View From My Window

Saturday it was gorgeous! Everything was covered with frost making it look like a winter wonderland.


Sunday we had six inches of snow.

Bean Soup - Sorta

Unlike many of the wonderful food bloggers out there, I don't like to bake. I used to. When I was younger a cold, snowy day always drove me into the kitchen to bake some cookies or a cake. Age, weight and laziness has replaced this drive with another - soup! This weekend has been miserably cold and snowy so it was a perfect time for soup. Since DH has a cold I decided I would make him some home-made chicken noodle soup. After thawing out a pint of chicken stock I discovered nary a piece of chicken meat in the entire house. No problem - I've got vegetables languishing in the refrigerator from my party, dried beans, pasta, and rice. I had already thawed out the stock so I was good to go.

Unfortunately neither of us wanted broccoli or cauliflower soup, so it looked like the winner was bean soup. I know that I've posted my bean soup recipe before, but since I know most people never look at the archives and since I was too lazy to go look for it to link it here, and since I knew this bean soup was going to be a little different, I decided just to fly with it so you can see the steps I took to give us something good to eat today.

As I've said before, I use as many types of legumes I can get my hands on. Any single type of bean is boring to my palate and I've found the texture and flavor is much improved with this technique. Nyda Gleason is the one who taught me to "de-gas" my beans with baking soda. This is easy - you just cover your beans with water, throw in about a tablespoon of baking soda and bring it to a boil. It will boil up some nasty looking foam, but that's OK as you'll be pouring that off.

Do this three or four times rinsing the beans after every boil. Then on the last one, rinse the beans well. You'll pour off all of the husks.

Be sure and pour it through your colander. You don't want to clog your drains with this crap.

Now it's time to start the fun stuff. I always make any soup using The Holy Trinity - Carrots, Onions and Celery. It turned out I didn't have any celery so I just had the carrots and onion say an extra Hail Mary and threw them in the pot with the beans. Next came my stock which, of course, wasn't enough to fill the pot so I added some water and a beef bouillon cube. (This is bean soup not chicken noodle soup - I wanted a deeper flavor.)

Next came my second "Holy Trinity" - Bay Leaf, Salt and Pepper. I really like that Crazy Mixed-Up Pepper. Don't know what all is in it, but I like the flavors.

Another thorough look through the freezers confirmed my suspicion that I didn't have any smoked ham hocks. No problem. I've made bean soup using kielbasa, ring bologna, even hot dogs. The only thing I don't put in is bacon. That shit is just nasty when you bite into it while eating your soup. (By the way, Nyda used to throw a stick of butter in her bean soup... just thought I'd throw that in.... .) The only acceptable meat I found was half a stick of Summer Sausage (left over from the party). So, in it goes!

I also had a package of Baby Bella Mushrooms that desperately needed used. Even though I've never added mushrooms before I had to either use them or lose them, so in they went.

That's it. All it needed now was time to cook. I left it on low for about four hours, nursed DH with herbal tea, played a little Pogo - it doesn't get any easier than this! When dinner time came, DH decided he was hungry for spaghetti, so I put the soup in the fridge. All soup tastes better the next day anyway.

Today I made some Jiffy Mix cornbread to go with the soup. The verdict? Well, the mushrooms gave it a beautiful deep brown color along with a nice "earthy" taste, but I don't think I'll routinely add them to bean soup. The Summer Sausage was OK, but wieners probably would have been better with the ham hock being the best. I missed the flavor of the celery too. But, all in all, it was pretty good soup.

As I've said before, you can make (literally) anything into soup. Paired with sweet cornbread this was a wonderful meal to eat while watching the snow fly.

New Year's Day 2007

I think I've finally recovered from our annual New Year's Day party. It was a short crowd this year owing to flu and weather. Considering some of the parties we've had in the past, this was a nice, manageable size. This is our seventh year hosting this party and it is looked forward to each year. I fixed George's Maid Rites, Ham and Bean as well as Chicken Noodle soups, snackie things, plus a full bar. Kathy made hot wings and Bettina brought deviled eggs. After New Year's Eve, it's nice to just eat, drink, visit and relax with friends. Here are some photos I'd like to share showing family and friends gathered for a day of eating, drinking, football and a nice friendly game of Scattegories:

The table is full, but the hot stuff is in the kitchen. As you can see, that's where everyone gathers:


That's my DH directing traffic.

There's ice in the ice chest in the living room....

Kathy's favorite spot,

and Quinten's too!

Traffic jam.

Bettina's daughter, Dani.

Bettina, Gary, Natalie and Dustin. And what did you do last night, Dustin?

Dustin and my daughter Della. Wonder why he doesn't want his photo taken?

The contestants in the "best pickled egg" contest. Mine are the beet eggs. I lost.

"Doc" and Karla Vernon. And, yes, that room really is orange.

Concentrating hard for Scattagories in the north room. Notice we had a blizzard the night before.

Santa among the herbs. That's it for this year folks. Hope your New Year's celebrations were lots of fun too.

My Kitchen

Ilva at Lucullian Delights has asked us fellow bloggers to show the world our kitchens. Even though I'm not "technically" a food blog (I talk about lots of stuff) I do post some of my better recipes, so I figure I can join in the fun too! She's going to do a round up of all the entries some time next month, so be sure and watch her site. Hell, check her site out anyway. That woman takes the most awsome photographs!

Several people have already posted their pictures and I'm so jealous of Tanna's kitchen. Her's was totally destroyed by a broken water pipe and they've rebuilt it to be the perfect dream kitchen. We can't all have catastrophies that enable us to design dream kitchens (thankfully) but I'm hoping for a good tornado.

I really wanted to wait until I had a sunny day to take my pictures but I'm running out of time. You'll see that I'm in preparation for my New Year's Day Annual Big Party. That's my roaster waiting for me to fill it with George's Maid Rites. And, yes, it's sitting on my dryer. Which is in the kitchen.

Here's my messy counter - east view.

And here's my messy counter - north view.

And here's my window herb garden which is my favorite spot in the kitchen. I absolutely love those two windows! I have my bird feeders hanging right outside the window and I can stand there, drink my coffee and watch the birds (and neighbors). It's amazing what you can see through my kitchen window.

Oh, and that's my dishwasher. As you can see, it's definitely a "one-butt" kitchen. But, like all kitchens, its the room where everyone congregates. We don't have a table in it (too small) but people like to stand around, sit on the counters, dryer, wherever and talk. Makes it a little hard to actually cook when they do that, but we somehow manage.

Yes, I do wish I had a beautiful big kitchen, but barring that tornado, I guess I'm stuck with what I've got. I remember when DH and I were first together we lived in a veritable shack (and I'm not exaggerating here). There wasn't an even floor or wall in the place. The bathroom was the size of a closet and the dining room ceiling fell down and just about killed the kids! But it had the biggest, most wonderful kitchen in it. Lots of counter space and cupboards, with room for a big kitchen table. Our house now is 100 times better than that POS, but I do miss having a big kitchen.

There you have it folks - the place where all the magic happens. Well, maybe not so much "magic" as plain old alchemy. What was it I read the other day? Oh - you could go to K-Mart and buy the cheapest set of golf clubs, hand them to Tiger Woods, and he'd still golf better than you or I. The lesson being, it's not the size that counts, it's how you use it. (I hear you giggling Bettina.)

I'm really looking forward to that roundup, Ilva. So many kitchens, so little time!

Happy Holidays

Wishing you and yours the very best this Christmas. And may 2007 be trouble-free for all of us!

Bathroom Walls

As anyone who has ever done any work on an old house knows, nothing is ever easy or simple. When Tom (the plumber) came to take out the tub's faucets and drain to prepare it for Mr. Tubbs, the drain crumbled in his hand, it was that rusted out. It's probably a miracle that it hadn't leaked into the dining room below. I'm sure it was just a matter of time. The "new" sink also refused to drain and Tom figured those pipes were in the same condition. Sooo... yep, that's right. Tom had to open up the floor to install new pipes. See ->

(That's Dusty, our Heinz 57 royal PIMA.)

Well, hell. I hated that old floor anyway. Nothing for it but to go get a remnant from our local floor guy. Shouldn't be too expensive. It's a pretty small bathroom. Right? Wrong. Four hundred buckaroos ladies and gents. That's installed, of course. Oh, and to install the new floor - they're going to have to take OUT the tub and stool. Great.

Sooooo.... since I'm going to have a nice new floor to go with my nice new tub and sink, I figured I might as well paint the walls. Right? See how ugly they are? I blame my daughter for the color choice. But that formica crap - that's all the previous owner's doing. I've got that... crap... in both bathrooms and the kitchen. Ugh!

But, if you prime it with an oil-based primer it'll paint up nicer than nice. So, with high hopes, I started ripping off loose wallpaper. (Every frigging room in this house has at least 4 layers of wallpaper!) Now, I've painted over wallpaper before. In fact, in every frigging room in this house. And, for the most part, it turns out really nice. Just make sure any loose pieces are either re-glued or ripped off. That especially looks nice when you're going for that "European Old World" look.

All my walls are plaster. And, like I've said, the house is old (over 100 years old). So when you start to rip off wallpaper, you see that it was hiding a whole bunch of "problems". Like mold. The room was literally covered in black mold! Ack! I tried painting Kilz over it, but it just kept seeping through. I knew I was over my head, so I called in the expert - Angie Helleseth. Angie has a remodeling business called The Perfect Touch. She and the women who work with her are absolute magicians. I knew if anyone would know what to do, it'd be Angie. Of course she told me the "proper" thing to do would be to take out the plaster and lathe and put up dry wall. And I hope the NEXT person who owns this house does exactly that. But this "little" remodeling project is quicky turning into a money pit, and I just can't afford to keep sinking money into this room!

Her next suggestion was to completely wash down the room in a strong Clorox solution and fill every crack and hole with caulking. Then cover it all with... you guessed it - wallpaper. Shit. I give up. I can't wallpaper, but I can wash and caulk and paint. So I've hired Angie to come in after the floor is laid and put up this paintable wall covering that looks like stucco. Then I'll paint. Then Tom will come back and replace the tub and stool.

I keep reminding DH that it was hot water that was running down the drain all those years. And, boy - are we going to save money on that puppy! He knows that once we started we can't stop until it's done, but the doleful looks are starting to piss me off. It's not MY fault we have an old house.

Maybe I should have taken Steve's advice years ago when I was first making noises about remodeling. He suggested we bulldoze it over and build a new home. ...Nah. I kinda like the old place.

Bathroom Remodel

Living in an old house has its rewards and its challenges. Our home was built in the late 1800's as a single-family dwelling. While it's no mansion by any means, it was generally well-built to the standards of the day. The eight foot ceilings had me sold from the beginning. However, old electrical works and old plumbing accompany the Italiante woodwork and we've had to gradually replace most of the worst offenders. Which brings me to my latest "project" - the upstairs bathroom.

The faucet in the bathtub has leaked for the last SEVENTEEN YEARS! And for who knows how long before that. At first it was just an annoying drip. But gradually it's gotten to the point where the rust and calcium build-up completely prevented us from turning off the faucet. What was even worse was that it was the HOT WATER FAUCET. Damn. I know that I could have just replaced the faucets, but as you can see, the tub desperately needed a facelift. Years of running and dripping water had carved a channel down the front and in the bottom of the tub right down to the cast iron base. I also knew that this was not a job for a "doityourself-er" like me.

Enter Mr. Tubbs:

Don Gustafson from Fort Dodge, Iowa, has been resurfacing tubs, sinks, showers and the like for over 20 years. He uses a spray-on coating that gives the appliance a new surface. It's not an easy job, by any means. First he has to clean the surface with a special chemical cleaner. Next he fills in the grooves and cracks with a putty-like substance.

Then, while that is drying, he covers literally every surface with paper, plastic and tape in preparation of spraying his solution on to the tub and sink. And when he gets done, you're left with this:

It is absolutely outstanding - Like a brand-new tub! I could not believe the difference. Nor that I put up with the drip and the crappy-looking tub for as long as I did. If you live pretty much anywhere in the State of Iowa and could use Don's services I recommend him highly. His phone number is (515) 576-8522. Tell him Sally said "thanks".

Oyster Stew

I can't remember a time when I didn't like oyster stew. Mom and Dad absolutely loved it, so it was on a regular rotation in our house. When we were young, my brother and I had a deal - I liked the milk better than the oysters and he was just the opposite. So when we had the stew for supper Butch and I would dink around with our bowls so that I had more milk and he had more oysters. Mom didn't really care as long as she had hers and we didn't fight about it.

Thinking back on all those oyster stews brings back so many good memories. Like the time Butch bit into an oyster and found a pearl. Or the time Mom backed Dad out of the kitchen waving a butcher knife in his face while he said "Now, Opal...now, Opal" over and over and over again. After he left she calmly sat back down and continued with her soup giving our giggling faces stern looks and fingering the knife by her bowl. I never did know what they were fighting about.

Turin, the nursing home and oyster stew all blend together in my mind. It was part and parcel of my childhood memories. Growing up in the 50's and 60's our only source of oysters were canned. Unlike today where pints of "fresh" oysters show up on grocer's shelves around this time of year. I'll bet Mom didn't pay $1.92 for a can of oysters, but that's still cheaper than those pints. And they taste a whole lot better, too. (At least in my mind....maybe I just like the taste of the tin... who knows.)

We also served the residents oyster stew at least once a month. That's where I learned that if you chop up the oysters they go further. An added benefit is you get at least some oyster with every bite. If Butch were alive today I definitely wouldn't share my oysters with him any more, I like them so much.

Making oyster stew is a breeze. At least, it is the way I make it. Oysters, butter, milk, salt and pepper (to taste). That's pretty much it. I've dinked around with the recipe some over the years, but I just keep coming back to the basics. And, like all soup, it's even better the next day. And don't forget the oyster crackers. The other ones just don't taste as good.

Oyster Stew

1 can of oysters
1/2 stick of butter
milk or half 'n half (or a combination)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

1. Open the can of oysters and dump them in your sauce pan. Using a chopper thingy, chop them to the consistency you like. Or don't. It's your soup, after all.

2. Turn the heat on to medium and throw in the butter. Let the oyster juice and butter work it's magic for a bit on those babies.

3. Add your milk/half 'n half up to the top of the pan. Be realistic here. If you use a huge soup pot, you're obviously going to need more oysters and butter. Plus, that's a gallon or so of milk. How big of a crowd are you cooking for anyway?

4. Add some salt and pepper after it's heating up good. Taste it. Does it need more? You decide. Oh, and don't let the bottom of the milk burn. Keep that fire about medium and slowly heat that milk up.

There you go. Simple, huh? This is our traditional Christmas Eve supper. I loved it when Mom lived with us because I could make oyster stew a couple of times a month. DH isn't as crazy about it as I am. I think he's content to just have to eat it on Christmas Eve. Thank goodness I read Ivonne's post about comfort foods. I now have an excuse to make (and eat) oyster stew for no particular reason other than I love it. When I told him what was for supper he just gave me "that look". Nothing hostile or anything. Just like "stew and what else?" so I'm heating him up some left over pork cutlet and gravy. Come to think of it, maybe I will up the size of my pan and use two cans..... . Thanks Ivonne!

Oh - by the way - I've also made oyster stew out of left over boxed scalloped potatoes. Not bad...not bad at all.

A Package From Canada!

Look what came in the mail today from my good friend Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice! Some spiced nuts (using the black walnuts I'd sent her earlier this year), two Canadian cool magazines and a wonderful card. I can't wait to browse the magazines and munch my nuts. This came while I was a work and I had a heck of a time keeping DH out of the nuts. But I promised to share a few bites with him tonight.

Thank you so much, Ivonne! Any time you want more walnuts, just let me know.

P. S.

These nuts are seriously addicting!!! Here's the link to Ivonne's recipe for Orange Vanilla Nuts. Try 'em - you'll LOVE 'em!

Pound of Flesh

I wanted to update my blog to let anyone who might be interested know the reason for my absence. As I have said previously, we lost two much loved men in mid-June in horrific accidents. At the end of that month a young man who had three young children crashed his pickup into a tree when he missed a curve on a gravel road. They said that there were pieces of him everywhere and they had to use dental records to identify him. I did not know Kirk well, but I know his kids. His youngest was in T-Ball with my grandson. I know his ex-wife. I know his mother. This was a terrible tragedy and our small town lost another husband and father in an unimaginable crash.

This past week another man, Benji Banwart, suffered a killing stroke while farming. Again, all of us lost a good friend. His funeral was on Saturday, and on Saturday my husband was involved in an accident. No - he's fine (thanks for asking). So is the other driver, thank God. A young girl literally turned in front of him. He only had time to swerve slightly to the right to avoid T-boning her vehicle with the pickup. Thankfully she was also driving a pickup, otherwise the outcome would not have been so blessed if our grill guard had gone through her windshield.

Needless to say, this freaked me the FUCK out! Steve and Dean are too recent for me to just laugh this off.

I can't help but think about the poor guys on our fire department who have had to go out to the accident sites on Dean, Kirk and now Benji. These guys volunteer their time and efforts and they all knew these men. Worked with them; partied with them; went to their weddings (some anyway); and went to school with their kids. To go out there and see their friends hurt, bloodied, dead. I can't even imagine what their nightmares must be these days. There were a lot of tears at Benji's funeral. I think everyone is in overload mode these days. "Please, Lord - no more! You've had your pound of flesh from our small town. Please don't let me pick up another friend... or have a friend pick me up."

And so, dear friends, my absence is my nervousness and numbness. The last time this happened, when my mother and brother died within three weeks of each other, it was almost two years before I could read more than one sentence at a time. On good days I'll try to catch one blog entry, read one email, or watch 15 minutes of a TV show. I can't concentrate right now. My mind keeps returning over and over again to Steve, Dean, Kirk and Benji. Remembering the last time we spoke, or laughed, bought each other a beer, teased one another about some stupid thing. And Don's accident. The "what ifs" are driving me nuts. I've tried numerous times to keep posting. My mind just doesn't seem to want to quiet down so I can write. Cooking is once again an absent-minded chore. Time is the only thing that will calm my mind.

Two weeks ago (or was it just one?), Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School had their annual fall festival and Jay had EIGHT tanks of chicken going! If I had been thinking, I would have taken a picture of that and posted it. Wouldn't that have been a sight! I apologize. Ah well, next year. There's always "next year" - right?

Summer's End

The weather guy has just said that there is a chance of frost on Tuesday night. I guess that means that summer is over. That also means I have some work to do in the garden. I was really hoping to have at least another weekend to get to it in some sort of controlled fashion. Maybe I'll just throw a couple of sheets over everything and hope for the best.

After the terrible heat we had this summer, my eggplants and peppers are putting on fruit like there's no tomorrow. Silly plants! My tomatoes are all but done and I'm sorry to see that end. It's been a fantastic year for herbs, though. They really liked that high heat and humidity. The basil, parsley and cilantro seeds that I planted in July are all coming up. Looks like I'll have lots of herbs to bring indoors to winter over in pots on my widow sill. Last year was the first time I tried doing that and it was wonderful having fresh herbs to use all winter long. I just went out in the garden and dug up the smallest of the plants, slapped 'em in a pot and put them on my window sill in the sun. I don't know why I waited so long to try this, it's so easy. I hope you try this, too.

5 Things You Should Try Before You Die

Tanna from My Kitchen in Half Cups recently tagged me with Melissa's challenge to list the five things you would want to eat before you die. I'll admit that this is a pretty strange challenge. At first I thought she was asking what I would want to try before I die. Foods that I've never had, but always wanted to taste. And I couldn't think of a thing! I'm a simple woman with midwestern taste. Oh, sure, I've had fresh Maine lobster and steamed clams. Steak Tartare and cavier. I've even tried Escargot and absolutely loved it. But sushi will never pass these lips! My six year old grandson loves sushi, but the thought of raw fish makes me gag. I'm definitely not as brave as Eddie from Deep End Dining.

But now that I've actually gone over and read Melissa's challenge I understand that she is asking us in the blogosphere to name five things that we wish everyone in the world could taste because it is something that we've eaten and loved. That's not so bad! I can do that.

So, here are my choices:

1. Jay's Chicken - While the chicken is absolutely scrumptious (juicy and smokey with a wonderful barbeque flavor), its the process that you simply must experience! Five homemade barbeque tanks, 20 men milling around in an unspoken dance while turning 450 halves of chicken by hand and slathering on the "secret" marinade, dousing flames, drinking beer and laughing. All of these men are just ordinary guys - most of them are farmers. But all of them have been cooking this chicken for years. Jay is just the guy who inherited the first tank from whoever it was that started this tradition. They only cook their chicken in the summer, usually for some fundraiser or another. No one is paid (except in beer) and it is consistently wonderful chicken.

And what would go better with Jay's Chicken than pick No. 2:

2. Iowa Sweet Corn - Picked fresh from the field, quickly shucked and dropped into a kettle of boiling water. Slather that puppy with a ton of butter and eat it as hot as you can stand.

Then, of course there is:

3. Sweet Corn and Bologna Boil - Ring bologna and sweetcorn cooked together in that kettle of water. Husband No. 1 and I used to attend a summer party at the local state park where this was the main event. Either bring a ring of bologna or some sweetcorn, throw it in the big pot boiling over an open flame and fish out some that is already cooked. Pop open an ice cold beer - yum! You're in heaven. I cook some sweetcorn this way every summer. The bologna flavors the corn, and the corn returns the favor. I highly suggest this delicacy.

4. Heirloom Tomatoes - I happen to agree with Tanna on this one. Of course, any tomato picked and eaten while standing in the garden is wonderful, but the heirlooms have such a sweet taste. Deeper and more "tomato-y". I don't know the name of the one growing out there right now (it's striped and big), but it has the better flavor. And that's saying a lot! This has been our year for sweet, juicy tomatoes.

And, lastly:

5. Aunt Della's Macaroni and Tomatoes - This was very often the dinner we ate coming back from the garden. She would simply boil up some macaroni and heat up a jar of her home canned tomatoes to pour over it. Home canned is the best. When I get to craving this dish I will sometimes open a can of stewed tomatoes and make it, but it just doesn't taste as good. Sometimes the simplest things really are the best!

So, there you have it. The five things I would wish everyone could taste. Thanks, Tanna, this was fun!

Pluck

The post that I had planned for today must wait. Pluck is down. Why does that matter? Because my post has several imbedded links and the sites I want to link to are on Pluck. (Pluck is my RSS reader, in case you were wondering.) And why does that matter, you ask. Because dummy here doesn't have all the blogs I refer to in my Favorites and I can't remember everyone's address! So, until Pluck comes back online it will just have to wait. And it was a good one too! Really!

Another Day

After my meltdown the other night (for which I humbly apologize), I started wondering how many other women strive for perfection based on society's ideal as presented in magazines and television. We buy these glossy magazines picturing gorgeous homes and dream that, some day, we'll have a house that looks just like that. With the big kitchens and classy bathrooms. French doors that lead out to a secret garden with a pond and waterfall. Beautiful garden plots with not a weed in sight. Show-stopping gladiolus that win blue ribbons at the fair. Mile-high Lemon Meringue pies and Paella. We can do it! Hell, here's the recipe. And it gives us step-by-step instructions for putting in that pond and waterfall. All it takes is time, back-breaking labor and money.

And then we look around at our homes and our yards and our gardens. We look at our too-small kitchens and our worn out carpet. We see the bugs are eating the lettuce and the weeds! Oh my - the weeds! Instead of beautiful terra cotta patios we have grass beaten down by dogs and kids. Our garden paths are rabbit runs. Reality seems to pale in comparison to those glossy magazines.

Thank God for the internet and people who share their accomplishments, no matter how small. Like Natalia's Financier that she loves but could never find in Denver, so she made it her own self. (I thought she was looking for a banker!) Or Tanna's Fougasse bread that she thinks didn't come out quite right, but is so happy to be finally baking in her newly remodeled kitchen after a horrible leak completely destroyed her old one. Thank God for Kate at My Kitchen Garden as well as Farm Girl Fare showing us her garden plots gone to weeds or dug up by dogs. But, look there! Look at that volunteer basil. How cool is that?

Thankfully I've stopped buying those stupid magazines. Now my role models are people like Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice. Although I'm completely jealous of her great pictures, I could care less about making tarts or cakes that are so beautiful they make your heart skip a beat. And Joe Pastry who weekly makes some kind of bread and a dessert. We never get to actually SEE these items because he is busy analyzing his weekly projects right down to the molecular level. No pictures, but by God you're gonna learn something! Then there's Janet from The Old Foodie. It's hard to describe what Janet writes. She's a foodie who loves history, and where she gets her information is a total mystery to me. But it's interesting to see the way cooking has evolved. The girls over at Go Fug Yourself have taught me what style really is with side-splitting humor. And The Waiter who, through his gentle dialog, teaches us all about how to live a good and balanced life.

There's so many more, but you get the picture. Life is full of changes, some for the better, some for the worse. I guess its what you do with them that matters. And quite frankly I don't know anyone who lives in a perfect house with a perfect yard and garden. Or has the time OR the money to do all that crap. And at my age the back-breaking labor part is definitely out.

Maybe I should buy me a red hat. I'll wear it pulling my weeds.

Note To Self

Note to self: Never post when you're tired and have been drinking wine.

It's Here!

I finally got my postcard today! It came from Natalia of From Our Kitchen blog. She had such a nice note on it. She's 19 years old, a college student with a passion for photography and baking. She hopes one day to go to baking school.

Thank you so much Natalia! It's a beautiful card and a lovely message. I wish you all the best in your studies. OH - and thank you so much for the scone recipe! I like scones, too and I will definitely give this one a try.

Postcards From The World

Today is the day I received my secret Postcards From The World recipient's name and address. I was so excited! Like Ivonne, I too was concerned that my postcard might not be good enough. (Unlike Ivonne, my photo sucks however.) I was afraid it might not be appropriate to send someone I don't even know a card from a religious shrine. What if they're not Catholic? Or even Christian? What if I offend them with my choice of postcards?

But then I realized that this shrine - although it might be fundamentally Catholic - was a testament to faith everywhere. It's a man-made expression of faith and love in a power greater than himself. Plus it's what West Bend is known for. People from all over the world visit the Grotto of the Redemption by the thousands every year. How could I not send this card to my secret Postcards From The World recipient.

So here you are secret Postcards From The World friend. I hope you like it. Maybe it will inspire you to visit West Bend, Iowa one day and we can meet. Who knows. Stranger things have happened.

Baby, It's Hot Outside!

Man! Is it hot! With a temperature of 96 degrees F and a heat index of 112, you most definitely need something to cool you down while you're sitting outside by the grill. I don't know about you, but when I need something cool and refreshing on a hot summer day, my thoughts always turn to frozen margaritas. So I naturally went looking for a Party In A Bucket frozen margarita mix this past week. I don't know whether you've seen these gems in your part of the world, but I"ve been able to find this product every year - until now. I've checked all the stores in my part of the country and, for some reason, they are not carrying them anymore. I was really bummed.

Basically the Party In A Bucket is nothing more than the margarita (or daiquiri) mix along with some water sold in a bucket to which you add your tequila (or rum for daiquiris), stir and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours until it turns into a slushy, yummy, ice cold slice of heaven. Now what was I going to do?

That's when I remembered this recipe. I'd copied it down from somewhere (or someone) years ago and stuck it in my recipe book. I hadn't made it in a couple of years, but I remembered you mixed it up, poured it into a gallon ice cream bucket and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours. And (more importantly) I remembered it was goooooood!

So, here is my own version of a Party In A Bucket. I hope you like it as much as I do. Mix up a batch today and share it with your friends at your next pool party or barbecue.

Frozen Drink
(Not very ingenious, I know. My recipe doesn't have a name - perhaps you could suggest something?)

9 cups water
2 cups dark rum
1 (12 oz.) can frozen lemonade
1 (12 oz.) can frozen orange juice concentrate
3 Tablespoons grenadine
1 Tablespoon maraschino cherry juice

To prepare:

Combine everything in a freezer container (I use a gallon ice cream bucket) and mix well. Freeze to desired consistency.

P.S.
This is my entry into Meeta's Monthly Mingle - Beat the Heat. Enjoy!