My Weekly W's

What's top of my mind:  The first week of June was pretty peaceful and uneventful which I completely love and needed.  May had a lot of ups and downs and I'm happy to see it go.

Where I've been:  We went to Newell's and found a new chair for the living room, and it was delivered Tuesday.  We both love it and it mixes perfectly with everything else in the room plus it is very comfortable.  The recliner we had was only about seven years old, but it was really uncomfortable so now we are good to go.

We went out for lunch Saturday to Twisted Twins and enjoyed smash burgers and shared an order of jalapeno mac and cheese bites.  SO good! The weather was perfect for an outside lunch.

We've gotten back to walking every afternoon when I get off of work.  Sometimes we walk around the neighborhood and other times we meet at the hospital to walk around the track there.  

Where I'm going:  Friday I want to stop by the farmers market and Saturday we have an outside concert to go to if the weather is good.  I also need to pick a few things up one day this week. I plan to spend a lot of time outside reading if the rain holds off too.

What I'm watching:  We finished the first season of The Buroughs yesterday that we started a couple of weeks ago and we both really enjoyed it. We also watched Senior Year on Netflix which was a pretty cute movie that we both enjoyed.  I also watched the second season of Four Seasons and enjoyed. All on Netflix

What I'm reading:  I'm almost finished with Into The Magic Shop by James R. Doty, MD.  It's funny when I started reading it I remembered very vividly my 4th grade teacher going over a lot of these techniques in gym class.  We would do it once or twice a week in the winter on our mats in the gym when we couldn't go outside. This week I started meditating again because I really want to be able to calm myself a bit easier than it's been lately.  Thank you so much for recommending this one Judee!!

What I'm eating:

BIG salad with pan fried chicken thighs

Applewood chicken sausage with pesto mac and cheese and corn

Salmon, rice and asparagus

Spaghetti with beef and veggies and a salad with garlic bread

Beef pho with garlic bread 

I picked up a number of beef bones from the farm I go to and made an amazing bone broth full of bone marrow.  I put rice noodles, sliced radishes, carrots, snap peas in a bowl and covered with some broth and it was amazing.

Wings and jacket potatoes cooked on the grill, deviled eggs and jalapeno popper egg rolls.  

Tonight I am grilling a spatch cocked chicken, potatoes and we'll have asparagus with it.  

What is making me smile:  Ann from Ann's Snap Edit Scrap always sends me the nicest cards and is the sweetest friend.  All of her cards are so creative. This is the card she sent for June and I just love it.  Thank you, Ann!!

All of the garden and flowers growing brings a smile too.  I've had this planter for right at a month now and I can't believe how much it has grown.  It is just gorgeous.

I just want to send a virtual hug to everyone that visits here.  Life is hard sometimes and we have to remind ourselves to find every little ounce of joy we can through the day.  All of my blog buddies are super special to me.  Have a great week and enjoy every moment!!

Happy Gotcha Day

I can't believe it's been 4 years since we brought Binx into our family.   

He was found at around 4 weeks old, 2.5 pounds roaming around the county by himself and someone picked him up and took him to one of the shelters.  They kept him in the front office in a large 6x6 foot cage away from all of the other animals because he was too small to get any vaccinations.  

A friend of ours was volunteering at the shelter and called us when he was ready to find a home to see if we wanted him.  We had just lost our last cat 6 months earlier and I really wasn't interested.  But then TBG sent me a video of him playing in his cage and I just had to meet him and the rest is history.

The first thing I noticed about him on the ride home was that he doesn't meow very much at all and still doesn't.  To say this little 3.5 pound ball of fur hit the ground running when we got home is an understatement.  I think he was so happy to be out of the cage and able to run.  Four years later and he still loves to fly through the house only now he's up to 11.6 pounds and even louder.

He is smart, curious, brave and strong.  He's been doing pull ups on the counters and window ledges since he was probably six months old.  He has his own relationship with both of us.  I am his play buddy, the one he hangs out with and the one he snuggles up to at night.  TBG is his person though and he sticks by his side like glue when he's home.  Binx is a true joy to have in our lives.

Happy June

 

My Weekly W's - Last Sunday of May

What's top of my mind:  Data centers.  Two weeks ago, there was a rumor that one of the large landowners in our county was going to sell a good portion to a corporation that is interested in building one of these monstrosities in our county.   Our county board and the townships board that the land is in held emergency meetings to discuss.  Our local board is half republican and half democratic and they all work very well together.  Who knew that was possible?  One board member explained the situation well.  Our wonderful governor Pritzger who does not like local government to have much say over their communities, snuck in a new law around three years ago that gives the state government full rights to basically do whatever the hell they want regardless of the community.  The board member explained that if the township refuses to allow a sale the state could hit them with huge fines.  The board did rule that nothing will be done for 180 days until they can investigate everything further.  I will be following this very closely.  These data centers are a huge strain on our water, electricity and so much more.

Who needs a good slap:  Just when you think someone cannot sink any lower, they do. Governor Pritzger deserves 5 throat punches  slaps, for SO many reasons!  This is not a political party rant, but a personal oppinion of mine about our governor so please don't take it there.

Where I've been:  Thursday we went to St. Louis University hospital for a test that TBG had scheduled.  It was a long morning for him, so when we finished around 12, we needed a good lunch and stopped at Drakes in Shiloh. You know I love their club sandwich.  Friday, I only worked half a day so beat the holiday weekend crowds at Kroger and picked up a couple of things.  Yesterday we went to Effingham to enjoy lunch at Firefly.  Their fried green tomatoes are SO good, along with everything else.  My birthday is tomorrow along with Memorial Day, so we wanted to enjoy a meal with just the two of us to celebrate early.

Where I'm going:  Tuesday I have an appointment to have the back tooth that I broke pulled.  I took Wednesday off too just in case I'm not feeling well.  I'm sure I'll stay home regardless.  Thursday TBG has an appointment with his cardiologist here in town.  Other than that, we have no plans and I hope no others pop up.

What I'm watching:  The garden is growing like crazy. Everything looks really good. I went out this morning to cut some of the garlic scapes.  I am going to pickle this bunch and then pick the rest in a day or two for hummus.   

What I'm eating:

Spaghetti and beef meatballs with a salad

BIG salad x 2

Chicken sausage, scalloped potatoes and asparagus

Cube steak, pesto mac and cheese with a salad.  It has probably been 20 years or more since I've made cube steaks and TBG mentioned it one day last week.  I told him they are on the list for sale at the farm we go to, so he went out and picked two up.  They were really tender and tasted good, but not a favorite of mine.

Chicken tikka masala with rice and naan.

Tonight we're having salmon with sides to be determined.

What's making me smile: This bush makes me smile every year.  Does anyone know what kind it is?  I would love to have two or three more on the other side of the back yard.

                I hope everyone is well and if you're in the US enjoy the Memorial Day weekend!!

What's for dinner?

 

With the ingredients above, can you figure out what I made for dinner?  

Hint...it's an old school classic.

Hope everyone is doing well.

My Week

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day!

The weather here was great this past week.  Cool in the mornings and perfect in the afternoons.  We had quite a bit of rain through the week which was nice.  No storms, just nice steady rain which is exactly what we've needed.  

I went to a number of stores to stock up on items we regularly use.  This should keep me out of stores for a while.  The farmers market also started so I went to see my favorite farmer.  He had gorgeous lettuce, radishes, strawberries and of course flowers.  His onions are wonderful and I've already replanted a couple of the bulbs.  You can't find onions like this in the store here.

I worked out in the yard multiple times getting everything planted in the garden and in pots.  I like to grow basil and arugula in large pots because they seem to do better.  I did pick up another lavender plant and put it in a pot until it gets a bit bigger.  Our yard is off to a good start.

While doing things around the house the last few weeks I watched a number of good documentaries.

The Twister-Caught in the Storm.  This was about the tornado that hit Joplin Missouri and it brought up a lot of emotions.  I know one of the doctors that was in the hospital that was hit by this storm.  

India-Sweets and Spices

Kidnapped-Elizabeth Smart

Sins of Our Mother

Nobody dumps my daughter

Yesterday we watched Mother's Day on Netflix.  I don't remember seeing that when it came out in 2016 and it was a pretty cute movie.

Meals this week...

Sirloin steak, baked potato and salad

BBQ chicken legs, pesto, white cheddar mac and cheese and asparagus

Chicken fajita nachos

Beef chili with cornbread

BIG salad x2

LO pan of stuffed shells and a salad

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the month of May.  I still am not quite sure how it is 5 months into the year already but here we are.

Be safe and remember to celebrate a little every day!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In My Kitchen - April 2026

Happy May!  April was a pretty full month for us, and I didn't do much new in my kitchen so this post will be a bit sparse, but I still wanted to join along with sherrys pickings for her monthly In My Kitchen.  It is always fun to see what others from all over the world are doing in their kitchens plus I didn't want to break my record of doing four months in a row. 😉

We had a lovely Easter dinner at our house with lamb T bones, garlic and rosemary potatoes, deviled eggs and asparagus.  It was delicious.  I used this recipe for the lamb, because it always comes out so well. Culinary Adventures with Lori: 52 Recipes in 52 Weeks #4 Lamb T-bones with Rosemary-Balsamic Butter Sauce  For dessert, we enjoyed banana pudding that I made with Lorna Doone cookies for something a bit different than a crust or vanilla wafers.  It turned out really well.

The next day we celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary by taking a day trip and having a wonderful lunch together at our favorite place Firefly Grill - Farm & Table in Effingham, Illinois  The weather turned out to be perfect, so the drive was gorgeous.  It was a great day with my favorite person in the world.

New items I picked up this month.

TBG loves hot tea every day, so I picked up another bag of the Berry Berry that he really enjoys, making sure he has a good variety in the cabinet to choose from.

I like to keep beef tallow on hand to occasionally cook with and also to make lotion.  This winter I made it through the cold harsh winter that we had with soft skin instead of dry and scaly. It has to be the tallow lotion that I made in the fall.  I love this stuff.

This popcorn is SO good.  It pops up beautifully and has very little of the annoying hull to deal with.  

I love Lindt chocolate and TBG picked up this bag for me which was appreciated.  This bag contained a new to me flavor of Neapolitan.  The filling was a mixture of strawberry and milk chocolate with the outer shell being white chocolate.  I'm not a big fan of white chocolate but this combination was really very good.

My curveball is a picture of my buddy Binx which is suiting since he spends a lot of time with me in the kitchen.  This picture is from this morning.  It was pretty chilly when I got up so I put a throw down by the patio window so he could warm up.  It took him a while to get the blanket exactly how he wanted it but after he did, he took a nice two-hour nap.  

Sherry, thank you for hosting because I know you have been so busy as well. I hope everyone has a wonderful May!!  

26 New To Me Recipes in 2026 # 5 and #6 -Sauces

I love cooking with a lot of spices and I love a glaze or sauce.  A good sauce can be utilized in so many different ways and really give a basic meal a nice kick. 

At the end of March, we met my brother and his family at Fridays to spend some time together and catch up.  We haven't been to a Friday's since we lived in Florida, and it was TGI Fridays back then.   I ordered the chicken sandwich with whiskey sauce and as soon as I started eating, I remembered that sauce very well.  As I ate, I was thinking about all of the different things this sauce would be delicious on.  Chicken, fish, salmon, burgers...so many uses.  I looked up copycat recipes and landed on this one and it does not disappoint.

Friday's Whiskey Glaze

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup pineapple juice

2/3 cup water

1/4 cup Jack Daniel's whiskey

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon garlic granulated or powder

1 teaspoon onion granulated or powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons cornstarch

In a medium saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except for the cornstarch.  Heat and whisk over medium heat until the mixture is reduced by a third and coats the back of a spoon.  It took about 20 minutes.

Whisk together the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water and then whisk into the glaze.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool. 

Once cooled, refrigerate for at least one hour and it will continue to thicken.

I've made this twice in the last month and we've enjoyed it on a variety of meats. 

In early April we had lunch at Drakes which we enjoy two or three times a year.  I love their burgers but once I tried their club sandwich a few years ago, I was hooked.  They use a wheat berry bread perfectly toasted and are very generous with the meats, cheese, lettuce and tomato.  Another thing that really puts it over the top is their honey mustard sauce.  It is delicious so again I searched for a good copycat recipe and landed on this one.

Drakes Honey Mustard Sauce

1/2 cup mayo (you can also use sour cream or yogurt, but I used mayo)

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

pinch of paprika

Place in a jar with a lid and shake it all up.  Refrigerate for at least an hour to let it all combine well.

This is good on a salad, sandwiches, chicken strips, fries and probably a lot more.

I don't know how we are already at the April, but here we are.  I hope everyone had a lovely month and that May is even better.

Do you have a favorite sauce??  Inquiring minds would like to know.

Food for Thought

 

 I am really hoping they were being 'funny' and not serious.

26 New To Me Recipes in 2026 #4 Cinnamon Roll Cake

I found this recipe at https://www.thecountrycook.net and it is a keeper.  The recipe is simple, straightforward and delicious.  7 different people tried a piece and all of them including us were very happy with it. The cinnamon filling is perfect, and the cake is very moist.  It does taste like you're eating a cinnamon roll and  I will be making this again.

For the cake:

3 cups AP flour

1 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk

1 stick of butter, melted and cooled

For the Cinnamon filling:

1 and 1/2 sticks of room temperature butter (I used one and it was perfectly good)

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons AP flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

For the glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

5 tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish.  In a large bowl combine the first 5 ingredients for the cake.  Then slowly add the butter.  Mix just until combined.  Do not over mix.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish.

In a small bowl combine the ingredients for the filling and mix together well. Once combined, drop the cinnamon filling by spoonfuls onto the cake batter. 

Take a butter knife and make swirly, marble effect patterns all around the cake dragging the knife through both the cinnamon and cake batter.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. (40 minutes was perfect for my oven)

Combine all of the ingredients for the glaze and drizzle over the cake once it has cooled a bit.

ENJOY!

In My Kitchen-March 2026

March was a pretty good month even though it flew by.  Honestly though, they all seem to fly by now so I'm trying to just enjoy each day.

The weather was all over the place this month with spring, summer and winter temperatures so our meals were a mixture too.  Here are some of my favorite meals from March.

Chicken noodle and white bean soup with onions, garlic, ginger and cumin.  Such a comforting meal.

Lamb burgers with spicey 'fries'.  

BIG salad with lots of veggies and chicken. 

Beef and potato hand pie with a small side salad.  

Naan 'pizza' and a salad

I have always made quite a bit of our bread, but I've been on a roll and have made all of the various breads we've eaten since January.  I don't think there is any going back to store bought now.  Here are two of my favorites.

Loaf of white Dutch oven bread.  Culinary Adventures with Lori: My new go to Bread recipe

NY style bagels  Culinary Adventures with Lori: 52 Recipes in 52 Weeks #3 New York style bagels

A friend of mine loves dates and sweets so I used peanut butter to stuff in a date and then dipped them in chocolate and sprinkled some with pistachio nuts and she LOVED them.  They really are pretty good and mostly pretty healthy too.  She is always bringing me things from Poland like this cute trivet and a couple more kitchen towels.

So that is what March looked like in my kitchen.  I am joining Sherry at sherrys pickings who hosts In My Kitchen and connects us to each other from all over the globe.  Thank you again for hosting Sherry. I hope everyone has a wonderful April.

Things That Make Me Smile

 

This half of our backyard is always so pretty this time of year, and it always brings a smile to my face.

        I hope everyone has a great day and a wonderful Easter weekend!!