Cassie-b

Family Reunion Unusual Guest

We went to a family reunion of about 50+ people yesterday.  It’s a lot of fun, and great to see how the children have grown each year.  It allows the cousins to get to know each other, which probably wouldn’t happen because the family is scattered all over this country.

Everyone brings a dish or two to share, and one of the cousins brought a fruit salad in a very different container:

Cute, huh?

Blue Cassie-B

I was feeling a little down in the dumps yesterday, so on the way home from work, I bought myself a new cookbook.  That usually makes me feel better.

Don must have known I was a little blue, so when I got home, there was the new scanner I wanted waiting for me. 

His solution was much better.  If I had those adorable little happy faces available to me, I’d put one in right here.

Step on a Crack

Do you remember this one?

Step on a crack, break your Mother’s back
Step on a line, break your Father’s spine.

Well, I’m not overly superstitious, but I gotta tell you
I spend my life not doing those two things.
And I must tell you, my parents never had broken backs or spines.  Maybe there’s something to this.

Any comments?

Another Back Yard Story

We have a very old bird house made from a gourd hanging in a large maple tree by our deck.  It’s about 10 feet from where we sit.

We have been lucky enough to have two different families of sparrows in this nest each summer.  What an education!  We’ve been able to watch these birds from courting and nest building to babies leaving the nest.

We have actually seen 4 baby birds fly from the nest over the past few years.  Some of them are quite talented and can fly right away, and some just flutter down to the ground.

Here’s a picture of a mother bird feeding one of her babies.

Easy Weekend Food

Last Sunday, I really didn’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, although I usually like to cook.  I went into my trusty E-cookbook and came up with this great, almost effortless, unbelievably good recipe:

Crockpot Beef All Day Delight

2-3 lbs. boneless chuck or whatever, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup flour divided
5 tablespoons butter
1 onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can of beer (does not leave a beery taste)
1/4 cup flour

Coat beef cubes with the 1/2 cup flour. Brown in melted butter. Drain off excess fat. In crock pot, combine browned meat with onion, salt, pepper, garlic and beer.

Cover and cook on low 5-7 hours (all day) until meat is tender. (I added mushrooms at this point, because I think mushrooms belong in lots of dishes)Turn control to high. Dissolve remaining 1/4 cup flour in small amount of water. Stir into meat mixture, cook on high 30-40 minutes.
Serve with rice and salad.

Don’s been eating the leftovers for lunch.

Here’s the Sunflower garden

Here’s a picture of the sunflower garden planted by our back yard birds.
(see blog below)

The Sunflower Garden

Just a little note about our garden.  We have 2 shepherds hooks in the middle of our back yard (easy to see from the deck) We have an assortment of bird feeders on those hooks. 

Every year, my husband leaves a fairly large unmowed oval around the hooks, and we wait to see what will happen.  We usually have the most beautiful sunflower garden planted for us by our feathered friends. 

This year, there are lots of sunflowers and also some corn plants, and at last count, we have 4 ears of corn growing in this garden. 

We always have many birds visiting our feeders and in the late summer, the sunflowers as well.  Any seeds they miss, will be saved for them and they get to enjoy them later.  I guess when the corn comes ripe (a first this year), I’ll dry it and put it in the feeders later in the autumn.

Shopping Spree

What a great time of year to shop for new clothes.  Seems like all the stores are having unbelievable sales. 

We went shopping several times this week (not my favorite thing to do), and such bargains.  You can come home with enough new clothes to make you feel better without depleting your pocketbook.  Of course, they are summer clothes. 

I don’t know where you are, but it’s 83 degrees here today, and that’s a break from last week’s heat, the week before that and so on.  I think there’s still plenty of time to get a wearing or two this season.

Just thinking—Maybe I’ll go shopping again.  And maybe dinner out - oops, there goes the savings.

Non-Blogging Spouses

I have a wonderful husband who doesn’t hate computers any more.  But they are far from his favorite toy.

Blogging seems to be a serious time robber.  You just take a look to see if you got any comments, and then, well – just check Empress and Buzz (or whomever) and then maybe just a couple more, and before you know it, you’ve used up a bunch of time.

I just wonder how many non-blogging spouses get (1)mildly annoyed, (2) seriously annoyed, or (3)just plain infuriated. 

Luckily for me, if my spouse is in one of those 3 categories, he hasn’t told me.  I honestly think he doesn’t mind.  Maybe he’s just used to seeing me in front of the computer.  Lucky me.

Blogging sure can be a time robber!

Power Outage

Just immediately before we went on vacation about a week and a half ago, we had a “power outage”. Don had to finish packing with a flashlight in one hand.

Doesn’t seem too bad, but we lost some stuff.  Fortunately, it was one of the times my computer was turned off, so it was OK (yea!), but we lost our extra refrigerator in the garage (and the food therein), the phone in our “office”, and the clock function on the microwave.

Everything is in the process of being replaced, and we do miss the extra fridge in the garage, but what I miss most is the clock in the microwave.  You just don’t know how many times you look at something till it’s not there any more. 

And I don’t know about you, but I seem to be very difficult to retrain.  Hope we get a new one soon. 

Oh, and tomorrow’s Friday.  Love it.