For those of you who get the Costco Connection magazine, you’ll find in the January edition a recipe for Burmese Chicken Soup.
And I have to say, it is scrumptious!
The recipe is easy to make although you probably have to make a grocery run as most people don’t have some of the basic recipe ingredients in their cupboard.
What I especially liked is that it uses boneless and skinless chicken thighs which makes for a tender meat. And the spices ~ whoa!
The use of sweet potatoes with chicken in a coconut and chicken broth had not occurred to me before. The pairing was very good and we served it with garlic naan bread.
Here’s what the pot of soup looks like when it’s finished:
If you haven’t guessed by now, I give this recipe five stars. That’s five out of five. To see the recipe, click here.
Patience. I purchased this amaryllis in early December and thought it was dead as it was not growing. But I watered it once a week and, although I was ready to give up, my mother said “wait.” Then it started getting “leggy” and a bulb started to grow. It’s a beauty now. Just goes to show everything has its own journey even if it seems slow to us.
There are so many lessons I learn from God in nature.
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12 NIV
Sometimes I feel lazy and want a quick and easy recipe to make for dinner. Enter the website Cooking Light. I’ve made other recipes from this website before and most of the recipes are quite good ~ just like this one was.
The recipe I made was Pasta with Charred Broccoli , Feta and Lemon.
I didn’t char the broccoli as much as their picture shows but the recipe came out pretty good just the same.
Pasta with Charred Broccoli, Feta and Lemon
So ~ here’s the link for the recipe in case you’re looking for something quite good to make.
Have you ever wondered what to do when a new neighbor moves into your neighborhood?
We recently moved to Illinois and our neighborhood has walking trails nearby so we would go walking but the people would not be responsive to our “hellos.” I was getting quite discouraged that we wouldn’t make any friends.
One day while I was napping, my husband heard a knock on the door and I heard him calling “Norma, Norma.” So I got up and went to the front door where he was at. Standing outside was a young couple with a child in their arms.
“We want to welcome you to our neighborhood,” she said. Then she extended her hand and gave us a tin and a bag. We thanked her and stood at the door talking for a few minutes. After they left, I set the tin and bag on the kitchen counter and opened it up.
Homemade chocolate chip cookies, cleaning supplies and a candle ~ what a nice surprise!
They also put their contact information inside in case we had any questions about the neighborhood.
During Halloween, this same couple knocked on our door with her 2 year old and some friends. Later she texted me and apologized for not having time to talk. No worries I assured her. Maybe we could meet up for coffee or something, I told her.
Then, I received a surprise invitation to dinner at their house. We accepted and had a pleasant chicken dinner.
Now it’s Christmas and I had planned on taking over a gift for their little girl along with cookies but … another knock on the door. They had brought us some homemade popcorn for the holidays.
How nice!
Now, this is a nice way to say “welcome to the neighborhood.”
Have you ever done anything like this before? It seems like nowadays people are so caught up with social media that they don’t have time for one-on-one relationships.
C.S. Lewis wrote: “A glimpse is not a vision. But to a man on a mountain road by night, a glimpse of the next three feet of road may matter more than a vision of the horizon.”
It’s all about perspective, isn’t it? Visions are good to have but sometimes we focus so much on them that we are paralyzed with taking the step right in front of us.
Our new house in Illinois is near a walking trail which is about 1.25 miles long.
The first time I walked this trail I noticed the beautiful white cranes sitting next to the fountain in the middle of the pond.
The second time I walked the trail I again noticed the cranes ~ so elegantly sitting next to the pond. They must like the fountain I thought.
By my third walk, I looked a little closer and noticed that the white cranes weren’t moving. That seemed suspicious to me. I started laughing as I realized that the white cranes were fake. I couldn’t help laughing all the way home.
Come to find out, fake white cranes scare away geese. You know ~ geese who leave their poop all over the place.
As I explore my neighborhood, I see more and more fake white cranes and few, if any, geese. The fake white cranes are working as decoys as geese do not get along with them.
Not til l moved to Illinois did I think this was possible. I wonder why Minnesota, where I’m from, has not figured this out yet. There the geese are protected instead of discouraged.
After living in Minnesota for 9 years, we decided to move back to Illinois to be closer to my 93 year old mother.
My mother has never driven and has always walked or used public transportation to get around. Do you know anyone else who has never driven? There are few people left who fall in that category.
After we put our house on the market, we had an offer in 4 days. That was unreal. Here are eight things we did that I feel helped to sell our house quickly.
Declutter. We went through the house, room by room, and removed any items that we had not used in the last couple of years. We took these items to the second hand store.
Next we went through our clothes closet and got rid of anything that we had not worn in awhile. It’s amazing how many things stay in a closet for years just sitting in the back not “bothering anyone.” Get rid of it! Someone else can enjoy your 10 year old flannel shirt that you haven’t used in awhile.
Clean the flower beds and weed. Anything that is dead should be removed. The yard should have a fresh and inviting look.
Power wash the outside of the house and deck. Those cobwebs that you see in the front of the house that don’t really bother you might signify to someone else that you don’t maintain your house. Yes, I know it’s a little thing but little things not only add up but they make a big statement.
Clean the inside of the house. Again, go room by room and make sure everything is clean. Wipe down kitchen cabinets and appliances. Our house was on a well and it took a lot to get the toilet rings removed, but it was important. (Although, when the photographer comes to take a picture of the house, make sure those toilet lids are down. It just looks better). Clean the inside of the stove and refrigerator (throw out leftovers).
Clean your garage. Anything that you are not going to take with you should be donated. And make sure that if you have a two car garage that two cars actually fit in it. Wipe the garage floor and shelves clean.
Make sure the driveway is swept. Remember, this is your first impression to buyers.
Lastly, minimize what you have in your house. You need your rooms to look bigger so that buyers can visualize their furniture in your house. It’s okay to put things in a corner of the garage if you have the space. Box them up if possible so it will look neater.
There are some homes that have very bold paint colors on their walls. If it’s possible, the walls should be painted a neutral color but quite honestly, we had yellow walls through the main area and the bedrooms were a gray-ish blue and it looked fine because the colors would match anyone’s furniture.
Is there anything else you can think of to help sell a house quicker?
Walking out the front door to go for a walk, I breathed in the fresh air as I walked across the street to the nearby park trail.
What a gorgeous day it was!
The trail is a little over a mile and I only saw one other person around who was sitting on a bench.
As I continued walking, I looked up and saw the beautiful blue sky and it reminded me of the song by Fred Rogers on his TV show “it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.”
I purchased the Bjorn Bear Quilt pattern to see how well I would do with all the piecing as I haven’t done much piecing as a “sometime” quilter.
I was surprised at how easy it was. It was delightful to see how each section connected with another and made the faces of the bears complete.
This is the start of the nose of each bear. Working in “assembly like” manner, it went pretty quick.
Once you start cutting and sewing the pieces together, it goes quickly.
Bjorn Bear Piecing
Isn’t it cute?
And here are pictures of the finished quilt. I decided to use a modern square type quilting pattern for this quilt.
Bjorn Bear QuiltBjorn Bear Quilt
Here’s the final picture of the finished Bjorn Bear Quilt. Our granddaughter, who is not yet one year old, enjoyed the colorful quilt. I decided to use a baby blue in the back so it can be used by a boy or girl.
Awhile ago, my sister-in-law sent me a Facebook post from a nursing home in Fargo that was looking for quilts for their residents. I had lots of fabric left over from other quilts that I had made so I decided to make two and will be delivering it to them this weekend.
Hopefully the two residents who get them like them. I didn’t worry too much about the binding and sewed them both on the machine instead of hand sewing it. They came out quite beautiful.
I used the Fast Four Patch Quilt Pattern by the blogger Diary of A Quilter. I change the pattern some but use the same measurements.
