I hope to get back into the world of blogging soon…bare with me!

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Oh, WOW! I just got a great email from CurrClick. It couldn’t have come at a better time. I was trying to find something neat to do with the kids for Father’s Day. Read this….

Here is the link to the product. It’s only $2.00 right now!

Fathers’ Day is June 21!  Make a lasting tradition with Dad! 

From the makers of the Fathers’ Day Project Pack comes another great product! The Dad Cube is a fun and meaningful project for fathers and children to make together, or for children to make as a gift for Dad. During the course of the project, children will get to know their fathers better, express their love and appreciation for Dad, and make a terrific Fathers’ Day memory that goes on and on!   Once you make the Dad Cube, it is passed back and forth between father and child, always with a note of appreciation or a small gift.  The project pack and materials are cheaper than a greeting card, and over the years, it will mean much more! Appropriate for all ages.

I decided to share a couple of recipes that we are really into here in my little world.

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I so something similar to this in one of my cook books and it sounded sooo good! It was! Surprising, the kids even like it..so try it out!

SWISS STEAK

6 steaks (lower quality, less fatty works best)

1 green pepper, seeded and chunked

1 head of garlic, peeled and minced

2 (14.5 oz) cans of stewed tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350*.

Place steaks in an oven-proof pan (single layer).

Season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Cover with the pepper, garlic, and stewed tomatoes.

Cover with tin foil and bake for 2 hours.

ENJOY!

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These sandwiches are great to use up that leftover meat you have lingering in your fridge. You can even freeze these for later use. I’ve done some pizza ones, spaghetti ones, sloppy joe meat is good, chunked ham with Swiss is excellent,…use your imagination! The good thing is, they aren’t messy while you are eating them!

HANDWICHES makes 6

12-pk of frozen roll dough (yeasty kind)

Some leftover meat

Some sort of cheese (shredded or sliced)

{sorry no pic…they got gone before I got my camera out}

Thaw out your roll dough balls till pliable.

Preheat oven to 350*.

Spread one dough ball out till thin (but don’t break it)

Put some of your meat on the flat dough (leave some space on the side to close it)

Put on some cheese.

Flatten out another dough ball.

Cover the meat, cheese, and the other dough with the new flat dough.

Press sides down with a fork and turn them under.

Poke top with a small hole to let out steam.

Place on the cookie sheet to bake for about 15 minutes….or until golden brown.

Rub with butter and let cool.

ENJOY!

I haven’t ventured out lately to look at strange items, but I’ve found a couple close to home. If anyone out there in bloggy land knows what either one of these two pictures are of….I’d love you even more!

First off, this picture was taken in Cataloochee. You can find my picture of it in an earlier post of mine. Someone was kind enough to lighten it up for me, so here it it! This is located in the third floor of a really old barn!

This one is an item found at our local Goodwill. My daughter picked it up and asked what it was. YEP..I was dumbfounded! It looks this way on both sides. My first thought was some sort of grater or strainer. Upon closer inspection, the rough sides are on the inside, so no go on the grater, and I put it up to the light and you can’t really see through it, so still wondering about the strainer.

Any clues?….

Here’s how my saturday went…. (sorry no pictures)

We started out by heading to eat at our local Burger King. Yummy and not too busy today!

Then, we ventured back down past our house to a furniture sale that I spotted the night before. They were sold out of the mattress set that we had hoped to get, so we ended up with a newer set of our current size. Ohwell, so much for upgrades!

Back to the house to unload the new mattresses, pack up for our night at the drive-in, and move some new-to-me books from the back of my suburban.

After getting all packed up and ready to head up towards Maryville way, we stopped at a local produce stand. Nope, we didn’t buy anything because their prices were jacked up! I thought that Food City wanted a lot for their watermelons…I won’t be so picky next time!

Now, we don’t go over Maryville way that often. We usually drive down the Wears Valley route or all the way down Chapman Highway to get there. Today, we decided to try our luck at not getting lost and taking the shorter route and turn at the ‘y’ (as we locals know it). We made it through the first try! Yeah, I know…it was a straight shot…who cares!

Stopped off at their Food Lion and signed up for one of their store cards. Now, I’m an official Food Lion card holder! Woo Hoo!!! Picked up some grub, including a watermelon for $3.99. Some sandwich meat that we didn’t even eat any of. Got directions to the local Little Ceasars Pizza.

Headed out of the parking lot to get lost, but didn’t since I know that part of the town. $22 bucks and four pizzas later, we are officially headed towards the drive-in where they have a flea market before the movie.

Flea market sucked…off to find another adventure. (boring writing so far). We ended up turning right onto the Foothills Parkway. (I’ll post seperately for that one).

Anyways…we spent eight hours at the drive-in. Price $24 admission for all four of us. $4.50 for a large bucket of popcorn that we are still eating today. Three movies later (Night at the Museum 2, Fast and the Furious 4, Wolverine) and it’s now past three AM. AND..I still have to drive all the way back home…in the sprinkling rain.

Needless to say, I slept in today!

This is a scenic parkway near our town.  We never had ventured up it before, so while we were killing time it seemed the perfect opportunity!

The sign said it was 11 miles to Look Out Rock.  So, we made that our goal.

Here are some pics of the drive up to the parking lot for Look Out Rock….

Here is a panoramic (poorly done by moi) of the view off of the lower rock.

The actual tower is a .5 mile hike up to it and then another .5 mile back down.  Pretty steep going up, but paved.

Some views from atop…

This one my son swears looks like a man..

Some pics of the tower itself..

Here is a picture of a ‘nice boulder’.  The kids said it was Donkey’s boulder (off of Shrek)…..

—————Since I have so many pictures that I want to post, I’m going to do this in a series of posts.————-

This past Mother’s Day, I got to choose where I wanted to go. Imagine that!  Well, I’ve been wanting to wonder over to North Carolina for a couple of years now..just to visit Cataloochee.  I purchased the booklet for it up in Gatlinburg at the visitor’s center some time ago. So, I had read up on it pretty well! (or at least I thought)

We started out by loading up the cooler and the kids.  We then ventured up to Newport, TN to stop by the local Wal-mart there for some picnicing supplies. (since we didn’t know if you could cook-out or not) Then, onward we went..over the mountains and onto a new discovery!  Little did we know that the main turn off was the same one we use to go to Maggie Valley (lol).

After you get off the interstate and headed up the little (and I mean little) road, it is much more quiet.  It’s a nice little drive up to the start of the park.  There are houses dotting the roadside and a little creek to view.  It’s a good ways up there.  I actually got to thinking I had the wrong directions..til BAM..there the sign was!  I forgot to stop and take a picture I was so excited!

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