JUST SIMPLE SOMETHINGS: August 2010

~ Curried Cranberry Chicken Salad ~

Curried Cranberry Chicken Salad

3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons lime juice
3/4 teaspoon curry powder
2 cups cooked, cubed chicken
1 meduim apple - cut in chunks
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons thin sliced green onion

Combine mayonnaise, lime juice and curry powder in a bowl and add all other ingredients. You can use as salad or use for sandwiches.
{You should double for sandwiches.}

Suzy

Weekly words to live by...

"Unless each day

can be looked back upon by an individual

as one in which he has had some fun,

some joy, some real satisfaction,

that day is a loss."

photos by Suzy

Please join us over at Tracey's blog for more words of wisdom!

Stylin'...

How do you like my snazzy new lunch tote?

Brown bagger no more.

It's a fashionable purse-like bag for carrying your lunch and it's made by Sachi. Check out these other styles...

{ left-click for a detailed view }

A collapsible handle makes it easy to store, and it wipes clean with a damp cloth. This lunch tote is fully insulated to keep food hot or cold and is available in a variety of colorful patterns.

There's a bag to coordinate with every outfit.

Amazon.com. - just $18.99 !!

~ Mosaic Monday ~

Summer is winding down..........

I'm joining in over at "Little Red House" for mosaic Monday!
Why don't you stop by?

Weekly words to live by...

I believe in love and hope,

in jamming out by yourself

in the car.

I believe in having someone tell you that you're beautiful...

dancing in the rain and miracles...

I believe in smiling until

your cheeks hurt

and laughing until you cry.

author unknown

Join us over at Tracey's place!

{ Garden junk }

I just love finding some old worn out junk to give a second life to in the flower bed!

An old chair...a mirror with a worn frame...last year I put two old stained-glass windows in the flower bed.
I 've carted those windows around from state to state, through nine moves.

Here's some examples I've found:

Well-worn garden tools fastened together into a teepee for climbing plants. How about this gate?

A large terra-cotta saucer atop a tomato cage serving double-duty as a birdbath and trellis for climbing vines.

This old wire garden fence moves up in life. By fastening it to the porch soffit, the fence serves both as a trellis for climbers and as architectural interest on an older home.

This old drawer attached to a bed footboard becomes an adorable "window box" planter with very little work or money.

I love how the owner used old plates to make an edging for the flower bed!

all photos - BHG

Tell me about " your garden junk " !!

Suzy

~ Weekly words to live by ~

Smile at each other, smile at your wife,
smile at your husband,smile at your children,
smile at each other { it doesn't matter who it is } and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.

-Mother Teresa

Join us over at Tracey's blog for more words of wisdom!

Friday the 13th...Bah Humbug!

The fear of Friday the 13th
is called friggatriskaidekaphobia, frigga, meaning "Friday ... 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by a fear of this day.

LEGEND HAS IT: Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams.
Don't start a trip on Friday or you will have misfortune.
If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow.
It is believed that spilling salt brings bad luck. To undo the bad effects of spilled salt one is advised to throw some salt over the shoulder to prevent bad spirits from following him.
Most U.S. buildings mislabel their 13th floor. The same strategy often applies to hospitals, city streets and air travel.
Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck – as in the tale of H.M.S. Friday ... One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell once and for all the widespread superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned, named "H.M.S. Friday."
They laid her keel on a Friday,
launched her on a Friday,
selected her crew on a Friday
and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain.
To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday,
and was never seen or heard from again.

Hogwash.....I don't believe in luck, good or bad and all this seems very exhusting to me ...trying to stay lucky.

Quick Streusel Cake

Mix together:

1 pkg. Duncan Hines yellow cake mix

1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding

Add:
2 tbsp. oil
1 1/3 c. water
2 eggs

STREUSEL MIX:

1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 cup ground nuts
2 tbsp. melted butter
2 teas. Of cinnamon

1/2 c. raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In large bowl blend cake mix, pudding mix.

Add oil, water, eggs.

Beat for 2 minutes.

Spread 3/4 of batter evenly in greased and floured bundt pan.

Combine streusel mix except raisins. Sprinkle all except 2/3 cup streusel on the cake batter. Spread remaining streusel with 1/2 cup raisins over top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

Cool upright for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and turn top side up to cool completely.

Jack likes this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I’ve been making this cake for forty years and it's always a hit!

~ Weekly words to live by ~

“It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.”

Donald Miller

Join us over at Tracey's blog for more words of wisdom!

And have a good week!

Suzy

Breakfast idea...

I have a bad habit of getting sidetracked when I get up in the morning and I don't eat breakfast. Before I know it, lunchtime rolls around and then I overeat and feel like crap (pardon my French) when I get to work for afternoon shift.

Well, I can across this recipe in Everyday food magazine...

Let me take you back for a minute.

Remember when you were in Jr. high Home Ec. class and your first cooking project was making "Toad - in - the - hole " ? ( that title sounds real appetizing to a kid, I can see the eye rolling now). This is a variation on the recipe. Instead of fried bread slices, sweet bell pepper is used to hold the egg. Then It's served on multi-grain toast. I tried it this morning and it was good. I liked the flavor of the red pepper with the egg. I didn't have any multi-grain bread, so I used an english muffin.

2 teaspoons of olive oil
1 bell pepper ( any color cut into 1/2 inch rings)
4 large eggs
salt and pepper
2 teaspoons parmesan cheese
4 slices multi-grain bread
8 cups mixed salad greens

Add oil to skillet over medium heat. Add bell pepper, then crack one egg into each pepper ring. Season with salt and pepper. and cook until whites are mostly set and yokes are still runny, 2 or 3 minutes. Gently flip and cook 1 minute more for over easy. sprinkle with cheese and place each egg on a slice of toast.

Serves four - {189 CALORIES}
Optional :
Toss salad greens with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and serve alongside eggs.

Let me know if you give it a try!