Category: Daily Thoughts

Daily Thoughts

Blogger’s Cookie Swap

Chocolate Castles4 Comments

Just received my first dozen cookies from a food blogger. Ginger cookies, with fresh candied ginger. AMAZING!!!! From a blogger in North Carolina and oh how I wish she would have included her info so I could thank her for sending some of the best Christmas cookies EVER!!!! I sent my 3 dozen off today. It was such fun to send cookies to 3 strangers who enjoy blogging about food. I knew when the return address was North Carolina that the cookies would be divine. I mean, food from the South is well, there is just something about Southern food. So am off to a great start with this Cookie Swap. Can hardly wait for the other 2 dozen cookies to arrive.

Because I was in the mood earlier in the afternoon to bake a fresh cranberry cake, which I had seen on Face Book and couldn’t wait another day to try, I whipped up the cake and while it was baking, my neighbor brought over a box that had arrived while we were out of town. I opened it to see the tin of cookies. So tonight, we are sitting, watching The Voice, with a piece of cake in one hand and a cookie in the other. Oh the scents of Christmas, not cedar trees, hot chocolate or pine, but ginger, cakes baking and hot chocolate. Those are the scents that make memories which remain long after the Christmas tree is taken down.

Will post the cranberry cake recipe tomorrow, if I can put these ginger cookies down long enough to type.

Daily Thoughts

Thanksgiving Observance

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As Thanksgiving Day quickly approaches, kitchens will be busy, tables will be filled with loved ones (and maybe a few not quite as easily to love) and families will be gathering. Remembering those who live miles away, and those we serve our country and cannot be gathered together with families, this poem will remind us that we have so much to be thankful. In a world that seems to be more and more less thankful for all we have, reflect not just this week, but throughout the year, on how God has truly blessed us.

Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gain instead of your losses.

County your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes.

County your smiles instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your fears.

Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself.

Author Unknown

Give thanks to the Lord; HIs love endures forever. Psa 107:1

Daily Thoughts

Caution…Storage Trips May Lead to Divorce

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

I am not saying that when you and your husband or wife go to storage you will automatically get a divorce, but let’s just say that if your marriage isn’t real solid, you might want to stay away from getting Christmas decorations from storage units. Don’t make the trips together…trust me on this, your marriage will suffer.

We decided that since we have several Christmas events coming early, this was the only weekend that we had free to get all the decorations out of storage. We began our morning on a positive note. I even made my man eggs, bacon and pancakes for breakfast. We drove both cars so that hopefully we could get this dreaded chore over by noon, making only 2 trips instead of 4 or 5. We arrive at storage, riding up the elevator, Frosty keeps reminding me that this is the year we are going to “refine” our decorations. I thought I had done that last year when I got the decorations to fit in 29 boxes instead of 40.

We began to pack both cars and needed to head back up for another load when he reminded me to lock my car since my purse was in the front seat. I gave him a dirty look and told him that I most certainly had already done that. Hello, I’m not that blond. We went up, loaded up the dolly again and arrived at our cars. When he told me to go around and unlock my car to open the front door, I sheepishly looked at him as we both saw that I had pushed “lock” on the key, the only problem was that I had left the car door wide open, right by my purse. Frosty is now starting to have a melt down. As we are pushing the dolly, two of the boxes fall off and I hear glass breaking. That did not do our mood any good. I immediately call him a bull in a china closet. Maybe we need to take a break and listen to some Christmas carols.

When we are carrying boxes up the stairs, (yes all this has to be carried upstairs) one of the metal chairs that sit one of my Santa’s falls over and cuts my lip open. Now my lip is swollen and we aren’t singing carols anymore. We get everything from this trip upstairs and I tell him that I will NOT carry anymore boxes upstairs until after dark.It is just to embarrassing to think that neighbors might be watching us and wonder where in the world would all this stuff go. We ran into one of our neighbors who quickly ask if we were moving, when he saw us carrying up all the boxes. He wishes. I sent a picture of all our décor to our daughter and she told me that she thinks I have a problem. My problem is that I can’t force myself to throw out all the things that bring back memories when I take them out of the boxes. Besides, if I threw all this stuff out now, what in the world would the kids have to do when we pass? All these boxes of “treasures” assure us that our kids will be working for their inheritance. It serves them right for continually buying us more knick knacks. They say, “oh we had to get it for you, it just had your name written all over it”. Really? Is my name really on 38 angels? On the last trip home from storage, I envisioned us having a lovely dinner tonight, maybe chile and cornbread all the while listening to Christmas music as we begin to unload boxes and Frosty is putting the tree up. Reality hit. We are so exhausted from carrying all the boxes upstairs, we ordered pizza. Forget the music, we aren’t in the holiday spirit right now. All we can think about is taking some aspirin and going to bed. We are giving all our kids Gift Certificates for marriage counseling this year. We want their marriages solid before they decorate for Christmas. 

Daily Thoughts

Cooking & Cleaning

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It’s amazing how “company coming to town” will inspire me to clean house. It’s so easy to look past dusty baseboards and dirty windows. We seem to think that eventually it will rain and get the windows either dirtier which makes us think it’s no use wasting our energy, or the rain will kind of clean at least the outside of the window. But, the last couple of days, as I began to look around and try to look at our house through the eyes of company, I began to panic. When was the last time I actually dusted the whole house, not just dusting the table that we would be putting our feet on, alas, not wanting our socks to get dust on them?

Not wanting our friends, who are coming, to think we qualify for the Hoarders Program, we have been busy this week throwing out things that have been hiding under beds and the backs of closets. I started to worry that they might possibly drop something on the floor and bending over to pick up what they dropped, become so horrified of what they would see under their guest bed, that I have been crawling under beds all week, trying to at least organize what was under them. As of now, one of the beds serves as a cover for all the big pots and platters that won’t fit in the kitchen. We have the Christmas bed in the guest room that houses all the delicate Christmas décor which I was afraid might get broken if taken to storage. Now I just hope that the bed never breaks and my Christmas treasures get crushed by some of our oversized friends and family. We have couches which hide several  boxes of “out of season” clothes and blankets/quilts under them that won’t fit in the linen closet because I have all the extra paper towels and toilet tissue that we saved lots of money buying at Costco. With all the money we saved buying in quantity, we had enough left over to go buy a new chest to house all of the placemats and table cloths. Randy has been busy the last couple of nights, mapping out an escape route ,zig sagging through the furniture which lines our walls, just in case of fire of earthquake. He was very thoughtful and made an extra one for our guests. We would hate them to get caught in their bedroom, not knowing where to step to avoid the Christmas tree stand and the collection of Santas that are boxed under their bed.

Well, as of tonight, we are ready.  I went ahead and put the Christmas sheets on their bed. I thought they might like a little room in their closet to hang a few clothes. I rearranged the Easter decorations which were housed in the guest bath, making way for their toiletries. We were very thoughtful to move all the large cookie sheets that we keep between the sheets to keep off the dust. Didn’t think they would appreciate sleeping with those, especially since there are no cookies on them.  

Just in case I missed some dust and dirt, I placed chocolate candy on each of their pillows. Hopefully they will be so impressed with the gourmet chocolate they won’t notice the extra car mats that Randy ordered, (he thought he would have some here just in case his wore out in a couple of years), which are stored under the chair in the guest room.

Daily Thoughts · Desserts

Measuring Cups & Pie Crust

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If you are one of those that  you are just now taking the Warranty Papers and Care Instructions out of the oven you have had for 5 years, you might not be aware that there is a difference in measuring cups. Today, a sweet young lady was making cookies and called me to ask me why her dough wasn’t the texture that she knew it should be. We went over the instructions and the ingredients and discovered that she had followed them to a T. When I ask her if she had used liquid measuring cups of dry measuring cups, she didn’t know that there was a difference and she had in fact used the ones meant to measure liquids. It can make a huge difference in your baked goods, not using the right measuring cups. The liquid measuring cups add more flour than what is intended. She ask me why they aren’t labeled, “liquid” or “dry”. At lunch I was relaying this story with a friend and she said it was years before she knew that fact. So for all of you out there that aren’t quite sure which is liquid or dry, the liquid measuring cups have lines and usually a pouring spout. Dry measuring cups are just labeled 1/2, 2/3, 1/4, 1, 1/3, etc.  They are made to where you can scrape across the top of the measuring cup to level it off. Does this make sense?

Also, for those of you who like to make your own pie crust, last night I made the pie crust recipe I found in Paula Deen Magazine. It is undoubtedly the absolute BEST pie crust I have ever had….it was flaky and had such a great flavor. I will never make any other recipe again.

2 1/2 cups flour

6 tables cold butter

6 tables cold shortening

1 tables sugar

1/2 teas salt

1/2 cup cold water

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Cut in the butter and shortening with a pastry cutter until mixture resembles crumbs. Add water, 1 tables at a time, as you might not need all the water (I used 3 tables is all). Stir with a fork until mixture comes together. Remove from bowl and wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Flour a sheet of parchment paper, waxed paper or your counter. Roll 1/2 of the dough mixture into a 12″ circle. Carefully fold in half and place in a 9″ pie plate. Fill with fruit filling. Repeat the procedure with the remaining dough. Place over the fruit and make a few slits in the top crust, allowing for steam to escape. Bake at 425 for 30-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.\

If you are needing a single crust, you can freeze the other half and just use the bottom crust. Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes. Watch carefully as to not allowing to get to brown. Cool and use filling of your choice.

Chicken · Daily Thoughts · Holiday Fare · Meats · Soups

Suppers On…Come & Get It, Oops, I Mean, Dinner is Served

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I can’t help it, I lived almost 60 of my butter-laden years in the south, where folks come to supper, not dinner. When I found this new recipe last night in the Food Network Magazine, (which I will get to in a minute, but have to get this story out of my system first) I remembered an incident from dining out a few nights ago. First of all, just to begin this story, I am no longer allowed to talk about dinner anymore when in public. Returning home from Texas, home of Whataburger, Dr Pepper and Blue Bell, some of my all time favorite things, Mr. Sourheart, aka, Randy (the closer it gets to holiday time, he quickly changes from sweetheart to sourheart) picked me up from the airport and whisked me away to one of our favorite restaurants. Actually it is one of his favorites, because it is the only place in California where you can get Blue Bell ice cream.  As  we are sitting outside, enjoying the gorgeous weather, just waiting for our food to arrive, we are talking about how he is so glad to have me home so he doesn’t have to eat by himself. It was at this point that I asked, “what did you eat for supper while I was gone last week?” You can’t imagine the stares that came my way. Randy hid behind his napkin. I thought there for a minute we were going to be asked to leave or at least take the table by the kitchen door. People from the tables around us began to look my way and then whisper to their table companions. I felt so ashamed. Fortunately, our food arrived and Randy quickly stuffed a roll in my mouth before I could say anything more. He quietly “encouraged” me to save that kind of talk for when we were alone. Note to self….when not in the South, I eat dinner, not supper! There is just something wrong with ordering chicken fried steak with cream gravy and mashed potatoes for dinner, but sounds so much better when you are ordering it for supper. Tonight, because we are all alone, I am making this new delicious sounding soup for supper. Tomorrow, we are having company and  prime rib for dinner.  Am looking for new friends that don’t mind coming to supper, rather than coming for dinner. Think I will post the recipe in a new post, I got a little carried away thinking about dinner vs supper.

Supper

Chicken Fried Anything

Taters

Collard Greens

Gravy

Cobblers

Hot Biscuits with butter and jelly

Sweet Taters

Macaroni & Cheese

Corn on the Cob

Dinner

Prime Rib

Au Jus

Brussels Sprouts

Green Beans with Proscuitto

Stuffed Mushrooms

Merignues

See the difference?

 

Daily Thoughts

Thou Shall Not Steal…Or Chew Gum…Especially In Church

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

I really don’t understand how these things continue to happen to me. Today I am in Phoenix and went to church with the kids.  We sat on the 3rd row from the front and was excited to have the kids in the nursery and participating in worship. I sat between Jodi and a gentleman to my right.   When the sermon began the minister told us we would be reading Acts 6 and 7. I am one of those old fashioned members who are always fussing  all time about the “youngsters” who never carry their Bibles and just read from their phones, I didn’t want to admit that I had traveled without my Bible by just pulling out my IPhone and reading from my phone. I looked over to the back  of the seat to my right and immediately pulled out the Bible from the seat pocket and opened it up to Acts 7! The minister read the entire chapter, which was over 40 verses, when I began to notice that there were no other Bibles in the pew backs. Immediately, I realized that the Bible I was using must belong to the man sitting next to me. I didn’t know if I should close it up and put it back during the reading or offer to “share” it with the rightful owner, so I just kept reading as though I didn’t know it belonged to him. He was gentlemanly enough to never pick it up during the service so as not to embarrass me. When church was over, he picked his Bible and I apologized that I had used his Bible, thinking that it belonged to the church. He walked out with me telling me that when I didn’t have a Bible, I could use my iPhone, which he had seen lighting up in my purse, as there was a Bible app I could get. I guess he thought since I went around stealing Bibles, I must not be a regular church attendee. It was very embarrassing but not as embarrassing as the time that we were told to turn around and shake hands with the people sitting around us in church. As I was introducing myself to some visitors and sticking my hand out to shake their hand, my gum flew out of my mouth and landed right in the middle of the ladies open palm.   I never saw them visit our church again. It was a rather long time before se sat on that side of the church. Am giving thanks today that I won’t be back here for awhile.  By then, maybe the man will forget my face. I was just so glad we weren’t told to shake hands with others today. I had forgot to spit my gum out before going into church. 

Daily Thoughts

Thumbies Arrived & Ready

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IMG_1328

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Make individual cheesecakes, peanut blossoms, brownie bites easier with a Thumbie. Not having to use your thumb, the indentions are even, no crumbs under your nail and prep time is shorter.

Instructions for care is included.
I have been using the same Thumbie for over 4 years. Handwash only!

When making your yummies, always use your Thumbies!

Thumbkins Used for mini muffin pans $6.00 Shipping is $1.99 (If ordering 5 or more, shipping will be $2.99)

Thumbos Used for regular size cupcake pans $7.00 Shipping is $1.99 (If ordering 5 or more, shipping will be $2.99)

Breads · Breakfast · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Holiday Fare

Pumpkin Poppers

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

Yesterday Peter & Penelope Pumpkin wandered around the Americana, stopping to have lunch and then to the movies to see Gravity. Afterward, we wanted just to sit outside with Starbucks and people watch, which is free and we enjoyed that much more than Gravity. Guess we aren’t sci-fi people, we are more people watching people. We are sitting there just enjoying the cool Fall air, watching all the people walking by when I look over to see a bakery called Deluca’s. I immediately grabbed my Saturday allowance out of hubbies wallet and headed over. When I entered, the nice little boy of 12 asked if he could help me. I told him that I wanted the lemon meringue bars that I fell in love with in New York. He informed me that they were not even associated with Dean & Duluca’s in NY but told me to follow him over to their dessert section and proceeded to show me their great desserts. One was a Whoopie Pie with a Nutella Whip filling. He actually gave me a sample of the filling and whoa, it was really good. Am going to have to make those. Then he showed me their Pumpkin Poppers.   Only 99cents each and I could have eaten a dozen.  There were miniature pumpkin muffins rolled in a heavy coating of cinnamon sugar mixture.  All I had taken with me was $2, so I got two. Bringing them back to Peter, I told him what I had got, hoping that he would say, “oh that’s ok, you eat them both, that doesn’t sound very good to me.” But the opposite happened. He grabbed the last one and scarfed it down, like he hadn’t had sugar in a week. He looked at me and said, “these are amazing”, when are you going to make us some?” So guess what I am doing today? Making mini pumpkin muffins and rolling them in cinnamon sugar.

What a great little coffee break goodie.   Wanted to give you a fresh idea of how to take your favorite pumpkin muffins to a new level. A sugar level.  Easy to pop in your mouth with one hand, as you are playing Candy Crush. An really, how fattening can a little popper be?

Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Pumpkin, Caramel & Pecan Cheesecake

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What better way to celebrate Fri than with a new recipe! It has been a very stressful morning. Decisions, decisions. We are going to some friends home for dinner and guess who volunteered to bring dessert? Knowing that I wanted to make something “fallish” two different recipes came to mind. This new recipe from Philadelphia Cream Cheese or one of my fall favs, fresh apple cake with brown sugar frosting.

Peter Pumpkin and I seem to load up on apples each and every week, thinking that what better time to begin eating healthy? Each time we come back from the grocery determined to load up our bodies with fresh fruit; thus the apples and bananas that we take out of the reusable bags. The only problem with this new resolution (actually it isn’t new, it’s something we’ve resolved to do since January, 1996, but never find the right time to begin) is that as the week goes by with the fruit still sitting there, staring back at us, it becomes apparent that it is no longer “fresh fruit” and is begging to be used in some delicious baked good that thrives on over ripe fruit to make it moisturie (I know I know, but it just seems to be the right word). So since I had apples laying out looking ever so “please use me, please use me” I decided to make a fresh apple cake tonight. But because that recipe is already on the post, I wanted to give you the other dessert that was the 2nd option for tonight. Will make it when I have used up all our over ripe fruit. Will start again on Mon with new fresh fruit. Who knows, maybe by next Fri, I will have found new recipes that use really ripe apples and bananas? In the meantime…..

Makes 16 Servings

Prep Time: 15 min (now that should catch your eye)

1/2 cup chopped pecans, divided

18 Nabisco Ginger Snaps, finely crushed

1/4 cup butter, melted

4 packages ( 8 oz ea) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teas vanilla

1 teas vanilla

 4 eggs

25 caramels

1/4 cup milk

Heat oven t0 325. Chop 1/4 cup of the pecans very fine in a bowl. Add ginger snap crumbs and butter; mix well. Press crumb mixture onto bottom of a 13×9″ pan. Set aside.  Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl. With hand mixer, beat until blended. Add pumpkin, spice and vanilla, mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.

Bake 45 min or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Microwave caramels and milk in microwavable bowl for 1 1/2 min or until caramels are completely melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Add the other 1/4 cup chopped pecans and spoon over individual servings of cheesecake. Top with whipping cream if desired.