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#1. Do you celebrate Memorial Day with a picnic, cookout, road trip or some other way?

The past couple of years, we have taken a road trip.  This year, we might have hamburgers &/or hot dogs.
#2. What are staples at your summer time cookouts?

Just the usual things that go with hamburgers or hot dogs.
#3. What drink do you find most refreshing on a hot summer day?

Iced tea.  What’s really good is to buy a bag of crushed ice from Sonic or someplace, and have iced tea over crushed ice!
#4. Share a recipe for a picnic side dish.

My family doesn’t care for potato salad or cole slaw, so it would be beans.  A friend fixed some delicious beans:  1/2 pinto beans & 1/2 black beans seasoned with Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix and Liquid Smoke.

This is a fun birthday party to have at home.  These are pictures from our son’s birthday party several years ago.  My daughter and I had so much fun planning it.  The party can cost as little or as much as you want it to.  If you’re cutting costs, you can find party items at Dollar General and Walmart.  Here are some ideas:

• Make the birthday cake.  Decorate with blue frosting for the water and with light brown frosting  for the sand.  (Mix yellow, blue, and red food colorings a little at a time until you get the light brown color.)  Put little paper umbrellas like you get at a party store on the brown beach.  Also, look for little plastic trees in the cake decorating section of a craft store.  Make beach towels out of different colors of frosting.
• Serve fish crackers for a salty snack.
• Buy leis at either Walmart  where I saw some for 88c each or at Dollar Tree.  Buy one for each child.
• Play “Put the Coconut on the Coconut Tree” instead of “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”  Make a large coconut tree out of construction paper to tape onto the door.  Make coconuts out of brown construction paper.  Blindfold child.  Spin them around two or three times.  Then let them try to tape the coconut onto the coconut tree.
• Play the Limbo Game.
  
• Cover small boxes with gold wrapping paper to make a treasure chest for each child.  Put party prizes in these.
  

When warmer weather gets here, people invariably start thinking about exercising more, taking weight loss pills, and losing those unwanted pounds gained during the holidays.  The older people get, though, the harder it is to lose those extra pounds.  Sometimes it’s a hormonal imbalance that causes weight gain.  I know that happened with me, but now that I’m taking natural, compounded progesterone by prescription, I don’t have the problem I used to with not being able to lose weight.  Check with a doctor before taking anything.

It’s been a crazy week for me and a lot of other people as well.  First, I was sick on Mother’s Day with a stomach virus, and so I didn’t get to wear my corsage to church and go out to eat afterwards.  That really stunk!  But I did get to wear the corsage on Thursday and go out to eat for a belated Mother’s Day dinner.

It took longer than usual to get my energy back from that nasty virus, and I ran a fever for a couple of days on Sunday and Monday.  Then, I did substitute teaching on Thursday and Friday.  Also, we’ve been getting things ready for a senior banquet and other senior activities this weekend, so my poor blog has been greatly neglected this week.   I have a cool smoothie recipe I want to post soon, so maybe tomorrow or Monday you’ll be seeing that.  For now, hope everyone has a great weekend!

This is a simple, healthier version of a barbecue sandwich that we really like.  Or you might call it barbeque, BBQ, Bar-B-Que, or Bar-B-Q.  Whatever you call it, here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

* 16-20 ounce package ground turkey breast
* Your favorite barbecue sauce
* Buns
* Butter

Cook ground turkey in a pan with 1/2 cup barbecue sauce.  Chop turkey up with a spatula and mix in barbecue sauce well, allowing sauce to infuse the turkey as it’s cooking.  Add more sauce as needed.

Heat a litttle butter on a griddle.  Toast bun halves on griddle, inside of bun face down on griddle.  Heat until toasted lightly.

Serve barbecue turkey on warm, toasted buns.  Add more sauce on top of turkey.

I saw this delicious sounding lemonade recipe from GooseberryPatch.com and wanted to share it with you.   It’s from their Summer in the Country cookbook. Wouldn’t this make a nice treat on Mother’s Day?

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 cups watermelon, chopped
• 1 cup sugar  (I would substitute half of the sugar with Stevia equivalent.)
  
• 1 1/2 cups lemon juice
• 6 cups cold water

Process watermelon in a blender until smooth.  Set aside.  In a large pitcher, combine sugar and lemon juice.  Stir until sugar is dissolved and then add in the water.  Add in the watermelon and mix well.  Serve chilled.  Stir well before serving.  Makes 8-10 servings.

We used to have a neighbor who would go to market and buy wholesale, but that was a long time ago.  Anyone in business today is especially trying to find the best deals they can on wholesale merchandise because shoppers are looking to find the best prices they can.  So sellers need to buy their merchandise at a good price so they can sell it at a good price in today’s market.