Recipes!

 I love cookbooks and recipes--maybe not so much cooking!  There is something about opening a cookbook to see amazing food photos!  Would my dishes look that good?  Probably not!  Some of my favorite recipes come from my southern books--I have a favorite in almost every book I own.  Of course, I haven't tried All the recipes in the book--but wouldn't that be fun??!!  Maybe later on, I'll pick one book and go from beginning to end.  

Recipes come in all means—you can find a food recipe online easily.  Since, I can't carry those books with me everywhere--I resort to the internet.

Several of us are dishing up a meal for the participants of a walk.  What will we serve for lunch buffet?  There will be brisket, smoked by son—his recipe always varies—the seasonings include salt, pepper, lemon pepper, ??, else.  How long he smokes or type of wood—no idea—I just hand him the brisket and the next day we have smoked brisket!  We will serve flour tortillas instead of buns.

Daughter is preparing Southern baked beans—

always delish!  This recipe could be a meal in itself because of ground beef--she makes hers in slow cooker as it cooks alllllll day or night long.

My recipes for buffet include Mexican Street Corn Salad 

Since food will be served over a period of time and outdoors, I wanted a recipe that didn't include mayo.  You can find roasted Mexican corn frozen so I don't need to roast the ears of corn.

The other recipe I'll make is pasta salad--there are so many good ones in the cookbooks; I'm gleaming  from several.

Above recipe (quick and easy pasta)  includes peppers, tomatoes, zucchini (won't use that--nobody would eat it), black olives,  pepperoncini, mozzarella balls, sliced scallions, curly pasta and uses no mayo--you can add almost any veggie to this recipe--will be fun to create for the walkers. 

Of course, there will be sweets--brownies, cupcakes, cookies.

What’s your favorite recipe? 

Quilt Blocks

 Quilt blocks go into making quilt tops that will sooner or later be a warm cozy comfort.  I like making quilt blocks—here are the latest blocks that will become tops on their way to someone

Puzzles

 I’m not a good puzzle person—don’t have the patience to sit and look for one tiny piece to plug into a hole!  During lockdown, family members would sit for hours to work on a puzzle—even into the wee hours of the morning!

But, there they were—saying just one more piece! And then—finished!  Which one to do next, they ask? 

Hubby will play puzzle games on his phone at odd times—so addictive!  Just turn the sound off please!  He doesn’t hear it anyway!  

I’ll do some other types of puzzles—

Like words with friends, more like scrabble—it goes quickly depending on how many friends that play you. 

And Wordle—I can do that; usually quick and I’m done!  

This word search puzzle popped up with Nomadic Knits—and I thought—I might like this type of puzzle.  My friend will do books of word searches—this might be fun!  It took me 15 minutes to find one word—okay, I won’t give up right away—hours later, I’m still searching for words on the list.  I’d pick it up, search for few minutes, put it down—two weeks into this, I gave up—this is taking way too much out of my knitting or spinning!  This isn’t for me.

Puzzles for puzzle people!! 

Ooooooooooo

Today we are ooooo so happy to write about O! I’ve never really thought about O before—you can see lots of ooooos in your daily life—like that donut we had as a snack; or the tire on your car that is an O. 

How about the O on the guitar? That my husband doesn’t play!

Ooo, my bobbin even is an O!

Top of my coffee container is O tooooooo!

This thing has two ooos!

Here is a list of O words—

And animals and foods that begin with O—Oh my!!

I’m seeing O is an Object that isn’t Obscure, Obsolete; Occuring Often in Occupations, Oceans, Olympics, even Online!  

Open those Senses to the OOOOOOS in your Ordinary life! 

Over and Out! 

Night Sky

The month of April has been a blogging challenge--March 27, 2010 a challenge was sent out to all bloggers for the month of April.   Can you post every day except Sundays during this month?  And to up the bar, can you blog thematically from A to Z?

Although, I try to blog on occasion, this was a true challenge to me--can I find something interesting to blog about every day of the month of April??  Some bloggers have selected a theme for their writings--maybe, I'll do that next year--let me see if I can make it successfully through this year!

I'm up to N and have a good topic for N--we had the occassion to attend two, not one, but two viewing parties in a vicinity that is 'dark skies'.  The county friends of the night sky were hosting the event--that it's at a winery, didn't hurt either.  Our friend received a telescope for Christmas, so we’re in good company with fellow astronomy patrons.

Fingers crossed the weather held out for clear skies--no full moon either.

Night sky on this evening presented Venus floating between the small, dipper-shape Pleiades star and the bright red star Aldebaran, which is the “eye” of the constellation Taurus the Bull.  Mercury will also be visible.

Anytime, you can drink wine under the starry skies, it's a good night! 

 

Memories!

 I have a good memory of this day of many years ago—the birth of our first child!  What I remember of that day is totally different than how my husband remembers—isn’t that interesting?  Our memories don’t gel!   All the same, it's a happy memory!  

Every year on the day Elvis died, we try to remember where we were--as family we were all in the same car, driving on the same road, somewhere in Colorado--BUT, no one remembers exactly where we were--a different location from each of us.   Sometimes, we have photos that flash into our memory, those don't always refresh our memory though.  

Memory is a strange fellow!  Most of us can remember historic events and where we were, what we did, how we reacted--like, Kennedy assassination, bombing of World Trade Center, terrible acts of violence==Science says it might be impossible for humans to bring a memory to mind without altering it in some way--such an interesting theory

 The other day, a photo was posted on FB; it was a photo of extended family gathering--I don't remember the day so much; the kids only remember they loved the little house we were standing in front of.  And then the comment who took the photo?  Whose absent from the photo?  We conversed with each other and decided it was Easter, 1977!  Only do we know that date, because it's printed on the photo back!  Our memories would never let us remember the date or the reason.

The next time you are gathered with family or friends, discuss a memory you had from years past and see if your memory gels with their memory.  Then ask what is the earliest memory they have of their childhood--i know mine comes from seeing photos or hearing stories of such an event in my life.  Otherwise, I have no memory!

Love Letters

probably the oldest surviving Valentine love letter in the English language was written by Margery Brews to her fiancé John Paston in February 1477. Describing John as her 'right well-beloved valentine', she tells him she is 'not in good health of body nor of heart, nor shall I be till I hear…….

Recently, I’ve been watching a PBS program featuring Jane Austin’s Sandition, unfinished novel begun in January, 1817, stopped in March 1817.  Now on season three, it stuck me how today’s romance has lost the touch of true “wooing!”  

Back to those days of Jane-No touching in public, modest clothing, fans fluttering around the face to flirt; and love letters written, secretly placed in hiding spots known only to two would be lovers or maybe a letter arriving discreetly in the mail to be whisked away, only to be read in privacy.  It’s all so romantic!! At least, in Jane Austin’s world—

Brings to mind, the original movie, “Shoppe Around the Corner”, starring Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart.  This movie was made in 1940. Somehow, these two became pen pals through postal service.  Their letters soon turned into love letters—-ahhh!  What a movie!  Today’s version is “ You’ve Got Mail”— the story uses internet to bring emails to life.  Is this “wooing” today?  No hand written letter to unfold, to read in secret, to read over and over again—

During my courtship with hubby (over 60 years ago), we wrote letters to each other.  I couldn’t believe what lovely words he could jot on paper!  Made my heart swoon!  How I miss those letters, which were destroyed in a house fire.  I wish our children could appreciate those words of their father—they would be astonished he had an ounce of romance in his bones!

And if you happen to see an oldie but goodie movie, you might see a stack of love letters bundled up and tied with a ribbon, which are lovingly hugged by the heroine, who unties and cries as she unfolds the paper to relive a once special romance.  

Yes, love letters today are not of Jane Austin’s world—sure would be nice if we could be like that again!