A Few Things and a New Recipe

I talked about how Butch and Walter planned our trip. Well, I had to show you the daily schedule. Butch is the king of Excel spread sheets.

If you look close you can see that the activities are in red. They estimated how much time each thing would take and how long it would take to drive and even included the cost. I'm thrilled to have this for my scrapbook. They put a lot of time and effort in to it. At one point, Butch lamented that he was so stressed---planning this trip was like doing a school report. He gets an A+++!

 I cross-stitched this for Lauren Manning's baby. As I was doing it, I was wondering why I hadn't done one for the two recent babies in the family. I just didn't think of it. It's not too late. We'll see....

This spider web has been driving me crazy for awhile now. It was between the storm window and the screen so I couldn't clean it myself. Butch had to take the storm window off.

It took all of 10 minutes. And to think it drove me nuts for months. Now he won't be able to complain if it needs to be done again.

And now for the new recipe. Chris and I were talking on our trip about the fact that we are not necessarily creative cooks. We follow recipes. We've both made up a few things over the years. Well, I made up this one over the weekend. I had a brisket that I wanted to cook. I have a really good recipe that came from my friend, Susan Dawkins. But here's the thing. Ever since she gave us the recipe, everyone makes it all the time. We're just plain sick of it. So, I decided to come up with my own idea and it turned out great. Plus, have I ever told you how much I love my crock pot? The house smells so good when you're cooking.

Brisket with Onion Gravy
brisket
Lipton onion soup mix
can of diced tomatoes
2-medium onions

Place brisket fat side down in crockpot. Top with onion soup, tomatoes and sliced onions. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-10 hours. About a half hour before serving, remove brisket and trim off fat. Slice and return to crock pot. Stir gently as the meat will start to fall apart---which isn't all bad.

I sautéed fresh zucchini and onions to go along with the brisket. Sometimes we sprinkle it with parmesan cheese. It doesn't matter how much I make, the family devours it!

 The fresh lima beans boiled over. What a huge mess. I hate that.

I never liked lima beans until I made fresh ones for Butch and Mindy (who love them) a couple of years ago. They are delicious and do not compare to canned in any way. They take at least 2 hours to cook which is why they boiled over.

 Here's the finished brisket. I didn't add any extra salt, but I thought it needed a little afterwards. I rounded out the meal with mashed potatoes.

And now, here's my mess. It's going to take a lot of elbow grease to clean this up. It may take awhile, but I'll get it done.

My cooktop is 17 years old. The only way I can keep it looking new is to clean up the horrible messes right away.

The new season of Glee has started. I just love it. The cross dresser is back. Mindy gets aggravated that they try to take on any social issue there is. She's totally right. This first episode dealt with an obese cafeteria worker that the teens were making fun of. This show is all about acceptance of anyone and everyone regardless of how different they might be. It's going to be interesting to see how they incorporate the rest of the cast that has graduated. It looks like they are going to do a split storyline with Rachel. I don't really care about the storyline. I'm just in it for the song and dance. And I love the guest stars. Tonight it was Kate Hudson. She's going to be on for a few episodes.

A whole lot of the new shows are starting to debut. There are a few that I am really looking forward to. I don't know how I can keep up with all these shows. Thank goodness for the DVR!

What are your favorite shows?