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Happy plants

Sharing a few of my house plants that are doing well.

 Christmas cactus

Desert style

A blooming sequoia cactus

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Labor Day

Here in Phoenix if there is a three day week-end everyone heads to the cool country and this is what occurs

and you will have to exercise your patience

Hubby and I are staying home:)

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Tues night dinners

This is another catch up, I seem to always be behind.....

This was a stir fry and loved the combination of the mushrooms, peas, onions and shrimp but did not like the sauce recipe so will do it again but with a different stir fry sauce. Spinach salad with poppy dressing topped it off.

Creamy Smothered Ranch Pork Chops for Two
1 tbl. butter
1 sm. onion, sliced thickly
2 bone in pork chops, 3/4 inch think and fat trimmed.
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup chive & onion cream cheese spread (from 32 oz. container)
2 tsp. ranch salad dressin & season mix (from 1-oz pkg.)
2 cups cooked egg noodles
Chopped fresh chives if desired


1.  In 10 inch nonstick skillet, heat butter over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook 5 to 7 min. stirring frequently, until browned and tender. Transfer mixture to place.
2. Season pork chops with pepper. Add to the dame skillet cook over med-high heat 5-to 7 minutues, turning once, until browned. Remove from skillet to place and cover with foil to keep warm.
3. Add chicken broth, cream cheese spread ranch seasoning and cooked onions to skillet. Coo 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until bubbly and slightly thickened (I added cornstarch and water mixture to make it a little thicker). Add pork chops back to skillet and cook 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through.
4. Serve over noodles.
I added sautéed peas, onions and mushrooms. It was delicious.

Shrimp and Cheddar Grits with Bacon (note took picture before I added the bacon)
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup stone ground grits
1 1/2 tbl. butter
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
1/2 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup green onion, thinly sliced
1/2 clove garlic
1. Bring water to a boil Season with salt and pepper. Add grits and cook until the water is absorbed, about 15 to 20 min. Re3move from heat and stir in butter and cheese.
2. Fry bacon in a large skillet until browned. Transfer to a paper towel lined place to drain. Add shrimp to the bacon grease and cook until the shrimp turns pink(I added some butter because I did not have enough grease left). Add lemon juice, green onions and garlic and sauté for 3 minutes.
3. Spoon grits on place and top the shrimp, sprinkle with the bacon and serve immediately.


Served with sautéed yellow squash, onions and mushrooms and a garden salad with homemade Balsamic dressing (recipe below)


Balsamic dressing
2 tbl. honey
1 tab. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 lg. clove garlic, (minced)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 extra-virgin olive oil
Put all in a jar and shake until well mixed.

On the left is my husbands brother, Billy. He passed away yesterday. Many things hurt when death occurs but perhaps the worst is knowing we aren't far behind. Hope we are all ready when the time comes.

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Monsoon season

This is what we get this time of year and boy does it play havoc with the swimming pool!

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Little dresses

My group (Dress a girl) is taking a month off from meeting so I brought home some dress packets to make up....

Wished I would have brought more as they make up quick and I have enjoyed sewing them...

Can you imagine some little girl in Africa will wear this dress....

Tues. night dinner catch up

I don't know how I get so far behind and sometimes can't remember what I cooked haha...but here are a few anyhow.

Ham Fried Rice
2 beaten eggs
2 tbl. cooking oil
1 cup chopped fully cooked ham =6 oz.
1 2oz. can chopped mushrooms drained
3tb sliced green onion
1 tbl. soy sauce
1/4 tsp ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1/12 cups cold cooked rice
In 10 inch skillet cook eggs in t tbs. of the oil without stirring, till set. Invert skillet over a plate to remove eggs and cut eggs into short narrow strips.
In same skillet cook chopped ham, mushrooms, green onion, soy sauce, garlic and ginger in the remaining oil over high heat for 3 to 4 min. Stir in cold cooked rice and eggs strips; heat through.
Served with steam vegetables and orange slices.


Last Tues. night I grilled marinated pork chops and asparagus

I didn't like the marinade and won't fix it that way again but did love the grilled asparagus.
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground black pepper
Wash and snap off hard parts of asparagus and dry with a towel
Combine all the above in zip lock bag and mix well, then add the asparagus and coat well. Then simply grill until done.


Need to do a little explanation here. I rarely grill and my hubby never does but my stove top has a built in grill...

It has a air sucker and all that but of course you then have to take it apart and clean it but recently I ordered one of those grill matts and they work! I would show you a picture but it is in the dish washer:)
Ended the dinner out with a baked pot.

Accidently luxury

It is so hot here in the summer that we don't use the bedspread and it usually gets tossed on the floor and we just sleep under the sheets and in the morning I pick it up and make the bed. I got to thinking this was not making a lot of sense and I should maybe just get a set of sheets that were pretty and matched my color scheme so I went looking. I couldn't find anything that suited me so I gave up but soon after I got a add for a big sale on sheets and it was just the colors I wanted so although it said 100% polyester and I have always bought cotton sheets I decided to give it a try, after all it was only $14.00 for the entire king set!

These are the most luxurious sheets I have ever seen!!! and they go perfect with the two swivel chairs.

and how fun to switch it out for summer and winter but think the sheets are going to stay year round:)

  

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Happy Sunday

Sharing my first bloom on my African Violet

Tues. night dinner

Cooked a kielbasa and cabbage dish like before but in foil packets. I think I prefer the other way best but the real hit was the side dish. I bought a package of precut melon slices and then I saw this package of almonds and cranberries

and sprinkled some over the fruit....yum!

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Cat's claw

I took this picture early one morning

and called it a sun peeking morning. See all that green on the bottom? That is called cat's claw and it grows like a weed but funny thing this huge weed was growing right up the middle...

 and they get these huge roots..

so pulling them is out of the question and you constantly have to cut them back but it wonderful to have something so lush green that endures our heat and stays green year round.

This is the other side of the wall:)

Tues. night dinner

This was our last Tues. night dinner and I won't be sharing the recipe because it wasn't' that good and was a lot of work. It was called "Crab-stuffed shells with parmesan cream cheese sauce". The sauce was good and maybe if you used chunks of crab instead the canned it called for it may have been better but as is we could tell we were eating any crab just sauce.

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Tues. night dinner

I used recipes from Mari a fellow blogger for this nights dinner.


Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken
4 chicken breast cut in thirds (I used only two)
Bacon slices
garlic powder
Chili powder
brown sugar
Cut each breast into three pieces, season all the chicken with all the spices then wrap a bacon slice around each piece and roll in brown sugar and place into an oven proof dish. Add two or three tbl. olive oil to pan and bake a 400 degrees for 30 to 40 min. or until chicken is cooked through and bacon is nice and brown and crispy.


Redskin Mashed Potatoes
3 pounds small redskin potatoes
4 oz. cream cheese
4 tbs. butter
seasoned salt and pepper to taste


Wash and half the potatoes, boil until tender. Drain and place back into pan on stove. Turn stove on to low heat to steam off any remaining water. Add cream cheese and butter. turn heat off, and mash by hand with a potato masher, leaving skin on potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Served with homemade green beans. It was yummy.

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May 26, 2018

Today is my hubby and I's 51st wedding anniversary!
I wanted to do something different so what did we do???

Went on a sunrise hot air balloon ride! and trust me, the hardest part was getting these two fat people in and out of the basket hahahah.

one of our fellow ballooners.

Phoenix gets our water from the Colo. river and it travels via the canal. This runs clear to Tucson.

Our shadow on the mountain

The basket laid on its side. The pilot in the front with four propane tanks which he switches out in flight and three people on each side in the back. Climbing in when upright is accomplished by those foot holes you see in the back but it is still a big stretch down. We landed like this and crawled out.
I leave you with a little video...

It was indeed different and so glad we were able to do it.....

Tues. night dinner

Beef Tenderloin with Creamy Risotto
2 beef tenderloin steaks
3 tbl. Kraft Sun Dried Tomato vinaigrette dressing (I could only find sundried tomato dressing)
3/4 cup chopped zucchini
1 small carrot, shredded (about 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup chopped red peppers
1 cup instant white rice, uncooked
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
2 tbs. Dijon mustard


Cook steak in part butter and part olive oil in skillet on med. heat 10 to 13 min. on each side or until done to your liking. (Note: I tenderized these and pounded them out so not to be so thick and sprinkles them with garlic powder)
Meanwhile, cook veg. in dressing in a large pan 5 to 7 min. or until crisp-tender, stirring frequently. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil; cover, Remove from heat and let stand for 5 min.

Served with a Asian salad and delicious!