Good Evening, Flowers! I'm trying to keep myself awake rather than fall asleep in front of the TV. The wind has finally died down and it has been a pleasant evening in my neighborhood. No visits from the skunk so far tonight.
Susan -- I hope that Glory's surgery went well and you received good news. Let us know what you decide to make for your salad luncheon. I love those! I just wish that people would bring recipes and we could somehow get copies made while we are all still there. I've been known to choose a dessert bar and then not like it because it is dry. Those I don't eat after one bite. Have fun at the wedding tomorrow. I enjoy weddings just to see the decorations and the lovely bridal party all dressed up.
Maggie -- You are lucky to have a NO wind day. I have my order in for a few nice fall days, but it is supposed to rain again tomorrow. Next week looks like everyday is sunshine and in the 70s. I'll take it! The leaves are turning fast around here. Our trees are always late to turn and have held most of their leaves through the winter in some years. Your blueberry dessert sounds good and I would like the recipe (if it is simple ). I don't have that cookbook.
Guess I will pay attention to the news and then read in bed for a bit. Have a nice weekend and enjoy!
Good Morning, Flowers! It is pouring and windy again in my corner of the world. It's so dark I have lights on around the house. Next week still looks like it will be sunny and nice; I'm sure the farmers are looking forward to that. Bob just left for the lake to meet Jason -- they are going to seal (?) a spot in the roof that has leaked. Since it's raining he couldn't take the board to finish the ceiling part so will take that up later when the weather cooperates. I've got a load of laundry going and a pile of ironing waiting. We have a church lay leader meeting tomorrow afternoon in a nearby town. Bob is actually the lay leader but I agreed to go with him just so he would go.
I need to do some dishes and run the dishwasher so had better keep moving. Have a great day and enjoy some "you" time.
Good morning, ladies! It's going to be in the 90s today.
I went to WW this morning. I was down .2. I now have 5 pounds to go before I can quilt paying. The shelves are pretty bare. I wonder if the new program might be coming out before December. I really look forward to it. There is a new Food Pyramid due out soon too.
I need to get some lunch so I can get dressed and to the wedding. Have a great day!
Susan -- The leaders are having a "new product - program" meeting this weekend, I think. Our leader said there is a new scale coming out and she didn't know what else. There were a lot of food items, books, etc., at the meeting this week. The leader and receptionist have to set up and take down each week which is a pain for them. They can store things in cupboards there so that part is nice since they don't have to haul it in each week. I'll be thinking of you at the wedding this afternoon -- wish I could go with you. How's Glory?
It is supposed to be another lovely day here in the Heartland. I just have a couple things on my "to do" list this day so we are going to go out in the country for a nice drive. Everything is still pretty and green here.
SUSAN Aren't weddings fun. Will is doing one next weekend and it is about an hour and half drive from here in the brides parents home. There will be a sit down dinner afterwards so I have to plan closely for that event. 200 folks are expected to be in attendance and it will be a garden wedding. The son of our next door neighbor is the groom but he doesn't live there. Real nice young man we have gotten to know when he comes home for a visit
JEAN Here is that recipe. It is real easy to make and always a hit. Freezes well also. I wrap individual servings up in stretch tight then foil and it is just like fresh when reheated a tad.
BLUEBERRY BUCKLE
Serves 8 ~ 5 POINTS ~ Cook 45 minutes
FILLING
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ tsp salt
½ cup low-fat buttermilk
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 cups blueberries (about 1 pint)
Preheat oven to 375º
Spray a 1½ quart baking dish w/nonstick spray
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt in a large bowl.
Whisk together the buttermilk, sugar, egg, oil, and butter in a small bowl.
Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture.
Stir just until moistened.
With a rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries.
Spoon into the baking dish.
To make the topping, stir together the ingredients in a small bowl.
Sprinkle topping evenly over the filling.
Bake until browned and bubbly, about 45 minutes.
Let cool on a rack for 20 minutes.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
NOTE: A time-honored recipe, a buckle is a single-layer cake with fruit or berries either sprinkled on top of , or folded into, a thick batter which is then sprinkled with a crumb topping. It is called a buckle, as the topping seems to buckle up as it bakes. Blueberries are the most commonly used fruit, but just about any berry or fruit you like will work.
I have made this with various different fruit in the past and it is always a hit at gatherings. Plus no one knows it is WW unless I tell them.
Magnolias have a great afternoon. Type at y'all later
Maggie -- Thank you for sharing the recipe. If I would double the recipe would a 9 x 13" pan work? I have to admit I've never heard of cardamom, so will have to look for that. I'll bet this dessert would be a hit at a potluck!
Good Afternoon. Flowers! It's a beautiful SUNNY, but cool, day in my corner of the world. We went to early church and out for breakfast. A gal I used to bowl with years ago, played together in a couples card club, and had moved away, was back in town for the weekend. I didn't see her when we walked into the restaurant but she came over to say hello once we were seated; that was a nice surprise. I've read the paper and have another load of laundry in the washer. We have a church lay leader meeting this afternoon so will be leaving in another hour.
I need to decide what I am wearing this afternoon and get the recycle stuff together for pickup tomorrow. Have a relaxing day and enjoy!
Good afternoon, ladies! Has it ever cooled off - 74 degrees right now.
The wedding was beautiful. It was a Catholic wedding so longer than you are used to. The reception was on Jamestown Island where the first settlers landed in 1604. There was a huge tent set up. The island is on the James River so the ferry, barges, and boats large and small passed in sight. There was a long walk from the parking lot, across the foot bridge, and onto the island - a little over a mile. I felt bad for the ladies wearing heels. There were stations with fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses and crackers and drinks before dinner. Dinner was a buffet with roast beef, roasted potatoes, asparagus, pasta with marinara sauce, meatballs, pasta and broccoli alfredo and corn muffins, italian bread, and breadsticks. There was also caesar salad that already had too much dressing and croutons on it. I stuck with the beef, one potato, lots of asparagus and a corn muffin. I had a glass of wine for the toasts and left before the cake was cut so didn't do too bad. I really though the reception would be over is a few hours but it was still going strong with a live band and dancing when I left at 10:30. This young couple work for a non-profit children's hospital group that cares for children in central and south american countries. I watched Sarah grow up and she is a wonderful young woman. I'm sure God will bless them and their work. The only low spot in the day was the heat and no-see-ems. It was in the high 90s and humid and those pesky bugs love to dine on people.
We had a nice visit with JD this day. Went out to eat at a buffet for lunch and I made good choices and skipped even going over to the area where there are a plethara of baked goodies. I had a large green salad without dressing to start than a small piece of rare steak and some shrimp and a biscuit. It all fit within points I have. Tonight I will watch it close at the party after church.
JEAN I made that buckle today and it surely can be doubled in that size of a pan you mentioned. Cardamom is a bit spendy but worth it. It has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic, resinous fragrance and is used in a lot of India dishes. The topping calls for cinnamon and I goofed and put in cardamom and will let you know how that truned out. Maybe no one else will know the difference but I can tell. JD was in the kitchen talking to me and I wasn't paying attention to which spice bottle I picked up. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it.
SUSAN That reception sounds like a grand one. I have been to Catholic weddings before and know how long they can last. And they are sure to always have a wonderful reception. When I went to those kind of affairs in heels (back in the day) I always had a pair of those flats that fold up nicely in my bag to be prepared to do some walking if necessary. Now I just wear shoes that can do the distance.
It is a beautiful day in the Heartland. I don't have any plans of yet for the day except to make a big pot of chili beans reqested by my main squeeze. They freeze so well and he does love them so. He is out shopping for the ingredients as I type. I am a happy camper for I showed a loss of a pound this morning's weigh in which brings me back down to a total loss of 60# for the last time. No more gaining any of it back. Our retirement plans are evolving and will probably continue to do so up until that day. We still have the travel bug in us so we can use our Texas place as a base where we can keep our tools and crafting stuff and get a motorhome and do some traveling. We will just have fun planning it all these next few years. It all depends on what the economey does also. We shall see. The party last night went well and I didn't over-eat. Had the points to cover what I put in my mouth. And my Blueberry Buckle was a great hit. Sounds like the shopper is home for I hear stuff being put on the counter out there in the kitchen. I need to go put things in their proper place now. He came in and handed me a bag of treats for Ragg Mopp. We get him the kind that don't have any filler byproducts like corn & wheat in them ~ just wholesome things good for dogs. These are Wagon Train Cowboy Steaks which are shaped like steak (for our pleasure for dogs don't care). These are chicken and ocean fish. Yum.
Good evening, ladies! It's rained all day - and I'm glad. Hopefully it'll continued for another few days.
I had water aerobics and Silversneakers this morning, ran home and ate some vegetable soup and a pear for lunch, then took my car to the dealer for state inspection (free at the dealer) and an oil change. They said everything else is holding up fine so I was very happy to get away so cheaply - $30. I got home at 3:30 pm and haven't done anything. I need to get some supper and hit the road again for bible study.
Maggie, the planning is half the fun. Congratulations on getting back to 60# gone forever!
Evening ladies! We are back home safe and sound and had an absolutely wonderful time. Sorry for the confusion. We were in Branson, MO.
Maggie and Susan: Congrats on the losses!
My house now looks like it blew up! lol We aren't picking up Fortune until tomorrow morning so hopefully I can get a bit done. I have a ton of laundry and of course my house is now dirty so it has to all be cleaned this week. This weekend is commissary weekend so hopefully I can get the house cleaned before the weekend gets here.
Sounds like everyone has been busy while I was gone.
Susan: The wedding sounds beautiful. I hope Glory is coming along and feeling better.
Jean: The pictures of the kids on your facebook are so cute. I had to tell Jack who was who, but I might have mixed the girls up! lol
Maggie: Jack absolutely just cannot wait until he retires and can be home all the time. He sure enjoyed himself the last few days and we did a lot of relaxing and getting some rest.
We left Memphis around 9:30 and got to Branson around 4 pm after stopping for lunch at Chilis in Little Rock. We checked into our room and went and got a bite of supper down in their breakfast room as they serve a light dinner 4 nights a week. They had bbq, chips, salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, and brownie and rice krispie bites as well as lemonade and coffe. It is free and breakfast each morning was free too and it was a nice breakfast buffet with hot food. We just relaxed the rest of the evening and I dug into my book I have been saving and finished it in one evening! lol
We decided to just leave daytime open everyday and do what we wanted so somedays we did some shopping other days just hung out at the hotel or went swimming in the pool, though the water was cold so I was the only one that ended up swimming. I had a lot of swelling in my feet so we didn't go play mini golf like we had planned. We didn't care, we were having a great time.
Thursday evening was the Branson Belle paddleboat dinner cruise. Boy oh boy, Susan did I get some walking in. The boat was really far away from the parking lot, then you had to either manuever about 50 steps or walk a long ramp to the boat. Well, leaving it was all up hill from the boat clear to the parking lot so that was a real jaunt for me. The show was ok, the ventriloquist was a bit silly and childish, but the singers/dancers were pretty darn good and most of the food was ok, though thankfully the dessert was awful and I just left it.
Friday's show turned out to be my very favorite. We went to see a tribute show of a Beatles group called Liverpool Legends. The 4 guys immitating the Beatles were chosen by George Harrison's sister. Ladies, these guys were spot on singing. They sounded just like the Beatles and did a really fun show. We even got to rush the stage like teenagers and dance in the aisles to slow music with our honeys. Jack's knees gave out so we sat out the last dance. They did a great piece honoring all veterans, which was nice. When they did "Yellow Submarine" they had a yellow cartoon sub behind them on the screen sailing back and forth and two huge bubble machines pouring out bubbles right in front of us (we had end front row seats so that was very cool) They did tons of Beatles favorites and a few lesser known songs. George Harrison's sister came out on stage and did a q and a session during the intermission, which was cool. My favorite was the guy who immitated John Lennon. He actually looked like him and boy did he sound like him. When he did "Imagine" you would have sworn it was John. Gave you chills. After the show they were out in the lobby to talk to you, sign autographs, etc as well as George's sister being out there to talk to.
On Saturday was the dinner train trip and this one didn't go so well. First off, when I booked the tickets they ask you if you want a table or booth. Since I was sure a train booth would be small I said table and then double checked my booking by calling the next day. Well we showed up, they had sold out all the dinner seats and they had put us in a booth, which was really tiny and I had real trouble getting into. Even Jack had trouble and he isn't rotund. I could only squeeze about half of me into the booth and I ended up accidently tripping a waitress because my right half stuck out into the aisle. I couldn't do a thing about it. The train ride was boring, the food was just ok, but the couple who sat with us was really fun. They were 50 and 60 and had been married 25 years, had 2 grown daughters and 2 granddaughters. The funny thing was Jack and this guy had a lot in common. They were from California, he worked at a waste water plant and he had had heart bypass surgery. It was the only enjoyable part of the whole thing. When the train pulled back in 2 horrific hours later, my right hip and knee, which is my bad knee were in horrible pain, I was bruised from the table cutting into me and I could barely walk from having sat half in and half out of the booth. I emailed them this evening and let them know I was not pleased. The tables would have been great as they had nice padded chairs and were much, much roomier so I don't know why they screwed it up. The ticket booth was closed when the train pulled back in and I never got back downtown to complain.
On Sunday we went to see the Shanghai circus acrobats and they were amazing. They had this adorable little tiny 14 year old girl who did an upside down ballet on one hand and it was really beautiful. She was dressed all in pink with glitter on her tights and a tutu. She did all the ballet steps basically doing a one handed handstand. Later in the show she did acrobatics holding 4 serving bowls stacked inside of each other on her foot. She literally turned her foot sideways and held the bowls on with her toes while she did some acrobatics. They had several different things from acrobatics, plate juggling, bike riders doing acrobatics, kung fu fighting with long spears, one girl hula hooped with 120 hula hoops and on and on. It was a fun night we topped off with a hot dog at Dairy Queen.
We got and got around and left Branson around 9:30. We are tired but so glad we went there instead of to Florida where it rained a lot during the weekend. We are looking forward to going back again to other shows.
I guess I have blabbed enough. I will talk to you sometime tomorrow. Have a good evening all! Faye
Good morning everybody! We went and got Fortune so the king of the house is now back home. Drove Kelly nuts, but he can do that. I guess he doesn't like her Roomba and barked at it, barked at the squirrels, and at them to put him up on the bed and their furniture. Probably barked more last week than the whole time we have had him! lol On top of that poor Kelly has strep throat and was running a high fever yesterday and he wanted attention all day.
Susan: Thanks for the ecard. I got a nice belly laugh from the dogs. It was really cute. My birthday today consists of getting laundry done and everything put back in order! lol
Just wanted to peek in and say hello this morning. Lots to do so I need to get a move on. Have a great Tuesday. Faye
It is another lovely day here in the Heartland. The chili beans I made yesterday were so good and I did make enough to freeze some. I will make a huge pot of them for our Christmas party that we do every year. We signed up for wireless from Version and it sure works fast. Didn't even have to change e-mail address or anything but if we want we can take our computers along with us as long as we have that little credit card sized thingie that gives us the signal. The wireless thing we had before just worked in the house. This will work when we travel as long as there is service in that area. There are places across the country that are dead zones because of so much empty teritory with just a few houses sprinkled about. Those folks would have to have satelite and that is still too expensive for our pockets. We just know that there are places our cell phones don't work either. I am so glad that the switch to Verison was so easy. I was thinking I would have to make so many changes in business cards and other places that have our e-mail addresses. I could do it but it would be a chore for I have done it before. As long as we keep Verison we will never have to change our e-mail address. No matter where we live. Yipekio ~ Life is Good.
DONNA FAYE and many more. I love birthdays and wish you the best on yours. Wouldn't you think that someone would have offered to let you have their table in exchange for that booth. I would have in a heart beat my friend. Sounds like Fortune missed his mommie for sure. If we went somewhere and left Ragg Mopp with JD he probably wouldn't want to come home at first when we went to pick him up. He loves JD so much. But on the other hand he would come for he loves us so. Another person he would stay with would be his groomer that likes him so much. He had a trim and a bath yesterday and still looks so clean. Some of the things you told about your trip were a hoot. What a neat place to vacation even if it did rain some eh? Are you don't anything special this evening to celebrate?
JEAN & SUSAN Howdy to you two ~ having a good day are ya?
Time to go and get something done ~ anything ~ but something. Have a great day Magnolias
Good afternoon, ladies! The rain has just cleared and the sun is coming out. Makes me feel like a happier person to see the sun.
Faye, what a vacation! You sure missed your calling - you should have been a travel planner. You can put together the best trips. I hope you get taken to dinner for your birthday. No girl should have to cook that day. I need one of those Roombas. Maybe I could remember to turn it on and let it get the floor swept. I hate vacuuming. I know Fortune was glad Mommy came to get him. No matter how good the vacation, there's no place like home, even to the dog.
Maggie, I saw Saturday they are putting out the Christmas decorations. It's too early. It seems like this year has just gone far too fast!
I'm going with Laura and Adora to dinner and then onto River Country Quilters Guild meeting tonight. Tomorrow I have the salad luncheon. I decided to take chicken salad. Most people enjoy that. It'll be nice to get better acquainted with the people in my aqua aerobics class away from the pool.
Steel Magnolias -- #46
Have fun at the wedding tomorrow. I enjoy weddings just to see the decorations and the lovely bridal party all dressed up.
). I don't have that cookbook. 
from Iowa!
and windy again in my corner of the world. It's so dark I have lights on around the house. Next week still looks like it will be sunny and nice; I'm sure the farmers are looking forward to that. Bob just left for the lake to meet Jason -- they are going to seal (?) a spot in the roof that has leaked. Since it's raining he couldn't take the board to finish the ceiling part so will take that up later when the weather cooperates. I've got a load of laundry going and a pile of ironing waiting. We have a church lay leader meeting tomorrow afternoon in a nearby town. Bob is actually the lay leader but I agreed to go with him just so he would go. 
I had a large green salad without dressing to start than a small piece of rare steak and some shrimp and a biscuit. It all fit within points I have. Tonight I will watch it close at the party after church.
JD was in the kitchen talking to me and I wasn't paying attention to which spice bottle I picked up. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it.
and many more. I love birthdays and wish you the best on yours. Wouldn't you think that someone would have offered to let you have their table in exchange for that booth. 
I would have in a heart beat my friend. Sounds like Fortune missed his mommie for sure. If we went somewhere and left Ragg Mopp with JD he probably wouldn't want to come home at first when we went to pick him up. He loves JD so much. But on the other hand he would come for he loves us so. Another person he would stay with would be his groomer that likes him so much. He had a trim and a bath yesterday and still looks so clean. Some of the things you told about your trip were a hoot. What a neat place to vacation even if it did rain some eh? Are you don't anything special this evening to celebrate? 
