Goodbye January 2021

 

Wow!  January has come and gone.  Closer to spring and fresh beginnings.  I hope January held good things for you and your family.

Recipe: Lemon Butter Garlic Shrimp with Angel Hair Pasta

Lemon Butter Garlic Shrimp with Angel Hair Pasta

My daughter, Autumn, requests this dish often.  It is light and refreshingly tasty!  It also takes few ingredients and is quick to make.

INGREDIENTS

 8 ounces angel hair pasta, cooked according to package directions (half of a 1-pound box)

 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

 1 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste

 1 pound extra small shrimp, peeled, de-veined, and cleaned with tails off

 1/2 teaspoon salt

 1/2 teaspoon pepper

 1/4 cup lemon juice

 1 teaspoon lemon zest, optional

INSTRUCTIONS

Cook pasta according to package directions, drain, and set aside.

To a large skillet, add the butter and heat over medium-high heat to melt.

Stir in the garlic powder.

Add the shrimp, season with salt and pepper, and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes total, or until just pink and cooked through. Flip shrimp halfway through cooking. Cooking time will vary based on size of shrimp and pan used; don’t overcook or shrimp will become rubbery and tough.

Add the lemon juice, optional lemon zest, and stir briefly to combine.

Turn the heat to low, add the pasta to skillet with the shrimp, and toss to combine and coat.

Taste, check for seasoning balance, and make any desired tweaks (add more salt, pepper, garlic powder, lemon juice, etc.).

Serve immediately.

***I double this recipe for our family of six.

***Serve with a salad or vegetable and breadsticks.

Toledo Attraction: National Museum of the Great Lakes

One of my mom's visits to us in Ohio.  We went to visit the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo.  This is an excellent place to visit in this area and I enjoyed it so much.

They have an app where you can take a self tour of the ship which is gigantic!  You listen to the information at each point through the app on your phone.  Really helps you to understand everything you are seeing.

These ships amaze me - they are so big!

The little tugboat!

The museum is so well done and has so many interesting artifacts and information to read.

If you are ever in the area, take time to visit this great museum!

We got snow in Oregon!

 Monday - an interesting day!  I still have not received my father-in-law's death certificates to move forward.  In my communication with the funeral home, the VA now could not locate them at their facility where they were sent to be signed.  Long story short, they are trying again.  

In another call with the VA, I was trying to settle his account and have any outstanding bills sent to me.  She first says that she couldn't speak with me because I am not listed as an authorized person on his account.  Could I have one that is call?  I replied, Sure!  Give me the names and I'll have them call.  Oh, she replies, I can't do that due to privacy laws.  I said, Maam, do you see how stupid that is?  He's dead, I can't ask him who the authorized user is - how am I supposed to know who to have call you!

Then she says, Oh, I see what the problem is.  You need to submit a death certificate to us.  Maam!!!  They were sent to your hospital three weeks ago and now you are claiming you can't find them!  How am I supposed to submit something that YOU couldn't even keep track of???

And I hung up.  So that was a little how my Monday started.  Ha!!!

You can bet when I get those certificates, I WON'T be mailing them to the VA.  I'll be marching my butt into that office.  Good. Grief.  

And then, my daughter lost her wallet with her driver's license so I am adding taking her and picking her up from work each day to my schedule.  I did that - then went to get groceries at Wal-Mart.  Just not a pleasurable start to my week.  LOL!

I made One-Pot Creamy Beef Stroganoff for dinner with carrots on the side.  Click on the link for this recipe - it is a cheap, tasty and easy comfort food for a cold January day!

Remember how my daughter, Addie, lost her license?  I was hoping the DMV would allow her to take my appointment Tuesday and...they wouldn't.  Isn't that fun?  The problem is the DMV is open by appointment only.  And the appointments are months out.  I'm praying God opens up an appointment for her because she isn't able to drive until we can get that license.  Augh!  I know God is in control but man is it frustrating sometimes.

The good news is I was able to transfer my Ohio license to an Oregon license.  And, Autumn passed her permit test!  Now to get in all our driving hours.  Yikes!

So, after the test, I let her drive a little around on the side roads.  This is so funny - it RARELY snows in the area where we live in Oregon.  We are only at 175 ft in elevation - so only higher elevations around us get any snow.

Except on the day she gets her permit!  LOL!  So, she did get some experience already driving in snow.  I guess that's a good thing!

I'm going to post several pictures cause we may not see this again!  LOL!

It was pretty watching it fall throughout the afternoon from my living room.

Video of the snow outside our home.

After we got home, I worked on school - with a warm blanket and heating pad at my feet.  LOL!

App that we use to track driving hours for our girls - wow!  Starting over with the second daughter already.

We then had to go get Addie from work.  They dismissed the daycare early.  The snow was really sticking the closer we got to Sherwood - the next town over.

What a mess it was trying to get home!  What normally takes a little less than 15 minutes took an hour.  I guess these Oregon drivers have no clue what to do when it snows!!

When we finally made it home after sitting in a line of traffic for forever, I quickly walked Max - boy, was it damp and chilly!  Then made dinner.

Try this meal the next time you need something quick and economical!  You can find the recipe at this link - 

One-Pot Ten-Minute Beef and Broccoli.

My Childhood Memories Tour - Part Four

Just a few pictures of the Indiana/Ohio countryside.  Still so rural and laid back.

This was my mom's grandparents' home.  She said she would go there on lunch break from school to visit them.

So at the end of our day, we realized that we did not see the statue of the crying lady back at the cemetery.  So of course, we had to stop back on our way out to see her.  LOL!!

Mom used to talk for her.  Ha!!

On the way home, there is a certain back road that my mom would let me drive when I was a teenager.  So to carry on the tradition, I let Autumn drive that same road.  That was the end of this day with my mom.  What a special memory with her sharing some of her memories!

Recipe: Bacon Cheeseburger Rice

Bacon Cheeseburger Rice

This is a new recipe I recently tried that I am putting in my keeper file!  It is very husband and kid-friendly.  Be sure to add lots of pickles on top - it makes the dish unique and so tasty!

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

2/3 cup barbecue sauce

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

2 teaspoons dried minced onion

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 cups uncooked instant rice

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/3 cup chopped dill pickles

5 bacon strips, cooked very crisp and crumbled

Directions

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook beef until no longer pink; drain. 

Cook the rice as directed.

Add the barbecue sauce, mustard, onion, pepper and bacon to the beef.  Stir in rice.

2. Transfer to a baking dish.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Heat through in the oven.  

As you serve, top with chopped dill pickles.

***I doubled this recipe for our family of 6.