Away in PA

Four of my children and I are visiting in PA/OH for another week. My parents and sister live in those respective states. We had a good (although long) drive up (11 hours from NC to OH).

Above is Susanna and my nephew, Owen, outside at his house.

My parents are moving, and we are helping them sort, throw, pack, and stash.

I made an I Spy quilt for a friend here in OH, and gave it to her at a baby shower yesterday...she loved it. I brought fabric and some patterns to cut out for clothes for myself. I cut out one jumper for myself yesterday. I have 3 more to cut out. I hope to sew that ONE (it is a test drive for that particular pattern), and I hope to sew it in the next couple of days.

It's so fun to have spare time to do things I would hardly ever do at home. I have read for over an hour several times since I've been here...complete luxury!!

~Joan

New & Improved EMILY

Emily got a haircut today. Doesn't she look lovely?

~Joan

Roasted Chicken Slow-Cooker Style

My camera battery is not cooperating again! A post without a picture is not very interesting, I know.

Here is the recipe for the chicken in my last post. Do not be put off by its simplicity...this is a real winner.

Roasted Chicken Slow-Cooker Style

1 whole chicken (about 4 pounds)
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil

Remove as much fat and skin from chicken as possible. Rinse and drain. Mix all seasonings with olive oil to make a paste. Spread a little inside chicken. Place chicken on a rack* in crock pot, breast side up, spread with the remainder of the seasoning. Cover and cook on high 4 hours or low for 6-7 hours. Cut into pieces and serve. Serves 4.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Above is the original recipe. We made two, and it was enough for two complete meals (tastes wonderful reheated...such moist meat!). I didn't have a rack for my slow cooker, so I set each whole chicken on a canning jar ring to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the cooker. It was so tender when I took it out that it just fell off the bone.

Try it tonight. That's an order.

~Joan

Calgon, Take Me Away!

After dropping off my daughter at work, I had a strong compulsion to go into a store I rarely frequent. They only double coupons up to 50 cents. Seriously--that's my reason. But, in I went. I checked on the price of one item. It was over 3 times the amount I would pay at another store. Then, for some unknown reason, I felt compelled to check the price of chicken breasts. Yes--I know...weird. Well, I saw a four-pound package of chicken breasts. The label said, "regular price $1.99". It was a "mark-down" label. I assumed it meant $1.99 a pound. Since that was not an unreasonable price, I went up to the self check-out and scanned it, intending to buy it either way. To my surprise, it rang up for $1.99 for the four pounds. So I completed the sale and went back for some more...OK--19 more packages. I paid about $34 for eighty pounds of chicken.

Most of the rest of my day was spent boiling, boning, and bagging that chicken. I gave some packages to a friend, but the remainder is waiting quietly in our refrigerator for another date tomorrow. It might only have been 80 pounds, but it seems like a ton.

One of my sons asked me earlier today, "What is for supper?" He could barely see me over the stack of chicken packages on the counter. I wanted to say "fish", but I couldn't do it with a straight face. We had chicken fettucini alfredo. I had fresh fettucini I had to use soon (like today or tomorrow soon).

I tried a new crock pot recipe, and I will post it tomorrow. It tastes a lot like rotisserie chicken. I had purchased two whole chickens on sale at Food Lion before going to the chicken bonanza. Who would have thought??

~Joan

Summer Scrumptiousness

Here is one of my lovely cooking assistants (it takes an army to feed an army). She has two fruit pizzas in hand. This is our first time making them. Emily baked the sugar-cookie crust, I mixed the cream cheese "frosting", and Susanna took over from there. Not being one to just do it the easy way, she had two approaches...concentric circles on our left, and fruit fly, on the right. It just flew all over (in a very specific pattern, of course. Each piece has each kind of fruit in tiny bite-sized pieces. She used mandarin oranges, pineapple tidbits, strawberries, green grapes, and blueberries. Delish! Thank you, Susanna. We'll enjoy that at supper .

We used a pouch of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix for each crust. Just follow the package directions and bake until golden brown. For the white layer, soften one 8 oz. cream cheese, mix with 1/3 cup granulated sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. When cookie crust is completely cool, spread with "icing" and then arrange fruit to your heart's desire. Eat and enjoy.

~Joan

"Solomon in all his glory...

...was not arrayed like one of these." Luke 12:27. God's beauty is all around us--and so breathtaking in its color and simplicity. I weeded out a flower garden down by our garage a couple days ago. That is where these lilies live. Just about every time I see a lily (we have some in several places on our property), I think of the above verse. It is a quote of something Jesus said while here on earth..."Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." For those who do now know, Solomon was the wisest and richest king in Bible times. He was King David's son.

~Joan

My Camera is Back, and So Am I

Here is the first picture I took after getting my new camera battery. I was "watching" some of my kids at the pool of a friend. I realized that I couldn't use my laptop to do the paper work (hence the laptop and stack of receipts on the picnic table). We are switching over our budget-keeping system since my computer crashed a month or so ago. I like to see where our money went every month.

Other items on the table are so me...I drink a Benefiber stick packet every day. The keys to my trusty 15-passenger van. My iPod Touch (don't leave home without it), the mail of the day stuck in my tote...coupons for free Kashi Bars, samples of same, coupons for more... The odd items are the beach towel and the sunscreen. Yes, the desire to be a good mom came over me, and I joined the 3 children in the pool. They seemed to enjoy that.

So good to have my camera in use again. I'll be posting more frequently, I can feel it in my bones!

~Joan