Taking a Break

I am taking a break from blogging for the next while as I have so much that I need to tend to at home and with upcoming activities and appointments I will just not have the time.

Blessings,
Liisa

1950's Recipe - Creamed Beef Golden Rod

This recipe appeared in Woman's Day October 1954.

Creamed Beef Golden Rod

1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, minced
2 tbsp. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 cups milk
2 hard cooked eggs
Hot toast

Cook beef and onion, stirring with fork until meat loses it's red color. Pour off fat.
Blend in flour and seasonings.
Gradually add milk and cook until thickened, stirring constantly.
Chop egg whites, add to beef mixture.
Serve on toast with a garnish of sieved egg yolk.

For Variety, spread toast with devilled ham before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Blessings,
Liisa

Picture from www.allposters.com

Jute Balls and Fall Basket

My friend purchased some balls of different materials that she has in a basket on her floor - very cute! I decided to make some of my own and make a fall basket for my entryway.

I started with styrofoam balls which I had left over from another project.


I then hot glued the string onto the ball. Timothy loved this part and wanted to help as you can see. ~smile~


The finished ball.


The basket complete. I also "quilted" some balls to go in it by laying on small pieces of fabric and poking them into the ball with a knife. The quilted balls when done with varied fabrics really do look quilted and make really cute ornaments.


I am quite pleased with how the basket looks in the entry way and now I am just hoping Timothy doesn't get in it. So far so good as I didn't wake up to leaves and balls all over the house. ~smile~

Happy Thursday!
Blessings,
Liisa

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my hubby! He doesn't like to do anything special on his birthday so I am sure it will be a laid back affair. I am baking him a cake which I will decorate and my son and I are giving him and ipod so he can listen to his music in the truck and on the boat. I hope he likes it! He works so hard and is under alot of stress at work so I am hoping that he will be able to relax a bit and just enjoy the day.

Blessings,
Liisa

1950's Recipe - Budget Special

This recipe appeared in Woman's Day - March 1954

Budget Special

Heat mushrooms (canned) with 1 or 2 cups of gravy and cooked meat, poultry or seafood.

Mix with vegetables.

Ring with rice.

Use gravy as sauce.

Blessings,
Liisa

A New Church Home

I think we may have found the church for us! We have been there for a few Sundays now and are really enjoying it. The sermons are solid and Biblically based. I am really learning alot. It is a time of refreshment and renewal for me and I so needed it!

As an added bonus the congregation has quite a few teenagers. This is something our last church was lacking so it is really nice. My son was already friends with one of the boys there so it is great for him. I am also pleased that there are so many men of all ages (another area our last church was lacking) I think that will be quite encouraging for both my son and hubby!

I was really blessed by the anniversary service there yesterday. They were celebrating 45 years. The Heading Home Trio performed and they were amazing! I was also amazed when they asked those who were there when the church started to stand up - there were so many! Others shared that they had been in that church for their entire lives. That is so wonderful! Can you imagine? I became a Christian as an adult and we moved alot when I was growing up so I find it incredible that you could be at the same church for 45 years or your whole life. Isn't that just the best thing? I think so. Unfortunately we had to leave before the meal and concert but the service was a blessing.

Anyway, all this to say that I am excited and very happy to have at last found a church that shares our beliefs and fits us so well. It is so hard and really affects your whole life when your spiritual one is in upheaval. It has been a long road but so worth it.

Happy Monday!

Blessings,
Liisa

2 Timothy 3:16

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

All scripture. Not just select portions some may feel are relevant for our time. All scripture.

Blessings,
Liisa

Titus Women - Cancelled

We had to cancel Titus Women for tonight due to lack of tomatoes! I don't know what happened to them but you know what - it ends up being for the best. My friend Nancy who is my partner in this had to get up at 1 o'clock in the morning to drop her cousin off at the airport so she is in no shape to do Titus Women tonight.

I called all the ladies and let them know and told them that if or when the tomatoes ripen we'll get together then and make the salsa and spaghetti sauce.

It is so bizarre though because last year in August I was up to my eyeballs in tomatoes right through to the middle of September and now they just aren't ripening and the ones that are are falling off the plants when they are only slightly bigger than cherry tomatoes and they are Romas! Oh well - it will be an easier season for me if they don't come along before the frost but we will be missing having salsa and spaghetti sauce stored up in the freezer. ~sigh~

Blessings,
Liisa

Schultüte

It is a German tradition to give children a paper cone filled with goodies on their first day of school. I just learned that they are called Schultüte. My son received one when he started kindergarten and I give one to each of my monkeys on their very first day of school. I have a picture of my mother in law with hers on her first day of school - she is now 78! Today one of the girls I care for started kindergarten so I made her a cone full of goodies.

Here are a few pictures of the process....







Blessings,
Liisa

1950's Recipe- Corn Bread

This recipe appeared in Woman's Day - November 1954.

Corn Bread

Mix 1 cup yellow corn meal, 1 cup sifted flour, 1 tbsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt.

Add 1 cup milk, blend, add 3 tbsp. mayonaisse.

Bake in greased skillet 30 minutes.

Blessings,
Liisa

Salsa! Salsa! Salsa!

Guess what I have been up to? Yep, making salsa! My hubby brought me home a big box full of tomatoes so I spent yesterday afternoon making salsa. I made a great big pot full and made another pot full this morning. I just love salsa and it makes it so much better when you make it yourself and know what exactly is in it - no chemicals or artificial ingredients. My hubby even grew the tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos and onions that went into it!

I am just hoping that there will be more tomatoes for Titus Women! I am not sure though because we got such hard rain all weekend and high winds and the guys said the garden was beaten up pretty badly with all the tomatoes dropping to the ground. It is also likely under water at this point like most of the fields around here. ~sigh~ I will just trust that whatever happens God already knows about it and it will all work out the way it should.

Oh I just read Romans 8 this morning for our email Bible study- what a wonderful chapter! Read it today if you get a moment - it's worth it!

Happy Monday!

Blessings,
Liisa

Surprise Party

Tomorrow I will be attending a surprise birthday party for my dear friend Nancy. Unbelievably she is turning 60! I am sure she will be thrilled I just told the world but I just cannot believe it. First of all she doesn't look more than 45. Secondly she and I are just alike in almost every way...it is really almost creepy and we get along so well. I never think about age. I mean I know in my mind that some women are younger or older than I am but I tend to see everyone and think of them as my age. I guess that is why I was so shocked to find out she was turning 60 - I never would have believed she was 24 years older than I am. We talk on the phone every morning, shop together, plan events together, get into trouble together. I am blessed by her friendship.

So....

Happy Birthday Nancy!

Blessings,
Liisa

Happenings

I just thought I'd share what I have been up to for the last while....

I found a nearly full can of white paint in our basement so I took a day and freshened our kitchen by repainting all the cupboards and trim white....what a difference that made! It looks so fresh and new in there now. I also had my son do the same thing in the upstairs bathroom. He is such a good boy and did a great job!

My son and I removed a huge cabinet that was in the mudroom and I was able to reorganize everything into a small bookshelf that tucks underneath a cabinet on the wall behind the door. We have so much more room in there now and things are much easier to find. It looks so much prettier too with baskets to hold craft supplies.

My little monkeys are all back and we are settling nicely into our routines. I missed having them all here this summer though it was a nice break to have things a little lighter for a few weeks.

My hubby went looking for coupons online and found one on Save.ca for $10 off a Gillette fusion razor. When I looked in the flyers Zehrs has those on sale this week for $9.99 so I was able to pick one up for free! You have to love it when that happens! We do not have CVS or Walgreens here so getting things for free is rare indeed and quite exciting!

I came down with a crazy virus that caused aches, fever and headache as well as pain in my legs and exhaustion and lasted for 5 days. Has anyone else experienced this or know what it is? I went to the doctor to make sure I wasn't contagious and he didn't know what it was beyond a virus.

When I took Timothy to the vet I found out that he weighs 14.8 lbs. well that is a best guess as he would not stand on the scale for more than half a second. I also found out that he is half Maine Coon Cat. I had never heard of this before but when I looked up the pictures I could not believe it! So many of them look EXACTLY like Timothy. We always thought he was just good old "Canadian Barn Cat" but as it turns out he has a breed! ~smile~

My friend and I went to the market as well as a Mennonite farm and purchased eggs and produce on Saturday. I am always obsessed with cabbage in the fall and making cabbage rolls to put away in the freezer - I don't know why but I can't seem to help myself! ~smile~ Anyway I picked out a very big cabbage and one that was just huge! I mean I have never, ever seen a cabbage this big before! I mentioned to the lady how happy I was about this cabbage and how I always try to find big ones because they make such nice cabbage rolls. She tells me they have more really big ones still in the garden and asks how many I would like. Now I really do have serious cabbage issues because I have already purchased a really big cabbage and a HUGE cabbage and I was thinking to myself....hmmm...I could make just tons of cabbage rolls with alot more of these giant cabbages. Fortunately though I got a hold of myself and only asked for one more. Her sister goes out and cuts me a cabbage bigger than the huge one! It is a monstrosity of a cabbage! Quite pleased with myself we finish our shopping and I head home with thoughts of a freezer full of cabbage rolls never once wondering how exactly I was going to boil these giant cabbages to get the leaves off to make the cabbage rolls. As it ends up my very biggest pot would hold the cabbage but two thirds of it stuck out the top so I borrowed my Mother in law's gigantic soup pot which just fit them! One cabbage worth of rolls barely fit into my biggest roasting pan which has held even the biggest turkey we have ever had. Some of the rolls I made fill a dinner plate - I am not kidding they are huge!

So now that you all know that I am in fact insane and have heard more about cabbage than you had ever wanted to I will go for now but if you are ever in my area drop by for dinner we'll have cabbage rolls!

Blessings,
Liisa

Fish Crisp

I just had to tell you how much I love Rocky Madsen's Fish Crisp. I use it for everything! Right now I have potatoes in the oven coated Cajun Flavour Fish Crisp. I just dice them small with the skins on, shake on a bit of Fish Crisp, toss and place on a pan lined with foil and coated with oil. So good and easy!

I really like the roasted garlic and butter flavour on chicken but all the flavour work well for this, pork chops and ofcourse fish! If you haven't tried it before you have got to grab a box!

Blessings,
Liisa

Apples!

I was blessed the other day with a big bag of apples. My friend has a tree in her front yard and had enough to share. I was quite surprised and pleased when I found the bag hanging on the door. She told me that they were best used for baking so I peeked through my recipes to see what I should make.

Yesterday I made a big apple crisp and 3 dozen raw apple muffins. I put two dozen muffins in the freezer where I also have two dozen banana muffins. I like to make a double or even triple batch of things when I bake so I can put some in the freezer for times I may have surprise company or just don't have time to bake. It is so nice just to pull something out when you need it and it really isn't any more work to bake extra.

It is such a blessing to have friends that like to share their bounty!

Blessings,
Liisa

1950's Recipe- Ginger Cookies

This recipe appeared in Woman's Day November 1954.

Ginger Cookies

Cream 3/4 cup bacon drippings with 1 cup brown sugar, packed. (Processed bacon drippings) Add 1 egg, well beaten and 4 tbsp. molasses.

Mix 2 1/2 cups sifted flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. soda, 1/2 tsp. cloves, 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. ginger.

Blend dry ing. with bacon drippings mixture and chill dough several hours.

Then roll small pieces of dough into balls the size of a walnut.

Dip them in sugar and place in greased cookie sheet, flattening with bottom of a small glass dipped in water.

Sprinkle a few drops water and a little sugar on top of each cookie for crispness.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Remove cookies from sheet while hot.

Blessings,
Liisa

What's Under the Sauce?

For Titus Women this month I am going to be teaching ladies how to make homemade salsa and spaghetti sauce (hopefully - the tomatoes are still not ripe!)

So I wanted to share the devotional I will be reading there.

What's Under The Sauce?

Imagine being served a lovely plate of spaghetti and it looks wonderful, you just can't wait to dig in but as you look at it a little closer you notice that something is very, very wrong. The "spaghetti noodles" are wiggling! Yuck! What a nightmare that would be! Something that looked so good on the surface was actually something vile when you looked closer.

This kind of thing can so easily happen in our spiritual lives. How easy it is to be led astray by something or someone that looks good on the surface. That is why the Bible warns us in 1 John 4:1 "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because, many false prophets are gone out into the world."

So how can we try the spirits? By knowing what your Bible says. The Bible is our guide read it daily, know it, think about it. By doing this you will soon be able to recognize when what you are being told is true or not. When someone tells you something or you read something somewhere check it in your Bible to see if it is true. Don't just accept it because it looks good on the surface. Don't just eat the wiggling spaghetti!

The Bible tells us that there will be a time when when people will love wiggly spaghetti. 2 Tim. 4:3,4 says "For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables." I believe this is already happening and we need to guard against it happening to us.

What about our lives? Do they look good on the surface but are not underneath? Are we one person on Sundays at church and another in our private lives? Are we fully living for God? What is under our surface? Does it wiggle?

One thing women seem to fall prey to over and over again is gossip and slander. What comes out of our mouths comes out of our hearts. We need to pray for help, forgiveness and a clean heart filled with love for others. Before we say anything we need to look at our motives honestly. Is what I am about to say about someone going to hurt them? Would I say it if they were standing there? Am I saying it to make myself look better? Is it really a prayer request or am I just dying to share a bit of juicy gossip? Am I speaking out of anger or frustration? We need to be honest with ourselves and if what I am about to say fits any of those categories then I need to be quiet.

Another area that is so prevalent in our times is living half in the world and half for God. We need to think to ourselves if Jesus was sitting beside me would I watch this movie? Would I listen to this music? Would I go to this concert? Would I be speaking this way? Jesus is always beside us. Rev. 3:15-16 says "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm I will vomit you out of my mouth." Are we fully living for God or not?

Then there are the works of the flesh mentioned in Gal. 19 - adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions dissensions and heresies.

I am sure you already know if your life is wiggling. There is One though who is always good and He loves us no matter what and is always ready to forgive us when we turn from what is wrong and ask for forgiveness.

Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.

Blessings,
Liisa

1950's Recipe - Pickled Beets

This recipe appeared in Woman's Day - November 1954.

Pickled Beets

Combine undrained 16 oz. can cut beets (grade c), 2 slices medium onions, 1/3 cup vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
Chill.
Drain before serving.

Blessings,
Liisa

Back to School

Well today is the first day of school here. I know one teenage boy who is less than thrilled about this event! My son is in grade 12 this year. I can't hardly believe it. It truly seems like yesterday he was so excited and I walked him to his first day in kindergarten now I am fighting a 17 year old out of bed who is let's just say less than ecstatic about the whole thing. However I know that like every other year once he gets there he will be happy and be back in the swing of things and able to spend time with his friends. I am really going to miss him though. I was quite used to having him here during the day. *sniff*

Blessings,
Liisa

Happy Labour Day

Happy Labour Day! I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend. I am making the most of mine as things will be getting a little crazy here after this!

Blessings,
Liisa