Ranch Potato Wedges

4 Potatoes - scrubbed and cut into wedges (8 I think she said)

1 T Mayo (veganaise)

1/2 Package Ranch Dip Mix

Combine may with mix. Toss potatoes with mix. Grease or spray a cookie sheet well, place taters in a single layer and bake at 400* for 35 - 40 min.

*I used more potatoes and used 2 T mayo with 2 T Ranch Dressing Mix....that seemed to be a right measure....so if you are using 4 potatoes I would think 1 and 1 would work. The homemade ranch mix was wonderful in this and cheaper...healthier than what I can get at the commissary.

All the kids ate these. I found the original recipe at Heavenly Homemakers. If you've not checked out her "high 5" recipes, you really should. Yummy recipes with 5 ingredients or less.

To view my recipe index click "recipes" under the header or here.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Ranch Dressing Mix

I KNOW I found this recipe on Heavenly Homemakers, but when I search there now I can't find it. It may have been in a comment someone left....
I love Heather's Better Than Hidden Valley Ranch dressing....but there are a few times I would like the dry powder mix and so I tried this. SO simple and worked great to make Ranch Potato Wedges (which I'll post the recipe for next).
Stacia enjoyed helping with all of today's mixes....Here's the Shake and Bake on the left and the Ranch Dressing Mix on the Right.

The recipe:
5 T instant minced onion (I measured 5 T of dried onion into my coffee grinder and whirled)
2 T  parsley
4 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
Mix together and store in an air tight container.
Dressing: Combine 2 T of mix with 1 C Mayo (Veganaise) and 1 C buttermilk (plain yogurt)
Dip: Combine 2 T of mix with 2 C Sour Cream (plain yogurt)
For an index of recipes you can click recipes under the header or here.
Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Momoishi Beach

Dorothy, I think you'll want to watch this clip. ::grin::

Our Saturday got off to a LAAAAZY start. Mike and Jared were up late last night. I know Mike was working on computers at 1:00 a.m. I believe he came to bed at 2:00 a.m.

I had some visits with ladies about healthy food choices. Connie and Windy came over so I could explain an expel spreadsheet....BUT....the computers weren't working at the moment they showed up. The kids LOVE havng the S kids come over and had a great time playing.

Windy and I decided it would be a good idea to make the best of this sunny day and take the kidds to the beach. This gave both Dads a bit of quiet to focus....we came home and 3 of our 4 computers are connecting to the Internet. The wireless router is still not working. Mike wonders if we need to buy a new router. He ended up setting up a network and having ONE computer go online and others piggy back or something...we're not at all sure that it's connecting to Fiber Optics or that this is the fastest way...but it's working. NOW....when we get the wireless working life will be normal.

I made a real dinner tonight. I realize I need to get back to our diet/lifestyle...and I need to begin keeping menus. My schedule includes activities on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and without a plan we're too short of time or energy to cook real food for dinner. This week - just a true confession - our last four dinners were: Tuesday ORGANIC cookies/cookie dough, Wednesday ALL NATURAL ice cream, Thursday Fresh ground whole wheat Waffles and Friday is Pizza and movie night....

This afternoon I made the shake and bake mix and made REAL shake and bake chicken, ranch potato wedges, bread and corn...the only thing not from scratch or fresh was the bread...and that I will begin next week even though I haven't found gluten. ::snort:: I must get our LIFE back....it's been 6 months of PCS and it's TIME.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Blogger Help

OK....once I get signed in to Blogger my screen is in English...but when I'm reading other blogs the toolbar is in Japanese as I have a Japanese ISP. In other words, I can choose English but it only changes it for me on MY compose page etc.

On most blogs at the top there is a "search box" - for instance on Lisa's blog I used to be able to type "menu planning" and "search this blog" and get all the posts with those words in it....so now....it's all in katakana....and I've clicked all the buttons and none of them are a blogger search.

Will someone tell me what the buttons across the top of your blogger toolbar say when you are reading a blog? I noted one of the buttons showed a twitter/facebook/email buttons...does that mean you can now share your blog by clicking that?

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Make Our Heart Your Temple

I promised myself not to share daily excerpts but there are so many I'd like to share....

A prayer from Soren Kierkegaard...

Lord! Make our heart Your temple in which You live. Grant that every impure thought, every earthly desire might be like the idol Dagon - each morning broken at the feet of the Ark of the Covenant. Teach us to master flesh and blood and let this mastery of ourselves be our bloody sacrifce in order that we might be able to say with the Apostle: "I die every day." Devotional Classics, page 353.

This goes is such a perfect mental image of where I've been the past year...Deny Self, Take up the Cross, Follow.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Paper or Electronic?

Windy has a Kindle. Several of you have mentioned Kindles to me, but I'm a "must see" type of shopper. Windy's is not international and so she was very happy to be able to download books while we were in Hawaii and she graciously explained the features of her Kindle to me.

I LOVE READING. I like the feel of a book in my hands. I like turning pages. I like marking pages. I like writing notes to myself in the pages. I like loaning books. I like books.

I travel with books. I always have a Bible, devotional, some sort of fiction and non-fiction....and am always teased by how heavy my carry on is. It occured to me that it would be easier to travel with a digital reader.....

However....when I check prices the books are really not THAT much cheaper than buying the paper books. I'm not sure I'd enjoy reading from a screen.

I'd love to hear from those of you who have taken the leap to digital readers...how do you use them. Is it your main source of reading material or supplemental? What do you love and what do you hate? I don't want to buy another techie thing (as my PDA/ MP3 reader) that I end up never fully utilizing or using. ::snort::

Would you recommend something like the Kindle - must buy books from Amazon....or Sony's reader, which I believe could read any ebook/digital book format (but not Kindle's)? The promo for Kindle sure makes it seem more appealing...$20 cheaper, able to hold way more books (but they have to be purchased from Amazon), can read my PDF and documents sent to it....

I know the Kindle allows you to bookmark, add notes, highlight passages and download newspapers etc.

Please tell me what you've discovered - either by owning one or researching.... I just don't know....it seems it would be a kick for my upcoming trips....but will it give me the same leisurely pleasure as reading a book does? Will it feel like meeting an old friend when I pick it up?

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Things That Have Me Wondering....

HOW do places such as Oriental Trading, Terry's World etc find new APO addresses and send catalogs....whilst Healthing Cooking, Taste of Home, State of Alaska... can't find a person even with change of address cards?????

Why did all but ONE photo album show up when the boxes are unpacked and where could it have gone?

Why do computers connect to the Internet at some times and not at others?

What happens when you reach 100% of your photo capacity with blogger? I've been using Photobucket but HATE their ads. I'm at over 90% of my limit on blogger....do some of you like Picasa? Does it have buxom women laying across the top of your screen?

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...