Finished!

Finally! My bathroom from hell is finally finished! What started out as a fix for a leaky faucet and a facelift for my tub before Thanksgiving is now over. Not to mention, what should have been an $800.00 repair quickly turned into a $2,000+ remodel. Although I love the textured wall covering, if you even look at it crooked the surface scratches leaving the white paper it's made from showing through your paint. And with this deep purple paint, that really sucks. I now have to go around and touch up the paint where it was skinned while putting up the shelf and mirror. (Note to self: If you ever use this stuff again, put it someplace where no one or nothing can even touch it!)

Anyway - here are a couple of pictures of my "brand new" bathroom. I should hold an open house for this sucker....

BPW2

It's here! My postcard finally arrived! All the way from India, too. I was really beginning to worry since I haven't had the best of luck with the postal service lately. (Right Ivonne?) But it came yesterday and I was so excited to see what Ekta sent me.





It is this wonderful hand-made card. I was, however, heartbroken when it arrived damaged. As you can see, the beautiful painting on the front of the card is all but completely worn off. The hand-made paper is a delight - even the envelope is made this way. And Ekta wrote me such a lovely Valentine's note as well. I was so thrilled.

Thank you, Ekta, for your wonderful card and thoughtful note. And thank YOU Meeta, for hosting another exciting Blogger Postcards Around The World event!

White and Nerdy

I'm totally in love with this crazy video from Wierd Al Yankovic. Enjoy!

Spicy Chicken Soup

Ever on the look-out for a recipe worthy of entering the annual Chili Cook Off Contest, I decided to try this recipe this weekend. At first taste I thought beef would have been better; but after finishing two bowls of this, I've decided that chicken is the perfect meat to use. It makes a LOT - my 6 1/2 quart stock pot was full to the brim. But it freezes well so don't be afraid to make the whole thing.

I did "spice it up" a bit with my choice of ingredients. So, grab your hankies and dig into:

Catherine's Spicy Chicken Soup
(Posted on AllRecipes.com)

2 quarts water
8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I used 4)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 tablespoon onion powder (didn't have any - left it out)
5 cubes chicken boullion
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (16 oz.) jar chunky salsa (my pot was so full, I only had room for about 4 tablespoons)
2 (14.5 oz.) cans peeled and diced tomatoes (I used one can of Rotel and one can of plain)
1 (14.5 oz.) can whole peeled tomatoes (oops! forgot to add this! oh well...)
1 (10.75 oz.) can condensed tomato soup
3 tablespoons chili powder (I used McCormick's Hot Mexican Style Chili Powder)
1 (15 oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained
2 (16 oz.) cans chili beans, undrained (I used ONE can of Mrs. Grimes Spicy Chili Beans and ONE can of Black Beans - drained)
1 (8 oz.) container sour cream (I left this out too. You can always add a dollop of sour cream over your soup in the bowl.)

1. In a large pot over medium heat, combine water, chicken, salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, onion powder and boullion cubes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 1 hour or until chicken juices run clear. Remove chicken, reserve broth. Shred chicken. (I skipped this whole thing and just chopped up my chicken and threw everything in one pot. You could even do it in the crock pot and let it cook all day.)

2. In a large pot (ain't THAT the truth!) over medium heat, cook onion and garlic in olive oil until slightly browned. (I didn't do this either - see above.) Stir in salsa, diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, tomato soup, chili powder, corn, chili beans, sour cream, shredded chicken and 5 cups broth (...oh...maybe that's why my pot was so full! I really should read my recipes more carefully.). Simmer 30 minutes.

This is seriously good soup and I hope you all try it. Make it with my ingredients and it'll knock your socks off!

Wind Chills

My computer tells me it's zero degrees outside with a wind chill of 13 below. Brrrr! It must be January in Iowa. I was reminded of the last winter I hauled mail. We had ice and snow with dangerous wind chills. I had gotten stuck in a snow drift and had to walk back to a farm house and ask to be pulled out by the farmer. Luckily he was kind enough to brave the 65 below wind chill to start up his tractor and get me out of the ditch. That's when I realized that $10 an hour wasn't worth risking my life over.

I had wanted to be a rural mail carrier pretty much all my life. I remember watching Don Reese load his VW Bug from floor to ceiling with packages and bundles of mail when I was a little girl and thinking he must have the best job in the world. I especially liked watching in the spring when he delivered the baby chicks. He carefully placed the peeping box of fluff on top of the mail, wedging it into place with boxes and bags until he could get his precious cargo to its destination.

The desire to deliver mail never left me. I took my Rural Carrier exam in Sioux City along with about a hundred other hopefuls in 1986, and in 1988 was hired as a sub for a route in Onawa. I was so happy because part of my route covered my beloved hills. I even delivered Don's mail, which made me so proud. I believe he was proud of me as well. Even when I demolished his mail box by pulling out with the lid still down! He graciously forgave me and told me of his "mishaps" on the job as well. (I will say that his was the only mail box I toppled in all the years I hauled mail.)

In 1989, when we moved to West Bend, I was able to transfer my route to the Rolfe post office. I also liked that I worked every weekend as the sub. (The different length and size of the routes dictate how often a sub can work.) I drove 128 miles, in three different counties and was rarely out of sight of the West Bend Elevator.

Most of the time, it was a pleasant drive in the country. Except in winter. Especially in that winter of 1993. That's when I almost died trying to find someone to help pull me out of the ditch. That was before cell phones of course. Now, I wish I still had the route. It was the perfect job for me. I went to work and cased my mail, loaded my car and took off. Other than the visit with the postmaster in the morning, I didn't have to talk to another soul for the rest of the day if I didn't wish to. I could listen to what I wanted on the radio, smoke a cigarette when I wanted, pet the dogs who greeted me at the mail box, and just generally have my "alone time" with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. Pure heaven!

But - on days like today - I sure am glad I'm not out freezing my butt off lugging mail to boxes that have been plowed in by the snow plow and praying that the wind won't blow me into the ditch. Give and take, eh?

Wishing anyone reading this warm thoughts.

Blogger Postcards Around the World 2

Meeta from What's For Lunch Honey? has organized a second Blogger Postcards Around The World event for our enjoyment. Her theme for this one is Valentines Day and the race is on! This time there are 60 entries from all over the world. So go check out who all is participating. Maybe you'll discover an interesting new blog to add to your ever-growing list of really talented people yacking it up over this wonderful thing we call "The Internet".

Here's my postcard which will be dutifully dropped in the mail tomorrow morning. Some "lucky" person across the world (or across the state) is going to get these cute cows for their Valentines Day card from yours truly.

Thanks again Meeta for thinking up this really wonderful event. This makes our world just a tad bit smaller and a lot more friendly. Plus, it's fun!

New Walls

Now that I have a nice shiny new floor, it's time to put the wall covering up. So last Thursday Robin and Beth from the Perfect Touch came in and worked their magic.

Why is it old houses all have those slanty ceilings upstairs? There is no way I could have done this! When they finished I had beautiful "new" walls. All I had left to do is paint. Piece of cake, right?

Friday afternoon I painted the woodwork figuring I'd have all day on Saturday to paint the ceiling and the walls. I love our painted Italiante woodwork - I just hate painting it. I need a ladder to reach the top and I'm on my knees for the bottom. It's hard on my old body and I was aching and tired when I finished. I was actually looking forward to painting the walls.

Saturday morning bright and early I was up spackling and taping off in preparation for painting the ceiling. I decided to re-prime the ceiling as I was painting it an off-white over that deep pink and knew that I was going to have to put two coats on to cover it. After fillng my rolling pan full of oil based primer I put it on the ladder and moved the ladder into position - rather I started to move the ladder - when the entire pan full of paint fell upside down on my new floor! I stared in horror at the mess. Sure, I had layers of papers on the floor, but when I tried to roll up the papers to get the ones full of paint off the floor, a huge puddle of paint spilled out ON to my floor! Now I was truly in a panic. I don't normally use oil-based paints and I had nothing to clean it up with. I mopped up most of it with rags and ran to the lumber yard for something to use to clean up my mess. Charlene sent me home with mineral spirits and that seemed to do the trick. However I won't truly know if I've done any damage until I remove all of the papers when I'm done and see what is underneath. I was devastated - we just had that laid on Wednesday and it wasn't even paid for, now I've done this!

After (shakily) finishing the ceiling it was time to start on the walls. I taped off the ceiling and woodwork and (carefully) put my rolling pan on my ladder and started on the walls only to discover that the roller I had wasn't the right one to use on my deeply textured wall covering.

What should have taken me one day and one gallon of paint is now taking me a day and a half and two gallons of paint. Why does this not surprise me. I spent all day yesterday, with a brush, painting the walls. (I kept thinking of Karate Kid - "Show me 'paint the fence' ") Today I'm going to the lumberyard and getting the correct roller and another gallon of paint to give the walls the second coat of paint. That color is a deep plum - I call it eggplant - and it is going to be beautiful. It's darker than the little paint sample card but I'm really liking it (thank God!).

Tuesday Tom will be replacing the tub and stool into the room and I'll be finished. I hope. My "little" project will finally be finished.

New Floor

Out with the old....

and in with the new!

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!