I got nuthin'.....

THIS PICTURE IS STOLEN, BUT I DON'T THINK THEY'LL SUE ME!!!

This was Morgan's coming home outfit... #love!!!!! How stinkin' cute is she????

You know how they say you should either start "HOT" or finish "HOT"????

I'm laughing because I literally have pretty much nothing. My camera died last summer and I've been using my cute little Samsung phone... and then that's been on and off not working the past few days, so all the fun pics I took of making things over the holidays: GONE.

But maybe not, maybe when we can get it back to working I can save some, but for the moment it's catch as catch can around here, and cold, besides!!!!

We made fajitas for Christmas Eve, a family favorite, and I took some pics of making the fajita style spice mix and grilling the chicken...

Here's the recipe for the fajita seasoning on All Recipes dot com! 

And they were SO GOOD!!!!!

And easy, actually. I love them, wrapped up in a warmed, flour shell, and stuffed with meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato and sour cream. I could eat one right now, I'm starving.

Virginia, if you have a better recipe for the seasoning, feel free to share it. This was a good blend for us, I'd cut down the corn starch or not use any at all next time because I don't think it really needs the thickening... but that did help the seasoning to cling to the meat, so maybe that's best????

But I digress!

WICKED COLD here, very Maine-like stuff going on. Snow squalls direct off of Lake Ontario, windchills way below zero, and I have the NERVE to wonder why Tina Russo Radcliffe moved away.

She's the smart one!!!! :)

We celebrated Christmas all together on Saturday, the 27th, so that left us the 26th to visit the animals in the zoo and wish them a merry Christmas! The little kids love it when the bachelor uncles do stuff with them, and Zach and Luke (my Manhattan boys) get a kick out of seeing the kids be kids.

I'd uploaded these before the phone got angry about lack of time off or lousy benefits and rising deductibles....

We love the polar bear exhibit, but usually the big ol' bear is high on the rocks, ignoring the mere humans who operate his feeding cycle... but today, here he was!!!!

Inside his exhibit, Matt showed the family that he still travels head high with the courage and bravado known for big brothers!

Clearly the bear is stunned by Matt's quick right! (He's also plastic, but hey... no one's perfect!)

And then the bear gets reactionary!!!!

Poor Matt!!!!

(He does not get his attention seeking antics from his quiet father.... :)

Here's our finance boy (aka: the Bumble) that you saw last week, chattin' it up with little Dave over tigers. Dave likes tigers. And the wolves howled at us, and they've never done that before, so we're pretty sure they were saying "Happy New Year"!

And this cut-out along the African safari trail..... with 'Lijah and Zee Zee.

And the same shot, with the lawyer and the CPA....

The first time in 30 years that Zach was taller than Lukie!!! These two are so funny.

I broke down and ordered another camera from Amazon, a cute and inexpensive Sony.... It came today and I'm excited to be able to have pics again because I love playing with pictures. Maybe it's because I grew up in the shadow of the great Eastman Kodak when it was a great company... or those commercials "The Times of Your Life" that I loved!!!! 

So the camera is in place, we'll see how it rolls this week, and Allie Pleiter came to Seekerville talkin' 'bout Macarons (French macaroon) which is basically the meringue puffs I've always made, but done with  a softer batter so the puff cookie forms a nice, flat, gently rounded surface like these:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/macaron-french-macaroon/

I need to ace these because they're so cute and they melt-in-your-mouth and can you imagine it with ganache or a soft, sweet buttercream????

Oh be still my heart!!!!

The Great Dining Room Experiment

Downton Abbey started up again this week. I caught the promos and was reminded a lot of the action occurs in the Abbey's dining room. The dining room with the big long table that seats fourteen on a quiet night and more with added leaves. Come to think of it, the servants table fits at least that many.

Yep, I was more interested in the dining room than the plot. Mainly because one of ManO's Christmas gifts was my promise to serve dinner in the dining room, starting with the new year. We eat breakfast in the kitchen nook and family dinners there too (not as many breakables for kidlets). But our empty nest dinner time had dissolved into catch as catch can in front of the television. Never good.

Most of my friends have turned their dining rooms into something else, like a sitting room or library...sigh. But we have a lot of heirloom family pictures and furniture. It's more of a museum really. But ManO loves it and loves eating in a formal space. Maybe he's got a title and hasn't told me he's really upper crust.

Regardless of whether he has been hiding that he's an earl or a lord or even a baron, I decided, after our tough 2014,  I would do more things to make him happy and this is a big one. Eating in the dining room. We are going to give it a go for one month to start and I'll report on what we've learned.

Excuse the naked table. The cloth is getting washed. The table was ManO's parents first table.

ManO is doing things to make me happy in the new year too. We're going back to separate offices and hobby spaces. Some of my friends share very successfully but many thought I was nuts to share in the first place. Movers are coming in to flip our furniture and create two separate spaces out of our current study downstairs and hobby room upstairs...using only the furniture we have to create a better ergonomic space for me and a temporary space for him until we add the infamous train room. Thank goodness I am married to an engineer.

Every complicated change needs a plan. De-cluttering rooms of furniture is tough.

With the house turning upside down, I needed an easy way to get through the week meal-wise. I settled on turkey meatballs. ManO and I swore off ground beef after one fast food lunch included grease dripping down our arms as we ate our hamburgers. Grease ISN'T the word...a la the musical...in our house anymore.  The great thing about turkey meatballs is they are easy, can be frozen and are versatile.

Turkey meatballs

1 lb ground turkey
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt , to taste
1/2 teaspoon sage

Form into balls using a cookie dough scoop

Space on foil lined pan or broiler pan

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, turn, and cook for ten more minutes until browned. You can serve them right away or cool, freeze them on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet, then pop them in a freezer bag until ready to use. I cook the frozen balls straight from the freezer at 400 until thoroughly heated.

Meal #1: The first night I fixed Turkey Meatballs with spinach and garnished with Parmesan cheese. Just sauteed the spinach, plopped on the meatballs and sprinkled with a bit of cheese. Flavorful, low carb and easy.

Meal #2: The meatballs were covered with spaghetti sauce and served on black bean spaghetti.

Meal #3: I'm ready for the next blast of cold air with meatball soup. All it takes is chicken or turkey broth (one cup per serving), veggies and appropriate spices.  It's a toss up for me about if I want to go Asian or Italian inspired. If I go with the first, I will add bok choy and bean sprouts along with a dash of ginger and gluten free soy sauce. If I go with the second, I'll use spinach, canellini beans and Italian seasoning.

That should get us through moving day on Thursday. I am so glad we are just going between floors and not having to move outside. It's going to be cold!

So, are you making changes in the new year in your home or in your diet? Do you use your dining room or do you even have one?

Cold Mornings, Hearty Breakfasts

So we spent the last week at the ranch, hubby, the boys plus one of their friends and me. It was a nice time of relaxing and enjoying each other. Which really is sort of a feat since, for all practical purposes, it's a one-room camphouse. 

You should have seen the steam rolling off the water a few hours earlier.

I spent most of my time writing and cooking, two of the things I love most. 

Hubby wasn't exactly thrilled with the weather, though. Temps stayed in the low to mid forties and it was rainy and drizzly much of the time.

"I don't like cold, " he said. "I don't like wet. And I especially don't like cold and wet."

Ah, the poor fella. Almost sixty-five years old and he doesn't know how to dress for the cold.

Rainy weather means full tanks.

But mama's got to take care of her men, so I made sure to send them off with a good breakfast. Something that'd really stick to their ribs and warm their tummies. 

Something like breakfast burritos.

These are so easy to make. You can even prepare everything ahead of time and assemble later.

First thing you want to do is brown a pound of your favorite breakfast sausage. 

Regular or hot, whatever you please.

I like to throw in some onion, bell pepper and jalapeno. 

Once the meat is cooked, drain and return pan to the heat.

Now, mix together 8-10 eggs, a little bit of milk, salt, pepper and whatever seasonings you like and add to the sausage.

(Can you tell there's no exact science to this?)

Cook over medium to medium-high heat until eggs are set.

Remove from heat. Spoon into tortillas of your choice (usually flour), add some cheese, salsa, whatever you like, and roll, tucking in the sides.

Goober me accidentally picked up the fajita-size tortillas, so we had lots of mini-breakfast burritos.

Normally, you would use the burrito size tortillas.

(For those of you asking, yes, they do make different size tortillas for different purposes.)

And as you can see, by the time my men were done, there was only one burrito left for me.

Of course, that was all I needed.

Now that my boys are getting older, they can take care of lots of things for us.

Like building the bonfire on New Year's Eve.

All I had to do was show up--loaded for bear.

Ken Verheecke's Gifts and Lee Ann's Crab Dip

This is a two part blog post, so bear with me.

The first thing I want to share with you is this talented guy my daughter works with.

Of course, since she works in a music store, there are a lot of talented people around!

Ken Verheecke is a musician and a photographer. Listen to one of his pieces while you read the rest of today's post:

Ken's photographs are fabulous. With his permission, I thought I'd share them with you today. These are from a hike he took last week in our beautiful Black Hills.

photo by Ken Verheecke

Ken said this was "a quick shot" (photo by Ken Verheecke)

And then a couple he took on Saturday -

"Evening Tree" photo by Ken Verheecke

"Beneath a Prairie Moon" photo by Ken Verheecke

Aren't those spectacular? We are so blessed to live a lovely part of the world, both the Hills and the Prairie.


Now for part 2 of this post -

One big change in my life last year was that I switched to a smart phone. I wasn't sure I wanted to give up my trusty flip phone, but the deal was too good. It's a love/hate relationship.  But a couple months ago, I joined a new (for me) social media site called Two Grand by downloading the app. It's a way to keep a food journal by keeping a photo log - but it's also a social site. I've connected with other women who have the same dietary goals I do and we give each other a lot of support.

And sometimes we swap recipes! Now, how cool is that?

Last week, Lee Ann posted a picture of her snack. Right away, I knew I had to have this recipe.

Before I share it though, keep in mind that this is really Lee Ann's Mom's recipe. She said her mom probably compiled it from several church recipe books, and then she was guessing at the amounts...sounds like my kind of recipe :)

Lee Ann's Crab Dip

Ingredients:

About one pound crab meat (I used the fake "crab" meat and it was delicious)
1/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons finely minced onion
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
a couple shakes cayenne pepper
black pepper
(small dash of sweetener if you use real crab)

Flake the crab meat and mix with the other ingredients in a medium bowl, and then put the mixture in a greased 9" x 9" square baking dish.

Bake at 450° for about 20 minutes.

Serve with crackers. Or if you're doing the lo-carb thing, make lavash crackers.

Lavash Crackers

Look for lavash bread in your supermarket's deli section. One brand is Joseph's. Lavash bread is a flat bread - look for the lo-carb package.

Take 1/2 lavash bread, and slice it into cracker sized pieces (I use my pizza cutter for this - easy-peasy). Lay the pieces on a piece of paper towel on a microwave safe plate. Microwave for about 1 minute. Crackers!

This is a great snack for winter afternoons - especially Sunday afternoons as you watch the Broncos head to the Superbowl in the playoffs :)

Or as a light supper while you watch the new season of Downton Abbey :)

Happy January, everybody!

*shhhhhh* This recipe is a secret! And blessings jar tradition.

Hi, everybody! I first posted this recipe in October 2012 and now it's time for a repost and an update!

Here we go:
A few years ago I went to a reception and there were these brownies that defied description. But I'll try... They were chocolate chunk, with some kind of cream cheese inside, and dark chocolate layer half way through. Within minutes, we were all asking each other "who brought those brownies"????

(These are not the brownies.)

 We were in for a terrible shock. The woman who had brought the brownies, couldn't give us the recipe... because her son was a dessert chef visiting from LA and she had begged him to make her some. He was bound by contract not to sell the brownies, or to share the recipe. NO KIDDING!

 Now, I have a friend who also defies description. (Ha!) She recently moved to Montana, so by the time she reads this, I'll be safe. Or at least be getting a head start. I think she said it took her 14 hours to drive back here. Time for me to get a good lock on the door.

  Because I'm about to share the SECRET RECIPE for her German apple cake. This is a revenge post. She used to torment me with the cake, and then say she couldn't give me the deets because her German Baptist relatives would put out a hit on her.

  But one day- one glorious day- I got THIS in my Christmas card. Now, I know it's right out of a magazine, but you can't see are the tiny comments written in there. This is where the gold is for the beginner baker. Like getting that old textbook with all the shortcuts written in the margins!

Edna is always up for a daring adventure so we got out our ingredients. (Of course, if my friend brings the goon squad, I'm not really sure I can run with Edna. But I'll put her in the Red Flyer wagon. That would work...)

So, 3 eggs
       2 cups sugar
        1 cup oil (here there's a little note that says 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup butter melted)
        1 tsp vanilla extract ( maple!)
   
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda (3/4 tsp says the note)
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups chopped tart apple (note says two large, which was about 3 cups)
 and 3/4 cup pecans (note says one cup)

And cream cheese frosting, which we didn't put on. not because it wasn't good, but because we didn't really need it. It was perfect!!

Edna did really well with the whole butter/oil/ egg mess. Ew. She's a toughie.


(BEFORE WE GO ON, LET ME JUST HUG BLOGGER FOR A SECOND. I PRESSED THE WRONG BUTTON AND EVERYTHING WAS GONE... BUT NOT! IT WAS SAVED! WHEEEEE! BACK TO OUR POST...)

Mmmmm, we get apples by the box right from the packing shed. $10 for an assorted box. Gala, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Golden, and Fuji.  If you can stand the sight of semis and forklifts and skid steers roaring past you, it's a great way to save money. And since I have four little boys, it's more like a field trip than grocery shopping.

       Folding in the 3/4 cups pecans and the apples. The batter is very thick. Fewer apples and more nuts make it a very dense batter.

Mmmmmmm. 350 for 55 minutes and you get this! Perfection!

 

 While it cooked, Edna was reminiscing all about her fling with a Canadian Mountie. I think it was the maple extract that got her going. It was a wonderful story, full of rugged men and horses and wooden crates full of straw (surprisngly comfy, says she). But then he was gone so much, she felt neglected. Just left spinning her beaters for days on end. It was time to move on.

So, I'm setting the table for guests because I know how the internet works. As soon as the news gets out that Edna and I have spilled the famous apple cake recipe, there will be a knock at the door.

  Look at that! Who could resist? We'll get them loaded up on tea and cake and make a break for the back door. If you see a middle aged woman chugging down the sidewalk with a gleaming Sunshine Mixmaster in a battered Red Flyer wagon, for heaven's sake, stop and give me a ride. And if you're really nice, I just might tell you the other recipe I've been SWORN not to reveal.

  Until next time... I hope.

UPDATE: Well, it's been two years and my friend has not yet carried through on her threat so I thought I'd push my luck... and post this again! Plus, she's in town visiting, so I'll be sure to accidentally open this post while she's over for coffee. (Kidding! I'm not that brave.)

A tradition we have in my family is our "blessings jar". We decorate the jar with the year, and then put it on a shelf in plain sight. Through the year, we write wonderful things that have happened and put them in the jar.  They can be as big as a new baby, or new book, or as small (but equally important) as losing a first tooth, potty training, or learning to write a name for the first time. On New Year's Eve, we open the jar and read them all aloud. It's amazing the beautiful blessings that have happened... and that we sometimes forget.

(Oh, funny! I just realized after posting this picture... the same friend of the secret recipe cake appears in this picture. Well, her Christmas 2014 gift, does. The babushka nesting dolls to the left are actually measuring cups.  Isn't that a clever idea? )

Hoping everyone had a wonderful end of the year! I'm loving all the visits from friends near and far, and being able to hug relatives that have not been in the area for years. It's a blessed time and I pray everyone is enjoying the beginning of 2015!

Red Velvet Cake to Finish the Holidays

Granny's Red Velvet Cake

Missy Tippens

As usual, my son requested red velvet cake for his birthday this month. I can't believe it, but my "baby", my middle one, turned 20! How did that happen so quickly??

I've shared the recipe before. (Click here.) It comes from my college roommate's Grandmother. Melinda used to brings slices of this back with her after a weekend at home. It took all my willpower not to eat through the whole plate full as soon as she arrived on Sunday evenings! :)

Since you can click to get the recipe above, I'm just going to share the photos of making the cake this year. It turned out pretty good for a Missy cake.  :)

LOOK! I finally found Softasilk flour!! And check out the recipe card. It's written by Granny, who died several years ago. Once she was gone, I offered the card as a gift to my roommate, but she said she wanted me to have it since I loved Granny's cake so much. So I treasure it!

I think instead of being called The Belle, I just need to be called She Who is Never Prepared and Cooks with Whatever Ingredients She has on Hand. Above, you see that I forgot to buy buttermilk and had to make my own with regular milk and lemon juice. This seems to be a theme of mine. (big sigh)

Sifting the flour and cocoa. I use a lot of chocolate in my recipe. In fact, I use more than Granny did. And I also only use a half a bottle of red food coloring instead of a whole one. Somehow I just can't bring myself to dump a whole bottle in there! :)

You can see it's heavy on the chocolate, not so bright red. And do you remember from last time that the layers, hot out of the oven, get warm milk with sugar drizzled over them? It makes it so moist!

Now, one of my very favorite icings--cream cheese icing. YUM.

At the the last minute, I remembered to take a photo! Thankfully, before it was gone. You'll have to let me know if you make the red velvet recipe!

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!!

Oh, who can believe this????

Another new year and we're all here????????

Yay for us!

First, let me say what a pleasure it is to hang with these sweet ladies and youse at the cafe! It's so much fun to share Erma Bombeck wisdoms, great recipes, Kitchen: FAIL!!!, sweet successes and moments like this:

Which have now changed to moments like this:

And this!

And this!

Morgan Delaney Blodgett, welcome to the planet! You're stinkin' cute!!!

We've got grandkids with us these next few days... and sweet daycare/wrap-around care kids... and baby coming home, loved ones flying out, a New Year rung in with joy!

As I hear Morgan's big brother and sister starting to stir upstairs, I want to take the time to tell you how wonderful this is. Being here, being with all of you, recipe or no recipe.

My favorite Erma Bombeck quote is one I have on a plaque in my kitchen:

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope I don't have a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything you gave me." 

And from Mother Teresa:  "Peace begins with a smile."

And from a young mother, imprisoned for doing the unthinkable, who wrote to Erma Bombeck from prison:  "If only I'd learned to laugh at all this, maybe my children would be alive today."

Laughter is good! Laughter is healing. Laughter is the upside of mixed emotions, the jam on our bread.

Life, love and motherhood aren't easy roads, but faith, hope and laughter make it so much better!

This is our youngest with Elijah... At 6'3" and 200 lbs., we're not sure where Luke came from, but we like him! Every family needs a Bumble! :)  Luke can put the angel on the tree WITHOUT A CHAIR. Reason enough to keep him, right there!

Turn off the wretched news and turn on the smiles.

Annie... How stinkin' cute is that???

My One Word for 2015 is discernment... It is a word I need in all areas of my life, so my focus this year will be on that!

I'll mess up. Pshaw, that's a given! But I'll try hard and that's not a bad thing to promise, now is it???

God bless you on this beautiful New Year's Day! To you...

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ALL OF US AT YANKEE-BELLE CAFE!