Hot Wings

10 wings
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup hot sauce (Louisiana)
1 dash pepper
1 dash garlic powder

Rinse and pat wings dry. Mix flour, cayenne pepper, and salt together. Coat wings with flour mixture and let sit in refrigerator 1 hour. Fry in 1" of oil for 10-15 minutes. Place on paper towel. Melt butter, add hot sauce, pepper and garlic powder. Stir well. But wings in bowl and pour sauce over wings to coat. Serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing and celery.

Peanut Butter Facial

Maria decided to give herself one yesterday morning. If I had been a little quicker with the retrieval of my camera you would have seen a piece of peanut butter toast stuck to her cheek. I don't think any actually made it in her mouth.

My long lost friend....

I was once told that raspberries grown in the Northwest are some of the biggest, juciest, tastiest berries ever. Now, I haven't had raspberries from all over the world, but these are definitely some of the tastiest berries I've ever had... and I've had quite a few in my life.

Yesterday we ventured over to a local farm and picked up these beauties:

They were pretty delicious. We wanted to make jam, it's been YEARS since we've made jam, and the stuff that we had canned before was looking pretty icky.

So we busted out the old canning jars:

and Nanna got them all prepped for us to make the jam:

Then with instruction and a little help I made jam, and it was so much easier than I thought it would be. Mash berries, boil berries with lemon juice & some Pectin, add sugar boil again, pour in jars. And you can't forget to eat a few along the way. I didn't get pictures of all the steps, I didn't even get them of the final project. It sure turned out yummy though!!

Maria had her first sampling of raspberries. My sis was there and caught these shots of Maria and I (thanks bean!!):

They were yummy berries... I love summer and all the fresh fruit it brings!!

48 hours

That's how long I've been back in town.... kind of.

We got back from Georgia Tuesday evening, but then Maria and I went with my mom down to Seattle for an MRI Wednesday and were gone all day, and then today we spent half of the day down in Burlington.... so I've been in Washington for a little more than 48 hours, but I haven't been at home for anywhere near that amount.

Our trip.... was wonderful.

Sorry no pictures right now. I didn't bring my camera, we brought the point and shoot, and the battery died the second day, so we have minimal pictures on that.... which I can't even access, because Marco took it to Idaho with him (he left this afternoon). I do have some pictures on my phone, but I haven't figured out how to download them from that yet, I believe I have to buy a cable.

We had a great time though, Marco's cousin, Amanda, & her family were absolutely wonderful!! We had so much fun. Marco helped George take out some carpet and linoleum and put down tile floors. Amanda, Georgie, & Michelle played so much with Maria. Tia Tina taught me how to make Honduran tamales, hand made tortillas, & cheese among other things. We went shopping, went for walks (yes in the horrible Georgia heat and humidity), we looked at houses & met some really fun people. We want to go back next summer and visit again. Next time I'll bring my camera and get LOTS of pictures to share.



Up next on the agenda..... getting ready to leave town again. This time we're heading to Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, and then possibly Nevada and a trip up highway 101 along the coast. This time I'm definitely bringing my camera and computer.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup Crisco
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups + 4 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 pkg chocolate chips

Cream crisco and sugar. Add eggs one at a time until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then gradually add to the wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips at end.

Place dollops onto a cookie sheet and then freeze for 1 hour. Place in plastic bag and then you can just cook off a couple of cookies at a time.

Cheese Soup

3 carrots, shredded
1 onion, shredded
4 potatoes, shredded
3 stalks celery, sliced
8-10 chicken bullion cubes
1 1/2 cubes margarine or butter
1 1/2 cups flour
1 jar (16 oz) cheese wiz
1 small box frozen peas
Accent, garlic salt & sugar to taste

Cook carrots, onion, potatoes and celery in 3 quarts of water until tender. Drain & reserve liquid. Add enough water to make 3 quarts again. Add bullion cubes to liquid. Add Accent, garlic salt, and sugar.
Melt margarine in a large pot. Add flour and cook until bubbly. Slowly add 3 quarts of liquid. Add cheese wiz. Stir until melted. Add veggies and frozen peas. Heat through.

*don't cook on high temp's, especially after cheese is added.
*serves 10-12

Beef Stroganoff

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
2 lbs london broil, sliced thinly
1 onion, chopped
2 c mushrooms, sliced
1 c sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup
salt and pepper to taste

Brown onion and meat in large skillet. Add mushrooms and garlic, cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, salt & pepper.

Serve over rice or egg noodles.

4th of July

Earlier this week we decided that we would host a 4th of July party at our house. The week was busy with preparations... my mom hurt her back after getting back from vacation and has been down for the count since, and .ria has been teething (she's got 4 teeth coming in up top) so there were a few extra things to take care of, which was totally cool, just means less time to blog...

I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted but here are a few to share with everyone.

Here's our little set up as seen from our back porch. We had volleyball, badminton, & kickball set up.


One of the boys brought these swords and the boys had a blast with them.



Here's my dear sweet mother "relaxing" in the lawn chair, don't let the smile fool you... she's not exactly comfortable.



Here's .ria & her friend Kai.



I got out my camera and got a some pictures of the kids that were playing... and then it was bedtime for .ria so I tried to do the whole nap thing, but there was too much going on. I didn't get many pictures after that.

This is Spencer, he found out old dump trucks & bulldozers... he answered a bunch of my questions, but was too into moving dirt to look up at me.



Andrew on the other hand didn't mind a little eye contact.



Here's Gracie...



and Jayden...



and this was where .ria got tired.


Then I was setting up my camera to take some pictures of the fireworks and got this one of the sunset... just fyi it's not processed, all i did was crop.



and that's it. I didn't get any pictures of the fireworks. While I was setting up for fireworks shots I noticed about a million mosquitoes. That's when Maria and I made our way inside. Luckily she only got one bite.

Shoes

This morning I made some shoes for Maria. She's a total doll, but trust me on this one, her little feet are a little chubby; making it difficult to get any real shoes on her feet. So when I saw Sara post that she made some I wanted to too!! So on I went over to Star Dust Shoes and downloaded her pattern. Now, they were definitely not large enough for my little sweetie pie's feet, so I made a few adjustments to the pattern. Making it a little longer, and a little wider. Also the pattern calls for "bonded fleece" for the sole of the shoe, but they had no idea what I was talking about when I went into the fabric store.... so instead I got some of that PJ foot material and layered that with a piece of batting and a piece of material for the sole... to give it a little padding.

Anyway, without further ado, here they are. Maria's patriotic shoes.





I got her to try them on and then she did this.....

... maybe they gave her super powers.... maybe not.

and yes, her little jammies are not snapped. i'm beginning to hate snaps.

Homemade Tarter Sauce

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sweet relish
1-2 Tbsp lemon juice

Mix all ingredients together and let chill for 1 hour for flavors to combine.