sugared pecans and a puppy

Here's what you'll need:

1 pound pecans halves
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla (or 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1/2 water, which is what I do)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Here's how you do it. (For the pictures shown here, please know that I always double the recipe, so 2 pounds of pecans are shown)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Spray large cookie sheet (with a rim) with Pam.

Get two large bowls. In first large bowl, beat egg whites with vanilla until foamy.


In second large bowl, whisk sugar with the cinnamon and salt.



Now put all of your pecans in the bowl with the egg whites. Use your hands to cover pecans throughly with egg whites.



Dump all of that into bowl with the cinnamon sugar. Work quickly and cover coated pecans with sugar by shaking around in bowl vigorously or mixing with a big wooden spoon.


(shaking works best for me)



Spread pecans onto cookie sheet as evenly as possible. Place into preheated oven and bake for one hour, stirring pecans every 15 minutes. Stirring them as they bake is essential because if you don't, they all stick together.



It's easy peasy! They'll come out like this:



Better go ahead and make a double batch because people gobble these up!! You can get a two pound bag of pecan halves at Costco for $9.99, what a deal!



They are best if served a few hours after baking and even better the next day and the days following. Store in airtight containers (large canning jars are great for gift giving)!

Stay tuned for the famous Cracker Candy recipe, with pictures!

Meanwhile, stop looking now if you don't want to be dazzled by the Astro!

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This face is pretty innocent, yes?


Showing the Christmas toy who's boss!


He will kill these toes, but that's what they get for being exposed...HA!


Could I please have a drink, this killing stuff is exhausting!


Not quite ready for bedtime:



Be back soon with the cracker candy recipe (yep, Melissa, it's probably the one you're thinking, with saltine crackers) :)

santa baby

.....please send help!

This is one holiday season that I really have good excuses as to why things aren't getting done.

Excuse #1



And #2


(check out those paws!)

#3




All day it's all about Astro! He's a lot of work and after having three real people babies, I'd venture to say, about as much trouble!
When son and DH come home from work, if Astro is finally asleep in his kennel, I'm all SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, HE'S ASLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For goodness sake, he's finally sleeping!! He wakes up, goes outstide, eats, plays, go out again, eats and drinks some more, plays and then poops out for 30 minutes until we wakes up again and we repeat the cycle. Thankfully, he does sleep through most of the night, so at least we get some sleep.
It's all good...we love the Astro Dazzle.



Guess I should mention excuse # 4, which is a job that provides a paycheck for my time, so there goes the evenings!

Anyway, hopefully this coming week Santa will loan me an elf so that I might get my packages mailed, candies made, baking done, finish decorating, have lunch and shopping days with two different friends and maybe, just possibly, get a stitch or two in, which certainly didn't happen this week.

Nice things came in the mail this week. From the finisher, some of my stitching that she finished into ornaments for me:


Ewe & Eye & Friends Frosty Scissors Companion


Homespun Elegance Rejoice in Peace ornament


Birds of a Feather Bird and Wreath


Ewe & Eye & Friends Red House (? Not sure about that, a friend stitched this for me so I don't recall the name of the design).

Well, I hope you all are having yourself a Merry Little Christmas and enjoying the season. It's OK if everything doesn't get done. Hug a family member or a friend and take a picture of them or something in your house, or of the mass of people in the mall. It's funny what we get caught up in that's just not important or what it's all about.

Eat a cookie. They're good for you, especially a gingerbread cookie...did you know that Pillsbury makes rolls of gingerbread cookie dough? Can't ask for anything easier than that!

Coming up in the next day or so, my recipe for sugared pecans. Go out and buy at least a pound (or two), some eggs...make sure you have cinnamon, sugar and vanilla on hand and I'll tell ya how in the next post!

we are tired

This puppy business is exhausting.


need. more. sleep.



#1 son with Astro


Kiss this face.


Love this pup.


Astro came home Saturday and it's been JUST like having a brand new baby at home. I am utterly exhausted. But what a great doggie, so worth it. And I will share more when I have more time. There are presents to wrap, more shopping to do, more cracker candy and sugared pecans to make, baking, candy making, leaves to rake or sweep up, floors to be cleaned, laundry, oh and a real job, the peeps, pups and bunny rabbits and OHMY....better get crackin!

must. keep. stitching.

The power went out last night. It was kinda nice at first, after the initial shock of it all, because we had about 20 candles going (we do have a thing for the Yankee Candle store and that was proof...DH opens linen closet where candles not in use are stashed and said "What you need here are a few more candles". He's got NO room to talk since he bought half of them himself....ANYway)....grown children emerged from their rooms waving PS handheld and cell phones, iPods too, showing that they too, can contribute to the lighting situation. However. It was not enough light to stitch by! Dang. My good stitching days are limited and yesterday was one of them, does Garland Power & Light not realize how huge my stash is and how much stitching I must accomplish before time runs out??!!! It was horribly cruel. And a wee bit funny to be honest...DH goes into hall bathroom, shuts the door and flips the light switch. DUH....no power! Um, yeah, no popcorn either(microwave), no hot chocolate (stove top), but we did listen to music on my laptop (battery powered) and laugh when, after the power flickered on and off for about the third time, DH joked that the Rapture had happened and we got left behind...funny but then we did check outside to see if the end of the world was at hand!

My recent finish, as seen above, was finished earlier in the week. It's a Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers called Garland Fair. Love what it says, wish it for my family.

you'd better double it, trust me

Corn Dip

1 can Mexi-Corn or Fiesta Corn, drained well
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup mayo (don't use Miracle Whip)
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Mix everything together and chill overnight if possible...if not, at least for a couple of hours.
Serve with Fritos!

we love it like this

It was 80 degrees here yesterday, and we grilled fajitas for dinner. Outside.

Today it was 30 degrees. And with that, some sleet and snow, as observed here:



Everytime we have any snow, we always take pictures, because snow is so rare for us in Texas. The pictures look the same every year, but oh well, it's fun taking them, lol!

Here's what was going on inside...




Some hot chocolate. With chocolate whipped cream, of course.

And on it's way into the oven, some broccoli cornbread:



here is is out of the oven:



Here's the recipe, it's soooo easy...yes, Joann, you can do it!

1 (10 oz) package frozen broccoli cuts, thawed
1 (8.5 oz) package cornbread mix (I use Jiffy)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted (i always use real butter)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
3 large eggs, beaten slightly
1 medium onion, chopped finely

Press thawed broccoli cuts between paper towels to remove excess moisture. Combine with cornbread mix and all other ingredients just until moistened. Mixture will be thick. Pour into greased 8 inch square pan. Bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden. Let cool slightly before cutting into squares.
9 servings


In my stitching world, this just back from the framers:




It's Strawberry Blonde by Carriage House Samplings. I stitched it on the suggested 40 ct. Lakeside linen with NPI silks. Made a mistake along the bottom border, but I don't think anyone will ever know!

This is what I stitched for my ornament exchange partner. She received it Tuesday :)





And now I am stalking my mailman for my exchange package. All that was in my mailbox today was some snow! Brrr!

Oh, almost forgot....
the weekly puppy shot:




OH.....ASTRO!! We are ready for you to come home to us!!!

thankful for

Visitation Rights!!

It's Astro Dazzle!! He's 4 weeks old now and gets to come home with us in just two more weeks!!


here are some of Astro's litter mates:








This one is the runt and we call him Yoda, lol! He's too cute!


Of course we're thankful for family and good health and all that jazz too, but it's not every holiday season that one is blessed with some Puppy Love!

can't help myself

I know, another Pug picture....what can I say?!

Tell me this is not one spoiled pug pup! In his kennel, one of his favorite spots, he got a little chilled (we had ferocious winds today and a low temp. at least by Texas standards), so his mom wrapped him up.




You can probably tell, he really had a hard time coping.



Sorry, but this is the sweetest dog on the face of the earth and one can't help but love him to bits!(this coming from a cat person, mind you!)

OK, well, something stitching related, this was posted once before on my old blog, but with Thanksgiving arriving soon, here it is again:



Thankful Sheep, a kit from Shepherd's Bush. Fun stitch!

little finish

This one has been in my stash forever and I pulled it out early last month to try and finish it up before Halloween. Riiiiight! A bit late, but it'll be all ready for next year anyway....

Scared Silly by Birds of a Feather:



Stitched on 36 ct. Sparrow over 2 with one strand WDW thread. A fun stitch!

This is completely off topic, but oh how I love James Blunt! I watched him on Ellen today and bawled when he sang "Goodbye my Lover"...that song does it to me every time! We've had his album "Back to Bedlam" for some time now and love it.

kiss this

love that



aaaccckkkk!




coming to our house for the holidays:

random things

Everyone around here is sickly. It started with youngest daughter, moved to son and then to oldest daughter and husband. So far I've escaped but feel it lurking...hard to explain but things are a bit fuzzy and sore and just plain ol' yucky. Just praying it doesn't hit me full force until after work on Tuesday because that's a night that I can't miss. Meanwhile, I've made a few runs to the store for medicines, cough drops and kleenex and made some taco soup for dinner and sprayed Lysol on everything but the peoples and fur-babies.



Speaking of furbabies...we're quite possibly getting a new addition on December 5th, a Pug puppy who will be 6 weeks old on that day and ready for adoption. He's got all of his papers and will be quite expensive, at least for us, we've never paid very much for any of our precious pets, at least not at first, in the long run, thousands, of course. Anyway...we've been talking to Scooby and gearing him up for a little brother...so far he's all over the idea.



In October we went to the State Fair of Texas.


It was 94 degrees that day which is the hottest it's ever been when we've gone before. We passed out fairly often but the times in between were A-OK.

A few highlights for you.

Each year they have a "Butter Sculpture". It is OH so exciting, so much so that it actually makes the local news, the process of carving whatever it is they carve out of the huge chunk of butter. Do they do this in other state fairs or it is just a stupid Texas trick? (We have lots of those here, btw, and they usually always make NATIONAL news, just to show the rest of the world how dumb we all are, but I digress).

This years sculpture:





In case you can't make out what it is, it's Marilyn Monroe, naturally. We never could figure out who the guy standing beside her was, guess it was supposed to be her co-star in the movie that the scene is from...can't think of the name of the movie, sorry. Oh, Some Like It Hot? Yeah, that's probably it.

This picture made me smile:

That kitty and his owner deserved that blue ribbon for that pose, don't you think?

Two more that I loved:


sigh...I miss my kitty....

Well, no recent stitching pictures to share...got a new camera and haven't figured it out quite yet. So here's one of something I stitched several years ago.

It's a design by Twisted Threads and the whole bottom part is done over one, as is the lettering, and the acorn top is done in satin stitches. It's my husbands favorite fall thing that I bring out each year.

I'll be back soon with more pictures of recent finishing.

Happy Fall Y'all!