A few more paintings............

Some more pictures from my sketchbook.

This one I think was on my last post on paintings...........I didn't like it. I added something to it. These are really all just experiments.



The next one is also an edit to one I have posted that I didn't like. The original has stems on the flowers and I was able to remove them. Better I think




Poppies in the field?



A Mermaid



Making a picture from some scraps of work maybe???





More Tweedles



Half finished drawings....just putting them out there..............none of this stuff you see is going anywhere.....its just a sketch book, practice, experiment ETC. comments welcome. I need to improve.




Linking up with
Linking with
and also with Create with Joy Inspire me Monday

Easy comfort food...........

I do not know what this is called. I make it now and then a friend gave me the recipe many years ago. Its more comfort food for winter evenings.
We had a bag of potatoes that needed to be used up. My husband peeled and cooked them. First day we had them fried up and the rest I used today.
You will need some ground beef. Boiled cooked potatoes.
I probably had about a pound and a half of ground beef.One large onion. A can of green beans. A can of cream of mushroom soup. One can of milk. Salt and pepper and I put in some parsley. (dried)







Slice the potatoes and onions and drain the meat.


Put the condensed cream of mushroom soup in a bowl. Pour in the can of milk add salt and pepper. whisk.

Spray the dish you will bake this in with Pam or spread butter around the dish. Layer the potatoes, onions, green beans and parsley flakes and pour on some of the soup mix. Just so that everything is covered right to the bottom.

Continue to layer and end with potatoes. Pour the last of the soup over the top.





Cook at 350 for one hour or until the potatoes look nice and brown.




This was really really good.



You can do the whole thing from scratch with uncooked potatoes and raw meat it just takes longer. I preferred this method. The potatoes are just so tender, where as if you do raw they are sometimes chewy if you dont cook long enough.

Linking up with My Turn for Us
Linking up with The crafty block stalker


I made this today (Feb 21) with unpeeled red potatoes, (uncooked) and sausage meat. It was awesome............cook 350 for 2 hours. I bet it would do well in a slow cooker but would not have the nice browned top.

New paintings, watercolours..........

I have been trying to "loosen up" I have spent some fun times visiting some blogs that I love. I love a cloudy day.....I found Laurie's blog very inspiring and it got me to trying some pictures of my own. I have not painted consistently for some time. The last few evenings I have given it a try.
I would like to share a few of the things I have done.





Its easy for me to see problems when I put them on here. They look different to what they do in person.




















Linking up with Inspire Me Monday At Create with Joy......you will see a link to I love a Cloudy Day at the beginning of the post. Take A Look at the lovely work there.
Also linking with Make it pretty Monday at A dedicated house

Split Pea and Ham......

Today I made Split Pea and Ham soup. Except it was modified somewhat. We had the ham at Christmas and I froze what was left. Yesterday we enjoyed some ham and cheese sandwiches as a quick meal............Yesterday I put the split peas and lentils in two cans of chicken broth and threw in the odd bits of ham that was on its rind and bone. I chopped all the good ham and added that as well. I cooked it all for a couple of hours to blend the flavours and refrigerated it overnight. Today I put it in the crock pot and left it on high. After a couple of hours I took the ham bone out and took out any fat and rinds I put that out for the birds. The Starlings loved it and I also got a Crow come in for a look.
I added a can of corn (undrained) and a can of peas (undrained) The split peas and lentils were all cooked and thickening. I added some Mrs Dash and put it back on to simmer.


I bought the bag of lentils and split peas for soup from the Armish store a while back. It said to add the seasoning of choice. I didnt want to add salt because of the ham. I thought it might make it a bit much so used Mrs Dash. I also used up the 1/2 jar of white beans I had used for the Chili.......a good opportunity to use up things. The package of Lentils and split peas also had wild rice and regular rice in it. It was looking good and had a lot of ham.



It doesn't look that appealing maybe, but it was really really good. Got enough left for tomorrow. I love these kinds of meals on cold winter days. Tomorrow though I want some crusty bread and butter.
I am linking this with Clever Chicks Blog Hop at Chicken Chick.

I am also linking up with

Chili for a cold day.......

Today Chili just seemed right. It was raining all day and freezing. Turned later to very wet snow. Chili is one of my comfort foods.
I suppose we all have our own way of making it. I like a few different beans in mine and will use anything from black beans, baked beans, red beans, chili beans, white northern beans........whatever I have in the cupboard.
Today I chose a selection of things I had on hand.


I start with meat, I use ground beef. Never use hamburgher its all fat. Use the good stuff and use less to keep the price down. Why pour half of it down the sink in fat just to pay less.?
When that is cooked I drain it if I need to but usually don't have to. I first add a can of diced tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoe with chili peppers.

I then add the beans, undrained. I like baked beans to offset the spices, you need a little sweetness when using Cumin. Add however many you want to add. In this batch I used white beans, and only used 1/2 the bottle. I large can of chilli beans (because I had them) Red beans and a small can of baked beans.
The spices I like are chili, cumin, dried red peppers and sea salt, to this batch I added onion and garlic salt. This is how it looks so far

After its cooked for awhile I add the chopped onions so that they stay crunchy



I also added red pepper flakes



You can see I just threw a palm full in this time as my granddaughter does not like it too hot. The nice thing with this chili is you can eat it right away or cook it all day to better blend the flavours. I might add that I do not measure anything. I go by taste alone.
The end result is a chili that you can add more to make it hot or leave it mild for the family. It depends on the spices you usee. Keep stirring it and cook all day if you want to do it in a slow cooker. Tomorrow it will be even better than today.


Top with grated cheese or more chopped onions .......or crackers.

Lets do something silly............

I love glitter and Fantasy, fairies and all of that. So Let me see what I can find for Pink Saturday.




Sugar and spice and everything nice......that's what little girls are made of.
Not all girls like pink and glitter, not all girls like frills and ballet. I dont think I always did. Not until the computer age when the images that we can now find were available. So I enjoy finding those images and this is somewhere to share them.

Little girls love pink and look so sweet in it




Fairy child




Big girls look good in pink and its flatters most people
I like the very pale pinks





The make up in shades of pink is also flattering







Put it all together and some sweet dresses. I am not a frilly person but some of these things I have found are so pretty.



Some are just romantic


Not casual really but she looks good on the beach

(I can not give credit for the pictures because they came off the web and I have no clue who the artists are. If they are your pictures email me and I can give credit or remove. No copyright infringement intended)


Well I hope you have enjoyed my pink post. I will be sharing it with Pink Saturday, How Sweet the sound

Cooking with kids..............

Well not exactly. I decided to make some home made breakfast bars. Tristen enjoys them and I am not so happy with the ones bought at the store. I wanted something that was healthy, sweet and easy to make. I got a basic recipe and changed it for us. This batch tasted really good, I was not too fussy about how they looked but next time I will do better. I had some butterscotch chips that I did not use at Christmas. I don't like them (was going to make fudge) but I knew Tristen would.



Well he was bugging me and bugging me to try one. He got to "lick the bowl" he has cottoned on to that treat already.......he is my official "potlicker" Gerry says that used to be a bad thing to say......what do I know, I am English. So when I called out that I needed my potlicker he came running.




Next time I will drizzle on the topping instead of trying to spread it. It does not spread easily.
The recipe.............No bake.
4 cups of Instant Oatmeal (Quaker instant oatmeal)
2 cups of rice crispy cereal
1 stick of butter (not margarine)
1/2 cup of honey
2/3 cup of packed brown sugar
crushed walnuts (if you like nuts)
(you could as sultanas (golden raisins})if you want to add fruit, I will next time.
I bag of mini choc chips (or butterscotch). Add some to the mix and reserve some for the topping


Mix the oats and crispies in a large bowl. Add the nuts, fruit and chocolate chips.

In a small sause pan on low heat.....melt the butter, honey and sugar. Bring to boil and cook 2 mins stiring constantly. Low flame.
Pour over the cereals and mix well.
On a large cookie sheet lined with wax paper pour the contents out and flatten. It will cover the whole sheet. Press down so that its compacted. Drizzle melted chocolate (or butterscotch) over and cool at room temperature. Run a knife through to score into the size you want. Pop in the fridge to set about 10 mins. Cut and put into a container. I am keeping mine in the fridge so they dont get sticky.


Then I made some chocolate treats.......probably not for breakfast



Could not be more easy. You need ........
One large bag of chocolate chips.
10 cups of rice crispies.


Melt the chocolate well in the microwave. Pour the melted chocolate over the crispies and mix well.....
You will need a cookie tray lined with wax paper. Pour the chocolate mix onto that.
Spread that out and put into the fridge to set. Cut into squares.

My pictures are of some I put aside to test so are loose not squares.



Well here is my little helper getting cleaned up by her best buddy.



Bodi enjoys her job........


Linking up with Hope in every Season

linking with thanks to Mop it up Monday

Also linking up with Inspire me Monday create with Joy