Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

It's winter in Michigan!  That means soup and chili is a regular on our menu.  We like white chicken chili, and I have a few different recipes that I use when I make it.  I made some last week and decided to combine a few recipes to make this batch.  I have to say, I think this was the best!  One of my recipes has black beans and Bob isn't a fan so he enjoyed the Northern beans.  The corn adds a pop of flavor and the cream cheese and ranch seasoning makes such a nice creamy base. You can choose the heat level you like for the Rotel and salsa. I used medium and it had just a little kick.

Crockpot White Chicken Chili

2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
3 15.5 ounce cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 can Rotel, with liquid
1 can corn with liquid
4 ounce can green chilies with liquid
16 ounce Salsa
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 envelope ranch seasoning
1 teaspoon cumin
8 ounces cream cheese, cubed

Place all ingredients in crock pot and stir to combine. Cook on low for about 4 hours.  Prior to serving, stir again to mix in melted cream cheese and cheddar cheese.
Serve with toppings of choice; tortilla chips, sour cream, additional cheddar cheese...

Wordless Wednesday

 

Snow continues

Yesterday's post ended on Tuesday of last week. The snow continued to fall, just not as heavy as it had been.

On Wednesday we went out for groceries and a few errands, knowing things weren't going to get better.

The roads weren't good.  This is a main road near us. The constant snow made it hard for the plows to keep up.  Also, the temps were in the low teens which causes salt to be ineffective in melting snow and ice.

Dark clouds with an occasional sight of blue sky.

When the wind was blowing, it was hard to see.  (Don't worry - Bob was driving, I was taking these pictures from the passenger seat).

These are the woods I like to walk in, but that doesn't happen in this season.

Here's our street. Our house is just past that big pine tree.

Here's the house, in the snow again.  We remarked several times how thankful we were for a warm house.

We continued to get snow, about 3-4 inches every day from Tuesday to Thursday.

Bob was hanging out in the basement, occupying himself by working on this puzzle of WWII aircraft. It was too cold to get his woodshop warmed up, so he was trapped in the house.

But look what happened Friday!  We had a sunrise we could see.

Our little shed in the back was getting buried in snow.

Here's a graphic put out by our local news station on Friday.  We are right in the middle of that purple spot and got 26.5 inches of snow.  Schools were closed all week long. I don't remember that ever happening before.

The snow stopped, and then the cold moved in. This is from Saturday morning when our temps were the lowest they've been in 32 years and just 5 degrees higher then the all time low record.  We are between Holland and Grand Rapids and were at negative16 degrees.

This was my little experiment on Saturday.  I saw others doing this so I joined in. This is one of Bob's denim shirts. I got it wet and brought it outside. In 10 minutes it was frozen stiff.  It's not propped up on anything, just standing in the snow. I should have stood it up a little better, but I was too cold to stand out there and fuss around!

It's still cold and snowy this week, but it's better than last week!  And I'll really enjoy Spring when it arrives.

What a week!

Last week I told you we had a Polar Vortex coming our way - a low pressure area over the polar regions that brings cold air and snow to other places.  I know a lot of you got hit with crazy weather too.  We've had a whole week of craziness and of course, I've got some photos to show you how it went.

Here's what I left you with last week.  This is when things started up, a week ago Sunday.

Here we are on Monday morning, the snow just kept falling!

Bob was planning to wait to do our driveway because it just kept snowing.  But then - we saw our sweet neighbor girls with shovels in our driveway.

So, Bob bundled up and shoveled with them.  He said they talked his ear off and it was great fun shoveling with them. It was blowing and cold, and so nice of them to come help.

A few hours later, we heard about this; a 100+ car pile up on a highway near us.  This highway is right near where I grew up and actually is the highway that went through my Dad's farmland. Thankfully there were no serious injuries.

By Tuesday morning we had gotten 16.1 inches of snow since Sunday morning.

Here's how things looked from the front porch.

Here's Bob trying to clear the snow off the deck.

and snow blowing a path to his shop.

The pine trees in the back yard look so pretty.  It's interesting how they each collect snow a little differently.

I'm stopping this post as of Tuesday so my post doesn't get too long.  The snow kept coming and I'll share more tomorrow.

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

I made something new the other night, and it's one of those great recipes that is very easy to make and it's good.  It's called meatloaf surprise because the base of it is like meatloaf and you don't have to cook the ground beef before assembling it, it all cooks in the oven. Just add a salad and you have a nice meal.
When we got done eating, Bob said "You can add this to the menu anytime!"
It makes a 9x13 pan, so I put it in two 8x8 pans and froze one.

Meatloaf Surprise

1 pound lean ground beef
1 egg
1 green pepper, diced
1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup mix
1 tube crackers, crushed
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup catsup
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 bag Tator Tots

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix together the ground beef, egg, green pepper, soup mix, crackers, milk, catsup and BBQ sauce.
Sprinkle shredded cheese over meat.
Spread Tator Tots over the cheese.
Cover with foil and place in oven for 30 minutes, then remove foil an bake another 15 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday

 (close up of frost on our garage window)

Seen in a parking lot near me

 

We saw this truck in the grocery store parking lot.  I don't know what the story is on all the writing, but I thought it was fun and wanted to share it with you.

Here's a few things I read on it:

• You're so right!
• Congratulations!
• You are sunshine!
• Stay amazing!
• People are people and sometimes we change our minds.
• Love you to Saturn and back!
• You've got a smile that can light up this whole town!
• Make better choices.
• I hope something good happens to you today.
• You're awesome!
• Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you.
• Tuba's on me, Tuba's on three, one, two, three Tuba's!
• No matter what happens, be good to people.
• And lots of Bible passages...

Crazy winter weather and a bit of whining!

Those of you who've been around for awhile know I'm not a fan of winter.  I hate being cold and I'm not a fan of driving in the snow. I must admit it can be so beautiful though!  And I'm thankful that I don't have that long drive to work everyday.

Anyway, it's only January and I'm really ready for Spring. It looks like I'm going to have to wait though, we're in the middle of another Polar Vortex.  

It's been a strange winter. We had lots of snow in December, but then it warmed up over Christmas.  We had enough snow on the ground that we didn't lose it all, but we lost a lot.

The beginning of January we got lots of snow.

Then last week we had what's called thundersnow.  It was snowing, but thundering so loud it shook the house.  It was so weird.

The next day it started raining.  The snow all melted.

Then last Sunday, this was going on when we drove to church. I've never seen a rainbow in January in Michigan before.

And now the Polar Vortex is back. 

Here's the view out the front window.

and this is the view out the back. It's supposed to be frigidly cold this coming week with lots of snow.

It will make me appreciate Spring all the more, right?    :)

Friday Funny

Cooking Thursday

Recently, I had some leftover pulled pork and was looking for a different way to use it. I came across a recipe that combined it with macaroni and cheese.  Bob loves mac and cheese, but it's something I rarely make as it's not the healthiest of meals!  But I decided to try this one and it was really good.  This one has cottage cheese in it to increase the protein, which you would never know once it's made.  So, if you want a way to use pulled pork that would be a yummy treat, here's a recipe for you! I halved the recipe to make a 9x9 pan,

Pulled Pork Mac and Cheese

3 1/2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups milk
8 ounces velveeta cheese, cubed
1 1/3 cups small curd cottage cheese
2/3 cups sour cream
2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
4 cups pulled pork
1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce

Cook macaroni as directed on package and drain.
In medium saucepan melt butter, then stir in flour, salt and sugar until smooth. Slowly whisk in milk, bring to a boil and stir for 2 minutes until thickened.
Stir in velveeta cheese until melted, then stir in the cottage cheese sour cream and 2 cups cheddar cheese until melted.
Pour over macaroni and stir. 
Transfer to greased 9x13 pan.
Stir together the pork and BBQ sauce and place on top of mac and cheese.  Sprinkle remaining cheddar cheese on top.
Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove foil and bake another 20 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Fun Weekend

We had such a fun time with Alaina and Ruby this weekend. With the busyness over Christmas they haven't been able to come for a bit, so this was overdue. We picked them up after school and then went to Chik-fil-A for supper per their request.
After supper we came home and worked on a little project. I had ordered a few kits to make button highland cows.  Unfortunately, the kits arrived and were just the buttons and some floss - no directions!  So, we had to try to figure it out.

Alaina and Ruby each did them differently, so they turned out unique.

But both are cute!

Then we got out the Wii and played the game of Life, and then watched Despicable Me before heading to bed.

The next morning we had a long craft project to do.  The girls took premade canvas's for paintings and drew flower shapes all over them. Then they took hot glue guns and put glue lines over all the pencil lines.

The next step was gloving up and rubbing a background paint color over the whole front and sides.

While the paint dried, we got the Wii going again.

Wii bowling is a lot of fun, and I do better at this version than the real thing.

We stopped for lunch and then started painting again.

All the little spots inside the glue lines got painted.

The girls were each choosing their colors and painting carefully.

Once that was done, all the glue lines were colored over with a gold Sharpie pen.

Look how cute they turned out!  They kind of look like stained glass.
We played a few more Wii games and then because it had been really snowing and the roads weren't great, Aaron and Laura came to pick them up, so Bob and I could stay warm and cozy at home.

We love spending time with these girls and enjoyed each moment!

New Ride!

We made a fun purchase last week.  Bob has been driving a Ford Edge which has been a great car, but it's not the best thing when he needs wood for carpentry items. We had decided to keep our eyes open for a used truck so he could use it to get wood or haul items.

Once you look at something like that on a computer, you start getting inundated with lots more!  He had one pop up that had very low mileage so we went to check it out, and we ended up buying it.

This is his old Ford Edge, it served him well.

And here is his new Ranger, under 10,000 miles on it and it's a 4 wheel drive, so will do well in the snow.

Yes - he's happy!