Surprise at the bottom!!

We've had such a busy summer and then a 3 week vacation. We were blessed to be in Virginia, Vermont and then Florida before returning home from a super nice trip. By the time we arrived in Florida I was craving fresh fruit and that's definitely a great place to get fresh fruit! After we arrived home I made up a fresh fruit bowl that we enjoyed so much.

All good things do eventually come to an end and so did the beautiful fruit. Last week I was cleaning out the fruit bowl and when I lifted out the bunch of grapes, this is what I saw at the bottom:

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E grapes! I was totally surprised and grabbed my phone to get a pic of this cute little thing staring up at me :) A surprise at the bottom of the bowl!

Hope your day has a very pleasant surprise in it -- and much better than Mickey Mouse grapes :) Have a wonderful autumn day!

Love,


.

The Marketplace

This morning Hubs suggested that we have brunch at a newly opened restaurant in our tiny little town. They serve breakfast/brunch only and the hours of operation are 6:30 - 11:00 a.m. This place is very unique. As you walk up to the front door, it's your first clue that this is going to be a different experience -- again, considering we are in such a small town.

The restaurant used to be a warehouse and boasts a series of rooms. Each one has it's one style and personality. As you enter, you step into what feels like a coffee/soda shop in colors of red, black and white. It's very quaint and inviting. Walking through we found 3 more large rooms to explore. Along the way you can shop for decor items, baby items and other miscellaneous items.

I took some pictures to put on my blog to share this experience with you. The first one is the entrance. There's more to see than is in the picture. There's a ledge up at the top of the porch and there's decor with lights that look really cool.

This is the room where we ate. I'm standing beside a fountain which gives you an idea of how large everything is.

Here's close up of the fountain. It's made from a large stock tank with a smaller one inside.

A shot even a little closer. The sound of the trinkling water is so calming and restful.

Another shot of the room. There's actually two of the column units.



Here's another room. I took a quite picture on the way out. There were people eating nearby and so I didn't take very much time to get everything in the pic.

Many of the rooms have scripture verses on the them.
Here is an example of them.

Oh, yes. The food is absolutely great and inexpensive! I can definitely recommend The Marketplace! Hope you've had a wondeful evening!

Love,

Sherry

6th Birthday -- Oh My!

Today was our granddaughter's 6th birthday party. Her birthday was April 5th and she had a small, short party at school, but today was the BIG party. She has been so excited and has taken an active part in the planning of this party. Here are some pictures from the celebration.

There first thing on the kids' agenda was to go outside

and have some fun in the backyard.

Every Princess must have her own banner.

Here's our little princess.

She had a crown, scepter and sash that said "Birthday Princess".

There were crowns for all the guest. The little princes had manly crowns. :)

I have been honored to make all the birthday cakes for her and her little brother. You can see the "line up" if you go here and here. Since this year was a princess theme, a castle cake was a must. Here's the cake.

She asked for blueberry cake.

This was a french vanilla cake with blueberry cheesecake filling.

These were blueberry cupcakes.

I revamped the strawberry cake recipe that's made with strawberry jello

and frozen strawberries and used berry blue jello and blueberries.

It was blue and tasted great.

I used egg whites instead of the whole egg

because blue and yellow (egg yokes) make green

-- I didn't want green cake batter.

She's a blessed little girl. She has family and friends that love her dearly, a beautiful home and an over abundance of toys. But the most important thing is this; she is being taught the Truth of God's Word. We are praying that someday soon, she will accept Christ as her personal Savior.


Have a blessed evening,
Sherry

1st Birtday Party

Sunday was the day of the big birthday party! Yes, it was on Father's Day, but it worked well for us and the guests. Here are some pictures from his special day:

"Hi! I'm the guest of honor.
I am 1 year old."

"This was my Daddy's hat! How do I look!"

"This is how the big boys wear it, Mom."

"Uh . . hey buddy, I think you've got yours on backwards!"

"Oh Dawlin! That looks simply smashing on you!"

The candles are lit.

Take a B-I-G breath! Now . . . BLOW!

"
What?!!! Another smash cake?!!"

"You've got to admit -- I've conquered this thing!"

The loot!

"Oh, boy! Presents!"

"Now, is there a crib in the house? I'm ready for a nap!"

This little darling is walking and tries so hard to hold a conversation with whomever will listen ;) He has an outgoing personality and loves people -- especially little people! We are so blessed to have him in our life.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to share in Grammy's brag-post . . . . . .again! :)

Love,

Revealed by popular demand!

Due to an overwhelming number of requests, ( all 4 or 5 of you) *insert applause* (lol) here are the results of the birthday cakes. Yes, I said cakes.

This is Little Slugger's cake.

There wasn't a pan available for the glove. So I bought a 16" round pan,
Googled a suitable picture, zoomed it to size, transferred it to waxed paper,
cut the cake in the shape of the glove, crumb coated the cake

and then transferred the details to the cake.
After that it was time to outline all the details then fill in with "stars".

I purchased the largest cake board I could find but as you can see,
it barely fit in the board.

I carved a little ball and placed it in the glove.
The cake was milk chocolate with chocolate buttercream frosting (so yuumy).
Here's a side view.

This ball cake was the original plan, but when the pan arrived
it was obvious that it would not yield enough servings for the number of guests
invited (mostly adults -- how many little friends can the average
one-year-old have anyway!) :)
The ball cake was coconut.
(If you like Mounds candy bars, this cake with the chocolate buttercream
could seriously send you over the edge!)


And . . . of course we needed another smash cake.


My DIL did a superb job of putting the party together.
Since the part began at 1:00 p.m, she served a pizza lunch
with salads and fruit tray (all homemade).

Here's Little Slugger's table.
My DIL make white chocolate baseball suckers for the kids.
They are on the right end of the table.


I have some cute pics from the party that I'll post tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have an awesome Monday!

Love,

Two for Two!

Yesterday I decided to make some chili since it was cold and icy outside (still is today, too). I reached for the chili powder and poured about 2 Tbls. in (as mother would say "measured by the elbow"). After I put it in . . . . . t-h-e-n . . . . for some reason (thank you Jesus) . . . I decided to glance at the label. Oh-my-word! I had just poured 2 TABLESPOONS of ground Red Pepper in instead of chili powder :0

Now what ???

I quickly spooned it out and rinsed the meat in a small colander. I then poured the rest of the meat in larger colander and rinsed it as well. It worked! I had to replace some other seasonings, but, no biggy. Fortunately no wet ingredients had gone in. The chili turned out great and was not hot!

That's what I get for taking a break from wearing my contacts!

I must confess one more cooking mishap of the day.

I also decided to make some No-Bake Cookies. I put in the butter to melt and measured out the milk. Only problem here was that -- for some reason -- I doubled the amount of milk. Of course, I didn't realize what I had done until it was in the pan with the melting butter. Too late to take it out!

So . . . I now have a double batch of fudgy, perfectly set cookies. I didn't "need" any in the first place and now I have twice as many as I planned. I guess my fellow workers at the office will be getting cookies tomorrow :)

I don't know what my problem was, but . . . for sure . . . I'm wearing my contacts today!





Love,

Soup's on !

Today it is sleeting and we are expecting more freezing precipitation throughout the night and tomorrow. In the eastern part of the state, residents will be at risk for a power outage. I don't think we have to be concerned about that; it's just very cold and icy.

On days like this, I like to cook soup, gumbo, stew or chili. Today I decided to make vegetable beef soup (haven't made that in forever). If you were here, I would love to serve you some soup, followed by a good cup of coffee and sweet conversation.

Soup's on, so drive on over . . . or maybe slide . . . or skate . . . or sled . . . on over for a nice hot bowl of soup!

Love,

Wordless Post

(Fresh Apple)

Sherry

Sunday School Chef

I recently took on the responsibility of teaching the Young Adult Sunday class at our church. This class is primarily a video teaching class so that helps since I am married to the Senior Pastor, which in turn, brings other Sunday responsibilities for me. Last October, I was a guest teacher in this same class and taught on the book of Nehemiah. It took three months to complete and just about "ate my lunch" to get through it, but I thoroughly enjoyed teaching it. I would love to present it again since I now have all the notes (I was writing them as I prepared for the class).

Part of the privilege of teaching at our church is that I get to provide Sunday morning refreshments for my class. When you walk down the corridors of our church on Sunday mornings, you are greeted with the aroma of coffee brewing and the sight of plates full of muffins, cookies, brownies, etc. Now.... most of the adult teachers are men and its their WIVES that cook/buy the refreshments, make the coffee and clean up after class. I NEED A WIFE! (Figuratively speaking.) I like to take extra time at home after my husband leaves to spend time alone in prayer before the class begins. That cuts into my food prep time at church! Oh well, I guess I had better work more on my organizational skills so that I can get this new schedule down.

Life at the parsonage ... planning.

"Fresh" Salad Anyone?!!!

Look closely at the package. Just below the words "Fresco Lavado"...

Oh! My! Word! Talk about freaking out. That would be me! It is believed that the water the lettuce was washed in contained polliwogs and these became "fresh" new frogs, right in the packages! I guess, as the Cajuns would say, Mexico put a little lagniappe (something extra) in their bags of lettuce!

Life at the parsonage ... avoiding this brand of lettuce!
Sherry

Friends and Food

Last week our Music Pastor, Allison, invited us to a family dinner at her new home. She served the best turkey burgers I have ever tasted. When we walked into the house there was an incredibly delicious aroma. She was cooking the burgers and let me tell you, they tasted just as yummy as they smelled. Here is the recipe:

Turkey Burgers

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey breast

2 tablespoons fresh thyme

course salt, stripped and fine chopped, to taste

fresh ground pepper, to taste

2 scallion, fine chopped

1 carrot, shredded

1/2 small zucchini, fine chopped (or shredded)

extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling

4 leaves green leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce

1 vine ripe tomato, sliced

1 cup store bought refrigerated creamy ranch dressing or herb salad dressing

4 crusty roll, split

Directions

1. Combine first 7 ingredients in a bowl and form into 4 large patties.
2. Brush with olive oil and cook 7 minutes each side over medium high heat in nonstick pan.

3. Serve on split buns with lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing.

(I think she also added a chopped red bell pepper - to taste.)

Also, we had a Strawberry Spinach Salad with homemade dressing. AND.... for dessert, a giant chocolate chip cookie with a cream cheese mixture spread on top, then the whole thing was topped with fresh whole strawberries drizzled with chocolate. I've made this recipe before and it is so yummy!! I will post these recipes another time. But for now ....

Life at the parsonage ... heading out the door to buy some ground turkey!!!

Sherry