Slow Cooking Thursday!

Don't forget to add your name to Mr Linky and a link back to your SCT post so others can come by and see your recipe too.

Image Credit: Monsoon Spice

Creamy Garlic Broccoli Soup

This full of flavor and aroma, crockpot recipe, is also full of veggies. Onions and potatoes have been added, and the blended potatoes, are what gives this hearty soup, it’s supreme creaminess. Started stove top, and finished in th slow cooker, this simple recipe is simply divine.

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 90 mins

1 1/2 pounds broccoli flowerets
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large Onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 to 2 large potatoes
1 quart chicken broth, or beef broth
salt and pepper, to taste
dash red pepper, crushed
1 cup half and half
dash ground nutmeg
bacon bits


Step 1:

Saute onion and garlic in butter until the onions become transparent. Add chopped potatoes, broccoli, broth, salt, pepper and red pepper. Heat to boiling and simmer for about a half hour.
Step 2:

Pour the mixture (about 1/3rd at a time) into the blender and pulse six or seven times for each batch. Place blended soup in crockpot and add half and half and nutmeg. Heat on low for another half hour and then let sit until dinner. Taste for seasoning; garnish and serve warm, not hot.

Jane Austen Addict!

It's true, I don't try to hide the fact that I'm absolutely, completely addicted to Jane Austen.

I love her books, it's hard for me at times to wrap my mind around the fact that this amazing author wrote these masterpieces over almost 200 years ago.

It also boggles my mind when I talk to people who have no idea who Jane Austen is, doesn't everyone know who she is? No? Well for shame, they should LOL

So in my quest to reread her most famous books I ended up at the library on Sunday, surrounded by anything related to this brilliant woman, even books who were not written by her but are related to her characters or books.

Do you want to see what I got? Oh and if you've read any let me know what you thought.

First and foremost, Jane Austen's Complete Works which include all 6 of her published books:

One of the great and ever popular masters of the English novel is represented here by every one of her novels. Includes Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and the lesser-known Lady Susan.

The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy

In Fitzwilliam Darcy, Austen created the ultimate romantic hero. Yet Pride and Prejudice reveals little of Darcy's innermost thoughts. Here, Street unveils the true motives and mysteries of Elizabeth Bennet's enigmatic suitor. Through Darcy's eyes we discover the reality of his relationships with his sister Georgiana, his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, the dastardly Wickham, his friend Bingley, and his formidable aunt, Lady Catherine. And of course, all his memorable encounters with Elizabeth, from that first view of her fine eyes to his disastrous proposal, and then to a pride and arrogance tempered by an unquenchable love.

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But what about their sister Mary? At the conclusion of Jane Austen's classic novel, Mary, bookish, awkward, and by all accounts, unmarriageable, is sentenced to a dull, provincial existence in the backwaters of Britain. Now, master storyteller Colleen McCullough rescues Mary from her dreary fate with The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, a page-turning sequel set twenty years after Austen's novel closes. The story begins as the neglected Bennet sister is released from the stultifying duty of caring for her insufferable mother.

Emma Watson: The Watsons Completed by Joan Aiken

It has always been a source of great frustration to Janeites that Jane Austen abandoned The Watsons after only seventeen and a half thousand words. It is, as Margaret Drabble says, a "tantalising, delightful and highly accomplished fragment, which must surely have proved the equal of her other six novels had she finished it." In Emma Watson, Joan Aiken at long last completes The Watsons. Nineteen-year-old Emma, adopted by her aunt after the death of her mother, has rejoined her ailing father and her favorite sister, Elizabeth. Her stuffy brother Robert is living in Croydon with his grasping wife; her shrewish sister Penelope looks to have made a good match; her brother Sam is trying to make his way as a doctor; and Emma's immediate elder, Margaret, fancies herself in love with Tom Musgrave. Austen characters all, yet Joan Aiken, with consummate skill, makes them her own.

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Viegler

This delightful sequel to Rigler's Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict has 19th-century Jane Mansfield switching bodies and milieus with contemporary L.A. girl Courtney Stone. As Jane grasps the idea that she's a different person in an unimaginable world, and grapples with the radically liberal social mores, dress and language, she leans on Jane Austen's novels as touchstones to reality.

******************************

Now do you understand why I seem to be addicted to Jane Austen?

It's quite funny actually, as I do tend to go through these phases, I still vividly remember my King Henry VIII phase where I simply devoured every book, biography, documentary and tv show or movie ever made about this era.

But I've always been a Jane girl, they are the only books that I read over and over again and never get tired, they are also the only movies I will watch more than once.

My husband thinks I'm crazy, see he's the kind of guy who can watch the same movie 5 or 6 or 7 times and still enjoy it and I usually turn my nose at it and tease him about it. After all, everyone knows that Sandra does NOT read or watch anything twice.....except for Jane Austen, I don't think there can ever be enough of Mr Darcy can there?

So now that I've let you in to that little secret, I'm off to go and read, I'm currently enjoying the Rude Awakening of a Jane Austen Addict and it's quite funny so far.

What are you reading right now?

Happy Homemaker Monday!

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The weather in my neck of the woods:
Our temperatures have cooled down a lot, I actually wore boots yesterday....Yes....BOOTS....in Arizona LOL


One of my simple pleasures:
Spending an afternoon at the library, lost in all the books.


On my bedside table:
Jane Austen books, tons of them.


On my TV:
Stargate SG1 Season 2


On the menu for tonight:
Chicken Pie with a salad.


On my To Do List:
Mop and sweep
Laundry
Start on Christmas Gifts


New Recipe I tried last week:
Didn't try anything new, but I am trying a bunch this week so check out my Food Blog for those.


In the craft basket:
Wrist warmers and crochet birds


Looking forward to:
Thanksgiving


Homemaking Tip for this week:
My family loves Tortilla chips, but they can be quite pricey at times and also, there are those occasions when we want some but don't have any in the house. Make your own!
They are so easy to make and much better than store bought. All you need are Corn Tortillas, slice them into triangles and fry them up in a little oil. Serve with homemade salsa and you got yourself a delicious snack.
I like to fry a whole stack of tortillas, it makes a ton of chips, then store them in ziploc bags.


Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
Life is a Highway by Teresa, loved all the photos she took as she embarked on a 6 day road trip with her son.


Favorite photo from last week:

My husbands uniform, boots, tags and my Father in Law's Flag.

Lesson learned the past few days:
There's time for everything in your life, you just have to organize things around you. When I want time for crafting or reading, I actually put it into my schedule because if I don't I find myself struggling to get everything done or end up sacrificing one thing for the other.
I've learned to slow down this past week and to realize that things will get done without me having to kill myself in order to do so.


On my Prayer List:
Family and Friends


Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.
Psalm 119:2

Lost in Austen!

Jemima Rooper stars as Amanda Price, a frustrated romantic who discovers a gateway in her flat to her favourite world - that of Pride and Prejudice. But is the “true” story in danger of being thrown off track by her presence?

STOP what you're doing right now and go and find this movie. I can not tell you good enough things about it other than you need to watch it as soon as possible.

Let me start this post by saying that I am a huge Jane Austen fan, I mean who isn't right? It always surprises me when I talk to people who have no clue who this author is, when she is just one of the most brilliant writers of all time.

I don't think there is one her books that I haven't read or related movies that I haven't watched, well, actually, I am watching The Jane Austen Book Club tonight, but that is not really an Austen Original.

When I first heard about Lost in Austen, I was reading one of my favorite blogs and she was talking about how it was showing on tv in England and it was a series. I immediately jotted down the name and zipped over to Netflix to find it, upon doing so it was placed at the top of the my Queue.

So last night, after the kids were in bed, I popped in this movie and I was thinking, it's not going to be so long I'll be able to get to bed at a reasonable time, but be forewarned, it's about 3 hours long but well worth the watch.

This is why I'm talking about it today, so you can get it for this weekend and don't worry if the husbands aren't interested, send them off to do something or find a movie for them to watch later on, but I insist that you sit down and get comfy and then come back here and tell me if I was right about this being one of the best movies so far this year.

But I'm babbling and not really telling you what it was about, tsk tsk tsk.

Imagine if you will a young lady, living in modern London, going about her life but like so many of us out here, a huge fan of Jane Austen and an even bigger fan of her books especially "Pride and Prejudice".

She takes this book everywhere and reads it at every chance she gets.

Then one day she hears some noises coming from her bathroom and walks in to find Elizabeth Bennet. I KNOWWWWWWW! ELIZABETH BENNET in her bathroom.

She tells her she came in through a doorway in her bathtub. Amanda steps through and finds herself in the Bennett Household back in the 19th Century.

I'm not telling you anything else because I don't want to spoil it for you, but I can say that the whole time I was watching the movie I was thinking "Oh man....I wish it were me, I would have loved to step back in time and into one of Austen's books".

Ohhhhh Mr Darcy! Yes the wet shirt scene was one of my favorites but in my defense, it's been one of my favorites since Colin Firth's *Pride and Prejudice*.....and of course this has absolutely nothing to do with the gorgeous man (Elliot Cowan) playing Mr Darcy, yes he's no Colin Firth BUT he's still very good looking *snicker*



This is not good, you see I never watch a movie twice, NEVER. I'm the kinda gal that once I've seen something it's enough for me, but now having talked about Lost in Austen again and seen all these pictures and the video, I'm afraid I may just spend tonight stuck in Austen World.....yet again.

Oh dear!

I'm just going to go fix dinner and let you all track this movie down, here, I'll help you LOL

Netflix - Lost in Austen
Amazon
Blockbuster

NOTE: I decided to update this post with something fun. I'm putting up a Mr Linky and I want you all to join in, all you gotta do is leave the name of a favorite Chick Flick and even better if it's along the lines of Jane Austen.

Won't you join in? Get your friends to come in and drop a name on the list too, think of it as a huge movie suggestion list for us all. It will be fun to see what everyone has been enjoying and give us all some ideas on something to watch this weekend.

Slow Cooking Thursday!

Don't forget to add your name to Mr Linky and a link back to your SCT post so others can come by and see your recipe too.

Credit: Beauty that Moves

Santa Fe Beef and Beans

1 boneless beef roast, cubed/diced small. We use venison
2 cups salsa
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (I cook big batches of beans and keep them in the freezer for easy use)
1 1/2 - 2 cups corn (from the freezer)
1 8oz can tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced fine
2 Tablespoons sucanat or maple syrup
1 Tablespoons tamari/soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, according to taste
shredded cheese for the table, cheddar or Mexican blend
a pot of cooked rice to serve it over


Place all ingredients into crock-pot and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serve over brown rice and top with shredded cheese. To make this vegetarian, just skip the meat and double the beans! If I get home very close to dinner time, I put on a pot of white basmati rice for the quick cooking time, if I have enough time I make brown rice. I've also served this over egg noodles.

Quiet Veteran's Day!

It's cloudy outside and quiet, really quiet. It's funny you don't really notice it unless you live on a Military base and celebrate these holidays dedicated to our soldiers.

Usually it's a busy noisy area, there's uniformed soldiers constantly on the move, going to or coming from work and there's the loud jet engines overhead.

Today, they're all at home, relaxing, enjoying their day off and their much deserved break.

I send my love and my appreciation to all the men and women, present and past, who have dedicated their lives to this country. Who fight day in and out for our freedom, for our children to have a future.

It's such a huge sacrifice and I think it goes unnoticed far too many times, they are taken for granted and I only wish that every single day could be dedicated to these amazing troops.

We have our very own hero at home, my hubby. He works extremely hard for our family and I love him for it. Thank you honey, for your devotion to me, to our children, to your country and to God.

We started the morning with a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, little smoked sausages, biscuits and gravy. Yum!

It's one of those things that as homemaker, it brings me joy to do. The minute you start looking at your home as a place of love for your family as opposed to chores and too much work, your whole attitude changes.

Everything I do, I do with love.

It doesn't matter if it's cooking or laundry

Or washing dishes.

You know that I have a dishwasher but I find myself washing them by hand more often than not, and it's not because I hate the dishwasher, I just find dish washing relaxing. It's another way of simplifying my life, I don't have to get rid of the technology around me, I like having the option of using it if I'm sick or not feeling well or just don't want to do it by hand.

There's a common misconception that if you simplify your life it means getting rid of all the wonderful things around us. Wrong! At least for me!

It just means not relying completely on those things, it means that if the internet suddenly goes out I won't walk around in a daze not knowing what to do with myself.

If the TV isn't working, I will read a book and not freak out over the fact that I'm missing a show.

If the dishwasher is broken, I have two able hands that can do the work.

If I don't have a microwave available I make do without and believe it or not, I hardly ever touch my microwave.

I've learned to stop being afraid of telling people that I'm a homemaker. You know how it is, someone asks what you do for a living and you tend to shy away and do the quick "Oh I'm just a housewife".

I am guilty of doing it and I think it's because for the longest time I was under the impression that it was a bad thing, it was embarrassing.

Not anymore, I am proud to say "I'm a Homemaker". It's what I am, I am not just an invisible part of my family's life, I'm an integral, pivotal, important part.

How many of you are able to say it? How many of you still feel a little shy about it?

Let's chat, I want to know what you think of housework, do you do it because you have to, or do you look at it as more than just a chore?

White Picket Fences - Book Review

When the storybook-perfect Janvier family temporarily "adopts" their teenaged niece, Tally, they assume they'll be helping her. But when Tally befriends her cousin, Chase, she soon realizes that he badly needs encouragement, too. When the troubled teens interview two holocaust survivors for a sociology project, will they trigger the healing process that everybody needs?

Author Bio:
Susan Meissner cannot remember a time when she wasn’t driven to put her thoughts down on paper. Her novel The Shape of Mercy was a Publishers Weekly pick for best religious fiction of 2008 and a Christian Book Award finalist. Susan and her husband live in Southern California, where he is a pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves. They are the parents of four grown children.


My thoughts:
I am only halfway through this book but I'm really enjoying it. It is so well written and of course not surprising considering who the author is.....Susan Meissner.

Just fair warning though, there are quite a few storylines going on at the same time but don't let that scare you off because everything is explained, everything is understood and nothing is left hanging.

This book delves into families, into the way of life, into those walls that some tend to build to protect themselves, what do you do when the storybook perfect life you've built is about to crumble?

I absolutely love that at the end of the book we get an interview with the author and she does answer a lot of questions that seem to plague your mind while you're reading.

Like I said, I haven't quite finished the book yet but I should have it all read by tonight, it's that good of a book. I find myself sneaking little peeks here and there, in the car while waiting at the school for the gate to open, at the grocery store while waiting to pay and even while watching tv during commercials.

If you love Susan Meissner, you will love this book.

To purchase the book for yourself, you can go here.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Happy Homemaker Monday!

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The weather in my neck of the woods:
The bluest skies I've seen in a while but the temperatures have dropped so it's a little on the chilly side this morning.


One of my simple pleasures:
The whole family crowded on my bed watching a movie....and when I say the whole family I mean us and the kids AND the dogs LOL


On my bedside table:
Vicks, Kleenex, books and more books


On my TV:
Stargate SG1 Season 1


On the menu for tonight:
Chicken Rissoles - Rissois de Galinha (recipe will be up later)


On my To Do List:
Mop and sweep
Laundry
Change bed linens


New Recipe I tried last week:
The Firehouse Special - it was pretty good my kids loved it.


In the craft basket:
Wrist warmers and crochet birds


Looking forward to:
Jasmine's first Band Concert in December, she is so excited to be playing the Clarinet.


Homemaking Tip for this week:
Don't be afraid to use paper plates. No seriously, I know a lot of you out there probably feel like I used to, that paper plates were ok for a picnic or a cook out but not for dinner, but along the years I've learned that there is nothing wrong with using them once in a while, especially if you're sick or busy. Cuts down on a lot of time spent in the kitchen doing dishes.


Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
I caught up on all my reading last week so there were tons of great posts. If I have to pick one though I would say "A Walk Around the Cottage/Living Simply" by an Aspiring Homemaker. Love this blog.


Favorite photo from last week:

Arizona sunset....so beautiful.




Lesson learned the past few days:
You have to make an effort to keep the relationship with God alive, you can't just sit back and take for granted that He's always there. For me, it's when things tend to go downhill, it's sort of a wake up call to let me know that I've been neglectful.


On my Prayer List:
My children, so they will get over this cold/flu
Soldiers and families at Ft. Hood


Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
Proverbs 3:7-8

Weekend Chit Chat!

I'm tired and it feels like I've been saying that a lot lately *snicker*

But I guess that comes with the territory when you have two sick kids at home, Nicholas has a sinus infection and is on antibiotics and Jasmine just has a cold but she's been running a low grade fever. Mommy is exhausted and if I don't hear "mommy can I get?" again for at least a day, I'll be fine.

Isn't it always like that though when one or more of your children are not feeling well? I'm starting to believe that just the mere mention of the word "mommy" brings them comfort. Although for us who hear it constantly it can drive you quite insane at times LOL

Now is is just me or has this cold/flu season been absolutely horrid? I don't think I've seen so many people sick at the same time, I just hope and pray it passes fast.



You know I love weekends. The slow pace, the waking up late, the unplanned days before us. I used to live for a schedule and I wanted every single minute of my day planned, but as I got older I realized that I was happier on the days where there were no plans, there was nowhere to do go and nothing to do.

So we've started leaving our weekends open to just lolligag around the house and do whatever feels good at the time.

Like waking up late and sleepily moving into the kitchen to whip up a batch of pancakes, and drop big goops of butter on the hot cakes, watching it melt and drizzle down the sides.


I try to get a little bit of house cleaning done after breakfast while everyone else is still laying around in PJ's.

Then it's on to whatever I'm in the mood for that day. For me it's been watching tv and catching up on all the shows I've been meaning to watch.

I am almost done with Little House on the Prairie and maybe it's just me, but I haven't enjoyed Season 8 as much as the previous seasons, I'll even go as far as admitting that there have been a few episodes I completely skipped. Please tell me there's others out there that either did the same or know exactly what I'm talking about?

With that said, I realized that it was time to clean up and update my Queue on Netflix. I had so much stuff on there that I'm just not interested in anymore, so I spent about an hour deleting and moving items up on the list and find new things to watch.

- Like Lost in Austen. I was blog browsing yesterday and one of my favorite blogs had mentioned it so I immediately made mental note to find it, and I did. YAY!

After a dispute with her boyfriend, Amanda lands in the 19th-century world of author Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. While helping the Bennet sisters find husbands, Amanda accidentally causes problems that could alter the course of the tale. Throughout this British series, Amanda must balance her feelings for Mr. Darcy (Elliot Cowan) with her responsibility to the one of the world's greatest love stories. Jemima Rooper stars.

Here is the trailer for those that may be interested in watching:

- I've also started watching the Stargate SG1 Series. Curt loves it and has all the Seasons from 1 to 10 and he's mentioned them a couple times but I had yet to get around to watching, so last night I popped in the first Disc and I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed it.



But I haven't just been watching TV because I've been surrounded by some great books that I'm reviewing, starting with one you'll see tomorrow called "White Picket Fences" by Susan Meissner which I'm sure you all know her from the amazing book "The Shape of Mercy".

There's also a vampire book and some Christian kid books and all sorts of other goodies you'll be seeing popping up in the blog the next couple of weeks.

In between I've been sneaking in some other reading that is not for reviews, just my own books like the Night World Series by L.J. Smith the same author that wrote "The Vampire Diaries". I've enjoyed them, they're pretty light reads and nothing majorly dark and heavy, which is just fine right now, if I want craziness I just have to look around my life at the moment LOL

Oh and I've managed to catch up on all my blog reading, I can now say that when I go on over to Google Reader, it says something like (7 new posts) instead of (1200 new posts). Yeah, you can laugh but it's true, it was so overwhelming at first I actually thought of just deleting everything but I'm so glad I didn't because I have so many wonderful blogs on there and obviously I don't comment on them all being that they're so many, but I like reading and catching up with many.

I did find a few new ones too which I'm enjoying looking through. Do you ever go back to the beginning of a blog and look through all their posts? I love doing that.

One of my new favorites is in England and has the most beautiful pictures, makes me sigh and smile and wish I was there.

Anyway, I have babbled enough for now, I need to get the kids backpacks ready for the morning, do the dishes, grab myself some hot tea and get kids ready for bed.

Have a wonderful night.