Category: Caring

I'll Take A Side Of Texas Beef Skillet And Some Football With My Corn Chips Please

9/11/2011

Corn chips.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Must eat whole bag.

MUST learn to be less impulsive.

No, no, no! Must get crafty and find healthy food to eat with corn chips.

Ka-Ching!!!! Recipe found!

Angie continues her tradition of leaving out an ingredient in the picture...the kidney beans.

Texas Beef Skillet

Super tasty, super filling & super affordable one skillet fall football-watching meal. With corn chips!

People love this dish!

I've been making this dish for over ten years now. I often make Texas Beef Skillet with ground turkey breast, no salt-added kidney beans and homemade roasted tomatoes diced up which makes this recipe mostly "clean".
Mostly, except for those pesky corn chips, which MUST.BE.DEVOURED with this meal. (Ground beef definitely makes this meal taste heartier though).

Texas Beef Skillet
From the 1981 Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef (or ground turkey is good too for a healthier version)
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 16 oz can tomatoes, cut up
1 15 1/2 oz. can red kidney beans
1/2 cup quick-cooking rice ( I ALWAYS use brown rice)
3 tablespoons chopped green pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic salt
3/4 cup shredded American cheese
Corn chips, crushed (I never crush the corn chips)

Directions
In a skillet, cook ground beef and onion till meat is browned and onion is tender. drain off fat. stir in the undrained tomatoes, undrained beans, uncooked rice, green pepper, chili powder, garlic salt, 1/2 cup water and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Top with cheese. Cover and heat about 3 minutes or until cheese melts. Sprinkle with corn chips around the edge. Serves 6.

Very easy recipe to follow and put together!

Brown the onions and beef and drain...

Stir in the tomatoes, beans, rice, water,

green pepper and spices....

Bring to boiling, reduce heat, simmer, covered for 20 minutes.

Put pretty fall potholder on top of covered pan so you can talk about it.

So I was at Fareway in Iowa City off Mormon Trek Blvd yesterday and I see this nice lady who is pretty handicapped sitting in a wheelchair at a card table selling her homemade potholders, washcloths and potholder sets.

Last time I saw this lady was last year, same spot; I had purchased a blue potholder set from her at that time and I use those potholders and pan rest ALL THE TIME. They wash up great too.

I saw this orange, gold, green and brown set on her table and just had to have it. It's so pretty and fallish.

$15 for all three pieces. And the pan rest is 10-11 inches round!

They're real nice quality and are made exceptionally well.

I shared with the lady, her name is Jen, how much I loved and used the pieces I had bought from her last year. I had even bought a potholder set for my daughter, I liked them so much.

I'm not sure what Jen said in return as her speech is not real recognizable, she is severely challenged both with speech and physical issues. I also shared she should make more of these orange sets as I thought she could sell them pretty fast this time of year, that's how gorgeous the colors are.

At about that time, some customer comes up, looks at a set and asks how much. Jen responds $15 for the 3-piece set, $10 for the 2-piece set, $3.99 for washcloths. The customer just walks away without saying a thing. No "thank you", no "they're pretty", no "okay", no nothing. Just simply walks away, which is fine, a little rude, but fine. Jen thinks about that for a moment and asks me if I think her prices are too high? I say definitely not.

I asked Jen if she was going to sell her potholders and pot rests and washcloths every Saturday for awhile here like she did last year.

Jen said yes but she's been slow getting new items made this fall because she's had a lot of doctor's appointments the last few months because her cancer came back and is spreading.

Now this took me a long time to figure out what she was saying as her speech is difficult to understand. When I figured out what she was saying, I shared that I was sorry to hear that. We chatted a bit more the best we could, and I wished her luck and said I would keep her in my prayers. She asked me to take her business card and I did.

What a cute business card!

I asked Jen if those crosses were Christmas ornaments because I am a Christmas NUT!

Jen said the crosses were washcloths, so I bought one of those too as I was leaving. So cuuute!

Soft and pretty!

So anyway, I just wanted to share Jen's colorful, pretty potholders wit' you guys :) She's such a lovely lady.

Back to the recipe now....

Top with cheese.

Cover and heat about 3 minutes or until cheese melts.

Sprinkle with corn chips around the edge.

I usually wait until the meal is on the plate before I add the corn chips, that way, they stay extra crunchy!

Plate up your meal...

Want some? So do I.

Run to the living room,

jump in the chair,

throw your feet up on the footstool,

and enjoy your Texas Beef Skillet

with some...

Iowa Hawkeye Football!

Hope everyone's having a nice weekend!!

Letter From A Reader Requesting Prayers

8/22/2011

Below is an email I received this morning from a SUPER DUPER AWESOME CUSTOMER from Montezuma asking to spread the word for PRAYERS for a former Iowa Hawkeye...

Happy to oblige 'K' and thanks for sharing this story. We wish Kyle healing and strength as he goes through rehabilitation and recovery.

K's email:
Hello Angie! This is K...... from Montezuma. I have enjoyed reading your blog. We are also avid Hawkeye fans and looking forward to the upcoming season.

I am writing asking for your help in reaching out to the Hawkeye Nation through your blog. There is a fine young man & former Hawkeye football player in need of support and prayers from the Hawkeye Nation.

Kyle Spading was a 2005 graduate of Belle Plaine, Iowa high school. He was a three-time All State football player and also received many other state honors in basketball, track & baseball. He continued his football career as a walk-on at the University of Iowa. As a tight end, he found himself deep on the depth chart and didn’t see much playing time as a Hawkeye, but he never quit. He worked hard and was very well respected by all Hawkeye players. He received the Team Leader Award in 2009. He graduated with a degree in Health and Sports Studies. He returned to Belle Plaine and most recently was the Director of the Parks and Recreation department.

At the end of July, he fell asleep while driving and rolled the mini-van that he was driving. He suffered a broken neck and remains paralyzed from the shoulders down. He has a long road of recovery and is working hard to regain some arm movement. He has recently been transferred to the Rehab Institute of Chicago, were he is working very hard. His work ethic as a Hawkeye has given him the determination needed in therapy.

If possible, could you send a shout out to the Hawkeye Nation through your blog asking for everyone to keep this fine young man in their thoughts and prayers?

If anybody is interested in following his progress, they can view the family’s updates at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kylespading. They are planning a benefit to be held in October.

Thanks so much and have a great week!

K......

I Saved My Sister's Life And All I Got Was A Six Million Dollar Check I Can't Cash

7/31/2011

JoJo and me looking stunning as always. Circa 1970.

I have to do EVERYTHING around here. Cook. Clean cars. Save my sister's life.

I know!

It's EXHAUSTING.

My sister JoJo was diagnosed several years ago with stage 4 non-hodgkins lymphoma. She was barely fifty years old.

JUST KIDDING JOJO!

She wasn't even 40 years old.
Jo was the youngest sister and I never let her forget it. As children, I would tell Jo I was older and thus smarter than her, but I don't think she ever believed me. We fought hard; hair pulling, name calling, kicking, spitting, you know, the usual girl stuff. But then we played hard too; trike rides, playing dress-up, racing barefoot on gravel, exploring creeks and barns, and riding minibikes and three wheelers. (Clearly this was years before computers and video games).

We became adults and continued to fight a little and play a lot and laugh even more. My sister is the funniest person I know.

One day Jo called me at my job in Iowa City and said she had a lump in her armpit and was going to get it checked out. We joked about shaving armpits and infected hair follicles. I never thought for a moment it could be cancer.

When the diagnosis came, the treatment started immediately.

Because her cancer was late stage and aggressive, the first treatment did not do much and almost killed her. Meanwhile the cancer continued to spread.

After a second unsuccessful treatment, she went to Mayo Clinic.

At Mayo, JoJo underwent a radical treatment that eliminated the cancer only temporarily (and again almost took her life) which was a miracle unto itself. It was at that point, Jo's doctor said she needed a bone marrow transplant and if she didn't get one, within three months her cancer would "come rip-roaring back, even more aggressive than before" and they didn't think there would be much hope for treatment.

My siblings and I were tested for a bone marrow match before they went to the national bone marrow registry.

I was the only match and they called it a "perfect match" as they needed 3 of 6 factors to match in order to do a transplant and my blood matched all 6.

Jo has a quick, sharp wit and is usually the funniest person in the room. She never lost her sense of humor during this whole terrible ordeal. In fact, she became funnier.
She consistently had her doctors in stitches, the nurses laughing out loud, the receptionists smiling, and random strangers in the elevator giggling as they exited. People did not expect a woman with a bald head, bloated body and dark rings under her eyes to be so positive and friendly and funny. But she was. Nobody was safe from her infectiousness.

Donating bone marrow is no big deal, seriously. I would encourage anybody who is thinking about donating, DO IT! I had to go up to Mayo a week before Jo's transplant, get one shot a day for five days in my stomach which never even hurt, you couldn't feel it. I antiqued, read, shopped, walked, and ate at some good restaurants the rest of the day. The day Mayo had set up for me to donate, I sat in a room on a bed with a tv and snacks while they put a needle thing in each arm, started the machine and for five hours one day and two hours the next, they got the "gold standard" of stem cells, enough for the transplant and then some. Didn't hurt a bit.

The next day, my sister had her body drained of all her marrow and the day after that my marrow was transplanted in.

And this is how strong my sister is. That girl exceeded all milestones immediately. She survived the transplant. The marrow took immediately. Her numbers climbed rapidly. Any milestone set was crashed through immediately by her. She was required to stay in the city of Rochester, Minnesota for six weeks, the average amount of time needed for a transplant patient. The doctors released her from Rochester on the 7th day, that's how high her numbers were.

Jo has been clean for over six years and her fabulous doctor at Mayo told her she is no longer in need of their services but for a yearly checkup now. She was sure glad her doctor broke up with her :):):)

Happy Camper JoJo. Circa 1969

Jo asked six years ago if there was some way she could repay me. I said yes, I thought six million stem cells were worth six million dollars.

So she wrote me a check for six million dollars. And then told me not to cash it.

That's okay, I didn't NEED the six million dollars anyway. What's important is that I still have my sister here to torture with my older and wiser unsolicited advice and she still has me here to crack funny on.

Why we ALWAYS gotta be eating??

To learn more about being a

bone marrow donor and

possibly saving a life,visit

www.marrow.org

We Have The Nicest Customers

7/23/2011

We have the nicest customers.

We really do.

And we are thankful and do not take it for granted.

Day in, day out returning customers visit the lot. Folks who have been referred by others visit the lot. People who have never previously heard of us visit the lot.

Yesterday, later in the day we had some folks who have never purchased a car from us but had heard about us and they were interested in one of the Impalas. Super nice people. They test drove the car and we did the paperwork. What a joy to work with such nice people.

At the exact same time, we had a returning customer's family stop by to see what was in inventory. This friendly, happy family had previously purchased two cars from us and are in the market for a third one now. Again, you couldn't ask for a nicer family.

We sincerely have THE nicest customers; this is the #1 reason we enjoy doing what we do!
If I knew how to insert a big smiley face into this post, I would. Wait, I think I know how...

Seriously, could I be the worst picture taker ever???

I'll Take A Side Of Texas Beef Skillet And Some Football With My Corn Chips Please

Letter From A Reader Requesting Prayers

I Saved My Sister's Life And All I Got Was A Six Million Dollar Check I Can't Cash

We Have The Nicest Customers

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