2 cups canned pumpkin
1 pkg. Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie traditional chewy mix
2 Tbsp. Peanut Butter

Preheat oven to 350. Coat 9″ square baking pan with cooking spray. Combine pumpkin with brownie mix in large bowl and stir until smooth. Batter will be very thick but don’t add anything else!

Even spread batter in pan. Spoon peanut butter on top. Use a knife to swirl it through batter. Bake 35 minutes. The batter will remain very thick and fudgy and should look undercooked. Allow to cool, cover pan with foil and refrigerate for 2 hours before cutting.

Yuck! These are two words I don’t enjoy hearing. I admit it…I love food! Team that up with a hubby that loves it as much or more and you’ve got trouble. We try to eat well and do eat a lot of fruit and veggies we do love to eat lots of stuff that is bad for us. With the huge farmer’s market in our town, getting fresh fruits and veggies for a reasonable price is so easy. I also have a garden that I started that I hope will produce some veggies for us to eat.

Either way it’s time to make some changes. Today I ordered a steamer and a salad chopper – thankfully all 4 of us love salads and steamed veggies and rice so it will be a wonderful addition. I have also started to follow some sites that have reasonable recipes. This is something that I want to incorporate as well – no need to spend so much all the time.

And on to exercise. Awhile back we bought a Wii and did use it initially but stopped. That is going to be moved out of the family room to our living room and both of us will hopefully get back on track.

Stay tuned for changes and I will *gasp* maybe even track my weight on here. We’ll see just how daring I am.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I found this on Allrecipes today and we decided to try it…absolutely delicious!

The Ingredients

1 pound seashell pasta
1/4 pound Genoa salami, chopped
1/4 pound pepperoni sausage, chopped
1/2 pound Asiago cheese, diced
1 (6 ounce) can black olives, drained and chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, and cool under cold water.
In a large bowl, combine the pasta, salami, pepperoni, Asiago cheese, black olives, red bell pepper, green bell pepper and tomatoes. Stir in the envelope of dressing mix. Cover, and refrigerate for at least one hour.
To prepare the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, oregano, parsley, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Just before serving, pour dressing over the salad, and mix well.

About Ron Fritsch

Ron grew up in rural northern Illinois. His father and mother were poor but hard-working tenant farmers who loved to read. So did the rest of the family.
Planting and harvesting, they lived by the seasons as much as our prehistoric ancestors had.

Because he inherited the gift of a good memory he obtained a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Illinois (major: history; minor: English literature) and a law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Early in his career, the persons in charge of the prestigious law firm where I worked became aware that I was gay. They’d insisted to him how “liberal” they were, but he soon realized—beyond the veil of a “farm boy” innocence he’d willfully kept in place too long—they were apparently still very much stuck in their times.

After his abrupt dismissal from the upper reaches of the legal profession, he became a public-service attorney representing indigent and disabled persons, and—at the end and most challenging part of his work—abused and neglected children.

All during his life as a lawyer, he spent most of his time writing arguments on behalf of his clients, in the trial courts as well as the higher appeals courts. Despite his careful legal reasoning, which he considered my trump card, he wasn’t above resorting to sarcasm and ridicule—sometimes, perhaps, excessively.

He’s writing and publishing a tetralogy asking whether history and civilization might’ve begun and proceeded differently than they did. He’s doing it not because he hopes to become rich and famous but because he wishes to share his story with the world.

For more information about Ron, you can visit his website at www.promisedvalley.com

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

I’m throwing a dinner party and can invite five people. It’s easy for me to decide who my guests will be: five of the main characters from my novel, Promised Valley Rebellion. I’ll want Rose Leaf and the prince, Morning Sun, to attend for sure. They’re determined they’ll marry and have children together even though the king and queen have repeatedly made it clear to them they may not do that. I’ll also invite Rose Leaf’s brother, Blue Sky, and his friends Spring Rain and Many Numbers. The latter two live together in an ivy-covered house, the only house of its kind in the Promised Valley. Maybe I’ll ask them if I can host the dinner at their place. They’re gay, and so is Blue Sky, but they don’t use that term. They simply “go with” men, as some women do with women.

Why do I choose these five persons to be my dinner guests? That’s an easy question to answer. They’re the leaders of the rebellion triggered not only by the king’s refusal to allow the marriage of the prince to Rose Leaf but also by the corruption and brutality of the king’s high officials.

I’ll serve what my guests would expect to be served on such an occasion: roast beef, raw onion, and freshly baked bread. I might start out the meal with a lentil soup, and I’ll gently cook some roots and tubers in a cheese sauce as a side dish. I’ll join my guests in soaking their bread with the hot drippings from the beef, and I won’t say anything about overdoing the saturated fat and cholesterol in this meal. My young guests, even the prince, spend so much of their days engaged in hard physical labor that they don’t need to worry about putting on excess weight. They’ve never heard anybody speak of saturated fat and cholesterol anyway. The bread will be whole-grain, since white bread hasn’t been invented yet.

Because money also hasn’t been invented yet, I’ll need to barter for the food and the jugs of wine I’ll serve with it. I’ll offer some good hand-made pottery and salt. Because their own pottery doesn’t last long, they often trade their excess wheat, barley, leather, cheese, wine, meat, and other goods to the river people, whose pottery can take a lot of use and abuse before it breaks. They also trade with the river people for salt, which they use principally to preserve their meat. In addition, they’ve found that their cattle like to lick blocks of salt, and they seem healthier for doing so. The valley people themselves occasionally sprinkle salt on their food. If the artisan who makes the pottery puts her or his name on the bottoms of the pieces, the valley people will think the letters are some form of decoration. Writing is something else that hasn’t been invented yet.

I’ll enjoy watching and hearing my guests sing and dance after the meal. They wouldn’t care much for my singing and dancing, but that will be alright with me. I’ll be too busy talking — gossiping, you might even say — with my guests. I’ll have all sorts of questions for them. They’re not just my guests. They’re five individuals I’ve fallen deeply in love with.

About Promised Valley Rebellion

Prehistoric farmers inhabit a fertile river valley they believe their gods promised them in return for their good behavior and obedience. Their enemies, hunters roaming the mostly barren hills beyond the mountains enclosing the valley, believe their gods gave it to them.
When the farmers’ king refuses to allow the marriage of the coming-of-age prince to the daughter of the farmer who saved the king’s life in the last war with the hunters, her brother decides he has to help his sister and the prince, his boyhood friend, correct the flagrant injustice.

Ingredients

6 medium red potatoes, cut into chunks
4 medium carrots, cut into 1/2″ pieces
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/8 tsp. garlic salt
2-4 tsp. mashed potato flakes, optional

Direction

Place potatoes and carrots in a slow cooker. Top with the chicken. Combine the soups and garlic salt; pour over the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. To thicken stir potato flakes into the gravy and cook for 30 minutes longer.

4 servings

Ingredients:

1 15 ozs. can hormel chili with beans

1 14 1/2 ozs. can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 cup water

2 cups minute rice

8 ozs. Velveeta, cut up

Directions:

Boil chili, tomatoes and water.  Add rice and cheese; stir.  Cover and remove from heat.  Let stand 5 minutes, covered.  Serve.

This is really good by itself or served in tortillas.

Ok, so I ran across this recipe on a different site so I don’t know for sure if this was truly inspired by Paula Deen or not.  But, I thought it sounded like it might be really good.  Maybe I’ll give it a shot next week.  Here goes:

Courtesy of Allrecipes

We knew that we were supposed to get quite a bit of snow this weekend so we decided it would be perfect to make some chili.  We have tried many different recipes and continue to try more.  After looking at Allrecipes this one stood out.  Hubby wasn’t sure but it was a hit!  We all loved it and it couldn’t be easier.  Thanks Debdoozie!

About Cheryl C. Malandrinos

Cheryl Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. A regular contributor for Writer2Writer, her articles focus on increasing productivity through time management and organization. A founding member of Musing Our Children, Ms. Malandrinos is also Editor in Chief of the group’s quarterly newsletter, Pages & Pens.

Cheryl is a Tour Coordinator for Pump Up Your Book, a book reviewer, and blogger. Little Shepherd is her first children’s book. Ms. Malandrinos lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband and two young daughters. She also has a son who is married.

You can visit Cheryl online at http://ccmalandrinos.com or at the following blogs:

The Book Connection

Book Tours and More

The Children’s and Teens’ Book Connection

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Question:
You’re throwing a dinner party and can invite 5 people, past or present, to attend. Who do you invite?

Answer:
My mother, Pope John Paul II, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Aunt Jean and Uncle Phil.

Question:
Why did you choose who you chose?

Answer:
My mother lost her battle to breast cancer when I was just a teenager. I’ve always wondered what my life would have been like it she had lived.

I was brought up Catholic. While there have been other popes in my lifetime, the only one I remember hearing about on a regular basis is Pope John Paul II. Not only was he the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years, he improved relations between the Catholic Church, Judaism, and Islam. He traveled to more countries than any other pope, and I believe he truly sought to unite people everywhere so we could live peacefully.

Though Laura Ingalls Wilder died eleven years before I was born, I consider her one of my mentors. Her classic children’s books, based upon her childhood, continue to gain new readers. Her books have been turned into a now classic television series, two movies, and a mini-series. Documentaries and books about her life continue to be released to the public, and numerous events around the world celebrate her work. Wilder had a keen eye for detail and wrote in a way that her life and the life of the pioneer became timeless. She inspires me on a regular basis.

Aunt Jean and Uncle Phil were no relation to me. They were a childless, elderly couple who lived next door to our family in the apartment building we shared with my paternal grandparents, a maternal uncle, and family friends.  I spent more time with them than my real family. I always feel blessed they were in my life.

Question:
What kind of food do you plan to serve?

Answer:
Turkey dinners remind me of family, friends, and the many blessings that I have been given. When I was a child, Thanksgiving was the holiday when all the relatives came over. We stuffed ourselves and then watched football. I’ve changed my style a bit over the years, but Thanksgiving is still at my place with the in-laws, my son and daughter-in-law, and my brother-in-law and his wife. By this time next year we’ll add a nephew to the ranks.

Nowadays, I make bread stuffing for the turkey. We have mashed potatoes, butternut squash, rolls, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Since my mom would be at this dinner, I would try my hand at meat stuffing. I haven’t had it in years. Dessert is usually apple pie, apple crumb pie, chocolate cream pie, and sometimes fudge.

Question:
What do you plan to do?

Answer:
I would love to get everyone’s opinions on how they like this modern world. While Wilder saw many changes over her long lifetime, computers, cell phones, and eReaders would be foreign to her. Even my mother left this world only having typed on an electric typewriter. Though Pope John Paul II only died five years ago—which I find hard to believe because it seems much longer—technology advances so quickly these days, I’m sure he would be surprised by some of the everyday gadgets we take for granted. I would also like to see if my mom, Aunt Jean, and Uncle Phil think I turned out okay.

About Little Shepherd

Obed is in the hills outside Bethlehem when the angels appear to announce the Savior’s birth. Can he trust that the miracle of the first Christmas will keep his flock safe while he visits the newborn King?

Read the Excerpt!

Off in the distance, a wolf howled. Obed moved closer to his flock, scanning the hills for any sign of a pack that might race in and steal his sheep. His family depended upon the sheep for food and their wool for clothing. No sheep would be lost under his watch.

He shivered inside his cloak. While the days were getting warmer, the nights still chilled him. He walked over to the large fire blazing inside the pit. He rubbed his hands together and held them up to the fire to warm them.

Above him, the sky twinkled with millions of stars. Obed couldn’t remember a night so clear.

Suddenly, a bright light filled the sky.

Obed trembled. “Father, what is happening?”

His father dropped to the ground, his right hand blocking his eyes from the intense light.

Obed pulled the edges of his cloak closer to his face as he squinted up at the mysterious form hovering overhead. He shivered, but this time it was not because of the cold.

For those of you that know me, you know that I am not a fan of pork.  I don’t mind ham, bacon, or hot dogs but pork roast or pork chops…yuck.  So, I will post later on how my hubby and kids liked this one.

Ingredients

•1 (3 pound) pork shoulder
•4 cups water or as needed
•8 cups white vinegar or as needed
•1/4 cup kosher salt
•1 large onion cut into 8 wedges
•1 tablespoon ground cumin
•1 tablespoon ground mustard
•1 tablespoon chili powder
•1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions

Place the pork shoulder into the ceramic bowl of a slow cooker. Pour enough water and white vinegar into the slow cooker to assure the pork is completely covered, maintaining a 2-to-1 ratio of vinegar to water. Add the salt. Put the ceramic bowl in the refrigerator and allow the pork to marinate at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours.

Drain enough of the liquid from the ceramic bowl until about 1/2-inch of pork is left exposed. Add the onion to the remaining liquid. Season the exposed surface of the pork with the cumin, mustard, chili powder, and brown sugar. Place the bowl into the base of the slow cooker and cook on High until the pork is tender and falls apart easily, 8 to 10 hours.

Carefully remove the pork to a cutting board; shred the meat into strands using a pair of forks. Remove and discard any excess fat.