I am so excited. I just received my cookie plate from Nestle. Now I have to decide who to give cookies to. There are several people in my life that could use a little bit of chocolate lovin'.

If you don't know what I am talking about, Nestle did a promotion to receive a cookie plate. The requirements were UPC symbols from Nestle Toll House Morsels. You sign the plate, fill with cookies, visit Pleasesendcookies.com to share your story about the plate, and send it to someone. You can keep up with where the plate went after you sent it. Hopefully, it keeps going for a long time. I think it will be very interesting to see where it ends up going.

Obviously, I will have Chocolate Chip Cookies in My Cookie Jar this week.

Enjoy!

We have started our branding season. We always brand on Saturday, since that is the day most of our help is available. They always enjoy a day in the country after a long(or in this case, short) work week. After dealing with people, it is great to work with animals. There is no talking back!

After gathering the cattle on horseback from the pasture, they are driven into a set of corrals. We then separate the cows from their calves.

We have one person running the head gate, one on the squeeze part of the chute, one person branding, one person doing innoculations and ear tagging. When we have extras, we split up the work. Even the youngsters get in on the fun. The boys take turns bringing the calves one at a time up the narrow alleyway to the chute. I am sure that if and when we get girls into the family or somebody finally has daughters they will get in on that action, too.

Somewhere around noon to 1 o'clock we break for lunch. This year we had brisket sandwiches, baked beans and chips. Of course no picnic is complete without iced tea and lemonade. Then we have brownies for dessert.

The brisket was covered with Claude's Brisket Sauce and baked in a 300 degree oven for about 4 hours and then turned up to 325 degrees for another 4 hours. This was a very large brisket. It probably weighed a good 15 pounds or so. I didn't think of weighing it. Of course when you have your beef processed, it doesn't come with weight stickers. You would have to adjust your cooking time for a smaller brisket. We then sliced it and poured pan juices over the meat. We served with barbeque sauce, cheese, sliced onion, pickle, tomato and lettuce leaves. It makes the best sandwiches and the recipe is so easy.

Enjoy!

Living in the middle of cattle country causes me to cook with a lot of beef. I seem to use the hamburger from the meat we have processed faster than any other cut. I mix in steak, roast, ribs, brisket and stew meat. I seem to have a lot of roast left. So, I have resolved to make the effort to use more roast. This is a great way I have found to use a roast, without always making a pot roast. In fact, I would call it an Easy Peasy way to use a roast!

Roast Beef Burritos

1 Beef Arm or Chuck Roast, 4-5 lbs.
1 Can (15 oz.) Rotel Tomatoes and Green Chiles
1 Packet Fajita Seasoning
12 Flour Tortillas
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream
Hot Sauce

Place Roast in crock pot. Pour can of Rotel over the top of roast. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or until roast is tender. Take the roast from the crock pot and shred. Discard any fat or bones. Skim any fat from drippings left in crock pot. Return shredded roast to crock pot. Add fajita seasoning and stir. Serve on Flour tortillas. Top with shredded cheese, sour cream and hot sauce.

Enjoy!

Wow! What a great time of year to have an extra day off! I get so much accomplished with an extra day. It sure helps to have the kids out of school. Adding two extra pairs of hands makes the work go by much faster. My two teenage sons are at the perfect age to be a great deal of help. One of their favorite cookies is in My Cookie Jar this week. They are perfect for bribing teenagers! They enjoy being paid in cookies and milk!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup raisins

Mix butter, sugars, milk, egg and vanilla in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Gradually add to butter mixture. Mix well. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

A miracle occurred

I just wanted to explain why I haven't been posting since April 29. I can't believe it's been that long. My last post was about having a positive attitude. I also spoke about my son's accident last year. While I thought I had been through it all, I was wrong. My husband came down with a flu bug. You know the kind, coughing, congestion, aches and pains. He was sick for two weeks and went to the doctor. He was treated for a bacterial infection in his sinuses. A week later he was still having a hard time breathing. I came home one afternoon to find him still in bed and he was confused. I called his doctor, thinking is was the medication. They sent a lab person to our house. When they tested his blood, his CO2 level was very high. He needed to be in the hospital. We took him to the hospital. After one night, his level had dropped, but gone back up again. They transferred him to a larger hospital 110 miles away. He was taken straight to the ICU. On the 3rd day there, the doctors were preparing us for the worst. His lungs were failing, causing his heart to overwork and fail. He was hallucinating and had several bad days. On day 7 he started getting better. On day 8 he was moved to a regular room. We were on our way home on day 14.

I do believe a miracle occurred. On the sixth day in the ICU, he told me that a man had come in and talked to him about God. He told the man that he had been raised and raised his family in the Church, but admitted that he had not gone as often lately as he should have. He strived his whole life to be honest and truthful. He believed that he was ready to go to Heaven. The man told him that it was not his time, that God was not finished with him yet. At the time, I thought it must be another hallucination. I had been in the room most of the time, only leaving when the nurses made me and at night. How had I missed this man? Then, the following day, he started getting better, quickly. He gained ground so fast, the doctors were astonished. They came to a decision after two weeks to send him home. They could do nothing more for him there. Who was the visitor in the hospital? I do not know. I did not see him, but I believe he was there.

I will continue my positive attitude. I will strive to be excellent everyday. I will continue to have the best days of my life.

These are the best days of my life! I am going to have a positive attitude and not let anyone tell me any different. I have gone through many trials in my life(too many to mention) and the last one was one of the most difficult. My oldest son was in an auto accident last June. He had severe head trauma, a broken jaw, broken eye socket, broken cheekbone, cracks at the base of the skull, nerve damage to the right arm, a dislocated knee and multiple lacerations. But he lived! He is only 22 years old, and was not finished with his life yet! The fixing of his problems is too long to mention. It has taken 10 months to get him from the previous state to a functioning level today. He has permanent brain damage, but has overcome a lot of his problems. I was at the hospital, about 500 miles from home, for a month before I left to come home. Being away for that long gave me a new appreciation for my family and home. One of the things I remember the most is my husband being so calm during the entire ordeal. To him being faithful was leaving our son's life in God's hands. We got him to where he needed to be and he was being cared for by trained people. There was no more that we could do for him at that point but pray. We were bombarded with concerned phone calls. All we asked of everyone was for prayer and to add him to their prayer lists at their churches. He was on prayer lists in six states. We are not done yet. There is physical and cognitive therapy, numerous doctors, medications, insurance companies, etc. But the worst is over.

One of my other sons, 15 years old, has a favorite song by Rodney Atkins. It has a great chorus. "If you're going through Hell keep on going, don't slow down, if you're scared don't show it, you might get out before the Devil even knows you're there. If you're going through Hell, face that fire, walk right through it, you might get out before the Devil even knows you're there."

I firmly believe that being strong emotionally was the way we made it. Tight reigns on thoughts and tongue had to be kept. There was no time to fall apart and have a pity party. It would not have helped anyway. That does not mean that there were no tears. We just kept thinking positively and dealt with everything as it came. It was not fun or easy, but I guess there was no guarantee that it would be. I realize that life can be difficult. I also realize that there are people out there with worse problems than I have. The difficulty is being thankful always, no matter your situation.

These are the best days of my life, I may not realize it yet!

Today is Monday, again. I got up this morning pushing everyone as hard as I could push. It seemed to me that no matter how hard I pushed, nothing more was getting done. My husband finally told me, "Quit pushing, it will get done." When I quit pushing, things went smoother. I guess the more I pushed, the more resistance I was getting. He was right, everything got done and everyone got to where they needed to go. My whole family was happier. That is my lesson learned for today.

My thought for today comes from an unknown author. I watched a TV program last week that dealt with this same theme.

"He who says 'tomorrow I will do my best' has already wasted another day."

That quote spoke to me. I will quit saving my best days. I can do my best every day. I think I am going to try this and see how much difference I can make in the lives of the people around me by doing my best every day. I have to live every day anyway, why not make it one of my best days. I'll let you know how it goes.

Have a "Best Day"!