Picture Day - Favorite Vacation Shots



Main Entrance







Epcot, Spaceship Earth





Mickey and Minnie Mouse





Festival of The Lion King





Cinderella's Castle Night





Cinderella's Castle Day





Me With Chip N' Dale



Osbourne St. Lights





Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular



Main Universal Entrance



Studios Entrance



Across Islands of Adventure Lake



Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry





Aztec Entrance



Warming up from the inside out

For me the most comforting of foods are the most simple. Some evoke memories of special holidays or events, some are sweet, some are salty but the one thing they all have in common is warmth; the type of warmth that on a cold winter day warms you up from the inside out.

I’ve decided to share some my simplwar and all time favorite comfort foods. Some of the ingredients may need to be adjusted for taste as I don’t measure when I cook and some of the amounts listed are really just best guesses.   

Beef Stew – best served immediately with buttered rolls/bread of your choice.

Stew is something many people consider to be a long drawn out process but the recipe I’ve found to make the very best beef stew is quick and easy.  This recipe takes 10 minutes to prep and an additional 30 minutes to cook through.  The trick I find is all in the gravy.

1 cup baby or sliced Carrot                         1 cup cubed potato

½ cup sliced white or yellow onion            2 cups beef broth

2 cups water                                                  ½ tsp Thyme

½ tsp ground mustard seed                       ¼ tsp of Cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt                                                         1 tsp black pepper

Combine the above ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil.

Once the main ingredients are in the pot cube 1 lb of inside round steak and brown it in a skillet. When the meat has been cooked through I transfer a cup of the broth and vegetable mixture to the skillet and mix it before pouring the entire contents of the skillet back into the pot.

Next step is to add in     

2 ½ cups gravy mix

 I prefer to make my own gravy but a packaged gravy mix works just as well.

For gravy:

Combine ¼ cup of Flour and a 1/4 cup of butter in a saucepan while heating mix until no lumps remain.

Add 2 cup of beef broth and mix well.  It can then be added directly to the stew.

Allow to cook at a low boil for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.  For thicker gravy I mix a ¼ cup of water with 2 tablespoons of corn starch and add it to the stew five minutes before the stew is done.

This recipe makes 4-6 servings and is able to freeze and warm up well.  

Picture day - Dog or Cat

I think I understand why some people will often say that they are dog people or cat people.  Many people will when asked if they prefer one pet over another will answer quite resolutely. I’m a dog person, or I’m a cat person.  I almost always find that those answers stem from a single childhood experience which was good or bad or sometimes even neutral that they had with a pet.

I was quite lucky to have had wonderful experiences with pets of all shapes and sizes growing up and into adulthood so I am neither I just love all pets. Wait scratch that I wasn’t too fond of my husband’s tarantula, icky spiders.  One thing is certain for me however and that is that my home is not complete without an animal wandering about.

Some pets are of course recalled with more affection than others.  Three stand out in my mind.

Scooter my cat.  It’s not hard to reason why she will always be the first pet I think of as I got her at the age of 5 and she remained a part of my life for 24 years.  She was affectionate and smart and she worshiped the ground I walked on.  I was her person I suppose you would say, she allowed me to dress her up in bonnets and doll clothes without complaint and never failed to choose my lap over someone else’s.

Duchesse the first dog I really remember was silly and not all that smart but loveable all the same.   She is also the mother of the dog who really did capture my heart.  Born under my brother’s bed I was the one to find him and after exclaiming “there’s a puppy under here!” Kody was cemented into my memory as one of the best things ever.

My two favorites got along in a way that many cats and dogs do not, they played together slept together and sometimes cuddled with me together.  It is something I’ve always hoped my own children would get to experience with their own pets and luckily enough Lucy and Chase are as great a pair to them as Scooter and Kody were to me.  

When Wendy Grew Up - 100 word missive

Gifts given by extended family to an older child or a young adult are often ill-suited to their current age.   In the eyes of grandparents, aunts and uncles we will always be the little girl or boy they recall from years gone by.  

Sometimes though, those gifts still manage to be just right.

As a young teen I received a book from my grandmother that did not match my age.  It was a beautifully illustrated copy of Peter Pan and Wendy.  It was not greatly appreciated when first received however it has become one of my most beloved possessions today.

Writing Challenge Day

Write about your favorite recipe without writing about what is in it:

I found my favourite recipe or at least my current favourite recipe on a weekend which found me and my husband hosting two small dinner parties. As I was making up menu plans I realized just how tired I was of the same old standbys for larger groups and decided to try a few new things.

I stuck to familiar territory for one night and just added a little twist.  The second night I decided to take a bigger risk not only was I going to try an entirely new recipe for our main course  but a recipe for something which I had not had luck with in the past.

I had never had good luck with cream sauces I had always come close but the texture would be off, the flavor not quite right, something you couldn’t quite put your finger on that just didn’t work. I’d never made a sauce which was absolutely terrible or inedible but never one that encouraged second helpings or even a second chance.

I was set to try though, I had a recipe for Cajun Chicken Alfredo that looked as if it had potential, I had the ingredients and my fingers crossed. I knew that even though we may not have gotten past appetizers without disaster striking the guests we had were the kind that wouldn’t be put out if everything went to hell and I was forced to concede defeat and order pizza.

It was a recipe for 2 and I knew that meant the recipe would very quickly turn into more of a guideline but I was ok with that. I rarely if ever follow a recipe word for word in fact cooking with a recipe at all is fairly uncommon for me. I’ve never been afraid of cooking this way most of my best dishes barely resemble the original recipe they started out from.  

I only realized just now as I’ve pulled out the original recipe just how far from the original I went even the first time around, today it only remotely resembles what I started with.  It worked though from that very first tentative taste I knew I had a winner and that there would be no pizza that night.

It honestly tasted as though it came from a good restaurant and was definitely enjoyed by all that night and any other night I've made it. It is now one of my favorite dishes, in fact a favorite of the whole family and requested quite often.

The Small Things

A at about the age of 2 began to keep a bag that is filled with all the small items that she loves and that have found a special place in her heart. The bag itself was one of the first gifts that her sister ever gave to her and is special in its own way.   

As she has grown the items have changed although there have also been a few that remain the same. I sometimes feel as if I’m snooping when I look inside to see what she currently has stashed away but I can’t resist a peek now and again.

I love to look at the items in it and figure out what makes them special, although sometimes I can’t.  It’s gotten easier as she’s gotten older to figure things out but it still sometimes stumps me. It’s a peek into the mind of a child and I love to see the mishmash of things she treasures. 

I regularly go through the kids rooms to get rid of toys they don’t use and bits of garbage that have found their way in but this bag no matter how much junk I think is in it doesn’t get touched.

She even has a couple of items in it from my own childhood, a fake key, a miniature glow worm and a Minnie mouse pin.  For those things to have lasted through to her childhood they were obviously of value to me when I was young as well.

It has been a great thing to have for road trips and time away from home, as long as she has this bag she has something to do and something to comfort her.  She doesn’t carry it with her everywhere anymore and not all of her important stuff goes in it now, now she has a purse.

Someday I know she’ll stop doing this altogether and I can’t help but feel I’ll miss the days when a broken shell or a silly shaped whistle are no longer counted as such prized possessions.   

Warming up!

Finally it has begun to warm up; I actually had the kitchen window open for awhile. Ok I burnt lunch and it wasnt' really by choice but it was open.  I really don’t have much time for writing today so I’m just going to do a top ten list of my favorite parts of spring.

10) Baby deer, I’m sick of the adults but the fawns are still cute

9) Spending ten minutes outside without going numb

8) Less outdoor clothes, yeah no ski pants!

7) Playing my harmonica outside without it freezing to my lips (you only do that once)

6) BBQ (steak night!)

5)  I can start doing outdoor projects and stop thinking up new ones

4) Bonfires (bonfire pit is currently under about 5-6 ft of snow, minimum)

3) Watching all the trees and plants coming to life (except all the dead ones at the neighbors)

2) The fresh smell (that doesn’t come from a spray bottle)

1) It isn’t winter

Three Cheers for spring!