Tasty Tuesday - Cauliflower Ham Casserole

I know it's been a while since I've shared a recipe, but I really haven't been doing too much baking/cooking with any new ones lately, so I haven't had much to share. We have a huge abundance of cauliflower in our garden this year that is just starting to be ready for picking so I thought I would try out a new dinner recipe tonight. I wasn't sure how it would go over with the kids since they aren't the most willing to try new stuff, but Sweetie loved it and kept asking for more and Buddy even said it tasted better than he thought it would!

Ingredients
4 cups chopped fresh cauliflower
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups Twin Brook Creamery whole milk
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups cubed fully cooked ham
1 jar (4-1/2 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained

TOPPING:
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter, melted
Directions
Place cauliflower in a large saucepan; cover with 1 in. water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until tender.
Meanwhile, in another large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour until smooth; gradually add milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cheese and sour cream until melted.
Drain cauliflower. In a large bowl, combine the cauliflower, ham and mushrooms. Add cheese sauce and toss to coat. Transfer to a greased 2-qt. baking dish.
Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over casserole. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until heated through.

The No Shampoo Experiment

I've started a new experiment yesterday. I have decided to quit using shampoo. No that doesn't mean I am going to smell and not be clean (at least I hope not!) I have come across quite a few bloggers lately that are trying the no shampoo experiment, mostly because of all the weird ingredients in shampoo, but some to save money. Well, I'm Dutch and saving money is something I am always looking to do, so I was a little interested. I did a little research and found a few helpful websites including this one and this one on making your own shampoo.

Here is what you will need:

Yep, that's it. Pretty cheap, huh? That's what I thought, so I thought it was worth a try. All you need to do is dissolve 1 Tbsp of baking soda in 1 cup of warm water and apply to your scalp. Let it sit for a minute and then rinse it out. Then do the same with the apple cider vinegar. I have to say, I thought the vinegar was kind of a weird one, but it is an amazing detangler. I am going to start using that for Sweetheart as well since it is always so hard to comb through her hair after we wash it. Yesterday was the first day I tried it, so I haven't noticed a huge difference yet. I normally wash my hair every other day, and on the day I don't wash it, it can be kinda flat. Today, however, I think that it still feels and looks fuller. Hopefully that is a good sign that things will keep going well, but I will try to remember to update you all in a few weeks and let you know how it is going! If you are interested in trying for yourself and want to know more about what's in your shampoo (instead of just doing it to be cheap!) you can check out this site to see how your current shampoo and conditioners rate.

Shades of Morning - Review

I recently received Shades of Morning by Marlo Schalesky for review, and I LOVED it! It is one of those books that make you want to ignore the dirty house, fighting kids, and dinner that needs to be made just to keep reading! (Of course I didn't ignore my kids or not make dinner, but maybe the house didn't get as clean the last few days!) I thought Marlo Schalesky did an excellent job of writing this book. I love Christian romances and this is a good one. The main character Marnie must face the past that she ran away from years ago when her sister dies and leaves Marnie as the guardian of her son. Emmit, who has Down syndrome, helps her face her sorrows and regrets and begin to heal. But the story also has some suspense and a surprise ending, which make you want to read the whole book in one sitting!

Summary:
Marnie doesn’t know much about miracles. Mistakes maybe. Accidents, too. And monstrous mess-ups. She knows a lot about those. But miracles? Those are for other people. But, Marnie is about to discover that God can turn a past full of regrets into a beautiful future.

Marnie Wittier has life just where she wants it. Quiet. Peaceful. No drama. A long way away from her past. In the privacy of her home, she fills a box with slips of paper, scribbled with her regrets, sins, and sorrows. But that’s nobody else’s business. Her bookstore/coffee shop patrons, her employees, her friends from church—they all think she’s the very model of compassion and kindness.

Then Marnie’s past creeps into her present when her estranged sister dies and makes Marnie guardian of her fifteen-year-old son—a boy Marnie never knew existed. And when Emmit arrives, she discovers he has Down syndrome—and that she’s woefully unprepared to care for him. What’s worse, she has to deal with Taylor Cole, her sister’s attorney, a man Marnie once loved—and abandoned. As Emmit (and Taylor) work their way into her heart, Marnie begins to heal. But when pieces of her dismal past surface again, she must at last face the scripts of paper in her box, all the regrets and sorrows. Can she do it? Or will she run again?

Author Bio:
Marlo Schalesky is the author of several books, including Beyond the Night and Empty Womb, Aching Heart. A graduate of Stanford University, Marlo also has a masters of theology with an emphasis in biblical studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. Married over twenty years, she lives with her husband, Bryan, and their five children in California.

If you are interested in purchasing this book, you can do so here.

This book was provided for review by Waterbrook Multnomah.

Berries, Berries, Berries!

I was beginning to think my little berry patch wouldn't produce anything but mold this year, but the week before we went camping they all started to ripen up! This was my biggest picking, but I have been out there about twice a week and have gotten a ton of berries. It ended up being a good thing we had to post-pone our camping, otherwise they all would have ripened and been moldy by the time we got home. There's probably only about one more picking of my strawberries left, which is good because my freezer is getting really full! It is supposed to be really warm at the end of the week, which should ripen up the raspberries and it will be on to picking those for a few weeks!