Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello dear Friends of my heart!

First of all I need to sing out 🎵🎶 Happy Birthday to You🎵🎶 to my sweet Annie boo!! I can't believe this little Pumpkin (& the baby of our family) is 20 years old today. Please hold me. 😢 I need time to slow down!!

But I'm so proud of this young amazing woman and all that she is working towards. I'm especially proud of the wonderful kind, smart, sweet, genuine human she has become. I pray God's blessings over her everyday. 🎂🎉

Did you have a good weekend Friends? Did you celebrate Mother's Day? 

We had a multiple celebration here this weekend. We had my kiddos over and Jill (my son's partner - Annie's bf is in FL), and my Mom and step Dad over. We celebrated Annie's birthday and my step Dad's birthday (his is the 13th) and Mother's Day. 

Matt BBQ'd burgers and I made sides and the cake Annie requested so we had cake and ice cream as well. It was so wonderful having the kiddos around all weekend to play games and visit and catch up on their lives. And to honor my Mom & step Dad too. And of course I'm so happy my Annie is home for the summer! 💗

I had a lovely Mother's Day too and felt so loved and spoiled. Matt and the kids gave me the most beautiful and touching cards (they always make me cry) and gifts. And the sun came out later in the day and we sat out on the deck and soaked it up. And just a little after we came back in the house some baby bears were running around in our back yard! (pics below) 

It was a great weekend as we also went out to dinner one night with Annie, went to church Saturday evening, and then the wonderful family time. It doesn't get better. And now it looks like warm weather is finally going to be in our forecast and I can feel summer in the air.

 Life is good!🙏🏻

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

iced protein coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

spectrum here again as still having some modem or cable lines issues, hospice meeting for education updates, folks coming to give estimates for bathroom reno we are going to do, hang out with my Annie :) 

errands, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

how close it's getting to where I can go pick out flowers and what I want to plant in my little veggie garden - yay!! 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

When my daughter likes to pamper me - like she did this weekend when she did a gel polish job on my nails with a curing light. They turned out so cute...and she used a little tool to make those little summer oranges!

CURRENTLY READING

I received a fun romance book for Mother's Day from Aaron's sweet Jill and I'm excited to dive into that next!

 

But in between I've been reading

The Waiting Place by Eileen Button as well. I just read a chapter a day as almost extra devotional time. It's a group of essays and it's great food for thought and uplifting.

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

  Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother & the office,  Survivor, Outlander,   Ghosts,  Love on the Spectrum (need to finish it)

Matt and I need to go back and finish The Last Kingdom series

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - leftovers (spending part of the day with Annie but she's doing her bday tonight with her dad)

TUESDAY - cardamom french toast (Annie fave) and fruit, bacon

WEDNESDAY -  pasta, garlic bread, salad (another Annie fave)

THURSDAY - maybe leftovers?

FRIDAY - out for dinner?

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

read in the sun, hang with Annie, craft

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

*This is the company that I was talking about when I shared that I had Matt's wedding ring made with materials I picked out. His was made with Koa wood (sacred to Hawaii a place Matt loves so much), and fishing line and gold to match my ring. 

The company started because a husband and wife started it after they did something unique for his wedding band to represent his likes and they got so many comments from people they knew they were on to something. So they decided to start their own company so others could have what they wanted too. You could have car parts, typewriter parts, deer antler - almost anything you can think of that would represent your partner you can pick. They have women's rings too and standard designs not just men's. And you can pick the metal materials too. 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Scenes from a family celebration. There isn't pics of my son because he doesn't always cooperate about them. Lol

My kids always pick out what cake they want me to make. Annie picked a homemade lime cake (I used real lime juice and zest so I added a little food coloring to make it more green) and homemade strawberry buttercream icing. It turned out really well and everyone loved it. It was really tasty. (I'm always so happy when it turns out! Lol) 

I had found a "hello twenty" sign in rose gold and planned the cake decorations around it. Annie collects sonny angel figures and I put a birthday one on the cake and a gold "20" along with spring flowers and butterflies. She told me she loved it so much and was the prettiest cake ever - so I know I did my job well. :) 💗

cake and vanilla bean ice cream (does it get better?😋)

I hope all of her wishes come true! 

And then some baby bears came and played on our hill. I had just been saying to Matt that I was surprised we hadn't seen bear visitors yet. Lol

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace. For healing for Matt's knee. For my in-law's safe travels as they head to the lake from AZ.

For the Lord's love and peace to fill 2026. ❤️ 

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Have and amazing week ahead Friends!

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Cooking Thursday: Pesto Sausage & Orzo Skillet

 

Hello Friends!

I hope you're having a wonderful Friday Eve! Yay for the weekend ahead. I think the weather is supposed to be pretty decent here in the northwoods too. I sure hope so for the sake of a lovely Mother's Day. 

And I'm so excited as our dear Annie is supposed to roll in from college today. Yippeee!! My momma heart is doing a jig of joy. 😊💗

Today I thought I'd share this skillet I kind of made up after seeing some things that were similar on different places in social media. 

It's a pretty straight forward dish and has pesto and some caprese flavors involved. 

Here are the ingredients I used:

1 pack of caprese flavor chicken sausages

a handful of cherry tomatoes (sliced in half)

half of an onion

3 garlic cloves

a carton of chicken stock

1/2 of a small box of orzo (although next time I'd use only about 1/4 of the box or so)

3 big TBSP of pesto

parmesan cheese to taste

I think this is really more of a method and feel free to use the ingredients you prefer (Italian sausage, chicken, different veggies etc) But I started by heating up a big skillet to medium high with some olive oil. I added onion, and the sausages and sauteed a few minutes. Then I added in the garlic and tomatoes and cooked until the tomatoes started to soften up. While you're getting this going fill up a sauce pan with chicken stock and bring to a boil. Then throw in your orzo and cook to package instructions and when done drain and set aside as you continue cooking.

Once everything was getting nice and browned I deglazed the pan with just a little bit of chicken stock. Feel free to do a little wine here instead - whatever you like. I think cooking should be open too interpretation and it should be fun to experiment and play around. 

Once that had reduced a bit and all the flavors were melding I threw in some pesto and some sprinkle parm cheese and mixed it all together.

Then I took the cooked orzo that was set aside and stirred it into the skillet.

 

I drizzled ours with some balsamic glaze and then sprinkled on a bit more parm. We had it with a nice green salad and it was delish! 

Have a wonderful weekend ahead dear Friends. For those Moms that will be celebrating - Happy Mother's Day blessings to you. And for those that struggle with that day, please know you are seen and loved. 😍

It's going to be a busy one once Annie rolls in. I will make the visits to you all as soon as i'm able. 

Enjoy!

xoxo

Cooking Thursday: Spring Rhubarb

 

Hello dear Friends!

It's looking to be a lovely sunny day here in the northwoods. Maybe even get into warmer temps (high 50's low 60's) Spring finally feels like she's slowly showing up. Yay! 🌸☀️

For one moment I need to be a proud Mom and share that our Annie and her college hockey team got a leadership award. She and the current president and captain of her team went up to accept it. Annie is assistant captain and will be president of the team organization next year. She goes to University of South FL (go Bulls!💚) and I'm so proud of the amazing young woman she is becoming. 

Okay, thanks so much for that time out to gush. :) 

Now on to what I wanted to share today, which is.... rhubarb! I always associate rhubarb with the Spring/early Summer. Are you a rhubarb person? I've always loved that it adds a little bitter punch with the sweetness you add to dishes. 

Of course cooking with rhubarb means adding sweetness and I'm not sure if other sweeteners could be used and it would still work the same...but feel free to experiment with that if you want to lower the sugar (try honey, maple syrup, swerve sugars etc)

I had come across this recipe in my recipe box that my Aunt and I came up with quite a few years ago. We called it "Rhubarb Crunch". To be honest it's been so many years since we made it that I don't remember it that well, other than that I thought it was yummy. Here is how we wrote the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

3/4 c. sugar

1 egg

3/4 c. and 3 T. flour (divided)

2&1/2 c. rhubarb (cut up)

1 c. brown sugar

4 T. butter (cold and cubed)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350*

Wash and cut up rhubarb and put into a large bowl. Mix together 3/4 c. sugar, 1 egg and 3 T. flour. Pour over the rhubarb and mix well. Pour into a greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan or pie plate. In another bowl mix brown sugar, flour, and butter with a pastry blender or your hands - to make a crumb like topping. Sprinkle over rhubarb mixture. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. 

The notes we made said that it's like a crisp but rich so we liked it as topping for ice cream. I don't have a photo - but I hope to make a version of this when I have my rhubarb ready to harvest down the road. So stay tuned if I do make this and I will share a photo then. 

I thought I would share again the rhubarb strawberry sauce recipe I shared in the past (that is so delish) and you can find it if you click here. I also recommend Ina Garten's strawberry rhubarb crisp recipe which you can find if you click here.

So what are your thoughts on rhubarb Friends? Yes or no to it? And if yes, do you have a favorite recipe?

xoxo

Cooking Thursday: Apple & Onion Pork Chops and Boursin Veggies

 

Hello my Friends! 

Happy almost Friday and almost Spring Equinox 💗💚🌸

Yay!! It's nice and sunny and melty today. I hope there aren't too many more false Springs before the real one shows up for good! 

Today I wanted to share a couple of recipes from a dinner I made the other night. Annie doesn't really eat meat so I made 2 veggie dishes. And then I made pork chops for Matt & I. 

The pork chops are so nice because you could do it all in one pan. It's a recipe I found at the site thechunkychef.com 

You brown the pork chops in a little evoo. Then take them out. But while they're browning make up a mixture of chicken stock and dijon mustard. Once the pork chops are out, you put in thinly sliced apples and red onion. Sautee them a bit with herbs (I had to do dry because that's all I had on hand). Then deglaze with the chicken stock mixture. Nestle the chops back in and cover and cook a bit more. It was so good and I will definitely be making them again.

Here's the recipe:

For the boursin veggies I did a variety of veggies Annie likes. The recipe calls for tomatoes but we didn't have those. We did broccoli, cauliflower, and zucchini. Season the veggies up. Nestle the boursin in the middle (we did garlic and herb flavor) . Drizzle evoo over all and bake it up. Then take it out and stir all together. It makes its own cheesy sauce and we both just LOVED it! It's a recipe I found at hungryhappens.net

Here's the recipe:

Annie lives for asparagus so I also blanched some of those and then did a quick sautee in olive oil and seasoning and then added a squeeze of lemon, lemon zest and we both sprinkled parm on ours. 

Per Annie it was a pretty "bomb" dinner. Lol 

If you try any of these I hope you enjoy! 

xoxo