Tues. night dinners

Week before last I fixed a old recipe for a Tuna casserole from scratch. It was great and a salad of apple and grape and celery with lemon yogurt dressing and almonds.


This week we had spaghetti. I had the sauce and garlic bread frozen so only had to cook the noodle and put a salad together.


Next week I am going to be trying something new............. 

Uplifting Wed. 25

Spring

Spring has sprung at my house....

Changes

If you have followed my blog you know that I knit preemie items for Newborns in Need. I usually make up a lot of things before making a donation. I had a lot saved up.....

50 booties, 55 hats, 13 blankets, 7 gowns, 3 washcloths, 8 sweaters, 6 burial wraps and 3 onesie's to be exact. So I gathered them all up last week and took them to the lady that takes them on to Mesa where the group meets.


This week I received my newsletter from Newborns in Need and they are no longer going to be affiliated with that group but are making up their own and will no longer be accepting preemie items. Isn't that great timing. Well, I will just have to trust they will make use of what I have given and have since been wondering if I should continue this and strangely enough at the same time I have become interested in crocheted for the babies too. I checked different web sites and there are places that wants the items but most that are making requests are in other states and they would have to be mailed. The cost of mailing is just not practical so what to do. I researched what local hospitals had a NICU and found one that had a contact I could email. They have responded and sent a donation form so maybe its going to be okay after all and go to where they really are needed.
Update:
They only want crocheted hats so guess I will make some up for them.

Uplifting Wed. 24

Tues. dinner

Well I wish I could say that last night our little dinner for two was spectacular but am afraid it was more of a disaster.


I made a new meat loaf recipe which was good with a variety of roasted veg. and a macaroni salad. The problem? I cooked the meat loaf and veg. in a new convection toaster oven I bought and the meatloaf was more than done on the edges and raw in the middle and the veg. looked overcooked but were hard.


I bought the new toaster oven because the one I had was really old and did not appear to be heating right. All the new ones are now convection and I guess they cook differently. I was happy to try a few new recipes but to learn to cook all over again?  To say I was disappointed is to put it mild. Anyone out there that knows the tricks of cooking with convection? I have done a little research and it seems that maybe lower temperature and longing cooking time may be the answer?


I did get Netflex to work and we watched a pretty good movie.

Schedule

I don't know about you but the hubby and I pretty much follow a schedule to a tee. In fact at one of the restaurant's we go to they tease us because they say they know it is 5:00 on Sunday when they look up and see us. We normally eat out every night and have a pattern we follow but recently our Tues. night at Chili's was disrupted by a server change that we didn't like so I made the decision that on the Tues. we would eat at home and I would cook! We will see just how long this lasts but I do love to try new recipes and  miss things you can't get in the restaurants like good meatloaf and casseroles and etc.
I have been thinking about doing this for a while so went through my pantry and cleaned out all outdated things and also bought this food saver

I used it for the first time with some leftover pork tenderloin which I froze and it worked great! Also discovered that I could create the same principal with a zip lock bag and a straw.....

Of course this was just to go in the refrigerator but I have come to understand the thing that ruins food is air so I just put this in the bag and zipped it up to a inserted straw in the corner then sucked the air out and quickly closed it.


As I said I wanted our dinner at home to be either something new or something we don't normally have available so I chose this recipe

to try. It was GREAT! even though I forgot the spinach. It is a bit of work and I had all the ingredients ready ahead of time. I re-heated the left over pork tenderloin in the toaster over and made a special dressing that normally goes over a pasta salad and instead but it over sliced grape tomato's, cubed cucumbers and cut up avocado for a salad. It was all yummy.

 I even bought a little dollar miniature peach pie which I forgot so we had it for a pre-breakfast treat.

Well, it was a good start now if I can only get Netflix to cooperate I think our Tues. nights might be a hit.

ps. I had never eaten the Gruyere cheese before.......loved it.

Saquaro Cactus

Since the Saquaro cactus lives here where I am and in fact the largest ever recorded lived in Cave Creek, Az  at 78 feet before it was toppled in 1986 by a windstorm; I thought I would give you some interesting facts about this plant.




It is very slow growing and in fact a 10 year old plant might only be 1.5 inches tall.
The reason it is able to survive in the desert is because it retains water and then uses it when needed.  A fully hydrated cactus can weigh between 3200-4800 pounds.

Most of the saguaros roots are only 4-6 inches deep and radiate out as far from the plant as it is tall. There is one deep root, or tap root that extends

down into the ground more than 2 feet.

They get their first flower at 35 years old

 and their first arm at 60 years old. They can live up to 150 years +

The elf owl has been known to like to nest in them as well as sparrows and other creatures.
















The spines of the cactus expand as it retains water, much like an accordion.....

The Saquaro only grows in the Saquaro desert and perhaps the reason that this is such a famous picture for the my state of Arizona

Uplifitng Wed. 23

Watch out!

Last week my daughter and I decided to find a pond with some ducks and sit and visit and feed the ducks like when she was little. We found a nice place close to her house and several ducks but first we had to endure the geese!!
Never have I seen such a bully group and they just dared you do pass them and etc. Even bit at my daughter.  Here they are walking across the road as we were leaving....

Not in any hurry and honking all the way! Even the ducks weren't getting along the mallards didn't like the white ones and here I thought all was well in the animal kingdom!

A Sunday jaunt

Hubby and I head up north, first to breakfast at Rock Springs café

Who are well known for their pies but trust me....they have an amazing breakfast. I have written about this place before and how it got it's name from a rock spring behind it but I had never gone back there before ........... boy what a surprise!

 Can't see it well but the water is bubbling out of the rocks

They have lots of seating and have parties out here it seems...

and check out the flagstone...

 comes from where I grew up.

From here we headed on up 1-17 freeway to the Crown King turn off. Although it is only 27 miles from the freeway it takes more than an hour to get there because of the roads..

Many places are one car only wide and many are on blind curves.

You go from 1,000 feet elevation to 5,700 feet and of course the scenery changes right with it. There is no telling what you might see along the way...

 Isn't she sweet and look at those ears! Guess that is why she is called a mule deer.

The goal is the saloon. It has been open since 1916 and featured a 7 room bordello on the second floor. Now it is just filled with old timers, Once dollar bills stuck to the wall of the bar,

and a rip roaring fire..

 look how worn the floor is..

After some refreshment we decided to be really brave it and headed up to Horse Thief basin, now mind you were are not in a four wheel drive...

We encountered snow as we climbed..

This area was devastated by fire in 1972 as easily seen.




We climbed and climbed but finally gave up and settled for this top of the world view...

We headed back to Crown King and decided we would have lunch  at the Mill. I didn't get any pictures but be sure to go to the web site to see some...
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x872cc6d378463a57%3A0x8f6f81e6486c9331!2m19!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m13!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Flh%2Fsredir%3Funame%3D100512809408445005392%26id%3D6091331769919696114%26target%3DPHOTO!5sthe%20mill%20at%20crown%20king%20-%20Google%20Search&imagekey=!1e3!2s-isCPHF9ac8o%2FV_wfX4B7BSI%2FAAAAAAAABPs%2FzwXsYh_YB1sTX2imN9WB8oaa_TvckZ3bgCLIB&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjygrvw-LDSAhWrjFQKHYe5AtAQoioIeDAO
 I know it is long but it shows a lot of pictures. This place is constructed almost entirely of recycled material from area mines including a huge grinding machine in the main dining room. To say this place is rustic would be putting it mild and I was not sure that we should eat here but hubby and I shared a open face chili hamburger with potato salad and it was terrific!! It was cold and even the waitresses had coats on but so glad we stopped.




It was time to head back the same way we came up and as we drew near to Rock springs I told the hubby...Pecan pie is calling me!!




Nothing like a day of sight seeing and eating:)



Toe ups

Here's the toe up socks to match the hat...don't think it will be my favorite. I have since made a top and will start posting again to my sidebar, Rambling Rae for anyone that is interested.

Coloring

Thank you all for you wonderful comments but want to remind you that I am not the person who does the artwork. I captured these from Pinterest and am enjoying them along with you:)
I will also say that I saw this

recently at a Christian book store.

Uplifting Wed. 22

Never too old

As most of you know I have knitted for charity for preemie babies for a long time. Long enough that I burnt myself out but recently I have started back and have been thrilled to find a few new patterns that have some new to me stitches.....

like this drop stitch with a contrast color and the skp decrease. I am going to try the matching socks that are toe up which I have never done and so I am proof that you are never too old to learn something new!

Yipee

We have had our smart TV for two years but have not been smart enough to use it. Sunday my son-in-law came over and showed us what to do and set us up with Netflix so yesterday hubby and I watched our first movie.

It was excellent and wish they had a Netflix review like they do for books. Are there some you would recommend?

Uplifting Wed. 21

There is a reason

This is why we endure the hotter than hell temps in the summer.................

Local Weather

Phoenix, AZ

• Saturday
  74^°/47^°
• Sunday
  75^°/52^°
• Monday
  72^°/53^°
• Tuesday
  74^°/53^°

It's the little things...

Pulled that left over turkey and broth out of the freezer and made this last week when it was cold and windy. Sure made my day brighter.

Uplifting Wed. 20

Gift

This was a Christmas gift from my son-in-law including installation...It doesn't get any better than that.

See this...

A few mornings ago I fried myself a egg for breakfast and washed the dishes and left them on the drainer to dry.

Later in the day I glanced over and noticed this...

See all those marks on the spatula? Apparently it has been laid on a hot frying pan or two and of course I keep things forever! Had to laugh and of course I promptly put it back in the drawer.

Uplifting Wed. 19

Truth

 

A cheerful heart does good like medicine……. Prov 17:22 (TLB)

Uplifing Wed. 18