The Easiest Dessert on the Planet and a Life Hack

So now we go from the "casserole from hell" to the "easiest dessert on the planet".

This is one of those recipes that popped up on Facebook. I decided to give it a try. While I was at it, I made two smaller ones for Stephanie & Nicky and Mindy & Justin.

Oreo Dessert
1 Family size pack of regular Oreos
1-8 oz. container of Cool Whip (thawed)
1 qt. fresh strawberries
1 cup milk

Dip each cookie in milk and layer in a 9x13 dish. Spread half the Cool Whip over the cookies. Dip more cookies in milk and make a second layer ending with Cool Whip. Top with sliced strawberries. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Note: It was still good the next day. After that I don't know because it was gone!

And now for the life hack:

You'll need a sturdy straw.

 After washing your strawberries, place the straw at the bottom of the strawberry and push. 

 The top will pop right off.

Butch helped with this. I've used this tip a few times and it always works---even if the berries are softer. You can go one step further with strawberries and use an egg slicer to cut them. I've done that before, but didn't bother with it this time. I lucked out---the strawberries were very sweet and delicious!

Enjoy!! And you're welcome!

The Casserole from Hell

I've already mentioned how my casserole for the guys on Friday night did not cook. Well, I attributed that to several things:
1. It came straight from the refrigerator and was so cold that it probably took the first half hour baking to just take the chill off.
2. It was to be baked covered. I used heavy duty aluminum foil which wasn't even invented when my grandmother made this recipe in the 1960's.
3. I had tripled the recipe which made for a denser casserole.
4. I should probably learn how to use my convection oven.

So yesterday I decided I was going to cook that sucker until it was finished---regardless of how it turned out. It took 3 Hours!!! Now remember, it had already cooked an hour and a half on Friday night. It was only supposed to be one hour at 350. Even after 3 Hours the larger carrots were still a bit hard.

Now the reason I was mostly upset about this situation is that I made a second casserole while I was at it---for Connie. She just had some pretty serious surgery on Thursday. Jack was here for poker on Friday night and knew how the casserole turned out (or didn't).  I'm sure when I showed up with the casserole on Saturday, he probably said to himself, "Oh no, not the casserole from HELL!" I did warn them to cook it longer---but didn't know how long.

In the midst of cooking the main casserole---about 2 hours in---I called Connie and asked how theirs turned out. She said that she baked it about 40 minutes longer and it was good. Well, knowing Connie, you can't really count on that being the truth. She's so nice, you could make her a mud pie and she'd say it was the best fudge pie she'd ever had. I was just happy that at least it had cooked for them.

After my call to Connie, I took the foil off for the last hour. The final result---we didn't get to eat until 7 p.m., but it was worth it. The casserole was delicious---even with some harder carrots and slightly crispy meatballs! So that's why I've decided to share the recipe. Just beware---you'll need to figure out how long to bake it! Perhaps if you just follow this original recipe and do not double or triple it and do not refrigerate it before hand, it will bake up just fine!

Here's the recipe, but read all the way to the bottom for my shortcut.* I'm mostly posting this for my family who may not have this recipe from grandma---we don't have many!

Meatball Oven Dinner  (from Marguerite Zimmermann circa 196something)
1 lb. ground beef
2 T minced onions
2 T minced green pepper
1/2 cup cracker crumbs
1 t. chili powder
1 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup shortening
6 med. potatoes
6 med. carrots
6 small onions
1-can tomato soup
1/2 cup water
1 bay leaf
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper

Combine beef, onion, green pepper, cracker crumbs, seasonings, milk and egg. Blend thoroughly, form into 12 meatballs. Roll in flour. Brown in hot shortening. Place carrots, potatoes, onions and meatballs in a buttered casserole. Mix tomato soup with water and remaining seasonings. Pour over all. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

*Now-a-days, I always go for the shortcuts. You can find really good meatballs already prepared in the freezer section of the grocery store. I bought the Italian flavored ones and they were delicious.

Tomorrow I'll share the "easiest dessert on the planet"!

Wassup?

Thinking:  About how happy I am that the weather is getting warmer and warmer. Fishing, here I come!

Thankful for:  This little gizmo:

It allows me to plug a thumb drive in to my computer to transfer pictures. Still trying to get the iCloud thing figured out. I spent an hour on the phone with tech support trying to learn how I can save pictures permanently on my computer. If I delete them from there or from my phone, they are gone forever! I don't want the photos on my phone, but can't delete them. I'll be running out of space soon, I'm sure, if I don't get this figured out.

Cooking: I thought I was going to have a recipe to share, but have decided to hold off. I made a really old recipe from my grandma Z. last night for the guys' poker night (they've been playing once a month for nearly 30 years now---we girls go out to dinner). Anyway, it was a disaster. The casserole didn't cook---vegetables were raw. The guys had to resort to pizza. I'm going to try cooking the casserole today, but it may be too late to salvage it. Butch said the dessert was good. That was a new recipe. I have't had it yet. If I really like it, I'll be sure to share that recipe.

Wearing: Time to get out the capris. Unfortunately, my legs are so white---kind of hard to get used to.

Hoping: To get my closet cleaned out. Who am I kidding. That's not going to happen. I might as well just wait until next January! 

Taking: A new stitching class that was supposed to start in April. I'll be teaching it to Stephanie and Mindy. We all have done the pre-work and were ready to begin. Now I find out that it won't start until the end of the month. In the mean time, I didn't have anything to stitch, so I'm finishing up some Easter eggs for Mindy. I finished the pig this week:

The dimensions are 5"x4"---really fun to stitch. Just as much fun as the first time I made them!

Planning: More layouts for our Christmas album. These colors are up next:

I really like using non-traditional colors for Christmas---like this recent pillow I made:

Working: I'm not planning on working at all today! Just fun---scrapbooking and stitching. Of course I'll throw a little reading in too.

Reading: The Lake House by Kate Morton. I had this book on my sample list---plus a friend from bridge told me I needed to read it. I have read everything she's written: The Secret Keeper, The Winter Garden, The House at Riverton and The Distant Hours. Kate Morton writes intriguing mysteries from a bygone era.

Loving: Our Sonos sound system. I put on a playlist called "Generational Party Mix" from Spotify at happy hour. We got a good mix of songs from "Ooom Bop" to "Shout"! 

Watching:  Catching up on my favorite shows. I like to let them "pile up" so I can binge watch several. Today, I'm going to catch up on Scandal  and Bates Motel.

Bumming:  That this happened Thursday morning:

How is it that people think it's okay to block traffic lanes? Drivers around here tend to only thing of themselves. Okay, at least I was distracted by the cool old car. Too bad they haven't gotten a new paint job to bring it back to it's former glory. 

Another thing concerning driving---last week, someone blocked me in again!! This time I was with a really skinny friend. She couldn't get in to back it out either. There was a humongous truck blocking me. We took her car to lunch and came back an hour later. The truck was still there. Nancy ended up having to climb in on the passenger's side and climb over the console to back it out for me. I can't do that. Or at least I think I can't. I have done it before, but it was really hard. Unfortunately, I'll be keeping this car a while longer.

Hearing:  News about the Vanderbilt rape trial. I do not know if this is a national story. It's really sad---so many lives ruined. At a minimum, one of the guys will get 15 years without possibility of parole. He can get up to 61 years without possibility of parole. I've always tried to remind the grands that you really need to think about what you do. One wrong move and it becomes the defining moment of your life. No matter the outcome, that will be what people know about your forever.

Appreciating:  That we can afford to let our grandchildren experience everything that college offers. Specifically, Jordan is going to Japan in May to take a class. She has loved Anime and Pokemon for as long as I can remember. Even though she's 21, she still asks for Pokemon cards for Christmas. I hope this trip is everything she wants it to be. Japan is not on my bucket list.

Regretting:  That I cannot find Hydrox cookies around here. I read an article that they were coming back. I emailed my cousins in St. Louis---I used to have them at their house every time I spent the night. Within one day, Chrissy texted me that she found them at her regular grocery store!!! If you've never had a Hydrox cookie, it's like an Oreo---only better. 

That's it from around here. Wassup with you?

A Few More Layouts

"Christmas 1982"

"Color Run" (Mindy, Justin, Stephanie, Morgan and Jordan did this race)

"We ALWAYS Play Fair" (We are a family of game players, but there are no cheaters among us!)

"WHEN did we become the "OLD" aunts?" (AYM word of the month)

"The Day I Gave Americans a Bad Name" (My exploits in London)

"Ornaments circa 1972" (first layout of my planned Christmas album)

"When I was like this, I lost my scissor privileges because I did this!" (Jordan cut Morgan's hair when they were little)

"I've still got it!" (about my return to fishing)

It Looks Like Spring!

If there's one thing you can count on in Nashville is that the trees will bloom spectacularly in the spring! It's the one time of the year where the whole city is in bloom. 

For the past couple of years, I've missed the flowering of my cherry tree. It's gorgeous, but doesn't last long. This year, I was determined not to miss it. In this picture, it was just beginning to bloom. Since I was gone for 4 days, I had Butch keeping an eye on it. 

 I got home to this. So beautiful in full bloom.

This is the larger view. It's a pale pink. Although, in years past, sometimes it seems to be pinker. It could be my imagination or due to some other external factor---more moisture than other years.

 This is a pretty sad looking Oklahoma redbud. Still, it puts on such a glorious show in the spring that I cannot bear to let it go. The branches are only on the left side and really is pretty pathetic. Still, I'm keeping it. I can't resist those heart shaped leaves either.

 I decided to cut some of the lilacs to make an arrangement. They are hard to cut as they bloom on woody branches. I have never brought them inside before. I don't really know anything about lilacs other than they look pretty in the garden for about 10 minutes! Another quick bloomer---really about a week.

 I thought they smelled divine. Butch did not. In fact he thought the smell was obnoxious.

 I made three smaller arrangements so that Stephanie, Mindy and their friend, Bonnie could take them home after our tapas night.

When I finished the arrangements, I felt something in my hair. I looked in the mirror and saw this spider. It was about the size of a half dollar. I thought it was a daddy long legs---and might have been. I didn't panic, just brushed it off. Now had Mitchell been here, he would have run for the hills, screaming like a little girl!!

Yes, I'm talking about this "big" boy. He hates spiders! They freak him out---as do snakes. Okay, I'm with him on that!

Anyway, the very next day, the lilacs were dead!! What??? I'm not sure what happened unless you can't really bring them in the house for cut flowers. Or, it could have been these---supposedly---awesome little moisture balls I bought. They look like little pieces of tapioca. You let them soak in water and they expand to the size of medium peas. They are supposed to make your flowers last longer. Maybe they didn't work. Either way, what a waste of time. I'm sure Butch was glad to see them go! Still, I get to enjoy them in the garden for a bit longer.

How does your garden grow?

Scrapbook Round Robin

Another new thing I started this year with my group is a scrapbook round robin.

Here's how it works. In January, each member submitted a stack of photos along with journaling and any memorabilia in a two gallon ziplock bag. At our AYM meeting, they handed off their photos to another member, taking someone else's for themselves. That first month, the assignment was to crop and lay out the photos. Each member selected papers from their own collection and designed the basic layout. They put the paper scraps back in the ziplock bag along with the layout.

The next month, the layouts were traded around. The assignment was to decide the title and apply the journaling. Sometimes the journaling had to be re-typed to fit the layout or to use something unusual to put the journaling on.

The last month came embellishing. Every idea was left up to whoever had the layout. The only thing the "owner" decided about the layout was whether her photos could be cropped or not.

The results were awesome!! Here's mine:

I submitted the photos from Mindy's bridal shower along with the invitation and journaling.

Susan had them first. She laid out the page using the colors of the invitation as her color scheme. She even photocopied the back of the invitation because she liked the pattern of it. That's the diamond shaped design seen in the upper left and lower right corners. She passed it on to Nancy for the title and journaling. Nancy (our beginner scrapbooker---although you can't tell it by her pages) titled it "Tick Tock" since it was an "around the clock" shower. (For those that don't know what that is---invitees are assigned a time of the day. They select their gifts based on that time. For example, if you got 7 a.m. you might get a coffee pot or waffle maker. It's really fun and an imaginative way to see what people come up with). Nancy also formatted the journaling for the page. I provided my journaling via the computer so it could easily be re-formatted without re-typing. Lastly, my layout went to Karolyn who did the final embellishing. She added the baker's twine and button.

We all had such a good time with this that we've decided to carry on with it.

What we learned from this experiment:
1. There seems to be a bit of pressure when working on someone else's page. I jokingly said that I didn't feel pressured. "After all, it's only so and so's page!"
2. If there are a lot of photos, the person that lays them out needs to remember to allow space for title and journaling. I, personally found that it was difficult to create a fold out page after the fact.
3. By the time you get to embellishing, often, not much is needed. Some people got carried away and did most of the embellishing before the page was handed off.
4. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed working on someone else's page. Each person added their own personality.
5. It gave us "permission" to scrapbook as it was a timed commitment! With all of our busy lives, somehow, scrapbooking is looked upon as low on the list of priorities---just because it's fun. Everything else seems to take precedence. Now it doesn't have to.

For this next round, I'm going to figure out how each person can add their name to the layout. I have an idea. Don't I always?

Machine Sewing...

...is just not my "thing!" I can hand stitch and have usually repaired minor tears, hems and replaced buttons all by hand over the years.

Early on, I had an old sewing machine that I used to sew straight lines in order to make simple curtains. Still, it always "messed up" for me. When we moved to Nashville, I got rid of that old machine---feeling like now I could afford to just hire someone to make curtains for me. That worked.

Fast forward 20 years. When sewing on scrapbook pages became all the rage, I bought myself a machine from Walmart. It was not expensive---$79, but it was a Singer which I knew to be a good brand.

Buying it was the easiest part. I've used it now and then over the past ten years, but not much. I'm careful to keep the dust cover on it. I even went so far at the beginning to make this guide:

I methodically went through and tried every dial combination so I would remember what each one did. Here's the problem. I don't remember which dial for the numbers---there are two. Oh well. It was a good idea at the time.

Then there was the time when the bobbin ran out of thread. The machine went un-used for nearly a year because I knew that I would need time to pull out the book and figure out how to refill the bobbin and replace it in the machine. Luckily for me, a friend was here and did it for me in about ONE minute. She didn't even have to look at the book!

When we scrapbook at the farm we use Karolyn's old sewing machine. Of course, she's there to handle everything---changing thread colors and dealing with the bobbin. This past trip, she encouraged us to try some new techniques with the machine. I used it for this page:

 You can see I had no problems on the top, or...

on the bottom. Karolyn changed the thread for the Christmas project I had planned for the "gang." I'm planning out the entire album and sent them the topics for each page before Christmas. Since Karolyn wanted us to use the sewing machine, I made a point to plan a page that would require it. Well, after she changed the thread, the machine's bobbin started messing up. We ended up not being able to use it.

That brings me to yesterday when I decided to use my own machine to complete the page. I knew that I would have to get out the book to figure out how to change the thread from black to green. For several years now, I've only used black thread. Go ahead, laugh, it's okay!

Since the machine has clear numbers of what to do, I thought it would be easy. Not so. The instructions look like this:

I started reading. I'm not familiar with sewing machine "lingo"---so I don't know what pre-tension spring or tension module means. Anyway, I followed the instructions and numbers on the machine.

Then there's this:

It clearly shows #1 with an arrow pointing to the #2 thing. But what the heck? Does this not look like something is supposed to wrap around this silver button? I did it, but then took it out since pictures in the book do not show a top view like this. I continued on. At one point, it said to pass the thread behind the thin metal piece. Well, there are a lot of thin metal pieces. I finally got it---or so I thought since it looked like this:

I pushed the threads back before I started stitching. I might not know much, but I knew about that.

I did this little sample to make sure it was correct before starting with my layout. You only get one shot when working with a layout.

I was so happy. Everything was going along smoothly---and looking exactly the way I wanted it to look. Then all of a sudden---after about 2/3's of the page was finished, it did this:

Somehow, the black thread on the bobbin came up and sewed on top, then skipped and caused this horrible mess. This was how the backside looked---black also. The green thread just was a straight line.

I really have no idea what happened. And lest you think I was sewing through adhesive---I'm not that stupid! I only put the adhesive at the very tops of the Christmas trees. I used my Mrs. Grossmans to carefully pull out the mess. Now it sits waiting for a friend to have mercy on me.

Karolyn???? Help!

All of this took me an hour---what a waste of time. I might have been better off with this:

It was pretty simple to use for a little 7 year old girl! Over 50 years old. I have no idea if it still works. Oh wait, it doesn't do zigzag.