Hooked on Web Helps!

What am I Hooked On this week?

I am hooked on a
couple of web sites that
have made my life easier
and less cluttered.

The first one is Biblegateway.com.
This site helps me almost weekly as
I design our church's service bulletin.

There are so many verse fragments floating
around my head and with this site I am able
to type in a search for either a word or
phrase and most of the time can find what
I am looking for easily...whether I want it
in the King James Version, NIV or others.

The other site that has become very valuable
at our home is allrecipes.com.
Take our Thursday Evening dinner for example.
The meal was to be chicken tacos, however,
the big problem that showed up after the chicken
was all cooked and shredded was that I discovered
we had no taco seasoning.

No problem!

A simple search for taco seasoning brought me
to this page.
Now I am wondering if there will ever be a reason to
purchase those little packets again.
The kids and a guest raved about dinner!

Other favorite recipes from this site are:


Amish White Bread I made this again last night to serve with spare ribs. It is one our family favorites since I made it several months ago.

Pizza Dough...a quick recipe if you are in a time crunch.

Chelsea made this Blueberry Cheesecake and it was great!


Pancakes...Now, out of habit,I usually use a mix for this. But during a sleepover with four of Chelsea's friends a week or so ago I found I was out of mix. A quick click on this site found this delightful and simple recipe. No more box mix for me...unless I am camping or something like that.

We just never know when we might be tapping into this
site for a last minute recipe or idea but we have not
been let down yet. I love reading the reviews.

Maybe you will get Hooked On this site too.

For More Posts featuring Favorite things just
stop by Julia's Hooked on Houses Blog.
She features the neatest things herself and
then there are all of her friends with diverse
interests.

Note: Photos on this page are taken from Allrecipes.com.

Tech-knowl-oh-gee!

We were invited to a picnic at the home of some long time friends.
Since it was very hot and humid we ate inside...our food was
cooked outdoors on a grill, so I will continue to refer to it
as a picnic.

It was great too....hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled zuchinni, bean salad, carrot and raisin salad, cole slaw, tossed salad, chips and salsa, and fabulous shoo fly pie or pumpkin pie....YUM!

The reason for this event was to celebrate the visit of another
couple who were passing through the area after having moved away.

As all of the people who were in attendance currently have, or have had, at least one
spouse who works in technology with Sight and Sound Theatre
something very strange occurred...

As the ladies were chatting about things such as quilting, blogging,
children's education...great stuff, suddenly across the table we
noticed a laptop appear. Shortly thereafter came another laptop.
Finally there were three laptops in a row on the table with men,
mostly in plaid shirts lined up and typing away.



This caused a giggle and some talk about the proximity of that many
"geeks" in a room.

Pretty soon there came the ring of a cell phone.

Tom took the call from his wife, Starla.

Then, as he remained on the phone, and had even put her on
speaker phone for us to say hello, Luke's cell phone rang.



This sent us over the edge into actual giggles.

This is what we learned about computer geeks last evening:

1. They will bring their laptops to dinner.

2. Three out of five will wear plaid shirts that are nearly identical.

3. Four out of five have beards.

4. Their children also become geeks. (i.e. a 9 year old can use excel better than any of us...even to the point of making a spreadsheet schedule for feeding the fish. He also made a Powerpoint presentation with animation...all on his own).

5. They (the geeks) are funny...but they don't mean to be.

It was fun!
If you ever find my blog, Pat, thanks for a great evening!

Stuffed shells......Stuffed me!

My Chelsea learned a verrrryyyy important recipe this evening.

It is one that I have not used for quite a few years.
I have to wonder why???

It is so, so yummy! I learned it from my mother-in-law during the time I was dating her son. I figured then that it must be a family fav so I made it for Warren whenever I wanted to make a "special" meal...I must have "worn it out" because the kids do not remember me making it.

Funny how our recipes go in cycles, isn't it?
What is it that you used to make that you haven't for a while?
Is it time to try that recipe again?

Stuffed Shells!

Chelsea delighted in spreading a sauce chock full of garden veggies on the bottom of the baking dishes. There was a dash of parmesan cheese, a sprinkle of dried basil and a touch of garlic salt added to the top of the sauce.

Now Chelsea carefully handed me the cooked shells, one at a time, so that I could stuff them full of a ground beef, sour cream and shredded cheese mixture...seasoned with salt and pepper.

I loved watching her eyes dance and grow bigger as she watched the shells being plumped up with their meat and cheese filling.

After we ran out of filling and space in our 2, that is two!, baking dishes Chelsea carefully placed a dash of sauce on each little shell. She was going more for pretty than flavor.
They were beautiful!
Sorry, no pics.

All I have left is one full baking dish on which I applied, (carelessly dumped), the rest of the sauce...ahem...for me it is more about flavor. We will enjoy that meal sometime in the near future.

Now that is the heart of a very scrumptious meal and I am sooo happy that my daughter enjoyed making it with me.