Sunday Randomness: #13 Sun and Shadow on a Mallard duck

 This juvenile female Mallard duck came visiting in early April.

Both pictures were shot on the same day near the same time with the same camera-just different natural lighting from nearby trees.  I wish she wasn't so blurry but she moved faster than we expected but she didn't seem scared.  She was more interested to see if there were food tidbits to be had in the lawn.

Mexicorn Casserole

 Ingredients in top picture with yellow rice, corn and peppers (substituted for Mexicorn), cream of chicken soup, sour cream, butter and cheese

Finished casserole

Mexicorn Casserole p. 37 from the VV 5th Ward Cookbook

1 (5-oz.) Yellow Rice, cooked

1 can Mexicorn (don't drain) 

1 c. sour cream

1 can cream of chicken

3 T. butter, melted

1 c. shedded pepper jack cheese 

Mix everything but the cheese and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.   Top with cheese and cook until melted.  You could also double the recipe and add sauteed onions and cooked chicken to make a main dish.

(Note from Jean: we used a generic corn and peppers blend and a Mexican cheese blend since that's what we had on hand.  It still tasted delicious and we loved it.)

Sunday Randomness #317: Pets, Pets, and more Pets

Current Pet round-up includes:  Betta Fish with a red piece of pellet food

 Guinea Pigs Ginger and Caramel

 Chickens-White one is Baltimore, Black and White speckled is Bea, and Brown-variegated is  Shantaclaira-these were a gift from some friends who moved away.  We've had them since last June and we get eggs occasionally.

Jack on the tower is master over all

Sunday Randomness #102: $20 and the dryer heats up again

Drum turning but no heat coming out and the clothes aren't drying?
That's one cool dryer but we want a hot dryer! 
An appliance should feel useful and know its importance in the household. (like WALL-E!) 
So what's a cold dryer to do?

Turns out that all we needed was a little part called a thermal fuse that we bought at the local Sears parts store for about $20.  We could have bought the part cheaper online but buying it in person guaranteed we were getting the correct piece and could take it right back if it didn't work out.  Replace one little fuse and the dryer's working as good as ever! 
(Thanks to my wonderful dad for the diagnostic advice and the labor to replace the fuse.) 

Corn Pudding

Corn Puddin' 
Recipe from the VV5th ward cookbook
1 can cream of corn
2 eggs, lightly beaten, 
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
4 Tablespoons butter, cut into small chunks
         (we cut the butter down to 3 Tbsp and probably could have cut it to 2 Tbsp.)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat eggs, then add rest of ingredients.  Bake at 375 degrees F until it bubbles (normal is around 30 minutes). 

We were surprised at how good this was-we would probably only make it once a year but it was definitely tasty and different. This is from a neighbor who lived in the South.  She served her mission there decades ago and an old southern gentleman made this every month for the missionaries, telling them in was an old southern recipe.

Sunday Randomness #303: Georgia O'Keeffe bringing Sunday light

 I've checked out this book before now.  Georgia O'Keeffe: An American Perspective by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths, published in 2009 by Quercus in the UK.  I love the quote on the back: "I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say in any other way-things that I had no words for." Georgia O'Keeffe, 1923

For this post I picked Pedernal from 1941-1942 that is on display at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/
I also like the explanation with this picture: "This flat-topped mountain, O'Keeffe's view from her Ghost Ranch house, was her favourite mountain and where her ashes were scattered.  It was a view she never tired of painting.  She portrayed it many times in different colours, different seasons, each time overlaying her mood and imbuing the view with a distinct atmosphere - as if by doing so she could tryly embody it.  'It's my private mountain.  It belongs to me.  God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it.'"