WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

Were have I been?  We are still here, a little older and hopefully a little wiser.  We are following one of our niece's blog about her cancer treatment and find it difficult to post comments.  We are so proud of Amber and how she is handling her cancer.  She has been strong and is great to post at least  weekly how she is doing.  We will keep the prayers flowing for her.  BRIAN

GREETINGS FROM OUR COLD NEBRASKA HOME

It has been a while since I have made a posting. I was just looking at the pictures from when we were packing up my Mother's stuff in her home in Scottsburg in November 2009. Wow. It is now January 2011 and much has changed. Mother's home sold and she died in June 2010. I have a lot of very fond memories of Mother and of the home I grew up in and came home to for many years. The people who bought the house have not been taking care of the outside like Mother would have, nor I. Moe still lives a couple of blocks away and tells us from time to time what the place looks like. We did make a trip back in December for a quick visit with Moe , Sue Collins, and Edith Murphy and her family. I got word today that Edith will be moving into Assisted Living at the Hampton Oaks in Scottsburg next week. It is a small world. Edith has been living in acute care in the same room Mother was in and died in back in 2010. Edith was such a good friend and I think of her are sort of a second mother. I have been writing to her weekly and keeping in touch with Janet Hall. Janet says Edith is doing very well physically, but is slipping mentally. Her good friend, Hiram, lost his driving rights, but his son drops him off at the Oaks to see Edith daily. Janet says she stops in to see Edith 2 or 3 times a day. It is nice that they are so close and can do that. We thought it would be nice for Mother to move out here, but would have been so far from her many, dear friends and would not have been happy here. Like I said, it is cold out here and we have about a foot of snow laying around. Actually, I just looked and it has actually warmed up to 19 tonight. We love Nebraska and the cold and snow go with it. Blessings, BRIAN

BUTTERFLY FROM TEXAS

I will try to see if this picture will come in sharper. Now that is more like it. For whatever reason the modified pix was a different number. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the picture. BRIAN

TEXAS BUTTERFLY

On our recent trip to San Antonio, Texas, for the wedding of our friend Shannon Pinkelman, we stopped in Austin at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and I got this picture of a butterfly. I think I got lucky, for this is a pretty good picture. Well, it looked more in focus when I edited the picture in iPhoto, but when you download it the edited pix does not go for some reason.

I AM BACK

I have not been good about posting. That is an understatement. We are fine here. The fall weather here in Norfolk, Nebraska, has been beautiful. Last night it got down into the 20s and the high today will get into the 50s, but that is the coldest it has been. The fall colors were nice, but fading fast. We got some nice pictures of our red maple tree out back that I will share. In Nebraska we don't have beautiful forests around here or mountains, but we do have our own brand of fall beauty.

EASY CHICKEN & CHEESE ENCHILADAS

This is good. It is from CampbellsKitchen.com. Prep: 10 min. Bake: 40 min. Serves 6

1 can condensed Cream of Chicken soup. 1/2 c. sour cream. 1 c. picante sauce. 2 tbs. chili powder. 2 c. cooked diced chicken. 1/2 c. shredded Mex. cheese. 6 flour tortillas (6"), warmed. 1 small tomato, chopped. 1 green onion, sliced.

1. Stir soup, sour cream, picante sauce and chili powder in medium bowl.

2. Stir 1 c. picante sauce mixture, chicken and cheese in large bowl.

3. Divide chicken mixture among tortillas. Roll up the tortillas and place seam side up in 2-qt. shallow baking dish. Pour remaining picante sauce over the filled tortillas.

4. Cover and bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until hot and bubbling.

5. Top with tomato and onion.

LEMON BUTTERMILK CHESS PIE

I was reminded how long it has been since I posted something, so here is a new recipe I found while I was in Indiana visiting my Mother who is not well. Anyway, I would read the Louisville paper every morning and came across this recipe. I made it this afternoon and it is GREAT. We ate half of the pie already. There was a recipe for the pie crust, but I used a prepared one and it worked fine. So here is the recipe for the filling.

INGREDIENTS: 1-1/2 cups brown sugar, 1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal, 1 tablespoon all purpose flour, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 4 eggs (room temperature), 1/2 cup unsalted butter (melted), 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup buttermilk (room temperature), 1/2 tsp of vanilla. 1 tablespoon powdered sugar for garnish (optional). Note: I did not use the eggs or buttermilk at room temperature and it worked fine.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350.

PROCEDURE: In a bowl, combine the brown sugar, cornmeal, flour and salt. In another bowl, whisk the eggs until light and lemon-colored. Add to the dry ingredients, blending well. Add the melted butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into the chilled crust, and place on middle oven rack. Bake until top is golden brown and jiggles just a bit, 45-60 minutes. I baked our pie 60 minutes and it was perfect. When cool you can garnish with the powdered sugar. We ate 1/2 of the pie before it cooled. Ha. This is good stuff. This is supposed to serve 8-10, but make that 4, if you like it as much as we did. BRIAN