It’s been one of those weeks!

The plan was to get all my curtains, window coverings, windows themselves, and of course the cluttered (from over the winter) cabinets, cleaned up, washed and wiped. Well, I got as far as all the curtains, and windows, but I have had a bad back for more than 10yrs, and have had at least 7 surgeries, including a spinal fusion and stimulator implant. So, needless to say my back is kinda screwed up. I do my best to be productive and keep active, but if I fall (which I did “slightly” on Wednesday afternoon) I am forced to shut down till the pain goes away. 

I did get some quick breads made at the beginning of the week and here are some of the photos from them. I had some dried cranberries and reconstituted them in orange juice and then added them to an orange loaf to make cranberry/orange quick bread. I also made my weekly (or bi-weekly) chocolate chip loaf. Everyone seems to love it for breakfast and my daughter calls it “Muffin bread” lol. Here we go…

The cranberry dough…

Into the pan…

Chocolate chip dry ingredients…

Add the oil…

The water…

I always get the eggs ready for ANY and all breads that i make. Whisking them before adding them, makes sure they are well blended before folding into a recipe. If they are not blended, they can form hard stringy “bits” throughout the bread, cake, brownies, etc…

Into the bowl…

Well mixed…

Into the pan…

Cranberry/orange loaf out of the oven and sprinkled with sugar (I add the sugar before the last 15mins of cooking)

Both loaves out of the oven and ready to cool and be wrapped for the week.

We are planning a simple weekend of cooking for me. Friday night is chicken tacos for my daughter and I (hubs will have beef tacos and some nachos), and then Saturday night (which is usually my night off from cooking) we plan on take out from somewhere and bring it home, sit on the living room floor and just relax and have some fun as a family. Sunday night I am making ribs. We all love this dinner. I will make some sort of starch (probably potatoes as we are having a pasta dinner on Monday) and of course either a salad or a vegg. Later today I am planning to make Chinese dumplings again, but this time I am making chicken ones and will add salt! I will take photos as I go along and then when I cook them later I will post that also. I will post photos throughout the weekend, and I truly hope that you all have a great one! As always, ❤ much love ❤

A Wonderful Easter :)

I think when I get very busy, I get so involved with cooking, baking and of course cleaning up the house for company, that i forget about the Internet. not such a bad thing, but the last weekend from Good Friday till now, has been hectic. We go out for fish on Good Friday, do the shopping that’s necessary on Saturday and try and get to church on time, then I start the ham and such early on Sunday and have the family in at around 3 pm. The amount of people has dwindled over the years, but it’s always nice to have the kids, their girlfriends, my mother in law and of course myself and my husband, all sitting around the same table for a special meal – I wish we could do every Sunday! I took a few photos of  some of the food I made this past weekend…from scalloped potatoes, homemade dinner rolls, the ham covered with pineapple and maraschino cherries, to the new dessert I thought I would try (Double lemon cheesecake bars)…they were wonderful! I also made brussel sprouts, corn, and mashed potatoes (but I didn’t see the need to post those!) So now I will share some photos with you….

I had to cover the bottom and sides of the 9 x 13 pan with foil…for easy removal and cutting…

The first layer of the dessert is vanilla wafers and melted butter…

Add the melted butter…

Softened cream cheese, lemons (both zest and juice), ready for the mixer…

In they go, with sugar, flour and vanilla…

Press the wafers into the pan, and get into the oven for 10mins….

The filling is very creamy when it’s ready

Pour the filling over the cooked wafer bottom, and cook..

It looked puffy when it came out….and on the day of, I covered this with homemade lemon curd…they were delicious

Now, make the scalloped potatoes…

Into the oven…

All cooked….

Hot and ready for the fridge till the “day of”

Rise the buns….

Into the oven…

Out, and brush with butter…they smell delicious!

Easter Sunday, and everything getting ready to go into the oven to be warmed up…

Cover the ham with pineapple and cherries, and cook (I added some pineapple juice in the bottom too)

My table before company arrived (I prefer not to take photos of people when they are eating…or to post them on the Internet either…so this is it for the dinner!)

I also cannot have Easter morning without an Easter egg hunt in the house…always little chocolate foil wrapped ones, all over the place…here are 2 photos of a couple of the eggs (our 15yr old had fun looking for them, although these are really out in the open!)

And Easter isn’t the same without a beautiful Easter lily…

I hope that no matter what you did, or what you celebrated, or who you were with, that you enjoyed every moment of it…we are not promised tomorrow, so we have to enjoy today and make the most out of it. Have a great day, and as always ❤ much love ❤