Spring Has Sprung!

Spring is my favorite time of the year. I love to look at all the trees and flowers that are coming back to life. After seeing all the naked trees and no flowers all winter along with the gray sky, I am so ready for some color. Here are just a few pictures from my front yard.




My flowers are blooming so snow, this means you cannot come back for another year!!



I just love this bright yellow against the bare trees and the green grass!



This is the most blooms we have had on this tree. They are as white as snow!

Friday Chatter

My posting seems to be getting farther and farther down on my to do list. Our church is having revival all this week so time is something I do not seem to have much of. I work all day (I work at my church), go home, cook supper turn around and go back to church. I am so far behind in my housework it is not even funny! But, you know what? It is all still there waiting for me. Maybe only a little worse.

I never have a certain grocery day. I either go on Friday after work, which I hate because I hate dealing with the crowds or I go on Saturday morning. Now, I love going early in the mornings because there are not many people out but since Eugene does not work on Saturday's now, he likes for me to go with him to eat breakfast out and by the time we get back the crowd's are back out again. So, in passing the grocery store the other Monday morning I noticed there was not many people there. Just my kind of time. I am going to try and switch my to do list around this week and do my housework on Saturday and all my grocery shopping on Monday morning. Since I only buy enough groceries for a week, I will need to stop by the store tonight and grap a few groceries to do me until Monday. I will let you know how it works for me.

I have posted a poll on the right hand side of my blog to see what day seems to most popular. Thanks for participating!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! God bless!

Blog To Visit

Our church supports a missionary family to Columbia. It is Bro. Bruce and Ann Moore and his family (7 kids to be exact). They are in Panama right now. Mrs. Ann has a blog that she shares as they adjust to a new world. I enjoy reading how different the culture is there from the United States and hearing about all the great work they are doing in that country. It is http://lbtf.blogspot.com. Please stop by her blog and visit her. Also, I am sure her and her family would appreciate your prayers.

Onion Chopped Steak With Easy Gravy

I got this recipe from, you guessed it, Cheap, Fast and Good Cookbook. Kelli and I do not like Salisbury Steak but Eugene does. This tasted like Salisbury Steak and to my surprise we all loved it! Especially the gravy over mashed potatoes. Yum!!
This was my plate for lunch the next day and boy was it good!

1 lb. hamburger
1/4 c. milk
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1/2 c. fine bread crumbs
1/2 envelope or 1 1/2 T. dry onion soup mix

Combine the hamburger, bread crumbs, milk and onion soup mix in a large bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. Shape the meat into four 3 12/ inch patties, each about 1/2 inch thick. Place in an extra deep 12-inch skillet over medium heat and add the meat patties. Cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat if the meat begins to brown too quickly.
Meanwhile, place the brown gravy mix in a 2-cup or larger bowl. Add the amount of tap water called for on the envelope and whisk until well blended. Set aside. Turn the patties over, cover the skillet, and cook for 5 more minutes. Drain off any excess fat.
Uncover the skillet, reduce the heat to low and add the gravy mix. Cook until the gravy reaches the desired consistency and the patties are no longer pink in the center, about 5 minutes. Serve at once or allow to simmer until ready to serve.

Savory Pork Pot Roast

This recipe came from Cheap, Fast and Good. It tasted better the next day as leftovers. I was leary of using orange and apple juice but my family really liked the pork roast fixed this way. (Sorry mom, there was no left overs.)

1 boneless pork roast (3-3 1/2 lbs)
2 medium ribs of celery
1 c. orange juice
1/2 c. apple juice
Juice of 1 lime
1 T. minced, bottled garlic
4 medium sized potatoes
2 medium onions
3 medium carrots or 12 baby carrots
1/4 c. ketchup
2 T. Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp. salt

Place roast in crock pot. Peel and quarter the potatoes and add them, making sure they are at the bottom of the pot. Peel the onions and cut them in 1/2 inch thick pieces, place in pot. Cut the celery and carrots into 1 inch long pices and add to pot (if using baby carrots just place them in pot.)
In a 1-quart container or glass measuring bowl, whisk together the orange, lime and apple juice, ketchup, Worcestershire Sauce, garlic and salt. Pour the mixture over the meat and vegetables. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or until the meat and vegetables are tender.

Poor Man's Meal Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OPQqH3YlHA&feature=channel is the site you can go to and watch Clara cook the Poor Man's Meal. She has several cooking videos to watch. I hope you enjoy watching her as much as I did.

Poor Man's Meal

I found the sweetest lady on U-Tube several weeks ago. Her name is Clara and she is 94 years old. She does cooking segments with recipes that she prepared during the depression. She is such a funny and sweet lady. Below is one of her recipes that I thought I would try. We all enjoyed this including my parents.

Potatoes, diced
Hot dogs, cut up
Oil for frying
Onion, chopped

Fry potatoes in skillet until they are almost done. I added my onions after my potatoes had cooked a bit. Add cut up hot dogs and put the lid back on the skillet to cook the hot dogs.

I know this is not a very detailed recipe but maybe I can find her web site again now that I have my computer back and post it so you can watch her cook this up herself.

Although I placed this recipe in my lables under side dishes, we made a meal out of this with some cornbread.

Monday Chatter

My computer has been off to the doc, again. My computer seems to get a virus every month and each month just seems to be getting worse and, yes, I do have a virus protection. For what good that is doing me.

I sure enjoyed the beautiful weather we had this weekend. We have to start making up our snow days just any Monday now so I am making good use of the days I have off for now.

I have been using my Monday's off to clean out closets. I have cleaned out two and I have one more to go, my bedroom. This one is not going to be as bad as the others since it is my closet (dh has his own and I am not allowed to touch his since he knows I will throw away. lol) I already have my closet pretty much straighted up but I do need to go through my clothes. I feel like I have accomplished so much these last few weeks. I have thrown away about 7 garbage bags of "stuff" and taken 3 to Goodwill Saturday.

It does have it's disadvantages though. Usually on Monday's I try to get my house back to normal from the weekend, cook a lot and clean my kitchen appliances on that day. Needless to say, this has not been done. My refrigerator is in need of a good cleaning and we won't even start on my oven. Oh how I hate to clean an oven.

So, this is what I want to accomplish today.
Hang out two loads of clothes - done
Clean my closet out - done
Prepare my hamburger for several meals this week - halfway done
Bake a cake (if I can come up with some frosting)
Clean up my kitchen - done
Take a shower and wash my hair - done
Clean the garbage out of my car - done
Cook supper - done
Type up two new recipes for my blog completed one
Type up some more recipes for my recipe book on the computer - done

Oh I am already so tired! lol I will let you know how I did. Off I go!! Have a great day!

Sloppy Joes

I found this recipe over at www.allrecipes.com. I tried it night before last and it was very good. This one will definitely be added to my recipe book.

1 lb. lean hamburger
1/4 c. onion, chopped
1/4 c. chopped green bell pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. yellow mustard
3/4 c. ketchup
3 tsp. brown sugar
Salt & pepper to taste

In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the hamburger, onion and green pepper; drain off liquids. Stir in the garlic powder, mustard, ketchup and brown sugar; mix throughly. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Tuesday Chatter

Wow! I did not realize it had been a whole week since I had last posted. Where in the world did my week go?

Nothing much is happening on my hill. I did manage to clean another piled up closet out yesterday. I threw away 2 garbage bags full and have 3 bags to take to Good Will. I am just so proud of myself. Everything has been placed back in the closet in storage bins and labeled!

I have found several things that I had either lost or just forgot that I had. For instance, I found a cookie press, brand new, never opened! I sure wish I had of had that all those recipes ago when I passed up recipes because I didn't have a cookie press. Ya just never know what is hiding in all those closet corners.

Anyway, I am at work today, wishing I was back home cleaning some more. I just do not know what has gotten into me here lately. Those junky closets are just driving me insane! Help!