And then....

the trowel to pick up the dog poop is missing. So I get in my car to go to the store for a new one and one of my tires is flat. In the dark. And Sears is closed. I can't wait for tomorrow- you know this crap hits me in waves.............actually- I should check the other tires...........

Anyone see my mojo out there?

I haven’t cooked anything since I burnt the roof of my mouth Sunday with a freezer pizza. I’m not kidding- it still seriously hurts! I had a teaspoon of peanut butter a little while ago and even that irritated it!

This re-zoning crap has me alternating between “Mad-as-hell-and-I’m-not-taking-it-anymore” to resigned depression of the living hell my house will become if what is proposed is allowed to be built across the street. I won’t identify what & where for anonymity's (mine) sake. Regardless, it’s been lots of late night meetings, the scheduling of which is escalating as the Town meeting date approaches. I haven’t even been stitching much- I’ve been cutting back on coffee and I just tend to FreeCell-out at lunch. For being ahead of the game with my September ornament back in August, I’m now going to be behind- I haven’t touched it since I posted a photo over a month ago. I’m also hopelessly behind in my new TV season watching. At least I have On-Demand.

Izzie has resumed his inappropriate peeing again. In addition, he’s been falling off the arm of the couch when he’s been sleeping. I think it’s time…

Chickie has been doing a lot better. She didn’t like the oil on her food, so I found some tablets that has all the essential vitamins & minerals for a healthy coat, and she loves those. I also give her half a chlortrimeton twice a day. I can tell it works because when she gets to the 12-hour mark, she gets a little itchier.

Sue from Liv ‘n Laf sent me  a heads-ups on this from Ink Circles. Now I have to figure out where to get it. And when to stitch it.

Bob’s been in & out of the hospital several times recently with his breathing issues. Can’t give further info because I don’t have it. I’m convinced he has something worse than COPD and he’s not telling me. He doesn’t seem to get better, and he’s on every inhaler there is. The latest hospitalization resulted in the diagnosis that he “can’t be on Advair anymore- he’s been on it too long.” I try not to dwell.

In addition to my burnt mouth, we’re back to the soupy weather. So here are some things from Tastespotting that look good- cooking vicariously, if you will:

Pina Colada cake

Mexican Chicken Casserole

Cranberry Orange Scones

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Chocolate Covered Cornflakes

7-Second Cheesy Broccoli Potato Chowder

Parmesan, Herb and Garlic Popovers

mmmmmpopoversssssssssssss………….

Wonderful Wednesday Wrecipe Wrepeat…

I’ve been too busy to cook, and very tired this week for some reason. I’m trying to cut back on my coffee consumption- a typical day is 32 oz. plus half a cup. (Thermos plus to-go mug). Sunday I didn’t have any coffee at all, which resulted in a fork-in-the eye-type headache, but I ended up sleeping pretty well. So I’m experimenting in cutting back. Anywhose, here’s what I put together for stitching tomorrow night at Jeanne’s. I’ve made them before, but they’re yummy and light and no cooking involved! Yay!

Fruit Kebabs

• one quarter seedless watermelon
• one honey dew melon
• one pineapple

NOTE: this is the combination of fruit I prefer, and results in more than enough kebabs for 8 hungry ladies for a snack, with leftovers. By all means, if you like different fruits- strawberries or blueberries, cantaloupe, or kiwi, use that. It just has to be firm enough to pass a stick thru

Dipping sauce:

• 2- 8 oz. containers vanilla yogurt (full, low or no-fat- your preference)
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 1 TBSP honey

Cube fruits into 3/4” to 1” pieces. Thread one of each piece onto 4” bamboo skewers. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Meanwhile, in a small container, mix yogurt, lime zest and juice, and honey. Whisk with a fork until combined. Cover and refrigerate until serving. This tastes better the next day, when the flavors have married together.

Arrange skewers on a platter and serve with dipping sauce.

I filled 3 Ziploc shoebox containers, plus had leftover melon.

From Wiki-How-Of-The-Day

In honor of Elephant Appreciation Day (today)

How to Sew an Elephant Character Cushion: 7 steps (with pictures) - wikiHow

or just go over to your neighborhood elephant's house and wish him a good day, I suppose.

Now I wish I really WAS a pirate!

Arrrrrrrrr! Aye, i want those last 3 hours o' my life back, shiver me timbers! I hate me Town rapscallions meetin's !

It’s Our Favorite Holiday Today!

“Talk Like A Pirate Day”!

Here are some tips to enhance your dinner conversation tonight:

Pirate Vocabulary

Credit should be given to the Talk Like a Pirate official website for some of these definitions of authentic pirate-speak:

• Ahoy! - "Hello!"
• And ye may lay to that! - "You betcha!"

• Arrr! - This is often confused with "arrrrgh," which is, of course, the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrrr!", like "Aloha," means variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!

• Avast! - derived from "hold fast". Stop and give attention. This word, like many pirate words, has multiple meanings, so it can also can be used in place of, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"
• Aye! - "Yes!"
• Aye aye! - "I understand what you said and I will carry out your order!"
• Be - "Am, is, are." As in "I (or Me) be goin' t' get more grog, he be goin' t' get more grog, and they be goin' t' get more grog." This will also avoid confusion between "are" and "arrr" or "arrgh."
• Beauty – The best possible pirate address for a woman. Always preceded by "me," as in, "C'mere, me beauty," or even, "me buxom beauty," to one particularly well endowed. You'll be surprised how effective this is.
• Belay - To immediately cease or stop. Usually used in a disgusted context such as "Belay that landlubber talk!!"
• Bilge rat – The bilge is the lowest level of the ship. It's loaded with ballast and slimy, reeking water. A bilge rat, then, is a rat that lives in the worst place on the ship. Pirates, just like their modern-day counterparts (regular guys), love to joke and jibe with their buddies. By all means, pirates will call their buddies "bilge rats."
• Booty - Anything of value a pirate can plunder.
• Bung hole – It's the hole in a wooden barrel, usually sealed with a cork. To get what's in the barrel out, usually, the cork is pried out, opening the bung hole. Saying, "Well, me hearties, let's see what crawled out of the bung hole" will often be accompanied by the sound of 21st century citizens running for their lives. Yay! Dinner for one, coming up!
• Colors - See also, "Hoist the Colors!" The Pirate flag, with many variations. Designed to strike terror into your opponent, many times they would not even fight back, immediately surrendering.
• Davy Jones' Locker - Where the souls of drowned pirates go.
• Grog – An alcoholic drink, usually rum diluted with water and lime juice, but in this context you could use it to refer to any alcoholic beverage other than beer, and we aren't prepared to be picky about that, either.
• Hoist the Colors! - To raise the Pirate flag before attacking. Also a rallying cry for Pirates before they go into battle.
• Hornpipe – Both a single-reeded musical instrument sailors often had aboard ship, and a spiriteddance that sailors do. The common term for being filled with lust is "horny," and hornpipe then has some comical possibilities. "Is that a hornpipe in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me? Or both?"
• Hearties or Matey - Shipmates or friends.
• Keel haul - A grisly death indeed. The pirate is tied by a rope at the front of the ship at full sail. He is then kicked off and made to drag along the keel, or bottom spine of the ship, usually through the sharp barnacles clinging to the hull. It would act like a cheese grater. "Ye'll be Keel Hauled!" would strike terror into any pirate.
• Lass - A name for a woman, usually more polite and romantic.
• Lubber – (or land lubber) Where a lubber is a poor seaman, a land lubber is an exceptionally ignorant seaman. [1] In a room where everyone is talking like pirates, lubber is always an insult.
• Motherload - refers to when the largest amount of booty is successfully located.
• Savvy - Ok or understand. As in, "Savvy?" meaning "Do you understand"
• Saucy - Sexy. "Ye be a Saucy Wench!"
• Scrumpet- A name for a women, not the most polite term but not rude either.
• Smartly – Do something quickly. "Smartly, me lass," you might say when sending the bar maid off for another round. She will be so impressed she might well spit in your beer.
• Scurvy - Well, of course, it's an awful affliction that used to bedevil buccaneers in days gone by; that's one reason there was lime juice added to the rum in the water, making grog. So calling someone a "scurvy bilge rat" is even worse than calling him a "bilge rat."
• Shiver me timbers! - Pirate for "Well, I'll be" or "Is that so?". Originating from when a cannon ball hits a ship and the planking shatters into splinters.
• Show a Leg! - Phrase to wake up a sailor. "Show a leg!, it be dawn, you scurvy lubber!".
• Wench - Woman, girl, or waitress. It can also refer to a peasant girl or prostitute .
• Yardarm - Not just convenient framework to hang the sails, but often times used as a holding post for the disobedient ol' salts, as in, "Tie that dawg to the yardarm".

Knock, knock….

yes I’m still here. And I even stitched! Here’s Quaker Halloween:

I got the little motif under the  second “L” of “HALLOWS” done Thursday night at Jeanne’s.

I got my latest IKEA catalog the other day, and it tempted me to the store. I made the executive decision to replace my well-worn but serviceable Pfaltzgraff Aura daily dishes with new ones:

Meet FÄRGRIK:

It’s two different sets- one green DMC 472, and the other white. Just dinner & salad plates and bowls, so  I still kept all my Aura serving pieces to use. The rest went into a storage bin in the basement. I love the bowls- they make me happy!

Wonderful Wednesday Wrecipes…

I came across another “donut muffin” recipe; this one is sans cinnamon. Eaten warm from the oven, I decided these were a bit lackluster; they really do need more spice (cinnamon?) In my opinion, they were actually tastier the second day. The cake was still moist and fresh tasting, and I didn’t mind the absence of spice at all. Go figure! I made a few adjustments to the original recipe, which I found on Tastespotting (scroll down the page a bit). I like the extra moistness that sour cream adds to muffins, and I knew without the cinnamon, extra nutmeg was a must. The superfine sugar had a  less grittier feel on the tongue.

Sugar Donut Muffins

Makes 10

• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 TBSP butter, melted
• ½ cup superfine sugar (or regular if that’s what you have)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and egg until light in color.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
4. In a measuring cup, measure oil and milk, and add the sour cream and vanilla. Whisk with a fork to combine thoroughly.
5. Add wet ingredients to butter/egg mixture and combine well. Dump dry ingredients on top, and mix just until combined, but DO NOT overbeat!
6. Divide batter evenly into 10 wells of the muffin tin.
7. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until tester comes out clean, and tops are lightly golden brown,
8. While muffins are baking, melt butter in a small bowl; measure superfine sugar into another.
9. When muffins are done, dip into butter, then into the sugar. Cool on a wire rack, or serve warm.

While finding the proper link to the original recipe, I came across a lemon flavored donut muffin recipe! That will go on the “To-Do” list!

Twue Blood

"Deaw-y bewuved..."......Name that movie!
Eight vials of life later, and NO fainting! I surprised myself. And I was only 10 minutes late for work. It would be awesome to be a match- the testing process takes 60 days, which would come to mid-November. Wouldn't that be an incredible Christmas present for someone??!! (And I continue to NOT think about any potential discomfort I may undergo......please don't remind me!) OH! And if I'm a match and I undergo the donation process just before Thanksgiving, maybe I WON'T have to cook dinner this year!!!! Ssee, always look for the silver lining. Happy voting!

In Closing…

here’s the final shot of  last week’s apple pie:

I took the liberty of drizzling a bit of caramel sauce on top of the ice cream; I hope no one minds. The store brand crust was surprisingly light & flaky. And the Granny Smith apples were perfect- tart the way I like it, but without having to use lemon juice. And guess what? Diabetic boy now has the pod (like the pump, but smaller) so he can eat almost a normal diet. No more cooking with Splenda!

In unrelated news, I give my blood samples tomorrow for bone marrow matching purposes. Plus it’s primary day, plus it’s re-zoning hearing night. I’ll be a busy, tired girl.

Well!

I joined the HLA bone marrow registry close to 20 years ago; a former classmate’s son had some strange disease, and staged a bone marrow drive in my hometown. The classmate was (and still is for all I know) a total bitch – I absolutely hated her guts! - and I donated a blood sample out of spite for her, if that makes any sense.

Well, I just got my first and only call that I’m a potential match for someone! I have to submit a more significant blood sample next week, and they do more testing. After 60 days, they’ll let me know if I’m a match and if I have to donate marrow or stem cells. The stem cell thing sounds less harrowing. I’d take a specific drug for 5 days to induce more somethings to occur in my blood, then have blood withdrawn, the somethings removed and the rest pumped back in. The marrow will involve a needle under either local or general anesthesia, into the rear of my pelvic bone-gahhh!

I’m kind of excited! Annnddd I’ll just not dwell on any of the rest of it! The HLA person had a charming British accent- I would have said “yes” to anything she asked- but don’t tell her that!

Wicked Wednesday Wrecipe

First up is a home economic tip:

Kids- read your shelf prices!

The package says “$2.79”, but the shelf says “$2.89”. And my local supermarket offers a price scanning guarantee. So I grabbed my cheese with giggle and skipped to the register:

Sure enough, the cheese rang in at $2.89. But look what they did:

I got the 10 cents difference back, plus they deducted $3.79, which is either a 130% back or the $2.79 plus a dollar. Regardless, they ended up paying ME to buy the cheese! Yay me! I’ve gotten lots of items free, plus the bonus money back, numerous times, just by paying attention at the register.

……….END OF LESSON……… on to the recipe………….

Rustic Apple Pie

makes 2 small pies

• 4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1/3 cup Splenda sugar substitute (or use real sugar)
• 2 TBSP flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 2 TBSP butter, cut into bits
• 1 package refrigerated pie crusts (Pillsbury or store brand)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Peel & chunk apples into a large mixing bowl.
3. In a small bowl, combine Splenda (for diabetic boys) or sugar, flour, cinnamon & nutmeg with a whisk, then sprinkle over apples in large bowl and toss to combine. 
4. On 2 separate pieces of parchment, open up the 2 pie crusts. Divide apple filling between each crust, mounding in the center. 
5. Top each apple pile with a tablespoon of butter bits. Gather up sides of crust around apples, pinching folds together, and pressing into apples.
6. Lift each pie by the parchment onto a large baking sheet. The 2 pies should fit side by side on a large commercial cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 30 minutes in 400 degree oven. Test for doneness by inserting the tip of a sharp knife into the apples- if they’re soft, it’s done. 
8. Cool for 20 minutes. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I use one of these apple slicer/corer things:

It makes it really easy to peel. Just be sure to remove the bits of the seed pockets that may remain- those are tough little buggers to get in your nice slice of pie!

Back at it…

Quaker Halloween update:

I spent the entire Labor Day weekend dreading having to go door-to-door with a petition in my little neighborhood for a re-zoning issue. Speaking in front of a large group is my number one phobia; going door-to-door is a close number two. I waited until Monday evening around 6:00. One household wasn’t home and a second homeowner wanted to wait for her husband. So technically, I’m not done. And I’m already procrastinating about returning to those houses. Jeesh! I think I’m going to “forget” all about it. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

PS

Chickie ended up being fine. She's back to all her doggie activities: chasing the cats away from her food dish, going up & down stairs again (I have to warn her to slow down), she even pulled out some of her toys. Thanks for your good thoughts!

She got her humor from MY side of the family….

The daughter forwarded a link to this site—**********BEWARE!!!!!!!!**************

Contains potentially offensive material (like swear words and potty humor, and, if you look thru all the links, even worse!)

Regretsy - “Where DIY meets WTF”

This chick needs to be writing for Jimmy Fallon…

just sayin’ …….

Happy Meals and Happy Hours blog.

Laugh ‘til the Pepsi spurts out your nose.

Is it me?

or is the internet vvveeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyslow today?

Wicked Wednesday Wrecipe….

I know everyone may not own a bread machine, but maybe you’re clever enough to alter this recipe for “by hand”. This is a very tasty bread, ever-so-slightly sweet, and hearty from the oats.

Honey Oatmeal Bread (for the bread machine)

Makes one 1-1/2 pound loaf

• 1-1/4 cups water
• 3 TBSP honey
• 1-1/4 tsp salt
• 2 TBSP softened butter (I cut it into little cubes when chilled, then micro for 13 seconds on high)
• 3 cups bread flour
• ½ cup old fashioned or quick-cooking oats
• 2 TBSP dry milk
• 2 tsp bread machine or quick active yeast

 

Measuring carefully, place all ingredients into bread machine pan in the order as given. Select “sweet” mode and “light” crust. This sets my Betty Crocker machine to cycle in about 2 hours 50 minutes +/-.

When done, remove immediately from pan and cool on a wire rack.

I read somewhere recently that salt will inhibit the action of the yeast, so I started adding the salt directly to the water; my bread definitely rises higher! I dare you to NOT eat a slice right out of the machine!