Good Evening

It’s been a busy day today and an exhausting one too! The photo was l8unch; zucchini pancakes! Oh, trey are SO good! Four ingredients; 1 cup of grated zucchini, ½ cup of egg beaters, 1 TBS Parmesan cheese, 2 TBS flour. Mix all the ingredients together and cook like you would a pancake. If your zucchini is on the watery side, drain it in a colander squeezing with a paper towel before mixing it with the other ingredients. Add spices to taste. I just added pepper and garlic powder. It’s so simple and so good! I cooked 4 pancakes two at a time in a teaspoon of olive oil. It’s low-calorie and the only fat in it was a small serving of a healthy oil; a filling meal and it was a very small WW points total. Feel free to email me for more info on how I figured the points.  I never have any trouble with my veggies, but if I don’t have nuts or olives in the house, I have a hard time making sure I get healthy oil in my day.  You could serve them with a little sour cream, ranch or spaghetti sauce, but I ate them sans sauce and they were great.

I’ve also cut up 5 pounds of peaches and added the other ingredients to my crock pot for peach butter. I can’t wait until the house starts smelling like that! I need to get a hold of some gingersnaps or graham crackers for when it’s done!

For now, let’s move on to the Monday (evening) Quiz About Me hosted by Heather at Acting Balanced!

1. How was your weekend?

This was Summerail weekend in Cincinnati. David worked later than we wanted to be leaving Friday, so we were up bright an early on Saturday for the drive down. I love the big event where we get to see our friends who are fellow railfans. The great people we enjoy time with are a huge perk of the hobby! We saw some really good shows this year. There were narratives that told great stories and photos of steam taken in the 50s, when steam powered trains hauled freight and standard passenger service. I really enjoyed the shows, but Summerail is usually the best out there.

I also got my Cincinnati Chili for dinner Saturday. The only part of the weekend I missed was Sunday breakfast with everyone. David had to be back for work in the afternoon. Next time for sure!


2. What is your favorite kind of candy?

Let’s see, anything chocolate! Okay, okay, especially Mr. Goodbar and Skinny Cow Peanut Butter Heavenly Crisp. My favorite M&Ms are pretzel and almond!


3. If I say the word 'high' what do you think?

Euphoric


4. What are you most looking forward to about Autumn?

PUMPKIN SPICE SEASON!!! It’s happening right now!  About mid-August I start to crave everything pumpkin spice; coffee, scones, donuts, ice cream, pumpkin butter and pudding and…STOP ME IT'S TOOO EARRRRLYYYYYY!

drool

Pumpkin Roll Cake recipe at My Fabulous Recipes

And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!

Do you take daily vitamins? Is it a mutli or specific supplements?

I went to place an order for vitamins this morning and didn’t place it. The prices for them are crazy. With prescription coverage the vitamins out-cost my medications by about 50% and I have a depressing number of prescriptions. So I emptied the online cart. The price is just too insane. I think I might try to go without them and see if I feel any different. I’ll still take the prescribed meds, just not the doctor suggested vitamins. Maybe I should just go Flintstones?

The whole “I’m too cheap to buy my vitamins” thing may be over tomorrow, or next week when I’ve been without them for a while, but for today, My pocketbook is closed to the vitamin guys.

Gee, It’s Hot

Good morning all! I’m sipping my morning coffee; a Cinnamon Spice Starbucks VIA. I need to place an 11th Street Coffee order today. My wonderful cousin, having read my Tweet about the VIA before we left for vacation and knowing that we don’t have a close Dunkin Donuts, sent me a box of Dunkin K-Cups. That was an awesome surprise when we got back! Since we were leaving for over a week, I wasn’t placing a coffee order or going to the grocery store the week before so my morning coffee was VIA Colombia. While I definitely like the VIA Columbia, The Dunkin Donuts coffee is the absolute taste of comfort for me!


Not a lot going on in Toledo this morning. The big story is the weather, mainly the HOT weather. David mentioned that he’d probably end up writing a weather story today. Headline: “Gee, it’s hot!” I’ve read several sources they predict over 100 for tomorrow! National Weather Service says 101 and Google says 106! The hottest it’s ever been in Toledo is 105, so 106 would definitely be a record breaker. I say bring it!

That’s not me craving heat! Over 100 is even too hot for terminally cold me, but like if you’re buying a new car and want a sun roof, get a car with a sunroof, add it on to the loan. It’s not like you’re paying cash without the sunroof and spread out over the life of the loan you won’t even notice it whereas it might be too expensive after market. Point being; if you’re going to spend the money on a car anyway, get it all. If it’s going to be over 100 anyway, break a record! Hopefully that means that we don’t need to go over 100 again. We’ll see how that works, but if we’re all going to be uncomfortable anyway, let’s be part of an historical event!

1. What do the words 'freedom' and 'liberty' mean to you? Does your mind go more in the direction of not being persecuted or discriminated against or does it head in the direction of doing what you please?

Freedom to me is all about taking the responsibility of respecting and being respected. It’s having my individual rights and my own choices without senseless persecution. If you’ve read any of my rants here, you know that I have little tolerance for those who insist that everyone does it their way when not doing it their way has no effect on them or their own ability to do it their way. I don’t insist that anyone marries who I tell them to, dresses how I say to or drinks coffee every morning because I do. Those things don’t make a difference in my own ability to be married to my husband, wear a sweater in the summer or have my morning coffee. I’m also not going to change any of those things because someone else says I should. My marriage, dress and coffee habits make no difference on their marriage, what they wear or the fact that they prefer tea.

Freedom and liberty are not just doing what I want, but it’s not judging or being judged where no judgment is warranted.



2. Nathan's sponsors a hot dog eating contest every 4th of July. Last year over 40,000 people attended the event and almost 2 million watched it on TV. The winner ate over 60 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. How do you like your hot dogs?

First off I hate gluttony contests. The concept of eating quickly until you throw up when there are people starving anywhere is disgusting to me. But, back to that last question, to each his own. I choose not to watch those displays.

I love hot dogs! I eat “snouts and tails” dogs, never all-beef, at the ball park and Ball Park Turkey Dogs at home. Two is my usual limit on the turkey dogs, one on the snouts and tails and always mustard, just mustard. When I was little that was all they had for hot dogs at Tiger Stadium and I came to know just mustard as the only way to eat a “real” hot dog!


3. If you were going to enter an eating contest what would be on the menu?

Again, never will, but ice cream, definitely ice cream.


4. Do you run your house more as a dictatorship or a democracy?

I’d say a dictatorship, but the cats are benevolent dictators.

I am so opposed to the idea of running a family unit as a dictatorship. My brother has that notion and I don’t know where he got it from. We weren’t raised that way.

Our home was, in political model terms, a communist state when we were very little. We did things to the best of our ability and were provided for equally by “the government,” Mom and Dad. As we got older we moved into a democracy where in our capitalist world we did our chores and got our allowances with opportunities to do extra things for an increase in pay. When there were things happening, rules changing, curfews etc., we had a voice; sometimes it was a vote and sometimes the government listening to our concerns before making a decision. That form of household “government,” that grew as the family grew, fostered mutual respect between parents and kids.

I’m not naive enough to believe I was a totally equal person in my parents’ home. Any of us totally equal to members of our government? But I felt respected as a member of the family and made choices with much less selfish considerations, even as a teenager. So did Dave, but he forgets. (Judgmental big sister grumble)


5. Where was your favorite summer place when you were a kid?

Everywhere around town! Summer started with Vacation Bible School at the Baptist Church and we did stuff with the youth group all summer, we had passes at the high school pool for swimming and there were arts and crafts at a few of the schools. I can’t say I loved any of them more than the others; I always had great summers!


6. Do you have a guest room? Would you want to stay there?

No and no. We have a lot of work to do on our house before I’d invite anyone over! The house is a perennial work in progress.


7. Next Wednesday America celebrates her independence. Do you have any special plans for the 4th of July? If you live outside the USA when and how does your country celebrate its own patriotic holiday?

I don’t really have any plans. I usually wear red, white and blue, red and white on Canada Day (July 1) too, and I try to find someplace to see some fireworks.


8. Insert your own random thought here.

Credits: Thanks A Mellon by Blue Heart Scraps

For my random thought today I’m sharing a scrapbook layout and a “recipe.” Recipe is in quotes because it’s more an idea than a recipe. In 2008, a few days before we left on a Labor Day trip, Pop gave me a whole watermelon. I love watermelon, but don’t buy whole ones because we wouldn’t eat it all before it spoiled. Well, since we were leaving, my idea was that I’d cut up what was left and see how it froze. After forgetting it was in the freezer, I pulled out the frozen watermelon cubes in October! I shaved down the cubes in the blender and it made wonderful watermelon slush! It’s actually a great summer dessert idea and it’s watermelon; a wonderful frozen treat for kids! The “recipe” is chop-freeze-crush and serve!

Happy Summer First!

I know, I know, I have been a little scarce. I was really busy at the beginning of the week a couple weeks back getting ready for last week. Last week was our (late) spring vacation! Last year and this year David’s vacation time was later than it had been when we went to Florida in 2010. Of course we melted last year in record end of May/beginning of July heat in Iowa and especially in St. Louis, so this year, with vacation time in June…we went farther south!

It sounds quite insane considering that, while I like the heat, David unequivocally does NOT! But there were free room and family opportunities that prompted the decision. Baby brother was planning a trip after his girls graduated from high school to take the whole family, including his step daughter’s family and Dad and Aunt Judy to Italy. As a planner I guess I’m a little harsh, but I’ve commented before about my brother and paper bags and being trapped inside one without GPS.  He probably wouldn’t have planned ahead and brought batteries for the GPS anyway. Four months before the trip, he discovered the prices for flights to Italy were just a TON pricier than he expected. So, the family trip to Italy became a beach vacation in North Carolina.

The planned beach vacation was his family with Dad and Aunt Judy to the Outer Banks. David had planned his vacation time around his birthday and concert tickets in Washington DC the day before. We asked little bro if he might have room in his beach rental for guests a couple of nights and he was ecstatic that we wanted to join them. So our vacation week included 2 days and three nights in their sound-side rental in Duck, North Carolina, in between trains, 3 baseball games, a Marillion concert and a fun evening car-camping by the railroad tracks. For our two days, we visited The Wright Brothers museum and memorial in Kill Devil Hills, Jenette’s Pier, where my family was fishing, 4 light houses and we ate lots of seafood!

My main issue with the 3 nights at the beachouse was the steps. There was a full flight of stairs into the main level of the house. That’s hurricane protection, but it’s definitely not handicap-friendly at all. Every time I used the steps, someone had to run the walker in front of me so I could grab it when I reached the end and walk in front of me going down or behind me going up with instructions to push hard if I started falling down because I’d rather break a few teeth on the wood steps than my skull on the concrete floor below. Good news is, as nerve-racking as it was doing the steps, I experienced the victorious feeling of accomplishment every time. But next time I go to the beach, we’ll do a hotel with an elevator. I’ve never understood vacation rentals; what kind of vacation is it where you cook, clean and make your own bed? (And do more steps than home!)

My highlight of the beach time was seeing the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras. My parents had traveled to The Outer Banks together and Mom was in her glory seeing the lighthouses. She had brought home a replica of every one of them that were displayed in their bedroom. She was a huge lighthouse fan and Cape Hatteras was her favorite. We shared many lighthouse trips on the Great Lakes, but seeing Hatteras was special for me since she loved it so and that was one we hadn’t seen together. Mom’s lighthouses are on a shelf in our nautical-themed bathroom. I’d been with her to some of them, but it’s neat to have seen a few of the other ones now.


I’ll tell a little more about what we did on vacation in the next week or so. For now, It’s Wednesday and I’m back to my normal week, so, how about a little Hodge Podge?

1. Summer officially rolls in with the Hodgepodge this week, for those of us in the Northern hemisphere anyway. What song says summer 2012 to you?

I can’t think of a specifically 2012. When I was in my 20s and 30s, Summer was always official when I could drive the Camaro with the windows down and Motley Crue’s “Wild Side” blasting in the cassette player. More recently, I think Kati Perry’s “California Girls” makes me think of summer. I’ll probably think of a bunch more after I hit “post.”




2. What's your favorite quintessential summer food?

Gazpacho, A Midsummer Evening’s Pasta and Baseball Nut Ice Cream from Baskin Robbins

Recipe is my random thought

3. I've spent a lot of time traipsing up and down the NJ Turnpike in recent weeks. Did you know the rest areas on the turnpike are named after people who lived or worked in NJ? Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper, Molly Pitcher, Joyce Kilmer, Thomas Edison, and Gover Clevland just to name a few. Of those I listed, who would you most like to have known and why?

Thomas Edison – he was an old fashioned Steve Jobs!

A little tongue in cheek there, but Edison said “why not?” to so many things that became necessities. Think about it; in the timeline of discovery, without the development of the phonograph to record and replay data, voice, and without a power grid to transmit electricity, would the iPhone or iPad have ever been developed? I just find the historical roots of modern day normal to be fascinating.


4. At what age did you move out of your parent's house and what prompted the move?

I left my parents’ house when I was 40. I was there for the same reason I left; money. I was fine to stay there and drive my sports car while hoping to get to Atlanta, but mergers in the communication production field and the fall of the economy left me really grateful to still be with my parents! I don’t imagine it would have been easy to have to come back after I’d been out!

The economy was challenging Dad’s income and Aunt Judy’s bills and they chose to combine assets. I was already an hour away from my boyfriend and moving with them would put me farther away. Boyfriend offered to let me move in and I thought that was a better choice for me. It ends up that I’m married and still living with that boyfriend now, so it worked out well.


5. What's more satisfying to you-saving time or saving money?

Saving money is wonderful, but I hate wasting time more than anything! I’ll spend more in gas to drive around construction than be stuck in traffic. I need to feel occupied more than I need to see my wallet full.


6. Name something you think brings out the good in people.

Wheelchairs! No, really, people are incredibly kind and want to be helpful to people in wheelchairs.


7. This last question comes to you courtesy of Kathy over at Reflections...Will you be taking a vacation or a staycation this summer? If so where will you go? If a staycation is on the calendar have you made any special plans to fill the time?

If ‘va” is the part that makes it “go someplace,” then “cation” is the part that means “take a break.” That being said, I don’t believe in the word “staycation.” Taking a break to me is seeing something new and NOT being at work or home. It’s also having housekeeping making the bed and the staff at a restaurant serving the food and doing the dishes!

We just got back from 11 days in Virginia and the Carolinas.



8. Insert your own random thought here.

Here’s my recipe for A Midsummer Evening’s Pasta, one of my favorite dishes I cook in the summer.

***Recipe***

A Midsummer Evening's Pasta

 serves 2

2 cups of dry Farfalle pasta

2 Roma tomatoes

1 cup of fresh basil leaves torn into bite-sized pieces

1 TBS. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

3/4 cup of freshly shredded Asiago cheese.

Boil pasta in water with an extra drop of olive oil to keep it from sticking. Cook pasta until it is al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, dice the tomatoes and mix them with the fresh basil and olive oil. Adjust taste with salt and pepper.

When pasta is done cooking, drain it and put it in a serving bowl, immediately adding the tomato and basil mixture and the Asiago cheese. Mix it to warm the additional ingredients and melt the cheese.

Serve warm.

Blog Defragging

Digitalegacies Designs’ One Step At A Time was inspired by the Jordin Sparks song

Last night I started putting this post together with the intent of scheduling it to post at 6 AM, which is usually right before I wake up anyway, even though my alarm is set for 7:05. The last couple of days I’ve been waking up around 7:30! It’s more sleep than I usually need, but if the body says “hit the snooze,” I’m going to give the body what it needs if I don’t have a pressing reason to be up earlier.

Yesterday was a weather mess! There were tornadoes up in Michigan and flash flood warnings all over. We had "take your pick” lighting; gray clouds, but give it a minute, look, sun! Unseasonably warm and just as you opened the windows, rumble.4rumble,” says the sky. Seriously, I heard ominous rumbling that shook the house with bright sunlight washing our street! All that sound and fury was going on in the afternoon and it didn’t rain until almost 10:30PM! Last night was a weather mess. It rained like the dickens, lots of rain, thunder, lightning and a little hail. The day in our part of Toledo started and ended with hail. Hmmm.

So far today the radar is clear and there is a little glint of sun showing, but that is scheduled to change this afternoon and become cloudy. We’ll see. I’ve come to think of weather as a gamble based on science rather than an actual science!

Follow Friday Four Fill in Fun Blog Hop

Every week Hilary at Feeling Beachie hosts the Friday Fill-Ins. This week’s co-host is Boca Frau who added the last two fill-ins.

This week’s statements:
1. I get my best ideas_____
2. When I am ___ I ___
3. When I have a cold, I like to_____
4. Watching a ____ move, can be ______.


My finished statements:

1. I get my best ideas when I’m trying to get a great idea. Seriously, I’m what I call a linear rather than lyrical creative. My best stuff comes from needing a great idea. Even my best scrapbooking ideas come while I’m working on a page and I just can’t put a page together unless I have the photos and journaling done first.

2. When I am bored I watch TV. I don’t watch a lot of TV! :)

3. When I have a cold, I like to drink regular Coke heated up in the microwave. A cup of Coke zapped for 60 seconds makes it sweet and warm with a fine fizz that massages the throat. For me with a cold it’s the ultimate comfort drink.


4. Watching a windmill move, can be very calming. Even the less classic looking wind turbines have a soothing effect on me.


Join us! It takes a few minutes to do the fill-in and a couple more to read the other blogs and see who thinks like you and who reads the fill-ins way different! It’s fun!

Friday Fragments

Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin’ Time hosts Friday Fragments, a chance to defrag your blog by emptying those short things from your “To Blog” folder. I can’t be the only one that has a To Blog on my desktop. It’s an opportunity to post those things that are worth blogging, but just not big enough for a whole post. If your blog could use some weekly defragging, why not join us?


** Grandma crocheted mini afghans for the family cats. I have a bunch of squares she crocheted that I need to put together to make one for Carla. Grandma didn’t meet Carla but she saw pictures and said, “Guess I need to make another kitty afghan.” So, it seems appropriate that I use her squares to make one for Carla


** I was treading Ronalyn’s blog, The Adventures of Esa and Zed, last week. Zed lost his collar, his Washington Capitals collar. It was a big deal because his Capitals collar had his tags on it. When Ronalyn found the collar, Zed had located it and was sniffing it as if to say, “Mom, over here!”

Before she got sick, Azzie wore a collar with a bell and even a bow at Christmastime. I took the collar off for good when she got her paw caught in it when she had a seizure. I worried that it could have broken her front leg. But Az loved her collar and even the bow.

Years before when I had gotten Ritchie, a black cat, his red collar with the rhinestones on it, he strutted around with his head up and showed it off to everyone. I think it was his badge of “I’m not an alleycat anymore; I’m a loved housecat now! When Ritchie died and Pop buried him, he took his collar off and gave it to me to remember him. It’s still in my box with memorial prayer cards and keepsakes.

When Kaline was a kitten, I got a less expensive collar without a bell in blue for her as a “training collar.” I planned to move to a nice navy blue collar, so with her orange coat she’d sport Detroit Tigers colors, with rhinestones and a bell when she was adult size. She hated the collar with a passion unknown to any cat before her. She unhooked the collar numerous times before it was finally lost for good. I think she hid it in the basement somewhere. She won. When we moved to Toledo and Chester and Baggle didn’t wear collars, I knew our sweet baby girl would never wear accessories. She’s 6-1/2 now and has never worn a collar since she was a kitten. And she really never wore that one either.


** We had an issue Sunday about warm vs. hot and iced vs. hot coffee. David got me an iced coffee because I “usually have iced coffee when it’s warm.” Huh? It was in the 60s Sunday. NOT iced coffee weather! I love that he remembered that I sometimes go iced in the summer, but I only have iced coffee for my first coffee of the day if wake-up temperature is near 80! I even have hot coffee with breakfast on days that hit the 90s if they start off at 75 or below. Any other coffee drinkers want to chime in? What time of day or time of year is iced coffee time?


** I’ve been in a bit of a cooking mood lately. Thursday dinner was Froot Loop Chicken. Moms, Grandmas, this is a simple recipe that is a good kid idea! I used chicken cutlets, but chicken strips work too. Dip them in egg or egg substitute, the coat them with Froot Loops that have been ground into crumbs in a food processor. I use my little 2-cup chopper. Bake for 20 minutes at 400. Tasty and fun!

Froot Loop Chicken -

(Don't be concerned, the salad and raw carrots had a separate plate!)

I got the idea from the fried Captain Crunch chicken strips at Planet Hollywood about 15 years ago. Froot Loops are similar in taste and just more fun!


** New music ot The Chronicles of Nani includes some more upbeat, springy stuff, including One Step At A Time by Jordin Sparks. No question that since hearing that one the first time it easily rates in my top songs of all-time list! I just love it from the lyrics to the feel of the melody to that incredible dress she wears in the video! It’s an all around total package of great music!


Okay, blog defragged for another week! :)

Thursday Thoughts

Good gloomy Thursday! All right, it’s gloomy in Toledo, but the sun always shines in Cyberspace, right? I guess it’s not so sunny if you have a cyber-nightclub, but in this cyber coffee shop, it’s always sunny.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by a flash of light and a breeze coming in the open window. It’s not a vivid memory, I sleep soundly, but I recalled it when I looked outside and saw wet pavement this morning. I remember hearing the rain start and saying to David that he should probably close the window. The window is on his side of the bed. Only, David wasn’t there. He’d gotten up for some reason and was coming back into the room and made a comment about “fat raindrops.” I said it sounded like hail. He looked out the window and studied the downpour. He confirmed it was hail and it was coming down hard, making a lot of noise on the metal roof on the enclosed porch off the bedroom. I asked him where Carla was because she gets scared from the sound of rain on the metal roof and the hail was very loud. He said she was downstairs…and that’s the last I remember. I suspect if there was any more conversation, I was talking in my sleep.

Remembering dreams from the middle of the night is much more interesting than remembering reality when the weather wakes me.


Yesterday was Pi Day, 3-14! To celebrate, for lunch I made a perfectly round, and perfectly fat-free, pizza Pi!

A full Pizza Fit ‘n Free is a perfect fit for my new 8” plates!

Pizza Fit ‘n Free  is fat free pizza that tastes just fabulous! The pizzas are shipped with very tasty sauce and the fat free cheese. I added a strip of turkey bacon and a couple spoons of sautéed onions and bell pepper. There is just a trace of fat in the toppings and it adds just enough to make the cheesy gooey. A plain cheese pizza if still great, but the cheese doesn’t get so gooey without the trace of fat the sautéed veggies and turkey bacon added. It was fantastic and a whole pizza id s just 6 WW points!


Since I was going to be preparing the toppings for my pizza, I went ahead and chopped the whole onion and bell pepper, as well as cooking three more slices of turkey bacon to make Quichettes. They turned out great!

Real simple recipe too!

Ingredients

3 strips of turkey bacon cooked medium crisp and cut into squares
1 diced bell pepper
1 diced medium onion
1 tsp. margarine
1 piece string cheese, diced.
1 cup Egg Beaters
2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

Sauté onion and pepper in margarine. Mix cooled bacon, onions and pepper with string cheese cubes and Egg Beaters. Add Parmesan cheese and stir until blended. Pour evenly into sprayed 12-cupcake tin. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes 12 Quichettes



Remember my mug cake recipe?  I made a very tasty variation. I omitted the cocoa and used 2 Tablespoons of raspberry jam in place of half the Splenda.

I admit it’s unquestionably uglier. I suspect the raspberry and almond flour combination is what made it turn grayish teal. But for the taste, I accept it as a yummy blue raspberry cake!  Next time I'll add a drop of blue food coloring so I can know I meant to do that!


Okay, so there’s the new “what’s cookin’” stuff. How about something old?


Here’s a neat little piece.

It’s a pin that looks like it was never taken off the paper it was displayed on. It says “souvenir of Newfoundland" and on the back of the British Flag the hand is holding has Great Britain engraved on the back.

detail

Newfoundland was originally part of Great Britain and became the tenth province to join Canada on March 31, 1949. So, this pin is at the very least that old. It was in the box with the trinkets Papa bought back from WW2 and Newfoundland was one of the places he was stationed for a while in the early 40s. I read several postcards he sent grandma in 1941 and 1942 which would have been when he was 18, shortly after he enlisted and when Grandma was still in high school. So my best guess is that it is from the very early 40s.

See more unusual and common vintage pieces at Vintage Thingie Thursday, hosted by Suzanne at The Coloradolady.

Links

Pizza Fit N’ Free

The Coloradolady

Wednesday Hodge Podge

1.. The NFL playoffs were held this past weekend and this year's Superbowl lineup will feature The New York Giants versus The New England Patriots. How do you define 'patriot'?

Super Bowl Champions? :)


A patriot is one who thinks of country before self. Today, there are more football patriots than American patriots.




2. What's something in your life right now that feels like a 'giant'?

The reorganizing project in the house, which is just a nail and hammer away from remodeling. I’m making decent progress though. Tomorrow is assemble the first shelving unit day!



3. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think back to being 18?

Voting! I turned 18 in a Presidential election year and I was pretty excited about voting. My birthday was a Sunday, but I was at the Secretary of State office on Monday to register.

Many presidents for whom I didn’t vote lived in the White House before a candidate for whom I voted did, but I finally felt like I had a right to complain about it!



4. Coconut-mashed potatoes-vanilla ice cream-mayonnaise...which white food would be the hardest to give up?

That one’s easy. Vanilla ice cream; there would be no Baseball Nut ice cream without it!






5. Describe an incident or a day you remember as the coldest you've ever experienced?

Once the temperature drops below70 outside, I’m pretty much cold all the time, unless I’m in bed or someplace with heat. Right now I’m wearing the thick fleece robe I always wear over jammas or clothes at home and my furry house slippers!


The coldest I remember in my mind was ice fishing when I was little and I think that’s where my intense dislike for cold came from. It was a family adventure when I was 6 or 7 years old. It was cold enough that the ice on the lake was thick enough to drive on to get to the shanty for fishing. Everyone was in snowmobile suits with ski masks and gloves, much layered warm clothing. They sent my brother and me outside to play. I guess it’s because we were restless in the shanty. I remember being so cold that I was sitting next to the ice shanty balled up and rocking back and forth praying. You see, it was supposed to be fun and I felt bad that I wasn’t having fun at all. In fact, I was praying that God wouldn’t let me die from the cold because it would make my parents feel bad if I died. I was a kid. That is what I remember thinking, that it would hurt their feelings if I died.

That memory has never left me and I don’t think I’ve ever perceived I was that cold. It was the most terrified I remember being of the cold.



6. You're hosting a brunch...what's your favorite dish to prepare and serve?

I could say “waffles” because David cooks the waffles. :)


Seriously, if I’m hosting the brunch, my specialty is cinnamon chip pancakes.



7. How do you combat negative thinking?

I write in my journal about it. Sometimes it takes a few pages, or even a couple days of writing if something is really bugging me, but I usually find the answer to getting over my troubles.



8. Insert your own random thought here.

I made stuffed pepper soup Sunday with a recipe I found online. I did a half batch, which was 3 servings. I had the last one for lunch yesterday and I don’t know what I’m gonna do now that it’s gone! Oh my, it was HEAVEN! I need to make a huge pot of it to freeze!

Click photo for recipe

Come join Joyce at From This Side of The Pond and share your Hodge Podge of answers!

With A Little Help From My Friends

Yesterday was a very tiring, but very productive day. First was my hair appointment. After getting the kitchen shining on Monday, I deserved a little pampering. There’s nothing more comfortably social that chit chat with the stylist I’ve been with for the past 2-1/2 years. I had a stylist for many years back in Michigan, but she and I both moved out of state and she did not follow me to Ohio! Actually, she left before I did and I had many one-cut-stands, still not finding the one who I’d trust my hair with every time and even let them make suggestions.

I took a giant leap of faith in early 2009. I hadn’t had a cut in 2 years. That wasn’t the frustration of no stylist. That was me being all noble. My hair grows fast and I was growing it out to cut it short and donate the tail to Locks of Love. The Salon I go to, Camelot in Holland, OH, would send the pony tails to Locks of Love on my behalf. That’s how I met Jamie.

Jamie cut my hair into a cute short style after cutting three ponytails from it. Because of the way my hair was tapered, I had one ponytail that was about 13 inches in the middle and 2 almost 11 inch tails. The short style was cute and easy to take care of. It was shorter than I liked, but I needed pieces of at least 10 niches to donate. I’ve been seeing Jamie ever since. She does a great job and makes wonderful suggestions for flattering looks. Yesterday, after growing out my bangs to the stylish one-length that so many long-haired women wear for over a year, I had my bangs cut to the shorter length they had always been. I'm just not the constantly moving my hair from my face type! I think Jamie was as giddy as me with the results! No more straight hair in my face. I have bangs and the natural curl again! I also look a little younger than the 50 I’d been seeing in the mirror. (based on the change from 44 with bangs last year)



After the haircut, I had four boxes on my front porch! I still expect a few more things that I’ve ordered, three more boxes, but I now have all the parts of Kelly’s present so I can wrap that and send it on its way to Sikeston


I also got a present I bought for me:

YAY Spatulas!!

Yes, David laughed at me too. But the rubber scrapers we have had seen better days, especially the little one that I still used even after the top of it met with a disposal accident. These ones have heavy duty plastic handles and are very strong and supple. I used them yesterday and LOVED them!


Next it was on to loaves! I got the “Christmas Gift Loaf” recipe from reading Lynn’s blog, Cottage and Creek. She made “Holiday Pumpkin Loaf” on Thanksgiving Day and shared photos with a link to the recipe. Oh my, it looked so good! It’s a great recipe that leaves some room to play, to make it your own.

My "Loaded Loaves"

I made 2 loaves that will be gifts and two mini loaves to try them out. I added raisins to the recipe and after David and I tried it, I’ll probably use a little less ginger than the recipe calls for next time. I think it tastes wonderful, but David doesn’t care for the ginger flavor. I doubled the recipe and it made 2 loaves and 2 minis. Maybe next time, I’ll add the ginger last and divide the batter to make half with and half without

Flora's coasters

If you’re still thinking of some non-edible gift ideas with a personal touch that you still have time to make, there is a great idea for coaster sets on Flora’s blog, This and That. They are so sweet! The coaster sets are so cute and I do still need a couple small gifts. There’s just not enough time to cross stitch a set of ornaments anymore! If you give a look before Saturday (12/10) when she’s going to draw a name from the comments, you can have a chance to win a hand-made set of coasters from her! I entered for the drawing, but should I win, I don’t know if I would give them as a gift. Maybe I’d give them to David so I’d have them too!

Okay, off to fix lunch and get back to work!



Links

Lynne’s blog: Cottage and Creek, Holiday Pumpkin Loaf

Christmas Gift Loaf Recipe at allrecipes.com

Flora’s blog: This and That, Christmas Gifts to Make

Tradition!

Nani's First Minestrone

Yesterday was a big day of tradition for me. I finished up and turned in my classwork for the week just as David was getting home. While I was doing my last chapter of questions I also made my first ever pot of Minestrone! The soup, the real traditional Italian soup, is one I’ve loved my whole life but had never made before. There has always been someone else to make it. I’ve supplied my Dad and brother with prosciutto ends for making the soup and well, it was about time I made the soup myself!

Traditional minestrone, made from scratch in our family's traditional way is nothing like you’ll eat in a restaurant. It’s a thicker and creamier soup with a much richer flavor and a hearty consistency. One cup is a very filling meal.

It all started, after David had left for work, with a prosciutto end and a gallon and 3 quarts of water. Big warning here for anyone who might venture to try this at home – a prosciutto end is basically a cured ham, with the skin. The skin and layer of fat doesn’t add a lot of fat to the broth, and you remove all of the end but the meat at a later step, but they add a TON of flavor! One thing hadn’t thought about, and boy I’m glad David had already left when I started, was the smell, The last couple pots of soup I’d made were vegetable soup and the whole house fills with a wonderful aroma as it starts cooking. Not so at all with a prosciutto end! Boiling the end with the skin and everything is anything but a happy aromatic experience! The smell in my kitchen was NASTY for a couple hours! It was the dawn of that nasty smell that told me it was time to add the beans. Then about a half hour later, I added the carrots and onions. The carrots and onions helped the smell a lot. Then it started to smell like soup.

A few hours in, the meat in the end was very tender and very cooked, but still hanging on to the skin! I finally decided it was time to take the end out and separate the meat to add back in. Not long after doing that my Dad called! I told Pop that I was making minestrone for the first time. He knew I was going to, but I don’t know that I told him it would be Saturday. He told me Dave was making minestrone yesterday too. The weather in Indiana and Ohio was just right for it I guess!

Pop asked me if I removed the end to separate the meat yet. I told him funny you should ask that. I was waiting to hear Noni’s voice tell me it was time and I never heard it, so I made the decision to do it on my own. I don’t know if it’s tradition hidden in my own subconscious or intervention from beyond, but when I was developing the recipe for Noni’s crostada, trying to remember how she did it, as I was about to add another ¼ cup of sugar to the dough, I heard my Grandmother’s voice, I mean I really believe it was her voice, I was alone, what could it have been, say “No so sweet!” I put the extra quarter cup back in the canister and the result was the perfect balance of sweetness in my crostada dough. I told Pop I was kinda hoping to hear her voice on the prosciutto end too.

Pop chuckled at me. He told me I wouldn’t hear Noni’s voice tell me to do anything with the prosciutto end because she never used a prosciutto end when she made minestrone! Nono cured prosciutto in the basement of their home, bone and all, and it was the bone that Noni used in minestrone. Pop and Uncle John continued the tradition of curing prosciutto at home for a while, but after they stopped that practice after Noni was gone, it was my father who started using the ends from the delis to make the soup. So, Pop calling me WAS my message from the family spirit. No long distance on this one. LOL

So zucchini and green beans were added as well as Ditalini noodles and while those cooked into the soup, I prepared the last part, which is the magic that makes it the wonderful traditional thick soup. Honestly, while it tasted good, it wasn’t pretty enough to be a restaurant soup, too dark. I chopped fresh basil and added it to a half cup of olive oil and a cup of grated parmesan cheese. That roux is what adds the final flavor and thickens it into the hearty traditional favorite I’ve always loved.

After the soup cooled, I put it into 2and 3 serving containers to go in the freezer. I had containers enough for 25 servings and one left for dinner last night and the opportunity for the cook to test it.

It’s really an easy soup to make and pretty low on Weight Watchers points too. It turned out delicious! I have decided to adjust my recipe to ¼ cup of olive oil for the roux. It wasn’t super greasy, but just a wee bit oilier than my personal taste. It was still very tasty and I’m proud of my first attempt.

Nani's Food Roots

Yesterday I cooked a bit of my roots and David and I enjoyed the fruits of that labor for lunch before he went to wo0rk today. David and I are the opposite side of the Green Acres coin from the old TV show. I grew up knowing what a McDonald’s hamburger tasted like, that restaurant by the bowling alley was where the family splurged for a good steak and fish was perch or trout that we caught ourselves when we were camping. Also, growing up a 20-minute drive away from my Noni, I had never ever thought about spaghetti sauce in a jar!

Mom had taken advantage of learning some cooking tricks from her Mother-in-law early on. Those tricks included tips for spaghetti sauce. Noni’s sauce was excellent, prepared different ways with different meats. She used ground or chopped beef, sometimes pork and during lent, tuna. She also often used peas and always mushrooms in her sauce. Noni’s “cheat” was sometimes a sprinkle of chicken base with the spices. Mom’s was always ground beef and while she used the mushrooms, never peas! Mom always picked the peas out of Noni’s sauce when we ate there. Her cheat was using Lawry’s packaged seasonings as her base and adding frm there. And yes, authentic homemade sauce simmers for a few hours to properly blend the flavors! That’s why “from a jar” is unthinkable!

For this past Christmas, my brother, Dave, canned a bunch of his sauce and gave it as gifts. Dave’s sauce is a little bit of Noni, Mom and Dad with his own touch. The biggest difference between Mom’s sauce and Dad’s is wine and Dad isn’t brand-loyal like Mom was to Lawry’s. Pop uses a bottle of wine when he makes sauce, about a third in the sauce and the rest in the cook! Dave’s sauce is more wine in the sauce and rest in the cook and his wife. Dave's sauce also has a little less ground beef than Mom’s did and he uses the peas. My brother’s sauce was good, but for my taste the wine was a little overkill. But it did make me think about Mom’s sauce and it gave me the bug to make my own.

David is not from that Italian background. He always made spaghetti with sauce from a jar with added ground beef. He uses a decent Eye-talian sauce, which is fine for a quick American spaghetti dinner and we do eat that at home. Note the distinction. Eye-talian is a common heard American mispronunciation of Italian and how I distinguish Italian influenced from actual Italian food. Yesterday, I made a pot of real Italian spaghetti sauce!


My sauce is a ground beef sauce and I used McCormick seasonings as a spice base for my cheat because I couldn’t find Lawry’s at the Kroger where I bought everything else. I added additional garlic powder, oregano and basil too. My signature in the prep comes at the very beginning; I start with a tablespoon of olive oil and brown two tablespoons of minced garlic and a chopped red onion before adding the ground beef to brown. Then I drain the grease off all of it to add with the tomato products and seasonings for cooking.

It turned out pretty good. Nah, forget the humble on this one; I was VERY pleased! There are a couple of small spice tweaks I want to do next time and I want to find the Lawry’s seasoning to put a little more of Mom in my sauce! The most important test was lunch. I like this sauce and prefer homemade to jar anyway. I can start the sauce at six and let it simmer until bedtime. It doesn't take hours of prep, just hours of simmer! The judgement from David was favorable, as long as I don't spice it up any more than it was today. YAY!

Now my brother has ideas that his sauce recipe should be kept a family secret and just passed down. I think that's mean - it puts pressure on people to make babies whether or not they want to so the recipe doesn't fade away. Besides, the cats don’t cook, although Baggle, our red-sauce nut, cleaned a plate after lunch and seemed to really like it!

So after some fine-tuning, I’ll be posting the recipe for my sauce at Davlicious Recipes. After all, nothing great will be remembered unless it’s shared!

Skinny and the City

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond Fudge Cake
from Skinny and The City’s Skinny Kitchen!

I just signed up for the email newsletter from Skinny and The City. Look at the picture! How could I not?? The recipe is a healthier recipe for a decadent chocolate dessert and one I just might spring on David!

Skinny and the City was started by registered dietitian, Tanya Zuckerbrot, and the site is dedicated to health and wellness, including weight loss, while still enjoying a normal lifestyle. The daily newsletter from the 5 RDs who contribute to the site includes recipes, restaurant guides and beauty and fashion tips and trends.

I read an article on the “Obsessions” page about a scented, heated, therapeutic body warmer, called The Nelly Pack. It comes in many different styles to be used on different parts of the body. They are recommending it for soothing stress and eye fatigue or even soreness and swelling...like my knee, maybe??

I signed up for the newsletter and I’m DEFINITELY going to try that chocolate raspberry cake!

(this was originally a sponsored post, but the site pulled the sponsorship at Social Spark. I still think it's a great site!)

Apples and Wine and a Davlicious Event!

“Apples and Wine” is the new color kit from Digitalegacies Designs. It’s the kit I did for Boo’s Color Challenge at SAS and the first time I’ve ever created a mini kit for the purpose of doing a particular layout!

Sorry, this link is expired.

Please leave comments here rather than jumping through the hoops to leave them at 4-Shared. Besides, if they are here, you know I’ll read them!

Apples and Wine is an old family cold remedy that actually tastes better than the old world remedies usually do! I remember Mom told a story about Nono’s cure for morning sickness that she never tried! It was something like milk, honey and whiskey. EW! Not sure how that STOPS nausea!

But apples and wine is a sweet and spicy mulled wine that tastes good and does a remarkable job of rushing that cold out of your system!

Here is the layout the kit was designed to make!


What is this? ANOTHER recipe page??

Today is the day! For about the past month, I’ve been slowly transferring the old archived recipes from Simply Davine and adding some new ones to a new blog, Simply Davlicious Recipes! I’d like to invite everyone to take a look at the new blog! Bring a napkin for the drool!


Some of the recipes at Simply Davlicious Recipes have links. Those links are for the SDR Cook Book Pages. They’re not hard to spot! That recipe will have the a cookbook page at the top of the entry and the link will take you to a download page were you can have the full resolution page, 12X12 in 300 dpi. You can print them out, add them to your own cookbook, they are my gift to you! As part of the grand launch of the blog, you’ll find Cook Book Pages for 8 recipes, including 5 that have never been offered before!

All downloadable CBPs are offered with permission of the individual designers of the kits used for each page. The blog URLs are available in the download package, so if you like the kit, stop by the designer’s bog and leave some love!!

I hope you enjoy the new recipe blog. I loved being able to use tags to make everything cross referenced. You can browse them all or see your favorite topics. if you’re still looking for some ideas for Thanksgiving, click the holidays tag on the side bar!


So, click the Davlicious logo and come on over to my blog-warming party!

Stuff - Lots of Little Stuff

So how do I strike you? Eeyore or Dumbo?

Do you think I am left or right in my politics?

The truth is I’m a bit of both. Some of my opinions are totally bleeding heart liberal and some of them would frighten the most staunch Republicans into thinking they had become a Democrat. I’m American. I vote and support American stuff. In a democracy, everyone voting keeps anyone's far left or far right ideas from becoming law. That’s the way it should be. So if you are American and of legal age, make sure you vote. No matter how many people agree or disagree with your ideas, everyone expressing their thoughts in the polls is how we keep it all in balance. It’s the only way we’re truly represented. If you give up your portion of the apple pie, we all starve!



Nani Steps on the Political Soap Box

And that’s pretty much all I’ll say about that here. The Chronicles of Nani is my happy and friendly blog. It’s my personal world, free from more than a passing mention of work, politics or religion. You all know I’m looking for work right now and I have very strong political and religious convictions but you know what they say about discussing religion and politics! Those are the two areas that people are so passionate about they cause arguments. Generally, I’m a non-argumentative person. That’s why I have the Soap Box blog, to scream when I feel like I need to scream. So, if you promise not to come back to The Chronicles screaming at me, but please do come back to The Chronicles, you can read my brief scream about the US election, Dignity, at the Simply Davine Soap Box. (Feel free to scream back at me there, but let’s just respect our right to disagree!)



Optimists Baseball Club, Anyone?

As I was telling David yesterday, and I also want a certain Red Sox Nation cousin of mine to know too, if the Red Sox don’t win the World Series this year, it won’t be my fault! I’M still sending my positive thoughts of support!

“Toast.” David used the word and Seamhead Gypsy used it in a comment he left here. “The Red Sox are toast.” Yeesh!

In 2004, when they were down 3 games to nothing to the Yankees, they came back, won it and swept the Cardinals in the World Series. Last year, they were down the same 3-1 they were at the beginning of the game last night and came back, beat the Indians and then swept the Rockies. You’ll recall, The Rockies had an “OMG where’d THAT come from?” end of the season last year, similar to the Devil Rays’ entire 2008.

The Red Sox were down 7-0 in the seventh inning last night! Tied 7 all, the Sox had come back from the largest deficit in LCS history as the bottom of the ninth started. With 2 down, JD Drew’s walk-off single scored Kevin Youkilis from second for an 8-7 final! What a finish!

The Red Sox do that comeback thing well and I for one, won’t give up the cause. 2 more victories and it’s back to the World Series.

How do I like MY toast, guys? In a champagne glass!



Saving a Watermelon

Some time back when David and I were doing the fruit and veggie thing with my Dad, Pop bought me a watermelon. I LOVE watermelon, really!! But I don’t buy whole watermelons because that’s a lot of watermelon and there are just two of us here! But I sure wasn't going to say no to a watermelon gift! I figured I'd just be eating a lot of watermelon.

I was a few days and just under half melon in, when David and I were leaving for the weekend. So, I chunked up all the remaining watermelon, two containers full, and popped it in the freezer.

The following week, I pulled out one container to thaw some of the chunks for dessert. Melon freezes okay, but it’s on the slimy side when it thaws. David is not the watermelon fan I am and wouldn't eat it slimy.

Solution? Watermelon ice! I took the remaining frozen watermelon cubes and crushed them in the blender. I made a couple tubs of snow cone that was very richly watermelon flavored and a wonderful treat, no slimy texture!

It’s simple to make, cut-freeze-crush-keep in freezer, and a large scoop (1 cup) is about 56 calories. It lasts well too! I’m getting near the end of it now, but it’s still wonderful! I had a scoop of it with my granola bar for breakfast this morning. YUM!




Contest Entries Come Home

I made a few changes on my SAS gallery for the previews for my two contest kits. I’ve been allowed to remove the links since the contest ended, but my evenings have been baseball, planning the cast party and a personal project that I‘ve been working on, so I hadn’t moved them. But now, they have come home to The Chronicles of Nani, so ALL of the Digitalegacies kit are here again!

If you didn’t want to join at SAS, accidentally deleted files juggling all the freebies there or are a first-time visitor to The Chronicles, all of the links for the complete kits are below.

Sorry, these links are expired.

Sorry, these links are expired.

I appreciate any comments and if you leave them here rather than at 4-Shared I’m sure to see them! (Especially if there is a broken download. I have so much at 4-Shared that I depend on you letting me know here if something needs fixed!)

As always, if you show me a layout done with any Digitalegacies products, I’ll show you the link and password for “Indian Summer!” Pretty cool deal - use a freebie, get another freebie!

What’s Cookin’?

Bountiful U-pick harvest

I love U-Pick places and farmers markets! All of the wonderful fresh fruits and veggies, YUM!! Between the farmers market gift Dad brought me a couple weeks ago and the peaches, tomatoes and plums from last Saturday, it’s been a harvest time of GOOOOOOD EATS! I’ve been enjoying fresh foods and wonderful recipes for two weeks!

Today was the day of peach cooking! I made a Shortbread Peach Crisp at lunchtime and there are peaches in the slow cooker making what David calls “peachle suace.” (I just call it peach sauce, same as applesauce but with peaches!)

I have a file on my extended hard drive for a someday cookbook. It’s 12x12 scrapbook recipe pages, old family favorites and Nani-written ones. Today, I’d like to share some of those pages and recipes! By all means, feel free to snag the layouts to get the recipes. If you’d like the pages in 300 dpi for printing, just drop me a line at chroniclesofnani@gmail.com and I’d be glad to share!


Baked Green Tomatoes

Kit: Fried Green Tomatoes by Kim’s Scrappin’, font: j.d.

These are a wonderful lower fat alternative to the classic fried recipe! Kelly stayed with us for a couple of weeks after my Mom died. For dinner one night she pitched in to the dinner prep by making Fried Green Tomatoes in the true Missouri fashion. Now, I’d had fried green tomatoes a few times and liked them a lot, but hadn’t seen them made.

Kelly sliced the tomatoes and egged and floured them. Next she asked for cooking oil. I got the bottle out of the cupboard, there was about a cup left. She asked, “Do you have more?”

“WHAT???” I asked with my eyes bulging.

Pop and Grandma just laughed. It wasn’t odd to them that it would take a half bottle of oil to cook the tomatoes. It also wasn’t odd to them that I’d react that way.

Kelly’s fried green tomatoes were wonderful! I also knew, there was no way I’d cook them that way! So, I set about finding a way to recreate that classic Southern taste without all the oil! After trying a few different ingredient combinations, I came up with this one that I was very pleased with!


Zucchini Pancakes

Credits: Papers - From The East by Lelanie, Template by Designs by CMR

This is the newest recipe from the Nani Kitchens! Dad’s gift from the farmer’s market in Hartland included 8 zucchini! I personally love zucchini enough to eat them every day. Zucchini and green beans are the two veggies in my world that can NEVER get old! David likes them, but not with the same passion I do. We had pan-fried zucchini coins and Italian steamed zucchini and I had zucchini at lunch a couple times, then I had an idea one morning when I was feeling creative in the kitchen for breakfast.

Zucchini pancakes are like a cross between potato pancakes and a breakfast soufflé. They were SO good! Good enough that I knew I needed to write down how I made them and make them again so I could get pictures for a recipe page. Not that I minded eating them again at all!


Shortbread Peach Crisp

Papers - Pride by Doreen Stolz, Brackity template by Beth Long

The last recipe page I’m sharing is that Peach Crisp I made.

This is a wonderful recipe! I adjusted an apple crisp recipe to make this one and its one of those things that I have in mind when I pick peaches! The crust is a wonderful butter shortbread and it goes great with ice cream! I prefer either Dulce de Leche or Butter Pecan, But I guess it would be okay with vanilla too!

Whole Lotta Thursday!

breakfast - banana, 2 granola bars and coffee
with fat free coffeemate sand caramel Splenda
315 calories

I find photographing my food helps me maintain calorie discipline, so I’ll be occasionally sharing the photos if the presentation looks especially appealing. This one isn’t special, except that I LOVE granola bars and haven't had them in a long time, just a good photo to go with the introduction of the food shots here and there!


Ever have one of those weeks where you keep getting a day ahead? I’ve been that way all week! David asked if I was writing the wrong dates and I told him, “oh no, I have the wrong days of the week associated with the dates!” Today feels like Friday, Friday, May 22. Does that actually make me a whole year off?? It’s just been a busy and productive week. It makes me feel like I’m a year ahead!

Part of busy has been actually talking to a few people and a decent number of okay posted jobs in the during the day job hunt world. It’s a positive step! I’ve also been working on putting my portfolio together. I found a great site to guide me this endeavor. A portfolio isn’t just for people in a creative field. In fact, the first examples of types of portfolios they gave were a chef, a bookkeeper and a construction worker.

If you’re job-hunting, or even if your not, in this day and age you never know when you will be, check out the portfolio tips at Manifest Your Potential. Learn from what I’ve dug up being the person looking for work for so long so if it happens to you, it won’t happen as long.

I have always believed there is a reason for everything that happens. There is information I’m finding right now that will make a positive difference in my world, to me personally or to someone for whom I’m here. I just really hope I’m the example of what to do and not what NOT to do! But I think I’m doing okay.

With the exception of this morning, when I took part of the morning to blog, that’s been my before and after lunch days so far this week.



Lunchtime

What did Donna Reed eat for lunch? To be honest, I haven’t seen a ton of episodes of that show, I just know Donna Reed as the icon of an 50s-ish American Housewife. That’s what she was, a television characterization of that anyway, not the supportive homemaker who takes care of the home, the budget, has her husband’s back and molds the kids or the stay-at-home parent who is an active participant in the teaching and nurturing of the kids while creating that comfort of home and hearth so the parent responsible for earning the family’s financial security can concentrate on his or her profession, the stereotypical housewife of the time before I was born, cooked, cleaned and said “wait ‘til your father gets home,” when the kids got in from school. You never see them eat. Maybe that’s why they are all thin. Maybe they eat at the commercial breaks. No, I think that’s when they fold underwear. You see them fold laundry, but never underwear.

Anyway,the Donna Reed question is because I, with a smile, call myself Donna Reed while I am job-hunting, tending to laundry and such and have dinner ready when David gets home. I eat. I get light headed if I don’t eat, but I prefer to watch calories! I don’t get the extra exercise of running to do another load of laundry for just the underwear. So, I’m going to share a yummy recipe that I had for lunch yesterday!

Creamy Carrot Soup

This is a filling, lo-fat lo-cal lunch, high on the veggie scale with the savory sweet flavor of carrots.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, diced
1 TBS olive oil
2 tsp dried basil
1 can chicken broth (vegetable broth can be substituted)
2 cups baby carrots or carrot chunks
3/4 cup skim or low-fat milk
ground black and white pepper to taste

In a sauce pan on medium-high heat, sauté onions in olive oil until soft. Mix in basil and stir until fragrant. Add chicken broth and carrots. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and let cook until carrots are very soft.

Uncover, remove from heat and allow to cool until steam is no longer rising when stirred. Put contents of whole pan into a blender and mill until all of the carrots are ground. Slowly blend in milk.

Return to stove on low heat, stirring constantly. Garnish with basil sprinkled on top and serve with a Hawaiian roll.

Makes 2 servings, About 250 calories, with one roll


And now, for everyone that read the soup recipe and was thinking, “Where’s the REAL food?”

Credits - Kit - Chryssie by Darlene Haughin, font - Girls Are Weird

This is a layout I did with Darlene Haughin’s Chryssie kit for the Newsletter Challenge at SAS. It’s from the last day of Nanifest XLI last year. Darlene commented that she might want to try the festival idea! Nanifest is my birthday festival. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a Birthday Festival, it goes like this:

As a kid, birthdays were all about parties and presents, it was the celebration of getting another year older and another year closer to new experiences. Those parties were attended by relatives and school friends, many of whom were not there last year and might not be next year. You were learning about people, about everything, and your world was in constant change.

As an adult you have your world more established. There are new experiences, but now the people who you share those experiences with are not ever-changing. The friends with whom you share those experiences now are part of your foundation.

I recognize my festival as starting at 5:00 PM on the Friday before my birthday and running until midnight after the Sunday that follows it, for just over a 9-Day festival. When my birthday is on a weekend, I get from Friday the weekend before my birthday weekend until Sunday the weekend after for a 2-week festival! (How totally cool to have turned 40 on a Saturday!)
Where as a child, you celebrated getting another year closer to experiencing it all, now you celebrate adding another year to all you have. To me a birthday is an opportunity to be with as many of those people who’ve given so much to my life as I can, to share their company and thank them for the part of me they’ve helped form. Having a Birthday Festival gives me the time I need to juggle work and home responsibilities with all the people I want to see during my festival. It also gives more nights for ice cream!!

In that layout above, David and I are having ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery in Maumee, Ohio. Mine was free! What better way to celebrate a birthday than FREE ice cream?? Now I want to share that secret, or not-so-secret, of the free ice cream (which at 42, is more exciting to hear than “free beer”) with you!

Go to the Cold Stone Creamery web site and sign up for the birthday club. For your birthday, they’ll send you a coupon for a “love-it” size ice cream creation. That’s it, no charge to join, no taxes or fees, just free birthday ice cream. It’s just good promotion, and you know how much I like good promotion. Chances are you’ll bring a friend when you get you freebie, maybe more!

This link takes you right to the birthday club page!


I have one more announcement as I bring this LONG blog to a close. I have been invited to be a guest Creative Team Member for Beckie Wallace designs!


I was excited when I first went to her blog and saw the preview for Batter Up. Yeah, I’m sure that’s not a surprise that I’d get excited abut that. But she has so many kits that are just phenomenal! The first one I got to work with is Save The Last Dance. I’m telling you, I didn’t have to do any work with this kit. I opened a picture file, set up the review pane and selected papers and elements to open and they practically put themselves together. It was such an easy kit to use and it completely captures the spark in this great photo of my grandparents taken just before the were married. I just sat and looked at it for a little when it as done. I LOVE that photo and just didn’t have any elements I thought would scrap it properly. This kit just captured the romance of a WW2 elopement! I couldn’t believe I was the one who did the layout, which is why I said the kit did it itself!

You can checkout Beckie’s kits at Digital Candy and Stone Accents Studio. The CT blinkie on the right links to her Digital Candy store!


Whew! Now, make sure you read this and sign up for your Cold Stone freebie because there is Friday By Request coming tomorrow and tomorrow night will be the weekend blog with exciting new patriotic pages I did with a new kit from RC Mama Designs! Thanks for reading!