Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you had a great day. I definitely did!


Sam and I went to Carol and Elton's. (CAROL GOT ROSES!!) (I'll buy my chocolate tomorrow.) Sam and Elton went to the gun and knife show at Maude Cobb Center in Longview while Carol and I went to the trade day at the fair grounds in Longview. Four people. Two cars. Same town. Just a couple of blocks apart. LOL But that way they didn't have to wait on us, and we could sneak in a teeny tiny bit of shopping. I also got to see some friends of mine. They don't live far from us. Charles mentioned that and we never see each other. But, if any of us need help, we know who to call. His youngest grandson is 22 now and an LVN. I counted the years and probably haven't seen Justin since he was 9 years old. shaking head

The four of us met up at Olive Garden for lunch. I ordered the Spinach and Artichoke dip to share. Oh my! I've heard it was good, but it was ridiculously good! I know that there are some recipes trying to copy this on the internet. I will be searching for it!

We saved room for dessert, but not at Olive Garden. Last night I baked a strawberry pie. I've never had one before. Sam has mentioned (several times) that his mother made strawberry pie. I did a bit of searching on the internet but didn't really come up with anything that sounded like he described. It was either fresh strawberries in a baked pie shell covered with thickened strawberry syrup or cooked strawberries poured into a baking dish on top of a batter...when baked, the batter rose to the top covering the strawberries. Not what I had pictured in my mind.

So, I grabbed my personal cookbook (a binder full of my very own favorite tried and true recipes) and turned to Apple Pie and Cherry Pie recipes. This is what's left. We ate some. I cut a large slice for Carol and Elton to enjoy later. Yep, folks. This is what was left after four people who could all stand to lose a pound or two got into it. ;o) Did I mention that it was good?


The recipe? Weeelllllll.... I guess this is an original for me. I took a bag of strawberries I froze last season from the freezer. A quart of halved strawberries with 1 cup of sugar. So...if I were to start from the beginning:

Sassy Sherry's Simply Sweet Strawberry Pie ;o)


Or...to shorten it...


Strawberry Pie


1 quart of fresh beautiful sweet strawberries
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
butter (I do not use margarine!)


Wash, cap and halve your strawberries. Mix flour into sugar; pour over strawberries. Stir in water and let sit for a while to make more juice. If you don't think it's juicy enough, add a little more water. (My frozen strawberries were juicy enough with just a minimum amount of added water.)


Make your very own pie crust. It's worth it! Here's the link to my recipe: http://keepyouinstitches.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-baked-pie.html
To quote Emeril Lagasse, "Pork fat rules!" (You can halve the recipe.)


Take out enough dough for 1 crust. Roll it out, place in pan. Let all the extra dough flow out over the rim. Fill with strawberries. Dot with butter. Pull the excess dough up over the strawberries. (This is easier that making a two crust, crimped or lattice top fancy pie.)


Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.
Lower heat to 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until crust is brown...I always have to bake longer for not only browner crust, but also to make certain the bottom crust bakes and is not gooey.


And to finish today...Friday night's sunset.

And this is all that's left...

I get to start all over next time I sit in the living room. I ribbeted it last night while Sam and I watched Hunt for Red October...we have it on DVD.

I've done some quilting today...just about ready to roll the frame to the last row. Yippee!

Rainy Days and Mondays

We desperately need the rain. It's been so dry. Temps aren't bad either...just a bit coolish. So, I'm not complaining about the rain. (to hear Rainy Days and Mondays, you need to go to the bottom first and stop the "juke box.")



I am working on a pair of socks, tackling a more complicated pattern than I've done before. I think I dropped a yarn over (knitters know what I'm talking about). On the next row, I saw a hole. So I started unknitting...got past the hole and noticed it was bigger. Unknitted another row...bigger hole. Unknitted one more row...not only was that hole getting bigger, but I had another hole on another needle. Jerked the needles out and started ribbetting it. Threw the whole she-bang down on the ottoman and walked off.

When I cool down, I'll go cook supper.

Beautiful Saturday

What a beautiful sky this morning. With temps predicted to be in the low to mid-70s, the local motorcycle riders planned a trip to Powderly Texas. We at at a little restaurant called Borderline. They had an 18 ounce hamburger on the menu. 18 ounces! One couple ordered it to share. One man ate it all by hisself. (That's a funny word - probably grammatically incorrect...but, What the hey! I'm from northeast Texas!) The meat hung out all around the large bun by a good two inches. Forgot to whip my camera out.

After we ate, we stopped in Paris (Texas!) at the Harley shop and scanned the bikes and clothing.

Seems that we had ten bikes and 13 people.

I rode with Sam. It's been two months since I last rode my own bike and I didn't want to be in a group of people when I got back on it. I need to go to a parking lot and ride it, turns, stopping, starting. Besides, the wind was blowing terribly! And it was blowing from the side. If I'd known it was going to be that bad, I probably would've stayed at home.

This morning - I am so sore. I feel as though I rode a horse all day long! That pillon/pillion seat for the passenger is really not made for butts. And it is a better (term loosely used) replacement seat than the stock seat.