I remember Nancy

Our sister Nancy has always been a fantastic housekeeper.
It is one of her many gifts.

(I think I feel a tribute to Nancy springing up within, but I will save that for a day when I have more than 20 minutes to write my post.)

What I want to tell you about Nancy today is this; I remember when Nancy would sweep the floors at her house, she would always show me the dirt in the dustpan. "Look at this. Just one day and all this dirt." she would say in a matter of fact way.
(You may notice. I was not sweeping the floors. Nancy was always sweeping the floors. And her husband. I remember him sweeping the floors, too.)
But it was Nancy who shared the dirt with me.

And you will never believe. Twenty years later. I am the sharer of dustbin dirt.

Now that we have wood floors, I am sweeping.

And everyday (or ever other day :o) I show the contents of the dustpan to whoever is around. It is usually Emma or Katie.

"Look at all this dirt. This would have been in the carpet."

And yesterday Katie said to me, "You show me that everyday."

And I thought of Nancy. And it made me smile.

I can fry.

Two nights ago I decided to try Ree's Chicken Strips.

I have never in my long life deep fried anything. It scares me. A lot.
I am afraid of the grease.

But I did it. I followed Ree's directions precisely with the aid of Emma reading the website to me as we went and they turned out. I don't think I was spattered ONCE with grease. The process was a total success.

The batter was needy tho. Ree did not give measurements for the salt and pepper and I did not know how important the salt and pepper were to the batter.

But I do now.

Last night I researched fried chicken coating and found out that I was way, way short on my salt and pepper.

Next time, I will use at least two teaspoons of salt and two teaspoons of pepper and three teaspoons Lawry's salt instead of a sprinkle of salt and a dash of pepper.

I'm not so good at guessing measurements.

But I must say, we ate them all and the chicken was moist and perfect.

I ate mine with homemade blue cheese dressing. Emma used barbecue sauce and Patrick and Katie used Ketchup, of course.

I think I would rate my effort a B. But everyone liked the idea of them...and pretty much the taste.
So I will definitely make them again.

Patrick says they come in second to P-dubs Steakbites so that is really high praise!


I don't have any pictures of the fried chicken tenders and the picture I took of the dustpan is not worth posting.
It is very unappealing.

But here are some precious family shots for the other day I thought you would enjoy!









I can't help but smile when I look at that happy face!!
What a beautiful child!!!

Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.
~Garrison Keillor

Encourage one another,
Donna