Category: lifestyle

Mexican Bingo Charcuterie Board #2

Charcuterie Boards are the best! Check out my blog, to see my board to take to Mexican Bingo!

This afternoon, I made a Charcuterie Board. It was for a family dinner, and was a trial run for when I go to tomorrow night’s Mexican Bingo. My family was my guinea pig. Here’s what I did and I’m putting it here so you can do it too!

I have several sizes of boards. This time , I used the larger one. One of my recent purchases was the bag of little toothpick flags. So I used two of those and wrote Mexican Bingo on them. I pulled out several sizes of small ramekins and containers, and my kabob sticks. I didn’t use all of them, but it’s good to have them out to set up my station.

I decided to have a concentration of reds and greens, to represent Mexico. At one end of the board, I put a bunch of grapes. Next to it, I placed cut up sweet peppers. I spread a bunch of chips, added cheese cubes. At the other end, I added sliced strawberries, kiwi, and some fruit flavored jelly candy. The flags went on the cheese cubes.

Next, I added a container of Salsa and slices of Summer Sausage. I filled the rest in with green olives, pepperoni and some scattered Nutella biscuits…which are adorable little cookies with Nutella inside. Lastly, I put a daisy in the middle. And then…..my piano student arrived, and I made her come in , look at it, and ooh and ahh. LOL

My family enjoyed it, which was a good thing. My main dish was a little late getting done, so they snarfed from the board. Tomorrow night, I will make a few changes. I will add some wheat thins or crackers to go with the cheese. Also, I have a layered Mexican dip that I will add, and will make some taquitos to put in the french fry holder. And I will top it off with a Sunflower.

What kind of charcuterie boards have you made lately? Is that one of your staple recipes? I enjoy making them. Come back next week, when I present Charcuterie Board #3. Yes, I have more company coming! Woohoo!

If you enjoyed this post, please press LIKE, and leave a comment.

Hugs,

Grandma Sherry

Ten Things I Love About February

Here are Ten Things I love about February. Enjoy!

February is such a fun month for kids and adults, alike. Here are 10 things I love about February.

  1. The weather changes a lot. We almost always get snow or ice around Valentine’s Day. Snow is unique in Texas. With 1/2 inch of snow, you will see school’s out, and lots of snowmen.
  2. I love Valentine’s Day!! It’s a day of love and showing someone else how much you like/love them. I like to put up my decorations and have fun with it.
    • Valentine’s Day is also my Anniversary. I married my sweetie 47 years ago. Sometimes though, he thinks I only need one gift, to serve both occasions.
    • Helping my Grandkids make and decorate Valentine’s cookies. Love those kids!
    • Giving lessons to my piano students. I had three new students this month…all brothers. They are so fun!
    • Planting pansies and preparing to plant other plants.
    • Planning my garden for Spring.
    • Going to Bunko, Ladies’ Poker and Mexican Bingo
    • Having a Super Bowl Party
    • Singing in my church choir, being a liturgist and teaching children’s church…things that make me happy.
        Anniversary bouquet
        Isaac frosting sugar cookies

        What are your favorite things about February? Leave me a comment . That section is either on the side with the #words, or at the bottom , under the Other things you might like. If you liked this post, press Like. That helps me!

        Love,

        Grandma Ruddell

        TEXAS WEATHER IS CRAAAAZZZYY!

        The Sleet Storm

        There’s nothing like Texas weather in February!!! Is it winter? Is it Spring? Is it Summer? Sheesh! Today, it feels like early Spring. The rest of the week is going to be in the 70’s.

        If we ever get snow, it’s usually around Valentine’s Day. This year, the bad weather arrived two weeks early. It came in the form of a sleet storm, in Ft. Worth, with very frigid weather. My son, and sister-in-law , live in the Austin area. They had a severe ice storm that brought down trees and wires, all over Austin. My sister-in-law and hubby just had their electricity turned back on, this past week. They were without electricity for about 10 days, and ended up being at a hotel for five or six of those days. They are still cleaning up debris. All of the streets in their area are lined with piles of tree branches. Austin and Ft. Worth, and surrounding areas had multiple wrecks. It was all quite the mess.

        And then……we had a beautiful sunset ! Don’t like the weather in Texas? Stick around!

        A beautiful sunset.

        Two years ago, we rented a condo for Valentine’s week. We were at a lake, southwest of Austin. Our anniversary is on Valentine’s Day, so we like to celebrate in some fashion. As were at the condo unit, we had a major ice storm. We were iced in, and there was hardly anyone at the resort. During the week, two gentlemen had had their unit flood from burst pipes. They asked if they could come in and get warm. They ended up staying with us for that week. It was an interesting experience, with no water, and roving electricity. We played a lot of cards.

        Before
        Old door mat
        Pansies in the flower pots, and new door mat. My dad made the head.

        So here we are in the middle of February. It’s starting to feel Springy. I decided to rip out the dead plants from my front porch planters…it’s about time!….and plant some pansies. I also bought a new door mat for the porch. So far, that’s all I have done, but oh, I feel so much better! Now, I need to get my back flower pots done, and get the garden areas cleaned out. Truthfully, I love Spring! That is one reason I’m glad we moved to Texas. Spring comes earlier here.

        How is the weather in your part of the world? Are you still having winter, or is it Spring weather? Leave me a comment .

        Hugs,

        Grandma Ruddell

        A GIRL’S WEEKEND IN HOUSTON

        Houston is a lot more than big skyscrapers. Check out all of the fun things to see and do.

        A couple of weekends ago, my daughter and I took a girl’s trip to visit my sister, who lives in Houston. She recently moved there, and she’s still discovering the city. Her name is Toni, and she treated us royally, taking us to so many wonderful places. Jessi and I had sent her a list of odd things that we wanted to see, and Toni had her own things to show us. Plus she had a nice, new apartment that we were thrilled to see.

        We drove there on Friday and spent the night. On Saturday, we packed it all in. Toni started our day by going to Tiny’s for Brunch. I felt so elegant! I rarely go to brunch. This was a nice place with great food. It sure beat my usual cheerios and diet coke!

        Next, we went to The Beer Can House. (This, of course, was on my list.) The whole outside of the house was covered in Beer Cans that had been smashed and adhered to the house. The couple had drank 50,000 cans of beer to help their art. The man had also made wind chimes out of the cans, and he had a cement sidewalk, with designs in it of marbles and cans. It all started because he didn’t like to do outside work. So he covered it all in Beer Cans. Pretty fun…you should definitely go see this!

        Next on our list of quirky attractions, was the fenced lot of Giant President Heads. The artist, David Adickes, is known for his heroic scale sculptures of historic figures. If you’ve ever driven on highway 45, from Dallas to Houston, you probably passed the giant statue of Sam Houston. That is by the same artist. We saw one of the heads in Branson, last year, of President Kennedy. This was really fun to see all of the President heads in Houston. Just wished we could have been able to go inside the fence.

        Toni had a great place for us to explore. It was a huge park and grounds of Ima Hogg’s beautiful house. Bayou Bend is gorgeous, and we took a tour of the house and her grounds. Ima was a great benefactor to Houston, and her father was Governor Hogg. Ima was a society lady and collected art. The park and house are now owned by the Houston Museum of Arts.

        And from there, we toured the Houston Museum of Arts. We didn’t have a lot of time before they closed, but my sister is the Marketing Director there, so she took us to lots of cool places and things to see. The Museum has 3 or 4 buildings at this site, and they are connected by tunnels that are artsy in themselves. This is one of the best museums I’ve seen in a long time. My favorite thing was laying down on a building, and it is projected up on the wall to look like we were hanging from the building. There was a really neat exhibit when you first come in, that is interactive. I need to go back when I have more time, and explore the rest of the museum.

        Our Sunday finale , before driving back to Ft. Worth, was going to Joel Osteen’s church. My word!! It was like a huge theater, with several layers of balconies. We sat pretty close to the front. The first thirty minutes were praise music, with lights and singers. It was kind of like going to a concert. Then Joel came out and preached an uplifting sermon. Don’t know your feelings about this church, but it was something we wanted to experience. Pretty cool!

        We had such a good time! Hope this gives you some ideas for when you go to Houston. It’s not just big buildings downtown. But then, again, I like to look for kooky things that are a little different. What do you like to do in Houston? Leave me a comment.

        Hugs,

        Grandma Ruddell

        A BUNDT CAKE FOR FALL

        I am always looking for new recipes to add to my collection, and tantalize the taste buds of my friends and family. I recently saw one of my favorite vloggers, Dawn Madsen from the Minimal Mom, make this cake, and knew I needed to try it. It fit the bill, and I took it to a dinner at my kids’ house. We all agreed it was tasty and fun. Part of the appeal was the surprise inside. Here’s the recipe.:

        CANDY CORN BUNDT CAKE

        –1 white cake mix, 9 X 13

        –4 egg whites

        –1/2 c. oil

        –1/2 c. warm water

        –1 1/2 c. sour cream

        –1 pkg. cheesecake pudding mix

        Preheat oven to 325 F.Blend everything together in a medium bowl. Divide batter into three bowls. Add food coloring to make one bowl orange, one bowl yellow, and leave the other bowl white. Put batter into greased bundt pan in layers of white, orange and yellow. Bake at 325 for 47 – 53 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, and then remove from pan. Cool until room temperature.

        FROSTING

        –1 can of Cream Cheese Frosting

        –Candy Corn

        When the cake has cooled, put the can of cream cheese frosting in a gallon zip lock bag, with a small hole in the corner. Pipe the frosting onto the cake, as shown in the photo. Or if you prefer, just frost the cake with the frosting.

        Place candy corn pieces around the top of the cake. Cut, serve. Delicious with ice cream!

        I hope you enjoy this recipe. It’s a fun addition to your Fall meals!

        Hugs,

        Grandma Ruddell