Since my last hard drive mishap (which was my fault), I’m stuck ripping all my CD’s again to the hard drive (for the 3rd time). This task really sucks, but in the mean time I’m able to find old gems that I’ve hung on to. I’ve found an old Mudvayne CD that was pretty cool, some old Sting singles, also a live Journey CD that rocks, and the last Strapping Young Lad album.

It’s amazing what you find “brand new” all over again. Really though, who gets tired of hearing Steve Perry sing Wheel in the Sky (that’s faster and better than the original studio recording)?

Anyway, aside from music I have to say I made a pretty kick as pot of beans and cornbread today. All I added was salt pork, pepper, and salsa verde to the beans and it came out so good. Plus we had decent beer to drink, so that helped judging the overall meal, hehe.

Tags: food, music

or flavored biscuits…. whatever you want to call it. I made some for Darryl to take to work tomorrow for food day.

Recipe:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons granulated white sugar

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, cold and cut into pieces

3/4 cup raspberry jam or you can use fresh/frozen raspberries

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 large egg, lightly beaten

4 to 6 tablespoon milk or cream

Extra granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in middle of oven.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the eggs, raspberry jam, and just enough of the cream so the dough leaves the side of the bowl

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead thedough gently four or five times and then pat, or roll, the dough into a circle and make sure it’s 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut the dough into eight triangles (I use the pizza cutter for this). Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the remaining cream and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 8 scones.

Tags: baking, food days, good eats

I love hats!! The first two photos below are hats that I crocheted, the third is one that I bought. I plan on taking the third one apart and try to figure out the pattern. =)

**UPDATED**

Darryl made me feel very self conscious about my huge head so I took the purple hat photo off and substituted the photo of all three hats below…

Tags: crocheting, handmade

And we couldn’t be happier!!!

Here are the cards that we made for each other.  Darryl made the one on the left, and I made the one on the right. What Darryl lacks in creativity he makes up for in words. I’m not going to tell you what the inside of the card says, but just for the record my husband has a way with words!!!! =)

Happy Anniversary Darryl!!!

Tags: anniversary, cards, handmade, scrapbooking

So today is the day before our anniversary of being married 8 years together and we decided to have a Mexican feast.

Since we currently do not have a grill we had to make do with what we have. So we purchased a cast iron Dutch oven and made our food in that. I went ahead and sauteéd the onions and green peppers in some olive oil to release some of the flavor they hold. Then I cooked the flank steak till done and set them aside to rest. Once everything was basically “cooked” I put everything back into the Dutch oven and cooked everything together to mingle the flavors. One nice thing was Margaret suggested putting a bit of salt into the mixture along with some Cholula Hot Sauce. With all that combined, the taste of the fajitas came through. Since we weren’t grilling I had to pour vinegar into the Dutch oven to get the flavor I was looking for. In the end everything tasted magnifique.

I think Margaret’s queso was the icing on the cake though. She always kicks ass with her queso. She wants to perfect white queso at home, but her yellow queso is superb. With her queso on the fajitas it made the taste just explode in your mouth.

I also made salsa, but I’m still not to happy with it. I think it might need more garlic, lime juice, or something. I got a small thing of it on the side to experiment with.

Let’s see, what else……oh yea, we made margaritas too. Man they are soooooo good. Basically if you like margarita’s on the rocks all you have to do is follow this simple recipe: 2 cups margarita mix (lime or strawberry), 1 cup tequila, & 1 cup triple sec. Put all that into a pitcher of ice and you’re set. Make sure you mix up the pitcher a bit so the alcohol mixes and doesn’t settle. You’ll get a perfect margarita each time. If it’s too sweet, reduce the mixer by an 1/8th of a cup and keep the same proportions for the alcohol. Easy peasy, one, two, threesy.

We’re on our second pitcher of margaritas and we’re feeling pretty good. It’s only 3pm right now, so after another glass, it’s water city for me.

Trav, sorry for not posting the recipes, but mom has something substantial you’ll enjoy just as much. Just remember, for banana nut bread the banana peels have got to be blackened and mushy (very over ripe). I never knew that.

One more thing, it’s great having a gas range to heat up tortilla’s. They fluff up and blacken nicely. Can’t do that in the oven properly like you can with an eye from a gas range.

Tags: cooking, food blogs, good eats

This is Allison Marie. She is cute, extremely bratty, moody, and did I mention cute (even when she has dirt on her face)…. I love her to pieces!!!!

Tags: niece, photography

Here are some photos I took before D and I left Rockwood. I don’t know why I’m drawn to trains or train tracks, but I just love how they look so lonely and worn..

Tags: photography, trains

I was up early this morning to bake more bread. I made 2 loafs of pumpkin, 2 loafs of applesauce, & 2 loafs of bannana nut. The turned out pretty good so I’m happy with my efforts. The only thing I was unable to get done today were the apple dumplings. I’m gonna do those tomorrow.

And the ooey gooey cheesy goodness below was made by D for dinner tonight. It is scrumptious!! The recipe was given to him by Francie (one of his co workers). Thanks Francie!!!!

I’ll make D post the recipe later…

Tags: baking, cooking, good eats

Thursday was the first time I scrapbooked with a group of ladies, and I have to admit that I really enjoyed myself! I wasn’t ready to leave after the 2 hours so we’re planing another scrapnight hopefully real soon. We’ve decided that the next scrapbooking get together should be more of a full day instead of just a few hours. I’m so excited!!!!

So here is a sneak peek of the Christmas Cards I made Thursday night.

Tags: cards, christmas, crafty, handmade, holiday, scrapbooking

My buddy at work said that to me yesterday after I sent him the final tally for the DOW yesterday, which happened to fall 733 points.

And I thought how poignant of a statement. So to the banks, the people on wall street, and the “governmental officials” who fear mongered and said that ‘We the People’ needed to help or all hell will break loose: Looks like a slow return to glory for ya’ll.

Read the below quote and take it in, because it was made by one of the oldest family’s that assist in ruining countries with their banking ponzi scheme:

“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”
Mayer Amschel Rothschild

Tags: politics

It seems like Darryl and I were in the kitchen all weekend long.

We produced two soups (Creamy Chicken Mushroom & Chunky Beef Vegetable), a beef enchilada casserole, and two loafs of Applesauce Bread (which you see pictured here).

All of it was so tasty!!! I’m so glad that by hubby knows how to cook… or I’d starve to death!!!

Tags: baking, cooking, food blogs, good eats

Yesterday I replaced the emergency parking brake handle for my 91 Chevy S-10. That was an easy job. You figure since we’re poor now, I need to become a ‘jack of all trades’ and repair things that are broken. This even includes cars. Since I got the support I needed to change oil, I have enough confidence to work on our cars (some what).

So, onto my truck. I thought I needed a whole new cable, but that was not the case. I needed just the handle that has a cable on it to pull a lever to release the emergency brake. Even in the 90’s cars needed levers on them, how funny. I couldn’t find my Chilton’s book so I had to basically wing it. Luckily it was easy enough to just look at the situation and see what needed to be done. It basically just involved a screw and couple finger movements and I was done.

One thing I will say is that the newer part is that the cable is a lot beefier than the original and seems to be built better. I know in the end it’s just plastic and metal, but the metal portion was the part that broke (the damned cable!!!). So overall I’m a very happy camper.

Since this post is kinda backwards here’s what happened to the breaking of the cable. Margaret and I were at the gas station and just finished filling up my tank (not a full tank, just 10 gallons no less!!). And as I went to pull the emergency brake the damned cable snapped and the plastic handle just popped out into my hands. Margaret just laughed, because she was like, “well shit, what do we do now?” So being the guy I am, I figured there had to be something down under the dash that the handle pulled and if so, I could pull it too. Luckliy I found the latch and we were able to leave the gas station and head home. Can you imagine the sudden panic I felt knowing I was potentially stuck at a place of business? And at a gas station no less, right at the frickin’ pump. HAHA, so anyway that’s the story in reverse (like Tarantino).

Tags: car stuff

Sorry for being so lax in posting lately… we’ve been so busy getting the house in order that we haven’t had time to really set down at the computer and type out a coherent thought. Now with the kitchen and dinning room in order we will be able to relax a little more. I’ll be posting pics of my dinning room soon.. I love the way it feels like home now!

So any way… This photo was taken right before D and I left for MI. I plan on sending this to my mom & dad along with some others for my siblings. I’m gonna get a new frame since this one is busted.

Tags: scrapbooking

Love this song (even though it’s not about winter)

Tags: music

Tags: politics