A song for Sunday!

Saturday this and that

Happy Saturday everyone! First off, I want to wish my good friend and fellow co-author of my blog, Dark Elf (aka Peri), whose birthday was yesterday, a belated HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY, PERI!!

What's for dinner? Well, last night I tried another new soup recipe from the Taste of Home Soups cookbook. It is for Hot Dog Potato Soup. This recipe was submitted by a woman who lives in Lancaster, PA - which I thought was pretty cool since I live in Reading, PA. 😎

Hot Dog Potato Soup

(400 calories per cup, serves 5)

Ingredients:

2 cans (18.8 ounces each) ready-to-serve chunky baked potato with cheddar and bacon bits soup

4 hot dogs, halved lengthwise and sliced

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar-Monterey Jack cheese

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup milk

In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine all the ingredients. Cover and microwave soup on high for 8-10 minutes or until heated thoroughly, stirring soup every 2 minutes.

😸 😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸

On a totally separate note, I finally received my 1095-C from in the mail yesterday from my former employer. Now I can drop off our 2018 income taxes to be completed this coming week.😒

Have a blessed weekend all!

Fun Friday

Happy Friday, my friends! I hope everyone had a good week. Just a quick little side note - yesterday while on FB, I came across a post that Mr. Jimmy Sakurai announced on is personal page letting all of us fans know about an up and coming documentary film by writer and filmmaker Peter Michael Dowd titled, "Mr. Jimmy." This film is a nice feature piece on Jimmy, where and how he got his beginnings and how he does what he does so perfectly! Not sure if it will go YouTube or not, I truly hope so.  Here is a small ad regarding this movie. 😻

The 55 year old "Mr. Jimmy" Sakurai is not only a very talented musician and performer, but he goes far beyond the tribute style and has memorized each and every live concert Jimmy Page has ever played in with Led Zeppelin -  not an easy task given that Zeppelin  never played their songs the same way twice ever live! Cord-for-cord, he makes sure that no detail nor the smallest of nuances get forgotten right down to Page's finely, specially recreated costumes from head to toe. He plays, looks, and moves like Jimmy Page. He is truly perfection personified! 👍

"Mr Jimmy": A film by Peter Michael Dowd

https://www.mrjimmymovie.com/

💙💚💛💜💓💙💚💛💜💗

I tried a new soup recipe from the Taste of Home cookbook I just bought the other day. It calls for stove top cooking with a saucepan, but as usual I adapted it for myself to make in my handy crockpot. 😄

Mac'n'cheese Soup

(263 calories per cup, makes 8 servings)

Ingredients:
1 package (14 ounces) deluxe macaroni and cheese dinner mix
9 cups water, divided
1 cup fresh broccoli florets
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cheddar cheese soup, undiluted
2 1/2 cups 2% milk
1 cup chopped fully cooked ham

STEP 1: Set aside cheese sauce packet from macaroni and cheese mix. In a large saucepan, bring 8 cups water to a boil. Add macaroni, cook for 8 minutes or until tender.

STEP 2:  Meanwhile, in another large saucepan bring remaining water to a boil. Add broccoli and onion; cook uncovered for 3 minutes. Stir in the soup, milk, ham, and contents of the cheese sauce packet. Heat thoroughly, drain macaroni, stir into soup.

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

And last but not least, my sister Aurora and I received an invite to Lady Sabrina Rhiannon's upcoming Ostara and Super Moon ritual celebration; however, neither of us will be able to attend this time around due to other obligations, etc. So, she was kind enough to send us a special ritual activity that we can perform on our own if we so chose. It is a prosperity spell and I thought that I would share it here on my blog in case anyone else would be interested in trying it as well:

Prosperity Spell

1 Walnut ( need 2 intact shells)

tiny piece of paper

green candle

write the amount of money you need ( don't be greedy :)  😄

place inside the  shells and seal with the green candle wax,

Charge the walnut.

Bury in the Earth.

 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

SPRING IS SOON HERE! YAY!!! And to celebrate, I added a pic of my Dad and I which was taken from his Retirement Party back in 1994. I miss you each and every day, Dad! 💕

Have a great weekend all!!

Throwback Thursday

(http://lady-symphonia.deviantart.com)

Dark Elf found this today on an FB site called The Oogie Boogie Witch that he visited. It is one of the poems I had written a few years ago.  :)

An old Glamour Shot photo of my mom and I taken in 2001 for her 62nd birthday.

A means to an end ...

Yesterday, my mom and her dog officially moved back into her renovated house. Truth be told, she wanted to get back into her own home as much as we wanted ours back after four months. Please don't get me wrong, I love my mom and would do anything I could to help her of course. However; to be perfectly honest, she and I have always had a rather tumultuous mother-daughter relationship throughout our entire lives which goes well beyond the terrible teens years. She is extremely controlling, most probably the most stubborn woman I have ever known - in fact, my dad always used to call her 'umlikelicht' (pronounced um-like-lick) which means "bull-headed" in Pennsylvania Dutch, spiteful, and she is just one of those people who is not happy unless she is being miserable. I always gave my dad credit for being a saint and having a lot of patience when it came to dealing with her - and I was indeed right. She has never ever been someone who has tried to see the things she was blessed with in her life, only the negative regardless of whatever situation is before her or how many people she has to care about her and DO help her all of the time. Needless to say, between the insanity and her dog constantly snapping at and chasing my kitten Merlin whom she evidently had an issue with for whatever the reason, it has been a long, hard road. My only hope is that my dad is looking down on us and is not too disappointed in his daughter for not being emotionally strong enough to handle it all.

Moving forward, I am still trying my best to help her get her house back in order - moving small furniture, helping her unpack boxes, etc. This pic is of her new bathroom vanity and top ...

And, since apparently she did seem to enjoy my cooking while she was staying with me, I told her that I would make extra food to bring over to her house for her to try. I picked up these to bargain cook books at Barnes & Noble. One is for my crockpot dinners and the other is for my air fryer.

Now, it is time to get back to some serious job hunting and pray to goddess I can get lucky and find a full-time job SOON! Everything seems to be part-time and temp agencies - NOT going to help me at all in my situation trust me. On top of that, I am having to fight with my former employer to actually send me by mail my 1095-C form which I MUST have in order to do my income taxes! They have already sent me my W-2's and up until this year, they changed their procedures and instead of mailing me my 1095-C form as they should have and did in the past years, they are trying to make me sign up on a website and go through all that crap just to print if off one time and done. Mind you, I do not have a printer at home and since I am no longer an employee there, I do not have access to print it off at work like everyone else does this year. I tried the website anyhow and had nothing but problems (in fact, I probably just made things worse in the long run) so I have been going back and forth with these people over the phone trying to get them to send me my tax document they are responsible for making sure that I get! God, is it any wonder I freaking hate dealing with technology anymore - serious folks - it drives me nuts! I only hope I can get this straightened SOON! Okay, rant over ... lol!

Have a good day, friends!!

Sunday Odds and ends

Happy Sunday everyone! I am finally feeling better and getting over whatever it was I had - Thank You to everyone who sent me well wishes! Yesterday my mom and I went to Yankee Candle store and I bought these two items to add to my sister Aurora Skye and my upcoming Ostara/Spring Equinox ritual celebration in a couple of weeks. - a bunny votive candle holder and a new spring lumalid for the larger candles. I also picked up a few Chocolate Layer Cake-scented votives as well. This is the only time of the year you can find that scent in the Yankee Stores here.

And, since my mom is finally able to move back into her house this weekend, last night I made us all a special homemade stew. You are supposed to make it in a saucepot, but I am a huge crockpot cook, so I used that instead - I just did a little work-around the original recipe. This one came from the Giant Savory Magazine. 💟

Chicken and Potato Stew with Corn
(Prep time 5 min, Cook time 30 min, Ready in 35 min. Serves 6)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish

1 lb. Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed
1 medium russet potato, peeled
3 bay leaves
6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp. salt
2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1/4 cup light sour cream

 STEP 1: Finely chop the cilantro and add to a large saucepot, Cut all the potatoes into 1/2-inch chunks and add to the saucepot along with the bay leaves, broth, and salt. Partially cover and heat to a boil on high. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

STEP 2: Add the corn and chicken. Simmer another 15 minutes, until Yukon Gold potatoes are tender and russet potatoes begin to fall apart, stirring occasionally.  

STEP 3: Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove the bay leaves. To serve, garnish with additional cilantro and a dollop of sour cream.

 On Thursday night, I had dinner with my sister and her hubby at Flanny's. I wanted to give her her small Spring giveaway wreath ... 💜💛💚💙

Another busy week coming up! Have a great Sunday, my friends!

Saturday This and That

Greetings, my friends! I have been very sick this entire week and was not feeling well enough to post. My sincere apologies for not getting around to all of your blogs. Truthfully, I am still not feeling up to par, but I did want to get a quick post in to announce the wreath giveaway winners. BTW, Leo picked the winners. lol

The winner of the large Spring Forward wreath is CJ from her blog CJ & Ink ...

And the small Spring wreath goes to Aurora Skye ...

Thank you to all who participated. If the winners would please email me their address in which to mail their gift to, I would be more than happy to get them out to you sometime this coming week. My email address is Ladycaer1964@yahoo.com.

Have a great Saturday!