Told you November would fly by! I hope all that stumble on to my blog had a nice Thanksgiving. I had two dinners- -The first with my granddaughter and the extended family of her friend. Very nice. The next dinner was spent up north with my son, daughter-in-law and grandson. This son is the gourmet cook, and we had a delicious meal. Now it's looking forward to Christmas and the madness of the shopping and decorating, or cutting down on the madness. I like to keep the spiritual aspect of Christmas alive. I dislike the " Happy Holiday" greeting, it's "Merry Christmas". Isn't Christmas celebrating the birth of Christ? Why do we let a few people dictate what we can say or not say? It's Merry Christmas from me to you. Sorry if I offend you, I like to think I'm respectful of other faiths and how they celebrate, but leave my Christmas alone.

Well, it's November and before you know it will be Thanksgiving. So far this month has been quiet. I did go to see" The King and I " presented by an amateur group that did a very professional job. The singing and costumes were fabulous. A friend and I have seasonal tickets and we make a day of it by going to the theater and dinner after. We visit Restaurant.com and purchase a coupon for some good local restaurant. This time for $6.00 we were able to buy $25.00 off a total bill that equalled $35.00 for the two of us. Not hard to do. The food was delicious too.

On a different note, I'll be spending Thanksgiving with my grandaughter and new great-grandson, plus alot of other family members :) I still have to learn how to put pictures on my blog, I want to show off little Kenny.

It's been awhile since I blogged. Time flies when you're having fun or getting older. Speaking of getting old , I am now a great-grandmother to a little cutie Kenneth Michael. Visited with him and his Mom yesterday, he's so precious, and he's only two weeks old. That's the biggy for October.

Another first, a friend and I went to West Virginia the second week in October. The colors were beautiful. I never paid attention to where West Virginia ended up in the north, sandwiched between Pennsylvania and Ohio. It's very mountainous with alot of bridges crossing the Ohio River (I think it was the Ohio).

Another first , I joined an exercise class for the older generation, low impact. I can't believe how good I feel after the class-just raring to go. Guess we're never to old to try something new.

I need to learn how to post pictures so I can show off my great-grandson.

It'll probably be November before I post again with Thanksgiving staring us in the face!

Can't figure out, is the Phantom of the Opera a play, an operetta, or an opera? Whatever, I went to see it for the third time yesterday and it was wonderful. Each time I've gone the story remains the same, boy finds girl, boy loses girl to the Phantom, girl comes back to boy, again boy loses girl to the Phantom and finally the Phantom returns girl to the boy. What seems to be different is the presentation of the rest of the Opera. Not just my intrepretation but my friend's also. But no matter what I look forward to seeing it again.

Gloomy day, but humid for the first day of fall. Started my day in an exercise class for seniors,(not high school or college seniors! :). It gives me a lot of ambition so when I came home I decided to make dog biscuits for my Silky, Scottie. Got the recipe on the net. The reason I decided to make them was because my dog has a very sensitive stomach and is on special food. He used to get treats from me before the upset stomach bit. At the Farmer's Market that I went to this past Saturday a lady was selling homemade dog treats at 3 for $1.25. He loved them and they didn't bother him. So I felt adventurous and decided to try my hand at making some. The recipe is very simple and didn't take too long to put together. Bake time was about 50 minutes. After they cooled I broke one up and gave him little pieces slowly. Success! He liked them and was looking for more. I'd never try eating dog food, but I did try these and they taste real good. Well, that's the latest. Now it's off to making people food using a new recipe I found in the news paper, a new version of stuffed pork chops. Getting hungry, may need to eat a dog biscuit :).

Feeling like fall outside today. Spent the morning making cabbage rolls for our church festival this weekend-oh, my aching back! The goal was 600, but we ran out of meat mixture. The church festival is one of the biggest around here. They have a games tent, an entertainment tent (music, dancing, refreshments and quicky food), a Vegas tent, bake sale, kiddy rides, bingo and of course the food served in our activity building gym. We draw attendance from all over. Last year it rained everyday and the profit was way down. This year the prediction is for sunny days and temps in the 70's. One more day to volunteer selling tokens for the games in the games tent. Profits help sustain our church and school or any big repairs that have to be made. The best part of the festival is our church community working together. If anything exciting happens I'll write about next time I blog.

Hard to believe that fall is rushing upon us here in the mid-west. The temps feel like summer, but there is something in the air that feels like fall. To get me in the mood for fall I refreshed my plantings on the porch to a bevy of colorful mums. Also, I've been gradually thinning out the perennials in the yard garden. The rest of my "where they blow they grow plants", will need to be pulled out before or after the first frost. Each new spring I never know what will come up and where. It's fun and they grow so thick I have very few weeds. Who said God isn't the divine Creator, each spring he plans my garden for me.

Well I learn something new each time I go to my blog. I never think that anyone bothers to read mine, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a fellow blogger had commented, thank you Kristin. After my feeble attempt to write something I'm going directly to her blog to check out the newest recipes.

As I said before I'm the mother of a cook who has surpassed my cooking skills, but as it should be. I do remember his first experiences cooking. At college he and friends lived in an apartment and getting tired of pizzas , carry out, and junk food he called and asked for some basic recipes, spaghetti sauce, meatloaf,etc. and from there on he built his own recipe collection. Now he is the owner of many, many recipe books and still collecting. He also has a blog, Cooking with Christopher with some of his tried and true recipes.

I just tried one of his recipes this weekend, Stuffed pepper cassarole, good,but one adjustment, 2 cups of cooked rice instead of one. The black bean recipe is also delicious. I hope I inspired him some way, but then maybe it was in self-defense of my cooking.

August 17,2009

It's been awhile since I visited my own blog. I love going to "To the next blog", there are a lot of interesting stories, pictures,and lives to share. I only wish I could read a foreign language, but pictures are universal and tell many stories.
I've been following my son's blog "Cooking with Christopher.blogspot.com and he has many good recipes on his blog and all kitchen tested before he blogs them. I did find a site that lists many food blogs which is very interesting just by typing in search, food blogs. Try it . Also try going to Karincarlisiwelch.blogspot.com Good recipes!

Went to see Julia/Julie movie, good,good,good! Julia Child was a very interesting character and not afraid to make cooking mistakes, everything was fixable to her. I wished I had watched her more on PBS.

That's it for today or maybe awhile, happy cooking to all.

As I sit in front of my computer and having checked out other blogs, I'm blown away with such clever and talented people out there.

It's like going to a museum or a travel log. I wish now that I had studied more foreign languages or that the blogs could be translated. I did run into a beautiful blog this morning from an illustrator that had a translation button. Should have remembered his name.

As always I hope you are checking out my son's blog, Cooking with Christopher, He has some very good recipes to try, and simple to make.

Until next time all you creative people keep up the good work and interesting sharing of your personal likes, your lives and fun things.

A cooks mother

As I sit in front of my computer I ask myself why title my blog "A Cooks Mother"? I guess it's because I am. My son is a gourmet cook and I hope he did get some of his talent from me, or the desire to do better than I did. My cooking skills are very basic with a special meal thrown in once in awhile. At this point in my life I prefer to eat out.
I've had many a wonderful meals at my son's home and any recipe he puts on his blog is worth trying.