by Sharon | Jun 29, 2015
I honestly don’t know who is more nervous, Diva or me.
I think Diva likes this picture — it looks like she’s growing antlers just like her little stuffed toy moose.
Well, it’s grooming day. I need to deliver Diva early in the morning and hope they won’t keep her all day. I’ll miss her. She’s going for a trim . . . I hope that doesn’t mean anything too drastic. I know how fond Diva is of her pretty fur, but it’s getting too long on top and too long on the sides . . . I don’t want her tripping on it. I’d also like her back end short so she doesn’t collect leaves from the yard. It seems they do cling to her like a magnet. Maybe it’s because she’s so low to the ground . . . her fur seems to act like a rake . . . then when she gets in the house that static electricity is broken and I have leaves all over the floor. At least it’s easier to clean up than trying to get it out of her fur as she’s dashing around saying, “Chase me! Chase me! Chase me!”
At least, I think that’s what she’s saying . . .
I’m anxious to see her. The most difficult part about taking pets to the groomer is leaving them there and then waiting. I know Diva will be getting plenty of attention. She’s such a sweetheart.
I finally got around to taking Diva’s picture. It’s rather dark, but we’ll do another one during the day when the lighting is better. I don’t know why people want a picture of me in the picture, but maybe a dark one would be better 🙂 Well, here goes! It’s my personal debut on the internet. I do like being anonymous . . . but I’m doing this for my sweet Diva.
Today is little Miss Diva’s birthday! A whole one year old today!! Isn’t she adorable!!! She may be waiting for the cake and ice cream . . . but I don’t know the doggy equivalent. I’m sure we’ll figure something out!
Thanks for stopping by!
by Sharon | Jun 28, 2015
This Delicious Taco Casserole is a real crowd pleaser.
These hectic days of summer need to give the chef in your household a break every once in a while. This Taco Casserole is the ticket. It is not only delicious, but also quick and easy to prepare.
Delicious Taco Casserole
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of ground beef
- 1/4 cup of chopped onion
- 1/4 cup of chopped bell pepper
- 1/3 cup of taco seasoning
- 1/2 cup of water
- 2 cups of crushed tortilla chips
- 1 – 16 ounce can of refried beans
- 1-1/2 cup of shredded Mexican cheese blend or a jalapeno cheese or any cheese of your choice
- Top with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, sliced olives, sour cream, avocados and salsa
Directions:
- In a large skillet cook the ground beef, onion and green peppers until the meat is done.
- Drain the grease.
- Add the taco seasoning and water.
- Cook for about 3 minutes until it thickens.
- Remove from heat.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Place chips in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
- Evenly drop spoonfuls of beans over the chips and carefully spread the beans over the chips.
- Spoon the ground beef mixture over the beans and top with cheese.
- Bake at 375°F for 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted.
- Top with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, sour cream, avocado and salsa.
If you don’t have avocado, you can skip it. Or any of the ingredients you don’t want in or on your casserole. Make this recipe appeal to the ones who are going to be eating it.
Thanks for stopping by!
by Sharon | Jun 27, 2015
Kids have wild imaginations and during the summer you have to use yours, too. I know this works for Halloween, but it would work for summertime or after watching something about pirates or any mention of bones. I do like the Bat Bowl. And then you’ll need bone molds to make these bread stick bones. They may become you family’s favorite bread sticks.
Bone and Chili Cheese Dip Recipe
Ingredients:
- Refrigerated bread sticks — you’ll want to make lots of these. One bread stick makes 2 bone bread sticks.
- 1 lb. of your favorite cheese cut into cubes
- 1 can chili without beans
- 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
Directions:
Bread Sticks
- Get a couple of these bone bread stick pans
- Cut each bread stick in half and push the dough into the opening of the pan
- Bake at 350°F for about 7 minutes or until lightly golden
Chili Cheese Dip
- Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan on the stove top or in a microwave safe bowl.
- Heat until smooth, stirring occasionally and cheese is melted. May be about 5 minutes.
Put it in a nice serving bowl or little individual cups for each person to dip their bread sticks to their heart’s content.
You can have more chili with less cheese to make it more of a meal than a dip. Well, then that does change the recipe concept considerably.
Here are some links for your shopping pleasure:
Thanks for stopping by!
by Sharon | Jun 26, 2015
The Ultimate Crunchy Burger is a real treat for the whole family. It’s truly a challenge to wrap your mouth around this burger. This is almost a “clean out the refrigerator” burger. I add all kinds of chopped or sliced left-overs from salads. It’s truly fun to put in all kinds of crunchy delights to give the taste buds a bit of a twang.
The Ultimate Crunchy Burger Recipe
This should make 4 servings
Ingredients:
- Cole Slaw you can buy ready made or make it yourself
- sliced bell peppers in your favorite color
- 1-1/2 pounds ground beef chuck (20% fat)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
- 8 slices of your favorite cheese
- 4 soft sesame seed buns, split, toasted
- sliced red onions
- sliced pickled jalapenos
- thin potato chips
- 6″ wooden skewers
Assembly of your Ultimate Cheese Burger
- Make the meat into four 4″ diameter, 3/4″ thick patties. Press your thumb in the center of each patty to help keep them flat as they cook. Season with salt and pepper or you could add whatever seasoning you like on your burgers
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Put in the oil and heat until smoking.
- Cook the burgers until a deep brown crust has formed outside them — this could take a couple of minutes per side.
- Cover and cook to medium-rare for about a minute.
- Uncover and add 2 slices of cheese on each burger.
- Cover the skilled and allow to cook until the cheese has melted.
- Lightly toast your buns and put ketchup and/or mustard on it.
- Place the burger first then top with potato chips, jalapenos, onion bell peppers and coleslaw — you can put the bell peppers at the bottom — just build your burger however you like — maybe add some bacon if desired and whatever else you may find interesting — maybe corn chips instead of potato chips or maybe both — it’s your burger.
- Place a skewer through each hamburger to hold it all together.
- Sit back and watch your family and guests try to wrap their mouths around this gigantic burger . . . and then watch them smile and close their eyes to show you that they are absolutely in heaven and their taste buds are savoring each and every ingredient.
Have fun!
by Sharon | Jun 25, 2015
I don’t know about you, but I’ve experienced days, weeks and months flying by. It may be because I’m getting older . . .
This may not be something we want to admit, but I’ve been experiencing this for quite some time. It may be a thing about “retirement” or it may be something I’ve noticed because of getting new posts up on my websites or it’s time to buy groceries . . . again. I just don’t seem to get as much accomplished as I once did.
You know how it is when you’re working on a project and are in “the zone” of concentration how time flies. But I don’t seem to be in “the zone” of concentration. It seems that time goes by . . . another day . . . another week . . . month . . . even season. That may be a good thing for me . . . I love fall . . . but it does seem to be a long time coming.
I heard that with the lack of sun spots on the sun, we’re heading for a mini ice age. It doesn’t seem to be a global thing, but in certain regions. I’m not going to try to persuade anyone that I know what I’m talking about or get into the controversy of “global warming.” We watch the news and the weather reports. We can make our own decisions and draw our own conclusions. We experience weather every single day . . . it is either seasonal appropriate or not. We do remember from season to season, year to year. We may ask ourselves, “Is it getting warmer or colder?” “Are we getting as much rain as last year?” “Is this summer warmer than last summer?” “Are we having a mild winter?” We draw our own conclusions about our recollections . . . our own experiences. Then we do need to ask ourselves if we are being influenced by what we hear on the news? Is this altering our perceptions? Are we thinking and remembering correctly . . . are we being given accurate information? Or do we blindly accept it, because we’re too lazy or busy to look it up for ourselves?
Do we depend upon the observations of others?
Do they influence us? I’ve heard that we’re becoming more political . . . or everything is now political. Even a casual conversation becomes political. How is that possible when we’re talking about the price of groceries or buying a new pair of shoes or seeing the great new strides in technology? Have we become so numb to thinking for ourselves that we don’t think at all? Is that possible?
I do wonder if previous generations have experienced the same thing . . . and wondered about the same things I’m wondering about? We may always have had questions and observations, but has modern technology influenced us more than ever before? Are we better informed? We’re warned about spinning the truth . . . which happens with our friends and family to a degree . . . and then there’s downright lying . . . Has that become more acceptable? Is is all right for some and not for others?
That last question may seem foolish. It depends upon one’s value system . . . or have we lost that, too, in the process? And by process, I mean the passing of time . . . and the new ideas that have been brought to our attention in a variety of subjects that we may not have previously thought about . . . or is there a specific agenda . . . all of this may be very controversial . . . something I don’t usually address on this blog . . . but it is within our observations of the world we participate in.
It goes with the food we eat . . . the recipes we make for our families . . . is red meat bad? I remember once we were cautioned about eating too many eggs . . . then told to eat them . . . now its fats and sugars . . . then going vegetarian is more healthy . . . then there are the vaccines . . . good or bad for children . . . important or unimportant for the elderly . . . Much thought can even be hazardous for our health . . .
Are we given accurate information? That’s the question we should be asking. And who do we ask? Who can we trust? Does anyone really know the answers? Or is everything an opinion?
In internet marketing, we’re warned of scams, hackers, etc. All related to the internet, but can this be applied to our everyday life? Is the grocery store owner or manager trying to influence our choices by putting out certain displays or are these displays there to help us find what we’re actually looking to buy? Who is influencing whom in this situation? Are we being manipulated or are we doing the manipulation?
Or is there no manipulation going on at all? It may be a seasonal or holiday thing. Certain seasons we do want certain foods and clothing items. The stores are ordering what we’re prone to buy. We’ve all heard about the commercialization of the holidays . . . I can see the truth of that . . . I can also see that we’re either going to go along with it or not. We do have a choice to participate or not. It’s like with the Black Friday sales that have moved into Thursday’s Thanksgiving celebration. Would this be happening if the public wouldn’t be lined up outside stores early Thanksgiving morning?
Then there’s Cyber Monday . . . do we participate or not? Do we get our holiday shopping done? Or do we continue putting it off to the last minute? It’s all a matter of choice . . . some people have their shopping done well before fall while others enjoy the excitement of the last minute shopping. Everyone is different. We do get energized by the “vibrations” of others.
You may have experienced it yourself when you’re shopping for “back to school” or any given holiday . . . or even planning for a vacation. You may be influenced by the other shoppers who are buying camping equipment . . . and you’ve never entertained the thought of going camping in your life, but there you are looking at tents, sleeping bags, camping stoves and the like. Or patio furniture . . . and a hammock . . . a fire pit . . . ingredients for s’mores . . .
Interesting how I always get back to s’mores . . . it must be an obsession of mine . . . maybe like making the best hamburger . . . or hot dog . . . or all the creepy recipes for a Halloween party . . . to gross out your friends and family.
Well, my random thoughts have seemed to wander all over the place . . . without trying to influence others in any one direction or another, but to just think about it for yourself . . . you may draw your own conclusions or thought this blog post a complete waste of your time . . . That’s fine . . . I like your opinions . . . they’re yours . . . and I enjoy the freedom to express my thoughts and questions . . . I have no political agenda I’m expressing here . . . those thoughts are mine . . . I do have concerns about the weather and about the foods I eat . . . and about the expenses of living comfortably . . . and about the events on the global scene and at home . . . I’m not into controversy . . . I don’t wish ill upon anyone . . . I want everyone to be happy and not experience heartache or discomfort of any kind.
What I want for myself I want for others. It’s possible for everyone to succeed at whatever they choose. Of course it takes planning and hard work and a degree of luck thrown in . . . but we can accomplish much if we put our minds to it. I try to be as positive as possible. Being grateful for my many blessings and celebrating the successes of others, even when I may be struggling . . . maybe that’s when we put a “spin” on it telling ourselves that “we’re next” or knowing success is within our grasp. Yes, there are times our bubble is burst and we move on to other pursuits . . .
I’m reminded of a movie I watched about a wishing well . . . when asked, “Does it work?” The answer surprised me. There were two conditions:
- you have to really truly believe
- you have to make the right wish.
The obvious next question was, “How do you know if it’s the right wish?” And the answer was, “It comes true.”
Thanks for stopping by!
