Senior Prom 2011

My granddaughter, Rebekah-Elizabeth Noelani, graduates from high school in June.  She had her senior prom this past weekend.  Denise posted pictures on Facebook and I saved them to my computer. 

A beautiful young woman!

The back of her dress.

Friends

Parents - Stephen and Denise with Rebekah-Elizabeth

Grandparents - John and Jane Bledsoe

John is Denise's father...yes, my ex-husband.  Denise told me they were going to be in Enterprise for a visit.  I will be traveling back to Enterprise in June for graduation and spend a couple of weeks there.

The time has just flown by.  I remember vividly the Saturday Rebekah was born and the telephone call I got from Denise that she had had a girl...and what she named her.  I believe I have mentioned before...Rebekah's first name is hyphenated as my name is and Elizabeth is for me.  She has Denise's middle name of Noelani.  She is not only a beauty to look at...she also has a beautiful spirit.  I sure do love her so very much and can't wait to see her in a couple of months.

Pampered Chef Party and Rubber Stamp Convention

My stamping friend, Candice, had a Pampered Chef party this morning.  The demonstrator made a breakfast casserole dish.  It was really good.  She put a layer of hash brown potatoes in the bottom of a baking dish and sprinkled cheese on top of it.  Put it in the oven for a few minutes.  Then put some chopped ham on top of that.  Mixed up eggs that she put some cream cheese in and poured that over the potatoes and ham and baked it.  She put some chopped up tomatoes on the top after she took it out of the oven.  It was very good.  I bought a couple of things, needed more of the clips to use in closing up bags.  We've seemed to have lost some...I had tons.  Then I got some new scrapers.

I left there a little after 11 am and drove into Sacramento.  Candice lives in Rancho Cordova, south of Hwy 50, off of Zinfandel.  So I got on Hwy 50 to get to the Scottish Rite Hall where the Rubber Stamp Convention was being held.  The hall is over by Sacramento State University.  I do not like to drive on Hwy 50, I think cars are going a lot faster than on I-80.  There is construction going on and the lanes have been narrowered down.  I got to the Scottish Rite Hall and the parking lot was packed.  Thankfully I got a space close to the hall, a lady was pulling out so I waited for her spot. 

I was rather disappointed in the stamp show this year.  For one thing, there were less vendors this year and they were all in the large banquet room.  They were nicely spaced a part...however with the people packed in the room, it was hard to move around.  Besides the fact that I do not do very good in packed crowds.  I bought one item and that was all.  I spent more money at the Candice's party.  I stopped and had some lunch before I came home.

So now I need to get over to my craft table and do some projects.

Tomato & Spinach Pasta Toss

I received my Kraft Foods e-mail newsletter today.  There was a pasta toss recipe included in the newsletter.  I was going to make it for dinner tonight.  After I read the reviews, I decided maybe I wouldn't fix it.  The one I did make was pretty good.  I didn't follow the recipe...just did my own thing.

I sliced a Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage in pieces and sauted them in some olive oil.  Then I added some yellow bell pepper to that, 2 cans of diced tomatoes and a package of baby spinach...gave it a good toss then added some sliced mushrooms.  I rinsed out one of the cans of diced tomatoes and added that water to the sausage mixture, along with some salt and pepper.  I cooked some rotini pasta and when that was done, I rinsed it then added the sausage mixture to the pasta.  The sausage mixture had been simmering for a few minutes.  Added an Italian blend of 5 different cheese and tossed everything together.  We sprinkled some more of the cheese onto the pasta after we dished up our plates.

The loaf of bread I got has Guyere cheese and black olives baked into the bread.  The bakery at the store sliced it for me.  I buttered a few slices and put them under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the butter and let the edges get a little crispy. 

Along with a simple salad of different kinds of lettuce and Red Wine Vinegar dressing, this was dinner for tonight.  It was very good. 

So here's what you need:
1 package of rotini pasta
1 package of sausage (your choice).  (The actual recipe calls for Italian sausage.  We like smoked sausage or Kilbasa)
1 package of baby spinach leaves
2 cans (14.5 oz) of Italian style diced tomatoes, undrained
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
fresh mushrooms ( I think I used 4 or 5), sliced
Salt & Pepper
Italian blend of cheeses or shredded Mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheeses

Hope you try it. 

Cranberry Chicken

Here's another recipe that was lost and found again in my messy craft room. Cranberry Chicken: 4 lbs chicken pieces (3 pieces each of breast, thigh and drumstick). 1 (1 oz) envelope dry onion soup mix (I use Liptons). 1 (16 oz) can whole berry cranberry sauce. 1 cup spicy sweet French dressing. Rinse chicken, pat dry. Place chicken in a single layer in a lightly greased 13 x 9 baking dish. Sprinkle soup mix evenly over chicken. Stir cranberry sauce, and spoon over chicken; top evenly with dressing. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400 deg fror 40 minutes; remove foil, reduce temperature to 350 deg and bake for another 20 minutes. This is the recipe has written in a Southern Living magazine. They used Kraft Catalina dressing. Here's how I did it. I used 6 chicken thighs. I sprinkled the soup mix over the chicken, put the cranberry sauce in a bowl and broke it apart. Added an 8 oz bottle of Russian dressing into the cranberry sauce, mixed it up then poured it over the chicken. Covered it with foil and baked at 350 deg for 40 minutes, then removed the foil and baked for another 20 minutes while the rice cooked. Steamed some fresh broccoli to serve with it. I think the first time I made it, I mixed the soup mix in with the cranberry sauce and dressing. This is really good. While I was rinsing the dishes and loading the dishwasher, Gerry was sitting at the breakfast bar. He was resetting the time on my camera to 24 hour time. I didn't know he took this picture...he also did a video. So this is what I look like from the back...LOL!! Pretty exciting, huh!! :-)

Dinner Tonight

Here's another recipe I found when I was cleaning up in my craft room. This recipe dates back to the '70's. It is something one of my sister's use to make.

Round Steak w/Mushrooms

1 round steak cut into strips.

1 can of mushrooms, drained

Flour for dredging meat

Lawry's seasoned salt & pepper

Water

bouillon cubes

Roll the meat in the seasoned flour. Fry until brown. Add can of mushrooms, 1 1/2 cups of water and bouillon cubes. Simmer 30 minutes or until meat is tender.

That is the recipe. Now here is what I do:

I bought 2 top sirloin steaks that were cut rather thin. I cut the steaks in half and cut those halves in half again. Then I cut the halves into thin strips. I heated a fry pan with olive oil and after dredging the slices in flour, I browned the meat. I seasoned with Lawry's and Garlic pepper while the meat was browning. I added enough water to just cover the top of the meat, lowered the heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes or so. I also added 2 beef bouillon cubes. After the 30 minutes or so, I added sliced fresh mushrooms and let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so. I did need to add a little bit more water.

Since I cut the meat in thin slices, it didn't take long to cook and the meat was very tender. I served it with rice and fresh Sacramento Delta asparagus. This is the first of the Victory Island asparagus. I like some mayonaise on my asparagus. Gerry likes it without anything on it. I use to butter the asparagus...I don't do that anymore. It was all so very yummy.

My friend Jalna takes step by step pictures of dishes that are cooked at her house. I think about doing it after the fact. :-)

Sandy

I was at Bel Air earlier today doing some grocery shopping. I was standing at the dairy case putting some orange juice in my cart. A woman passing by said "Hi Betty". I turned around and she said "you are Betty, aren't you"?. She asked if I remembered who she was. She looked very familiar, however I had no clue where I knew her from. She mentioned we worked together years ago at Alta California Regional Center. That was my first job when I moved to Sacramento in July 1980. I said to her "please, tell me your name". She said "Sandy". Oh, it has been so many years since we worked together. I started at ALTA in August of 1980 and she started in November 1980. We were both secretaries. She still works at ALTA and is a case worker now. We stood there at the dairy case for about 15 minutes or so catching up on who still works there. There's been a lot of changes at ALTA, both good and bad. They are now in a union and flex schedules are offered. She works 4 10 hour days and has Fridays off. I left ALTA in 1985 and she got married soon after that. Her husband passed away a few years ago. She remembered that I had gotten married in 1980 and had a daughter that I talked about a lot. She couldn't believe Denise was now 41 years old. She said "you still look the same". :) It was super great to see her and catch up. Before I left to go to Bel Air, I was crusing on Facebook. My grandson had posted an ultrasound picture. It is a girl...her name is Chayse Katherine. It is a beautiful picture...very clear and her perfect little body can be seen. So exciting...