Grilled Salmon 1

 We LOVE Grilled Salmon Filets.  When my daughter was in college, she would request them for dinner when she came home.  I used to use Lawry's 30 Minute Mesquite Marinade.  A year or so ago, I couldn't find the Mesquite flavor of Lawry's.  In addition, I discovered that Lawry's contains high fructose corn syrup.  So I started searching my favorite recipe site and found the recipe below.  I like recipes that use ingredients that I keep on hand.  I usually make this up after lunch and let it marinate until dinner but even an hour or so of marinating will be okay.  I don't always fire up the grill.  I usually cook it on my indoor grill which is like a George Foreman grill.  It only takes 5 - 7 minutes to cook it that way.  It is delicious!

Click here to print recipe

Grilled Salmon 1

Allrecipes.  submitted by tina menina

1 1/2 lbs. salmon filets ( 6 filets)
lemon pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste
salt to taste
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil

1. Season filets with lemon pepper, garlic powder and salt.

2. In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, water and oil until sugar is dissolved.  Place fish in resealable plastic bag with the soy sauce mixture and turn to coat.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

3. Preheat grill for medium heat or use indoor grill.

4. Lightly oil grill grate or use Pam on indoor grill.  Place salmon on grill and discard marinade.  Cook for 6-8 minutes per side or until the fish flakes easily.

318 cal per serving.

Sunday School and Mother's Day

I love my little Sunday School Class.  I co-teach Pre-K 4 and K5 with Kate Howard.  Last week, Kate was out of town.  She was attending her daughter's graduation from Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA .  When Kate is out of town, my son-in-law Ryan comes in the class to help me.  When all are present, we have 6 little boys and two girls.  Three of our students were celebrating birthday's last week.  Becky Lankford  and Isaac Clarke turned 6.  Asher McGuire turned 5, and my son-in-law turned 31.  We always have a snack time but with all of those birthday's it had to be something special so I baked a cake.
Just look at those sweet faces!  Asher wasn't able to be there because his father, our associate pastor, needed to be taken to the airport where he left for a three week missions trip to Uganda!  We had two more missing for other reasons. 

My son-in-law helped me pass out the cake.  My daughter and the baby and 2 1/2 year old grandson joined in on the party as did my husband.  After Sunday School, my 4 1.2 year old granddaughter joined us also.

My parents church, Grace Baptist,   has an annual Mother/Daughter banquet.  My daughter was 3 weeks old when I attended the first time.  In fact, it may have been the first one.  Now she's 30 with three children of her own.  Where does the time go?

Taylor and Morgan looked beautiful in their gorgeously girly dresses.  My nephews wife, April joined us also. 

 Isn't she a beautiful little angel?  She's 7 weeks old.

 I love the look of love in Taylor's eyes.

I love watching my mom hold Morgan.  What a joy to have these pictures!  Mom is 91.  She will probably not get to see Taylor or Morgan as grown women but they will always have these pictures to know how much she loved them!

I have never really had a Mother's Day given to me.  I've always cooked for others and had a few times when we went out to dinner.  I was treated to a really nice Mother's Day yesterday.  My son-in-law cooked an entire dinner for us.  Lauren and I didn't have to life a finger!  Now that is a real treat!!  After dinner, we went to Mom and Dad's house.  We gave her a beautiful red Knock-Out Rose.  My son has never been the best for remembering Mother's Day.  What a wonderful surprise when he showed up at Mom & Dad's with a gift for me!  He lives across the field from them.  He not only gave me a gift and great card, but he gave one to Mom and to Lauren.  Lauren's was such a wonderful card, she cried! Seeing love between siblings does a mother's heart good! After a short visit with Adam we drove Mom & Dad to Salisbury to Cold Stone Creamery and bought them an ice cream treat.  They each got the Germanchokolatekake in the Love It Size.  I knew they were going to be amazed at how filling it would be and they were.  Those cups don't look nearly so big when they are empty!  I got the Mud Pie Mojo in the Like It size and had plenty!  Andy made his own creation with Sweet Cream, brownies, M&M's, and Reese's cups.  I definitely had to make sure I got in all of my walking when I got home, but even though I reached my goal, I had still gone over by almost 200 calories today.  Oh well, it was worth it! 

Neglected Blog

 My blog often gets put aside :-(   For almost 25 years I was so faithful with filling a daily journal with the most mundane things.  Doing laundry,  my babies doing cute things, baking, etc.  I wrote in it almost every night before I went to sleep. I  have several volumes of  diaries filled.  It is such a blessing to go back and read those entries that I made almost 33 years ago.  Sometimes I get misty eyed or laugh when I read little stories about my babies.  My daughter just turned 30 and her brother will soon be 33.  I'm so glad I recorded so much of their childhood. 

A few years ago I switched to online blogging. That required me to actually be sitting at a computer.  In some ways it is nicer because I can share my journal and add pictures. I can also access it from many locations, and I don't have to worry about losing it or having it destroyed.  On the downside. there are some things that I don't want to share with the public.  I now have a folder in my documents for those private journal entries.  Actually having to sit at a computer is also a downside since I don't have a laptop or tablet so I can't take that to bed with me and blog right before I go to sleep as I did in the past.  Maybe I should go back to a handwritten one for those private entries so I can write them before I go to sleep at night just as I used to.

And then there's life.  Do I just go about living it, or do I take time to document it?  Ha!  Can anyone identify with that?  Wife, grandmother, mother, daughter,R.N., small business owner, choir member, Sunday School teacher.  Something has to give and it's usually the blog.  I have many things that I want to share with you so I hope to write another post very soon.  One of the things I really want to share is my new granddaughter!  Yay!  I promise to tell you all about her very soon.  As it is, I wrote this on my break and in between seeing students this afternoon!  I'm all about multi-tasking!

How Was Your Christmas?

Christmas was a VERY busy time for me this year.  In November I was invited to return to a Holiday Shopping Open House the weekend before Thanksgiving.  One of my daughter's friends, Lani Harmon, sells Mary Kay Cosmetics and opens her home to around 10 vendors over a weekend.  We display our goods, sell and take orders.  It's a fun, relaxed atmosphere with food and music.  I always make new friends and meet up with old friends.  I got quite a few orders that weekend.  I also had orders from my Etsy shop and orders from local customers.  I was sewing everyday right up to two days before Christmas.

I made a lot of lace Christmas ornaments.  Everyone seemed to love those.

Another popular item was kitchen towels.  One of the most popular was one with the Fruits of the Spirit on it.  These towels are a wonderfully soft, absorbent,100% cotton waffle weave.  This design, as well as other scripture verses that I have, are so colorful they will match any kitchen. This particular design came from a collection by Designs by JuJu. I have several scriptures that are wonderful for towels. 

  

 My Mom's favorite verse is Isaiah 40:10.  I didn't have a towel with that so I made one for her.  I didn't arrange them in an artistic arrangement.  She is 90 and would rather have it just plain.  Below  is the towel I did for her.

 Some of these verses are great on burp cloths and blankets also. Bright, colorful and just plain Happy!

Once I finished all of my sewing, I turned my efforts to baking and cleaning.  Three days before Christmas.  Christmas Day arrived and I was so looking forward to all of the family being at my house.  My son brought my elderly parents who live 30 miles away.  My mother is 90 and my dad is 94.  Mom is almost always cold, so when she started complaining of being cold, we put a blanket over her.  We were waiting for my daughter and her family to arrive.  Mom started having severe chills.  I knew she was starting to run a fever.  I took it but it was normal but I suspected it was going to go up.  I was running back and forth from the living room where mom was to my kitchen, trying to get dinner ready.  

Just as my daughter and her family were walking in the door, Mom started vomiting.  She didn't bring up large amounts but it kept happening.  We hurriedly opened presents and got our dinner.  Mom was continuing to go down hill.  We had a heating pad on her and a wool blanket.  Her temp went up to 102.  At this point, I didn't want her to go back home without being seen by a doctor.  I knew she was dehydrated and she was getting a little confused.  I knew that I couldn't get her in the hospital by myself so I told my daughter to call an ambulance.  Mom and I arrived at the ER around 6 PM.  Blood work and a CAT scan of her belly showed nothing.  They wanted a urine sample and kept waiting for her to go but I kept telling them she was dehydrated.  They finally listened to me and hung a liter bag ( 1000cc) of NSS.  She still didn't have to go so they catheterized her and only got 400cc back.  I thought they should have given her more fluid but they didn't.  They discharged her at 2AM.  At least the fluids lowered her fever and she was more alert.  We drove to my house to pick up my husband. He did not want me on the road by myself at that time in the morning.  My son had already taken my father back home.   I got in bed at 4AM.

The next morning I awoke early :-( with a terrible sinus headache.  I called mom at 10 AM and found that she had still not urinated since they had catheterized her.  She does not like to drink a lot.  I threatened her with a return visit to the hospital to get more fluids.  By noon, she finally started urinating on her own.  She was weak but doing okay.  I don't think it was a stomach virus because she didn't vomit large amounts or have diarrhea.  In addition, no one else in the family got sick and her blood work did not indicate a virus.

Not the Christmas I had planned but it could have been worse.  I am thankful for all of God's protection through all of that.  In addition, I have terrible back pain almost everyday.  For the first time in a long time, I had no pain while I baked and cleaned.  And no pain for the 8 hours I had to sit in the terrible chair in the ER.  That was definitely a gift from God.

On a VERY happy note, two years ago today our little Pixel came to live with us. He is a 4.9lb pure bred Yorkie. He was rescued from a puppy mill and had never been out of a cage in his 5 years of life.  His fur was long and matted.  Every touch from a human was terrifying for him.  He didn't know how to run or jump off of anything.  Now he hops up and down off the sofa and gallops everywhere.  He's still a little nervous in new situations but is SO much better than when we got him.  He absolutely adores my husband.  Here are some Christmas pictures of him and of our pug/terrier mix, Tommy, and two of our precious grandchildren opening presents.

 The picture below was taken a couple of weeks before Christmas when we were decorating the tree.  I put Pixel in the hat and he didn't mind so I laid him on the sofa.  He stayed in that hat for over an hour.

                         

 These pictures were taken Christmas Day.

                                          

 Our grandson is 2.  He would very gently rip the paper off a present with encouragement.  The minute he saw something in the package , he'd say " WOOK!"   Our granddaughter, opened one present and disappeared.  We wondered where she had gone.  How many 4 year olds walk away from opening presents????  We called to her and discovered that she had gone back into the kitchen to snag another  Sweet Roll.  They are a delicious yeast roll I've been making for many years.  They are loaded with butter and sugar so I only make them for special occasions.  We have no idea how many she ate that day.  She absolutely loved them.  It made me so happy to see another grandchild enjoying a family tradition.  Don't you think you'd love these rolls?

I hope your Christmas was filled with many blessings and was a little more calm than mine was!

Learning About Christmas

My sweet 4 year old granddaughter, Taylor, and 2 year old grandson, Logan, took their usual naps on Monday. My daughter took advantage of the time to start decorating for Christmas.  Logan was the first one to wake up.  He's a sweet sensitive little guy.  When my daughter brought him downstairs, he just kept looking around and saying " Oh No, Mama!  What happened?"  He was not content until Taylor woke up and assured him everything was okay.  She, being 4, was very excited to see the decorations so Logan followed her lead.:-)

The weekend before Thanksgiving I participated in a holiday shopping open house.  I , along with several other vendors set up displays of our goods and services.  I got over twice as many orders as last year.  Last  year was my first year and I thought I'd give it another try this year.  It's difficult for me to have goods ready for purchase since almost all of my work is custom and personalized.  I didn't get to sew much the days before Thanksgiving but got to sit down to my machine the day after.  My machine was due for it's annual maintenance check up in October or November.  I was hoping to get through until January.  For a few weeks I've had an occasional time when the thread would knot up on the back of the design and then the machine would stop.  If I re-threaded, it seemed to fix the problem and I could continue sewing.  Monday, that changed.  It would sew a few stitches and then start sounding like it was grinding and knot up  again.  I think the timing is off.  I have no idea how it got off.  The last time my timing was off, it happened when I sewed my finger but I  haven't sewed my finger since then!  I was so frustrated at the end of Monday.  Yesterday morning I called to make an appointment to have my machine serviced.  I take my machine to the closest repair shop, which is an hour away. Lilies of the Field in Easton, MD.  I pay extra for same day service.  My son, has recently started working in Easton, so hopefully , we'll be able to meet for lunch tomorrow.  Thankfully, I started sewing early and have plenty of time to complete my Christmas orders!

Many of my regular readers know that I am a registered nurse.  My last full time job was as a school nurse.  I am still a school nurse, but I do it as a substitute now.  One of our CNA's, Fayetta, has had a rough week.  The home where she grew up and where her parents ( aged 70 +) still live, caught fire Sunday.  Her father wasn't home and her mother is in a wheelchair.  Thankfully, someone pulled her mother out through a window but her mom suffered severe smoke inhalation and is in ICU on a ventilator.  Her dad has many health problems also so Fayetta has not been able to work this week.  Her parents did not have any insurance so this has really hit the family hard. Here is a link to the news video about the fire. http://www.wboc.com/category/174346/main-wboc-video-player?clipId=7997985&topVideoCatNo=109353&autoStart=true If you would like to contribute some financial help, please let me know and I can give you Fayetta's address.  You may e-mail me at nancy@nansnappies.com.

Molasses Gingersnaps and Ornaments

 

Oh my goodness!  Has it really been six weeks since I last wrote a post???  Since blogging isn't my first priority time can slip by me quickly.  My family, job as a substitute school nurse and embroidery usually take precedence over blogging.  When I do finally take the chance to blog, I get so into it, I find myself wondering why I don't make it a point to do this more often!  But then I look and six weeks have flown by.  Oh well, I'll just enjoy it when I can.  I hope you enjoy reading my blogs as much as I enjoy writing them.


Today I have a couple of new treats to share.  One is edible, and the other isn't.  The first is Molasses Gingersnaps.  My father's sister, Audrey, used to make this and I LOVED them.  I've been eating them all of my life and making them for at least 40 years.  I have used various combinations of the shortening.  Sometimes I use 3/4 cups each of Butter flavored Crisco and butter.  You do not want to use 100% butter, and you do not want to use plain Crisco.  You want butter flavored.  When I was a teenager, my dad would provide black strap molasses for me to make the cookies.  I've found molasses that calls itself black strap but it isn't like the nasty stuff my dad was able to get.  I saw nasty because it was REALLY bitter.  But it made the BEST cookies.  The more bitter the molasses, the better the flavor in the cookies. My daughter has been known to eat almost an entire cookie jar in a fairly short period of time!

Printable Version

Aunt Audrey's Molasses Ginger Snaps 1/2 cup  Butter Flavored Crisco 1 cup  butter 2 cups sugar ½ cup  BlackStrap or less sweet molasses such as Grandma's Robust 2 eggs 4 cup  flour ½ tsp  salt 4 tsp  baking soda 2 tsp  cinnamon 2 tsp  ginger 1 Cream shortening, butter, sugar and molasses. Add eggs. Beat well. 2 Add dry ingredients and mix well. 3 Roll into small balls, 3/4" to 1" in diameter. Dip top of ball into sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet - I use parchment paper- about 2" apart. 4 Bake at 350° for approximately 8 minutes. Servings: 108 The second thing I want to share is Christmas ornaments.   I have been stitching lace Christmas ornaments.  I can make them in any color. They measure approximately 3" to 3.5".  They are extremely affordable at $3.50. An added bonus is they are non-breakable! Take a look at the ones I can stitch and see if you'd like one as a gift for a special person.

Dedication Dresses

A friend, Joy, has two precious little granddaughters.  These little girls were going to be dedicated to the Lord.  For those of you who aren't familiar with this, it is based on Hannah and Samuel in the book of 1 Samuel in the Bible.

I'll inject a little trivia about me.  My parents were two of the six founding members of their church in 1957.  That is the year I was born. In 1958, I was the first baby dedicated at Grace Baptist Church .  I am happy to say my parents are still living in the same house they lived in at that time and doing pretty well for their ages.  Dad will be 94 in a few more weeks and Mom will be 91 in February.

Joy made her granddaughter's dedication dresses and I had the privilege of embroidering them.  They were gorgeous!  The little girls are cousins. 

She chose an Imperial Batiste ( 65% polyester, 35% pima cotton) fabric in white.  It is so soft to the touch but had wonderful body for draping.  The lace on the sleeves was overlapped cotton cluny lace.  The lace around the bottom edge of the skirt was an antique 3"cotton lace with a flower motif.  The back of the bodice was closed with 3 pearlized shank buttons.

At first, Joy thought she wanted all white embroidery.  As she began choosing embroidery designs, she decided to go with a touch of pale pink and green.  The results were stunning. as you can see in the photos below.

The bodice.

The center front of the skirts.

This design was stitched repeatedly around the entire hem of the skirt.

This shows the embroidery around the hem of the skirt, the beautiful lace and the pleating.

This is the baby's long gown before she attached the sleeves.

This is the shorter version for the toddler.

She also made slips.  We plan to embroider the names and dedication date on the slips.  they are heirlooms that cn be passed down from generation to generation.  With each use, the name and date can be added to the slip.  The toddlers slip had crinoline added to add fullness.

She made bonnets and attached beautiful ribbon ties but the girls were not happy about keeping those on! 

Below are the professional portraits in their dresses.  Aren't they precious?  You can click on any picture to see it larger.