Corned Beef & Cabbage

Kathleen at Cuisine Kathleen is hosting a bit of the Irish food fest. So I decided to join in by offering this simple Corned Beef & Cabbage how to. I’m looking forward to cooking this up tomorrow for our meal tomorrow night! An early Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!

When Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, ’tis like the morn in Spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.

I’m combining this post with Three or More Tuesday that Tam at The Gypsy’s Corner hosts each week. I think the regular clover qualifies for 3 and the three vegetables I include in the Corned Beef and Cabbage qualify, too!

 

I bought the flat cut corned beef brisket seasoned in a package with an extra spice packet enclosed. I covered the brisket with water and brought to a boil with a couple onions quartered. After it came to a boil, I lowered the flame to simmer and let it simmer for a couple of hours. I pulled the meat out and added the cabbage, potatoes, and carrots and simmered the veggies until they were done. Put the meat back in the pot till I was ready to serve it. It has always turned out great but I really do notice the difference between the flat cut and the cheaper cut…

Don’t forget to click over to Kathleen’s to see all all the celebration posts around… and don’t forget the Guinness!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

 

Birthday Dinner at the Tam O’Shanter in Los Angeles

First off I’d like to thank you all for your sweet comments and prayers for me on my birthday. It really meant a lot for me to read them. God used them to encourage me and to bless me. I cherish my bloggy friends, those I’ve never met and those of you I have had the privilege of meeting and spending time with.

For dinner on my birthday we drove into Los Angeles just East of Griffith Park on Los Feliz to the Tam O’Shanter Restaurant, an Icon in Los Angeles. The Tam O’Shanter has been serving good food with great service since 1922. The restaurant has a Scottish influence with Robert Burns donning the walls and waitresses wearing plaid with a Tam O’Shanter on their heads.

 

This restaurant does traditional very well. Their quality and service have not degenerated over the years. We were very pleased with the food and service.

 

We both decided to go with the food that made the restaurant famous their prime rib, mashed potatoes, gravy, Yorkshire pudding, creamed corn and creamed spinach! We enjoyed the fresh and creamed horse radish, too.

 

We were treated to the Tam O’Shanter’s famous Chocolate Souffle for our dessert and the manager sent along a little pitcher of hot fudge sauce that was such a treat for us because it was from the famous C.C. Brown’s of Hollywood that Dear and I used to drive miles to just to enjoy their hot fudge sundaes. They were located on Hollywood Blvd. just down from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. What a fun memory. C.C. Brown’s has closed its doors but the Lawrey’s chain that owns the Tam O’Shanter bought the rights to the Hot Fudge. We split the lovely souffle in two and loaded it with the whip cream and hot fudge sauce! Oh my was that a lovely end to a wonderful meal.

 

C.C. Brown’s began in 1906 in downtown Los Angeles where Clarence Clifton Brown invented the Hot Fudge Sauce. In 1929 he moved the business to Hollywood, where it existed in its original form until the summer of 1996. C.C. Brown’s moved to its long-term location at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard at a time when two major landmarks –Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel — had not long been built.

 

Here we are at the restaurant ready to dig into our amazing souffle! See the lovely flowers? Willow dropped these off to my condo before we left for the restaurant. Clever girl she bought 5 deep pink and 8 light pink Gerbera Daisies to celebrate my 58 years. Thank you Willow.

On the way home from our wonderful time at the restaurant we talked about God’s love and how we, because of His love, offer our love to each other and to all the people God puts in our path. We are called to love. Can we really love too much??? I don’t think so. I pray that I’ll be able to increase in my love for others this new year…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Blue Monday ~ Mussels

My Blue Monday is from an early morning walk at low tide on Saturday the 14th. Many rocks were exposed that are usually covered with water so we got to see a lot of interesting sea life. These mussels looked blue to me :0)

 

To see more Blue Monday posts visit Smiling Sally the brain child for this fun Monday activity. Enjoy your week everyone…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Metamorphosis Monday ~ Bathroom

Our Metamorphosis this week is all about the bathroom. We have one bathroom in our Condo. The sink area is separate from the shower and toilet. There are no cabinets in the shower/toilet area. We decided the space above the toilet could be used to our advantage for some more storage.

Here’s what the wall above and around the toilet looked like before. (It is very hard to get good photos in this small space)

Here is Dear at the beginning of the project. We bought this upper Kitchen Cabinet from the Home Depot. It is part of their standard stock items.

It fits and is ready to add the shelves and the doors. We get three shelves of space in this new cabinet.

The doors are on but we’re thinking we need some hardware to make it easier to open the cupboard.

Now we’re getting there. We decide at this point a little shelf would be nice to tie this space together better.

We found a shelf and started experimenting with decor to add to the shelf. Attempt #1…something is not right.

Attempt #2 after finding these 3 matching plates at the Goodwill for $3.00.

I like this look a lot better than attempt #1.

While we were at it we decided these green towels really didn’t go with our wall color.  Truth be told I do not like to dry myself with a towel that has a large decorative pattern on it that is not terry cloth. So we switched out the fancier towels for plain white towels and I like the look a lot better especially now that we have the white cabinet and shelf added.

Susan At Between Naps on the Porch is the hostess for this weekly Metamorphosis Monday. Head on over and see lots of before and afters. Enjoy your Monday everyone.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

You Shine ~ Worship

 

You Shine

Why should I feel mad,
When You made the heavens?
Why should I be afraid,
When You put the stars in place?
Why should I lose heart,
When I know how great You are?
Why should I give up,
When Your plans are full of love?

You Shine,
Brighter than the brightest star!
Your Love,
Purer than the purest heart!
You Shine,
Filling us with courage and strength
To follow You!

In this world we will have trouble,
But You have overcome the world!
You have overcome the world…!

You Shine,
Brighter than the brightest star!
Your Love,
Purer than the purest heart!
You Shine,
Filling us with courage and strength
To follow You!
You Shine,
Brighter than the brightest star!
Your Love,
Purer than the purest heart!
You Shine,
Filling us with courage and strength
To follow You!

You—- Shine—-,(oh Lord! oh Lord give us courage,
give us courage and strength, to follow you!)
You—- Shine—-! (to the ends of the earth! oh Lord! oh Lord!
We’re gonna follow, we’re gonna follow You!)

~Brian Doerksen

58 Years Ago Today!

Today we are taking a walk on the beach at Dawn.

After our early walk we’ll stop at Allison’s in Ventura for breakfast.

Later in the day we have dinner reservations at Tam O’Shanter in Los Angeles.

I’m thankful to God for his hand on my life all these 58 years. He is good to ellen b.  I love Him in return and hope to learn to love and appreciate my God and Savior more this new year he is giving me…

Blessings on your Saturday!

Friday the Thirteenth!

 

These shots were both taken before the sun  was up the morning of the 11th and 12th of March but I thought they would be fun to post on Friday the 13th.

Hope your Friday the 13th is going well! Enjoy your weekend…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

It’s Mostly About Food Glorious Food…

 

So here we are at the end of another week looking back at some favorites we all experienced. Susanne at Living to Tell the Story is the hostess for this weekly event.

Funny but most of my favorites this week are food, food, food. It’s a wonder I can still fit into some of my clothes.

 

1. Oh how I love it when the Fresh from the fields Strawberry Stands open in Southern California. I got a box from my favorite stand this week and they were so fresh and delicious…

2. My family really enjoys artichokes! I made some for my kids when I was in Seattle and decided to treat Dear and I to some when I got back to Southern California. Oh so good! Dear likes to dip his in traditional Mayonnaise. I like to dip mine very gingerly into Ranch dressing. My kids like to dip them into Italian dressing.

3. A new favorite I’ve bought a couple times now from Trader Joe’s is their Chimichurri Rice with Vegetables. Oh how I love the flavor of this dish and the spicy zing!  We had it as a side with our Barbecued Salmon last night and my taste buds were so happy.

4. When I was at Costco this week I was excited to see Clam Chowder in their frozen section from The Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach. Dear and I had some at the cafe when we were in Pismo Beach and this brought back some good memories. I couldn’t resist and bought some for a meal soon.

5. The last item is not food. I have been looking for a container of some sort to put my different tea-bags in so I don’t have to open 6 boxes every time I’m serving tea for Bible Study. I found this cute ceramic napkin holder at T.J. Maxx that works just right for me!

Ok I have an extra favorite and it’s not food!

I have really enjoyed The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter series by Susan Wittig Albert! The library found me the latest in series and I’m excited to read it.

To see more favorites or to join in visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Let the Celebrations Begin…

 

I’ve never been one to shy away from celebrations and since I’m not getting any younger I decided that I need more than one day to celebrate. Now Lovella is enjoying her Jubilee year and that deserves a whole year of celebrating but for my 58th year I’m claiming the next 60 days to celebrate. That way I’ll get to celebrate with my kids, too, when we go to Seattle for Easter. My celebrations will culminate with Mother’s Day!

My actual birthday is March 14th and this year it happens to be National Pi Day I found that out from The Scrabblequeen Knits, too. And she also let me know it’s Albert Einstein’s birthday! With all this excitement happening this weekend I decided I needed to get a jump on my celebrations so I don’t get overlooked.

 

Dear is already treating me royally (what a guy). He ordered me a new SLR camera that is arriving sometime next week. He made reservations for dinner on my birthday at  Tam O’ Shanter in Los Angeles. My niece Michelle and Ryan have been going here for special occasions and we’ve been wanting to try it since it comes highly recommended. Michelle posted about the restaurant here.

Hmmm, Willow’s birthday is on St. Patrick’s Day so maybe I’ll suggest to her we do a little something next Tuesday to celebrate both our birthdays…

 

Next Wednesday my daughter Katie arrives for a week to visit us and attend a wedding of one of her friends from Wheaton College. On that Wednesday my extended family is getting together for a bring in Chinese Dinner at my sister’s house in Whittier. (Everyone who comes will bring a take-out Chinese dish of their choice for us all to share.) My mom is baking a cake to celebrate my birthday and my SIL Letty’s birthday that night. How sweet it is. Sometimes it’s hard for us all to get together so we don’t have any problem with combining celebrations when we can get together.

 

And just so all this celebrating doesn’t go to my head I’ll continue my daily chores and I’ll keep exercising and I’ll make it a point to share the love with other people around me and treat them to some fun, too. But most importantly I’ll remember the One who gives me all good things to enjoy. Thank you Lord!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Foodie Friday

One of my favorite signs of Spring is when the Local Strawberry stands open selling Strawberries straight from the fields.

 

This was a fun dessert I put together for my kids one evening. I bought the Belgium Chocolate cups from the local grocery store. Then I whipped up some instant vanilla pudding. I filled the cups with the pudding and flared a strawberry for the top of each cup. Fun, fast, easy dessert. Enjoy…

Oops! Just found out this is suppose to be an Irish Foodie Friday so I’m adding this last minute Irish.

 

To see lots of Foodie posts visit Gollum at Designs by Gollum by clicking the Foodie badge.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.