A Redhead in Pink!


This is my Aunt Evelyn. She was my daddy's baby sister and because he called her "Sissy" ... we called her "Sissy".  I loved her dearly. 

My dad's mother died when he was a young teenager ... and Sissy was just a child. They had an even younger brother ... and the three of them were left with a father who didn't do well on his own. Thank goodness there were older siblings who, although married with families of their own, jumped in and helped.

Sissy was spoiled. Sissy had red hair. It was almost unmanageable naturally curly! Sissy had a temper! Sounds just like somebody I know!

I think about her a lot this time of year. As we celebrate our Scottish and Irish heritage on St. Patrick's Day ... I am reminded of my very Celtic aunt! I am probably more like my Aunt Evelyn than any other woman in my family. Her home was my refuge and much of what I learned about mothering ... I learned from her. She liked pretty things ... she spent too much money ... she was horribly spoiled by her husband and her siblings continued to spoil her long after she reached adulthood! She was a hoarder before we knew what that meant! Everything she ever collected ... she kept! I have just described myself.

I decided today ... that I needed a dose of nostalgia, so I have PINKED a tribute to Sissy! I made blueberry scones, had hot tea and a couple little tiny cordial glasses of strawberry Irish Creme. (She probably had a collection of cordial glasses, but she would never have consumed the alcohol!) At Sissy's house ... we had tea parties in the neighbor's rose garden, that later became her own when she bought the 'big house' next door after the neighbors died. At Sissy's house, we baked hundreds of cut-out Christmas cookies and formed an assembly line to decorate them. At Sissy's house ... we drank iced cold Coca Colas on hot summer days. At Sissy's house we drenched ourselves in her perfume ... devoured her magazines ... and felt safe and comfortable ... always.

Here's a picture of Sissy with her grandson ... holding my new baby, Nicole. That was 40 years ago, but I can still hear her urging her grandson to get in the picture, so he wouldn't be jealous of his "Nana's" great-niece!   

I learned all my bad habits ... from Sissy! She launched my collecting vice by giving me a stack of pink Depression Glass saucers. She taught me how to spend money on shopping sprees and worry about my grocery list later! She taught me to stick my tongue out when I didn't want to do something ... and only do what I considered fun and exciting. She taught me to wear whatever I wanted just like she did, even if pink didn't go with red hair! Adulthood brought on the responsibilities and realities in my life ... that Sissy ignored in her own!

When she died, my mother said, "When Sissy was bad ... she was really bad; but when Sissy was good ... she was really, really, good."

Here's Sissy (on the right) with her older sisters. Notice her short skirt, compared to the appropriate length on the sisters!

In the following collage, Sissy is with her father, who is holding her new baby girl. She appears to be walking out of the frame, leaving my older sister standing!

In the lower right of the collage, she is with her younger brother ... who is holding a prized Beagle! Everything our Bachelor Uncle had was prized ... including a fighting cock that Sissy and my mother cooked with dumplings one time!  A battle ensued in the back yard and I'm surprised the women lived through it!  I'm also sure the dumplings were good ... even though the rooster was probably too tough to eat!


Today's tea and scones would have made Sissy happy! She would have loved the Depression Glass pink sandwich plate ... and the fact that I still had my Twelve Days of Christmas plates out and was using them! She loved pink roses and the pink stem vase was hers. I keep it on my desk all the time, and when I'm lucky enough to get a Witchy Rose, that where it goes!  Check out my Witchy Rose posts!

I Decided to Eat Witchy Rose!

She loved all pink rose china ... and so do I!


I'll be sharing my post ... first with Pink Saturday   ... 
then with some of the following.

Creatively Living for Monday  Funday Party 
The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday 
Dwellings-Heart of Your Home for Amaze Me Monday 

The DIY Dreamer for From Dream To Reality Tues  
Our Home Away From Home for Tuesdays @ Our Home 
Knick of Time for Knick of Time Tues  Inspire Me Tuesday  
Creative Muster





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A Week of No Fuss Meals

Bad weather and lots of work to do in my home office ... kept me from spending much time cooking this week. Thought you might like a couple quick food ideas!

When I was a child, my mother would cook ham and beans once a week. Sometimes with a ham bone ... other times with smoked ham hocks. I hate beans. Well, almost. I loved good baked beans and I love lima beans!  But, that is it. While watching the snow come down, I simmered a crock pot of baby limas and a link of smoked sausage. I threw in a little Cajun spice mix. That is pretty easy! Corn bread was not a favorite of mine, either ... as a kid. Mama would make me eat it, but she would slather it with butter and drizzle syrup over it. It was more like dessert. I still eat it that way and taught my daughter to eat it that way!


Yes, those are my toes ... and scrapbooking paper scraps on the floor!

My other easy food fixes this week included orange shrimp. I just stir fry a few vegetables ... snow peas, cauliflower, green peppers, red peppers and green onion. Just before the veges reach the tender crisp stage, I throw in a few peeled and deveined shrimp. It just takes another couple minutes to get them done. The sauce is a combination of three things ... orange marmalade, soy sauce and bbq sauce.  I use equal parts of the marmalade and bbq sauce, then ad a few splashes of the soy sauce.  Served over rice ... this is a great meal.


I cook for just one person most of the time and I'm never excited to have left-overs! My homemade pizza makes dinner and a couple lunches, but it is so good that I don't mind. It too, is very easy.  When I buy a pound of Italian sausage, I brown the whole pound, then divide it into thirds ... freezing the other two portions. I was using my last portion of frozen sausage for this pizza. I always keep those packets of pizza crust mix on hand ... and I buy the cheapest brand! They are all the same! I also buy bottled pizza sauce ... not spaghetti sauce ... but pizza sauce. So ... the crust, half the jar of sauce ... cooked sausage ... thinly sliced mushrooms and green peppers and about 6 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese ...... and there you have it.  Easy and very good. The cost of that pizza is about $4.00!

Then ... one evening I really wasn't hungry, so I had my weekly egg for dinner! An egg fried over easy served on a piece of buttered toast ... served with three tiny dill pickles! Yep, dill pickles ... and most of my family eats katsup on their fried eggs, too!  Strange, aren't we?  The dill pickles with fried eggs has a history though. When I was a teenager, the guy that taught me how to drive a car with a manual transmission ... invited me to breakfast each morning before we set out for the driving lesson. His wife was a great cook and she ate pickles with eggs! As soon as I tried it, I was in love with the flavor combination. (My brothers wouldn't teach me how to drive a "stick" ... so one of their friends was up for the challenge!)  My daddy didn't think I would ever need to know how to drive a vehicle with a manual transmission ... but guess what? I've always driven one ... from my MG convertible I had in the 1970s to the little red pickup truck I have today!

I might share this post with a couple parties listed below. Hope you'll click through to see the other posts.








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Snow Bunny!


Let me introduce you to Jimmy Mutt Moore, also known as MeMutt ... and now known as Snow Bunny Wannabe!  We ended up with another foot of snow yesterday ... and he just didn't want to come back inside.  He was nosing around the deck ... pushing snow away from the places where the chipmunks go under the deck to hide from him and make their way to Heaven knows where!

Phoebe called Jimmy Mutt "MeMutt" before she could really talk.  She couldn't say "Jimmy" ... so we just got the "Me"!  He is an indoor dog and nothing I used coaxed him in ... not even a windmill cookie!  Phoebe spent half her snow day with me and I'm sure she had already fed him a few cookies, so one more meant nothing to him!

He finally came inside, but not until snow and ice was caked on his back!
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Elect Mike!

I'm doing a quick post just to share the recipes for some of the food we served at a little event we hosted to let people mix and mingle in support of a mayoral candidate for our town ... the one who absolutely must win!

We had the little party at a friend's house that was built in 1901 and is on the National Historic Register ... and that is a post for a different day!  My friends and I have had numerous events like this over the years and we always use their house because it is much larger than mine!


We didn't go overboard on the food ... just a little snacking with good coffee and a cold green tea punch.  My friend, Sue, made heart shaped brownies with Mike's initial on them!  Notice the stacks of dessert plates Sue used ... She has a huge collection of lots of patterns of small china plates,  and small china platters when she serves a full meal. Very cute ... and so "Sue"!


We wanted both sweet and savory.  My daughter made these.  They are so easy and the perfect thing for a busy mom to put together!  Marinated mozzarella pearls with half a grape tomato.  She added a good sprinkle of chopped fresh basil, and when she makes these in the summertime, she puts a whole basil leaf skewered on each one.  So good.


I've been making savory cream puffs stuffed with chicken salad for 35 years!  The original recipe was in a little thin Better Homes and Gardens cookbook about chicken. I've made thousands of these things! They take a little time, but are well worth the effort.

Savory Cream Puff Recipe

Melt a stick of real butter in a cup of water .. .bring that to a boil to melt the butter.  Remove the pan from the heat and quickly whisk in 1 cup of flour and continue to whisk it until the dough sticks together in a sort of a ball.  Use your mixer to beat in 4 eggs ... one at time. The dough will become glossy. Beat in 1 cup of parmesan cheese, 2 Tablespoons chopped parsley, a teaspoon onion powder and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne or chipotle powder.  You can vary the herbs to your own liking. 

Now here is the trick to making these right. Some recipes will tell you to bake them for ten minutes at 425 degrees ... then turn the temp down.  
DON'T DO THAT.

Put both your oven racks on the two middle levels of your oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Use a tiny ice cream scoop (or two teaspoons) to drop  portions of a little more than a Tablespoon of this dough on a lightly greased baking sheet.  You'll probably have about 30 puffs on two sheets.  

As soon as you put the sheets in the oven, turn it down to 375 degrees ... and bake these for 15 minutes.  They should be puffy and brown ... and if the color doesn't suit you ... you can bake them for another 5 minutes.   The reason I caution you about the highest temperature ... is that these babies will burn and have black bottoms in five minutes, if you aren't careful ... but you need to start out at the high temperature to jump start the rising.


These are the popular pineapple cheesecake bars that are all over Pinterest these days!  You can find my post right here ... I borrowed the recipe from The Sisters Cafe blog  I substitute the vanilla and almond extracts for 2 teaspoons of lemon extract.  I like that combination of flavors better ... and these were complimented by an old friend who owned a popular bakery for decades!  So, I think they hit the mark.


These easy little chocolate pudding tarts were made using packaged phyllo pastry cups ... but you have to know why we made them.  Our candidate's opponent's daughter threw a chocolate cream pie in the face of the Illinois Governor George Ryan several years ago. Can you imagine?  We just want to make sure that voters remember that!  Like him or not ... that is a bit inappropriate.  Ya think?

I'll be sharing this post with a few of the following parties.  Make sure you click through to take a look at the other posts!

Creatively Living for Monday  Funday Party 
The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday 
Dwellings-Heart of Your Home for Amaze Me Monday 

The DIY Dreamer for From Dream To Reality Tues  
Our Home Away From Home for Tuesdays @ Our Home 
Knick of Time for Knick of Time Tues  Inspire Me Tuesday  
Creative Muster



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Phoebe's Valentine Dinner Party!


You may have read my post a couple weeks ago ... about Phoebe wanting a party! We were shopping and she found something she thought would be good to decorate for our party. I told her I didn't think I'd have a party for Valentine's Day because we were going to a fancy dinner dance. She almost cried right in the middle of the fabric store, so I quickly decided that we would have our regularly scheduled party! I'm amazed at what she remembers, but I guess I'd better realize that she does, indeed, remember family events at my house.  Here's our party.


I decorated the mantel in the dining room last week. You can see it right here! I saved the table decorating for Phoebe and her mama to do right before our dinner. 


I could have chosen from lots of china, but I wanted to use these everyday Temptations dishes because Phoebe got them for me for Mother's Day! They are a pretty red color, with big daisy style flowers on them. So, I put Cricut to work and cut lots of hearts and daisy style flowers to use in creating a simple centerpiece. Silk flowers tucked down in clear barrel mugs with mercury glass votive candles fit the bill!

Notice the cute little heart topped box at each place setting. I made them ... and filled them with our favorite new treat: Pretzel turtle candies. If you haven't made them, you need to. All you do is place a Rolo candy on top of a square pretzel and bake them for 5 minutes at 250 degrees. Take them out of the oven, and press a pecan half on top of each candy. They are a delicious two bites of salty caramel chocolatey goodness!


They are so easy to make and I haven't found anybody who doesn't love them!   Back to the centerpiece. In the collage below, you can see all the elements I had ready for Phoebe's little hands to put together on the table!  Flowers, hearts and more hearts!  I almost never throw a piece of scrapbooking paper away, so all those little extra pieces turned into pretty little hearts. A few replicas of vintage Valentines add a comfortable appeal. We wanted casual and comfortable for this family dinner party.



Our meal began with something that was pretty cute. I found this heart shaped cheese molded in red wax. It is white cheddar with strawberries in it. When Phoebe saw it, she couldn't wait to get it opened!


Then we had a wonderful layered salad ... You know the one: loaded with cauliflower, peas, boiled eggs, radishes, tomatoes and iceberg lettuce. I always make my dressing using the bacon grease from frying the bacon for the topping! Add sharp cheddar cheese and you have a delicious combination of flavors. The cute heart shaped bowl is one of the new Temptations creations from QVC.


The rest of our menu included creamed corn ... cream cheese style; salt and pepper shrimp ... because Phoebe loves shrimp; and Coc au Vin over buttered noodles ... which I make a little differently than the typical recipe. I'll put that in a future post.


It was so cold outside, but so cozy in the dining room in front of the fireplace ... that we decided to put the food on the table and serve family style! 



Somebody was waiting patiently under the table for any little dropped morsel! Jimmy Mutt was so excited all day long. He was looking for Phoebe beginning at 8:00 in the morning. I never know how he knows that she is coming over ... but he does. He waited all day long for her to finally arrive! Then, when they left after dinner, he parked right in front of the door and pouted because they had gone!




We ended our meal with coffee and this beautiful trifle. We love this combination: angel food cake topped with fresh strawberries (sliced) ... with cheesecake flavored pudding poured over it all. I added more fresh strawberries, then topped it all with Cool Whip ... Too easy! I use Cool Whip instead of whipped cream, especially when I know there will be some left. It holds up well!


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Turkey Enchilada Soup on a Cold Day



It is very cold outside in Southern Illinois and that mean's it is time for soup. It may be TIME for soup, but I don't have time to make soup today, so I settled for this simple recipe. My husband had favorite recipes he called "cup - a - cup - a"! What that generally meant was that we just added a cup of this ... and a cup of that. This is definitely one of those recipes! The best news ... It takes about 20 minutes to make and it tastes like it has simmered all day.


You begin by combining 1 quart of chicken stock (I prefer homemade, but the kind in a box is second best) with a can of Rotel tomatoes with chili peppers, a can of corn and a can of cannellini beans (or regular red kidney beans). Bring all that to a slow boil and drop in about 2 cups of cooked chicken or turkey (You can also use left over pork for this). Season with salt, pepper, a little minced garlic and chopped cilantro. If you want more spice, add chipotle pepper. Reduce to a simmer.


After this simmers about ten minutes, make a thickener by adding 1/4 cup flour to about 1/2 a cup of the broth. Whisk that together until it is smooth and add it back to the soup pot. Add the can of green enchilada sauce and simmer a few more minutes.  Last step is to add a cup of shredded cheese ... I used chipotle cheddar this time!  You can also add one or two cups of half and half at this point, if you'd like a creamier version.


Here's the soup topped with corn chips and more shredded cheese!  Notice those delicious looking biscuits beside the soup? Those start with Angel Biscuit dough.


Angel Biscuits

5 c. self-rising flour
1 tbsp. sugar
2 pkg. yeast
1 tsp. soda
1 c. Wesson oil
2 c. buttermilk

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup of warm water. I do that in the bottom of my mixing bowl.  Add 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 cup vegetable oil, 2 cups buttermilk and 5 cups of flour. I use the kneading bar on my mixer and just let it work for about 5 minutes. Put this in the refrigerator sealed in a bag and use it as you want to.  It will keep for two weeks and you can bake one biscuit at a time, if you'd like! Otherwise, it makes about 48 biscuits. Bake these at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Remember, the yeast makes it grow in the refrigerator ... so leave room in your container or bag for expansion!

Don't limit the use to biscuits, though. You can make doughnuts with it ... just fry them in oil and dredge them in cinnamon and sugar; turn it into pizza crust by pressing firmly in a pan using your fingers dipped in olive oil .. top it and bake it; use it for monkey bread ... savory or sweet; make herbed biscuits with it; turn larger portions into miniature loaves of bread; or roll it out and turn it into cinnamon rolls. Oh, and you can use it to top homemade chicken pie ... or drop portions into bubbling broth for delicious dumplings. ... and ... if you love fruit drop dumplings, it is perfect for that. Just drop small portions into lightly boiling fruit juice.


This time, I mixed shredded chipotle cheese and chopped cilantro with enough dough to make six little biscuits. I added a pat of butter on top of each biscuit and sprinkled with Mexican oregano before baking. Doesn't get much easier.


I'll be sharing this with a few food blog parties and hope you'll click through to look at some of the other posts! Make sure you check out my home page to see all my other recent posts ... and try to stay warm with a good bowl of soup!

The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday 
Full Plate Thursday-Miz Helen's Country Cottage 

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Remembering with a Mini Scrapbook

I'm all ready to create memories this weekend! Miss Phoebe really wanted a Valentine party dinner at my house, even though we are going to a Valentine Dinner Dance. So, we'll party and we'll remember it all by finishing this adorable mini scrapbook that I made.


I have trouble putting all the Christmas trees away, so I'm keeping this cute one out and decorating it for the other happy holidays! A few Cricut cut valentines and a pretty flower are all it needed. I left the red/white lights on it from Christmas. Might have to change those to green in a few weeks! ... That's Daniel Boone in the background ... think a scallywag has his son, Israel!



It makes a cute coffee table vignette ... just sitting there looking so cute!




The tree's decorations are pretty simple.  Just cut several hearts from metallic red paper ... and made another flower for a topper.


I like dimension and depth on my scrapbook covers. This one has a flower with petals shaped like valentines ... and I usually use a little needle and thread to make the bows ... I used three different ribbons for this one and embellished it with a faux rhinestone red heart!

I made the pages for this 6x6 inch book by gluing two pieces of scrapbook paper together, so there is no plain backside showing. By doing that, I can create big pockets that I simply fold around the edges of the paper before I glue the backside to it.  Easy ... and big enough to slip a picture in or a program booklet ...


Here are pages with small pockets ... and 
tags embellished with ribbon and rhinestones!


Here are a couple more examples of pockets. The one on top is a 6x6 inch piece of paper, with one corner folded down and glued ... then I folded the other two edges around the edges of the main page piece of paper ... glued the backside piece of paper in place ... then punched all of it to stabilize the pocket even more. It covers about half the page.

The pocket in the bottom photo is done the same way ... but the pocket was cut from a scrap of a 12x12 inch piece of paper that I had. I don't trash very much scrapbook paper! I think these pockets look better when they are bound in ... and that certainly makes them stronger. This pocket size lets us stick all kinds of big things in it ... like a dinner menu card, movie ticket stubs, program booklets, big pictures ... or laminated newspaper clippings ... all without gluing them down.  (I was at an event not long ago and heard an elderly man talking about how his mother had made a scrapbook of all his sports activities from his childhood ... and how she had glued down his baseball cards ... that would be very valuable now!)  Sometimes we just shouldn't glue it down!


I'll be sharing this post with a few parties and I sure hope you'll click through to see the other posts.  I'll be back in a few days with more Valentine posts, too ... so make sure you check in again!

Happy Valentine's Day!



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