BLOGEMBER – DAY 3 – 5 THINGS I’M THANKFUL FOR

  1.  My biggest blessing is that I’m cancer free for almost 9 years now.  I’ve been thrown a multitude of other health issues to struggle through, but I wake up EVERY single day blessed to try and get past any new issues.
  2. I’m thankful that despite all the health issues and other road blocks that have been thrown our way I’m able to maintain my positive attitude and outlook.
  3. I’m thankful for my husband who has stood by my side through EVERYTHING.  My health has put us to the test of our wedding vows and through it all he has truly been my knight in shining armor.
  4. I’m thankful that my family is safe from all the fires that have been raging in California where 95% of them live.
  5. I’m thankful that the weather looks like it will be beautiful for the drive to the wedding next weekend. 😀

BLOGEMBER – DAY 2 – FAVORITE THANKSGIVING MEMORIES

There are sooooo many memories, but one of my favorite memories actually revolves around some not so fun (at the time) events. 

This memory has different perceptions on the root cause of the issue, but the end event is what I remember most and cherish. 😀 I was super young so I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few things.  Thanksgiving was going to be at our house.  Lots of prep was going on in our tiny kitchen.  The table was set.  The appetizers were arranged in the living room.  The turkey was basting perfectly.  The side dishes were baking and steaming.  Desserts were ready.  The grandparents, aunts and uncles were all on their way.  AND then the unimaginable happened – the garbage disposal backed up!  Not your every day back up, but the oozy black sludge kind that won’t go away!  The kind that prevents you from using the kitchen sink until a plumber arrives.  This was also before cell phones so there was no way to stop the travelers from first arriving at our house.  Many were coming from long distances.

My grandparents only lived 3 blocks away.  The decision was made to move the day to their house, but ALL the food was at our house.  Ultimately, my grandfather brought over their station wagon and laid all the seats flat (one of the better features of an old Chevy tank).  My dad put down a blanket and my uncle and I climbed in.  All the food was then arranged around us so we could try and stabilize it on the ride over to grams and gramps. 

I don’t remember now if anything was too cold or even too warm, but I do remember that in the end we still had a fun Thanksgiving at grams and gramps house with the whole family and there was a HUGE mess to clean up the next day at our house 😀

BLOGEMBER – DAY 1 – THE BEST THING ABOUT THANKSGIVING

I came up with a new way to keep my momentum on posting regularly.  Here’s my list for the first half of November.  I ended up choosing BOLGEMBER because the “ember” part made me think about a burning fire and harvest colors.

This is a tough category because there are SO MANY items, but I’ll narrow it down a bit.

  • BEING THANKFUL – I know it sounds cliche, but it truly is one of my favorite things about thanksgiving.  For one, it’s a non-religious holiday that is the most inclusive of our culture.  If you’re American, it is assumed that you celebrate Thanksgiving.  Setting aside time to give thanks for one’s blessings, along with holding feasts to celebrate a harvest, are both practices that long predate the European settlement America.  While Thanksgiving as we know it has adapted to fit what we like and shows very little resemblance to the original American Thanksgiving, the reason for it still exists.  It is the one holiday that is NOT really commercialized and is only about spending time with family and friends!
  • FRIENDS & FAMILY – MEMORIES – When I was a kid, most things were closed on Thanksgiving.  You’d find an occasional store open for last minute things like milk, bread and butter to put the finishing touches on your big dinner day, but for the most part EVERYTHING was closed and the day was spent at home with family and friends, eating yourself into comas, playing or watching football…
  • FALL SEASON – Since it is primarily a harvest celebration, the timing of the season is GORGEOUS!  The reds, oranges, yellows and ultimately browns of the leaves falling and the grasses dying for the season lend their “hands” to the gorgeous display of color.
  • AMAZING FOOD – When I was a kid my dad would start the prep days before for the BIG day.  He made the most amazing turkey and cornbread stuffing!  Over the years I have recreated his stuffing to my own Sourdough Herb version and added my own homemade cranberry relish to replace the canned stuff.  Personally, I’m not fond of the canned relish, but my son will eat nothing but! LOL 😀  The desserts used to be traditional pumpkin, apple and mincemeat pies, but I have adapted these also to add some homemade apple bread pudding, “regular” bread pudding (recipe below) and baked pineapple.  The gravy is still dad’s recipe minus the giblets. 😀  I see I need to get a few new pictures this year to update my recipes.

  • OFFICIAL START OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON – I have to start the day with the Macy’s parade while I’m bustling around the kitchen!  It is a tradition I’ve never grown out of.  It is also okay to officially start watching Christmas movies, though truth be told I do year round thanks to Hallmark 😀  There are also a handful of Harvest festivals and craft fairs to attend.

 

BLOGTOBER – DAY 31 – HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS

We don’t do a ton of Halloween decorating, but we do get enough kids to do enough.  The neighborhood does quite a bit too. This is our front porch decorations.  

This is George and Elmer right after we assembled them. 

This is George and Elmer after it started getting dark.  The are on a timer, but are also motion activated so it was hard to get a picture.

This is Wilbur my pumpkin totem.  He’s unique that on the back side is Frosty the Snowman making him the perfect fall decoration – Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all in a single decoration – just turn him around!

 

 

BLOGTOBER – DAY 30 – CREEPY READS

Today’s prompt is “CREEPY READS”.  I love Stephen King novels, but I’m more of a watch his movies than read his books type.  There is an author I love to read, Jana DeLeon, and while her books can be creepy, some of them are just eerie or mysterious bordering on creepy!  But, they are also fun.

  • The Miss Fortune series (16 books) is the most fun with titles like Louisiana Longshot, Lethal Bayou Beauty, Swamp Sniper, Swamp Team 3, Gator Bait, Soldiers of Fortune, Hurricane Force, Force Hunter, Later Gator, Hook – Line & Blinker, Change of Fortune, Reel of Fortune, Swamp Spook, Fortune Furlough, Cajun Fried Felony and Swamp Santa which just came out.
  • The Ghost-in-Law Mysteries (8 books) are actually funny with titles like Trouble in Mudbug, The Helena Diaries, Mischief in Mudbug, Showdown in Mudbug, Resurrection in Mudbug, Missing in Mudbug, Chaos in Mudbug and Rose and Helena Save Christmas.
  • The Happily Ever After series (7 books) are eerie and funny too with titles like Dead Man Talking, Once Hunted  Twice Shy, Fooled Around and Spelled Love, Witchful Thinking, Total Eclipse of the Hunt, Curses and Cupcakes, and An Everlasting Christmas.
  • The Shaye Archer series (7 books) is the most creepy with titles like Malevolent, Sinister, Diabolical, Wicked, Unseen, Dreadful and Damned, but always leans towards positive outcomes.

BLOGTOBER – DAY 29 – FAVORITE SYFY type of SHOWS

For some Halloween means SCARY, HORROR type shows and movies like Nightmare on Elm Street or Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Me, I prefer the science fiction type shows.  The SYFY channel used to be one of our favorite places for many types of series and a go to on Saturday nights for a good movie.  In recent years, NOT so much.  But we do have some favorite series from years gone by.  Many of these fall into several categories, including comedy.

  • Z NATION – Z Nation begins three years into a zombie apocalypse caused by a virus that has already killed most humans. In the days just before society fell apart, Murphy was one of three inmates who were unwilling participants in a government-approved experiment. Each inmate was given a different test vaccine. Murphy was the only one to survive the vaccine injection. He is the only known survivor of a zombie bite who did not turn into a zombie, and his blood contains antibodies that are mankind’s last and best hope for a vaccine. The series revolves around his travels with a small group of survivors being led through the apocalypse by Simon “Citizen Z” Cruller, who watches the world from his multiple computers. The group is looking to use him to solve the zombie pandemic.
  • EUREKA – A year prior to the season five premiere, at the time production for that season was nearly done, the series was originally going to be renewed for a sixth and final season but was instead cancelled. In addition, Syfy ordered an extra episode to wrap up the series.
  • HAVEN – Loosely based on The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. The third-person narrative concerns the investigation of the body of an unidentified man found on a tiny island off the coast of Maine. Lacking any identification or obvious clues, the case reaches nothing but repeated dead ends. Over a year later the man is identified, but all further important questions remain unanswered. The two-person staff of the island newspaper maintain a longstanding fascination with the case, and twenty-five years later use the mysterious tale to ply the friendship and test the investigative mettle of a post-graduate intern rookie reporter.
  • SLIDERS – The series followed a group of travelers as they used a wormhole to “slide” between different parallel universes.
  • WAREHOUSE 13 – The series follows two U.S. Secret Service Agents when they are assigned to the secretive Warehouse 13 for supernatural artifacts. 
  • SANCTUARY – A doctor and her team study and protect the strange creatures living in their world.
  • STARGATE SG1 – The story of Stargate SG-1 begins about a year after the events of the feature film, when the United States government learns that an ancient alien device called the Stargate can access a network of such devices on a multitude of planets. SG-1 is an elite United States Air Force special operations team, one of about 20 teams from Earth who explore the galaxy and defend against alien threats such as the Goa’uld, the Replicators and the Ori. The series draws upon Egyptian mythology, Greek mythology, Norse mythology and Arthurian legend.
  • STARGATE UNIVERSE – A group of people form the crew of the ancient ship Destiny, which travels through the universe looking for evidence of an intelligence from before time itself.
  • STARGATE ATLANTIS – Universal Stargate teams explore the city of Atlantis in far away galaxy. This was a spin-off from the  Stargate SG-1 series.
  • THE LIBRARIANS – A group of librarians sets off on adventures in an effort to save mysterious, ancient artifacts. 

BLOGTOBER – DAY 28 – WISHLIST FOR THE FUTURE aka FALL BUCKET LIST

It’s been fall around here for over a month already. I’ve actually already done a few of these things, but I still added them to the list, because they are multi-step items or I might want to do them again. Completed items are in red and italics. I’d love to hear what is on your bucket list for fall. Here’s my list.
  • Make a new and inventive dessert EACH week
  • Make apple butter
  • Roast marshmallows around the fire
  • Curl up with a terrific book
  • Take a drive to look at fall foliage 
  • Sip hot apple cider
  • Finish several smaller quilts
  • Eat chili – I have several different flavor chilis and try to get them ALL worked into the fall months.
  • Decorate for Halloween
  • Try a new soup or stew
  • Make pumpkin cut out cookies with my new sugar cookie recipe
  • Make some crafts with the munchkins
  • Collect leaves and seed pods to decorate
  • Take a walk and enjoy the color changing leaves
  • Make jam
  • Make homemade cocoa
  • Bake banana, pumpkin and lemon bread
  • Bake cookies
  • Make Neighbor plates of goodies
  • Make homemade Vanilla
  • Make Christmas gifts
  • Watch Christmas movies
  • Watch MORE Christmas movies
  • Listen to Christmas music
  • Get updated addresses for my Christmas card list
  • Burn cinnamon and spicy pumpkin candles
  • Read by candlelight and lamplight
  • Decorate House
  • Read a wonderful Christmas book 
  • Decorate our Christmas tree
So this is my list, what’s on your list? 

HAPPY HOMEMAKER & MENU PLAN MONDAY week 44 of 2019

Be sure to join us and link up with
Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom for Happy Homemaker Monday

GOOD MORNING Where did last week go?  It was Monday morning and I was working away.  Then, the next thing I knew it was Sunday afternoon!  Obviously it was a busy week and I did get a lot accomplished, but I really prefer a little slower pace where I can remember what day it is and appreciate it a little more!  Sorry I was so late visiting everyone last week, but will try VERY hard to make the rounds earlier this week.

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW & THE WEATHER OUTSIDE & WHAT I’M WEARING

Fall is in full swing here with very cool crisp nights full of freeze warnings and cool days that warm up for a couple hours in the afternoon.  Despite the picture above, more often than not mornings begin a bit gray and foggy only breaking to sunshine around lunch time for a couple hours – one of the main reasons why “snowbirds” travel south for the winter.  It will only get worse after next weekend with the time change. I wrote the 2nd because I do it BEFORE I go to bed even though it technically doesn’t change until 2AM on the 3rd 😀 

I’m on my way to the shower, but will putting on some warm socks to go with my Levi’s, teal hoodie and favorite gray POPS.

 

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE When I was at the grocery store the other day, there was a man handing out samples for this amazing Epiphany Pacific Northwest LOCAL caramelized balsamic vinegar.  One of the things that really attracted my attention was he had SEVERAL different labels for what turned out to be the SAME vinegar.  He was market testing and trying to educate people that it can be used on SOOOOOOOO many more things than what are traditionally done. 

He had samples with various “odd” foods for people to try and I have to say I was PLEASANTLY impressed.  One of those “odd” foods was a banana.  So I sampled and I probably looked like a kid in a candy store.  I know my eyes got huge with surprise and a grin broke out on my face.  This is the long way of saying that my morning banana is now made with a large drizzle of this amazing caramelized balsamic vinegar!  Oh and I have my normal hot water.

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE, WEEKLY TO DO LIST, HOUSE & CRAFT PROJECTS, APPOINTMENTS

  • LAUNDRY, LIVING AREAS & KITCHEN… needs a bit of touch up which I will work on today…
  • YARD… hubby finished the new flower box this past week (part of what took up so much of our time) and I repainted (for the last time) the metal trellis that the clematis grows around in the spring.  The trellis had not been done previously (and should have been) so many areas of rust have eaten through beyond repair 🙁  It does have what repair could be done and a FRESH coat of paint giving it a couple more years of life.  Hubby also got the water spigots covered and the hoses drained.
  • APPOINTMENTS & TO DO… I finally have the appointment with my primary this week, a nail appointment and hubby has some things too at the end of the week.  We got my step dad home from rehab at the end of last week and home health care is supposed to do an assessment this week too.  And of course all the wonderful kiddies and their costumes will be here Thursday!
  • BLOG… I need to get caught up on BLOGTOBER and am still working on a few future recipe posts.  I’m also working on BLOGMAS and a new to me set of blog prompts for November that I think I’ll call BLOGTHANKS? or BLOGEMBER?. I’ve made the list of prompts to start next Friday, but can’t settle on a name yet 😀 I’m NEEDING the prompts to keep me motivated and not have my subject matter get stale.
  • CRAFTS/PROJECTS… I have a couple of snowmen projects to finish, but have just NOT had the time yet 😀

ON MY MIND / THINGS THAT ARE MAKING ME HAPPY

WHAT IS ON THE DVR, I LIKE OR ON THE LIST TO WATCH/SOMETHING INTERESTING I WATCHED We caught an old movie from 2010, The Next Three Days,  on Amazon with quite a few big names (Russel Crowe, Liam Neeson, Elizabeth Banks, Daniel Stern to name a few) and are not sure how we missed it when it originally came out.

I’M READING Swamp Santa by Jana Deleon – one of the Miss Fortune series

FAVORITE PHOTO FROM THE CAMERA

There was an evening with an absolutely beautiful sunset!

George and Elmer here would like to wish you a Happy Halloween! 😀

INSPIRATION & A FUNNY

There’s still 2 months left to 2019 – make it so!

HEALTH & BEAUTY TIPS

HOMEMAKING/COOKING TIP

MENU PLANS FOR THE WEEK
MONDAY – POT ROAST & VEGGIES with SALAD
TUESDAY – SOUP KETTLE – an ANTIQUE RECIPE re-creation
WEDNESDAY – MINI CHICKEN POT PIES & SALAD
THURSDAY – C.O.R.N.
FRIDAY – MINI CAJUN CHICKEN POT PIES
SATURDAY – SWEET & SOUR BRISKET
SUNDAY – GARLIC LIME CHICKEN ala SLOW COOKER

SUCCESSFUL RECIPE LINKS FROM LAST WEEK

FEATURED PARTY LINKS FOR THIS WEEK

RECIPES TO LOOK FOR THIS NEXT WEEK

  • SOUP KETTLE – an ANTIQUE RECIPE re-creation
  • CAJUN CHICKEN POT PIES
  • GARLIC LIME CHICKEN ala SLOW COOKER

FYI to make you smile!

I’m sitting here watching football with hubby and there was a commercial for a “NATIONAL” pinata day and hubby was like that’s not a thing!  I just laughed and pulled out the laptop to look it up. 😀  Not only was it National Pinata Day, but I found a site for National Day Calendar that will tell you what ANY given day is a “NATIONAL” thing of day.

SALTED PEANUT OATMEAL COOKIES another ANTIQUE RECIPE

This is my new GO TO recipe!  SO SO Good!

SALTED PEANUT OATMEAL COOKIES another ANTIQUE RECIPE yields 5 dozen cookies
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening (crisco stick) (next time I’ll use half crisco stick, half butter)
3 LARGE eggs (next time I’ll only use 2)
1 teaspoon PURE vanilla
1 ½ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup peanuts
¾-1 cup golden raisins
½ cup peanut butter chips

  • Preheat oven 350°.
  • In a small food processor grind the peanuts and set aside.
  • Cream together the shortening and both sugars.
  • Add eggs one at a time and blend well.
  • Add vanilla and mix well.
  • Whisk together the oatmeal, ground peanuts, flour, baking soda and baking powder.
  • Sift flour mixture into wet mixing until blended well.
  • Fold in raisins.
  • Bake 12-15 minutes.

BAVARIAN MEATBALLS ala SLOW COOKER

These meatballs make a GREAT appetizer, are also GREAT on a sandwich or served over rice or pasta. But the most preferred method is with mashed potatoes so there is spot for the YUMMY gravy!

BAVARIAN MEATBALLS ala SLOW COOKER
MEATBALLS
1 pound ground chicken
½ pound ground pork
1 LARGE egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon garam masala
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
FRESH ground sea salt and black pepper

GRAVY
½ cup chopped onion
¼ cup PACKED brown sugar
1 envelope LIPTON onion soup mix
12 ounces beer or ginger ale
2 cups shredded Gruyere cheese (optional – best on sandwiches)

  • Mix everything together until well blended.
  • Form into 1 inch meatballs. It will make about 36.
  • Coat the slow cooker insert with non-stick cooking spray.
  • Place meatballs in the slow cooker.
  • Combine the onions, brown sugar, onion soup mix, and beer. Pour over and around meatballs.
  • Cook on low 3-4 hours until meatballs are cooked through.
  • Serve over rice, pasta or on hoagies*.
  • Top with cheese.

NOTE*: 

  • If serving on hoagies, place split buns on baking sheet, place meatballs on buns and top with cheese. Broil 4-6 inches from heat source for 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted and golden.
  • If making the “LOAF” mix EVERYTHING (except the cheese) together and add 1 cup Panko crumbs.  Press mixture into a 9×13 baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Top with cheese and return to oven for 5 minutes until cheese is melted.