Moving Out Of Town

Guest post by Gerard Mcdaniel

A few years ago my husband and I decided to move out to a rural area. We were both raised in that fashion, and wanted our three children to have a simpler life. We also missed having a large property to roam. We wanted to get back into riding horses and growing some of our own food. We felt like our children were being swallowed up by big city.

We spent all of our free time shuttling them between school and extracurricular activities, and they knew absolutely nothing about the outdoors. They actually thought food came from a supermarket, and they had no idea about the process involved. We knew moving would be a major change for our family, but we also knew it was the right move.

 When we spoke to the kids about it, we told them we would try to keep most of the modern luxuries we had to get them on board. We had to get our internet service from get.wildblue.com, so that would be a little different. The only thing that would change is that they would have more free time, and be able to spend most of it in the great outdoors.

Cubed Venison

Last night I wanted to make an All American kind of dinner, so we had cubed venison, creamed corn and mashed potatoes.

2 pounds of cubed venison  brown them in skillet, using vegetable spray, then  put them in a casserole dish.
1 can of mushroom soup-  mix in 3/4 can of water and heat in the same skillet so that you are using the drippings from your venison...pour over the meat in the casserole dish.  Cover and put in a 300 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

Then make any side dishes you and your family enjoys.

Have a blessed day!

Potato Candy

Over the holidays I made some of our favorite traditional treats.  It just wouldn't be Christmas without potato candy!  We all really enjoyed it.  When we were down to the last few pieces my granddaughter who is 8 ask me, "MawMaw, does it have to be Christmas to make potato candy?".  I laughed and told her no, but because it has so much sugar in it let's wait a week or two before we make more.

Her birthday is coming up and I think I will make a small batch and put it in a tub just for her!  That would probably be just as great as anything I could go out and buy.

Have a blessed day!

FYI: Potato Candy Recipe was posted in November 2010

Diets

Diets are on again and off again.  Which ones work, which ones don't!  One of the most popular New Year's resolutions is to lose weight and get more healthy.  I have come to the conclusion that a diet is only what you make of it.

What works for one person may not work for another.  The way I lost weight last year was to avoid things that were white, like bread, potatoes, and rice.  I try to include more fruits and veggies and I have a cheat day so that I don't fill like I am punishing myself.  The next step is to try to work in some kind of exercise program.  Last year I was able to walk about a mile and a half a day.  I am not sure how much walking I will be able to do this year because I have been having a problem with my foot.  I may have to find some other form of exercise.  My son has a real nice weight machine, I may try to work out on it two or three times a week.  I have read that women my age should weight train regularly to help build bone density to avoid osteoporosis.

I wish you luck if you are trying to lose weight and get in better health.  Let's make 2012 a healthier year for all of us. 

Good Morning America

I appreciate the guest post, Marian Combs

Good Morning America is my favorite thing to watch in the morning when I am getting ready and drinking my coffee. I will get up and turn on the television and turn it to ABC to get the news from background noise in my apartment. Once I start hearing that the commercials have gone off and Robin Roberts comes back on I will sit down to eat breakfast and drink my morning coffee.

My favorite anchor on there is Robin Roberts with Josh a close second. Now they have a new weekend weather person who is called Ginger Zee. She used to be on a local channel and is now on a national show. Also she is dating a guy on another show I watch called Storm Chasers. That is right Reid Timmer is her boyfriend and they chase storms together. Kind of makes you want to be friends with her right? I mean, it makes me want to be friends with her for sure!

I digress, back to Good Morning America, go check out http://www.expertsatellite.com/direct-tv-packages.html to see if you are getting the best deal on your cable and then go watch GMA every morning. You will love it!

Wild and Crazy

My work schedule through the holidays has been absolutely crazy!!  I haven't had much time to do anything but eat and sleep.  Now that we are moving into a New Year I pray that not only can I make my own life better, but that everyone I know or who reads my blogs will have the best year ever.

Making the best of my leftover Halloween candy

Guest post written by Lesley Horton

I really love Halloween and it always makes me so sad when it's finally over in November. But i always make a point to buy a whole bunch of candy when I buy my Halloween candy so that I'll have lots and lots of it left over to cook and bake with afterward. I know that you can buy candy most of the time during the year but it's just so much cooler to buy special edition Halloween candy.

I really love going online with my wireless internet Corpus Christi to find all kinds of new recipes for me to fix. A lot of the time I even get my kids in on the fun because they love to get their hands dirty in the kitchen for some delicious results.

But my favorite kind of leftover Halloween candy recipe is to just toss about any kind of candy into a simple cookie recipe. There really is nothing to my recipe that I use all the time for it. But there's just something so simple and delicious about these cookies!