We are an old married couple who enjoys traveling, cooking and having adventures. We enjoy sharing all the wonderful things life has to offer. We’re here to share our travels and adventures, our cooking and fun home projects, and our thoughts and insights on what it’s like to be an old married couple.
Meatloaf
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of ground meat. I usually use 1 pound of lean ground turkey and 1-pound lean ground beef.
- 2 Tbsp (1 lid full) Onion Onion (Tastefully Simple)
- 2 Tbsp (1 lid full) Garlic Garlic (Tastefully Simple)
- ½ jar Sweet Pepper Jalapeno Jam (Tastefully Simple)
- 1 egg
- Heaping 1/3 cup bread crumbs
Directions
Mix all together in a big bowl with a potato masher. Put in a greased loaf pan, Smooth flat (better cuts for sandwiches)
Bake in a 350-degree oven for 50-60 minutes, drain any fat off and enjoy.
If you like our content and want to support the channel, stop by Karalee’s Tastefully Simple store: https://www.tastefullysimple.com/web/kjohnson
Mother’s Day Cream Puffs
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 4 eggs
Directions
Melt butter in 1 cup boiling water.
Add flour and salt all at once; stir vigorously until a stiff dough forms
Roll the ball around the inside of the pan until it becomes a smooth ball.
Remove from heat; cool.
Form a well in the dough and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until each is incorporated.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough, 3 inches apart, onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown and puffy, about 30 minutes.
Cool on a rack before splitting and filling.
Avocados Galore
As the video says, we eat a lot of avocados and we’ve documented a lot about that fact.
Kahlua Barbecue Sauce
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Kahlua
- ½ cup chili sauce
- 3 tbs pineapple juice
- 2 tbs cornstarch
Directions
Combine first three ingredients in a sauce, mix well.
Dissolve cornstarch in a small amount of cold water to make a thin paste.
Warm ingredients in saucepan, slowly add the cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly.
Taco Mac & Cheese Caserole
Ingredients
- 12 ounces elbow macaroni
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups 2% milk, warmed (I did room tempature)
- 4 cups shredded four cheese Mexican blend, divided (any cheese you have on hand)
- 1½ cups prepared Make & Freeze Taco Meat, thawed if frozen
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
- Optional fillings such as diced onion or green onion, sliced black olives, jalapeño slices
- 1 cup crushed tortilla chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F. In large saucepan, prepare pasta according to package directions until just al dente; drain. Set pasta aside.
In same pan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour; whisking constantly. Whisk in milk. Bring to a simmer, whisking frequently. Slowly whisk in 3 cups cheese, cooking and whisking until melted and smooth. Salt and pepper as desired.
Stir pasta into cheese sauce. Transfer half to a greased 13×9-inch baking dish. Top with Make & Freeze Taco Meat, drained tomatoes and desired fillings. Top with remaining macaroni and cheese. (I mixed all together at once)
Sprinkle with crushed tortillas and remaining 1 cup cheese. Bake 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.
Making Maps for Your Travel Journal
A travel journal is on of the best artifacts you can bring home from a journey. A good travel journal captures all the pictures, drawings, scraps of paper, thoughts and memories of your experience.
I like the idea of writing everyday, but at the end of a long day at work, it’s one of the last things I want to do. A trip away from the office frees me the burnout of the daily grind and gives me the energy to write daily.
just looking forward to an upcoming expedition gets me excited about journaling and I want to start laying down pages. A great place to start is with the map.
Grammie’s Famous French Toast
2 Eggs
½ cup milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup crushed corn flakes
6 slices (frozen) Texas toast (with cheese or garlic)
Sprinkle of salt
¼ cup melted butter
Preheat oven to 450°
In a shallow bowl whisk eggs, milk, vanilla and salt until blended
Place corn flakes in another shallow bowl.
Dip both sides of bread in egg mixture then in the corn flakes – both sides. (you may need to pat a little to cover)
Place in a sprayed oblong pan. rizzle with the melted butter (or add when it comes out)
Bake 10-12 minutes it will golden brown.
How to make a basic soufflé
We made a fancy breakfast last Sunday. Karalee made Eric’s Potatoes and Charles made an egg soufflé. The soufflé is coming soon, but in the mean time, here’s the recipe for soufflé.
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
3/4 cup milk
4 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Preheat oven to 375° F.
Prepare soufflé dish by coating with butter and bread crumbs.
Melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Stir in milk all at once. Continue stirring until mixture boils and is smooth and thickened.
Separate eggs. Beat yolks well and add ¼ cup of warm sauce mixture to egg yolks.
Combine yolk mixture with remaining sauce, blending thoroughly. Add parmesan cheese, stirring into white sauce until blended. Set sauce aside to cool slightly.
Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in large bowl, until stiff but not dry. Fold some of the egg whites into sauce to make it lighter, then gently but thoroughly fold the sauce into the remaining egg whites.
Carefully pour into 4-cup soufflé dish.
Bake in preheated 375° F oven until puffed and lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes or until done.
*for the original recipe visit the Eggs Farmers of Canada website.
Eric’s Potatoes
We made a fancy breakfast last Sunday. Karalee made Eric’s Potatoes and Charles made an egg soufflé. The soufflé is coming soon, but in the mean time, here’s the recipe for Eric’s Potatoes.
1 package savory Cheese Ball mix
10. 75 oz can cream of celery soup
8 oz Sour Cream
1/2 cup Milk
26 oz bag Frozen shredded hash brown pototoes
2 1/2 cups shredded smoked Gouda Cheese or other cheese
2 Tbsp melted butter
Combine first 4 ingredients, set aside.
Combine shredded Cheese and hashbrowns
Combine all together, spread into a greased 9×11 baking dish
Pour melted butter over the top.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour.
ENJOY!! you can freeze before or after baking.
Our channel in 2023 and the future
We started Wonder About Us in 2023 as a way to document our lives and lifestyle. I’ like to think we’re unusual people and others would like to know what we’re up to and hopefully learn from, or be entertained by, us.
I’m not sure that’s happening, but we’re just getting started. A lot of 2023 was finding our feet and trying to learn how to create content and set ourselves up with skills for the future.
One thing I’d like to change is that we seem to be a little heavy on the cooking content, and, that makes sense. We’re not always out on some great adventure, but we do cook every day.
Now that I know how to make content, and have established a nice format, our plan is to spend 2024 getting into the swing of producing content on a regular basis. The idea being to do one video per week and fill in with shorts and posts on other platforms throughout the week. I would like those videos to follow a weekly release schedule.
- Cooking
- Travel/adventures in the field
- Home projects
- Art projects or other creative works
- Vlogs
I’d like to thank everyone for supporting us as we grow. Here’s our final video of 2023: