It doesn't have to look good as long as it taste good.

John (aka Handy Hubby) doesn't always have a sweet tooth, but every once and a while, he gets a craving for something.  This time it is a strawberry tart.  Well I am not good at tarts and I don't own a tart pan. So I decided on a compromise, strawberry pie, at least I hope it is a good compromise.  So I set out gathering the stuff to make it. I used the Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pie Crust recipe.  I followed the directions and made the crust. And while the crust was chilling, I started on the filling.

I really suck at pie crust. So I gave up on rolling it out and just pressed it into the pie plate with my fingers.

I started by putting frozen strawberries in a bowl (could be any berry or fruit) and sprinkled with a tbsp of cornstarch.

I finished off the edges with a fork,  okay so I wanted it to look somewhat nice.

I placed the strawberries, poured the simple syrup mixture over the top, and sprinkled with a little flour.

Added crumbles of leftover crust on top of the fruit and into the oven.

Baked and ready to eat , Yummy!!!!

Strawberry Pie.

• 1/2 lb (give or take) strawberries
• 2 tbsp cornstarch,
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 cup water
• Pie crust recipe

On the stove in a medium sauce pan combine the sugar, water, and 1 tbsp of cornstarch and bring to a boil.  In a mixing bowl toss the strawberries in 1 tbsp of cornstarch. Prepare your pie crust, whether your roll it out or press it into the pan (  you can use ready made crust too)  Place the strawberries in the crust.  Then pour the sugar and water mixture over the top.  Sprinkle with a little flour on top.  Add crumbled up left over crust and bake at 350 for about an hour.

Oklahoma Mud Brownies

With fall coming on and the leaves changing, I have been in a baking mood lately.  I thought I would share one of my family's favorites. Oklahoma Mud Brownies.   I made these with the inspiration of Mississippi Mud Pie.  Great compliment to our dinner tonight of Smothered Pork chops and smashed potatoes with green beans and mushrooms.

Gather all your ingredients and tools together.

Mix your dry ingredients together .

Add all  your wet ingredients.

All the ingredients mixed up and yummy looking.  I am starting to gather teenage boys wanting to lick the bowl.

Spread 1/2 of the brownie batter in the greased pan.

Sprinkle 1/2 the chocolate chips on the batter.

Spread all the marshmallows. They will melt and become all creamy.

Spread the rest of the batter over the top.

He finally got to lick the spoon and bowl.

Sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips over the top and bake.

Deliciousness and yumminess all warm and gooey and definitely good.  I have some happy campers tonight.

Brownie mix

1 Cup Sugar,

1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour,

1/3 Cup Cocoa,

1/4 tsp Salt,

1/4 tsp Baking Powder

Bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes in an 8x8 or 9x9 pan.
Put mix in plastic zip-lock bags or mason jars.


Oklahoma Mud Brownies


2 brownie mixes mixed according to the directions (I used my own but you can use boxed)
½ cup of mini marshmallows
½ cup of chocolate chips (semi sweet or whatever you have)
Butter to grease the pan


Spread ½ the batter in the pan, sprinkle ¼ c of the chocolate chips then all the marshmallows, and spread the other half of the batter over the top. Then sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips on top.




Bake following the directions on the box or recipe.

At Baking Time Add:

2 Eggs,

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil,

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Swollen noses, gray hairs, grody patina, friends, and antiques

My week started out like any other week, school and work.  Sophie and I even made cookies during the fall break.  I love baking with the kids.  Then Thursday night after the cookies, there was a wrestling incident that ended in Mom catching an elbow to the bridge of her nose.  Yes, I caught my husband's elbow in the nose.  Luckily I don't bruise like most people, so I don't have 2 black eyes.  Instead I look like I haven't slept in a couple of weeks and have a major sinus infection.  No big deal.  Mr. Handy Hubby really felt bad, he made me a special ice pack that worked better than any ice pack ever.  In a quart zippy baggie fill with equal parts hand sanitizer and water, then he just popped them in the freezer for two hours.  It never freezes hard, it gels more like a great margarita.  You have to wrap it in a towel because it is colder than ice. It molds perfectly to the area you apply it too.

Friday while at home with the little kids, by the way Ethan hates that title, Matthew's work called.  He had a seizure at work.  I ran up to get him and he was still a little altered by it.  I get him home.  He is alright.  We are still just counting down the days until the neurology appointment. Waiting for doctors is going to make me go completely gray way too early.  I mean common, I thought the military was bad about the hurry up and wait game but these specialist could teach the military a thing or five about hurry up and wait.  We have been dealing with this seizure stuff for over a month now and still have 3 weeks to wait before we see the neurologist.

So Friday night we had a pair of teen brothers staying the night with Ethan.  Eli and JJ are great kids that go to church with us.  I made homemade calzones for dinner. Yum Yum right, well kind of, I need to tweak this recipe a bit more.  They were good but I prefer to have a bit more flavor to the crust. But the teenagers did not complain.  The boys stayed up late and played Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.  Surprising that the Wii still entertains teens, although they kept saving things like "This takes me back to my childhood" and "I loved playing this as a kid".  It is bad enough I have a swollen face, and more gray hairs this week, now they are making it worse with their comments about "when they were kids".  I thought it was funny.  Handy Hubby and I exchanged looks several times, rolled eyes, and snickered more than once.

The teens wanted to sleep in on Saturday. Go figure.  I had different ideas.  I made them all a big breakfast.  Pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon.  All that work and they ate and went back to bed.  Teenagers, go figure.  See the young can't hang.  While the teens were back to crashing, my friend Tammy came into town and we hit the Dollar Generals.  I got 3 rolls of landscape fabric and a metal table/plant stand for all of $2.50.  Woohoo big spender. Then she and I hit up the local antique store.  I have to give a shout out to Old Songs Sung antique store in downtown Cushing, OK.  If you are in the neck of the woods, you have to stop in there.  They have everything.  For this trip I was hunting out antique flatware with a nice grody (yes I still use Grody) patina to it. I had and idea.  Jackpot!! $6 later I had 4 knives and 2 forks.  I already had 3 spoons at home to complete my idea.

Tammy and I do craft shows together heading up to the Holidays.  We use the extra cash for Christmas money and black Friday shopping.   But this particular idea is actually for my house.  Although I think I am going to make a few to take to shows this year.  It is an organizer for the kitchen.  It will hold my rolling pin and my aprons.  This will free up some space in my drawers and be a more decorative way to hang my aprons than just a nail.   Tammy also dropped of some ribbons and a wreath so I can make bows for some awesome wreathes she is making. Busy busy busy.

You know if you think about it, I go to an antique store to get things with a grody aged patina and with a swollen nose and more gray hair I have a grody aged patina.  I accept that.

Charlie's cookies, pestering siblings, and a crazy mom

During fall break this week, Ethan went to go volunteer at the  church.  They had run to Walmart for treats and snacks for the youth activities at church.  While they were there my son bought Pioneer Woman's Charlie cookie jar for my birthday present.  He mowed yards to pay for it himself.  He knows I am slowly changing my kitchen to Pioneer Woman stuff. You know what I like most about the Pioneer Woman's kitchen decor?  It goes so well with my vintage items like my Pyrex mixing bowls.  Since Charlie is a cookie jar Sophie and I decided to make cookies to "Fill Charlie's tummy".  You just have to love 7 year old innocence.  It is just too adorable.  Ethan helped out and got everything out for the recipe and Sophie washed her hands.

Then we started working on the chocolate chip cookies.  We made just the standard Toll House cookie recipe. (Just in case you want to make cookies)  For the first time I let her  crack the eggs.   It took a few tries of trying to knock it on the side of the bowl, but she managed it.  The best part, we didn't have to pick any shells out of the eggs.  She was so proud and happy.   We continued to add other ingredients to the cream bowl then I let Miss Sophie add the eggs to the mix.  Her face pouring the  eggs into the sugars for creaming was just priceless.

I even let her use the mixer for the first time.  She thought this was the bees knees.  She did great. I am so happy to say there are no ceiling splatters or splatters all over wall.  She did great.  I was so proud.  You know everybody remembers there first time cooking with mom.  Sophie did much better than I did.  My poor clean freak mom,  I believe I splattered the walls, ceiling, and both of us.  Sophie even got to scoop the batter out and put it on the trays.  She did most of the work herself and she is proud.  Sophie and I had fun.  Now that we are done she is off pestering her brother.

I have sweet kids but boy do they bug each other.  The middle one bugs the oldest, and the youngest bugs the middle one.  Well, for the most part it is my fault with an age spread like  we have (18, 14, 7)somebody is bound to get on somebody's nerves.  They yell and bluster and drive each other as well as mom and dad crazy but when it is all said and done.  They all love each other.

Cows, giggles, green pastures, and dirt road wisdom.

This morning I guess I really needed to clear my head and connect with some country.  This came in the form of Boony cruisin' with a couple of really awesome ladies in the dodge truck.  We sat in the truck blasting country music, laughing, giggling, and bouncing around the truck on some Oklahoma back country dirt roads.  We saw some beautiful fields and barns, we talked to some cows, and even had a couple of scares.   We were getting a cold front coming in so there were some clouds on the horizon that maybe it all the better.  One thing you can say about Oklahoma, it has beautiful farmland and beautiful big skies.  Both of which make for breathtaking photographs.   

It was a quiet morning at least until the three of us came bouncing through.  My two cruisin' buddies needed the head clearing moment just as much as I did.  We stopped and talked to the cows.  Watched a few sneaking their breakfast on the other side of the fence.  You know because the  grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  As it turns out the grass isn't always greener on the other side.  Sometimes we just think it is.  One thing I have learned in my forty years is, no matter how green someone's life appears, everybody has brown spots now and then.  See these cows are leaning out eating the short grass that is turning quicker even though they have thicker fuller grass in their pasture.  I think it is just how they sit it.  You know that is just the point.  We are all just so busy trying to have the better greener pasture that we are missing what is right in front of us.   We need to just stop and look around.  If you look at your own pasture you might find it is greener, more peaceful, and happier than those Joneses we always seem to be trying to keep up with.  And you never know they might just be look from their pasture at us and think it is greener because we have a more simple life.  

So  here is what I am thinking.  We need to all slow down take a drive out in the country on a dirt road.  Maybe just seeing the simple beauty of the barns, silos, pastures, cows, and big sky then count our blessings.  We have our husbands, our kids, our family, we have a place to live, food to eat, electricity to keep it not to hot or cold, we have a way to get around. These are all blessings.  We need to keep that in mind a little bit everyday.  We need to be thankful for these blessing and not worry as much about our neighbors blessings.


So maybe  looking at my pictures that I took will help you realize what I realized this morning.  I also realized nothing beats a couple of good friends in a truck boony cruisin' on some red dirt roads.  An other thing to remember is always keep a camera with you.  You never beautiful sites you might see on a beautiful October Oklahoma morning.  Not to mention some awesome country music can cure any thing that ails you.

One more piece of dirt road wisdom, don't forget what you have been through because it made you who you are today.  It also made you stronger.  So while the future is a little fuzzy right now it will be crystal clear and in the rear view mirror soon.  

Peace, Love, and Dirt road happiness.

If you like this or other stories on this blog click follow and invite friends.  A couple of recipes coming soon.

New meets old, recipes, memories, and windmills.

This past week my grandmother went home to heaven.  While it is sad for us and we will miss her, she lived a long life and deserves to rest and see other family including her husband that have passed on.  We went down to the funeral over the weekend.  I hated the reason for the visit but loved being there.  My grandmother was laid to rest in an tiny old cemetery in a tiny dying town in Texas, but the area feels like home.  We took the dirt roads back to town.  On one of the dirt roads not far from where my grand parents used to live, I pulled over and took this picture.  It struck me the new and the old windmills.  It struck me how many wind farms the ranchers in the area had gone too.  But with the recent droughts in Texas I can certainly understand the need to supplement income.  

I received box of things from my grandmother's apartment.  There were pictures and mementos, but one thing had struck me...a recipe full of recipes cut from newspapers, magazines, and product labels. 

 This last thing the folder of recipes struck me as very interesting.  I am constantly patrolling Facebook, blogs, and Pintrest for recipes then save them and print them.  Some recipes I use and some I just mean to use.  But sitting in the  dining room floor excitedly going through my grandmothers stash of recipes, something dawned on me.  I do the same thing my grandmother did, just with different media.  Where I go through Facebook, blogs, and Pintrest and saving recipes with good intentions is just the same as my grandmother going through newspapers, magazines, and product labels and clipping and saving recipes with the best of intentions.   Just like the picture of the windmills, you have the old and the new, they do basically the same things but in slightly different ways.  

I sat in my dining room floor with this treasure trove of recipes that my Grandmother thought were worth saving, I felt a connection with her that wasn't previously there.  It is odd we were always pretty close but this made me feel closer.  I held the few hand written ones, boy what treasures.  There were a couple in my Sister's hand writing.  Which is funny to me, it is no family secret that my sister couldn't cook for many years.  She can cook it just took her longer to come to it.  You know the old saying "You never trust a skinny cook"  my sister is the embodiment of that saying.  While she is better, she is still a skinny cook.  (Sis, if you read this I don't mean it to hurt your feelings. I love you.)  I did come across an very interesting recipe printed on bright yellow paper.  It was from a Girl Scout newsletter.  It is for Dump Cake.  It was a recipe I modified when I was a Junior Girl Scout or maybe a Cadette.  It got modified because I have always hated reading directions, it comes from dyslexia.  The original cake was supposed to be all dumped in at once and I layered it.  I also cooked it in a dutch oven over a fire instead of the oven.  The fact that she kept that recipe for this many years was very touching.  I think the recipes we keep are as much a scrapbook of our life as pictures are.  I mean after all we are what we eat right?  So the recipes tell our story right?

Gump (Dump) Cake 

• 2 Cans of  Blueberry or Cherry pie filling
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 1 stick of butter
• coconut

In a dutch oven lined with foil, or regular cake pan (no size given but I think a 9x13 greased)

1st layer pie filling

2nd layer pineapple including the juice

3rd layer cake mix (dry)

4th layer butter cut into small pieces and spread  over the top

5th layer the coconut

Bake 350 for an hour or until top is golden brown

 I am going to have to make this soon just for the memories.  I don't think I have made this since It was printed.   Which was quite a while ago.