Maryland Crab Soup

Ray loves Maryland Crab Soup. 

I personally prefer the Crab Bisque but will eat the other.

The grocery store was having a seafood sale so

I decided to make a pot of it for dinner.

 

 

Ok, not the best picture, but look at all of that crab! 

Yum!!

So, it is pretty simple. 

 

Saute some diced onion in a pot.  Add a bag of frozen mixed veggies, a couple chicken boillion cubes, half a bottle of tomato juice, some water, a few potatoes (peeled and diced) and crab meat.  Then come the seasonings:  garlic powder, onion powder, I was out of oregano so I used Italian seasoning, and lots of Old Bay seasoning.  Of course you need a little sugar to cut the acidity from the tomato.  Adjust the seasoning to your personal taste.

 

Bring to a boil, then reduce and

simmer until all veggies are done.

 

Enjoy!

Oatmeal

Ray has been eating oatmeal a lot lately for breakfast.  When I was younger I could not stand the thought or looks of oatmeal.  However I will eat it every once in a while now.

Since Ray has been wanting it for breakfast and since we get up between 4-4:30 in the morning, I had been buying boxes of the individual instant packets of oatmeal.

Then one morning, after Ray had left for work and I finally had my eyes completely open, I decided to have a bowl of oatmeal.  Don't you just hate that they put a packet, no two packets, of original flavor in the box...they should call it no flavor.

So anyways I decided to doctor it up.  I added some cinnamon and brown sugar.  Then after I had it mixed up, I put a cut up banana on top.  I really enjoyed it!  In fact I had that for a couple mornings in a row.  This got me to thinking.  Instead of buying boxes of the individual packets why not buy a can of oatmeal.

And that's what I did. 

I brought my can of oatmeal home,

dumped it into a container,

then added brown sugar and cinnamon. 

Buying the can was a lot cheaper and it gave way more servings. 

Plus by having the cinnamon and sugar already mixed in,

it is like opening up a packet. 

Then you can always add fruit to it for variety.

I keep a scoop in my container so all I have to do is grab a bowl and some hot water. 

That's a good thing since my eyes are only partially open

at that hour in the morning. 

 

 

Gettysburg

As part of our Anniversary get away, we stopped by Gettysburg. 

It was such a pretty day.  It had poured the snow the day before and everything was covered in beautiful mountains of snow.  The sky was clear and blue.  Ray was like a little kid out of school.  He was having such a good time taking pictures and he got some awesome photos.   Here's a few of them...

 

 

I remember back when we were first married. 

I would pack us a picnic lunch and we would ride up to Gettysburg occasionally on Saturdays.  It brought back some memories.  Eleven years....time flies. 

 

It is another beautiful day out.

Enjoy your weekend!

Weekend Recap

Once again yesterday morning we awoke to another fresh new layer of snow.  However the sun came out later in the day and we actually saw temps in the high 40's which is a heat wave for us.  This morning it is raining mixed with freezing rain. 

I trust you had a good Valentine's Day.  Ray and I did.  We took a mini getaway over the weekend for our anniversary.  We went to Gettysburg, Lancaster and just about everywhere in between.  We have been to these places many, many times in the past however we really enjoy going there.  Ray was able to get some terrific pictures at Gettysburg.  I will post them later on this weekend.  The weather was snowy and overcast in Lancaster so he didn't get any pictures there. 

The day before we left, we had a blizzard.  Here are some of the pictures.  (Disclaimer:  these pictures were taking with my old cellphone so not the best quality)

There's my hubby.  It was still snowing but he decided to go on out and try to start clearing a pathway.  He was headed to the shed out back to get the snow blower. 

I personally think he just wanted to get out and play.  haha

You can kind of see the snow falling in this picture.

This picture is of our front steps.  They were buried in the snow.

Ray had to start shoveling to even find them.

There he is with the snow blower.

In my last post I had stated that I was going to bake Ray a cake last week.  Well I did cupcakes instead for two reasons.  One, we were going to be gone over the weekend.  Two, that way I could easily share with my neighbor. 
So I made chocolate cupcakes with strawberry buttercream.   Yum! 

Well, that's all for today. 

Check back this weekend for pictures of Gettysburg.

Cleaning, Decorating, Party!

It is time to get a new phone!  I have been trying to upload some pictures for this blog for several days.  Ray said that his phone has been acting up too.  Yes, it is definitely time to buy new ones, I just don't want to spend the money.

So here's what has been happening around here lately...

I have been working on the house...
                 One, it really needed it. 
                      Two, I was getting ready for a party.

A Thirty-One party that is. 

 

I had never been to one.  Gasp, I know.  Where have I been??? 
 

A friend of mine just signed up to be a consultant.  So I decided to help her get started and booked a Thirty-One party.  It went really well and we had a lot of fun.  I can not wait until the order comes in.

I also added a few Valentine's touches and decorations around the house.  I love this holiday.  I should, my anniversary is that holiday weekend as well.  Ray and I will have been married for 11 years.

The flowers were pew decorations at our wedding.

This was our cake topper.

 

 

 

Ray gave me this when we were dating.

 

I came across these two items that I made when I was in school.  We will not talk about how many years ago that has been.

 

We have had two storms already this week.  They are calling for more snow tonight so we shall see what happens. 

There's a couple new additions to Quotes and Odds & Ends. 
Check them out.  I plan on making my hubby a cake next week so I will do my best to get a picture of that up...sometime.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend.