Vicki is having fun – and writing about it!
My friend, Micah, is trying to get his big break in the music business. Since today is his birthday, I thought it would be fun to bake him a cake shaped like a guitar. I think it turned out really good – it looks just like this one – and will be carrying it over to his house after work for a surprise.
This morning we have a lot of cooking to do, as we are all expected at my mother’s house for a family gathering. September is a big month for family birthdays, so a few years ago we decided to have one huge family party at my mother’s and each birthday person gets their own cake to blow out candles and we all pitch in to give each one a nice present that is opened in front of the whole crowd.
The big deal about the gathering, besides celebrating birthdays, is that everyone has to bring food with them and the food has to be prepared from scratch. No deli-bought potato salad and no store bought breads or frozen vegetables. I have to get to the store and buy some things and get busy in the kitchen.
Have you noticed how none of the grocery stores keep pens at the check out counter any more? They have a stylus for using the credit card machine and they don’t want you to write a check any more. At my Food Lion, they take my blank check and run it through their register. Then they give me back the check! It makes to sense to even write the check out if they are going to give it back to you!
The women at work were talking about muffin tops and belly fat during the lunch break. It is depressing to see that all of us are gaining weight and its almost all centered in our middles.
I wonder if that is because we are so stressed out that we end up eating too much comfort food? There was a commercial for a weight loss product called Relacore that claims to help reduce belly fat. I saw the bottle on the shelf at the drug store last night and almost bought. But it costs $22 and you have to take 2 capsules, three times a day. So if the bottle has 110 capsules and you follow the directions, that is not enough in the bottle to last even 3 weeks.
If I have to spend over $30 a month on these pills, they had BETTER work. I’m going to check with my doctor first, and if she says it is OK to use them, I am tempted to give it a try.
Tonight I put a sirloin roast into a Reynolds roasting bag, along with some chopped onion and a can of mushroom soup. I sprinkled just a little garlic pepper on top of the roast before I tied up the bag and poked a couple of air vent holes in the top. Popped it into the oven at 350 degrees and left it there for an hour and half. It was cooked so nicely – lots of flavor and plenty of gravy. What an easy way to make a great roast beef.
Today we all gathered at my mom’s house and had a big dinner. All her kids pitched in some money to buy her one big gift – a new refrigerator. We know she has been wanting something new for the kitchen, as much as she loves to cook.
It was kind of fun to watch my brother slowly drive up her gravel driveway with the big new refrigerator in the back of his truck. My sister in law had made up a huge pink bow and taped it on the front door to make it look gift wrapped.
It doesn’t sound like a very sexy gift, but my mom was thrilled and completely surprised. So mother’s day was a hit at my mom’s house this year.
I hope you have a Hoppy Easter, today. If the Easter Bunny finds your house, save some candy for me! I miss having little kids around to hunt for Easter Eggs and share their candies.
I made spaghetti tonight. Not completely from scratch, but I added alot of things to the sauce that I normally don’t bother with. I bought a small carton of fresh mushrooms and sauteed them in garlic butter before tossing them into the sauce. Then I diced up a handful of leftover cooked carrots and stirred them into the sauce. Instead of adding ground beef for the meat, I used Italian sausage links. I spent maybe an extra 7 or 8 minutes jazzing up the spaghetti sauce, but it sure tasted great!
This morning I arrived downtown early for an appointment so I stopped by a coffee shop just a few doors down and had a nice cup of coffee. It was extremely quiet in the coffee shop – everyone but me had a laptop on the table in front of them and were busy clicking and tapping keys.