OKAY, OOPS!!!!

These recipes were supposed to be on the Dinner on Janus Court Blog, I don't know how I did that but I'm not typing them again :)

A couple new recipes I've tried

I got this recipe from the Schwan Man and tried it tonight and we liked it. You have probably made some variation of it many times. It looks like the one in the picture on the blog.

Mexican Chicken Salad

Prep time: 20 minutes
Servings: 6

1 - 2.8oz fried onions (optional)
4 cups romaine lettuce, rinsed and torn
2 cups corn
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch green onions
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 - 15 oz black beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups diced chicken breast meat
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup ranch dressing
3/4 cup BBQ sauce

1. Mix ranch dressing and BBQ sauce. Set aside

2. Mix prepared corn and chicken with all remaining ingredients except Fried Onions

3. Pour prepared ranch and BBQ dressing over salad mixture and toss.

4. Top with French fried onions before serving.

I've wanted a plain white scratch cake recipe for a long time and found this one in my mother's recipes that I'm supposed to be typing for everyone. I was very happy with it especially the next day.

Plain Cake
3 cups sifted flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup shortening
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
vanilla (It didn't say how much, I used 2 tsp)
Sift flour first then put flour, sugar, salt, baking powder in the sifter and sift into a bowl.
Add the milk, eggs shortening and vanilla. Mix all together and bake in moderate oven. I'm assuming that means about 350 degrees.

Highlights from Seattle

Justin and I had a fun time playing outside while Joseph was at school, we went on a walk, played baseball, had a picnic and wrote notes to Mom and Dad with sidewalk chalk which the rain washed away before they got to see them.

Joseph in front of his school. He is in kindergarten and it was so fun to see his classroom and meet his teacher. His favorite subject right now is PE, which he informed me is short for physical education.

One of our walks around the block. Justin keeps right up on his scooter but likes to make a lot of stops to look at bugs, pet the bunny (made of porcelain) and pick up trash. So cute! Joseph was quite patient about it though.

Joseph taking flowers to his teacher on teacher appreciation day.

Darren needed to make a business trip to NYC and it was my good fortune to be ask to watch the boys while he and Jill made the trip. I enjoyed the drive last Saturday, the traffic wasn't as bad as I had expected and I listened to a story on CD that LeAnn let me borrow so that made it fun.

Joseph and Justin were so good and easy to care for, we had a great time together and Jill had made great notes to help me get where I needed to be with them, school, church, etc. so we had things to keep us busy. They have such huge imaginations, it was fun to watch and listen to the things they came up with. Joseph and I played school while Justin took naps, we went to the library, McDonalds, played games, cars, baseball and read lots of stories.

It was quite a shock Saturday evening when I turned on the TV after the boys were in bed and saw the story about the failed car bomb in Time Square. Jill had just sent a photo of her standing in that spot a few hours earlier so I was a little stressed when they didn't answer my text. They were there to see it all happen but were tucked in bed safe in sound by the time I heard about it. Thankfully it failed!

I love those boys!

Bruce is good to support my little jaunts and I appreciate that so much and love to get home to him especially this time since it was our 34th anniversary which is unbelievable to me.