Alphabe Thursday..."Q" as in Quesadillas

Welcome once again to Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent" and the letter "Q" as in Quesadillas.  Johnsonville Chipolte Monterey Jack Cheese Chicken Sausage Quesadillas to be exact.  (Talk about a title for a recipe!)  Last night we made these for dinner after finding the recipe on allrecipes.com.

I wish I could tell you how delicious they were, but that would be a lie.  Reid and I hated them, but my husband actually thought they were OK.  The problem we had was that the sausage tasted like slightly spicy hot dogs.  We served them with salsa and guacamole, but it really didn't help.

I'm not going to bother typing the recipe out.  You can find it here.  There is an error in the recipe.  In the ingredients list it calls for 12 (8 inch) flour tortillas, but the recipe only calls for 6.

Anyway, here's how they looked before we put the top tortillas on.  (We only made four of them and were going to make more until we discovered we didn't like them.)

They had to go under the broiler for two minutes on each side.  We found that was a little too long because some of the tortillas started to burn.

So, try at your own risk!  (Or better yet...don't try at all.)  I've got this recipe theme going for Alphabe-Thursday and there just wasn't time to try another recipe.



Meanwhile, Spring is here!  We had lots of rain this past weekend and once again we're growing mushrooms in the backyard.

And sweet little Blackie followed me around the backyard.  She is the nicest cat and I don't believe she ever leaves the yard.  She sleeps on the deck during the day and I lock her and Baby in the garage at night.  Baby wonders off a little during the day, but not Blackie.  She knows she found a good deal when she showed up here hungry some months back.  They don't come much sweeter than this cat.  And to think I was afraid of her initially because she would growl when I came near her.  Not anymore.  Now it's all purrs.

Most of our trees have leaves now.  They're not completely out on this tree, but almost.

These leaves are completely out and shading the house now.

Hopefully, it will be Spring soon where you live too.  Most days we're running the A/C here.

Now head over to Ms. Jenny's at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent" so you can visit more Alphabe-Thursday posts.

Happy Rebirthday Reid!

On Sunday we celebrated Reid's first Rebirthday.  It was the one year anniversary of his stem cell transplant or rebirth.  He has been cancer free for one year!  On Thursday he had the last infusion for the clinical trial, so that is now in his past too.

Keith came from Austin for the weekend.  As a joke he baked a heart scan cake, so we could also celebrate the good heart scan results he had from his last physical.  (He loves to rib Reid.)

Actually, he did a good job on the cake.  It was a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. We had that on Saturday and it was delicious.  (I'm not sure it's too heart healthy though.)

We let him do the honors...

Then on Sunday we celebrated Reid's Rebirthday.  We had a special gift for him.

What could it be?

Yes, a can of creamed corn.  What wonderful memories!  A year ago his hospital room smelled like creamed corn.  We had been warned beforehand that the stem cells are kept in a preservative that smells like creamed corn, and they weren't kidding.  A can of creamed corn seemed appropriate.

Jim and Keith kept a watchful eye on the festivities.

In the afternoon we went to Kings Biergarten for some German food and a little celebration.

There was even a cake...

A Rebirthday cake, of course.

One year old and he can already walk and talk!


"Yes, Mom...I always wash down my cake with beer."

And a good time was had by all!

HAPPY REBIRTHDAY REID!!

MAY YOU HAVE MANY, MANY MORE!!

Alphabe-Thursday..."P" as in PINK Salad

Time has really been flying by and it's time again for another week of Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." This week we are studying the letter "P" as in PINK Salad or PINK Stuff.

Before we talk about PINK Salad I wanted to apologize for missing class last week. I started with this recipe theme for Alphabe-Thursday and didn't really have a recipe ready for the letter "O" or time to come up with something edible. So, I skipped class. I don't know what will happen when we get to "X" and "Z" (and "Q" for next week!), but we'll see how it goes.

This week I thought I'd share one of our favorites...PINK Salad. I've posted this recipe before and it's one of those things that brings people to my blog in a Google search from time to time. I got this recipe from a friend when we were living in Virginia Beach back in the 1970's. She called it congealed salad, but my family has always called it PINK Salad or PINK stuff.

Congealed Salad (AKA PINK Salad or PINK Stuff)

1 small can crushed pineapple
1 6 oz. Jello (any flavor…I like raspberry)
1 12 oz. Carton Cool Whip
2 c. buttermilk
½ - 1 cup chopped nuts

Combine undrained pineapple and Jello in small saucepan. Heat until Jello dissolves. Mix Cool Whip and buttermilk; add nuts. Stir in gelatin mixture, mixing thoroughly. Put in mold or long rectangular pan. Let set for 4 hours. (I do it overnight.) I find it helpful to spray the mold lightly with Pam…it comes out of the mold a lot easier. Serves: 12. (I use a wire whisk for mixing the ingredients together.)

When I took the picture I got a little fancy and garnished it with some strawberries and blueberries.

I'm actually making PINK Stuff for my family this weekend. We're hoping to all work in the yard on Saturday (weather permitting...now they're calling for rain) and I thought I'd throw hamburgers on the grill and we'd have macaroni and cheese and PINK Stuff. Then on Sunday we'll be celebrating Reid's "rebirth" with a small gathering at a favorite restaurant. March 11, 2012 is the one year anniversary of Reid's stem cell transplant and his life post cancer. We'll have a "rebirth" cake, balloons, etc. It's like he has two birthdays now...the original one on January 28th and the "rebirth" one on March 11th.

Now head over to Ms. Jenny's blog for a list of this week's participants so you can visit some more Alphabe-Thursday posts.

Busy days and update...

I've been trying to get some yard work done. With all the rain lately the weeds have grown like crazy. I spent a good chunk of today mowing, edging and cleaning up the yard a little. I really need to get some bushes trimmed, and I'd love to add some mulch, but we'll see how that goes. I'm really running out of steam here.

Reid had his appointment down at MD Anderson on Monday. He first saw the Physician's Assistant and she was asking him if his shortness of breath had gotten worse, but he said it was the same. Then she mentioned that the latest scan showed scar tissue on his lungs from the radiation and that's why she was asking.  She also confirmed that the biopsy showed no malignancy which was good news.

The stem cell doctor said that they will continue to watch that lymph node and if it increases in size on the next scan they will do another biopsy and take a larger chunk. They've already scheduled him for a CT scan and a PET scan on May 29th. This will be the longest he'll have gone between scans since being diagnosed with Hodgkin's in 2009, so we're thinking that's a positive.

Meanwhile, Jim is noticing some changes and we all decided he should send an E-mail to his oncologist since his next appointment isn't for a while. We'll see what he says.

No time for Alphabe-Thursday this week. Between the yard work and trying to get my genealogy files organized I just haven't had the time. (We won't even talk about the house being a mess!)  And I made some mistakes with the Family Tree Maker program when I entered my information and I have no idea how to fix them. That's one of those things that will probably take me hours to figure out...if ever!  I'm starting to think I liked my old manila folder system from the 1980's better.  That's what I get for trying to bring my genealogy information into the modern age.

Is the drought ending???

I read in the newspaper that today they might declare our year long drought over.  I forget who makes the declaration, but someone in the know decides.

We've had quite a bit of rain lately.  Yesterday, I looked out in the backyard and thought I saw an animal back by the tree stump.  I thought it might be an armadillo, but they normally don't come out during the day.

Blackie came to help me investigate.

Everything is bigger in Texas.  Even ugly wild mushrooms!  (Please excuse my naughty gnome.)

Can you grow mushrooms like this where you live?