Freezer Meals Workshop

Well this is a new one for me.  Yesterday I went to a Pampered Chef Freezer Meals Workshop with Natalia Bello.  You had to bring all the ingredients I did my shopping a our local FoodMax and it cost me $178.00 I did buy mostly Organic.  We prepared 10 freezer meals and each one would serve 4-5 depending on your family.  Since we are a family of 6 now we will see how that works.  Two of them are kids and picky eaters so it should be just fine.  Well except for the Smokey BBQ Pork Tenderloin Sliders.  I think that one will be the big hit.  We shall see!
You are able to pick which menu you wanted she had about 16 different ones to choose from so that is nice.  She does Paleo, Vegetarian, Glute-Free & Dairy Free, Kid friendly, they come in Crockpot, Grilling, Soup and Stews so you can make a choice that fits your life style.

Here we all are well except for me of course.  Natalia is in the lower Rt hand corner.  You will recognize most of them from our Bon Appetit Cooking Club.  Cathy, Pam, and Jeannie.  Neva and Carol were there too.

Lets get started!  Natalia had everything we needed.  All the bowls, measuring utensils, spatulas, knifes, were provided by her.  She was our sous chef and chopped everything up as we needed it. She rinsed and helped as need.  I was a fun day with lots of laughs.  On the table you can see the round cutter called The Close and Cut that was a very handy tool for cutting chicken breasts in half.  The pamper chef knifes are nice too.  She had all the recipes for us ready to go at our own pace.  Natalia also had labels pre printed for us to just stick on our bags with the name and cooking instructions and how many bags for that dish, like 1 of 3 and so on.   That will be very helpful in getting the ones you need for that dish.

Everyone is had at work. Sometimes following directions is hard especial for me.  Here I go taking pictures again. Natalia set up garbage and recycling bins at each table to make it easy to keep everything tidy.  Natalia set up a bowl for all the vegetable scraps so I could take it home to our chickens they will love that!  See everyone is very happy...

Natalia even had a table for use to put all our meals as we made them up.

It took about 3 hours for all 6 of us to finish up.  Then the clean up began.  It is way more fun with friends and all by yourself.

Here we all are with all our meals ready to go home and up them in the freezer.  So nice to know that at least 10 times I don't have to come up with another idea of whats for dinner.  Yeah me!!!!

We loaded everything up and into our coolers and home we went.  I will be doing this workshop again.  Thanks Natalia Bello for a great afternoon.  Thanks ladies it was a great way to spend the day!

Here it is all loaded up in my freezer and ready to go.
We will be having the Smokey BBQ Pork Tenderloin Sliders tonight for dinner so I will let you know what the family thinks.

June Kard Club Swap

Wow it's Summer all ready!  I am already behind in my posting. So that means that Christmas will be here before I know it.
Our theme for June was Sympathy.
To start us off is Tamara she use the Stampin up embossing folder and the butterflies.  These are older and no longer available.
Tamara use Pearls in the center of the flowers.
Deepest Sympathy is a Stampin up stamp.

Debb made a Dog Sympathy card.
Sometimes our pets leave the biggest holes in our hearts.  The paw print is a stamp from Life Stamps called Cat2Stamp.  She use some raised embellishments that she had in her stash on the card too.

Kathy also made a pet Sympathy Card.  The stamp set is **** On the inside is a story about the Rainbow Bridge.  I still can't read it with crying.

Lani did a Garden Gate scene .  She used a stamp set from Art Impressions the sentiment is from Stampin Up.

I did a Rose themed card from Anna Griffith and my Explore.  It is from Anna's Garden and Cards and Embellishments,  The With Sympathy was cut from Wild Card and the frame piece is from Art Philosophy.  I used Daisy White, Pixie, Thistle, and Bamboo.

Laurie made a card using her Silhouette.  She did not remember the name of the cut but it makes a gate fold card with the Tree of Life in side she used a boarder punch along the bottom under the sentiment.

This is Jeannine's card.  She took a patterned 12 x 12 sheet and cut in into 6 pieces.  Then she punch a circle out of each one.  The scalloped circle is cut from a matching darker cardstock and placed over the missing punched circle and the patterned piece is stamped and placed back over the top of the dark scalloped circle.  So easy and so beautiful.

This one is Donna's she used an Impression Obsession die DIE200-1 cut right on her card.  So delicate!  Then backed it with a patterned handmade paper and linen and added her sentiment.  The picture does not do this one any justice at all.  It's beautiful! The ink is Brilliance: Victorian Violet, Stamp: Just rite Clear large,  Fancy Sentiments #CR-03815.  The border punch is from Martha Stewart.

Our host Cathy made both dog and cat cards.  I am a dog lover so I took the dog one but the cat one was cute too.  She used the Disney Classics for the Cat Figaro.  The dog is from the Toy Story Cartridge and the  

Here is the inside to Cathy's card.  The paw print is a punch and the Heart is from Hanna Montana cartridge.

This was our Make and Take card it uses a solid background stamp that you stamp in VersaMark and emboss with clear detail and then you color in the voids which in this case were the flowers and the stems.  She cut some butterflies out of silver glitter paper and there you have it.

The inside was punched with a Martha Stewart border punch along the bottom and another glitter butterfly was added.

We also did a travel fan and with matching bag.  The are great to just have in you handbag so that when you need it you have it.

We stamped our image in stayzon and then used markers to color them in as soon as you color it you spray it with a solution of 90% isopropol alcohol and water.  This makes the colors run and you then twirl the fan and watch the colors run together and swirl so easy and so beautiful.  The yellows and oranges seem to do the best.

You then do the same thing to the bag.  Let it dry and pop it in you purse.


Our Dessert was wonder full.  Cathy made a Fruit Torte that uses a roll of Sugar Cookie dough in the roll not the squares.  It was delicious!

Add a scoop or two of Ice Cream and there you have it!

What a fun evening it was!

What Catches Your Eye

We were at dinner with friends and I walked out the front door with my dinner.  I had to set my dinner down and walk back to the spot where the arch framed this view perfectly.  The only thing I did was sit down on the steps and center the archway.  The sun was just going down so it did the highlighting for me.  How great was that!

I might have to turn this into a watercolor or an oil painting.  Who knows maybe Rolf Lygren will paint it.
I will have to use this as an inspiration for my crafting too.  I love the way the sun lit up the palm tree.  It was so beautiful in person and to capture it well Priceless!!!

Festival of Tables Luncheon Tea and Fashion Show

Last month I did a tablescape for the Clayton Valley Woman's Club Festival of Tables Luncheon Tea and Fashion Show It was one of our annual fundraisers.  It is a luncheon Tea and Fashion Show. The Fashion Show part was put on by Draper's and Damon's.
Here are just some of the raffle prizes that you could win

There was a good turn out and all the tables were full.  Just to let you know that I won 3 of those baskets.  Here is the room full and ready to chat, eat. and mingle with friends, family, and met lot of new people.

Here is Joan she was the one tasked with setting everything up and what a great job she did.  Everything ran smooth and easy.  Well at least that's the way she made it look!  Great Job Joan!
Joan is the one on the left.

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You sign up to do a table and your theme.  I chose Paris.  My friend Tess helped me.  She had lots of different plates, table settings, napkins, and the chair covers.  I was amazed at what she had.  Thanks Tess for all your help and input.  My DIL helped Tess and I do the set up, as always Jenn is a big help.  Here is my table.  I used my Cricut to cut out all the flowers, leaves, placemats, and gift tags/ name cards.  I use the CTMH Art Philosophy, Artiste, and Artbooking cartridges to make everything,

Here are some of the other tables for you to enjoy.

Here the ladies dressed the part.  Their table was the roaring 20's and I think they did a great job. They had lots of fun too!

Lunch was catered by Rick's On Second in Antioch.  Lunch was served by husbands and son's of the Woman's Club.
It was a great lunch I loved it it was the perfect amount too.  There was dessert too but by the time I remembered to take the picture it was gone.  Imagine that!  LOL  It was very good.   Just before lunch was a raffle and I won one.  Lucky me!

After lunch was another raffle given out.  I won another one. now I have 2.  Lucky me again!
Then it was time for the Fashion Show from Draper's and Damon's.  The models were all club members or family of club members.

They took a break in the middle of the Fashion Show and did another raffle and you guessed it I won another one.  Out of 30+ baskets to win I won 3 of them and here they are.  What a fun day it was.

Be sure to check back and see what I did with everyting from tablescape.  

A Great Loss for Me

You may be wondering why I have not been posting much lately.
My Mom passed away last month at the age of 94 just shortly before her 95th Birthday.  She had lived with me for the last 15 years and she will be greatly missed.  I miss being able to say how do you spell this or that and math she was a math wiz to the end.
We were 4 generations living together from 4 to 94 and now we are 3 generations.  She was surrounded by all her family and it was a very peaceful passing.  She had a good and full life and we will miss the laughs and tears a lot.  She was a Mother of one, Grandma of 2, and Great Grandma of 3.

Love you and miss you lots Mom!

We used Vitas Hospice and I don't have enough great things to say about them, the care and resources that they provided.
Not a fun thing to talk about but when you need them or don't know what to do then you need to know what others have done and who they have used.
My Mom qualified for the ICC care.  Honestly I don't remember what that stands for but they provided a nurse round the clock from Sunday till my Mom passed on Tuesday.  They walked me thru all the steps and made all the arrangement.  They even went so far as to remind me to eat and drink something. They were great with all the family too, Great Grand Kids included.  They answered all their questions too!
They were wonderful! 

Bon Appetite May Cooking Club

Our group met at Jeanne home for our get together .  We were all excited about the menu this month.
We started off the evening with Champagne and Guava and toasted to the another get together and the beginning to another great meal with the girls.
No that is not a potato holding down the napkins but a rock that looks like a potato.  Can you see the chef holding the menu.

Jeanne said her Son John did the tablescape right down to getting the trivets for each one of us and her husband made our name cards.  It was a family affair!  The color was so festive.  Love the blue.

We started the evening with The Cowboy Caviar that Jeannine from page 20 of the What Can I bring for Dinner?  by Anne Bryn .  This is a light way to start out.  Everything is waist friendly.  We all were commenting on all the ways you could use this dish.  Over salad, on a taco, or just on a bed of lettuces. We all loved it.  

Then is was time for the meal.  Jeanne made the Barb's Taco Ring on page 187 What Can I Bring for Dinner by Anne Bryn.  Cathy made the Chicken Taco Soup from page 84.  The soup is in the Red bowl.  It was in a big pot on the stove.   I made the Big Green Salad with Orange, Avocado and Red Wine Vinaigrette page 94-5. Funny thing this time everyone followed the recipes exactly.  We normally make little changes here and there.  Not this time.   You can see the cake in the background more about that below.

Here is the soup and it was really good. 

Here is our meal all plated up and ready to be devoured.  There was silence so that tells you that everyone loved it all.  I did add some of the Cowboy Caviar to the top of my Barb's Taco Ring.  I also added a dollop of Sour Cream to the Chicken Taco Soup.  You can see the little treat that Jeannine made with the jelly beans.  I made the little bag which was holding a little wisk for each person.   

Then it was time for dessert which Pam made Vanillia Crazy Wacky Cake from Pinterest.  It uses vinegar and boy was it good.  She said this is very simple and easy to make.  

Thanks for stopping by!