Food and phones

It's all Janna's fault. I totally and completely blame her.  Since she started her job here, Janna has inspired all of us to bake and cook even more than before. Lets go back to the beginning.....before Janna, there was Rochella. She was (and is) a great inspiration for eating and cooking healthy foods. After Rochella, there was Rachel. She just gets plain old excited about anything new. Now theres Janna. She introduced me to Pioneer Woman, reinforced my thoughts about Bakerella, shared posts from Smitten Kitchen, and many, many more - plus Janna has some really good recipes on her own blog.  So in my quest to be a better baker and find something new and exciting for my family, I found this blog called My Baking Addiction....and I think I'm addicted.  I found an espresso shortbread brownie bar recipe on there that I will make tomorrow night.  Then Janna (there she is again!) told me about the morning glory mufffin recipe on there that she found.  There's a story here (of course) - we sometimes get these muffins when we go on break and they are fantastic.  They can make you have a better day after eating them.  Here is the finished product of the morning glory muffins that I will be bringing to break tomorrow. 

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One more project to share with you.  As you can see, this is the "phone section" of our house.  Just a quick background history on phones and my family. My dad worked for Illinois Bell all of his life and he is the reason that my prince charming has a job there.  Supposedly there was a deal made between the two of them that goes something like this:  my dad would get Carl a job at the phone company if Carl would
marry me and take me off of dad's liability list... Can you see me standing with my arms crossed and foot tapping?  I am not a deal to be made...  Anyway, my dad bought this phone for his father and in the end, it came to live with us.  There are also some old phone signs from a wooden telephone booth, San Francisco, and Texas.  Then there's a sign that came from the inside of a manhole cover in Chicago.  I can't remember (or find) the story of how my dad came to possess it, but he gave it to Carl and me before he passed away last year.  

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Well, I've posted three days in a row and I think that might be a record for me.  Maybe the creative juices are flowing??  Anyway, I saw this quote today and thought it was cute enough to share - Life is a garden.  Dig it.  Have a wonderful day!!

Banana Boats

Tonight was the night Ryan has been patiently waiting for......we made banana boats.  Have you ever heard of banana boats?  I don't ever remember hearing about them and Ryan told me that he learned about them when he was in Cub Scouts which was a few years ago.  Now Ryan is the quiet type...doesn't say much, but when he does talk, it's usually pretty interesting or entertaining.  I just don't know why he waited years to ask for something that he liked so much.  So, if you haven't heard of banana boats and want to make your own, you will need some tin foil, bananas, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips and peanut butter chips (I was out of those).  Make a slice in your banana from the top to bottom but not all the way through.  Place the banana on a piece of tin foil large enough to wrap up the banana and fill it with marshmallows and chips. 

Wrap up your banana and place it on some hot coals (or a grill or I'm thinking an oven would work just as well). 

We left the bananas on the coals for 5-10 minutes and then unwrap and eat.  I will say they were pretty delicious. 

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At lunch today I went to this outlet store and for the low, low price of $5 I bought the following:  a halloween candle, a picture frame, a Christmas cd (I love Christmas music!!), South Pole slipper socks (although I think the SP stands for Sacco Princess since that's what Carl calls me - is it wrong to admit that?!), and a sprinkler for my flowers (I've been telling Carl for a week now that I need one and keep forgetting it when I go to the store). 

I think I did pretty good for a totally unplanned shopping trip. 

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It's time to call it a night and before I sign off please remember that good things never come to an end, they live in our hearts forever, and forever in our memories.

More Home Projects

Just a quick share with everyone - we bought this plate rack at a garage sale for $5 and Carl put the thin boards on so the plates wouldn't fall.  It fits perfectly in the pantry and I have my serving platters and other plates on it. 

I'm so thankful to have a husband that not only likes to go to garage sales, antique stores, and thrift shops with me, but he will work on all my little projects with a (sometimes forced) smile on his face and a positive attitude. 

Here is a picture of some wall art I bought last Christmas and finally put up in the dining room.  Things are coming together - I am looking for the perfect curtains and then I need to decide what pictures I want to display.

Last, but not least, I want to share Ryan's newest lego creation.  This is a mix of new and old legos that belonged to Carl when he was Ryan's age.  Ryan was so proud of this vehicle that I had to show it off.

Summer is almost over - I've seen 4 fields this weekend that were being harvested and that means one thing - Covered Bridge Festival is coming up :)  Thanks for letting me share my life with you today. 

Recipes, Dirtbikes, and a Cute Little Girl

Well, Sunday was another day of racing for the boys and they didn't do too bad.  Ryan came in 9th overall in the 65 class, and Kyle came in 3rd place overall in the schoolboy class, and 11th overall in the 125 class.  They raced at what we call their "home track", but in reality this was the first time we've been there this year to race.  The track was great and everything was very organized, now if we could just get home earlier.  Here are some pictures from this weekend's races.

Ryan waiting for his last race to start.

Kyle ready for one of his races.

Ryan on a table top.

Kyle at the billboard hill.

Kyle rounding a corner.

Ryan on a berm.

The boys are trying to get the more races lined up and I'm trying to talk Carl into riding an hare scramble.  Once in a while this woman wants to be a cheerleader for her man!  One of the biggest races I'm looking forward to cheering for him (and the boys) at is the Ironman at Tom's Marine Sales in Crawfordsville.  That is so exciting to watch!

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It's time to share more pictures of my newest niece Anna Joy.  A few weeks ago, Health and Melissa invited everyone to her baptism and back to their house for lunch.  Mom and Kim were up from Florida with the spoiled step sisters and it was nice for everyone to spend time with them.  The food was good, cake was beautiful, got to spoil my oldest niece, and see my family - 2 thumbs up!  Here are a few pictures from the first two times we saw Anna.

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I also have some recipes to share with you - one is good (full of vegetables and some other healthy stuff) and one is not so good (aka a sweet, chocolately, delicious little gem for your tastebuds).   Let's start with the good-for-you recipe - Veggie Burgers.  This recipe comes from a cook at work - she runs the little cafe and makes some amazingly awesome food.

Veggie Burgers

These are good in a wrap along with some lettuce and sweet onion sauce.  These are the veggies that I used, but you can use what you want and the quantity you want.

eggplant

zucchini

medium yellow squash

large red onion

green pepper

red pepper

garlic cloves

asparagus

carrots

Wash and cut veggies into same sized pieces and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Roast for approximately 45 minutes at 450 degrees.  When veggies are cool, put in food processor and chop it all up.  Depending on how many veggies you made, you will probably have to do this in batches.  Once you have all the veggies chopped up, mix in 1 egg and some oats so that it will all stick together.  Time to fry them up and eat or freeze. These really are tasty and good for you.

Ok, I don't have a good picture of the next thing I made, but hopefully that won't mattter because they will be yummy in your tummy!!  I made these little chocolate chip cupcakes for Anna's baptism lunch and they were half gone by the time I thought to take this picture.

Ok, it's soooooo easy to make these.  Make the recipe on the mini chocolate chip package and bake them a mini muffin pan.  When you take them out of the oven, immediately make an indentation in the cookie (I used the end of a wooden spoon), then pop them in the freezer.  This keeps the cookies soft and chewy when you're ready to eat them.  You can make your own icing or use the premade stuff in the can.  Just pipe it in the cookie and eat!

So thank you for sticking with me through this long post.  I hope your week is full of sunshine and happiness. 

Color-FULL

We've been pretty busy here this last month and here's the story:  Carl mentioned that he thought our house had no color and I told him that he was crazy - our house had color.  What was he thinking?  Our walls aren't white, we have color through the house. 

Then it happened. 
I couldn't believe it. 
Carl was right. 
(it's too late ladies.....he already knows)

As I was reading other blogs, magazines, and websites, I started noticing the color in houses.  LOTS of color.  And guess what happened?!  (I almost felt like I was hit in the forehead with a V8.)  I realized our house had no color.  I think I was blinded by the glare from the light hitting the plain, colorless walls.  So, with brush in hand (I've been feeling like Daniel on Karate Kid), I've painted two rooms (the kitchen and entryway) and just finished the dining room and living room. Here are some before pictures of our rooms. 

My living room before - see all the paint samples taped to the wall :)

The dining room before - no color!

Drumroll please.......Living room after

Dining room after.

We are so happy with the changes!  I still need to find some curtains for the dining room and find a few decorations to set out, but that shouldn't be a problem.  I hope you enjoyed the little tour of our home and learned something along the way like I did (yes, a man can be right.....sometimes). 

I have the fever

I have fall fever...I am longing for the cooler days, colorful, crisp leaves on the ground, bonfires, chili, pumpkin pie....I'm sure you get the idea.  These are some of the thoughts that have been in my head the last few days.

I would really like my front porch to look like this...

this would be great too!

Watch out for those killer leaves - no matter how nice they are to look at, they are pretty slick.

Bonfires + smores = happiness

Pioneer Woman's Perfect Chili recipe.  It's the best!!

And how can you think of fall and not think of the Covered Bridge Festival?

What do you think of when cooler temps roll around?  Do you have a favorite recipe or two that you long to make?  Any family traditions?  Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy it and create some special memories to last a lifetime.

If not noted, all pictures courtesy of countryliving.com, countrysampler.com, flickr.com, and midwestliving.com

Catchin' Some Air!!

As you can probably tell from this picture, Ryan was having a great day at the track. We can't wait to see him in action this weekend!