Fall Recipe

Since it's a balmy 80 degrees outside, I decided to pull out some Fall soup recipes!  I've recently rediscovered my crockpot and I've been having fun putting ingredients in it first thing in the morning and watching dinner magically come out 8 hours later.  So in honor of Fall and my new-found love of the crockpot, I give you this recipe for Bacon Corn Chowder.  I think I originally got it from a cooks(dot)com website but I have tweaked it to my taste.

4 to 6 slices bacon
1 med onion chopped
1 tablespoon flour
3 to 4 cups frozen corn
1 can cream of celery soup
1 cup chicken broth (may have to add more if soup becomes too thick)
2 large potatoes red or yellow, cubed
1 cup evaporated milk
salt and pepper

Preparation:


Saute bacon in skillet until crisp; remove with slotted spoon, drain, then crumble. Add onion to drippings and sauté briefly; sprinkle with flour and stir until well blended. In slow cooker, combine corn, soup, broth, potatoes, onion roux mixture, and bacon. Cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. Add evaporated milk and seasonings in 30 minutes before serving. Serves 4 to 6.

Why I Thrift Shop

When you have a very limited clothes budget but you still want good quality clothes and you need to satisfy your inner fashionista, then the best place to go is the thrift store.  I get 95% of our family's clothes at thrift stores, consignment shops, or yard sales.  I usually generate the money to buy the next season's clothes for my girls by selling some of the clothes that they've outgrown and things I no longer want at a yard sale.  At my last yard sale, I made $300 just selling a lot of little stuff that was hanging out in the garage or the back of my closet. 

Tonight I stopped by the thrift store in search of a red shirt for my daughter to wear for a dress up day she has coming up at school.  I found her a brand new red shirt by Faded Glory with tiny silver hearts on it for $3.25.  It's perfect and it fills the need. 

For me, I found this Ann Taylor Loft sweater...it retails for $39.50.  I found it brand new/never worn for $4.25! 


I also found a pair of Old Navy Dream cut jeans for $7.25 (Retail for $34.50) and a brand new fall purse...black faux leather with cream trim similar to this one...

that retails for $26.99 and I bought it for $5.00. 

So for a total of $16.50 I have a very stylish "mommy on the go" outfit to add to my fall/winter wardrobe.  If I bought these three items at retail it would have cost me $100.99...wow!  See why I like thrift shopping?! 

I hope to share some more of my bargain finds in future posts.  For now I hope this inspires you to just say no to "full price."  Those words just aren't in my vocabulary anymore!  Your budget will thank you. 

Book Review: Crazy Love

I just finished reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan for a class I was taking at my church.  I've been curious about the book ever since it came out...there's been a lot of buzz about it among Christian circles.  The premise of the book is that we as Christians should be so overwhelmed in our love for God that we would be willing to really and truly live our lives every day the way God commands us.  In other words, if we want to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, then we must abandon ourselves and dedicate our lives to giving to others and studying who God is and living to please Him. 

When Chan starts breaking apart what it really means to be lukewarm in our modern terms, it really gets a little uncomfortable.  He questions whether or not the term "lukewarm Christian" is even a legitimate term.  His belief from his study of the Bible is that being lukewarm and being a Christian is an oxymoron...it just does not work!  He gives examples of what he has changed in his own life and what others have done to start literally taking up their cross daily and following Christ.  It is convicting and inspiring to say the least.  This book will definitely make you take a good, hard look at how you live your life every day and most importantly, it will point you to the Bible to search out these things yourself. 

I did not agree with everything Chan said but I found tremendous value in just thinking about my life as a Christian and I was defintiely prompted to make some changes.  I think this book is a great read and definitely worth the time. 

Old School Recipe = Awesome!

This recipe is so "old school" that I actually last ate it when I was in like 2nd grade...that is until tonight!  If your mom is like mine then she probably went through phases in her cooking where she would do a bunch of casseroles and then she'd switch to meat and potatoes and then we had the health food craze and then there was that year she was doing Weight Watchers and we all had to eat the food on her diet...you get my drift! 

Well, in the casserole phase my mom made this awesome casserole that just kinda stuck in my mind and periodically I would try to describe it to her and ask her if she still had the recipe.  She would look through some of her cookbooks but then she wouldn't find it so she'd give up.  Just recently I brought it up again and she looked in her "favorites" notebook which is a little recipe notebook that is absolutely busting at the seams with all her favorite handwritten recipes and lo and behold...there's the recipe in her own handwriting...Crunchy Hamburger Casserole, circa 1984!  Yay! 

I snapped that little card up and promptly got the ingredients and whipped up a nice little casserole tonight...and it did not disappoint!  Three out of 4 Cohee's liked it...the 17-month old was the only one who turned it away.  And one Cohee had to go back for 2nd's and then he may or may not have just warmed up another bowl of it!  So here I share it with you...it's easy and I think it's pretty darn good.  Sorry I don't have a picture...but I forgot to get one before it vanished!

Crunchy Hamburger Casserole
2 cups uncooked noodles
1 pound ground beef
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup diced green bell pepper
salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp of seasoning salt)
1 can (2.8 oz.) French-fried onions

Cook the noodles according to package directions.  Drain well.  In a nonstick skillet, brown the meat.  Drain off excess fat.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the noodles, beef, soup, tomatoes, cheese, and green pepper.  Add salt and pepper to taste and/or seasoning salt.  Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.  Cover and bake for 40 minutes.  Uncover and sprinkle the onions on top.  Bake for an additional 5 minutes.  Serve hot.

Eye Candy: John Derian for Target

Oooh, I am so excited!  I just found out that John Derian is releasing another limited edition line at Target.  The line launches Sept. 5 so I know what I'll be saving my pennies for these next 2 weeks!  The great thing is everything in the line is under $25.  Here's a peek at some of the cool stuff that is sure to fly off the shelves!

Love these trays!

Must have these plates...

Very Pretty 3-Tier Tray

Silhouette Coasters

Very cool mugs

Book Review: Even Now

I'll admit I haven't read a lot of Christian fiction and it's mainly because I just have not found many Christian fiction authors that I thought wrote well enough to hold my attention and not seem like they were taking basically a secular story line and trying to throw in some Christian morals at the end.  This summer I decided to try out some authors I have not read before and one of them is Karen Kingsbury.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  It was so good that I found myself struggling to stay awake at night just so I could read a little more.  There are sections of the book that would definitely qualify as true page-turners.  I really liked how there was definitely a moral theme but it was infused into the story in a very real way, not just as an afterthought.  You can tell that Kingsbury really plans and thinks about her characters and story before she just starts writing. 

The book description says, "A young woman seeking answers to her heart's deep questions.  A man and woman separated by lies and long years...yet who have never forgotten each other.  With hallmark tenderness and power, Karen Kingsbury weaves a tapestry of lives, losses, love and faith-and the miracle of resurrection." 

You will definitely enjoy this book.  And the cool thing is I would like to give away my copy of this book!  The first person to leave a comment and tell me they want it, gets it! 

Something to Think About...

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition
 every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point
 which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking,
 I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.”
—Martin Luther

Goodbye "Branch"

When I first brought Lucy home from the hospital, I would find myself just watching TV in the bonus room as I fed her multiple times a day.  Seems like I would run into a Golden Girls mini-marathon more often than not.  I guess with all the adjustments I was going through learning to be okay just being home all day and taking care of an active 3-year old and keeping a newborn happy, the laughs and mayhem on Golden Girls was just what my brain needed!  

Little did I know Katelyn was picking up little bits and pieces from the show...not really understanding the storylines but she just thought it was funny that these 4 ladies lived together and seemed to be always laughing about something.  She cracked me up when one day she told my mom she liked the Golden Girls and "Branch" was her favorite!  I had to endure that look from my mom that said, "You're letting her watch the Golden Girls??!"  My response, "I don't know which end is up these days so if she catches a few minutes of the Golden Girls but she still gets 3 square meals and got dressed today then I consider that a victory!"  After all, I was in a state of sleeplessness and my hormones hadn't quite landed back in their normal places.  

So today we said goodbye to "Branch."  Katelyn doesn't know what happened to her but she did notice they talked about her on the evening news.  After the 1-minute segment, she turned to me and said, "Mommy, I was a big fan of Branch!"  Haha...me too, Katelyn, me too!   

Mother's Day Gift Ideas...hint, hint

Here's some yummy things I've had my eyes on for a while.  So I'm putting them all together in one blog post in case someone in particular happens to read it...haha!  And as an added bonus it might give you some gift ideas too or you can just forward this post to your husband or children and highlight the ones you want!

Downtown Chic

This is a great new book by Courtney and Robert Novogratz from the new show, "9 by Design" on Bravo.  I love their design style...very chic and very cool!

Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood

This cookbook slash book of stories has been getting a lot of buzz around the blogasphere.  A cookbook of good home cooking in the style of the Pioneer Woman is what I've heard it called.  I really want this! 

Lift

Another book quickly climbing the bestseller lists...I saw the author interviewed on the "Today Show" and I really liked what she had to say.  Sounds like a wonderful book especially for mothers of little girls. 

The Forgotten Garden

The Library Journal review starts out with this sentence, "A cottage on the Cornish coast is home to secrets that pull together three generations of women, despite the decades and oceans that separate them."  Doesn't that sound lovely and intriguing?  I think I could quickly get lost in this book. 

Lady Antebellum

Ever since the single, "Need You Now" was released, I've been hooked.  Cool group from Nashville...

Southern Lady

If you already receive Southern Living, this is a nice companion magazine.  Description reads..."Southern Lady magazine celebrates, delights and inspires each lady who lives in the South--and those who simply wish they did."  Sounds right up my alley!



Enjoy...I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day celebrating the beautiful gift of children. 

Very Southern...Very Delicious!

Last night I tried out a new pound cake recipe and I am pleased to report that it is delicious.  I found it very easy to put together especially using my stand mixer.  Also, the ingredients are basic...you should have almost everything in your pantry with the exception of the pecans and maybe the sour cream.  This is a great recipe to make and take to a neighbor or family gathering or it's perfect to serve with coffee after dinner.

Cinnamon-Laced Sour Cream Pound Cake

1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 T. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 t. baking powder
1/8 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
8 oz. sour cream

Combine nuts, 2 T. sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl, stir well and set aside. 

Cream butter.  Gradually add 2 cups sugar, beating well at medium speed.  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture, mixing just until blended.  Stir in vanilla and gently fold in sour cream.

Spoon half of batter into a greased and floured Bundt pan.  Sprinkle nut mixture over batter and then spoon remaining batter on top of nut mixture.  (Note:  You can divide the batter into 3 parts and have 2 smaller layers of nut mixture, if you would like...that's what I did!) 

Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.  If you have a dark Bundt pan like I do, you may need to adjust temp to 325 degrees or check cake at about 50 minutes so you don't burn the sides.  Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack. 

Daily Light...I need it!

This book is...wonderful and worth every penny!  I am amazed every day when I read the morning or evening selection--the verses are usually exactly what I need for that day.  They speak exactly to what I'm going through...it is truly of God. 

I Just Won!

I just won my first giveaway from a fellow blogger!  Yay!  I won a $60 skincare kit from Roden and Fields...a big thanks to Jessica Turner at The Mom Creative.  Check out her very cool blog...it's got lots of great info on freebies and discounts and her posts on being a mommy are awesome too! 

http://jessicaturnersblog.blogspot.com

Help Me to Unclutter My Life, Lord

Rescue me from this eternal confusion of belongings (mine and other people's) that just won't stay orderly.  This suffocation of phone calls, clubs, and committees.  This choke of bills and papers and magazines and junk mail.  I buy too many things, subscribe to too many things, belong to too many things.  The result is such confusion I can't really enjoy or do justice to anything!

Deliver me from some of this Lord.  Help me to stop bewailing this clutter and work out some plan for cutting it down.

Give me the will power to stop buying things we don't really need ...and give, oh give me the will power to get rid of a lot of things we already have...And while I'm at it Lord, help me to unclutter my mind.  Of regrets and resentments and anxieties, of idiotic dialogues and foolish broodings.

Sweep it clean and free.

Make it calm and quiet.

Make it orderly.

-Marjorie Holmes in Lord, Let Me Love

This is soooo GOOD!

Here is a super yummy recipe for anyone that likes Mexican food and it can be converted to a Vegan recipe by using non-dairy sour cream and vegan cheddar cheese...if you're so inclined...

Cheesy, Oozy Guacamole Bean Dip


1 can (16 ounces) refried beans
3 large avocados
3 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
2 containers (8 ounces) sour cream
1 packet taco seasoning
1/2 cup diced mild green chiles , drained
1/2 cup sliced black olives, or more if you like
5 tomatoes , chopped
2 cups shredded  cheddar cheese


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread a layer of refried beans in the bottom of an 8x8 quart glass baking dish. Pit and peel the avocados, and place in a bowl. Mash the avocados together with the lime juice, and spread on top of the refried beans. Stir together the sour cream and taco seasoning, and spread over the avocado.


Sprinkle the chiles over the sour cream, and top with a layer of black olives. Add the tomatoes and sprinkle with the cheese. Heat the dip for 15 to 30 minutes or until heated through and the cheese is a bit melted.

Serve warm or at room temperature with tortilla chips.

Recipe courtesy of The Kind Diet

Book Review: Olive Kitteridge

Since this book is a Pulitzer Prize winner, I should've known that it would have elements of strangeness, be very heavy, and multi-layered...much like other Pulitzer Prize winners I've read. The story covers the lifetime of one Mrs. Olive Kitteridge and the many people connected to her. Some are connected to her rather thinly and you may wonder, "why am I reading about this person?" There were points in the book when I thought "why am I reading this book?" and I thought I would abandon it altogether but I persevered because it's very hard for me to leave a book half-read! I give it 3 stars...really strong character development and actually some very good writing...I just don't know if I really cared about the story that much.

You will get some insights into her life and how she deals with tragedy as well as moments of happiness.  Her reactions and her approach to life are all secular so it makes for an interesting analysis and made me think if Olive were written from a Christian perspective, this would've been a totally different book and probably much better. 

Book in a Month

A few month's ago, my friend, Heather took on a rather monumental task.  She decided she would write a book in a month!  She had started several books along the way and always knew there was a novel inside her just waiting to come out but as the busy mom of three children, time was definitely a factor.  So spurred on by the challenge of writing a book in a month and some other Facebook friends who were attempting to do the same, she embarked on her writing adventure.  One month later she had successfully completed her book! 

Now she's started a blog to share the beginning chapters of her book with the rest of the world and hopefully garner some interest from publishers and us, the reading public.  Check out her new blog...

http://bookinamonthmom.blogspot.com/

Deal of the Week

I got an awesome deal last week before we headed out for our mini-vacation to Disney World and I thought I'd share it with you!  I was looking for some good walking shoes as I knew I would be doing a lot of walking around Disney.  It's usually hard for me to find a shoe that doesn't make my feet hurt at some point but this time I think I happened onto some really good shoes at an even better price.  I went to Walmart to get a few last minute items for our trip and decided to check out their shoe department.  I found these Danskin sneakers and decided to try them on.  They were definitely comfortable in the store but would they stand up to hours of walking?  Well, at a price of only $20 I figured it wouldn't be too bad if they didn't work out.  I got them in the charcoal gray color with some small dark purple accents so they actually blend in well with dark-washed jeans.  You won't have that "mommy" look with the bright white sneakers and dark, bootcut jeans.  Anyway, we walked and walked and walked for 5 days and I can honestly say my feet never hurt once!  This is an amazing "feet" for me!  haha...

The great thing is they also make little girl's sneakers so I got a pair for my 4-year old and they were only $10.  She loved them and wore them all over Disney and didn't have any complaints either. 

I don't get paid for endorsing Danskin but I definitely will be going back for another pair when these wear out.  Good deal...almost a steal!  Let me know if you bump into any good deals this week. 

Firefly Lane

When I started reading "Firefly Lane" by Kristin Hannah I had no idea that it would draw me in the way it did and cause me to neglect my usual household chores to steal a few minutes here and there reading it.  The book explores the lifelong friendship between the 2 main characters, Tully and Kate.  They couldn't be more opposite in their backgrounds or personality but the circumstances of life that draw them together make the reader cling to the story line to find out what happens to them next.  At moments the reader might identify more with Katie and then you'll waver and think maybe you are really more like Tully in some way.  You get to follow these two from adolescence well into their later life.  The author covers a lot of ground...after all you've got 479 pages to read in the paperback edition, but somehow when it all ends you will find yourself wanting just a few more pages to tell you a little more. 

In the interest of full disclosure, there are definitely some adult themes in the book but it's not gratuitous or frequent.  There are aspects of their lives that you would not emulate nor would you condone but these aspects are part of the story and help to build the main characters.  The book is well-written and if you want something that's a little heavier than say a "beach read" or a romance tale then this is a book you'll enjoy. 

Who Will I Rescue?

Have you ever walked out of church on Sunday morning and felt like the sermon had hit you like a hammer right between the eyes? Well, that’s what happened to me last week. It was as if the Holy Spirit was saying, rather loudly, “Are you listening? Are you listening? I’ve been trying to tell you this for a while now…”

Our pastor spoke on the importance and I mean the life and death kind of praying for those in your family, circle of friends, acquaintances etc. who are not Christians. He spoke of the role we have of rescuing people who are lost. The aspect of the sermon that spoke to me the most was when he said that many of us have people in our immediate family who are not saved and yet we rarely petition God to save them. He said we should be so concerned for their salvation that we would get on our knees and beg God to save them. Wow…that hit a little close to home. Sure I’ve offered up prayers for the salvation of my unsaved loved ones but it’s more or less when I remember and it’s not every consistent and I wouldn’t classify it as “begging” either.

The eternal destiny of my loved ones and friends and really anyone I come in contact with should be of utmost importance to me yet how often is it just that lingering thought that comes up every so often when I hear a sermon about salvation.

You see the Holy Spirit has been talking to me about this for a while. He’s been asking me to not only pray a little more fervently but to maybe take some steps and these require ACTION to bring some people to Him. Hmmm…this sounds a little scary and hey, these people have heard it all before. Some of them even grew up in church…gasp! What could I possibly have to offer that’s different? Well, there’s this little thing called my testimony and there are some really great things happening in my life that have come directly from God. Maybe I could tell someone about it and it might just be the thing that brings them back to God.

And then there’s the matter of prayer…this one really jumped all over me because I have a tendency to do a lot of things in my so-called busy life but my prayer time can be relatively small in comparison to other things…say like watching TV, or reading, or answering emails. Not really bad things in and of themselves but just things that take up time.

So here I am and I’m going to really try to dedicate A LOT more time in 2010 to asking dare I say even begging God to save some people. How could I do any less?

What is a Kindle?

Ever since I started telling people I received a Kindle for Christmas, I’ve gotten a lot of mixed responses. The most common response is, “what is a Kindle?” Let me try to explain it briefly…

A Kindle is basically an IPod for books in the way it works but it is about 6 times larger than an IPod. The screen is built bigger so you can read on it for hours and not damage your eyesight. It is very lightweight…about 1 lb.

One of the big advantages I’ve found so far is that you can get almost any book instantly. The Kindle automatically connects to Amazon.com. If you have a book you want to read, you conduct a search on Amazon, find the book and then look for the “Kindle price.” It’s usually $9.99 or less to download a book. You can even download a preview chapter of the book to determine if you want to read it or not before you purchase it. If you decide to purchase it, the book is downloaded to the Kindle and you can start reading right away.

The other advantage is that you don’t have to store the books once you finish reading them. Everything is stored conveniently on the Kindle and you can go back and read a book again any time you want.

I know in the long run it will be a savings for me too since the cost to download is a lot less than the cost of the printed version of the book. Usually I buy a trade paperback at $14.99, read it once, and then either keep it on a bookshelf or pass it on to a friend. When I have tried to resell books, the most I have ever gotten is about one-quarter of what I paid for the book originally.

It’s definitely been an adjustment since I’m so used to the printed word and I love to peruse bookstores and purchase books. I think I will still occasionally purchase a “real” book but I love the convenience of the Kindle.