Gobble Up Dinner for Your Gobblins.......

So for Halloween the last few years this has been our adult menu: Kids get something like grilled cheese so that it won't ruin a costume before heading out for the good stuff!

Beef stew and the ever famous, Beer Bread!

(If I had sound effects, you would hear trumpets!)

Now, I will pretend that you all, say: "Trick or Treat," and I will give you the recipes. Even if you don't use them this weekend, they are tasty for a cold night. Hope you and your families have safe and fun weekends, whatever is in store for you.

Beef Stew, the EASY way:

2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1 pound beef stew meat

2 tablespoons cooking oil
3 1/2 cups V8 (weird I know, but go with me on this)

3 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 1/4 cups cubed and peeled potatoes

2 cups sliced carrots

1 cup celery

Barley to taste

Place flour in a plastic bag. Add meat cubes, a few at a time, shaking to coat. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven brown meat, half at a time, in hot oil. Return meat to saucepan. Add V8 and water, onion and rest of ingredients to thyme. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover, simmer 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Add potatoes, carrots, and celery (barley if you choose). Cover, simmer 30 minutes more. Skim fat. Makes 4 servings, but is easy to double, triple, whatever!

And now friends, the moment you have been reading for........

The recipe for Beer Bread!!!!

(drum roll beating, trumpets blaring, and I wish I had a magic wand!!!)

If I am going to wish, why not big???

3 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tsp salt
12 ounces of beer at room temperature ~ the cheaper the beer the better the rise, not sure why....but true

Preheat oven to 375. Oil a loaf pan Combine all dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon, mixing in beer last. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until nice and golden on top. If baking in a stone loaf pan 40 minutes is perfect. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes, and then cool completely out of pan on rack before cutting (if you can wait that long!) Serve with plenty of butter, honey is great, peanut butter in the morning is awesome....best served with friends and beer! Enjoy, and if my friends who live around me are reading this....invite me over for some ;)

Also....go check out Lemonade Makin Mama for her post about some amazing cookies, now you have dinner and dessert! YUM!!!

Highly Recommended

If anyone pays attention to my reading list, you will notice a lot of books by D. Henderson. Can I just say that I lOVE her books? The series that I have been reading is called the O'Malley series. What ties the books together, is that each of the O'Malleys are siblings, who all have these wonderful jobs. There is action, romance, unpredictable outcomes, and what I love most, is the undeniable TRUTH that she preaches within every story. Each character, has their moments of unbelief in God and His abilities. But they also have their triumphs and realization that HE is there, taking care of them. There is a prequel to the O'Malley series called: Danger in the Shadows, a great place to start, but you don't have to read it first per say (although highly recommended). In fact, my Mom has read the books out of order on accident, and it hasn't impaired her love of the series. She did however comment that you loose a bit of the history of relationships going out of order.

Dee Henderson's other books are just as good, hold just as much suspense, and preach just as much truth. If you need a good read, here is a great place to start!

Tuesday's Treasure ~ Field Trip

There are 60 student in the third grade at Bubba's school. There is a large majority who are stay at home Mamas. SO....when there is a

field trip, you can imagine the chaos of all of us who want to go and experience the trip with our young'ins. Well, guess WHO got picked???? I am so excited!!!

Not only was I picked, but my Sister in Law was also picked from my niece's class. This is just an added bonus as I won't have to drive up by myself, and our car will stop at Starbucks on the way, and still beat the bus. This Mama doesn't do school buses on a mountain road ~ sorry.

We are going on a hayride, and gonna learn about the colonial era, and how they lived. We will pick apples and eat our lunch in the shade of the apple trees. Not only am I excited about going on the trip itself, but I am especially excited to spend the day with my Bubba, and enjoy him and his friends.

An added bonus.......with my tutoring job, I just have to rearrange my calendar and schedule and I am being encouraged to go enjoy the day. What a tremendous blessing!!!!

Time Flies........

When we are young we learn the principle of time. There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day. It is the simple concept of there being 7 days in a week, and 4 weeks in a month, 12 months in a year.

What I do not understand sometimes, is how can it be Monday again? How exactly did the laundry pile up so fast? Where did the week go?????? How is it, that life is so busy, that I am catching up on blogs instead of feeling connected from the blogs? How exactly did it happen that I haven't posted in a week, when there have been multiple posts in my head?

I am at a loss, and I think my laundry is making babies. I just wish the babies where free clothes in my kids sizes ~ one can dream right?

Tuesday's Treasure

My treasure this week is friendships.....

Lately I have been reminded at just how blessed I am with the friends that I have been given. I am not talking about the superficial friends, but the real deal. The friends you call (or your kids call) when your house almost burns down (not my story, but you know who you are). The friends you call, when life goes for the major roller coaster ride. The ones who invite you over for dinner, and it is leftovers. The people who arrive in sweats at your house. When you call on the phone, it probably means you will spend some of your time talking to the munchkins as well. They were there for weddings, kids birth, and the new puppy, because it was happening in life. The friends that are with you for more time than you can remember...........and you can't imagine your world without them, wherever they are.

We were blessed to visit with some of these friends last weekend. We have known the Brunners for 15 years now. We haven't seen each other in 6 years. They got to come to our neck of the woods for a conference he needed to attend. Given the opportunity to 1) hang out with them and 2) go to the Beach, my Honey and I were there! We had a great time reconnecting about the new things in life, and laughing at the old memories.

What I love about true friends is this: the time lapse doesn't matter, for when you are together, it is as if you were never apart. For that moment, all is right in the world for you are together.

Smooches and Hugs to my friends, for I love you all!

Happy Hula Friday

Today was Hawaiian dress up day at the school. Fitting, because true to our fall weather, today is 98 degrees, NO kidding. It seemed fitting that my kids go to school in these outfits in this weather, when earlier this week, we were wearing rain coats and sweaters. This however is my mood for today. Ahhhhh, to be on the beach hearing the waves, being served a tasty beverage by a cabana boy........that is where I am mentally. I hope you have an Aloha spirit of a weekend, and relax.

Cleaning Blessings........

So as most of you know, I have entered BACK into the work world of Reading Specialist. I cannot express how much I LOVE this job!!!! Truly this is a GINORMOUS blessing. As of right now, I have two kids on my case load (soon to be three). This is what that looks like: Tuesdays and Thursdays, I arrive at the school at 1pm. I tutor one student, have a clean up break, go and tutor another student. When I am cleaned up from that, I go and pick up my kids, and we all go home with nothing to do but homework, snacks, get dinner etc..........

Here was my dilemma..........I was carrying too much stuff! So in my "Why didn't I think of this sooner, Knucklehead!" wisdom, I found my old briefcase. It was like finding an old friend. It was given to me when I first started student teaching.....and carried me through my career. I love that case, it still is perfect and exactly what I needed.

But alas, it needed to be cleaned out, and dusted (ack!!!). When cleaning it out, I giggled at some of my finds. Random notes, cards from flowers that Mr. C. sent me on the last day of school (every year), you know......STUFF. With the exception of the cards from my Honey, most of it quite honestly was trash. Why I kept it, was pure laziness on my part. But then I found...........

MONEY!!!!!

Oh, man did I find money!!!! Lots, and lots, and lots of coins. Now you might be thinking that I am off my rocker at this point, but here is the short story.....

When the kids would turn in their book order, a lot of the times it was in the form of coins. So I created an envelope to stash it in for sodas after school, and meetings that we were required to attend (great planning on my part!) Well, the stash grew, and grew after 8 years of teaching. I don't drink THAT much soda. So apparently when cleaning out my filing cabinet on the last day, I put the coins in my bag, came home and forgot about it. I forgot about $27 dollars and some change to be exact!! That is a lot of quarters. So to celebrate, I am going shopping for a new top or something to wear to work, using my new funds. I know it won't get me much, but the thought of using money that was found is a blessing in itself. Maybe I should clean out my stuff more often. Who knows what I might find!

Ahh....Fall is here

Fall is officially here. We have had rain, cold mornings and colder evenings. Soccer is in full swing, and school is finally caught up after the "illness". This is what I am thankful for this week. Pumpkins on porches, a nip in the air, and the feeling that the season is finally changing around here. If you need a Mrs. C recipe for dinner tonight or another cold night, go to Lady Dunbar, where she posts one of my "Quickie Dinners". Seriously friends, it is NOT hard, but I get A LOT of credit for it :)