Water, Water, and More Water

Right now, I feel sooooooo waterlogged. This weekend, while hubby and I were in a class out of town, I started to develop abdominal pain, chills, and back pain. It went on pretty much all day, only letting up a little bit around lunch time. When the class ended, and we were headed home, I had him take me to the Emergency Room at our local hospital. After having tests runs, including a CT scan, it was determined I was passing a kidney stone!!! Yikes!! Not fun. They are very painful. The pain has subsided and I'm continuing to drink lots of water, but at this point all I'm doing is running to the bathroom. Am ready to give it a rest!! Have a blessed day!

Winter Scenes

During the last ice storm, the trees were just magnificent. Of course, later on we were really starting to worry as lying in bed at night, you could here the trees start to snap and pop and we were wondering if one of them would come through our roof. We were quite greatful we did not have the wind with the storm, otherwise there would have been no power. So many people hate the snow and ice, and it is difficult to drive in without a doubt. But the beauty of it all still takes my breath away. Blessings.

A New Year - Time to Sew

It's been a nice long break from blogging. I had been hinting to my dear husband that I would really love a sewing maching for Christmas. Guess what? I received this lovely sewing machine. I am definitely a beginning sewer and would really love to learn how to quilt eventually. It started a few years ago when our children started Scouts and needed patches sewn on their uniforms and I would hand do them, and it was just plain hard. Also, my husband usually needs his pants hemmed and so I would take them to a seamstress. Now that I've learned to do a double-fold hem with a little practice, I will be hemming his pants. Also, our children wanted pillows made during the holiday season, so I let them pick out a fleece fabric at the store and made them each their own pillow. I get a little teary eyed when I check on them at night and see them laying their heads on the pillows I've made--they seem to enjoy them so much. The pillows are nothing special--just square or rectangle pieces of fabric, but they really seem to like them. Our youngest has already mentioned he wants me to make him a blanket. We will see how that goes.

We have some big changes in store for our family this year--I will fill you in later. Have a blessed day!!

Time to Wind Down...

and get away from blogging for a while. Our children begin their Christmas break early this afternoon and will not return to school until early January. Their grandmother will be here for a few days beginning Saturday and I'm planning on doing a little cleaning for the next few days and getting the house in order--although I don't plan on working too hard at it today after yesterday--I'd been painting our living room wall and all the cleanup that came with it. The tea in the photo above is a really good tea to relax and wind down with. I've had some good teas before, but I do believe this is one of my favorites--Vanilla Caramel Truffle from Lipton. Also, love the design of the teabag--it's a triangle shape made of a fine mesh-like material. It comes very close to tasting like a candy bar--YUM!! To you and yours, have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Busily Cleaning

...and the Clorox Ready Mop is ready for action. This is one of my favorite cleaning products and has been since it came out. I think the reason I like it so much is because it is not waxy. We have laminate flooring throughout the main level of our home, except for the bathroom floors and the icky kitchen carpeting we have. I try not to overdue it on the cleaning products, and usually prefer hot soapy water for the bathroom floors. I have found this product to work just great for the laminate flooring. I could be more diligent about mopping, but if I were I would be mopping all the time with the boys shoe prints and all. I do need to do a thorough mopping, hopefully tomorrow, before Christmas break. If you haven't found the right product for your laminate floors, give this a try. I'm sure you will like it. Have a blessed day!!

Appetizers Anyone?

This is an appetizer my dear husband made this weekend. He had it at food day at work and tried to replicate it. It tastes great!! I'm not sure I even have a name for it, so let's make something up.

Bacon-Wrapped Smokies (okay that works)

1 package bacon, thin cut
1 package beef smokies
brown sugar

You will need to cut the bacon in half. It's easier if it's still in the package and then take a knife and slice the bacon right down the middle. Wrap a piece of the bacon around each smokie and seal with a toothpick. Sprinkle generously with brown sugar. Bake at 375 degrees on a rack you can set on top of your baking sheet until bacon is crisp, but not overdone. That way the grease will drip on the bottom of the baking sheet. You'll need to keep checking these.

We polished these off in no time at all. When you get to be older, you also realize that grease has an effect on you. So, maybe eat these in moderation if you can. Enjoy!!

Okay, I've got to start posting something other than recipes. It's just that we've been doing so much cooking lately and I'm always on the lookout for new recipes, that I just assume others are also. Have a blessed day!

Spiced Beef Stew

Another wonderful recipe from Allrecipes.com.

Spiced Beef Stew

(I made some variations to this and this is what I used)
1/4 cup butter
2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
1 can or bottle of beer
1 onion, sliced into thin rings
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried thyme
4 red potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 can green beans
1/2 package baby carrots
1 can or jar chopped tomatoes

I used a dutch oven to melt the butter. Then coat the stew meat with flour and cook until browned through. After browning, remove the beef from the dutch oven and set aside.

Take the 1/4 cup flour and put in the dutch oven along with beef broth (add the broth slowly and whisk flour so it is not lumpy), the beer (grabbed a bottle of one of my husband's ales), onion, garlic, brown sugar, and thyme. Heat to boil. After this comes to a boil, add remaining vegetables. Cover and simmer until done (1-1/2 to 2-1/2 hours). As this was cooking, I watched to see if it needed to be thicker. If needed, mix some of the broth with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and add to stew to thicken. Enjoy!!

This is a really wonderful recipe on a cold day like today!!