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Leif Landed First Day
I love today. The calendar has it marked as Columbus Day. Oh the memories of childhood elementary school drawings and the smell of crayons are still carried in my mind. There were the stories and songs of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria sailing the ocean. Somehow these brave crews found the West Indies and are credited for laying claim on the Western Hemisphere. I always pictured a career group of sailors from Genoa working together, sharing food and chores: organized and cordial. And then I had humor thrown into the vision. In my Dad’s hometown in upstate New York live a cluster of Norwegian octogenarians. They love…
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Child’s Play! Sprinkle Muffins
Tuesdays are one of my very favorite days. Esther and Jacob come to play with me. Drawers are opened, cabinets cleaned out, car ‘noise’ buzzes down the halls, Sesame Street is back on the TV after a 20+ year absence. All of those activities are out of my realm of influence. But let’s get to the kitchen! Let’s see what is cooking today!I asked Jacob… last week for Valentines’ Day we made a Rice Krispie heart. It was amazing. Almost as many sprinkles as marshmallows. But that was the beauty! It was a total Jacob creation.Today it will be muffins. I was thinking, apple or peach, or berry. NO… Sprinkle…
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Care Package Ideas
Find more Care Package Ideas and muchmore from MilitaryAvenue on Pinterest I really enjoyed a blog post from the DoD’s Family Matters blog and wanted to be sure to share it with you. These are some great ideas for a wife, daughter, sister, friend that is deployed but you can always take the thought and apply it to your loved-one. [Like I’m thinking if I sent my husband curtains and a comforter he would have been more ‘annoyed’ then appreciative… but maybe that’s just my hubs ;)] The following are some care package items I found especially awesome while I was deployed:– A stack of 11×17 landscape prints from a…
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Creamy Pepper Pot Soup – Tasty Tuesday
Magic ingredients can turn a overflow of peppers into a tasty filling lunch that can be cooked up from scratch in 30 minutes. The magic isn’t quite Disney, or David Copperfield, but still transforming from counter top or refrigerator extras to steamy bowl full of goodness! And, this soup is for two, not twenty! Substitutions are allowed and encouraged when making your very own homemade from scratch: as you know where the senses are! Should you have the urge for some extra heat, use hotter peppers. A child sharing that pot with you… mild jalapenos and NO Hungarian Wax peppers are the key. I like to walk the fence… just…
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Tasty Tuesday: Shrimp Scampi Improvised
My boys have a favorite meal; Shrimp Scampi! Only trouble is Hubs HATES shrimp. SO we don’t do the shrimp ‘thing’ when he is home. However, he was in the field the past two weeks and so when I was meal planning it was easy enough to add the favorite meal to the menu! The morning of the planned-meal came along and I made sure we had a bag of shrimp in the freezer … However, what I did NOT account for was the fact that we had opened the bag before and there were about 15 shrimp left. (15 divided by 3 … not nearly enough for my boys.)…
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Tasty Tuesday: Rice with ZING! A+ Sidedish for leftover Restaurant Meal
Ever have a take home “doggie bag” of great Mexican food, like a whole chile rellano, or a couple of enchiladas? My mind always thinks I can eat all that I order, because it always looks so good… or is it the fact that the food is presented on a platter that could feed all of western Michigan at one feeding? So, I take home a foiled lined dish with more than half of my meal! When it comes time to reheat, I realize I love the side dishes almost as much as the entree.Here is a great Zesty Rice dish. The summer’s tomatoes bring this dish color, and the…
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Fridays are just Fine for Fish
Spicy and zippy dishes welcome the weekend! I am still thinking about having fish tonight and going through some of my multiple starred recipes. This Creole Fillet recipe came from a 56th ARS Squadron collection of recipes. We were in Iceland where Ysa, or cod was fresh and abundant. I have used haddock and even red snapper for this dish too.Creole FilletsServes 41 lb fresh solid fish1/2 c chopped fine onions1/2 c chipped bell pepper (red or green)1 clove garlic, minced1/4 c margarine or olive oil1 1lb can tomatoes, cut up1 T dried parsley1 chicken bouillon cube1/2 t Franks hot sauce1 T cornstarch or flour1 T cold waterHot Rice Thaw…
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Scampi by another name… Still Shrimp Scampi
I love a good shrimp dish. I love cheese. Voila Vieux Carre Scampi marries the two, and we get to celebrate. This is a dish from the French Quarter in New Orleans. Like my other favorite shrimp scampi, it is served with rice. However, this one adds the bonus of a baguette. What is better than fresh French bread? So, you see, this is a wonderful meal. Serves 41 1/2 lbs. extra large, raw, deveined shrimp2 T lemon juice1/2 t lemon-pepper1/2 t salt1 green onion, finely chopped1 clove garlic, minced1 T butter, thinly sliced2 oz. longhorn cheddar, thinly sliced Place shrimp either in a butter baking dish, or evenly divide…
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Shrimp Scampi for a full table
The weekends at our house have the doors swinging! Because we have company coming to spend time with grandparents, or others just coming in to enjoy the woods, river and walk. I love to have them around, and I love to sit at the table over talk of the day, laughter over antics and just plain joy being shared. We had Shrimp Scampi with our latest crew. I wanted a fish meal and something out of the ordinary. I found it!I doubled this for 8 servings.This is a delicious meal, yet it takes very little time to prepare.2 pounds medium to large shrimp3 cloves garlic, pressedjuice of 1 lemon1/2 stick…
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Saturday Morning Rice Buttermilk Waffles
Saturday mornings at our house always meant a break from the standard “get the day started with calculated nutrition, efficiency and uncomplicated fixings”. Hooray for cereals and yogurts! But after 5 days of get up, get dressed, get out the door… and sneak in the breakfast eating and clean up, leisure time came to town. Dale normally would flip the pancake batter that I made and syrup would flow. Conversations would linger as the details of our time together would unfold. Now that there is no rush to get us all eating at the same time… only 2 of us, waffles are the perfect breakfast bread to cook up for…
