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Archive for Around the House

My Favorite Post

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Renee Spindle

In honor of my one year Blog-iversary (thanks Creative Noshing!), I wanted to share my favorite post with all of you from this past year. It was called “For the Un-Love of Mayo”. I thought it would be fun to share this with all of you since this is a never-ending story for me. I always get asked by various family members if I want any mayo yet. Sometimes when we’re out to eat Travel Man tries to sneak me a packet of mayo. But this girl is set in her ways. My un-love of mayo will remain. Enjoy the read, and leave me a comment with your yay or nay vote for mayo.

For the Un-Love of Mayo-

Raise your hand if you are not a mayo lover! I have my hand-held high as I have not yet acquired any sort of taste for mayo. This is an homage to my Dad and my Grandpa, bless their loving hearts.

Growing up my Dad would say to me on occasion, “Oh, you’ll learn to like mayonnaise. Just keep trying.” And, I just remembered this also applied to ANY sort of salad dressing. Well over the years I did keep trying the mayo and to this day I have yet to acquire even a smidgen of love for the stuff. The salad dressing (only the vinegar and oil varieties) is another story. I did learn to like those in my mid-twenties, and have had occasion to make some yummy homemade dressings.

There is a running joke with my dear Grandpa, who I don’t get to see that often, that he always has a jar of mayo waiting in his fridge for me. Ready at any moment for my sandwich of the day. And once again to this day mayo and I just don’t get along.

So you may be asking yourselves how can I get along in this world without mayo. Well, once I learned to like vinegar and oil salad dressings it was easy for me to have a “non-dry” sandwich. Otherwise I would just eat a sandwich dry, and with or without veggies.

As for dishes like potato salad, or a macaroni salad, I steer clear of anything at the buffet bar that even remotely looks or smells like it has any mayo in it. Over the years I have learned to make a killer sour cream, potato salad (this is the no mayo allowed variety). For many years my kids were not even aware that there was any other form of potato salad. And now my potato salad is such a hit at family parties that my kids pass the recipe along to their friends!

So to my Dad and Grandpa- thanks for all your mayo loving ways. But I will forever remain in the Non-Mayo world.

2 comments Posted in Around the House, Blogging, Family, Food

I Almost Forgot My Anniversary!

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Hello friends and blogging neighbors. I cannot believe it is the first anniversary of Renee’s Revelings. My how time flies! Raise your hand if you thought I forgot my wedding anniversary. One year ago today I published my first blog post. You can read my first post here, about our old family dining room table.

I have had an amazing year discovering that I enjoy writing and sharing my life stories and experiences. I have also learned a lot about the world of blogging. It’s been wonderful getting to know each and everyone one of you. And I finally have had an outlet to share our family story about the kids and their chronic conditions. In my heart of hearts I have always wanted to share our story, because I know there is someone out there going through what we have gone through. And I know that our story will let that someone know that they are going to be ok. And I always remember what my Mom used to tell me, “No matter how terrible you think your problems are, there’s someone else out there going through something worse that you are.” Those words always kept me positive and humble. Thanks Mom.

I’m looking forward to continuing to share recipes, DIY projects, family stories, Evanisms, Travel Man tales, and tales of my own. Thanks to all of my followers for your wonderful comments and words of encouragement. Cheers to all of you. Have a great weeke

11 comments Posted in Around the House, Blogging, Family, Travel Man

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Renee Spindle

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. ~ William Shakespeare

This rose is in my little rose garden next to our back patio. The kids gave me this rose-bush for a Mother’s Day present a few years ago. It has the loveliest colors, and I thought it would be nice to start off your Tuesday with some loveliness.

I have been trying my hand at photography once again. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken pictures like this just for fun. I was shooting with Travel Man’s Canon G12. Lots of fun to be learning again!

Do you have any hobbies you’ve gotten away from? what’s keeping you from getting back to them?

4 comments Posted in Around the House, Blogging, Gardening, Travel Man

We Made Garden Markers

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Renee Spindle

The gardening season is in full swing and I have a few projects that I’ve been meaning to share with all of you. We are already harvesting our zucchini, and had our first grilled zucchini last week. Oh yum. And by the way how is it possibly the 6th of August already? Didn’t we just celebrate the 4th of July?

I had been wanting to make plant markers for the garden so it would be easy for Evan to know what all of the plants are, and just because I thought it would be cute. Plus I had seen a lot of ideas for the markers on Martha Stewart‘s crafting page, so I was inspired. And as a bonus to the budget, I wanted to spend as little money as possible on this project.

There were these dilapidated stakes from a short border fence we had taken apart at one time or another. Great these will be my new garden markers. Next I went into the garage and perused my leftover paint shelf. There was this great green color just calling my name. I call it my lime sherbet paint.

So off Evan and I went to paint the sticks. This was of course during one of our “Camp Grandma” days. Evan loves to paint so I knew he would be a good helper for this project. We painted one side of the sticks, let them dry, turned them over and then painted the second side. This took up most of our morning, and then we went for a swim. I left the sticks to dry overnight, so we could put the lettering on for the plant names.

The next week at Camp Grandma we painted the plant names on the sticks. I bought some paint pens (the only thing I had to buy!), as I knew this would make it easier for Evan to help me. I was really glad I got them because he had a lot of fun being creative with his lettering.

These are my favorites of everything we painted. I love how Evan got the patriotic theme going. And he did make one marker that says, “Evan is cool”.

Here’s the rest of the finished markers, and how they look in the garden.

This was a great, inexpensive project. It was fun collecting all of the supplies from “stuff” on the shelves around the garage and in the garden shed. Evan and I had a lot of fun together, and the markers look so great in the garden. A great summertime project. Of course Evan had more fun making mud pies. More on that adventure later. Happy Monday everyone!

No comments Posted in Around the House, Crafts, DIY Projects, Family, Gardening

Peach Crisp – A yummy summer treat.

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Last week while Travel Man was home I made a Peach Crisp with fresh peaches of course. This is a nice treat for my Travel Guy, as he really misses the home cooked meals when he is on the road. I saw the recipe on my Facebook news, and it was a post from recipe.com. This was a really delicious dessert. A yummy summertime treat. And just a little bit different because the crumbliness has graham crackers in it, and not so much oatmeal. That made the crunchy crustiness extra yummy.

The Ingredients:

1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
7 cups 1/2 inch fresh or frozen peach slices (8 peaches – about 3½ lbs.)
2 Tbsp. honey
2/3 c. coarsely crushed graham crackers (5 squares)
2/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. oatmeal
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 c. butter

The Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2) For the filling; in a bowl stir together sugar, the 2 Tbsp. flour, and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Add peaches and toss to coat. If you are using fresh peaches peel and slice the peaches first, and then coat with this mixture.

3) Spread the peaches in a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Drizzle honey over peaches and set aside.

4) For the topping; in a bowl stir together crushed graham crackers, brown sugar, 1/3 c. flour, oatmeal, and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon.

5) Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

6) Sprinkle topping evenly over the peach mixture.

7) Bake, uncovered, for 40 to 45 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

8) Serve warm with you favorite vanilla ice cream on top. Makes 8 servings.

Now go to the store or your favorite farmer’s market, get your peaches, and get your crisp on. A nice summertime treat. Enjoy!