With every ones busy schedules we celebrated Valentine's Day & birthday the following Saturday. My mom makes this wonderful dish that I request every year for my birthday dinner. I'm not sure where the recipe came from...she's been making it for years now, but we always look forward to having it.
I'd also had a hankering for pineapple upside-down cake, so instead of the usual red velvet cake with the cream cheese frosting she surprised me with a homemade one. It was sooooo yummy and hit the spot perfectly.

Beef Strips Oriental:

2 Lbs. Round Steak - cut into strips
3-4 carrots sliced ( into rounds)
3-4 celery ribs sliced
fresh mushrooms sliced
1 large can of water chestnuts
2-3 garlic cloves (grated or minced )
3 TBS soy sauce
( Note: you can add or take away from the above ingredients according to what you like)
* use a large pan/cooking pot

* Brown steak strips in small amount of oil ( do this step in two batches).
* Once steak strips are done, add 3 cups water to strips. Add 3 TBS soy sauce, and 3 garlic cloves grated.  * Cook covered for 45 minutes. ( check and stir contents during this step. You can eye it and if it starts cooking down to much so that it is drying out add more water.)
* Add carrots, celery, mushrooms, and water chestnuts to the pan and cook covered another 30 minutes.
* Thicken with cornstarch slurry ( a slurry is a mix of cornstarch and water. Take 2-3 TBS cornstarch and 1/4 cup water, mix together then add to the pot. This is just an approximation of the measurement since we usually eye it.)

Rice: use original white rice, following the instructions on the back of the box for servings and cook times.

Sorry it took so long to post the recipe...I had to find where I stuck it, but I can assure you it's worth the wait. My mom has made it so much she doesn't need to look at the recipe any more.
Thanks mom=)

Valentine String Art

Embroidered cards ~ I think this technique makes a very special and unique card. There are lots of different patterns out there, but so far my favorite is the heart. I always liked this embroidery stitch, and then I discovered it in string art. Perfect! A special heart for a special some one.

This is my messy generic pattern. I enlarged a free pattern I found on the net, but there is a printable version.
There were a couple of numbers that were messed up on the printable pattern (#'s 12 & 24) ,so that is why I posted the my generic one. It's pretty quick and easy as long as you have a good pattern.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

...Coffee

(Below: Yes, I have a brick fetish..I love the color and patterns of the old bricks. They just don't make them like they used too.)

Stopped by to check out a new local cafe today. Good coffee warms the heart, right? This new cafe is located in one of the beautiful historical buildings in our downtown area. We arrived a little early today, before the cafe opened, but they were kind enough to allow us to come in and look around. The staff was friendly and there is a small book store right off the cafe. It looked like a wonderful place to hang out with a cuppa joe.

While I was visiting our new local cafe, we got on the subject of coffee bean roasters....I don't think there are any in our area, but I saw this one at a cafe in Wisconsin some time ago. This was behind the counter in the cafe so you could watch how they roasted the beans. The smell was amazing!!

Its freezing outside...and is supposed to be some thing like -20 degrees tonight with wind chill. Perfect time to stay in and make a project. We dug out some of my scrapbooking stash and came up with another pretty page. Our theme was beauty. The picture matched the colors we wanted to work with & Kelsey had found a project on the net she wanted to use as an example. We got it pretty close to what she had in mind. It also doesn't hurt to have a pretty subject for the picture. ( I know she didn't inherit being photogenic from me!)

Sooooo, during this latest blast of freezing cold weather, stay in, stay creative, and stay warm!