Toad in a Hole and Walking With Kylie

Hi there everyone. Burrrrrr.....baby it's cold out there. Just got back from walking Kylie...even she does not want to be out there too long. She has her cute little purple sweater on to keep her warm....but a pair of booties would help too. It's not so bad when people shovel their sidewalks, but when she has to walk on the even colder sidewalks with snow on them. Burrrrrr....she runs...pulling me all the way.....yikes, good thing it is not slippery out, I'd be sliding all the way home. She is so happy to be inside, whew, take off her sweater and leash, she is sooooo happy. Now it's time for snacks and a sip of milk. Now she's resting on the lazy-boy...keeping an eye on me and my next move.

Last week I made "Toad in a Hole" Yeah, I know, sounds like a weird thing to make. But, I like weird sometimes, breaks the monotony of life.

"Toad in a Hole" is a very popular dish in England and Australia. Depending on which place you live....the main ingredient is sausage or chicken or roast beef. Then a flour mixture is poured over the meat and baked.

So I used polish sausage, laying them into a casserole dish that was buttered. The other half of the dish has cooked chicken in it. The directions call for lightly browning sausage, but I did not. You could though.

1 lb. pork sausage, cooked chicken or roast beef or half
    sausage and half cooked chicken
1 1/2 cup sifted flour
1/2 teasp. baking powder
1/2 teasp. salt
1 tbsp. butter
2 eggs
1 cup milk
pepper

Fry the sausage until lightly browned and all the fat has rendered. Place the sausages or meat that you are using in a 13x9 or smaller baking dish. To prepare the batter, place milk, eggs, flour, salt, pepper and butter in a blender. blend 1 minute until smooth. Pour batter over sausages and bake, uncovered in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. The batter will become puffed, crisp and golden brown. Serves 4

Another recipe said 350 degrees for 1 hour, parsley was also added. I checked out a few "Toad in the Hole" recipes...so maybe find the one that sounds the best to you.

You will also find that "Toad in a Hole" is the same name for a slice of bread with a hole in it and an egg dropped in the hole and fried.....I have often made that egg dish, but always called it "Egg in a Basket". I saw a Youtube.com recipe where a guy made this egg in a hole with a slice of cheese on top. I thought it was kind of weird, but it worked when he flipped it over.....made one for JP for his lunch, it turned out pretty good.

Well, time to close for the night. Have some dishes to do and go make some Christmas cards for Hospice and for my own use this Christmas. You all take care and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Do You Wanna Go For a Walk???

Hi there everyone, how you all doing? I hear there are storms going through the mid-west today. Stay safe and warm. I think we are supposed to get partly cloudy and warmer temps this week. Getting up to 20 degrees by this weekend....heat wave!! We'll see, as the weather can change so quickly here in Wisconsin. I would love to take off for a warmer climate, but you never know what the weather could be there. Oh well, I can only dream of warmer places.

Thought I would add a few pictures of Kylie today. Whenever we say...."do you wanna go for a walk" oh my goodness does she get excited!! As you see in this picture, she is just a blur. Yep, that's her going around in circles, she goes so fast, I can't believe she does not get dizzy!!! I know I would. She finally settles down so we can put the leash on and then you better hold on, cause she pulls you out the door. Funny how our animals can run our life and we let them.

In this picture the door is opened, sun shinning and she is ready to go. We can only go for short walks, cause some of the neighbors have laid salt down, that is pretty rough on Kylies feet. Plus the ground is so cold, her feet freeze up fast. She also keeps her nose close to the ground, trying to smell all the smells and then starts coughing. So we don't say out long. It's just a quick run down to Kitty's house then back to ours and past John's house and back. Not a long walk but it's better to go for short ones and not get "cabin feaver". I should have taken her today, but "lazy" got in the way. Maybe tomorrow, the sun is suppose to shine and it will be a bit warmer.

I shall close this blog for today. Need to take a nap and then do my taxes....not a pleasant job. You all take care and keep looking up...Spring is coming soon!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Flowers and Antique Roadshow.

Hi everyone....hope you are keeping warm. Going to make this a short blog. Thought I would put a few pictures of last summers garden flowers up today (I am missing my flowers)....need a little warmth to look at instead of ice and snow and cold wind.

In the above picture is my Habiscus. Apparently I cut the bloom off the bush and brought it in the house, putting it in a container of water. I don't think it lasted long though and wilted. I brought the plant in the house for the winter...seems to be doing well with little tiny blooms beginning to appear. More flowers coming in the near future.

This is my lovely white rose......a lovely plant that takes it's time to start new growth in the spring. Last spring I almost dug this bush up because it was taking so long to grow....I thought the hard winter had killed it off. So right now this lovely rose bush is sitting under 3-4 feet of snow right now.......hope it is keeping warm and will bloom again.

These flowers are my zennias....I always love to have zennias growing on the side of the house....flowers to look at as I walk into the house.

It's 2:50am. JP is eating shelled nuts, I recorded Antique Roadshow for him to watch. He does for a little while then dozes off. For some unknown reason this program makes me sleepy too, so while I am typing and listening to the program.....my eyes are getting very heavy.....so maybe I need to close this blog for tonight. So you all take care and keep looking up!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Burrrrr....Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to you and yours. May 2014 be the best ever for you. I for one am looking to better things ahead. If the END of 2013 is a sign of things to come........maybe it won't be so good for me. For the last 4 days my kitchen drain has been backing up and water was not going down, and if it did, it was ever so slow going. So I have plunged and plunged and plunged. and to no avail, plunged some more. Bought some Draino and  then JP attempted to plunge and plunge and then poured draino down and hot water from the facet. Then again he tried it. He went off to work and I took to plunging again. It took me 3 times to plunge and pour draino down and hot water...hot, hot, hot water from the microwave. FINALLY the pipes cleared and I could hear the sound of gurgling water going down the drain.....oh what joy!!!

I guess now I can do the dishes that are waiting to be done. My mother always said, "put a penny on the window ledge and you will always be rich in the new year. Have your dishes and clothes always washed by the last day and you will be caught up in the new year"........huh, not sure that has ever worked for me. Wonder if that works for the husband, have him all fed by 2013 and he'll not be hungrey all the time in 2014?????? He is eating a BLT right now....I have enough bacon for a couple more sandwiches.

I was frying some bacon in the oven this morning while dealing with the drains, plus trying to read some blogs...........my last batch of bacon got a little well done. I opened the oven and a bunch of smoke came out and all of a sudden the fire alarm went off......well, at least we know that works!! I ran for a pillow to wave the smoke away and then opened a window to let the cold, freezing air in and smoke out!!!!

Oh my goodness I have had enough excitement for a morning to last a week. SO, if this is a sign of what next year will be like??????? I am not sure I am ready for 2014!!!!!!

So have you set any New Years Resolutions??? I haven't, can never keep them anyways. I like the picture on my blog today.....a guitar. I have a guitar, maybe this year I will find time to learn how to play it. That would be nice, never too old to learn. Maybe I should find someone to teach me....we could barter, I will make some cards for them if they will teach me a few chords????

Well, I am hoping to see a few more sales in my Etsy store this year......hopefully a few more then what I had last year. Just not sure what people are looking for. But I am thinking maybe a set of 12 Thank you cards, a set of 12 Birthday cards, a set of 12 Thinking of You cards.........and of course the set will be a reasonable price like maybe $16 (that would be about $1.35 a card + postage).

I believe this is my 122nd blog for this year. I challenge myself to try and surpass each years number, so 2014 hopefully will bring more blogs then 2013, maybe I will try 12-15 blogs a month, 12-15 a month will be 144-150.....that will be my goal. Oh yes, I am planning on doing a "Give-Away" April 25th. I will have been blogging 6 years.....now that is hard to believe.....where did all those years go??? I have made a few new friends and probably lost some friends in 2013. Hopefully 2014 will bring new friends that I have not yet met. My "Give-Away" will most likely be a set of 12 cards that I have made. The rules will be simple, 1) that you are following my blog and 2) that you leave me a comment on a regular basis. The drawing will be April 25th and most likely I will announce the "Give Away" April 1st. So, you have some time.

I guess I will try to lose 10-20 lbs this year. Managed to keep my blood sugars down the last 6 months.....but my weight went up 10 lbs..........I have felt very uncomfortable. SO I guess this will have to be a priority for me this year. January 9th I have another blood test to see if my AC1 is down from 6 months ago....here's hoping.

I am wanting to get our roof fixed this year. We could get another grant from the city, which would mean a lien against the house again. But it would not have to be paid off till we sell the house.....if we don't ever sell the house then we don't have to pay off the loan. I have to get the papers all together and the application filled out and sent in by the 17th. So if we get the help, the roof and new gutters and possible the kitchen ceiling would finally get fixed properly. We'll see, if 2014 will be kind to us involving this situation.

Now that we have a good running car, on the agenda is a little trip to Ladysmith and see our old poll-shed home in Ladysmith. Maybe see some old friends and stay a night at the Elrancho and  then come home again.......not a long trip, just long enough to say hi. I have a good friend in Ladysmith that I used to work with....and some friends in Barron, we still send Christmas cards to each other. It's good to send cards to each other.....you just never know.

Here is a sad ending note to 2013....I got a little note in the mail yesterday. I had sent a Christmas card to an old friend from back in the 60's. Char and I were great friends back then and we had dreams of going out west together, following "Route 66" in our corvette. (Charlene made it out west to Nevada, I stayed in the Midwest) Every summer, Char would stay with her sister and you could find us playing canasta every day. We also played with cut-out dolls her sister made for us. (Darlene was an artist) We would make clothes for our cut-outs too...I just ran across those cut-outs, geez that brought back memories. Charlene's sister died about 5 years ago. Char just passed away this past November of lung cancer. I had wondered why I didn't hear from her....the note that arrived yesterday from her BIL that anwered the question. So keep your friends close, you never know.

Well, I guess in a way I have laid down some of my resolutions for this new year 2014. Here's hoping it's a good year for you and for me..........keep looking up!!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Last Day of August..............sad

Sadly it is the last day of August and the feeling of autumn is in the air...............I love autumn. Cool weather, leaves falling and raking them, mmmm, good exercise, bringing in the harvest, finally it is soup time! I love the changing of the color of the leaves, maybe we will be able to take a long week end and enjoy the fall before the winter comes upon us. Of course maybe with global warming it should not be so COLD here in WISCONSIN (laughing out loud).

I found a new blog to follow today, I shall be checking her out everyday to see what she has to say about the world around her...........she is a christian with a view on the news, opinions and life. What I have read so far has been very interesting, check her out at: http://www.stringingandstrowing.blogspot.com/

Not much going on today, exercise at IAW and we get measured and weighed............I am still struggling with this weight as it goes up and down at every whim. I should not complain though as I have been at this since the last week in April and according to stitistics I am right on the mark as I have lost 12 lbs and that would be 3 lbs lost a month, soooooo I am doing great!!!! Now when I get measured that will be the tell-tale-test. At the last measurment, I had lost 22 inches. We will see what happens today.............I will report back with the news.

Going to shut this blog down for now as I have to get my jobs off the internet and get organized, so I know where I am going this week. So you have a great day and keep looking up as JESUS is coming soon!!!!!
Louise