Liver & Onions...

Do you like beef liver? I love it and chicken livers too with some ketchup and hot sauce! I havent cooked liver in years and I'm talkin years I think our 16 year old daughter was 6, 7 or 8 years old... I'm thinkin more to the age of 6 cause if shes was older she wouldnt have ate it... I remember Brian and I tellin the kids it was steak and they gobbled that streak right up and asked for seconds, lol. Not now... Kaylin, Blake and Dylan DO NOT LIKE IT, Cody likes it ( he likes just about anything and everything), Brian says its ok every once in awhile and I LOVE it! Our neighbor brought me this liver, they had their cow processed the other day.

Heres the recipes I followed How To Cook Beef Liver and White Gravy

* I should have only cooked 1 pack... I'm gonna be eatin liver for days :)

Visitin An Old Friend... Shoot me 37 / 52

This weeks shoot me was taken last Wed. while I was visitin an old friend. We were in some middle and high school together... then as usually lost touch after graduation. We got back in contact on myspace, then we turned into facebook junkies... we talk and share just about everyday on fb. Last Wed. was the 1st time I've seen her in years, I'm so glad I went up to visit (and I picked up a surprise while I was there). I'm so glad we are friends, just wish we lived closer (shes about 1-1 1/2 hours away). We have so much in common... we're both nice and sweet *big grin*, love our families with all our hearts, love to cook and bake, love farm animals (they have alot too, lol) and we both are crocheters... I was teaching her how to do a douple crochet regular granny square, cant wait for us to hang out again! Thank you Roy (name changed) for being my friend :)

While I was visitin my friend I pick up my new baby from them...
Meet Porkchop

***Shoot Me! It's time to stop hiding behind that camera of yours. Your family is missing you in the picture. So it's time to post a picture of YOU (yes, you) every Thursday with your child, your spouse, your friend, your dog, or even by yourself. Just get in the picture, you'll be glad you did! And just jump in now with 1 of 52, you can do it!

Pizza Calzones

These are really good (we ate them for dinner last night). You can make them anyway you like... last night we were gettin down to the nitty gritty with dinners, I needed to go to the grocery store (did that today) anyways I only had pepperonis to put in them (surprised we had them with 4 teenagers in the house, lol).

I used this Quick Pizza Crust but you can use whatever recipe you like or frozen dough (thawed)

* I doubled this recipe to make 6 large calzones and 8 mini bread sticks or you could make 8 calzones.

Ingredients For Dough...
1 package of yeast
1 C warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 T oil
2 1/2 C flour
2 T cornmeal (optional for sprinkling on cookie sheet)

Ingredients For Filling... (remember I doubled this for my family)
4oz. cream cheese, softened
4 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 c green onions
pizza sauce ( I made my own)
pepperonis (or whatever you want)
oil or butter
seasonings... garlic, thyme

Dissolve yeast in warm water and add sugar. Let yeast sit about 10 minutes (you want it good and foamy). Stir in remaining ingredients until blended. Beat vigorously 20 strokes. Allow dough to rest 5 minutes in a bowl with saran wrap or a towel over it.

Preheat oven to 425.

While the dough is restin. Combine cream cheese and mozzarella in a med. bowl. Stir with a fork until mixed. Add green onions, garlic and thyme; stir.

Roll out dough into 6-8 6 inch circles. Divide cream cheese mixture among circles, spread mixture, put pizza sauce on top of mixture, then add pepperoni (or whatever filling you want) fold over and seal edges. Brush with oil or melted butter, bake 15-20 mins.

***Directions if just makin a pizza... spread dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal (optional). Top with desired toppings and bake for 20 minutes . This makes 1 (14 inch) pizza.

Fresh Pumpkin Bread

Its a nice cool fall day here today, so it was nice being in the kitchen bakin... I thawed out 6 cups of fresh pumpkin we did last year... I used 4 cups for some pumpkin bread. Heres the recipe I went by Pumpkin Bread I made 3 plain ones and 1 chocolate chip. If ya wanna make your own pumpkin for recipes go here... How To Cook A Pumpkin.

Quick & Easy Egg Casserole

Been makin this casserole alot lately either for breakfast or dinner. Its something you can whip up real fast to feed the family. So good loaded up with veggies too.

Heres the recipe... Quick & Easy Egg Casserole

Walk Away The Pounds...

Just wanted to share how I can keep my womanly curves and still get to eat all the foods that I eat. If you take a look around my blog or my fb albums you will see I LOVE to bake and cook and I love to eat it all too, lol

I've had alot of people ask me how do I eat all the things I eat and not gain. Now I dont think I'm skinny or anything, I think I'm normal for my age and height and I'm healthy. I'm also happy with my size. There is no food I say is off limits, I eat what I want and I can because I workout... if I dont workout yeah I gain. This is the workout dvd I use, I love it! My neighbor let me borrow one of hers hummm last spring I think... I really cant remember but anyways I knew it was something for me, something I could do to get back into shape. This month I challenged myself to workout 4/5 days a week, atleast 20 mins., usually I workout 30 - 60 mins a workout. I've been doing good... the past 2 weeks I've workout out 4 days, this week I've only worked out 3 days, been busy with life. I also have a pretty active lifestyle with my chores... and then we also love to go hiking when we can. I drink lots of water... soft drinks are like a treat. We really dont buy them that much. Another thing that works for me is I dont eat past 7:00 (most nights), I think this month I've only ate after 7:00 2 or 3 times so far. Usually I dont eat after dinner and we eat dinner around 4:00 slow time. Sometimes I chew gum instead of snackin and it helps that I keep my hands busy by crocheting, have you ever tried to eat and crochet at the same time, its kind of hard, lol I also dont buy alot of junk, cause if its here I will eat it. I make my own junk, lol. Homemade is way better and healthier for ya too. I recommend this dvd to EVERYONE! It works if you use it.

Brian and I working out together last year.

PS... Here a blog post I wrote on 12-14-09 on my sparkpeople page.
I've been doing some thinking lately about myself and have come to realize I'm never going to have that 17 year old body again... 115 is not realistic, lol. Actually I think I would look funny, too skinny. I love my womanly curves........ I've been maintaining around 150 FOREVER now and that is realistic! So if 150's my number then I'm ok with that. I'm going to keep working out/ toning up and if I lose anymore weigh great but if I just maintain thats great too.

Right now I'm 157... working my way back to 150. Alright time to go do my WATP's :)

Family Skate Night... Shoot me 35/52

This weeks Shoot Me is about last Friday when we went roller skating... its been a few years since we've been, we use go the the school once a month skate nights when the teenagers were little. At first the teenagers didnt want to go and a few moaned and groaned again, lol but after we got there we all had a great time! I also got to hang out with some high school friends.

The Family

Takin a break

He fell right on his booty!

The Group Shot

Headin Home Sweet Home

***Shoot Me! It's time to stop hiding behind that camera of yours. Your family is missing you in the picture. So it's time to post a picture of YOU (yes, you) every Thursday with your child, your spouse, your friend, your dog, or even by yourself. Just get in the picture, you'll be glad you did! And just jump in now with 1 of 52, you can do it!

Roasted Chicken Dinner

Dinner tonight was made with 2 of our farm fresh chickens. I've had 4 of them soakin in salt water in the fridge since last Saturday.

I just clean my chicken, season it real good with whatever I have on hand (tonight it was salt, pepper, garlic powder and Italian seasoning), cut and squeeze 1 or 2 lemons on them (then stuff it in the cavity), cut up my veggies throw in pan, season them... add about a cup of chicken broth or water, cover with foil and baked at 350 for about 4 hours (this was for 2 chickens). When they were done I just let cool for a min. shredded the meat up and add it back to my veggies. It was really good (save the chicken carcass to make hm chicken stock, blog later this week).

We also had green beans, leftover ramen noodle salad and hm dinner rolls. I also had some leftover cookie dough in the freezer that I thawed out in the fridge today to bake after dinner... Oatmeal Choc. Cherry Cranberry

4 Boys & 1 Girl... Babyghans.

Been working on these babyghans lately...
They are all just granny square style.

This one is my favorite Photo.

These last 2 are for girl/boy twins.

* Now I gotta go find me something else to create :)

Down at the fire pit... Shoot me 35/52

This weeks shoot me pics. were taken last Friday when we had a dinner and hung out at the fire pit. I thought it would be nice to have a easy night... grill hot dogs on the pit, whip up some coleslaw, grab some chips and the s'more kit. We had a nice time... the dogs, cats, chickens and ducks didnt bother us too much, lol. I love my family so much and love when we can hang out without all the normal fighting, yelling, someone gettin mad over something little...

"Young Love Is So Sweet"

S'More Time...

***Shoot Me! It's time to stop hiding behind that camera of yours. Your family is missing you in the picture. So it's time to post a picture of YOU (yes, you) every Thursday with your child, your spouse, your friend, your dog, or even by yourself. Just get in the picture, you'll be glad you did! And just jump in now with 1 of 52, you can do it!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Best part of makin cookies while The Teenagers are at school...

is I get to lick the mixer thingies, lol

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup packed brown sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup canned pumpkin, 3 cups flour (I used half whole wheat and half AP flour), 2 tsps baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground cloves (I used pumpkin pie spice), 2 cups chocolate chips ( I used 1 cups chopped up)
Non stick cooking spray or parchment paper

Heat oven 350, spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line with parchment paper.

Beat butter until smooth, add white and brown sugar beat until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Then add vanilla and pumpkin. In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice or cloves. Slowly add the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in chips. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let cookies rest for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks.

* I made small cookies (I scooped a heaping tsp. full of the dough for each cookie) and baked them 12-14 mins.

** I mix up a block of soften cream cheese and powdered sugar for the icing.