What's Cooking?

 Jessica made strawberry shakes for everyone on the 4th of July. You can read more about it on that post.

I tore the ligaments in my knee on the 4th. I used a bag of mixed veggies as an ice pack because it was flexible and bent around my knee. Then Jessica made them into a casserole!

Mixed Vegetable Casserole

1 lg. pkg. mixed vegetables cooked

1 lb hamburger browned

Lg. can cream of chicken soup

hash browns, warmed

salt

pepper

Mix and bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes.

Jasmine cooked twice in July. The first thing she made was a noodle dish.

Jasmine's Noodle Bake 

1 lg can tomato soup

1/3-1/2 c water

1 can drained corn

1 tbs sweet relish

1 tsp mustard

1 pkg hotdogs sliced

4c cooked spiral macaroni

Stir ingredients together. Pour into baking dish. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

Jessica often cooks more than just the once a month all the kids cook. She made omelets to order for everyone one night. 

Kaleb made pot roast. He peeled the carrots, tenderized the meat and helped get everything into the crock pot.

Crock Pot Roast

3-6 lbs beef roast

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 packs Lipton Beefy Onion Soup Mix

2 c water

1-3 c each carrots, celery, potatoes cut into 3” pieces

Mix soups, beefy onion mix and water in crock pot. Add meat. Cook on low 6- 8 hours. Add the vegetables. Turn to high and cook 2-3 hours more. You can speed it up by turning it to high earlier.

Jasmine cooked taco soup. There are a lot of variations and not much that can go wrong.

Taco Soup

Can of black beans drained

2 cans of kidney beans drained

Can of corn drained

Lg can Tomato juice

Tomato sauce (large can)

Taco seasoning

1 lb browned ground beef

Combine in crock pot and cook at least one hour


Kayla was supposed to make the taco soup but sometimes we deal with attitudes here (I know you are all surprised) and she cannot shake it off so misses out. That happened a lot this month so she did not cook. But check back next month because she really likes to cook so I'm sure she will make that happen. 

Happy Birthday Tyler

Tyler is 22 today! A little change from his first birthday. He eats neater for one thing!

We had taco bell. A friend gave me this birthday plate many birthdays ago!

A check from grandma

A Nerf gun from Uncle Ken. Yes Ty still plays with toys.

A helicopter from Aunt Lou

A shirt from Jasmine and Jessica

A camera, case, memory card and warranty from us

22 candles

the helicopter

Just glad it's only a Nerf gun (even if he is 22)

Happy birthday Tyler!!!! Don't ever grow up too much.

Home at Last

We left ICRS at about noon Wednesday. The girls went to Disney for the rest of the day, and I stayed at the hotel and made notes about writing projects to propose and to read (and stay off my knee!). They went again on Thursday and I moved out by the pool for the day (in long capris, knee brace and tank top) to plan and read. I have pretty funny tan lines now. (Well, burn lines really!)

Magic Kingdom waiting to drive at the race track.

They stayed at the dance party quite a while.

Hollywood Studios (used to be MGM)

Hanging out at the pool Friday before we drove up to Tallahassee to hang out. 

We arrived home shortly after noon yesterday. We had a lot of books to unload and am still sorting them out.

Today Jessica and I have nursery in the morning, and I have team kid in the evening. This is my next to last Sunday to have Jasmine in my group. Next Sunday we will be in Chicago, and the next Sunday in Elkhart, IN. Then I have her one more Sunday before she promotes to the middle school group!!!! I'm not ready for that.

Right now I'm rereading Steven James' The Pawn, Mary Higgins Clark's I've Heard that Song Before, Randy Alcorn's Deadline, Jeff Gerke's The Art of Writing Christian Fiction and Robin Carroll's Injustice for All. This is the first book I've read by her and I got it at the convention. I got a pre release copy of Karen Kingbury's The Bridge that will be releasing in October and I read it the first day the girls went to Disney. It's shorter than her other books.

What are you reading?

ICRS part 2

Ah, the glamorous life of an author. PBJ for the road. The pitas at the convention center are $9.75. Add $3 for a .99 bag of chips and $3.50 for water and it adds up in a hurry. We stocked up on apple slices, caramel dip, chips, bananas, chex mix etc at Walmart.

Jessica prepares lunch to go.

With author Davis Bunn. We know him from the Florida Christian Writer's Conference. Didn't know he's somewhat color blind until his wife described to him what color Jessica's shirt and feathers were.

This is an olympic gold medalist in gymnastics who wrote a book. Don't know who she is, but some of you will I'm sure. And I will after I read the book.

Anitra from Reach FM.

Jeremy Camp

Not the real one, but he's close. We took pictures of all  of us today with him, but discovered I didn't have a memory card. It was in my laptop from downloading last night. So I have to wait until I"m home and have a cord to download from the internal memory. At least I'm hoping the pictures took even though there wasn't a card.

We were watching 25 Hill, and Jessica went out to the restroom only to see Jesus on his cell phone. Who knew?

Director and actor from 25 Hill, a family friendly movie about soapbox racing. It stars the kid from Dolphin Tale and also has the little girl from Terabithia. 

Waiting for pick up.

She's here. Jessica has been great about dropping me off and picking me up at the door.

Ice on the knee, and we splurged for supper.

In other news, Adam has been in Trinidad for a week and a half now. They have been laying pipes so there is a good water supply for the construction. The Trinis have been bringing them a lot of local food so I'm sure that has been interesting. I know they had baked shark one night!

And Tyler got his driver's license. He has never wanted to drive. The asperger's makes him less coordinated and more stressed out. But he is capable, and he got his license this week. We are trying to move him into the adult world as he's able since he will not be returning to college. He still needs to find a job.

We are done with ICRS (although I hope to be able to post the other pictures Saturday when we get home), and the girls are off to Magic Kingdom. I am at the hotel and am going to stay off the knee and read the prerelease copy of Karen Kingsbury's The Bridge.

ICRS part 1

We arrived in Orlando Sunday late afternoon due to stopping at the Gainesville Mall.

We went to the concert for new voices.

Our stash

Kathy Macias. She is a novelist who's done a lot of research about human trafficking. She used Jessica and Jasmine in a demonstration.

Torry Martin

Here the girls are waiting to be sold.

With fantasy author Wayne Thomas Batson

by my book cover

With Steven James author of The Pawn, The Rook, The Bishop etc. He was signing The Queen.

With Christian singer Matthew West

Ted Dekker and  Tosca Lee

With new singer Karyn Williams. Her dad started Orlando Magic. She has four birth siblings and 14 adopted!

With my Tyndale editor

At the premier of The League of Incredible Vegetables

The Newsboys did the theme song for it.

Went to the Newsboys concert. 

There's more pictures but I don't want to overload everyone!

And there's more news, and I'll post that later.