air conditioning!

today's blessing is air-conditioning! I think ours has run non-stop for the past 48 hours! it's been 75 degrees at 5:30 am the past few mornings! I was actually glad to stay inside our nice cool house today!

every time I did go outdoors today there were lots of thunderhead type clouds so I pray there isn't any lightning that starts a fire.

it's now 7:48 pm and it's still 85 degrees outside...

so remember to count your blessings everyday!
Hugs!
Patty

6:20 am Santee, California

Hugs!
Patty

Coffee!

This day started out with me sitting here at my desk on the computer while I was drinking my coffee - just like most mornings- but today wasn't most mornings - I bumped my coffee cup and spilled 1/2 a cup of nice hot coffee right into my keyboard -- ughhhhhhh! So I cleaned up the mess, made another cup of coffee & continued with what ever I was doing on the computer.
But tonight when I got home the keyboard will not work! So here I sit using Doug's laptop - on battery power because I'm too lazy to figure out where to plug it in! & I keep hitting a wrong key and deleting stuff I just typed! But it's all good! not one drop of coffee spilled on the carpet we just cleaned a couple days ago!
So among my blessings to be counted tonight? 
Doug's laptop!
No coffee spilled on the clean carpet!
& tomorrow I get a new keyboard!
Be sure you count your blessings everyday! & don't get the enter and shift keys mixed up when you type on a laptop!
Hugs!
Patty

Iceberg Lettuce & Grandma!

Sometimes the simplest things can evoke a memory from long ago and make me laugh! Tonight I was cleaning a fresh head of iceberg lettuce & the outer leaf was quite wilted, but it looked so nice I didn't want to toss it. Then I remembered a long time ago I offered to help my grandmother make the tossed salad for dinner. We didn't get to visit her often so it was always a treat to work in the kitchen with her when I was a young teen. Well when I proudly told Grandma that I knew how to make salad and asked if I could she asked me "are you going to waste as much lettuce as your mother does?" Fortunately for me I knew I better not sugarcoat this so I just said "probably". Well of course that was the wrong answer! So I watched Grandma make the salad that night!

In addition to "making salad" - aka not wasting lettuce! LOL! these are the other things I learned from Grandma in the kitchen:

• how to make pie crust - I always get compliments on how flaky my crust is!
• how to make gravy - no lumps allowed! & there won't be any if you do like Grandma showed me!
• how to make enchiladas - be sure you don't skimp on the cheese & make sure it's sharp cheddar!

I also got my love for cloth tablecloths and napkins from my grandmother & use them everyday!

So even though Grandma has been up in heaven for many years now, her teachings still live on!

Hugs!
Patty

full moon rising!

My camera wouldn't take a picture, but tonight Annie & me had dinner on the patio again, chicken, our favorite! Then I read a book in my Kindle in the dark! Actually hadn't done that before - so cool to read without a light! Then, as we were getting ready to come inside we saw the full moon rising!
Hope you are having a pleasant evening too!
Hugs!
Patty

Easy Buffalo Chicken!

I love Buffalo Chicken Wings - but I hate frying because of the mess, expense & calories.
So a few summers ago I started grilling my wings & love the results.
Lately chicken wings seem a little pricy in the stores where I live so I decided to try something new today.
I took split chicken breasts and removed the nice big meaty portion, took off the skin and cut them in strips. Then I prepared them the same way I do my grilled wings by placing them in a glass dish & sprinkling them with Lawry's Season Salt, black pepper & paprika. Then I sprinkled them with Frank's Red Hot Sauce. I didn't have time tonight to let them sit like I usually do with the wings so I was also a little concerned they might get too dry on the grill. To prevent that I took 1/4 cup of butter & a quarter cup of Franks and heated them together to make a sauce for basting while they cooked. They turned out amazing! We ate them with celery & blue cheese dressing just like Buffalo Chicken Wings in Buffalo New York! And since we could eat them with a knife & fork there was no mess!
Tomorrow for lunch I plan on trying them cold with the blue cheese to see how I like that!
I hope they are as good cold as hot!
Hugs!
Patty

good intentions!

Last night I sat down to post a card for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #15 on my papercrafts blog and had intended to post about my day on this blog too, but somehow I ended up on Pinterest! Who knows how much time I spent there! But I finally decided I'd been there long enough & it was time to turn off the computer.
So now it is today & I am just now creating yesterday's post! Life Happens I guess! But it's all good! So here goes my catch up for yesterday!

Taco Salad to Go! (that was supposed to be the title of this post! LOL!)
Yesterday was our monthly scrapbook crop/workshop @ my friend Dawn's place.I usually try to bring something healthy to share but sometimes you have to bring a fun food!
My taco salad is constructed by layering chopped lettuce, Frito's corn chips chili beans & grated cheese - yes, I know you could add more stuff but I like to keep it simple, remember! 
Transporting the pot of chili can be a little tricky because you don't want it to spill. So a I use a cardboard box as a container. I get the medium paper plates that have a deep bottom & put them in a plastic bag with napkins & forks for serving. In the box the bag of plates serves as my barrier between hot & cold. The bag of salad and grated cheese get packed next to the plates & the Frito's bag goes on top & you're set to go!
Hugs!
Patty

cookies? - No! these are paper!

the day is not yet over but I've decided to catch up with the post I wanted to do yesterday & already decided this is going to be my post for today!
It may look like I was baking but these are paper! I borrowed the Artbooking Cricut cartridge from my friend Candace today to cut these trees & then I applied some glitter glue to them & they needed to dry, so here they sit on the kitchen table!
So why you wonder have I already decided to make this my post today? Well this is one of those one thing leads to another!
I promised Candace I'd bring back her cartridge this afternoon before her workshop was over. I got to meet her clients and see their projects then found out that Candace had already showed them some of my projects I shared with her last week! & they had loved them! The few minutes I spent there were so much fun!
Now if you want to see how this project turns out check back on my papercrafts blog in a few days when I post the finished project!
Hugs!
Patty