Recipe for Tracy

"Key Lime" Cloud Squares

Prep 20 min. plus refrigerating
Makes 16 servings

What you need

1 1/3 cups Honey Maid Graham Crumbs, divided /or Oreo Baking crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melter
3/4 cup boiling water
1 pkg. ( 85 g) Jell-O Lime Jelly Powder
1 cup ice cubes
1 pkg. (250 g) Philadelphia Brick Cream Cheese, softened
1 can ( 300ml) sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup lime juice
2 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping, divided

Make It

Reserve 1 Tbsp. graham crumbs. Mix remaining crumbs with butter; press onto bottom of plastic wrap-lined 9-inch square pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Add boiling water to jelly powder in small bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add ice; stir 2 min. or until thickened. Remove any unmelted ice. Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in milk, then juice. Add jelly; mix well. Whisk in 1 cup Cool Whip. Pour over crust.

Refrigerate 6 hours or until firm. Cover with remaining Cool Whip just before serving; sprinkle with reserved crumbs. Use plastic wrap to remove dessert from pan before cutting into squares.

MAKE AHEAD: This dessert can be refrigerated up to 24 hours before covering with Cool Whip and sprinkling with reserved crumbs.

Im off to Arizona! I'll be back in a week! Enjoy the recipe!

Sweet Little Porcupine

Can you believe this costume? Megan found it on line and ordered it before she knew if the baby was a girl or a boy - either way, the baby was going to be a porcupine for Halloween. Megan thought that the costume would be large enough in October for the baby to wear a full set of warm clothes under it, along with a sweater. No one knew that Peyton was going to be such a chubby baby! All that would fit under her costume was a diaper!

Halloween night was so dark, that with the chocolate brown costume, we could not get any good shots. Two days later, we carefully "slid" Peyton into the costume again and set her outside among the pumpkins in front of the workshop for her photo shoot.

I think that is an excellent idea for any scrapbooking Mom - a couple of days before Halloween and the sugar high sets in, set up a photo shoot that utilizes natural daylight when you have time to capture the shots that you want, without children complaining that they want to head out trick or treating! With some extra time and natural light, you will get the Halloween shots that you wanted, without the stress and craziness of Halloween night. With a little planning, the photos will turn out much better than they would have with a flash!!! Just look at those bright blue eyes - they would have been dark or red with the use of a flash.

Peyton was too little for candy, she really didn't get the whole idea of the event, but she loved all the attention. How could you resist kissing those fat little cheeks! I highly recommend being a Grandma!

You can win me!!!

This little goodie is up for grabs...take it home for answering a quick questionnaire! We need to know what you are thinking, so, if you subscibe to Monday Night Classes' newsletter, get the questionaire and be heard!!! We need your input! Two of these beauties are going to new homes, so don't forget to watch for the newsletter in the next couple of days and answer the questions!

Recipe for Antionette

This is a "warm you from the inside" supper or lunch idea that only needs a simple salad on the side. Enjoy!!

Hamburger Corn Bread Casserole

1 1/3 lean ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1/3 cup salsa
1 can dark brown canned beans (any flavor)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
6 chopped canned jalapeno peppers (optional, but recommended)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
   



2. Fry ground beef and onions til no longer pink. Add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 5 minutes.
   



3. Put in baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam or other baking spray.
   

Topping:

1 cup flour
1 cup of cornmeal
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tbsp oil
bacon to taste

Stir until just moistened. Spoon over filling. Bake for 14-18 minutes.

Cutest Pumpkin In The Patch

Isn't this the cutest little pumpkin that you ever saw? Megan finally relented and let me post a photo of Peyton on my blog. We had a heck of a time getting Peyton to cooperate with our photo shoot - first she did not like the bright sunlight and then she was much more interested in following the traffic on the highway than looking at the camera. Most of the shots that I got were of the side of her head. She isn't really sitting up by herself, so we had to wedge pumpkins around her so that she would not fall over. Peyton also didn't like the poky straw bale, so we had to camouflage a blanket under her to keep her from lifting her chubby little legs and squealing at the top of her lungs.
Creston was perfect at Thanksgiving time, the leaves were just starting to turn and the weather was gorgeous! It was really too bad that Peyton did not like to be out in the sunshine, so I had to buy 20 pumpkins and bring them home so that we could stage a photo shoot and get her in her Halloween costume instead. Okay, so I didn't have to buy 20 pumpkins, but I wanted to buy them...so I did. The lady at the fruit stand was shocked, I guess no one had ever asked her for a price reduction if they took a truck load! I scattereed them all over the farm, but right after we got back it froze fairly hard, so all of my pretty sunflowers died and the pumpkins are starting to look a little "soft". We have had such a nice Indian Summer. I am going to have to get one of those kits and do it up with all of my fall photos!

Scrapbook Mentors

After a beautiful summer, with lots of extreme yard, garden and house projects, I find myself looking forward to the cooler and less hectic days of fall. Don't get me wrong, I love the supposed "relaxed" schedule of summer. Unfortunately, I am the sort of person who puts off, for vacation time, all the big projects that you can not seem to get around to when you are working. Summer ends up being more work and less play than you expected. Fall then, becomes your summer. The peas are languishing on the vine (cooked by all of the incessant heat that we have received this month), the grass is growing so slowly that you don't spend as much time on the mower as you used to and a blind eye is turned towards the flower pots that need to be dead headed and trimmed up (as well as watered) - life slows down in a delicious way and you quit stressing about things that need to be done. The gradual slow down is peaceful and calming - one season is coming to a close and another opens up with lots of possibilities.

The kitchen is not the hot house that is has been for months. You could actually turn on the oven, if you wanted to. News stand magazines are vibrant with fall colors - apple pies, fall deserts, roasts - things that you would never contemplate when it is 30 degrees outside. Halloween magazines are rich with decorating ideas, scrapbook magazines are dripping with fall leaves, bats and pumpkins. Everywhere you look, you are surrounded by color. That is the essence of fall!

I am exactly, perfectly, and wonderfully where I want to be in my scrapbooks. Exactly one year behind. The most perfect place to be. My next set of photos was taken precisely one fall ago, a end of the season camping trip to Creston, to buy apples, onions and the very last of the freestone peaches. The fact that I can look out the window and see inspiration, purchase the latest autumn themed papers and feel the cooler air of fall has really made me want to camp out at my scrapbook table and create.

The other thing that has me itching to scrapbook is the fact that when I cleaned my scrapbook room this summer, I came across a long lost book that I treasure. Stacey Julian's "The Big Picture". A book that I think every scrapbooker should be forced to re-read every year. Her warm approach to both the craft and the journaling of her pages is the best inspiration that one could possibly get. It is a must read - from cover to cover. While I do not scrapbook in her style, or in the way that she plans her albums, I take so much away from that book every time that I read it, I continue to re-read and re-read it. Over and over. I don't even know if it is still in print, if it is long gone, I feel so sorry for people who have not had the good fortune to lose themselves in Stacey's wit and wisdom.

The photo above is a picture that I treasure. Not because it is just Stacey, but because a dear friend of mine took the time to think of me. Stacey Julian was at a book signing at Scrapbooker's Paradise in Calgary when my friend, Sandy, realized that I probably did not have her autograph. Knowing how much the book meant to me, she grabbed a piece of patterned paper off the shelf (that matched what Stacey was wearing) and had Stacey write me a note on the paper. While she was writing to me, Sandy took a photo of her, so that I could scrapbook my mentor. What a friend!!! It made my day!!!!!

Every time I see this photo, I smile. I scrapbooked the picture, on the paper with the note and I am SOOOO happy that I found the "Big Picture" book before I started my fall scrapbooking marathon. It will remind me to journal properly - not just about the events themselves, but about the feelings associated with the activity. Scrapbooking, for me, is so much more than the sum of its parts. I want my great, great, great grandchildren to know who I was and what I dreamed about. I want to live on!

Antique Stores, Here I Come!

This weekend we are going to Creston again, and I can not wait!! Have you ever found somewhere in your life, where you are totally at peace - well, my altar to worship at is Creston, B.C. The climate, our friends at the campground, the antique stores and fruit stands...I have died and gone clear to heaven! The drive is not too long, the anticipation of fresh fruit and vegetables from the fruit stands, the opportunity to poke around at the greenhouse and nursery next door to our favorite campground - the whole experience is just pure relaxation and rejuvenation to me. This trip was supposed to be made with family and friends, but after a series of unfortunate incidences, only Mike and myself and Megan and Murray ( with baby) are venturing out. The intent for the guys is pure golf nirvana - no wind and a beautiful course to play - the intention for the girls is shopping, shopping, shopping!!! I am looking for unusual flower and herb seeds and possibly a garden ornament or two and anything that "speaks" to me in the antique stores. Megan just wants to vegetate and relax. The best part - I get to be the babysitter!!!!
I think what I enjoy best about a trip to Creston is that it does not have the "holiday jet lag" that I experience anywhere else. I have often wondered if that happens to other people, not just me. You know...you go somewhere to relax and it does not feel like a holiday. Inevitably, the night before you go have to go home, then suddenly you hit your vacation groove and you are truly

relaxed - only to have to go home the next morning...why does that happen? To me, every time we go somewhere I experience that feeling - except Creston. The second that I see the town sign, I am transported to heaven. When I die, my family should sprinkle my ashes over Creston Valley and I will be happy forever!

Spiced Carrot Muffins By Request

Where did April and May go??? I have not had time to sit down at my computer (for fun) in sooooo long...I am surprised that over a month and a half has evaporated into thin air!! Other than one really cool antique hunting trip that Mike and I took, it has been nothing but work, work and more work. Nothing exciting - except for when baby comes to visit!

The cold, chilly spring has left me at my scrapbooking table much longer than normal this spring. Somehow, getting dressed in winter colthes, to go outside and dig in the frozen chilly ground has seemed less than appealing. So I decided to finish my brother-in-law's heritage album that has been a thorn in my side for many, many years. This year, I quit talking about finishing it and I actually did it, working day and night for several weeks, trying to get it done before Allan comes to visit this month. I am about two pages away from the completion of what has turned out to be a two volume set. If I do not see tears when I gift it to Allan, he might be the next chapter in the book "Crazed Scrapbooker Kills Relative With Scissors".

I promised that I would post my breakfast muffin recipe - sorry if you have been waiting!

Spiced Carrot Muffins 400 degree oven

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup brown sugar

Mix these dry ingredients together until well blended and then make a well in the center of the bowl and add:

1 egg

1/2 - 1 cup buttermilk (or more if needed, depending on how juicy your carrots are)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups carrot

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

Mix well. Your batter should not be dry, or runny either, just a nice, moist, middle of the road batter. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until a toothpick in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

These muffins are more savory than sweet and make the perfect breakfast muffin. I cook them in Texas size muffin pans, but you can use smaller muffin tins, just adjust the time accordingly.

Let me know how your family likes them!!

The Baby is Here! The Baby is Here!

Finally, after three days of labor, Megan and Murray are proud parents of the most ADORABLE little baby girl that I have even seen. And I am not saying that just because I am the Grandma - she is seriously the cutest little thing I have ever seen. Peyton Elizabeth was born Friday morning at 10:33 am and weighed 7 lbs 2oz. She was seriously the most alert baby I have ever met - checking out the room, checking out the people that were holding her, sticking out her tongue and sucking on her hand - for just about her whole birthday. Since then, all she has done is sleep - she does not want to play anymore!! Except between the hours of midnight and 6:00am. Megan is looking a little frazzled, with the lack of sleep. Everyone is doing fine and my camera chip is filling up at an alarming rate. I would love to post a photo, but Megan would kill me! No baby on the Internet, I have been warned! I guess I have to obey - she might not let me hold her!

Spring Fever

After all of my good intentions, my personal scrapbook intervention has not been entirely successful. I have had two really, really busy and intense weeks, hence, the stuff that was piled sky high - still is!! However, I did get the stuff to Allison for the scrapbook garage sale and I have set aside some supplies for a fellow scrapbooker (that I have not met) that lost her scrapbook supplies in a house fire. The rest is just sitting there, taunting me. I thought I heard the piles whispering "I'm winning, you can not control me!" After a strong start, I have started to fade in the home stretch. My greatest asset or liability is that I work the best under pressure. So this week the pressure is going to be added - Megan is due to have the baby and my husband's family is coming from Vancouver Island after the baby is born. Lucky for me, I can always come up with some sort of craziness in my life that keeps me stressing out and working hard. I am personally held together by a mixture of over commitment and extreme OCD. It is the very fabric of my life - that and Corona with a slice of lime! We are all jumping every time that we see Megan's phone number come up on our phones - the baby could come any day now. I never did get her freezer tricked out, she finally gave up on me and did it herself. She even delivered baby items to my house that "I" should have for her baby. Talk about over achieving and OCD - Megan had to admit the other day that she is becoming more and more like me. I think every mother is like that. We just are, we have to be. Families depend on us!! So we are on the count down. Unfortunately, Megan is not cooperating - she is still working out at the gym, getting pedicures and scrap booking. No baby in sight!! I'll keep you posted!

Spring Cleaning

With a new baby on the way in a month (or less) I decided that I needed to get my house in order. No - I am not the mother, I am just the Grandmother, but I am expecting that I will be "needed" for a few weeks. Therefore, I need to be prepared in the event that Megan expects me to trick out her freezer, baby watch while she sleeps etc. etc. So about a week or so ago, spring cleaning fever hit my house.

My plan was to clean at least two cupboards or one big closet out per day. Every day. I started in the master bedroom and I CLEANED HOUSE. I am down to just the clothes that I fit into, not all of the "I might wear this again" clothes. Three large, overstuffed garbage bags left that room. Then it was on to the bathroom, six drawers, one cupboard and a BIG medicine cabinet later, that room was organized and tidy. I discovered that in another life, I must have been deprived of moisturizer! The reason why everything was falling out of the cupboards and cabinets was because I have collected a virtual museum of every type of cream and moisturizer known to modern man. I literally threw away a large garbage bag of half used tubs, squeeze bottles, pumps - I owned them all! I've used them all!!! And the worst part - I still have wrinkles!!

Then I carried on to the kitchen, living room and upper level of the basement. Two full pick up trucks worth of crap have left my house.

It was about the time that I was down to the two spare bedrooms and the lower level of the basement that I had to come to terms with my scrap booking supply addiction. These areas of my house are FULL of wooden stamps, unused paper and card stock and OLD CRAP. I just wanted to sit down and cry. I have never been able to purge scrap booking supplies. I just can't do it. So here I am with Beary Patch cut outs, Creative Memories stickers, 8 1/2 x 11 paper, PAPER DOLLS!! WHO IN THE HELL HAS PAPER DOLLS ANYMORE!! Okay, after I stopped hyperventilating, I forced myself to come up with a plan. Stuff just had to go. There was no way around it. I am self aware - I know I can not throw this stuff out. Hence...THE PLAN.

Part #1 of the Plan - pick out all of the stuff that you can donate to Allison's scrapbook garage sale. Put in unmarked cardboard box, so that no one can trace it back to you and laugh at you for still having paper dolls. Deliver in the dead of night. (It's really that bad!)

Part #2 of the Plan - Throw away all true junk. In my case, any paper that is wrinkled and/or faded, packaging from scrapbook supplies etc.

Part #3 of the Plan - Put EVERYTHING ELSE in the scrap booking room. It is piled SKY HIGH, there is so much stuff. My master plan is to collect all the supplies from EVERY room and cram it into one. This is a scrapbook INTERVENTION. The only way to make myself deal with the problem is to be faced with the problem and as there is no way in hell that everything is going to fit, I am soon going to be faced with it when you walk in the front door. By last night, nothing more would fit in the room and I had to pile some stuff outside the door. In two more days, I should be down the hallway and into the front entry way. I am not even sure if I can get everything that came back from the Bloomin' Inn into my front entry, but I am going to die trying. It is only when I am face to face with the wall of stuff that I am going to be able to come to terms with it and stop avoiding the issue by neatly putting it inside of closets and cupboards.
Part #4 of the Plan - Let it sit there for 24 hours. That should be just enough time to put me over the edge, I should be twitching by then - possibly even a convulsion or two.
Part #5 of the Plan - Go to town and buy beer and cigarettes. Usually I only reserve this practise for income tax season, but in this case, I think I might have to resort to these forms of medication.
Part #6 of the Plan - At this point in time, I should be so upset by the mess in my house that I will have an "outside my body" sort of experience and I will be forced to get rid of some of the stuff.
At least, that is the plan... I'll keep you posted!

My Obsession

I wish I was ten years younger - I don't want to go back to my teens...I don't even want to go back to my twenties ...or thirties. Give me a good solid forty and I would be happy with that!! Back before I started to ache and complain about my shoulder and neck, back just far enough that I still held out hope for paying off the farm, just back far enough that I seemed to be able to stay up all night, and still be productive during the day, back when I had the most energy, but was uber wise from all of my forty years on the earth. What would I do if I was forty again?

I would be brave, I would be daring, I would be well off enough to know that I could take a big chance and know that I could make it pay off. I would...
BUY A RESTAURANT!!!!

We, as a family, are lamenting the fact that one of our favorite restaurants is closing down next week, due to health issues with the principal owner. Separately, a few weeks ago, every one of my three kids came to me with the proposition of "us" buying the place. "Us" means that they wanted to invest in the project, but I know that "us" does not extend to doing any of the work. What they really meant was that they would chip in some money, but they expected me to be the chief.

I thought about a little. Probably more than a little. Probably more than I should have. I already had the color scheme picked out before a big jolt of reality hit me and knocked me out of my day dreaming ...I mean day scheming. I had already solved every objection that Mike had. I had fixed all of the problems. I had even done some calculations on paper. But, all of a sudden I got a picture in my head of what life would really be like if you were married to a job like that, and even more scary was the thought of having my grown children as partners.

How's this for a thought process: Andrew playing pool all day long in the lounge, buying drinks for all of his friends...Daniel, who can eat his body weight at every meal, ordering three appetisers and two mains, three times a day...Megan busy socializing with everyone, Mike phoning every day asking when I am coming home...

I decided that cute decor and color scheme aside, I was going to have to let this one pass. It is just good that I am ---ty and not forty!

Piles of Junk!

This is a little glimpse into my life these days.



How can I go from my cleaning frenzy in December - my annual purge of all things unnecessary - to this...in less than 60 days?? Where in the hell did all this stuff come from? Do people drop this crap off when I am not home?





Last night, everywhere I looked, there were piles, virtual piles of overflowing, thorn in my side, crap. It was like I was alright one minute and less than a few seconds later, I was a raving idiot. I guess I just snapped. My living room pushed me over the edge.



Imagine this. West wall. Megan's piano with a few nice decorations on top, appropriate sized painting hanging above... looks pretty good - except: IT IS COVERED WITH 20 OR SO MEDICINE BOTTLES, KLEENEX BOX, TOOTHPICKS (used), TWO SETS OF CRUTCHES, TWO ARTIFICIAL LEGS, ALL THE CLOTHES MIKE HAS WORN IN THE PAST THREE DAYS, COFFEE CUP, THREE DRINKING GLASSES, BOWL FOR CHIPS (empty), TWO STANDS FOR LIMB LINERS, OVERFLOWING GARBAGE CAN, USED KLEENEX ON THE FLOOR, AUTO TRADER MAGAZINE, EMPTY WICKER BASKET WHERE THE MEDICINE BOTTLES SHOULD HAVE BEEN...



North wall. MIKE'S EASY CHAIR, LIFT CHAIR FROM MEDI CHAIR, THAT I HATE. MIKE. NICE SIDE TABLE THAT IS NOW PUSHED OUT OF THE WAY, INTO THE CORNER BECAUSE OF THE LIFT CHAIR THAT I HATE! OVERFLOWING WICKER BASKET OF COOK BOOKS.



East wall. TOTALLY COVERED WITH MY SCRAP BOOKING SUPPLIES. CAN'T EVEN SEE THE FLOOR, BECAUSE I HAVE NOT HAD TIME TO PICK ANYTHING UP SINCE I STARTED MY LATEST PROJECT (scrap booking cruise album). TELEPHONE ON FLOOR, WCB PAPERS ALL OVER THE TOP OF MY SCRAP BOOKING TABLE, FOUR ESTIMATES FOR ROOF PROJECTS THAT ANDREW LEFT BEHIND, PHONE BOOK, AUTO TRADER, PACKAGE OF HALF EATEN CHIPS ON TOP OF THE ESTIMATES, CALCULATOR, UNIDENTIFIED VEST (probably Andrew's), EMPTY POP CAN Note: ANDREW'S FAVORITE BRAND, TWO UNPAID BILLS IDENTIFIED AS ANDREW'S



South Wall: NICE WOODEN CALENDAR ON WALL (still set to January), WELL DECORATED SIDE TABLE THAT IS OVERFLOWING WITH MORE COOK BOOKS, SEARS CATALOGUE, LEATHER SOFA WITH COATS DRAPED ALL OVER IT, COOKBOOKS UNDER IT, OPEN NEWSPAPER, EMPTY POP CAN, DIRTY PLATE WITH A FORK (???)



That was the final straw. I just snapped.



This was just one room. Needless to say, after my melt down and subsequent trip to the bathroom to cry in private, I marched right down there and took the bull by the horns. Mike was already cleaning by the time I finished my outburst. He just knew...



Two hours later, a Corona with a lime to settle my nerves and one very large black garbage bag later, peace is restored.



Tomorrow, watch out spare bedroom!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Canadian winters = ice, snow, frozen fingers, mind numbing cold, cars that won't start, liquid things that explode in your vehicle when you forget to take them out, frozen water pipes. Remind me again, why do we live here???? This past week has been a constant reminder that there has to be somewhere in the world where we could be at this time of the year, rather than down here in the frozen south!

The -35 weather has sorely vexed my soul. I hate winter!! I am perfectly content to watch hockey on the tube, love the wood burning stove (my scrapbook table is set up just about on top of it) and I could care less about going outside. I don't enjoy any winter sport - unless drinking hot mulled wine counts for anything, and I would be content to hibernate until spring, if given half the chance. Winter does not even make it into my scrapbooks, unless someone takes photos for me and shares them! So, thanks, Tracey for these wonderful photos.

My Canadian winter pastime is scrap booking - it does not require the likes of gloves, scarves, snow boots, it can easily be accomplished without shoveling or chipping ice, you do not get frozen fingers or toes. Just inky ones!