~~~ Sneak Preview ~~~

I have been working on a collection of Mom's recipes, but I have put in on the back burner because I was having trouble getting motivated with the holidays and also I was not able to find paper and stickers for scrapbooking that were exclusively for cooking.

On our trip to the Dallas area last weekend, I found a store in Colleyville called the Scrapbook Pad. It had the largest area of cooking related supplies that I have found. Hopefully, I will have time to get started on this again. It was to have been a Christmas gift for 2007, but now, maybe it will be released by Christmas '09! I don't want any pressure! Angela has offered to type up some of the recipes for me to help me get this back on track. Thanks Angela!

30 years later

Wedding ~1978 Style!

Crystal as my flower girl and Eric as the ring bearer! Aren't they cute!

We had a great time on our 30th anniversary! We went to Frisco and stayed the night at a nice hotel and we ate at La Hacienda Ranch, my favorite metroplex restaurant. We had breakfast at the Original Pancake House. Their buttermilk pancakes were delicious and I really didn't think I even liked pancakes that well, but these were amazing. We watched the movie, The Bucket List. We wondered if it would be good after hearing about all the bad reviews that it got, but when the movie ended the audience broke out in applause. It was a real fun movie!

We also went to the IMAX in Colleyville and watched Beowulf in 3-D. It was real neat. The special effects were so good. Then to top it all off, we went to McBride's steak house downtown, the same place we have gone for the last 30 years and had dinner tonight. What a nice anniversary weekend.

Easy and delicious!

I made this tonight from a recipe out of Rachel Ray's magazine. It is one from Angela Martin, the blonde lady from the TV show The Office. She is originally from Archer City, right down the road from us.

Apple Dumplings

Flour, for dusting
One 8 oz can crescent rolls
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled,
cored and cut into 8 wedges
1 stick (4 oz) butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup Mountain Dew

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a surface dusted with flour, unfold the rolls. Place an apple wedge on the wide edge of each piece of dough and roll up: place the dumplings in an 8-inch square baking dish.

In a saucepan, melt butter with the sugar and cinnamon over medium heat: stir in the Mountain Dew. Pour the mixture on the dumplings. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake 15 minutes longer.

Unbelievably good!

As an aside: When we were kids, Mountain Dew was not sold here, but we looked forward to our summer trips to Colorado where you could buy good ole' Mountain Dew!

January 9th

Yesterday came and went quietly but it will forever be a special day. It was Mom's birthday. The day of the year that I remember her the most because it was exclusively her day. I am forever thankful that God blessed me with such a sweet mother.

Here is her High School photo.

New Grandma!

There is a new grandma in town! ....but Robin is the real grandma, I'm just the "work" grandma. This is little Kendall Reece, my co-worker Ericka's little one. She brought her by today and I got to hold her. She is just precious! She is now 3 weeks old with lots of black hair.

A Talented Guy

Mike's Uncle John is an artist in Oklahoma City. He has lots of interesting art, paintings, sculpture, etc. You can view some of his artwork at the JRB Art Gallery's website.

Spice up your life!

I tried this at a Christmas party and it was so good that I made it for our Christmas get- together. (I doubled the recipe)

Cranberry Salsa

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 red onion, finely chopped (Be careful, if the onion is real strong, use less)
1 med jalapeno-chopped
1 bunch cilantro
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 T. lime juice

Mix all together Cover. Refrigerate.
Enjoy! Cranberries are a good antioxidant!