For Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

SEPTEMBER 22ND, 2010

It's WEDNESDAY!

Autumn begins today at 11:09 p.m. EDT in the Northern Hemisphere

That is 10:09 our time according to the news.

For the Fall of the year is more than three months bounded by

an equinox and a solstice. It is a summing up without the

finality of year's end

Hal Borland

THINKING

Celebrate who you are.

You Know You Are Living in 2010 When…

1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave..

2.. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they
don’t have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is
home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web -site at the bottom of the screen.

8.. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic
and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on-line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12 You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this
message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn’t a #9 on this
list.

NEW IN THE KITCHEN

Today is Ice Cream Cone Day, marking Italo Marchiony's invention of the cone, first made of paper then pastry, for his push cart ice cream business in New York City. He filed to patent the cone mold on this date in 1903 and received the patent in December. Just in time to enjoy that one last ice-cream cone before it gets too cold.

Since the autumn season has arrived I'll share a recipe today for Slow Cooker Beef Stew

4 pounds bottom round, well trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup olive oil

2 large onions, diced

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 cup dry red wine

1 pound (about 4 cups) potatoes, cut in 2 inch pieces

1/2 pound baby carrots

2 cups beef broth

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

1 cup frozen peas, thawed

1. Coat the beef in the flour. Heat a few tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the meat, a few pieces at a time, adding more oil as necessary. Transfer to a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker.
2. Add the onions to the skillet and cook over medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and coat the onions; transfer to the cooker.
3. Pour the wine into the skillet and scrape up any browned bits; add to the cooker. Stir in the potatoes, carrots, broth, salt, thyme, and bay leaf.
4. Cover and cook on low heat for 7 1/2 hours, or on high for 4 hours. Add the peas and heat through.

Serves 8-10

PRAYERS

May peace prevail on Earth

Amen

Please pray for God's protection of

our troops and HIS wisdom for their

commanders.

Lord, hold our troops in

your loving hands.

Protect them as they protect us.

Bless them and their families for the

selfless acts they perform for us

in our time of need. I ask this in the

name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

AND bless our Police Officers, Firefighters

and Paramedics and EMT's

GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

AROUND HOME

You can't hide your true colours as you approach the autumn of your life

It is truly the autumn of my life. I'm headed towards winter too. Just like autumn I still have a few golden days left in me. I sure am enjoying all of them too.

I got my hair cut yesterday and the gal who cuts my hair kept getting interrupted by phone calls. She apologized but I told her not to worry that I was in no hurry.

I'm living on slow time, ya know.

FAMILY

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air

Nathaniel Hawthorne

I want to leave for the camper this afternoon but due to rain coming in I may just have to wait until tomorrow. My camping babes (DS#1 and DD and their families) should all be there this weekend and I'm fixing all my Octoberfest food for them on Saturday evening.

And I'm looking forward to enjoying the campfire too.

COUNTING THE DAYS

Sometimes it's nice to be proven wrong.

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!

Keep looking ON THE BRIGHT SIDE of things.

A little smile, a word of cheer,
A bit of love from someone near…

Love,

ma