May 2014 – Loving My New Simple Life

31
May
2014

Summertime is Salad Time!

categories: Simple Recipes

The weather is for sure getting hot! That means salad time!

Thought I would share my favorites!

They are easy, and of course, simple to make!

Mississippi Corn Bread Salad

This salad makes plenty of servings, and can be made a day ahead. Perfect for a potluck!

1 – 8-1/2 ounce package corn muffin mix

10 slices bacon crisp cooked

3 large tomatoes, chopped

2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, rinsed and drained

2 15-ounce cans whole kernel corn, drained

1 cup chopped red and /or green sweet peppers

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing

1 8-ounce carton dairy sour cream

1 1-ounce package ranch salad dressing mix

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (8 ounces)

1. Prepare muffin mix according to directions: cool. Crumble muffins (you should have about 5 cups). Crumble bacon. Set crumbs and bacon aside.

2. In a large bowl, stir together tomatoes, beans, corn, sweet peppers, and onions; set aside.

3. For dressing, in a small mixing bowl, stir together mayonnaise, sour cream, and salad dressing mix; set aside.

4. In a 3 to 4-quart glass serving bowl, layer half of the crumbled cornbread, bean mixture, bacon, and cheese. Spread with dressing mixture. Repeat layers. Cover and chill for 3 to 24 hours.

Yummy!

This recipe came from a Better Homes and Gardens Potluck Magazine, years ago.

5 Cup Fruit Salad

This is my husband’s absolute favorite fruit salad! It is really unbelievable good and just so easy to make. It doubles and even triples great if you need it for a larger crowd.

i cup flaked coconut

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1 cup drained mandarin oranges

1 cup drained pineapple tidbits

1 cup sour cream

In a medium bowl, combined coconut, marshmallows, oranges, pineapple, and sour cream. Cover and chill for 8 hours.

It is that simple and it looks so yummy in a glass bowl.

I have left the coconut out many times, many folks just do not care for coconut!

Layered Chicken Strawberry Salad

7 cups torn romaine lettuce

2 packages (9 oz each) frozen fully cooked chicken breast strips (not breaded), thawed

1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (about 4 ounces)

1 cup pecan halves (4 oz)

1 quart fresh strawberries quartered (3 cups)

Dressing

1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon sat

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1. In deep 3 quart salad bowl, place half of the lettuce. Layer with chicken, cheese, pecan halves, remaining lettuce and strawberries.

2. In small bowl or glass measuring cup, mix dressing ingredients with wire whisk until well blended. Just before serving, pour dressing over salad.

Refrigerate 4 hours before serving.

You could always purchase a red wine vinaigrette dressing instead of the homemade one.

This recipe was originally in a Betty Crocker Summer Cookbook.

Such a beautiful salad. If you do not have any glass serving bowls you should invest in several, they really add to these awesome salads.

I hope you all try and enjoy these salads.

Have a great summer weekend.

See ya!

30
May
2014

Indiana is not Spain!

categories: Random Thoughts

I was recently visiting one of my favorite blogs and the post of the day was the blogger’s trip with her husband to Spain. The photos were really beautiful.

Seriously, I know I will probably never be able to go to Spain. It is not in our budget or something we think about doing in the simple life we lead.

But…….I was able to get away for a few days with my husband to beautiful Rising Sun, Indiana, on the Ohio River. My sister and her husband joined us as well.

I would like to share some of the special moments of our jaunt……

— We were all sitting outside on a really pleasant evening just talking about this and that, and the talking led to laughing, the uncontrollable kind of laughing we always did as children. We laughed until we cried! Remember?

— I took a “selfie” of all of us! Only my second one in my life. They seem kinda silly to older folks, until you take part in one. What fun!I

— I just recently started “Texting” and love it! I can keep in touch with my son during the day, and connect with my dear sweet nieces.

The problem I have is that it takes me forever to complete one line. Constantly touching the wrong key, deleting and typing over and over again.

I have a feature on my phone that allows you to speak into the phone and it will type your message. I tried it! What a hoot!

I spoke into the phone and it never typed what I said, and seemed to pick up what everyone else was saying around me. It was as if it had a mind of its own. When speaking into the phone to complete a “text” to my niece about her father, it ended up saying “he is the fattest”, what the heck, I didn’t say that! Again, we laughed at what the darn thing was typing until we cried. We almost wet our capris!

– As my conversation with my sister continued, we decided to call our brother in New York City. It seemed like the perfect time for us to connect with him. We spoke to each other and all said, “I love you, and miss you so much”. We are criers, and after we hung up, our eyes were filled with tears. Denny is a lovely person, so very dear to us. He is the baby of the three of us.

Rising Sun, Indiana is not Spain, but I wouldn’t trade the moments we shared together that evening for a trip anywhere.

What a joyful time for all of us!

24
May
2014

Wow Them! How to Carve a Watermelon Basket

categories: Simple Recipes

Are you going to a cookout, picnic, or family get together this Memorial Day weekend?

I thought I would share something fun and easy to do that always wows everyone!

A watermelon basket filled with beautiful, colorful, fruit.

Here are the 4 steps that are easy to follow.

Step 1 – Place watermelon width-wise on a flat surface. Roll melon until it settles into a position where it remains stable or cut a thin slice from the bottom to provide stability. As shown, use strips of masking tape to mark lines of handle and rim of basket.

Step 2 – With a sharp knife, cut outline of handle, using outside edges of masking tape as a guide. To make a scallop template, cut out a paper circle with scissors. (The size of the melon determines the size of the circle. The watermelon shown is small so the circle used is relatively small.) Fold circle in half and cut along fold. Starting on either side of handle, place the straight edge of one paper semicircle on top edge of masking tape that forms rim. With a sharp pencil, trace a row of scallops along rim, stopping just before reaching ends of melon. At each end, draw remaining scallop freehand, connecting the gap.

Step 3 – Using a sharp knife, cut into the watermelon along the scalloped pencil lines. Next, cut a large wedge from the area on both sides of the handle, leaving about an inch above the scalloped rim. Remove wedge, inserting knife behind the scallops, cut straight down into the melon close to the rind, cutting deep enough to release top part of rim. Lift and discard.

Step 4 – Remove masking tape. Scoop out watermelon from rind. For a fruit basket, add a mixture of fresh fruit combined with watermelon cut into one-inch cubes or melon balls. I have never been able to make the watermelon balls so I always cut into cubes.

The finished look is really awesome.

Happy Holiday weekend, now go wow everyone with your carving talents!

22
May
2014

Our New Swimming Pool!

categories: Uncategorized

Summer is beginning and the temperatures in Ohio are rising! Near 90 this weekend.

As I have mentioned before, we are on a budget, and really cannot afford to waste money, but we wanted a pool to sit by, have a few drinks, and cool off. Well, today we found it!

It is a round one, above ground, and very colorful!

Here it is…………………………………..

Don’t you just love it?

We have plans to sit in our lounge chairs, with our pool in the center, spraying us, and keeping us cool.

We can move it here and there, and it is low maintenance too!

We are not young but we are so excited with our purchase. Who says it’s just for kids! We will always be young at heart.

Oh, did I mention the price? It was $12.88 at Wal-Mart.

Just blow it up, and add the hose to it!

What fun! I think I will get a new beach towel, and maybe a new swimsuit.

What do you think?

I bet you are putting your shoes on right now and heading to Wal-Mart!

Happy summer, stay cool!

Remember………..

20
May
2014

This is How my Garden Grows!

categories: Uncategorized

I spent my entire day outside in my yard.

There really is something so peaceful about working in the dirt with plants.

My garden gloves look as tired as I am right now!

I potted flowers today, some are really beautiful. Take a look!

This is a fern, so light and airy, in fact it is called an “air fern”.

This is a larger variety of dahlia. So beautiful!

This is an indoor plant called Hoya. I have brought it outside now that the weather is warm. I pampered it all winter. I can see it loves the warm weather as much as I do! It is really growing.

This is a flowering bush that has been in my yard for years. Sorry, I do not know the name.

This is a vinca vine. It comes back and multiplies every year. I love the variegated look.

My rhododendrons are blooming, so happy that they made it through the really harsh winter.

And finally geraniums, I potted many today, to put here and there.

Hope you enjoyed the stroll around my yard.

Time for this old lady to get a shower and a nap!

See you all tomorrow! Be happy, and get outside if you can.

When I write in my journal tonight I will write how thankful I am for this fun working day!

19
May
2014

5 – Minute Birdbath!

categories: Uncategorized

On my post from Saturday, I told everyone about my stacks and stacks of old magazines that I was sorting through. I shared some ideas and articles, well, here is one that I tried today. It is from a Country Gardens magazine article from 2001.

This is so simple, after you get the correct size pots, it actually takes less the 5 minutes to assemble. Here is the one that I made today!

The article suggests using one 16″ and one 12″ pot for the base. I already had a 10″ and 12″, so I used those and just had to buy the large saucer, which is 12″, found at Home Depot.

So simple and I love the terra-cotta look.

All I need now is to add water and wait for some visitors to stop by for a drink!

Hope you take 5 minutes and have fun putting one of these in your garden!

18
May
2014

A Perfect Day to Blow Bubbles!

categories: Uncategorized

Finally, a beautiful day!

In the upper 60’s today and full sunshine.

I have been wanting, once again in my life, to work on “Bubble Art”.

So much fun for kids on a sunny day and a project that will certainly be welcomed this summer.

All you need is a bottle of bubbles, with wand, some food coloring, and paper. I used pastel food colors. but the primary colors would be more vibrant.

I put around three tablespoons of bubbles, with a few drops of food coloring, in small bowls. You can experiment with the amounts for the look you want.

Simply blow bubbles on the paper. As the bubbles pop, they create fascinating works of art. The designs that you get are really awesome. The bubbles hit the paper in so many different ways which causes all the many designs.

I used a $1.00 pack of children’s watercolor paper (Target). It works best and dries faster.

Pick a warm sunny day so the kids can do this outside, since the food coloring stains.

The works of art could be framed, and given as gifts, I used an inexpensive frame from Michael’s Crafts that already came with the mat.

You might even have the kids sign the right hand corner of their original artwork before framing for a really special touch.

How proud your kids or grandchildren will be if their artwork is framed and displayed for all to see and enjoy!

You could also use some of the bubble art to make note cards. I cut the sheets in half and folded over to make the cards, that simple!

Tie with ribbon, add some envelopes, and you have another sweet gift using the kid’s artwork.

You could also use any cut off pieces to make gift tags, or bookmarks, again a gift made from your kid’s bubble art.

I stamped sayings on the samples above, but the kids could print something on the tags making them extra special.

This is a kid’s art project, but the fun I had doing this today made me realize that I may never grow up!

Go outside and blow some bubbles and be a kid again!

17
May
2014

Another Rainy Day!

categories: Uncategorized

This has been a gloomy weather week.

On and off rain, storms, and dark skies, only a little sunshine now and then.

Too wet to work outside so I decided to go to my long list of “things to do”, picking this as the one to work on today……..

I have mentioned my love of old books, especially children’s, well, it probably won’t surprise you that I also love magazines.

There are so many stacks in my basement that it really is getting out of control. I feel like one of those folks you see on the show “Hoarders”! If you have never seen the show it is about folks that never throw anything away to an extreme!

I started early with my cup of coffee in hand, sat down and began what turned out to be such an adventure. I found magazines dating back over 20 years.

As I paged through each one I found really amazing articles, craft ideas, recipes, and gardening tips. It was as if I had found a buried treasure!

There was a wonderful article about Golden Books in an old Mary Engelbreit’s, Home Companion, dated 2001.

Found yummy recipes, this one from a Country Living, 2004 magazine.

I sorted, and went through each one in my stack, deciding to clip out the articles, pictures, etc., that I just had to save. I now have a stack of clippings to organize, but that’s for another time!

I only managed to get through about 1/3 of my first batch. I guess I will wait for another day I think it’s going to rain to get through the next stack!

That reminds me of a song that I love, “I Think it’s Going to Rain Today”, by Randy Newman, it really is so good, take a listen. It is being sung by Norah Jones.

Enjoy!

15
May
2014

“Jenny’s Potatoes”

categories: Simple Recipes

Today I am sharing a potato recipe, “Jenny’s Potatoes”.

I call it that because Jenny gave me the recipe!

I never make anything fancy, only simple recipes that are deliciously good, and easy to make.

Ingredients:

8 or 9 potatoes (boiled)

1lb. American Cheese (I have used Colby)

1 medium onion (chopped)

1/2 lb bacon (cooked) crisp

1 medium jar of olives (I do not add the olives, Jenny likes them, I do not!)

1 cup mayonnaise

Directions:

Boil potatoes in skins, peel and chop, cube cheese, chop onions, and mix these with the mayonnaise.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Put in a 9 x 13 pan, I use a glass one!

Slice olives on top, crumble bacon on top.

Bake at 350 degrees, covered 20 minutes, uncovered 30 minutes.

Serves: Lots!

Hope you try this recipe, you won’t be disappointed.

So good with burgers. Yummy!

Enjoy!

12
May
2014

Broken Pots!

categories: Uncategorized

Been working in my yard planting a few flowers here and there!

I am not the most knowledgeable gardener but, I love flowers, and the color they bring to a home and yard.

When going through my little “potting bench” getting ready for the new one my son is working on for me, I had a stack of broken clay pots. Not all of them were really bad, some had cracks, some missing just the bottom, so this is what I came up with to still use them.

I planted this pot partially in the ground with the broken side down, and added plants to the soil as if the pot is on it’s side. I love the look in my little garden.

I used this one in a somewhat shaded area using a begonia and a vine. It should be beautiful as it grows. I will give you an update in a few weeks.

If you have some broken pots, why not try this idea instead of throwing them away!

So simple!

Happy Gardening!

Month: May 2014

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