Keeping it Simple in PA, with author Dana R. Lynn

Hi, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a special guest this weekend. Dana is a woman after my own heart. She's a writer and a busy mom, living the dream while keeping things in perspective. I love her can-do attitude! So, here she is, telling us how dinner goes down when life throws you a curve ball.

             Today was one of those days.  You know what I mean. We’ve all had them. My day began with the alarm not going off. I woke up to discover I had to get myself and my entire household up and ready in record time. By the time I hopped in my car, I was ready for a nap. Then there was work. Baseball for one child, horse training for another. I had no time to spend on an extravagant meal. Fortunately, my cupboard is stocked for just such emergencies.

            Ta da! All the ingredients I need for a tater tot casserole. My family loves this hearty casserole. And the beauty of it is that it is quick, easy, and flexible. I love flexible. Don’t have ground beef? Sausage will do. We buy a pig every year at a 4H auction, so we always have sausage. Out of cream of chicken soup? Mushroom works. I have even switched out the cheddar cheese soup for a jar of cheese sauce. It’s all good.

Here’s the basic recipe:

2 lbs of ground beef, browned

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 can of cheddar cheese soup

Salt and pepper

One bag of tater tots

Ground the beef (or sausage) and put in a 9x13 dish. Mix soup together and spread over meat. Salt and pepper to taste. (I don’t even use salt and pepper usually.) Top with tater tots and bake for an hour at 350 degrees. Yummy

My family devours it. Which leaves me more time to spend with them and write.
  I recently released my first Love Inspired Suspense story, Presumed Guilty. (click on the title to find it on Amazon) Wait! I have a picture…

          

I love this cover. It looks just like rural PA to me.

Here's the blurb:
“I’m innocent!”

            After four years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit, Melanie Swanson’s finally free. Yet starting over brings a heavy load of challenges. Nearly everyone believes she’s guilty- including police lieutenant Jace Tucker. Jace’s certainty cracks only when Melanie is repeatedly attacked, and when the people around her picked off one by one. Melanie’s clearly innocent- and terrified. Someone wants her dead to keep her shattered memories from recalling the crime she witnessed rather than caused. She lost her friends, her fiancé and her freedom when she was found guilty- but proving her innocence could cost Melanie her life.

           

            I’m so glad I was able to stop by the café today. I have been reading these posts for awhile now, and it’s been such a joy to visit.

Blessings from PA!

(Virginia again) Thanks for stopping by and congratulations on your book release! 

A Week of Salads!

Missy, here. If you were reading the comments after Jan shared her fantastic salad jars the other day, you saw where I shared that I, too, had planned to talk about a week's worth of salads. :)

I noticed some new salad kits at the grocery store last week and couldn't make up my mind which one (or two) to buy. So…

I bought them all! I decided to make it a week of salads.

When I got home, I took a photo of each one to share the ingredients with y'all.

I've had this one several times (below). Kale and Brussels sprouts! Pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries. And a yummy poppy seed dressing

These that say Heart Health Kit were new to my store. Great ingredients as well! You can click on each photo to see the label better.

I ate this one already (below). It was really tasty! And felt very healthy.

I've had this one before too (below). Love the sesame ginger dressing!

There are so many options when you want a quick, healthy meal! And though they're a little pricey, it's still more economical than eating out.

For more protein, you can add grilled chicken or shrimp. Or open a can of tuna and add it on top. Or sometimes I slice up deli meat (usually ham).

Do y'all use pre-made salad kits? What are your favorites?

Oh, and since my salad photos weren't exactly scintillating, here's a gratuitous grand-dog photo! He was rooting in on my writing trying to get my attention. :)

BEFORE YOU GO! I'm taking part in the Spring Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt!! Lots of prizes available. You can start HERE for instructions. I'm stop #16 on the purple loop. I hope you'll visit!

Home Made Cream Horns

Well, this has been a while in the making because these are a work in progress! First, let me tell you that to make these cream horns, you need pie crust pastry, rolled out, and cut into strips. My favorite pie crust recipe is here:

Ruthy's Favorite Pie Crust Recipe!!!!

Mandy made me 3/4 inch dowels for frying:

First you wrap the strips around the dowel and then pinch the dough to help seal overlapping edges.

Heat fryer to 375°

Wrap around dowels and deep fry for 2-3 minutes until golden...

This is what they look like when they're done:

Slip them off the dowels and let cool, then roll in cinnamon sugar:

Visit kittens born on Easter while you wait!!!  Hello, sweet babies!!!!

Back to sugared horns:

Mix 1 cup smooth ricotta (I use Galbani) with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips. With small spoon (or frosting bag with no tip) fill horns. Refrigerate and enjoy!

You could use whipped cream or custard to fill these, but I used the cannoli filling style cheese filling. Delicious! The pastry melts in your mouth, it's that flaky and wonderful. It also breaks easily! Ooops! :)

From my friend Mary, they weren't blooming when she brought them to me... How pretty!!! And here's a gratuitous naked baby picture!!!

And this is Second Easter because so many of us were sick on First Easter, so this year we celebrated the Orthodox calendar as well! It was nice enough to re-hang the swing!

One of my finance boys, manning the grill:

And the hope of spring at last:

Oh, glorious day!

Hello, Spring! :)

Flower Power

Spring has definitely sprung. Thanks to the cold spells in North Carolina recently, everything seems to be blooming and pollinating at once. It's exciting and energizing. And VERY sneeze worthy.

Tulips are blooming, not in a botanical garden, but outside ManO's office. 

My favorite flower lady is back at Western Wake Farmer's Market.

My daughter spruced up one of her dad's childhood wagons as a planter. Like Mother like daughter.

The Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC, a staple of my childhood, is in full bloom this week. I love looking at the pictures on line and will get back in person one day.

Taking a cue from the tulips and cherry blossoms, I got my Spring haircut and added a streak of pink, much to my granddaughter's consternation.

Um, back to flowers, I pulled out my grandmother's china, the perfect plates for Spring. What's crazy is a friend of mine, Amy, has similar plates she displayed for Easter on Facebook. I put mine up (Amy's is left, mine is right) and other folks started showing off their floral china. So many similarities. Apparently it was a pretty popular pattern back in the day.    

So, how has spring sprung in your neighborhood, in your house, on your table, with your hair?

 

Deadlines, Procedures and No Cooking

Yep, that title pretty much sums up my week. I had a proposal due Friday and since things have been a little crazy around here, I needed every bit of time to make sure I met that deadline.  Then hubby was scheduled for a procedure and had to be on a clear liquid diet for a short time. Yeah, broth and Jell-O get pretty boring when that's all you can have. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Then I discovered this at the grocery store.

Oh boy, oh boy! Clear liquids with flavor.

These new discoveries made my husband a happy camper. He even said the Mexican Tortilla was hot. Like spicy hot. When he says something's hot, I know it's probably too much for me.

But these were only two of the flavors I saw. There was a Thai Ginger, Hot and Sour and a couple others that escape me now. But what a great basis for a quick soup. You could dice up some leftover chicken, maybe add some veggies and you've got a quick and easy meal. For those of us who have deadlines (heck, even if you don't have deadlines), quick and easy is always a plus.

Speaking of deadlines, my next one is already closing in. I need to come up with a plan of action. Make double-size meals and freeze half so all I have to do is heat them up later. Now if I could just come up with a way to make laundry do itself.

Salad in a Jar makes a quick lunch!

Even though Speedbo is now a memory, we writers never stop writing. So every shortcut we can find is like gold.

Less time cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. means more time to write. More time to write means more books. More books = happy readers.

Yay for shortcuts!

Writers also spend WAY too much time sitting (or standing) in one place. We all know what happens to sedentary people, and we want to be happy, healthy writers.

One solution? Salad in a jar!

This is an easy-peasy way to make sure you're getting your veggies, even when the rest of your life is crazy busy.

So what do you need?

First, your favorite veggies - -

And did you notice there are some protein sources among the veggies? Protein is what turns your rabbit food into a powerhouse complete meal that sticks to your ribs well into the afternoon.

Second, some one quart canning jars. Five is a good number - the salad will stay fresh in your jar for about five days, so five jars will give you an entire week of salads.

Those plastic reusable lids are perfect for things like this!

Next, sort your ingredients by weight. You want the heaviest and wettest ingredients in the bottom of your jar, and the lightest at the top. Think of the salad we made in the cafe a couple months ago- Ginger's Salad - where we layered the ingredients in the bowl. With the jar, we're going to layer ingredients in the opposite order. So your dressing and toppings go first, and the lettuce or slaw last.

One note before we begin - since I work at home, I opted to leave a few ingredients out of the jars. I'll add them in on the day I eat the salad. The ingredients that will wait until later are salad dressing, slivered almonds, cheese, avocados, and chopped apples. They'll be better fresh.

Let's start assembling our salads!


This one is a Chef-style salad, without the lettuce.

The layers are:
sliced boiled egg
sliced black olives
chopped mushrooms
cooked, diced chicken breast
chopped broccoli/cauliflower mix
shredded cabbage (I use the cole slaw mix)


Here we have a classic salad:

1/4 cup canned garbanzo beans (chick peas)
cooked, diced chicken breast
sliced carrots
sliced radishes
chopped mushrooms
diced red onion
sliced pickled beets
chopped broccoli/cauliflower mix
chopped lettuce



This low-fat salad is going to be filling:

1/4 cup canned garbanzo beans (chick peas)
1/4 cup cooked, diced chicken breast
1-2 Tablespoons dried cranberries
cabbage slaw to the top of the jar


This one is also low-fat:

1/2 cup canned garbanzo beans (chick peas)
sliced carrots
sliced radishes
chopped broccoli/cauliflower mix
cabbage slaw to the top of the jar


And this last one:

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
sliced carrots
sliced radishes
chopped mushrooms
chopped red onion
chopped broccoli/cauliflower mix
chopped lettuce to the top of the jar


Remember: If you're taking your salads with you to work or school, you'll want to put your favorite salad dressing in the bottom of the jars before layering in the other ingredients.

Stick the jars in the fridge, and you have a week's worth of salads to eat at home or to go!


I think it must be spring, the way my appetite has turned to salads lately. We've been looking for signs of the season and ran across this guy, wooing the ladies at Custer State Park last week.

Isn't he something?

What signs of spring have you seen around your house this week?

Friends to the Rescue! Impossible Pie and Dried Apple Snacks

Hello, everybody!

 Changes are afoot in the cafe! Oooh, I sure miss seeing my pretty books up there on top but maybe the page will load faster for all our visitors, now. Half the time I can't really see the food, so I'm just commenting blind. But I today DID see that Ruthy and the Seekers (who run this blog, too) have a collection out.

Happy release day! I'll just post that below, with a link, in case anybody hasn't ordered it yet. I know I did, and probably all of us working here in the cafe. But maybe there's a visitor today who didn't? Raise your hands! I know you're out there. 2.99... really, what is that? A latte? And look at all the book goodness you get! I'm sure the stories are fabulous!

 So, this little crooked picture is of a plant called a "dancing dolphin". Our treasured friend Eleanor loved this plant. :) It blooms about once a year. Anyway, when Eleanor passed away, we inherited the plant and this is one of the starts that is now blooming. (We've grown starts continually for two years. Every time one gets big enough, we pass it on. We're spreading the Eleanor love!)

I blogged about Impossible Pie here. 

 Anyway, on to the meat of this post. (Actually, not meat. Just pie.) I'd completely lost track of the days and thought it was Thursday. Which, really, is pretty much like Wednesday and very much like Friday... except it's hubby's birthday!!
  So, at ten this morning, my beautiful friend Barbara came over with a pie for my husband. I was a little confused. I'll always accept pie, no question, but why today? Why Thursday? Until I saw the card and realized...

With some strawberry sauce.

 OH MY WORD. The love of my life is turning forty seven! He's survived almost twenty years with me and keeps his sanity with six kids running through the house. (Ignore the fact he doesn't actually like to celebrate his birthday. It's not a custom he grew up with and thinks it's a little weird how Americans love birthdays. Just ignore all that. We love birthdays!!)

 She also brought dried apples. She makes them by slicing very thin and sprinkling with Jello and then putting them in the dehydrator. Isn't that clever? Flavored dried apples!

These are orange and strawberry. We saved hubby some, I promise.
 So, my friend saved me from completely forgetting my beloved's birthday even though we're all packed for a family reunion tomorrow, have baseball games scheduled in the morning, and hit all the dental appointments this week AND got the puppy neutered. Hubby wouldn't have been offended at being forgotten but I'm so tickled that Barbara reminded me... and she did it with pie! I can't think of a better or sweeter reminder. That's what friends are for!
  Okay, we're off to celebrate with a fancy dinner. And maybe a movie, if he can find something he wants to see. He's like me, sort of a picky movie watcher, but we'll see what happens.
  Until next time! (And don't forget to order those Seeker books!!)