Going Banana's!

Something warm and yummy on a nice Autumn day. A sweet favorite from Cooking Light

Banana Pudding

Yield
10 servings (serving size: 3/4 cup)

Ingredients
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Dash of salt
2 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups sliced ripe banana, divided
45 reduced-fat vanilla wafers, divided
4 large egg whites (at room temperature)
1/4 cup sugar

Preparation
Preheat oven to 325°.

Combine flour and salt in a medium saucepan. Gradually add milks and yolks; stir well. Cook over medium heat 8 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

Arrange 1 cup banana slices in bottom of a 2-quart baking dish. Spoon one-third of pudding mixture over banana. Arrange 15 wafers on top of pudding. Repeat layers twice, arranging the last 15 wafers around edge of dish. Push cookies into pudding.

Beat egg whites at high speed of a mixer until foamy. Gradually add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue evenly over pudding, sealing to edge of dish. Bake at 325° for 25 minutes or until golden.

Note: Banana Pudding may be a bit soupy when you first remove it from the oven. Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving.

Enjoy,
Sharon

Posted for Magazine Monday's hosted by Cream Puffs in Venice

A Feathered Party

It's a Rooster party hosted by Barb at Bella Vista!

~ Welcome ~

I have over 50 roosters so here are just a few

Thanks for stopping by!

Please be sure to stop by Barbs and visit the other parties.

Enjoy!

Sharon

Seven down and One to go

It was a very busy week around the home front last week

with a whole lot of things piled a mile high!

As we made our final jont up the pig trail.
(Yep that's what it is really called)

To join some old friends doing the same thing...

Climbing the many stairs...

to get settled in....

for another 9 months.

My baby headed back to college for one last round. Our last trip to parking and transportation for the very exclusive parking pass. Our last trip to buy season football tickets; and our last trip to the book store (until Spring of course).

I thought it would have been so much easier to call these guys

but my husband thought differently.

So now it is very quiet around here; it seems to be a bit empty and I miss her terribly! So I have to say to my blogging friends with little ones starting Kindergarten or those who have big kids beginning Junior High or High School; you know how you feel now watching them cross this mile stone? Well it doesn't get any easier. I think this one has been both exciting and difficult. The exciting part is that the goal is just about to be met. This is what she has worked so hard for and her future is beginning. The difficult part is that the reality of moving her one more time will be for more than 9 months and that's a little tough to swallow. But at the end of the day when it is all said and done I hope she realizes what a terrific woman she has become, how very proud I am of her and when she IS out on her own; where ever that may be, that mom is just around the corner because I'M MOVING!

Missing my girl ~ missing my friend!

Sharon

photos from MSN images

A Weekend of Movies

We love movies! We love renting them, going to the theatre and buying DVDs so we can watch them over and over. There is nothing like snuggling up together with a big bowl of popcorn and a bag of twizzlers and just getting lost in the drama!

Friday night was "date night". My sweet hubby endured a "chick flick" and took me to see The Time Traveler's Wife.

It is a sweet romantic, supernatural drama of a man (Eric Bana) who travels back and forth through time and finds the love of his life (Rachel McAdams). You have to pay attention to keep up but we enjoyed it.

Saturday Billie and I watched The Soloist on DVD. Robert Downey Jr plays the part of LA Times writer, Steve Lopez and Jamie Foxx plays the part of a very talented musician, Nathaniel Ayers who finds himself homeless.


It is a wonderful story based on true life events of two men and how they discover their selves and each other and a heartfelt friendship.

And then on this quiet, lazy Sunday evening Max and I curled up and watched Ramen Girl

This is a very cute movie of a young woman who is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in her life, she trains to be a ramen noodle chef.

So what was in your DVD player? I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. Tomorrow reality sets back in as we start packing to take our baby back to college. The summer went by way too fast!

Sharon

Counting the Days!

In 63 more days the International Quilt Association will be hosting the annual International Quilt Festival at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas and where do you think I will be? You guessed it! With three of my other closest and dearest friends along with THOUSANDS of other friends from across the world sharing the same common interest.

Here are some wonderful inspiring photos I have taken over the past two years.

The thread work on these 3 is just amazing!

One panel was not quit enough to see the beauty in this

How would you like to wear one of these to a party girls?

And the lovely Philippa Naylor

take a closer look ~ isn't it stunning!

I thoroughly enjoyed her class

and Robbi Joy Eklow ~ now this gal is a riot! She is also known as "The Goddess of the Last Minute" A girl after my own heart

The Best of Show was awarded to the very talented Sharon Schamber
Okay now how many times can I say amazing?

Oh how I can't wait to go!! The talent of so many and the inspiration that they share is just overwhelming.

So our room has been booked for close to a year now, our airfare is purchased, I've sent in my registration, enrolled for classes (I want to learn from the best) and my suitcase is out. We pack very little, save lots of money, carry snacks, laugh so hard it hurts, return with tired feet and bulging suit cases and have memories that last a life time. So will you be joining us?

Anticipating the wonders I will see,

Sharon

A Birthday Celebration!

A BIG Happy Birthday wish to my sweet friend Lisa!

Lisa and I met through this wonderful world of blogging and oh how I wished we lived closer; she is a true inspiration!

She has TWO awesome blogs ~ Another Day Today and Parkwood Cottage. Please pay her a visit and wish her another year of happiness!

Celebrate & enjoy,

Sharon

My Blog has gone to the Dogs!

It is hard to believe that it is Thursday already! I have been so busy going in many different directions that my days are all running together. You have days like those don't you? It has just occurred to me that my most recent posts have either been "food" related or "dog" related because of my participation in Magazine Mondays and Dogs on Thursdays. Well don't get the wrong idea and think all I have been doing is cooking, eating and petting puppies; I've actually managed to get a few other "To-Do's" taken care of. But first of all I want to share some pitiful news with you that happened this week.

Meet Sweet Pea

She is the sweetest little rat terrier that I adopted from the pound about 5 years ago. I said "I" because it was me; me alone. My husband was out of town and my family will tell you I can do some strange things when I am home alone and unsupervised. This time it was frequent visits to the pound. We already had three dogs but my heart strings were being pulled by this little one.

She was rather thin and scrawny,

and pretty scared

but we have managed to fatten her up (see the pudgy belly)

Well this week she chose to mis-behave and she is paying for it. We live in a somewhat rural area with 4 houses on our culdesac. It is very quiet during the day and we have no "fence" law and my girls stay in the yard (3 of them). An unfamiliar truck came down the street and she proceeded to let them know they didn't belong and was the victim of a fender to the booty. I was in the back of the house and I don't know who was screaming louder, Sweet Pea or the lady that hit her. I think Sweet Pea was in shock and the lady was screaming chasing her around the yard. I managed to catch her and she barely had a scrape on her knee but I could tell she was traumatized and was sure her hip was broken. So we raced to the doggie doctors, he took an x-ray and said she fractured her pelvic bone but her hip was fine. Phew ~ what a relief that was! He kept her overnight to sleep off her cocktail and I was pretty much ready for one myself!

She has been ordered by the doctor to be confined to her crate for 6 to 8 weeks so she can mend. So far she has been a trooper. Max has been trying to help out and brings her toys...

and tries to love on her

But she will be fine it will just take some time and LOTS of petting and lovin.

BUT before I became Sweet Pea's nurse-mate I finally finished a project that has been a long time coming.

One of the quilting groups I belong to does a service project for a private foundation each year and this was the one we did this year. It is to go on the bed that our 52nd President slept in once a long time back. We all made 3 or 4 blocks and I did the quilting and then did the quilting again!

There were a few technical difficulties with the long arm that kept my attention distracted and after many hours I finally got the top quilted. But by being distracted with the malfunction I didn't realize that the tension on the back was all wrong. It was only during the last 2 1/2 hours of quilting the borders. So as my mother always said "do it until you get it right". So for the next 5 to 6 weeks every Monday night 5 to 6 of my closest and dearest friends sat and helped me rip it out so I could "do it right".

So I re-marked it

and re-sewed it

So my part is complete and has now moved on to having the label applied to the back and will be delivered to its rightful new home soon. I am so pleased with how it turned out and was glad that mom always knows best ;)

So hopefully in some off chance that one of our Presidents should ever visit again and has the opportunity to sleep under a quilt I participated in it's making I will just be tickled pink!

Thank you for the long visit and sharing in my FIRST double post! I love hearing your comments and meeting new people. If you get a chance go by and pay a visit to Dogs on Thursday and say hi to some of our other two legged and four legged friends!

Enjoy your day!

Sharon