Lead Me to the Cross

Wishing everyone a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

Apple Crisp!

I've made this recipe several times now and its a winner..very easy to make and good. I made it entirely sugar free but you could change it and use sugar if you prefer.

   Sugar Free Apple Crisp

2 cans no sugar added pie filling

 granola (recipe below)

sugar free ice cream or whipped topping

Granola Topping:

1/3 cup honey (I use agave syrup)

2 T. extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 t, cinnamon

1 1/2 c. old fashioned oatmeal

1/2 c. chopped pecans

1/4 c. sliced almonds

Directions:

Combine throughly honey, oil, vanilla and cinnamon. Combine oats and nuts in a mixing bowl; add honey mixture and toss until completely coated. Press mixture into a greased bakingpan. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Cool and break into pieces.

Assemble crisp by putting apple filling into a pie plate or 8x8 baking pan. Sprinkle  with  cup of topping Bake in 350 oven for 30 minutes. Cool and serve warm with ice cream or topping.

I substitute agave syrup for honey in all recipes. I've found that Costco has it the most reasonably priced.

The peach and nectarine are blooming! just hope we don't get a frost.We've both been working on our backyard, pulling alot of weeds and cultivating. We also weeded the side yard and extended the boysenberry area for more berries this year. The fig tree is getting its first leaves too. Love this time of year!

and finally,

our little grandson being read to by Grandpa...

Thursday Chat

 

Here is a little collage that my DIL made of our grandson, cute little guy..he will be 2 in August.

I especially like the one at the Oceanside pier in the background. Its progression with his newborn photo up to one taken last week. She did it with her phone..these new phones are amazing!

Our weather has really warmed up and we've been working, getting our raised beds planted. Yesterday, we went out to our favorite nursery and got 8 heirloom tomato plants.

We love to go out there, especially now as its the perfect weather, in the high 60s, low 70s. Walking through the different areas, its very soothing and beautiful.

We've been doing ALOT of weeding. With all the rain this winter, the weeds took control. We still have a bit to do but are getting it completely bit by bit. These photos I got from their website, Louies Nursery..

The link goes to their blog which I found really informative for everyone. Lots of good stuff.

Please pray for Nancy. She and her husband are having difficulties right now. I won't get into the details but she needs our prayers. They will be moving this weekend and there are forecasts of snow. She is mostly worried about her dogs getting loose, either on the road or after they get to the motel. Please also pray for Billy as he can get confused driving. You can read a little more about what is going on, on her blog, Inside Nana's Head .

Hot Air Balloons

A few weeks ago now, we noticed a hot air balloon taking off behind our house. It carried 3 skydivers who jumped out but unfortunately I wasn't able to get a photo of them.

Just north of us is a large center for hot air balloons and also sky diving. Its a very popular site with thousands of visitors every year. We often see several hot air balloons at once.

They are alot braver than I am! 

They do have accidents occasionally and one landed on a busy street next to the interstate just this last month. Click on the link for the story.

We've had alot of rain and after a recent storm, I was able to capture this rainbow. As you can see, our town has plenty of open spaces and we like it that way. So much of Southern California has gotten paved over, at least along the coast. I've shared alot of the open spots of the inland which are wonderful in past posts. Traffic is bad also on the coast, even my hometown of Oceanside is total chaos on the roadways. Up where our town is, its still relatively peaceful. Much like it was years ago. Very thankful for small towns.

Our youngest son brought home a wonderful find. He has it on Craigslist as he's trying to save money for his new daughter, Emma Grace.

Its a wonderful Zenith vintage phonograph radio console. The phonograph, and radio work like new and the speakers are fantastic. I just love it. As you can see, the woodwork is in like new condition also with just a couple of very small marks which is remarkable in a 1963 model. I remember my dad having one of these when I was in high school. I think my favorite part of it is the radio itself. It lights up and has great reception. You can see how clean and nice it looks. Whoever had it, must not have used it much or kept it in storage. He also has the original booklets that came with it. This is a wonderful unique collectable.

If you're reading this, live in the Southern California area and are interested. You can find the Craigslist listing here

SOLD!

Emma Grace

We've been fairly busy...what with our business, and doing alot of home clean up and repair.

The raised beds have all been planted. Seeds are coming up and the potatoes I thought the dogs had gotten, are coming up! Would love to share photos but the computer isn't cooperating. Here is a photo of last years crops. This was lettuce. We have radishes, beets, carrots and spinach coming up. Also peas. Just hope we don't get a freeze. It always amazes me to see seeds sprouting from dead little nothings to living plants.

We got a call early Monday morning. Emma Grace  has been born! Our new baby grand daughter, she was born Monday morning, at 4:39, weighing 7 lbs. 7 oz and 21 inches long. Mom and baby doing well.

She has beautiful blue eyes but was sleeping when we took the photo. The  family is so excited to have this beautiful new little girl enter the world and into our lives. God is so good and I know He has a special plan for this sweet little girl.


I don't have anything listed right now on Ebay. But you can find my listings on Etsy. The links are on the side of the blog. I put many of the postcards in my shop as well as lots of glassware, thimbles and such.

Fresh Orange Cake

I recently got in the baking mood and leafing through a few cookbooks found this recipe for Fresh Orange Cake...wow, is it ever good! You don't need fancy ingredients for it either. I found this recipe in "The Cake Doctor" by Anne Bryn.

Fresh Orange Cake

Vegetable oil spray (I use Pam)

Flour for dusting pan

1 package yellow cake mix with pudding

1 cup fresh orange juice (about 5 oranges or from the carton)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup sugar

1 t. vanilla

4 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a Bundt pan with spray and dust it with flour. Shake out excess flour.Set aside.

Place the cake mix, orange juice,oil, sugar, vanilla and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low for 1 minute. Stop and scrape down sides, Increase motor speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down sides as you need to. The batter should be thick and well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and place in oven.

Bake the cake until its golden brown and just starts to pull away from pan. 45 to 47 minutes. Remove pan from oven and let sit for 20 minutes. Run a long sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a rack to cool..let cool for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the glaze.

1 cup powdered sugar

3 T. fresh orange juice

1 t. freshly grated orange zest

Combine into a small bowl and stir with a spoon until well blended.

Place the cake on a platter and drizzle the glaze over the top and let it dribble down the sides and into the middle. Let it set for a while before slicing. 

Store this with a cover or cover it with plastic wrap at room temperature for up to a week. Or it can be frozen.

We are getting oranges here at our local fruit stand for around $5.00 for a 5 lb. bag and they are local. So sweet and good! We're enjoying them like candy.

A Giveaway

Just a short note today. We had 3 jobs and a total of 20 locks to re key. Plus we got some payments which was nice. We're both home now and feeling tired after the day but its a good tired.One realtor we do alot of work for said her son fixes computers and often has ones he gives away. I told her I really needed a new one and she said she'd talk to him! Praying that something good happens.

I also wanted you to know that Nancy is having a giveaway. I signed up and you win two movie tickets of your choice. The giveaway is sponsored by General Mills cereal. We could sure use a night out and you probably could too, so please go over to Inside Nana's Head  for more information. Good luck!

Girls with pets, and a Giveaway Win

 

I recently listed the last of the Valentine postcards in Ebay. For the first time, one of my winning bidders was from outside the United States, in Austria. I was hesitant to send it to him but he was very gracious, paid for the extra shipping and he got the card in just a few days. Actually, the shipping wasn't bad at all. 

The proceeds from my Ebay and Etsy sales goes to helping us get things we need around our home. Last month, I made enough to get a new vacuum which we really needed. Our old one had died, and I was using a shop vacuum for inside which was alot more work. Next I'm saving for 4 new patio chairs for our little outdoor table. 

The above cards are my absolute favorites of the collection. I just love these sweet little girls and their pets. You are welcome to copy these onto your computer if you wish. The originals on for sale on Ebay

I also wanted to share that I won the January giveaway from Brenda ( The Rusty Thimble) I was delighted to get this wonderful cute primitive bunny.

This photo is one from the giveaway. she is so much cuter than the photo. Brenda has giveaways every month so if you haven't signed up for her February, you can find it here. 
My computer isn't letting me download photos right now. Sadness as I have so many I'd like to share. Hope to get this problem fixed soon, part of the reason I haven't posted as much. We had a hot air balloon fly overhead last week, and sky divers jumped from it. I got photos of that, plus a fabulous rainbow that I was able to photograph after a storm.

Stone Soup

I found a interesting website you might like to visit, its called Stone Soup and has healthy recipes most of which are only 5 ingredients. I am enjoying it and if you sign up, you will get a free Ebook with recipes too. What I like is that if you have allergies or other health food requirements, these recipes are quite flexible. As my husband is diabetic, we are always concerned with healthy recipes for him and its not easy to find them with everyone talking about bacon and carbs. Plus alot of recipes have tons of ingredients and frankly, I don't want to buy an expensive spice or something else for one recipe that we may or may not like.
 Today Jules talked about shaved salads which intriqued me. We love coleslaw and make it often but this recipe sounds really good too....Shaved Ham and SnowPea Salad..
she also speaks about different kitchen gadgets to use to get shaved vegetables and suggestions on how to use them. 

 

Just click on the above link for the recipe and also you can sign up!

Friday in My Neck of the Woods

I know I mentioned some time ago that I was stitching a pillowtop for Nancy Huggins daughter as a birthday present. I sent the top to Nancy and she made this wonderful pillow out of it...what do you think?

The fabric is a Civil War reproduction fabric and the vintage graphic I got from PrimRose Design. I think it turned out nice.
I'm not stitching as much as I used to as its awfully difficult with our grandson running around the house. He's at that age if you know what I mean. I started some towels but its hit and miss most of the time.

We were fairly busy this week doing escrow re keys which is nice..much nicer than foreclosures as people are actually moving into their new home. All of these have been anywhere from 40 to 80 miles from home in San Diego County. We got up really early this morning for another type of job, a foreclosure, again in S. D. county. Got at the house at 7 in the morning and got it re keyed for Fannie Mae. We were finished before 8!

and last but not least,,a few funnies