My Taco Recipe

Use a Large frying pan at least three inches deep, filled with at least 2 inches of vegetable oil. Turn on medium and let get hot. 

 Take a hand full (small hand full) of hamburger and smash it on one half of the corn tortilla. (read directions for hamburger preparation on the bottom of this page)

I use both white corn and yellow corn tortillas. It really doesn't matter which ones you use. 

You will need a plate with a paper towel to put the tacos on after they are done frying. 

 Set the tortilla with the hamburger on it gently down in the hot oil. When the tortilla starts getting soft, (About 10 seconds) gently take a spatula and flip the half of the tortilla that's bare over the hamburger, so you now have a taco shell with the hamburger inside. 

Deep fry each side for approx. 3 minutes or until each side is crispy and hamburger is done. I usually fry three at a time in the pan, but don't overcrowd the tacos.

Before taking the tacos out, turn upside down with your spatula and let any oil drip out for a few seconds before putting onto your paper plate. 

For inside the taco I like... Diced Tomatoes and shredded lettuce. 

Homemade guacamole and shredded cheddar cheese. You can also add  homemade salsa (recipe at the bottom of this page) sour cream, and black olives. 

Tacos will be hot, let sit for at least a minute before trying to handle. This will also let some of the oil drip onto the paper towel. 

Directions for preparing the hamburger...

 2lbs of hamburger. Do Not get the leanest hamburger you can find, it won't have the right taste, get hamburger with at least 20% fat. Take hamburger out of the package and mix with some salt, pepper and onion powder.



Homemade Salsa Recipe:

4 large tomatoes diced small
1 1/2 large white onions diced small
One bunch of cilantro diced small (about 1 cup)
Juice from 2 lemons
Salt to taste

 Mix all ingredients together and let sit overnight in container in the fridge. You can eat it right after it's been made but for more flavorful Salsa, make 2 days ahead of time and let it sit in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

Homemade Beef Stew Recipe

I like to make beef stew in the winter time because it's easy and it's nice to eat something warm like this on a cold winter day. Ken loves this and it is usually gone in a couple of days. Leftovers are great and so easy to heat up. 

So here's what you'll need:

2lbs of stew meat

1/3 cup of flour

2 tablespoons of oil

4 carrots

4 celery stalks

4 potatoes

1 yellow onion

1 package of beef stew seasoning

5 cups of water

salt and pepper to taste

Start off cutting the stew meat into bite sized chunks add oil to the pan and brown beef. Add the flour a little at a time and cook over med. heat for 3-5 minutes until all the flour is incorporated. Add the water and stew seasoning and simmer over med. heat for 30 minutes. 

Cut your vegetables into bite sized pieces and add to beef stew. Let simmer over medium heat for 2-3 hours or until the meat is very tender. 

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too.

This week I'll be showing you the great blog contest goodies I won.

I won a blog contest giveaway at Love Is A Many Flavored Thing.

I won a the coffee lovers gift box. In it there was a really nice coffee mug, coffee, magnetic buttons, coffee stirrers, coasters, pens, luggage tag, note pad, key chains, and the metal placard that Says I like my coffee like I like my men..strong & rich...love that. 

Thank you Danny, for the wonderful prize. Don't forget to check out his blog. 

My Grandson, Logan

Here are the first pictures of my grandson, Logan. He was born 1-31-2013 9lbs and 21 inches long.

I'm Gonna Be A Grandma Soon

My daughter went to the hospital yesterday and has been in labor for just over 24 hours now. They gave her Pitocin because her contractions weren't strong and after a few hours her labor wasn't progressing. After 24 hours in labor she is still only dialated 5cm and it looks liked she is stalled there. They broke her water and labor still isn't progressing. So they said if nothing more happens with her labor in the next 4 hours...they are scheduling her for a C-section.

I should be sharing pictures of Baby Logan very soon.

Introducing Lucky To The Other Rats

When I first got Lucky he was really tiny, about the size of an adult mouse, so we put him in a temporary aquarium. I had to use an aquarium because he was so small he could fit right between the bars of all the wire cages I had. I eventually wanted to put him in the big cage with my 4 other rats so he wasn't alone. 

Lucky is getting bigger and is more trusting and loves to come out and play now. When I first got him, he ran from my hand..now I put my hand in his cage and he jumps on waiting to be picked up. 

We introduced Lucky to Bandit while they were on the couch together and the introductions went quite well. They smelled each other, licked each other and chased each other around. Lucky is still too small to go in the big cage but I figure it will be very soon that he can join his cousins. 

We'll be making more introductions with the other three boys slowly as he gets bigger, but the first one went quite well. I'm very happy.

Family Photos

I was going through some of my photo albums and started scanning some of the pictures into the computer. This is my daughter back in 2005. It's one of my favorite pictures of her. 

My great aunt Marie got to meet Ricky Skaggs. 

This is Ken and I just a couple of weeks after our daughter was born. Ken used to let his hair grow wild. lol 

My younger brother, Billy. 

Me (on the left) and my daughter (on the right) both at age 16. I think we kinda look alike. 

Hubby when he was in the Army.

Now to the funny family photos. From left to right...My brother Billy, my dad, my mom and step dad. of course my dad is making a face..lol That's kinda his thing...he still makes faces. My mom was going through radiation and on steroids because she had cancer. The steroids make you gain weight and puff you up. She made a full recovery a while after this picture was taken though.

From left to right... My step dad, step mom, dad and mom. My mom is sitting on my dad's lap and she is making a face at him while my dad shows off his false teeth..Omg..and they were all snockered. My family get togethers are never boring..lol 

One of the funniest photos I have is this one. From left to right..Ken, our daughter and my brother holding his son who is trying to rip off his nose. lol 

Me, my mom and uncle popeye. My mom decided to strike a pose right before we took the picture. lol 

Las Vegas Zoo

Bet ya didn't know we had a zoo, did ya? it's not a big zoo and I'm only posting a couple of pictures but yeah, we have a zoo. Inside the zoo there's a petting zoo where you can pet and feed the goats. They totally ignored us and kept sleeping until I bought 2 cups of food.

Then they woke up and started chasing us around, banging their heads into my legs. One almost knocked my daughter over and she threw her cup of food up in the air and ran for me. I picked her up and still had a cup of food for them and was getting beat all to hell by them ramming their heads into my legs. So I emptied my cup on the ground and calmly walked out of the petting zoo pen. The next day I was completely black and blue and in so much pain I could hardly walk. lol 

The funniest thing were the ostrich's. They had been sitting on the ground until my daughter walked over and then this one got up and spread its wings...scaring my daughter. her face pretty much shows how she feels..lol Poor kid...

A Hypothetical Question...

I have a question for you my friends. I don't know exactly what to think of this so I figured I would get some input from others. Here's my question...

A woman lets a man her boyfriend knows and is friends with move in with her because he has no other place to stay. She gives him his own room and they are nothing but friends.

Then one night, they start drinking together and both of them get drunk and have consensual sex that night, but in the morning when she wakes up she calls her boyfriend and tells him that his friend got her drunk and essentially took advantage of her...she actually uses the word "rape" to explain the situation to her boyfriend.

Now she acknowledges that she never said, "No" and at the time it was consensual...but she states that she thinks it is 'rape' because he got her drunk and took advantage of her.

My problem with this is, they were both drunk and she never said 'No'. She only regretted what she did the next day when she sobered up and realized she would have to explain how she ended up in bed with her boyfriends friend.

So now she is claiming she was "raped" by the guy and it's not ringing true to me. If she truly thought she was raped wouldn't she have called the police instead of just kicking the guy out?

What do you think?

Some of Our Other Animals

My daughter with our very first rat, Romi. 

One of our hamsters had 5 babies and we had a lot of fun playing with them. lol 

Baby the dwarf hamster lived to be 4 years old, which is really old for a dwarf hamster. For the last few months of her life she would only eat soft human foods and even though I put a little portion for her on the table where I was sitting...she wanted to sit in my bowl and eat. You should have seen the look on my mom's face..LOL 

Romi, my first rat. She lived to be 4 years old and for the last few months could not bite through anything hard so I gave her soft human food and canned dog food. She loved her dog food.

Chance, the dwarf hamster. 

Onyx, the dwarf hamster. yes, he's sitting on my plate with a slice of my mom's pumpkin bread. LOL My mom got used to me letting the animals eat off my plates. 

Baby just a few days before she passed away, still enjoying her mashed potatoes. They were all very happy and completely spoiled little fuzzbutts.

The Flu

Yep, I've got it. Sorry if  haven't been around much lately or coming by to leave a comment on your blog. I've been down with the flu for the past few days but I'm hoping to be back up and chatting again soon. I've seen on Facebook that a lot of my friends also have the flu. Here's to hoping that we all start to feel better soon.

RIP Hades

R.I.P. Hades
November 14th 2010 - January 24th 2013
My 3 year old boy Hades, passed away this afternoon. He had been slowing down over the past few days so I had been checking on him often to make sure he was doing alright and when he came out of his house this afternoon, we picked him up and held him and within a couple of minutes he passed away.

It was like he knew his time was almost up and wanted to be with us...and he was.

Goodbye my sweet boy.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too.

I received both the free box of Kellogg's Crunchy Nut cereal and the coupon for a free box of Claritin D from BzzAgent. I also received coupons for .50 off the cereal and $3 off the Claritin D, so if you would like a coupon just let me know and I'll send you one until they run out. 

You can sign up for BzzAgent too and receive free products to try in your home.

I also won a tin filled with goodies in a blog hop from Capri Montgomery. There were candles, flashlight key chain, stress ball, calculator and refrigerator magnet from Capri Montgomery.

Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas

I thought I would share a few of the pictures we've taken on our trips to Red Rock Canyon here in Nevada. It's just a short drive from Las Vegas but once you get there it's totally different from all the lights and glitter here in Vegas. We've gone there quite a few times over the past 20 years. This is Ken and our daughter when she was younger. 

Since they have their jackets on you can tell it's in the winter, but it still was nice hiking weather. I actually prefer it in the winter months before the snow gets on everything. I don't have to deal with the bugs in the winter. lol 

My daughter and I. You just don't get mountainous views like that here in the Las Vegas Valley. It's great for hiking in Red Rock.  

On the way to Red Rock, we would stop and feed/pet the donkeys that are always waiting for food. People pull their cars over all the time and feed the donkeys and they just stand there and let you feed and pet them.

Ken and our daughter on another trip to Red Rock. 

When one of our hamsters passed away, we took him to Red rock and buried him under a really pretty tree. 

Man's Best Friend

As you probably know by now I don't have dogs or cats as pets, I have rats. But my brother has a dog and my mom had a dog. I wondered why a dog was considered man's best friend so I did some research and found out. If you'd like to know the story of How The Dog Became Man's Best Friend... just click the link.

Since it's right after Christmas I thought I would talk a little about pets and how they are a commitment, not just a "I'll take care of it until I get sick of it".

As with any pet, you should never ever adopt or accept an animal unless you plan on keeping them. I've seen it too many times. A family or person in the family decides that they want to adopt a pet and they don't think about the commitment it's going to take to care for the animal and after a while, they give the pet away, take it to a shelter without letting other family members know what they've done. 

Thinking that it will be easier on the rest of the family if you lie to them and tell them you gave the animal away to a neighbor, or it ran away when in actuality you took it to the animal shelter without telling the rest of the family because you just couldn't deal with it any longer is not the right thing to do. 

The very least you can do is make sure the animal you are getting rid of is going to a forever home and will be happy. 

Another thing to consider, especially since Easter is right around the corner is not to get pet bunnies for your niece or nephew without asking the parents. bringing home a cute pet for a family member may seem like a great idea and would make a great gift but if they are willing to take the time to care for the animal..it's a bad idea. 

Don't take on an animal without really thinking about the commitment you're going to have to put into this. Animals aren't disposable pets and should be treated with respect.