Tuesday's Tip: Spiced Pumpkin Seeds.

As Halloween approaches I thought I'd share with you one of my very favorite ways to roast pumpkin seeds. The original recipe can be found on All Recipes. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 cups raw, whole pumpkin seeds

Optional: 

I always add several dashes of my Signature Spice Blend

For added heat, a dash or two of extra cayenne works well. 

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 275 degrees F

2.  Combine all ingredients, mixing thoroughly 

3. Place in shallow baking dish and bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally

The Quilt

Some of you may or may not know that I am a big fan of All Recipes. Before I discovered Facebook and before my blog I was a part of "The Exchange" (now called Recipe Buzz). Many of us foodies and like minded individuals congregated there to exchange ideas, hopes and dreams. It was there that the idea for The Quilt was born. Those of us that wanted to participate would piece together a block that represented us. These blocks would then be made into a beautiful tapestry from the world over.

Admittedly, as with all good intentions, sometimes things go awry. An original drawing was held. Allegations of impropriety ensued, followed by wounded feelings and bruised egos. The only solution that all could agree upon was to send the quilt, which represented the beauty of friendship and community, to All Recipes headquarters in Seattle, WA. It was there, a year later, that a new drawing was held. The winner of this work of art? The 5th Sister!

I found out this news while sitting in my husband's hospital room last week. It was like a ray of sunshine, from the heavens, in the middle of the tempest that was our week. I believe I cried when I realized the full impact of what just happened. The love and care that went into every single stitch of this work of art was heading my way when I needed it most. I wanted to shout the news out to the world but could not until it was made "official" by All Recipes.

The quilt arrived by Fed Ex yesterday afternoon. It was packed with care and attention to detail. When I opened the box and pulled out the quilt I was awestruck. Photos do not do it justice. I poured over every single square remembering each person and the joys and heartaches we shared in our little community. I am humbled by the sheer magnitude of this gift of love.

I promised I would share photos so that those who participated would be able to see their blocks in this beautiful mosaic of friendship. My plan is to proudly display this quilt in my home. Please enjoy the photos.

(There's my block!)

I would like to give a shout out to Annie (aka "Kitten") who put together this labor of love. She did a fantastic job and I will be forever in debt of gratitude for the generosity of her time and spirit that went into this undertaking. This quilt will be a treasured heirloom now and always.

Monday Musings-December 21, 2009

Dear Carolina Panthers,


How do I love thee? Let me count the way: YOU BEAT BRET FAVRE AND THE MINNESOTA VIKINGS! How amazing and awesome is that? I am so, so happy to have stayed up and watched this phenomenal feat!  Although there is no hope for the playoffs I can now say with pride, "There's always next year!" Thank you for that glimmer of hope.


Love, 


Mrs. Sister

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Congratulations Luis!

My friend, Luis, over at Muddy Runner, just ran his 1st ever 20 mile run. That is a remarkable feat. Please go check out his blog and offer him your kudos!

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Remember when I was the Cook of the Week over at All Recipes last month? Apparrantly word got out at work. They made a poster board with my photo on it, displayed it at the coffee shop, and handed out free samples of my milkshake recipe: "Don't Knock it Until You Try It". How fun was that! I had people coming up to me all weekend commenting on that shake. Be sure to check out the link and seriously, don't knock it until you try it!

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Monday Awards Show!

From Holly over at 504 Main  (Remarkable Reader)

Isn't it beautiful? Holly has a remarkable website with lots of interesting ideas and crafts for this time of year. Well worth checking out. I will pass this award on to Tugce at Boulevard of Broken Dreams. There is always a wonderful affirmation or beautiful quotation on her blog. Her blog leaves me feeling better for just having visited. Please visit her and let her know you stopped by!


From Lee over at Headaches, Hotflashes and Hormones (Light my Fire)

Go visit Lee and give her some bloggy love as she deals with some difficult issues this holiday season. There are no rules to this award (THANK GOODNESS). If you are on my reading list, consider yourself worthy of this award. Grab it, take it and do what you will with it!


From Nicole over at Tattoos and Teething Rings (Thanks a Bunch)

You have to go visit my dear friend Tats! She is interesting, unique, loyal and a wee bit crazy too! I love her dearly and am so thankful to grab this thank you from her. Again, no rules so I'll make up my own. If you comment on my blog post, feel free to grab this thank you and display it on your home turf!

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Today I take Daisy in for her surgical consult. Wish us well and let's hope surgery is unnecessary! On the plus side of all this, I purchased for her an orthopedic dog bed and she is now fully an indoor dog! :o) 

Take care and have a wonderful Monday. I will try to show up periodically throughout the week but if I am MIA please forgive me. Christmas and family comes first this week! Thanks for understanding and God bless you all!

It’s All About Me Week!

I know many of my bloggy friends are also All Recipes addicts. Much to my surprise and delight I found out that I was chosen to be the featured “Cook of the Week”! Go on, check me out! Just click here and scroll a little down the page. I'm center right. Now you can go out and tell all of your friends that your bestest blog buddy is a famous C.O.W.!

The Lemonade Stand

I received this sweet little award from my dear friend  Ms. Bibi over at From Misery to Happiness in 365 Days. She’s amazing. Check her out if you have the chance. Anyway, the rules are as follows:

- put the lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.
- nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.
- link the nominees within your post.
- let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I would like to nominate the following recipients

Diedra from Jumping Tandem

Heather fromThe Extraordinary Ordinary

Cynthia from Running With Letters

Christine from Marvelously Mundane 

Lissaloo from One Step at a Time

Julie from My Good Babushka

Michelle from Musings of a Catholic Lady

Jimmie from The Catholic Daily Reading Reflections

Larry from Yesterday, Today and Forever

Tugce from Boulevard of Broken Dreams

The above blogs all approach their writings in a positive manner, whether guided by faith, art, love of the written word, and all things literary or simply just the joy, awe, and wonder of their children and the world around them. It’s well worth your time to check them out.

Theta: True Authentic Mom Award

I was tagged by Christie over at Who Has the Thyme? She’s an awesome pontificator and mom extraordinaire!  This award also comes with some rules:

If you are tagged you must list 5 things that make you a true, authentic mom and then pass along the tag to 5 other deserving bloggers.

Before I begin my 5 characterisics I would like to nominate the following:

Luis at Muddy Runner. He may not be a mom but he is an outstanding parent who dotes on his wife and 2 little girls. A true THETA in my book.

Katie at Katie’s Korner. She’s not quite a mom, yet. After years of trying, she’s about to be one soon. I so look forward to reading her future posts as she comes into her “THETAdom”!

Tracy at Iced Karma Coffee. She’s one of the best THETA “grand” moms around. She has the cutest little grandbaby and I am always looking forward to seeing what sort of mischief grandma and grandbaby get themselves into.

Jenn at Rook No. 17: She’s such a marvelous mix of contradictions…she says so herself. One of her mottos is: CREATE, GIVE, INSPIRE, LEARN, READ, TRAVEL, SAVOR, INVENT, PLAY. Definite THETA mom material.

Last, but definitely not least is my dear friend Thamesarino over at Yesterday’s Tomorrow. Her journey to THETA mom status is a remarkable one and well worth reading.

So. What makes me a THETA mom? I honestly don’t know but I will give it a shot.

1.    - From the beginning my husband and I put forth a concerted effort to raise polite, responsible, and well behaved children. They have always been held accountable for their actions. Any unacceptable behavior was nipped in the bud very early on. And no, we did not use a shock collar! (see yesterday’s post)

2.   -  If I am wrong I will apologize.  This is hard for me to do. I hate being wrong and it is very difficult to admit it. I grew up in a home where “perfection” was idolized. That made it quite challenging to come to terms with your mistakes.

3.    -Our children do not get everything they want. They do, however, get everything they need.

4.   - I stay involved (but not overly so as there is a fine balance) and am my kids’ advocate. For example, when Munchie Boy required certain therapy, as an infant, and insurance denied it, I spent hours, days, and weeks researching his condition, along with his and my medical records. I was able to demonstrate how the therapy was medically indicated and necessary in his case. I won the arbitration.

5.    -God and my faith journey. 

Heartfelt Award

I received this sweet little award from Holly at 504 Main (awesome blog for those who haven’t stopped by!) Want to hear something funny? She already gave me this award before! I have proof. So I am DOUBLY honored! Because of that I am going to forward this on to EVERY SINGLE ONE of my bloggy friends. Whether you're serious or irreverent, silly or kind, this award is yours. For I know all of my blog buddies write from the heart. Take it! Let’s keep the circle of love flowing!!!!

Southern Comfort

Every once in a while I have this particular food craving. I can't explain it and I don't know why it happens. It doesn't occur often so there is no guilt involved in fulfilling this desire.


This food is something that one either likes or dislikes. There is no gray area. Why I like this particular food is unknown to me. I do recall, however, having my 1st taste as a young child, before I knew what it was.


Maybe it's a texture thing: chewy interior with a crispy fried exterior. Sometimes, I just like to "work" at my food. And I do actually enjoy the "mouth feel" of these tasty tidbits.


Or maybe it's the subtle garlic, salt and red pepper seasoning blend added to the flour that is a perfect complement to texture of this particular food. A little spice that can be cooled down with a favorite dipping sauce (barbecue works well).


And what tasty morsel am I talking about?


Chicken gizzards, of course!

A special thanks to Cindy Lepp, over at AllRecipes.

I used her recipe as a starting point in preparation of the gizzards above.

And now for a quick lesson: What exactly is a "gizzard"?


A gizzard is a secondary stomach used by birds to "grind" their food before digestion. A bird does not have teeth. Because of that they need a way to help break down their food. What some (but not all birds) do is swallow small stones. These end up in the gizzard, which has a tough inner membrane surrounded by a muscular pouch. This muscular pouch provides the grinding action.


End notes: My 10 year old son tried these for the 1st time yesterday (when I made them) and really enjoyed them. My daughter, not so much. Regardless, I hope this post allows you to open your mind to something that may not have been on your food radar in the past. Maybe, just maybe, you will enjoy them as much as I.

What I Did This Past Weekend

I don't bake. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE to cook. It's just that my talents don't cover the realm of pastries, pies, cakes and cookies. With that in mind I decided to test out some snowflake cookie cutters I purchased last year for next to nothing during the after Christmas sales. 1st I had to decide upon a recipe. I am a frequent purveyor of http://www.allrecipes.com/ and came upon The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie recipe. It has an average 4.5 out of 5 star rating with almost 2000 reviews. So I plunged in. Took me an hour to get everything mixed on Friday afternoon and into the fridge the dough went to chill.

Since I am off so very few weekends I had to figure out when I'd have the time to roll out and bake these cookies. I decided Saturday morning was best. I started working the dough and cutting cookies at 9:00a.m. 3 and 1/2 hours later I'm still at it. These snowflakes were driving me nuts. The small ones kept tearing and the large ones were obviously time consuming. The dough wasn't very cooperative either. Finally I just rolled a few and put them in the oven while I rolled a few more. They expanded a touch during the baking process so some of my intricate designs were no longer that intricate. Oh well, at least this part was over.

Christmas shopping, a choir concert and a sleepover took up the rest of the day. Mass, packaging gifts, more Christmas shopping and a Carolina Panther game was on the agenda for Sunday. Sunday evening around 8:00p.m. was the only time slot available to ice these snowflakes.

Icing the cookies was another battle. I, again, went to trusted Allrecipes and found one that I had all the ingredients for called Butter Icing for Cookies. It included confectioner's sugar, butter, cream and vanilla. Simple, right? After following directions EXACTLY what I had was a mess. The icing hardened up really quickly, wouldn't spread.I even tried "piping" the icing but again, just a crumbly mess. HELP! I went back to Allrecipes and posted my plea on the Recipe Exchange board. Within minutes I had many suggestions: some suggested adding a little more cream while others instructed me to keep the icing over low heat and to stir continuously between cookies. I still had rotten luck. I ended up adding a LOT more cream and using the icing as a "glaze" into which I dipped the cookies. When the icing ran low, I drizzled the rest over the remaining snowflakes. I was finally finished 3 hours after I began.

The snowflake cookies actually turned out quite pretty and tasted yummy. Would I do this again? NO WAY! I do not have the patience for this type of cookie baking. If you all have a simple cookie recipe to send my way I'm game! Feel free to share in my comments section.

I'm off to deal with more deck issues. An update will be given sometime this week, I promise!