Category: food

Posted on

A Peaceful Christmas Eve

Here it is Christmas Eve and everything is ready for the big day tomorrow. I have been really good about planning things out and getting my shopping done early enough so that I’m not in a last minute panic like I was last year.

The grocery shopping was probably the worst. I went around 4:00 in the afternoon and the place was jam packed with people. It was so crowded I could hardly make my way up and down the aisles. I had a list with me to help speed things up, but it really didn’t help much. I was stuck in the human tide of going up and down each aisle anyway.

I wrapped the very last gifts this afternoon and have been able to enjoy a nice, quiet dinner and I’m actually heading to bed early. I hope Santa likes the chocolate chip cookies that I baked for him, and that he is good to me – and you!

Posted on

Only One Week To Christmas

Wow! Did you realize that Christmas is only one week away? I think this is about the right time to start to panic. Do I have all the gifts bought? Do I have plenty of wrapping paper and ribbons? Where are the gift tags that I bought on sale last year for 80% off? I know I put them someplace safe so I could use them this year and not have to spend top dollar on gift tags.

The dinner menu is starting to worry me. Do I have all the things I need in my pantry other than the turkey? Do I even want a turkey this year? I have been thinking about getting a Honeybaked ham instead. But it has always been a tradition at my house to have turkey on Thanksgiving and again on Christmas. Of course, that much turkey makes everyone pretty much sick of turkey and we don’t even think about having turkey again for several months – it’s just too much. So maybe it makes more sense to get a ham this year and start a new tradition?

Thankfully I got all the Christmas cards written and mailed last weekend. I don’t have that hanging over my head any longer. This year was tough to send cards – I have not been good about keeping up with everyone’s address changes. One card to my niece already came back as undeliverable because she moved and I forgot about it. So I have to call her and get her new address tonight, then find a new envelope to get that last card mailed out to her.

Posted on

Have a Nice Cup of Hot Tea

This week while grocery shopping I went a little crazy in the tea and coffee aisle. I decided to try several flavors of teas and bought boxes of teas from several different brands to really experiment with teas.

The tea of choice in my house while growing up was Lipton Tea. My mother would not buy any other brand. She used Lipton for hot tea and also for iced tea, although we did not have tea often. My dad preferred coffee and drank a cup in the morning before leaving for the office, drank more coffee while at work, and had a cup of coffee after dinner each night with dessert. But in the summer time, mom would make a pitcher of iced tea once in a while, rotating that with various flavors of Kool Aid and lemonade or orange juice.

So I limit my coffee to just one big mug of Starbucks home brew in the morning. If I drink anything else throughout the day it is usually just plain cold water or a cup of hot tea. I still have Lipton on the shelf, but I decided to try some different brands this time and have several boxes on a dedicated shelf in my kitchen cabinet next to the microwave so that I pick a flavor to try each day. This afternoon I am trying a blend of green tea with mandarin orange. It smells heavenly and the taste is very mild. I think I found a winner!

Posted on

What On Earth is Celery Root?

I just watched a Paula Dean cooking show and she had a guest on the show who brought out a thing called celery root. I have never in my life seen anything that looks like that, and this guy claims that we can all buy it at our local grocery stores. I seriously doubt that, but maybe it is something that I have just never noticed before. So next time I go shopping I will be asking the produce manager for celery root and see if they have it around here.

He says you have to peel the celery root and that causes a lot of waste. The idea of wasting a lot of food bothers me, so that is Strike One against buying celery root. After you peel it and make sure everything you cut into is thoroughly clean, you slice it into big chunks and boil it in water on the stove top. After you cook it for 20 -30 minutes, you have to push it through a hand tool called a ricer. That is Strike Two – I don’t have a ricer and I can’t think of anything that I might have in the kitchen tool drawer that would be a good substitute.

Then he adds the cooked and riced celery root into a big pot of boiled but drained white potatoes. Mixing them together with some butter and whole milk, and you have a big pot of tasty mashed potatoes.

I don’t think all that extra work is worth it for me to make this in my own kitchen. If someone has a restaurant and they want to do this and put it on the menu, I’ll be happy to order it at least once and try it. But in my kitchen, I don’t feel the need to add celery root to my mashed potatoes. I’ll do fine with my own way of making that.

Posted on

Different Pizza Toppings

As a kid, we had pizza a lot. My mom probably ordered pizza for the family every Friday night through our whole childhood. She almost always would order pizza from Pizza Hut, and she would order one pepperoni every time, and a second one with different toppings depending on how adventurous she was feeling that night. I think her favorite was probably sausage and mushroom, but she also liked canadian bacon with pineapple and a vegetarian topping with extra black olives.

Nowadays we have a lot more pizza places to order from and a lot of local restaurants are in the pizza making game, with specialties like brick oven baked and hand tossed dough and toppings that can be anything from spinach and garlic to shrimp to barbecued chicken.

I still like the good old standby pepperoni pizza – especially if this is from a new pizza place and I’m trying it for the first time. If they do OK with the pepperoni, I will have more confidence trying a different topping next time I visit that place.

Posted on

Too Hot to Go Outside

Wouldn’t you know it? We are having one of the hottest summers on record with a bad drought and today my car’s air conditioner quit working. I had just finished grocery shopping at Kroger and loaded all the groceries into the back seat and as I drove out of the parking lot a funny smell started coming out of the air vents in my car. I turned off the radio and heard a funny squealing noise, too. The smell was awful and I could actually see it pouring out of the vents like smoke, but it didn’t smell like smoke. I don’t know what it smelled like – but it was bad!

I turned off the A/C and drove home with the windows rolled down. Thank goodness it was not raining or I would have either gotten soaked from the rain by leaving the windows down, or soaked in sweat by having to leave them up. After I got the groceries put away I called Firestone and told the service manager what happened. Of course, he told me to bring it in, but I can’t go without my car for several days – especially not on the weekend. I asked him for a ballpark figure of what it would cost and he said probably between $800 and $1,500, depending on what is wrong. He can’t tell me without looking at it.

So I am just going to have to wait for my next paycheck and drive with the windows down for a week or so. That stinks – it has been so hot lately. We have had weeks of temperatures in the 90’s and feeling like in the 100’s. It is too hot to even go outside and cut the grass or walk with the dogs. I just want to stay inside where it is cool and just hide from the heat as much as I can.

Posted on

Saying Yes to Invitations

Why do we shy away from getting close to coworkers?  If you think about it those are the people we spend the most time with during the week.  Most people typically work a full time job which means anywhere from 40-55 hours a week.

Today at work I received an email from my boss around 10:30 A.M.  She asked me if I would be free to have lunch with her and another coworker.  At first I hesitated and thought, oh no – I would be uncomfortable doing that.  Than I reconsidered and thought how nice of her to pick me out.  I said yes, that would be great – and ended up having a good time.  

My boss is so much fun and witty and she has great stories that never end.  She also brought us to a great Sushi restaurant.  I absolutely love Sushi.  She is just that kind of person that knows what everybody likes and picks the best restaurants.   I am so thankful for such a nice work environment.

Posted on

Learning to Grow Watermelons

It is April 1st and a beautiful, sunny day.  The temperature has dropped a little bit, but it is still warm enough to do some work on the garden.  I am feeling adventurous so I have decided to start planting watermelons.  I have all day so I think I am going to get on-line for some advice before starting my new adventure.

Advice is what I was seeking and wow did I ever get some.  The first thing I learned is that watermelons are suppose to be planted in the Fall.  At first I was disappointed but then as I read further down it mentioned that you can begin to sow watermelon seeds indoors.  I thought I would give it a try.  The directions called for using peat pots, which can be planted in the garden with minimal transplant shock.

The other interesting thing that I learned was that you should always give a little more time then the seed packet suggests to reach harvest.  The typical number of days for maturity can range from 80-90 for baby bush varieties, and 90-100 days or more for the larger variety.  I love learning new things and I can’t wait to plant these peat pots in the garden.

Posted on

Reaching Goals

The end of the month is drawing near.  I always love the beginning of a new month.  It encourages new beginnings, new goals to be set, and new activities to take part in.  Looking back over the past month I’m very excited about how far I have come and how much more there is to discover and learn.

One thing that I am proud of is the way my garden is coming along.  A women at work is helping me with all of her wisdom and knowledge regarding gardening.  She even gave me some bluebonnet seeds to plant around the trees in my yard.  The growth that has already occurred is amazing.  The tomatoes on the other hand have not come out of the ground yet.  This will be my focus for the month of April.  Eating healthy and exercising have been coming along great too.  I have been eating  a salad everyday, taking vitamins, and at least walking for thirty minutes if I can’t make it to the gym.  It’s amazing the results I’m seeing in such a short period of time.

Posted on

The Neglected Garden

It’s the first day of Spring and I just realized that I have been neglecting my garden.  I haven’t looked at it in over a week.  Life just takes over sometimes and a week can go by with it feeling like a day or two.  Gardening really is like having another job that you work when you have the time and energy.  For some reason I don’t seem to have much of either one lately.

Besides gardening I’ve become interested in a whole new project too.  It’s not home improvement either.  It’s eating healthier and working out more.  Living a healthier lifestyle has become really important to me lately.  I think the garden has played a part in this, as well as, the new neighborhood I’m in.  I’m excited about taking walks and meeting the neighbors.  I’m feeling this need to spend time outside either relaxing or gardening.  I’ve also met one of my neighbors who sells Mary Kay.  I invited her over for lunch and she is going to give me a free makeover.  I really am loving this area.