Where Has The Time Gone?

I can't believe its been over 2 weeks since I last posted.

WOW!

Where does the time go?

It hasn't been boring around here that's for dang sure!

Seems like we haven't been home for weeks.

I'm working on a couple blog postings for you to get you all caught up on what's been goin on around here at The House of B's.

Here's a little preview of what I'm working on

The Hubs class reunion

Some Glamping with WSU Laura

Some not so glamour camping.

More rain than glamour

A trip to Sweet Cheeks Winery

Charlie doing a little community service

Spreadin the love!

Some recipes

Don't forget there is Junk Junket leaving from the Seattle area on September 12th to Barn House.
Come Junk With Us

I'm doin it!

That's right folks..........I'm doin it!

Some of you have been asking me, telling me, and encouraging me to go forward with an idea that I had way back when, after my first trip to Farm Chicks.

Well mostly those who hang with me on a regular basis are sick of listening to me talk about it... but whatever! My constant babbling about it now just got turned up a notch.

I'm taking my love for road trips, junk, and parties on the road!

Today I called and gave my credit card (The Hubs is going to have a stroke) to Bob at Chinook Bus Charter, I purchased my domain names, and activated a Paypal account.

I know your sayin "what the hell is she up to now?"

I'm organizing a bus tour from the Seattle area to The Barn House Sale in Battleground, WA on September 12th!

Yep! A big ass bus (well actually a mediums size bus) full of ladies who love junkin, takin road trips, craftin, eatin, and havin a good time.

This is the plan

Leave the Snohomish area around 6 am on Saturday Morning

make a few stops (potty, pick ups, and potty) along the way and arrive at Barn House about 9-ish or 10-ish.

Shop around The Barn House big fabulous fall sale for a while, have a little lunch, then head over to some of my other favorite stops while in Battle Ground. Then, we'll head home around 3-ish which will put us back at the cars around

6-ish.

The cost is going to be $125 per person for a full day of fun, shopping, lunching with your friends, meeting new friends, and....the best part.....you don't have to drive!

This weekend I'm going down to the Barn House sale to let them know I'm planning on bringing a bus load of ladies to their sale. I'm going to map out the route, and get some more details figured out to make this fabulous.

This week I'll also be looking for vendors who want to participate in this "rollin party!"

Seating will be limited, so start making your plans now.

I'm working on an official blog that will have all the details.

Stay tuned!

If you want to be on the notification list, e-mail your information (Name, phone # and the number of seats you want) to agirlnamedtimi@hotmail.com and I'll notify you as soon as I 'm offically selling seats.

If you would like to come in from out of town I'm working on that too!

Travel arrangments and hotels.

Come Junk With Us!

Finally!

Week # 5 of Jesus Loves Casseroles

The first recipe I'm posting today is from my cousin Connie.

I know! She's pretty and takes nice pictures.

Couldn't possibly be related to me right?

Well.........She is!

Side Note**** She's single! Looking for a nice man that likes to travel, will let her shop no questions asked, and worships the ground she walks on.

All applications for her new boyfriends can be sent to

agirlnamedtimi@hotmail.com

Where I will screen them, and those that pass my rigorous screening process will be forwarded to her for review.

Gifts, humor, and flattery will get you far with me.

I know!

I wouldn't make a good spy or prisoner of war.
If I got caught, a Diet Coke, cookie, or something pretty would make me sing like a bird!

OK, sorry sorry

Back to the regular scheduled posting.

A little bit about Connie that you all need to know (even if you don't want to date her)

In 2004 Connie along with another Marine mom founded the Marine Corps Family Foundation with a mission to support deployed Marines and soldiers and their families. It started off small with the first project being Back Packs for Iraq. More than 6,000 lbs of back packs and school supplies where sent to the children of Iraq. Connie and her Marine Corp moms we desperate to do something to protect and support our Marine sons...and as the Marine slogan goes, "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy", they decided to befriend the children of Iraq, the next generation. Next came Operation Santa, the foundation's biggest national project with more than 75,000 filled handmade holiday stockings shipped to Iraq and Afghanistan thus far. Today there are Operation Santa Coordinators across the nation making the Christmas season a bit brighter for our Marines and soldiers. The foundation is always looking for more people to step up and coordinate a packing party in their community or neighborhood.

So contact them if your interested in seeing what you can do to help!

Connie's son is now home and living in sunny Arizona with his wife and sons, and a baby daughter on the way. He now supports his mom's efforts to support his brothers in arms. It's a "family" thing now.

SEMPER-FI!!!

Go visit The Marine Corps Family Foundation to see what you can do.

The Holidays are just around the corner and it's time to start thinking of our Soldiers, kids, and loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Connie's Zucchini Casserole

4 small zucchini, cut ¼” slices and saute in 4 Tbls. Butter/margarine with 1/3 cup chopped onion. Mix 1 cup sour cream, 1 can cream of chicken soup and 1 ½ cup shredded carrots. Mix 1 box Stove Top Stuffing with ½ cup water, full amount of margarine (see box). Mix ½ stuffing mixture with zucchini mixture in greased casserole dish. Cover with remaining stuffing mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

I had lunch with my good friend Charlene of Freshly Doug Vegetables the other day and she brought me all these beauties

I needed to use some of them up, so I decided I would make Connie's Zucchini Casserole

So I started off with the some of those Walla Walla Sweet onions in a pan with some butter.

Then I got a little side tracked from Connie's recipe. I decided that it might need a little more butter.

Yeah me, Paula Deen, and Julia Childs are all on the same page about the butter thing.

Kind of off the subject but worth mentioning............

WSU Laura and I saw the movie Julie and Julia the other night and I loved it! If you a haven't seen it yet - do it. You won't regret it. It's going to make you want to come home and start cooking all Julia Childs recipes.

Ok, back to my trying to make Connie's recipe.....

So I sauteed

While sauteing the butter, onions, and zucchini, I decided to throw in some of that yellow squash too.

Then I threw it all together with the sour cream, Cream of Chicken Soup, and the stuffing mix. I didn't have just a plain or chicken flavored stuffing mix. I used Stove Top Stuffing Mix Turkey Flavored. Then I was thinking........uuuuuhmmmmm I wonder if this would be good with some Asiago Cheese in it?

What the hell!

I threw some of that in too.

I also put in some fresh ground pepper to taste.

Put it in a baking dish and sprinkled the rest of my cheese on top. Now I didn't save part of the stuffing mix for the top because I forgot. My stuffing mix got all mixed in. I also forgot to put the carrots in.

Here it is

It was FANTASTIC!!!

I suggest you try this.

This would also be good with some rice, chicken, or ground turkey in it if you wanted to make it a whole meal casserole.

I WILL be making this again.
The Hubs gave it his two thumbs up!!

Next up..........

Remember Kal and Angie from The Farm Chicks Show?

Kal over at Keeping it Bella sent me the next recipe.

We had a heat wave that passed through the Pacific Northwest a couple weeks ago and we were all dying. Now it's a little cooler, the school supplies are out at Target, the leaves are starting to turn and pretty soon it's going to be time for hot steamy soups and stews.

I can't wait to try this creation from Kal.

E-mail from Kal;

This is something I came up with; unfortunately I’m not one to measure much when I cook. So here goes, with the best I can do with measurements. Oh and I also cook BIG.

Lotsa leftovers

Chicken and Biscuits

4 Chicken breasts
6-8 small Yukon Gold potatoes
2 Carrots
1 bag of frozen pearl onions
2 Stocks of Celery
1/2 Bag Frozen Corn
1/2 bag petite peas
4 can of Cream of Chicken soup w/ 1 c. water added.

1 box of Bisquick Biscuit Mix
Milk
Salt & Pepper to taste
Maybe some garlic; if you feel garlicky.

Roast or boil the chicken, let cool. Shred chicken. Cut up all veggies (except onions) into bite size pieces. Par boil potatoes and carrots until about ½ done. Mix the meat & all the veggies into a large bowl. Mix in soup mix. Add salt & pepper mix really well. Pour into a large casserole dish. Mix biscuits according to directions for the desired amount of biscuits for the top of your casserole. Cut biscuits desired size, place on top of meat & veggie mixture. Bake @ 350 preheated oven for approximately 30-40 minutes or until bubbly and biscuits are golden brown.

This freezes really well. Freeze in the casserole dish, or just throw the mixture into a gallon Zip Lock bag and throw into the freezer. Just don’t put the raw biscuits on until ready to bake.

This is kind of a toss & throw recipe. Meaning if you don’t like an ingredient..... Throw it out, if you like something else or more of......it throw some in!

Easy Peasy!

This next recipe came from another cousin at one of our family reunions. I can't remember who made it but it was darn good!

I know!

Another cousin recipe. I'm tellin ya we are a bunch of foodies.

MUSHROOM WILD RICE

4 cup Water
1 cup Wild Rice, uncooked
1 tsp Butter
1 ½ tsp Salt, divided
½ cup Brown Rice, uncooked
8 strips Bacon, diced
2 cups Fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 Onion, large, chopped
1 Green Pepper, medium, chopped
1 Sweet Red Pepper, medium, chopped
1 Celery Rib, thinly sliced
1 can (14 ½ oz.) Beef Broth
2 Tbls Cornstarch
¼ cup Water
½ cup Slivered Almonds

In a large saucepan bring water, wild rice, butter and ½ teaspoon salt to a boil.
Reduce heat; cover and simmer 40 minutes.
Stir in brown rice. Cover and cook 25 – 30 minutes longer or until rice is tender.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon.
In 2 tablespoons bacon drippings sauté: mushrooms, onions, peppers & celery until tender.
Stir in broth & remaining salt.
Bring to a boil.
Combine cornstarch and cold water. Mix until smooth. Add to mushroom mixture.
Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened and bubbly.
Stir in almonds and bacon.
Drain rice.
Add mushroom mixture.
Transfer to 13x9 baking dish.
Cover. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes.
Uncover. Bake 5-10 minutes or until heated through.

12 Servings

This is a new recipe I found. It was so fantastic that I had to share it!

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

You can just ignore the word “raspberry” up there and swap it up with any berry you please, like blackberries or blueberries, marionberries, boysenberries, or all of the above.

I HIGHLY suggest doubling this and putting it in a large oblong cake pan. Making a little pan of it won't do and seriously.......what are you going to do with half a stick of butter???

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 cup fresh raspberries or as many as you like.

You can mix berries also. I used boysenberries with raspberries. It was fabulous.

My friend Trudy used all blueberries and loved it.

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.

Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and Add egg and beat well.
At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.
Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.
(Baking time might need to be shortened.Seems like it baked crazy quick.)

Send me some recipes!

With all the fresh produce available right now, I bet some of you have some fantastic recipes.

SEND THEM NOW!!!!

I Have A Fun Hangover

Oh it's been busy busy busy around here.

I apologize that I'm behind on my blogging, blog reading, and blog maintenance.

I promise to start getting caught up this week.

The last couple weeks have been super busy working with Annie on getting things ready for this last weekend and The Hot Blogust Night event. I also have had summer family visits and general everyday stuff that has just gotten me behind on everything.

It all started on Friday when Lisa and Isabel made the 4 hour trip from Portland to my house for their weekend stay.

The plan.........

Junkin', eatin', meetin' other bloggers, readers and more eatin'.

Friday night I threw a party

Junk Swap

This was an idea that my friend Dani gave me and it was so fabulous that I had to do it right away.

I couldn't think of a better time or group of women to try it out on.

Lisa and Isabel. Jana in the backgroundThe table of food.

One can't have a party without A LOT of food.

Have ya ever been to a party with no food?

Yeah I know!

Let's not even go there.

Jana and Annie laughing at me.

I might need to get new people

I'm currently taking applications for new peeps!

They were laughing at me because my camera fell on the ground and broke in to a million pieces. I picked it up, put it back together and tried to snap this picture. The camera seemed like it was going to work but it didn't. So I was putting the camera down and it just started snapping pictures like it had a mind of it's own.

This picture of Annie and Jana laughing was one of the random pictures it started taking on it's own.

The camera is now on the dining room table with flowers around it. One of it's crappy pictures beside it.

You may stop by and view it and give me your condolences between the hours of 8 am and 4 pm.

Please bring a Diet Coke with you.

What?

I'm in mourning!

I have had that crappy camera for many years. We have taken a lot of crappy pictures together.

Ok, back to the party............

Amber and Trish

Being all cute and funny like always.

The ladies chatting, drinking, and picking numbers.

Here is how the Junk Swap worked

Everyone brought 2 junk items.

This could be some fabulous find that didn't work out for you, something you made, or something brand new. All the items were clean, working and ready to go to a new home.

Price range, size, and style didn't matter.

We spread them all out on a table for display.

We drew numbers to determine the order in which we would choose.

One by one we looked over all the fabulous stuff and carefully choose one item.

Then after everyone had chose something we drew numbers again to change up the order for round 2.

This is the first time I have done this but it was so much fun we are thinking of doing it at least once a month.

Maybe change up the theme a little

That concludes my pictures of my party so this will also conclude my sharing portion of the weekend. Go to these blogs for more pictures and stories of the evening. They all had cameras.

Isabel

Lisa

Annie

Trish

Amber

Jennifer

Jana

Saturday morning Lisa, Isabel and I got up and did a little local junkin before the blog party.

I think they did pretty well

A truck load

and I mean a load
Lisa unloading some of her loot.

Lots of fun finds.

I'm going camera shopping so I can take pictures of all my great finds to show you.

No pictures of the blog party for me

No camera

This was a really fun evening. It was nice to finally meet some fellow bloggers and readers.


I found out that I live within walking distance (if one liked to walk) of Melanie and apparently Kim lives only a short drive away.


Who would have guessed that I lived so close to such talented women.

Don't think I'm not going to be showing up on their door steps hoping that some of their creativeness will rub off on me.

You know the whole "product of your environment" theory.
I'm fixin' to try this theory out on all of these ladies.

Each store had cocktails and appetizers out for tasting;
They had special in store discounts;
Annie had door prize drawings,
and we voted on the best blog badge

The winner was...........

Lisa from a Thing For Roses

A big Thank You to Rene for traveling so far to come to our little blog party.
It was so fun to finally meet you and I know we are all looking forward to your next visit.

Another big Thanks to Lisa and Isabel for coming up from Portland to spend the entire weekend with us.
The Hubs and I really enjoyed having both of you.

It was suggested that I open a "Junkers Bed and Breakfast"

I'm thinkin'.............HELL YEAH!
Anytime!

Here is a list of some of those with blogs that were in attendance on Saturday for our Hot Blogust Night.

Lisa

Isabel

Jana

Annie

Shell

Kim

Linda

Amber

Trish

Kim

Melanie

Laura

Debi

Barb

Rene

Charlene

Go check them out and look at their pictures, read their stories and stop in and say hello.

With all the fun we had I feel like I'm suffering from a hangover. The laughing, eating, drinking, more belly laughing, and just general fun has left me tired, not wanting to do anything and swearing I'll never do it again.

Thank you everyone for coming out! A special thank you to Annie and Mary. Especially Annie for getting all the stores in Snohomish that participated on board for this event. It was super fun and we are going to have to talk Annie in to having another one.

Seeeeeee Just like a hangover, you swear you never will do it again and in the same breath your saying "That was so much fun we should do it again!"

This week...........


I'm buyin' a new camera and catchin' up on my blogging duties.

Money Saving Travel Tips

In Tough Times

In these tough economic times it's hard to just get by day-by-day let alone trying to go on a vacation. I heard the best money saving tip for traveling with kids from my good friend (we'll call her Ma Kettle for this story) that I had ever heard in my entire life.

I don't have kids so when I hear money saving tips with kids I usually stop listening. BUT this one...........It was just too good to not share it with you.

Bare with me while I try to explain this to you. It's a bit complicated but the idea is soooooooo fantastic.

I was having lunch the other day with a few of my favorite girl friends (we have been friends since 4th grade) including Ma Kettle. They all have kids and started talking about the ways they have been trying to save money.

Ma Kettle said she had saved some money and was probably going to get nominated for Mother of The Year because her money saving idea was so good. Well this perked up my ears and I started listening again.

Ma Kettle has A LOT of kids. I think she's up to like 15 or 20. I don't know it's hard to keep track of what's going on there but when she says she had a good idea thats going to save money it's time to listen!

Ok, Ok, Ok......It might only be 5 kids.

This could be her family picture.

This might be a picture of a few of her 15 or 20 kids.

Anyway............you get the picture.
She's a busy mom running here and there trying to keep order with a bunch of renegade kids. Her and Pa Kettle are out numbered.

A few weeks ago while Ma and Pa Kettle were taking all the kids on a road trip they were on their way home on Sunday when Pa Kettle decided he wanted to extend the road trip. Everyone was delighted. So they took off to a little town called Nofreakinwhere.

While headed to Nofreakinwhere one of the kids piped up and said "what about my appointment in Shitville on Tuesday?"

Ma Kettle goes into problem solving mode immediatly. They can't turn around and go home now. Even if they did they wouldn't have made it in time to get The Kid to Shitville in time.

Ma Kettle starts calling Greyhound trying to get him a ride from Nofreakinwhere to Shitville.

No luck!

Ok, lets call Amtrak...........

No luck!

Now she has kids screaming they need to go to the bathroom!

So Pa Kettle pulls in to a truck stop and lets all the kids out to go use the bathroom, play in the water in the sinks of the rest rooms, and shoplift.

Well they probably didn't really shoplift but throwing that in definitely made me crack myself up!
While the kids were in terrorizing the truck stop a big ole brand new beautiful truck and trailer pulled in to the truck stop.
Ma Kettle said it was beautiful as far as Semi's go.



DING DING DING!!!!

Ma Kettle gets an idea!

She jumps out of their car runs over to this new truck and trailer knocks on the drivers door.

He opens up

Ma Kettle: "you by chance wouldn't happen to be headed to Shitville would you?"

The Driver: "I am"

Because Shitville is the next largest town in a 400 mile radius

Ma Kettle; "Would you be willing to take The Kid to Shitville?"

The Driver "Sure, why not!"

So Ma Kettle goes back to the car, gets The Kid and his stuff together and loads him in the new pretty semi truck and sends him off to Shitville with her new BFF The Driver.

Now I know your sitting there laughing, horrified, and have a million questions. So did all of us sitting there listening to the story. Once we stopped laughing our asses off we were able to start asking some of the same questions you have.

First off, The Kid is old enough to take care of himself. Somewhere between the age of old enough to drive and old enough to put a uniform on and defend our country.

Also as Ma Kettle told us

"that was a brand new rig!" "they don't just let anybody buy those!"

"that guy had to be an up and up guy to get a bank in these times to loan him that much money!"

She had a point.

I think this is a fantastic money saving tip

You could go down to the local truck stop and see who was going close to Disneyland or Disney World.

Load up the family and hitch a ride!

Seriously.........This happened.

I can't make this shit up!

The Kid is still talking about how much fun he had on this trip with The Driver, the driver delivered him safely to Shitville, and Ma Kettle told me she would be using this means of transportation again to help shuttle kids around.

You have to admit..........

It's not a bad idea!

HOT BLOGUST NIGHT

Don't forget about Hot Blogust Night this Saturday August 8th from 4- 9 in beautiful Downtown Snohomish, Washington.

Still working on Jesus Loves Casseroles post. I should have it up on Friday.

I'm still looking for recipes.

What's been your summer favorite this year?

What is your fall favorite?

What are you canning right now?