Long Time, No Write!

I know it's been a while since I've written

when I have to "sign in" to post again.

Mom and Big will think I have fallen off the earth.

I have not. 

I've been busy. 

There are probably 5 posts banging around in my head.

I will start at the beginning.

Lynne and I made donuts.

Red velvet donuts.

They were not great.

In fact they were awful.

They were just fried lumps of dough.

Definitely not worth the calories.

This has given me pause to ponder.

What exactly does Red Velvet taste like?

Lynne contends it tastes like nothing.

And honestly I am left to wonder if red velvet

is more of a visual feast then a 

taste experience.

Lynne and I will not have our traditional

holiday donut making extravaganza

thwarted.

Food Network Magazine has a recipe

 for jelly filled donuts in the last issue.

The donut shall rise again!

Christmas Gift Idea #3

A Memory Box

I have done variations on this.

This one was for my mom. 

I did one for Big Mary too. 

They are great for someone who *needs* nothing.

I got the unfinished wood boxes and 

burned and painted them myself. 

But I have also used "off the rack" boxes as well.

This one was for Honey's 50th.

This one was for my friend Val's 50th.

Honey's had 50 things I love about him.

Mom and Big's each had 50 memories.

I sent an e-mail to my siblings and asked them to contribute.

I just wanted short little one lines, even just a word.

Like "The wooden spoon" LOL

I had them all rolled up individually 

and tied with a piece of embroidery floss. 

It's a fun project but start early.

50 is a lot!

Why You Should Label Items In Your Freezer

My husband will be eating mystery dinner tonight. 

Remember that game, 

"Mystery Date?"

I'm pretty sure Mike didn't play that game as a little

boy and so I'm also pretty sure he won't find

the correlation fun.

So here we have it.

I have been looking at it for a while.

Read: months.

I'm hoping once it is thawed out 

we will be able to identify it

and put a name to it.

I think it's a little unsettling to eat 

something that you have no idea as to its

origin. 

I am fairly certain it came from my kitchen. 

But that is about the only thing I can

be relatively confident of.

Oh, and I probably froze it while it was still good. 

Read: not about to go rancid.

I'm heating as I write. 

I see carrots,

tomatoes, 

it smells like beef. 

I'm gonna guess a stew.....

No, wait, there is barley in there.

Soup!

It's gotta be beef barley soup!

I think I'll wait till after dinner to tell 

Honey I've written a new post :O)

Christmas Gift Idea #2

Run a race.

My brother and daughter have ran just a

*couple* in honor of mom.

This is but a small sampling of the signs they

wear as they run. I love that some of them in there

say "For Dirk's Mom."

Dirk and Shanna will usually gift mom with a

pin, a race brochure and a photo, along with the 

Celebration Sign. 

(if that's what you call them)

I don't run. 

Correction, I only run if someone is chasing me.

You don't get any little signs when running for

your life so I don't know what they are called.

But I digress.

Dirk lives in Washington sate. 

Shanna lives in Indiana.

They have run a couple of races together. 

I think that's part of the gift.

A family that joins together because they

love you and love each other. 

Warms my heart.

The Great American Smoke Out

It's TODAY!

I quit smoking on this day in 1992.

I remember which year because it was the same November

Clinton was elected for the first time. 

My brother and I had spent the night in a castle in Germany

and in the morning we turned on the radio to 

see if we could tell who won. 

It was all in German

(go figure)

but when they kept saying Clinton, we figured he must have won.

My brother and I are *very* smart.

Anyway, that is absolutely the only reason 

I can name the year.

I started smoking when I was 16.

I was very cool. 

I tried quitting many times.

They say the more times you try to quit the closer you are to

actually quitting.

I think there's a trick in that statement. 

But nonetheless, 

upon return from said trip to Germany there was

a box of NicoDerm waiting for me.

That's funny in itself. 

They were available by prescription

only back then. My mother and I see the same doctor

so she just got him to write her a prescription for it, 

she bought them and put them on my kitchen table for my return.

That was also before all these HIPPA laws.

They worked.

They were a brand new product at the time and the 

biggest problem with them was when

 you would wear the patch *and* smoke.

That was way too much nicotine in a person's

body so people were having heart attacks. 

I didn't cheat.

I've had back slides.

When I'm am under severe stress I want a cigarette.

After 20 years I can still want a cigarette.

That's amazing and gives me a softer heart

for all addicts.

The good news is,

 that first cigarette makes

you a little pukey. 

I'm over 50.

I don't get as stressed as I used to.

And I hate feeling pukey.

Christmas Gift Idea #1

The title of this post would imply I have 

a series of gift ideas all mapped out.

Um, not so much.

But it does show the optimistic attitude with which

I present this idea. 

A few years ago my mother had the idea that she would

prefer not to get gifts of "stuff."

She asked us all to give her gifts of donations.

Time or money, either was good.

At first it was intimidating but after some thought

each family was able to come up with ideas unique

to them.

I'll share the one we gave my mother the first year

now and will hold out some of the other ideas in

hopes of many moments of happy blog reading

for the future. 

heheheh...

My grandfather had an affinity for 

The Salvation Army.

I'm not sure of the origin but I do recall a family tale 

involving it, my grandpa and my brother.

So our gift to my mother was the four of us ringing

the bell at a few different times during the

Christmas season. 

I had in mind buying a bell and wrapping it up as

a token of our gift but I wound up with 

something better.

We were such enthusiastic bell ringers that 

we actually rang a bell right off it's handle.

Yep, gave mom that busted up bell.  

OK, well, in the spirit of full disclosure, 

this is not the bell. 

This is not even my photograph. 

But the bell we busted up looked like this when we got it :o)

And I like visuals. 

Things That Make You Go, Hmmmm...part 2

So, we had the family over for dinner.

I don't remember issuing an edict demanding

all cell phones be checked at the counter, 

but here they are.

It kind of reminds me of the old westerns where 

the cowboys had to check their guns at the saloon door.

Shanna pointed out the bottle of wine with

the jumbo size of Ibuprofen sitting next to it.

Don't know how that ties in to the cell phones.

But here you have it. 

Things that make you go, Hmmmm....

Things That Make You Go, Hmmmm...

Each of these guys has two perfectly good legs

yet they choose to stand on one en masse. 

What's up with that?

Just wanted to share.

My Bestie's Birthday

1997

Our first known photo together.

I think we both look better now.

Going back through our pictures there are a lot like these:

Hmmmm...

But we do do other things together;

Scooter rides

Jumpy Houses

Concerts

The Cayman Islands

Margarita Fridays

Random Cards

Road Trips

Cookie Days

Bible Study

Bike Rides

Potlucks

Laughs

Tears

Hugs

A lady once referred to us as being

"joined at the hip"

like it was a bad thing.

But really, going through all my pictures I am surprised

at the events where there is not a picture

of the two of us with our heads locked together.

This tells me two things, 

We are not joined at the hips in exclusion to others,

and that as I look back on the events 

of the past 14 years, even if there is not

photographic proof, I can see Lory's place in all of them.

And it makes me happy.

One last one:

You're never too old for a Bestie, are you?

(or a jumpy house)

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding

With tabasco ice cream.

Yep, you read that right.

Just one of the amazing things we ate at

Robert Irvine's Eat

on Hilton Head Island.

The ice cream is just vanilla ice cream with some 

cinnamon and tabasco mixed in. 

You don't immediately taste the heat

but you feel it sliding down your throat.

Incredible.

The server gave me the recipe for the bread pudding.

It looks pretty basic with the addition of some 

sweet potato puree.

The recipe says 

"all rights reserved 2011"

Does that mean I can't post it?

Can I if I credit them?

Maybe I'll ask, mean time,

I must remember that I can cut this in half.

It calls for 12 eggs and 3 cups of butter

among other things!

German Onion Soup

With a pretzel grilled cheese on the side.

We've been on vacation for the past week.

A good friend once told me that if there is a washing machine

or a kitchen, it's not a vacation. 

I have lived by that little piece of wisdom

ever since.

So whereas I do enjoy a week of being waited on, 

I can't wait to get back in my kitchen and COOK!

To that end I picked up the October issue of

Cuisine at home 

at the airport for the flight home.

It may be my favorite resource for recipes.

This month I think I may just cook my way through 

the whole thing.

This soup was terrific, a german twist to 

french onion soup. 

One problem;

That's !!6!! LARGE onions.

The knife there would lead you to believe that I chopped all 

those but actually(actually) I used my mandolin.

Wonderful invention.

But it did not help with the river of tears I cried.

Nor the smell that so permeated my house that

when I returned home from being gone a couple of hours

I could smell the raw onions in my car as I drove

into the garage.

So heads up, after you cut up that many onions, 

cook them immediately!

Also, the recipe would have you *float* the pretzel

sandwiches on the soup like a crouton. 

While that would be way cool, 

how would you eat it?

PS, at some point do you think I will figure

out that I can cut a recipe in half?

Silencing Merry

ARGH!

I am having either computer issues or 

Face Book issues.

Whatever the culprit, 

I am not, at present, able to post my 

very witty and necessary commentary 

to my wall, your wall, or the man in the moon's wall.

At first I was very frustrated but I have since come to
view this as an opportunity for a character study.
Mine.
I was pretty sure the world needed
 my pearls of wisdom but apparently it does not.

The sun is still rising.

And for the record, whereas I can post this blog
onto Face Book,
I cannot write a witty intro comment.

Indian Summer Stew

Butternut Squash, Coconut, and Lentil Stew

The term "summer" is misleading, and I'm not sure I followed 

the reasoning behind it. But, whatever.

This was so good and hearty that we were satisfied with

just it and some naan bread.

Luckily I had seen Aarti make this.

It was so easy and quick but the *scary* part was 

what you do with the mustard seeds. 

You get a couple of tablespoons of oil screaming hot and 

then toss in the mustard seeds.

They pop and jump and sputter and generally go nutz!

Glad to have seen that on TV!

Then after you add red pepper flakes, garlic and salt, 

you dump the whole mess into the stew.

Popping, jumping and sputtering repeat.

And then you swirl some of the stew in the pan the spices have been in

and get a bit more jumping, popping, sputtering.

It's a very active dish. 

But very delicious.

My *tips*, 

you can get brown mustard seeds at The Spice House,

unsweetened coconut is in the healthy eating aisle, 

pigeon peas are not native to suburbia Illinois, 

lentils will suffice.

http://www.thespicehouse.com/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/indian-summer-stew-butternut-squash-coconut-and-lentil-stew-recipe/index.html

Triple-Ginger Squares

Or in my case, Double.

I didn't have any candied ginger in the freezer.

So, Double-Ginger Squares it is.

I got the recipe from November's issue of

Better Homes and Gardens. 

They don't have the recipe on the website that I can find so, 

sorry, you'll have to buy the magazine.

There were a couple of surprises in it.

Pepper.

Which I have actually heard of in some spice bread recipes

but just hadn't used myself.

A TABLESPOON

of baking powder. That's a lot of baking powder in my book.

The cook time. 

They said *33* to 35 minutes. 

That seems pretty specific to me and so I was surprised 

when they actually took more like 45 minutes.

And I took a couple of liberties.

"Mild-flavored" molasses became whatever I had in the cupboard.

Whipping cream became skim milk. 

Room temperature butter became butter that I beat

the bejesus out of in the stand mixer. 

It gets warm, eventually.

Part of the beauty of these was that I had *close*

to everything in house to make them.

Oh, and the other beauty?

They are amazingly delicious!!!