Lazy Sunday Afternoons

You know...the nice thing about  late fall/winter/early spring are  the lazy Sundays. 
I LOVE Lazy Sunday afternoons!

Even if we did go to church, (which we did)  the afternoons are long and lazy.  Around here it's too cold to do much .....and I love the feeling of lazy Sundays.  Coffee cups and newspapers laying around,  maybe a movie in the afternoon, or a walk (because today the sun is shining and there are blue skies above), both of us reading books in big overstuffed chairs,  playing a game of cards together, baking, cooking,  wonderful kitchen smells.

Okay, I'm sounding kind of old.   Coffee cups and newspapers?  But it's true!   I don't feel the need to pick up on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Now in the summer, it's a different feel altogether.   I'm going to enjoy these last few  'winter' Sunday afternoons, because they be gone soon enough.

I am glad to see the time change ---even if it means losing an hour of sleep once a year.  We almost gained an hour tho.  The Handyman set our clocks BACK an hour before going to sleep instead of forward.   We are lucky to be early risers, and caught on real quick.

I had so much to say....or I thought I did, and now I can't think of anything.
Let's see...

I read  "A Good American" by Alex George while I was in Arizona.  It was a good book.

I am doing a read along this month---Little Women--with  Jill at Fizzy Thoughts.

I signed up to receive a newsletter (email) called "Bloggers Recommended"   ( Bloggers Recommend is the brainchild of veteran book bloggers Jen of Devourer of Books and Nicole of Linus’s    Blanket.)
It is pretty self explanatory  right?    I will receive an email that recommends great books by other bloggers.  (you can too---just check it out)

I just got back from Arizona where I visited my son and his family.
(we visited the Phoenix Botanical Gardens.  It was so beautiful!  Those are glass sculptures there.  The light green ones are Chihuly glass.)

The best words ever are  "Gramma, you are my best friend"
(I LOVE being a best friend)

The sweetest smell ever is:   (most of the time anyway)

I had a wonderful time.
It's  Fish tacos for supper tonight.   My daughter in law made them for me while I was down in Phoenix.  There were so good.   I hope I can recreate her meal.  It was Yum-MEE!!

On the way home this weekend (from the airport--we live  162 miles from an airport, and that many miles from a book store also)  , I made the Handyman stop at a bookstore.  I wasn't going to buy anything, (I have a HUGE TBR pile at home),  BUT- I had just read an essay from an author who prides himself on having always purchases something from every bookstore he's ever entered.  (my hero)  and when I told the  Handyman I wasn't going to get anything, he said "why not?"  (and he  KNOWS how big my TBR pile is!!)  So I felt obligated to buy a couple of books.
This is what I got this past week:

I'm going to go cook or read or maybe take a walk.  I'm crazy like that on lazy Sunday afternoons!

Saturday Snapshot

It's me---back from Arizona, and yes, I did make it to the Botanical Gardens.

As we walked thru the garden trails, we saw various sculptures by different artists.  It made for a very interesting little hike.

Here is a picture of a sculpture by Carolina Escobar.   

It looks so bizarre to me....this unique (I can't say weird, because it's all in the eye of the beholder ) sculpture of a...snail (?) in the middle of the Arizona desert.

I liked it, but it was so startling coming upon something like this as you are enjoying native plants and cactus.

I think this looks like an alien.

I am linking to At Home With Books and all the other bloggers who do a Saturday Snapshot.

I'll be back later with more pictures from my trip,  and a few thoughts on books.

Pork and Beans

As you are reading this right now, I am really in  Phoenix, Arizona visiting my son and his family, and my newest grandson, Christopher.  And hopefully, we are at the Spring Butterfly Exhibit at the Phoenix Botanical Gardens, where a butterfly is sitting on my hand sipping nectar from a cup.
But because of the magic of modern technology,  I wrote this on Sunday afternoon and am  scheduling it to post on Thursday.

It is Thursday, isn't it?

On Thursday, I will be feeling a bit melancholy because I'll have to go home and leave my sweet little grandchildren behind.  BUT, I'll also be tired, I know. They have such energy, that I can't keep up.
We will have gone to the Bookstore, made cookies,  seen the butterflies, played endless games and I can't wait!

I'll be leaving my poor husband behind, where he will have to fend for himself for supper,except for the night he has these left over pork and beans.

Pork and Beans?  Well, kind of.  It is pork and there are beans....it's just not what came to your mind when  you read pork and beans, is it?  It is pork ribs--and beans.  (this dish might be good if you used pork chops too)
My friend Brenda, who used to have a food blog called 'Brenda's Canadian  Kitchen' posted this once and  we've enjoyed it many times since. 
It's an easy, crock-pot meal.  ( I'm vowing to use my crock-pot more often because last week  I had cold cereal two times for supper while the Handyman had some frozen burritos one night and a peanut butter sandwich the next. )  And it was good.  And very simple. I said that already, didn't I?  Easy, simple--they mean the same thing.
These are spicy and tender and the beans do not turn to mush, which is what I thought would happen the first time I made them.
The recipe says   to use  SMOKING HOT HABANERO sauce.  I cannot do that.  If you like tons of  'hot' spice, you really should use it because that is what the original recipes calls for.  While I like a teeny bit of spice, I usually have to temper it with the sweet, so I found a great  SWEET AND SPICY sauce that we love.  Just use your favorite.
This is a classic meat and beans dish.

Slow Cooked Smokin' Habanero Beans and Ribs      
Or.... just plain old Pork and Beans.
from Brenda's Canadian Kitchen

2 racks baby back pork ribs, about  3 lbs.
3 cups of PC Tequila Habanero BBQ Sauce  (or your favorite BBQ Sauce.  I used Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet and Spicy, because, I was afraid of the Habanero )
3 19oz cans white kidney beans or cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

Cut rack of ribs into 2 or 3 rib pieces. Place in a bowl and toss with 1 cup of BBQ sauce.

In the bottom of a slow cooker, stir together rinsed and drained beans and 1 cup of BBQ sauce.  Place ribs on top of beans.  Pour the remaining 1 cup sauce over it all.

Cover, set slow cooker to HIGH and cook for 6 hours.  Mine are usually done just the way we like them at around 5.5 hours.

When done, transfer ribs to a serving platter, drain the beans in a colander, discarding liquid.


Enjoy!

Carrot Cookies

These are a great little cookie that my friend Sally makes.  
She gave me the recipe with this note on top:

Remember---this recipe is 1960's Iowa.  You DO NOT have to use shortening.
When I brought these to church, I used a cream cheese frosting.

So..when I made them at home, I did use the shortening and used the orange butter icing.  I love the taste of orange in things.
I didn't really 'frost' them either, but rather, just dropped a spoonful of icing on top.  You can see the little orange zest flecks if you look close enough.  You can also see bits of carrot in the cookie that didn't get mashed well enough.

These cookies are so good---I love them.  They aren't that sweet,  kind of like a scone, but much more moist than that.  The carrots keep them moist and soft.  If you didn't frost them tho,  they aren't going to appease your sweet tooth. You  have to make them and frost them and get a book  (by the way,  A Good American is a really good read)  a cup of hot coffee,  and then bliss.
Either frosting you choose is good.  I first had these at church when Sally made them with a cream cheese frosting, but the original recipe comes with the butter orange icing, so whatever your choice is fine.

Carrot Cookies with Orange Butter Icing
1 cup shortening 
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup carrots, cooked and mashed
2 cups flour
2 eggs
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3/4 cups shredded coconut (optional)

Mix shortening, sugar, eggs and carrots. Blend in flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir in the coconut. 
Bake at 350F  for  8-10 minutes.
Cool and frost.

Orange Butter Icing
3 T. soft butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 t. grated orange peel 
1 T. orange juice

Blend the butter and powdered sugar. Stir in orange peel/zest and juice.  Beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency.

February Recap

I've never done a recap before, so this is a first.

I read 8 books in February.
1 was audio
1 was for a book club
6 were for pleasure  (of course, they are all fun, aren't they?)

       Loved this one, and interestingly,  the Iditarod began yesterday.

This one was a book club choice  (for one of my 4 book clubs)  I am glad I read it.  It brought to light many facts about Alzheimer's that I wasn't' aware of.

This was my least favorite read of the month.  It was good, just not great for me.

I did love this book too.  It was very confusing at first, but then I got into a reading rhythm and I just loved it.

           This was my favorite read of the month.  but I was also deeply disturbed by a choice made of one of the characters in the book.  Great read tho!

This audio book was GREAT.   Loved the story and the narrator.

     This was  a heartbreaking wonderful book.  About a woman, wife, mother, with early on-set Alzheimer's. 

This series is pretty new and new to me. This is the 2nd in the series.  I love it.

That's my list!  And I'm sticking to it.

In other Sunday news...I'm leaving tomorrow to go visit my new grandson.   Off to Arizona, where the weather should be nice.
It's raining here today and we have a fire in the fireplace.   A good---no, not good--but a PERFECT afternoon to read a book.
See ya.

Can't Leave "Em Alone Bars

  These are the most simple bars to make ever!  And good too.   

I made a pan of them yesterday,  gave a few to my son and daughter-in-law, took a few more to our friends, ate a couple, and we still have half a pan full.  So, tonight I'll take some to other friends when we go over there to eat supper, because if I didn't...I really couldn't leave them alone.

And that would not be a good thing.

Can't Leave 'Em Alone Bars
from my friend Letty Norcutt


1 box white cake mix
2 whole eggs
1/3 cups oil
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cups butter

In a bowl, combine the dry cake mix, eggs and oil.  Press 2/3 of the mixture into a greased  9x13 pan. Set the remaining mixture aside.
Combine milk, chocolate chips and butter--cook and stir until melted and smooth.  Pour the mixture of the crust.  
Drop small spoonfuls of the remaining cake mixture over the top.
Bake at  350F  for  19 minutes or until lightly browned.  
Do not over bake!  
The middle is supposed to stay soft.

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce from  At Home With Books.

It's a fun weekly meme where you get to show off your photos, old or new  (but they must be yours).  It's just a fun way to share.

So....here is what I'm sharing today.

My granddaughter was a flower girl in her Grammy's wedding in November.  (her other grandma) 

It was a  2nd wedding for both, and they didn't want anything big and elaborate.  As a personal spin, the entire wedding party consisted of their grandchildren  (there were  7 children under 4) and their 2 youngest daughters to be witnesses.

2 of those grandchildren also happen to be my grandchildren.

okay, enough back-story.

This is my granddaughter Emerson, on the right, and her cousin Hannah on the left.

We were just busy snapping pictures and when we went back and looked, we thought these were the cutest ever!

We wonder what Hannah was saying to Emmy? 

It must have been something good tho!

Isn't it adorable?  (the bad thing is that the camera was focusing on the leaves in the foreground  so  the picture of the girls is fuzzy if you try to enlarge it much)

Wait!  I can't leave Eli out of this--I said I had two grandchildren in the wedding, right?

The little groomsmen.  

My grandson Eli (the first one with his sign,  Here Comes) took his job very seriously. 

His cousins, who were both younger than him, made it down the aisle,  but the pressure of standing up there for the whole wedding was too much for them, so they gave up the wedding party and went to sit with their parents. 

Or other things....

Little Charlie gave up his groomsmen position to come see what the flower girls were doing.  

 Not so, Eli.  He stood in his spot for the entire ceremony.  This wasn't his first rodeo.  He was a ring bearer when he was 2.

Loved, loved, loved the  "family" feel of this wedding.  

One more family member before I go...

...my daughter-in-law preformed  the wedding ceremony  (She's a Methodist Minister), which was very special.

But still....look at the girls.  Checking out each other's necklaces was much more interesting than listening to the ceremony.

Oh yes, and the wedding was Skyped  to some family who couldn't be there.

(the brides parent's, the minister's  grandparents and the flower girls great-grandparents.) 

It's a new world.   (well, from when I was younger anyway)

 You can be there, even if you can't be there.