The Pioneer Woman

Facebook really is good for a lot of things! Thanks to one of my Facebook connections with a friend's sister (and her nieces), I found out about The Pioneer Woman's blog/web site this week! I think many of you might like it too!

Here's the link to click directly to it or just go to www.pioneerwoman.com.

Her story is a little like mine: she lived in the city (LA) and met her husband to be, who she calls Marlboro Man, who lived on a ranch!

Her web site is full of her "story" of how they met, married, and now live with their kids, recipes and more. The RECIPES are what I think you may like - although she says many times that they are NOT low calorie - she does use real butter and bacon! I've read a very small part of her "stuff" so far but I can tell that most, if not all, of her recipes are good. For one thing, she makes the same chocolate cake we do (hers is called Best Chocolate Sheet Cake - Ever. Ours is called Texas Cake). Her recipes can be followed even by someone who doesn't know how to cook because she puts step by step pictures with her instructions. She has a recipe with pictures for biscuits and gravy which would help anyone that has trouble making gravy be able to do it! She uses convenience foods like canned biscuits. She has a recipe for chicken and noodles starting with cooking a whole chicken but using Reames frozen egg noodles. When you read the comments, you'll see that many people have never heard of Reames noodles and they're not available in some parts of the US! Reading all the MANY comments under her recipes is fun!

I happened to see her on Good Morning America on Thurs. When she got home, she posted about that experience which was interesting. That's under the Confessions section.

She also has Gardening, Homeschooling and Photography sections and more! Have fun checking it out!

It's a sunny, warmer day here (about 30), and I've been cleaning. Bill went to a gun show in Fort Dodge. This evening we're going with 2 other couples out to eat to celebrate my birthday. We did go to the fish fry last night, and it was very good.

I'm watching CNN's coverage of the earthquake in Chile and wondering what preparations for the tsunami my former bosses and others I worked with are making on Maui. Also a school classmate on the Big Island. He reports on Facebook that they are packed and ready to head up the mountain. The tsunami is to hit Hawaii in less than an hour.

Last Green Pictures for a While

Last pictures from Florida . . . this was the condo's lanai and the fountain straight out. You can see lots of clouds in the last picture. But at least things were green instead of white!

In Indiana, you could go to various fish frys in the summer. They're usually outside in big tents. Here they're done during Lent and the first ones are tonight - Pocahontas and West Bend. We always try to go. The one in West Bend is at the country club and the line is always long. With being this time of year, it can be a long cold wait - part of the time outside! We're planning to go to the one in Pocahontas tonight although Bill isn't home yet. He was having trouble today with a semi and auger. He's trying to get the last of the corn hauled to the elevator before the gravel roads start thawing and getting too mushy for the semis.

From Green to White in a Day

I flew from Ft. Myers to Minneapolis last evening and then had a little bit of a hairy drive home today. About 20 miles going into Algona were white out conditions. There was deep snow close to the edges of both sides of the road (18) and it was blowing, so it was like driving in an all white tunnel. Going down to -5 tonight!

Thought this pink Walmart was interesting - not the usual blue!

This was one of the stores on Fifth Avenue - The Wind in the Willows - pretty entry. It has some unusual gifty items.

This was one side of the store front - Easter theme.




Another view of these buildings - lots of buildings were multi-colored like this.

Last Day in the South

This morning it's overcast and damp but 66. I was hoping the last day here would be sunny! It's been a weird winter everywhere this year.

This Welcome was at one of the shops on 5th Avenue.

Mom & I went to the beach yesterday A guy there was flying a kite. Took this picture for Glenn. He and Grandpa R. always liked to fly kites.

Even though the weather hasn't cooperated, we're all glad to be here looking at green grass and palm trees and walking around without winter coats!

I go back to the winter and all things WHITE this evening. While I've been gone, Bill has been moving snow. He found that a bunch had fallen off the roof of the machine shed and was pushing in one wall about 4". He's also hauling corn.

Misc. Florida

This was my shrimp & clam chowder at Alice Sweetwater's. Isn't it "pretty"? It was really good too.

Yesterday it was still not sunny or very warm (better today finally!) so Mom & I finally decided to go look at the shops on Fifth Avenue. I'll have more pictures from there tomorrow. Lots of people were shopping and seems like everybody was eating an ice cream cone!

Mom says that the flowers in FL were frozen in January. You can tell that there aren't as many as usual and that they've replanted some flower beds. I really liked this planter and these little purple violas.

Naples

These are pictures from driving around Naples yesterday. You can see the pier in the distance in the first picture. Everyone is kind of bundled up with the still much cooler than usual weather.


















I thought this pink and white building was really pretty.

Today Aunt Dana and Uncle Dale are visiting. We all went to lunch at Alice Sweetwater's.