Ham and Cheese Strata

Original Ham and Cheese Strata
12 slices bread, cubed
2 cups shredded cheese2 cups cubed ham
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 9oz pkg. thawed brocolli
1 2oz jar pimento drained
6 eggs
3 cups milk
tsp salt, dry mustard
Grease 13x9 baking dish. Layer bread, cheese, ham, onion, brocolli and pimento. In bowl combine eggs,milk, salt and mustard. Blend well. Pour mixture over bread mix. Refrigerate at least 6 hours. Heat oven to 325, bake 90 min. (check for doneness) Let stand 10 minutes.

How I made it today
1 loaf g/f rice bread cubed
2 cups shredded mild cheddar cheese
1 lb sausage cooked and drained
1 orange pepper diced
1/4 cup diced onion
1 2oz jar pimento
6 eggs
3 cups milk
(I forgot the mustard and salt)

Both ways are delicious. This is a fabulously forgiving recipe. Any bread products work, I usually use sausage instead of ham. I rarely use the broccoli because I don't keep it on hand but another vegetable works as well like asparagus or peppers or mushrooms. I only use pimento if I have it, I think it is more for color than taste. Any kind of shredded cheese works also.

Spicy Peanut Sauce

(I usually double this batch)
1 1/2 Tbs. creamy peanut butter
2 Tbs. vegetable oil (I use coconut oil)
2 Tbs. reduced sodium soy sauce (regular makes it too salty according to the original recipe but I always use regular)
2 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. rice vinegar (or distilled white)
1/2 tsp. sesame seed oil - dark if possible to find
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Stir together in small pot and warm until ingredients are well mixed.

We eat this over sticky rice but the recipe can also be used for chicken satay.
My family absolutely loves this. My dear friend Laura gave me the recipe and an authentic Asian Hat looking thing to cook the rice in.

I never got the hang of it but love love love my rice cooker.

Wonderful way to get groceries cheap in these hard times

Angel Food Ministries


I have to admit that I am unsure if I qualify - money is tight but not "that tight" to warrant help. But the website says it is for anyone. For $30 you get a predetermined grocery list that is worth about $60. There is meat, fruit, veggies - a wonderful assortment. Click on the link to see if there is an Angel Food Ministries near you. Let me know what you think!

OK I am so bugged

This evening my 2 big kids - 19 and 17 went and bought a couple of dogs. They had only permission to buy 1. 1 for the son who is moving out in August. Not for the daughter who is severly allergic. Now I am the BAD GUY. I won't let them keep the 2nd dog because a. they didn't have permission, b. I am allergic, Cassie is allergic, Joe is allergic (they suggested I get shots so they can keep the dog - I DONT THINK SO!!) c. Sylvia loves loves loves dogs. She will get dog all over her and want to love on me thereby transferring said dog dander. d. did I mention they didn't have permission and were trying to pull one over on me. e. I am afraid of dogs.
gggrrrrr It might take awhile to get over this. I know they are very very angry with me. I wish they could see how they made this situation happen, I didn't. They both knew if they had asked I would have said no. So, they just didn't ask.

Fun Meme, consider yourself tagged!

ABC, easy as 123...
(I found this on her blog)

A is for age:42
B is for burger of choice: Lettuce tomato ketchup mustard cheese
C is for what kind of car you drive: Yukon
D is for your dog's name: read K
E is for essential item you use everyday: toothbrush
F is for favorite TV show at the moment: Monk
G is for favorite game: Euchre
H is for Hometown: Fort Wayne
I is for instruments you play: none
J is for favorite juice: Blueberry
K is for whose butt you'd like to kick: My kids for buying 2 dogs today without permission and now they are mad at me for not letting them keep them both -sheesh, like I did something wrong.
L is for last restaurant you ate at? Lone Star - 2 thumbs down, bad service, bad food
M is for your favorite Muppet: C is for Cookie Monster!!!
N is for Number of Piercing:2 - 1 for each ear although my ears are so sensative I can't wear earrings anymore
O is for overnight hospital stays: hmmm 9 kids, tonsils =10 for me, 4 months with Luke
P is for people you were with today: my sisters
Q is for what you do with your quiet time: Read, browse the www
R is for biggest regret: Not saying sorry enough
S is for status:Not sure what this means, how about married
T is for time you woke up today: 9:00 (it is Sunday)
U is for what you consider unique: my sense of humor
V is for vegetable you love: asparagus - made my way
W is for worst habit: eating when stressed
X is for x-rays you've had: 10 maybe more
Y is for yummy food you ate today: Ham sandwich on organic bread with cranberry mustard, sprouts, spinach, tomatoes and tortilla chips -yum!
Z is for zodiac sign: Taurus

Tag to anyone who wants to play!

Pure Fashion Photo

Looky there I made it bigger! (so what if I used a different pic! LOL)

(I can't seem to make the picture bigger ... any ideas?)

I know this is late, but on May 3rd my daughters Katie andTessa participated in the annual Pure Fashion Show. in Fort Wayne Indiana. This was Katie's 2nd and Tessa's first time. The absolutely fabulously studdly man is my husband. This was his 2nd time. My oldest daughter was a participant for 4 years. It has been a beautiful way to teach modesty not only to my daughters but others as well. If there is one near you, run don't walk to sign your high school aged daughter up!

Pure Fashion is an international faith based program designed for girls 14-18 to help young women re-discover and re-affirm their innate value and authentic femininity.
Pure Fashion is a character formation program that enhances not only a young woman's external appearance, but more importantly, her interior beauty and balanced self confidence.
Our goal is to emphasize a young woman's inherent dignity and therefore create in her a desire to dress and act in accordance with that dignity. We understand that many young women today are losing their sense of innocence at a very young age, and Pure Fashion aims to reverse this trend by offering a fun, exciting and effective virtue formation program that can impress the hearts and minds of young girls at a very critical stage in their lives.

Pure Fashion is an Apostolate of Regnum Christi.

A thoughtful post on the Candidates

Two Ways of Seeing Babies

Wonder who to vote for?

A fabulous article from the National Catholic Register.

Graduation

Today was my oldest son's last day of high school. He could conceivably never ever take another class in his life. Sigh, it also means that I have a child out of school. Gasp, the horrors. Am I old enough? I don't feel it. Is he old enough - certainly. He is such a man. A wonderful man who is loving and caring, hard working, honest and an all around great kid --oops I mean man. I know he is itching to move out - we keep a pretty close eye and grip on our kids. He wants some freedom. I don't blame him, it is time. His mommy is just not ready to let go! I hope to get a picture to put here of him all cap and gowned. A milestone in both his and our (dh and I) lives. The time has gone so fast I can hardly believe it. Wasn't it just yesterday that I sat outside the preschool for an hour and listened to him cry when I left? No? Where oh where did the time go??
God Bless,
Christy

This is an even better picture of "What My Husband Does All Day"

I wish I had a picture of him on the phone - he spends a lot of time fielding calls and putting out "fires".

Wanna See What My Husband Does All Day??

I was sure I was going to fail - the last question brought me up to a "C"

last on of these quizzes for awhile ...I promise....they are just so much fun!

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

I love Ginger!!!!

You Are Ginger

Like ginger, you are a total shape shifter. You can be sweet, spicy, mellow, or overpowering. You are both soothing and unique. You are popular... yet you are often overlooked.

What Spice Are You?

Galadriel

Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Galadriel is a character in the Middle-Earth universe.

Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

...If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern

We read this today and thoroughly enjoyed learning about life in colonial times. I have posted what Josh, Joe and Ellie wrote about colonial times. I had asked them to write a page and so there are some "filler words" but it is interesting to see what impressed them. We used 2 different publishings and so the pictures in the books were different and it was wonderful to see different artists pictures.

This is what I learned:

• That colonial times begins in 1565 with the first Spanish colony in St. Augustine Florida and ends in 1776 when the English colonies become the United States.
• That babies wore puddings - pillows around their midsections to keep them from getting hurt.
• The colonist' wore colorful clothing - yellow, red, purple, blue. I thought everything was brown and white or maybe gray.
• Schoolmasters used more than dunce caps to make children (boys) behave, they would use both punishments that hurt your feelings and made you feel foolish along with the ones that just HURT>
• Some of the "medicines" were quite weird and even harmful - bag of the sick person' s fingernails tied around the neck of an eel should bring down a fever when the eel dies. Or bloodletting - ouch and dangerous.
• Some of the crazy laws included ones that said it was against the law for a baker to bake bad bread, or a brewer to brew bad beer. Or the one that said a poor man can't have clothes as fancy as a rich one.
• Many of the laws were punishable by hanging. Some by whipping, ducking (this one was for wives who talked back to their husbands) being put in the stocks.

We learned many more things but these were my favorites.

We will continue to learn about this time in history and finally finish the year with the American Revolution.