Cooking Thursday

Today's recipe is another one that I brought to a church potluck a few weeks ago.  It's easy to put together, is light and tasty and looks pretty in a glass bowl or trifle dish.

Angel Food Cake Trifle

1 large angel food cake
2 cans blueberry pie filling (or flavor of your choice)
2 packages 4 serving instant vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
1 cup sour cream
16 ounces Cool Whip

Cut Angel food cake into 1 inch cubes and place half in bottom of trifle bowl (or you can use a 9x13 pan).
Spread one can of pie filling over the angel food cake.
Mix together the pudding mix with the milk, then beat in the sour cream. Stir in half of the Cool Whip.
Spread half of the pudding mix over the pie filling in the trifle bowl.
Spread the other half of the angel food cake over the filling, then cover with the remaining filling.
Cover filling with the remaining Cool Whip, then spread the other can of pie filling over the top.
Let chill for at least 4 hours before serving, but preferably overnight.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Fun moments from last week

Here's a few pictures from last week that I wanted to share with you.

We've been enjoying such a beautiful Autumn.  These are photos taken in our back yard.

I had a lovely afternoon with some former co-workers last week.  This is the doctor I worked with for many years and his wife, and 2 nurses who also worked with me.  We were the day shift nurses and worked closely for a lot of years.  Later when Nancy (in yellow) retired, Lavonne (in orange) was the director of nursing and I was the unit manager.  We all worked well together, helped each other on the hard days and had fun too.  The doctor was the best.  He was always so caring and kind and took great care of our patients. We had lunch and then went back to his house to catch up and reminisce.

Last but not least; we had some cute trick or treaters come by!

Cassie was the cutest pirate!

And check out Connor, the shark!

That's it - some fun moments from last week.

A Day in my Life - November

Here we are in November already!  Here's how the first day of the month went for me.

I started the day, as I do every day; heading downstairs to walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes.

Then it was back upstairs to get ready for the day and eat a boiled egg which is my daily breakfast.  I seem to be a creature of habit!  It was rainy and cold; 41 degrees. This is the view from our living room window, beautiful even in the rain.

Then it was time to get some work done.  I started a load of laundry.

I put together some slider sandwiches, some will be for supper the next night and some for lunches.  They are ham and cheddar and turkey and swiss on Hawaiian rolls.

I cleaned the bathrooms and scrubbed the tub.

I finished my Sunday School lesson for the next day.

Even though it was still drizzling a little, Bob and I decided to take a walk down our road. I'm so enjoying the Fall color.

These woods are down our road and I love to walk in them.  I'm afraid those walking times are soon going to be done for this year as the snow will be falling.

After we came back from our walk, I settled in with my computer to work on continuing education classes for nursing.  My license is due for renewal and I need to finish the education requirements. I'm not working, but I'm not ready to let my license go yet because if you don't renew it, you can't go back and do it later.  So - I studied hypertension and heart rhythms.  I'm almost done!

In the meantime, our neighbors had been raking leaves and were trying to burn them.  With everything wet, it was pretty smoky.  I actually like the smell of burning leaves, and thought it fit this season.

We met Laura, Aaron and the girls for supper.  We were celebrating Alaina and Ruby's birthdays.  Alaina turned 14 the week before and Ruby is turning 11 next week.  How did they get so old?  We had a great time together.

After supper, we drove home.  It was still sprinkling. We're almost home, our house is on the left.

We had a relaxing evening, turned on the fireplace and we watched a show on YouTube about restoring British military towers.

It was a good start to a new month!

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

The other day I had soup in the crockpot, all ready for supper. Then I was reading blog posts and saw a post from my friend Carrie at Northwoods Scrapbook. She shared a recipe for biscuits that she said went well with soup or chili.  They sounded good and I had the ingredients on hand to make them. I made a half recipe which made 5 biscuits.  They were light and fluffy and so good with our soup.  Bob enjoyed the leftovers in the next few days.  I know you would enjoy them too!

Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup cold buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled for 5 minutes

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Then stir in the cheddar cheese.
In a separate bowl, stir together the buttermilk and butter until small lumps form.
Add buttermilk mixture to the flour mix and stir just until dough has formed and ingredients are no longer dry.
Lightly grease a 1/2 cup scoop and scoop mixture onto a light colored, lightly greased baking sheet. You should have a total of 10 biscuits.
Bake for about 12 minutes until biscuits are golden.
While biscuits are baking combine 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley.
When biscuits are done, brush this butter mix over all the biscuits.
Serve immediately.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Fall Photo Day

Every year we try to get out in the Fall and get a photo of us with our grandkids for our Christmas card.  Saturday was the day we planned to do this.  It was cold!  We had our first hard freeze and as we drove to the park around 10am it was only 38 degrees! So, we were pretty chilly while taking these pictures.

The park we went to is near my childhood home, and we used to have family reunions there every year.  I love going back and reliving those memories.

The park has stone stair, streams and springs. There were quite a few other people there, braving the cold to get some photos.

However, we were having issues!  Connor wanted nothing to do with being separated from his mom.

He was fine for their photos.

We got some nice ones of Aaron, Laura and family.

"I want my mom!"

This is how things went.  Our card this year, will feature one screaming child.  Andrew suggests that the card message should be 'Joy to the World!'

It's ok, we made memories, right?

Latest Project

Bob's been working on another project here at home.  This one was much smaller than the storage shed he put up this summer.

This is the before. It's a wall in our living room.  We decided we wanted to have a faux fireplace with the tv hanging above it.  So, Bob went to work.

Here he is building a frame.

Shiplap is up and knotholes primed. You can see the opening for the electric fireplace. The opening on the top is where the tv holder will be. He's put electrical wiring inside for the fireplace and tv.

The wood is being primed. On this day, Alaina and Ruby were there and wanted to help.

On the side, Bob put in this hidden door.  The Wii game is in it and it will also let us get to the electric cords and plugs if needed.

The trim is on, everything is painted and the tv and fireplace are in place!

This is the hidden door, all painted.  The only way you see it is by the little knob.

Mantel is up!  Good job Bob!

All done!  The fireplace can put out heat, and we'll be sure to enjoy the ambience of a fire this winter.

Friday Funnies

 

Cooking Thursday

We had a church potluck last week (We have a lot of them!) and I brought these meatballs to it.  A recipe for meatballs in a crockpot is perfect potluck food and these are so good!  BBQ sauce with just a little heat makes them tasty.  I came home with an empty crock pot, just the way I like it.

Sweet Heat Meatballs

26 ounces frozen meatballs
1 bottle Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce 
1 cup crushed pineapple
2 tablespoons steak sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Stir together the BBQ sauce, pineapple, steak sauce, soy sauce. honey, garlic and red pepper flakes in crock pot.
Add meat balls and stir to coat.
Cook on low for 5 hours, stirring occasionally.

Wordless Wednesday

 (Still seeing some wildflowers on my walks)

Up North Weekend

I'm back from my little blogging break. We had a nice weekend in Northern Michigan, and enjoyed a little Fall color.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great.  We had quite a bit of rain up there, some wind and pretty cool temperatures, but we still had fun.

Our plan was to drive along the 45th parallel, across northern Michigan.  This is the mid point between the equator and the north pole.
We went with my sister Terri and her husband Dave and we left Friday morning. We headed for Alpena, MI, about 5 hours from our house. We live in SW MI and Alpena is in the NE portion of the state.

We saw some pretty color along the way, and thought this sheep pasture with the colorful trees was very picturesque!

We stopped and had a little lunch here, on the shores of Lake Huron.

When we arrived in Alpena, we had supper and then wandered around a little while.  They had some great murals on the sides of buildings, including this one with 3D fish.

Here's another one that we liked.

The next morning, we set out on our trek along the 4th parallel.  We saw several of these signs along the way.

This was our view for much of the day.

This is the welcome, on the edge of Atlanta MI.  It's the Elk capitol of MI and this one is encased in glass as you drive in.

Another lovely scene along the way.

Our next stop was Gaylord, Mi, where they have a large Elk park.

Isn't he majestic?  I had to do a lot of walking to get this picture as he kept walking off to different areas when I tried to take his photo.

Next we drove to Elmira MI and hiked up a messy, muddy hill!  We were a mess, but it was worth it to see this view from Dead Man's Hill.

Bob and I at the top of the hill.

Here's the 4 of us!  Bob, Me, Terri and Dave.

This Cairn is in Kewanee, MI.  It was built and dedicated in 1938.  It has a stone from each of the counties in the state of Michigan.  I live in Ottawa County, and you can see our stone here.

We've now made it to Lake Michigan. These stones are usually all under water, but the levels are very low this year because of drought.

This is the Old Mission Peninsula Lighthouse, our last stop on our 45th parallel tour.

We would be spending the night in Traverse City. We stopped here, at the Grand Traverse Commons, an old psychiatric hospital which has been renovated and is now home to restaurants, stores and condo's.  It's a beautiful place.

We also stopped at the Grand Traverse Botanical Gardens, which are beautiful even at this time of the year.

The next day, it was time to head home.  We took a scenic route home, including a drive on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Loop.  It was raining again, so our photo stops were minimal.

This covered bridge is on the scenic loop, so pretty!

We had a fun time together and saw lots of fun and beautiful things.