Sunday, October 4, 2015

Oven Baked Parmesan Seasoned Fries



Ingredients:
  • 1 pound of medium russet potatoes (approx 3 medium potatoes)
  • 1 1/2 TBSP of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1/4 tsp Dried Thyme
  • 1/4 tsp Dried Oregano
  • 1/8 tsp Dried Rosemary
  • 1/4 tsp of Garlic Powder
  • 1/4 tsp of Old Bay Seasoning
  • 2 TBSP of Kraft Parmesan Style Grated Cheese (I used reduced fat)

Instructions:
  1. Preheat oven to 425.
  2. Wash and cut potatoes into 1/8ths. 
  3. Place on a cookie sheet that has been lined with foil (I used Reynolds Release foil so that they will not stick, but you could also either use non-stick cooking spray or lightly grease the top of the foil with extra virgin olive oil). 
  4. Mix all of the spices and the parmesan cheese in a small bowl. 
  5. Place all of the potatoes (remember we are talking about one pound at a time) into a gallon size freezer bag, add olive oil and the parmesan cheese/spice mixture to the bag. 
  6. Seal the bag and shake until the potatoes are evenly coated.
  7. Once thoroughly coated dump onto the prepared cookie sheet and spread in a single layer. 
  8. Bake 30-45 minutes or until tender and lightly golden brown. (Baking times will vary depending on the amount of fries that you make and the size that you cut them). For the ones shown in the picture they were baked at 425 for 45 minutes.                                                                                                            http://www.piarecipes.com

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

All is well.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

She Demands A Divorce. He Asks Her How He Can Change Her Mind And Surprises Her With…

                                          
Deciding on a divorce is never easy. Telling someone that you once thought you’d love that you don’t want to be with them anymore can be awfully distressing. Some people grow apart, some people change, but it is also very easy to take a person for granted.
This story is bound to tug at your heart strings, get the tissues ready!
My husband is an engineer,  we have been together 5 years, three years courtship, and two years marriage. I hate to admit it, but I am getting tired of it. I love his steady nature, and the feeling I get when I lay on his chest. But something just isn’t quite right anymore.
I am a very sentimental woman when it comes to relationships and my feelings. I crave romance, but I am the total opposite to my husband. He lacks sensitivity, and his inability to be romantic has disheartened me about love.
One day I finally decided to tell him that I wanted a divorce.
“Why?” he asked shocked. “I am tired it just exhausts me, instead of injecting life in to me.” I answered. He was silent.
He didn’t speak to me the whole night, which only increased my disappointment, that man who apparently loved me can’t even  express his feelings to me. Then he finally asked me, “What can I do to change your mind?”
 I didn’t know what to say to him at first, you can’t change someones personality just because you want them to change. I felt hopeless. Looking deep into his eyes I slowly answered “Here is the question, if you can answer and convince my heart, I will change my mind. Let’s say, I want a flower located on the face of a mountain cliff, and we both are sure that picking the flower will cause your death, will you do it for me?”

He paused for a moment and said “I will give you your answer tomorrow…”
My hopes sank even further listening to his response.
The next morning I woke up and he was gone. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a piece of paper with scruffy handwriting on it, underneath a glass of milk. The first line read: “I would not pick that flower for you, but please allow me to explain the reasons further..”, my heart sunk and I continued reading.
“I need my fingers so that when you mess up on the computer I can restore the programs for you. You have a tendency to leave your keys at home, so I need my legs so I can rush home to open the door for you. You always get lost when we travel to new cities, so I need my eyes to show you the way. You always have cramps when it is the time of the month, so I have to save my palms so that I can calm the cramps in your tummy.
I need my mouth to tell you jokes, and stories to cure your boredom. Your eyes are already bad, so I need to save mine because I’ll hold your hand and walk you down the beach as you enjoy the sunshine on your face and the sand between your toes. Unless there is someone out there who loves you more thanI do, I could not pick that flower yet and die…”
I felt the tears rolling down my cheek, which fell onto the paper and blurred the ink, I continued reading. “Now that you have finished reading, if you are satisfied I’m waiting outside with your favourite bread and fresh milk.”
I ran downstairs and opened the front door where he was stood waiting anxiously, but when he saw me he smiled.
In that moment I knew that no one will love me as much as he does, and I have decided to leave the flower alone…
When you are surrounded by love, the feeling of excitement can fade away, but it doesn’t mean it ceases to exist. We forget the fact that true love lies in between the peace and the dullness.
That’s life, and love. When one is surrounded by love, the feeling of excitement fades away, and one tends to ignore the true love that lies in between the peace and dullness.
Love appears in all forms throughout your day, flowers and romantic moments are only a visual surface appreciation of your relationship. Under all this, the pillar of love stands, and that’s our life…Words don’t win arguments, love does.
http://www.littlechurchmouse.com/

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Her Husband Left Her With 6 Kids To Care For, But She Never Thought This Would Happen Next....

This single mother was just recovering from the fact that the father of her children had just left her. She had nothing to her name and six mouths to feed. You’ll never guess how things turned around for her.
This heartwarming story begins with hardship. A single mom is coping with the fact that the father of her children has abandoned them. She has no resources other than her wits, prayer and the kindness of strangers. Although it’s not known if this is a work of fiction or fact, it’s a wonderful reminder that there are angels among us every day.
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared.
Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds.
He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.
If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.
The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck.
The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job.
Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel.
An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the
graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.
That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.
When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money – fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.
The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.
One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up
residence in Indiana ? I wondered.
I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.
I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn’t enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids.
I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.
A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.
When it was time for me to go home at seven o’clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver’s side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat.
Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries.
There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was hole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.
As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.
Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop….

Read more at http://www.reshareworthy.com/single-mom-big-wheel-story/#XmT8W6pqIeufmLcc.99



THE SERENITY PRAYER

GOD GRANT ME THE SERENITY
TO ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE;
COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN;
AND WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.

LIVING ONE DAY AT A TIME;
ENJOYING ONE MOMENT AT A TIME;
ACCEPTING HARDSHIPS AS THE PATHWAY TO PEACE;
TAKING, AS HE DID, THIS SINFUL WORLD
AS IT IS, NOT AS I WOULD HAVE IT;
TRUSTING THAT HE WILL MAKE ALL THINGS RIGHT
IF I SURRENDER TO HIS WILL;
THAT I MAY BE REASONABLY HAPPY IN THIS LIFE
AND SUPREMELY HAPPY WITH HIM
FOREVER IN THE NEXT.
AMEN.

--REINHOLD NIEBUHR