The 8th Day of January

Here is our meal from today.  I made homemade Brunswick Stew.  I used tomatoes, tomato sauce, pork, chicken, corn, potatoes, lima beans, okra, Chicken Stock, a vinegar-based Barbecue Sauce, salt and pepper.  It turned out really good.

We used our 8-quart Instant Pot to cook the stew, and it turned out pretty good. It just needed a little more vinegar to make it perfect.

So what have you cooked or ate recently that was good?  I would love to hear from you.

 

 

Thoughts for Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Since October 14th, our family has been in birthday mode.  Our daughter celebrated her 16th birthday on the 14th.  Then on the 20th, our youngest son turned 18.  Finally, on the 23rd, our second son turned 20.  So now we are done with birthdays for the year.

For today’s installment of Tasty Tuesdays, we made Ham Bean Soup over the weekend and had some ham left over.  So tonight I took the ham,  a stick of butter, some milk, and a two-pound block of cheddar cheese.  Here is the final product.

And finally, from the Art Department, here are two pictures – one is an original our daugther did some time ago and the other is a redo she completed this week.

 

If you are a homeschool blogger and are interested in becoming part of the Home School Review Crew, applications are now open for new bloggers.  So check it out for yourself.

So what have you been up to this week?  If you would like to read what the other members of the Home School Review Crew are blogging about this week, click here or on the graphic below.

 

Tasty Tuesdays for October 9, 2018

For this installment of Tasty Tuesdays, instead of focusing on meals my husband or myself prepared, I am going to highlight our two oldest children (both sons).  Our second child and second son makes a fantastic curry, and every once in a while, I ask him to fix it for our family.  It is something he does fantastic cooking.  Yesterday he prepared his curry for us.  Only this time, he did a few things differently (and because he prefers to not be in photos, I am going to have to write about it rather than show you pictures).  This time, he added freshly grated ginger root and 2 freshly grated apples.  Also, he added soy sauce, ketchup, and a few other miscellaneous ingredients along with the two boxes of Mild Curry Mix we bought at the store.

I have to say it turned out fantastic.  Our son began cooking the meal in the morning, so it simmered for a good portion of the day.  Our house smelled incredible, and he kept us laughing for most of the day…  The end result was incredible.  The only disappointment was the lack of leftovers.  Because he is also my son who loves noodles, he served it over noodles.  I have to say the meal was a complete success.

Today our oldest son and I had to go out and do some errands since he did not have to work.  So while we were out, we picked up some London broil so he could try out the new dehydrator he bought a few weeks ago.  He broke out the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and other seasonings and began marinading the meat.  So here are some pictures of that.

I can not wait to try this.  Now it will marinade overnight, and then tomorrow, my son will continue the process.  I will be back to post more pictures.

So what is going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.  If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are blogging about, click here or on the graphic below.

Tasty Tuesday – August 28, 2018

Today for dinner we had steaks cooked on the grill, carrots, wild rice and grilled pita breads.

Another meal we had was homemade Alfredo sauce over pasta.

Stay tuned for upcoming reviews for Grammar Planet and Roman Roads Media.

Thoughts for Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Last Thursday, we had to take our youngest son back to the hearing doctor.  While there we went back to the waterfront.  Here is a picture from our first visit of the flags we saw from one part of the waterfront park.  The second picture is one we took from right beside the flags.

This past week saw our family get a new to us freezer that did not work when we plugged it in.  So we are trying to see if we can get it to work. It will be so nice to have two freezers again.  We like to have one for meat/poultry/pork/fish/shrimp etc. and then the second freezer we like to use for vegetables, fruit and other items.

We have started using the program “Plan to Eat” to help with grocery shopping, meal planning, and even with grocery shopping lists.  I am trying to incorporate some variety into our meals and menu planning.  With that, I want to move into our Tasty Tuesday portion of the day.

For our Tasty Tuesday meal for this week, I want to share the Shrimp Scampi we had on Friday night.  We used frozen shrimp we bought at the military commissary in Corpus Christi, olive oil, fresh parsley, diced onions, minced garlic, butter and some cooking white wine.  I found the original recipe online and then tweaked it to meet our family’s likes.  We chopped the onion very fine because I have some children who are not fans of onions.  Then I added the white wine for flavor and body even though it was not called for initially.  Finally, we served it over mini bowtie pasta.  The meal was served with a baguette.  I have to say we all enjoyed the meal.

Here are some photographs of the meal.

Then for dinner tonight, we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and corn.  Here is a picture of a piece of fried chicken and the mashed potatoes.  My husband does an absolutely amazing job of frying the chicken.

I would love to hear what is going on in your world.  Click here or on the graphic below to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are blogging about this week.

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Thoughts for Tuesday, July 24, 2018

So over the last two weeks, my husband re-enlisted for what should be the last time.  We only have about 4 years until he reaches the mandatory retirement age for the US Army Reserves.

We also took our youngest son to see an Ear doctor in Port Lavaca, Texas – which is about 30 minutes away from where we are living.  One of the fun parts of being the military is constantly having to find new doctors and traveling to new places to find ones that are willing to take the military health insurance.

After seeing the doctor, we drove down to see the water.  You see my husband and all four of our children were born in Jacksonville, North Carolina – which is roughly 30 minutes or so from the Atlantic Ocean.  So all of them have great ties to the water.  Here are some photographs I took using my iphone.

And her are some more photographs.

We want to take the entire family back so we can have a picnic by the water.

For this week’s edition of Tasty Tuesday’s, here are some photographs of some food we had:

On rare ocassions, my husband and I have the opporunity to eat out alone.  This past Friday was one of those times.  Dennis, my husband, had to go to renew his military id and I rode along with him.  While in Corpus Christi, we stopped to do some grocery shopping, which included one of favorite stores – Sprouts.  But before wetry tackled our grocery shopping, we decided to try a new place to eat called Jason’s Deli.  Upon walking in, we went to place our orders and found a fantatstic variety of items to choose from to eat.  We had options ranging from soup, sandwiches, salads and more.  We both decided to have the half-sandwich and one-trip to the salad bar combo.  In addition to our California Club sandwich and salad bar trip, we also had the option to have fruit, chips or something else that escapes my mind right now.  We both selected the fruit and it was fantastic.

So what is going in your world?  I would love to hear from you.  If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are blogging about this week, click here or on the graphic below.

Thoughts for Tuesday, July 10, 2018

This past week our son started working as a Certified Nursing Assistant.  He seems to really be doing well and enjoying his work.  Because of the 4th of July, we did not have band or piano lessons.  We celebrated Independence Day with a quiet day at home.

Here are some tasty dishes we had during the past week.  We had spaghetti with homemade sauce, stuffed shells, manicotti, and shrimp kebabs.  All in all it was a good week of eating.

 

Over the weekend, we got in contact with a Primitive Baptist Church in our area and decided to attend there this Sunday.  Here is a picture of the hymnal they use.  The church is having a four-day meeting this weekend, so we plan on going to the meeting Thursday night.   One of my favorite things about attending a Primitive Baptist Church is that all the singing is acapella.  So the harmony of voices tends to be amazing.  This church was no exception.  It was the first time in over 4 years that we were able to attend a Primitive Baptist Church and we look forward to returning to visit.  Only our youngest son was able to attend on Sunday, but it was still a wonderful time.

One of the other good things about Primitive Baptist Churches is the way they welcome visitors.  Although we did not know anyone when we walked in, we walked out feeling like we were part of their family.  The other good thing is that when they serve a meal (which they did after the services), everyone is always welcome to come and the food is always amazing.

So what has been going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew have been up to, click here or on the graphic below.

Tasty Tuesday – May 1, 2018

Our family loves being able to sit down and eat together.  One of our favorite style of meals is grilling food.  With the addition of our cowboy grill along with our regular grill that includes both a gas (propane) grill  as well as a charcoal grill.  Often we make shish-k-bobs.  Another thing we like grilling is fish.  Ribs take a high place as well.

Here are some pictures of food we have cooked on our grills.

One of the benefits of living in Texas is that we can basically grill year round.  So we frequently enjoy fish, meat, hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwursts, sausages, chicken, pork, shrimp and more on our grill.  I am blessed to have a husband and sons who love to cook on the grill for me.  When we use the grill, typically everyone takes part in preparing our food.

So what are you eating now?  I would love to hear from you.

The topic on the Home School  Review Crew Link-up for today is “Homeschooling with the Brain in MInd”.  I always try to do this.  I tend to like and excel at different things from our children.  When it comes to my children, all of them are as different as can be.  None of them plan on doing the same thing in life.  They also do not share the same interest.  Nor do they enjoy the same style of materials.  So I try to take those things into account when I make curriculum choices.  Our daughter loves anything to do with art, so I try to find things that excite that part of her brain.  Our youngest son enjoys anything to do with music, so we are exploring ways to build on this for him.  So if you homeschool, how do you take your childrens’ brains into account? Or how do you take into account your brain when making curriculum choices?

If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are posting about this week, click here or on the graphic below.

 

Thoughts for Tuesday

 

Here are some pictures from our meals for our Tasty Tuesday thoughts.  We recently bought a new grill called a Cowboy Grill from Sam’s Club.  We finally assembled it this weekend and decided some ribs we had would be perfect for the first cooking on the new grill. I love  how it can hold a dutch oven, has the extra round surface for either warming or cooking on and the large main surface area can hold a lot of food.

Our youngest son even decided to help his father with the cooking.

In addition to the ribs, we also grilled some Naan to go with our meal.  Grilling it, makes Naan absolutely delicious.

So what have you been cooking this week?  Stay tuned next Tuesday for our next Tasty Tuesday post.

If you want to see what other members of the Home School Review Crew are posting about this week, click here or on the graphic below.

Tasty Tuesdays – March 13, 2018

 

For lunch today I had a salad made with spinach leaves and arugula leaves along with cherry tomatoes, snow pea pods and an avocado I cut into pieces. I then took a package of imitation lobster claw meat I bought at Aldi, added diced onions, celery pieces, fresh lemon juice, and Olive Oil Miracle Whip.  I mixed it all together and added salt and pepper to taste.  I topped the salad with the lobster salad mixture.

Here is a picture of the salad.

Then for dinner tonight we had sushi that we made with sushi rice, the seaweed wrappers,  crab meat, carrot sticks, and cream cheese.  We bought a sushi kit from Amazon that we tried for the very first time tonight.  We also made a ginger sauce and ginger dressing from scratch.  We fixed a version of Japanese Miso soup, egg rolls, fried rice made with steak and chicken, and zucchini sauteed with onions.  The meal was absolutely delicious.  Normally, we would not make this elaborate of a meal on a weeknight.  All in all, it took us about two hours to fix the meal.

Here are some pictures of our preparations this evening.

 

And here are some more pictures of our preparation and our meal.

 

So what are you cooking at your home?  I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew have to say, click here or on the image below.