Memorial Day Tribute

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. 

Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings, and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.

Cities and towns across the United States host Memorial Day parades each year, often incorporating military personnel and members of veterans’ organizations. Some of the largest parades take place in Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.

GY SGT Walter I. Arnold

We would like to introduce you to our father GY SGT Walter I. Arnold. He was a U.S. Marine and a very proud one at that, "OORAH". He served for 19 years and in two wars, Korean and Vietnam. He was wounded in Korea and received a purple heart.

After coming home from Korea, our grandmother said he was never the same. It goes to show you that those that serve in the Armed Forces have to deal with not only the physical aspects but also the mental. War is tough on the soldiers and the families. God bless them 💗

Presented with Purple Heart

His last post was Quantico, Virginia and after serving 19 years he retired, set up a small farm in Fauquier County VA with our mom and their six kids.

His life was short-lived, as he passed away not too long after retiring. He had a massive heart attack due to Arteriosclerosis, hardening of the arteries. Stress was the major factor in this and the US Government declared him to be a casualty of war. 

Arlington National Cemetary

of our Father...

Cathy ~  I went to work with Dad one day on the base at Quantico, VA. They gave a Private the riot act for not saluting properly. I was young so I thought wow that was rough. Then after the Private left the office, they laughed about it. 

I will always remember him practicing with his guns. He answered the many questions I had about what he was doing. He allowed us to shoot if we wanted to. 

Cathy and Dad

Rhonda ~ I remember Dad teaching our dog to attack if someone grabbed us.  This was in North Carolina. Dad would grab one of us and get the dog to grab him by the arm.  He was training the dog to protect us for the times he would be shipped overseas. 

Rhonda and Dad

Kelly ~ I remember the horse he bought from someone, his name was Prince, he was fairly scrawny for being a morgan horse but Dad did his best to plump him up. He ended up being a beautiful horse and even made it into a parade. I think he loved his little farmette because we ended up with pigs, chickens and at one point he bought chinchillas.

Our mom and other family members have told us some funny stories about our dad. He had a great sense of humor and sometimes a foul mouth. 

We'd like to mention those in our family & extended family that have served: Vergie Thompson (Marine), Tess Arnold (National Guard), Travis Arnold (Navy), Jim Flickinger (Army), Shawn Wongkachonkitti (Army), John Curran ( Marine) and his four sons, John Jr., Michael, Patrick, and Matthew served also in the Marines and Navy, Alton Duplisea (Marine).

We would love to honor those servicemen and women that you have in your family. Please comment with their names below in the comment box. Share this blog 😀

Mom and Dad

To those in uniform serving today and to those who have served in the past, we honor you today and every day. 

Stay safe and healthy,

The Sassy Silver Sisters

Cathy, Rhonda & Kelly

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No-Bake Cookie Recipes -- So Easy and Addicting !

***UPDATED 4/29/23***

No Bake Cookies!

I made these cookies a while ago and they were loved by everyone that likes those peanut butter cup candies! 

Easy to do and most of you have the ingredients in your kitchen right now!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 – 3/12 cup quick-cooking oats

I found this recipe online just now and wanted to share it with you, especially, the stay-at-home folks! Click here for instructions.....

This No-Bake Cookie Recipe Will Become Your New Obsession

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• 
  

No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Drop Cookies

Ingredients

• ½ cup milk
• 2 cups white sugar
• ½ cup butter
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3 cups quick oats
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Instructions Checklist

• Step 1

  Mix milk, sugar, butter, and cocoa powder in a large saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Boil, stirring frequently, for about 1 minute. Remove from heat and add oats, coconut, peanut butter, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.

• Step 2

  Drop tablespoon-sized balls of cookie dough onto waxed paper and let cool in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

• Store these cookies in a cool place (like the back of your refrigerator) if you don't intend to eat them right away.

  It's important to let the sugar mixture boil for a little bit because otherwise, the cookies can be quite "mushy" even upon refrigeration.

Do you have a favorite no-bake cookie recipe? Share it with us all! Comment in the box below.

Thanks,

Cathy

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Thank you for reading our blog post. If you haven't already subscribed to receive our weekly blog post and Recipe of the Week, just click the SUBSCRIBE button on the right of the page and you will be the first to find out what's going on in our sassy brains. 😜

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FTC DISCLAIMER:  This page informs you of our disclosure statement regarding the advertisements we use and disclosure of our Service and the choices we have associated with it. The compensation received will never influence the content, topics, or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third-party ad network or affiliates. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements. The owner(s) of this website is not compensated to provide opinions on products, services, websites, and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this website are purely the owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. This website does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Kayla’s Test Kitchen Lemon Doodle Cookie Recipe Review

Hey everyone! We have the privilege of having a guest blogger today. Kayla is Rhonda's business assistant and a very good one at that. She wanted to try her hand at writing a blog post with a baking review and we happily obliged. If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment below.

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Kayla’s Test Kitchen

While scrolling Facebook, I came across a post from a bakery about lemondoodles. Now, maybe you’re like me and your first thought was what the heck is a lemondoodle and why do I think I need it? Or maybe you have encountered lemondoodles and you’re wondering why I live under a rock. Either way, it sparked an idea. I was dead set on making lemondoodles.

When I ran the idea by Cathy, she suggested I write about my experience, so here we are.

I did a quick search and found two recipes that sounded like good contenders for my little experiment. I printed them off and I was ready to go.

Here’s something you should know about me: I sometimes, maybe, just a little bit, fail to follow instructions, especially on recipes. Keep that in mind. I know Rhonda likes to follow the recipe to a T the first time and then make the changes the second time around, but that’s just not me.

First, I started with Mary’s Lemony Doodles from Just a Pinch which can be found here: Just a Pinch - Lemony Doodles

It seemed easy enough (and I had all the ingredients!) so that’s where the adventure began.

I added my dry ingredients and zest to a small mixing bowl and then I started to go a little off script.

The recipe calls for plain shortening, but I added butter flavored shortening (I like Crisco baking sticks) and sugar to a bigger mixing bowl and creamed them together with a hand mixer. Then I added the eggs one at a time and continued to mix until it was nice and creamy.

I added the dry ingredients in batches and mixed them by hand with a large spoon to avoid overmixing (I’m told it creates more gluten and a denser cookie and I don’t like that).

Here’s where things get a little shaky in my instruction-following abilities, but I must be transparent with you so that you don’t make my mistakes. I juiced half of my zested lemon and then added the required sugar. I know. I know I messed up. Half a lemon is WAY more than a teaspoon. I know that. I do. I did it anyway and I won’t do it again.

So, my lemon sugar was very thick and not really acceptable for rolling, but oh well. I thought I would just run with it.

I pulled out the big cookie scoop. I know the recipe says a generous teaspoon, but that’s not a cookie- that’s a disappointment. I understand there’s a time and a place for little cookies. Like for children and people with sugar issues and for dieters and all those other things that I don’t consider when I’m making a cookie. I would rather have more than a single bite. Sorry, not sorry.

Anyway, I went off the rails again and made a large round and plopped it in the too-wet sugar. As you can see, it didn’t exactly roll in the sugar very well.

Some sugar stuck to the dough, but not much. So, I swirled the bowl, sending the dough around and around to coat it without having to put my fingers in the wet sugar, a method I perfected by the end.

I placed each sugary ball of dough two inches apart or so on my parchment-lined baking sheet. Typically, I use the parchment paper that is marked with a grid, but we were all out. I had to improvise, but I thought I did a good job. 

The recipe warned that the cookies would spread while baking. I was prepared for that, especially since I had used the big scoop.

I popped them in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes.

They were not done. They were super soft, still shiny, and hadn’t cracked. That one is on me though because I didn’t follow the instructions to make them small.

I stuck them back in for another 2 minutes.

Then another 2 minutes.

Finally, I took them out and they had just barely set. That’s how my family likes cookies, so that’s how I left them.

They were very light in color but had formed a nice crust on the bottom and did not fall apart when I moved them to the cooling rack, so I left them.

After a few minutes, I tried one. They were very lemony thanks to all the juice I used, but also very sugary. They had almost no chewiness to them, which I should have expected with the way they spread.

I put more in to bake for 15 minutes. It makes sense that I double or triple the cookie size that I would have to do the same to the cooking time.

It turns out 15 minutes was too long. The next batch came out crisp and not at all chewy like a doodle should be. The sugar also pooled in little spots and turned brown on the second and third batches.

Overall, not the best cookie I’ve ever made. It probably would have gone better if I had followed the instructions exactly. My dad seemed to share in my opinion, but my mom thought they were pretty good, but they’re also believers that there’s no such thing as a bad cookie.

FAMILY REVIEW:

Mom: “They’re really good. I really enjoy them. 4 out of 5 stars.”

Dad: “The first batch is better. The others are too crispy.”

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We hope you enjoyed Kayla's review. Have you ever made Lemon Doodle cookies? Do have some helpful hints or a favorite recipe? We'd love for you to share it in the comments below.

Stay safe and healthy,

The Sassy Silver Sisters

Cathy, Rhonda & Kelly

💓💓💓

Thank you for following us and if you haven't already subscribed to receive our weekly blog post, just click on the SUBSCRIBE button on the right of this page and you will be the first to find out what's going on in our sassy brains. 😉

DON'T FORGET OUR TIP JAR

If you enjoy our blog posts and videos, we'd appreciate your consideration of donating to our tip jar. Our equipment works okay but we'd like to have aTIP JAR microphone set for our videos and with the TIP JAR we can eventually purchase these items. Thank you so much for your support and we value your friendship! We hope to bring a little joy to your life!!

FTC DISCLAIMER: This blog post is NOT SPONSORED. All opinions are our own, honest opinions. The links are for easy access & if you choose to use these links we are in no way compensated.

What brings you joy???

***Updated 4/29/23***

I've been thinking lately about what brings me joy. We all go through trials in our lives and I believe that during the struggle we can find a blessing and joy.

Here are a few things that bring me JOY:

• My Lord as Savior is the foremost JOY in my life. If it wasn't for him giving me life and victory to fight the good fight, I don't know where I'd be today. Thank you, Lord!!

• My husband Jay, is my greatest earthly joy. He makes me laugh at the dumbest things and he keeps me grounded. He's a wonderful father, grandfather, and provider and he's the love of my life. I'm glad he found me!
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• My children are a blessing and a joy, no matter how old they are, they will always be my babies.
• 

• My grandchildren are just the icing on the cake with a big old JOY on top. I love them to the moon and back. What's the saying, "If I had known grandchildren were this much fun I would have had them first".
  
• My dog Baxter is a wonderful dog and brings great joy. You don't need therapy when you have a dog. They sit there and listen without judgment. Baxter is soft to the touch, fun to play with, and loves to be with me.
  
• Birdwatching has become therapeutic and a great joy. I feed the birds in my front yard and as I sit on the front porch watching and listening to them I can only think about God's mighty creation and that He not only made them for Himself but for our enjoyment.
  
• Chocolate is a great joy. I LOVE it!! It tastes so good and creamy. Oh to have a Snickers bar right about now.
  
• The beach is a source of joy. Sitting on the beach or on the deck of the beach house has this calming effect.  I could go to sleep in the hammock under the beach chouse. There is a sense of peace and joy that comes over me when watching and listening to the ocean waves.

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• Gardening has become fun for me. The joy it brings me to see my flowers grow and the harvesting of my veggies is indescribable.
  
  
  
• My husband bought me a water fountain for Mother’s Day a couple of years ago. It has a relaxing effect and sounds like a babbling brook in nature. Brings me JOY me every day. 

• Trying a new restaurant: You never know what’s out there as far as different food unless you try a new restaurant and that always brings me joy. I love food 🥘 
  
  
  
• Making a seafood boil: I have been making seafood boils for years now, especially on our beach trips. What brings me joy about this is my family loves it. Just the sounds and smiles on their faces bring me extreme joy.

I could go on and on about the joys in my life. How about you, what brings you joy? We'd love to know. Comment and share your joys!!

Keep it sassy!!

Kelly

Sassy Silver Sisters

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Thank you for reading our blog post. If you haven't already subscribed to receive our weekly blog post and Recipe of the Week, just click the SUBSCRIBE button on the right of the page and you will be the first to find out what's going on in our sassy brains. 😜

The Recipe of the Week is a bonus for our subscribers and goes out via email mid-week.

So, don't miss out, and SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

FTC DISCLAIMER:  This page informs you of our disclosure statement regarding the advertisements we use and disclosure of our Service and the choices we have associated with it. The compensation received will never influence the content, topics, or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third-party ad network or affiliates. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements. The owner(s) of this website is not compensated to provide opinions on products, services, websites, and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this website are purely the owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. This website does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.