HUMP DAY!! Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009

AS MR. ROBERTS WOULD SAY....A WONDERFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
I feel fall in the air. I see the fall festivals on the horizon and that means the smell of burning wood and burning leaves and kettlecorn and roasted marshmallows and smores of course. All of these thoughts make me want to go buy a package of hot dogs and start an open wood fire to roast 'em up.

Don't forget the Pork & Apple Festival this coming weekend in Clinton. The smoked ham sammiches are just too good to miss and, of course, the kettle cooked ham & beans might give me gas but who cares, a lot of the people at the festival will also have gas. You'll probably find something at the vendors that you can't pass up and might even buy a bag of kettlecorn. Save some for me!!

Then, on the weekends of October 3 & 4 and October 10 & 11, you won't want to miss the Spoon River Drive and Knox County Scenic Drive/Craft vendors is also those same days. White Hall, Illinois also is having their Civil War Days October 3 & 4th, and Stockton is also having their Civil War Days too on those same days. And for you runners, Macomb is having the Paint the Town Pink race/walk in support for breast cancer cures, happening on October 3. There are many more festivals going on around us....be sure to check out your favorite.

Soup Days Are Coming
I thought it might be fun for many of my followers to post their most favorite soup recipe under the comments section below this post. Any type of soup is always welcome at my house.....and sometimes I make big batches and freeze the rest for later on. I really can't eat canned soup due to the tremendously high sodium levels in canned soups. But I can always adjust a homemade recipe to fit my diet .... there's nothing like a big pot of vegetable soup, potato soup, french onion soup, taco soup, cheese soup, or homemade mushroom soup. I'm getting hungry writing this....and I'm smelling the pulled pork cooking in my crock pot right now so I am really getting hungry.

Here's my favorite Taco Soup recipe:


1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 medium onion - diced
1 package Dry Ranch Dip mix (Hidden Valley) or Dry Ranch Dressing Mix works too.
1 package Taco Seasoning
1 can mild Rotel Tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
2 1/2 cups water1 can chili beans (do not drain)
1 can black beans (drain and rinse) or use red beans or pinto beans drained and rinsed.
1 or 2 cans of drained whole kernal corn (depending on your desire for corn)
Brown the beef and onion and drain. Add the rest and bring to boil..reduce, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Note: You can extend the soup amount by adding more rotel tomatoes, more corn, more chili beans and it really doesn't affect the flavor too much when these are added. Upon occasion I have added an additional 1/2 pkg of taco seasonings when extending the soup amount. You can also add a bit more water if needed.

BE SURE TO POST YOUR SOUP RECIPES IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW THIS POST.

Did You Know?? The Greenview Christian Church was first started in Sweetwater in 1825 under the name Sugar Grove Christian church. The first building was one mile southwest of Sweetwater. A group of this church's followers had a meeting at Sweetwater in March 1869 and determined that is was not convenient for them to meet regularly for worship at Sweetwater, and it was therefore agreed that the Brethren at Greenview should rent Sampson's Hall for one year at a cost of $150.00 (1/2 to be paid by the Grenview Brethren and 1/2 by the Sweetwater Brethren) and then the Brother Raney, who was in the employ of the Sweetwater church would preach for the Greenview Brethren once a month. On February 12, 1872, several members met to take preliminary steps to building a house of worship. And on Septemer 21, 1890 the first church building was dedicated. Charles Smoot was the first minister of the reorganized congregation.

ANYONE KNOW OF A DOWNLOADABLE "free" MALICIOUS SOFTWARE WHICH WILL RUN A CHECK ON A PC? NOT THE KIND YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR AFTER "x" DAYS. SOMEONE ASKED ME AND I DON'T ANYTHING ABOUT THIS.


HOPE YOUR DAY IS BRIGHT AND CHEERFUL AND FULL OF GRACE.

LATER ......