Feeding My Memory

My co-worker Gina and I made chicken salad for lunch today.  When we started throwing things together, we realized it had been a while since we last made it and weren't even sure what all we used before.  We definitely don't want to forget how to make it!!  For that reason, and just because it's so yummy and we want to share, I'm posting the recipe here. 

Gina and Barb's Famous Chicken Salad

1 big can of chicken, drained
1 apple, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 cup grapes, halved
1 cup pecans
1 cup Miracle Whip

throw it all together in a big bowl and stir! 

Yes -- it's that simple.  Not exactly rocket science, but definitely worth making.  It makes enough to feed 3 or 4 lunch easily. 

Today, we finished off with a pinterest recipe for dessert.  You can find it on either of our pinterest pages. 

Crescent Roll Pecan Pie Bars



Obviously they are delish -- it's half gone already!!!  (and just in case you're wondering, no Gina and I did not eat all of that.  Not quite. ha!) Tastes just like pecan pie, but uses crescent roll dough so you don't have to roll out pie dough.  That's my kinda recipe!  Gina did tell me she doubled everything except the crescent roll.  More = better.  Right?

Psych 101

I think it's fair to say I've always been a moody person.  It never took much to make me turn on a dime.  As I've aged, the moodiness has increased.  Medication (not just for that) helps some, but menopause has kicked it into high gear.  This evening, I experienced both extremely highs and extremely lows within a matter of minutes.  I'm proud of myself for escaping on a positive note. 

After work, I went to Best Buy in search of an old Jason Aldean CD, released in 2006. I knew there wasn't much chance of them having it, but figured I'd give it a shot.  When I got to the CD section, wouldn't you know, there was a guy standing right in front of the -A-s.  As I tried to peak around him, I saw him reach for a CD.  Yeah, a Jason Aldean CD.  I picked up the only one left and it was the wrong one.  I said something to him about how funny we were both looking at the same artist, and told him which one I was trying to find.  He pulled a CD out of the stack he was holding and asked "is this it?"  Sure was -- and he told me to take it.  I asked if he was sure, and he said yes, so I thanked him profusely and happily bought my CD.  How awesome! 

I decided to grab a bite to eat at Taco Bell.  If you're familiar with the Taco Bell on Wanamaker, you know how congested the drive through line can get.  Of course it was backed up onto the road leading into Best Buy, so I kept going and drove around to come into the parking lot from the other side.  I drove around front and there were a few cars in line.  I made sure I knew which car was the last one in line when I pulled up, and planned to merge into the line behind it.  Another car came whipping along and no doubt saw me sitting there and decided she was not going to allow me in front of her.  She kept on the tail of the car in front of her so there was absolutely no way I could squeeze in.  Of course my immediate reaction was rage.  I tried staring her down, but she wouldn't even look at me.  I cussed at her.  And then, I realized none of that was helping.  In the meantime, another car pulled in behind her, but she didn't crowd, and graciously let me in front of her.  As I sat in the line thinking about how she didn't have to do that, I decided to pay for her food.  It wasn't much -- she must have been a light eater!  But it wouldn't have mattered.  I just wanted to pay it forward.  First for the nice guy at Best Buy who helped me, and of course for the woman herself.  I got my food, paid for the orders, and headed on down the road.  As always the first thing I went to do is put my straw in my drink.  But guess what -- they didn't give me a straw.  Normally, this would set me off again.  I'd be cussing the drive through worker and Taco Bell in general.  But... BUT, I guess I felt so good about what had just happened, I just thought "oh well -- I'll just drink it without a straw"  That never happens!  I never let things go like that! 

I'm not writing about this so everyone will know I did something nice for a stranger.  I guess I'm just sharing the lesson I learned today; positive behavior begets positive behavior.  But then, you already knew that, didn't you?

It was the search for this song that got this whole ball of positivity rolling...

 



They Call Me Martha Sewer

Cooking.  Never really been a fan.  Or at least I didn't think I was.  But then I realized, it's not the cooking itself I don't like, it's the cleanup.  And when you're trying to create a masterpiece in a tiny area (that would be my kitchen) it's even worse.  So I've never been terribly adventurous when it comes to new recipes.  There 's another reason for that as well.  Greg hates it when I try cook something new.  He'd be happy to eat the same 5 or 6 meals every night for the rest of his life.  Nothing wrong with em, why mess with em?  That would be why I have a pinterest board titled "Stuff Greg Won't Eat".  But every once in a while, I come up with something worth adding to the rotation, as they say.  A while back, I started throwing some stuff together, thought it turned out ok, and tweaked it from there until I had something pretty yummy.  Then I made the mistake of bringing leftovers to work one day.  Now, about once a month, a few of my favorite spoiled rotten brats start whining about how they sure would like me to bring some to work!  I always give them a hard time about having to cook for them, but the truth is I really like making people happy, and if something I cooked does the trick, then I'm all over it.  So without further ado, I present to you my recipe for Hot Sausage and Rice. 

I'd love to be like Robyn and Nance over at dinosaurs can't eat pizza and post a picture of all of the ingredients that go into this dish, but I just made this a couple of nights ago and don't have all of the ingredients on hand right now, so that's just not gonna happen today.  I do have a few pictures taken during different stages of cooking, so that's gonna have to do for now.

The ingredients are:

1 lb. Tennessee Pride Hot Pork Sausage
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped peppers
2 T. Olive Oil
1 box Creamy Four Cheese Rice A Roni
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
2 cups water
1/2 cup Velveeta, chopped
salt and pepper to taste


The first thing I do is chop the onions and peppers.  The peppers I use depends on what I have in the freezer or if I have to buy peppers in store.  We grow all sorts of varieties of hot peppers in the garden and then freeze them, so I that's what I usually use.  The small red, yellow and green peppers that come in a bag in the store work great for this.  They aren't hot, so if I use them I throw a few jalapenos in too.  How many hot peppers you use depends on how hot you like your food.  The hot sausage is pretty spicy, so I usually seed any hot peppers I use.

Saute the onions and peppers in the olive oil. 

Then add sausage and cook until the sausage is done.  

SORRY - NO PICTURE OF THE MEAT AND VEGGIES!!!

Remember I mentioned how much I hate cleaning up?  Well that led me to using the same big skillet for everything in this dish.  When the meat is cooked thoroughly, I dump the rice right into the center of the skillet and brown it a minute or two before adding the chicken soup and water.  Then turn down the heat, cover and let it simmer until the rice is almost done (about 10 minutes)  It's a good idea to check on it frequently and stir so it doesn't burn.  Once most of the liquid is cooked out, I add the Velveeta and let it melt.  Season with salt and pepper. 

If you have a fancy schmancy dishwasher and pots and pan running out of your ass, feel free to cook the rice as directed on the box, then add it to the sausage mixture and add the soup and cheese in without any additional water.  I happen to think MY way is easier. 

Now if I'm making this for supper after I get home from work, Greg is probably starving, so we go ahead and eat it at this stage.  If I'm making it to take to work, I put it in a pan and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes or so.  Baking it cooks the rice a little more and just firms it up a bit -- it's really however you prefer to eat it.  There's no right or wrong way to eat this stuff!

 All ready to feed to those bratty kids at work!!!

The beauty of this recipe is you can change anything in it to suit your tastes.  And while I do think the sausage is what makes it so good, you don't have to use hot sausage.

If you're brave enough to try my recipe, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Nothing to Say

I feel like writing a blog post today.  Trouble is, I have no idea what to write about.  Lets see... well the weather sucks.  No, I take that back.  It rained all weekend, and to a farmer, that rain is  better than gold.  Even the snow we got in February was a blessing.  But did you know it takes 12 inches of snow to equal 1 inch of rain?**  That doesn't seem fair!  Wonder if it's partly because some of it evaporates before it can soak into the ground?  Who knows.  I do know it felt much heavier than 1 inch of rain when we shoveled mom's driveway.  Cue whining about my shoulder, and inturn Greg yelling about my whining. 

Everyone's been sick.  Right around the end of January we all got the flu.  I even missed 4 days of work because of it.  I never do that, so you know it was bad.  Greg caught it, but somehow he managed to get over it quickly, even while ignoring my advice to take it easy and rest.  Now, Erin and family have a new virus and are all home sick today.  Ugh.  Will the germs ever go away???

We got meat!  We took two steers to the locker plant last month, and picked up the meat last Wednesday.  Sure is nice to have a freezer full of fresh meat.  It seems like after a year or so, the meat starts tasting old.  Greg doesn't notice it as soon as I do, and Erin notices it before either of us.  Once I notice it, I'm done.  We're planning to butcher a few pigs next month, and we're going to be doing it ourselves in the shop.  There's several of us buying pigs at the same time, so we'll all spend one long day working on it.  That's usually a fun day.  "The women" do the wrapping and labeling, and that's fine by me.  Doesn't matter how much wine I drink that way. (although the more wine we drink the more creative the labeling is, heh heh)   Wine and knives, on the other hand, not such a good idea.  Well neither is  beer and knives for that matter, but that doesn't stop the guys.  Haven't lost any fingers yet... 

Did someone say they wanted to hear a Carter story?  Last week he went to the Caterpillar Dealer in Topeka with Papa.  Greg was busy ordering parts, so he pretty much let Carter have the run of the place.  Well, Carter found someone that knew him.  (One of Brent's best friends' dad works there)  He hung out in Gordon's office playing with toys for a while, and spotted a brand new remote control dump truck in an unopened box.  Of course he wanted to play with it, but since it was new, the easiest thing for Gordon to tell him was that the batteries were dead.  He accepted that and kept playing, BUT, when it was time to leave, Carter told Gordon "next time I come here, I'm gonna want to play with that, so make sure you get new batteries for it".  Sometimes I think he's too smart for his own good.  When Erin took him to the well child screening for preschool, everyone thought he was getting ready to go into Kindergarten.  (And believe me, that's not because of his size)

And because I believe in equality, let's catch up on Miss Chloe!  I had the pleasure of spending most of the weekend with my sweet baby girl.  She's such a loving and happy girl, but she does not like strangers.  Any by strangers I mean anyone who isn't Mommy, Daddy, Meema, Papa or Grandma.  I guess it's not that she doesn't like them, but she won't let anyone else hold her.  Once she warms up a little, she'll smile or laugh at them, but that's about it.  I had to laugh the other day when I took her into the Coop office to see all of my former (notice, I didn't say OLD, ladies!) co-workers and they all came rushing up to see her.  Of course they all wanted to hold her, but I had to tell them that wasn't going to happen.  She did finally let me put her down and she walked around a bit.  It was just killing them (I'm looking at YOU, Laura!!!) not to hold her.  Whenever I took Carter in at that age, he went to everybody.  It's so funny, we could tell almost immediately after she was born that she wasn't going to be as outgoing as Carter, and so far, that's still true.  I think Erin is grateful for that, since she worries so much about Carter being over friendly with strangers.  Chloe has  been walking since January, she'll eat anything you put in front of her, she has 6 teeth I think, with more trying to come in.  She says mama, dada, ma (for Maggie) and tries to say bubba. Oh, and UH OH!   She just started waving bye, and Brent has her giving high fives!  She also loves her blankie, just like her momma.  One improvement over Erin's attachment is Chloe will take any of her blankets, not just one special one.  That means no trips back to Walmart to retreive a lost blanket, which we may have done once or twice!  Like her brother, she loves animals, especially  Maggie of course.  And she wants nothing more than to pet Hoss and Harry, but we all know that will never happen! 

Last, but certainly not least, our family suffered a terrible loss in January.  Brent's dad, Richard passed away after fighting lung cancer since August.  Brent and his family have the same tight bond as our family does, so this has been very difficult.  We worried so about how Carter would handle it, but after his momma so carefully and lovingly explained to him what happened, he seemed to understand better than anyone expected.  Other than not wanting to go in to the funeral home (after the first visitation) he did great.  He still talks about Grandpa Gibby, and he gets that he's gone forever, but it's only been a little over a month, so we'll have to see how things go. I know he misses him terribly.  He's spent the last few Saturday nights with Grandma Gibby, which I know gives Mildred great comfort.  Please keep Brent and his family in your prayers as they adjust to life without such an important person in their family.

Sharing a few pictures too :)

The Birthday Boy on his new bike



Just bein' goofy :)

doesn't every 4 year old watch TV like this?

He was SUPPOSED to be helping us shovel snow...

If you love Forest Gump as much as we do, this should require no explanation!

Ready for Cake!!!

Hamming it up, just like big brother

Happy First Birthday Chloe Janette!

He loves carrying her around -- wonder how much longer he'll be able to!

They love playing together :)

big  brother sharing his ice cream cone!

they even hunt together! (shhh- don't tell Chloe that's not a gun)

Huh!  Guess I had more to say that I thought!  Doubt that really surprises anyone :)

**source:  the hubby, so take it for what it's worth

Mothers Day

I love my Mom.  Well really, who doesn't love their Mom?  And for that matter, who doesn't love MY Mom?  She's such a character.  While both of my parents had a wicked sense of humor, I think my own brand of humor is more like my Moms.  Particularly our tendency towards self-deprecating jokes.  And she's just as quick witted at 88 as she ever was.  When I look in the mirror, I don't see much of her, but when I look inside myself, she's right there.  We've all uttered those famous words "oh my God, I sound just like my mother", but in my case, it's happening more and more with each passing day.  I know my Mom wasn't a saint (she reminds me all the time), but I choose to remember all the good and put anything unpleasant in the distant past.  Growing up the baby in the family, I was the lucky one.  I had my mom all to myself for almost 10 years, so I think we share a tighter bond than she does with my brother or sister.  I know that was not a conscious choice on any one's part, but simply the way our lives played out.

As one would expect, now that she's almost 89 years old, her health has deteriorated.  But, how many 88 year olds do you know who still live in their own home, drive their own car, and cook their own meals?  Did I mention how stubborn she is?  She did finally agree not to drive outside of Burlingame, but I think that had more to do with the reliability of her car than anything.  

Anyone that knows my mom very well knows one thing.  She has an aversion to staying on her feet.  I can't count the number of times she's fallen.  Shoot, even when she was younger she broke her foot a number of times.  She likes to say she's a klutz.  I would never say that.  I might say she's gravity challenged.  If you were at Erin's wedding, you might have seen this first hand.  

The day before yesterday, I got a phone call from Mom's cleaning lady, Pam,  telling me she had fallen at the Senior Center.  The wonderful Burlingame Rescue Squad checked her out, and suggested she go to the emergency room.  Remember that stubborn streak?  She had Pam take her home.  Another friend joined them and helped get her situated at home until I could get there.  When I arrived, I could see a few bruises and some cuts on her face.  It seems she tripped over a brick on the edge of the sidewalk and landed face first.  Within an hour or two, the bruising and swelling had worsened, and she was starting to look like she'd lost a fight with Muhammad Ali.  The fall broke her glasses, and judging by the cement skid marks on the lens, it's a good thing she was wearing them.   After experiencing several dizzy spells, she finally conceded to going to see her Dr. the next day.  Not surprisingly, the Dr. said they were the result of a concussion.  I also took her to her Eye Dr. and got new glasses ordered.  By the time we got all our running around done, she was exhausted.  This morning she reported to me that she slept well last night (no doubt helped out by the pain meds the Dr. prescribed) and was feeling much better.  Maybe, just maybe now, she'll start using that cane we bought a couple of years ago.  Oh who am I kidding?  I know she's going to recover just fine from this little mishap, but when I let myself think about how differently things could have turned out, it scares me to death.  I've only had my momma for 53 years, and I'm not done with her yet! 

at Erin's Bridal Shower 2005

Same Song, 1,586th Verse....

I got a wild hair when I woke up this morning and thought "maybe I'll try to exercise today".  Sooo, I went to the basement to get clean clothes, but first I did a load of laundry and dug through several baskets of clothes to find something comfy to workout in.  Then I took one basket full of clothes upstairs, and proceeded to fold and put away those clothes.  By the time I was dressed and ready to exercise, I felt like I'd already put in a 30 minute workout.  Such is the life of this overweight blogger.  

On the advice of my diabetes center nurse, I purchased a Leslie Sansone walking DVD about a year and a half ago.  I've probably played it 3 or 4 times (including today) and actually walked to it a couple of time.  I've found the problem with these types of walking programs is they assume you are in reasonably good shape when you start.  The "beginner" program on this particular DVD is a brisk one mile walk.  Well they may not call it brisk, but I sure do.  Even I know it's not a good idea to go from barely walking around your house and office to walking a mile at one time.  I couldn't even make it through the dang warm up people!  So while Leslie and her followers enjoyed their lovely little one mile jaunt, I sat down and googled "beginning exercise programs for the morbidly obese".  Once I sifted through all the ads for exercise equipment I can't afford and won't use I actually found something useful.  A suggestion to start out walking 10 minutes at a time, 3 times a week.  After 2 weeks, increase the walking time by 10% each week until I'm walking 30 minutes at a time.  By my calculations, that will have me walking for 30 minutes by early April.  That seems awfully gradual to me, but maybe doing it this way will prevent injuries, burnout, and all the other things that seem to get in my way.  And, if I choose (no pressure here) to improve my eating habits along the way, even better. 

AND, just because this comes at the beginning of the year, do not assume this is a resolution.  New Year's Resolutions are made to be broken.  At least in my world they are. 

Ok Barb, no more procrastinating.  Time to hit the living room for 10 minutes of agony.  Just as soon as I make a play list....

Wish me luck!!

Getting Off On The Right Foot

Happy New Year! I just love New Years Day, after all, it offers so much hope! It can be a new beginning for anyone who feels the need for one. AND, it's the one day of the year that I can honestly say I've blogged everyday this year!

Last night (ok early this morning) when Greg woke from his "nap" (normally from 8:00 or 9:00 pm to 2:00 or 3:00 am) I was still awake. What? It was New Year's Eve -- I couldn't go to bed early, now could I? So back to the story, Greg asked me if I was going to go with him to feed cattle this morning. Now this does not happen very often. Had he said something like "you're going to go with me to feed cattle in the morning" I probably would have raised my stubborn head and refused. But since he asked, nicely I might add, I thought why not? Well aside from the fact that it meant I only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep, why not? So about the time he headed outside to do whatever it is he does before he starts feeding (start the truck, start a fire in the shop, feed the animals? I'm just guessing here) I got up and threw on far too many clothes for a menopausal woman to be wearing inside a wood heated home and gleefully ran out into the snow to cool off. And guess what? It was BEAUTIFUL outside! Really, is there anything more serene than fresh snow? I immediately knew this little field trip was going to be camera worthy.

My first challenge was getting a self portrait of myself to post on facebook as a teaser for this post. I see adorable self portraits on fb all the time -- cute young girls posting cute pictures left and right. Not this girl! I'm sure my phone didn't help matters -- you can't see what you're doing with the camera pointed at yourself, so there were numerous failures before I finally gave up and said screw it.

We fed the calves at home first, and then Greg chopped ice in what little water is left in our frozen pond.

waiting patiently

you've heard of coming from the other side of the tracks.... well we've got the bad boys from the other side of the fence!

gotta get the snow out first

Lucy doesn't let her daddy get out of her sight!

corn -- it's what's for breakfast!

gotta make sure they can get to the water

 

 

 

 

Next up, cows and calves, part 1. Truly, there is something so special about driving through the timber after a snowfall. It takes my breath away.

so peaceful

 

 New Year's Babies!!!

 



 chopping more ice



he doesn't go anywhere without that ax!

 

Then across the road to the other bunch of cows and calves. And look what we found -- a brand new baby. I got a chance to see Greg's tender side, if you will, as he made sure this new baby who was born in a snow drift had fresh hay to lay in. Just wish I a picture of him picking that sweet baby up and laying him in the hay.

gotta look closely to see the baby 

needed some bedding

 

 Here ya go little guy

 

 looks good to Greg

 

 looks good to Mom

 

 aaaaand not so fast...maybe I don't wanna lay down!

 

an hour old and already has a mind of it's own!

 

 

Break time -- while getting another bale of hay, neighbors Phil and Mike happened by and stopped to visit. No pics of the bull shit session necessary.

Next thing I know, Greg says to me " you ready to load some wood?" Excuse me? I didn't sign up for physical labor this morning -- I thought this was a guided tour of our winter wonderland! How could I forget he stops and saws a load of wood every morning while he's out feeding? Sneaky, that husband of mine is. Turns out he only sawed a little bit -- enough to keep the shop warm all day he says. And a little exercise never hurt anyone. In fact, I can now check off that resolution to exercise more this year.  Fine, that wasn't a resolution, but it sounded good.

Lucy lives for this stuff!  She's such a good girl

 

check out that action shot!

 

Not bad for about 15 minutes work

 

 

Once we had this wood loaded, we headed home. While dressed so warmly, I considered staying outside and enjoying the fresh air for a bit longer. But then the urge to pee hit, and with that many clothes on, I had no choice but to start stripping as quickly as possible. Another unfortunate side effect of menopause I guess. Of course once the layers of clothes were gone, the moment was gone as well. Oh well, I needed to get these pictures downloaded and this post written anyway. Guess I'll just open the blinds and enjoy to snow from afar once again.