Christmas Ornaments

A tradition in my family from when I was little my mom tried to do, she tried to buy ornaments for all her kids every year.  We grew up really poor and had no money.  I think I had 5 ornaments that I got for my very first Christmas tree. 

When I was very first married to my ex I started to do this too because we didn't have anything to put on our Christmas tree.  Every year since I became a mom I bought my children an ornament. Some years I would let them pick out the ornament, but most years I buy them something that they are into.

Like my youngest loves Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, my only daughter wants to be a cowgirl when she grows up, my oldest loves football and penguins.  He knows the football part annoys me, but that is a story for another time! And of course for my BBQ King I got him the smoker with ribs on it!

One of my kids loves batman; his ornament is at grandmas house!  He is the hard one to shop for since he has few things he is into, books and batman!  This kid of mine has only books on his Christmas list, hard cover ones! He even told me Kindle gift cards for books doesn't count! I told him in return, why because you want more books for your bookshelves so you can start your own personal library? He just smiles big! I could read his thoughts, great idea mom!

Merry Christmas!

Labor Day Weekend

Some of us are lucky to have a 3 day weekend!  Many years ago it was the joke that I would go into labor on Labor Day with my first child!  Next year he will be turning the big 2-0!  Where did time go?? Anyways, my response to everyone would be, baby will come the day after labor day just because everyone expects arrival on labor day!  Sure enough, late that night I went into labor and had my baby on Tuesday around lunchtime!

I hope whatever you are doing you are spending time with your family.  I love my family and would do anything for them!

My BBQ King, aka my husband is my BFF, so this is fitting also!

He thought I was a little crazy snapping pictures while grocery shopping with him!  He was taking his time!  I also was playing with little bottles and gathered some family members' names and snapped some more pictures!  I'll share those another day, until then, drink up!

Stay safe in whatever you do and drive carefully home if you have gone out of town.

What are your favorite family stories to share?

Zucchini Oatmeal Cookies

I love things growing in the garden!  It gives me a big sense of accomplishment when I am able to pick something from the garden and turn it into some magical dish in the kitchen!  When I got home from work one day this last week my teenager requested cookies.  I requested he does his chore and I went outside to pick this beauty from the garden. 

I think this will make awesome cookies!  I found on Pinterest this link to an awesome recipe we tried out.  Here is the website for the cookie recipe!  I started making the cookies about the same time my teen finished doing his chore - dishes!  I told him yay he gets to help but he had to go use the potty but never returned until cookies were done!

I didn't have chocolate chips, but we still wanted chocolate in the cookies so I put in a heaping spoonful of cocoa into the batter.  This recipe made the moistest cookies!  Even the picky kids at the cookies!  They were so good!

Great idea my son had!  We ate them all before my BBQ King got home!  I was only able to save him four cookies!

What have you baked lately?

Embroidered Frog

Okay so I said this wouldn't just be a BBQ blog and that there would be "other things"!! It has been way too hot to BBQ or way too windy and pouring down rain here in Washington State.  So just before our summer storm I made this awesome embroidered frog on a bar mop towel.

My daughter just informed me that I need to give this frog some team spirit and make it in green, blue, and gray ~ Seahawk colors!  We'll see how much time I have on my hands in the next week before school starts! I just might give her idea a try!

What have you crafted lately?

Please pray for our fire fighters to stay safe and be able to put out the fires. Also to keep everyone's homes safe.

Stormy Weekend & Crochet Team Spirit Hat

Happy Monday everyone! What a weekend we had!  My teenager called me to tell me the power was flickering Saturday morning.  Then he told me it went out, but it came back on real fast.  I was at a medical work conference so I wasn't able to get them prepared.  Then I got a text from my hubby saying the power went out not too long after my son had texted me.  My son was a bit worried so he had knocked on my bedroom door to talk to dad.  Dad said he got them fed and got them each a flashlight.  I wouldn't have believed them but I had stepped outside and went right back into the building.  It was like southern tornado weather outside!  I ended up going home early when everyone went to lunch.  We ended up going without power for over thirty hours!  Thank goodness we have a generator so we didn't loose all our stock of food in the fridge and garage freezer!

My husband had put in a request for a hat with dreadlocks.  I know it sounds crazy but I try to make him happy even if he doesn't ask me how my day at work went.  So without power I can't sew, but I did make this creation!

I am very new to the crocheting world.  I don't know the name of the stitches but I can make my own interpretation of them and create my own thing.  I learned off of YouTube and patterns from Pinterest. It takes a lot of patience to learn.  I usually end up with a wad of yarn.  It has taken a few years of watching videos to come up with something like this.  I use the start of a pattern like this one here.  Just leave off the ear-flaps for a hat like the one above.  Or you could use something like this without ear-flaps.  I made my own pattern for the braids, just measure how long you want them, double it and stick them between stitches and braid. Tie at the end in a knot and trim any excess off.

My model isn't very happy she has to wear the "daddy hat"  she thinks it is very strange and I guaranteed her that her face wouldn't show in the picture!  It's a little big on me, but fits my hubby perfectly!

So that about wraps up what I did when our power was out!  What did you do to stay safe and entertained?

Sunflowers

This past school year for Mother's Day my son's first grade class planted sunflower seeds in Dixie cups!  They were about one inch tall when I got my present.  About a week later they were planted in containers and fed fertilizer, lots of it.  First used was the blue crystal like stuff, I think it is the 20-20-20. They grew taller and my hubby put in a pole and then baggie tied the plant to the pole.  As the plant got bigger the baggie tie came off and was replaced with a loose zip tie.  More fertilizer, but in the form of chicken manure, earthworm castings, or fish compost (I call it all chicken poop, worm poop, or fish guts) was used to make these beauties grow big and strong!

Our weather went from being in the ninety degrees down to mid sixty and very rainy. We needed the rain really bad! The first sunflower died.  My BBQ King thinks he can bring it back to life.  The flower head is droopy and the petals are wilted, but it has been a week and nothing!  We are now back in the heat wave of nearly ninety degrees again!  The second sunflower plant, is now thriving in the heat!

Begging for sunshine and warm weather, sounds like me!  I love summer!

Another cloudy day for the second sunflower!  This one is actually about two feet taller than the first plant!  Maybe it is 3! Still begging for sunshine!

Almost there!  The sunflower and I are enjoying the warm weather today, and yesterday!  When I got home from work I went out to water all the plants and found Miss sunflower like this!

This is leaning up against the yellow ghost pepper plant!  I think a mole or gofer was underground and knocked it over!  Or maybe it was the wind, although it wasn't windy!  I guess it will be a mystery but I like the critter idea!  I helped this beauty up and found only two peppers on the ground which I stuck into the mound of dirt by the fence, hence the critter idea!  I think he was digging his underground maze and bumped the bucket, because he was too close to the surface!

So there you have it!  Sunflowers started from a seed in a Dixie cup, planted into a container bucket can grow!  Sunflowers are an excellent way to bring bees to your garden to get the other flowering plants pollinated to grow!

Did you grow a garden this year?

Tomatoes

I've really loved growing different things in container buckets this summer.  With the right fertilizer and love these plants have really grown.  This next week I will be sharing things we have grown.  Let's get down to it!  

First up is tomatoes.  We swore last year we would never do this again!  They got brown rot on the bottoms and the year before they weren't very tasty.  We never used any kind of fertilizer back then.  This year we have been which has made a big difference.

Now I am not much of a tomato person.  Tomatoes are meant to be turned into other food items like salsa, tomato sauce, or ketchup!  This picture doesn't even begin to describe the inside of these tomatoes!

The above picture was taken with a flash!  The bright, rich red in this picture describes the insides of the tomatoes!  I turned these into salsa for the husband!  He said they were so much better than last years or the year before!  I was just surprised he liked them, because he is always so picky and I was surprised he actually bought the plants in the first place!

We also have in the backyard, growing in containers strawberries, zucchini, pumpkins, watermelon, green beans, sunflowers, and cucumbers! Also My BBQ King's Ghost Chilly Pepper plants! I'll blog about them too along with some good ole yummy BBQ coming up in the next few weeks and maybe post some of my crafty works I've made this past summer!

Fish n Chips at Red Robin - YUM!

I never understood why they call it fish n chips when it really isn't chips - it's french fries! About two years ago someone at church told my BBQ King the best fish n chips in the area was at Red Robin.  My hubby didn't believe them until he went there one day with some guys from work during lunch time.  They swore the fish and chips were the best & he tried them!  They were so good he went there again by himself. I'm jealous.  I guess I should get used to eating something yummy by myself.  I'm more of a save money eat at home type of gal.

Picture compliments of his cell phone.  I could use a bathtub full of that ice water right about now!  This looks absolutely delicious and he said it was!  This was his second meal there getting the same thing in less than a week!  All I have to say is YUM!  This is definitely better than trying to make it at home!  YUM again!

Not everything can be BBQ'D, right?

What's your favorite restaurant?

BBQ Weekend , Ribs

Just some tasty ribs to kick the weekend off with!

And don't forget the taters!  These were cooked on the grill too!  Just a dash of EVOO to marinade them in with garlic salt, onion powder, and a dash of pepper.

The meat just separated off the bone it was so good! Oh yum!  There just wasn't enough!  I really wish I didn't have to share these!  I could have eaten it all myself!

Make sure to have the fire extinguisher handy just in case for those fireworks that get out of control.  We are leaving it to the professionals this year because of how dry it has been.  I can't remember the last time it rained around here, but the news said that it is going to keep be a dry summer!  

What are you grilling up this weekend?

My Zucchini

I'm so excited! I picked my first zucchini from our container garden! Here it is!

It's a beauty isn't it!?! I can't wait to have it for Sunday dinner with a Traeger cooked roast! It is going to be tasty and the best thing about it is I don't have to cook inside and heat up the house because it has been really hot here in the Pacific Northwest!

Now you can't pick a zucchini without measuring it! Oh yes I did; check out the picture below!

Yum! I can't wait to grill this beauty up and eat it! I can't wait for more to grow! I have friends to share with!

Garden Update

Okay, the first week of May I did a post on container gardening.  I just wanted to share some pictures from about a month ago and current ones!  You will be amazed!

The above picture was about three weeks after the Garden Container post.  Here's another close up picture then.

I was so excited to see them this big, but hey... things can change and plants really can grow in containers!

Here they are today, June 25, 2015.  The plants in the middle are the zucchini and the plants on the ends are Indian Ghost Chili Peppers!


Here's the close up of the zucchinis!

If you look closely the zucchini plant in the far right has this veggie growing on it!  I told My BBQ King that this is going to grill up nicely for dinner this coming weekend!  He told me we are going to wait to see how big it is going to get!  I wasn't too happy about that!  Maybe he would go for some grilled zucchini bread!

This is going to be tasty!  What would you make out of this?  Don't be shy and post your comment today!

Pork Chops

Homemade teriyaki sauce for these chops! Yummy!  My BBQ King loves to use his charcoal grill for just about everything lately.

Fill the blender about half full with soy sauce, add in one large sweet onion, one cup brown sugar, and one can pineapple (or about half of a fresh one), Blend away till any signs of pineapple and onion is gone!  The marinade will be kind of white and frothy on top and darker on the bottom.  Don't worry the frothy part is just the onion and pineapple!  Marinade over night or even in the morning before you go to work for maximum taste!  Don't forget to let your BBQ King do the hard part - work the grill!  He'll love it!

Match these chops with your favorite green veggie or white rice or even a loaded baked potato and you have a wonderful dinner!

Fried Chicken Breasts

In our family it's all about the food!  My BBQ King has been helping with dinner lately.  Mostly because he is very picky and only wants to buy or eat what he wants.  So he wanted fried chicken and he got it!  This is the result of fried chicken cooked on the gas grill side burner so it doesn't stink or heat up the house!

Recipe for the crust, one package Ritz crackers, we used my favorite Garden Veggies, 1 package of Waverly Club crackers, dash of garlic salt, onion powder, and pepper. Smash the crackers up, I use the bottom of a cup. Mix in the spices and its ready to go! Rinse the chicken, coat in the mixture of cracker crumbs and spices, dip in a bowl of milk, dip back in the crumbs again and it is ready for a hot pan of oil.  The bigger the chicken like the one on the far left, cook a bit longer so it cooks through.  When you are done if you want to cook extra bake at 375 for 20 minutes depending on your oven, put on a cookie sheet and put a wire cooling rack for the chicken to sit on.  This will make it so the chicken crust doesn't go soggy from the oil.

This was super tasty!  It tastes great with other crackers too!

Give it a try and let me know what you think!



Lake Wapato

Sometimes on a nice hot sunny day it is great to get out of the house for family time.  A nice air conditioned car, bottles of water, hot & sweaty kids, all make for a great adventure to Lake Wapato.  This is in Tacoma Washington United States, right off I-5. There's a nice paved walkway around the lake, a playground for the kids, and lots of trees for shade!

This view is from the east side of the lake.  

I think I ruffled too many of momma duck's feathers while snapping a few too many pictures of her and her babies!  Taken from the north end of the lake, looking north.

Looking east.

Thank you to the man upstairs for providing beautiful weather the last few days for the greater Puget Sound area of Washington State!  I am in Heaven ~ literally!

Embroidered Owls

Hi there! Here's a crafty post so don't get mad it's not about BBQ, but as the title states this would fall under the "other things"! I hope to do more like this in the future!

As I mentioned last week my brother got married!  He's in his mid 30's, no kids.  His wife has five kids!  Talk about instant family!  I was really excited to make this for him.

Their wedding colors are pale yellow and royal blue. The towels came from Walmart. They cost just under 5 bucks and come in a pack of 4 or 5 depending on the size. (There's two or three different sizes. I can't remember what size I used. I think they are 12" by 16".)

The owls, I purchased the designs from  my favorite embroidery website.  I get all my designs here and they have great sales too! They also have a free design a month!  Check it out!  I have a Singer Embroidery/Sewing machine that does all the sewing! You just have to set it up, push the button and advance through the design, and change the threads as needed.

Let's get a conversation started!  What website or where do you go to buy your embroidery designs and what type of machine do you have? And do you like it?

Weather

I'm missing the sunshine here in Washington State where I live!  So in honor of the sunshine coming back this week, here is are a few beautiful pictures I took when I lived in Arizona!

I miss palm trees!

The first two pictures were take  at the neighborhood park.  By the time we got home and little kids were getting tucked into bed I snapped the picture below from the little kids' bedroom window.

I miss the sunshine and the warm weather! I can't wait for the gloomy cold weather goes away!  I have been cold all weekend long!

What is your favorite type of weather?

Grillmaster Coke

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I hope you all have a safe weekend!  School is out an extra day, a snow make up day was not used so we, well the kids have a four day weekend!  I get to work for a few hours this Friday morning, but have Monday off!  I hope the weather is nice enough for all of you to BBQ wherever you live! If it is not, stay inside, and have a craft day! I'll share some of my crafty stuff next week with you!  Have an excellent weekend!

Since Memorial Weekend is known for grilling, I thought this was appropriate to share!

We started collecting the bottles last year with our family names on them.  We only found four!  I like these Grillmaster ones, I should buy a few for my brother in law that is turning 40 early next month!  He loves Coca Cola!

Please be safe in whatever you do and remember those loved ones lost.

BBQ Teriyaki Chicken Wings

It has been busy around here as usual!  My little brother, finally got married this last weekend!  The night of the wedding my BBQ King, aka the hubby, marinaded some chicken wings and drummettes that he thawed out the night before in a yummy, delicious teriyaki sauce!

For the marinade he used Aloha Soy Sauce, Yoshida's garlic flavor teriyaki sauce, one medium onion, and about a cup of brown sugar.  Mix well and dump in an air tight container.  This was left in the fridge overnight.

Now get those coals smoking and set up the propane grill to use the side burner to boil the sauce.

The sauce will thicken quickly.  Delicious!

And tasty looking! I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into these! My taste buds were definitely watering. 

I don't know why he does this but My BBQ King dumps the sauce into the chicken before he brings it into the house.  We had white rice with this. Fill the plate with rice and put the chicken on top of it and drizzle extra sauce if wanted.  Don't forget the veggies!  We had green beans!

I'm so proud of my husband for making this for our family. Absolutely delicious! I'm also proud of him because he did not use my nice bread pans on the grill!

Maybe next time I will share my recipe.  I make a home made teriyaki marinade sauce using soy sauce.

To give credit where credit is due, My BBQ King took these pictures used in this post! He used his Samsung Galaxy Note 2 cell phone.

Potlucks at Work

My BBQ King loves to have potlucks at work.  They love to have some excuse to share food with each other!  On Tuesday this week, they celebrated Cinco De Mayo, May 5th! So I made home made salsa for this event.

My husband was given ghost chili plants from a co worker this last July for helping someone out.  For a while he didn't listen to me, but eventually he finally used miracle grow to help these babies turn into big thriving plants!  While I was making the salsa he picked a few for me to add in the salsa.

I diced up these peppers into the salsa very fine. My homemade recipe also included about 6 tomatoes, 2 small onions diced, one jalapeno, a few spoonfuls of garlic and cilantro!

Of course this was before I stirred it all together.  The brown looking stuff is the green pepper,  It looked brown inside.

Here's something else from the potluck.  It's called meat on meat, made by one of the guys!

I definitely need the recipe for this meat on meat!  It was maple syrupy flavored with a cheese sauce. Little smokies wrapped in bacon! Delicious!

Well when My BBQ King sends me pictures of  their potluck I will update this post!

What is your favorite thing to make for a potluck?

Container Gardening

We live in a rental house and every summer for the last two years we say we are going to move because the neighbors behind us build fires in their backyards early in the evenings and start smoking their pot.  It stinks our house up and we have to shut the windows and turn off the air conditioner that we have.  So just in case we move, we want to be able to take our garden with us.  Last month we did sugar snap peas from a start and have had our first harvest.  We have gotten a few dozen! They are so delicious! It is so hard to share with the kids, but I do share! 

Today I usually go volunteer at the elementary school, but today I spent it with my BBQ King who stayed home from work.  We went out to eat this morning at I Hop, picked up my new glasses, had a recheck for my contacts, and then went to the Goodwill & Dollar Tree.  My husband picked up a new stereo for work and a kitchen gadget. I got a new skirt and a dress!  I am so excited because last time I got a new skirt I wore it to church and I swear, even though I really shouldn't, everyone or just about had the same skirt on!  The new to me skirt is a little tight, but I have been eating healthier since being sick last month. That's where the Dollar Tree comes in!  I brought home banana chips from there a few weeks ago and my hubby stole them from me, so we had to go buy more!  There's also trail mixes and other yummy healthy snacks we get from there! After a quick trip to Cash & Carry for our famous popcorn butter and some snow cone syrup we found ourselves at home with about one hour before kids start coming home from school.

I rolled up my shirt sleeves and capris and played in the dirt!  I am planting 3 strawberry plants and there is 4 zucchini starts in the one container.

 Here's the results!

These are zucchinis. The starts were bought from Walmart garden department.

First before you fill your buckets with dirt, make sure there is good drainage in the bottom of the bucket.  If not, just do this first! See picture below! If there is no drainage then the plant might not live - just to warn you from my experience!

Please drill a few holes in the bottom of all the buckets you use!  These buckets don't have to be fancy!  Ours were free from work.  To try to get a few buckets for free, go to the deli or a bakery and ask them if they have buckets for free.  Some places will give them to you for free and very dirty!  You will just need to clean them!

I then did strawberry starts, bought at Walmart.  Here is the days work lined up along the fence.

There's my baby, waiting for the strawberries to be ready to pick! Here's a peek at our green beans!

Well that's about it for now!

What's your favorite thing to garden?

What is your favorite thing to buy at a thrift store?

Salmon Teriyaki Marinade

Okay, let's get down to business. My youngest asked me if I would teach him how to make salmon with white rice last night while I was tucking him in bed. I asked him why and he replied, "because when I am a dad I want to make it for my kids." What a sweet and loving 7 year old I have! He is the most loving, kind, caring, hard working, child a mom could ever ask for in her last child! He's definitely a keeper!

So in honor of him wanting to learn how to cook salmon!

This is my special teriyaki sauce that I make in my Ninja blender. Fill the blender with soy sauce about half way, toss in there about a cup of brown sugar, one sweet onion, a few cloves of garlic, add in there pineapple (optional, but I forgot to add it in this particular sauce so I put it on top of the fish). Now put the lid on and blend! No need to chop the onion, just cut the ends off and peel off the thin crispy layer.  Now you need something to put the salmon in to marinade, Tupperware, Ziploc baggie gallon size or whatever you have will work. Add the fish and the freshly made sauce. Close it and leave it all day in the refrigerator. You want to marinate it for at least 5 hours to get a really good taste!

Here it is! I think this particular day it was raining so hard and was windy we opted out of BBQ and put it in the oven for 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. Then turn off the bake and turn on the broil! Broil for up to 5 minutes to get a little blackened charred look and flavor. It will taste amazing!  Just a personal hint, do not walk away! Stay with the oven so you don't forget about it! We don't want all your hard work on the meal to go to waste!

Now to complete the meal with white rice, pasta, veggies whatever you like!

How do you like your salmon cooked?

Chicken Stock

I don't know about you but my husband does some crazy things! Here he is using one of my nice newer pans on his barbecue! This drives me nuts!  He knows better!  He has his own special pans to use just for the BBQ! In fact he should have used one of the old ratty looking pans in the kitchen instead!

(My photo.)

The picture makes the backyard look smaller than it is! See new pan on the grill!

My BBQ King's photo.

Here's a peek inside!  The recipe for this awesome chicken stock, all it is, is, a leftover rotisserie chicken from Costco and water.  Grill on the side burner for a few hours. When we use it to cook something fabulous we will add salt and pepper and that sort of stuff.