Memories and Soup

Every year as summer comes to an end and we head into fall,

 my heart and mind turns towards family and

the wonderful memories I have. 

While I know we have a few more weeks of summer left, I can't help but get sentimental.  I have been getting fall things ready for my booth over at the store and adding touches of fall around the house. 

I personally love fall time.  There's just something about the change of the season, the crisp clean air, the baking, and of course the holidays.  I know, I'm getting ahead of things. 

Over the next few weeks, my plan is to share some of those wonderful memories.  I will be braking it down because if I don't it would turn into a book rather than a blog.

A lot of  people think they have the best family but I have to tell you I have the absolute best there is. 
I don't say that in a biased or bragging way. 
They are/were just good wholesome people.  The type, sad to say, that's getting harder to find in the world we live in today. 
 
My parents were good, God fearing people who stood for what was right and sincerely cared for others. 

They were humble yet dignified. 
Outgoing and friendly yet reserved and poised.
 
My dad never met a stranger.  I remember once when we flew out west for a vacation...he saw someone that he knew and had worked with.  Of course he stopped to talk. 
 
They were the type that would give you the shirt off of their back and expect nothing in return. 
 
No one, family, friend or acquaintance, ever left the house hungry. 

My mom could cook and bake just about anything. 

One of the things that I loved as a kid was potato soup.  She could always turn something simple into something special and this was one of them.  Sometimes she would add cheese and or broccoli.  And yes, I was one kid who liked broccoli. 
I don't have her exact recipe.   She didn't go by too many recipes nor did she write down many of her own. 
She just cooked and everyone would eat it up. 

We had a cast iron wood stove in the family room/sitting area downstairs.  There were many days in the winter when she would put a big pot on that stove.  Cooking anything from soup, beans, or just about anything. 
 
Last week, I was hungry for some potato soup.  While my husband isn't a big fan of it and it is still summer, I decided to make some anyways.  I didn't follow a recipe or write down what I did.  However, I will try to give you the basics and you can adjust to your taste.  Check under recipes.

Join me over the next few weeks as we

take a walk down memory lane. 

 

 

Feel free to share some of your special memories as well.

Name Brand vs. Generic

I am all for saving money and getting every penny to stretch at the store.  Now a days I think that goes for just about everyone.
However, there are some things that it just doesn't pay to go generic on. 
Like...

 

Plastic wrap, tin foil, and lint rollers. 

Trust me, don't go generic. 

You will end up throwing the product away,

be extremely frustrated, etc. 

Just pay the little extra and you will be oh so glad that you did. 

(I am not paid to endorse any of these items)

 

These are just a few items that I have found

that you are better off going with name brand. 

What items have you found this to be true with?

My Brain Needs a Filing System

Crazy title I know, however it is totally correct.

 

Ever feel like there are 20 things going on at once and that

they are all in 20 different directions. 

 

Yes?  Well then you know the feeling.

 

Life gets very busy at times and this is one of those times. 

The thing is, this is actually the preparation time

before all the events begin. 

 

Normally I am an organized person and I love my lists...I make a list for just about everything.  Even some of my lists have lists. 

Ok, I'll stop, my insanity is showing. 

One of the things on my agenda is an Activity Day at our church for children of all ages.  We invite the community and have a bunch of games, activities, crafts, story/skit, and of course food. 

We had two last year.  One in the summer, "Adventure Island" and everything was tropical.  The second one was in the fall and that was called "Harvest Celebration." 

Everyone seemed to enjoy them so it was decided that we would do another one this year.  I am in charge of everything but thankfully I end up having some good helpers.  This year it is going to be a "Western Round-up."   There are some great ideas for it and I am anxious to see it all come together.

Last night I tried talking to two different groups, one group was the actors for the skit and the other group was helpers for all the preparations.  After the "talk" I felt like everything was total chaos and that I was being pulled in 20 different directions.  However, I love planning parties and once we get everyone on the same page,

 it will all come together...hopefully. 

This is just one thing on my long list.  One folder, with many different sub-folders that needs to be filed in my brain. 

Saturday, Ray and I worked outside....big shock.  I am not an outdoors person unless we are out on the Bay.  It was a successful day however.  Ray got the yard taken care of and then we worked on cleaning out the shed.  There are several things to be hauled away, I found several things that I had totally forgotten about which made me really excited (doesn't take much), and overall it looks a lot better.  Sundays are always busy.  I put a pot roast in the crockpot before we left for church and I have to say it turned out really good...thankfully.

 

So today is all about working on laundry, the house, getting things caught up and then regrouping.  Once I get my thoughts and plans all laid out (again) I'll feel a lot better.

Well, that's my Monday morning for ya.  How's yours going?

Tip of the Day

I actually came across this several months ago but I just didn't share it with anyone.  Please accept my apologies. 

An incident in the kitchen just made me think of it.
So, I decided to share because it really does work.

Ray likes to take celery sticks and ranch dressing in his lunch for a snack. 

I was finding that if you cut it all up as soon as you buy,
part way through the week it gets brown spots. 

If you leave it in the sleeve that it comes in,
it becomes limp and you loose the crispness.

What to do???

So I went online to see if there were any suggestions. 
As with most things there are always ideas and suggestions for just about anything online. 
Some bizarre but some actually work.

This was one that actually worked. 

I have been doing it for several months.

When you buy your celery, take it out of the sleeve.  Cut the bottoms and tops off.  Put the stalks in a large glass with some cold water...just enough to keep it hydrated.  You do not want to completely cover it.  Keep it in the refrigerator and take out individual pieces as you need them.  It will stay crisp for a long time. 

I have found that it also works if you have forgotten and allowed the celery to become limp because you left it in the sleeve. 
Simply follow the steps above and that limp celery will be crisp the next day.

No more wasting celery.  Just be careful not to knock it over and spill water everywhere like I just did.  I have always kept it on a shelf in the refrigerator however after this incident, I put it in the door.

Korean Beef

I was originally going to do chicken for dinner tonight and then I realized that Ray was having chicken for lunch. 
I try to always have variety. 

I had a package of ground chuck but

didn't know what to do with it. 

 

We had already had tacos this week. 

I didn't want to do hamburgers. 

I was out of pasta. 

 

What to do?

 

I emailed a friend and asked for suggestions. 
She sent me a link to a recipe that she had found but had not tried yet.  I think I was her guine pig.
 

Korean Beef

It was very good and Ray said to make it again. 
Now there were a few things that I did differently. 
One, I didn't have fresh or ground ginger.  I substituted a little allspice for it.  I didn't not measure it out but simply sprinkled, tasted, and then sprinkled again. 
Also, it called for 3 cloves of garlic and I put 5.  We love garlic.  I ended up adding some garlic powder later and still didn't have a strong garlic taste. 
For the brown sugar, I added only a 1/4 C to begin with and tasted.  I didn't want it sweet but did add a little more after tasting. 

Adjust according to your personal taste.

Serve it over rice.  Very Good. 

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

I'm Back!

Don't you just love that title?

Let's put it this way,

my body is back however

my brain is taking the long way home.

I am really having a hard time getting

back into a regular daily routine. 

We did have a good time. 

It was a little different at times.

 

We learned of a couple deaths while we were gone, which is always sad.  I went off and forgot my cellphone, the Internet service was so slow Ray finally gave up on his school work and said he would deal with it when he got back. 

However, over all it was a good time.

We ate and ate and ate. 

Of course it was all the bad stuff. 

 

We had pies, cookies, donuts, and ice cream. 

I cooked breakfast most of the mornings. 

That's only a weekend thing when we are home. 

There was crab, shrimp, lobster, and more crab.  Yum!

Ray did some grilling as well. 

I told him, this is vacation...enjoy. 

However, when we get home our bodies and finances are going on a strict diet.  (that's never fun!)

The last night we were there, I bought us both little containers of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  So we were sitting on the couch that night eating our ice cream out of the containers. 
Ray looked at me and said, "we look like a couple kids."

Like I said, good times.

 

We were gone for about 9-10 days I believe. 
When we got back and were driving down our road, we noticed some changes in the neighborhood.  Ray looked at me and said,

 "how long were we really gone?"

In some ways it was a good while and in other ways it wasn't long enough. 

Ray took a lot of pictures last year but only a few this year. 
I think he was just enjoying his free time. 

I don't have any of the pictures on my laptop but
I will try to post some later.  Check back for those. 

I will try to get you some recipes soon. 
I noticed I haven't posted any in a while. 

 

Well, enjoy your Tuesday!