We have hit an all time low. Today after running errands, Frosty tells me he has a big surprise for me. Since it was around lunch time, I began to wonder if this was going to be the day he drove us down to Neiman’s for a special lunch ending with our favorite coconut cake that has always been one of the huge reasons we would drive down to North Park. But as we pulled into QT, I’m thinking that he will be filling the gas tank for our little trip across town, when he pulls past the gas pumps right up to the front door. I thought that maybe he was going in to get a drink so I wouldn’t get thirsty driving so far, but as he puts the car in park, he just looks at me and tells me that, “surprise, we are getting some of the best hot dogs and they are 2 for $2.12..what a deal. They have all the condiments you could want” he says, I just look at him and follow him into the store. We head to the hot dog counter where Frosty pulls out the buns from out of the warming tray. Is this gourmet or what? When I tell him that it’s not a real hot dog unless we have chile and that I don’t see any pot of chile. He points to a machine that has a lever which lets you pull it for chile or cheese. You have got to be kidding me. I am topping a hot dog that has been warming for probably several hours with chile that comes out of a machine just like getting soft ice cream at Dairy Queen. I get enough napkins to cover my face for the walk back to the car. My big surprise was lunch at QT. It was at this moment that I gave thanks for our car windows being tinted and that you can’t really see in. The thought that friends might visit QT and see us sitting in our car eating hot dogs was just too much. It’s ok to do that at Sonic, but QT? It was not to long ago that he surprised me with a Walmart picnic. He buys Hawaiian rolls and gets chicken strips from their deli and sits in the car with his sandwich of chicken strips on the rolls. We do live an adventuresome life, Walmart parking lot picnics one week and QT picnics the next. Retirement just keeps getting better and better. Who knows what next week will hold? But if he pulls our car into Golden Corral Thanksgiving day, I will be calling a divorce attorney first thing Friday morn. It will be easy to find Frosty to serve him the papers. I know at the swell places where he hangs out now.
Frosty & Noel’s Gingerbread House
It is here….the week that we go from Peter and Penelope Pumpkin to Frosty & Noel. It is also this time of year that our adult children, bless their little hearts, cease to call us because they are afraid that if we don’t answer the phone, like when Wheel of Fortune is on, that they will have to listen to our voice mail in order to leave us a message. Both of our cell phones have this as our voice mail message, ” hi, this is Frosty (or Noel if it is my phone). I’m at the mall and she’s baking cookies, when we are through we’ll give you call.” It just makes the Christmas season at our house. My phone, of course will say, “Frosty’s at the mall and I’m baking cookies, when we get through we will give you a call.”….
When we first married, I found a little pillow that had “Bah Hum Bug” stitched across it and I bought it to place on his side of the bed. But I have to admit, Frosty has come along way. Without me even asking now, he gets the boxes of Christmas décor out of the garage and brings them all in (all 27 boxes) and begins to set up the trees, then proceeds to put up the lights outside. Frosty has become Clark Griswald, I’m happy to say and it makes the season so much sweeter to have a hubby that doesn’t smirk every time I mention that I just need to make one more trip to Hobby Lobby. This year, he even suggested that we go early before the ugly sweaters get picked over and buy matching for our Christmas Card…is he a great Frosty or what? All this to say that the decorations are up, the candles are lit and the first of the family is coming over tonight to eat.
Last night, we met friends at a Greek Restaurant here in Frisco. It almost ended in us going shopping for a wig. We were sitting there having a great time with a platter of pita bread and hummus sitting there, when all of a sudden I felt this enormous amount of heat all down the back of my neck. Before I could turn around to see what was happening, I hear, “oompa” and this flash of fire is inches from my hair as the waiter has lit this platter of who knows what for the table of 4 sitting behind us. Apparently he doesn’t realize that in Dallas, you never get that close to ladies big Dallas hair. With the can of hair spray that is on my person to keep this Dallas big hair in place, my hair will go up in a flash. When I yelled, the waiter realized how close to my hair he was. W When the table on the other side of us ordered the platter of fire, before the guy lit up the sky and yelled “oompa” he remembered to turn around to check how close he was to me. We managed to finish our meal and leave before any more of my hair was singed. let’s just say that my hair stylist won’t need to cut the back of my hair now…the waiter did it for me
Chocolate Creme Brulee
Having just returned from Corpus where we go to see my mom, as usual, we stay with the friends who I have mentioned several times. They treat me like their daughter and Randy, well, Hal, who is 90 bends Randy’s ear about the oil field surveying business. Hal still goes to work everyday and Jane cooks non-stop. She is 80 and has so many of the best old cookbooks that I love to look through as we sit and talk in the evening. I copied several of the recipes that caught my eye. Frosty loves crème brulee and I love chocolate, so when I read this recipe, I couldn’t wait to come home and make it. Since we will be having pecan pie and piles of whipping cream piled on pumpkin pie this week, I think I had better hold off since this recipe has lots of heavy cream and 4 egg yolks. Do not want to spend our Thanksgiving in the hospital having our arteries unclogged.
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 teas vanilla or 1 vanilla bean
1 (4 oz) dark chocolate, chopped
4 egg yolks
t Tables sugar
4-6 Tables sugar for topping
Preheat oven to 300. Mix cream and vanilla together in a double boiler. Heat mixture for 10-15 min and stir in chocolate. Remove vanilla bean if that is what you used instead of extract. Whisk egg yolks and sugar together in a mixing bowl.. Slowly pour chocolate mixture into egg mixture, continuously stirring.
Place bowl over simmering water (which was under the chocolate mixture) until cream mix thickens and coats back of spoon. This takes about 6-8 min. Pour into 4 (4 oz) custard dishes. Place in a large baking pan and add enough water to come up halfway to the sides of the custard cups. Bake until custard is set, about 1 hour. Remove from water and cool. Cover and refrigerate; sprinkle 1 tables of sugar over top of each cup and with a brulee torch, caramelize the top before serving.
Texas Sheet Pumpkin Cake
The Pioneer Woman just posted a recipe that she made by altering the Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake. It sounds delish and since the Pioneer Woman says it is wonderful, it must be, because if you can’t believe the Pioneer Woman, who can you believe?
So in case you don’t take her daily email here it is….Many of you have ask if we just have desserts for Thanksgiving since I do seem to post more desserts than any thing else. We do have other things on the table, like, brown sugar coated brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes with sugary marshmallow topping, ham with brown sugar-pineapple sauce and strawberry-pretzel salad,
So see, I can cook something besides desserts, As long as the recipe has sugar in it.
Pumpkin Sheet Cake
2 sticks butter
2 cups pumpkin puree (not the pumpkin pie filling)
3/4 cup boiling water
2 cups flour
1/4 teas salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 teas baking soda
2 teas vanilla
1/2 teas maple extract (opt)
Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 pound (about 3 1/2 cups) sifted powdered sugar
1 tables half and half or milk (might require a little more than this, add slowly)
Preheat oven to 350 Spray a sheet pan (jelly roll pan) with baking spray (such as Pam). Set aside
In a medium saucepan, melt 2 sticks of butter. Whisk in the pumpkin puree until it is totally blended. Whisk in boiling water until mixture is combined well. Set aside.
In a measuring pitcher, combine buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, vanilla, and maple extract (if using). Whisk together and set aside..
In large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Pour in the pumpkin mixture and stir until halfway combined. Pour in the buttermilk mixture and stir until combined. Pour into the pan and smooth until mixture is evenly distributed. Bake for about 20 min or cake tests done. Remove and allow to cool.
Frosting:
Mix together the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar until well combined. Add half and half as needed to all the frosting to be of spreading consistency. It should be somewhat thick but thin enough to spread over cake.
Cut into squares to serve. Keep leftovers in the fridge, as frosting will get to soft if left out.
Luby’s Millionaire Pie
Yesterday at the craft show, a friend ask me if I ever saw the recipe for her favorite pie at Luby’s Cafeteria. I told her I would find it and send it to her. So here it is, Betty Jo, enjoy and save one of the pies just for yourself…..
-
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
-
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
-
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
-
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
-
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
-
2 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crusts
ADVERTISEMENT
Directions
- Blend together the cream cheese and condensed milk; gently fold in the whipped topping.
- Stir in the crushed pineapple and pecans; pour into pie crusts and refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours.
Streusel Pumpkin Loaf
Streusel Pumpkin Loaf
Just finished participating in a craft show the last 2 days and sold cakes and casseroles. We sold out and one of the best sellers was this streusel pumpkin loaf. I have learned to always keep samples out for the customers and that is a guarantee of selling your baked goods. As soon as I put the sample out, the cakes sold themselves. It was such a simple cake to make and proved to be delicious. Tried to take a picture but my dropbox is full and I don’t have a clue how to delete some of the pics so I can add others to it to post on here. Fortunately, I bake better than I compute….
Mix up your favorite pumpkin bread according to directions on box. I used the little paper loaf pans that I purchased at Home Goods. I did rub a little butter on the bottom of the paper pans, just in case. I don’t think you need to do this, but just wanted to be sure they didn’t stick when the ladies got them home.
Streusel Topping
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into slices
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teas cinnamon
Using a pastry blender, blend the cold butter with the flour, sugar and cinnamon. As soon as it resembles coarse crumbs, dividing the crumbs evenly between the amount of pans you are using, sprinkle over the pumpkin batter. Bake according to directions on your box of pumpkin bread or cake. It adds a crunchy delicious buttery topping to any pumpkin or spice cake. I drizzled a little cream cheese frosting over the cakes as soon as they were cool….sold them all!
Cheese Bites
Taken from 2006 Southern Living Magazine these make great party appetizers for your next holiday party!
4 oz cream cheese (1/2 package 8 oz, duh, I guess you would have known that)
1 (16.3 oz)_ can refrigerated flaky buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup jalapeno pepper jelly*(see below)
Cut cream cheese into 24 pieces and let soften.
Separate each biscuit into thirds, making 3 rounds from each biscuit. (see below) Press biscuit rounds into bottom and up sides of 24 mini-muffin cups. Spoon about 1 teas pepper jelly into center of each biscuit cup; top each with 1 cream cheese cube.
Bake in preheated 425 oven for 8 to 10 min or until golden brown. Let stand 10 min before serving.
*1/2 cup mango chutney may be substituted
Makes 24 appetizer bites.
Back To Normal
We are alone for the first time in 5 days. It was time to send Jodi and Noah home to Eric, Jaden and Caleb. Since we knew she was leaving today, we held off cooking the collard greens and deviled eggs for dinner, after loading her up with triple berry shake for breakfast. We figured that she would never again see the people who sat by her on the plane, so we decided to save ourselves and serve some of her favorite dishes right before she flew home.
Randy has spent the afternoon in the garage (while it is 40 degrees outside) shampooing some of our rugs that had just a tiny bit of smashed M&M’s, Honey Nut Cherrios, dried apple juice and stains from the pitcher of tea that a set of little sweet hands pulled off the counter. We have dusted today, found a stuffed Nemo under the bed, one little sock and put all the Fall décor back to where it was before Noah visited. We have to admit that we were getting use to the glass bowls void of any candles, but filled with water from Noah thinking that it was fun to pour water in them. We miss finding candy between the couch cushions, as it gave us snacks without even having to leave the couch. Hearing that cute little sound at 5 a.m. really got us up and running for the day.
Just like labor pains, we tend to forget all the above mentioned things as soon as they walk onto the plane, already wanting them to turn around and come back. We would gladly give up our vacation monies to fund Noah’s carousel addiction. Times like these make us wish so much that we could be around all of our grandchildren all the time, not just a few times a year. But….we will make sure the rugs are covered by plastic and the furniture is wrapped in bubble wrap before the next set of them come for a visit…
My Polital Debut
Today after going to the mall with my 36 year old daughter, I have decided that I am going to run for office. I’m not sure yet, what I will run for, but which ever political official that can order mall employees around. We had just entered the mall, rented a stroller, for the two year old, not me,when we were approached by a man in his probably 20’s, pass right in front of me to hand Jodi a free sample of hand lotion. I stuck my hand out to get a free sample, but apparently, he must have just been caught up in the moment of giving his sales pitch and didn’t see that my hand was reaching out for some of the magical lotion that, according to him, can cure everything from cancer to Alzimers. (sorry, don’t know how to spell that, maybe I did, but I have forgot how).
I really didn’t think too much of him ignoring me until we got to the next little teenybopper. Again, free samples. Again, passed over me to give to my daughter. What is going on? I ask her if she noticed that they were completely ignoring me to try to make their sell to someone other than me, who might, just might, be wearing my, “I love my grandkids more than chocolate” t-shirt. She did say that maybe, just maybe, the salespeople were instructed to go for the young moms because sometimes the “more weathered” ladies were a bit grouchy when people tried to stop them to make a sale. I immediately stuck my nose in the air and marched over to the McDonalds food stand to get my $1.00 apple pie. Who do those youngsters think they are? Do they think that I’m to cheap to shell out money for hand cream or a hair extention?
If I were President, I would immediately hire people that were over 75 to work in the malls. That way, I would be considered the “youngster” and would be given free samples of hand cream and be ask if I would like to see what I looked like with a hair extention. Heck, I would like to see what I look like with just a full head of hair that didn’t frame my face with “blonde” (I like to call it blonde, calling it gray makes me sound old).
If I were president, I would carpet all the malls so my knee wouldn’t hurt when I had walked it’s length, trying to look cute and young in my 2″ heeled sandals. I would play Barry Manilow over the loud speakers in the stores so the sales people could hear me yelling at them from the dressing room when trying to get the too small blouse stuck over my head. I think they just keep resizing the clothes. I really don’t think that I have changed 3 sizes in 1 year.
If I were President, I would rent tennis shoes so that after the first 3 hours otf shopping I could bag my cutesy shoes and go rent a pair for comfort. Maybe a sweater rental kiosk would come in handy also. I would hand out free Heartburn pills for after those times when, trying to look cool in front of your kids and grandkids, we loaded up a bit too much on Auntie Anne’s or Cinnabon after scarfing down a Great American cookie.
All this to say that if you vote for me, I will promise to make our malls in American a more Senior Friendly place.
A place where we would be given our fair share of free samples and youngsters under 30 had to work in the stockrooms. Just a thought.
Chocolate Castles 