Category: MISC

Slow Coooking Thursday ~ Mexican Baja Casserole

Slow Cooking Thursday is hosted by Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.
MEXICAN BAJA CASSEROLE

1 pound ground beef
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1/3 cup salsa
4 oz. can chopped green chiles
1 large can white corn
1 large tomato, chopped (seeds too)
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
6 corn tortillas, cut into strips
2 cups Sargento Mexican blend shredded cheese

  • Brown the beef, onions and garlic in a frying pan.
  • Drain the fat off. Add the salsa, chiles, corn, tomatoes and seasonings. Mix well.
  • Spray slow cooker with a coating of PURE.
  • Transfer mixture to slow cooker.
  • Layer the tortilla strips, meat mixture, and cheese.
  • Repeat until all ingredients are used (2-3 layers)
  • Cover and cook on low 4 hours.
  • Let rest 10-15 minutes before serving.
  • Garnish with sour cream.
I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by aura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!

T13 #12 13 of my favorite IDIOMS


Most of these definitions were courtesy of Idiomsite.com
  • Mind your P’s & Q’s ~ It actually means, Mind your Pints and Quarts. In Pubs when people would start arguing, the bartenders would tell them to mind their own drinks… being pints n quarts!
  • Back To Square One ~ Meaning back to the beginning. This idiom was first heard on football radio commentaries during games. Football isn’t easy to commentate on on the radio so they had the idea of splitting up the field into notational numbered squares so that listeners could be told where the ball was. Whenever the game restarted after a break it was ‘back to square one’.
  • Jaywalk ~ Dates back to 1884 meaning an annoying or stupid person. Later evolved to mean crossing in the middle of the street because anyone who walked into traffic was not considered too smart.
  • Kilroy was here ~ Kilroy was actually a goods inspector for the army and that was his signature way of marking something as “inspected.”
  • Knock Someone Down A Peg ~ This originates from the days of prohibition in the US. A peg was a measurement of alcohol and the saying has something to do with drinking games. Presumeably it was respectable to down more pegs and someone who was very proud or boasted would need knocking down a peg or two.
  • Loose Cannon ~ This idiom originated when ships were damaged due to unsecured cannons rolling around on deck. Today, the term can mean anything unpredictable.
  • Raining Cats & Dogs ~ in old England, they had hay roofs on their houses and the cats and dogs would sleep on the roof. When it rained, the roofs got slippery and the cats and dogs would slide off of the roofs. There for it was “Raining Cats and Dogs” or possibly it stems from the Norse Mythology. Cats were believed to represent the wind and dogs represented rain. Different animals represented different weather and natural phenomenon.
  • Devil’s Advocate
    The word “Devil’s Advocate” actually comes from Canon Law. In the Vatican, when arguments are being presented to have a person declared a saint, the Church appoints an official to find flaws in this evidence. This official is called the “Devil’s Advocate” and has come to mean a person who espouses a cause just for the sake of argument.
  • COCK & BULL STORY In England there were many, many pubs, the most popular names of pubs being The Cock and The Bull. By the time a story had travelled along the roads, from pub to pub, Chinese Whispers had taken effect. I am not sure it doesn’t even date back to Chaucer and the Inns used by travelers, where news only traveled by means of word of mouth from Inn to Inn, and unsavoury and elaborate stories abounded. The difference being, it was not just a couple of pubs in a village, but many pubs, all over the country, from town to town. I don’t think merely being heard in two pubs is “enough” for a Chinese whisper to be fully “Cock and Bull” in nature. I also heard a similar story but the pubs were all along a certain road in London, not sure which. Another slant is that is means the kind of story someone gives to cover up the truth, “an elaborate Cock and Bull story”.
  • Cup Of Joe
    According to the June 2004 issue of Sea magazine (volume 96, no. 6, page 22): When Josephus Daniels became secretary of the Navy in 1913, he prohibited alcohol aboard all U.S. Navy vessels – making coffee the strongest drink that could be served on board. For that reason, sailors started referring to a mug of strong coffee as “a cup of Joe”.
  • Three Sheets to the Wind
    Refers to when someone has had too much to drink and is therefore unsteady. When I visited Nantucket Island – which has several windmills, that the operators would adjust the number of sails dependent upon how strong the winds were. One rule that they had to follow was to always keep an even number of sails (either 2 or 4), opposite each other so that the windmill remained balanced. If they ever had 3 sheets, the windmill became unbalanced and extremely wobbly and unsteady.
  • Who Let The Cat Out Of The Bag
    The origins of this phrase come from when farmers would sell chickens at market. Most of the time they would just throw the chickens in a bag and sell them as however many were supposidly in there. But cats were cheaper than chickens so many times farmers would put a cat into the bag with the chickens and if someone suspected something they would open the bag. At that point the cat would jump out of the bag, thus giving away the secret. Eventually the duped customers would open their burlap bags revealing the cats and thus “letting the cat out of the bag”. This expression is often used when the real truth has been revealed.
  • Scapegoat
    A scapegoat is someone who gets the blame for a scandal/mistake; typically, the scapegoat is either completely innocent, or at least is only one of many guilty people. This originates from the Old Testament of the Bible, in which a goat was sent into the wilderness for the sins of its owner. Lev 16:10: “But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.”

Tuesday's Romance of Cookery and Housekeeping

Ginger Ale Salad

1 small package lemon flavored Jell-O
1/2 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cup ginger ale
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup cherries, seeded and chopped

  • Pour hot water over gelatin to dissolve.
  • Add the sugar and lemon juice.
  • Cool slightly and allow to thicken a bit.
  • Add remaining ingredients and pour into mold.*
  • Chill in refrigerator.
  • Unmold and serve on lettuce leaves.

*I made individual cups that didn’t require unmolding.

Modified from a recipe (page 46) adapted from ‘A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband’ by Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron

I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by aura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

I saw this on the chalkboard of a roadside cafe this morning as we began our journey and thought it was so funny that I had to share.

DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE THE WORLD
IS A CAR WASH AND
YOU’RE RIDING THROUGH
IT ON A BICYCLE?

Monday's Musings ~ Kindness

My good friend Barbara gave me a spring makeover last night when she made my new header and then surprised me with this great button to match. So my first few quotes for this meme will be about kindness in hopes of reminding us all how important it is to have kindness in our life and to give kindness to others.

There’s a new meme in town.
She would love to see you there and have you join in.
She’s made many more fun buttons for you to choose from.
So, head on over to
Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers
to join the fun.

Make it a habit to do nice things for people who’ll never find out. That best portion of a man’s life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
~William Wordsworth*

*(pg5) Highlighted in Yellow A short course in living wisely and choosing well by H. Jackson Brown Jr., author of Life’s Little Instruction Book and Rochelle Pennington

Menu Plan Monday

We wait for this week and next every year! It’s our annual family camp out with hubby’s family. Every year it gets a little bigger and we always have at least 85-90 people show up for the week. We have to travel cross country now so some of the meals are eaten out, but after we get there all the cooking is done at the camp ground.

Monday ~ Clean out the fridge
Tuesday ~ out so I have no dishes
Wednesday ~ B,L & D ~ TRAIN dining car
Thursday ~ B,L & D ~ TRAIN dining car
Friday ~ B,L & D ~ sis-in-law’s choice
Saturday ~ B, L & D ~ sis-in-law’s choice
Sunday ~ B, L & D ~ sis-in-law’s choice

I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by aura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!

Camera Critters

My Friend Misty has started a new meme.
It’s taken off really well. Who can resist critters?
Come join us and have some fun.
You can get more information at Camera Critters.

We had a vet appointment this day and had his harness on, but wanted him to have some fun first so we decided to give Gunner his new summer toy a little early since he’s missed some serious springtime yard fun with all the snow we’ve had. At first he was hesitant, but then he caught on.

Speckled Egg Spring Journal Swap

I received this awesome package from Terri at Primtiques.
She did such an awesome job. I love the pocket full of my favorite flower and the awesome extra papers and charms to create my own!

Hosted by the Speckled Egg
My partner for the speckled Egg’s spring Journal swap is Terri and she said her favorite color was a robin’s egg blue. I started with a VERY colorful perforated page journal that I was luck enough to find and spray painted it what was supposed to be a light blue, but it turned out more seafoam green (good for spring). I had taped off the blue robin so it wouldn’t be covered with paint. Then I found a ribbon with several blue shades in the weaving. I found these 3D robin’s egg blue pansy flowers that I lined the edge of the book with. The journal I found had a satin ribbon page marker which I embellished with the robin’s egg blue pansy type flowers. I embellished with inspirational sayings on the front and on random pages. In honor of spring and new growth I tried to keep it simple not to mention I loved the high school type dymo tape sayings. High school was the last time I used a composition book. I’ll let Terri do the majority of the embellishing with her words, drawings and doodles.

April Winner & The Perfect Summer Pay It Forward – A trio of summer mystery & romance

The randomly picked number is: 4 Notes of Jubilee

Lowest Number
Highest Number

If you found this useful, consider visiting the main Violets Are Blue website.

I have up for grabs what I believe to be the perfect beginning to summer, a trio of mystery and romance reads just for the ‘perfect summer’, pun intended. The three books are:
The Perfect Summer by Luann Rice
Star Light Star Bright by Katherine Stone
Cut and Run by Carla Neggers
You can read more about them at Amazon. These are all brand new and just ‘extras’ (like there’s any such thing as extra reading material. As far as I’m concerned, there’s never enough.

This giveaway will close on May 31st. I will send the books shortly after that in time for the beginning of summer. All I ask in the spirit of this book exchange, is to please pass them along to another reader after you read them whether it be by a blog giveaway, neighbor or library donation.