2/22/23 - Ash Wednesday

 

Remember man, you are dust and to dust you shall return.

Help me to remember, Lord, I am given only a finite number of days on this earth. Help me to turn away from my sins and do penance, so that renewed I may continue my walk with you. 

Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. ✝️

Once again, I am stitching Jesus by Vervaco during Lent. I last stitched him in 2019 also during Lent and had him only a short time on my wall before I gave him to Austin to commemorate his entry into the Catholic Church after his year long study, Baptism, Confirmation and full Communion, which I was proud to witness as his Rite of Christian Initiation sponsor. That finish is in the photos in my left top sidebar of this blog.

He is being stitched on: 14 ct. Ivory Aida, DMC 2/1

Buffalo Chicken Tenders and Zuchinni Parmesan "Fries"

 I love sharing recipes that I've come up with that works for my family. This is a seriously delicious meal that I make at least a couple of times a month. The only carbs is the Panko & bread crumbs used on the chicken. The rest of the carbs are just in the zucchini and negligible. 

Chicken Tenders 

 whatever quantity that you want, I rinse them, then put into a bowl and add milk and a eggs and a little pickle juice for tanginess. I don't do "quantities" I typically add enough milk to almost cover the tenders and add 1 egg for every pound of chicken. 

In a separate flat container mix equal parts of Italian Style Panko and Italian Style Bread Crumbs + 1 package of Italian Dressing Mix. Mix together well. 

Dredge tenders into breading mix and lay with about 1 inch space in between tenders on a parchment lined baking sheet. Put into 425 degree oven and bake until done, nice and golden about 15- 20 minutes.

While chicken tenders are baking make your Buffalo Sauce:

 2 sticks of salted butter

1 1/3 c. Frank's Hot Sauce

4 Tbs. white vinegar

1 T. Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper

1 tsp granulated garlic

in small pan, bring to boil and stir together well. Remove from heat and pour into container - I use Ball Jar so leftovers can be refrigerated after meal. 

Coat your baked Chicken Tenders with the Buffalo Sauce, serve immediately with Bleu Cheese Dressing or Ranch Dressing.

Zucchini Parmesan "Fries"

 8-10 small / medium sized zucchini cut into fries 

1 cup of Grated Parmesan (I use the Kraft green jar kind)

1 Tbs Italian Seasoning

1 tsp of granulated garlic

3-4 Tbs Olive Oil

place the fries into a bowl, add all the ingredients and mix well with a plastic spatula.

   

Lay fries out individually on a parchment lined baking sheet.

bake at 425 degrees for about 20-25 minutes until golden

Serve Immediately with a side of Ranch Dressing.

February 20, 2023....

 ~ Warm Welcome to my blog ~

It's been about a month since my last post....

sorry about that, sometimes I get caught up in life. 

What has happened in the last month?

Well....back on the old lifestyle of low carb and fasting. I think I have finally lost all the Christmas gains....

I was down in my back for 2 weeks.... muscle spasms. I get these every so often and when it happens....not good. Always takes me out for a couple of weeks. 

I've been....

finishing of course, but my plan to not take as many clients and not work 7 days a week has been going well....trying to stay true to me. I am blessed with many GOOD and REPEAT clients that have been with me for years. Seems a large percentage of the time when I take new clients it doesn't work out so well. I've decided that it's going to be a real rare occasion that I take new clients from her on out. Not to say I won't, but I want to honor those people that have been with me and have stayed true to me. Easy to work with and I know that they follow through. 

I also have done some stitching....

I was honored to finish for a client her set of 

Thread Milk Statehood Splendor Series

She wanted them as ornaments and as I was finishing them, I thought what a wonderful way to commemorate our family vacations by stitching the states we have visited. SO, I decided to stitch Maine and I added the year 2022 to it as we just visited there last summer. Here it is all stitched up:

"ME - State Splendor Series" by Thread Milk on 28 ct. Vintage Country Mocha using Classic Colorworks 2/2

Then I stitched and finished up: Mill Hill's Charmed Santa Series II This is "Noel Santa". I have all 12 from these two Mill Hill series Charmed Santa's Series I and Series II. I hope to stitch several of them this year. 

"Noel Santa" by Mill Hill on 14 ct. Perforated Paper 3/1 DMC using Mill Hill Beads

I also finished the stitching on my "Jolly Squirrel" by Pigeon Coop Designs:

"Jolly Squirrel" by Pigeon Coop Designs stitched on Zweigart 32 ct Stormy Gray using DMC 2/2

Here are a couple of WIPS I've been working on:

"Father Frost" by Mill Hill on 14 ct. Perforated Paper DMC 3/1

"Solitary Skater" by P Buckley Moss on 28 ct. white DMC 2/2

That's all the stitching I've done so far in February...it seems such a short month. . . that I don't get much done. We still have a week and half, maybe I can get some more progress on something :)

Today is President's Day so....

Keith is off work and we are going to go out to lunch, a very rare treat for us! I'm excited. I've been planning for a week what I'm going to order - ha ha ha! We like to go to Cheddar's restaurant, it's a nice, clean restaurant with good food at a great price and nice size portions. We love it! Hits all our bells!

We also are planning our summer vacation today....

we have decided to go to Colorado and our bucket list is to hit as many National Parks as we can before we die. So....we are hitting: Rocky Mountain National Park, Black Canyon National Park in Gunnison, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. We will be staying in the state of Colorado for around 12 days. It's always exciting to plan a vacation!

Well that does it for me for today!

I hope this finds you all well and enjoying your stitching and life. 

Until next time....

love and hugs in stitches, 

Vonna xxxx