My quilt

Irealized it has been a L-O-N-G time since I have blogged. I could not remember how to make a new post. I finally figured it out. I just thought that I would show all my many followers (3 and counting) the quilt that I made for my first grandchild.

My granddaughter Eliza is going to be born in January and I made her this quilt. I found the kit in with my mothers things after she passed away. She cross stitched the 'with love me blest' square and the flower beside it. I was able to finish the rest when I was staying with my Daddy after he had a pace-maker put in. I could never of cross stitched it at my house because I have 3 dogs and 2 cats who fight over my lap if I dare to sit down. The center square was left blank for personalization. I chose to embroider the first names of all the grandmothers going back 3 generations, as well as Eliza and her mother. I then quilted it on my machine. Hand quilting would of been nice, but I realized that it would never happen. The quilt was a lot of fun to make and I am pleased to finish one of my Mommy's projects.

My favorite cookie recipe

Thanks to the asking of a couple of wonderful blogs I am going to post my favorite cookie recipe. But first let me tell you about the blogs.

The first I came upon from a giveaway posting. It is from a young wife and mother named Crissy. She was offering up for some fortunate soul this amazing clutch she made.



Isn't that the cutest thing ever? I tried to bribe her with a promise of this recipe, but alas, the random number generator was my nemesis. Crissy post recipes and nice stories of her life, as well as the occasional crafted giveaway.

http://crissybell.blogspot.com/



The next blog asking for this amazing recipe is none other than Ree herself.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/

Yes, we are tight like that, sometimes she just needs my help and inspiration.
Ok, not really. I am entering a contest from her and her amazing recipe site

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/

of which I am a member under the name theretiredmama

I had to put in that info so that I can try to win her latest giveaway, a Kitchen Aide mixer. Of course she also uses the dreaded random number generator so my chances are nil. But that is OK. I love the fun and anticipation, and you will love the amazing cookie recipe!

This recipe is taken from the cookbook Cookies For Christmas by Jennifer Darling, Meredith Books publisher. I made a few minor changes.

I eat these for Christmas. I eat these for Easter. I am hoping to eat some for Hanukkah! (That is in two days according to my calendar--- if I make them today and only eat 1 dozen a day I may have some left for Hanukkah)

I especially love to eat these for breakfast!!!



Peanut Brittle Cookies

ingredients:

1/2 Cup butter, softened
1/4 Cup shortening
1 Cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 Cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup old fashioned oats (recipes calls for quick cooking but that is just silly!)
4 ounces bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate chips (the recipe calls for chopped chocolate and it might actually work better. The chips tend to stick to the side of my bowl, But I am lazy and the chips are the way I go.)
AND
1 Cup crushed peanut brittle (I prefer to not crush my wonderful brittle but rather to just hammer it into small CHUNKS.)( And I may use a bit more than the recipe calls for. Like 1 1/2 Cups)

The recipe says to line two cookie sheets with foil and then to grease the foil. Please remember to grease the foil unless you want a bit of metal with your cookie. Is aluminum one of the minerals put into vitamins? If so, skip the greasing part. :)

In mixing bowl beat butter and sugar on high for 30 seconds.

(note: I would have a beautiful picture of my vintage 1978 mixing bowl with my lovely 3 speed Black and Decker hand mixer inserted here but Ree's random number generator prevented me from winning last weeks giveaway of a 'fool'-proof Nikon point and shoot camera.)

Add brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Beat scraping bowl as needed.
Beat in egg and vanilla.
Beat in as much flour as your woefully inadequate hand mixer can handle without over heating and starting a small fire. (Note: A large quantity of Baking soda can extinguish a small fire.)

Using a large strong spoon with a lot of elbow grease stir in remaining flour, oats, chocolate chips and all of the chunked peanut brittle.

Drop by heaping teaspoon 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes.

I love to freeze these cookies because I love my cookies hard and crunchy. They also seem to last longer when I freeze them, especially if I bake and freeze them before Poog comes home and discovers them. What he doesn't know about won't hurt him. And I am sooo all about not hurting him. It has nothing to do with my absolute love of peanut brittle . And oatmeal. And chocolate.

Enjoy the cookies. And here is to hoping that I win the Kitchen Aide.



As my daughter would say.....

Peace Love Dove

(Huh?)

Signs of a stroke

I found this on another site and thought I should post it for you to read. Since we have a family history it is a good thing to know.

A Little Background Story:

During a BBQ, a woman stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Jane went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening

Jane's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Jane passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Jane would be with us today. Some don't leave this world, they can end up in a helpless, difficult condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this...

A neurologist said that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions, remember the signs, STR:

• S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
• T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
• R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call an emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

Flea Market Fancy Freaks

I have found a new blog called Flea Market Fancy Freaks (what a name) and they are having a fabulous giveaway. Check it out!

I am old :)

I have just now, this second decided I am old. I am tired of waiting for this arbitrary distinction of age to get here. I want to do all the fun things that come with "being old."

When you are old you are not crazy or weird, but a cute little old lady. (Ok--- so I am not little. But in so declaring myself old then that will happen automatically. Now. NOW! Come on (insert amazingly small number here) pounds fall off. ..... now........)

I want people to look at me and ask if they can help to lift that 40 pound bag of dog food into the bed of my truck. I want people to think it is "precious" that I drive a truck. I can not tell you how many times grown strong men have passed me by in the parking lot while I struggle to heave the bag up out of my cart. Now that I am declaring myself old, I can stop said young hunks and ask for their assistance. After all I am now a "cute old lady."

I can wear tennis shoes to church. With my Sunday best dress. It will not be disrespectful but eccentric

I can eat cold lasagna for breakfast. I already do that. But now it is not strange.

And I can carry cute hand bags. Like this

Little House Pouch Tutorial and not be thought of as odd.



Yes I am old.

It's a wrap

This week at our church is vacation Bible school. A lady from our class called and asked if Jim or I would teach and I told her that I am sorry but we both realized a long time ago that working with children is definitely not where God is calling us to serve, that we are just not children people. She stammered and said "No one has ever been that honest with me before."

I have been feeling guilty because thus far I have not really served much in this church.

On Sunday a different lady said that she was needing food for the workers while they are on break. Yay-- right up my alley. Tuesday I took 4 dozen cookies and a coconut pound cake. The problem with taking a cake is that you can not snitch some for yourself. I need to make another one of those-- the smell is wonderful.

Today I took 6 dozen wraps. What fun they are to make. So girlie. And bonus--- easy to snitch one for your own lunch! As usual I did not taste test them until well after they were delivered. I made two different kinds:

Grilled chicken and artichoke

flour tortilla
chicken breast strips grilled in olive oil, lightly floured (salt pepper to taste)
cream cheese
sweet onion grilled in olive oil
artichoke hearts 1 can rinsed, pressed dry and chopped
chopped Romaine leaves

cut chicken in to thin strips then assemble ingredients on flour tortilla, roll into tube now roll into a piece of parchment paper. Secure with toothpicks one on each end, cut in half on an angle and viola!

Chicken Bacon Avocados

flour tortilla
chicken breast strips grilled in olive oil, lightly floured (salt pepper to taste)
ranch dressing (made from sour cream-- it is thicker than from a jar)
cooked bacon cut into1/2 inch strips
Swiss cheese cut into 1/2 inch strips
avocado cut into 1/2 inch strips
shredded Romaine lettuce
assemble as described above

Now that I have eaten them for my lunch I can tell you that I liked the avocado wrap better. The artichoke was good but not flavorful enough . Maybe the cream cheese needed some spice mixed in. Or maybe I needed to leave out the Romaine and add more artichoke.

I will try again someday. For now I need to clean up my kitchen. Blech!!!

Keyboard

My wonderful husband bought me a new keyboard that is raised in the middle. It is made to reduce hand stress such as carpal tunnel. It makes your hands turn inward thus your arms are resting on the desk.

My typing style is the hunt and peck method. I am actually quite fast with this method. This hill and valley thing has totally thrown me off my game. I can not tell you how many mistakes I am making (more than my usual spelling atrocities.)

I love Poog, and he certainly meant well. Poog likes to buy me things. He is not a shopper, but if he happens to be at a place that is selling something I often end up with a gift. Just so you know my husband is a workaholic. The only place he goes to is work.

One year I received a lot of jewelry. Some of it was cute and fashionable. Some of it, not so much. Turns out that his place of business was hosting crafters in the lobby on Fridays. My husband bought me a necklace set and when I loved it he thought he had hit the gift-giving-without-having-to-think mother lode. I received 6 gifts that year all jewelry, all from the same crafter. The last one was a pink daisy on a black cord. In my tween's, when I thought of myself as a hippie, I would of loved it, but I think I have grown a bit since then. (Though I still wear a pair of fun earring I bought when I was 15.) After the pink flower BD gift I asked Poog if his stash was depleted. He confessed 'Yes' the pink flower necklace was the dregs. I thanked God, and Poog, and told him I was well set up with costume jewelry for awhile.

My husband's job takes him to trade shows and conferences. Poog is a computer engineer (geek). I have a plethora of Microsoft gizmo's. Coffee mugs, flashlights, flashlight pens, flashing light pens, flashing light flying discs. Flashing is a very big product advertisement strategy in the geek world. Microsoft is great but I wish my husbands work would take him to a antique dishware fair. Or maybe advertise by giving cute crocheted hot pads.

This raised in the middle keyboard that I am typing on is a gift from his last conference. Sweet, sweet thought but it is making my typing slow and my wrist hurt. Go figure!

You know, lets nix the advertising on crocheted hot pads idea. I don't want a Microsoft logo on my hot pad. I can see them now, in each double crochet a little LED light flashing to illuminate the bottom of your glass casserole dish.

Whoa---actually---- the geeks might be on to something.