Debbie Delozier :: A Casual Affair

The rising sun has greeted us each morning lately by peeking it’s bright, cheery rays in through the blinds of the bedroom window. I lay in bed a few extra (okay; 30) minutes this morning, just taking pleasure in laying there and listening to the sounds of the morning, the waking sounds of our home. I could hear the teenager as she went about washing her face and brushing her teeth in the bathroom down the hall; her music escaping from her bedrooms opened door. I heard J’s shower running in the master bath and knew he was standing there letting the water wash over him and energize his mind.

Our feathered friends outside the bedroom window sang their morning “rise and shine” melody to me as the coffee pot began it’s perking cycle and the alluring air of the freshly made, black liquid floated down the hall to invigorate and boost my own spirit. I left the bed and followed the coffee’s tempting aroma down the hall where I filled my cup with the mind-awakening elixir. I held the cup filled with the steaming liquid in both hands as I lifted it toward my face and enhaled the stimulating scent, letting it fill my senses and awaken me to the spanking new day.

I was in the middle of what turned into just over 3 hours of clerical work when the phone began to ring. First, Niece Courtney rang to coo at her favorite aunt (okay, Grandpa M called to let me listen to Courtney coo). I talked with M. about a lunch on the 13th which means I’ll have 2 lunches that day as it is a Tuesday. Rotary’s lunch will be served at 11:30 in the community room of the bank and the 2nd lunch will be served at 12:00 just upstairs in the board room. Then A. phoned requesting 7 dozen cookies for Friday (by noon).

After finishing up the paper work, I dressed, ate a bite of lunch as I made a list of cookie ingredients I would need, combined it with my list of groceries for the next week and headed out the door.

Upon returning home and putting everything away I phoned Dr G for a renewed prescription for J. Then phoned J to ask him to pick it up at the Dr’s office so I could get it in the mail in the morning. I cleaned up the coffee and lunch dishes that I’d left in the sink and before you knew it J had come home. He wanted to get a bit of garden tilling done before his meeting at church. As he was leaving, the teenager arrived home after her full day of school and afternoon of Youth meeting at church. And now; I need to get up and start supper for J will be returning soon himself.

Well, as they say (we all know who They are don’t we), Variety is the spice of life and all I can say is “it’s been awfully spicy around here today”.

Comments(0)

My magnolia tree has budded. I’m so thrilled. I was terribly worried that last winter’s ice storms and 60 mph winds that ripped the branches from the tree had also killed it. But it lives, it is alive and budding and will soon have beautiful new green leaves and white fragrant blossoms. However, the teenager’s rose bush was not as lucky. I guess this year’s winter crisis following the trimming of the rose bush the previous year was too much to come back from. I’m afraid we’ll have to dig it up and dispose of it. We’re going to blame it on Grandpa M though, the teenager is sure he snuck in here and poisoned the bush.

We were also ready to start up the old grill last night. I had been marinating pork chops and vegetables all day. I was just waiting on J to get home and light the grill. The grill had been blown over during the winter (those 60 mph winds, you know). J had set it up here while back and everything looked fine. Looks can be deceiving! J cleaned the grill up and lit it and the flames weren’t in the correct place. I can’t really tell you exactly what was wrong (not being a grill guy and all), it just didn’t burn right.

Being the “make margaritas out of the limes life deals you” type of person I am, we brought the food back inside and got out the grill pan. I made Carribean pork chops with grilled peppers, onions and pineapple. This is the same marinade I use for the Carribean Pork Kabobs (you’ll find the recipe in the family table section).

As a side dish I made yummy orzo with carmalized onions & parmesan cheese.

After dinner, and because we are a grilling people (also because I am still feeling a bit guilty for J getting a washer and dryer for his birthday) we headed to Lowe’s to look at new grills. We ended up bringing home a new Commercial Char-Broil grill equipped with infrared grilling grates and a side griddle/grate/burner and rotisserie. The burners are stainless steel and there are 4 different sets enabling you to use 1 or more, depending on the size of your meal. They are also dishwasher safe. Cool, huh! Forgive the picture, looks like the camera was on some wierd setting. Tonight J grilled some chicken breasts while I fixed rice with broccoli and cheese and a broccoli slaw.

Spring has been offically ushered in with our first grilled meal of the season. You will find us out there many more evenings I’m sure.

Something you didn’t know about me: I don’t do drugs ’cause I find I get the same effect just by standing up really fast.

Comments(0)

Easy-Peasy recipe. I found the recipe on a Semi-Homemade link and tested it on the Rotary Club members. After the club members had their fill I took the plate through the bank. All the bank tellers, receptionists, assistants, etc all gave it a thumbs up. I had 3 bars left so I took them to the ladies in the Superintendent’s office at the school. The bars received good ratings there also. Here’s the recipe: hope you’ll like them too.

You’ll need:

For Cake:
1 box German chocolate cake mix
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1 ounce red food coloring

For Cream Cheese Layer:
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

This is how you do it:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9 by 13-inch foil pan with cooking spray; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat with an electric mixer on low speed, cake mix, butter, egg, and food coloring until combined. Press cake mixture into prepared pan; set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat to combine. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake layer.

Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until bars barely start to pull away from sides.

Cool completely before cutting.

Comments(0)

It was a busy weekend from beginning to end. Saturday evening brought about the much awaited and anticipated High School Jr & Sr Prom. The teenager and date must have talked (by phone) a dozen times before the pre-arranged meeting time of 4:30 (which, incidentally, was moved up to 4:00, so that the teenager could make a few last minute adjustments to date’s hair). Personal Mom Note: I don’t know why, he wore a hat anyway (ha).

When the teenager returned home that evening, Dad and I were filled in on the progression of the evening from the start of the evening’s dressed up dinner with friends, back to date’s house so his mom could take pictures (this mom already had) to the trip back to Nowata, the Grand March (local residents can catch this on the local television station KGCTv), through the dance, the conversations, the details and the final trip back home when the date dropped the teenager off at the door. She had a blast.

Are they too cute or what?

With the rising sun and the consequent morning we began our day with Sunday School and worship service. My friend, Merrillyn, brought the message. Our Merrillyn is an exceptionally gifted speaker. She has a talent of setting the scene that draws you into the story so you truly comprehend the related message.

I left the service with many questions, which is exactly what she intended. I spent the day considering the Known and the Unknown. I will present this to you; it is the question of seeking to “know about” God or seeking to “know” God: Do some of us need all the answers while faith is enough for the rest of us. Do some of us seek knowledge of God while others seek a relationship with God? Do you have to Know or can you risk the Unknown. I’ve come to realize I always been led by my heart and not my head and there is no exception here.

After a restful afternoon we headed over to sis-in-love Debbie’s for a birthday party for the matriarch of our family, Mom D. Niece Kim and Debbie (mostly Kim) prepared a wonderfully tasty smoked turkey, grilled pork tenderloin, grilled corn with a garlic/lime butter. Let me tell you, it was a treat for all of us.

Dinner and presents were followed by cake and ice cream. I made a triple layer, checkerboard cake with white frosting and topped with chocolate ganache. I think the birthday girl had a mighty good time.

As a matter of fact; I think we all had a mighty good time.

Comments(1)

She wasn’t even thinking about dances, dresses and dates back then. How times change.

The teenager has been busy, busy the last 2 weeks, all in preparation for tomorrow evening. She and cohorts have all been working on getting the location decorated just right. Dance floor is set up, false ceiling hung, all the embellishments and frills are in place. The perfect dress is purchased, with shoes to match, accessories ready, nails done, hair style decided, date, dinner and time arranged. Mom is ready with camera and Dad is lined up to be a parking valet. So much excitement.

Last evening was a “each do your own thing” type of night. This type of evening is rare at our house as we have always appreciated and protected our ‘family time’. We have always tried to make appointments, meetings, etc before 6 pm so that we are allowed dinner together as a family and our evenings doing things together either at home or away from home. But, as we all know, sometimes, life and the world step in with other plans and we give up one or two evenings to indulge ourselves in other fashions.

The teenager had a nail appointment last evening. She and J (Dad) were heading the same direction so they shared a ride. J dropped her off then he went to Lowe’s to do some he-man, male type of thing. Afterwards they had dinner together and headed back home.

While they were doing that I attended the Disciples Women’s Annual Salad Supper at our church last evening. The ladies in our church have been doing this salad supper for many, many years. There is always great entertainment, wonderful food, and fantastic conversations. Our Women Of The Well sang beautifully for us last night with a delightful reading done by my friend, Merrillyn. Women from 13 area churches of all denominations blessed us with their presence. We all had a
great evening. Note to JC: Norma said she ate enough for you too.

I took the Eastern Rice Salad (recipe is in the Family Table section) to the supper. I made a double recipe and the platter was scraped clean. I had many (many) compliments and requests for the recipe. So, if you get a chance, give it a try.

I’m headed off to run errands and such. Today’s thought: Everyday we beat our own previous record for number of consecutive days we’ve stayed alive

Comments(1)

It is Rotary Tuesday once again. This means I was up and cooking first thing this morning. First item on the list was giant chocolate chip cookies; and, of course, I had to do a few extra for the teenager to tote off to school.

Next item: chicken for 2 pot pies and the pot pie themselves. I would give you the recipe but almost everyone and her sister has a chicken pot pie recipe. And, to tell the truth, I don’t have a recipe. I just start by saute’ing some onions (I would have also done a bit of celery but the fridge was bare) in butter and them making a roux. Next is adding chicken broth, the cooked, shredded chicken and frozen vegetables. Cook this and then put into a pie crust, top with a crust, and bake until brown. Ta-da, plain, old chicken pot pie, nothin’ to it.

To the chicken pot pies and cookies I added a large green salad and there you have it; lunch for 11. Do you know, they ate every single bit of it too. Well, there was 1 piece of pot pie left and I sent it, some salad and cookies, home with Dad D for Mom’s lunch.

Tonight, J, myself and the teenager, and 2 men that work for J, along with their spouses are all meeting a business associate in Tulsa to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Most of the time a group of us go out to dinner, the adults in the bunch are never able to make a decision where to eat. Therefore, we leave it to the teenager who always comes up with something. It has been a while since we’ve been to The Cheesecake Factory, so it should be good and we should have fun.

I also wanted to reaffirm how much I enjoy all of you stopping by for a visit. Yesterday, thanks to you, I hit a personal best with 140 hits. Wow, I’m so glad you came by.

Now, go grab a glass of milk and we’ll enjoy some cookies.

Comments(0)

This is a yummy, quick dessert you can make for a crowd. Everyone loves banana pudding. The dessert is made in 5 quick layers. Be sure to check out the note at the bottom to make this same dessert sugar-free, fat-free.

1st layer – crust you will need:

20 Nilla wafers, crushed
3 tblsp butter, melted
Mix the crushed wafers and butter and press into a 9×13 pan.

2nd layer – cream cheese layer:

1 – 8 oz cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
1 – 8 oz Cool Whip, thawed
Mix cream cheese & powdered sugar with wooden spoon until well blended. Gently stir in 1 1/2 cups of the whipped topping. Spoon mixture evenly onto crust, spread carefully.

3rd layer – 3 medium ripe bananas: Cut bananas in half crosswise, then again in half lengthwise. Arrange banana pieces over cream cheese mixture

4th layer – pudding layer: you will need

3 cups cold milk
2 – 4 serv. Size vanilla instant pudding mix

Pour milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. Spoon over bananas.

Last layer – final whipped topping:

Rest of whipped topping
½ of a semi-sweet baking square
Spread remaining whipped topping over top. Sprinkle with grated chocolate. Refrigerate at least 3 hours.

To make sugar free & fat free use Neufchatel cheese, instead of cream cheese, Cool Whip Free, fat free-sugar free Jello pudding & fat free milk

Comments(0)

Jade sure loves that teenager!

It is Monday and that means preparing for the week ahead which, in turn, means clearing away the clutter and getting rid of last week’s grit and grime.

After I took care of all my housewife duties and then made a quick trip into town for a few necessities. Returning home I had a small snack of yogurt and a glass of pomegranate/lemonade before starting on laundry and cooking some chicken for tomorrow’s Rotary club lunch of chicken pot pie and green salad.

I also decided while I was in the cleaning mood I would do some blog cleaning. If you take a peek up to the tabs at the top you will see a photo gallery tab. I have posted some of my stained glass work in the gallery, please feel free to take a look at some of the things I’ve done. Just looking back through some of my photos I really (really) miss working with glass. I’m going to have to get busy on a plan, I guess.

The teenager had a blast yesterday. She had traveled over to Bartlesville and flew kites, had a picnic and just enjoyed being with friends. While she was away J and I loaded up our old Pepsi cooler onto the trailer and delivered it to the lake cabin for the summer. We also took a new comforter set over to put on our bed upstairs. I think now we’ll call that room “the safari room”; or not.

We visited with Mom and Dad D for a while and then we all went down and had dinner at the marina cafe. After dinner J and I decided we’d better check in with the teenager and also make our way home. The sun was setting as we headed west toward Nowata so I’ll leave you with some beautiful photos of Oklahoma sunsets.

This is Oologah Lake which we pass over out at Winganon on our way home. The pictures above are closer to Grand Lake.

Life is Good!!!

P.S. I’m sure you’ve noticed the counter on the bottom right side. I added this little counter a week ago last Friday and it counts visitors to this site. As of this morning it counted 325 unique visits with an average of 31 total hits each and every day (by longtime friends and repeat visitors). I just want to welcome all you newcomers and thank you for stopping by. Y’all come again!

Comments(0)

This week I’m going to the Lady’s Salad Supper at church.
I’m thinking about making this Eastern Rice Salad; it’s yummy and different from your regular green salad.

You will need:

¾ cup long grain white rice
1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
½ cup chopped green bell pepper
½ cup chopped red bell pepper
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 cup chopped green onion
1 cup cashew pieces
½ cup fresh bean sprouts
2 ½ oz fresh spinach

Dressing ingredients:

½ cup oil (you can use extra-virgin olive, canola, vegetable, etc).
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tsp chopped fresh parsley
½ tsp crushed garlic

What you do:
Cook the ¾ cup rice in 1 ½ cups salted boiling water. Cook for 20 minutes or until all water is absorbed. Refrigerate until well chilled.

Combine the rice, cashews, chopped veggies, bean sprouts and spinach in a large bowl.
Blend oil (I use a blend of canola and extra-virgin olive oil), soy sauce, parsley and crushed garlic.

Chill salad and dressing separately. One hour before serving pour dressing over salad and toss well. Return to refrigerate until serving time.

Comments(0)

J and I had a day on our own yesterday (we are getting these more often than not anymore) as the teenager had plans with friends for the biggest part of the day. The 3 of us spent a lazy-dazy morning here at home, shared lunch together and then the teenager readied herself to leave.

J and I knew we should really be continuing on our yard clean-up, garden tilling, etc jobs, but as both of us are still dealing with sinus ails we decided to spend our day doing other things. J thought he needed some new shirts (which means a trip to Academy Sports) and he also wanted some new thongs flip-flops (no one wants to see J in thongs, tee hee). So we made ourselves presentable for public viewing and headed off to the big city.

We stopped at Owasso to look at Kohl’s and Shoe Carnival (J thought they might have some flip-flops he liked). Kohl’s didn’t, but they had a cute pair of blue/white striped Keds in my size. We walked on down to Shoe Carnival and J found a pair of flip-flops he liked but they didn’t have his size. There was another pair he sort of liked but in J’s words “they’re $10 more” and we all know how cheap J can be sometimes. As we didn’t find anything in Owasso (except for the blue/white striped Keds) we headed on further south to T-Town.

J found the flip-flops he wanted and then we walked on down to Panera Bread and for an afternoon snack of citrus pastry and cold lemonade.

We made it to our final destination of Academy Sports where J found himself a number of shirts and a pair of shorts. I also found myself 2 pair of Levi’s and a pair of shorts to go with my new blue/white striped Keds.

To finish off our day of shopping we stopped by the super-market to get groceries for the week. I bought groceries to make the following meals for the week, not in any particular order because I already know we have a business dinner Tuesday night and I have a church dinner on Thursday night. So, this week we will be supping on:

Taco Salad
Oven baked chicken with broccoli-cheese rice
Chicken pot pie and salad for Rotary Tuesday lunch
Roast, potatoes & carrots
Caribbean pork kabob with rice
Chicken Stir-fry

If you’d like the recipe for the Caribbean pork kabobs see the Family Table section. I’m pretty sure I posted it a while back.

After church this morning the 3 of us lunched on BLT’s before the teenager headed off once again to meet some of her Bartlesville friends for a day of kite flying. So it looks as if J and I will have another afternoon, just the 2 of us again. As much as I love having my kids around I just might start liking this dating stuff.

Because I told you about my new pair of Keds I thought I’d pass this along too: Shopping tip: You can get shoes for a buck at bowling alleys.

Comments(0)