blackberry delight

This is my entry for Works for me Wednesday, too. It's called killing one bird with 2 stones oops that should be killing 2 birds with one stone. Kathy over at Kathy's cottage is sharing summer recipes and I just have to jump in and share this great, simple recipe I got from Norma Trunnell about 25 years ago. (If you go to my sidebar and click on recipe y'all will find about 35 other postings of recipes.) My daughter called me last week asking for the recipe.

Blackberry Delight

Container of pineapple sherbet
bag of frozen blackberries
3 bananas

Keep the blackberries frozen but soften the pineapple and throw in a larger bowl (that has a cover and will fit in your freezer). slice/dice the banana into the sherbet add the blackberries stir and refreeze. Serve. If you want to get fancy add one of those fancy, expensive, thin cookies by Jules Destrooper that I use in a great Lemon 'ice cream' bar blogged about earlier here.
Have you ever heard of an easier dessert? It's delish and doesn't heat up the kitchen.

edit; I just made a batch and 2 bananas look like enough. I used a potato masher to initially smush and stir up the sherbet; then used a spoon to gently stir the 1/4-1/2 slices of banana and then added the blackberries.

Jeanne asked if you could use fresh blackberries...sure you can but freeze them first so they don't get smashed when you stir the sherbet.

cemetery

When we drove from Amarillo to Houston we stopped at this little cemetery in Glencove, TX. We found 13 headstones with the Kerby name on them. These tall headstones seem to be 'in stock' headstones of years ago. One side had a bird the other a more manly decoration.

new grandson

Hey, Austin Paul was born on June 25th. The parents are happy; I assume the baby is happy (he finally has a body!), his grandparents are happy.
Doesn't he have a sweet face? You can see pictures here on his Mother's blog or here; where his Dad posted picts.

Mother is doing well.
Austin was a few days late but still weighed 6lbs 8.3ozs. That's a great size for a baby. (All of mine were bigger...some were MUCH bigger...like 10+lbs).

Congratualtions I can't wait to hold him.

panic city

panic city is where I was when I realized that it was 2 minutes to church and the main speaker, my husband, hadn't left the house yet!
Today is church. My husband is speaking and we have an overnight guest...that's 5 people that need showers this morning!
I JUST realized why I couldn't get anyone to hurry. I have visited other wards the last 2 weeks and they met at 9 a.m. Ours doesn't start until 11 a.m. ! I had figured that I would go late with the slower 2 but I really expected Roger to be leaving at 8:30. I had been very antsy but couldn't get any one to MOVE! Now we can have a very relaxed 1 1/2 hours before we really need to leave.

this is...

I have not kept up with the this is... thing over at three buttons but I have enjoyed reading many this is... entries.

I think last weeks theme was;
This is my favorite op shop find...
I'm assuming that an op shop is a thrift or resale shop.
Two years ago my daughter was getting married... besides all the work making the dress, baking the cake, making the food, fixing the house I had to find something to wear....
Her colors were blue and white and I could not find a blue dress that year. My mother finally located one for me in a catalog; Coldwater Creek, and I bought it knowing it would also need a shawl or something to camouflage my hips and a great necklace. The catalog also had the best necklace for it; a liquid silver multi strand beauty, on sale for $80. which was just too high after spending so much on the wedding.
A WEEK later I stopped at Hidden Treasures; a consignment furniture store looking for cake stands (needed to decorate the tables at the reception) and saw a liquid silver necklace in their display; for $20! It was swirled on top of a small green box from Coldwater Creek! I bought it and have worn it many many times.
As you can see from this wedding photo I didn't actually wear it at the wedding! Well, a drapey thing and flowers were enough.

oatmeal cookies

A million years ago when I was a young mother I happened to find this cookbook; Make A Mix Cookery; my edition has a copyright date of 1978! My copy is in sad shape; dogeared, stained, scribbled in and torn. (note; if any of your kids scribble in one of your books take the time to note which child and when they did it...I wish I had.) I had to punch hole in the edge to put in a notebook since it fell apart on me. Our favorite mix was the Oatmeal Cookie Mix. It was made hundreds of times and is used in my favorite cookie. I made it (the cookie, not the mix) 3 times while visiting my grandkids last weekend. Evidently the new generation likes them also.

Oatmeal Cookie adapted from the above cookbook
3/4 cup butter (the original was shortening)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 beaten eggs
1/2 milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1/2 old fashioned oats

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

bake 350 about 11 minutes
I scoop them onto parchment or a silicon mat so I never have to grease the cookie sheets.
I really wanted to make another batch today but I controlled myself.

We also loved the brownie mix, the all-purpose quick mix and the granola mix. It's easy to tell which recipes we liked the most since they are the most stained.
I also have the 'More Make A Mix cookbook and it has a yummy soup recipe in it...Hearty Beef Chowder ...oh so good.

shrimp and penne pasta

I invited the missionaries over for dinner. I took the boys to 'wall-e' and then to the grocery store to figure out what to fix. HEB is a grocery store around here that gives samples. We got to try a shrimp dish that was very good and they claimed it would be very fast. I bought the special sauce; goat cheese pink peppercorn dip, then the rest of the stuff plus some, so here's my recipe;

Shrimp and Penne pasta
1 lb. med. shrimp, cooked
1 small onion diced
4 cloves of garlic
1 red pepper, diced
1 package of mushrooms
1 jar goat cheese peppercorn dip
(which is goat cheese, olive oil, garlic, and peppercorns-next time I'll forget the sauce and just get some goat cheese)
1 lb. penne pasta
1 pint whipping cream

fry the mushrooms, onion, pepper, and garlic in a bit of olive oil
boil the pasta (I used whole wheat Penne)
cook the shrimp, peel and chop.
add the goat cheese and the cream to the onion mixture.
Toss together. reheat and serve.

The original recipe had no vegetables so it would have been much faster. I made a double batch and we have loads for tomorrow.

We had zapped zucchini, salad and strawberry shortcake.

I was glad I made a pasta dish since the missionaries must have been hungry; they each had 3 servings.

peanut butter cookies

In my efforts to get my boys to cook I bought some small peanut butter cups to use in cookies. The first bag got eaten without being put into cookies but the second bag got put in the refrigerator before we left for scout camp and Mom's trip. Yesterday we made them into cookies. Since I've always thought they were fabulous when others made them I expected great things.

I found that I prefer the plain peanut butter cookies to those above. It worked out great; most of the dough was used to make the cups which the boys preferred and there was just enough dough left over for about 10 cookies. The boys tried them, Roger had a couple and I didn't have enough to pig out on.
I added an extra 1/4 cup of peanut butter (the kind I buy for Roger-it's just ground peanuts). The cookies were a bit dry but just peanutty enough.
*hint: If the p.b. cups are chilled they can be pushed into the mini-muffin tins without smushing.

trip

I had a nice visit in Denver with my parents. This is Mom's last quilt. She has finished all 23 of the quilts she wanted to make; one for each grandchild. ...my brain, my brain I can't remember the name of this quilt! Winding Ways! I had to look it up. I love blue and white quilts.

After Denver I flew to Amarillo where my son and his family lives. My 2 grandsons are as cute as usual and they have an awesome sandbox; it's where a hot tub used to be so I think the sand is about 10 feet deep... well maybe not but probably the previous owners filled in the space with sand. Here are a few shots of them playing. The big blond kid my youngest!



I told you it was deep.
I thought Amarillo was a great town; and I'm so happy to have these kids closer to us.

baby!

I have some pet peeves I wanted to mention just one..... I HATE it when a salesperson calls me 'baby!' Isn't that a small human (I'm not!) that is cute, babbles and is hand fed? AT the very most it is a term of endearment for a loved one...i.e. younger child, sibling or spouse. It is not a customer that is obviously old enough (actually not, I just LOOK old enough) to be offered the free drink at Taco Bell for senior citizens. One of these days I'll take the time to complain at the store that it happens at...Maybe I could just make up cards to hand to the salesperson to politely decline being her baby... It really happens often; WalMart, Sam's, Kohl's, Joanne's and Albertson's are stores I remember being greeted as baby. Actually I think this is a southern thing. Let me know.. Do the salespeople in Canada call their customers baby? What about California? Idaho? Inquiring minds want to know.

red cracks

My grandson discovered 'red cracks' in eyes today and I just happened to take pictures of some eyes today. Unfortunately? most of the eye's were young and and don't have many visible blood vessels. The pictures are of my nephews and my sister.


First is Adam


Then Matthew


And finally Daniel (3rd grade)


The scary one is my sister; notice the freckle? or mole? in her eye!

my dad

I am so grateful to have been born 'of goodly parents'. This is a my Dad's high school picture.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

sympathy card

We received a sympathy card today. Last week end a 'Roger Stone' was on a sailboat that sunk. He was mentioned in the news. We had missed it but were told about it at church last week. It is a bit melancholy-ish to receive a sympathy card for someone with your name.

We have now received 3 cards. I'm trying to find the right address to send them to.

scout camp

We are going crazy over here trying to pack for Scout camp. The living room is trashed with piles of scout stuff all over.
I made cool duffel bags for the 3 scouter's' dirty clothes including their names. About 2 weeks ago I was called by a friend who had some boxes of fabric that she did not want. Guess who got them? She moved them from their rubbermaid boxes into 4 kitchen trash bags, full. I have been walking around them since I was a bit overwhelmed. I finally pulled them out and did not find much I could use so put them in the trunk of the car to take to Goodwill.
So when I had the idea for the duffel bags we went to the trunk and found 3 solid green fabrics that would work and I used 2 of them up; with these bags:


Andrew had a big grin on his face under the duffel bag; I promise you he did!
The little white bits are tags I made with their names rubber stamped on.



Now I have an idea for kerchiefs for the boys to wear with their uniforms to dinner each night. I'm so glad I was slow in delivering the bags to Goodwill.

summer blanket

I had to put a surprise in my daughter's package so I made her baby a summer blanket. I think it turned out rather well (and I've hyper extended my elbow from patting myself on my back.) I made Brian one of these 25 years ago and since I have no clue where it is I whipped up another...it took about 2 1/2 hours. I purchased 1.25 yards of seersucker and then bound it with giant homemade bias tape. I cut bias strips of plaid fabric 6 inches wide and made bias tape with it. I was afraid that when it was washed the layers would shift so I topstitched close to the edge too. The corners are very thick; I counted about, I think, 10 layers of fabric in the corners, so they will take a week to dry where the center will take 5 minutes. LOL.

the 'love' package

I've been promising my daughter a package for months now and since I finished her baby's quilt I no longer have an excuse; so it's in a box ready to go and I promise it will be mailed Monday!

I made her 2 more receiving blankets, her quilt and 6 burp rags. (I also took 31 pictures of the articles and only 4 were in focus...) The burp rags were made from purchased diapers and I added the pink flannel to one side (just in case she has a girl someday) and some boy flannel to the other side. I saw a tutorial months ago here and these are kindof/sortof based on those but reversible and no ribbon. The flannels are scraps from making diapers for my 3rd child born about 25 years ago, yes my son wore diapers with rosebuds and pink stripes and my daughter had diapers with cars and trucks and blue and white stripes. (The sandals are from my baby girl who is now in her 20's; I think I may give them to the first granddaughter.)

The crocheted border was the result of too many visits to the doctor's; I was really sorry I had started that last row (the scallop).


The last picture is what I expect my daughter will say when she receives this package; it is actually embroidered on a onsie from the 8 or so I found at a resale shop for .25 or it could be a hand-me-down from his cousin Carter.

austin paul

I finished Austin Paul's log cabin quilt today. I'll do the label after he is born so I can put his birth date on it. Now I can finally send Melissa her package, so she'll have something to wrap that baby in to bring home from the hospital. I may get a another picture of it after it is washed tonight.

edited: I just learned that our camera has a manual focus setting; but no real way to manually focus it and it had been set on that for my last several photo shoots; so that is why everything is slightly blurry and since the quilt is on it's way I can't retake the photos. I now have the camera locked onto auto-focus.

edited  to add a better picture.

massager

For Mothers/Fathers day our DD (dear daughter) got us a massager to put on a chair; these pictures were taken the first time the boys experienced a massage. We all think it is so cool.
Thanks Melissa

muffins or brownies?

Andrew made the brownie part of Cook's Country Mississippi mud brownies. Very chocolatey and very good. Can you believe that I took about 20 pictures and these were the best? I also tried to get these with the last posting but I kept deleting and found out that I could not reorder my pictures to the order I wanted so you get 2 postings for the price of 1.

muffins or brownies?

Why not both? I got a free year of Cook's Country (cause I submitted one of my cooking disaster and they printed it and gave me a year.) They had a contest and printed 4 muffin recipes. Jeffrey made the mistake of telling me one of them looked interesting. So we made them today. The recipe called for 8 oz of sausage but we had cooked a whole pound so had to make a double batch. The muffins are alright but J and A are not crazy about them... and R and I should not eat them... you know sausage, butter and cheese. So what should I do with them?

chicken dinner

Tonight's dinner was great.
I used Ree's potato recipe, 'cept I used russets and microwaved them first.
I roast my chicken with it butterflied, cut with kitchen scissors down the backbone, press down into my large cast iron skillet, put in 450 oven for 55 minutes or so. Since both ovens were on high I also cooked 6 peppers for our salad while the potatoes were cooking; then we had some lettuce and green beans. The boy's had ice cream for dessert...(I owed Andrew a root beer float since he had no late papers the last week of school., but there was only 1 can of root beer left and J had had his root beer float about 5 days ago so IT WAS FAIR!)

I'm GOING CRAZY trying to design and make sleeves for a strapless wedding dress for a friends daughter. I thought I'd have one done by tomorrow so they could start beading it but Andrew's Arrow of Light ceremony is tomorrow night and I need to make a cool arrow of light banner for his cub scout pins and badges.... luckily the wedding isn't until the end of July.

My have to's for the rest of the week;
1 1/2 wedding sleeves
Arrow of light banner-Tuesday
refreshments for arrow of light-Tuesday
bind a LARGE twin Hawaiian quilt-Tuesday
sew label on Hawaiian quilt-Tuesday
make label for baby Hawaiian quilt and sew it on-Tuesday
make snack for graduation party-Tuesday(after the Arrow of Light)
finish quilting grandson's baby quilt
make label and attach to grandson's baby quilt
bind and sew rod pocket on grandson's baby quilt
get package ready and sent to grandson's Mom (baby is due June 15)
Not to mention the 2 doctor appointments we have this week, 1 in Houston so it will take half a day.
I also have to fit in a 2 mile walk each day and cooking meals and blogging of course.

mascara

My eyes have been burning since about 10 this morning which is when I put mascara on. Why do we wear this? It happens almost every time I wear it. But I still put it on at least every Sunday How do people that wear it everyday cope?