Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

Last week, in the middle of the big storm, I had to come up with something for supper as we were supposed to go out, but that wasn't happening. I found a recipe for steak bites and had a steak in the freezer, so I made that.  It was soooo good! (and easy too)  If you have an air fryer, you need to try this.  It's going to be a regular at our house.

Air Fryer Butter Steak Bites

1 large steak of your choice, trimmed of visible fat and cubed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 tablespoons salted butter

Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees.
Place salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder in a large plastic bag and shake to mix. Add olive oil and mix. Then add the steak cubes and toss until evenly coated.
Arrange the steak cubes on the grill plate in the air fryer. Air fry for 4 minutes, then flip them and air fry for another 3 minutes.
Take the cooked pieces out of the fryer and remove the grill plate, leaving juices in the bottom of the basket.
Place the cooked steak bites back into the air fryer, along with the 2 tablespoons of salted butter, thinly sliced.  Air fry for another 1-2 minutes allowing the steak bites to absorb the flavors.
Season with additional salt and pepper as desired and serve with your favorite side dish.

Wordless Wednesday

 

A Day in my Life - February

We've made it to February!  The groundhog saw his shadow and we're in for more winter.  We're actually under another winter storm advisory here with more snow and icy roads.  But, I'm here to share the 1st day of the month with you.  Here's how February 1 went for me.

I was up early, went downstairs and was on the treadmill for 40 minutes.

Then I came upstairs and got things going in the crockpot so dinner would be ready when we came home from church. The bigger crockpot has grilled chicken breasts in it, the little one has green beans.

After that I got ready and had a boiled egg for breakfast.

Here we are, driving to church.  The roads are still snow covered, but the sky is blue.

Look at this, on the dashboard of Bob's truck.  The temperature was negative 8 degrees!

The frosty branches and the sun were beautiful though.

We got to church about 8:45. We have Sunday School before the service and that starts at 9.   I'm doing a class on Genesis, which Bob happens to be teaching.  This was before class, waiting for everyone to arrive.

That class gets done about 10, then our regular service starts at 10:15.
We had communion and a very good message from Romans 15.

We did some talking after church and didn't get home till about 12:15, and then enjoyed that meal from the crock pots.

 

 

After cleaning up lunch I did a little more walking.  I try to get about 14,000 steps in daily and I don't like to do it all on the treadmill.  I'll be so glad when it's nice and I can walk outside again.  For now, I do laps in the storage area in the basement - not pretty but it works!

Bob and I both took a short nap in the afternoon.  That's so nice!

The sun continued to shine.  I took this off our porch. You can see how the snow is hanging off the roof!

This is in the back yard. Bob had cleared the snow off the deck on Saturday, and the sun was helping it dry.

We had sloppy joes for supper.  We like the with American cheese added.

Then we had a quiet, relaxing evening!  We love British Crime shows and have recently started watching this one - Grantchester.
We also watched 'The Repair Shop' which I've shared before. (We learned about it from blog friend Terri of Your Friend from Florida.) It's also from England and is a show where people bring in cherished items that need repair.  It will make you feel good to watch it! The last show we watched was from France and is called The Beau Chateau.  Season 1 is on HGTV and we hear season 2 will be starting but right now we watch it on Youtube.  It's about a young couple that inherited a beautiful chateau and they are restoring it.  

Yes, it was a lovely day!  It was cold, but the sunshine was a treat, and we always enjoy seeing our church family.

January - the longest month!

January is often said to feel like a never ending month; after the excitement and busyness of the holidays and winter in our area, it does feel long.

This January certainly lived up to that reputation around here. It was a brutal weather month.  We finally had sunshine this weekend; prior to that we had 16 days in a row of measurable snow. Our county got over 50 inches of snow in January with 80% of that happening in those 16 days. We also had frigid cold, setting a cold record of negative 19 degrees one day.

Schools were cancelled for a whole week in a row, then another day the next week.  Because it was so cold, salt wasn't working to de-ice the roads, and the constant snow was exhausting for the plow drivers.  We were mostly staying in, but here's a few pictures I took on a day I had to get out.

These roads were no fun to drive on!

This is our street, our house is just over that little rise.

I've been whining about the snow, and being sick of not getting out, but then my friend Dianna, over at Joyful in His Presence put up a post about enjoying the beauty of it, and appreciating God's power over weather, which made me think I needed to adjust my way of thinking too.

So here's some positive things!

I'm thankful for a nice warm house and not losing electricity.

I'm thankful that I'm retired and can stay home if I want!  What a blessing to be able to just stay in and look at the snow.

I'm thankful for occasional spots of blue sky!

I'm thankful for the beauty of the season

I'm thankful for people who do fun things in this weather. This colorful igloo was being made on a road not far from us.

I'm thankful that God is a God of order, and that season follows season - so Spring will be coming and I will be happy to see it.
Happy February!

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.