annie blog

One night last week, I decided I wanted bacon pasta for dinner. I don’t know why really. But, I’m really glad that I did, because I stumbled upon this recipe.

It was a hit. A big, big hit.

I only had 12 oz. of bacon so, I omitted the olive oil and, instead, used the bacon fat to boost the bacon flavor. (I still poured off much of the bacon fat prior to cooking the onion, just not as much as the recipe suggests.). I also used a 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained, instead of the diced Roma’s.

It made 6 servings. There were no leftovers and I got a request to have it three days after we had it to begin with.

Finally, I have to say, that if you dice the bacon up sort of small, this comes together really quickly.

Try it…you’ll like it! It’s a good thing to have when you want fresh food that is really tasty on a day when time and energy might be lacking.

Today I had my hair cut.

Before:

After:

The crazy, curly mane has left the building, y’all! (Well, technically it is still in the building, I guess. Just the shorter version.)

I hope you’re having a good Tuesday! It’s so blustery here that I’ve been thinking of Winnie the Pooh all day.

Also, this song, “One More Day”,by the Wood Brothers, is stuck in my head for some reason.

I like it.

Happy Tuesday!

Hey y’all!

I hope that you had a good weekend. Ours was busy but good.

We worked, attended meetings, taught Sunday school, hosted small group, and, oh yeah, Jon and I went to a wedding.

This was the reason that I tasked my brain with buying hosiery last week.

My verdict: everything worked splendidly. The dress, wrap, and shoes will all be worn again. This makes my frugal heart happy. I even like the nail color. I had forgotten how much effort goes into getting gussied up.

Eli’s verdict : the only thing he could really approve of was the dress — he calls it my black ladybug dress. He told me that he didn’t like my hair (it should be looser), my nails (they should be natural), and my choice of jewelry (I needed more — specifically a necklace).

Then I told him, you know, thanks for your input, dude, but I don’t need your 9 year-old boy’s opinion, precious, though you are.

Sheesh.

I made a new-to-me pasta dish for small group. I shouldn’t have attempted a new one, but I always seem to do that when entertaining. I made the baked ziti from Pioneer Woman. And, though I did catch myself uttering, “Pioneer Woman, don’t fail me now!”, it turned out to be really great. In fact, I’m awaiting having those leftovers for lunch today with a good amount of anticipation.

So, if you need to feed an army and have leftovers, double her recipe. That’s what I did, with the modifications of reducing the meat by half, subbing penne for ziti, subbing cottage cheese for the ricotta, and folding in several cups of spinach for one of the pans.

Yummy!

Happy Monday!!

Hey, y’all!

I’m going to share a pumpkin recipe. You should know that it comes highly recommended, too.

How?

Well, I get a lot of ribbing around here because of all of the love that I give to pumpkin.
These busters. Well, anyway, they will not turn down cake — even though they are not as excited as they would be if it were chocolate, for instance.

This week, I brought one of these cakes to Bible Study and I made an additional one for the family.

Today, Jon went over to the cake plate and, seeing it empty, said, “I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but I sure do wish that there was some of that pumpkin cake left. There was something really awesome about the moist, big crumbs.”

And, that was all I needed to decide it was time to make more. Happy!

The recipe for Pumpkin Cake with Browned Butter Icing is here on Shutterbean. I made it as it is written, only I omitted all spices except for cinnamon (which I increased slightly) and I also added about 1/3 teaspoon dried ginger. Also, although the nuts would be fabulous, I’m sure, I didn’t do them out of laziness.

It really is delightful….and as easy to make as falling off a log. So, remember it if you need some pumpkin. I personally need pumpkin all the time. So, it’s on my list.

Now, even though it is late on Friday, I think that we might need some songs about dancing.

So, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros with “Man on Fire” will fill the bill nicely, I think.

Also, one about no worries and putting your dancing shoes on — if you get the chance. Thanks for that, Langhorne Slim!

And let’s not forget Louis Prima. Jump, Jive and Wail!

Okay. Lets make the chance for dancing shoes and pumpkin cake.

Sounds like a plan to me! Happy Friday!

Well, today I tried to select hosiery at wal-mart. I have to attend a wedding this weekend, and I think that sheer skin-toned hose — a la Kate Middleton, Duchess of Something, is just the ticket. Unfortunately, I have not bought hosiery in many a year, and it turned out to be only be slightly less difficult than rocket science. I think. Not that I’ve ever done rocket science.

I’m glad that’s done. Fingers crossed that it works out.

I even picked some nail polish to sort of go with the shoes I’m wearing.

Who am I? Sometimes I frankly don’t know. But, I totally nailed the color. So this really happy thing! Because that means I don’t have to go back to Walmart. Yay for that.

Before I bought the nail polish, I made sure that I could return it. You know, Walmart has interesting return policies. Most of the time – return are no problem. But if you get paint off the clearance shelf then let me tell you there will be no returning that stuff. Though, if you are persistent like some crazy lady I know, you can perhaps inspire them to re-tint your clearance paint into something away from crazy, iridescent orange and more toward a lovely, rich red. This is awesome when you want to paint a doghouse for your pretty little Weimeraner, Star.

In other news, I am now homeschooling my third son. The 13-year-old. Turns out, I wish that I had made that decision about six weeks earlier. We are much less stressed around here, and probably quite a bit more educated, since yours truly is getting a review of all things eighth-grade.

So, it’s me and this boy. All day, everyday.

Speaking of boys, mine continue to shoot up like weeds and devour all our food. This was a couple if weeks ago in Memphis.

My busters.

Speaking of busters, James had this to say in commentary about one if his teachers:

The dark side, huh.

Life us many things… but it is never boring.

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

Wow, y’all, the busy month if October just blew right by.

Zoom.

Thankfully, autumn is just sort if getting started down here in Starkville. So, it’s nice that — for my autumn loving self– that October doesn’t equal fall. There’s lots of colored leaves to look forward to.

Yay for that!

So, bring it on, November!

And, happy Friday, y’all!

My youngest son, Eli, is a hoot. This week is homecoming week at school. So, the kids have an opportunity to dress up every day. Monday was superhero day. Eli forgot all about it, but he recovered well. When I picked him up at school, I commented on how I was sorry that we had not remembered to dress up. Eli said, “Oh, that was okay. I just wore my backpack all day and told everybody I was Fact Man! And it fit me, you know, because I know a lot of facts.”

Does he, ever.

Kind of reminds me of what James did at the harvest party that year…

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

I don’t know if y’all are aware of this, but the Barlow household recently welcomed, for the first time, ever, a girl into our family.

She is a beautiful, graceful, polite, and loving girl with the most wonderful velvet ears.

Please meet the reason for the 100 % increase in my use of female pronouns and the silly occurrence of statements like, “Who is my sweet girl? You are!”

This is Star.

She is our precious new-to-us Weimeraner. She ran away from her last home one too many times and always managed to end up at our house — probably because we had food, attention, a fenced yard…and some sweet boys to love on her.

Just another unexpected blessing.

I love it when that happens. Don’t you?

Happy Monday, y’all!!!

“The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred proof Grace–bottle after bottle of pure distilate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the Gospel–after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps–suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started…”

— Robert Farrar Capon Between Noon& Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace

After catching sight of son in rearview mirror, “WHAT have you done to your eyebrows?!?”

I am thankful, once again, that he is blonde.

and…

“Hey, Charlie, the snake escaped!!!!!!!!”

Thankfully he was quickly found. Otherwise, I’d have had to put my guests for tomorrow on notice about the reptile. Having a snake loose in the house is so unsettling.

and….

Dude, in the future could you not put those skeletal remains from the owl pellet on the kitchen table? Thanks.

These folks are interesting.

Happy Friday, y’all! Happy, happy, happy!