Thursday's Rambling And Dinner Talk

My son Matt has been off from his job for a week because the company he is working for didn't have any jobs on the books, yesterday he got a call that they finally have some work, so he went to work today. He is working as an Electrical Apprentice. Matt just graduated from high school and while he was in school he took a 2 year course in Electricity at the tech center that was located at his school. After he graduated he applied for the Electrical Union's Apprentice Program and he was excepted. I am so proud of my son. The union found him the job he is working at now. Starting in August he will work 4 days and have 1 day of class on Friday's. The company he is working for now has been sending him and the man he is working with to Virginia Beach to work. Matt drives to Petersburg, VA in the mornings and then gets a ride with the man he is working with. He doesn't know how long he will be working with this company. The union will find him another job if this one ends.

I am making Julie's stuffed pork chops (all it is is stove top stuffing on top of the pork chops while they are baking, super easy and so good), mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans for dinner tonight. I might make some chocolate chip cookies today if I get time. We cleaned the pool out yesterday evening, it is supposed to be really hot here today so I'm sure we will be spending some time in the pool today. I have laundry to do today and of course the normal everyday chores to do today.
Have a wonderful day today. :)

We Have A House Guest Here Tonight

We have a little house guest tonight! My 3 year old granddaughter Mallory is spending the night with us. She has been following me around and asking me tons of questions. She is so cute! I love when she stays the night. I really like having the one on one time with her. Right now she is sitting at the dinning room table with the phone to her ear pretending that she is talking to someone and while she is doing that she is looking at the sale flyer's that I got in the mail today. lol
I would take a pic but my batteries died in my camera so I need to recharge them but I cant find my charger.

Wednesday

It's going to be another hot day here today, middle 90's. I am so ready for winter! Summer time in Virginia can get be real hot and humid. I'm not much of a summer person, I prefer the cold months of winter. To me it is much easier to get warm then cool down.
We need to get our pool cleaned out so my grandchildren can go for a swim. They have so much fun in the pool. I enjoy getting in it and laying on the float.
I have a lot of laundry to do and will try to get it all done today. I made spaghetti for dinner last night, but we decided at the last minute to go out to eat so we will have the spaghetti tonight. All I have to do is cook the garlic bread.

They Grow Up So Fast!

I thought it would be fun to show you all pics of my children when they were little and what they look like now. Along with some pics of me when I was a young Mother (and one of me before I was a Mother and me as a child). My children are all grown up now. They grew up way to fast and I often wonder where the time went. In a blink of an eye they were all grown up it seems.

This is April at about 2-3 years old

Here is April, she is now 25 years old

Here are me and my two girls, Tina and April, April is the infant in the pic. The pic on the right is me when I was little. I think I was about 6 there.

Here I am with my two girls again.

Here is Tina and April all grown up. Tina is now 26.

Here is Matt, he was about 3-4 there and he never went anywhere without his railroad conductors cap! :)

This is Matt now, he is 18

Here is Eric, he is holding his roaster Rodney. He was about 4 in this pic.

Here is Eric now, he is 21

All 4 children at Christmas

This is one of my favorite pics. My sister, my Daddy, my Mama and me. There isn't a date on the back of the picture but I think it was taken in the late 70's.



I need to find a pic of Tina alone as a child, I have tons but cant get to them now. I'll update when I can.

Clothes Drying And My New Hair Cut Pics

Here are my towels and sheets drying on my new clothes line. I only have one line for now. Keith is going to put more up. I think I have holes in the poles for 4 lines. I'll be able to hang out all of our clothes with that many lines. :)Here is a pic of me with my new hair cut. I had a lot cut off, my hair grows super fast so I told the stylist to cut it short. She kept taking a little off at a time and she was fussing at me for cutting my long hair. lol She said she would kill for curls like mine. I hate my curls but I have come to terms with them. In the winter months I straighten it, but in the summer months it just frizzes when I straighten it out.

Busy Monday

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Monday's are always a busy day for me. I have lots of laundry to do and I want to hang most of it outside on my new clothes line. We had storms yesterday afternoon and into the night and they seemed to have cooled us down a little. I'm sure as the day goes by it will warm up. I am not much of a summer person I am more a winter person, I love the winter.

I've never been one to make a list of chores to do, seems the few times I tried it I never stuck to the list, I seem to get side tracked very easily and not getting to anything on the list. I'm not sure what dinner will be, I do know I'm making my friend Teri's Parmesan Potatoes. They are so delicious and so easy to make. Here is the recipe:

PARMESAN BAKED POTATOES

6 T. butter melted

3 T. grated Parmesan cheese

8 medium unpeeled red potatoes, cut in half*

Pour melted butter into a 13 x 9" pan. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the butter. Place potatoes, cut side down, over the cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 400* for 40-45 minutes.


(*I used a 3 lb. bag of small red potatoes and one stick of butter, and roasted them on a cookie sheet.)

I bought a bunch of banana's the other day at the grocery store that were in the mark down cart. I want to turn those banana's into banana bread and maybe Double Chocolate Banana Muffins. I'm about to put the little ones down for their nap and start my baking while they are napping. They get up so early that by 10-10:30 AM they are ready for a nap.
Here is my banana bread recipe and the recipe for double chocolate banana muffins.

Shirla's Banana Bread
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 ripe bananas (sliced)
Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease loaf pan. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Bake for 1 hour & 10 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from pan. Makes 1 loaf. I doubled the recipe to make two loafs.

I love these Ziploc containers, a loaf of bread fits nicely in one:

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 baking cocoa1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/3 cups of mashed ripe bananas
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup (6 0x) miniature semisweet chocolate chips

In a large blow combine the first six ingredients. In a small bowl, combine bananas oil and egg: stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are done.
Makes about 1 dozen.
I usually make these in mini muffin tins....and they make around 2 1/2 dozen mini muffins
Posted by: CindyRevCindy

The finished mini muffins:

I had a little helper while making my banana bread. My grandson Carter:

Yesterday afternoon/evening while we were in between thunderstorms I was able to snap this pic of one of my hummingbirds. At one point I had 3 of them hovering around the feeder, so I ran and got my camera. Two of them must have been camera shy because the whole time I was sitting there with the camera they wouldn't come near the feeder. I snap the pic below, sat there for a little bit then went into the house and looked out the window and there were two hummingbird drinking from the feeder. lol

Sunday Ramblings

The CVS in my area has moved. They built a bigger one across the street from the old one. Today was their grand opening, so I went to check it out. It is a really big store with a few sections that the old store didn't have. This new store has a small dollar section that is a lot better then the old one was. I found a few things in there that I normally get at the Dollar Tree, so that will be nice because the CVS is closer to my house then the Dollar Tree. I was mad at myself when I got home because I had a coupon for $1.00 off Irish Spring soap and I forgot to use it in CVS. My daughter Tina gave me a $2.00 off $10.00 or more so I was able to use that, I had used up all my Extra Care coupons last week so I didn't have any of them to use today and when I got my receipt today there wasn't anything on there that I use.

Dinner tonight will be tomato sandwiches, everyone has been snacking on and off all day it seems and no one is hungry for a big meal. I love tomato sandwiches with just a little bit of mayo, salt and pepper. For years I wouldn't touch a tomato, I picked them out of they were in anything I was eating. My taste changed one summer about 15 years ago and I've loved tomatoes every since. It is kind of funny to me how our taste can change over the years. Before I had children I hated cabbage. After my oldest daughter Tina was born my Mama was making cabbage and corned beef one day and I took a taste of it and loved it. Before I had my two son's I loved sweet iced tea, after my oldest son Eric was born I found I didn't have the taste for tea anymore. Is there anything you have lost the taste for or gained the taste for?

I haven't forgotten to take a pic of me with my new hair cut, I just haven't had the time to take it and load it to my computer. I'll try to get that done this week.

Saturday Happenings

I love Saturdays. Things slow down and there is no rushing around, no one has to be anywhere by a certain time, we can all just hang out and enjoy each others company. We were all lazy this morning, it was so nice. *giggles* I made sausage, eggs and toast for breakfast. I cooked Beeler's sausage for the first time and it was amazing! After I cleaned the kitchen I took a shower and got ready to go grocery shopping. I decided to stop of at the Dollar Tree while I was out. I love that store. I buy all of my cleaning products from there. I needed some pens and note pads so I picked some of those up to. After the Dollar Tree I stopped off at Family Dollar and bought two small laundry baskets. I like to keep one in my sons bathroom and some how the one that was in there is missing. This house isn't that big, but I cant find it anywhere. I finally made it to the grocery store. This is the store I like to do most of my grocery shopping: http://www.farmersfoods.com/about_us.html. Farmer's Food is a local store and they also have stores in NC. They have really good prices and I like their meat section. They have a cash for gas program, I always try to find things in the store are in the program so I can save a little at the gas station. I used my gas card today, I put in $20.00 and when I went into pay using the card my total went down to $17.38. With the high price of gas these days every little bit helps.

Oh I forgot to post this, Keith finally put up my line on my clothes line poles! :) So now I can hang clothes out again. I so love hanging clothes outside on the lines. Sheets smell so nice after line drying outside.

We have no plans for the evening. Will probably check out the movie channels on TV and see if anything good is coming on. I need to watch Monk, I had Matt record it last night so I might watch that if there are no movies on that interest me.

Happy Friday

The week went by really fast for me it seems. As I get older the weeks seem to go by faster and faster. Friday's are always a busy day for me. My husband gets off work at 10:0 AM on Friday's. My grandchildren seem to be more restless on Friday's. I try to go to Walmart on Friday after dinner. My son's girl friend Linda normally goes with me and we have started calling Friday's 'Walmart Friday'. lol She didn't get to go with me tonight, her and Eric went out with a friend. It was just me all by myself. I had a good time and I even stopped off and got my hair cut! I had a lot cut off and I really like it. I'll try to post a pic of it tomorrow.

I had put a turkey in the fridge to thaw Wednesday so we could have Thanksgiving in July next week. My son Matt had to go out into the garage where the spare fridge is and my fridge wasn't working. I went down into the garage and my turkey had thawed! I was so upset, I didn't spend a lot of money on the turkey. I was more upset because I have to throw it out. I hate throwing food away. We are not sure what happened to the fridge, but my husband (who's name is Keith) went and looked at it and it was working. It is a really old fridge we had it in our old house. I'll be going grocery shopping tomorrow (Saturday) and will price the turkey's and if I find a good price I'll get another, and have our Thanksgiving in August. :)

Dinner Tonight

I came across this recipe on the Kitchen Frugality board on AOL and it sounded good so I decided to make it for dinner tonight. I have taken some pics of it while it is cooking and will post later. For now here is the recipe:

Chicken Breasts & Zucchini With Garlic Cream Sauce

1/4 cup butter
3 whole chicken breasts, halved
3 cups zucchini, sliced 1/8 in thick
1/2 cup green onions, diced

Garlic Cream Sauce

4 tbsp butter
1 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp flour
1 pkg cream cheese (3 oz)
1 can chicken broth
1/2 tsp pepper

4 servings cooked Brown Rice.

In a 10" skillet, melt butter until sizzling, add chicken breasts.
Cook over med heat, turning once, until chicken is browned & fork tender.
Add zucchini & onions. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally,
until zucchini is crisply tender,
5-7 min.
Garlic cream sauce, in saucepan, melt 4 tbsp butter.
Add flour; continue cooking until bubbly.
Add remaining garlic cream ingredients except rice.

Serve zucchini & chicken over rice; pour sauce over chicken.
Posted by: Jo Anne/CPerk97
Here are pics of the prep. and the cooking of my dish:

The zucchini and onions

(i didn't have green onions so I used a reg. one)

The chicken with the veggies

The brown rice as it was cooking
The garlic cream sauce

The grand finish

I have to say this was a delicious dish and I will be making again. My whole family loved it, even my picky son Eric liked it and he hardly ever likes anything new.

The Internet And Friendship

I've been online since 1997. It wasn't until 2004 that I found AOL message boards. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would find such wonderful people there. Over the past 4 years I have found many people on the message boards, but only a few that I can call "my friends". As I sit here and type my first blog post ever I am in aw at the kindness of my friends that I have made online. I just met Julie, someone I have chatted with on emails, the message boards and even over the phone. She was in my area for her pork business http://www.beelerspurepork.com/ and she brought me a bunch of her products. Sausage, ham, bacon, bratwurst and hot dogs. I'm so excited to try them and looking forward to the day that her and her husbands products are sold in my area stores.
It was so nice to finally meet her face to face after talking to her for so long online. She came to my area a few years ago but life got in my way and I was unable to meet with her. Her and her husband are so sweet and down to earth. It was a pleasure to meet them both and I hope the next time she is in my area we get to spend a little more time together.
I hated that we didn't get to take pictures, but next time we will!

You read so many horror stories of people meeting people that they have met online. I have met with many and have only had positive experiences. I'll spend more time talking those meetings at another time.