Hello Again!  Well, I caught Covid and haven't completed another post as soon as I wanted. We are headed to the lake this weekend. We are all going to love getting there.  It has been several weeks since we made the trip!  Orbi will love being a lake dog this weekend!   The temps are going to be cooler than I would like.  I am a total summer girl and we are still in winter here in Kansas!  What is your perfect temperature? My favorite temperature would be 85 and sunny with little wind.  The little wind part hardly ever happens at our little lake in the hills.  What is your favorite season?

  What are your plans for Valentine's Day? My hubby usually grills steaks and does some yummy sides like a twice baked potato and grilled asparagus.  He makes his own twice baked potatoes and they are so much better than anything at the store!  If you are interested in making them, here is his recipe!

Gary's Twice Baked Potatoes -

4 large baking potatoes

sour cream and chives

butter

shredded cheddar cheese

bacon bits

instant potatoes (mixed according to package directions)

Rub clean raw potatoes with butter and prick with a fork.  Place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour or so.  Squeeze the potato to be sure it is soft in the center before removing from the oven.  When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut in half length wise and scoop out some of the filling.  Be careful to leave enough of the potato in the skin so that the structure is still there.  Take the scooped out potato and put in a bowl, mix in butter, salt and pepper and the sour cream and chives.  He also adds some shredded cheese at this point.  He adds about a  2 cups of instant potatoes to the mix so that the filled potato has a nice mound on it.  If the mix is too thick, thin with a little milk or more sour cream.  Mound the filling in the potato shells and top with shredded cheese and bacon bits.  At this point the extra potatoes can be frozen or put back in the oven to bake until golden brown.  We love to put them in the air fryer!  They get so crunchy and golden!  

Also, I still wanted to share a quick Valentine craft idea!  Such a fun addition to your table scape or home. Look at these quick painted canning jars.  I just took red and white paint to mix the pink shades I wanted.  Then I simply painted the outside of the jars and when they were dry sanded lightly along the raised wording and the raised lettering on the jar.  Once you are happy with the result, spray it with some matte sealer.  Such a quick cute idea for a gift! You could package some cookies in them for gifts or add a candle or a string of fairy lights for a festive centerpiece.  Here's a quick picture of our Valentine dinner at our little shack!  Not super fancy, but festive enough for a quiet dinner for 2.  

I spent a glorious, cold winter day at our "shack" by the fire.  It only took me about an hour to paint the jars.  The drying process between the 2 coats took the longest.  Once painted and dried... I sanded lightly to my liking and sprayed them with some matte acrylic spray.  It was fine to give the jars a quick spray outside - the cold didn't effect the finish.  I put candles in the jars and used them for our centerpiece for our quiet Valentine dinner!

Finally, a quiet night by the fire, visiting and dessert! Dessert was simply a No-bake Cheesecake in wine glasses!  Simple, low cost idea, but dressed up the dessert nicely! Oh, can't forget the bubbly!!!  What a perfectly lovely Simple Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! xoxo...

                                                ....Simply Chenn