Potato Casserole

3-5 Pounds Potatoes
2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup
½ cup Butter
16 oz. Sour Cream
1 ½ Cups Grated Cheddar Cheese
Optional ½ Cup Chopped Onions
½ cup Crushed Ritz Crackers or Crushed Corn Flakes

In medium saucepan warm the 2 cans cream of chicken soup. 
Add butter, sour cream, cheese, onions. Mix well.

Wash potatoes or peel potatoes 
and cut into cubes and boil until they are soft 
but not quite enough to mash. 

Put potatoes in your casserole dish and spread contents of the saucepan casserole dish. Crush Ritz crackers or corn flakes and then sprinkle over potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Orange Julius

6 oz. orange juice
1 cup milk
1 cup water
¼ to ½ cup sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
1 tray ice
Blend in blender.

Homemade Fudge Frosting

1 Cup Sugar

1/4 Cup Butter

1/4 Cup Milk

6 oz. Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chips

Boil sugar, butter and milk for one minute while stirring continually. Take off heat and immediately add the chocolate chips. Stir fast until smooth and spread on cake right away. It cools fast.

As an option you can add 1/2 to 1 Cup chopped nuts of your choice.

No Bake Cookies

½ cup milk

½ cup butter

2 cup sugar

2 TBS. cocoa

3 cups instant oatmeal

Stir together milk, butter, sugar and cocoa. Bring to a boil. Boil for five minutes. In bowl have oatmeal ready and pour in mixture and stir. Place large spoonfuls on cookie sheet and place in fridge. Ready in about a half an hour or so.

Kallee wearing a new outfit and showing off her curly hair 

that her big sister Hillary curled for her this morning.

Kendree

Kindsey

 All of these clothes besides the long sleeve of Kallee's I bought at the thrift store, Savers. All of the items were $2.99 to $4.99. Can't beat that. Even the Levi brand jeans Kallee is wearing was only $2.99.

 My girls were very pleased with the new clothes (new to them anyways). I also bought Kallee a super pretty skirt for church and more shirts. It takes a while at a thrift store to find the perfect thing, but the time it takes is very worth it.

Sunflowers

These are a few that are soon to open all the way. I love the process and stages. The top sunflower is as tall as I am and has about twelve buds.

Refreshing

Yesterday I was hot and thirsty and needed to eat something. I ate this bowl of grapes. It was so nice to eat good grapes that were so refreshing.

Red Trellis

This was my craft project that I did today. I used an old vinyl tablecloth on my dining room table and painted it with a sponge brush. I know it would of been a lot faster to spray paint it, but I do have a ton of paint already. I turned out as good as I thought it would. 

The hard part was digging a huge hole to put my grape plant in. I dug the huge hole and filled it with miracle grow potting soil and put in the grape vine and then watered it. It sounds easy, but takes work. I hope it does well. It would be awesome to have fresh grapes growing in the backyard.

This is the before picture.

Zoe my parakeet

I have had this parakeet for over seven years. 

Poem: FOOD

Food, glorious food,
Appetizing to the taste,
Yummy, scrumptious,
Let it not go to waste!

Food nurtures our body,
For strength and to sustain
Eating gives us contentment,
It can also be our gain.

Check your cupboards,
Find what pleases you,
Look in your fridge,
You know what to do.

Find a good recipe,
Or use your imagination,
Have fun and be creative,
Make your hearts sensation!

Share with someone,
A feast or a simple meal,
Satisfying another’s hunger,
Is quite a good deal!

Food, glorious food,
To eat with much pleasure,
We do have to eat to live,
In any variety or measure

Kristi Patterson
April 6, 2010