Hidden Valley Ranch Pretzels

Thanks to our niece Karlyn for this recipe!  I've had the recipe for years, but never made them.  I was reminded of this yumminess last month when we spent some time with family in Delaware and Karlyn had made them.  We're off to a graduation picnic this afternoon and thought I'd make some to take along.

I actually doubled the recipe, since Alyssa's going to a party later on, this way she has some to take with her, too.

Hidden Valley Ranch Pretzels

18 oz. broken pretzels (Wege actually sells broken pretzels!)

1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch original salad dressing mix

1 tsp. lemon pepper

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dill weed

3/4 cup salad oil

Combine the HV mix and oil; add the rest of the ingredients, mixing well.  Pour over pretzels, coating them well.  Bake at 325 degrees for 12-15 minutes, stirring often.

(I chose to use disposable aluminum cookie sheets for easy clean up.  I stirred the pretzels every 4 minutes, leaving them in the oven for a total of 12 minutes.)

DELICIOUS!!  THANKS, KARLYN!!

Buh-bye!

These:

Are now these:

Kurt spoke to the neighbor this evening.  He said he wondered where the guinea hens were today.  Kurt told him he could tell him where they had been :-)  General consensus is that the foxes got 'em!

The Kits

Our Frodi :-)  He's doing OK.  I give him one Lasix a day; once I had to give him a second one as his breathing seemed more labored.  He's funny, he's figured out that opening the refrigerator door is often associated with him getting some ham (with a pill hidden inside).  Now when he's downstairs and the  fridge gets opened, he's there Johnny-on-the-Spot, yelling at the top of his lungs!!  I took him for repeat labs about a week ago and his kidney function had worsened a bit (but part of that is to be expected with him being on a water pill).  Seems kinda' ironic that I'd end up having a cat with chronic kidney disease :-)

He's definitely not near as active as he used to be; he spends much of the day sleeping, but still loves laying with me on the sofa and still begs at the supper table.  And he's still quite gaunt looking :-(

 And then, there's this little character, those clothes used to be clean:

Happy Father's Day!

Just a portion of the Dad's Day gifts from me and Alyssa.  She picked on up his comment when we were visiting in Delaware last month that he liked the coffee Troy and Kim were serving.  She picked some up at Starbucks for him.  In addition, she got him a tape measure.  That may seem like a boring gift, but there's a story attached to that :-)  For years, she got him a tape measure each year for Christmas.  It got to the point, it was getting old, so she stopped.  And he noticed.  So she picked one up for him today.  He was happy :-)

Many years ago, Kurt and I ate at the Cascade Lodge below Easton.  We had a bottle of wine from Sand Castle Winery.  We loved it.  At the time, we didn't realize it was a local winery.  For quite a while, we searched for the wine at many of our local liquor stores.  Last month when Alyssa and I went to visit Erika, we went to a shopping center very similar to the Promenade Shoppes in Center Valley.  Didn't they have a Sand Castle wine tasting store!!!!  I nearly died!!!  I mean, it was probably close to 20 years ago that we had been at the Cascade Lodge and tasted that wine!!!  I bought three bottles of wine, two wine glasses and one bottle of strawberry balsamic vinegar :-)

Marinated flank steak, rice pilaf, tossed salad for lunch today.  Kurt loves marinated flank steak!

It's a Man Cave!

Adam and his buddy Nate moved in to their new apartment recently and Adam is doing his best to make their apartment a manly man's apartment!!

Here are a few shots of the engine he turned in to a coffee table!  It's an engine from my old VW Beetle that he cleaned up!

Guess that little guy is their pet:

And here's the chair he made today!  Kurt says he can't imagine it'd be comfortable with that straight back.  Adam says it's just fine.

And then, here's the bed frame he made:

It's about 4 feet tall.  He says he wants to be able to store stuff under it (like refrigerators...LOL!!).  Note the end table levitating off the ground...LOL!!

Peach Cobbler

Found this recipe on someone's FB. Seemed easy enough. Threw it together today. Tasted good.

2 regular sized cans sliced peaches with syrup (or one huge can)
1 Jiffy mix yellow cake mix (this is a single layer cake mix)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
1/2 stick butter

Put peaches w/ syrup on bottom of 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle cake mix over top.  Sprinkle cinnamon over top.  (I also sprinkled a small amount of brown sugar over top of cinnamon).  Dot top with butter.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream on top :)

(I couldn't find the Jiffy cake mix at Wegman's yesterday.  They only had the corn muffin mix.  I bought a regular size yellow cake mix, figuring I'd just use half the box.  Last night Alyssa and I went to Walmart and I found the Jiffy mix.)

We also found this at Walmart.  I'd looked at both Wegman's and Giant.  Neither of them had it.  I almost ordered it from Amazon.  Thank goodness I waited to see if Walmart had it (at Karlyn's suggestion)!  This cost $2.42 at Walmart.  Amazon's price was $7.08!!!!  Plus S&H!!!!  Crazy!

Schtuff

I do NOT have a green thumb.  Actually it's brown ;-)  So when there are flowers on my property, that's big news!

This is my one hanging basket I get every year.  It's a portulaca and it's the one plant I was assured will not care when I forget to water it.  And believe me, I forget to water it.  And it still has flowers on it :)

This is one of our peony plants that we planted last year.  Both plants have a ton of buds on them!  And a ton of ants....

Not sure what this is called, but it's a type of ground cover.  We just planted it last year and I can't believe how its really grown in just one year.

This is my new 'succulent' plant I picked up at Wegman's the other day.  We'll see how this goes.  I may be ok, cuz it says to let the soil dry before watering it.  That won't be a problem!

These are the ingredients for more pico de gallo :-)  And can I tell you, that when they suggest you use gloves when working with jalapeno peppers, you follow that suggestion!

And this was our delicious supper tonight.  I marinated the steaks all day in my own secret recipe.  Well, it's not so secret, I'll share ;-)

Michele's Magnificient Marinade
1 bottle zesty italian salad dressing
1 packet Good Season's powder zesty italian salad dressing
1 packet Lipton Onion mix
~ 1/4 cup worchestershire sauce
~ 1 Tbsp Nature's Seasoning

I like to marinate my steaks or chicken at least 4 hours, if not even longer.  Today's steaks marinated ~ 7 hours.