Have a SPOOK-TACULAR Halloween!

Happy Halloween

From our house to yours!

Recipe of the Week #5

Chicken Noodle Soup and Dumplings

2 quarts water

4 cans chicken broth

2 chicken breasts

Bring to boil and simmer until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken and chop into bite size pieces.

Meanwhile chop desired amount of carrots (I use about 20 baby carrots)

and 3 stalks of celery, add to chicken broth. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Add chicken back into soup and add egg noodles. I like the Grandma's Brand egg noodles (found in the freezer section) or you can use homemade ones. (I'll post that recipe another time). While noodles are cooking make the dumplings:

Bring to boil 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Add 1 cup flour all at once, and mix well. Add three eggs, one at a time, mixing each one in well. Spoon dumplings into soup by rounded spoonfuls, when the dumplings start to float they are done.

This is one of my families favorite soups, and they fight over who gets the most dumplings!

Recipe #4

Creamy Pesto Chicken and Bow Ties

3 cups bow tie pasta

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts,cubed

2 Tablespoons butter

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup pesto sauce

1/2 cup milk

Cook pasta according to package. Drain. In a large skillet, cook chicken in butter until browned. Add soup, pesto and milk. Bring to a boil. Cook over low heat 5 minutes. Stir in pasta and heat through.

Beautiful Mornings

I love to get up and go run early in the morning. Some mornings the stars are still so bright in the sky, or the moon is out full and lovely with shadows of clouds wisping (is that a word?) across it. If I go a little later I can usually catch a beautiful sunrise. I wanted to share this one with you. It is straight out of the camera so it doesn't catch the full beauty of it (I am working on getting photoshop to enhance my pictures, so for now you get these). I hope you can have beautiful mornings too.

My 1st Tag "6 on 6"

6 TV shows I like to watch:
*Amazing Race
*Survivor
*American Idol
*HGTV's House Hunters International
*Cold Case
*King of Queens

6 Restaurants I like to eat at:
*Olive Gardens
*The Star
*La Fiesta
*Quizno's (does fast food count as a restaurant?)
*Olive Gardens
*oh and Olive Gardens (did I mention that?)

6 Things that happened today:
*more laundry
*body conditioning class at the college
*work
*read through a bazillion emails
*tried calling AGAIN to win that Alaska cruise, but couldn't get through
*gas in my car and air in the tires

6 Things I am looking forward to:
*Thanksgiving
*Christmas
*Cruise in January with friends
*Presidential Election to be over with
*Going Shopping and seeing 'The Forgotten Carols' with friends in December
*Skiing this winter

6 Things on my wish list:
*Happiness
*Retirement by the Ocean
*Success for my children
*A cleaning lady
*Size 8
*Wonderful daughters-in-law (someday! maybe in 10 years:))

6 People to Tag:
*April
*Mary Z.
*Kari Pounder
*Suzanne
*Kari Bates
*Trulee (are you out there? Get that blog going!)

Boy O Boy!

Here is Nash and his friend Jon. They were going to a church dance with a western theme. Why the matching outfits? I have no idea! They went to Cal Ranch shopping for these lime green shirts. Can you see their belt buckles? They made them. :) They are lime green stickers with the Nike swoosh symbol on them. Teenage boys! They are sooo cliche!

Recipe of the Week #3

This is our favorite snack for camping or game night.

I have changed the recipe from the original slightly to my preference.

Muddy Buddy Chex Mix

1 box Rice Chex

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1 cup Peanut butter (creamy)

1 1/2 - 2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pour cereal into a large bowls, set aside. In a microwavable bowl add chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter. Cook for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir until creamy, then add vanilla. Pour over cereal and gently mix until coated. Sprinkle powdered sugar on and gently mix until coated white.

Homecoming 2008

Nash's Homecoming Dance

This past weekend Nash took Whitney Welch to the Homecoming Dance. They went with 3 other couples and had a great time! After the boys picked up their dates, we went to the High School where our friend Kari Bates took pictures of them. They all turned out so cute! Thanks Kari!

Here it is again....

I took this first recipe off my page because I didn't like where I had it. I also thought the picture was too big. Since then I have had a few people ask about it, so.... here it is again.

Ground Beef Italiano

2 lbs. Ground Beef

4 T. butter
2 teas. salt

2 teas. sugar

1/2 teas. pepper

2 lg. garlic cloves, minced

Brown ground beef in butter, with the above.

Add 4- 8oz. cans tomatoe sauce

1 teas. oregano

1 bay leaf

Add and simmer 20 minutes.

Boil 1 pkg. angel hair pasta. (12 oz.)

Mix together:

6 green onions, sliced small

1- 8oz. cream cheese

1 pint sour cream

In buttered 9x13 inch pan, layer noodles, cream cheese mixture, sauce on top. Then sprinkle with cheese (3 cups monterey jack, colby mix.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.

Note; makes 2 9x13 pans. Freeze one for later.

Recipe of the Week

Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana Soup

This is one of my husband's favorite soups, even the kids like it.

12 spicy sausage links (I use ground sausage and crumble it)

2 med. potatoes, diced

3/4 cup onions, diced

6 slices bacon

1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic

2 cups kale leaves, sliced (or I use 1/2 pkg. frozen chopped spinach)

2 T. chicken base

1 qt. water

1/3 cup whipping cream

Brown sausage links and cut in half length wise and then into 1/4 " pieces (or brown and crumble ground sausage).

Place bacon in a large sauce pan and cook until almost ready to crumble, then add diced onions and finish cooking. remove bacon and crumble it. Add garlic to the onions and cook an additional 1-minute. Add chicken base, water, and potatoes, simmer 15 minutes. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale (or spinach) and cream. Simmer 4 minutes and serve.

This is great when served with breadsticks!

Las Vegas

A couple weeks ago Jason and I went to Vegas for four days to hang out with his brother. We walked a billion miles at least, hung out at the pool and ate! The weather was perfect and we had a great time! This picture of Jason and I was taken right after we got off the "Big Shot" ride on top of the Stratosphere.

More Laundry?

I swear that's all I do! Having a family of six it's a never ending battle to keep up with the laundry. Someone is always throwing dirty clothes on the floor, in front of my washer saying, WASH ME! Every morning I go around the house picking up at least 10 pairs of dirty socks! How can that be? We only have six household members! Are my dogs trying on clothes while we are away? Do we have ghosts? So to get to the point....because we do so much laundry I don't like to spend a ton of money on detergent and fabric softner, but I do like my clothes to smell yummy( not that I want to eat them, just revel in the smell of them) when I put them on.

My Question: What is your favorite laundry soap and fabric softner? Do you spend more for the scent or do you think some just wash better than others?
Give me your advice.

It's official, I'm finally blogging!

So... It seems that I have been slacking in this whole BLOG thing. It is the new "in" thing and I am falling behind. Actually I wasn't that interested until my friend introduced me to 'thepioneerwoman.com' and I am now officially hooked. I spent three whole evenings glued to her web page and my family was beginning to wonder if they were going to starve! I did fix them dinner (all three nights!), so they better not complain. So now I am officially a blogger. Yippie!