Another Grandchild!

 My son and his wife had their first baby this week.

Sophia Grace

8 lb. 4 oz.

My grandson, 6 months old, entertained us while we waited in labor and delivery. 

He's a real good-time-Charlie.

 

He was passed around, played with, smiled at...

... until Sophia arrived.

He looked like this soon after Sophia was born.

As if to say "Crap, I'm old news now."

Sophia's home now.

My son changes diapers now.

And I'm too busy to blog.

Turkey Pepperoni Cuts Fat

Sometimes you don't really want to know.** Right? 

More than you wanted to know about pepperoni: 

According to America's Test Kitchen, pepperoni dates back to ancient Rome as a convenient food for soldiers on the march. Much later, other Italians on the move--this time to the New World--brought pepperoni to New York City where it met up with pizza! Wonderful combination. 

I learned from the ATK experts that pepperoni is made from cured and FERMENTED** pork with some beef and a lot of seasonings thrown in. Nothing like that garlicky goodness to cover the bleeccch of fermented meat. 

Real pepperoni also contains a fair amount of fat. Don't believe me? Let's try some pre-warming. 

"Warming up pepperoni in the microwave is commonly done before cooking it. This is because the pepperoni releases some of its fats, in the form of grease, as it heats up. Warming up pepperoni in the microwave also helps to crisp it up."

So, here we go. 

Lay a few slices of pepperoni on a couple of sheets of paper towel.

    

Slide the paper towel on a microwave safe dish.... 

Cheesy Chicken Lasagne

Again..... a facebook recipe.

Cheesy Chicken Lasagna

2 (12 oz) cans evaporated milk (not fat-free)
1 (1 oz) pkg. dry Ranch dressing mix
3 C. cubed, cooked, chicken
1/8 tsp pepper
1 (16oz) lasagna noodles, cooked (I recommend reducing it to 8 oz to 12 oz)
1 1/2 to 2 C cheddar cheese, grated
1 1/2 to 2 C mozzarella cheese, grated

Cook the chicken and noodles first at the same time.....

Great Graduation Gift: The Whisper Theory by Amber Swenson

The Whisper Theory

Amber Swenson

WestBow Press

The Whisper Theory is a great book to give a high school graduate, appealing more to the girls than the guys. It is both fiction and a Bible study guide.

The story follows Meghan, a Christian college freshman, as she navigates college life among people of other faith or no faith at all.  Meghan faces many situations that challenge her spiritually as well as physically including

• work ethic
• adversity
• peer pressure
• addictions
• dating/marriage
• death/longevity
• self control
• the pursuit of Holiness
• dabbling with temptations
• trustworthiness

Each chapter is followed by a Q&A section based on Bible verses that address the challenges Meghan faced in that chapter.  The Q&A is addressed to the reader, to help the reader decide what he or she would do in these same situations and what the Bible advises regarding these issues.

I think the story is well written for older teenagers, the Bible study applicable.  The Q&A is extensive and challenging.   I will be getting this for some high school grads I know this year.  If young Christian ladies will read this and take time to do the study, they will benefit from it.  It would be wise to think about challenges they will face when they leave home for the first time and to be prepared to react with intention.

Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

This recipe has been all over facebook recently.  I'm not sure who invented it.  It is incredibly good, everyone at my table loved it.

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

2 lbs chicken tenders or 4 large chicken breasts 
2 sleeves Ritz crackers
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper 
1/2 cup whole milk 
3 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 teaspoon dried parsley 

Sauce:
1 10 ounce can cream of chicken soup
2 tablespoon sour cream
2 tablespoon butter

Crush crackers. If using chicken breasts and not tenders, cut each chicken breast into 3 large pieces. Pour the milk, cheese and cracker crumbs into 3 separate small pans..... 

So maybe "Lifestyle Photo Shoots" have been around forever and I just became aware of them, I don't know.  I think this is a new thing and I've fallen in love with it!

A Lifestyle Photo Shoot is where the photographer enters your world and shoots everyday activities.  In this instance, the husband/father was deployed, so the photos and video were made especially for him.

Check it out, here's what a Lifestyle Photo Shoot looks like:

Photos:  La Belle Photography
Video:  MS Viewpoint

Fort Fisher Recreation Area

For Flashback Friday, we are going back to a little jaunt we took to Fort Fisher.  If you have 6 minutes to kill, this might put a smile on your face...... and might convince you not to use us as travel guides.

Technology is Great . . . Even When It's Not

You can let faulty technology frustrate you or amuse you, it's entirely up to you -- and maybe your time schedule.  Try to find the humor in it.  If a laugh a day keeps the doctor away, then we should all be pretty healthy these days.

I was playing with my Google Goggles the other day and got thinking about how much fun technology is.  A friend sent me a picture of something he was served at lunch.  He didn't know what it was and didn't want to ask, so he sneaked a photo and texted it to me.  I certainly didn't know what it was, so I ran it through my Google Goggles.  Goggles cranked up and scanned the photo on my phone like some old timey machine, screeching and honking with the blue vertical line scanning back and forth across the page.

A few slurps of my blended coffee beverage and a few minutes later, Goggles reported that it couldn't identify this luncheon object, but it suggested about 100 photos of things similar.  About 70 of the 100 had similar content and seemed to fit while the other 30 were irrational, some even silly.

So we had a lot of fun with the Goggles that day, my friend and I.  It brought back memories of when voice recognition first came to our mobile devices.  Do you remember your first voice activated text?

I was in Florida visiting a friend I hadn't seen since we were teenagers.  We were cruising down the highway when she began speaking into her phone.  Rapidly.  I almost went off the road as I tried to figure out what she was doing.  I didn't know mobile phones had voice recognition for text messages.  She was sending her son in Iraq a text.

After speaking rapidly, she'd pull the phone away, squint to read what it interpreted for her text, throw her head back and laugh outrageously.

Then she'd read it back to me and I, too, would have a hearty laugh.  We did that for the whole drive. Occasionally, she would approve the text and send it.  To Iraq.  Isn't that amazing?  Instant communication all over the world still awes me.

Ever since then, I've been using voice recognition and it's gotten almost flawless with its interpretation, which is helpful, but takes all the fun out of it.

Then I was remembering when Tom first got his iMac and began using the iPhoto Faces feature which lets you tag photos and then it goes out and tries to find photos of that same person.  It was hilarious to watch the people it would bring together as "the same person."

Elvis, Ronald Reagan and Seinfeld's Soup Nazi for instance.  Sure they look a little similar, but do they really look like my brother Steve? 

Faces sure thought they did.

Faulty technology can cost us time and create frustration, but sometimes it's just plain funny.  And who doesn't need a good belly laugh now and then?

Use Mason Jars to Preserve Salt When Buying in Bulk

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse

#2 in the Mason Jars Series

Here's another idea from Pinterest. If you remember, in my last post I promised a second idea for mason jars. Amazingly, I remembered for four weeks! This one is even simpler than the last one. 

You probably buy table salt in a cardboard box with the metal flip lid. Me, too. It's cheap in the grocery store. That same metal lid design has been around since I was a kid. And that's a LONG time! 

You know what? Cheap as it is to buy salt in the grocery, it's even cheaper to get it at a place that sells spices in bulk. However, it comes in a plastic bag. There is no way to corral salt in a plastic bag, so you have to transfer it into a different container.

Any old glass jar would probably work, but I like the pour spout on the cardboard box, so this little trick is perfect, combining the best of both worlds: cheapness and convenience.

 Cute, huh?

And so simple!

Obviously you do need to have one of those cardboard salt containers to retrofit the mason jar.... 

Special Way to See the Grand Canyon

I was reading "Favorite Features of our National Parks" in my latest Vacations Magazine and I began reminiscing about some of our trips to the parks.  The best and the worst, most memorable, most fun, that sort of thing and I remembered something I just had to share with you.

I have a fear of heights so this is how I saw the Grand Canyon:

Wasn't my son a peach to join me so I didn't look totally ridiculous all by myself?

I was too scared to get near the edge, terrified when my family each skirted the cliff edges.  Then I found this sloping rock!  It was perfect to lay on and peer over.  It doesn't look like it, but we were looking pretty much straight down into the canyon.  Incredible.

So.....  my favorite feature of the Grand Canyon National Park is this sloping rock.

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell ~ Love Has Come For You

Love Has Come For You combines Steve Martin's magnificent banjo music with Edie Brickell's crazy good lyrics and humble southern sound.  I'm not a huge banjo fan, but this is definitely one for my music collection.  Martin brings the banjo into the 21st century.

Buy It Now

Pay It Forward Today ~ Help Someone Today as Someone Helped You in the Past

"Pay it forward" is asking the beneficiary of a good deed to repay it to others instead of to the original benefactor.  A simple concept that gained momentum after a movie under the same name aired in 2000.

There are so many scams on the Internet, so many homeless people on the streets asking for money, so many fundraisers for good causes..... donating money or helping someone in need can be a difficult decision.  There seems to be a charity for anything you are passionate about.

 A Pay It Forward Foundation is set up and, in fact, today is the 2013 Pay It Forward Day.  I am asking you today to "pay it forward," but I am not referring you to the Pay It Forward Foundation, I have another charity that is closer to my heart right now.

If you are looking for a way to help someone in need, may I ask you to consider this fundraiser:

 Help Melissa Get Her Speech Back. 

Melissa is a first cousin of mine. Meet Melissa from the Give Forward site's profile bio, set up by her sister, Melanie:

My beloved sister Melissa, an artist, athlete, and former fundraiser for medical research, suffered a massive stroke in December 2010. It paralyzed her right side, and destroyed her brain’s language center. Although she can still understand the speech of others, she can no longer translate her own thoughts into words—a condition called aphasia. Melissa lost her medical insurance in October 2011, and has had no speech therapy since that time. She yearns to speak again! Please help send her to the intensive aphasia program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. This month-long program has an outstanding reputation for results. Tuition is $20,916, plus travel and housing costs for a month. She must be accompanied by a family member because of movement impairment (paralysis of her right arm and leg).

If you're like me, you've felt grateful for all the blessings in your life and for all the friends and family who have supported you, especially in the hard times.  You probably give to a few charities and you look for ways you can make a difference in someone's life.  

That's where Give Forward comes in.  This amazing website connects people with a need to people who want to help.  You can make a donation of any amount and you can make it anonymously or leave your name and a personal message.  Go check it out.

If you would like to help my cousin end her silence of over 2 years,

 donate here.