Little Smokies in a Blanket

Little Smokies in a Blanket...YUMMY!

This is one of my favorite things!

Just wrap pieces of crescent rolls around some little smokies and bake according to the directions on the crescent roll package. Sometimes I think they need to bake an extra minute or two, but I like them a little crispy on the outside.

You can dip the cooked smokies in a blanket in barbeque sauce or mustard. I like spicy mustard to dip mine in and my husband likes them plain. They are great for a snack or party.

Chicken Thighs

12 Chicken Thighs

2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup

1 Container of Sour Cream

1 Can of Mushrooms

1 Onion

Garlic Powder

Black Pepper

Accent

Cut onion in large pieces and place in the bottom of the crock pot.

Place 6 chicken thighs on top of onion and season with garlic powder, accent and pepper.

Layer the other 6 chicken thighs on top and season.

Sprinkle can of mushrooms on top of chicken thighs.

Mix container of sour cream and 2 cans of Cream of Chicken soup.

Spread mixture over the top.

I cooked on high for 4 hours, but if you were going to have them cook while you were at work you could cook them on the low temperature setting of the crock pot.

Now this can be served many ways:

Dip out the soup and take a couple thighs off the bone and have a very rich chicken soup.

Serve the thighs and a little of the soup over rice.

Dip out some of the soup and let it reduce down in a pan to make it thicker like gravy.

No matter how you decide to serve these chicken thighs, they taste so rich!

I want Ice Cream!

OH DEAR! For the past few days, after posting the Hershey's chocolate story on this blog, the bottle of Hershey's syrup in the refrigerator door has been yelling at me every time I open the door! I have tried so hard to NOT have ice cream in the house, but enough is enough! When my husband went to the store I made sure ice cream was on his list. I am a ice cream fanatic! I love ice cream! Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, walnut, chocolate chip, mint chip, peppermint, banana, etc. it does not matter what flavor if it is there I want it!

As soon as my husband and I got home from the store, he filled this bowl with vanilla ice cream. I grabbed that bottle of chocolate syrup around the neck and poured it all over that bowl of ice cream. Spoonful by spoonful it was so wonderful. Just what I wanted. OH DEAR!

Wildflowers on Route 66

Historic Route 66, going across the State of Oklahoma, has neat things to see and attractions to visit. I found these wildflowers in a field next to the Mother Road, which to me are a beautiful site and certainly attracted me to get out of my car and take these photos.

Indian Blanket Flower
Oklahoma's State Wildflower

I love these little yellow flowers with their fern like stems.

These white "flowers" are probably just some type of weed, with their heavy duty thick stems, but they add such a splash of brightness to the landscape. Next time you travel...look at the beauty along the way. We always seem to get into such a hurry to get to our destination we miss some of the real sites.

My poor husband is use to me hitting the brakes, and pulling over in the middle of no where, to take photos of something I just saw. He has adjusted to the fact that my mind is a bubble off of plumb.

Money Flash Cards

My friend Pat posted on her blog http://pearlcabin.blogspot.com/ about making flash cards to teach her grandson how to identify money. Wow I thought that was a great idea, so I borrowed her idea and expanded on it. Our grandsons were born on the same day, my grandson is a year older, so I thought he needed to also learn how different pieces of money equaled other pieces of money.

After I did the basic cards, I glued money on the following cards too.

I think this is something all children should learn, because you can go to any fast food place and you will find a cashier that does not know how to give change with out the computerized cash register telling them the amount.

Thanks Pat for the neat idea. If you have not check out Pearl Cabin...small living and cooking for one...plus lots of other good ideas check it out and remember to sign up to be a follower http://pearlcabin.blogspot.com/

Chop Sticks

Why is it that Granny's Love can eat with chop sticks at the age of six and I have yet to master them? Children amaze me! They are just like sponges and absorb everything. They learn so many things from their environments, school, television, computers, and other people. They often mimic things we would rather they didn't, and have memories like elephants. Granny's love eats with chop sticks every time we go to our favorite New Young China restaurant.

His favorite thing to eat with chop sticks is broccoli.

Check out his new hair cut...he thinks it is really cool.

Hash Browns

My husband bakes a couple of potatoes in the microwave and then puts them in the refrigerator overnight to make hash browns the next morning.

He leaves the skins on the potatoes as he grates them.

Notice most of the potato skin just skims off and does not end up in the hash browns.

Dump the potatoes in a skillet with a little hot oil.

Brown on one side and then flip over to brown the other side of the potatoes.

I am not out of focus...the steam from the taters got on the lens.

This day my husband served his hash browns with

sausage patties

biscuits and sausage gravy

fried eggs.

This was a wonderful breakfast. I wonder why people don't have hash browns more often with breakfast? It just takes a little planning and they are so easy to make! Of course having my own personal cook makes it a lot easier for me:) Spoiled? Who Me?

Pink Roses

Pink roses have always been my favorite.

This pink rose bush is in the front of the funeral home.

I love to see it every year when it is in bloom.

 And it is an old bush, so the roses smell so pretty.

It is planted in a tiny square of earth, and I am amazed it thrives year after year.

It is also kind of under the eves of the building, facing the hot west sun.

It blooms for several months in the spring, so I get to see its beauty.

Grace - Cat Tails

Grace is my daughter's cat. Grace was rescued from a box of kittens at the Wal-Mart parking lot in OKC. Grace is certainly the "boss" at my daughter's house. She is spoiled to the point of having a water fountain to drink out of that pumps the water out in a continuous stream. She also likes to get up in the bathroom sink and have the water turned on for her to drink from the spout. As you can see in these photos Grace likes to be a part of everything going on in the house. She loves to get places where she does not belong. And if you disturb what she is doing she is not a happy camper. She is forever giving us this "WHO ME" look!

Grace leaped up in the cabinet when my daughter got a bowl out and left the door open.

Grace in a cabinet drawer when we were packing to move my daughter from an apartment to her first home. Grace thought all the boxes and packing materials were just for her to play.Look how long her tail is....she has the longest tail of any cat I have ever seen.

Here is Grace on one of the packing boxes checking to see if we were doing things the way she wanted us to do. She checked every box that was packed.

Here Grace is helping my daughter wrap dishes. She would jump on the paper and hold it down so my daughter could not wrap. Grace thought it was a new game just for her to play.

Every time I visit my daughter, Grace flops down on the floor and pulls herself to me....she acts so pitiful, like she has really missed me. One time when I was there I rolled her ball back and forth across the floor toward her. From that day on she has played with the ball. I told my daughter it just took her Granny showing her how the ball worked. She is NOT a graceful cat and leaps and falls off stuff all the time. Grace does not like human food, except cheese puffs...she comes running when she hears a bag being opened. She does not eat them she just wants to lick the cheese off them. Oh people have to be careful when petting Grace...I have pulled back a bloody hand more than once!

Here is Grace being "the Queen" on the boxes when she moved to her new house.

Grace waking up and doing her stretch routine.

This is Grace on the back of her love seat. It is her favorite place to take cat naps during the day. At night she sleeps in the real bed. She is a funny cat. Like most cats she has her owner trained well. If it is not Grace's idea just forget about it, cause it ain't gonna happen. We all love our spoiled cat...Grace.

Weeds

WEEDS...are a pain in the backside for anyone trying to maintain a pretty landscaped yard, and others can cost farmers lots of money to have removed from their land. These weeds I photographed fall into these categories. The first one is some kind of milkweed, that will scatter these puffy seeds with the wind and spread to some other unwanted place. It is still pretty.

This second weed is some type of thistle one that farmers hate. They spread like wild fire and cows will not graze close to them because of the thistles that stick them. I found this one along side of a city street! Most places have laws requiring people to remove them from their land. I could tell these were spreading as I watched! I am sure the Mayor will take care of it soon.

I know I am goofy....my favorite weed is the dandelion!

Hershey's Chocolate

Milton Hershey – HERSHEY’S candy brand – established Milton Hershey School (MHS) in 1909 and began a legacy of giving opportunity to generations of poor children. He was inspired to create the Milton Hershey School by his painful memories of a difficult childhood and from only having a fourth grade education.

For over a century, you’ve helped MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL build its legacy as a transforming home for thousands of boys and girls needing to escape extreme poverty; and for some, homelessness, abuse, neglect and high-crime neighborhoods.

Every time you’ve enjoyed HERSHEY’S chocolate, you’ve given the opportunity of a first rate education and nurturing environment to the students attending MHS.

According to information about MHS, alumni reportedly devoted as much as 457,000 hours of volunteer time per year, up to $10 million annual contributions to charity and created as many as 154,000 jobs. This was all made possible through your support of Milton Hershey School and their successful alumni.

OK....be honest....have you ever known anyone to actually SEARCH for a reason to eat HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE? I found it! A great philanthropic project EAT MORE HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE!



Western Oklahoma Needs Rain!

It is so sad to watch the news and see all of the flooding in other parts of the United States. Western Oklahoma needs some of the rain that has caused such disaster in those other places. As you can see, from the photos below, our farmers are in a world of hurt! We have had approximately two inches of rain in the past four months and it was dry before that. Every thing is dry...the weather forecast says we might get some in the next few days and we need it!

Door Hanger Craft

Foam Craft Sheets and Foam Sticky Letters

Scissors and Marker

These are the basic things you will need to make this craft or help your child make this easy fun project. My grandson "Granny's Love" loved this door hanger.

Cut a circle to be able to place the foam sheet over the door handle.

Decorate how ever you would like with letters, stickers, markers or what ever you might have on hand to create you door hanger. You could even put the child's name and their favorite sport or team logo. The possibilities are endless and it is fun to create a easy inexpensive craft.

Do you have any foam craft ideas?? I love these foam sheets!!!

Western Soapberry Tree

When you look at the website http://www.sunshinenursery.com/  for SUNSHINE NURSERY Hwy 183 North of Clinton, Oklahoma, you will find a listing for Western Soapberry (Sapindus drummondii) under trees that are hardy in Western Oklahoma. Steve and Sherry Bieberich have spent a life time growing trees that thrive in this hot dry climate. If you are thinking about planting a tree this year, I recommend that you to go to SUNSHINE NURSERY and get one that will grow in the area you live. This Western Soapberry in our yard is beautiful all year. It has pretty blooms in the spring/summer and these yellow-orangeish berries appear in the fall and these sometimes stay all winter.

Soapberry is a single-stemmed, low-branched, round-crowned tree, growing 10-50 ft. tall, depending on habitat. Gray, sculpted bark is distinctive in the dormant season. Leaves up to 18 inches long with a central axis and as many as 24 paired leaflets. Flowers in large, cream colored clusters up to 10 inches long and 6 inches wide, appearing in May and early June. Fruit fleshy, globose, about 1/2 inch wide, flesh translucent, yellow turning darker with age, sometimes persistent on the tree until the next flowering season.

The poisonous fruit, containing the alkaloid saponin, has been used as a soap substitute for washing clothes. Necklaces and buttons are made from the round dark brown seeds, and baskets are made from the wood, which splits easily.

The variety name of this plant is named for Thomas Drummond, (ca. 1790-1835), naturalist, born in Scotland. In 1830 he made a trip to America to collect specimens from the western and southern United States. He collected 750 species of plants and 150 specimens of birds.

SUNSHINE NURSERY also has bedding plants, shrubs, landscape items, garden plants, and anything else you might want or need for your yard. The best part is the knowledge Steve and Sherry will share about what, when, where and how to pick out and plant stuff for your individual needs. Plus there are beautiful areas at the nursery, like the one below, that allows you to actually see what the various plants will look like together.