.

Selling

Well my daughter is selling her home and probably moving to BC. I will be losing my granddaughter. I don't know how that's going to go over. I'm not looking forward to it. Why is it that everyone renovates for resale instead of renovating for living in it. I don't understand it. She should have done a little maintenance when things needed to be done. She seems to think nothing really has to be done. Wrong... I've been pulling up hardwood that has to be replaced and replacing cupboard doors. Honestly she just thinks it can be sold as is. Wouldn't that be nice. But alas - work needs to be done. Some people should not own, a little too used to having someone else do the maintenance.

I read somewhere that women's brains shrink during the pregnancy and usually doesn't return to normal until the baby is about 8 months. So my daughter's should be back to normal by now. I don't know what it is, she's in a state of "duh". Can't seem to get out of her funk. And refuses to see a doctor. She goes back to work on tuesday, that can't be anything to look forward to that's for sure. She's been off eleven months now and is not very happy about the prospect of leaving her baby. I've offered to babysit on saturdays, and her husband will be doing tuesday's so there's only wed to fri. But I'm thinking she won't last two weeks before she packs it in.

For the past year I've attempted to talk her into allowing me to train her to do bookkeeping, but that doesn't seem to be exiting enough, but who knows...she may change her mind. I work only 4 - 6 hours a day and make more than she did working 8 - 10 hours. But I quess restaurant management is more exiting. I don't see why - all that standing. That's something that will be hard for her to get used to again. Oh well, I quess we'll just have to wait and see how it all turns out.

Birthday party

Ellise's 2nd birthday party

I just love this cake. It was chocolate and very good. The quilt was a last minute idea. The party was Thursday and I finally decided on Wednesday what I was going to attempt. I believe it was around 10 PM. I cut out the flannel pieces from scraps and sewed them together, with much trouble. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my friggin machine. The tension was so screwed up. Nothing worked, so I finally gave up and went to bed around 1 am. I woke up around 5:30 (a wrong number on the phone) but since I had "things" to do I got up anyway. I made coffee trudged down the basement stairs and had another go. Well it must have been the coffee or something but I finally figured out that I had to take the machine apart and clean it. You see I've been sewing alot of flannel (with two babies in 10 months, what else would I be sewing) and the gunk and broken thread iin the bobbin thingamagig was amazing. We;ll after much tweezer use and blowing everything finally came out and the sewing resumed. After I finished (the back is a lime green polka dot, really cute) I had alot of regret in giving the "baby doll blanket" away. I had some squares leftover from the first attempt of cutting 0out the squares so I made a small pillow. I was really pleased at how it all turned out. And the birthday girl seemed to appreciate it, by dragging it around. So now I have to make one for my own granddaughter.

But the cake, what can I say it was great. Should have been larger so some of us could have taken pieces of it home. I mean how often are there no leftover birthday cake pieces to unload on the guests.

Apple Brown Betty

A funny thing happened on my way to making an Apple Brown Betty. I was lurking around blogs today and was inspired to make a brown betty. I even went so far as to throw the hard brown sugar in the micro to soften it. I discovered that I only had one apple-all be it a huge apple, but only one. Then I remembered the frozen rubarb and the frozen blueberries. So I figured I'd make a fruit brown betty. So I got out the baking dish and buttered it up and started peeling the apple and even got out the other fruit out of the freezer. But then after slicing and coring the apple I got another inspiration. There was half an avocado from our BLT's from lunch sitting on the counter getting brown, and I only had a little hunk of cheese left, again from our sandwiches at lunch so I decided on this dish instead. I poured two glasses of wine and I'm heading upstairs to share. My husband thinks he's getting hamburgers, Oh well... this is probably better for both of us anyway.

Wow end of March. I can't believe I've been so lax in posting. I have a good excuse though....menopause. It's all I can do when I get home from work is pour a glass of wine and vegetate on the recliner. I've been taking everything out there to relieve the discomfort. I remember hearing " starting your periods later will make menopause easier, more pregnancies will make it easier, breast feeding with make it easier" ALL LIES. If this is "easier" I'd hate to experience "harder". My sister, has less pregnancies, started periods in grade 5 (did breast feed though) and she is older than me by 16 months and I started about a year before her but we are both in the depths of menopause and both are in hell. Although I think I have it harder than her....
The handful of supplements I take twice a day I thought were almost usless until two days ago I forgot to take them in the evening and had the "worst" night of my life. So maybe, they might be helping, I admit that grudgingly only because I wonder how much longer I have to take these things.
I bought a book about it, but haven't bothered reading it yet, because I can't committ to anything right now. I just don't have the patience to sit and read anything other than a crossword these days. I can't believe how lazy I've become. And the damn hot flashes are making me crazy.
I'm tired of the supplements - evening primrose oil, multi minerals, vitamin d, mega antioxidants, menosense, calcium mag, vitamin c, b complex.
Then there's the essential oils, Solace and Transitions, one is for hot flashes, one is for hormone balancing. I smell like a pine forest.
Every morning I have a serving of yogurt with either strawberries, or blueberries and trail mix. (only because I've been testing this to loose some wieght around my gut, amazingly it seems to be working for the weight loss) so I'm kinda addicted to this because maybe it's got something to do with regulating the hormone inbalance too....you never know.
So I've also added drinking the supplements down with blueberry juice...don't ask me why, I don't know why...but why not.
I just want to be able to get some sleep at night. I can't remember the last time I didn't want to have a nap in the middle of the day.
It's a good think I set my own schedule for the clients that I have. I don't know how women who have to work 8 hours a day manage this.
Although I haven't posted anything like forever, I still manage to read some other blogs, I just wsant to ask, How do all these people manage to post something all the time. I'm beggining to thing they have no life or are self absorbed or ...something. No offense to anyone. But how do you all do it everyday? although I do enjoy several of them.
So here's the post for March hopefully I will post again before June.

Borsch

I've always wanted to try my hand at borsch using a coleslaw mix. So here's the ingredient list

1 lge bag coleslaw mix

2 bags baby carrots(only because I had two in the fridge) otherwise 1 lrg is good to go

1 bag baby potatoes (again because that's what I had)

1 green pepper

garlic

onion

green onions

2 jars home canned tomatoes

celery (inside heart plus two stalks

butter (1 lb)
cream

salt and pepper

celery salt

Pick out most of the purple cabbage out of the bagged mix.

so that it looks like this.

pulverize 1 bag of carrots

shredd the other bag of carrots. Dice the onion, celery, green pepper and about 10/12 small potatoes. (I just like the taste of baby potatoes over any of the larger ones, so that's what I have on hand all the time. They are more work for dicing and mashing, but the taste is worth it, i think anyway).

strain the pulverized carrots into about 1 cup of carrot juice and the rest mulch

Take out the "big pot" and add about 12 cups water. Add 1/2 the coleslaw mix and the carrot juice to the pot and bring to a nice slow rolling boil. Add the diced potatoes. Then reduce to a simmer.

Bring about 20 baby potatoes to a boil for mashing.

In a seperate pot empty the two jars of tomatoes and bring to a boil and cook until the tomatoes are mush

Saute the onion, celery and garlic. Add the carrot mulch.

Add the cooked tomatoes in batches to this veggie mixture,

When this is finished add to the big pot, being careful that the pan is facing away from you, as this is very hot and might splatter at you.

Fry the cabbage in batches and add to the big pot as cooked

Add half the container of cream and about 1/3 of the pound of butter, salt, pepper and mash the potatoes up

Add this mixture to the large pot, but temper it first so as not to curdle the cream.

Add the diced green pepper, green onions and lots of dill. I forgot completely about the BEET. So I had a can of beets in the pantry and added the juice only (the canned beets tend to look awful in the finished product - too pale, so I didn't use them, just the juice) I can't believe I forgot the beets, geez. Add lots of salt and pepper. I also add celery salt.

Bring this up to a simmer again. DO NOT BOIL.

Yummy. I was amazed at the result. I will be doing this again. The worst part of making borsh is that chopping of the cabbage. This stuff eliminates that process. I added a hand full of shredded cheese to the bottom of the bowl and a splash of hot sauce. UMMmmmm

The result for the fridge.

the cleanup

Big Plans

Well here it is Rememberance Day Monday, and I had all these plans and it's now 5:30 and I've accomplished a whole lot of nothing so far. Not exactly nothing I have done two loads of laundry, but that's about it. I did manage to get dressed and take a shower, but that was primarily because I had Hot Friggin flashes ALL NITE LONG. But I haven't made it out of the bedrooom (except to drag the laundry down stairs, let the dog out for a pee and made some lunch, that I brought back upstairs) It's one of those "let's watch video" days. We put on Sicko and then half way through the movie I spent about an hour on the phone so by the time we got back to the movie, well there went the afternoon. So now we're watching Mr Brooks. I haven't decided if I like it or not. I only turned this thing on because I wanted to reserve a book from the library that I read about in the newspaper. Oh yeah, another thing I managed to do was read the morning paper while watching sicko. And doing the sudoko puzzle. My daughter is in Toronto this weekend so I emailed her the links to http://ugonnaeatthat.wordpress.com/ to the sites refering to toronto. Hopefuly she will get to at least one of the restaurants she recommends.

Oh geez look how dark it is outside already. I hate this time of year. I can't believe how fast this weekend has gone by. I quess I should let the dog out again I picture her sitting down there with her little back legs crossed.

Passport

Well I finally got my passport. Woohoo!!
I picked the coldest day to stand in line for an hour and a half. Not to mention the freeken wind chill factor. As I'm standing there freezing - I'm thinking " this would be a good time for my hot flashes to kick in". Not so lucky.
As I'm standing - in line - did I mention "freezing" yet... I"m also thinking "Steve Harper I don't need 1% taken of the GST what "I" need is more civil servants so that this line doesn't need to be so long. Given that it's been this long day after day after day after week after month. Maybe he should stand in line, see how his government policy really works.
I got in line at about 10:30 AM and my ever so helpful husband said "forget it he wasn't going to stand in any line in this weather blah blah blah..." So I"m thinking we could share the cold - you know - I'll stand here for 1/2 hour then he'll stand here for 1/2 while I warm up in the van. That was the plan. So I took the first 1/2 hour and about 10 minutes into it, my feet froze up, my nose wouldn't stop running. The wind........ ugh. So I called him up on the cell and asked him to bring me the blanket in the back of the van and some kleenex. About 10 minutes later and he still hasn't shown up with the stuff. So I phoned him again and this time was a little pissed and everyone in the line up overheard my angry conversation. There was a general consensous that men are all shit. So he finally shows up and then informs me that it's too cold for him (in the van) and he's going to leave and to call him when I get closer to the entrance. By this time I'm aclimatized to the cold and determined to stick it out. After all, I didn't want to whimp out in front of all other other suckers standing in the same line up as me. MOst of them where from out of town and had no choice. So I stayed. Let's just say that this is being posted here so that sometime in March when I want to go somewhere nice and warm (WITH OUT MY HUSBAND) Maybe a chick get away....I'll just scroll down to this and let him read this to remind him of the total ass that he was, and I shouldn't have any guilt when I pack my bags. I"ll be sure to send him a postcard.

beans beans beans

Finally, my first picking of beans. I can hardly wait to cook them for lunch. I had to wait to be alone, so that I wouldn't have to share any. After all I only have the two bunches. I'm already anticipating it. yum.

Here's Linden Cole

Don't you just love those slippers

He's sooo cute

Here's both Brooklyn and Linden. What a difference 1 month makes in size. It was very cute hearing my son (with the 1 week old) telling my daughter (with the 1 month old) the merits of adding formula to breast milk, for the nightly feeding. I wonder how he's getting along now that his son is past the sleeping all day stage. I should phone them. I really miss the little guy. I think I've been spending too much time with Brooklyn. I usually go over every other day in the evenings to give her a bath and give my daughter some time to herself. Her partner has been working nights lately. She's been changing so much. I haven't seen her for three days now and I'm beginning to panic. I might be missing something.

We're planning on taking a trip this weekend to see our grandson. We are going to have to do some skill full conniving to get one or the other to live closer together to all of us or something. I don't think I'm going to be able to be away from any of them. This is going to be awful. How do people do it.

I've been busy making double of everything. Receiving blankets, baby quilts, play pen pads, crib sheets. My sewing maching has been getting quite the work out. Not to mention the bank account.

I'm sitting here in bed it's 3:30 pm and i've still got my pj's on. I've got the foodtv on the tv and the portable on my lap. I'm getting hungry. It's kinda one of those days. There's alot of things I should be doing. But I'm not. Maybe later.

Right now I have some beans to cook.

I had a dream....

I had an interesting dream last night, just want to mention it just in case ....It was about an intersting products, that I think I would even enjoy


"CHOCOLATE PEPSI" I can even still picture the look of the can. Chocolate brown stripes and blue polka dots. Hmmmmmmmm.

another baby

Well, he's here. Lyndon Cole - born early Thursday July 19. Cool. Two grandchildren a month apart. No pic's yet. I guess they're busy. It's as though someone had twins. Booklyn is a month old yesterday. I have to buy two of everything. One thing worked out well, the two baby quilts tops I put together years ago. ONe is for a girl and the other for a boy. So at least I don't have all that work to do, just have to quilt the darn thing before He gets to old.

We're planning on all taking a road trip on Tuesday to see the newest addition. And I"ve convinced by daughter to come along with her baby so that everyone back home can get a look at her as well.

My husband came down with pneumonia the other day, and he spend thursday coughing all
day, as he was getting out of bed in a fit of coughing, he threw his back out. The prescription medication for both cost me $300.00. Hey I've got baby stuff to buy medication is not in the budget. Pissed me off! Who gets pneumonia in the summer anyway. He came home from a trip on Monday with it. Not that I'm not sympathetic. But I just really hate being around my husband when he's sick. Let's just say "when I'm ever sick I'm on my own". He needs constant attention.
And why are tourists traveling when they're sick. Honestly stupid people or what - no consideration for the poor smuck they infect. It's like that dick head who went to Europe with his untreatable illness. That's one reason I hate being around people in crowds, I'm a bit of a germ-a-phobe.

busy, busy, busy

Brooklyn Haley Lark

June 20, 2007

6 lb

19 " long

what a cutie

I can't believe it's going to be two weeks already. So much hair, almost needs a barrette.

Now we're all waiting for Jason's. Shouldn't be too much longer, I say a week and another one will arrive.

I was madly quilting away a couple weeks ago, but now I seem to be on a break, too much. This is my first attempt at free style quilting, and I'm not sure I like it, too much ripping and starting over. You really need to get a rhythm going. And then you break a needle. Maybe later seeing as it's a day off.

The weather finally turned for the better, I think summer has finally arrived. It's about time. The rain was very depressing, it's as though I was living in Vancouver instead of drought prone Calgary.

My huge garden is doing well, I'm surprised. I quess all that soil prep was a good thing.

I can already taste the green beans. There's even a cucumber on the plant.

I need to stake the beans today.

So I suppose I should get out of bed.

weight loss

I'm losing weight again. Pisser. I just bought a load of clothes in size 10. Some of which I really like, and now I'm down to 7/8. But I don't seem to be losing pounds but losing body fat. Can't be good. I'm always cold, have too many headaches. I have no energy. So the other day while grocery shopping I was scouting out the baked goods section. I even came home with a black forest cake. Figured this has got to be lots of calories. I only had one piece, I came home from work and ...no cake... anywhere. My husband......Unfortunately I'm losing and he's gaining. He's eating all my FAT stuff. Instead of coffee I've been pouring in a pouch of chocolate with my coffee, now I don't want coffee any other way. I bought a tub of sour cream yesterday and plan on eating it with something today just to gain some weight. I was at costco yesterday and bought cookies that I've never tried. Boy are the ginger snaps goooood. I have to hide them otherwise they'll be gone by tomorrow.
The reason i was at costco was because I was searching for some ground turkey. We were watching foodtv on a saturday morning with our choco coffee and got the hankering for some meatballs for dinner. So four packages of ground turkey $20 (used half-although after rolling them and deciding my crock pot wouldn't fit that much I saved 10 meatballs for some spaghetti later this week). Chili sauce $4.29, tom sauce $1.25, had the other ingredients at home already. So in my estimation...pricey meatballs!!! So they better be good. Unfortunately they sucked BIG TIME. First I admit I added some bread crumbs into the meatball mix, and I even added some balsamic vinegar and lea and perrins. ( I don't know if I can ever cook anything without adding these two) They still tasted like sawdust. Very bland. Maybe I should have added some pesto, but I didn't.
As these meatballs were crocking away I made up a bunch of tuna melt and realized I didn't have any usable celery so off I went to the supermarket again, and was attracted by the pineapple display. So I thought, "what kind of sweat and sour meatball was I making-didn't have any pineapple in the recipe" Well I added some fresh, figuring It could only help. Well nothing helped this sauce. It was gross. And very soupy to boot. This recipe needs far too much tweeking. I don't mind trying something new and even having to go out of my way to make it, but it really pisses me off big time it the recipe doesn't work or taste like crap.
So it's be religated to a "container in the fridge". Hopefully my husband will eat it during the week so I won't have to deal with it.
And what is it about celery. I keep buying this stuff and using about two stalks and then next time it's a big pile of mush in the fridge. My vegetable crisper should be renamed the vegetable musher. So when i bought yet another stalk of the stuff for my tuna melt, I vowed to myself that I would use up this stalk come hell or high water. So that's my challenge for the week. There's eleven veins or whatever they're called left in the bag. Wouldn't it be great if celery was fattening. That would help.

Survived

Well the plants survived the snow, the tree out back is still deciding it appear. (the top is bent over). I've got alot of reading to do. A recond number of books that I reserved at the library were waiting for me this morning.
I picked up To Far From Home, last week and unfortunately haven't had much spare time to read it. It's eye opening to realize just how the space industry is running on out of date technology and out of date nuts and bolts. Why would anyone want to be an astronaut and have to deal with the short falls and screw ups. I need to take public transit in order to read. That's where I've found the time. Standing waiting for the bus, and riding the bus really moves those pages. And only puts about 1/2 hour on my commute.
I don't know where I will find the time to read, what with the two quilts I have to get going on (only one is semi completed). And my husband purchased pants that need to be hemmed up. Not to mention that I planned on doing some cooking this weekend. I need some left-overs.
So far I've made some sweat and sour meatballs, spaghetti and meatballs, tuna mix for tuna melts. I have half a baked ham sitting in the fridge just begging to get used for something other than sandwiches. I've just been slicing thin slices off and piling it up on a sandwich. I boiled it in root beer then smothered pomegranate molasses and mustard and brown sugar all over it before baking it. WOW sure is good.
I bought some ground turkey from costco, I hope the meatballs turn out good. That damn ground turkey is $$$.
It's time to taste the meatballs.

It's almost June...really it is

this was taken on saturday, and I though THAT was a lousy day!!!

This is what I woke up to this morning. I couldn't believe it.

somebody remind me...why do I live here?

So much for global warming

Well here it is the second day of my garden and still it's raining, this morning it was snowing. It's May 21st for christ sake, Snow is not supposed to be allowed. I had to cover up with a garbage bag, the seeds I just planted yesterday. The poor tomatoe plants are shivering out there, I'm going to have to cover them up also, it's so darn cold out there. I can't believe it. Even the dog doesn't want to go out. She just stand at the door and turn around. I quess she thinks she can hold it a bit longer, till it's warmer maybe. She looks funny standing there, like she can't decide if it's worth it or not.

This is my fav planter so far this year. Let's just call "the purple planter" Next to all the light grey it looks wonderful, and the Hiliatrope smells wonderful in the evening. I've decided that my patio area this year has to either be purple, or it better have a fragrance.

Here's the "diaper cake" The picture doesn't do justice to the product. The top tier is newborn size, down to a larger size. Maybe once the packaging comes off.

There's face clothes, rattles, lotion, teething rings etc tied to the different tiers, it's quite the project.

The shower

Well the second shower was on Saturday. But officially I quess it was the first shower, as that one was canceled. So the second one became the first one. It was the "friends" shower. I almost finished the baby blanket, but not. So hopefully it will be finished for the "family" shower some time in June. I had to find something else to take to this shower so I went to a baby store. I haven't been to a baby anything store for years. Wow there sure is a lot of stuff to spend your money on. There's way too much choice. How does anyone make a decission of anything. Well I read about this thing called a timer. So I've been looking for one ever since, itzbeen . It's a male thing I would quess. I wonder how long it will be before the novelty of it will wear off. Anyway since I have two baby's coming I had to buy two of them.

But the best gift was called a "diaper cake". Since my camera isn't here right now, I can't include the picture. But believe me it was amazing. I had to order one for my son's shower. The friend that organized this shower did an amazing job. I think it's true what they say about new mothers and their ability to milti task. What an imagination she has. I remember when I was like that. I think one has to be stressed and busy in order to have a creative imagination. Maybe that's why I have no imagination any longer. I have no stress, and no children to worry about or keep me busy. Poor pitful me. I've been waiting 20 years for this.

I planted my beans and zuccini and tomatoes today. Now all I need is some of that global warming. I just watered them all in and quess what, the sky's opened up and that was before noon and it's still raining. Again my camera is out and no pictures. I'm kinda proud of my little garden. I'm expecting lots of green beans and will really be pissed it they don't grow to their expected potential.

Well I've got two weeks to year end at work, that ought to be fun. The inventory is really a joy. I've been out of my office for two weeks now, filling in for reception. I can hardly wait to be in my isolated little room. I never realized how nozy everyone is whenever I am doing anything financial, or whenever the cheque books are out. It doesn't help that my boss is so paranoid about keeping everything so secret.

My brothers manicure thing is finally a reality manicure plus we've been all waiting like forever for this thing. It should be a real winner.

My mother is planning on being in town for three weeks in June. She's helping my neice with babysitting while her nanny is on holiday back in the Philippines. My first reaction to this news is "she never did that for any of her own children" What gives. So I'm planning on delivering my serger over there and many different flannelette fabric so that she can make a pile of receiving blankets for my two grandchildren. That ought to keep her busy on her off hours.

The quests at the shower started a pool for the date and time of expected arrival. It was kinda funny, I've never been to a his and hers baby shower before. Who knew that guys could have such a sense of humor about babies, and pink fluffy things. I wonder how many of them went home and started on their own babies.

I'm reading a great book called Talking with my Mouth Full. REally enjoying it. I started reading I like you by Amy Sedaris but it got really old after about 1/4 of the way through. Can't see what the big deal is with all the publicity. Talking with my Mouth Full is a much better use of my time. I might even have to buy this book.

So much for plans...

So, the plan was.....baby shower for my daughter on good friday, first birthday for my neice's baby on easter sunday, 50th aniversary party on saturday. Since most of the "out of towners" were planning on being here for easter. It was a good plan. Except my sister's husband died on March 30. Shock of all shock. It's my husband's sister that has cancer and is in a hospice on a DNR. We bought plane tickets to fly up to see her on the sunday April 1st. But Bob died on Friday morning. Blood clot in his lung. And we thought maybe the pain was a gall stone. Huge mistake. Only 54, one year to retirement. So Sad. Needless to say it was a mad rush to leave town, plans had to be cancelled, tickets cancelled, showers and birthday parties cancelled. The funeral was finally on thursday. It was the longest week of everyone's life. My sister is still probably wondering "what's going on" . Everyone is in such shock.

Unfortunatly I brow beat a few people into taking time off work and travelling here for easter (for those not originally planning on being here for easter). It wasn't until tuesday that I remembered to call them to say I wouldn't be here for the shower and it was cancelled. A few people came anyway for the weekend. Good thing my daughter works in a hotel and got good rates for them. So they're all out shopping today. EAster has been cancelled here.

Most funerals of my family go something like....Service, burial, meal, wake. Well this one had a service all right (two days before many people got together to prepare the meal even) then the burial started out fine. The procession (about 20 miles) from service to grave site. The coffin was put on the mechanism to lower it. The coffin started to go down, but them BOTH strapes broke and the coffin tipped over and fell 8 or so feet down. The funeral director looked like he wanted to jump into the hole. It was one of the largest attended funerals in the area. Including those who came to the grave yard. It was the most amazing thing I've even witnessed. THe casket broke apart at the bottom - the body was sort of half exposed, the sides of the coffin were split away. What a mess. My mother went histerical, his son soon followed. I gotta give my Sister credit she was pissed at my mother for making such a scene. She was just standing there with this look of "what the f*@^" on her face. Everyone was stunned. I still have a chuckle evertime I think back on it. When you think about it, it's kinda, sorta funny. And Bob loved a good joke. My husband informed me that he wants to be buried just like that. I think my sister still can't believe that anything - including his death even happened. I told her that Bob probably didn't like the casket, and refused to be buried in it. Or maybe he wanted to be cremated. So everyone had to leave, we all went back 20 miles to the hall and ate the meal, then waited for the hearse to come back (she had to pick out another casket - picked a solid steel one this time - probably on the house, it was a beautiful one) then we had to drive back (another 20 miles) to the grave site. This time they used ropes and the pulley system to lower it. So a funeral that should have been over by 2pm wasn't over until 5:30. My sister will be hearing about this burial forever. It was quite the ordeal to get the mess out of the hole. I won't even go into that part. Unfortunately for the funeral home, my neice's husband is a lawyer. And I was there with my camera. Not a good day. But surely a memoral one. Then after the funeral I had to drive 650 km back. I got home about 1:30 AM and I'm still bagged today. I'm just sitting here drinking arbor mist and eating ding dongs. I did manage to get four jars of funeral borsch though.

I had some for lunch today, they never add garlic, so I do. Funeral and wedding borsch is the best. It's even worth the gas afterwards.

Not beet borsch but cabbage. With lots and lots of butter. Yummy.

Lazy day

Today is laundry day. And baking day....surprizingly. I was nuking my breakfast (the patty) hamburger, when I spotted this green paper tucked in with a bunch of perscription receipts next to the micro. So I pulled it out and then I remembered this recipe I found in a library book years ago, and I've been dragging it around ever since. It wasn't even a cook book. It was being used as a marker in a murder mystery. So I decided to make it. Either keep the recipe or throw it away. Well it's a keeper. The recipe was written on a page of someone's day timer.

Lazy Daisy Cake

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

2 tbsp butter

1/2 c milk

Beat eggs till light and fluffy, add sugar beat well. Bring butter & milk to a boil. Add sifted flour salt and baking powder to egg mixture. Mix well. Then add boiled milk and butter to egg & flour mixture. Mix well. Pour into 8X8 pan (i used 6x12) bake at 350 till lightly browned and springs back about 20-25 min.

Topping

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c flaked coconut

1/2 c chopped nuts

3 tbsp butter

2 tbsp whip cream

Melt butter, add brown sugar and cream. Let bubble a few minutes. Then add coconut and nuts to cooked mixture, spread on warm cake. Put on broil. Stand there and watch it till it bubbles up all over and turns a golden brown.

yummmm and so fast, really a no brainer. As with all recipes I didn't exactly follow to the letter, and it still turned out excellent. For starters I didn't feel like getting the mixer down from the cupboard, to much work. Then I couldn't find my hand mixer. Found the beaters, and the cord, but not the machine. So I just dumped the sugar and egg into the food processor attachment that came with my plunge blender and just whipped it up into a sludge. Didn't have any coconut, but I did have a hunk of creamed coconut. So I grated that up into the batter. I copied the recipe exactly as I found it on the paper. So the next time I feel the need for a piece of cake, I will definately use this again.

Last night my hasband decided that he needed some prawns for dinner. Last week I bought a huge supply of them for family and friends from the wholesaler. I do this once a year in February. It just happened that my freezer is somewhat empty so that's a good thing. Because it's full of prawns and mussels right now. And the freezer is in the garage. Last friday I brought the load home and managed to get it all in the freezer. That night my husband went to work and didn't close the garage door (it faces out towards the alley) and it's a lucky thing the light bulb was out that's attached to the door opener. Because the garage was open for the whole weekend. My neighbour knocked on my door at around 8 pm on sunday night and let me know. Meanwhile we were parking on the street for some reason all weekend. So in a panic I ran out and envisioned all my tools - gone, all my gardening equipment - gone. And most of all the hundreds of dollars of prawns in the freezer-gone. But everything was happily where it should have been. I gotta say I live in a great neighbourhood. No one comes around here except the people that live here. NOt like the last place that's for sure. The last place I never had to take my empties to the recycler myself because I would just leave it outside by the dumpster and by the time I brought the other bag down, the first one dissapeared.

Usually when I grill prawns I just marinate them in some bottle of italian salad dressing that I've doctored up. But didn't have any yesterday so I had to actually think of a marinade. So I remember copying the recipes over to my program (I copy all the recipes from most cook books into mastercook) from barefoot contessa's bunch of books that I picked up at the library.

And they turned out lip smacking. Although I used my George Foreman Grill, not a barbeque grill (haven't used the barbeque in the year since I bought my foreman grill)

Grilled Herb Shrimp

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 small onion small dice

1/4 c minced parsley

1/4 c minced basil

1 tsp dry mustard

2 tsp dijon mustard

2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 c olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

2 lbs shrimp

Well as usual I had to improvise.

I didn't have any parsley or basil. But I did have some pesto, so I added about 1/2 tsp (mine is really thick) and used only 1/2 an onion. I only have 1/2 a lemon, so I also used the lemon peel with the rasp. I gotta say though use a sieve when reaming the lemon. My little ity bitty 1/2 lemon had a surprising amount of seeds. And since I used the pesto, I should have only maybe used 1 garlic clove. And I added a splash of balsamic vinegar. I only had about 5 tiger prawns (not a big fan) and It's a good thing, because I was really suffering from the garlic. My husband was breathing all over me all night. Not a pleasant sleep.Next time I'll marinate them overnight in this mix. They probably would have been even better if allowed to absorb more of the flavour. They cooked really fast, about 3 minutes. So make sure everything else is ready to serve. I just made some spagetti and ceasar salad. It was a very garlic evening.

The butter chicken I made last sunday, well I was taking it to work for lunch on monday, tuesday and wednesday. By wednesday it was tamed right down and especially good. I made kraft dinner with it on sunday and when I stored it in the fridge I just dumped the whole chicken mess on top of the macaroni and put it away. The next day the macaroni absorbed all the liquid and then I just sliced of 1/3 and put it into a sandwich container to nuke at work. That was a really good recipe.

Empty Nester

Well I'm an empty nester again. She's gone to Vancouver. She left on the worst possible day, so much snow. On the other side of the mountains it apparently stopped snowing and was fine, but I still called her every 1/2 hour or so. Single girl driving alone , not familiar with the roads, I was nuts until she got there. I'm surprised she made it in one piece, really I am. I was expecting her to call for help half way. I even ran to the bank and put some money in her account just in case.

But on the other front...

I have two baby quilts to make by easter, I've been madly organizing. I've got one for sure that's a girl, the other is still a mystery. I've made quilt tops over the years, and never quilted them, so I have a few I could choose from. I ventured into a quilt fabric store yesterday, woooow. The prices sure have gone up and the selection is amazing. I had to replace a foot off my machine (don't know what happened to it) one day I was hemming a skirt and the next week I was sewing a blouse and "where is the regular foot?" I muddled along with a less than ideal foot but I had to replace it eventually because it was just a pain in the neck. Considering the foot was the thin hemmer one, the blouse turned out quit good. Anyho I had to wait for a perscription at the local "stupid store" so I wandered over to the magazine section, (first mistake) and picked up a quilting one. So I came home and dug out all my bins of fabric, and all my bins of mag's and books. So that's when I decided that I had to replace the foot.

Since the spare room is vacated now, I decided that it would make an ideal sewing room so I spent a few hours moving beds out and sewing tables , machines, ironing boards etc inc. It's going to be nice to have an ironing board upstairs. I really hated trudging down to iron in the morning, I usually just pick something else instead. Lazy Lazy.

I made this one about 5 yrs ago, when I was bored in my store. I always thought it would make a good baby quilt, but never gave it to anyone. Although a few babies have been born since.

I quess I just wanted to keep it around.

This one was made about a month after the hearts. Again, bored.

also I have a Yorkie/maltese which looks alot like this little guy before she gets to the groomer.

And I rather enjoy making scrap quilts.

and then about 12 years ago I made this one.

But it's more a single bed size rather than a crib size. It started out as a wall hanging and I just got carried away and eventually stopped when it became bed size. But again I never finished it, just pieced it. That's the only part I enjoy. And the shopping for fabric part.

So I'm all set. I just have to quilt the darn things now. I really hate the actual quilting of them. I made a few actually quilting "by hand", even went so far as making my own stand and all. Bending over them for months and months at a time. Never again. Now it's machine quilting or nothing, But I hate it, so much work. so much puckering, and ripping out, and doing over. Ugh. Not something I look forward to.

I've got a double shower planned for easter, maybe they'll just get a picture of the quilts. My son is planning on being here for easter, and my extended family will all be here, so I figured it's a good time to have a shower, even though it's a little early. Both are due end of june beginning of july. I figure One will be late and the other will be early. Just my luck Because they live about 500 miles away from each other. And Me, I'll be here, there or somewhere in between.

It's been decided that I pay for the cribs, HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICE OF THESE? It's kind of cute listening to the two of them (brother and sister) discussing the merits of this or that crib. I quess they're kind of lucky that they are both so close on due dates with each other. How often does that happen between siblings.

The youngest one probably feels left out, that's probably why she left town. Although she said she was up for some sort of adventure. Making up with an old boyfriend and moving in. I've been missing a few things since she left. Like all my pasta. She took the whole basket. I couldn't believe it. It's as though there are no stores in Vancouver. A few of my cook books have disappeared. She even took her sword, so I figure she'll be awhile. A few years ago she bought dishes and a set of pots and pans, and lots of towel etc., but they haven't been used. So I think she's looking forward to using all her stuff, finally. She figures her boyfriend probably hasn't got anything other than a can opener and a microwave. Guys!

I made the butter chicken again today, I'm obsessed with this recipe. Trying to cool the spice down a bit. It was better today, last time I couldn't eat it, spiccccccy.

I'm hoping it'll be better tommorrow for lunch.

I finally bought some garam masala, instead of improvising. But it's still hot. I left out the chipolte chili this time. Didn't help. Maybe next time I'll tone the curry paste down.

My husband liked it, even though curry is a bad word to him. So that's something.

I gotta go and refill my wine glass.

Another job

Well I've got another job this time as a bookkeeper. I've heard about the lack of qualified "anythings" here lately. During the first day of my employment my cell phone rang five times from other resumes I had sent out. Some of the positions sounded really interesting. Oh well.I have my own office, posting and shuffly papers all day. So far it's great. Nothing to do with food though.
I've even managed to do some cooking too. This week I've made hamburgers and fries twice. They were so good the first time, I just had to repeat it two days later. With my handy dandy george foremen grill. (How did I live without this thing) and my wok as a deep fryer.
So today I'm remaking something I made on sunday last week.
I spotted a cook book at a book store a few weeks ago and since I've watched (and copied recipes from the show) her show on the food network or somewhere, I'm not sure what channel it's on. But the book only had one recipe that appealed to me and the price for one recipe wasn't enough to tempt me to buy it. Easy butter chicken. I thought maybe I'd go home and request it from the library. But later that day I stopped in at costco and low and behold there it was, much cheaper, so I bit the bullet and bought the book on the basis of only one recipe. So I made the chicken, and it was really really good. My husband ate the leftovers the next day (I was planning on doing just that). In spite of the curry paste ingredient. He didn't turn his nose up. So that's a recomendation if ever there was one. So I bought some chicken yesterday and the plan is to redo the chicken again. This time i'll make more. I even added the recipe to my binder. For easier reference. Who knew Butter Chicken would taste soooo good made with heinz tomato soup. Wow. So I'm off to the kitchen

Butter Chicken

1/4 c butter
4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless (1 1/3 lbs or 600 g)
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp chipolte chili powder
1 tbsp madras curry paste
1 tbsp peanut butter, smooth
1 can tomato soup (10 oz)
1/2 of the soup can,filled with milk
3/4 c chicken broth, or veg broth
1/4 c fresh cilantro (hate chilantro used dried fennel about 1/2 tsp)

Melt butter in a large stove topot at med high heat. cut each breast into 9 chucks, adding to butter as you cut. Toss until no longer pink. Add garam masala, paprika, cinnamon, sugar, chili powder, curry paste and peanut butter, stir to coat.
Graduallystir in soup, milk and broth. Toss in dried fennel. Stir and heat at a high simmer. Turn down heat and let thicken. Should be dark brown and thick. Let cool before serving. Humm amazingly this matches really nicely with kraft dinner. Super fast and easy. Great leftover possibilities for lunch at work next day.

Working

Well here it is January 17th and I just quit job #3. After being off for a year and a half, this working for a living....... Let's just say I can find better things to do with my time. Or maybe I"m just too old for this crap.
Job #1 - said she was only interested in training someone with no experience. Turns out she is a lousy instructor. And too many phone calls answered, vendors looking for money. Bad sign. Quit after 3 days.
Job #2 - Temp job receptionist. Started on a monday begged to be released by thursday. I think one has to be extremely dumb and stupid to do this job. Brain cells were dying in an 8 hour day. The most mind numbing boring job I've ever had. Except for maybe job #3.
Job #3 - Admin Assist. I think that If you don't care diddly about the product, well the job probably sucks. But I did last 6 weeks. Only because I didn't want to leave during xmas holiday. But it got harder and harder to actually want to show up. And I'm too old to be nit picked at. If I'm cold I'm going to TURN UP the thermostat. I don't give a @#^ how hot it is in the ladies room (right next to the furnace) My desk is not next to the ladies room. God some people. And don't use a foreign language talking to family members around me. That's just rude. Too many calls about not receiving product that was promised. Began to believe product wasn't as good as publicity for it. GPS technology is BORING. Unless of coarse you are lost, or missing. But still boring. I actually left a note on my desk, resigning. Didn't want to do it in person. What a wuz.
So here I am job hunting again. I did actually hand out a resume yesterday. But today maybe I'll just take a day off. I just need a simple dopey job that doesn't require much effort. And I really miss working around food.
I have two grandchildren on the way. One in June and another 3 weeks later in July. Cool.
I hope that it's one of each, because I made two baby quilt tops a few years ago (never did finish quilting them though) one for a girl and one for a boy. I'm just waiting patiently for the news of who's having what.
I bought a cook book yesterday. The Dinner Fix. After I looked it over at the first store ($29.95) and only found maybe 1 recipe that looked interesting, I decided that 25.95 was too much for only 1 recipe. But later saw the same book at Costco for $17, so I bought it. Haven't decided if I"ll keep it, or give it to one of the kids. Concept of the book is different. I'll have to see if the recipe for butter chicken works or not. Haven't found a recipe that works yet.
I've been obsessed with "pomegranate molasses" since chistmas dinner. Finally found it. Looking forward to using it. Smells really good.
It's been two weeks since we stopped taking sleeping pills to fall asleep. Went cold-turkey on the friday before new years. It was tough slogging. There were nights..... But I insisted that we try. I can't believe how awake I am during the day. Never realized how groggy I was during the day. I was walking around in a fog and had absolutely no energy. What a difference. I can say that the last two nights I finally got some uninteruped sleep. That was heaven. I didn't think it would happen.

move your stuff

I've been preparing for visitors. Bought a bed, several different sheet sets were bought and returned (has to be just perfect ya know). I don't like everything matching like sheets, cases, blanket, coverlet, curtains etc. In my house the rooms have to have character. When we moved in here the color of the spare room was ...interesting. Nothing I would have chosen that's for sure. Three walls were yellow oh, I don't know darker than butter. The feature wall was dark red. The adjoining bathroom was the same. The drapes were a shade darker yellow.I've never really worked with this combination for a bedroom before and I've been a pro decorator in my past.
So we bought a bed on Thursday, and I spent the weekend stuck in traffic searching for the sheets etc. Well I had a bed skirt that was gold and burned red that was a little bit medieval (my daughters) and matching shams. I found a coverlet that my husband "had to have" from Costco - that's been sitting on the shelf in the closet. It's sort of a celery color. And since my visitor is my mother, I pulled out the blanket that she bought last time she was here for herself to store here for the next time she came. It's floral yellow, reds and greens surprisingly. Ok so what kind of sheets would match this. I also have a dark gray textured look flat sheet that was just crying to be used. Amazingly I managed to put this assortment of misfit things together. I found some green shams in the back of the closet the pull it all together. And I finally found the sheet set. Gold, dark red and dark green on a burnished background stripe. Now whenever I come up the stairs its the first room I see. It's amazing how much joy a spare room "done-up" can bring one. I just need something on the walls and a chest of some kind.
I cleaned the carpets last night, and cleaned the bathrooms. Washed most of all the towels. I'm almost ready for the visitors. just need to bake a few things still.
About two weeks ago I fung shuied my Helpful hands sector and my career section. I figured "why not". My living room is in the helpful hands and the tv in sitting in the career section. What to do? I need silver and gray. I have a silver lamp with a gray shade, I bought some of those rattan balls and spray painted them silver stuck them into a pot and planted an ivy around them as a topiary. Stuck it in the corner on the side table. Then One day I was at Winners and spotted a small boudour pillow that was covered in silver sparkles. It looked good on the leather sofa so I went to the fabric store and bought some other silver thing for another pillow and so far only draped in over the existing brown pillow that was already resting on the sofa. "i'm lazy." I potted the ivy in a gray pot and then added another silver pot with some other plants. I drilled up a shelf over the couch and displayed a few gray and silver objects on it. and voila I think a did it. So then I concentrated on the career section. What can anyone do with a tv. So I moved all the components over to make some room on the entertainment stand and dug out some old ledgers of mine (from when I had a couple businesses) and my daughters textbooks from her business admin coarse. And stuck them under the tv behind the glass doors. The next day I got a call from a college about a possible job opening, someone willing to train blah blah blah. So I applied. And then two days later I got the job. Not bad. I'm to be a number cruncher, pencil pusher. Quick books. Actually I'm looking forward to it
The book, (I've bought several copies, because mine always goes missing) is Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life. I start next week. Everyone should have a copy of this book.

fear of the dark......

I stopped by the library a picked up a couple books for the weekend. Friday afternoon I started reading Ann Rule (one of my fav's) Worth More Dead. I think it's her latest, but this copy was in paperback so it might not be. I normally really enjoy reading her true crime cases, but this time I was home alone. I dropped my husband off around 9:oo pm it was just starting to get dark. By the time I got home it WAS DARK . Meanwhile my daughter left around 5pm. So it was just me and the dog. Once I start reading Ann Rule, I just keep reading until the book is done. This was the case with this one. Around 10 pm I stopped reading and made sure all the doors were locked, about 1/2 hr later I pulled the drapes a little closer together. Then I also made sure the doors were really locked. I looked up from the book and noticed it was getting close to midnight and I didn't even watch the news. So I took my water glass and the book upstairs to read some more. Usually the animals (cat and dog) come upstairs with me, but this time I couldn't find them, I knew they were inside, but ah well. About two thirty I noticed gee It was getting really late. But the book.... My house was extra creaky last night. I had to continually stop reading because something made me look up. I hate when that happens, when I'm alone, and reading books I shouldn't be reading when I'm alone. Anyway I finished it about 3:30. I couldn't decide if I really wanted to try and sleep or not, what was the point. Every noise opened my eyes and the bed was not very comfortable all of a sudden. Why isn't the cat at least up here, he's always sneaking up on the bed, where was he and why didn't he want to come up. My neighbor came home late and usually the dog barks if anyone come anywhere near my door and either of my neighbors doors. But she didn't bark..... I finally couldn't take it anymore and took half a sleeping pill. My daughter woke me up when she left for work about 10 am. Sometime during the night she came home and I didn't even notice. And so it appears neither did the dog. It was very spooky. I should know better than to read something like this when I'm going to be alone. There ought to be a warning on the cover.

the old wine shades

Polished off The Old Wine Shades. I don't remember enjoying a book this much in a long time. All the twists and turns. I was sad to see the end of it all. I'm going to miss all these characters. I've grown so fond of them all. A tad too much left unresolved but hopefully the next novel will bring some closure. I will have to leave some space between the next book I read. Because this one has to be savoured a bit more. I should have read it slower. How long does it take Grimes to produce another one anyway.
Had an interesting breakfast this morning. My daughter even got out of bed before noon to partake it. My husband came home with a care package from Mom. We've been getting one on Tuesday morning these last couple of week. She lives about 300 to 350 miles away and my husband comes withing 60 miles of her home on Monday nights, so she sends it out towards him, to make a long story short. Anyway it was a welcome box of green beans, baby squash, cuc's, tomatoes (4 varieties) zuccinni, cabbage and fresh parsley all off her garden last night. So while my husband was unwinding from an all nighter I quickly saute'd the beans (heaven) ,cut up some baby potatoes and steamed them with wedges of cabbage, made some "stinky salad" (greek ) and then cut up some farmers sausage and fried it up with some sliced baby squash-added some motza before serving. Wow lip smacking. I don't know what it is about steamed cabbage that makes my family swoon. But they all come running when it's offered. I cut the baby potato into wedges at the bottom of the steam basket and then add a layer of wedged cabbage chunks on top, sprinkle the cabbage with a bit of ginger, kosher salt, and then butter before serving. It's like some kind of genetic link between them all. Must be my husbands genes because I don't have a taste for it at all. Wierd. Steamed cabbage-what a waste of time when there are so many other things out there one could be eating. I always thought food preference came invetro. But must be genetic - that would explain the weiners and beans they all seem to enjoy (again except me).
I surely do miss a veggie garden. There is nothing to compare to fresh green beans. Nothing. Except maybe fresh strawberries. Only thing I was able to produce from my tiny itty bitty yard so far has been basil. I made loads of pesto yesterday for the freezer. I have three tomato plants, but they haven't rippened yet and probably won't. The cucumber plant I rescued from the garden center is really long, but only produced one cuc so far. Lack of bees. I've been out there with my little brush. But I think I left it too late. And started out to late after moving here. Ah well, next year........
I just have to pull out all those shrubs first. All that wasted space.
I transplanted some of the herbs into a pot to hopefully keep over winter

I've got a nice spot for it in the bay window off the kitchen. I'll be really pissed if it doesn't work out.