Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!
Here's two Halloween Cards featuring my cats!
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PhotoHunt Theme: Scary

"SCARY" is the theme this week.
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I chose these three SCARY jack-o-lanterns that I carved for Halloween!
Boo!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As always, you can find more of Tnchick's Photohunters here!
And here photohunt
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Chili made with Red Gold Tomatoes

In the newspaper I found for a advertisement for Red Gold Tomatoes. It said that if you went to their website at redgold.com/stl, you could get a coupon for one can of tomatoes free! Now, with the weather getting cooler I always like to make lots of chili and other slow cooker meals. Most of them have tomatoes so I immediately went to the website to get the coupon. It turns out that it was a coupon for "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" and that was fine with me. I printed the coupon and found two recipes on their site that sounded good. One was for Chipotle Chicken Soup and I wanted to try their new Petite Diced Tomatoes with Chipotle. Also I found their recipe for Red Gold Chili. Unfortunately, both of the stores which the coupon was good for didn't have the tomatoes with chipotle yet as it is new. So I got my free can, after buying two others, and planned to make the Red Gold Chili. I didn't have all of the ingredients but here is my recipe for how I adapted it this morning.
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Red Gold Chili
adapted from redgold.com
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1 pound ground turkey
1 large onion, chopped
salt and black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon pasilla chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 (27 ounce) can chili beans, mild sauce
1 (14.5 ounce) can black beans
2 (14.5 ounce) cans Red Gold Diced Tomatoes, Chili Ready with Onions
1 (4.5 ounce) can chopped green chilies
1 1/2 cups vegetable juice

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1. Brown the ground turkey and chopped onions in a large pot. Drain off any accumulated fat.

2. Add salt, pepper, ancho chili powder, pasilla chili powder, cumin, coriander and cocoa, mixing well.

3. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Bring to a boil; then reduce to a simmer for at least 30 minutes.

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Had I already replaced my old slow cooker that had stopped working, I would have put the chili in there in the morning and it would be ready for dinner after work.
Until then, I can't wait to reheat this chili tonight!

PhotoHunt Theme: Family

"FAMILY" is the theme this week.
My first thoughts regarding FAMILY were about the food that we always have together as a FAMILY. I have pictures of almost every birthday cake when we all gathered around as FAMILY to celebrate whoever was currently having their birthday. I even have a picture of Willow's 1st birthday with the carrot cake that she couldn't eat but my husband and I sure enjoyed it! Of course, most holidays always consist of food and FAMILY.
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When thinking about FAMILY I remembered all of the fun FAMILY vacations we went on when my sister and I were kids. Mom and Dad would pack up the car and off we would go. Once we went to Florida and saw the alligators. Some summers we would drive to my grandparent's house in Michigan. When we lived in California we drove up north to Bass Lake and Yosemite. Here is my dad's 1966 Mustang in Yosemite driving through that huge redwood tree. I think my dad told me that the tree is no longer standing but here you can see, we drove through it...
a long time ago!
I also couldn't think about FAMILY without thinking of FAMILY pets. My parents had always had dogs and my sister and I were thrilled when they brought home our first dog, Nikki. Then my mother found Charlie, a kitten, and she thought that Nikki and Charlie might get along. They loved each other from the very beginning. I always loved cats and Charlie pretty much became my cat! And I still love ginger tabbies, like my China Cat!
Nikki and Charlie were great friends and FAMILY. We think that Charlie thought that he was a dog, like Nikki. Even people who didn't like cats or were afraid of them, didn't mind Charlie.
Nikki had one litter of four puppies. She was a very good mother to them.
See, how the food and FAMILY theme continues...
Charlie didn't mind the puppies at all, not even when they climbed all over him and bit his tail. He even helped them finish their food.
My mother brought home Suzie so that Nikki wouldn't be alone, after Charlie was gone. Someone was giving away puppies in front of the grocery store and my mom couldn't resist her. Nikki and Suzie were great friends and Suzie ended up being a wonderful friend for my daughter when she was little. Suzie adored my daughter and vice versa!
Thanksgiving is next month and that always makes me think of FAMILY and, of course, food! This was our FAMILY's spread from last year.
Our daughter invited us over to her house to celebrate Father's Day. She had the special red plate ready for her dad. The plate has writing on it that says: "You are special today!" My mother had one of these red plates and when my sister and I both got married and moved out, my mom gave one of them to each of us. Of course, after my daughter got married, she also received a red plate from my mom. By the way, our daughter and son-in-law made a wonderful dinner!
My daughter's cats, Kara and Alice eat with each other as a FAMILY.
China Cat and Willow always eat together as a FAMILY too.
As always, you can find more of Tnchick's Photohunters here!
And here photohunt
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PhotoHunt Theme: Lazy

"LAZY" is the theme this week. I am very late getting my post up but it was not from being LAZY. For some reason I can only use Firefox to upload my pictures to my Blog and for some unknown reason Firefox quit working for me today. After re-installing it 5 times I was finally able to upload my LAZY pictures...
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Anyway, my first thought for LAZY was, of course, my two cats. Then I thought I would try to get a little more creative so I went to my St. Louis Zoo pictures and found these very LAZY sea lions perched on their rock. This was taken about 4 years ago and it is one of my favorite places to visit at the Zoo, the first being Big Cat Country!
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Here is our LAZY Missouri River. This spot is near our favorite winery, Sugar Creek, where we spend many a LAZY afternoon. Sometimes when we leave there we drive here to see the river. This picture was taken last winter and...
...this one was taken this summer.
OK, I could not do a LAZY post without one LAZY cat.
Here is Willow looking quite LAZY, indeed!
As always, you can find more of Tnchick's Photohunters here!

And here photohunt

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Wordless Wednesday

PhotoHunt Theme: Sad

"SAD" is the theme this week.
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I had to think all week what I could post for the theme this week of SAD. Last week we visited my parents in California so I was still thinking of all the fun we had together. Nothing SAD there -- but then I thought of what would make my mother SAD. She loves chocolate! In fact, I believe she is a self-proclaimed chocoholic! So, it suddenly came to me that an empty box of chocolates would be very SAD indeed! So we went to the store and bought this box of chocolates and we ate them! OK, we love chocolate too, so this is kind of a happy-sad!
As always, you can find more of Tnchick's Photohunters here!

And here photohunt

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