Snapshots

Remember when we called casual photographs "snapshots"? Definitely dating myself with use of the term. I wanted to share a few pictures with almost no interesting story behind them. The moon recently was so brightly shining just after sunset I took this picture - liked it then and still like it.

Other pictures are from our trip to the rock yard - how odd to live in the country and drive to a place to buy rocks . The little view of a rock waterfall is by the pond at the rock yard. Then we have a picture of the rocks we bought (called mossy builder stone) for DH to use around gate posts. Solar panel for gate openers seems to be working perfectly. The red flowers are wildflowers we saw while out on one of our listings. Not exactly breaking news from here on Buhlaland only real update is we are experiencing Texas weather - like a TexMex restaurant menu - gonna be chile tonight but it'll be hot tamale! Groans are cheerfully acknowledged!

Texan Manicotti

• I recall when my blogging started, I thought I'd be doing a lot of food and recipes - haven't been so far. I made this over the weekend and everyone remarked on how good it was. IF you have a compulsive need to fancy up - you can put chopped green onions, sliced olives and/or slices of avocado on top of the sour cream when this is served. I like food spicy - so if you aren't keen on hot stuff you might cut back on the chili powder.
  
  
  Ingredients::
• 1 pound lean ground beef /
  1 (16 ounce) can refried beans /
  3 teaspoons chili powder/
  1 ½ teaspoons ground oregano /
  1 teaspoon ground cumin /
  1 package manicotti shells (8 ounces) /
  2 ½ cups water /
  1 can RoTel or diced tomatoes with green chilies /
  1 cup (4 ounces) shredded jack or Mexican blend cheese /
  Topping
  1 cup of sour cream//
  
  
  In a bowl, thoroughly combine uncooked beef(yes really truly - raw ground beef), refried beans,cumin, chili powder and oregano. Spoon(see note) into uncooked manicotti shells; arrange in a greased 13 X 9 inch baking dish. Combine water and can of RoTel; pour over shells. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
  Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes - then sprinkle with shredded cheese and return to oven uncovered for another 15 minutes. Uncover, spoon sour cream over the top. Yield : 8 servings
  
  Note: I found it a lot easier to put the filling into a pastry cone (or a ziploc type bag with a corner cut off) and pipe the filling in - no manicotti shell breakage and you can fill the shells completely.