Happy Mother’s Day everyone! I know that you may not BE a mother, but chances are you know someone who IS a mother! So, Happy, Happy Day to all!
Happy Mothers Day
Storing vinyl records
Guest post by Dianne Trestle
When I split up with my first husband, I let him keep all of my vinyl records. I did that because I had agreed to let him keep the house, and I was having a very hard time getting people to help me move out of the house. I had hundreds of albums – a lot of money was spent on them! Now I have mixed emotions about having let him keep them, and I wonder if he listens to them at all, or if they have all been given away, destroyed, or just taking up space in some vinyl record storage case somewhere. And I know that if I had them now, they would probably just be taking up space in my basement, gathering dust, not being used at all.
I think the reason that I feel so melancholy about this is that those albums represented many years of my youth, and leaving them behind was a lot like leaving my youth behind. And I really don’t like that feeling very much at all!
Easy Easter Egg Tarts
I was on a mission to find something simple and easy to make for dessert for the neighborhood picnic this year. Well I found a a delicious looking fruit tart recipe. It has a sugar cookie crust and is topped with a yummy cream cheese frosting and fresh fruit. Because I’ve been short on time I’m using a store bought refrigerated cookie dough that I just have to slice and bake and a tray of fresh fruit. The cream cheese frosting has just a little vanilla and powdered sugar mixed in with whipped cream cheese. This is just the type of thing I was looking for. Simple, fast, easy, and will still have the crowd oohing and ahhing.
To make it festive I thought I’d bake it in the shape of a giant Easter egg. Then, I thought it would be fun if I made them in individual sizes. I’m going to bake a few dozen egg shaped cookies and then bring the frosting and fruit with me. Of course I’ll decorate a few to give people an idea of what to do.
I bet the kids will LOVE to decorate their own tarts. It’s a great way to get them to eat fresh fruit and have fun doing it. I’m excited for them just thinking about it.
I can’t wait to dive into these yummy Easter Egg tarts!
Beware the Ides
Never took Latin in school but I’m pretty sure that the Ides of March is March 15, that’s today. I know the Ides of March was a bummer for Caesar – his friends turned on him and killed him. I have been betrayed by people who I thought were friends, too. I think of that horrible moment that Caesar actually realized that all his friends had betrayed his trust. At least in my case, no one has killed me – yet!
Wearing Green and Drinking Beer
This weekend is all about Saint Patrick’s Day. Here in Nashville we love any holiday that gives us an excuse to drink beer, so this is a big deal for downtown bars and restaurants.
I heard some big numbers on the news about how the downtown bars and restaurants can only actually seat something 75,000 people on a weekend.
To be honest, I do not drink much beer. I tend to not want the hassle of watching my intake and fretting about driving home without the risk of trouble with cops. And second, I don’t want all the extra calories. Third, I only like beer that is ice cold. I don’t want to hold a bottle in my hand and just sip on it for an hour with the heat from my hand raising the temperature of the beer. I don’t like drinking from a bottle anyway. I like a glass – and not plastic, I mean a real glass.
Sorry if I sound so finicky, but I have learned what I like and what I don’t like and I will certainly seek out the things that I like if I have that option. Maybe once in a while I might be at the boss’s house for a backyard barbecue and have to drink a beer from a red Solo cup, but most of the time I will be seated in a sports bar or a stadium suite and enjoy an ice cold beer served in a glass along with the peanuts or Chex Mix and a good baseball game or hockey game underway.
The Internet offers consumers different ways to order things
I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I go shopping online I am uncomfortable filling out an order form that requires my credit card information. With all of the recent publicity about hackers getting into systems through the Internet, I find more and more that I would appreciate finding the item I want to purchase, and then actually placing the order with a phone call. So I was relieved when I was thinking about buying something from the musician’s friend website to see “To place your order, call us toll-free at 800-449-9128” as an option for ordering. I think in this day and age, this is a little bit more secure than sending the information electronically. What do you think?
I just couldn’t resist
I have been looking to sort of fix up the place when I realized that I could use a new look myself. I found some great deals online with coupons to places like Old Navy Stores. I don’t know about you but I love Old Navy Stores. They have some great deals and some even better sales too. But what I liked about this site is it’s linked right to Old Navy Stores online and you can use the coupon when you check out.
Shopping online saves you not only with the coupons but you don’t have to run out any of your gas either. If you live out in the boonies like I do, that adds up quick. Do an online coupon search and you’ll be amazed at how many sites there are like shopwiki. That’s one of my favorite sites because you can find just about anything on there.
Garth Brooks Concerts
One of my all-time favorite country music stars is Garth Brooks. When I was younger I really enjoyed the music of Kenny Rogers (and I still do enjoy some of his classic songs, like “The Gambler”) but when it comes to more recent country hits, Garth Brooks has to be the winner of the competition between the two. Largely because I love his song on his Christmas album “Baby Jesus is born” (which I wish had an official video to go along with the song) but also I love his song “Friends in Low Places.”
Recently I became friends with a couple of people that love going to a karaoke bar once a week, and they have invited me to join them several times. When I have gone, I noticed that someone always sings the “Friends in Low Places song” but that never includes that third verse that is my personal favorite! I wish the karaoke version of the song included that verse!
Yesterday one of those friends told me that she wanted to buy some http://garthbrookstours.com for her husband and give them to him as a birthday gift. She has no idea how to use the Internet at all, and she wanted to buy the tickets as a surprise, so she asked me to help her find out how to get more information on the newest Garth Brooks tour so she could find out when and where Garth will be performing close to where we live.
I told her I’d go online this weekend to the http://garthbrookstours.com website and see what I could find out for her about getting the tickets. Well, I went to the website and found that the closest concert to where we live is so far away that they would have to make a weekend trip of it – fly up the day before, and fly back the day after! I don’t know if that is something she is going to want to do. I’m going to have to call her tomorrow and let her know what I found out!
Pesky Old Groundhogs
My first memories of groundhogs are probably unusual unless you grew up on a farm. I did not grown up on my grandparent’s farm, but we did spend a lot of time up there visiting my mom’s parents. I believe that my sister and I were left on the farm for a couple of weeks when she gave birth to my youngest sister. I was not yet in school, so being gone from home for 2 weeks in October was not a big deal to anyone.
My grandparents had bought a huge property when he retired from the Navy. They had cows, pigs, dozens of cats who lived in the big barn, and two hunting dogs. My grandfather would often take the shotgun out to the fields and kill groundhogs. He said they were bigger pests than roaches and needed killing or they would destroy his crops.
So my experience with groundhogs is that they must be killed – not celebrated and expected to guide us on the next 6 weeks worth of weather conditions.
Comfort Food for this Cold Weather
Winter is being a little more harsh this year than in recent years. It’s not just in this area, we are actually missing some of the snow and extreme cold (knock on wood!). Even so, the cold that we are having makes me crave comfort. The kind of food that cooks for a long time and makes the whole house smell yummy. The kind of food that tastes so good that you barely chew it – you shovel in your mouth so fast that you practically inhale it.
Some of my favorite comfort foods are chili, beef stew, and the #1 favorite, chicken and dumplings. All three of these are made from scratch and often turn out slightly different each time, depending upon what I have on hand and how hard I shake the spice jar.
I also love macaroni and cheese, but that always turns out different and I have several different recipes. I have a speedy version, my cheap version, recipes clipped from magazines over the years, and my full blown childhood memory of my mom’s version. Sometimes I use elbow macaroni, other times I uses ziti or rotini or other specialty pastas. And the kind of cheese can be anything from from shredded four state cheddar to Velveeta.
What are some of the special foods that you like to cook during the cold weather months?