GoGo's Scrumptious Bread Pudding

My grandma used to make bread pudding all the time when I was little. Of course I didn't know why, I just knew it tasted great.  She was obviously using the stale bread leftovers.  Who would guess that stale bread or days old bread could be turned into something so tasty.
I just recently decided to make bread pudding for the holidays.....can't believe that I hadn't done this before.
This is a very easy and quick recipe and if I can make it.....you can make it.
You will need 5 slices of buttered bread. Go ahead and cut the bread into small squares after buttering or do as I do, tear into small pieces.
1/2 cup of sugar. I use the "raw sugar" but the refined sugar is just as good.
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk
Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Allspice
An 8 X 8 inch pan
Preheat over to 300 degrees

In a medium sized bowl beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and milk together.  In the pan place the bread pieces over the bottom. Sprinkle the spices over the bread using your judgment.  I use more Cinnamon than the other spices because I love the taste.  Pour the ingredients of the bowl evenly over the bread.  At this point you can sprinkle more spices over the top or not.  Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until set.
Slice into squares and serve warm or refrigerate and eat anytime. It's great with coffee or with a scoop of your favorite ice cream.

Feliz Navidad - Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas & A Lunar Eclipse

Please watch and enjoy

this little holiday cheer of me & my wonderful family.

I'm taking a small hiatus but will return in a couple of weeks.

I hope everyone has a joyous time during the

Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year's festivities! 

Don't forget to watch the

Lunar Eclipse early, early Tueday morning (12.21.10).....how special is that!

Kahleen's Row

It's my girlfriend, Kathleen's turn.........I'm to make a grow of flowers for my portion of her row quilt.  If you remember, the "wacky" each year come up with these hair-brain ideas.......stepping out of our comfort zones and all that........which does stretch and grows our thrust for knowledge when it comes to making quilts.  Didn't that sound good......can I wax quilty or what..........don't answer that.

Anyway........I started her blocks at our last retreat but I don't think I've shown any closeups.

These are the start of her vertical row. All I have to do is make 3 more.....surely I can get this done by New Year........you think?  We'll see.  I have to get this done before I start my "pre-New Year's resolution" project...........eeeeeeeeekkkkk! These designs are taken from the "Wildflowers" pattern by Pearl P. Pereira.

If I Post It......

I've been looking at this design for a couple of years.....obsessing over it.....admiring it.....thinking about making it.......but nothing ever gets down.........so I'm making a "before New Year's resolution"........Yes you hear it here first folks.........my new project for 2011 is making this beautiful quilt.  I have 365 days to make this happen.....cross your fingers, hold your breath and wish me luck!

Ring Me Up......Scotty

This past Friday was our chosen "Girls Day Out" and Christmas celebration.

This year we decided on shopping for fabirc (go figure)

We visited one of our favorite quilt stores.....Common Threads

in Waxahachie, TX.

The ladies are always very friendly and helpful.

We had a photo opt in front of their beautiful tree and all was well.

Look at all the stuff we bought......well, you really can't see the fabric but trust me......we shopped the house down!  After all that shopping, it was time for lunch at the Dove's Nest, a wonderful little soup, sandwich and salad place.....sorry, no pictures. By the time I thought about pictures, I had a mouth filled with delish tuna with cranberries and bean sprouts.
Next, we decided to take in a movie, "The Tourist".........which we liked because the language and nudity was nearly non-existent!!!!

 

As we were leaving the movie theater, Molly spied a photo booth except this one was a camera behind a curtain which was much better than us trying to stuff ourselves (the 5) into a very tiny booth.....don't ask.....but we have tried that before.  If you're wondering why my face looks slightly larger than everyone else.....it's because I was stooping down in front and believe my thighs were KILLING me........and was very close to the camera......Six photos later and a prayer that I would be able to rise again, this is our best or should I say the one that I'm willing to share with you......LOL.......so has you can see......we had a blast!!!

Stay At Home Robin

I'm participating in a really neat project over at Kate, our hostess. It's the "Stay At Home Robin" where you work on your own mini-robin. There's no mailing to others, so you can blame anyone but yourself when you fall behind like I did ;-{.........but not to worry, I'm back on schedule and just recently finished round 6.
Make sure you visit our swap site to see all the wonderful ideas everyone has come up with.

Estrogen Issues

More readings from a Women's magazine.

Here are 10 Ways to know if you have "Estrogen Issues." 

I certainly resemble most of these.....LOL

1.  Everyone around you has an attitude problem.
2.  You're adding chocolate chips to your cheese omelet.
3.  The dryer has shrunk every last part of your jeans, shirts and underwear.
4.  Your husband is suddenly agreeing with everything you say.
5.  You're using your cell phone to dial every bumper sticker that says, "How's my driving?" Call 1.800.
6.  Everyone's opinion is not your own and it's very annoying.
7.  Everyone seems to have just landed here from "outer space."
8.  You're sure that everyone is scheming to drive you crazy.
9.  The ibuprofen bottle is empty and you just bought it yesterday.
10.  You read these issues and they all sound normal.

I swear that a few years ago all of these sounded very reasonable, now just a few......#1, #5, #7 and #9...LOL

Note: This post is not meant to offend anyone.

Books, Books, I Love Books

Mom and I visited our local Scholastic Book Fair sale today.  Once a year Scholastic Books has a blowout sale with tons of books to choose from.  I think any adult can get in to the sale but if you're interested check online to make sure first.  We bought a large box of the books of our choice to share with students at local schools. Shhhhhhh, I also picked up a couple for the little princesses.

In Hot Water

Okay, what the heck is going on, I ask you? First, I had the "bone" in the tire; then my "router" went out and now it's the hot water heater. Uuga!

So, of course the little maintenance guy can't get here until next week but he did suggest that I try a few things just to get enough hot water until then.  Can you feel my temperature rising?

So, I'm out in the garage with a crescent wrench (whatever that is), a hammer, a water hose, some buckets, a long spoon (don't ask) and my trusty screwdriver and gloves. Electricity off (check)...that's very important when dealing with wires near water, by the way.  Unscrew valve (yea right....which valve........there are 3 on my heater)....after some experimenting, one very wet tennis shoe and a bruised knuckle the valve is unscrewed and the water hose is in place to drain the excess water. 

Do you know how much water is inside a hot water heater?  I do...............now!

Do you know how long it takes to drain a hot water heater?  I do..............now!

Next, I'll need to flush out the sediment at the bottom of the heater, the little guy says..........hummmmmm.......this should be easy........you would think.

Thirty minutes later.......drenched from head to toe (picture a cat dunked in the river), most of the sediment down my throat, in my other tennis shoe and the rest on the garage floor.......I'm thinking of stringing up that maintenance guy.

BTW, no pictures in this post.....I didn't want to scare any children!

A Bone To Pick

As most of you know, I live in a rural area of Texas and I love it.  Several towns and cities are within a nice 30 minute drive........I love the scenery and the quiet time when driving.  The other day, I was driving along minding my own business when a very large logging truck veered into my lane but fortunately he corrected himself and we both were very grateful, yes indeed.

I arrived in town, did some shopping, other errands and was about to start for home when I noticed that my right rear tire was F L A T!  Now, you might think that I would be unset about this.......normally, I probably would but I was within 5 blocks of my local Jeep mechanic shop and they came right over, aired up the tire enough for me to drive to the shop to get it fixed.

At this point, you might be wondering where this story is going? Well, after 20 minutes of waiting, the mechanic came in to inform me of the problem. His exact words were, "Mrs!, we've fixed your tire and you'll never guess what we found inside."  He waited expectantly for my answer, which was the standard....nail, screw, barbed wire (hey, I live on a farm, there's barbed wire all over the place)......
"Nope," he says excitedly, "It was a bone."  To which I had a very blank look on my face.......so he repeated the bone bit and then showed it to me......it was no bigger than a quarter but very sharp edged...........I was flabbergasted but he informed me that this happens alot when you run over "road-kill."  Where would I have run over road-kill, you might ask???.........because normally I avoid running over live or dead animals at a rule...think, think, think.....ah, the lightbulb moment........I think I ran over the unfortunate little dead critter when I veered off the road to save my life from Mr. Log Trucker!!!!!

So friends, what have I learned from this story?    Watch where you're driving at all times and please try to straddle road-kill.