Almost Big Boy Slim Jim

My sister Maria gave me this recipe for a Big Boy Slim Jim sauce. I made them last night with left over ham.

1 cup mayo
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons dill pickle relish (I chopped up dill pickle)
2 tablespoon dill pickle juice

Mix ahead and let be in fridge awhile if possible. (I often don't.)

Hoagie Buns
Ham
swiss cheese
tomato
lettuce

Brown ham. I prefer regular left over ham, not lunch meat.

I heat a frying pan and liberally grease it with butter. Then put the hoagie bun face down and lightly brown. Flip bun over on frying pan and spread Big Boy sauce on bottom (or both) sides of bun. Layer ham, swiss cheese, tomato and lettuce. Close bun and flatten with spatula. Serve and demolish!

Banana Split Cake

BANANA SPLIT CAKE

1 ½ cup Nilla Wafers, Crushed Finely

1-¼ cup Sugar, Divided

⅓ cups Butter Or Margarine Melted

16 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, Room Temperature

28 ounces, weight Crushed Pineapples, Well Drained

4 whole Bananas

2 cups Cold Milk

5-½ ounces, weight Instant Vanilla Pudding

2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream

¼ cups Powdered Sugar

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1 cup Chopped Pecans

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together cookie crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, and melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan. Beat together remaining sugar and cream cheese until well mixed. Carefully spread over cookie crust. Top with pineapple. Slice bananas and layer over the pineapple.

In another bowl mix together cold milk and vanilla pudding and set aside. In a large bowl, beat together whipping cream, vanilla and powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Remove 1 cup of whipped cream and mix into the pudding. Layer pudding over the bananas.

Spread remaining whipped cream over the pudding and sprinkle with pecans. Chill for 5 hours before serving.

I made this dessert today at work. I got it from tastykitchen.com. It was so good. I did a few changes. I didn't have vanilla wafers so I used graham crackers instead. I also used only 1 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple. I also used 2% milk instead of cream. Instead of whipping cream and adding powdered sugar and vanilla, I just used Cool Whip.

Sweet Mustard BBQ Pork Chops

I found this recipe online. Can't remember exactly where. (Kohler Created, maybe) I made them at work and plan to make them tonight for supper. They were delish!!! Just don't over cook them. Maybe 6-7 minutes per side on medium heat.

Sweet Mustard BBQ Pork Chops

4 1-1/4 inch thick pork chops
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper

Combine brown sugar, honey, dijon mustard, lemon juice, soy sauce and garlic in a bowl. Stir until sugar dissolves.

Place pork chops in ziplock bag. Pour marinade over pork shops; seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight, turning bag occasionally.

Sprinkle chops with pepper. Grill pork chops about 5-7 minutes per side.

The Library

I love, love the library! I always have. Our school library was open in the summer. I would walk to Sunset Hill on library day. Sometimes I would find someone to come with me but many times I would walk by myself. Even though I was a chicken and scared to death of walking along County Road 15 alone. I was sure someone was going to stop and try kidnap me. And the bees and horseflies! They would swarm around my head on those HOT July days. On occasion my mom would drive me there. 

As I got a little older, my mother would bring me to the Hennepin County Library. I still remember the feeling of anticipation and excitement as I walked in the door. I remember because I still feel that today as I walk into our local library. We are very fortunate to have an amazing library here in our hometown. I use to go to the bestseller authors and read them. Now I occasionally read them if someone recommends a title but what I love to do is go browse. I randomly grab a title here and there and if the jacket flap grabs me, I'll check it out. I have found some incredibly great reads this way. Some of my favorite reads have been an author's first and sometimes only book. I think my favorite genre is historical fiction but I like to read a variety of books. If I read a "heavy" book I usually like to follow with a light hearted one.

I keep a running list of my reads on the sidebar. I recently finished Pacific Glory by P.T. Deutermann. It's a WWII novel. He has wrote several books so I will definitely try another one of his. My last book, The Bridge by Doug Marlette, was based on the history of the authors family and their involvement with textile workers trying to organize a union in 1934. I especially love these historical fiction stories that are based on real lives and people.

I am always looking for book recommendations. Anyone read anything great lately?

Danny Gets New Glasses

Danny got new glasses today. He didn't want to get new ones but his were starting to get bad. He wanted to keep the Nike ones "because Wade thinks they're cool." I talked him into getting another Nike pair. The are very similar to his old ones except these are black instead of brown and there is no frame on the bottom.

Vacationing at Neys Provincial Park in Ontario

Molly and Jean chilling out.

Jeanie and Kendall at the visitor center.
Kendall found a bug.
Bentley just hanging out.
The blueberries were fabulous!



This is how Danny blueberry picked. He didn't leave the car.



Molly and Amanda working on their second puzzle.







Molly caught a couple 17-18 inch trout.
But she had to release it. These are "coasters" that came in from the big lake and the first few miles of this river they have to be at least 22" to keep.
Fred caught his biggest trout. 21 inches....but it had to go back also.
A cool picture of Molly catching one of her fish.

We had a wonderful two weeks at Neys. The weather couldn't have been better. It was so nice to get away from it all. No phone service or internet. It's hard to believe we are down to three kids coming on vacation. Amanda and Paul and family joined us for one week and my mom and dad stopped by for two nights. I read about six books and knitted on an afghan. Hope to make it back again next year.