Old-Fashioned Flavor

We just love these little guys.  Marshmallow Santas.  You can find them at most grocery stores and every drug store in town and they are cheap!  Recently, we bought some Russell Stover Marshmallow Pumpkins which are the same thing, just a different shape.  We broke into them tonight and the hubby told me he thought these marshmallow treats were an old-fashioned flavor.  I guess that means that it reminds him of old times……it does me. 
Christmas is near and the other day I saw another old-fashioned flavor, Brach’s Cherry Cordials.  Soon we will have our special treats, Marshmallow Santa and Brach’s Cherry Cordials.
 
Good Night everybody.  Hope you get some old-fashioned flavors this year.
I love you.

The Best is Yet to Come

The best is yet to come.


As much as I want OU to win this game over OSU. the bedlam rivalry, I really expected the game to be more entertaining and exciting.  To offset this boring game, I started going through my magazines, sorting, and reading.  And......I started remembering how mom read her magazines...................back to front.  Mom always saved the best for last.  She ate the heart of the watermelon last.  She'd eat the filling from her pecan pie first saving the pecans for that last few bites.  You get the idea.  And she read magazines from the back to the front ending the magazines with the best articles.  I guess that is kind of a good thing.  You always know the best is yet to come.


I love you.  Merry Christmas!!!  The best is yet to come.

Cheez-It–I Thought I Could Improve Them

BURNED CHEEZ-ITS

I might have a problem.  With Cheez-Its.  My favorite snack.  Diet Dr. Pepper and Cheez-Its.  That’s it!   Except………………maybe I could make them better.  I love to find the over-baked Cheez-Its in the box………..my favorite Cheez-It cracker……..the slightly browned kind.  Well, this particular box had quite a few of those lovely slightly browned crackers, but evidently I didn’t think there were enough.  So what did I do??  I put them in a tray and into countertop broiler.   Then………….I got on the computer and promptly forgot about them.  Well………..in a little while I smelled something………… Oh shoot! 

Up from the couch I jumped, ran to the kitchen, and opened the smoking oven.  The minute I opened that little door, those Cheez-Its flamed.  By that I mean the flames were almost 2 feet high.  Yellow scary flames.  I can tell you my mind raced .  What to do first.  I turned off the broiler first.  I grabbed the potholder and threw that flaming pan into the sink which, luckily, is just behind me.  That was a close call.  The paint actually bubbled under my overhead cabinets and there is a discoloration that I cannot remove. 
The moral of the story:  Let well enough alone.  My favorite snack and I thought I could improve it.  Remember Cheez-Its have a low flaming threshold. 
You can read another post about Cheez-Its  here:  http://retirementthegoodlife.blogspot.com/2012/03/cheez-its.html
I love you.

Turkey. Turkey. Turkey. What to Do???

Turkey.  Turkey.  Turkey.  What to do?


Yes, I'm going to make the turkey this year and I am just fed up with all this turkey talk.  Do you have any idea how many different instructions there are out there on how to cook the bird that we only fix once a year.


It seems every woman alive and their dogs have a recipe.  You can brine them.  Did my mom ever know about brining a turkey?  No!  And do you know how many recipes there are just for that salty brine?  Oh yes, you can put SALT, apple peels, orange peels, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, SALT, sugar, spices of every imaginable taste, olive oil, SALT, old shoes, dirty dishwater, red nail polish for color, tomato juice, apple juice, orange juice, wine, whisky, even.....wait for it.....maple syrup.  I kid you not..........well maybe I kid you just a little.  Seriously, The Pioneer Woman used whisky AND maple syrup in hers.  We were watching her show Monday night........well I was watching her show and the hubby was doing something else, but in the room.   When she added the whisky and maple syrup, the hubby looked up and said "Did she just put whisky and maple syrup in that?"  We both gagged just a bit.


Now that you get the brining idea, let me tell you how many variations of actual cooking the turkey there are.  I would, but I don't count that high.  You can stuff that bird, or not.  You can add onions, or not.  You can put oranges in there, or not.  You can rub poultry seasoning over it, or not.  You can rub sage over that thing, or not.  The one thing they all agree on is massaging that bird down with butter, pepper and salt...unless you have brined it, then the choice is up to you.


So what to do?  Brine?  Roast uncovered?  Roast in cooking bag?  Wrapped tightly in foil?  Roast in roasting pan?  If so, on a rack or not?  Temperature.  Some say high temp for first hour, reduce heat.  Some say lower temperature, longer cooking time.  So what to do?  I have no idea.  All I know is that come Thursday, 2:00 p.m. that turkey will be history until the year 2016.


I love you.
A little extra information.  The Pioneer Woman made gravy, but added whisky AND maple syrup.  I can see my family quite literally gagging if I were to serve that!!!
I seriously have no idea how I am going to cook this bird, but I am leaning to mom's tried and true method of wrapping lightly in foil, placing in the roasting pan and using the temperature and time instructed on the label.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

I Just Love Feeling Wonderful

Good evening my friends.  I am exhausted.  It is 6:30 in the evening and I'm already in my pajamas.  That is unusual for me.  I've never been one of those people who like to stay in pjs all day, but today....well today I have been a busy girl.


Thanksgiving is coming up next week (can that be possible?) and I'm fixing lunch for my family and my extended family.  Not that many coming.  Right now 13 are coming, but you'd think I had invited my old office......people who'd never been in my house........people that I needed to impress.  No, it is just my family.  The people that I love and have been in my simple abode many, many times.  Nonetheless I seem to be cleaning like a maniac.  I have cleaned out all my closets and drawers, polished my silver, windexed (spell check says this isn't a word, but I tell you it is a VERB.  Don't you windex??) everything that has a shiny surface, and cleaned my tile floor on my hands and knees with..........get this........... any combination of baking soda, vinegar, 409, Bar Keepers Friend, and water.  I was trying to decide which product/products worked best to clean my grout, but I could see no difference.  The biggest thing is to get on my hands and knees and scrub, SCRUB, SCRUB.  But I did find one thing that actually made a big difference -- Magic Eraser really worked well to cleaned the scuff marks off the tiles. 


All this cleaning..........all this food prepping..........all the FOOD!!!  As tired as I am tonight, it makes me feel wonderful to have this done.  It makes me feel wonderful to do this for my family and I just love feeling wonderful.


I love you.


     

Count my Blessings

Good morning.  November 15, 2015 – a view out my window.  Fall has arrived at my house and is slowly making its way south.  Soon this pretty view will be gone.  The leaves will be off the trees leaving a cold looking dark bark.  So this cool cloudy morning I am going to enjoy this view, taking it all in, and bask in mother nature’s glory.
I realize how blessed I am this morning.  All the world seems to be in chaos, but especially the beautiful city of Paris.  Yes, I am going to take all of this in, reflect, count my blessings, and send Paris my prayers.  God, please bless us all.
I love you.

Nice Night for Some Football……….

Good evening everybody.  Nice night for some football.........or is it?  I must have a very soft heart because it sometimes hurts to see an opposing team loose to one of our Oklahoma teams, or to anyone else for that matter.  Today, for instance, it hurt to see Iowa State loose to Oklahoma State.  Don't get me wrong, I was rooting for OSU every second of every play.............until they won.............until they panned the camera to the loosing side of the field..............until I saw that young man hang his head in despair.  You see, according to the announcer, Iowa State needed to win this game plus the next two in order to qualify for a bowl game.  They hadn't been in a bowl in years. They did not win.  I am sad for them.  Of course, I would have been sadder to see Oklahoma State's winning streak to come to an end.

Just now I was watching the third overtime win for Michigan over Indiana.  I only saw the last 5 minutes of the game and I decided I would root for Indiana just because I thought they'd be the underdogs.  I don't know if that is true or not, but it seems I hear Michigan in the football news than I do Indiana.  So Indiana it is.  Just after I started watching, Indiana made a touchdown and the two point afterward........then only to let Michigan tie up the game.  Three overtimes were needed to determine the winner of the game.........Michigan.  Indiana did not win............

Every time there is a game played, there will be a winner and there will be a looser.  If there is a tie game, somebody will loose in overtime.  Someone will go down in the rankings.  Someone will not go to the conference playoffs.  Someone will not get a bid to a bowl game. 

Oh it feels so good to win, but it hurts so bad to loose.  These young men are actually little boys to their mothers.  Somebody is hurting tonight...............somebody is going to fall into bed tonight thinking "if only".

Now on to watch Baylor mix it up with Oklahoma.  I am going to tell you right now that I am rooting for Oklahoma.  I want to be sad that Baylor looses.  Fingers crossed!

I love you.

Sometimes Happiness is Finding a Slice of Bacon Still on the Plate

Happiness is finding a half slice of bacon still on my plate!  Just when I thought my breakfast was over, I see this bacon.  Oh JOY!!  I love bacon.  Most of you know that I normally don't eat regular pork bacon.  Godshall's Turkey Bacon found at Sam's Clubs is my mainstay--the healthiest bad choice for me.  But ever since the reports came out about processed meats; i.e. BACON, I have craved the BAD/GOOD BACON, the good ole hickory smoked grease saturated bacon.  I had some BAD/GOOD BACON in the freezer so I decided to treat myself and thumb my nose at the reports.  Also, I needed to get the BAD/GOOD BACON out of the freezer..............and what better way to rid the freezer of BAD/GOOD BACON than to eat it.  (It is time to empty the freezer before the holidays.....so yes, I do that.) 


So this morning I had not one, but two slices of THICK hickory smoked bacon (Wright's from Sam's is the BEST) sliced in half to better fit the pan.........making four smaller slices.  I had just finished the last sip of my coffee (which my doctor recommended cutting down--man they're taking away all the good stuff) and lo and behold there was that last half slice of bacon still on my plate.  Oh Joy!  Sometimes happiness is finding a half slice of bacon still on the plate. 


I hope you have a happy day and can find a slice of bacon on your plate.  It's all about these moments.  (And by the way, I did use a paper towel to squeeze as much grease out as possible.)


I love you.