I am in the mood for this...
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| Picture found here. |
Or maybe this...
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| Picture found here. |
This would work....
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| Picture found here. |
I would settle for this.
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| Picture found here. |
Yeah. I need me some caramel apples!
Happy Halloween!!!
Monday, October 31, 2016
Something sweet and sour
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
I wanna be like him...
Who doesn't remember waking up early to watch
Saturday morning cartoons?
I don't think anyone does that anymore.
When I was young, if you slept in, you missed the best cartoons:
The Smurfs, Scooby Doo, Animaniacs, Looney Tunes, etc.
Thanks to DVR, Netflix, etc, there is no need to wake up early
or to even look forward to Saturday mornings...
other that sleeping in.
Well, one of my favorite cartoon characters was Wile E. Coyote.
I love that guy.
I loved him then.
I love him now.
What a great role model.
No task was impossible.
He was creative. He thought outside the box.
When he failed, he got back up.
Every. Single. Time.
No setback, no embarrassment,
no big boulder landing on his head after falling hundreds of feet
was going to stop him from catching that ruthless roadrunner.
In my mind,
even though he never caught that dang bird,
he was always the winner!
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Favorite superhero....
Who is my favorite superhero and why?
Besides the fact that he is a gentleman,
and is always able to see others' motives,
and honestly wants to do the right thing
because it is the right thing to do...
Besides all that....
...just take a look.
Am I right or am I right?
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Erika's Black Bean and Salsa Crockpot Chicken
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
32 oz. salsa
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, drained
flour tortillas
cheese
Any other topping you might like.
1. Place the first 4 ingredients in the crockpot on low
2. Cook for 6-8 hours
3. 30-40 minutes prior to eating remove the chicken, shred the chicken, and return to crockpot
4. To serve use chicken mixture as filling inside the tortillas- top with toppings
**This makes a lot. I use frozen corn- I like it better and sometimes I don't have blcak beans or enough salsa so I just use what I got and it is yummy and EASY!!!!!!!!
32 oz. salsa
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, drained
flour tortillas
cheese
Any other topping you might like.
1. Place the first 4 ingredients in the crockpot on low
2. Cook for 6-8 hours
3. 30-40 minutes prior to eating remove the chicken, shred the chicken, and return to crockpot
4. To serve use chicken mixture as filling inside the tortillas- top with toppings
**This makes a lot. I use frozen corn- I like it better and sometimes I don't have blcak beans or enough salsa so I just use what I got and it is yummy and EASY!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
The state of things
My throat, it scratches,
My nose, it runs.
My head's about to explode.
My body aches,
My ears are plugged
My brain is cloudy and slowed.
My muscles are weak,
My feet, they drag
My bed, it calls to me.
Alright, I give up.
I admit it, I'm sick.
Good night, I'm going to sleep.
My nose, it runs.
My head's about to explode.
My body aches,
My ears are plugged
My brain is cloudy and slowed.
My muscles are weak,
My feet, they drag
My bed, it calls to me.
Alright, I give up.
I admit it, I'm sick.
Good night, I'm going to sleep.
Monday, October 17, 2016
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
"The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards
Goodreads' Summary
On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this story that unfolds over a quarter of a century - in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long-ago winter night. Norah Henry, who knows only that her daughter died at birth, remains inconsolable; her grief weighs heavily on their marriage. And Paul, their son, raises himself as best he can, in a house grown cold with mourning. Meanwhile, Phoebe, the lost daughter, grows from a sunny child to a vibrant young woman whose mother loves her as fiercely as if she were her own.
My review:
I really liked this book. It's about decisions. Some decisions stay with us for the rest of our lives. David kept his decision a secret. Caroline took his decision, made her own and raised his daughter, despite the challenges that faced her. Both were changed by their choices. Kim does a great job of letting us watch their lives unfold. There isn't a lot of language, which I appreciated. It is captivating and intriguing. If you are looking for a good read, look no farther.
Goodreads' Summary
On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this story that unfolds over a quarter of a century - in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long-ago winter night. Norah Henry, who knows only that her daughter died at birth, remains inconsolable; her grief weighs heavily on their marriage. And Paul, their son, raises himself as best he can, in a house grown cold with mourning. Meanwhile, Phoebe, the lost daughter, grows from a sunny child to a vibrant young woman whose mother loves her as fiercely as if she were her own.
My review:
I really liked this book. It's about decisions. Some decisions stay with us for the rest of our lives. David kept his decision a secret. Caroline took his decision, made her own and raised his daughter, despite the challenges that faced her. Both were changed by their choices. Kim does a great job of letting us watch their lives unfold. There isn't a lot of language, which I appreciated. It is captivating and intriguing. If you are looking for a good read, look no farther.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
It isn't Halloween without whoopie...pies!
Ingredients3 c AP Flour
1 T cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t ground ginger
½ t salt
½ t ground nutmeg
¼ t ground cloves
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup Splenda (use could white sugar if you like)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 - 15 oz. can of pumpkin
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat together brown sugar, Splenda, oil and pumpkin. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition, followed by the vanilla. In a separate bowl, shift together the dry ingredients. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
3. Using a pastry bag with a round tip, or a big zip top plastic bag with one corner snipped, squeeze out concentric circles of batter, starting from the middle and working outward until the circles are about 2 inches in diameter.
4. Bake for 11 minutes and cool on a rack.
Cream Cheese Filling
1 - 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 - 16 oz. package of powdered sugar
about a capful of vanilla extract
a pinch of cinnamon (to taste)
Beat together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Frost flat side of half the pies and top with another piece.
Enjoy right away or chill overnight.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
A warm and fuzzy recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
- 1 (46 fluid ounce) can tomato juice
- 1 (28 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice
- 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (Didn't have so I found alternative here)
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/4 cup white sugar
Directions
- In a large pot over medium heat, cook beef until brown; drain. Stir in onion and bell pepper and cook 5 minutes. Stir in beans, tomato juice, diced tomatoes and pumpkin puree. Season with pumpkin pie spice, chili powder and sugar. Simmer 1 hour.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Nooo! Ughh! Ackkk!
The fastest way to get your basement remodeled?
Flood your basement.
The other morning I was driving my son to school and he says, "Mom, there was a puddle of water at the end of my bed."
Noooo!!.
So I ran home and sure enough, there were random puddles on his floor. I checked for empty cups because, hey, he is a teenage boy and there was a high likelihood that is was spilled water. But as I walked around his floor, I could hear the water moving under the laminate flooring.
Ughh!!
I sent out a text to some friends and within minutes I had 6 people assessing the damage.
Apparently the water was coming in from the tiny spaces between the foundation and the cement wall. We had had 2 days of heavy rain...really heavy rain. (I was checking for cats and dogs, to be honest.)
Within an hour, all of my son's floor was pulled up, half the dry wall cut out and about a foot of insulation around the walls. About 1/4 of the adjacent room's flooring, dry wall and insulation had to be removed.
Ackkkk!
So in the coming weeks we will be putting in a sump pump, new insulation, new dry wall and mostly new flooring.
Voila...basement remodeled.
I do not recommend our method.
Flood your basement.
The other morning I was driving my son to school and he says, "Mom, there was a puddle of water at the end of my bed."
Noooo!!.
So I ran home and sure enough, there were random puddles on his floor. I checked for empty cups because, hey, he is a teenage boy and there was a high likelihood that is was spilled water. But as I walked around his floor, I could hear the water moving under the laminate flooring.
Ughh!!
I sent out a text to some friends and within minutes I had 6 people assessing the damage.
Apparently the water was coming in from the tiny spaces between the foundation and the cement wall. We had had 2 days of heavy rain...really heavy rain. (I was checking for cats and dogs, to be honest.)
Within an hour, all of my son's floor was pulled up, half the dry wall cut out and about a foot of insulation around the walls. About 1/4 of the adjacent room's flooring, dry wall and insulation had to be removed.
Ackkkk!
So in the coming weeks we will be putting in a sump pump, new insulation, new dry wall and mostly new flooring.
Voila...basement remodeled.
I do not recommend our method.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Book: Someone Knows My Name
"Someone Knows My Name" by Lawrence Hill
Goodreads Summary:
Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom―and of the knowledge she needs to get home. Sold to an indigo trader who recognizes her intelligence, Aminata is torn from her husband and child and thrown into the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan, Aminata helps pen the Book of Negroes, a list of blacks rewarded for service to the king with safe passage to Nova Scotia. There Aminata finds a life of hardship and stinging prejudice. When the British abolitionists come looking for "adventurers" to create a new colony in Sierra Leone, Aminata assists in moving 1,200 Nova Scotians to Africa and aiding the abolitionist cause by revealing the realities of slavery to the British public. This captivating story of one woman's remarkable experience spans six decades and three continents and brings to life a crucial chapter in world history.
My Review:
I can't believe that I haven't put this book on here yet. I read it earlier this year and loved it. I listened to the audio version and Adenrele Ojo did an amazing job. The book was so good that even if the reader wasn't amazing I would have been moved. I love the determination and positivity of Aminata Diallo. I cannot imagine being taken from my homeland and have my life sold away. Horrible. But Aminata is amazing. Just read the book and you will be inspired.
Goodreads Summary:
Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom―and of the knowledge she needs to get home. Sold to an indigo trader who recognizes her intelligence, Aminata is torn from her husband and child and thrown into the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan, Aminata helps pen the Book of Negroes, a list of blacks rewarded for service to the king with safe passage to Nova Scotia. There Aminata finds a life of hardship and stinging prejudice. When the British abolitionists come looking for "adventurers" to create a new colony in Sierra Leone, Aminata assists in moving 1,200 Nova Scotians to Africa and aiding the abolitionist cause by revealing the realities of slavery to the British public. This captivating story of one woman's remarkable experience spans six decades and three continents and brings to life a crucial chapter in world history.
My Review:
I can't believe that I haven't put this book on here yet. I read it earlier this year and loved it. I listened to the audio version and Adenrele Ojo did an amazing job. The book was so good that even if the reader wasn't amazing I would have been moved. I love the determination and positivity of Aminata Diallo. I cannot imagine being taken from my homeland and have my life sold away. Horrible. But Aminata is amazing. Just read the book and you will be inspired.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Tastes like home
When I was young, my mom would make this stuff called "Tang Tea."
It wasn't tea. I'm a good Mormon girl. My mom would never give me tea.....Although...her mom did giver her a hot toddy when she got cramps...but that's another story for another time.
Tang Tea.
It was an interesting concoction of lemonade, Tang, cinnamon, and some other stuff. She would make a big powder mixture and all we had to do was warm up water (on the stove.. microwaves weren't invented back then.) (Correction....they were invented, but we couldn't afford one.) and add the mix.
It was glorious.
A few years ago, I found this mixture on the shelf in my store. Different name, same delicious drink.
I love this stuff. I stock up on it every Fall and use it clear into March. When we lived in New Mexico I had to order it on Amazon, but now that we live about 45 minutes from the manufacturer, I can find it in most stores.
It's a little taste of home for me.
You're welcome!!
It wasn't tea. I'm a good Mormon girl. My mom would never give me tea.....Although...her mom did giver her a hot toddy when she got cramps...but that's another story for another time.
Tang Tea.
It was an interesting concoction of lemonade, Tang, cinnamon, and some other stuff. She would make a big powder mixture and all we had to do was warm up water (on the stove.. microwaves weren't invented back then.) (Correction....they were invented, but we couldn't afford one.) and add the mix.
It was glorious.
A few years ago, I found this mixture on the shelf in my store. Different name, same delicious drink.
I love this stuff. I stock up on it every Fall and use it clear into March. When we lived in New Mexico I had to order it on Amazon, but now that we live about 45 minutes from the manufacturer, I can find it in most stores.
It's a little taste of home for me.
You're welcome!!
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
It was meant to be
There are 4 people in my house
who wake up to an alarm clock
before 6am,
Monday- Friday;
every week.
This way no-one is late.
no-one sleeps in,
no-one has an excuse.
Well...
The electricity went out
sometime in the middle of the night.
No worries.
Only one of those alarm clocks
is actually plugged in.
(Thank you Apple).
Or so we thought....
Not one.
Not two.
But all four of us
slept past the alarms this morning.
How
does something like this happen?
So very bizarre!
Monday, October 3, 2016
Book: A Torch Against the Night
"A Torch Against the Night" by Sabaa Tahir
Goodreads Summary:
Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.
Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.
But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.
Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.
My Review:
I absolutely love the way ..... writes. Her books are wonderful from the first page to the last. I love her characters. She is able to invoke emotions through her words. I loved the first book in this series, "An Ember in the Ashes." Though not as good as the first, it did not disappoint. There are three stories happening at the same time which often overlap each other which I feel adds more depth to the story. The only disappointing thing about this book is that I have to wait until 2018 for the next installment. Grrrr.....
Goodreads Summary:
Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.
Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.
But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.
Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.
My Review:
I absolutely love the way ..... writes. Her books are wonderful from the first page to the last. I love her characters. She is able to invoke emotions through her words. I loved the first book in this series, "An Ember in the Ashes." Though not as good as the first, it did not disappoint. There are three stories happening at the same time which often overlap each other which I feel adds more depth to the story. The only disappointing thing about this book is that I have to wait until 2018 for the next installment. Grrrr.....
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