Lost Otey!

Otey is missing from the Goodview, Virginia area. If you have seen Otey or have any information about his whereabouts, please contact  Marsha Bittinger (540) 420-3253 and Chuck Bittinger (540) 352-7755. More info can be found here...
https://www.lostmydoggie.com/details.cfm?petid=152127
Please pin to any lost and found pet, Pinterest boards you may have or consider creating one!!!!!

My visit to our local candy store with my daughter Alisha and granddaughter Savannah. Their new downtown location, is in the lobby of Center in the Square, beside the Roanoke Weiner Stand. Find their website here...The Candy Store. The Weiner Stands Facebook page can be found here...Roanoke Weiner Stand. Stop by the Roanoke Weiner Stand for lunch and then visit the candy store next door!

An endless variety of candy, truffles, novelty items like bacon toothpaste and body wash (shown below) soft drinks and more! A great place to visit with family and friends!

Bacon bodywash

Bacon toothpaste

Rows and rows of colorful candy, with a candy description label on each jar!

For our drinks, I chose a Big Red, it tasted like a cream soda, Alisha's choice was a prickly pear, she said it was a combination of pear and watermelon, and Savannah's pick was a Dog Drool drink! She said it had a orange and lemon flavor.

My granddaughter Savannah really enjoying her first Dog Drool drink! She is brave like her mom, and will try things, I wouldn't try :)

They have more drink flavors to choose from like Sweet Corn, Ranch Dressing and Pumpkin Pie. 

 My fisrt visit to the Homeplace Restaurant

My daughter Alisha and granddaughter Savannah took me to the Homeplace restaurant for a belated birthday dinner. This was my first visit to the restaurant and I enjoyed it very much! I like the old 1907 farmhouse, the decor and country landscape. We even spotted a black bear for a brief moment just as we where arriving at the restaurant! It's not every day we see a bear, so that was exciting for all of us! The Homeplace's Facebook page can be found here...The Homeplace

The restaurant is located 4968 Catawba Valley, Dr. in Catawba, Va. 

I look forward to another visit soon!

 Above is the menu for the Homeplace restaurant with their hours, menu, prices and a picture of the restaurant, along with a little history.

They serve your meat and side dish selections, which included fried chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and biscuits, with apple butter, in individual bowls, at your table, just as you would if your were enjoying a meal at home with your family. And don't forget the sweet tea.

We enjoyed blackberry cobbler a la mode, for dessert.

My meal, delicious home cooked food, enjoyed with my family, while creating wonderful new memories. Thank you Alisha and Savannah for a delicious dinner! I enjoyed every minute of our time together!

  

 Blackberry Pecan Streusel Muffins with Peach Glaze

Its that time of year again! Fair time, family time, fun and excitement! This is my blue ribbon winning entry in the King Arthur Flour "Berry Good" contest at our local fair. A very special, "Thank you!" to Teresa of Can't Stay Out of the Kitchen, blog, for generously giving me her permission to use her wonderful recipe for my entry in this years fair! Her recipe can be found here...Blackberry Pecan Streusel Muffins. The only change I made to her recipe was to add a peach glaze in place of her vanilla glaze!

Congratulations to my sister look-alike for her second place winning King Arthur flour, "Berry Good" entry, Mini Berry Lemon Tarts, baked in canning jar lids and her first place winning entry in the Red Star Yeast, "I'm Stuffed" contest, chicken salad stuffed bundles! Congratulation's also to my daughter Alisha for her second place entry in the, Red Star Yeast, "I'm Stuffed" contest, for her peanut butter and jelly sweet rolls! And last but not least, congratulations to my daughter Ashley! For her first place winning entry, banana butter pecan cupcakes with maple buttercream, in the Wilton's, "Creepy Crawlies" cupcake contest,  Here is a link to all special contest winners with photos of each winning recipe...2016 Salem Fair Special Contest Winners 

Congratulations to each and every ribbon winner! See ya next year at the fair!

Dana's blackberry pecan streusel muffins

Denise's mini berry lemon tarts

Denise's chicken salad bundles

My daughter Alisha's peanut butter and jelly sweet rolls

My daughter Ashley's cupcakes

This is a delicious lasagna recipe my daughter Ashley shared with me. Thank you Ashley!  I doubled most of the sauce ingredients except the ground beef and water, I used 3-lbs. I also combined 10-oz. ricotta cheese with 10-oz. cottage cheese. I love this combination of cheeses, combined with the tomato sauce, it's delicious! I always add extra mozzarella cheese. It completely fills a 9 X 13-inch baking dish. With extra lasagna noodles and sauce left over. My changes to this recipe are shown in the parenthesis below. A perfect family meal with garlic toast and a salad! Enjoy!

Classic lasagna with garlic toast

Classic Lasagna

2-lbs ground beef (I used 3-lbs.)

1 medium onion

3 gloves garlic (I used 2 tablespoons or 6 teaspoons garlic power)

1 tablespoon olive oil (I omitted)

2-(15-oz.) cans tomato sauce (I doubled-4 cans)

1 (15-oz.) can water (1-1/4 cans water)

1 (12-oz.) can tomato paste (I doubled-2 cans)

1 teaspoon oregano (I doubled-2 teaspoons)

1 teaspoon basil (I doubled-2 teaspoons)

8 to 12 -oz. mozzarella cheese, grated (I used 16oz.)

16 oz. cottage, small curd or ricotta cheese (I used 10 oz. each of cottage and ricotta, mixed together)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan (I used about 3/4 cup)

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1(16oz.) box lasagna noodles

For complete instructions to this recipe please visit http://www.greatgrubdelicioustreats.com/classic-lasagna/ 

Facebook Giveaway Winner!

I entered a great giveaway on Facebook by Sweet Hope Cookies, for the FunBites cutter shown above! And I won!!! She generously threw in a customisable cookie stamp also! What a wonderful surprise! Anita of Sweet Hope Cookies raises money for the ALS Association, by selling her beautifully decorated cookies, for help in advancing medical research to find a cure for this disease. You can support her in this great cause by becoming a Sweet Hope Cookie eater today! She has variety of cookie flavors to choose from vanilla bean-almond, chocolately cocoa, chocolate chip, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate java, lemon or orange delights, toasted coconut dreams and a few seasonal favorites. Her cookies are made with lots of love!

Chef Salads With Fruit

Chef salads with fruit, that I made for dinner, at my family's request. I like chef salads because they are easily made to suit everyone's taste. No recipe required, just include your favorites! I made these using chopped lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, shredded carrots, diced apples, strawberries, hard boiled eggs, cubed ham and turkey. I took the photo before adding the dressing and other toppings such as bacon, shredded cheese, chow mein noodles, and I like adding raisins to my salad.

Except for the tomatoes, we like serving our tomatoes at room temperature, for best flavor. I like that all other ingredients can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to assemble the salads and serve.

My First Cookie Cutter
I am especially proud of this cookie cutter! The cookie cutter shown above, is my first cookie cutter that was made by Tracy of Whisked Away Cutters, using my bunny design! 

I see more cookie cutters in my future, I have more designs set aside, just for that purpose. 

I used Katrina's sugar cookie recipe, a special thanks to my sister, Denise, for sharing this recipe with me, she tried the recipe first. I decorated my bunny cookie, using Sugarbelle's royal icing recipe and I use CK brand squeeze gel food color to hand paint the bow, ears, nose, flower and a few details.

Now, to my sister Denise, and anyone else who loves decorating cookies, hurry over to Whisked Away Cutters and order your very own bunny cookie cutter! There is always a fun new cutter to add to your collection! 

May your daydreams, be filled with beautifully decorated cookies!

My Newest Decorated Cookie

I decorated my first cookie for a cookie decorating challenge on Cookie Connection May, 2014. If you are interested in learning about cookie decorating, Cookie Connection is a wonderful place to visit, become a member at no cost, and enjoy amazing cookie art from all over the world. I enjoy my time there, very much, and visit frequently. 
I visit every cookie decorating blog/site that I know of. 
One of the first sites I found about cookie decorating, was The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle I loved her blog from the first visit and enjoy visiting her blog as often as I can. Her royal icing recipe is the only recipe I've tried so far. She has amazing talent and her blog is filled with wonderful, creative tutorials. 
I try to learn as many decorating techniques that I can. One of my favorite cookie decorating past times, is cookie decorating video tutorials and admiring the work of other decorator's.

I have much to learn and understand that the most important thing, is not to give up and keep practicing. So that's what I plan to do.

This is my newest decorated cookie, using my design.

I had a wedding or bridal shower cookie in mind when I drew it and designed it to fit a heart shaped cookie.

This is my newest cookie decorating toy, I mean airbrush. With the help of my daughter
Ashley, I look forward to using it to create beautiful cookies.                                                                                    

Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #7
This is my lastest entry in the Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #7 on Cookie Connection.

The Santa, which is approximately 11-1/2 inches tall, Christmas tree, doll, train, teddy bear and candy cane were hand cut. The gifts and the poodle are royal icing transfers. I added sixlet candies to the Christmas tree, sanding sugar to Santa's suit and handpainted the details, using Americolor gel paste food coloring and water.

I used the Basic rolled sugar cookie recipe, from Karen's Cookies, and Sugarbelle's, royal icing recipe. 

This cookie project was inspired by the Santa cookie cutter shown above. The above photo, shows my original idea and the Santa I drew, starting with the outline of the cookie cutter I chose for this project. 

My original plan was to have Santa holding the toys in his arms, But when making adjustments, to Santa's arms, it broke, and I could not use it. 

This project did not turn out as well as I planned. I actually like my drawn Santa better than my Santa cookie. Initially, I was not going to enter it, but with the encouragement of my daughter, decided to enter it after all.

Merry Christmas everyone!