99 years ago...

Today would have been my Nanny's 99th birthday.  She went home to be with Jesus almost 6 years ago.  I had meant to take a very special picture while I was at my mom's house to share with you all today but I forgot to do it.  I was going to take a picture of an old teacup that is crusted with sugar.  Why an old crusted over teacup?  That old teacup holds lots and lots of memories.

When I was growing up, my Nanny taught me how to bake.  I think that is one of the reasons I love baking as an adult.  Nanny loved it and she passed that on to me.  She used that old teacup to measure her sugar.  Of course when I was a teenager and taking Home Economics, I explained to her that it wasn't an accurate form of measurement and would most certainly mess up the baked goods.  Nanny humored me and we used measuring cups.  I'm not sure why I or she did not think to measure out one cup with a measuring cup and fill the teacup with it.  We never did.  I did that a couple of months ago.  Guess what?  I was exactly one cup!  In honor of my Nanny, my sugar canister now has a teacup from the stonewear set that she blessed me with for my hope chest when I was in junior high.  I measured it too.  One cup. 

Over my life, Nanny and I built many special memories.  I have tons of pictures but none of them are scanned in.  However, if you can picture the perfect grandma, you'd have my Nanny.  Just to clarify who Nanny was, she was my mother's grandmother...my great grandmother.  To me, she was just Nanny.  The woman who let me sleep with her in her full sized bed when I spent the night with her.  She even made sure my pillow had my special pillow case on it.  It was an old, vintage pillow case with ballerinas on it.  It was lovely with fair dancers wearing soft pink tutus.  She had a nightgown for me at her house that she made.  As I grew, I guess she made new ones because I always had a nightgown at Nanny's house when I spent the night.  Before bed, Nanny told me stories like Little Red Riding Hood and nursery rhymes like Little Boy Blue.  LOL...I won a nursery rhyme contest at a baby shower once because of that!

When we'd wake up in the mornings, Nanny would head to the bathroom first and light the little gas heater in the bathroom.  She wanted it toasty warm for me to go into.  Now, don't laugh, but I always asked her if she had used the bathroom yet because I wanted to know if the toilet seat was warm.  Yes, my sweet little Nanny went in there and sat on a cold toilet seat first so it would be warm for my bottom.  She thought about the smallest, silliest details.

It was a rare thing for me to have cold cereal at my Nanny's house.  I know she and Papa ate it because they always had corn flakes there.  However, when I stayed with them, Nanny cooked breakfast.  You would have thought she was a short order cook.  Papa liked his eggs fried as did Nanny.  I didn't care for fried eggs back then so she scrambled mine.  Just for me.  She also made biscuits and we put homemade jelly or preserves on them.  Nanny made the best peach, fig, and other preserves and jellies.

Sometime while I was with them, Nanny and I would bake.  It depended on my mood as to what we cooked.  She always baked whatever struck my fancy.  She made the best peanut butter cookies.  That was one of the first things I learned to bake.  Of course we used that teacup to measure the sugar.

Someday, many years from now, I hope I can build wonderful memories like these with my grandchildren.  I hope that they can look back at my old teacup and remember how much I loved them.  Of all my memories, the most precious is that my Nanny loved me very very very much.

Momma Loves Me Casserole

Momma Loves Me Casserole

I struggled within myself what to name this casserole.  I thought about "How to use up a 10 pound bag of leg quarters", but since I didn't use the whole bag, that didn't seem right.  Then Oliver said it, "I'm so glad I have a momma who loves me enough to feed me good food!"  That's it!  Momma Loves Me Casserole.  I'm just glad he liked it enough to say that. 

Today's lunch started Friday when I took out a 10 pound bag of frozen leg quarters from the freezer.  I let them thaw Friday night and cooked them Saturday with the intention of making chicken stew Saturday night.  Well, we went to a birthday party and I didn't know we were eating there so that took care of most of us (everyone but dad).  Dad went out with the men's ministry of his church so that took care of him.  What did NOT get taken care of was the boatload of chicken.  I ended up putting the whole pot of cooked chicken in the fridge overnight.

This morning I knew I had to do something with the chicken.  I just didn't know what.  It's warmnig up today and soup just didn't sound good now.  I went looking through the pantry and Pastor Husband said chicken and rice sounded good.  Ok but prepared HOW?  He didn't know.  I found some boil in the bag rice that needed to be used, some California blend veggies in the freezer, some Monterrey Jack cheese (block) in the fridge, some Ritz crackers on top of the fridge, and some provalone cheese in the fridge (sliced).  Let the fun begin.  Pastor Husband deboned the chicken for me, putting the skin aside along with the bones.  I cooked the rice and veggies while I shredded the cheese.  Sprayed a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray, mixed the rice, chicken, veggies, and shredded jack cheese, topped with crumbled up crackers that I topped with the provalone.  Popped it in the oven until the cheese was melted and slightly browned.  YUMM-O!  We always add salt and pepper to taste after it's all cooked since Pastor Husband can't have salt.

There ya have it.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of the chicken!

Day 8 Pantry Challenge

Let me begin by saying I'm sorry for not doing better at posting about this.  I kinda have a lot going on right now.

Next, we were blessed by some friends with about $170 worth of groceries.  God is good!  Not sure how this effects our challenge, but I'll keep plugging away on it anyhow.

Today we kinda blew breakfast.  We had McGriddles on the way to Lubbock.  For lunch we had Nutella and PB (well, almond butter for Noah) sandwiches on the road.  I put dinner in the crockpot before we left.  It was pork sirloin steaks and stuffing mix with cream of celery soup (and a can of water).  I've made this before and it turned out fine.  This time it was a mess!  The steak was falling apart and the stuffing was on the runny side.  Soooooo, not wanting to have to toss all that food, I mixed it all up, plated it, put some whole cranberry sauce on top and called it pork chop casserole.  It was a hit!  Pastor husband had seconds.  It was good if I do say so myself. 

What's on the menu for tomorrow?  Probably a big breakfast with biscuits, eggs, and bacon.  Lunch of SPAM taco salad and dinner...hmmmm...I don't know yet.  I need to see what's in the fridge freezer that needs to be used up.  ;)  I'll let ya know what I find.