TO DIE FOR MAC AND CHEESE

 

MAC AND CHEESE

This has to be the best mac and cheese recipe I have ever put on my lips, which now are on my hips. My daughter who is in the Navy, found and cooked this recipe for a group of sailors on Thanksgiving day. She said it was a huge hit, and so I too wanted her to make it for us while she was home for Christmas. It's true, it is a big hit! Plus it is soooo easy to make!

 

Cook a box of Rigatoni noodles. Follow the instructions. Be sure and don't over cook them so they won't get mushy. Drain and keep aside for a few minutes.

 

1 stick butter

2 cups milk

add about 1/3 cup flour

Melt the butter in the same pan that you just emptied out all the pasta from. Add the 2 cups of milk, then whisk in the flour making sure you have no clumps in it. Heat on medium until it slightly thickens. Now throw back in your well drained pasta, then start adding your cheeses.

1 cup mild Cheddar

1 cup Sharp Cheddar

2 cups Mozzarella

1 cup shredded Gouda Cheese

Stir these all together, make sure the cheese is well stirred throughout the pasta. Place into a buttered pan.

Layer the top with bread crumbs. I used Panko bread crumbs. Then I sprayed the top with the "I can't believe it's not butter" spray. This is to help it brown up better.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

 

 

Hope you enjoy this as much as we have.

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Food Gift

 I love making and giving food and gifts to those who I love, and want to show my appreciation for. As I have been lucky enough to spend time volunteering in a first grade class I wanted to do something special for my little ones.

  I bought these little Chinese takeout boxes then stamped and embossed them . I then placed a little felt red nose reindeer on the back, added red tissue paper inside, then filled them with M&M's, Kisses, and Christmas pretzel's.

To finish it off, I added curly ribbon to the handles and when all was counted, I had twenty-six boxes total.






 

 

 While  making these boxes for the 25 students  and one for the teacher, I realized that this was the number of people killed Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary in CT. These are 1st graders I work with, same grade as the ones killed in CT. My heart and mind struggled with thoughts of those little lives at Sandy Hook, and I kept thinking that it could have been here in this class room, this teacher. I thought about  how those teachers took such heroic care of those students. As I filled each box with treats, I couldn't quit thinking of those 1st graders in CT,  and the ones I love volunteering to help every week.

The kids in the class I volunteer in always say "You're the best Mrs. Skousen", they want to tell me about their pets at home, about their brothers, sisters, and parents. They make me smile, they make me giggle, and I always leave that class every week feeling better than when I walked in. So as I give these little boxes of treats to my little class of 1st graders, I hope they will know it has also been filled with lots of love just for them.




 

ARE YOUR TEENAGERS BORED THIS SUMMER?

   When our kids were young I would plan many summer activities with them. (Mostly things that were free) Yesterday,  when our little petty officer called home, we sat around talking on the speaker phone with her, and were talking about all the fun things we used to do during the summer months. One of their favorite things to do was the library reading program, where they would get little prizes for reading so many books. (Sticky hands were their favorite) I was always sorry when school had to start again, because we would always have so much fun.  

   As the kids got into the teen it actually got harder to find things to keep them entertained during the summer. Each kid had such opposite interest, and those interests always cost money.

   This summer we have taken our trailer and traveled around the Pacific Northwest area discovering a slew of new and interesting places; but we still we have moments where the kids get bored when we are here at the house. The best part about having teenagers is that they are "usually" able to entertain themselves. Our youngest child who is very artistic found a site on the Internet that showed different ways of using makeup.
   She found a picture where they had used toilet paper and glue to deform faces, "naturally" this was a light bulb moment for her and off she went to create her own Zombie look.
   I love being a mommy, my kids now keep ME entertained during the summer.  Funny how life turn out!


All this was done with toilet paper,glue, and her makeup kit.


  

TAKE AN EXIT! ANY EXIT AND SEE WHAT YOU FIND!





The trail that leads down to the spit.

   Spit?  Where? What?  I'm embarrassed to say I had never heard of a spit before. Go figure there would be one in the State where we now live. Coming from the Southwest, "spit" is something that comes out of your mouth! Who knew it was a growing piece of sand.

While traveling to Sequim, WA to attend the Lavender Fair, we noticed a exit sign that said Dungeness  Spit. SURPRISE! We would never have guessed this 631-acre refuge was that close to the freeway. When you're just driving along,  you never know what is only a few miles off the road.

This is the longest natural sand spit in the United States, it is 5.5 miles long, extending into the Strait of Juan De Fuca, growing about 15 ft. a year for the last 120 years. Out on the tip is a light house. It's been said that they have seen 200 or more species of birds encompassing this area.

Adjacent to this refuge is another 216 acres of shoreline that you can hike. Only thing is we wished we had found the spit earlier in the day, because we were only able to hike out on it a few miles due to  the tide that was coming in, and it was getting harder and harder to get around some areas on the spit. It's a good 10 mile round trip hike.

So now I know...and you know....and you know, that I know what a spit is. HAH

ROSWELL, STONEHENGE, NOW ROW 19

Since the late 1970s Roswell, New Mexico has been the subject of intense controversy and of theories as to the true nature of the object that crashed there. The incident has turned into a widely known phenomenon, making the name Roswell synonymous with UFOs.

Stonehenge is a unique monument, an icon, an inspiration and part of an important prehistoric landscape. It is a source for finding out more about prehistory and in the development of archaeology.

Now we have ROW 19. When owners Rick and Susan Olson bought this five acre Creekside Lavender Farm it had two acres of lavender consisting of 20 varieties. Each row is numbered and labeled with a name of its kind. One row had no name to identify it, only the number 19 was there. So began the mystery of this row of lavender. Rick had local experts come and try to identify it, but to no avail. So after 5 yrs. it is still ‘Row 19’. The funny thing about this is that Rick said it has become a favorite. Oils and other products sold using it are labeled and sold as Row 19.

When entering the gift shop we meet their two daughters. One of the things you can do there is create your own scent for a spritzer. My daughter loved this.

Rick is an engineer and when he found that my son is a physics major at college he invited him to come see his distillery equipment and then explained the process to him.

This little guy has been placed in the front of Row 19. You will just have to go there and ask them "why?".

If you would like to know more about this wonderful lavender farm or order some of their Row 19 , you can go to LAVENDERCONNECTION.COM

WHY TRAVEL TO PARIS? WHEN YOU CAN WALK THE LAVENDER FIELDS OF SEQUIM, WA?



This is one of my favorite photos I took on our trip.



 Ooh La La. Wineries, berry fields and rows of Lavender. It looks and feels like Paris. Well the pictures of Paris anyway. But here in the Pacific Northwest we have Sequim. We loaded up our trailer and off we went to the Sequim Lavender Festival.

This was our first time attending, and were told by a good friend ‘Mike’ that this place was the driest area in Western Washington, which I thought was interesting because we actually stayed at the KOA in Port Angeles eight miles west of Sequim. Everyone who is a Twilight fan knows Port Angeles is where Bella and Edward had their first date. As luck would have it, the weather did not live up to the theory that Sequim has a blue hole in the sky over it. We woke up our first morning to rain. Not wanting to let the rain stop us from exploring the area we took on our adventure. There were about 14 farms open to the public for tours. We just happened upon the greatest farm which not only had lavender, it also had acres of every berry your mouth would want. My kids loved that we got to pick our own.

 

Each of the farms had some kind of activities from u-pick fruit to lavender, music, crafts, and some of the farms had demonstrations on cooking with lavender. And last but not least was their own gift shops with everything and anything to do with lavender.

Here is a recipe that was in the offical program guide for the event.

LAVENDER ICE CREAM

4 cups whole milk                              8 white fresh lavender top

1 cup sugar                                          Fresh raspberries

1 cup honey                                         Fresh lavender buds

In a medium saucepan cook milk over medium heat to almost boiling. Remove from heat; stir in cup sugar, honey and lavender tops (each about 5 inches long, or 2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender). Cover and steep until mixure has cooled to room temperature (45-60 minutes). Strain milk mixture; discard lavender. Freeze mixture according to ice cream maker manufacturer's directions. Serve with fresh raspberries ( or fruit of choice) and sprinkle with lavender buds.

Recipe provided by Mrian Platt

AN EASY PEEZEY FAVORITE CAMPING MEAL



WALKING CHILI BAG

  You know when you have packed up the camping gear? Or in our case stocked up the RV trailer, traveled all day, set up the campsite, and then you have to make dinner for all the hungry mouth's?

Well, here is the easiest fastest way to feed them. And the best part is there is hardly any cleanup.


Can of chili beans
Bag of Fritos (Individual bags)
Sour Cream
Bag of shredded cheese

Bag of shredded lettuce
Chopped up tomatoes, onions

Hot sauce

 Each person opens up a bag of Fritos, add some warmed up chili beans, cheese and any other thing they want to choose for  toppings. Give them a plastic fork, and WALLA! Dinner is served. When finished, NO DISHES!!

MIXED BERRY SHORT-CAKES

Used the Bisquick recipe for short-cakes. I only made enough bottoms for the amount of people. Then with the remaining dough I rolled it out about an 1/8" thick. Then used my miniature star cookie cutter and cut out little stars, brushed canned milk over the top and added the blue decorative sugar  to them. I baked them at 325 for about 10 min.

1- bag of the frozen mix berries, add  sugar over the frozen fruit, shake and place in refrigerator.

Add cool whip topping, and you have a nice cool desert.

My family loves this meal. I love it too,  not only because it does taste good, but it is so easy.