Keep Calm

It's hot, hot, hot!

Air- conditioners are breaking.

Fires in the Rockies.

Storms in the east, people without electricity.

Whew!

It's enough to get a person down.

So happy you stopped by!

Munchies For The 4th

I've been planning the menu for our 4th of July festivities.

Any great July 4th celebration should include tasty 

appetizers & munchies.

Here a few of Pinterest ideas I want to make.

Baked Sweet Potato Chips

(click picture for Pinterest source)

Ingredients:

5 large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin (about ⅛ inch thick)

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 teaspoon cumin powder

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

1/4 cup canola oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Combine all seasonings with oil in a large bowl. 

Add sliced sweet potatoes tossing to coat the potatoes well.

Divide sweet potatoes between 2 rimmed baking sheets,

 arranging them in a single layer.

Bake, flipping once, until centers are soft and edges are crisp, 22 to 24 minutes.

 Sprinkle with additional salt if desired and serve.

Squash Chips

 slice yellow squash thin, salt, bake @ 200 for 2-3 hours

Now, for all the traditional chip eaters in my family

 I will also serve chips & dip.

Everyone likes sour cream with onion soup mix.

I will also make this dip that is Pinterest inspired.

I made it for last Sunday's cookout.

Protein Ranch Dressing/Dip
1 Cup Low Fat Cottage Cheese
3-4 tsp. Buttermilk Ranch Dressing mix
1/4 C. milk or water
I added about 3 tablespoons of milk to make it thicker for dipping
Add ingredients to blender and blend until smooth.
(About 3 min.)

It's great for dipping veggies!

Enjoy!

Summertime & The Livin' Is Easy

I edited my chalkboard message this morning.

This sums it up better.

I'm thankful for air-conditioning.

It's hard to believe I grew up without it.

My deck flowers are doing well with daily watering

and a little Miracle-Grow once a week.

Let's don't forget to pray for those in Colorado & Utah

affected by the wildfires.

A blogging friend in Utah posted yesterday that the 

youth camp her son is working at was being evacuated.

Scary!

Memories of Ralph & Ruby's Garden

Hubby brought home a sack of these beauties on Tuesday.

Fresh tomatoes remind me of my grandpa Ralph & Grandma Ruby's garden.

I enjoyed grabbing a tomato & a salt shaker

 & eating it like an apple.

Their pretty garden provided fresh vegetable 

for us all summer.

During the winter months we enjoyed the canned goods from that garden.

Oh, the memories of working in that garden and helping with the canning.

I mostly helped with the green beans.

Picking & snapping.

I watched Mother & Grandma can the beans in a hot

 un-airconditioned kitchen.

My sisters & I were always warned to stay away from the pressure cooker.

Wish I could travel back in time to experience that one more time.

I found an idea on Pinterest the other day for making a salad in a tomato.

(click on picture for the Pinterest source)

Tomato with cottage cheese, cucumber, green onion and pepper.

This will be my lunch today!

Mmmmmm, can't wait!

Already Looking Forward

Summer just started last week, but I'm already looking forward to my favorite season!

Maybe it's because our temps will be over the century mark all week.

I've been noticing people are pinning lots of pictures like these 

on Pinterest . . .

(click on pictures for link to sources)

Maybe they're already looking forward to Autumn like me!

How about you?

Stay cool!

Ooey Gooey Goodness

We enjoyed some grilled hamburgers & hot dogs
yesterday for lunch.

I made this recipe from Pinterest for our dessert.

(click on picture for recipe link)
I substituted chocolate chips for chocolate chunks.

Oh, my, goodness!

It was so gooey & delicious!

We didn't have ice cream so we topped it off with whipped cream.

I certainly enjoyed my little bite!

I could have eaten a huge portion, but had to retrain myself!

I hate being a diabetic!!!

Man, I can't believe how hot it was yesterday!

Ethan had a blast playing with the water squirter
 I bought at $ Tree!

It's amazing the fun you can have with something that costs $1.00.

Bobby set up these plastic cups on the deck railing.

You can see that he's ready to aim & knock the cups over.
He also got a kick out of getting his Daddy wet!
I think I'll buy a few more so the grownups can join in on the fun on the 4th of July.
I can't believe July begins next Sunday!

I'm linking with . . .

Weekly Words To Live By #105

Feeling pain, disappointment, fear, anxiety, indecision or other overwhelming situations?

source Pinterest 

Wishing you a Sunday filled with love & peace . . .

A Fun Visit

Yesterday afternoon I enjoyed spending a few hours visiting with my brother-in-law, Howard, his sister, Sharon, who was my classmate, and Sharon's daughter, Ashley.

Howard flew in from Houston for a weekend of celebrating Sharon's birthday.

My sister, Mary stayed home to help out with grandkids.

They are staying at the Renaissance Hotel.

We hung out in the lobby talking & reminiscing.

I got to see Ashley's gorgeous engagement ring.  I'm so happy for her.

I had such a great time!  Wish we could do this more often!

Happy Birthday, Sharon!

Thank you for stopping by!  Hope your weekend is wonderful!

. 

Friday Show & Tell

Today I'm showing off a t-shirt I won for a contest to write
a tagline for a friend's blog,

Being A Baby Boomer 

My tagline idea was, "Memories to Last a Lifetime"

Ruth posts interesting stories about our hometown,

 Cushing, OK.

I enjoy reading the memories of our special little town.

The town has changed a lot through the years, but our 

memories remain with us.

Thanks, Ruth, I love the t-shirt you designed for me!

It says . . .

"I won the Baby Boomer Tagline Contest 

and all I got was this t-shirt"

She even put my name on the back with some cute little frogs.

So cute!

Thanks again, Ruth!

My Happy Meal & Bargains

After I did a little shopping at Target this morning I decided to treat myself to a 'happy meal'.

No, I didn't go to McDonald's.

This is my style of a 'happy meal'.

There's no toy in the sack . . .

just chicken strips & coleslaw.

Yum!!!

I love shopping the racks of clothes at Target looking for clearance bargains.

Here's what I found today.

button knit cardigan/$7.48

comfy (Target Tom's) shoes/$11.88

I know, boring black, but it's my go to color because it goes with everything.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Hope you're doing well!

Welcome Summer

Summer starts today!

Time for  . . .

running through the sprinkler

eating watermelon

homemade ice cream

longer days of sunlight

Happy summer everyone!

(all image sources from Google)

Secret Ingredients

Tonight we're having good old fashioned

 meatloaf, mashed potatoes & green beans for dinner.

I added a few secret ingredients for flavor & fiber.

I also added a little grated carrot. 

Sh-h-h-h, don't tell, Hubby!

It's cooking in my trusty crock pot on low for 8 hours.

My made up meatloaf recipe.

1 pound ground beef

1 egg

1/2 cup flax 

1/4 cup crated carrots

1/2 cup minced onion

1/2 cup head country BBQ sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper & garlic seasoning

If you bake this in the oven cook for 45 min. on 350.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Go Thunder beat the Heat tonight!

I'm linking with . . .

Celebrating With Cupcakes

On Saturday, it became very clear to me that I

 have a long way to go before I would ever qualify to compete

 on that Food Network show, Cupcake Wars.

I baked the chocolate fudge cupcakes Friday evening so I could frost them Saturday before we had dinner with our kids at Johnny Carinos.

I used aluminum foil cupcake liners that can be baked on a cookie sheet.

I pushed a Hershey kiss down in the center of each cupcake

 after they had baked 5 minutes (a Pinterest idea).

Apparently I over filled the liners because the batter ran down the sides creating an ugly mess.

Hmm, I guess you could say these cupcakes are rustic.

Butter Cream Icing

1 package softened cream cheese

1/2 cup softened butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

The  cupcakes were very rich & delicious.

I think you could put butter cream icing on cardboard & it would be yummy!

The guys getting ready to enjoy their cupcakes.

Linking with . . .

Remembering Daddy

My Daddy, Gerald, and Bobby, September 1981.

Bobby was 2 months old, Daddy was celebrating his 55th birthday.

Riding bikes with Bobby.

My Daddy passed away when Bobby was 6 years old.

Daddy left us too soon, he was 61.

I often think how much he would have loved 

watching my son grow up.

He would have loved seeing his grandson do so many things . . .

playing baseball, playing the saxophone just like him, learning to drive, getting his first car, growing to be over 6 feet tall. graduating from OSU, getting married, becoming a Daddy.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy.

Love & miss you so much . . .

All Tied Up

It's been a Pinteresting week for me.

I finished 3 projects from Pinterest . . . 

crock pot mac & cheese 

Father's Day Banner

Weight Watchers lemon bars

Here's the Father's Day banner I made from the free download on Pinterest.

Click on picture to go to the link.

 I also made the cupcake picks. 

 Come back Monday to see the finished cupcakes.  

I'll be icing them later today.

Now for a review on the lemon bar recipe from Pinterest.

My bars tasted better than they looked.

If you like lemon you may like this Weight Watchers 3 pt. dessert.

Click on this picture from Pinterest for the recipe.

Hope you're having a fantastic Father's Day weekend!