New Recipe

Here's a recipe that I make every so often. I LOVE it. I love the lemony flavor, I always add more lemon juice than called for. But it depends on your own likes and dislikes. I always use fresh lemons(I can't stand lemon juice in a bottle).
I got these recipes out of Taste of Homes Quick Cooking 2002(page 216)

Read my tips in the end to see how easy it is to make it.

CHICKEN IN CREAMY GRAVY
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 tbsp canola oil
2 cans(10-3/4 oz) cream of chicken(or cream of chicken with broccoli)
1/2 c. milk
4 tsp lemon juice
1/3 tsp pepper
4 lemon slices

In a nonstick skillet, cook chicken in oil until browned on both sides, about 10 minutes; drain. In a bowl combine soup, milk, lemon juice and pepper. Pour over chicken. Top each chicken breast with a lemon slice. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until chicken juices run clear, about 5 minutes.
4 servings


LEMON LINGUINE

8 oz uncooked linguine
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried basil(I wasn't a fan of it with basil in it, so I don't put it in at all)
1/2 tsp garlic powder(Again, I love fresh stuff so I use a garlic clove)
1/2 tsp salt free lemon pepper seasoning
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese

In a saucepan, cook pasta in boiling water until tender(8-10 minutes). Meanwhile, in another saucepan, combine butter, lemon juice, basil, garlic and lemon pepper; cook and stir till butter is melted.
Drain pasta; add butter mixture and toss to coat. Add Parmesan and toss.
4 servings

So here's what I do.
1- put pasta on to cook, since it cooks the longest, but as soon as I get it in the boiling water, I put the chicken to cook, so they get done about the same time.
2 while pasta and chicken are cooking get sauce gravy ready for chicken, juice and slice the lemons.
3 pour gravy over done chicken, cover and let simmer/light boil while preparing everything else.
4 drain pasta in a colander, using the same pot- make the pasta sauce(making sure the garlic is cooked, if using fresh garlic). Once that is done I add pasta and cheese.
Then your done....
We like putting the gravy from the chicken on the noodles, it's SOOOOO yummy.
I should have taken a picture of it. So easy.

Happy Fathers Day

MY DAD

Random Pictures from the last little while----

Here are some random pictures I've taken in the last 6 months. Just an update. :)

The eagle/owl. Long funny story.


Travis and Kevin with their daughters at D.J.'s wedding a couple of weeks ago.


Tanner, helping me make dinner for work.


My grandma, she's so funny. I personally can't believe she let me take this picture.


My lamp, my phone was on the negative setting. I just thought it was kinda cool.

just an update

I'm still alive. I will put pictures from Easter and a picture of my aunts beautiful casket on here soon.
Just been busy lately.
So I just started reading the book Dracula by Bram Stoker. We'll see how that goes. I decided that I want to start reading stuff that is more classic and timeless than the junk I've been reading. I have Pride and Prejudice. But I am having a hard time getting into it. As soon as I finish Dracula I am going to read Anna Karina by Tolstoy.
Wish me luck. If there are some good books y'all have read, let me know and I'll add it to the list.

I just thought this was interestingly good....

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
'How old are you?' I'm four and a half!' you're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.
'How old are you?' I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life ... You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony ... YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed.
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50.
And your dreams are gone.
But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would.
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.
You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday.
You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90's, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again.' I'm 100 and a half!'
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

I'm alive. I promise. :)

Frog Eye Salad Recipe

I know that I just posted the other day, but my cousin wanted my mom's frog eye salad recipe, and I decided why not just put it on my blog. So everyone can have it AND it's somewhere that I can just copy and paste it if I need it again, without having to search for it! :)

Frog Eye Salad
1 c. sugar
2 1/2 c pineapple juice
1 c. crushed pineapple
2 beaten eggs
2 tbsp flour
Cook ingredients until thick. Stirring constantly. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice

3 qts. water
2 tsp salt
1 package frog eyes(I can't think of what they are called)
1 tbsp oil
Cook until soft, about 12 minutes. drain, combine egg mix and frog eyes. Refrigerate over night in tight container.

Add-
3 cans mandarin oranges- drained
2 20 oz. cans crushed pineapple- drained
2 9 oz. pkg cool whip
mini marshmallows
assorted fruit- apples, bananas, pomegranates, etc.

Fudgy Buttons- so easy

I have this obsession over cookbooks, as most of you know! I LOVE the Taste of Home cookbooks the most! But the Quick Cooking ones are the best. So several years ago I started getting one in the mail each year, then a friend of mines grandma died and she gave me a bunch of hers(ones from previous years, that I didn't have). So since I love them so much I got online(amazon.com) and ordered the only one that I didn't have(1999).
I got it in the mail today, that was so exciting! :) Totally made my day!! :) And eating at Bajios!
So here is a new recipe, SO easy. maybe it had a little too much peanut butter in it, I didn't really measure very well because I had doubled the recipe and our measuring spoon is really flimsy so I had a hard time scrapping it out of the jar.

Fudgy Buttons
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1- 1/2 tsp baking cocoa
1/2 confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp milk
2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

In a small sauce pan, melt butter: remove from heat. Add cocoa and mix well. Stir in sugar. Add milk and stir till smooth. Add peanut butter and mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper: flatten tops and shape into 1-inch patties. Makes about 1-1/2 dozen.

I had it made and done in less than 15 minutes. When I got the peanut butter mixed in enough to handle I kneaded it to blend it better. It was a little warm, but not too much! It melted in my mouth. SO YUMMY! Rich, but yummy! I wish I had a picture of them.

So life has been crazy! Yes, Edwin and I did break up. Work got so busy. but then it slowed down a little, but there is another area that is really busy, so they take all of our people that are cross trained and that leaves a few people to stay in my area. So they hired temps to be trained so when we supposedly get "really busy" we won't fall behind. I'm hoping that we get so busy that we are getting our hours for a couple of months. I need to get some bills paid for. I have plans that I really want to follow through with, but I need to get my jeep paid for soon. Oh-well! And I need new back tires. Being an adult sucks! :p

Valentines Bouquet

Here are pictures of my valentines bouquet! This was an interesting one, I had so many ideas, like putting candy hearts in the bottom(which I wish I would have thought of in the beginning).

This first version is the white trash version, I was just having fun with it, I really didn't care for the pink plastic thingies and for some odd reason I added calla lilies(which are are my favorite, but they are a spring flower, so I took them out). This version was NOT a winner!


These next two pictures are what I ended up doing. I wanted to keep it a valentines bouquet, not spring, not Christmas. I still can't take very good pictures, so they didn't turn out very good! But it was still fun to do!

Super Yummy Breakfast recipe

So with all this time on my hands, I've been trying new recipes. I got this one from Kraft recipes. It's SO good. It's a breakfast dish. but I made it after dinner tonight and I made a double recipe in a glass baking dish and Emily helped me, we(everyone else in our 2 houses) ate it all, it was so good. I am definitely making it again!!! :)
Not sold yet, it is SO extremely easy. crush the wafers, mix the eggs and milk. Then while that's baking, slice the fruit with an egg slicer. And your done! Cooks for 15 minutes! :)




Puffed Dutch NILLA Pancake
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
20 NILLA Wafers, finely crushed
8 strawberries, sliced
1 medium banana, sliced
1 tsp. powdered sugar
PREHEAT oven to 450°F. Beat eggs and milk in medium bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Stir in crushed wafers.

WRAP handle of large ovenproof skillet with several layers of foil. Heat on high heat 2 min. Spray with cooking spray. Add egg mixture; place in oven.

BAKE 14 to 16 min. or until egg mixture is puffed and golden brown. Remove from oven; top with the fruit. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into four wedges. Serve immediately. Store any leftover pancake in refrigerator.

Make it Easy
Use an egg slicer to evenly slice the strawberries and banana.

I just noticed that I haven't updated for a few weeks, and I am on my laptop and have no pictures on here, except one of Edwin and I. Boring! He's not boring, it's just a boring picture.
I'm all better, but I have 2 huge canker sores, they keep getting stuck on my braces, making them tear bigger and not heal very fast. I got a Magic Mouthwash for a really bad sore throat back in October(I think) and it has Lidocaine in it, which numbs anything it touches. It's so funny, my tongue, my lips, everything. But it lets me deal with the pain a little easier. Rinse with salt water every once in awhile and use wax. I think it's either pecans or almonds. But if I eat pecans in certain things it doesn't bother me at all, but if I eat them in ice cream(ben and jerry's butter pecan and tin roof sundae) I'll get them. Or Costco's chocolate cover almonds, which are the best, I get canker sores like none other, but if I eat them in salads or an Almond Joy, doesn't bother me at all. I hate it. But I've also eatten a lot of fruit lately like fresh pineapple and strawberries, and lots of fresh veggies, like tomatoes. Oh-well!
Things are ok right now. They are upgrading some stuff at work in PFL(my area) so everyone on my shift in my group had the option of going to day shift or do TLO(temp. lay off) for 3 weeks. It's really hard to go from night shift to day shift and back again(unless you've tried it, don't tell me I'm just being a pansy). So I decided to do TLO, I didn't want to, I want all the hours I can get, even thought we really aren't busy, I really can't afford to take TLO, I had the option of staying out till March 22, but I can't do it, so I will go back to work in 3 weeks. It will be nice to have a vacation to get somethings I've been putting off, like sewing the edges of my quilt together- that I started last summer. Clean my room really good, I plan on doing a lot of cooking. I only like to cook in the winter for some reason, but it's hard because I have no one to eat it. My mom is always on some random diet and my dad can't eat certain foods. Then people get mad if I take what I make to Shellies kids, because they don't need junk food(I personally like to make dessert stuff). Oh-well. I want to learn how to make homemade tortilla chips, pineapple upside down cake, there are a few others I want to try, I just can't remember right this second, it is 3:30 am. My brain is tired.

Dating Edwin is a lot of fun. We are learning more about each other, just random things. But it's fun. He is so kind and sweet. He's a really good person. That's what I love so much about him.

We got snow and it still hasn't melted. It's been so cold that it will melt during the day, then freeze at night, so whatever is facing north still has snow/ice. That's another bonus about TLO, I don't have to freeze at night when I'm coming home. yeah!
I just made some oatmeal, for some reason it sounded really good and now I can barely keep my eyes open. Wow! I guess I will go to sleep! :) Hopfully this isn't a false tired, because thats what happened last night, I was so tired, but when I went to bed, I was too wired to sleep. I hate that, then I get restless legs, it's horrible. So I go upstairs and lay on the couch till I fall asleep. It helps for some reason. Maybe because I read too much in my bed and when I actually do go to bed, my body doesn't think it's time to sleep. And when I lay on the couch, I always fall asleep, so I need to stop doing that. Oh-well! Night! :)

Christmas 2010

This year we didn't take any pictures of Christmas day. But I did get a internet thingy for my laptop, so now I have internet on my laptop. But I don't have any pictures on here. So that is why there aren't any pictures this time.
Christmas was good. Despite everyone being sick. I've been sick for like 2 weeks, just a cold(stuffy nose, sore throat, chest congestion, etc). Tanner and Trent have been sick, Dani was sick. My dad has been sick. Fun stuff. But mine has been going the longest so far.
Instead of stockings, which my parents put a huge effort into every year, they decided not to this year and put the candy in one bowl, nuts in another, candy canes in a cup in the middle of the table. I liked that better, for a change.
My dad woke me up around 8:45, which is nice because usually we get up at 7 am, but when you don't have kids, that excitement isn't there. But I stayed up texting Edwin and watching movies.
I got a lot more than I expected, but everything I asked for. I wanted purple sheets, Ree Drummond- the Pioneer Woman cookbook(love it), a Arm & Hammer spin brush, a memory card for my camera(so I won't have to delete pictures on the one I have now), a ton of necklaces, Shellie gave me a necklace holder(love it) and these really cool beads that you put in water and they grow, they are good for vases. Natalie gave me a wooden nativity set.
I was so tired and I didn't feel good at all, so I fell asleep around 1 and slept till 7:30. I was still tired that night, I did a lot of sleeping this weekend.
I HATE being sick, didn't go to church on Sunday, I was too miserable. Cory and Natalie came up on Saturday night. Lots of fun. If I didn't feel so miserable I would have wanted to do more. Oh-well!
I hope I do something fun for New Years eve, I don't work, but I'm broke as can be!!! So if anyone has any ideas, let me know! Maybe I can talk Cody into letting me borrow a bunch of movies and my parents into buying tons of junk food and Edwin into coming over. Hmmmmm. Oh-well! Maybe I'll hang out with Shellie's family, I'm suppose to get Marmaduke from Netflix next!
Anyways, that's the excitement going on in my life! :)
Next time I will put pictures on here!

lately.....

Here are some more pictures. I don't really like any of the pictures taken lately, so I only picked 2.

Uncle Jerrol, long story behind this picture. He was hiding from me though! Lol!


Here is my christmas bouquet. Orginally I wanted tiny pine cones on the bottom, but couldn't find any, anywhere! So I just settled on mini ball ornaments and tiny gift bows. I think turned out cute. Emily helped me with, I'm still not happy about it, but it will do.
Life has been slow lately. It's been nice, but at times really frusterating. Like work, we have temps. which is nice because I can take a day off and not have to fight for it or hope that I can get it off. But also, it means not getting our hours, I just think they don't want to get rid of them right before christmas. Oh-well! I'm just grateful for a job right now.
Dating! I mean, yeah I'm dating someone, but it doesn't feel like it because we never see each other. And I understand why and I'm fine with it, but I'm just tired of people telling me that this isn't normal. I wish I could get into it, but I can't. I guess I am just having a bad night and I feel neglected. It's a girl thing! Oh-well!
But other than that, life is good! Christmas is almost here, which means spring will be here soon after that! Yay!!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving, I will add more later. :)

This year EVERYONE was there, plus Aunt Linda and Melinda. It was hard to get a good picture of everyone.


Me, getting christmas trees.


Fall bouquet. Just something fun. I'm going to try to do one for each holiday. It is kinda fun. And they are fake, so they don't bother my dad's allergies.


Jameson and Abby. Her face cracks me up! She's so cute!


I made a bunch of magnets, because we couldn't find where my mom put our magnets when we got a new fridge. This is the result.

This picture was taken by Cody at work. We were just messing with our phones and I actually kinda like this picture! :)

I am just messing around with my blog, and if you get on Stats it will tell you where people are that look at your blog. Who the heck from Germany or Russia??? A little worried now! Because I seriously have never 'blog stalked' so now am just a little not sure what to write anymore. I don't want to go private because no one really ever reads my blog anyways, but I want it available for those who know me and do read it. Oh-well! Whatever!