Beans, baking and kiddos

hello everyone,

I dusted off a really old recipe for red beans and rice.  I wrote it down following a PBS cooking show, maybe around 1985-ish.  My husband thinks it was from The Frugal Gourmet and he is probably right but it could of been Justin Wilson.  This is back before The Food Network, when there were just a few TV cooking shows, and mostly on public TV. 

Where the recipe is from, it makes good red beans.  I did adjust it a bit and didn't add the margarine or worchteshire - goodness, that word is hard to both say and spell

Two dozen sandwich buns baked with my grandparent's recipe  Some for weekend eating, some for the freezer and some for my parents. 

Spice pecan cookies made with a recipe from  Mrs. B's Butter Pecan Cookies  Her recipe calls for a butter pecan flavor cake mix.  I substituted a spice cake mix, and they turned out delicious.  This is a fast and easy recipe and I'm really glad Mrs. B shared it.   I think my husband would happy to eat them everyday. 

Our oldest grandson was in a musical at school called "The Swamp" He did a great job playing Bully the Bullfrog.

Have a good weekend everyone. We are expecting more rain but that's fine with us, Oklahoma still needs the water.  

An assortment

Good morning,  

Here is the list I started Monday.  I'm happy to say a good bit of it was accomplished yesterday. 

My Impress press on nails are a silver glitter sort of French manicure style.  

This giant crocheted afghan was made by grandmother for my uncle's king size bed.  He apparently didn't use it much as it still looks brand new.  He passed it on to us as he just downsized from a 2bedroom to a 1 bedroom apartment in his retirement home.
We (meaning our 8 grands) will use it a lot! These 4 and 8 year olds look so tiny on this huge blanket.

I made another sandwich box for the week.  I added carrot and celery sticks to eat with this one. 

I also made a big salad and I chopped up more fresh veggies to have for this weeks cooking.  

They have already proved to be very handy. 

They are stacked  in the fridge and labeled with masking tape. 

I hope to make a new spring table runner, maybe machine quilted, for the big dining table.  I did round up fabric and pressed it in preparation before cutting it out.  I think I want to look and see if I have some light green fabric to add with this.

The kimono sewing has been started but is going to need some help 

Obvioulsy, the sleeves came out way too long and the middle part is too big. 

I'll do some whacking and more sewing and see how it ends up,  right now, I'm not too optimistic I'll like the finished kimono.  

We shopped on the military base recently.  Our daughter asked us to look for church dresses for our oldest granddaughter as they usually have a very nice clothing department with low prices.  

We did buy her 2 sweet dresses.  

This dress below was not one we bought.  I did look at it and first thought it was pretty and very appropriate for an almost 7 year old- except for the belly cut away part.  Isn't it strange for such a conservative looking dress to feature a bare tummy? 

This webpage is from Belk, I found it while doing Swagbucks searches. But it is the same Bonnie Jean dress we saw at the base exchange.  

Speaking of dresses, my daughter baked this one for some friends bridal shower, 

Pr

Isn't it pretty?  And I know it tasted better than a bought cake. 

If you wonder what life is like with a baby and a toddler 😱 Well, this is our son's two babies.
Charlie is quite proud of herself for coloring up a good part of her body.
At least she didn't color baby RJ.  He seems to of slept through her escapades.  For now anyway 😂

First day of Spring

Happy Spring everyone.  For you readers in the southern hemisphere,  is this your first day of Fall? 

I usually start Monday off with a to do list.  This was taken early this morning and I've checked off several and added a few more tasks.  It won't all get done this week but a list will keep me track to get as much done as possible. 

I put on a new manicure last night- I like Impress press on nails.  A set has 30 assorted size nails and because my nails are pretty average size,  I can usually get 2 manicures from one set.  This is my second from this set.   

My husband does some frugal things.  The Lowes in our town sells their ripped or busted bags of all garden materials for $1 a bag.  He went this morning and got 17 bags of assorted soils and mulch. 

Our Oklahoma dirt is hard packed red clay and it won't grow much but weeds without some improvements added to it. 

Lowes even loaded it in his truck and gave him a 10% military discount on it all. 

view from the front of his pickup bed above and from the rear is below. 

I had planned to bake a Mexican casserole for supper but it was almost 90 degrees today- way too hot to have on the oven in the heat of the day. 
So I improvised and used most of  the ingredients that would of been in the casserole and we had make your own taco bowls. 
I cooked rice in a rice cooker,  heated up a can of jalapeno pinto beans and some frozen corn and also a container of my homemade taco meat that I keep in the freezer.  Toppings were cheese, salsa, jalapenos and diced tomatoes mixed with onion.
It was delicious and made me think of how Wendi needed to improvise meal prep at her home while their oven was out of commission. 

this evening I put out some Easter decorations.  I was tired of the green tree and we had this small white one in storage so I think it looks a bit more spring like 

The quilt was my baby quilt,  sewn by my great grandmother. 


Bunnies are lined up on the mantle. 

and the egg wreath is back on the front door- but this might be it's last season.  It has been re-glued many times and I think it has more hot glue on it than eggs now 

One of the projects we worked on last week was lightening up our home for warm weather.  You may of noticed the heavy curtains in the living room were switched back to the muslin ones edge with ball fringe. 
In the breakfast room,  we got rid of the white armoire that was on its last leg and moved the smaller refrigerator out to my husbands workshop.
The chest freezer is still in the nook but there was room to add back our old dining table.  I'm liking it so much!  there is a high chair at the end and its much more convenient to have meals here when a few kiddos are here instead of  in the formal dining room   We can also do crafts at this table with no danger of marring it. 
The heavy curtains on this bay window were switched back to pink toile ones. 

the pieces of "art" don't really match the room but they are things I know my grands will like seeing.  One is a cross stitch sampler of all 50 states made by Aunt Evelyn. 

The other is a calendar from the Holy City of the Wichitas.

I like seeing them too.