Category: Daily Thoughts

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Dog Art

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imageOliver has taken over our lives. We tip toe around when he is sleeping, just like I did when I had babies (well, real human babies) as to not wake him up. We know the minute he wakes up we are expected to play “fetch” or he follows so closely behind us or beside us that both of us have tripped, trying to avoid a squashed dog. Forty-two years ago, I remember being so proud that I could actually bathe my newborn by myself, without asking anyone for help. It felt good to think of myself as a confident, competent new mom. It takes 2 of us to bathe this precious little 4 month old 3 lb dog. He wiggles and squirms and constantly tries  jumping our of the bathtub, so one of us holds him (that is me since Randy is still one-armed) and the other washes him.  An hour later, Oliver is clean, with freshly blow dried hair and finally asleep. So we are back to tip-toeing around. We have even resorted to always having background music when the tv isn’t on, hoping that will soothe Oliver and allow us to walk around without waking him up.

Yesterday, we went to the clubhouse for a concert, then drove a couple back home on our golf cart. The day was hot and we felt badly that they had walked up from their house. So we jumped on the cart and upon arriving at their house, they ask us in to see what all they had done to their house, since moving here around the same time we had. As we entered their front door, a sweet old corgi dog met us, named Toby. He didn’t run around our feet or jump up on us trying to get us to pick him up. The vision that comes to my mind is the difference between walking into a preschool and a nursing home. The preschoolers are running up to anyone who walks in the door, expecting you to go see everything they have done that day. The senior at the nursing home, just welcomes you and although is glad to see you, doesn’t jump up in your lap or expect you to see the lace doily they just completely. OK, back to the dog art story. When we left and headed back to our house, Randy looked at me and said, “I guess you will be ordering a t-shirt with Oliver’s picture on the front.” What? He couldn’t believe that I hadn’t noticed the t-shirt our new friend was wearing.  Randy told me that he had seem this couple twice this week. The first time, Randy saw her, she wore a t-shirt that said, “I Love My Corgi” and the second time she had  the picture t-shirt. It was then that I did remember seeing a huge picture of their dog on the front of her shirt. I assured him he didn’t have to worry about that. I don’t have any earrings that would go with a dog t-shirt. I feel so ashamed, the only way people would know we have a dog is from the dark circles around my eyes from Oliver waking me up at 5:30 every day.

We don’t even have a picture yet of Oliver in a frame sitting on the coffee table. When company comes, we immediately begin to apologize that we are bad parents to him. We don’t have any pictures printed up, we don’t have any clothing with his picture on it and he doesn’t own one outfit to strut around the neighborhood in. We figure that if we make it out of his terrible two’s,  without confining him to the play pen, we will just be thankful that he is sleeping past 5:30  am and has ceased begging every time we sit down to eat anything. We have never given him table food or fed him treats from the table,; where do they learn to do that? I guess the same place toddlers learn to lie, sneak cookies and bite. Certainly not our house! NEVER! Must be the neighbors house or the Jezebel dog Myah, which is our daughter’s new puppy!

Breads · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit · Uncategorized

Cinnamon Roll Apple Bread Pudding

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A couple of weeks ago, I saw this on Facebook and decided that I would make it when I was wanting a new dessert. Well, tonight was the night. Randy and I found a Farmers Market today where we actually got a 5 lb sack of golden delicious applies for $0.99! We both just finished a bowl of the pudding and decided that we really did like it and will be making it a lot this fall. Very easy, quick and perfect for those nights when nothing but a “comfort food” dessert will do.

Serves 4 to 6 people

1 regular size can of cinnamon roll (I used Pillsbury) with the icing included

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk (I used Pet evaporated milk, undiluted

1 teas vanilla

2 teas ground cinnamon

2 tables butter

2 apples, peeled and diced (I used golden delicious)

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375.

Grease a 9×9 baking pan. Cut up each raw cinnamon roll into small cubes and place in baking dish. Set aside.

Melt the butter with the brown sugar and diced apples in a skillet, over medium heat until sugar begins to bubble and caramelize. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, mix the eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla until well blended.

Pour over the cubed cinnamon rolls in the baking dish. Top with the apple, sugar, butter mixture. Using the canned frosting, drizzle over the top of the apples.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until center of the baking dish tests done.

Serve with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream. * I had some of the brown sugar syrup left in the skillet which I poured over ours after dishing it up in the bowls. Fantastic! Think I will increase the butter and sugar next time so there will be more of the syrup to pour over each serving. It’s not even Fall yet, but Im excited about all the apple dishes which will be on our table, once the temps fall below 100.

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Questions & Answers

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Today is one of those days which a person always prays that will never come.  My BFF, Cora and her family are mourning the loss of her 20 year old grandson, Jared Frame. The funeral is this afternoon and even though we know that Jared is in Heaven, his loss here is being felt in so many families. Last week, so many of us questioned why God would allow such a tragedy to people who have served so faithfully their Lord and Savior. When so many hundreds of people had been praying and asking the Lord not to take Jared ‘s life, why did God not answer those prayers? He did, but just not in the way we hoped.

This morning, waking up early and reading Streams in the Desert, this was the devotion of the day, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, who passing  through the valley of weeping, make it a well.” Psa 84-5-6

It went on to say,

“Comfort does not come to the light-hearted and merry. We must go down into “depths” if we would experience this more precious of God’s Gifts–comfort, and thus be prepared to be co-workers together with Him.

When night-needful night–gathers over the garden of our souls, when the leaves close up and the flowers no longer hold any sunlight within their folded petals, there shall never be wanting, even in the thickest darkness, drops of heavily dew, dew which falls only when the sun has gone.

I have been through the valley of weeping.

The valley of sorrow and pain;

But the God of all comfort was with me, At hand to uphold and sustain.

As the earth needs the clouds and sunshine, Our souls need both sorrow and joy;

So He places us oft in the furnace, the dross from the gold to destroy.

When he leads through some valley of trouble, His omnipotent hand we trace.

For the trials and sorrows He sends us, Are part of HIs lessons in grace.

Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning, Forgetting the Husbandman knows that the deeper the cutting and paring; The richer the cluster that grows.

As we travel thro’ life’s shadow’d valley, Fresh springs of His love ever rise;

And we learn that our sorrows and losses, Are blessings just sent in disguise.

So we’ll follow wherever He leadeth. Let the path be dreary or bright;

For we’ve proved that our God can give comfort; Our God can give songs in the night.”

Todays posting is taken from Springs in the Desert Devotion book.

As we celebrate Jared’s wonderful faithful too-short lived life,  this afternoon, we have to trust that God has a wonderful purpose and plan that even though we do not understand, and maybe will not this side of Heaven, our prayers are that God is glorified. Jared’s parents have said that they want to “serve their Lord well”! Becky and Darren, you are shining examples of living that request very well. May God be glorified today through the tears and the pain.

 

 

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Fittin-In

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We have been in Arizona since the end of April and in our house since May 11th. We knew from the get-go(I have been dying to use that term since I heard it a few days ago), that there would be several things that we would need to change about us that would help us “fit in” here. As we began to visit some of the churches to see where we would begin making us feel at home, we quickly realized that Randy would need to get rid of his suits that he wore to church in Dallas. In fact, there were a couple of times where we would walk into a church (First Baptist Dallas being one of them) and they mistook Randy for the visiting preacher. It was then and there that I told him he needed to get rid of his Pentecostal hair cut and cut back on the hair gel. But when we got here, he noticed that really all he had to have was nice Hawaiian shirts, a pair of nice tan shorts and some open toed sandals. So off to the Goodwill went the suits, pretty much knowing that all he would have to keep was one for him to be buried in. Those were his words, not mine.  But after the conversation this morning on the way home from shopping, that might be sooner than he expected. Another difference was that after trying to continue to style my Dallas big hair and big earrings, I have given up. Gone is the big hair, replaced by short spiky golden locks, which took the place of the red. The sun was fading the red so much that I was looking like Carrot Top. I was told by my daughter that wearing big earrings, just screamed “look at me, I am really old and dress very old fashioned”. So gone are the big hoops and in came the small dainty little pearls. I think I look like I’m 80 and look like June Cleaver now.

Also, we discovered, just like in Texas, to get to really know folks, you had to have a pet, preferably a dog to walk so the neighbors would talk to you. The cuter the dog, the friendlier the neighbors. So Oliver became our “business card” that we would use to get people’s attention.  To take this pet thing a step further, we have noticed that LOTS of people out here, love their bumper stickers which let you know they are animal people. There are stickers which have the number of stick people on their windshield as the number in their family plus Rover at the end of the line, letting you know they have a dog.

Then there are  bumper stickers which tell you how many cats people have, or announce that they are cat people with a line drawn through the word, “dog”.  Some say, Red Rover, Red Rover, Let Any Dog Come Over to My House! Or this one we saw last week, Dogs Welcome, People Keep Out!

On our way home today from shopping, Randy declared that maybe we needed to come up with our own bumper sticker, as we weren’t meeting people as quickly as we would like. (This is why he might be needing that burial suit sooner than later). After all, it is just to hot to go walking with Oliver and with Randy still being the One Armed Bandit (hallelujah we see the shoulder surgeon tomorrow), we have not been able to participate in many of the activities which would allow us to meet our new neighbors. As we drove, we began to talk about different suggestions which might be cute to have on our back car bumper which would let people know that we were now “pet lovers” We debated on several, such as: Love Us, Love our Pet, or We Love Our Pet & Our Grandkids, In that Order, but Randy finally decided that he knew what it would be…

“You Can Have My Wife, But Touch the Dog and You Die”!

It will be interesting to see who gets Oliver in the divorce settlement! Am having his one suit cleaned, as you never know when he might need it!

Beef · Casseroles · Daily Thoughts · Meats · Uncategorized

Enchiladas…Kiko’s Style

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Corpus Christi is where I spent the first 45 years of my life. Back in the early 80’s some friends of ours, Sam & Yvonne Satterfield, introduced us to a Mexican restaurant called, Kikos. We ate there from that point on at least once a week after that. Every trip back to Corpus to see my parents, that was my first stop. Their enchiladas were just so good, with this rich brown-tomato sauce that wasn’t like the typical enchilada sauce that every Mexican restaurant or recipe seems to be. For years, I have tried to copy their great sauce, but to no avail. Every time Randy would be with me he would say, “I think it has cream of mushroom soup in it.” to which I would reply, “of course it doesn’t have cream of mushroom soup, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Well, after 20 years of him saying that and me responding in the same old way, I began to think, “what if he is right and I could have been eating great enchiladas the past 20 years other than when we just go to Corpus.” So last night, I experimented and oh my gosh, we had Kiko enchiladas. I’m not saying that they truly use Cream of Mushroom but I am saying that the sauce I made last night with it tasted the same as theirs. So if you are like us and think that no place else makes enchiladas like Kikos, give this a try. I think you will be pleasantly pleased.

8 white corn tortillas

1  1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 -3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 can cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 oz)

1 small can tomato sauce (small size can)

1 -2 cups water (depending on how thick you like your enchilada sauce) ( I used a little over 1 can).

1 packet of taco or enchilada seasoning

1 lb of hamburger meat

3 tablespoons oil

Lawrys Seasoning Salt

Garlic powder as desired

Grease a baking dish that will hold 8 enchiladas. Set aside.

In a skillet, brown the meat with  about 1 cup chopped onion until meat is no longer pink. Add the garlic and stir until well blended in meat. Add the cup of water ,  1/2 packet of Lawry’s taco or enchilada seasoning, can of mushroom soup and small can of tomato sauce and cook over low heat for about 5 min until it makes a  gravy. If it is not thin enough to your liking, add a little more water, maybe up to 1/2 cup. Set aside. *If this is not spicy enough for you, add more of the Lawry’s Taco seasoning packet. (I like the flavor of the taco seasoning more than the enchilada seasoning)

In a small skillet,  melt about 1 tables butter and saute  the rest of the chopped onion until it is clear. Sprinkle about 1/2 teas Lawrys Seasoning Salt, 1/2 teas garlic powder and a little pepper. Place this onion mixture in a small bowl. In same skillet, add the 3 tables oil. Heat until it is sizzling around the edges. Place corn tortillas, one at a time, in the hot oil about 3-5 seconds per side. Drain on paper towels until you have done all 8 tortillas. When cool to the touch, begin by place about 1 teas cooked onion in the middle of each tortilla. Spoon about 1 tables of the shredded cheddar cheese over the onion and roll up. Place in the greased baking dish. When you have completed all 8, pour the meat mixture over the enchiladas and top with more cheddar cheese, to your liking. Bake ate 350 preheated oven for about 25 minutes, uncovered.

 

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Weekend Warriors

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imageThis past weekend, I intended to cook all weekend but found myself being tied to a dog leash. Our daughter and son-in-law had us puppy sit from Fri afternoon to Sunday afternoon so they could take the kids to a resort. So while they were lounging around the pool, I was taking their dog out EVERY HOUR and trying to keep Myah (AKA Jezebel) and Oliver, who is our sweet precious little Morkie from killing each other. They are the same age, about 3 months. So we spent (when I say we, I mean ME) the entire time taking toys away from one dog to give to the other. Honestly, they were worse than two year olds. They didn’t want a toy unless the other one got it. I would give them bones and they only wanted the one that the other had. They ate each others food, they slept in each others beds. When they weren’t fighting over food, water or toys, they tore at each other with such determination that I feared that one of them would end up at the Vets after loosing an ear.  Randy kept telling me that they were just playing but because I’m an only child, I couldn’t imagine that biting and growling were just “playing”.  I felt like I had kept 4 grandkids for a week, by the time Sunday afternoon arrived. When I wasn’t breaking up doggie fights, I kept telling myself that as soon as things settled down I was going to bake. That never happened. Note to self: do not, under any circumstances, keep two puppies who are not yet potty trained. I was exhausted. They woke me up at 4:30 Saturday morning, but  were so sweet to let me sleep in until 5 Sunday morning.

Both Randy and I discovered that if ever we even thought about getting a second dog, all we had to do was remember this past weekend and that “desire to get a puppy to keep Oliver company” would immediately disappear.

I told Randy, just like with little babies, we could just ride around in the car with one dog in my lap and one in his to get some rest, but he said “no” we should be able to be more in control, they are only dogs, we just needed to show them who was boss. I guess they were, as I did anything they wanted just to be able to sit for a few minutes. That was so easy for him to say as he wasn’t the one picking up the poop, being woke up early and playing with them trying to keep them from fighting and growling so they wouldn’t wake up Randy or Jaden. Oh, I forgot, we also were keeping our 14 year old.  At least he is potty trained and can fix a bowl of soup. We even considered checking in to Doggie Day Care on Saturday, but we didn’t have proof of Myahs shots so that idea went out the window. It brought back so many memories of being able to drop off my 3rd child to Mothers Day Out on Tues and Thurs for a few hours. I would just get back in the car and sit, trying to decide what I wanted to do with all the precious hours of having no children with me. But truth be told, I ended up going home and taking a nap. It was just like that this past weekend. When I finally got both dogs to nap at the same time, I slept right along with them. Randy kept telling me all weekend, “that is why it is good for old folks to get a dog, because it keeps them active, having to take them outside and for walks and picking up after them so you don’t trip on the toys that are all over the house.  Blah Blah Blah, easy for Mr. Being Able to Sleep in until 7 a.m. Each Morning On The Weekend to say. Do not get me wrong, I have fallen in love with Oliver. He was suppose to be Randy’s dog, but because Randy still has use of only one arm, he is unable to pick him up or carry him anywhere so guess who Oliver bonded to….yep…the person who really isn’t a pet person. But just like being able to teach old dog new tricks, I guess this old person is learning the new trick of falling in love with their new family member.

 

 

Beef · Breads · Cakes · Casseroles · Chicken · Chocolate · Cookies · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Princess On The Porch

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I just got a notification that Princess on the Porch is in Itunes Store for $3.99. This will let you have recipes and stories on your computer that will be so easy to keep instead of searching for recipes on the blog, chocolate castles.com.

 

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Life With a 3 Month Old (Or Childbirth Was Easier Than This)

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We told ourselves on the way to pick Oliver up 2 weeks ago that this time around we would be smarter. He would not sleep with us, and we would be in control. We would be the strict parents that we should have been to our kids.
Oliver sleeps with us and has us all figured out. Because I have tried so hard to sit and be patient by the fake grass pad, I constantly say, “Oliver, come over to the potty pad and go potty.” Then I praise him if he goes and give him a treat. Today I realized that he is playing us. He has begun to walk over to the potty pad and stands there for a second and comes over to me expecting his treat. Because it had not dawned on me that a dog can’t pee in 2 seconds, I had been giving him treats each time he “looked” like he was peeing.’
For the first week both Randy and I took turns getting ready. We wanted to be sure that someone was constantly right there in case Oliver needed to go potty. After a week of that, I told Randy that we have got to get our life back. So we ordered a doggie play pen. Oh my gosh, if I had known how wonderful these things are, I might have even used them with my kids. I just never realized that you can put a dog in them and go take a shower, make a cake, do laundry. All these can be accomplished without a little doggie constantly sniffing around the house, making you crazy because you forgot to write down the last time he peed and you run around trying to grab him to take him to the fake grass. After my firstborn, I gave away the play pen. I just was not one to be able to walk by a crying child and ignore his pleadings to “get me out of this thing.” Oh but now…I have no trouble walking by Oliver in his pen, with a smile on my face, just because I can. Of course, that is after I have made sure I have all his toys from around the house and put them in. The thought of him getting bored breaks my heart. I have learned to ignore that cute little whimpering for at least 5 minutes before feeling sorry for him.
A few days ago, Randy gave Oliver an old tennis shoe to chew on. I told him I thought that was a bad idea but he insisted that Oliver would be happy with that and not try to chew on his new tennis shoes. We found that Oliver likes new shoes more than old ones.
Our daughter, Jodi got a new puppy the same weekend as we did. Hers is a female Lhasa Apso named, Myah. When these two puppies get together, they are absolutely adorable, but Myah seems to be the more aggressive one. We come home from letting them play and find that it has wiped Oliver out. So he sleeps for hours. Until it is time to go to bed. When we turn the lights out about 10:30, Oliver is wide awake. We are just too old for this. We thought our nights of having to stay up with little ones was over. I have always got so bored with people talking nonstop about their pets. I’m really not a dog or cat person, but Randy has wanted a dog for quite some time. Since He broke his shoulder about 6 weeks ago, I gave in thinking how great it would be for him to have a dog to just sit with him on his lap and keep him company while he recoups from the accident. Oliver only likes to sit on my lap. So I have slowly become a dog person. Randy thinks maybe a little to much of a dog person. I found a pet photographer coupon on Groupon. We are headed to Pets Mart to pick out the perfect little outfit for his pictures. No, I’m going ga ga over him, but we are having wallet sized photos of Oliver made for family and friends for Christmas. We had to take some of the pictures of our grandkids out of our wallets to make room for Oliver’s pictures. After all, the grandkids don’t even sit in our laps anymore. Yes, he sleeps like that!

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Hearts In Tune

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There is a gospel group called Hearts in Tune, which is a favorite of mine. This morning upon hearing more of the tragedy that is going on not only in Dallas, but over the world, those words just kept coming to me, “Hearts in Tune.” It is so very sad to me to listen to commentator after commentator in the media discussing the events taking place. Most of them continue to stress more gun control, more laws and more government programs, thinking that will solve the problem that is taking place in our world.
Never before has our country had such “freedoms”, so many policies and so many programs, all aimed at making America great. In spite of all of the above, America has continued to decline, morally, spiritual and economically. Our families institutions are being destroyed, along with our children, who will be growing up in a world where anything goes. We have continued to push God out of our lives, our families, government and out of some of our churches. We push for more gun control, yet we continue to kill innocent babies. We march for equal rights, when all the time, more rights just bring more confusion and more turmoil.
When will our leaders realize that no matter the policies, programs and laws, until our country falls on its knees in acknowledgment that we need God, hearts will never be “in tune”. What our country needs is a heart that follows after God and his laws. He has promised us that if we follow His plan and His commands, our land will be blessed. What is it going to take to turn us back to Him? I think we are seeing what it will take, more violence, more sin and more “freedoms” which really don’t make us free at all. Our freedom must be in God and God alone, then and only then will we be free to live the lives that He intended.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Adjusting to Arizona

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We have been here since April 19th and in our new house since May 11th. Maybe it’s because we are old and not as easy to adjust to new surroundings, but my goodness, how young would we need to be to adjust to the heat, and yards adorned with nothing but rocks and cacti? Also, we have never seen so many electric scooters, tattoos and folks wearing black socks with white tennis shoes. Apparently they have never been visited by the fashion police.
In spite of the afore mentioned observations, we have to say that we really do feel at home here and are enjoying the casualness and friendliness of our community. This past Wednesday evening we invited a new friend to dinner. She was the lady who we met through Airbnb when we leased her casita behind her house until we could get moved in to our house. We owe so much to Diana. She is the lady who owned her own construction company and sent out her employees to our new place to do most of the work on our house. So I wanted to show her how much we both appreciated her kindness to us. Because I have not really cooked or baked but about 3 times since the first of March when we moved out of our house in Dallas, I guess that my cooking skills took a nosedive (to say the least, more like hit rock bottom). Because I had not cooked in a while or had company over for dinner, I decided to make an old standby, the one pot spaghetti with garlic bread, capresse and baked Parmesan zucchini sticks.
How hard can that be? Diana arrived at 6 and I put out olive tapenade with homemade garlic toast. Since we stil have boxes which we had taken to storage on Saturday, just to get them out of ou sight for a couple of months, things are still missing from my kitchen, like bowls to eat spaghetti from. So Wednesday afternoon, after deciding to make something “safe”, I headed out the door to stores around our neighborhood to see if I could find some bowls. I could not find any of the large flat bowls, other than just round soup bowls. But At Walmart I found a beautiful little turquoise cut glass bowl and matching plate, made by Pioneer women. So deciding to just use my China bowls that evening, I headed home. I washed my new purchases and went on with my cooking. Following the recipe exactly, I began to cook, feeling very prideful that Diana was in for a great evening of Italian food and would probably walk away thinking, “wow, boy can that Texas girl cook!” Well, the spaghetti was in the pot, waiting to be turned on, the bread was buttered with garlic and herbs just waiting to be put in the oven and the capresse was in the fridge. Diana arrives and we visit and show her around the house that her employees had helped us transform. All of us had stood around snacking on the olive tapenade and garlic toasts and visited. It old Diana and Randy to go ahead and sit and I would serve the meal. When I lifted the lid to the spaghetti, it was a pot of mush. I panicked and tried to pick out the noodles which had not turned to mush, but just could not find enough for her, much less all 3 of us. Quickly I apologized and told her that I don’t know what I did, but we just could not eat the pot of mush. Well, at least we had good garlic bread in the oven, but when I went to take it out, it was hard as a rock. What is happening? I grabbed the plate of tapenade and put it on the table and said that we would just have a dinner of capresse and tapenade. The zucchini sticks were also mush and I instantly just threw them out. I have never, in 40 years cooked a meal like that. And for guest, I just was such an embarrassment. Lucky for me, she loves strawberries and I had made fresh strawberry pie with whipped cream. Trying to be fancy, I had saved some of the larger strawberries and dipped them n chocolate to top off each piece of pie. Pulse the strawberries were really tart. She was kind enough to say that she thought it was the end of strawberry season and that was probably why they did not taste very good. I didn’t see the chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge until I was cleaning up after she went home. At least had they been on top, the dessert would have looked pretty. The grandkids ended up eating them the next day. Then tonight, two days later, I got out my new acquired Pioneer woman plate which I had used Wednesday night. I carried it to the table where I had made more garlice bread for our dinner tonight. During the meal, I saw Rany peeling something off that plate. When I looked over, he was removing the Pioneer sticker off of the front of it. WHAT????Had I washed that and used it Wednesday evening with the sticker still on the front of it? I have not been in this town for 2 months and I have already done enough to earn a reputation as being the worst cook from Texas to settle here. It scares me to think what she was really thinking on her way home, “please Lord, don’t even make me go back and eat at their house again.” We may have to move again. I just don’t think I can take the stares of folks that might have talked to Diana that next day. If she ever does come back, I think we will just take her out to eat. It will be much safer for my reputation as a cooking blog contributor.