Choice Morsels

My  Zumba class this morning was really extra fun! Since it's actually Halloween, everyone was invited to wear Halloween-themed clothing (whether a costume or just colors), then the 2 instructors covered any windows with black plastic, turned off the lights & plugged-in colored LED party lights that threw colored spots up on the walls! Today's Good Eating recipe brings back the taste of summer: Banana Cream Poke Cake! It's super easy dessert for a 9 x 13 pan, creamy & cool and oh, so yummy!  It tastes like banana cream pie! (My own photo of the actual cake.) It's a recipe I found on Pinterest. Banana Cream Poke Cake Ingredients: 1 box yellow cake mix (eggs, water & oil to make your cake as directed on box) 2 boxes of instant Banana Cream Pudding (3.4oz) 4 cups milk to make pudding (2% or whole milk) 1 8oz whipped topping (reg,lite or fat free) 1/2 cup Nilla Wafers, crushed (more if you like) Optional : sliced fresh bananas...

Here's this weeks fun Halloween Party food "Finds" plus a couple creepy decor ideas! Creepy Barbecue Worm Sandwiches: You can make this delightful sandwich for your party goers just by slicing hot dogs into strips lengthwise and boiling them to give them that creepy curl. Then just combine with your favorite barbecue sauce and serve with buns or sliders! Some Healthy Halloween Treats:  This is a really fun idea!  You'll need some small, easy to peel oranges, like Cuties, plus some bananas, celery & mini-chocolate chip! Just peel your little Oranges & stick a "stem" of celery in the center of each. Peel & cut Bananas & stick a pair of "eyes" on each using mini-chocolate chips. Arrange on a serving tray and you're ready! Pumpkin Vomiting Guacamole: Here's a cool Halloween Guacamole Dip serving idea the kids will love! Just carve a small pumpkin, mix up or buy Guacamole Dip and arrange...

The Mama Kat blog writing prompt for today was to turn a photo of myself into "something spooky" using the Halloween tools & effects at an online photo shop, like Pic Monkey. I prefer to use Ribbet.com, instead of PicMonkey.com, since I'm a Ribbet member. I used their tools to "spook-ify" my photo. The two companies offer fairly comparable services and they share an interesting back story, one I happen to know: Once upon a time there used to be one fabulous online photo shop called Picnik.  I loved Picnik. Everyone loved Picnik. I was a member of Picnik for a couple years, but Picnik belonged to Google and Google decided they wanted to do something different with it.  So, in 2012, Picnik was shut down. There was much wailing and a desperate blank in the way of an online photo shop on that scale of easy-to-use excellence for a good while--a year, perhaps two. Then "Pic Monkey" appeared, founded by "the same guys who created Picni...

Yesterday I brought my house plants. They hang in various sunny rooms: 2 in the kitchen, 1 in each bath and the Snake Plant sits on the floor near the sliding glass door.  They spend all summer outdoors getting nice and big and fluffy, so they'll have the strength to survive my lack of watering them very well for 4 months of winter! Still need to bring in the Aloe, which needs repotting first, and snip runners of the Wandering Jew to spend winter rooting in a vase of water. (I should photograph it while it's still full in pretty in it's pot in my front bed!) Today's Garden Pic is Cape Plumbago! It's can also be called, "Sky Flower."  Probably because of it's pretty clusters of true baby blue flowers!  Cape Plumbago grows into a moderately large, draping shrub.  It enjoys full sun to semi-shade and likes being well watered, but doesn't like it's roots in a place that stays wet or boggy all the time. I made that mistake with a coup...

I haven't had a chance to any new recipes recently, so instead I'm going to share a Kitchen & Food Hack I've found really useful.I A "hack" is a tip, method or solution for doing something more better or easily. Quick Clean the Blender: This is my #1 favorite tip I use all the time! It's made using a blender sooo much easier. After using your blender, just fill it with warm water, add a little dish soap, give it whirl, let it dry and put away. Keep Avocado's From Turning Brown : This is the #1 reason I don't like buying Avocados--they turn brown too easily and, since I don't enjoy them so much I want to eat a whole one, they tend to go to waste. But I found a solution on Pinterest and it actually works:   1)  Leave the pit in unused portion. That pit helps keep it fresh. (Something I didn't know, but still the onion help keep it a couple days even with pit removed.) 2) Place the unused Avocado half in a storag...

Today's "find" is two Halloween Party fixer-uppers I found in Pinterest sure to provide that element of creepy fun you're looking for:   Dragon's Devil Eggs & Dracula's Dentures! **** Making Dragon's Deviled Eggs is pretty much like dying Easter Eggs, except you'll want to gently tap or roll your hard boiled eggs, so the outer shell becomes fractured.  You can make your eggs one or several colors. Dragon's Deviled Eggs Ingredients 1 dozen hard boiled large or extra large eggs Food Color White Vinegar Hot water Directions Make help eggs not split while Boiling: add eggs to pan, add enough cold water so it's stands at least in above eggs, add 1/2 Tablespoon baking soda, bring to a hard boil. (This is a Pinterest tip.)   Boil 3 minutes, then turn off heat, cover and let stand 10 minutes. Cool with cold faucet water until cool enough to handle easily.  To Create Fractures : gently tap or roll each egg on the counter, so th...

If you couldn't guess from the title, the Mama Kat prompt today is "my favorite slow cooker recipe." Really, every slow cooker recipe I post on Good Eating Mondays, is my favorite--but if I must choose one, I choose Slow Cooker Tex Mex Lasagna! It's an easy, slightly spicy, deep dish Lasagna! And bonus, the photo is an actual photo I took of a batch in my slow cooker!  Tex Mex Lasagna Ingredients 1 lb lean (at least 80% ) ground beef (or ground turkey or chicken) 1 can (15oz) Pinto beans, drained & rinsed 1 package low-sodium Taco seasoning mix 1 jar (16 oz) Thick & Chunky Salsa 1 small (8oz) can reduced-sodium tomato sauce 1 jar (16oz) Alfredo pasta sauce 4 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or Mexican Cheese) 1 box Lasagna noodles (16 noodles are required) Directions: 1)  In a skillet: cook ground meat over med-high heat stirring constantly until brown; drain any grease. Stir in Pinto beans & Taco seasoning mix. 2)  Prepare ...

Today's Garden Pic is of a Day Lily I'd never seen bloom before---a lovely peach & yellow blossom!  A funny little sweat bee "photo bombed" this shot!  The reason I'd never seen it before was it was previously planted in an overly shady area in the front bed and I moved it to a sunnier spot and--ta-da! So pretty.  Today, I also thinned out my Baby Romaine, moving a bunch into an area in the veggie bed I dug up adequate for two rows. Plus I left some in the original row. I must have 75. It doesn't get as big in a home veggie bed here as you see in a store. Many vegetables grown from seed should be spread out after the second set of leaves appear, including lettuces. This is called, "thinning." My Plumbago shrub is coming in to full bloom right now--hopefully I'll have pictures to show next week! **** That's it for today! Check back for Mama Kat fun tomorrow!

Today's recipe try-out is in the slow-cooker right now for dinner! But who can go wrong with slow-cooked beef & veggies served over steamed rice? This recipe comes from a food blogger called, The Weary Chef , whom I follow on Google+. It calls for about 2 lbs of flank steak. I found a 1 1/2 lb flank steak for a reasonable cost and that cut up into plenty for the two of us. But you can choose any steak cut that fits your budget, depending on how many people you want to feed, since slow-cookers do wonderful things for any kind of beef! Since it's just the beef & sauce that get's slow-cooked first, you can either cook your meal slow or fast! If you're planning on being away, set on low and cook 4 to 8 hours as needed. If you want you meal in 2 or 3 hours, set cooker on high!  (The photo is what it looked like dished up!) It was sooo delicious I plan on making it again! Slow Cooker Asian Beef With Vegetables Ingredients: 2 lbs flank steak, cut into ...

Today's "Find" is a simple fun Pinterest recipe for Jazzing up your ordinary brownie mix into something special for your Halloween Party: Witches Brew Brownies!  Witch's Brew Brownie s Ingredients: 1 box of brownie mix for a 10 x 13 pan Assorted candies like edible eyes, mini-Reeses cups, M&M's and other chocolate candy bars broken into chunks  Directions: Make Brownies according to box directions & pour into oil sprayed 10 x 13 baking pan.  Scatter top with broken chunks of candy bars, mini-Reeses cups, M&M's and edible eyes and what-have-you.   Bake according to directions, then cool, cut and serve!     Plus here's a fun labeling "find" for your party Mustard & Ketchup bottles:  That's it for today! Stop back Monday for Good Eating and remember, Halloween party "Finds" every Friday all of October!

The Mama Kat prompt today is called a "This or That Halloween," based on a selection of 10 questions on a selection of topics related to Halloween, whether I would choose, "this" or "that." 1)   Chocolate Candy or Fruity? Are you kidding? I despise sweet tarts or sour pops or jelly beans. Even candy corn. Give me chocolate or give me nothing. 2 )   W itches or Vampires?  I'd take Witches because the costuming is more varied. There are so many famous movie Witches to choose from with some even being "good"  witches like Glinda, the Good Witch from the North in Wizard of Oz. 3)   Trick or Treat? Well, Treat, of course. Preferably chocolate.  4)   Halloween Party or Scary Movie? I don't watch scary movies, so a fun Halloween Party would be my choice. One with lots of chocolate. 5)   Skeletons or Zombies? Skeletons, because skeletons are basically real, since we all have one. Plus they don't eat people. 6) ...

The squirrels litter my back yard below pine trees with cobbed pine cones they've burred down to the core, so I was walking around today picking those up. These cone cobs are often slightly curved with a few pine cone petals left on the very end, so they look a little like brown shrimp tails laying everywhere. Lots of pine cones the squirrels missed cobbing as well! I also cleaned up a few broken Pampas Grass fronds and pulled up the dead Zinnia's from the back bed. Today's Garden Pics are some of my veggie garden plantings for winter: First, my not-so-new 2-year old Bell Pepper: More of a Pepper "Tree" now.  It persists in making peppers and I've let it. Not terribly big peppers, but very thick-walled, which is something you want in peppers.  There's one on there now that will be in dinner tonight! This bed area faces South and gets full sun all year round--which is why this Pepper has thrived so long. Next: 3 Brand New Bell Peppers: ...

The "find" I have for you today is a really fun Halloween Party Treat called,"Witches Brew Jello"! I loved the picture as soon as I saw it and it's just made with  green Jello and Tapioca pearls!  The recipe asked for Green Apple Gelatin, which I've never seen. If you can finds some great, but if you can't, Lime will work just fine! Don't forget you can choose other color Jello, like Blue, too! This recipe comes from one of my Google+ friends blog, called, "Lady Behind the Curtain!" Witches Brew Jello Ingredients : 1 small 3oz box  (Green Apple or Lime) 1 cup Hot water  1 cup Cold water 1/2 cup Pearl  Tapioca  6 cups water 6 Halloween party serving dishes  (Mini-cauldrons  are shown) Directions: #1) Make the Jello :  In a medium bowl, add gelatin & 1 cup hot water, then stir until gelatin is completely dissolved. About 2 minutes. Add 1 cup cold water & stir to combine, then store in frig u...

Today's Mama Kat blog prompt is, "10 Things I Love About My Job." Photo from Pixabay My office is my home.  I can get up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee in the kitchen, walk down to the den, sit at my computer and I'm "at work." What I do at is graphic design. I used to be a florist, but general changes in management and  being allergic to a new floor motivated me to get out of that. So I decided to put my graphic art degree to work and set up a free on-line "store" with a printing company called Zazzle. I create designs for various Zazzle products. They handle everything else. 10 Things I Love About My Job 1)  I don't have to go anywhere. 2)  I don't have to have special "work clothes." 3) I can set my own hours and work when I want. 4)  It fulfills my need for a creative outlet. 5)  I can choose what I create and just create what interests me. 6)    I have every Holiday off. At the flower s...

I have some interesting pictures today! I just photographed this beautiful Black and Yellow Garden Spider a few moments ago! Pretty in the end of day sun here against Boxwood in the background.   Latin name: Argiope Aurantia. Argiope means, "Bright Faced," since the Spiders head is white. Also called the Writing Spider or Zipper Spider, it's common all over North America. It weaves a large wheel-shaped web with a unique "zig-zag" of thick silk woven vertically through the center that looks very much like she found a string to weave into the web, which is it's unique signature. Thus the name "Writing Spider" or "Zipper Spider." It's a completely  harmless Spider that enjoys eating other insects that get caught in it's web and she is out of the way, here against the Boxwood, though I disturbed her a bit to get her to flip to top of the web, so I could get a shot of her coloring. The size and bright coloring suggest this is like...

It's October! And this coming weekend is Columbus Day Weekend, so it will be off to the Pirates of the High Seas Festival in Panama City Beach for us! Arrgh! We'll be dressing up in our best pirate matey's garb for that! Last year we even were photographed & featured in the local paper! Today's Good Eating Recipe is Tortellini Tomato & Italian Sausage Soup! The photo is the actual soup I made. This stove-top recipe is a delicious, lightly spicy soup full of cheese-stuffed Tortellini, diced tomatoes, sausage & fresh spinach! I used sliced Turkey sausages, since we had some leftover from the previous days cook-out, but the recipe calls for Ground Turkey Sausage. I think you could use a pork sausage, but Turkey is lower fat. The only change I'd personally make is not using a carton of broth from the store, but packets of instant, low-salt chicken bouillon instead. For some reason every brand of carton or canned broth gives us terrible gas. I u...