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Treat Mom Like a Queen this Mother’s Day

May 3, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

This post is for all those guys out there who haven’t yet got their game plan together for how to make Mother’s Day special for the mother of their children. Here are some easy and savvy ideas to make you look like a hero.

Good Morning, Mom!

Start her day off right by taking care of breakfast. There are many simple recipes you can use to put together a fun meal.

Try this recipe for chocolate stuffed french toast. It isn’t hard to make and any mom who loves chocolate will thank you repeatedly.

Serve up a glass of this easy pomegranate drink. It looks like you slaved away creating it but if you can open a carton of juice and a bottle of syrup, you can do this!

If the mom in your life loves coffee, load the kids in the car so mom can sleep and run to your nearest Starbucks or favorite coffee joint and bring her back something deliciously decadent.

Mom Time

Once you’ve got breakfast out of the way, give Mom some me time. Run a bath for her and make sure there is plenty of bubble bath, candles and a good book for her to read. Then make sure she  can enjoy the bath without being disturbed. Or maybe she wants to get a facial or a pedicure. She might prefer to hang out on a lawn chair soaking up some sun. Just give her a little time to enjoy herself and she will undoubtedly thank you for it.

Picnic Pleasures

picnic

Weather permitting, a fun way to spend an afternoon is on a picnic. If you like to cook, whip up something delicious to take along. If cooking isn’t your forte, keep it simple. You could pack a loaf of bread, some assorted cheeses, fruits and chocolate for a nice yet easy meal. You can also whip together some great picnic sandwiches with meat and cheese from the deli and butter croissants. Add in some fruit and some gourmet chips and you are set to go. Take along some games or activities you can do as a family like a frisbee, kites or softball and bat. Make it fun and keep it lighthearted.

Divine Dinner

As long as Mom doesn’t have to cook it, she will probably think any dinner you and the kids come up with is awesome. Barbecue, make your specialty, take her out to eat.  Just give her the night off from cooking or doing dishes.

Grand Finale

You’ve dazzled Mom with a great breakfast, time for herself, a fun afternoon and a great dinner. What more can you do? Give her a neck massage, rub her feet, let her control the remote for the evening, actually listen to the conversation she is trying to have with you. I guarantee your efforts will not go unnoticed and you will quite likely be the hero of the day.

Whatever you do for Mother’s Day, just do it from your heart and make sure Mom knows how much you love and appreciate her.

Good luck!

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, Holidays | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Mother’s Day Entertaining

May 2, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

Well, I’m not quite sure how it happened but apparently I have lost track of time and now find myself scrambling for ideas as Mother’s Day approaches.

I’m hoping no one else is like me and running behind, but if you are, today I’m going to share a past post about Mother’s Day Entertaining.

If you volunteered to host the celebration a while back and are just now remembering that it is this coming Sunday, good luck! Hopefully you’ll find some useful tips here.

Mother’s Day Entertaining

Mom

If you are hosting a Mother’s Day get together, think about what you can do to make all the mothers feel extra special in your home.  By implementing a few simple ideas, you will ensure they know how much they are loved and appreciated.

Have a door greeter (one of your children would be great at the job) who hands every Mom a single stem flower as they walk in the door. These can be flowers from the florist or fresh cut from your garden. Have the flowers in a basket with individual water tubes on each stem to keep them fresh. Water tubes are available in craft stores or from a florist.

If you are serving a sit-down meal, have something special for each Mom at her place setting. It can be something as simple as a tiny box with one decadent truffle or a piece of her favorite candy. You could have an individual flower or votive floating in a small bowl. Even a poem hand-written or photocopied on nice card stock would be appreciated.

To truly touch her heart, spend a few minutes writing down the reasons you appreciate her. Put it on nice cardstock or in an inexpensive frame. This will definitely be a keepsake and probably much more appreciated than other gifts you could buy.

And don’t forget those who may not be mothers, but have a mother’s-heart. If you have a special aunt, sister, cousin or friend who goes out of her way to make you or your little ones feel special, make sure you show your appreciation to them as well.

Think with your heart and I know you’ll be able to give your Mom a special memory she’ll always treasure.

Posted in entertain, Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, Holidays | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

Beef Stir Fry

April 29, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

If you are looking for a filling, fast and tasty meal, whip up a skillet full of beef stir fry. It comes together quickly and could even be called a healthy meal (which most of my blog posts aren’t. Sorry I grew up on a farm where butter was liberally applied and included in everything. What can I say?)

Give this a whirl and see if it doesn’t make for a fast and easy meal.

Ingredients for Beef Stir Fry - you can use whatever veggies you like, this just happened to be what I had available when I decided to make this for dinner.

I use stew meat and slice it thinly for stir-fry. Because the meat is still a little frozen, it is super easy to slice.

Wash and slice up vegetables. We used celery, zuchinni and yellow squash. You could also use broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, onion, corn, etc.

Brown your meat in a hot skillet. I got out my Big Bertha cast iron skillet so it could hold all the ingredients easily.

Add veggies once the meat is browned.

Add beef broth and simmer until veggies are tender. Thanks Captain Cavedweller for pouring in the broth so I could take photos!

Steaming hot and ready to eat. Serve over rice and you've got a complete meal, ready in minutes!

Beef Stir Fry

1-2 pounds of stew meat, thinly sliced

4 stalks of celery, thinly sliced

1 zucchini, thinly sliced

1 yellow squash, thinly sliced

1 can water sliced chestnust

parsley flakes

onion flakes

beef broth

salt

all-purpose seasoning

Brown meat in a skillet on medium-high heat.  When browned, add in veggies and enough beef broth to cover the mixture. Cover and reduce heat to medium. Simmer until veggies are tender. Serve over rice. We like to sprinkle chow mein noodles on top. You can use any combination of vegetables. Onions and peppers and I are not on speaking terms, so we make do with onion flakes.

Enjoy!

She Who Likes Easy to Throw Together Meals

Posted in Easy Recipes, Fast Recipes, Main Dish, Recipes | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Houses Burning and Fire Whirls

April 28, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

Thirty plus years ago my parents built a house, the one where they currently reside, and moved from the little house that was originally on The Farm. I lived in what was dubbed The Old House for the first few years of my existence. Sadly enough, the only photo I have in my possession of The Old House is the one above. (Yes, I am the one on the pony. If I remember correctly we called it Blue and that is most likely my sister-in-law hiding behind the pony. I would know more detail but I was 3 at the time.) You can see the front of the house in the photo. Note the steps out front.

About a year ago, my nephew, who now owns The Farm, started tearing down The Old House. It had passed derelict status a long time ago and progressed to a hazard. In the fall, the house went from standing upright to having the walls caved in and the roof on the ground. At the far right of the photo you can see the front steps.

Saturday night, because all the family was gathered and we didn’t have anything better to do, Matt decided to burn the house. It was quite a finale to the evening, I must say.

After pouring a little fuel on the dry wood, Matt lit the fire and we all stood around watching and waiting.

It didn’t take long for the fire to start spreading.

The flames were really hopping on this side of the house.

In no time at all, the entire structure was on fire. A few of us watched completely intrigued by the fire whirls. It was at this point my young niece Katie decided we needed to find some marshmallows to roast. We finally convinced her they would be melted before they ever got toasted. Not to mention none of us wanted to get any closer to the fire.

Here you can really see one shooting up in the midst of the fire. The fire whirls are basically ascending currents of air, like a dust devil except with fire. We think the combination of extreme heat (because believe me it was really, really hot) and the fire burning together from two opposing corners caused the velocity to start the whirls. As they burned up and out, little dust devils swirled around the surrounding area. Sorry, it was too dark to get photos of the swirling dust and to be quiet honest, the swirling flames were much more interesting!

You can see here the big plumes of black smoke are gone and the flames are burning really hot as it gets down to embers. This was about the time one of the neighbors came over to see if we were trying to burn down the world or just a small portion of it.

And here are the blazing hot embers at the end of the fire. I should have gone back the next morning to take photos of the ashes, but it just seemed better to stop here.

She Who Thinks Fire Whirls are Fascinating

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Family, Musings | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

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