FYI. . .

I'll be posting a yummy meat loaf recipe and another Fix-It and Forget-It potato recipe soon! Be on the lookout!

Have a warm and cozy evening!

Jenny

Crock Pot Potato Soup! YUM!!!

Here you go, Julie! This recipe is my absolute favorite as far as soups go. Here's what's left of ours.

It's from the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting with your Slow Cooker cookbook. Here is what you will need, according to page 62, No-Fuss Potato Soup:

6 cups, diced, peeled potatoes

5 cups water

2 cups diced onions

1/2 cup diced celery

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1/4 cup margarine or butter

4 tsp. chicken bouillon granules

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

~~~~

12 oz. can evaporated milk

3 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

8 oz. cheddar or Colby cheese, shredded

1. Combine all ingredients except milk, parsley and cheese in slow cooker.

2. Cover. Cook on High 7-8 hours, or until vegetables are tender.

3. Stir in milk and parsley. Stir in cheese until it melts. Heat thoroughly.

Variations:

1. For added flavor, stir in 3 slices bacon, browned until crisp and crumbled.

2. Top individual servings with chopped chives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here're my little tips on ingredients, since I sincerely doubt you want them in the ingredient list. :) For the diced onions, I usually use onion powder since a certain husband doesn't like the way onions "crunch". Doubt they will after 8 hours, but hey, I'm one to help out and it requires NO cutting. The celery works out to about 2 stalks and for the carrots I chop a handful of the baby ones and throw them in. Not much measuring here. I usually don't use 2 tsp. of salt either. Seems a little much to me.

See what you think and lemme know how it turns out.

Have a peaceful day all,

Jenny

P.S. Sorry about the spacing issues. Seems this is the way blogspot likes it. :)

My son, Chicken Little. . .

Sandy, who cuts our hair, always has E put on some glasses after a haircut and swears he looks like Chicken Little. These blue specs are hers, and they don't do much justice. I think he's cute nonetheless, but I suppose I'm partial, too.


Soon,
Jenny

Great Quote!

I just read this on a quilting board:

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should just relax and get used to the idea." Robert Heinlein

Ain't that the truth!

Soon,

Jen

My Girl is Getting SO Big. . .

B and her buddy, Emma. Em's in stripes.

O.k., so she's 7. We took the kids roller skating for the first time yesterday. Hubby and I didn't skate due to him fracturing his wrist and pelvis a couple of years ago and me slicing my finger open. His excuse was better than mine, but hey, I'll use what I can.

We went with some friends of ours and we were able to get some pretty good shots. I actually sat and cried a little because B ended up going off with her buddy on her own, not needing to hold my hand to stand up or move around. Not a big deal to most folks, but to those who know Brenna, she's very attached. E could care less about sticking close most of the time, but this was certainly a big deal in my eyes for Miss. B.

E would have been content to stay in the gameroom the whole time. Maybe it'll be more fun next time. We'll try to go again in a couple of weeks. B already wants a pair of roller skates.

Night night,

Jenny

Update on Pinky, the finger. . .

Well, Hubby just helped me re-bandage my boo-boo and it looks ickier than I thought. There appears to be a C-shaped cut on the outside of my finger around my first knuckle going up. Oo. Makes me weak thinking about it. Don't know if I should see a doc or not. Probably too late. We're guessing I'll lose that chunk on the outside of my knuckle. Again, Oo. Hubby wanted to use super glue to help seal it so it can heal faster/better. I'm against it seeing as how it's a c-shaped cut. I'd try it on a straight one, but not this baby.

Did I mention I have a small (1/2 inch) straight one just below my top knuckle? Yeah. Seems the rotary cutter skipped in it's glorious trip down my finger. And here I only have 308 more pieces to cut for E's stinkin' quilt. 52 down, 308 to go. . .

I think I'll pass on cutting fabric for now.

I suppose I'll work on sewing Jody's wedding quilt, since it has to be ready in October. :)

Sweet dreams,

Jenny

Rotary cutter accident. . .

The scene of the crime. . .

I was cutting fabric for E's quilt and accidently (duh!) ran the rotary cutter down the outside of my left pinky finger half an hour ago. It's quit thumping and stinging for the most part, but YOWZA, what a thing to do. And you know, I'm not really looking forward to cutting more fabric for this quilt. lol Hubby called to tell me he saw a bunch of Menonite buggies at a church and wished he had had a camera. Wouldn't that have been a lovelier vision on a Sunday morning?

But Hubby wouldn't have gotten this. . .

I had B bring me the ointment and knee-size bandaid to cover my wound and she immediately sat down and drew this for me. It made me cry even more. Still does. Makes me wonder how much longer I'll have this sweet, thoughtful girl making her Momma pictures for mishaps.

Going to rest my pinky. . . Ever heard that one before? Maybe it will get me out of doing dishes. Need to hide the rubber gloves.

Soon,
Jen

By The Way. . .

Have you checked these out? I got a bag of these for my husband for Valentines Day. Too Funny.

http://www.mms.com/us/coloroflove/

Trouble. . . with a capital H. . .

If you think he's an innocent sort, he's already got you fooled.

My husband and I were talking earlier today about how ornery Mr. Hobbes here has turned out to be. He's 9 months old and already outweighs our 4 year old female by 2 pounds. He's 10, she's 8. lbs. He's Mr. Mischievous and loves to wreak havoc. Thank Heavens the name fits this one. We looked back at these pictures to remind us what a sweet little boy we thought he was. Granted, he has sweet moments, but they are far outweighed by his dim ones.

And naturally, we wouldn't trade him for anything.

Jenny

My Favorite Tree. . .

I was just looking through my pictures, trying to organize better and I came across Gretchen. That's what I've name the tree in this picture. Yes, it may seem odd, but I just threw this name upon her about 9 to 10 years ago when I moved to the area. She's near the airport in our community and a traffic circle, aka round-about, has recently been added in the top left of this shot. Now the road is further away from her and you'd have to go on the old road which now leads to the church in the background to pause and get a good look at her. She use to have a brick home beside her which burned down a few years ago. If I'm not mistaken I think she's protected. Not sure though. If it's possible, I'd like our family to stop and have a picnic there some time this spring/summer. Just to think that she's been there two to three hundred years. . . and not harmed horribly by a storm or fire. Amazing.

P.S. On a side note, by dear husband likes to occasionally call and tell me Gretchen's been chopped up for firewood. Isn't that a lovely fellow? :)

A few of my quilts. . .

I believe this is my favorite one. I made it for my best friend, Jody, as a Mother's Day present in 2005, I think. If you can see them, there are 2 full cirlces on the right hand side. One is blue, one is pink, to symbolize my son and daughter. She is also their Godmother, so every time she looks at this quilt, she'll hopefully see her two "children". She has no chidren of her own yet and she's engaged to be married this coming October. YEAH! Jody's quilt won first and best of show in it's year at the county fair.

This one is the latest baby quilt I've done. It's called Summer's Surprise, after the momma-to-be. She's since had baby Wren last October and I'm so happy they had a girl since I made this predominantly pink. It wasn't by choice, it was what I had to use. I already had all the colors in the top, and I found the dark fuschia at a local quilt shop. It just called to me with words such as family, frinedship, courage, home, etc., all over the top. I tried to make all of the little fuschia center squares on top contain one of those words. It measures 48"x48" and was one of my fastest. It won first and best of show at the county fair.

This aqua and lime diddy was made for Wren's older (2 years) brother, Aedan, as a gift when she was born. I wanted him to have a speical gift too. I may enter it into the fair next year.

I can't find the comleted picture of this quilt. I'll keep looking, since it has a border not seen here. This was a mystery quilt we did New Year's Eve of 2006, I think. It won third place at the fair last year. It's now my husband's chair quilt in the living room, until I get a larger one completed. The purple one below was suppose to be his, but I'll explain that later. I think this one is 60 something square. I love the poinsettias!

This one is E's baby quilt, called Stars and Stripes for Evan. Original, huh? I wanted it to be square, so I added the stripes down two sides, hence the name. :) This won second at the county fair.

Here is my mother-in-laws quilt. I totally forget what I named it. Oops. Something about butterflies, since that's what the smaller patterns inbetween the batik strips are. This was a Hoffman Challenge fabric that year. Someone actually left me a note wanting to buy it, but I had to say no to keep peace in the family. :)

Here's an outside picture of it. It's a lap quilt and used over her living room chair as well.

This red and white circle was to be a center for a Round Robin I never participated in. Now I have to find something to do with it. Maybe other red and white blocks to create a lap quilt. I'm welcome to ideas here, folks.

This is a sweatshirt jacket I made for E. I don't have a completed pic for it either, but it turned out cute as can be. The fabirc was all batik with bugs on it.

Here's a sample I've kept because I think it's so darn cute.

This is a bag a made for my girlfriend with Asian and batik fabrics. This is a super easy pattern, but the end result looks difficult. You siimply make a bunch of the same block in like colors and cut them in quarters. Can you tell what the original block was?

Maybe this will help. This is it before it was pieced.

Ahhhhh. . . The quilt that will not end. This is Tilted Mountains, a pattern from Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork and Quilting. It was all going so well, until my husband asked me to pick some things up. Now? I have no idea where the rest of the quilt is. Fat lot of good that did him. It has green batiks and some fuschia in the other borders, I think. If you see the fabric pieces somewhere, let me know. They're alread cut and partially pieced.

If I find more quilt pics later, I'll try to post them. I need to finish Jody's wedding quilt and make E a bigger quilt. He's just not content with his baby quilt. :)

Off to dig out his fabric. . .

and where is that stinkin' zoloft?

Jenny

The Real Captain Underpants. . .

Mr. E just saw his other picture wearing his big boy unders and wanted to show the ones he's wearing today. It's o-so-exciting around here. :) If you'll notice the bent leg stance, he's honestly not pooping, he's in mid dance. Honest. And after looking at his eyes, he's seriously not on crack. He just acts, er, looks like he is. Mornings are rough around here, lol.
E also wanted to show some pictures of his kitten, Hobbes. I took these after waking him from his evening slumber on the edge of our bed. He sleeps in the darndest places. Maybe I'll catch some of those in the future.

"Please, just let me go back to sleep. . ."


Take care,
Jenny

The Object of Yesterday's Affection. . .

I haven't made a pie in ages, until yesterday. I was inspired to do so after seeing some yummy granny smith apples at the store and after reading Pioneer's Woman's blog about Sylvia L.'s P-P-P-Pie Crust: http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/2007/12/p-p-p-pie_crust_and_its_p-p-p-perfect.html . Now how do folks do those links where they just have to click on the person's name? I'll have to keep fiddling with this stuff.

The apple pie recipe I used I found somewhere else in the universe and I'm clueless as to where that special place may be. The lattice on top is much easier with stor ebought crust. This homemade one was so flaky it broke easily. If there's a trick to keeping it from breaking, please let me know.

Here was our end result. It was wellllllllllll worth it. It's already gone actually. Oops. Never mind. There was no oops about it.

Later taters. . .

Jenny

I've been meaning to post for a couple of days now. Three nights ago, while B was sleeping, I was able to pull one of her teeth that had been loose for at least six months. No joke. That sucker had been in there for months without a person to wiggle it. Well, technically B was there, but she refuses to touch the loose teeth in her own head. Me, I was a kid that didn't mind that stuff a bit. But that's another story. Anywho, I let her sleep until she was in her deep sleep mode and went to work. Moved her lips up and down, with no waking. We were golden. I wiggled forward, backward, sideways. No luck. Next I tried dental floss. I looped it around the top to try to pull it down. Wouldn't work. With the top of my thumbnail, I pushed down on the tippy top of the tooth trying to release the stubborn thing. Nope. Wouldn't budge. That sucker was clearly hanging there by a thread. Hmm. Next I tried prayer. I asked that if it didn't work, that she could possibly eat rocks the next day or something. I was so tired of seeing that little tooth hanging there, mocking me. Oh, this was the tooth next to the big ones on top. I forget the name. Finally, I got in there and wiggled and jiggled, twisted and. . . What rhymes with twisted? Anywho, I twisted and voila! Poof! The tooth came out lickity split in my hand. I was ecstatic. I was ready to call my best friend in Kentucky who would totally understand. Perhaps not at 10:30 at night, but you get my drift. I was stoked! I was also going to call her, because we had also extricated one of B's teeth last October at her house during a visit(same tooth, opposite side). That one I was able to pop out with my thumbnail, but this one made me work for it.

B came out the next morning looking over her imaginary glasses pointing to the empty space in her mouth. Shortly after, there was a grin though. She said she'd like to lose all of her teeth this way from now on. Go figure.

To make matters worse, the stinkin' tooth fairy forgot to come the next night. B switched beds in the middle of the night so she could come in with me, and I think the tooth fairy missed her and became a little confused. :) It was resolved last night, but, naturally, the monetary amount was lacking according to B. Tough little booger she is. Just wait til she's a parent, Lord help us, and she learns the tooth fairy also has a budget to adhere to.

All is well this morning. Have a peaceful day.

Jenny

The Twirly Skirt is here!

Here is the twirly skirt I made yesterday for Brenna. She's been asking for one, and when I saw this camelia fabric, I knew it was the one. She's very happy with it, even though I believe it's a tad too long. I did, however, make it with the hopes that she'll be able to wear it for years as long as I switch out the elastic waistband.

And so she commences to twirling. This was actually a picture I snapped as she was catching herself from falling.

If you ask me, I say it looks like a table cloth, but I'm so happy I actually finished it. Now she wants a matching skirt for some of her dolls/stuffed animals. Childhood is so sweet and carefree. What a life.

On to the next project. . .
Soon,
Jenny

Happy New Year!

I have a couple of new pictures to show you.

First, I finished my daughter's quilt, yet to be officially named by the kiddo herself, but temporarily named Brenna's Twister. Looks like a game of girly twister to me. We'll see how long that lasts. :)

The colors are much prettier in person, and this is the best we could do. The next one shows the colors a little better.

This one is of the label that I have yet to fill in, but I used a dot the same size as the ones on the front.

The next picture is of our "new to us" vehicle. A Subaru! It may not thrill some of you, but for the chickee who was able to trade in a minivan, this is news! Here's the pic from the dealer. . .

I hope to have more news soon, but for now this is it. Off to get a shower and do mom stuff, lol.

Soon,

Jenny