Choice Morsels

The Mama Kat challenge today is, "What's better? Being a kid or an adult? List 10 reasons for your choice." Photo from Pixabay When I was a kid, getting to be "grown-up" seemed optimal. Now that I'm a grown-up, I see many advantages of being a kid I didn't fully appreciate at the time: 1)  Less to worry about. The biggest worry I had as a kid was whether or not I was liked well enough for someone to want to trade papers with me. It seemed huge then, but, looking back, it was trivial. I just didn't have the judgement to know it. 2)  I didn't have to earn money. My whole profession was going to school and learning stuff for free. 3)  Related to earning no money is having no bills. 4)  Being a kid was a life with minimal demands. I did have a few household chores to be responsible for, such as changing my bed or helping hang laundry outside and taking turns washing dishes with my sisters, but really my time was my own the ma...

Today's Good Eating recipe is for Oriental Ramen Noodle Salad.  Sometimes also called, "Asian Ramen Salad," it's quick & easy to put together using a combination of packaged slaw, sliced almonds, green onions, minced bell pepper, frozen peas, Mandarin oranges, Ramen noodles and a delicious sweet-sour vinaigrette! This recipe is one I devised by combining the best of 2 or 3 different Pinterest recipes for it, so what I'm sharing today is now my own recipe! The Air Force kids who came over on Sunday loved it! A few who normally dislike traditional mayonnaise-coated slaw, raved over this salad and had seconds! I served this salad with slow-cooker Hawaiian pulled pork sandwiches. (Photo my own salad) Oriental Ramen Noodle Salad Ingredients: 2 packages of slaw mix, any style 2 packages of Ramen noodles 5-6 green onions, minced (or more to taste ) 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed 1/2 cup finely minced bell pepper, any color 1 4oz package sliced alm...

The Mama Kat challenge I selected today was to share, "A memorable lesson I learned from my Dad that still sticks with me today." An amusing picture of Bette Davis from Pinterest During the nearly 5 years I was in the Air Force, I never owned a car.  Once I got out of service, returned home and was planning to go off to college in the fall, then I needed one. So I finally bought car. Before I was going to go driving off to live on my own, though, my Dad wanted to make sure I knew all the basics of car care: 1)  How to Change a Tire.  He made sure I knew where the jack and lug wrench were stored in the wheel well, how to properly place the jack plus block another wheel and how to use the lug wrench. (I had already purchased a 4-way lug wrench because I felt it would provide me better leverage for the task, should I ever be called upon to do change a flat.)  2)  How to Check Fluids.  He showed me where the oil dip stick was and how to ch...

Apparently, last Friday night, June 17, there was a major wind storm here. Just a straight-line wind.  We were in the house, watching a DVD. There wasn't any sound of rain or thunder. We didn't know anything was going on outside. We just abruptly saw the power flicker 3 times, then go off for a few seconds and come right back on, but we didn't think anything of it. That is a fairly common occurrence during the high A/C usages of summer.   On Saturday morning we walked out to the car to go someplace and were shocked to discover our Aspen tree in the front yard, fallen over sideways against the power line! We were astonished! This tree has weathered numerous tropical storms and hurricanes over the past 25 years and suddenly--this? Hubby promptly called the power company and because the tree was on line between the poles, they were responsible for removing it! (Whew! What a relief! Tree removable is expensive!) So here's a photo of our Aspe...

Have you been following this Between the Lines series about Women bloggers over the age of 50? This is week 9, the final week! To read interesting trivia about each of this weeks featured Bloggers, go here , to their interviews! Scroll to the bottom for the link list to all their individual blog posts on how and why they got into blogging! No favorites this week, though I always find it amazing how many clever names people come up with for blogs! I, too, participated in this series and if you missed my article on how and why I got into blogging,  read it here! *** Be sure to stop back for my regular Garden Pics featured every Wednesday! This week I've got a good shot of a tree a recent wind storm knocked over!

I've been trying new Pinterest recipes fairly often to build-up a good inventory for posts, so I tried this one a couple weeks ago: S low-Cooker Cheesy Bacon Ranch Potatoes! It's a tasty side dish. The potatoes were very tender & cheesy. The recipe only calls for 1 Tablespoon of Ranch Seasoning. It said "or to taste," but without having ever made it, who would know? So, I tell you 1 Tablespoon IS NOT enough. 2 or 3 Tablespoons PLUS at least 1 glove of minced garlic would greatly improve this dish, so for this recipe, I'll be adding that to the ingredient list! I'm also suggesting Hormel Real Bacon Bits for a quick way to have bacon without the mess of cooking it! This recipe originally comes from this blog . Slow Cooker Cheesy Bacon Ranch Potatoes Ingredients : 1/4 cup Hormel Real Bacon Bits ( or 6 slices, cooked, cooled & crumbled.) 3 lbs red potatoes, chopped into 1 inch size chunks 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used Kraft 2% milk ...

Today's "find" is another beautiful Florida State Park in my special series:  Payne's Prairie Preserve State Park ! Located just south of Gainesville, Payne's Prairie is 21,000 acres of marsh prairie. In 1774 it was visited by famous artist & naturalist William Bartram who dubbed it the "Alachua Savannah," when he wrote about it in his book, "Bartram's Travels." It became Florida's first preserve in 1971. To visit Payne's Prairie is to see Florida as it was prior to the arrival of European settlers & much work has been done to the park to restore it's waterways to it's original pristine state. The Preserve is home to a wide array of native wild animals & reptiles, plus 270 species of birds AND small wild herds of Bison, Cracker Cattle & Cracker Horses.   Cracker Cattle & Horses are descendants  of original Spanish horses & cattle brought to new world. They are historically native to F...