Daily Thoughts

Retirement & Insurance

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As the weekend approaches and we are getting excited about going to AZ for Thanksgiving to visit, we have had a “to do” list that we are checking off little by little. One of the items was to get a RX refilled before leaving town, so today we went to pick it up. As I walked up to the pick up window inside the store, the young man ask for id and for insurance. He quickly informed me that if I didn’t have insurance my medication would cost $140.00. And they wonder why we have headaches. Anyway, since I did have insurance the medicine cost $ .39. Yep, that’s right 39 cents. The only catch was that with the insurance card, instead of getting the 50 which the prescription was for, they could only give you 9 pills and you would have to come back every 3 days if you needed more. So let’s see. I can get all 50 of them for $140 now, if I don’t use insurance or get 9 at a time, every 3 days for 39 cents. This just does not make sense to me, but we took my 9 pills and left.

On the way home, I began to tell Frosty that I just couldn’t sleep last night. I was up half the night thinking about my new book that will be coming out soon! . I know it will include different trials that we go through along with great dessert recipes. Well, you know women, that made me think of the season which we went through the year. 2015 and Randys retirement. I had this thought that just won’t leave my mind. Why don’t people start out retiring? Think about this. Remember when you were first married and you couldn’t keep your hands off your new mate? You walked them to the door when they left for work in the mornings, after making anything they wanted for breakfast. During the day, I just couldn’t want until hubby walked in the door at 5, throwing my arms around his neck and smothering him with kisses before leading him to the dining table where his favorite meal would be waiting. I cried when he had to leave town for 2 days. Anything he wanted to watch, of course, I “wanted” to watch. It was important to learn all about the people at the office so I could feel like I was apart of his daily world when he was at work.  If I made his lunch, I put little love notes in the sack. We called back and forth during the day just to say hi and ask what was going on. He would call me on his way home every day and talk to me until the car pulled into the garage.

So my thoughts are this. Why not have retirement at the beginning of marriage when we are so in love we want to be with them 24/7? We wouldn’t mind them standing right in the middle of the kitchen blocking us from opening the dishwasher. We wouldn’t mind them falling asleep in the lazy boy as they are watching the 5th football game of the day. It would just give us more of a chance to wait on those precious young men that we couldn’t wait to attach their last names to our first name.

That way, they would be at home with us when we are needing help raising children. They would be around to take out the dirty diapers, take the kids for a walk so we could take naps, entertain the little darlings outside while we cooked dinner.

After the kids are grown, and we really are empty nesters; THEN send our hubbies to work. Why this might even cut down on office romances. I just bet that those cute little office girls wouldn’t be as quick to grab on to the “oldies with the hair growing out their ears. Their bellies that shakes now like a bowl full of jelly, just isn’t as appealing as the tight chested hunks that they use to be.   Did I mention that we would then have the house to ourselves. That because they worked all day, when they got home, they would be so tired that they wouldn’t even be able to stay awake to watch every football game, so we would still be able to watch  House Hunters or Castle. Am I the only one that this sounds like a great plan?   That instead of having to dodge the yellow tape that divides our house to keep us from killing each other during these “golden years”; I would be thrilled when he drove into the garage, knowing that he might be even to tired to think about wanting dinner and go straight to bed. Not having to share the remote or the recliner again tonight. And that would be true “golden years”.

Desserts · Holiday Fare · Pies

Cranberry Custard Pie *Taken fom Food Newwork Magazine

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This has been such a busy week. Because there have been several days of gloomy rainy weather that makes you want to just bake (right? Doesn’t everyone feel like that? OK, maybe several of you feel like getting a book and just snuggling on the couch and reading, but without a chocolate chip cookie or piece of chocolate cake, what are you going to nibble on while reading?) Which leads me back to baking! Because cranberries just yell Christmas, this pie seemed perfect for decorating the Christmas dessert table, whether for family or company. And because I’m now turning over a new leaf and actually posting recipes that use bought pie crusts (OMGosh, did I really just say that? But reading now that even Paula, yes, even Paula has been spotted to give out recipes using bought pie crusts. All I can say is, “what is the world coming to? Never thought I would see the day. But here it Is folks: *Modified version of recipe found in FNM

FYI I just can’t do it, the bought pie crust, but did use a box of Betty Crocker Pie crusts mix that all you have to do is add water and roll out. (honestly, these are delicious pie crusts, much better and less salt that the refrigerated crusts)

1 (14 oz) box refrigerated pie dough, You will only use 1 of the 2 crusts. Save the 2nd one for another use.

2 tables flour plus more for dusting

2 large eggs

1 (12 oz) bag cranberries, slightly thawed if frozen

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teas finely grated lemon zest

2/3 cup heavy cream (no you cannot use Cool Whip, just because I am letting you use bought pie crusts doesn’t mean we are even going to discuss using Cool Whip)

Powdered sugar for dusting

Lay 1 pie crust in the bottom of a 9” pie plate. Preheat oven to 350. Bake the empty pie shell for about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Roughly chop the cranberries and combine with 3/4 cup granulated sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Spread in the cooled crust. Whish the 2 eggs, heavy cream, flour and remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar in a bowl until smooth and pour over the cranberries.

Bake in the preheated 350 oven until filling is set and slightly puffed. About 45 to 50 minutes. Cover edges of pie crust, with foil, if they begin to brown too much. Transfer pie to a rack and allow to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar

Daily Thoughts

Behind Prison Walls

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Saturday I had the privilege  of going with a group of women to minister to the Crain Unit, Women’s Prison in Gatesville, TX.

There were about 25 of us and as we arrived, we went through the routine of normal checking in when entering as a visitor going into a prison. Because this was a Federal prison, the rules were a little more strict than when we had gone to a prison in East Texas. As we walked in, looking across the barbed wire topped fence encircling the acres of buildings and land, we saw huge trash collectors being poked with long metal poles to ensure that no inmates were hiding under the trash before taking it outside the walls. We were led by a guard to a building where we entered into the world of cages which were inside the concrete buildings, that would have only 1 door to enter or exit the corridor of the concrete building. Permission had to be granted before the ladies could leave the “cage” even to go to the restroom. We were expecting about 500 inmates to come hear our speakers and Bible teaching, but because 2 of the guards refused to come to our service, many of the inmates which had lined up, waiting outside their cells did not get to come. Our team walked around the chairs and shook hands and thanked the ladies for coming. Some already had tears in their eyes. One young lady was crying as she had just received a letter from her mother-in-law saying that she was working with an attorney to try to not allow the children to have any contact with her,their mom. Her heart was breaking. The conversations that we began to have with these ladies allowed us to see that sometimes, “there but by the grace of God, go I.” Yes bad actions and decisions had been made in their lives, and they were now living with the consequences of those decisions, which is how it should be.  But all of a sudden I began to think about some of my actions, though at this time in my life, have not been any that would land me in jail, but had actually placed me in a prison of my own making. It was such a message to my heart that how many times, had I allowed my circumstances to control my joy or my peace & was actually creating my own “prison wall” around my heart?  Just because I was not surrounded literally by a wall keeping me imprisoned, didn’t mean that I wasn’t living my life as such. But because of God’s grace and mercy, He is able to break any chain,  As the ladies from our team spoke, tears would begin to flow down some of the lady inmates’ cheeks. Some of the inmates would begin to clap and encourage each other. As we lined up to hand out a bit of literature, with the exception of only about 5 of the ladies, all the rest either hugged us, or shook our hands and thanked us over and over, telling us to please come back. Some of them commented saying “I can’t believe ya’ll drove all the way down just to see us.” It meant so much that we had spent a Saturday just to come see them. We saw women there that looked so hopeless and so forlorn, while others had a precious spirit about them. It was such a blessing to see what God had been allowed to do in the hearts of some of the women who had surrendered their hearts to the Lord and was allowing Him to shine His light through them in a very dark place. They truly were being a lighthouse for Him in the place where they were.

It really was a blessing to see so many women, held captive behind the barbed wire fence, the light of God shining through them. They had determined in their hearts that just because they were a prisoner didn’t mean that they had to live their life with no hope or peace.

We all left that afternoon, feeling so blessed that we had watched a group of women that loved the Lord and were determined to shine His light behind even a prison wall. God can and is still in the business of changed lives, if we just allow Him to do so!

Chocolate · Cookies

*Rodelle Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

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Have just purchased my first can of Rodelle Gourmet Baking Cocoa and these little gems will be my first recipe using this marvelous cocoa!

Cookies

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup plus 1 tbsp Rodelle Gourmet Baking Cocoa
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/3 cups sugar
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp heavy cream
  • 2 tsp Rodelle Gourmet Vanilla Extract
  • Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Ganache
  • 1 cup granulated sugar, set aside in a small bowl

Ganache

  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1 Rodelle Vanilla Bean, split and scraped, pod reserved
  • 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened

Directions

Cookies

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Sift flour, cocoa, and salt into a small bowl.
  • Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy.
  • Reduce speed to medium and add the egg yolks, cream, and vanilla extract. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined.
  • Roll ball using 2 tsp dough for each. Roll the balls into the sugar in the bowl.
  • Place 1 inch apart. With a wine bottle cork (or the handle of a wooden spoon), press gently in the center of each ball to create an indentation.
  • Bake, rotating sheets half way through, until cookies are set, about 10 minutes.
  • Let cool slightly on baking sheets, then transfer to wire rack to cool.

Ganache

  • Combine honey, cream, and vanilla seeds and pod in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer. Cook until the honey dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool for 20 minutes.
  • Place chocolate in a food processor. Return cream mixture to a simmer, and then strain through a fine sieve. Discard solids.
  • Pour cream mixture over the chocolate and let stand for 1 minute. Process until smooth.
  • Add butter and continue to process, scraping down sides occasionally, until butter is incorporated. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Assembly

  • Using a spoon, or pastry bag, place a dollop of the ganache into the indent of the cookies.
Daily Thoughts

Shopping With Frosty

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It’s here, that time of year when Randy and I change our names to Frosty and Noel. We change our phone voice mails to “hi you have reached Frosty (or Noel, depending on whose phone they call). It makes our kids call us so they can let their friends listen to how weird their parents are. But at this time in life, we are just glad thy call, for whatever reason. It just takes some ingenuity!

A few days ago, I told Frosty that we had to get the house decorated for Christmas since we would be gone for most of November and I wanted to be able to walk In the house after we returned the end of November and have everything done So off we go to get new lights for the trees and end up buying a few groceries while we were in Wall Mart. Now, I’m not saying that I could do any better than our little check out lady who could not have been a day under 80 but I just had to share this story.

We walk up to check out and there is a beautiful young mom almost finishing checking out in front of us. She has a few items left on the conveyer belt so I put the bar between her items and mine and begin to unload our basket. Frosty is so proud of himself for remembering to bring our reusable bags that he pushes me out of the way so he could be sure Granny Checkout would see that we have our own bags. I told him he was not as concerned about the bags as he was about getting to stand beside Ms Young Tennis Player with short tennis skirt on. Ms Tennis Player pays for her groceries and notices that Granny had put Frosty’s bologna on her bill and has placed it in her bag. So she backs up and shows Granny Checker that she needs to take the bologna off her ticket and put it on ours. After 5 minutes, we have this cleared up and Granny looks in Tennis player’s basket and ask “did I charge you for that water?” Tennis Player responds with, “well I have no idea if you did or not, so after looking at her receipt, she finds out that she had not paid for the water, so back she comes so Granny can scan the case of water. Granny proceeds to put “our” bologna in a bag and tries to hand her our bologna AGAIN! TP tells her, “that is not my bologna and I don’t want to pay for it.” I told her that with her figure, she would wear it much better than we would, but she just glared at me and said a few lovely Southern Belle words as she turns and struts out. All this time Frosty has been placing our reusable bags up over where the plastic bags hang and we tell Granny that we want our groceries in our bags. So what does she  do but begin to put our groceries in the Wall Mart plastic bags and then put those inside our bags. We had to tell that that is not how it works. So I began to bag our groceries in our bags which totally confused her.

We finally paid for our lights and bologna only to get home to hear that the WHO just declared meats like bologna as dangerous as cigarettes. After all we had gone through getting our bologna today, we weren’t about to take it back. We will just take our chances with our HMO meat and hopefully by the time we have to go back to Wall Mart, Granny Checker will have retired herself. At least Frosty feels really good about his possibilities of being hired should we just replace our bologna with cigarettes and need extra money to pay for them.

Starches

Brussels Sprouts & Cauliflower Gratin

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Why is it that when I post something other than desserts I feel like I am becoming a health nut? It’s not that I don’t ever cook veggies or salads, but it just isn’t as much fun to read about Brussels Sprouts or Cauliflower as it is chocolate, cream cheese, whipping cream or brownies, unless you are truly a Veggie Tales fan! But for all you folks out there that think that you have to get all of your veggie servings in every day, maybe this recipe will make you smile. I hope it does, after I post it, I am going to finish baking chocolate chip cookies for us to munch on tonight while we watch Black Lists…hum…should we snack on Cauliflower or cookies? Get my point?

4 cups fresh cauliflowers’

4 cups fresh Brussels sprouts, quartered

4 bacon strips, chopped

1 large sweet onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 cups milk

2/3 cup half & half cream

1 teas salt

1/4 teas pepper

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan & Romano cheese blend

Place cauliflower and sprouts in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Cove and cook for 2 to 3 minutes crisp-tender; drain.

In a large skillet cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain reserving the bacon drippings.

Sauté the onion and garlic in drippings until onion is tender. Stir in flour until blended and whisk in milk, cream, salt and pepper stirring so gravy does not form lumps. Bring to a low boil and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Stir in cauliflower and sprouts which have been drained. Then stir in bacon. Transfer to a greased baking dish. Cover and bake in preheated 375 oven or 15 minutes. Combine bread crumbs and cheese. Uncover veggies and sprinkle cheese-bread crumb mixture over top and bake uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Soups

Potato Bean Stew

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When a friend of mine called the other day to tell me how great this soup was, I almost didn’t even write the ingredients down, as it sounded like something that I probably would never make. How glad I did. She found the recipe from Trisha Yearwood’s website. She had made it and said it was delish!  When I told Randy the ingredients, he informed me that I could make it, but he would just pick out the lima beans. I did just make it and Randy didn’t pick out anything. In fact, he kept saying, “this is really good, I’m glad you made it.” So here it is. It makes a great cool weather meal with cornbread!

5 small red potatoes, peeled and chopped in small pieces

2 carrots, pealed and slices

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tables olive oil

1/2 small purple onion, diced

1 can Rotel Mild Tomatoes & Green Chilies

1/2 of a 16 oz bag of frozen lima beans

1 (32 oz) box chicken broth or vegetable broth

1 (14.75 oz) can cream style corn

In a Dutch oven, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is tender. Add rest of ingredients and add salt and pepper to taste. Place in preheated 350 oven and bake for 2 hours or until potatoes and carrots are tender.

Chicken · Soups

King Ranch Chicken Soup

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Windows are open, more apple cakes are in the oven and looking through the newly delivered Southern Living magazine, this soup caught my eye. Our adult kids love King Ranch Casserole, but never thought about transforming it into a soup. Thank you Southern Living, that’s why we love you!

2 tables butter

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1 cup chopped green bell pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

2 (10 3/4 oz) cans diced tomatoes and green chiles

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

1 (same size) can cream of chicken soup

5 cups chicken broth

1 (1 1/2 to 2 lb) whole deli-roasted chicken, skin removed and meat shredded

1 teas dried oregano

1 teas ground cumin

1 teas chile powder

8 ((6 inch) fajita size CORN tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips and then halved *(I like mine fried crisp in a little oil instead of leaving them soft, which if you do this, you can do this by frying the strips in hot oil and drain on paper towel while soup is cooking before adding at the end)

Garnish: salt, shredded cheese and cilantro

Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions and peppers and sauté 6-7 minutes or until tender.

Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Stir in diced tomatoes, cream of mushroom soup and cream of chicken soup; combine thoroughly. Stir in broth and next 4 ingredients.

Still on medium-high heat, cook until soup is begging to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, about  minutes. Stir in tortilla strips and simmer  2 more minutes. Add salt to taste and garnish as desired.

makes about 4 quarts

Cakes · Chocolate

Moulton Chocolate Cakes

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These great little custard cup chocolate lava cakes are the easiest to prepare and every time I serve them, people are so excited to be eating something that tastes like they get when visiting a great steak house dessert. I didn’t remember to take a picture before serving them last night to friends, but the empty plates told me that they loved them!

4 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate (I had a bar of bittersweet chocolate and used that and they turned out awesome)

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 tables red wine (I used orange chello as I didn’t have red wine last night)

1 teas vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

6 tables flour

1/4 teas cinnamon

Powdered sugar or ice cream for topping

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Grease 4 custard cups

Microwave chocolate and butter for 1 minute and then stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in wine (or any liquor flavor you might like, even amaretto is good),vanilla and powdered sugar. Whisk in eggs and yolk. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spoon evenly into cups and place on a baking tray. Bake in preheated oven for about 14 minutes. Centers will still be a little soft and jiggly. Loosen edges and turn out onto plates and sprinkle with powdered sugar or top with ice cream.

*It is so easy to use a big cookie dough scoop to fill the custard cups

Salads

La Orange Grande Brussels Sprouts Salad

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While living in Pasadena, CA (and every time we go back to visit), I had to go to La Orange Grande and have this salad. The other day, I began to think that maybe it could be found on-line and so it was. This salad is just the best. For those of you who think you don’t like Brussels sprouts, think again, people eat this without knowing they are eating Brussels Sprouts. The flavor is so mild and the cheese, cranberries and almonds just take it over the top. At the restaurant, they always ask if you want crumbled bacon on top…do they really need to ask?

Mustard Vinaigrette:

2 tables honey

1 1/2 tables Champagne vinegar

1 tables fresh lemon juice with pulp

1 1/2 teas lemon zest

1 1/2 teas whole grain mustard, more as desired

1 1/2 teas minced garlic

3/4 cup light olive oil

Sea Salt & pepper

Salad
1 pound Brussels sprouts

1 tables dried cranberries

1 tables dried blueberries

2 tables toasted whole almonds, preferably California or Spanish Marcona (which I get at Costco)

3 tables mustard vinaigrette

1 ounce Manchego cheese, shaved using a peeler

Make the dressing:

In a large bowl, whisk together the honey, vinegar, lemon juice and zest, mustard and garlic. Continue whisking while slowly drizzling in the olive oil until the oil is thoroughly incorporated. Season to taste with the salt and pepper, and brighten the dressing as desired with a little extra mustard and vinegar. Chill well before using. This makes about 1 cup of dressing , which is more than needed for this salad recipe but stays great in fridge, covered for a week.

Salad

Peel the leaves from the Brussels sprouts, discarding the core. In a large pot of boiling water, blanch the Brussels sprouts leaves just until they are a vibrant green and barely tender. Drain immediately and place in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking of the leaves. Drain and dry well. You should have about 3 cups of leaves.

In a large bowl, toss the sprouts, cranberries, blueberries, almonds and just enough of the vinaigrette to lightly moisten

Mount the salad on a plate and top with the cheese shavings. Top with crumbled crisp fried bacon if desired.. I desire!

Serve immediately!

*Courtesy of the LA Times and La Grande Orange Cafe