An Arizona Recipe for Spring

Yummy fresh strawberry pie!

 Here I am in Phoenix helping my friend Annie to recover from a knee replacement.  The weather is perfect with temperatures in the high 70's and 80's with lots of sunshine!  Today it is actually going to get up into the 90's but I am loving it.  The strawberries are in season down here now and so we have been enjoying them along with fresh asparagus.  Annie gave me a very easy and quick recipe for the strawberries that is so good we have had it twice and I may even make it again.   Here it is for all the northerners who can look forward to it in a couple months when strawberries are in season up there.

 STRAWBERRY CREAM PIE

 

This is how the pie looked just before we "dug in".

 Ingredients:

1  8oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/4 Cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

dash of nutmeg

1 Cup strawberries, mashed

2 Cups Cool Whip, thawed

1 purchased chocolate cookie crumb pie crust (can use graham cracker crust too)

Mashed up fresh strawberries.

Cream cheese ready to be "softened " in the mixer.

 Procedure;

  Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and nutmeg.  Mix until well blended.  Mix strawberries into cream cheese mixture.  Fold in cool whip.  Spoon into crust.  Chill several hours or overnight.  Garnish with additional strawberries if desired.

The "store boughten" cookie crust.

 In the interests of actually posting this instead of waiting for a good strawberry memory, I'll just post the recipe and pictures.

Another piece of yummy pie just waiting to be eaten!

The Plane Crash

This is another memory from the 1970's that someone mentioned on the "You know you have spent time in North Park, CO if....." sight. 

Sub Sandwiches and Other Fund Raisers I Have Attempted

I think I am missing the cabin.....

 I was browsing Facebook the other day and saw a post on "You know you spent time in North Park, CO if........" about the Sub Sandwiches we used to make and sell for FHA fund raising at Homecoming time.  Some of my former students were reminiscing about how good they were compared to Subway and I had to laugh.  They were OK but better than Subway?  I think it is just a case of fond memories of the fun times we had making and selling those sandwiches.

  I think we bought the bread in Laramie from either that bakery on 2nd street or from Albertson's bakery.  Whoever it was it was good bread and they gave us a good deal.  One of the parents picked up the bread from the bakery and brought it up for us.  I bought all the ingredients that went into the sandwiches from Corkles Little Market  and then members of the club and my classes would make the sandwiches on Friday of Homecoming week.  Of course everyone was also building floats and decorating halls so it was a fun, busy time.  We sold the sandwiches as whole, half or by the inch.  A lot of kids came in and bought them to eat while decorating so we probably had most of our sales on Friday afternoon. 

Missing the cabin in winter.  Also Izzy and hot tubbing!

We didn't completely assemble the sandwiches for Saturday because the fresh stuff would wilt and make the sandwiches soggy.  I really think we made most of the Saturday sandwiches on Saturday morning before the parade but maybe we made up the meat, cheese and mayo part of them the afternoon before and put them in the refrigerator overnight and then added tomatoes, onions, lettuce and whatever else in the morning.  The FHA members that weren't in the parade would go up and down Main Street selling sandwiches or parts of them for people to eat before or during the games.  I still think it is a good fund raiser for Walden since we don't have a Subway or Quiznos or whatever sandwich-type shop.

Missing sitting out in front of the porch drinking morning coffee with Carla.

 This reminds me of another big fundraiser involving FCCLA at West Wendover High School.  We sold enchiladas to raise money to go to State Conference and it was so successful we did it to raise money for Nationals that same spring.  We sold almost 100 dozen enchiladas each time we did it!  We cooked dozens of chickens to shred and and browned pounds and pounds of ground beef. 
We shredded our own cheese and made the enchilada sauce from scratch and it was the best, if I do say so myself!  We had a long assembly line to put the enchiladas together.  Two girls softened corn tortillas for the corn ones and we had a couple kids dipping flour ones for the flour tortilla enchiladas.

 The week before all the members of FCCLA went around taking orders and so we knew exactly what to make but we learned that we had to make more for the late comers.  Some kids earned all the money they needed to go to state and nationals! It was a huge undertaking and we even froze some to make later if people wanted that.  A lot of work, a big mess but a lot of fun too!

Missing our wild, neighborhood friends!

Several fund raisers we attempted throughout the years that I was adviser to FHA/FCCLA  included soft pretzels that were really fun to make and brought in a lot of money for Consumer Ed classes, pizzas we made and sold fresh or frozen in my Creative Cooking classes, and cinnamon rolls in Consumer Ed class.  Up in Owyhee we made Fry Bread and Indian Tacos but the biggest fund raisers up there were the Candy-o-Grams we sold for each holiday!  Such fun memories I have of those times and I'm thinking for the kids who were involved too!

I am also missing all my friends and former students from NPHS, OHS, and WWHS but haven't scanned pictures on to my computer of everyone, so sorry no pics of you all, yet......

I'm Back With Some Great Book Selections!

Eating ice cream in Fredricksburg, TX on New Years Day.

After a 2 month rest, here I am with some fresh ideas and a few pictures. For some reason I just couldn't get motivated to sit down and write even though there is always plenty for me to say!

The girls show off their butterfly pillows they learned to make in my "home school sewing class".

One reason I haven't been working on my blog is because I have been reading some very engrossing books that I feel the need to mention. The first is Tom Clancy's latest book "Locked On".  Bob got it for Christmas and we both read it while we were in Texas with Micah's family.

A very good read especially if you are a Clancy Fan.

This is the back story on John Clarke one of the characters in Clancy's John Ryan books.  Full of action, blood and guts but I liked it.

 It was so good I checked out one of Clancy's older books called "Without Remorse".  They have been trying to make a movie of this book since 2008 but still haven't got it done. These plus several other books Kim wanted me to read, kept me interested so that I didn't have time to write in my blog. Of course we had other things to do there as well.

Bob, Micah, and Kim enjoy the warm afternoon in Fredricksburg, TX on New Years day.

I figured I would have more time when we got up to windy, frigid Casper and I couldn't fit my Christmas book from Paul (11/22/63? Not sure of the date now) into my luggage when we flew up to Wyoming. When I got there, we had a lot of things we wanted to do and I had kind of gotten out of the habit of writing in my blog.

A Taste of some of the things going on in February in Casper, Wyoming!

Carla's and my pottery decorating attempts done at Pottery By You.

We had about 9 deer come visit the house.  These were right under the window in the yard.  Some even climbed several of the front porch steps!

 A coffee or hot chocolate pot Carla and I decorated.

We did a lot of dog sitting with Izzy and I had to sweep up loads of white hair all month as she was shedding her winter coat!

A travertine formation in Thermopolis, WY.  It is formed from minerals in the hot springs.  The water is bubbling up through a pipe and it is pouring over the sides.  The whole thing is a mineral formation that just keeps growing! We spent a weekend there "taking the baths" and sight seeing.

 Then Carla gave me a gift card for Audible.com and I had 3 free to me books to choose for my listening pleasure! I had several books my friends on Facebook had been recommending. It was a tough choice but I finally picked "The Hunger Games".

The Hunger Games trilogy.  You won't be able to quit after reading just one!

 Wow! It was a great choice. Both Carla and I read (listened to) the whole trilogy in 4 days! It is a riveting story for adults as well as teenagers.

Katniss takes aim!

 I can hardly wait for the movie to come out. I hear it is coming in March so maybe I won't have to wait too long. I hope they do a really good job with it.

Some of the Tributes from the movie.  I think there is a contest going on to win an arena Tribute jacket.

 The set designers, costumers and hair designers must have had a great time doing this movie! I am still having dreams with this book in the background!

I kind of liked that the books were audible. The whole story seemed very intimate. (I used ear phones to listen). I felt like I was right in the middle of the action, but maybe I would have felt that way reading it too. One thing I didn't like about only listening was that I couldn't see how the names were spelled so I couldn't remember them as well. Weird, how visual can you get! I guess I will read a review or summary of the book on Amazon so I can see how those names were spelled and I’ll remember them better.

Haymitch and Katniss.  Woody Harrelson is playing Haymitch in the movie.

Well that wasn't so tough to get back in the groove so maybe I will get going on this blog again! We are leaving for Phoenix in a couple days and I do have several adventures to talk about, some recipes and memories, too.