Month: May 2017

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Senior Hotel Shenanigans

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We have returned from our quick trip to San Diego, where we met some of our kids from Texas and inlaws. Our son had invited us to come for a couple of days while they were there visiting our DIL parents, who keep their sailboat there in the marina in San Diego. Looking back, we are so grateful we didn’t stay any longer than 4 days. We might not have lived to tell about our adventures.

We were both excited to be able to go and spend time with our kids and Sevy, our grandson, who is quickly learning how to navigate the sailboat. But…let me begin at the beginning. We checked into our hotel and were offered assistance with our luggage, but Mr. “No, we can handle it just fine” (AKA, he doesn’t want to have to tip anyone else that day.) decides that we will just park at the back entrance and, after all, how hard can it be? We both have rolling cases, with hanging travel bag with too many clothes in it so it won’t close properly and then cases with toiletries. We park and proceed to unload our bags. So far so good. I have my hanging bag with clothes over one arm, my roller suitcase behind my right side, with my toiletry bag hanging over that and look over and Randy is trying to get his roller bag behind him so he can pull it across the parking lot, when I see him loosing his balance. I quickly drop all my things, trying to help balance him when he falls completely over me, knocking me to the ground. We looked like dominoes that someone pushed the first one and they just kept falling. We sat there, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn’t find anything to help him get leverage to get up, and he was on top of me, so I couldn’t get up to help him. I finally scooted my garmet bag over so he could kneel on that (poor thing, his knee was bleeding pretty bad) and thus would allow me to get up. Looking back, over that, I can only imagine what I looked like, with my rear in the air, trying to get up, then trying to pull him up. We couldn’t help but laugh thinking about what the man watching the security camera must be thinking. They probably watched us over and over with, “oh man, wait till you see these old geisers, not only does the guy fall, but he falls over and knocks her over! It’s hilarious”

We do like to provide entertainment and laughter wherever we go. We were so proud that we were able to still walk with our heads held high into the hotel, even though we had gravel in our hair, blood dripping down his leg and dirt marks all over my white shorts. Luckily we have no boating incidents to write about but then on Saturday, we woke up. We should have just stopped right there. But, I was thirsty for my Dr Pepper and Randy wanted a cup of Starbucks coffee. As he was stepping into the shower, I yelled at him that I was going to go downstairs and buy a Dr Pepper from the hotel gift shop and yes, I would bring him a cup of coffee. I grabbed my phone (thank the Lord, I did take that), the room key and my wallet. After paying $10 for a Dr Pepper and a pack of gum, I stopped at the Starbucks counter and bought my sweetie pie a cup of coffee. I jumped on the elevator and proceeded to our room. As I reached the room, I realized that I didn’t have a hand free to use the key card to open the door, and after knocking, realized that he must be taking a little longer than usual shower, since he didn’t answer.

The key didn’t work. I realized that, after trying to call him, he must still be in the shower, so I didn’t have a choice but to pick up the coffee off the floor, grab my Dr Pepper and ride back down from the 10th floor and ask the clerk to reactivate the key card. We have had that happen many times, that after about 3 days the key has to be activated. So back down I go and she hands me 2 more cards after having to show her my ID. I thanked the Lord that for some reason I had picked up my wallet, which I really don’t know why I did, because I was just charging everything to our room anyway, but I guess God knew I would need my ID. So back up to the 10th floor I go. When I get off the elevator, I am thinking to myself, that his coffee is probably cold by now, when I try the new key and IT doesn’t work. WHAT? OK, i put everything on the floor and try it again, still doesn’t work. I begin to bang on the door for Randy to open it and he doesn’t. I am now running out of patience. How long of a shower is he going to take today? I call him and he answers. In a not so nice voice, I ask him why he is not answering the door when I am banging on it. He said he didn’t hear me knock. You are kidding me. I bang on it, just to let him know how loud I have been banging on it just to prove my point. My cell phone rings and once again, I have to put his coffee on the ground, to have a hand to answer it. “Why are you calling me, when you should be answering the door?” He informs me that he did answer the door and no one is there.  I had gotten off on the wrong floor. I hurriedly pick up my drinks, and run down the hall before the people in that room decide that the crazy lady at their door at 7:30 a.m is just not going to go away, open the door to see what I am wanting. When I got to the elevator, I looked and I had got off on the 6th floor. How did I do that, I know I punched “10”.  When I walked into our room, I couldn’t help but just fall on the bed laughing. If  indeed they have security cameras in the halls, the camera guy must have been cracking up.

On our trip home, I ask Randy if he thought we were just odd or did the Lord just always allow funny things like this to happen to us so I would have things to write about. He just looked at me and said, “well, all I know is that over the past 21 years, we have certainly had our share of funny stories that has brought lots of laughter for us and for others and for that, we should be thankful.”  Easy for him to say, he wasn’t the one on the hotel hall security camera!

Breads · Breakfast · Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Muffins & Toast

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IMG_4880This week, I have had the blessing of being invited to two different friends homes, one for lunch, the other for breakfast. At both homes, I came away with great recipes that I wanted to share. Debbie, who had the luncheon served cheese muffins which were just so good. Actually, anything with 3 cups of cheese is good, but these were gooey and ever so yummy. She served them with cucumbers with dill and cherry tomatoes and fruit.

Today, I was at  Connies, a new friend,  for breakfast where she served blueberry stuffed french toast.  Walking into her home, the aroma of grilled bread permeated the house and we sat down to warm blueberry syrup as she carried a platter of the scrumptious french toast over to us. Because Randy and I tend to usually eat toast with peanut butter in the mornings, or a bowl of cereal, this was a real treat. Unless we are celebrating something special like, we went for 2 days without eating dessert, or we actually walked past the fridge without opening it for 1 whole hour the evening before, when we will allow ourselves to splurge on toasts, sausage, eggs and hash browns.

Connie and Debbie, thank you both for serving dishes which were both new to me. Am excited to post them to share with others.

Cheese Muffins (taken from Pioneer Woman)

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tables sugar

1 tables baking powder

1/2 teas salt

3 cups shredded colby-jack cheese

1 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter (let it cool for a few minutes before using)

(I did add about 1 tables parsley flakes, 1/2 teas dry mustard and 1/2 teas garlic powder to the dry ingredients)

Whisk together dry ingredients, then stir in cheese.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg, milk and butter together. Pour milk mixture into dry ingredients and stir with a spoon to combine. Divide mixture between 12 greased (well greased) muffin tins. The hostess used paper liners but the muffins tended to stick to the paper liners, so when I made these last night, I just eliminated the liners and heavily greased (with Pam) the muffin pan. After about 5 minutes of taking out of the oven, they came out very easily after running a knife around the edges.

Bake in a preheated 375 oven for about 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12 and I could have eaten all 12 with a slab of butter on top of each one.

Blueberry French Toast

As I sit here writing the recipes, it just dawned on me that if you are a busy mom who is always in a hurry in the mornings, you could even buy the frozen french toast and use it.

Make your french toast according to your favorite recipe. When you have the amount of slices you need to serve the number of people who will be gracing your table, spread about 1 teas of softened cream cheese on half of one side of the toast. Place about 4-6 blueberries on the cream cheese and using the spatula, fold the piece of french toast in half covering the cream cheese and blueberries. Allow to sit in the skillet or griddle for a minute to allow the cream cheese to almost melt. Serve with heated blueberry syrup.

 

 

Breads · Breakfast · Daily Thoughts · Starches · Uncategorized

Baked Oatmeal

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A friend of mine yesterday remarked how much she loved oatmeal for breakfast. During our conversation (yes, most of my conversations are centered around food) I ask her if she had ever had baked oatmeal and she replied that she had never heard of it.

When we lived in California I had the blessing of being a mentor mom to a group of gals in the MOPS (moms of preschoolers) study at our church. One of their favorite things to bring for snacks were these baked oatmeal bars. I’m not a huge oatmeal person, but these were really good. So I promised Marilyn that I would post the recipe today. Try it…you might be surprised how good they are!

 

2 cups old fashioned oatmeal

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tables granulated sugar

1 1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

1/2 teas ground cinnamon (I will add a little more than that as I like more cinnamon flavor)

1 cup whole milk

2 eggs

2 tables canola oil

1 teas vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8″ square pan.

Combine oats, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Whisk the milk, eggs, oil and vanilla together in a separate bowl. and stir until eggs and mixture are well combined. Set aside until flavors blend about 20 minutes. Add to oatmeal mixture and stir until thoroughly blended. Spread in prepared pan and bake about 30 minutes or until golden brown on top. Cool and cut into squares.

I might add about 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips before baking.

A great breakfast on the go meal!

*Taken from Allrecipes.com

Daily Thoughts · Fruit · Uncategorized

Blackberry-Blueberry Cobbler

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Saturday I remembered I had fresh blackberries in the freezer that we got last summer. When I saw this recipe on the back cover of a Paula Deen Magazine, I quickly got the blackberries out and proceeded to make it. The recipe is from a Diner in Sevierville, TN and is called Black & Blue Southern Style Cobbler. We devoured it with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla on top.

5 cups blackberries

5 cups blueberries

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup Hillside Winery’s Black & Blue Wine

1/2 cup water

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)

Crust:

1 cup sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large pot, combine fruit, sugar,wine and water. Bring to a low boil, stirring often to keep the fruit from sticking. Meanwhile, mix sugar and flour in a bowl. Add milk, stirring as you add until batter is well mixed. Set aside.

Once the fruit mixture is hot, melt the stick of butter in the preheated oven in a 9×9 pan. Once butter is melted, pour fruit into the pan and stir to mix together.

Pour batter (crust) evenly over fruit and return to oven. Bake at 350 until crust is a golden brown. About 45 minutes. Top with ice cream or whipped cream.

Breakfast · Casseroles · Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Breakfast Casserole You Don’t Want to Miss

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You are thinking, “oh great, just another breakfast casserole” but wait…this is not just another one. It is probably the lightest and fluffiest one I have ever had. Had breakfast at a friends home yesterday and she had made this. She had been to a breakfast where every lady there requested it. And yes, all 6 ladies there yesterday did the same. I don’t like cottage cheese, but didn’t even know it was in it.

10 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 teas salt

1/2 teas pepper

2 teas baking powder

2 cups grated cheddar or jack cheese

1 4 oz can chopped green chiles

5 slices bacon, cooked an crumbled

2 cups small curd cottage cheese

Blend eggs, flour, butter, baking powder, salt and pepper. Fold in cheese, chiles, bacon and cottage cheese. Pour mixture into a greased 9×12 baking dish.

Bake for 30 min at 400 or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean

Serves 6-9 depending on sizes of portion.

Options, can add mushrooms or spinach to batter.

Thanks Marilyn for sharing this with us…it was really delicious.

Daily Thoughts · Meats · Soups · Uncategorized

Indian Taco Soup?

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You are probably thinking I have totally lost it. But…hear me out. Saturday we were at Costco and of course if you have been reading my blog for any length of time or have read some of the stories in Princess on the Porch, you know that Mr. Adventure loves to go to Costco and see how many samples he can eat before they run him out of the store. Well, I do have to admit, this past Saturday was one of the best sample days we have had in a long time. First of all, they were giving away samples of CARAMEL APPLES! There were about 5 different flavors so I ended up hiding around the corner because I was too embarrassed to keep going back for another sample, but not Randy. He would ask me what flavor I wanted this time and would just head on over to the counter and take another sample and bring it to me. After about 4 times, I told him that he just couldn’t go back. But Oh my goodness, they were delicious. If you are wondering why I didn’t just buy one, I had just had the report from my doctor that my Bad cholesterol was 150 over what it should be, not to mention the total cholesterol of 311. So I had better just stick to samples until I can get my numbers down just a tad. BTW, the way this doctor got my attention was this; “well, Trudy, since you cannot take statins, will you promise me you will stay off fats and start exercise? Then three months from now, we will check your numbers again and see if you are a women of your word.” WHAT? A woman of my word? You are kidding me. So what am I suppose to do with the 6 lbs of butter in my fridge and the 3 lb block of cream cheese? Do I just pour my quart of whipping cream down the drain and use my 5 lb sack of shredded cheese for potting soil? Of course I’m a woman of my word. When I say that butter is my life, I truly mean it!

Back to Costco. One of the samples on Saturday was Tasty Bite Madras Lentils. Absolutely delicious. Both of us agreed that they were so good, and I’m sure very healthy, as they are lentils for petes sake, that you could actually use them as a topping for cheese enchiladas. (oops, there I go again, stop it Trudy, you cannot have cheese anymore) So we bought a box of them. They tasted just like a really good chile, but with no meat, just lentils.

This morning, trying to make up for the caramel apple samples I had on Saturday, oh, and the Mexican breakfast of huevos rancheros yesterday… and the Kentucky Butter Cake last night, I thought maybe a low cholesterol taco soup would be good for us tonight before I go to Bunco and snack on the bowls of M&M’s the ladies always have at the tables. So I gathered up all the veggies in the fridge and even used a 1/2 lb of ground turkey instead of beef. After all, us high cholesterol gals need to learn to eat turkey in place of beef, right?

So here was my taco soup with ground turkey, onions, celery, yellow squash, fresh spinach, chopped cabbage,carrots, a little left over rice and added a can of Rotel tomatoes with green chiles, plus a 2 cups of waterAdd your garlic, cumin and chile powder, and wa la….you have taco soup. But wait; what if I added a packet of the Madras Lentils to it? Wouldn’t that just add a little more spiciness and flavor? So I opened it up and poured it in and put the pot of soup in the oven. Baked it at 300 for 2 1/2 hours. The soup is delicious. But then I looked at the packet of the Madras Lentils to see all of the ingredients.  It is actually an Indian food! Really? Either Randy and I have totally lost our taste buds or Indian food taste a lot like Mexican food. All I know is that it added such a great flavor to the taco soup that we will make all our taco soups with it. Isn’t Madras a Spanish word? You have got to try these Madras lentils. Now for the kicker. They might sound healthy, but when you look at the ingredients on the package, (which I guess I should have done before adding them to the soup), they have butter and cream in them. Now my low choldestol taco soup isn’t very low cholesterol, but it sure is good.

Lesson learned from this Costco trip. Indian people use Spanish words in their foods. Caramel apple samples are not the kind of apples that “one a day keeps the doctor away.” If I don’t want to disappoint my doctor by my character, I guess I’m going to have to stay away from Costco Sample Saturdays!

Daily Thoughts · Starches · Uncategorized

Fettuccine Alfredo With Asparagus

Chocolate Castles

Why is it that this is the day after Cinco de Mayo and all I can think about is Italian food? We had an adventure this week of going to Temecula, CA to meet up with 20 of our closest friends for lunch. Because it is a 6 hour trip from our house, we went the night before and found a great little Italian restaurant called Trattoria Toscana, where the pasta was freshly made and the eggplant literally melted in our mouths.  The waiter’s Italian accent was so heavy, I could hardly understand him, but when I heard, lobster ravioli, I figured that was really all I needed to hear. Randy kept looking at me with this precious “love me tender, love me true” look which I took that he was just so glad to get me off to himself for a couple of days, but no, it was the eggplant that was on his mind. He was quick to blurt out, “no really, this eggplant is literally melting in my mouth. It is the best eggplant I have ever eaten” to which I knew immediately where his “look” was coming from. He was choosing the pasta over his princess. But if Im going to take second place, I’m glad it is to a great pasta dish. Every since we ate there, all I can think about is making pasta and finding new recipes for eggplant. But in the meantime, I came across this recipe in a Southern Living Magazine from 2016. So until I can get my hands on an eggplant, this dish will suffice, along with fresh garlic bread and tomato-mozzarella salad.

8 oz uncooked fettuccine

1 teas olive  oil

1 lb fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 2″ pieces

3/4 teas kosher salt, divided

1/2 teas black pepper, divided

1 teas lemon zest

2 teas fresh lemon juice

1 tables butter

1 tables vodka or water

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup milk

6 tables grated Parmesan cheese

1 tables chopped fresh chives

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain in a colander over a large bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking water.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil; swirl to coat. Add asparagus, 1/4 teas of the salt and 1/4 teas of the pepper. Sauce until tender crisp about 6 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add lemon zest and juice, toss. Keep warm.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add vodka (or water) and garlic and cook 1 minute. Add cream cheese, stirring until smooth. Stir in milk, Parmesan cheese and remaining 1/2 teas salt and the remaining pepper. Stir in reserved cooking water, pasta and asparagus and toss. Sprinkle with chives.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Memory, Depression & Cholesterol

Chocolate Castles6 Comments

Today was a rude awakening for me. Just returning from the doctor office, I have some great suggestions, some new insights and some new thoughts. First of all, if you are under 40, just go read a different blog and don’t waste your time reading this.  While you are still “fit” and young and can eat anything you like without worrying about wearing sleeveless blouses, or wondering if the Twinkie you are devouring is going to be your last one until your birthday, when you are allowed to have a treat, this blog is not for you.

Upon entering the doctor’s office, I was given a sheet of questions, such as:

Are you depressed, or lack motivation to participate in normal daily activities?

Do you have trouble falling or staying asleep? Well, I didn’t until now, when I will probably stay awake wondering if I passed this stupid test.

How many times have you fallen in the last two months? Really? So the fall that I had back 3 months ago, I can forget about.

Well, I aced that test! I was able to mark NA on all of the awful questions except one. I did walk out of the bedroom the other day forgetting I had just mopped and as soon as I hit the wet floor, I fell, butt first and landed on my elbow. But…because I eat (not drink) lots of milk by consuming my weight (a girl doesn’t get to be this size by just eating veggies and salads) in cakes, puddings and milkshakes, I guess I have great bones.

So I bounced (ok, maybe waddled a little) into the doctor’s office with a little smirk on my face leaving the old folks back in the waiting room, as they probably thought to themselves, “wow, look at her go, she is spry and doesn’t even need to wear orthopedic shoes!”   I was ready to defend any question the Dr might have for me.

But before the dr came in, Donna Nurse walks in and sits down in front of me and informs me that today “we” meaning me I guess, will have a memory test. No sweat. I will show this little teeny bopper I still know what year it is and also still remember who is President, even though it’s been several months since the election. Well, Nurse Donna gives me a list of 5 items which she said she will ask me to repeat. Ok, no problem, I am repeating them over and over in my mind. Wait…what did she just say? She is going to read me a story before asking me to repeat the 5 items? You are kidding me. I missed the first half of the story still trying to keep the list of the 5 items straight in my mind. So I had to ask her to start the story over as I wasn’t concentrating because of the first 5 things I was trying to remember. OK, I missed the lady of the stories name, and when ask to repeat the 5 items, I forgot “pie”. How could I miss the word pie, I bake one everyday for Pete’s sake. So then she tells me I have to give her the number she will give me, in reverse. She says, “78” then I say “87”. So far so good. UNTIL…she gets to 8,753. Im suppose to repeat that as 3, 578. I couldn’t do it. I got the 3 right, and ended with 3,something 5 something. Donna Nurse takes a couple of notes and says “the dr will be right in”…

I had forgot that the other day a friend of mine said that she was given a memory test when she went in for a physical and they ask her to repeat the alphabet backwards. She said, “if you are smart, you will write it on the inside of your hand so you will be able to repeat it to them. I had totally forgot to do that so was so thankful I had a different test.

So now the doctor comes in and sits across from me, writing notes on his computer. When he looked up at me, he told me that all my blood work had come back normal except, and here it is folks, cholesterol. I was WAY over 200 and according to him, I guess I shouldn’t wait on filling out a Living Will paper, as he sent for one for me to fill out. So my suggestions to the medical personal is this:

Wait until after the doctor visit to have us fill our the sheets that ask about depression or lack of interest in daily activities. I came in feeling great and left with a sense of doom and gloom. I came home and threw away the firm bananas, as I probably won’t live long enough to see them ripen. I have now lost any desire to pursue daily activities as “why bother, since he had me fill out my LW, I probably won’t live long enough to finish painting a picture. Or, why get involved with the new season of Designated Survivor, I probably won’t live to see the last episode”.

Instead of telling you how bad your health looks and then telling the nurse to go get a living will for the patient to sign, maybe just have the LW in a packet of papers and suggest that we might go home and read over and think about what we might want. I felt that if I didn’t sign it before leaving, I might not get the chance to make the decision as apparently he was worried I might not make it home.

When I inquired about having a hearing test done, he told me that maybe I didn’t really want to hear better, as I might not want to hear what he had to say about diet and exercise. He is such a smart alec.   He ended up telling me that because of the new guidelines, he has to ask me a couple of questions that will make me wonder “what business is it of his” but I told him to proceed. Here are the questions he ask.

! What type of heat do we have in our home, gas or electric?

2. Are there any guns in the house. I told him no, that I had a rolling pin and didn’t need a gun when I had rolling pin that was perfect for pies and combat. He looked at me and told me that maybe that was why my cholesterol was so high.

I guess that the medical professionals are now worried that when we leave their offices they want to know if we have a gas oven or gun in the house in case we are so depressed when we leave, we take our Living Will paper and go stick our heads in the oven. I would have except I have to wait until the cake I baked is finished baking. If i’m going out soon, why bother with dieting.

After I got home I was able to go over all the details with Randy and we both decide that it is so good that old folks are already retired. We would never be allowed to take off work as much as we needed to go have all these awful tests done. After reading all the tests that he is sending me for, more depression and gloom set it. So now I guess I have to call and make another appointment to see if I can get a prescription for an antidepressant. But wait, then I will have to go have more blood tests done to be sure that medication is not effecting my liver….and so it goes!

And they wonder why we put off going to the doctor? I think from now on, I will just go on line and google my medical questions.  You aren’t required to do a memory test. As long as I can remember how to google, I’m good!