Monday, September 29, 2014

Cranberry Crockin' Roast

This is the best roast ever!  The cranberry and onion soup mix are a good combo.  The gravy is awesome on mashed potatoes too!
 
Ingredients:

      Small Roast
      One can jellied cranberry sauce
      One packet onion soup mix
      2 Tablespoons flour
I placed the roast in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Spoon the jellied cranberries over the roast and sprinkle the onion soup mix over it.  Put the lid on and cook on low 6-8 hours or until done.  About 30 minutes before serving, sprinkle the flour over the liquid to make the gravy. 
 This is the easiest and best roast ever!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Smoky Mountain Wedding

On May 17, 2014 my youngest daughter, Megan, married her soldier boy Chris.
 
 
 It was a small ceremony held in a cabin that we rented for the special occasion, Cades Cove Castle in the Smoky Mountains.


The wedding party, casual but still fun.  My oldest daughter, Jennifer, is the Matron of Honor.

 I love this shot of Megan's dress.  The black and white photo really shows the detail of the lace.
 
Meg carried her grandpa's spirit with her by wearing a charm with his picture on her shoe.
 
 
Her bouquet is fabric flowers that we made.  We used vintage buttons from my wedding dress and some jewelry from her grandmother.  It was a lovely day.  Here's to many more happy years together!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

If You Mustache...

Megan is getting married!  We have had a fascination with mustaches since my grandson's baby shower.  So when the girls started planning Megan's bridal shower, we knew we would have to incorporate the mustache theme.
 
Megan is marrying her best friend, Chris Mills.  He is currently active duty in the Army and stationed at Fort Bragg.  The wedding is going to be on May 17, 2014 in the Smoky Mountains.
Our front door decorations.  Chipboard letters covered with cardstock, mounted on ribbon, spell out "I DO".  I even added a little mustache!
Once inside, guests were greeted by this little vignette, complete with their engagement picture in a chalkboard frame.  We are using this as our countdown calendar.
 We had a journal where guests were asked to write some advice to the young couple.  Next, we asked everyone to write down their favorite memory of Megan and place it in the jar.  We read these at the end of the shower and Megan had to guess who wrote them.  One thing, this kid has a lot of caring people who have been involved in her life, most of them since she was a young girl.
Megan's chair where she sat to open her gifts.  This chair was a gift to me from her dad on our first Christmas after we were engaged.
The M & M jar.  Pick a mustache and have a photo shoot!


Cupcakes, made by sister of the bride!  Delicious!!!
 Mustache cake!  I baked the cake, but our friend Lori, decorated it.
One of the games was to make a wedding dress out of rolls of toilet paper.  The girls broke into groups of four.  Each group picked a girl to be the "bride".  Then they took 3 rolls of cheap toilet paper and made a dress. Megan's friend Krystia and her group had the best dress. 
Cousins!  Crystle, Megan and Jennifer.
Me and my beautiful girls!
Three generations, me, my mom and my girls.
Last, but not least, Geoffrey.  We had several people from out of town, so Geoff came by at the end of the shower so everyone could see how big he has gotten!
 
It was a wonderful day.  Megan was surrounded by friends, family and lots of love!
 

Friday, March 14, 2014

We Are Having A Wedding!

My baby girl is getting married!  After months of waiting we have finally set a date of May 17th.  Her fiancĂ© is in the Army, so it has made planning a bit difficult.  Destination, the Great Smoky Mountains.  A cabin for 30 has been secured and they will be surrounded by family and close friends as they take their vows.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Geoffrey Update!

The grandson, Geoffrey, is getting so big!  He turned 2 on October 17th and his momma turned 31 on the same day.  This collage are pictures from his three Christmases.  The far right picture is his first Christmas, bottom left is his second Christmas, and the upper left is Christmas 2013.
This is a very rare moment when Geoff is actually being still.  He is one busy little boy.  Everyone tells me that is typical for boys.  Having only had girls before, this is all new to me!
The kid has great hair!  He also has eyelashes that most women would kill for!  I think he is a pretty cute guy though, I guess we will keep him!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Crocked Stuffed Peppers

I love using my slow cooker, it is so nice to come home from work to a meal that is ready to serve.  I am trying to do better about meal planning this year.  Today is my husband's birthday and he loves stuffed peppers, so I found a couple of recipes for inspiration and this is what I came up with.
Crocked Stuffed Green Peppers

4 large green peppers
1 pound ground turkey
1/3 cup onion, chopped (or 1 teaspoon onion powder or 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes)
1 egg, beaten
1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 8 ounce can of water
1 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 package of Spanish rice (I used the Rice a roni brand)

Cut tops of peppers and clean out the inside. In a large bowl mix the ground turkey, onion, egg, Spanish rice, tomato sauce and water. Mixture may be a bit runny, but it will be fine. Fill peppers with the meat mixture. If you have extra of the mixture you can spoon it on top of the peppers.

Place a liner in your crockpot, this makes clean up a breeze! Then dump the can of diced tomatoes on the bottom and place stuffed peppers on top. Cook on low around 6-8 hrs.
Just for fun and I have nothing better to do on this freezing day in January, I did an internet search for “green peppers male and female”. Somewhere, sometime I remembered reading that in bell peppers, there are males and females. I have no idea if this is true or not, but here are a few things I found on my quest.

Supposedly, three bottomed bell peppers are male, while four bottomed peppers are female. Three bottomed bell peppers are “sweeter and better for eating,” while four bottomed bell peppers are “firmer and better for cooking”. Some say they don't notice a difference in taste or texture between three bottomed bell peppers and four bottomed bell peppers. Makes total sense to me! Just like the women in my family, “firmer and better for cooking”!!! Female bell peppers have more seeds than males and some advise that you buy “male” bell peppers at the grocery store. I am assuming the thought process on this would be since females have more seeds it causes them to weigh more, and if they are bought by the pound, they would cost more for something that you are going to clean out and toss in the compost anyway!