Friday Feast #10

Appetizer
What was your first “real” job?

My real job with a regular paycheck was as an office assistant in my senior year of high school. It was at a company called Link-Belt. People still smoked in offices back then and that was tough being in a little area with a smoker. If I remember right I made about $1.35 an hour. Yep I’m old….

Soup
Where would you go if you wanted to spark your creativity?

I’m not an artist. I’m most creative in the kitchen so I would go to kitchen shops, buy good food magazines, and watch Food Network.

Salad
Complete this sentence: I am embarrassed when…

When I make a fool out of myself. Sometimes I’m embarrassed when I cry in public, too. I’m getting over that though since I seem to cry more and more during worship times at church.

Main Course
What values did your parents instill in you?

Honoring God and honoring your parents and your family was big growing up. One other huge thing we learned from my parents was to have people over, feed them, and love them with out expecting reciprocation.

Dessert
Name 3 fads from your teenage years.

Oh boy, oh boy. Memory don’t fail me now! One thing in junior high was to wear suspenders. (1962-1964) Straight leg levis. The surfer image was huge in junior high, too. We used cocoa butter for tanning at the beach and long straight bleached blond hair was really in. (Now we’re all hoping we don’t get skin cancer!)

For more feasting click here.

Friday Show & Tell ~ Chanticleer

Welcome to another Show and Tell Friday. This time I’m showing a fun pitcher that comes from Dear’s mother.

On the bottom of the pitcher it says “Patented Chanticleer USA”

This is where it lives…

For more Show and Tell head over to Kelli’s.

As of June 2017 Photobucket has blacked out all my photos that I had stored there and are holding them hostage. Hopefully I can update my photos on all the posts they have ruined, over 4000 of them.

Thankful Thursday ~ Post #500!!

I’ve been trying to be more disciplined these days and I have set out each morning to walk along the paths of my neighborhood. I’ve put on some “storing up for the winter” weight and because the prospects of eating less over the next month are miniscule I decided I needed to add activity to my day. This has been good and walking alone in the morning hours affords me time to talk with God and to try to memorize my verses for Bible Study. I was struck by all the beautiful paths that I have to walk in and it made me think and be thankful of the way God has led me along the one and only path to Him through His Son Jesus. I am so happy that my 500th post lands on Thankful Thursday. I am truly thankful for how God has led me on His path and that He continues to lead me. So take a walk with me and be thankful for how He leads us in this life we live…

Psalm 119: 105 ~ “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Psalm 25:4 ~ “Make me know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.

Psalm 16:11 ~ “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Proverbs 10:17 ~ “Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads other astray.”

Isaiah 30: 20-21 ~ “And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”

Proverbs 4:18 ~ “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”

Psalm 119:35 ~ “Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.”

Proverbs 3:5,6 ~ “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.”

Psalm 121 ~

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever more.”

For more Thankful Thursday posts click here. Thank you Crystal for hosting…

Caramel Pecan Cookies

Caramel Pecan Cookies

 

Crust:
Ingredients for Basic Butter Cookies, recipe follows
Caramel pecan topping:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups pecans (1/2 pound), toasted, cooled, and coarsely chopped (I bought pecans that were already chopped and roasted at Trader Joe’s)

To make the crust: Grease a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan, then line with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on both ends, and grease foil.
Follow recipe for basic butter cookies to make dough (do not chill), then press dough evenly onto bottom of baking pan, using plastic wrap on top to prevent dough from sticking to your fingers, and chill until firm, about 20 minutes.
While crust chills, put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Bake crust until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 20 minutes. (Leave oven on.)

Basic Butter Cookies:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer (preferably fitted with paddle attachment) or 6 with a handheld. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and mix until just combined

 

To make topping while crust cools: Cook sugar in a 2 1/2 to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, undisturbed, until it begins to melt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork, until sugar is melted to a deep golden caramel. Tilt pan and carefully pour in cream (caramel will harden and steam vigorously). Cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until caramel is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in butter, vanilla, salt, and pecans.
Immediately spread topping over cooled crust and bake until bubbling, about 20 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack, about 2 hours.

 

Run a heavy knife under hot water, then wipe dry and cut confection into 2-inch triangles, diamonds, or squares. Caramel pecan cookies keep, layered between sheets of waxed paper or parchment, in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week.

 

 

Ooey Gooey Good!! Enjoy…

For more Recipe Round-up goodies head over to Semicolon blog.

For more Giving Thanks posts about all things Thanksgiving head over to There’s No Place Like Home.

I’m sharing the love, there are more recipes at Karla’s too.

 

Monarch Butterflies ~ Honeymoon Memories

I’d like to go back to the Butterfly Inn when the Monarch Butterflies are in full residence in this part of California. Dear and I stayed there during our honeymoon in December of 1974. Bottom two photos of this collage.

In all the world, no butterflies migrate like the Monarchs of North America. They travel much farther than all other tropical butterflies, up to three thousand miles. They are the only butterflies to make such a long, two way migration every year. Amazingly, they fly in masses to the same winter roosts, often to the exact same trees. Their migration is more the type we expect from birds or whales. However, unlike birds and whales, individuals only make the round-trip once. It is their children’s grandchildren that return south the following fall.

To read more about the Monarch butterflies in California click here.

 

This is the Butterfly Inn in Pacific Grove, California. When Dear and I stayed there in 1974 we had a little detached 1 room cabin to stay in. It’s been upgraded since then probably a few times but as you can see it’s still pretty low key and quaint.

I’m also inspired to try to get our honeymoon shots from their slide state (negative state) to a disc state!! Has anyone done that and do you have any tips for me???

As of June 2017 Photobucket has blacked out all my photos that I had stored there and are holding them hostage. Hopefully I can update my photos on all the posts they have ruined, over 4000 of them.

Thanksgiving Rhyme ~

Giving Thanks 

 

Thanksgiving
The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest all is gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.
Orchards have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain,
So open wide the doorway~
Thanksgiving comes again!
~Old Rhyme

I’m so looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Dear and I will be traveling to Seattle a week from today to celebrate there with our children and close friends. I’m really thankful for this. Blessings on all your plans.

For Thanksgiving posts with recipes, plans, poems etc. head over to There’s No Place Like Home this week.

Tuesday In Other Words ~

“Love is beautiful, but it is also terrible–terrible in its determination to allow nothing blemished or unworthy to remain in the beloved.”~ Hannah Hurnard ~

Here’s where I went with this quote.

God is love ~

I John 4: 7-10 ~ “Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

God disciplines those He loves ~

Hebrews 12: 5-14 ~ “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had eartly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

Because God is Love in the purest form and His son resides in us we are disciplined so that we can reflect His image to the world and to glorify Him. God’s plan to save us because of His love for us involved the terrible pain of His son on the cross. When we receive this sacrifice for us we become children of God.  As children of God we need to accept the fact that we will suffer in order to be conformed to the image of God. His Firstborn suffered we will suffer, too.

For more In Other Words visit Bonnie at Ink it Blog.

Jackson’s Party ~ #3

Happy Birthday

Jackson!

Michelle made this great cake!

 

Ryan, Michelle and Jackson greeted all the guests…

Aunt Me-me and Jack

Vera, Letty, Tim, and Nick

Tim, Letty and Dear…

 

Jack delighting in the wonder of helium…

 

Taking time to savor each gift…

Watching Jack

 

Ducks  Cars in a row…

Where are we going?

Great Grandma (Baba) and Alice

Steve and Lana G!

Pretty young girls… the 3 M’s

Lovely older girls… Sisters…

Jack and Deb, time for cake!

 

Great grandma and grandpa and Jack! [Baba and Deda].

We had a wonderful time being together. Catching up, encouraging, talking about Jesus. Our evening ended with Deda (Great Grandpa) praying a prayer of thanks to our God for the salvation that He extended to us through Jesus Christ His Son and praying a blessing on his great grandson Jack and praying for our son Josh as he heads to China today. What a wonderful blessing and heritage we have. Then we all sang How Great Thou Art together robustly! Amen!

Hebrews 10:24 ~ “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

As of June 2017 Photobucket has blacked out all my photos that I had stored there and are holding them hostage. Hopefully I can update my photos on all the posts they have ruined, over 4000 of them.

WFMW ~Holiday Shopping Carnival

Ok I’m gonna so cheat this week and use my Holiday Shopping Carnival post for WFMW! Enjoy the shopping tips.

 Chili at Don’t Try this at Home is hosting a Holiday Shopping Carnival. Below are my suggestions for some fun gifts with links to where you can purchase them. Enjoy my little shopping post!

I think every blogger who takes a lot of pictures for their blog with their digital camera needs this great Gorillapod flexible tri-pod! You can order it from Amazon.

Aren’t these napkin rings sweet and festive. You can order them from Sur la Table, one of my favorite kitchen stores.

How practical is this for anyone who drives. Gas prices are crazy and this gas gift card would be something anyone would like. You can get them at your favorite gasoline provider.

 

This one is so much fun. Look at this cake pan and look at the marvelous cake you can make with it! You can order this at Sur la Table under bakeware.

Anyone on your list who has enjoyed Jan Karon’s books will love her latest book if they don’t have it already. Order it from Amazon.

I hope these items will help get your mind working for some creative gift giving this Christmas.

I Timothy 6: 17-19 ~ “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with every thing to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”

To see more WFMW around bloggy world click here.