Thursday, February 29, 2024

Leap Day . . .

 


I need to hurry and get this post up before tomorrow!

Outside My Window...


It's a very gray 29th of February, and we are expecting a storm.  It's not too cold, around 39 degrees right now.  We are suppose to getting some light snow showers soon, and it's going to be a snowy blustery week-end.  

On My Playlist...  Burt Bacharach has always been one of my favorite song writers.  I also love the musical relationship that Dionne Warwick, and Burt Bacharach had.  I enjoyed her music so much that I used Dionne, as my oldest daughter's middle name! Enjoy his beautiful music!


Right Now I Am...


Watching this cute little pup sleep.  We are really loving Indi!  She is such a sweet puppy, if you don't count the zoomies ;0)  She is just delightful, funny, loveable and cute as a bug.  We love her so much 💓

What I'm Reading...

I'm just trying to get in scripture study... Heaven knows we all need correction, direction and protection.


From My Kitchen...


Chicken and Dumplings

  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup chopped yellow onion
  • 1 cup matchstick carrots
  • 1 cup diced celery
  • 4 cloves garlicminced
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 12 oz (1 can) evaporated milk
  • 32 oz (1 quart) chicken stock
  • 4 cups shredded cooked chicken
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thymeor 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepperor to taste
  • saltto taste

Homemade Dumplings:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon plus, 1 teaspoon, baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thymeor 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • ¾ cup (6 oz) whole milk
  • 4 tablespoons buttermelted

Instructions 

  • In a large heavy bottomed pot like a dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat. 
  • Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook for 5 minutes, until vegetables being to soften. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute more.
  • Add flour and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Slowly add the evaporated milk and chicken stock, stirring to combine.
  • Bring to a boil and add the chicken, thyme, black pepper and salt. Let soup simmer, uncovered, while you make dumplings. 
  • Dumplings: In a large bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, pepper, salt and thyme. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the milk and butter into the center of it. 
  • Using a wooden spoon (or rubber spatula), stir together until a dough ball forms. If your dough seems too dry, you can add an extra tablespoon of milk.  Let the batter sit for 10 minutes before adding to soup mixture.  This helps the batter start fluffing up and makes fluffier dumplings.
  • Using a medium sized cookie scoop, scoop dough and drop directly into the simmering soup. Place them around the pot, not all in the same place. Once all dumplings have been added, gently press them down so the soup runs over just the tops of them. 
  • Place the lid on your pot and lower the heat a little to a low simmer. You don’t want the bottom of the soup to burn, but want the soup to still be simmering to cook the dumplings. 
  • Cook for 15 minutes with the pot lid on. Gently stir the soup/dumplings and cut one dumpling in half to make sure they are cooked through.
  • If the dumplings are cooked through, serve hot! If not, cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes and check again. 
  • I always half this recipe for Bob and I.

My husband loves chicken and dumplings.  His family always put a spoonful of sugar over the dumplings before eating them... I don't do that, but he still likes to do it.  

I don't have a menu this week, but I do plan on using some leftovers to make a few meals with.  I have some pork roast that I think I will make a pulled pork pizza with the rest of it for dinner tonight.  I also have a lot of halibut in the freezer that I will bake at some point, and a bag of fresh brussel sprouts that need to be used.  I would actually like to start adding in a few non-meat meals to my menu.  I'll see how that goes over with Bob.  

I'm creating... 

I'm still working on my afghan.  It's hard with a puppy, just sayin'.  But, I'm adding to it slowly but surely.     

I'm looking forward to... 


I am taking my sweet Averi for 10 days while her parents go on a vacation!  It will be fun to have her come and stay with us.  She loves to stay at grandma's and grandpa's house.  I've been a little concerned about how Indi will react to her, but he loves her, she just steps around her.

March is also our birthday month.  We have a lot of birthdays, although some of my grands have grown and don't live here, we still have three grand's that are here and have birthdays in March.  Busy month!

I'm Thinking... It's my nephews birthday today!  Yes, he was a leap year baby. 🐸

Just Sayin'...


Be safe!  Hugs and Love,

Barb




Sunday, February 18, 2024

Hurry Up Spring!!

 

Hello everyone!  I'm trying so hard to just enjoy the quietness and slowness of winter . . . but it's so hard, especially when I see photos like this one!  It's all okay though, I will be saying, hurry up fall, by summer's end.  I keep telling myself to just enjoy the moment.  😩

I've been listening to oldies, not that strange for me . . . This song always makes me feel like dancing!


Of course there was snow this morning, and every morning before that for the last week.  This is what I see every morning. It's actually been snowing all day.  I think we will get maybe two inches of snow by this evening.


I've been trying to stay busy as the these slow days demand, and so I started a new crochet afghan to go with my new bedspread.  I also got some pretty new pillows to go on my bed.


Also, two of my grandchildren sent photos to me this last week.  Brody standing in front of a beautiful building in Croatia, and Christian and Lisa at the Sandflats in Utah.  I'm so grateful for grandchildren!


Well, Valentine's Day came and went without much fanfare around our house.  We had surf and turf, roasted brussel sprouts and cheesecake for dessert.  It was delicious!  After dinner we watched TV, not that exciting.  We did have a family dinner yesterday, and I made some Valentine's cookies to bring to my sweethearts.  Who doesn't love a frosted sugar cookie?!


These are both great recipes and were absolutely delish!  I made the frosting for the heart-shaped cookies and brought it with me.  I really don't like the frosting to stick to the other cookies, a little pet peeve of mine.  Plus, everyone likes to frost a cookie, right!?  

Here are the recipes for the two different cookies.  Both of these recipes are from a church cookbook from the 70's.  The first recipe is from my mom's first cousin.

You can use butter instead of shortening in both of these recipes.


We all had so much fun at the get together, we had - pizza, a fruit platter, veggie tray, bread sticks, a big green salad, cookies and tres leche cake for dessert . . . yummmm!

I also have a big surprise!  Meet, Indie, our 3 month old, Welsh Pembroke Corgi!


And she has a heart on her little bum!  She is so cute, a handful, but so adorable!


Clara really loves dogs, and she fell in love with Indie right off the bat.


Another surprise . . . Christian and Lisa brought this Beatles album to me.  You know what a music junkie I am, and I love this album!  When I was in high school, I actually wrote my senior paper on, The Beatles ;0) And I got an A on it!



I hope everyone has a great week.  I'm looking forward to checking out your posts and commenting this coming week.  Enjoy the slowness of winter, but look forward to warmer, sunnier and busy days... they're coming!

Be safe!  Hugs and Love XOXO

Barb

Friday, February 2, 2024

Happy February . . .

 


Welcome February!  February is one of my favorite months... the month for LOVE and we all know the world could use a little lot more love.  

A few love songs to listen to while scrolling . . . 

This February has been a little different than last year at this time.  Last year it was much colder, we still had about a 8 inches of snow on the ground, and it didn't look like spring was going to get here any time soon.  This year, it's been warmer, there is very little snow on the ground, and I can almost see spring peeking its head around the corner.  

Today has been very dreary and wet.  It has rained all day long, with little bouts of snow and sleet.  I don't think the sun ever really made an appearance.  This is the back of my home, which faces north, that's why there is still snow on the ground.  In the front of the house the snow has all melted.  


This photo was taken last year at the same time . . . 


Because it was so rainy outside, and I didn't really feel like going out or anything, I decided to make, chocolate chip cookies.  Now, I'm fussy about chocolate chip cookies, I don't like flat crispy chocolate chip cookies, I like soft, cake-like chocolate chip cookies.  These are the recipes I used, and they are both delicious!  Both of these recipes made pretty small batches, so that's why I made two;0)

This is the recipe I used for this batch of cookies . . .  they are delicious, very soft and kind of chewy, but not crisp at all.  The recipe calls for 3 cups of chocolate chips, but I used 1/2 cup each of, dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. 


This is the second recipe.  It was delicious.  Not quite as flat as the first one.  It was the perfect chocolate chip cookie in my opinion . . .  so good!  You wouldn't go wrong trying both recipes, most of them went directly into the freezer for another rainy, cold day.  In fact, this isn't my photo, it's the one from the website because mine were all in the freezer!  But, they looked just like these cookies ;0) 


Today, while I was feeling productive, I changed the bedspread on one of the beds, mended a blanket, washed and dried the blanket and the bedspread, vacuumed the house and, gave my husband a haircut.  Considering the fact that I was very lazy all week, that was a huge accomplishment.  

Earlier this week I bought a new bedspread for my bed, I really love it!  It's not as heavy as my old one, but it's 100% cotton and so it's very warm.  I think I will trade out the blue for a warm brown.  What do you think?


A dear friend of mine gifted me a beautiful armoire/cabinet/desk.  They moved last fall and just didn't have a place for it.  It's a beautiful piece of furniture, and I told them I would buy it from them, but she is so sweet, she just wanted me to have it.  It has been in the garage since fall, and so over the week-end, I had my kids help us bring it in, (it's super heavy).   I put it in my spare bedroom and put my sewing machine in it!  It works perfectly for my sewing machine, and has plenty of room for all my sewing needs.  There is a little desk that pulls out under the sewing machine and a light that pulls out over it.



Well, I don't have big plans for the week-end, but I'm sure that I will be able to find something to chat about next week :0)  In the meantime, have a wonderful week-end, and remember how special you are to me.

Be safe, 
Hugs and Love,

Barb

“There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming, summer.”
— Gertrude Jekyll
 


Leap Day . . .

  I need to hurry and get this post up before tomorrow! Outside My Window... It's a very gray 29th of February, and we are expecting a s...