kitchen experiments

DrumMajor commented on my kitchen experiments,,, nowhere near as many as when the kids were small and money was tight ! 

But I ended up with three kids who love to cook. My son Robb ( deceased) even went so far into bbq-ing for  some of QuikTrips's events and learning how to can! We made all sorts of tomato things , pickles and jams and jellies.

The girls will try anything!  Laurel brought back recipes from Morocco ( Peace Corps) ! 

 

Today , really last night, winter came back. The temps dropped and there was a dusting of snow. It is currently 22 F and if we are lucky it will go above freezing this afternoon. The next few days may not be much better... then back to Spring!  The lilac bush below my office window has small green leaves.

More blueberries

 I did another run through at the grocery store hoping to pick up more blueberries! There were more but the price jumped $2.00 a pint. Oh well... bought some anyway! Not the thing shoppers should be doing when trying to convince stores to lower their prices!

 My brother-in-law is still in the hospital. The doctors are still trying to find out what it wrong aside from the pneumonia. Lots of tests, a transfusion ( which made him feel better) and a shift to a single room which also made him feel better.

All of us - those of voting age - are heading to a petition signing this weekend... one to add a resolution to the Missouri Constitution  concerning abortion rights. The signing has to be done in person. 

Our dinner tonight will be an experiment... I bought some ground turkey when it was on sale . It is currently thawing in the fridge... a some sort of chili is going to be the result. I hope. Thank goodness Bob is pretty flexible about food and will even eat leftovers until they are gone.

Our teacher/daughter's students will be enjoying recess outdoors!! It is 64 F already (10.30am) !

Later... went up to 76F and the kids had a ball outside for recess!!

Divided up the meat, peppers and onions after cooking them. One half for chili tonight and the other half for something else. A little of "Better than Bullion" is making the chili more beef like... and lots of chili powder.... the final consensus was that it was ok, not great, but ok. So I will stick to beef for chili next time!! 

Family..

 First just a quick word about the blueberry crostata... it was wonderful! Only thing that could have made it better was wild blueberries from Maine!

Bob's youngest brother went to the ER in Rochester the other day and was admitted with pneumonia which has all the Kansas City family worried. Due to the spread of Bob's siblings way back when, Jamie has no one left in NY... and he has has medical issues before.

Bob and I have talked about Jamie's future but... 

 especially since Jamie has not told us of what he wanted/planned etc.

Joann's blueberry crostata

Blueberries  have been on sale this week and so I picked up a pint container! I decided to make Joann's ( Cup on the Bus blog) crostata for tonight's dessert.  It just came out of the oven and looks yummy. Bob was all set to ask for some until he saw that the blueberry filling was still bubbling away!!

So dinner is all planned.. green salad, jello with fruit, applesauce, fish and little roasted potatoes. Pick and choose... a little of this or a little of that!

Bob's Mother made fruited jello all the time and ever since his heart attack I have been making it for Bob.. comfort food!

Thursday's jaunt

 I decided it was a good day to get out of the house and do a little shopping. I went first to Hobby Lobby looking for some ideas for accessories for my bears and friends. Found lots of clearance displays but nothing I wanted/needed. Did find two rabbit scrapbooking papers...sum total of $.89 ..Big spender.

Then it was Aldi.. bananas, mushrooms, butter, Swiss cheese,  eggs and so on. Everything on my list! Was heading home when a huge SUV backed out of its parking spot almost into my front passenger door! If I had been sitting there I could have reached out the window and touched it! He/she stopped when I "laid" on the horn and drove back into his/her spot.

Went on home and collapsed! Bob unloaded the groceries!

Just as I arrived my grand daughter called and a nice phone call settled my nerves. She told me her Spanish professor wants her to go to Buenos Aires on a 6 week summer program. The professor will help her apply, get scholarship money and fill in details. All in all... Lili has lots to think about. Evidently Lili has an aptitude for languages ( Just like her great grandmother who knew 3 languages and learned a fourth - Russian- in her 50's)

BTW... aside from taking college Spanish Lili is learning colloquial Spanish from her kitchen coworkers! Gosh darn it... she finds learning a language to be easy! 

Winter is back

 It has been snowing , but tiny tiny flakes, since I got up this morning. And it is colder than it has been lately. We have about 2 -3 inches.. so far.

The trees have started budding and daffodils are about 3 inches tall...hopefully this bit of winter won't be too bad on all this springtime growth. 

Later in the day... the snow is gone from the street of our cul-de-sac and melted to about half on the grass!! 

Car ride downtown

 Bob and I drove downtown this morning... No, not to go to the KC Chiefs' parade but for my hair cut appointment. We were a little apprehensive... afraid that traffic would be awful but we were early enough that traffic wasn't a proble.!!

Actually the reason for this posting was not the traffic.. nor the Chiefs' parade... but all the litter along the roads. All roads.. not just small Blue Springs roads, larger Kansas City roads and worst of all I70 (the interstate)!!

I was appalled... the worst place looked like a whole truckload had fallen to the side of the road and the trash bags had burst and  scattered all over.

It seems to me that there used to be more trash pick-er-uppers taking care of things. Yes there still are some and some charitable organizations do it .... but it seems like there is much more litter now !!

WELL...the KC Chiefs' celebratory parade turned into another mass shooting. Latest I heard was one dead and up to 20 injured including quite a few children.

visitors.. hooray

 My elder daughter's work has a soup day. She made loads and texted us and her sister about the leftovers. We love her lentil stew so of course everyone said "yes". 

My daughter learned to make the stew in Morocco when she was part of the Peace Corps. She makes it every so often and whoever is lucky gets some.The stew has croutons made from bagels . Good bagels are getting hard to find here. One of the best ones to use were  pumpernickel but they definitely aren't available .here anymore.

My daughter dropped off the leftovers and we had a nice long chat. We haven't seen her in awhile ... she had a wicked case of bronchitis... slept and slept.. only getting up for bathroom breaks for herself and her dogs.

After she left daughter #2 and our grandson dropped by for their stew. We had nice chats with both of them. Our grandson is taking the ACT today and has two auditions with the Conservatory of UMKC March 1st.  His high school graduation is May 4th ( I think.. it's on the calendar somewhere so we won't miss it!)  

A sign that daughter #1 is better is her request for her Dad to help her replace the ceramic light bulb holder in the basement tomorrow. They took it down last fall to do "something" and she needs more light. The washer, dryer, ironing board etc are down there  The new light fixture will also have a place to plug something in.. handy.  As a reward she is taking us to the Chinese Buffet in Oak Grove... I won't have to cook.. hooray

Cats' health

The cats are following us oldies by needing to see the vets more often, just like we see our cardiologists and primary care physicians ... LOL.

Tigger seems to be over whatever he had. Eating normally etc. Jack's claws are ( or rather were) a mess. He refused a paw check on his last visit and so now they are ( were) thick and curved almost all around and somewhat painful.

So this morning it was a very early trip to the vet. They planned to sedate him and take care of the problem. When we arrived there was lots of paperwork and a decision whether or not to DNR him. After that we went home after stopping off to vote ( single issue.. $1,000,000 school bond ... no tax increase).

When we arrived home the vet called. Jack was all done no sedation necessary... yay.. no super high vet bill either . Bob went and picked him up and Jack has been napping ever since.

BTW we will be voting again in April.. mayor this time and a few other issues. 

Later... Bob decided to try a raisin bread loaf today! Even though he napped through the  timer it came out great... I used the hot oven to make JoAnn's blueberry crostata.. It looks great..we each had half a slice of the bread but the crostata has to wait for after dinner tonight!!

Bob and I worked on developing an ad for a physical doll and bear show in Philadelphia this spring. It will be in the website and the brochure handed out. Wish we could go but Bob refuses to drive that far nowadays.

Grocery store prices go down?

 I went to our Price Chopper grocery store this morning armed with a list... everything from bananas to soup to milk and so on. With prices as high as they have been, I do keep track of what is on sale when I write my list. 

Today's total surprised me... I don't think I have seen a total so low in a long time. Especially one that included meat. The sale items helped!!

Tigger still not back to normal... He did spend most of the night on Bob's bed but when it was breakfast time he was nowhere to be found. Called and called and he wandered out from somewhere. Ate breakfast and went back to sleep on Bob's recliner. He and Jack did have a kerfluffle about who was going to sleep there but Jack finally left it to Tigger.

Still watching bear sales...the sale closes tomorrow evening so there is still time...

Unhappy Tigger

Tigger, the orange cat , is having a terrible day and we don't know why. Both cats were piggies yesterday and ate lots and lots. Today Jack is fine but Tigger yowls loudly.

For absolutely no reason he attacked my ankle with both claw and teeth. Yes I applied iodine since we couldn't find anything. He also attacked Jack who was sleeping in Bob's recliner. I used a soft pillow to separate them and noticed fur bits on the chair and in Jack's claws.

Tigger then followed the two of us upstairs to the computer room.. nothing happened! Thank goodness.. We will keep an eye on things...

Bob is baking bread ( again) ... this time with Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese . Looking forward to it!!

LATER:

Tigger is feeling a little better... ate dinner and wants to sleep on any available lap.... 

The bread is great... tomato soup, fresh bread and butter, pears and coleslaw  for dinner!!

Here I sit

 The online bear show opened at 10 am this morning.... so here I sit at my computer watching for sales. Two so far ( hope I didn't jinx it by saying this). When I sell something I do go to my sales page and add "adopted" and delete the PayPal button.

Behind me the shredding machine whirs and grinds. Bob is still getting rid of old tax stuff.... and filling trash bags with the shreds!!

Yesterday we went out to lunch !! Hooray!! One of Bob's coworkers from his pre-retirement days phoned and said he and his wife would be in town around lunch. Did we want to get together! Sure....Nice lunch at Applebee's. I hadn't met either of them but it went well! The men both talked and talked about ham radios and electronics.. the wife and I talked about hobbies and keeping busy...?

Still checking things on my sales page... then things went wonky. Couldn't log in anywhere.. Firefox, USPS, PayPal, Weebly. Finally I decided to shut everything down... when I turned the computer back on, all was fine. Thank goodness!!

After that I printed out all the necessary paperwork, packed the bears up in boxes and printed out USPS Click and Ship postage labels... now its wait and see if anymore sell...