What? STILL no snow???

What is wrong with this picture?  OK so there is no picture, but you know what I mean. We have NO SNOW.  It's just not Christmas without a blanket of snow on the ground! This is one of the weirdest Christmas's in years!  Oh believe me, it's sure cold enough outside, but HEY, we NEED some snow around here. PRONTO!

Brunch anyone?

I posted a picture of this dish on my 365 Blog. Here's the recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com

Easy Breakfast Bake

Prep time 20 min                     Serves 6
Cook time 45 min

Ingredients:

1 lb  Bob Evans Zesty Hot Roll Sausage
1 20 oz package Bob Evans Hash Brown Potatoes
1C diced Bob Evans Ham Steaks
1/3 C. diced onions
1C shredded Cheddar cheese
1C shredded swiss cheese
1 yellow pepper, diced
4 oz sliced mushrooms
6 eggs
1/3 C. milk
salt and pepper to taste

In med. skillet over med. eat crumble and cook sausage till browned.  Add onions and cook till softened. Set aside. In a greased 9 x 13 baking dish, place 1/2 the potatoes. Top with sausage mixture, ham, cheeses, yellow pepper and mushrooms. Place remaining potatoes on top. Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper until well combined. Pour over potatoes. At this point, dish can be refrigerated overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, Bake uncovered 45-50 minutes, or until eggs are set.

This dish is a hit!  I baked it for our Christmas brunch at school and it was gone very fast!

Christmas Nails

Merry Christmas!  My Nail Guy, once again, did an awesome job!  I even found the perfect stemware to match!  White nail color, with red stripes. Glitter top coat. Simple. Festive. AWESOME!

Minestrone Soup

Well...I think Winter is very close! We had our first blanket of snow today! Ahhh, that means it's soup weather!  I made this really wonderful soup for dinner tonight, and I thought I'd share it with you.

Minestrone Soup

1 lb Italian Sweet or Hot Sausage meat (NO Casing)

1 lb dry pasta, any kind you like (cooked and drained)

1 bag frozen chopped spinach

1 medium yellow onion, diced or chopped, depending on how large you like the pieces

2 Tablespoons (yes, TABLE spoons!) garlic

Olive oil for cooking sausage

1 can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can (I used a 28 oz can) diced tomatoes (juice too!)

2 cartons NO MSG Chicken Broth

Salt, pepper, basil, parsley to taste (may not need to add salt)

Brown sausage in olive oil, add onions and garlic and saute for about 5 min. Add  beans, tomatoes, broth, and spinach, set heat to medium/low and cook about 30 min, till broth is hot.  Add cooked pasta, season to taste and serve.

I think this will rival any restaurant minestrone!

Holiday FUN!

I just signed up for a Handmade Gift Exchange through Craftaholics Anonymous! Oh what FUN that will be!  If you'd like to do the same, you should be able to get to her blog from mine, as I'm a follower of that blog!

I'm so anxious to get to know the person I'm making a gift for! Neat way to make a new crafting friend!

Pinterest, and my nail art.

Here's my "official" halloween nail art. Thanks to Nail Guy, who always does an awesome job!
So, who is on "Pinterest"?  WOW is that an awesome website! I have french tips right now, and rarely have full color coverage on my nails, but after finding some really great nail art on Pinterest I'm going to start having Nail Guy (not his real name, that's his Facebook name) try some of the cool techniques that I've seen. Probably not real interesting to some, but I LOVE IT!

Fall fun

Ooooh, a lot going on today!  Hubby and I got out early this morning and spent about 3 hours burning a lot of those darned weeds I talked about. Lots done, but still lots to burn. It's so relaxing to sit outside with a mug of hot coffee. I absolutely LOVE the smell of burning season!
Have a crock pot of vegi beef soup on, waiting for some friends to arrive for lunch, crafting and football! We're making "paper bag books". This is a GREAT project for recycling all kinds of stuff! Cardboard is the base for this book, and the top of wine sized paper bags are the pages! I cut up all kinds of boxes for todays project! I will be sure to post pictures! Another thing we'll be making are some "scrunchy" flowers, using pages from discarded text books. FUN STUFF!!!

Fall field trip!

Tomorrow we head to Hood River, Oregon for our annual apple picking trip! This is one of my favorite things to do. We try to have the entire family participate, but as I'm sure many of you know, that is NOT always possible. With our adult children now married with families it's sometimes hard to coordinate it all. We're just thankful for whoever is able to make it! I hope to come home with bunches of apples, and bunches of pictures too!

Fun fingernails

OPI is having a "halloween nails" kind of contest. I can't enter because this design wasn't done by ME. I asked if I could enter anyway just to show what an AWESOME job my "Nail Guy" does. FABULOUS, isn't it?

Scrapbooking and card making

I love scrapbooking.  Mostly I make cards, but I've finally started sorting all those years' of photo's in that drawer that feels like a bottomless pit of pictures. I was so bad at dating them! I sure love this digital age we're in!
Anyway, below is a really quick but very pretty card that I love to make. The following photos show the "unfinished" card, with just the "crinkle flower" on it. You can finish it up any way you like.

The first photo is of the card, with two flowers stamped on the same patterned paper and laying flat on the card.  (This paper is one of my favorites, but can I remember where I got it? NO.) I've got to keep my eye out for more of this beautiful paper!

 Next photo shows the flowers, after being "crinkled" yes, you wad the flowers up into a tiny, ugly ball, then very carefully un-crinkle it. I usually re-crinkle each section and kind of shape it. It's attached to the card with ZOTS brand adhesive dots.

Here's a close up of the flower.

 One more picture of the finished flower.  You could do lots to "pretty up" that flower even more! I have a bottle of clear glitter glue that I brush on the flower pedals, I have also attached a pretty jewel in the middle.

Well, hope you have a chance to try this, it's so easy and makes a beautiful card!

A quote about Autumn

"Autumn is a second Spring, when every leaf is a flower"

                  Albert Camus
      French Author & Journalist

   

Blueberry-Lime Jam

Here is the first of my favorite canning recipes. An odd combination, but quite delicious!

Blueberry-Lime Jam

Yield: about 6 half-pints

4-1/2 Cups blueberries
1 package powdered pectin
5 cups sugar  (I used 3 cups for a reduced sugar jam)
1 Tablespoon grated lime peel
1/3C lime juice

Crush blueberries one layer at a time. Combine crushed blueberries and powdered pectin in a large saucepot.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add sugar, stirring until disolved. Stir in grated lime peel and lime juice.  Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.  Skim foam if necessary.  Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Adjust two-piece caps. Process 15 mintues in a boiling-water canner.

This recipe is from my Ball Blue Book of preserving. Sweet, yet a hint of tang from the lime, and oh so good! Next time I make this recipe I'll try using frozen blueberries, letting them thaw before starting the process.

Canning foods

I wonder why I never tried canning before. How rewarding it is to make something delicious to share with family! I'll be sharing some of my favorite canning recipes here, and I hope that if you have some favorites that you'll share them with me!

Weeds in the yard.

Weeds, weeds weeds...they're everywhere! Where I live there aren't many yards that have a nicely trimmed, nicely greened up lawn. Oh yes, there are a few, but mostly it's the "natural" look. Ours is the latter. We have a noxious weed called Knapp Weed, that gets out of control! This year, as in most other years we haven't "really" attempted to control it. Last year our Son-in-Law was kind enough to "weed whack" the most problematic area and it looked GREAT! But then came spring and the rain, and those darned things came back bigger and badder than ever. This year I'm out pulling them as often as possible. I can actually see light at the end of the Knapp Weed tunnel!
My reward for all this was my first (that I know of anyway) spider bite. OUCH! I'm really surprised, with all this time I've spend in the midst of these ugly weeds, that it's the only one I've gotten. I can't even see where the bite is this morning, but it sure didn't feel very good.
No wonder I don't like bugs and spiders.

The first official post on my Blog

Well, here I am folks. OregonGrandmama! I'm a Mom & Grammy and I love photography, crafting and Dutch Oven cooking.  Join me on my Dutch oven adventure!