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Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Recipe: Beef and Celery Stirfry

I had my menu plans made for the week when I discovered a bunch of celery wilting and on it's way out in the fridge. In order to use it up quickly I made a beef and celery stirfry today, and it was delicious!


Here's the recipe...

BEEF AND CELERY STIRFRY

 - 1 lb lean stew meat
 - 1 1/2 tbsp Bragg's aminos (or soy sauce)
 - 1/4 tsp salt
 - 1/4 tsp black pepper
 - 1 tsp ground ginger
 - 2 tsp corn starch
 - 1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
 - 1 beef bullion cube dissolved in 1/2 cup        water
 - pinch of Super Sweet (or 1/4 tsp sugar)
 - 1/4 chopped onion
 - 2 cloves garlic
 - one bunch celery cleaned and cut into       half-inch slices

I slow-cooked the meat first to ensure tenderness. After draining most of the liquid, I added the rest of the ingredients, turned up the heat, and stir-fried until the celery was tender. I did add a little extra water a couple of times during cooking. Serve over rice or cauli-rice.

Until next time,
~Rebecca

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Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Master To-Do List and Menu Plan: The Tuesday Edition - September 24, 2024

Yesterday was one of those days...cool...rainy...totally fall in all its glory. I was missing my husband and I was missing home. I wrote a big, ol' long, depressive post about it, but, thankfully, didn't post it. I have deleted the depressive parts and am just going to post the meat and potato parts and move on.

Last week fairly flew by. I ran errands, got a few things done around the house, and worked; a couple of the grandsons mowed and took care of the yard work, 



On Saturday I worked the Liberal town fair and won a couple of ribbons with my photography and craft projects.




Sunday afternoon I went to the Plaza Theater in Lamar and watched The Forge. The characters are closely linked with those in War Room (which is my favorite of all the Kendrick Brothers films) and the storyline stresses the importance of discipleship. It was good!


Let's get on with the week ahead...shall we?



This week's master to do list...

- Clean house
- Do laundry
- Transplant baby spider plants
- Get letters printed and ready to be mailed out to help get the vote out (to find out more check out WriteNow2024.org)
- Work
- Attend (and work) Prairie Jubilee 2024
- Attend great-grandson's first birthday party



This week's menu plan...

Monday - Turkey Italian sausage, baked potato, and cabbage
Tuesday - Grand Greek Salad 
Wednesday - Crispy Chicken Cheese Quesadilla
Thursday - Low carb pizza    
Friday - Freezer meal or leftovers
Saturday - Freezer meal or leftovers
Sunday - Italian sausage stuffed peppers with pasta, sauce, and garlic bread 



Well, that's all for today! Have a nice day and a great rest of the week ahead!

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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Sunday, September 22, 2024

Sunday Evening - Trip Photos - Cape Girardeau Day 2, (World's Largest Fountain Cup, Trail of Tears State Park) and More

It's the first day of autumn and, after a miserably hot last day of summer, cooler temperatures have arrived. I'm so thankful! I hope you and yours had a lovely last weekend of summer! Before another busy week starts, I thought I'd get on here and share a few more trip photos. 

Day 2 of our trip started with breakfast at our hotel. 


Aaron's sister, Kate, from Illinois met us at breakfast and spent the day with us. We had a ball!





The first stop on our way out of town was to see the 'World's Largest Fountain Drink Cup' in Cape Girardeau. It was just around the corner from our hotel.



The cup stands 15 feet tall and holds 
605,556 regular size cups of whatever the nearest convience store would care to put into it.



Next we headed to Trail of Tears State Park near Jackson, Missouri.







We toured the visitor center, got to observe several reptiles along the rock wall, and shed tears while learning about the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation from the southeast United States. I am sharing the movie that we watched here...



We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds and the beauty of the surrounding river bluffs. 







Trail of Tears is a beautiful park and one I'd like to visit again and spend more time at in the future.

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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Monday, September 16, 2024

Master To-Do List and Menu Plan Monday - September 16, 2024

It's Monday morning and I'm chomping at the bit to get started on a very long list of projects that, due to too much recent activity, have been put on hold for far too long. The week and weekend were great and the late-summer prairie absolutely gorgeous!



Last Monday evening I was invited to guest-speak and present a program on Missouri's 'wild dogs' for the local 4-H group. I had a great group of children and they enjoyed the touch table and, especially liked, getting to touch the animal pelts (fox, coyote, and wolf). 



This coyote picture was sent to me by the mom of one little girl that, when she got home from the program, watercolored. I love the contrast in fur color that she exhibited!



I had a great group of folks turn out for Friday night's 'spider sniff.' 



We learned a lot of really cool stuff about spiders before going out on the prairie to see if we could find some in their natural habitat.



We walked the prairie at just the right time of evening. All along the trail tiny spiders were busy spinning their webs in hopes of catching another meal before the night was through. 



As darkness fell (holding our flashlights close to our foreheads) we shined our lights into the edges of the grasses to discover tiny, glittering, blue and green eyes peering back at us...each set belonging to a spider. It was amazing!



We saw several female wolf spiders carrying egg cases on their backs. 



After our explorations were over, I read the 'by-laws', administered the 'oath', and issued 'certification' to all in attendence as they became members of the 'secret society' of 'Missouri Spider Sniffers'...all in silliness and fun, of course! 


It was an awesome experience and I'm pretty sure that everyone in attendance had a great time! (I hope so anyway!)



Saturday granddaughter, Audrey, and I worked 'Prairie Day' at George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, Missouri. 


It is such a beautiful place and the atmosphere there is so peaceful!



Fall was in the air and we met, and made connections with, some really amazing people. It was quite a blessing to a part of!

After church yesterday, I met Amanda, Aaron, Lisa (Aaron's mom), and the girls at Butler for a very late lunch. They had pototoes on sale up home for an incredible price, so they picked up, and delivered, several bags of them for me on their way down. It was great getting to spend some unexpected time with them and it's always nice having extra potatoes on hand!

Well, here I am, rambling away while the day goes speeding past. Let's get on with this week's post, shall we?



This week's master to-do list...

- Clean house (with focus on the Van Gogh room/office/spare bedroom/catch-all room...it's a mess!)
- Do laundry
- Clean the microwave
- Clean the fridge
- Repair toilet (new flap and handle)
- Repair ceiling fan (replace blades)
- Go over finances and figure mid-month budget (it's time to put the brakes on!)
- Pay mid-month bills
- Purchase stamps
- Divide and pot baby airplane plants
- Work/present library program on raccoons
- Get projects ready to enter in upcoming fair (photos and crafts)
- Attend and enjoy fair (Liberal, Missouri 'Prairie Days')
- Celebrate the first day of autumn



This week's menu plan...

I've made too many new recipes lately and, although they've all been quite delicious, I'm finding that they're way out of my league. Some of them I will make again, but most I will not. There are elements from some of them though that I do appreciate and will incorporate as much as possible into my regular meals...like using riced cauliflower as a substitute for brown rice. I really like that! I'm finding that, for me, it's best to stick with simple foods that I truly enjoy and try not to mix stuff up too much too often.

Monday - Turkey Italian sausage with baked potato and cabbage
Tuesday - To be decided and filled in later
Wednesday - To be decided and filled in later
Thursday - To be decided and filled in later
Friday - To be decided and filled in later
Saturday - To be decided and filled in later
Sunday - Leftovers



That's it for today, Ladies! I hope your Monday is off to a great start and that you have a wonderful week ahead!

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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Friday, September 13, 2024

Friday Afternoon - Trip Photos (Our First Night In Cape, Life on the Mississippi, Eyes in the Water) and More

I'm working a split-shift at work today...had a group in this morning and have a special program tonight. I thought I'd use this time in between to post some more trip photos...this time of our first night in Cape Girardeau. 



After a full day of travel and sightseeing, we arrived in Cape Girardeau in the late evening. On our way in we passed this building...the Red House Interpretive Center on the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail...in downtown Cape Girardeau. 

The original building (the best known trading post on the Mississippi between St. Louis, Missouri and Memphis, Tennessee during the early 19th Century and visited by Lewis and Clark to purchase supplies for their upcoming expedition in November of 1803), was built by Cape Girardeau founder and French-Canadian, Louis Lorimier. The original building was destroyed by a tornado in 1850, but was rebuilt by a group of volunteers in 2003. As you can see, the building, built in the favored French poteau-sur-solle technique, is currently undergoing some refurbishing.



After checking in at our hotel, we headed on down to the waterfront. Our first stop was to see 'The Great Wall' of Cape Girardeau. 



The 1.3-mile, 16-foot tall floodwall features two sets of murals that face the city. 



The 500-foot-long 'Missouri Wall of Fame' features 47 famous Missourians. It was painted in 1995 by artist, Margaret Dement.



In 'Mississippi River Tales' Cape Girardeau's history is depicted in 24 panels covering approximately 1,100 feet.



For a complete set of photos of the murals, click HERE.



After working our way down, we eventually came to a break in the wall. There we entered the 1.5-acre Riverfront Park, which features a riverfront walk/bike trail and terraced seating for an amphitheater effect. The park is located on the river side of the flood wall and serves as a docking site for paddle boats.



This barge on the Mississippi is the first thing that we saw upon entering Riverside Park.



The sun was setting and we just sat by the river for awhile and enjoyed it's beauty. 




Just outside the break in the wall, and cattycorner across the street, we had supper at Port Cape Girardeau and, honestly, it was some of the best food I've ever eaten. 



The place had some interesting Civil War history to be sure! 



After supper, we returned to Riverside Park to enjoy the river at night. It was so beautiful! 



All of a sudden, granddaughter, Alysia, exclaimed, "What's that in the water?" At first, we weren't able to make out what we were seeing, and, it was so dark, that we never did get any good photos, but, there were several sets of eyes in the water. 



Son-in-law, Aaron, went down to river's edge to investigate, but, even with a flashlight he was unable to detect anything. We, on the other hand, sitting atop the terraced steps, watched as, whatever was in the water, started moving towards him. 



Soon Aaron was surrounded by whatever the creatures were in the water and we were getting a little nervous. There were a couple of big splashes and a lot of activity. Long story short, the eyes in the water belonged to a family of river otters! What a cool experience!!! 



Before heading for our hotel, we ended our night by driving across the double-expansion bridge into Illinois and back. 

After that, we went to our hotel. The girls and I walked, then, after an extremely long day, everyone got ready for bed to get some much-needed rest. What a great first day of our trip and there's plenty more to share!

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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