or bag to store.

Zest of one large lemon

1/2 teas

Made these last night (thank you Paula Deen) to have along side our buttered potatoes, fresh green beans with bacon and onion and broiled broccoli! There was enough left over for breakfast! Served slices with bacon and toast! Was almost like a quiche! One bowl recipe! Will be great to serve with pinto beans and flour tortillas, as wel

Why is it that each new season conjures up different foods that come to mind? This Spring season makes me want to have luncheons and get the pretty pink napkins out and plates that just scream “yea the sun is out!” One of the most favorite things of mine is to have ladies who share the love of gathering together and visiting over a table of good food. Lately I have noticed that there is a group of ladies all over the country who gather and have a Southern Living Luncheon. There are groups forming all over and they make all the recipes from SL magazines! So that is now a new bucket list of mine. To find ladies who would love to meet for lunch and eat all the wonderful SL recipes that have been given through the years. This recipe is a great spring dessert and comes from a Southern Living Sept 2005 magazine. Refreshing and oh so good!

15 lemon cookies, coarsely crushed (about 2 cups)

1 (21 oz) can blueberry pie filling

1 (8 oz) container extra creamy Cool Whip, thawed

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle Brand) not evaporated

1 (6 oz) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

Sprinkle 1 tables of crushed cookies (each) of 8 parfait glasses. Spoon 2 tablespoons of pie filling over crumbs.

Mix Cool Whip with condensed milk and thawed lemon concentrate together! Stir until well mixed spoon 2 tablespoons of this mixture over pie filling sun each glass! Repeat layers once. Top each glass with cookie crumbs. Cover and chill 4 hours before serving!