The Week Ahead: Bride's Month

It's June, the traditional month of brides.  I don't wonder why.  It's such a pleasant month, not quite hot enough for summer, no longer chilly as it can be for spring.  Usually there are beautiful flowers all freshly bloomed.  Twice married but never in June!  Anybody have a June wedding date?



The air this morning was so nice and a little cooler than it had been.  It was lovely to sit outside with the pets as they ate their breakfast.  River came by and she had a meal right along with them.  When I texted Bess to tell her River was eating here she texted back that it was obviously a trait the whole family shared to come to Gramma's and have a second breakfast.

River is a big girl and can be intimidating when she's huffing and gruffing at you on her home turf but she's a very polite dog and never ever gets bossy here on my place.  She came up and greeted me this morning and after she'd eaten her second breakfast she stepped over to thank me with a little more love.  Mr. Rufus was less happy about that and growled at her a little but River nicely stepped to the other side of me away from him and then pranced down the steps to go on with her morning walk.  Rufus decided he might as well go along.  Maddie on the other hand did not.  She is very anxious with River about.  It's nothing personal.  She's the same with most dogs who come around.  It took Rufus a good little while to win her over.

This pleasant weekend is my interlude before another round of hard work.  I'm enjoying my book, game and puzzle, tv viewing.  I know that soon enough I'll be back at work.

Work:

I'll make a point of getting out of the house to go purchase a fern, two bougainvillea, a nine pack or two of flowering plants for baskets, a bag of potting mix and probably another lot of paver bricks to put down around the Sweet Gum and Persimmon trees at the end of the back of the house.  I know I can't get quite enough to finish the project but progress is progress no matter how slow it might be.  I will use my gift cards to make these purchases.

I have two bags of mulch left from the last lot I brought home.  I've noticed that the mulch has settled in several of the beds where I put it down so I'll use those two bags to top it off and cover the weed mat that is peeking through.

Move the blocks off the patio and start creating the flower bed I've planned to build.

Make the accent pillow for my bed using the fabric I used to make my bed skirt.   Gracious...Have I even shown you that?  I'll have to make sure and take a photo this week.

Take stuff from back porch and guest room to the shed and bring out a few pieces I want to use.

Play in my closet and see if I can't pair up something fresh in my wardrobe.

Try to sort out my closet so it's not quite so cluttered looking.

Spray paint the bed for guest room and flower bed.

zone: 

Living room again.  Seems like I just did the living room a week or so ago!  I obviously haven't given the layer of dust on things.  I need to use Liquid Gold on the wooden boxes I put in the room and the buffet and dining table will get a rub down with the same.  Cleaning ceiling fan, checking blinds for dust.  Thank goodness I took time last week to vacuum deeply so I can skip that this week!  I'll also try and tackle the cleaning of the ivory rocker.  It's supposed to be sunny all week so I may haul it outside to work on.


Menus:

I really meant to share the Alpine Chicken Casserole recipe with you all last week. I  gave a brief rundown but left out a key ingredient: the cream of chicken soup!

Here's the complete recipe:
1 package boneless skinless chicken breasts (or thighs)
1 box stuffing mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese (you can use any that suits your taste...Gouda or Gruyere would be nice)
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Spray  slow cooker with non-stick spray.  Lay chicken breasts in crock.  Spread cream of chicken soup over the meat.  Sprinkle 3/4 cup of cheese over soup.  Sprinkle half the almonds over cheese then top with stuffing.  Pour over melted butter.  Cook as desired.  (I chose LOW for 5 hours the other day) then sprinkle over remaining cheese and almonds and let cook about a half hour more.

John raved over this.  And good thing he did because I halved two chicken breasts into filets and we had leftovers for the weekend.

Now on to sharing what I had today and what we'll have the rest of the week.  I've already scanned the fridge so I can plan to use what needs to be used up.  Remember it's also my plan to prep for meals on Sundays this month.

Slaw dogs, pretzels, carrot and celery sticks with hummus.

Leftover Alpine Chicken Casserole, Green Beans, Pear Salad, Cranberry Sauce

On my own x2 this week.

Macaroni and Cheese, Roasted Italian Vegetables, Green Salad
I cooked extra macaroni last week when I made the tuna pasta salad.  I will make a cheese sauce to top it.  The Italian vegetables: Zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes and sweet onions.  One of my favorite sides when I'm having a homemade mac and cheese.

Beef and Bean Enchiladas, Pico de Gallo on Shredded Lettuce
I'll use up the leftover taco meat, the last of the refried beans and wrap in corn tortillas.  I'll make Enchilada sauce from scratch.  I follow Rhonda's Red Enchilada Sauce recipe.  I'm going to double the recipe and can this sauce this time.  I've been looking at other recipes online and it seems that 20 minutes in a hot water bath for sterilized pint jars will do it.  That seems reasonable and I'll love having this on the pantry shelf since the recipe has absolutely spoiled me for store bought stuff.

Hibachi Chicken, Rice, Vegetable Stir Fry
I know I have bell peppers and onions and carrots and most likely will have a few mushrooms and zucchini... I suppose I could grill the vegetables since I plan to put the chicken on the grill to cook.  Hmmm...I have a nice pan meant to use on the grill that John bought me a few years back.  I normally would make a teriyaki sauce from scratch but I have a bottle of sauce from Aldi that I really need to use up.

I promised myself to relegate baking in the big oven to early morning work days.  Baking this week: Rolls half plain and half cinnamon rolls
Bagels
Lemon Zucchini cake
                                

Gratitudes and Smiles:

John and I had a nice breakfast out Friday morning.

River showing up just in time for breakfast this morning.

A series of YouTube videos of Kathryn Kuhlman.

Reconnecting with favorite characters in Thrush Green (Miss Read's first book in that series).

Time with the boys last week.  Always a blessing to me.

Things have changed a little bit in the baking area since I took this picture but the sun shone in the window early this morning and reminded me of how happy the sun on this spot makes me.