What's on the Agenda This Week????

Hi there everyone, hope you enjoyed your day. Today was a little chilly, in the 50's and cloudy with a little drizzle....the leaves are falling quickly. Burrrrr it's feeling like cold weather is upon us today. I'm thinking I should start bringing in my ceramic animals soon, so they don't freeze their petunias. Hahahaha!!

Roasting some vegies in the oven right now. This is an old picture, but you get my drift. On the cookie sheet tonight are green peppers, garlic, carrots, zucchini, broccoli and a few tomatoes seasonings are olive oil, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper. I will roast the vegies till done, pour them into a pot of canned tomatoes and cook till tender and soft.

Next step will be to blend with my immersible blender. I might add a little wine to the pot and the rest of the spinach I have in the frig. The finished product will look like this below picture. I will be cooking up some ravioli for JP tonight, along with a salad and garlic bread. If there is any sauce left, I might freeze some and then use some for a pizza.  I noticed on www.mybizzykitchen.com she entered a contest, 1st place is $10,000. "Pizza My Way" Pizza contest by Sebastiani Vineyards.....all you do is make the sauce and crust, take a picture of the pizza and yourself, tell how you made the pizza and enter....Humm...may just try it...."one may never know unless that one tries"

Well, I just tested some roasted vegies and sprinkled a little Parmesan cheese on the vegies. Not bad, not bad at all.

The end of this week.....I think Chinese Dumplings or Potstickers will be on the agenda (hope I can get some in the freezer). I already have the napa cabbage in the fridge....hopefully the cabbage will last that long. If not...there is always some other dish I can make, like cabbage and tomatoes, that's always good.

Festival Foods has a sale on Chicken breasts and Beef Burgundy roasts this week. I found a really easy recipe, called "2-Ingredient Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken" for the crock pot. Chicken breast and BBQ sauce (homemade or bought) cook for 4 hours. The chicken will pull apart....okay I am in for that...anything easy. The beef burgundy roast sounds good too, using this same technique.

For a change in bread, I might try making Pita Bread. Never made Pita bread, but I suspect it will go well with the BBQ Chicken and roast beef.

What else is on the agenda for this week? Make a few cards of course. I found a really neat technique using alcohol inks and glossy cardstock. Should be fun to try it. I have a month to put together 50-75 cards for Hospice....so that should be on my agenda for the month of October.

Ordered some new stamps from Stampin-up. So I will be looking forward to receiving them in the mail. Also ordered a kit to make my own stamp....have been wanting to do something like that, so yes, I will be looking forward to receiving that in the mail also.

Time to close this blog...golly...only one more day left in September.....where oh where is 2014 going too??? Have a great day and keep looking up!!!! Cheers - Louise

Silent Saturday

Taking a day off.....enjoy......................................Cheers ~ Louise

Chinese Dumplings or Potstickers

Hi there everyone. Aren't  you just loving this wonderful Fall....Indian Summer is always so beautiful. I still have tomatoes on the vines, so I am hoping these next few days they will ripen. Heirlooms seem to take longer for some reason. Picked a few tomatoes tonight, maybe I will put them in a bag and see if they turn red faster.

Well, today I made some Chinese Dumplings. Tina from www.kittykatkards.blogspot.com  gave me the recipe as she is pretty good at making them, they sounded so good, I thought I might like to try my hand at it. You can find the recipe here (sorry about the sideways picture, I wanted to get everything in one picture but forgot to turn it the right way before downloading onto this blog). When you go to the recipe, go to the second section, that will be the recipe that I followed.

In the top picture is the dough, mixed and cut in pieces....2 cups of flour and 1 cup hot water, mixed together and knead then roll into 3" circles. You can see in the top part of the picture I have the filling all mixed together. Ground pork, bok choy, onion, cornstarch, sesame oil, pepper and salt and yes, 1 tablespoon of wine.

In this picture I am rolling out the dough and spooning the filling on the dough and pinching it together on the ends.

Here is a plate of dumplings all ready made....I might have gotten about 35-40 dumplings made. JP ate about 12 of them for lunch....there's no telling how many I ate...gosh they were soooooo goooood!!!

Here they are frying up in the pan, then I added a cup of hot water and let them boil till the water evaporated. The sauce was just low sodium soy sauce and sesame oil....mmmm tasted so good.

This might be the end of the first batch and the beginning of the second batch, as you can see I have some ready to fry up.



Here is JP enjoying his little lunch....he even commented on how the filling even smelled good....he likes when I try something new....this might make it on the dinner table a couple more times. Guess I will have to find out how many calories each dumpling has. Ummmm, do I really want to know???

 

 

Well you have a great week and enjoy the beautiful weather we are having. Cheers ~ Louise

A Very Short Weekend

Hi there everyone. Wow...where did that weekend go to??? And it is Monday again...how fast these days go. Here I was overwhelming myself with so much I had to accomplish before JP's family came for a visit...and it is all over. Guess I got everything done, actually had 15 minutes to spare before they drove up the driveway...to paint my nails.

We had a good time. Sat around and talked, then walked to the park, which was 4 blocks from our house....geez, we hadn't done that in the 23 years we lived here. What in the world have we been doing with our lives????? It always helps when you have a little tyke tagging along to keep things going. First he had to see the fountain and play in the water, then he spied the slides and swings and was off and running for them. Then we walked home and got ready to go to the Bed and Breakfast they were planning to stay at. What a beautiful old house. JP's family was able to stay in the castle part of the house which was a little suite with a Jacuzzi. Will have to ask if they used it....that would be my first choice to try out. Their breakfast was Lemon poppy seed stuffed waffles with whipped cream and Prince Albert Eggs (whatever that is). Callie said breakfast was delicious!!!

We did go out to eat at a restaurant called "Little Chicago" I had a prime rib sandwich, JP had a cheeseburger. The others had porkchops, chicken and little Dominick had mac and cheese. We came back to the house, talked awhile and then had dessert. Ice cream, cake and cookies. Then suddenly they were gone, to spend the rest of the evening at the Bed and Breakfast. A totally FAST weekend....today...I rested all day. I was actually pooped from all the activity of the last couple of days. I guess my age is catching up with me. My mind is willing, but the body is not anymore.

When the company left, I cleaned up a bit, put my pj's on and went to bed...which was very early for me, like 10:30pm early. Then in the distant, I heard thunder.....yes it was raining...and then I began to worry about the roof leaking and putting out the buckets in the right place to catch the rain drops.....when will this end?????

We did have a couple of roofers come and look at the roof this past week and give estimates to the agency that may be helping us....but have not heard anything yet. In the mean time, we wait. For them to fix the problem or for the ceiling to cave in. Which one will come first????

Well, time to close this blog before I get too depressing. You all have a great week and keep looking up-past all the problems. Somewhere, somehow these problems are all taken care of in the Cross of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Cheers ~ Louise

More Cards In Fall Colors

Hi there everyone. How are your days going? It was a beautiful day here today....I love these fall days, wish they could last forever. Thought I would get a blog done this week, as I will be busy cleaning house the next few days. Family from Chicago are coming for a visit....so you know how that goes....lots of dusting and cleaning before they come. I have been so lax in my cleaning lately....oh well, what gets done will get done. Just hope I can get those dishes out of the sink and keep them out for at least a day or two...hahahaha!!

Been working on some more cards. Mostly for Hospice, as the next meeting will be 11/7, I need lots of Birthday and Thinking of you Fall and Thanksgiving cards. Sooooo, a few cards every night will build a good supply. I usually like to have at least 50-75 cards in the stash.

So the top card, Birthday Blessings will be one of the cards included in that stash. Bought some turquoise ribbon today, so I will use that instead of the white. I saw this idea on the Internet, on a blog, but can't remember where. Liked it so much, but did not have the stamp. Hunted high and low and finally found it at JoAnn's. This card does not look exactly like the card I saw, but it's pretty close.

In the above pic, this is one of my new embossing folders, I just dabbed ink on the leaves to give it that fall effect. I may use some orange ribbon instead of the white for the next few cards.

I invested in some "Stampin Up" stamps. Been having lots of fun working with them. In the above picture is one set. I have seen many, many ideas using these stamps, so I am looking forward to making lots of cards. I like the idea of drawing free-hand, the frame around the card, really adds to the card.

Now in this above picture is my own idea, just playing around with the stamps, this is what I came up with. Colorful and fun to do.  I will be adding these cards to my Etsy store in the next week or so. As soon as I get more cards made, I will add them to this blog.

Have a great rest of the week and keep looking up.
Cheers ~ Louise

An Afternoon of Making Cards

Hi there everyone, hope you had a wonderful Saturday...it was a very gorgeous day....wish everyday could be like this one. Pretty soon the leaves will be falling off the trees...so try and enjoy everyday until then.

Made some cards at a friends house...the black flower is a die cut, I think. We had to poke the little sections out and then dab some glue on it to stick...basically and easy card to make.

This was our first card that we made. Copic markers were used. the clouds were dabbed on with a sponge and cloud form....I do know a fisherman, so when his birthday comes around next year....he'll get this card.

This is one of the Halloween cards we made....I really had a good laugh with this one..."It just isn't Halloween...without a full moon" Sending this card to a friend in South Carolina....she loves Halloween...I am sure she'll get a laugh out of it too!!! I am not much into Halloween card making, so if I can figure out how to send the bag below....she is getting this one too....maybe I will fill it with some candy...hahahahaha! So she can have her own "trick or treat" bag.

This is the inside of the "full moon" card which I thought was rather fun too!!!

So there you have it.....a little bit of card making for the week. I have been busy making other cards...a few fall cards and birthday cards....that will be in my next blog.

Today I went to a paper sale and made a few cards there also. This warehouse has their annual sale once a year, so I really look forward to it every year...usually find some good deals. and what's really great everything is 25 % off at the register...so that helps.

Well, time to close, you all have a great weekend and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

PS Visit my other blog at: cards4ubylouise.wordpress.com

Wordless Wednesday............

            Hahahahaha.....have a great day!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Fall Flowers and Vegies

Hi there everyone. Beautiful day today....isn't it? Well, at least it is beautiful here in sunny Appleton, Wisconsin!!! But that probably will change in a few days. Rain is in the forecast. But for today,  I will take this...the temps today are in the 70's. To me, this has been a most beautiful summer, not too hot and not too cold..........just right. 

Took some pictures yesterday while walking Kylie. My vine is growing beautifully. I forgot it's name...will have to look at some old blogs to find the name, it's a very simple name....sheeze, it's name escapes me right now.

The last couple of years this vine took up the whole side of the porch. I think the cold winter affected it a bit. I think it grew just perfectly this season. Pretty little white flowers, aren't they?? I have some purple Clementius growing along side this vine. They bloom in the spring, these white ones in September. To the left of the vine is my little tomato plant, producing little cherry tomatoes.

A closer look at the pretty little flowers......they do attract a lot of bees though...so I am very careful when around them.

In these next two pictures are some tomatoes. I got the seeds from a store on Etsy. They are an heirloom variety....I think they are called "black cheery" there is a lot of them growing, not sure if they will turn red, but right now they are half black and half green. (Oh my, can  you see the reflection of me taking the picture in the tomato...how funny)

In this picture are some more tomatoes...I had a thought yesterday to grill them along with our prime rib, onions, peppers and some red tomatoes........oh my what a great meal. These grilled black and green tomatoes....yep, I would do it again!!!!

In this last picture are my cucumbers....I had a good crop this year....lots of salads, dill pickles, sweet pickles and gherkins. All from this plant and my old wheel barrel with cucumbers growing. Yes...a good year for cucumbers from my garden. Must have been the right weather conditions all summer long.

Well, time to close here for a bit. Follow me on my other blog at: cards4ubylouise.wordpress.com  I am talking about beets there, another pot of borscht is going to be made in the next few days. Or maybe Lasagna soup...we'll see.

You all have a great rest of the day and keep looking up!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Just a Thought 4 the Day

Hi there everyone....hope you are having a great day. It is so beautiful outside....I really should be outside rather then inside doing this blog......don't cha' think????? Well, in a little while Kylie and I will take our daily walk.

So today, would have been my father's birthday, he would be 96 years old....wow! But instead, at 43 he died of a heart attack in 1961(53 years ago). He had just finished reading the minutes of the previous meeting for the VFW and the meeting was coming to a close....my dad got up from where he sat, walked across the floor and passed out. My mother was called right away....my dad was rushed to the hospital, but was already dead. I was sent over to a neighbor's house. That was a terrible night, I remember sitting on the couch and got really cold. The lady gave me a blanket to warm up. Somehow, I already knew something was wrong, no one told me, but I already knew. Do you think God prepares a heart before something happens so we can cope better with that situation....I don't know....maybe. I remember another neighbor coming to get me and walking me across the street with his arm around me telling me that something had happened to my father......but I already knew something had happened to him. I walked in the house, took one look at my mother and said I was going to take my dogs for a walk.....It seems that's when I would talk to God....but this night, I was very angry with God....yeah, I know, it wasn't his fault, but who else could I blame???

In later years I finally realized why my father had died an early death....I depended more on my father then I did on my "heavenly father". A hard lesson to learn, I know and who knows what else I was thinking back then, but looking back on that time.....I can see where God gave me a lot of strength to go through that time....it was hard for a 14 year old to lose her father, the one man I loved so, so very much.

Who knows....I only hope my Dad was saved and I will meet him at the gates of heaven when I pass on or get raptured from this earth.....either way....I win the race!!!!

Nothing much going on today...I am going to make some scones tonight and stuffed peppers for JP's dinner....yum, bought a big pepper yesterday...looking forward to having a bite of that. By the way, I am looking forward to buying another piece of  "prime rib". I finished up the last of it last night along with a cheese and greens omelet, that sure was delicious.

Well time to close you have a great rest of the day. If you would like to visit my other blog at wordpress, the address is: cards4ubylouise.wordpress.com

Have a good one, Cheers ~ Louise