Friends!!

I have been lucky to meet so many wonderful people through blogging. Beth gave me this award. Thank you and please go and visit her blogs Thru My Looking Glass where she shares great photography, stories and recipes and Dory's Backyard. Dory and Bilbo are Sasha's pals and they are adorable and have great adventures. I have loved getting to know her through blogging and look forward to her posts. If you don't know her, please take a look, you will be happy you did. Here are the Rules for this award:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.

5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they've been nominated.

I am not much for the rules, but I will tell you 7 things about me.

1. I am a certified Medical Assistant, but have not worked in that field for a few years.

2. I love movies, horror, mystery and suspense are my favorites.

3. My favorite Disney movie of all time is Beauty and the Beast, I love stories about inner beauty.

4. Like Beth I am also a big fan of Finding Nemo, my daughter and I have watched that movie so many times I am not even sure how many, she is 24 and we love it. Dory is my favorite, I have her hanging on my rear view mirror in my car.

5. I am a baseball fan, Detroit Tigers are my boys.

6. I love to cook and bake and am almost daily entering contests. So far, no luck, but I don't give up.

7. I am a homebody. I would rather be home with my family then any place else.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is where I am kind of breaking the rules. I always have a hard time knowing who to pass it on to, so if you don't have this award, please grab it. To all of my followers, thank you for your friendship and God bless you all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My friend Kris at Hands, House, and Heart Full made me my very own button!! Please go and visit her if you haven't already. She has the most beautiful family. Her blog is a blast, she has great advice and give aways. She is a great person and a friend. Thanks Kris.

I love, love, love baking for the holiday's. I am going to start a cookie recipe exchange this week. I hope you will join me and share your own recipes if you will. It is a way we can reach out to each other and share our lives.

Thank you again to everyone. Anne

Happy 4th of July

My husband and I were reminiscing about 4th of July's when we were growing up. I wonder if any of you have the similar memories. The 4th of July was a very exciting time for me as a child. We always spent the day before decorating our bikes at the local high school gluing red, white and blue crepe paper all over in fun patterns for the big parade and contests. I was always afraid to ride it home so I would walk it all the way home so I wouldn't ruin the decorations.

I would wake up early to get my bike over to be in the parade down our main street and then they would judge the decorated bikes for ribbons and bags of candy. The mayor and other officials would sit in the back of convertible cars and throw candy and after our part in the parade which was always first we would run to collect the hard candy.

Next after a quick stop at home, (by this time I would ride my bike because the judging was over) to drop off my bike and treasures we would walk to the park. We lived very near to it in fact just beyond our back yard was a golf course connected to the park. Now the real fun began.

We would line up for free cracker jack, free ice cream with the little wooden spoon and free flags. After that there were contests, my favorite was the penny scramble. I remember waiting in the anxiously as they lay down the saw dust and then buried the pennies and if you were lucky larger coins into it. They would actually shoot off a gun and what seemed like thousands of us which was probably 30 or 40 kids would dash and dive into the sawdust and begin the search for coins. One year I found a quarter and I thought I was the luckiest kid alive. There were water balloon fights and 3 legged races, potato sack races and there were prizes if you won. Nothing major except to the winner.

There were people having picnics and sparklers and fire crackers were everywhere. I headed home with my latest rewards and then we had a barbecue with the neighbors. My Dad always burned the hot dogs and to this day I love a burned hot dog. The potato salad was the best, the watermelon the sweetest and I had not a care in the world. I didn't know how to have any yet. At night with flash lights and blankets and bug spray, we headed through the backyard and up the hill to the golf course where we had a perfect view of the fire works. We would come back home and finish the day with sparklers and popcorn balls. I would fall asleep to the sounds of the last firecrackers off in the distance.

We still have fun 4th of July festivities. Our daughters best friend (we call her our other daughter) was born on July 4th so now every year we go and spend the day with her and her family. We have very good memories from that and my daughter especially loves that her friend has a birthday on the 4th. I guess good memories are found in many different ways. I am so lucky to have good memories growing up and good times to look forward to every year.

Happy 4th of July everyone!!

Artichoke Heart Dip

I love this dip, it is a hot dip and I know its summer and you don't want to think of hot food, but give this a try.

Spray a casserole dish well with non-stick cooking spray

Mix together:

1 cup mayonnaise( I use light)

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

8 oz. jar artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1/4 cup chopped pepperonchini peppers

1 tsp. garlic powder

After mixing together well, put it in the casserole and bake at 350 for 25 minutes until golden and bubbly.

Serve with wheat crackers or spread on cocktail rye bread.

MY AWARD

Thank you so much to Kristen at Hands, House, and Heart Full for this beautiful award. She designed this one herself and passed it on to her followers. I love that. Please visit her blog, she and her husband have 4 beautiful children and recently they adopted 2 dogs that needed a home, Blade and Josie.
I love this one because there really aren't any rules, except to thank all the faithful followers that are always there. There is no amount of people to name, its just full of love in my opinion and that is how I am passing it on to you.
Since she really didn't have any rules I am going to pass it out like this. My most faithful followers you know who you are and I have passed awards on to you. So I am going to ask you to check out these new blogs that I have found that. I love you all and please check these out:

A Puggle's Life An adorable dog
All Things Caribbean Cuisine Beautiful pictures and food
Brett's Good Deed of the Day I love this blog, Brett is trying to better the world one good deed at a time
Cooking with Passion and Trader Joe's (or not) Great recipes
From Lexi to Ali with Love A fun young blogger to brighten your day.
Honeygo Beasley Try not to fall in love with this beautiful dog
To all my faithful followers please accept this award also and pass it along with love, Through Squirrel Eyes, blahwg!, Burnt Chicken Republic, A hard life for my daughter, Dad's Tackle Box

Thank you for finding your way in when my blog wasn't working. Happy Blogging.

Peppers and Onions and Grilling Season is Here!!

I love to grill in the summer. Today I am making brats, hamburgers and hot dogs. With the brats I love to make a cooked onion mixture on the stove first. I slice up 2 or 3 nice onions, vidalias are my favorite, slice a couple of green peppers and chop several pepperonchinis. In a 2 quart saucepan (depending on how many onions you might need a bigger one) melt 1/2 cup butter or you can use olive oil or both. Add all the ingredients and let simmer until everything is nice and soft but not burnt . You will need to stir it every so often and leave it on low. It smells so good, can't you smell it now, it is the smell of summer barbecue season!! Let it cook for a while and then add to the top of your delicious grilled sausages. It goes with everything and also good on hamburgers. The pepperonchini give it a nice warmth without making it too spicy. Of course you can had spicy peppers if you like. Now go and grill!!

PLEASE SHARE YOUR GRILLING RECIPES