Two (2) multiple thumbs up Salads

   My brother BL and his wife host a yearly summer party at their house, for both sides of their family.  Laughter, good food, swimming, boating and a campfire are the main activities of the event. This year, instead of making something from my recipe box, I decided to try things from one of my Pinterest boards.  To be honest, I had tried the pea salad one on Father's Day, and my husband raved over it, so I made that one again and another new one I thought he would like. He did!  In-fact, I got lots of thumbs up on both recipes and promised to post them. Here they are then ;-]

     (Reminder, you can click on the pictures to see them in larger (clearer) version) 
    It was hot 'round here on Saturday!!! Hot and muggy and what some consider as 'summer at it's finest' and others consider as 'summer at it's worst'. It was the kind of heat that I knew would do damage to these salads in no time flat! But how to help them on a buffet? The above picture shows the remedy I came up with.

    Now for the recipes... I haven't yet figured out how to post them, so that you can print off just the recipe.. Byron was going to help by walking me through the process... but 'life' hasn't cooperated for two days now... seeings how I have promised a couple of people that I would post them, here goes the only way I currently know.... Sorry!

~ Creamy Pea Salad 
   Adapted from the version posted by Jamie on 'Love Bakes Good Cakes'
     (http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/2012/08/creamy-pea-salad.html )
  ~ 2 pkg.'s (16 oz. each) frozen peas, thawed and drained
  ~ 2 to 3 cups Colby Cheddar Cheese, diced med. size
  ~ 2 to 3 cups diced Mozzarella cheese
  ~ Half of 1 fist size Red Onion
  ~ 1 cup each of both Miracle Whip AND Mayonnaise
  ~ Salt and Pepper, to taste
  ~ 8 oz. Real Bacon Crumbles

    Dump the drained peas and both cheeses into a large bowl.
    Slice the red onion quite thinly, then dice up the slices.  Add to bowl.
    Use your hands to mix everything thourally.
    In another bowl, blend together the Miracle Whip, Mayonnaise, Salt and Pepper. Scrape this mixture out onto the contents of the big bowl. Use a large wooden spoon to thourally blend everything together. Take a sample bite. If necessary, add more Miracle Whip and/or Mayonnaise.
    Chill for an hour or two.

~ Bacon Tomato Cucumber Salad
    Adapted from the version posted by Jessica on 'Simply Healthy Home'
     ( http://simplyhealthyhome.com/bacon-tomato-cucumber-salad/ )
  ~ 3 extra large seedless Cucumbers
  ~ 16 oz. container of grape size Tomatoes
  ~ 8 oz. Real Bacon Crumbles
  ~ 1/2 to 3/4ths cups each of both Miracle Whip AND Mayonnaise
  ~ 1 1/2 Teaspoons Garlic Powder
  ~ 1 1/2 teaspoons Sea Salt
  ~ 3/4 teaspoon black Pepper

   Slice your Cucumbers in half lengthwise. Slice each half into 3 sections lengthwise. Now chop them into rather small chunks. Dump them into a large bowl as you go.
   Cut each Tomato in half lengthwise, then in half width wise. Dump on top of the cucumbers as you go.
   Add the Real Bacon Crumbles to the bowl.
   Use your hands to mix everything thourally.
    In another bowl, blend together the Miracle Whip, Mayonnaise, Garlic Powder, Sea Salt and Black pepper. Scrape this mixture out onto the contents of the big bowl. Use a large wooden spoon to thourally blend everything together. Take a sample bite. If necessary, add more Miracle Whip and/or Mayonnaise.
  Chill for an hour or two.
  [due to the natural wateriness of cucumbers, this salad does not have a long shelf life]

I hope you, your family and friends enjoy them as much as mine have!
 

a smile producing memory

     Facebook asked me if I wanted to share a memory, something I had posted on July 14, 2015.  I do, just not on there.  I'll share it on here.
    "I had gone up to bed very early last evening. While coming back down an hour and a half later, just turned 4 year old Mr. Elliot questioned why I was up. "Oh, cause my body told me I need to use the bathroom" (read while hearing a totally in awe young voice) "Really grandma? Your body talks to you?!?" While trying to camouflage my chuckle I replied, "yes, some times it does" (add more awe and wonderment to the young voice) "Cool! Can I listen to it with you sometime grandma?" Oh the delight young ones add to our lives!"

Last week Wed.

   Our 'back yard neighbors' moved out last Wed. evening.  Yes, you read that right.  See, Brent and Kayla found a house in time to put a bid in on it before it was already off the market (that happened a LOT!). Their bid was accepted. :-].  The very next day, they received notification from the company they had been renting from, that they had to be out by the end of the month. The company was going to take advantage of the current housing market and put the house up for sale. It could have worked out just fine, seeings how the people they were buying from had already put an offer in on another house and wanted a quick flip.

    But you know how 'could have's' and 'should have's' go. Especially when your dealing with any branch of the government. While Brent had been pre-approved for a mortgage, it was a government backed one... sigh. While he had been super careful to cross every 'T' and dot every 'i', it seemed that the line on the 'T' must have gotten too close to the dot on the 'i' or something. (Insert eye roll). It was one delay after another.  Crazy things. Such as, even though all of the money for his down payment was in one (1) account, the proof of where every dollar of it had come from wasn't in the proper order of deposits for them. Such as, the guy from the county who did the lot survey, didn't fill out his paper work to their (the governments) satisfaction. This ended up having to be redone more than twice. Like I said, crazy things!

    In the meantime, or should that be 'in reality', time had passed and they had gotten to the end of when they could live in the rental house. The cost of living in a hotel for an extended time was either too high, or at a location you wouldn't want to do so at.

   Seeings how they DID have a new house lined up and even if the deal on that place didn't go through, they were going to be buying a house; and it is summer, we said "yes" to their request of moving into our back yard. They came inside to get water for dishes or to use the bathroom, but other wise, by their own choice, mainly stayed outside.

    It worked out just fine. We'd had concerns about their dogs and barking, due to where they were set up and neighborhood traffic, etc., but were very pleasantly impressed with how well they have trained and controlled their dogs! :->

    They ended up living out back longer than they had hoped, but not as long as they had feared.  Last Wed. we helped them load up, and move their stuff to their own new house. With 17 acres. And a garage. And a barn. And tons of wild life. A perfect 'Brent'  and 'Kayla' location!

    I snapped this picture early Wed. morning.   The picture of their dogs in yesterday's posting was taken then too.

"Family Day", June 2016

    Last week was such a busy week!  Perhaps I'll post more about all of it later (o:-b ). For now, I want to share a brief glimpse at our "Family Day".  I had gone through our 'little families' calendar via the Cozi app. and picked a day that everybody was at least available. If they chose to participate or not, was then up to them. I'm seriously thankful they all did!
Scheduled to have all of our GRAND children here for the entire day. Kayla and Brandon were going to be here too.
     Here is a picture I took that day of all 7 of our GRAND children, lined up in order of age.

             (Reminder, if you click on the picture you can see it in larger form)

 Currently, Marcus is 8 1/2, Mikaedam 8, Analyse 7, Marlie and Kadriel are both 6 1/2, Elliot is 4 9/10, Rylee is 3. While the names of our GRAND dogs are listed, we chose not to put them up there* for the picture. The reasoning was that it would probably scare and scar one and over encourage the other. (;-b).
    But here is a picture I took of the two dogs the next morning. Daisy is the white one, Aria the black one.

    Up there* = part of the 30 foot long play center our adult kids built out of mainly scrap materials (less than $100.00 was spent on the build) and gave to our GRAND children for Christmas one year. That thing was climbed on, ran on, swings swung till occupants hit the tree branches, etc., to the max that Grandma would allow that day. (to the disappointment of many, I would not let them go out on the section of board that goes over the swings... experience not fear was my reasoning). Our kids did an awesome job in designing and building it and the GRAND kids are ever so grateful they did!!!

      The GRAND kids are now questioning when the next "cousins" day is.... this GRAND ma is scheming on that....

 Blog about our GRAND children