260 days Until 2027- Happy New Year
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304 days Until Valentine's Day
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333 days Until International Eat a Tasty Animal for PETA Day! (IEATAPETA Day)
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346 days Until Easter!
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39 days Until Towel Day!
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198 days Until Halloween!
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201 days Until Election Day 2026!
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224 days Until Thanksgiving 2026
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253 days Until Christmas Day!
Today we’d been shopping and I needed something that was really easy and fast to put together so we picked up a jar of spaghetti sauce (tomato and basil), a pound of ground beef (pork or sausage would do as well), and a loaf of garlic bread. I already had some bucatini noodles at home. Because of the garlic bread, I cut down on the amount of pasta.
Brown the meat while you’re preheating the oven to heat the garlic bread and cooking the pasta. Add the jarred pasta sauce to the browned meat, add the drained pasta to the sauce, mix it up, serve with the garlic bread and enjoy!
This recipe is from Taste of Home. The pork chops are browned, cooked on each side until the center reads 145ºF. Then the thinly sliced apples are cooked in butter, brown sugar, cinammon, and nutmeg making a delicious sauce to serve on top or on the side.
This soup is easy to make with what’s on-hand in the freezer and pantry and comes together fairly quickly.
Dad’s Hamburger Soup
One bag of frozen mixed vegetables One can of diced tomatoes with juices One or two cans of whichever type of beans you like, cannellini, navy, pinto, red, black, etc. One medium onion, diced Two to three cloves of garlic, minced 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce salt pepper
One one-liter box of beef broth or stock
One to two pounds of ground beef.
Mix the ground beef with about 1/2 a cup of the broth. **see note Cook the onion in olive oil in a large pot until translucent, then add the garlic. Add the beef and brown it, breaking up any clumps. Season with salt and pepper. Add Worcestershire sauce.
Add the rest of the broth, the frozen vegetables, and the cans of tomatoes and beans. You can rinse the beans or dump them in with the aguafaba.
Macaroni or other small pasta noodles (or rice) could also be added to bulk up the soup if you want to just add more broth or stock.
Feel free to season with any other seasonings you like. It’s even better the next day!
**note Adding liquid (water or stock or broth) to the ground meat allows it to be smaller clumps when you brown it so it’s not in big chunks. I’ll use water, but if it’s a soup where I’m already using stock or broth, I’ll use that instead.
I intend to do more drawing and painting in 2025. I intend to do more writing in 2025. I intend to do more crafting in 2025. I intend to do more baking in 2025. I intend to be happy in what I’m doing in 2025.
I can work up to doing more. I can back off if it gets too much. I can try to document what I’m doing as well.
Early on a beautiful Sunday morning 83 years ago, the world changed.
At 7:55 a.m local. on December 7, 1941, the attack begins.
Pearl Harbor Attack
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to remove what it saw as a threat to the empire’s southern expansion. The Pearl Harbor attack hurt us badly, but it also hardened our resolve and brought us fully into WWII.
Snopes has some photos that were purported to be found in an old Brownie camera years after the attack. The story was untrue, but the photos are archival and genuine.
The U.S. Navy has a Pearl Harbor site with more photos.
Our old cordless vacuum with integrated handheld reached the end of its life 5-1/2 years after we bought it so it’s time for a new one.
Amazon Cyber Monday has a great deal on the Shark Clean & Empty Cordless Vacuum and we’ve had great luck with the Shark family of appliances so we’ve ordered one and we’ll receive it on Friday!
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe; To you, from failing hands, we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.