Vintage Photo: Taxi in Pompeii 1971

Dad was in the Navy when he met Mom, they got married, and when my sister was born.  He was lucky in that he wasn't sent to Vietnam, and even luckier that he got to see some amazing parts of Europe, include Pompeii Italy.

For Christmas a couple of years ago I digitized the slides from his trip to the Mediterranean and made a photo album for him.  What I think is so amazing is that if we were to go there today, we could see the same stuff he saw because, heck, it's freaking ancient!

So, if you're ever in Pompeii, catch a taxi ride with this guy.

Taco Johns: How did I not know how good it is?

For the very very first time ever I had Taco Johns today.  For lunch.  I think I could live on their Potato Ole's alone for the rest of my life.  They are amazing!

I wonder if I could get the same effect if I put Lowery's Seasoned Salt on Tater Tots.....



That is all.

How I Pinterested a Glittery Sweet Sixteen Party.

Ask Rhy what her favorite color is and she'll answer "Glitter."

But glitter isn't a color.

Yes it is, she'll say.  Don't even try to convince her otherwise, because it won't happen.

I think it's cute.

So for her 16th Birthday Party, I had to include some glitter.  It wasn't over the top; there were no glitter-encrusted hand-made invitations (I think she used Facebook to invite her friends).  It was just a couple of touches at her small party in our small condo.

A few months ago I had seen a pin where someone "fancied-up" those number candles.  I most definitely pinned it because I knew that would be perfect for Rhy!

Here's how:

I bought the candles at the store, but everything else was on-hand.  I ended up painting the candles with silver paint because I was worried the colors would show through.  I then used the glitter glue in the blues/pinks/purples and stuck the purple sparklies in the shape of the numbers.  Looked great.  It was a little gloopy, but that was okay.  I had no idea that glitter glue would shrink so much when it dried...

I loved the end result:

Rhy LOVED them!  And we saved them for Nate's 16th birthday, okay Tina?

This past summer I had purchased a cupcake cookbook - just one of those small books at the check out counter - because it had tie-died frosting on the front.  It was really easy to do, just put spoonfuls of each color into your piping bag.  Easy enough.  And then I found this awesome pin about using plastic wrap to keep your piping bag clean.  So I put those two ideas together.  I put spoonfuls of the different colors of icing in a row on my plastic wrap.  I should have either used less icing or more plastic wrap though, because the icing did get out of the plastic wrap.  You can see the top border in the photo above has all the colors mixed together.  I think it looked great.

All over Pinterest there are cakes decorated using the petal technique.  I think it's so pretty, and I wanted to try it for myself.  So I took that icing as explained above, and decorated Rhy's cake like this:

The first color was blue.  then the pink, and then a green.  The blue was solid blue, the pink had just a touch of blue, but by the time the green came around, it was really getting all mixed together.  We liked it.  It's just hard to know how to finish the cake.  Cause you have your starting point, and you can't do the final line the way you did the first line.  Hmmm.

Michael's has this glitter wrapping paper that I had seen a few months ago, and I thought it would be perfect as a "tablecloth" for her birthday treats table (which included a huge bowl-full of Sour Patch Kids, animal crackers & Nutella, and cheesey poofs).  I now think that wrapping paper is the way to go for party tablecloths because you can just fold it up and throw it away at the end, instead of worrying about if those grease stains will come out of your heirloom tablecloth.

The end result?  I think it was great.  I hope the kids had as good of a time at the party as I had making it all...

Vintage Photo: A Wedding in 1979

This is from my Uncle Jack & Aunt Celeste's wedding.  One of those, "Okay, everyone from the groom's family" photos.  You have to love this gem.

First of all, the groom is wearing a suit.  Makes so much sense because, really, why pay to wear an outfit so many other guys have worn on an extremely important day in your life?  Plus, my husband wore a suit to our wedding, so I'm a fan.

The bride has a great full veil which looks great with her hair down.  Very pretty.  And she still is.  :-)

What I really liked when I first saw this picture is that my sister, cousin, and me, we're all wearing dresses made from the same material.  This is from back in the day when my mom sewed.  And even though the three dresses are all the same material, they're all different styles.  Nice!

Another Pinterest Review: Chicken Crescent Roll Casserole

I had the Pinterest app on my old phone (just need to download it to my new phone!), which made it fairly easy to shop for groceries when I wanted to make a recipe off of Pinterest.  Just open Pinterest, click on the pin, get to the original spot on the interwebs, and viola!  There is the recipe and I can buy what I need!

Which is just what I did one day last month.  We had half of the ingredients already for the Chicken Crescent Roll Casserole; I just picked up the rest.

Click here for the full info over on TasteBook.com.

ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) cans Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls
• 1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese or swiss cheese (or any cheese of choice)
• 1/2 cup 18% table cream (or use whipping cream)
• FILLING
• 4 ounces cream cheese (very soft)
• 4 tablespoons butter (very soft but not melted)
• 1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
• 1/3 cup onion, finely chopped (can use green onions)
• 2 large cooked chicken breasts, finely chopped (or use about 2 cups, can use cooked turkey)
• 1/2-3/4 cup finely grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt (or use 1/2 teaspoon white salt or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)
• 2-4 tablespoons mayonnaise or whipping cream
• 1-2 cup grated cheddar cheese (for topping)

directions

• 1. Set oven to 350°F.
• 2. Butter a casserole dish (any size to hold crescent rolls).
• 3. In a saucepan, mix half and half cream, 3/4 cup grated cheese (can use more cheese if desired) and undiluted chicken soup (can season with black pepper if desired).
• 4. Heat just until the cheese melts (do not boil).
• 5. For the filling --- (make certain that the cream cheese and butter are very soft) in a bowl, mix the soft cream cheese with butter until very smooth, then add in garlic powder (if using).
• 6. Add in the chopped chicken, onion and cheddar cheese; mix well until combined.
• 7. Add in 2 tablespoons whipping cream or mayonnaise; mix to combine (add in a little more if the mixture seems too dry).
• 8. Season with seasoned salt or white and black pepper to taste.
• 9. Unroll the crescent rolls.
• 10. Place 1 heaping tablespoon chicken mixture (or a little more) on top of each crescent triangle, then roll up starting at the thicker end.
• 11. Drizzle a small amount of soup mixture on the bottom of the dish.
• 12. Then place the crescent rolls seam-side down on top of the creamed mixture in the casserole.
• 13. Drizzle the remaining sauce on top (you don’t have to use the full amount of cream sauce, just use as much as desired) and sprinkle with 1 cup (or more) grated cheese, or amount desired.
• 14. Bake for about 30 minutes

What did we think?  Jeff & Rhy liked it.  I used canned chicken, which was a poor choice, and Rhy asked if we could use "real" chicken next time.  I think it's definitely not an every day recipe because it really is rich.  And I can't quite figure out why it was so darn salty.

But, all in all, it was a WIN.  If you like creamy chicken dishes, try it.  You like crescent rolls?  Try it!  Thank you to TasteBook.com for the recipe.

Next time, I'll use "real" chicken (can you say "rotisserie"?) and I'll make as much ahead of time as possible so that it's easier to make during the week.  And there will be some crisp fresh veggies to cut all the creamy.

What have you made recently?

Happy Birthday Rhy!

I now live with a 16 year old.  A beautiful, funny, caring, crazy, smart, friendly, hilarious 16-year old.  How beautiful is this girl?  Crazy story, this is when she was 14...  I'll work on getting more recent photos.

Happy birthday Rhy!!!

Vintage Photo (oops I missed) Friday: Texas vacation 1977

Don't jump Tina - it could hurt!

Back in the 70s Mom & Dad had a lot of pictures developed to slides.  For those of you too young to know what slides are, it's when you take the negative and put it in a little cardboard frame, and then shine a light through it to project it onto the wall.  And, well, if you're still looking at the monitor with your head tilted and a "what?" look on your face, click here.  Your generation has missed so much...

Where was I?  Oh, right, slides.  So we had these carousels of slides.  And we would have slides shows!  Mom & Dad would pull down the shade in their room and it would be the entertainment for the evening.  There was only so much on those 3 TV stations that came in when I was a kid.  Heck, Tina & I are still known to ask for slide shows.  True story.

There is a story that I vaguely remember - it probably happened when I was 4 because that's when all my stories happened.  We were having a slide show of the 1977 vacation to Texas and I said something along the lines of "I remember that!", to which everyone laughed and said "No you don't; you were still in Mom's tummy!"

Exhibit A:  pregnant Mom & only-child Tina.  I do not know what's going on with Mom's sleeves on that shirt...

Well, if there's anything that I don't like, then and now, it's being told that I'm wrong.  And I had just been told I was wrong and laughed at.  Unacceptable.  I may have stomped my foot.  Details are fuzzy.

My response was (and I'm paraphrasing here, because, you know, 30 years have gone by...) "I do to remember!  There was a window in Mom's tummy and I could see out!"  And to this day, I am still reminded that I said that.  And then they laugh again.

At least now, I'm laughing too.  :-)