God Is a Hands on God and He Loves Us

Raggedy Ann's Wishing Pebble

God is a hands on God and he loves us, and He hears and answers our prayers. 

When I was little, Nana Pills had read me a bedtime story and then it was time for me to say my prayers. The story had been about Raggedy Ann and Andy getting some magic wishing pebbles from a tin soldier or something like that. 

So when I said my prayers I asked Heavenly Father for a dozen magic pebbles so all of my wishes would come true.  

Nana assured me that I wouldn't be getting those magic pebbles and it was selfish to pray for them.

More recently I have learned that to pray for a good wind for myself might mean a bad wind for my neighbor.

So praying for the best wind for all concerned and to have the Lord's will be done is the best.

Love,

Grammy T.

Google Plus Ate My Photo's - Pinterest to The Rescue

Nobody's Perfect not even Google+

My pictures got eaten by Google+ and now I am having to try to find them. It is very sad to loose years of blogging images in one fell swoop. 
The Flirty Blog shares these insights. And She is smart!

I am so glad that I posted almost all of my blogs to Pinterest because I am finding some of the hard to find pictures there. 

Whew!!

Pinterest to the Rescue

Flirty says:

If you haven't already joined Google+ but intend to do so you need to be aware that if you are using the image uploader provided by Blogger to add photos to your blog posts those photos are being stored in a Picasa web photo album associated to your blog.

I believe it's the second item in the screenshot image above that people are concerned about. It's the one that says:

"Your album's visibility settings aren't changed, but people they're shared with can now share them with others."

You read this and decide you don't want to let your friends on Google+ share your images with their friends.

This means if you:

1. Remove images from your blog's Picasa album
2. Delete the album completely
3. Delete your Picasa account
4. Assume the album you see in Google+ is a duplicate (it's the original) and delete it (ETA: I read online the Photos Community Manager Brian Rose said in a Google Group that Google will ". . .make it clearer that your Picasa photos themselves are displayed on Google+ and not copied" which should solve this problem.)
5. Create a new Gmail account and move your blog to the new account then delete the original Gmail account (This is the only non-Google+ issue)

You will lose all of your blog images hosted in the associated Picasa photo album(s) meaning they will disappear from your blog. Forever. 

This is what we get now if we want to delete some of the pictures from Google+.

This is what is suggested that Google+ should do to sufficiently warn people of the risks. The Flirty Blog is really good right? 



So be very careful!

Love, 
 Grammy T.

Tweaked Chicken Tortilla Soup

My Tweaked Chicken Tortilla Soup 

And guess what? 

It was fast and delicious and I feel like a Rock Star 

because I used what I had on hand.

Trisha's Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup by Trisha Yearwood

Tweaked meaning I don't have all this but I want some.

And guess what it was delicious. 

So how did I do it?

Here is the original and my changes:

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter - same

1 teaspoon minced garlic - dried garlic granules and garlic powder

1 medium onion, finely chopped - dried minced onion

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour - same

Three 14-ounce cans chicken broth - Knorr's chicken broth granules

4 cups half-and-half - one can evaporated milk

One 10.75-ounce can cream of chicken soup - same

1 cup prepared salsa, mild or spicy - 2 cups salsa

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boiled, drained and shredded 

- 2 cans shredded chicken from my years supply

One 15-ounce can black beans, drained - 4 cans pinto beans

One 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained

One 15-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained - 2 can corn undrained

2 teaspoon ground cumin - same

One 1.27-ounce packet fajita seasoning - left out

One 16-ounce bag tortilla chips - same

8 ounces Monterey Jack, grated - no

8 ounces sharp Cheddar, grated - same

1/2 cup sour cream - no

I added -1 tsp. cayanne pepper 

1 Tbl. chili powder 

I didn't saute onions and garlic because I used dried. I just put them in all the wet mixture.

Directions

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and the onion and saute until softened, 5 minutes. Add the flour and stir well, cooking for 1 minute more. Add the broth and the half-and-half. Stir in the cream of chicken soup, salsa, chicken, beans, corn, cumin and fajita seasoning. Continue to simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.

Crumble the tortilla chips into individual bowls and top with a ladle of soup. Sprinkle each serving with cheese and add a dollop of sour cream.

Recipe adapted from Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen by Trisha Yearwood (c) Clarkson Potter 2008

Love,

Grammy T.