Mountain Dew Cake

This recipe is a combination between Paula Deen's cake and my glaze.  The two together make a great cake. I am ask to make it for my husbands work all the time. Hint for every wife out there. If you send something good to your husband work, they will ask for it again and again.  Be prepared. But it does make you feel good.
                                               MOUNTAIN DEW CAKE
one box of lemon cake mix.
one regular box of lemon pudding
3/4 cup of oil
4 eggs
12oz or 1 and 1/2 cup of mountain dew. ( not diet )

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a fluted pan . Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed. Mix till smooth.Pour into prepared pan .Cook for 4o to 45 minutes. Use a tooth pick to make use the cake is done. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Turn out on plate.

                                                            Glaze
1/4 cup lemon juice plus two teaspoons
1 cup powder sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter

 In a microwave bowl mix juice and powder sugar together till sugar dissolved.Add butter and microwave for 30 seconds or till smooth. Let it cool.
When cake is warm ( not hot) take a toothpick and poke holes in the top. Pour by spoon full over top of cake.You can use a little or a lot. it's up to you. Once it is completely cool. Sprinkle powder sugar over the top. enjoy.

This and That

My husband made this shelf for my collection of old containers. He also hung my apples for me..  It really added a lot to the kitchen

I think my raised bed wasn't deep enough. Guess what my first clue was. HA, HA

I can't believe I got these . The picture makes it look like there is white on them. But they are perfect. Which is funny, because the plant looks like it's ready to die.

camping and chickens

Now I know I have lost it. We are camping for the weekend,but I had to come home and check to make sure my chickens were o.k. They are fine so it's back to camping. Have a good weekend everyone.

chickens update and garden.

This is the new garden we put in this year. It is doing really well. My husband has to cut down the weeds around it. I have corn, tomato, beans, punkin, watermelon , and rosemary planted in it.

The chickens are back together. They are not pecking each other. But they won't leave the hen house. We have a dog run connected to the coop,so they will be safe. I can't blame them for being afraid. We won't be letting them out into the fenced area until we put up a 6 foot fence. Hopefully it will be high enough that dogs can't jump it. 

My heart is still pounding!!!!!!

My husband and I left to have lunch with my daughter. We came home to a horrifying sight. Two dogs had jumped the chicken fence. A Golden Retriever and a Rottweiler . My dogs are going off in the backyard and the chickens were fighting for their lives. Rick jumped out of the car grabbed the rake and went after them. He started yelling for me to get his 22. By the time I got to the coop one dog was gone. The other had backed against the fence. He was still yelling at me to get his gun. I told him he can't shot the dog. He yelled (and I quote), "They killed my chickens ,I'll kill them." Needless to say I didn't get his 22. The dog finally was able to jump the fence and get away. They had tags ,so I went looking for them. Hoping to talk to the owners. Though before I left I called Heidi to warn her. Luckily she called Pat. They were at her house going after her chickens. Pat's dog was able to chase them off. I was just going down Pats street and  saw the owners putting the dogs in their car. I let them know that the dogs had killed one of my chickens and mangled 3 more, and that the next time my husband would shoot them. I was able to stop him this time. But they wouldn't be that lucky next time. I have to say the owners of the dogs felt really bad about what happened. They offered to pay for the chickens. I informed them they didn't have to pay for them. Just keep there dogs locked up in the yard or house, and that they would be shot next time. After I calmed down a little. I realized  they were trying to do the right thing. Their dogs had escaped and they were out looking for them. They were just as upset as I was about what happened.

We lost one chicken and the others were beat up and missing feathers . One is really bad, so we are keeping her in the dog carrier for now.  I have to give a VERY, VERY, BIG THANK YOU to Heidi and Debbie from our homestead group. They came right over to help. Debbie knows a lot about chickens and was able to ease our minds.  Both her and Heidi doctored our babes with a antibiotic. It will also stop them from pecking each other. I know that they think what they did was no big deal. But to me it was everything. And for my husband they made his day. Our chickens mean a lot to my husband. I pray no other dogs enter our yard. They may not leave.

Homemade Solar Lights

These are so cool I had to share them. I found these on my pintrest account. You can find them at planetpowers.wordpress.com   
They are a little ways down on her post.  They are really easy to make and would look great in the yard.

Candy Apple Jelly

I made this jelly for a food swap we had recently. It taste just like the coating on the candy apples you get at the Fair . I make it for a bazaar last year. And it sold out.
                              
                                        Candy Apple Jelly
4 cups apple juice
1/2 cup red-hot candies
1 package powdered fruit pectin
4 1/2 cups sugar

In a large saucepan,combine the apple juice, candies , and pectin. Bring to a boil over med heat heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar; return to a full rolling boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Stirring constantly.
Skim off any foam. Ladle hot mixture into jars, leaving 1/4 head space. Run a plastic knife around inside of jar to remove any air bubbles. Wipe the rim of the jar. Place lids and rings on the jar.
A lot of recipes tell you to process in a water bath for 5 minutes. I just make sure my lids are tight and turn upside down on a towel til  cooled. The heat from the jelly seals the lid. Always check to make sure your lids seal.
Hope  you try this recipe . It,s really good. Have a great weekend.

Love these shoes!

I am not a shoe person. My shoes consist of flip flops, tennis shoes, and cowboy boots. I was looking for a pair to wear with a dress for a wedding.  I am now wearing a pant suit. Just so I could wear these.  They won my heart!

Western Film Museum

As you know from my earlier post. My husband took me to Bishop Ca. for my birthday. We go there at least twice a year to fish. It's only 3 hour from our house. This time he took me sight seeing around the area. We pass the Western Film Museum on our way there. But have never stopped. This year we did.
The museum is in Lone Pine. This town was used as the back drop for filming silent westerns ,as well as western B movies. Hollywood found the mountain range  could work for so many areas from around the world.

 You will see this mountain range in many of the westerns that were  set to be in Alaska , Colorado, Montana and any of the colder areas. North to Alaska with John Wayne was one of the film where this area was used.

A lot of film makers used this area not only for it's beauty, but also because it was a reasonable drive from Hollywood. All your favorite old western stars were here at one time or another. As well as some of today's stars. You can truly see why this spot was so popular.

As I take you thru the museum all of the movie posters you see would have been film partly or complete in this area. I wasn't able to get all of the pictures of the posters since over 600 movies have been filmed there.

 This is the first thing you see as you walk into the museum. It is the Nudie Car. He was known for his outrageous and elaborate designs .  This car among other thing has 700 silver dollars fastened all over it.

 If you look at the foot pedals ,you will notice he added silver dollars to them also. The floor boards are cow hides, as well as part of the seats. The head rest and back of the seats are leather, with a western design punched into the leather.

I not sure if you can see it. But the door handles where 6 shooters. There were many places where he used guns to decorate the car.

As you can see he even mounted a gun on the truck of the car.

This is one of the outfits Nudie designed for the Western Stars. His list of stars even included Elvis. Nudie designed the famous gold suit Elvis wore.  We took more picture of his designs but they didn't turn out.

 As you can see from this picture due to the light in this area ,everything turned red and fuzzy.

This saddle was  made by hand. All the silver was detailed by hand. It took 60 years to make. Unfortunately  the maker died before he could finish. His son finally finished it. I can't remember his name or find the paper I wrote it on. I do remember that he made saddles for Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.

This is one of the first electric camera ever used.

All the outdoor scenes were filmed around Lone Pine.

This wagon was used in the movie Rawhide.

This wagon was used in several movies as well as a John Wayne movie.

The entire movie of Gunga Din was filmed in the valleys and mountains behind the town of Lone Pine. They build a complete set.  Including a fortress and Temple. Many of the local people were hired as stunt people and extras. The next few picture are items from the movie.

You can see the temple they build  for the set. Above is the sword used in the charge.

 This outfit was from the series The Lone Ranger. Many of the scenes were filmed in Lone Pine.

 The display for Roy Rogers was very interesting. I really learned a lot about the man. His first wife died when his oldest daughter was 6. He was a single father of two girls for several years before marrying Dale. Between his kids, her kids, their kids, and the ones they adopted, they had 9 kids total. He was always fun loving. They showed several pictures of the whole family on a slide show. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures of them.

 It was so cool to see this display. As I said ,everything in this place is from movies that were filmed here or the surrounding area. This is the coat, hat, and boots that John Wayne wore in the Shootist. It has the bullet hole in it from the scene where he was shot.

This creature is from the movie  Tremors. There were several other displays from the movie. But as you can see the lighten was bad. So they didn't turn out.

This display speaks for it self. Some of the other modern movies film there were, Lost in Mexico with Brad Pit, Star Trek  number5, and Transformers. I could relate with Iron man and Transformers since they also filmed parts of the movie were my husband works. I just wish we could of gotten closer to the film sight.

The outfit on the left is from Tombstone. The one on the right is from Rough Riders.

For some strange reason, I was surprised to see that parts of this movie was filmed in the area.

This is but a fraction of what is in the museum. I hope you enjoyed this little taste of it.
 

Three nice surprises

 My husband took me to Bishop for my birthday. We spend three days fishing, camping, and sight seeing.  I then came home to three great surprises. First I walk in to find these lovely chickens my girls got me for my birthday.

I almost tripped over a box in my dinning room.  It turned out to be a bird I have been trying to find for two years.My Aunt gave me the set, right before she died. I was really upset when I broke one. My husband finally found one and surprised me with it. He told me I had a gift on the way. before we left.  He earned a lot of point with this one.

The third surprise came in the mail. I received my apron from Dolly designs. Sorry this picture is so bad. My camera started acting up. Looks like I will be buying a new one tomorrow. I will show a better picture later on with the new camera.   I also ordered a chicken apron from her. I am looking forward to getting that one. All her aprons are so cute.

new apron

Last Christmas my daughter wanted me to make her an apron. I felt she needed to learn at least a little about sewing,so I made her help . She didn't seem like she enjoyed it. So I was really surprised when she asked to use my machine to make another one. She made this one all on her own. I am very proud of her. It turned out very cute. I like the bow she added.

Enchilada Casserole

 I make a family recipe for Enchiladas that my family loves. But this time I wanted to try something different.  I was a little bored  making the same dish every time.  So I decided to add a few more ingredient and turn it into a casserole.  It turned out great. I liked it a little better then the original. My family will probably string me up for that statement. But sometimes you just need to do things different.

You will need
1 pound of beef. We used our moose meat.
one package of taco seasoning

2 cans (15oz ) refried beans

2 cans ( 15 oz) enchilada sauce

1 can green giants southwestern corn 
one small chopped onion

flour tortillas
4 cups of cheese. You can use more if your like us and love cheese.

Cook your onions and beef together till half way done. Then add your taco seasoning. fill the empty bag with water and add to the pan. This helps the meat take in the flavoring. When your meat is done and you have about 1/2 cup of juice.  You can add a little water to make  it a1/2 a  cup. If your short of juice  . Just make sure to stir it in before you add  the beans. Add beans and stir till combined.

 Now we start laying.Get out a baking dish. Spray with a nonstick spray.  Add a little bit of the sauce. Just enough to lightly cover the bottom. Lay out a layer of tortillas . Using a spoon lightly spread sauce on top of them  Then add your burger mixture. Next comes your corn ,then your cheese.  Repeat the layering till you get the amount of layers you want,or run out of food. For the top layer you will want tortillas, sauce , and cheese . In that order. If you end up with to much enchilada sauce in your pan. Just use a spoon to dip it out. The sauce should be 1/4 of the way up the pan. Any more is a little to much.  Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes depending on your oven.
 If you like it hot. Just add some hot chilies to the meat mixture after its cooked.  I wouldn't add layers of the peppers  to it. Unless you really love to burn. You can also use the hot enchilada sauce. Unfortunately my daughter doesn't care for hot. So we just add hot sauce to ours.   My family gave it a 9 out of 10. I gave it a 10.