beans beans beans

Finally, my first picking of beans. I can hardly wait to cook them for lunch. I had to wait to be alone, so that I wouldn't have to share any. After all I only have the two bunches. I'm already anticipating it. yum.

Here's Linden Cole

Don't you just love those slippers

He's sooo cute

Here's both Brooklyn and Linden. What a difference 1 month makes in size. It was very cute hearing my son (with the 1 week old) telling my daughter (with the 1 month old) the merits of adding formula to breast milk, for the nightly feeding. I wonder how he's getting along now that his son is past the sleeping all day stage. I should phone them. I really miss the little guy. I think I've been spending too much time with Brooklyn. I usually go over every other day in the evenings to give her a bath and give my daughter some time to herself. Her partner has been working nights lately. She's been changing so much. I haven't seen her for three days now and I'm beginning to panic. I might be missing something.

We're planning on taking a trip this weekend to see our grandson. We are going to have to do some skill full conniving to get one or the other to live closer together to all of us or something. I don't think I'm going to be able to be away from any of them. This is going to be awful. How do people do it.

I've been busy making double of everything. Receiving blankets, baby quilts, play pen pads, crib sheets. My sewing maching has been getting quite the work out. Not to mention the bank account.

I'm sitting here in bed it's 3:30 pm and i've still got my pj's on. I've got the foodtv on the tv and the portable on my lap. I'm getting hungry. It's kinda one of those days. There's alot of things I should be doing. But I'm not. Maybe later.

Right now I have some beans to cook.

I had a dream....

I had an interesting dream last night, just want to mention it just in case ....It was about an intersting products, that I think I would even enjoy


"CHOCOLATE PEPSI" I can even still picture the look of the can. Chocolate brown stripes and blue polka dots. Hmmmmmmmm.

another baby

Well, he's here. Lyndon Cole - born early Thursday July 19. Cool. Two grandchildren a month apart. No pic's yet. I guess they're busy. It's as though someone had twins. Booklyn is a month old yesterday. I have to buy two of everything. One thing worked out well, the two baby quilts tops I put together years ago. ONe is for a girl and the other for a boy. So at least I don't have all that work to do, just have to quilt the darn thing before He gets to old.

We're planning on all taking a road trip on Tuesday to see the newest addition. And I"ve convinced by daughter to come along with her baby so that everyone back home can get a look at her as well.

My husband came down with pneumonia the other day, and he spend thursday coughing all
day, as he was getting out of bed in a fit of coughing, he threw his back out. The prescription medication for both cost me $300.00. Hey I've got baby stuff to buy medication is not in the budget. Pissed me off! Who gets pneumonia in the summer anyway. He came home from a trip on Monday with it. Not that I'm not sympathetic. But I just really hate being around my husband when he's sick. Let's just say "when I'm ever sick I'm on my own". He needs constant attention.
And why are tourists traveling when they're sick. Honestly stupid people or what - no consideration for the poor smuck they infect. It's like that dick head who went to Europe with his untreatable illness. That's one reason I hate being around people in crowds, I'm a bit of a germ-a-phobe.

busy, busy, busy

Brooklyn Haley Lark

June 20, 2007

6 lb

19 " long

what a cutie

I can't believe it's going to be two weeks already. So much hair, almost needs a barrette.

Now we're all waiting for Jason's. Shouldn't be too much longer, I say a week and another one will arrive.

I was madly quilting away a couple weeks ago, but now I seem to be on a break, too much. This is my first attempt at free style quilting, and I'm not sure I like it, too much ripping and starting over. You really need to get a rhythm going. And then you break a needle. Maybe later seeing as it's a day off.

The weather finally turned for the better, I think summer has finally arrived. It's about time. The rain was very depressing, it's as though I was living in Vancouver instead of drought prone Calgary.

My huge garden is doing well, I'm surprised. I quess all that soil prep was a good thing.

I can already taste the green beans. There's even a cucumber on the plant.

I need to stake the beans today.

So I suppose I should get out of bed.

weight loss

I'm losing weight again. Pisser. I just bought a load of clothes in size 10. Some of which I really like, and now I'm down to 7/8. But I don't seem to be losing pounds but losing body fat. Can't be good. I'm always cold, have too many headaches. I have no energy. So the other day while grocery shopping I was scouting out the baked goods section. I even came home with a black forest cake. Figured this has got to be lots of calories. I only had one piece, I came home from work and ...no cake... anywhere. My husband......Unfortunately I'm losing and he's gaining. He's eating all my FAT stuff. Instead of coffee I've been pouring in a pouch of chocolate with my coffee, now I don't want coffee any other way. I bought a tub of sour cream yesterday and plan on eating it with something today just to gain some weight. I was at costco yesterday and bought cookies that I've never tried. Boy are the ginger snaps goooood. I have to hide them otherwise they'll be gone by tomorrow.
The reason i was at costco was because I was searching for some ground turkey. We were watching foodtv on a saturday morning with our choco coffee and got the hankering for some meatballs for dinner. So four packages of ground turkey $20 (used half-although after rolling them and deciding my crock pot wouldn't fit that much I saved 10 meatballs for some spaghetti later this week). Chili sauce $4.29, tom sauce $1.25, had the other ingredients at home already. So in my estimation...pricey meatballs!!! So they better be good. Unfortunately they sucked BIG TIME. First I admit I added some bread crumbs into the meatball mix, and I even added some balsamic vinegar and lea and perrins. ( I don't know if I can ever cook anything without adding these two) They still tasted like sawdust. Very bland. Maybe I should have added some pesto, but I didn't.
As these meatballs were crocking away I made up a bunch of tuna melt and realized I didn't have any usable celery so off I went to the supermarket again, and was attracted by the pineapple display. So I thought, "what kind of sweat and sour meatball was I making-didn't have any pineapple in the recipe" Well I added some fresh, figuring It could only help. Well nothing helped this sauce. It was gross. And very soupy to boot. This recipe needs far too much tweeking. I don't mind trying something new and even having to go out of my way to make it, but it really pisses me off big time it the recipe doesn't work or taste like crap.
So it's be religated to a "container in the fridge". Hopefully my husband will eat it during the week so I won't have to deal with it.
And what is it about celery. I keep buying this stuff and using about two stalks and then next time it's a big pile of mush in the fridge. My vegetable crisper should be renamed the vegetable musher. So when i bought yet another stalk of the stuff for my tuna melt, I vowed to myself that I would use up this stalk come hell or high water. So that's my challenge for the week. There's eleven veins or whatever they're called left in the bag. Wouldn't it be great if celery was fattening. That would help.

Survived

Well the plants survived the snow, the tree out back is still deciding it appear. (the top is bent over). I've got alot of reading to do. A recond number of books that I reserved at the library were waiting for me this morning.
I picked up To Far From Home, last week and unfortunately haven't had much spare time to read it. It's eye opening to realize just how the space industry is running on out of date technology and out of date nuts and bolts. Why would anyone want to be an astronaut and have to deal with the short falls and screw ups. I need to take public transit in order to read. That's where I've found the time. Standing waiting for the bus, and riding the bus really moves those pages. And only puts about 1/2 hour on my commute.
I don't know where I will find the time to read, what with the two quilts I have to get going on (only one is semi completed). And my husband purchased pants that need to be hemmed up. Not to mention that I planned on doing some cooking this weekend. I need some left-overs.
So far I've made some sweat and sour meatballs, spaghetti and meatballs, tuna mix for tuna melts. I have half a baked ham sitting in the fridge just begging to get used for something other than sandwiches. I've just been slicing thin slices off and piling it up on a sandwich. I boiled it in root beer then smothered pomegranate molasses and mustard and brown sugar all over it before baking it. WOW sure is good.
I bought some ground turkey from costco, I hope the meatballs turn out good. That damn ground turkey is $$$.
It's time to taste the meatballs.

It's almost June...really it is

this was taken on saturday, and I though THAT was a lousy day!!!

This is what I woke up to this morning. I couldn't believe it.

somebody remind me...why do I live here?

So much for global warming

Well here it is the second day of my garden and still it's raining, this morning it was snowing. It's May 21st for christ sake, Snow is not supposed to be allowed. I had to cover up with a garbage bag, the seeds I just planted yesterday. The poor tomatoe plants are shivering out there, I'm going to have to cover them up also, it's so darn cold out there. I can't believe it. Even the dog doesn't want to go out. She just stand at the door and turn around. I quess she thinks she can hold it a bit longer, till it's warmer maybe. She looks funny standing there, like she can't decide if it's worth it or not.

This is my fav planter so far this year. Let's just call "the purple planter" Next to all the light grey it looks wonderful, and the Hiliatrope smells wonderful in the evening. I've decided that my patio area this year has to either be purple, or it better have a fragrance.

Here's the "diaper cake" The picture doesn't do justice to the product. The top tier is newborn size, down to a larger size. Maybe once the packaging comes off.

There's face clothes, rattles, lotion, teething rings etc tied to the different tiers, it's quite the project.

The shower

Well the second shower was on Saturday. But officially I quess it was the first shower, as that one was canceled. So the second one became the first one. It was the "friends" shower. I almost finished the baby blanket, but not. So hopefully it will be finished for the "family" shower some time in June. I had to find something else to take to this shower so I went to a baby store. I haven't been to a baby anything store for years. Wow there sure is a lot of stuff to spend your money on. There's way too much choice. How does anyone make a decission of anything. Well I read about this thing called a timer. So I've been looking for one ever since, itzbeen . It's a male thing I would quess. I wonder how long it will be before the novelty of it will wear off. Anyway since I have two baby's coming I had to buy two of them.

But the best gift was called a "diaper cake". Since my camera isn't here right now, I can't include the picture. But believe me it was amazing. I had to order one for my son's shower. The friend that organized this shower did an amazing job. I think it's true what they say about new mothers and their ability to milti task. What an imagination she has. I remember when I was like that. I think one has to be stressed and busy in order to have a creative imagination. Maybe that's why I have no imagination any longer. I have no stress, and no children to worry about or keep me busy. Poor pitful me. I've been waiting 20 years for this.

I planted my beans and zuccini and tomatoes today. Now all I need is some of that global warming. I just watered them all in and quess what, the sky's opened up and that was before noon and it's still raining. Again my camera is out and no pictures. I'm kinda proud of my little garden. I'm expecting lots of green beans and will really be pissed it they don't grow to their expected potential.

Well I've got two weeks to year end at work, that ought to be fun. The inventory is really a joy. I've been out of my office for two weeks now, filling in for reception. I can hardly wait to be in my isolated little room. I never realized how nozy everyone is whenever I am doing anything financial, or whenever the cheque books are out. It doesn't help that my boss is so paranoid about keeping everything so secret.

My brothers manicure thing is finally a reality manicure plus we've been all waiting like forever for this thing. It should be a real winner.

My mother is planning on being in town for three weeks in June. She's helping my neice with babysitting while her nanny is on holiday back in the Philippines. My first reaction to this news is "she never did that for any of her own children" What gives. So I'm planning on delivering my serger over there and many different flannelette fabric so that she can make a pile of receiving blankets for my two grandchildren. That ought to keep her busy on her off hours.

The quests at the shower started a pool for the date and time of expected arrival. It was kinda funny, I've never been to a his and hers baby shower before. Who knew that guys could have such a sense of humor about babies, and pink fluffy things. I wonder how many of them went home and started on their own babies.

I'm reading a great book called Talking with my Mouth Full. REally enjoying it. I started reading I like you by Amy Sedaris but it got really old after about 1/4 of the way through. Can't see what the big deal is with all the publicity. Talking with my Mouth Full is a much better use of my time. I might even have to buy this book.

So much for plans...

So, the plan was.....baby shower for my daughter on good friday, first birthday for my neice's baby on easter sunday, 50th aniversary party on saturday. Since most of the "out of towners" were planning on being here for easter. It was a good plan. Except my sister's husband died on March 30. Shock of all shock. It's my husband's sister that has cancer and is in a hospice on a DNR. We bought plane tickets to fly up to see her on the sunday April 1st. But Bob died on Friday morning. Blood clot in his lung. And we thought maybe the pain was a gall stone. Huge mistake. Only 54, one year to retirement. So Sad. Needless to say it was a mad rush to leave town, plans had to be cancelled, tickets cancelled, showers and birthday parties cancelled. The funeral was finally on thursday. It was the longest week of everyone's life. My sister is still probably wondering "what's going on" . Everyone is in such shock.

Unfortunatly I brow beat a few people into taking time off work and travelling here for easter (for those not originally planning on being here for easter). It wasn't until tuesday that I remembered to call them to say I wouldn't be here for the shower and it was cancelled. A few people came anyway for the weekend. Good thing my daughter works in a hotel and got good rates for them. So they're all out shopping today. EAster has been cancelled here.

Most funerals of my family go something like....Service, burial, meal, wake. Well this one had a service all right (two days before many people got together to prepare the meal even) then the burial started out fine. The procession (about 20 miles) from service to grave site. The coffin was put on the mechanism to lower it. The coffin started to go down, but them BOTH strapes broke and the coffin tipped over and fell 8 or so feet down. The funeral director looked like he wanted to jump into the hole. It was one of the largest attended funerals in the area. Including those who came to the grave yard. It was the most amazing thing I've even witnessed. THe casket broke apart at the bottom - the body was sort of half exposed, the sides of the coffin were split away. What a mess. My mother went histerical, his son soon followed. I gotta give my Sister credit she was pissed at my mother for making such a scene. She was just standing there with this look of "what the f*@^" on her face. Everyone was stunned. I still have a chuckle evertime I think back on it. When you think about it, it's kinda, sorta funny. And Bob loved a good joke. My husband informed me that he wants to be buried just like that. I think my sister still can't believe that anything - including his death even happened. I told her that Bob probably didn't like the casket, and refused to be buried in it. Or maybe he wanted to be cremated. So everyone had to leave, we all went back 20 miles to the hall and ate the meal, then waited for the hearse to come back (she had to pick out another casket - picked a solid steel one this time - probably on the house, it was a beautiful one) then we had to drive back (another 20 miles) to the grave site. This time they used ropes and the pulley system to lower it. So a funeral that should have been over by 2pm wasn't over until 5:30. My sister will be hearing about this burial forever. It was quite the ordeal to get the mess out of the hole. I won't even go into that part. Unfortunately for the funeral home, my neice's husband is a lawyer. And I was there with my camera. Not a good day. But surely a memoral one. Then after the funeral I had to drive 650 km back. I got home about 1:30 AM and I'm still bagged today. I'm just sitting here drinking arbor mist and eating ding dongs. I did manage to get four jars of funeral borsch though.

I had some for lunch today, they never add garlic, so I do. Funeral and wedding borsch is the best. It's even worth the gas afterwards.

Not beet borsch but cabbage. With lots and lots of butter. Yummy.

Lazy day

Today is laundry day. And baking day....surprizingly. I was nuking my breakfast (the patty) hamburger, when I spotted this green paper tucked in with a bunch of perscription receipts next to the micro. So I pulled it out and then I remembered this recipe I found in a library book years ago, and I've been dragging it around ever since. It wasn't even a cook book. It was being used as a marker in a murder mystery. So I decided to make it. Either keep the recipe or throw it away. Well it's a keeper. The recipe was written on a page of someone's day timer.

Lazy Daisy Cake

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

2 tbsp butter

1/2 c milk

Beat eggs till light and fluffy, add sugar beat well. Bring butter & milk to a boil. Add sifted flour salt and baking powder to egg mixture. Mix well. Then add boiled milk and butter to egg & flour mixture. Mix well. Pour into 8X8 pan (i used 6x12) bake at 350 till lightly browned and springs back about 20-25 min.

Topping

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c flaked coconut

1/2 c chopped nuts

3 tbsp butter

2 tbsp whip cream

Melt butter, add brown sugar and cream. Let bubble a few minutes. Then add coconut and nuts to cooked mixture, spread on warm cake. Put on broil. Stand there and watch it till it bubbles up all over and turns a golden brown.

yummmm and so fast, really a no brainer. As with all recipes I didn't exactly follow to the letter, and it still turned out excellent. For starters I didn't feel like getting the mixer down from the cupboard, to much work. Then I couldn't find my hand mixer. Found the beaters, and the cord, but not the machine. So I just dumped the sugar and egg into the food processor attachment that came with my plunge blender and just whipped it up into a sludge. Didn't have any coconut, but I did have a hunk of creamed coconut. So I grated that up into the batter. I copied the recipe exactly as I found it on the paper. So the next time I feel the need for a piece of cake, I will definately use this again.

Last night my hasband decided that he needed some prawns for dinner. Last week I bought a huge supply of them for family and friends from the wholesaler. I do this once a year in February. It just happened that my freezer is somewhat empty so that's a good thing. Because it's full of prawns and mussels right now. And the freezer is in the garage. Last friday I brought the load home and managed to get it all in the freezer. That night my husband went to work and didn't close the garage door (it faces out towards the alley) and it's a lucky thing the light bulb was out that's attached to the door opener. Because the garage was open for the whole weekend. My neighbour knocked on my door at around 8 pm on sunday night and let me know. Meanwhile we were parking on the street for some reason all weekend. So in a panic I ran out and envisioned all my tools - gone, all my gardening equipment - gone. And most of all the hundreds of dollars of prawns in the freezer-gone. But everything was happily where it should have been. I gotta say I live in a great neighbourhood. No one comes around here except the people that live here. NOt like the last place that's for sure. The last place I never had to take my empties to the recycler myself because I would just leave it outside by the dumpster and by the time I brought the other bag down, the first one dissapeared.

Usually when I grill prawns I just marinate them in some bottle of italian salad dressing that I've doctored up. But didn't have any yesterday so I had to actually think of a marinade. So I remember copying the recipes over to my program (I copy all the recipes from most cook books into mastercook) from barefoot contessa's bunch of books that I picked up at the library.

And they turned out lip smacking. Although I used my George Foreman Grill, not a barbeque grill (haven't used the barbeque in the year since I bought my foreman grill)

Grilled Herb Shrimp

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 small onion small dice

1/4 c minced parsley

1/4 c minced basil

1 tsp dry mustard

2 tsp dijon mustard

2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 c olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

2 lbs shrimp

Well as usual I had to improvise.

I didn't have any parsley or basil. But I did have some pesto, so I added about 1/2 tsp (mine is really thick) and used only 1/2 an onion. I only have 1/2 a lemon, so I also used the lemon peel with the rasp. I gotta say though use a sieve when reaming the lemon. My little ity bitty 1/2 lemon had a surprising amount of seeds. And since I used the pesto, I should have only maybe used 1 garlic clove. And I added a splash of balsamic vinegar. I only had about 5 tiger prawns (not a big fan) and It's a good thing, because I was really suffering from the garlic. My husband was breathing all over me all night. Not a pleasant sleep.Next time I'll marinate them overnight in this mix. They probably would have been even better if allowed to absorb more of the flavour. They cooked really fast, about 3 minutes. So make sure everything else is ready to serve. I just made some spagetti and ceasar salad. It was a very garlic evening.

The butter chicken I made last sunday, well I was taking it to work for lunch on monday, tuesday and wednesday. By wednesday it was tamed right down and especially good. I made kraft dinner with it on sunday and when I stored it in the fridge I just dumped the whole chicken mess on top of the macaroni and put it away. The next day the macaroni absorbed all the liquid and then I just sliced of 1/3 and put it into a sandwich container to nuke at work. That was a really good recipe.

Empty Nester

Well I'm an empty nester again. She's gone to Vancouver. She left on the worst possible day, so much snow. On the other side of the mountains it apparently stopped snowing and was fine, but I still called her every 1/2 hour or so. Single girl driving alone , not familiar with the roads, I was nuts until she got there. I'm surprised she made it in one piece, really I am. I was expecting her to call for help half way. I even ran to the bank and put some money in her account just in case.

But on the other front...

I have two baby quilts to make by easter, I've been madly organizing. I've got one for sure that's a girl, the other is still a mystery. I've made quilt tops over the years, and never quilted them, so I have a few I could choose from. I ventured into a quilt fabric store yesterday, woooow. The prices sure have gone up and the selection is amazing. I had to replace a foot off my machine (don't know what happened to it) one day I was hemming a skirt and the next week I was sewing a blouse and "where is the regular foot?" I muddled along with a less than ideal foot but I had to replace it eventually because it was just a pain in the neck. Considering the foot was the thin hemmer one, the blouse turned out quit good. Anyho I had to wait for a perscription at the local "stupid store" so I wandered over to the magazine section, (first mistake) and picked up a quilting one. So I came home and dug out all my bins of fabric, and all my bins of mag's and books. So that's when I decided that I had to replace the foot.

Since the spare room is vacated now, I decided that it would make an ideal sewing room so I spent a few hours moving beds out and sewing tables , machines, ironing boards etc inc. It's going to be nice to have an ironing board upstairs. I really hated trudging down to iron in the morning, I usually just pick something else instead. Lazy Lazy.

I made this one about 5 yrs ago, when I was bored in my store. I always thought it would make a good baby quilt, but never gave it to anyone. Although a few babies have been born since.

I quess I just wanted to keep it around.

This one was made about a month after the hearts. Again, bored.

also I have a Yorkie/maltese which looks alot like this little guy before she gets to the groomer.

And I rather enjoy making scrap quilts.

and then about 12 years ago I made this one.

But it's more a single bed size rather than a crib size. It started out as a wall hanging and I just got carried away and eventually stopped when it became bed size. But again I never finished it, just pieced it. That's the only part I enjoy. And the shopping for fabric part.

So I'm all set. I just have to quilt the darn things now. I really hate the actual quilting of them. I made a few actually quilting "by hand", even went so far as making my own stand and all. Bending over them for months and months at a time. Never again. Now it's machine quilting or nothing, But I hate it, so much work. so much puckering, and ripping out, and doing over. Ugh. Not something I look forward to.

I've got a double shower planned for easter, maybe they'll just get a picture of the quilts. My son is planning on being here for easter, and my extended family will all be here, so I figured it's a good time to have a shower, even though it's a little early. Both are due end of june beginning of july. I figure One will be late and the other will be early. Just my luck Because they live about 500 miles away from each other. And Me, I'll be here, there or somewhere in between.

It's been decided that I pay for the cribs, HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICE OF THESE? It's kind of cute listening to the two of them (brother and sister) discussing the merits of this or that crib. I quess they're kind of lucky that they are both so close on due dates with each other. How often does that happen between siblings.

The youngest one probably feels left out, that's probably why she left town. Although she said she was up for some sort of adventure. Making up with an old boyfriend and moving in. I've been missing a few things since she left. Like all my pasta. She took the whole basket. I couldn't believe it. It's as though there are no stores in Vancouver. A few of my cook books have disappeared. She even took her sword, so I figure she'll be awhile. A few years ago she bought dishes and a set of pots and pans, and lots of towel etc., but they haven't been used. So I think she's looking forward to using all her stuff, finally. She figures her boyfriend probably hasn't got anything other than a can opener and a microwave. Guys!

I made the butter chicken again today, I'm obsessed with this recipe. Trying to cool the spice down a bit. It was better today, last time I couldn't eat it, spiccccccy.

I'm hoping it'll be better tommorrow for lunch.

I finally bought some garam masala, instead of improvising. But it's still hot. I left out the chipolte chili this time. Didn't help. Maybe next time I'll tone the curry paste down.

My husband liked it, even though curry is a bad word to him. So that's something.

I gotta go and refill my wine glass.

Another job

Well I've got another job this time as a bookkeeper. I've heard about the lack of qualified "anythings" here lately. During the first day of my employment my cell phone rang five times from other resumes I had sent out. Some of the positions sounded really interesting. Oh well.I have my own office, posting and shuffly papers all day. So far it's great. Nothing to do with food though.
I've even managed to do some cooking too. This week I've made hamburgers and fries twice. They were so good the first time, I just had to repeat it two days later. With my handy dandy george foremen grill. (How did I live without this thing) and my wok as a deep fryer.
So today I'm remaking something I made on sunday last week.
I spotted a cook book at a book store a few weeks ago and since I've watched (and copied recipes from the show) her show on the food network or somewhere, I'm not sure what channel it's on. But the book only had one recipe that appealed to me and the price for one recipe wasn't enough to tempt me to buy it. Easy butter chicken. I thought maybe I'd go home and request it from the library. But later that day I stopped in at costco and low and behold there it was, much cheaper, so I bit the bullet and bought the book on the basis of only one recipe. So I made the chicken, and it was really really good. My husband ate the leftovers the next day (I was planning on doing just that). In spite of the curry paste ingredient. He didn't turn his nose up. So that's a recomendation if ever there was one. So I bought some chicken yesterday and the plan is to redo the chicken again. This time i'll make more. I even added the recipe to my binder. For easier reference. Who knew Butter Chicken would taste soooo good made with heinz tomato soup. Wow. So I'm off to the kitchen

Butter Chicken

1/4 c butter
4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless (1 1/3 lbs or 600 g)
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp chipolte chili powder
1 tbsp madras curry paste
1 tbsp peanut butter, smooth
1 can tomato soup (10 oz)
1/2 of the soup can,filled with milk
3/4 c chicken broth, or veg broth
1/4 c fresh cilantro (hate chilantro used dried fennel about 1/2 tsp)

Melt butter in a large stove topot at med high heat. cut each breast into 9 chucks, adding to butter as you cut. Toss until no longer pink. Add garam masala, paprika, cinnamon, sugar, chili powder, curry paste and peanut butter, stir to coat.
Graduallystir in soup, milk and broth. Toss in dried fennel. Stir and heat at a high simmer. Turn down heat and let thicken. Should be dark brown and thick. Let cool before serving. Humm amazingly this matches really nicely with kraft dinner. Super fast and easy. Great leftover possibilities for lunch at work next day.

Working

Well here it is January 17th and I just quit job #3. After being off for a year and a half, this working for a living....... Let's just say I can find better things to do with my time. Or maybe I"m just too old for this crap.
Job #1 - said she was only interested in training someone with no experience. Turns out she is a lousy instructor. And too many phone calls answered, vendors looking for money. Bad sign. Quit after 3 days.
Job #2 - Temp job receptionist. Started on a monday begged to be released by thursday. I think one has to be extremely dumb and stupid to do this job. Brain cells were dying in an 8 hour day. The most mind numbing boring job I've ever had. Except for maybe job #3.
Job #3 - Admin Assist. I think that If you don't care diddly about the product, well the job probably sucks. But I did last 6 weeks. Only because I didn't want to leave during xmas holiday. But it got harder and harder to actually want to show up. And I'm too old to be nit picked at. If I'm cold I'm going to TURN UP the thermostat. I don't give a @#^ how hot it is in the ladies room (right next to the furnace) My desk is not next to the ladies room. God some people. And don't use a foreign language talking to family members around me. That's just rude. Too many calls about not receiving product that was promised. Began to believe product wasn't as good as publicity for it. GPS technology is BORING. Unless of coarse you are lost, or missing. But still boring. I actually left a note on my desk, resigning. Didn't want to do it in person. What a wuz.
So here I am job hunting again. I did actually hand out a resume yesterday. But today maybe I'll just take a day off. I just need a simple dopey job that doesn't require much effort. And I really miss working around food.
I have two grandchildren on the way. One in June and another 3 weeks later in July. Cool.
I hope that it's one of each, because I made two baby quilt tops a few years ago (never did finish quilting them though) one for a girl and one for a boy. I'm just waiting patiently for the news of who's having what.
I bought a cook book yesterday. The Dinner Fix. After I looked it over at the first store ($29.95) and only found maybe 1 recipe that looked interesting, I decided that 25.95 was too much for only 1 recipe. But later saw the same book at Costco for $17, so I bought it. Haven't decided if I"ll keep it, or give it to one of the kids. Concept of the book is different. I'll have to see if the recipe for butter chicken works or not. Haven't found a recipe that works yet.
I've been obsessed with "pomegranate molasses" since chistmas dinner. Finally found it. Looking forward to using it. Smells really good.
It's been two weeks since we stopped taking sleeping pills to fall asleep. Went cold-turkey on the friday before new years. It was tough slogging. There were nights..... But I insisted that we try. I can't believe how awake I am during the day. Never realized how groggy I was during the day. I was walking around in a fog and had absolutely no energy. What a difference. I can say that the last two nights I finally got some uninteruped sleep. That was heaven. I didn't think it would happen.

move your stuff

I've been preparing for visitors. Bought a bed, several different sheet sets were bought and returned (has to be just perfect ya know). I don't like everything matching like sheets, cases, blanket, coverlet, curtains etc. In my house the rooms have to have character. When we moved in here the color of the spare room was ...interesting. Nothing I would have chosen that's for sure. Three walls were yellow oh, I don't know darker than butter. The feature wall was dark red. The adjoining bathroom was the same. The drapes were a shade darker yellow.I've never really worked with this combination for a bedroom before and I've been a pro decorator in my past.
So we bought a bed on Thursday, and I spent the weekend stuck in traffic searching for the sheets etc. Well I had a bed skirt that was gold and burned red that was a little bit medieval (my daughters) and matching shams. I found a coverlet that my husband "had to have" from Costco - that's been sitting on the shelf in the closet. It's sort of a celery color. And since my visitor is my mother, I pulled out the blanket that she bought last time she was here for herself to store here for the next time she came. It's floral yellow, reds and greens surprisingly. Ok so what kind of sheets would match this. I also have a dark gray textured look flat sheet that was just crying to be used. Amazingly I managed to put this assortment of misfit things together. I found some green shams in the back of the closet the pull it all together. And I finally found the sheet set. Gold, dark red and dark green on a burnished background stripe. Now whenever I come up the stairs its the first room I see. It's amazing how much joy a spare room "done-up" can bring one. I just need something on the walls and a chest of some kind.
I cleaned the carpets last night, and cleaned the bathrooms. Washed most of all the towels. I'm almost ready for the visitors. just need to bake a few things still.
About two weeks ago I fung shuied my Helpful hands sector and my career section. I figured "why not". My living room is in the helpful hands and the tv in sitting in the career section. What to do? I need silver and gray. I have a silver lamp with a gray shade, I bought some of those rattan balls and spray painted them silver stuck them into a pot and planted an ivy around them as a topiary. Stuck it in the corner on the side table. Then One day I was at Winners and spotted a small boudour pillow that was covered in silver sparkles. It looked good on the leather sofa so I went to the fabric store and bought some other silver thing for another pillow and so far only draped in over the existing brown pillow that was already resting on the sofa. "i'm lazy." I potted the ivy in a gray pot and then added another silver pot with some other plants. I drilled up a shelf over the couch and displayed a few gray and silver objects on it. and voila I think a did it. So then I concentrated on the career section. What can anyone do with a tv. So I moved all the components over to make some room on the entertainment stand and dug out some old ledgers of mine (from when I had a couple businesses) and my daughters textbooks from her business admin coarse. And stuck them under the tv behind the glass doors. The next day I got a call from a college about a possible job opening, someone willing to train blah blah blah. So I applied. And then two days later I got the job. Not bad. I'm to be a number cruncher, pencil pusher. Quick books. Actually I'm looking forward to it
The book, (I've bought several copies, because mine always goes missing) is Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life. I start next week. Everyone should have a copy of this book.

fear of the dark......

I stopped by the library a picked up a couple books for the weekend. Friday afternoon I started reading Ann Rule (one of my fav's) Worth More Dead. I think it's her latest, but this copy was in paperback so it might not be. I normally really enjoy reading her true crime cases, but this time I was home alone. I dropped my husband off around 9:oo pm it was just starting to get dark. By the time I got home it WAS DARK . Meanwhile my daughter left around 5pm. So it was just me and the dog. Once I start reading Ann Rule, I just keep reading until the book is done. This was the case with this one. Around 10 pm I stopped reading and made sure all the doors were locked, about 1/2 hr later I pulled the drapes a little closer together. Then I also made sure the doors were really locked. I looked up from the book and noticed it was getting close to midnight and I didn't even watch the news. So I took my water glass and the book upstairs to read some more. Usually the animals (cat and dog) come upstairs with me, but this time I couldn't find them, I knew they were inside, but ah well. About two thirty I noticed gee It was getting really late. But the book.... My house was extra creaky last night. I had to continually stop reading because something made me look up. I hate when that happens, when I'm alone, and reading books I shouldn't be reading when I'm alone. Anyway I finished it about 3:30. I couldn't decide if I really wanted to try and sleep or not, what was the point. Every noise opened my eyes and the bed was not very comfortable all of a sudden. Why isn't the cat at least up here, he's always sneaking up on the bed, where was he and why didn't he want to come up. My neighbor came home late and usually the dog barks if anyone come anywhere near my door and either of my neighbors doors. But she didn't bark..... I finally couldn't take it anymore and took half a sleeping pill. My daughter woke me up when she left for work about 10 am. Sometime during the night she came home and I didn't even notice. And so it appears neither did the dog. It was very spooky. I should know better than to read something like this when I'm going to be alone. There ought to be a warning on the cover.

the old wine shades

Polished off The Old Wine Shades. I don't remember enjoying a book this much in a long time. All the twists and turns. I was sad to see the end of it all. I'm going to miss all these characters. I've grown so fond of them all. A tad too much left unresolved but hopefully the next novel will bring some closure. I will have to leave some space between the next book I read. Because this one has to be savoured a bit more. I should have read it slower. How long does it take Grimes to produce another one anyway.
Had an interesting breakfast this morning. My daughter even got out of bed before noon to partake it. My husband came home with a care package from Mom. We've been getting one on Tuesday morning these last couple of week. She lives about 300 to 350 miles away and my husband comes withing 60 miles of her home on Monday nights, so she sends it out towards him, to make a long story short. Anyway it was a welcome box of green beans, baby squash, cuc's, tomatoes (4 varieties) zuccinni, cabbage and fresh parsley all off her garden last night. So while my husband was unwinding from an all nighter I quickly saute'd the beans (heaven) ,cut up some baby potatoes and steamed them with wedges of cabbage, made some "stinky salad" (greek ) and then cut up some farmers sausage and fried it up with some sliced baby squash-added some motza before serving. Wow lip smacking. I don't know what it is about steamed cabbage that makes my family swoon. But they all come running when it's offered. I cut the baby potato into wedges at the bottom of the steam basket and then add a layer of wedged cabbage chunks on top, sprinkle the cabbage with a bit of ginger, kosher salt, and then butter before serving. It's like some kind of genetic link between them all. Must be my husbands genes because I don't have a taste for it at all. Wierd. Steamed cabbage-what a waste of time when there are so many other things out there one could be eating. I always thought food preference came invetro. But must be genetic - that would explain the weiners and beans they all seem to enjoy (again except me).
I surely do miss a veggie garden. There is nothing to compare to fresh green beans. Nothing. Except maybe fresh strawberries. Only thing I was able to produce from my tiny itty bitty yard so far has been basil. I made loads of pesto yesterday for the freezer. I have three tomato plants, but they haven't rippened yet and probably won't. The cucumber plant I rescued from the garden center is really long, but only produced one cuc so far. Lack of bees. I've been out there with my little brush. But I think I left it too late. And started out to late after moving here. Ah well, next year........
I just have to pull out all those shrubs first. All that wasted space.
I transplanted some of the herbs into a pot to hopefully keep over winter

I've got a nice spot for it in the bay window off the kitchen. I'll be really pissed if it doesn't work out.

Finished reading Espresso Tales - I gotta say I really enjoy reading Alexander McCall Smith. He's right up there with Rutherford and Grisham when it comes to readable male authors. Not like Shanks for Nothing (what a stupid male wet dream/ fantasy). Sometimes I just want to slap these guys for writing such shit. There's just no other way to describe this book. The only reason I didn't throw it across the room is because I was hoping for more of resource, two shot and cement head. The only redeeming characters in this sad excuse of the story. How does someone actually put their name on this book, and then go on to write more of the same. Ugh. I picked it up off the shelf because it had golf clubs on the cover.

Culinary Journey in Gascony wasn't exactly a wonderful read either. Her blog is so much better than her book.

I picked up some nice Savoy Cabbage at stupid store today so I think I"ll make some cabbage rolls. Haven't made them for awhile. I'm just sitting here waiting for the rice to cook. There has been some grumbling around here lately that there's never anything to eat. I always manage to eat, but everyone else expects lots of choices to nuke. So I'll make some stuffed rigatonni (we like to call them mini manicotti) and then some chicken chow mein. My mother sent me some your beets with tops that have to be steamed. We'll just have to see how much of this I actually get accomplished.

My doc's app't went really well regarding the LUMP. It's two cysts non cancerous and the blood test show that I'm menopausal. So it's what?-four to seven years of this crap. At least the hot flashes have stopped, for now. My colesteral level is slightly elevated. I don't see how that could be since Basically I've stopped eating-no appetite. It's probably the wine that I stopped drinking as well. So I bought a few bottles today-after all I need the empty bottles for my own wine.

This is the cabbage rolls before they went in the oven,before the sauce.

These are right out of the oven yum yum yum.

And there's the mini manni's, all lined up waiting for the sauce.

The cabbage left over from the cabbage rolls, (savoy makes in much neater and you don't have to boil the piss out of cabbage before rolling, just nuke leaves for about 3 min before rolling) chopped up nicely for the chow mein. I'll try making that later.

geez I'm surprised to could work out the pic's and transfering them over and everything wow.

But I have to get back to my book now, Talk Talk. It's turning out to be a "good read". I can't read it all in one sitting, giving myself breaks so as not to cause a migrane.

Cherries cherries everywhere...

Well I went to the library and exchanged my books, and paid my fine. I was flipping through Bills Food, by Bill Granger (came highly recommended from other blogs) and I gotta say there's not one recipe that really wowed me. It took less than 10 minutes- I was waiting for the cherries to process. The banana bread looked interesting, but I've got hundreds of banana bread recipes.I can't think why anyone would purchase this book. I give the same review to Chef on Fire by Joseph Carey.
Inside Every Woman by Vickie Milazzo came recommended to me by my step-daughter. She's currently starting a business and got insperation from this book, so I suggested that she buy Martha Stewart's - The Rules.
So far the only remotely interesting book is Alexander McCall Smith's Expresso Tales. Should take me half a day to polish it off.
My husband brought a box of cherries home from one of his trips on Tuesday and I've been eating them everyday all day long. I'm cherried out. Enough already. So I've pickled another 8 jars. This time I threw in some red pepper flakes into the brine. Hope they won't be to hot.
I've been plagueing my doctor with all my medical problems last week, so she sent me for many tests of every kind and even got back at me with a momogram and a pap test. Well on Friday morning the mamogram showed a lump. A large lump, so that afternoon I had an ultrasound. The technician was very tight lipped. When I went for my possible kidney stone the week before, the tech was very open and even showed me all my body parts, no stone, nothing wrong with bladder??? So now I have to wait until tuesday to find out about the lump. Could be cyst, or two in a mass. Since last test about 16 months ago I've lost 25 lbs so I'm hoping it's just the missing body fat that is the culprit. I'd rather have the kidney stone. Please give me the kidney stone instead.
I racked my white wine yesterday so now I've got to wait about a month to bottle it. I've got to start the blueberry shiraz next. I've got to start drinking more store bought wine-I'm going to need the bottles. That's the worst part of making wine, scrounging for bottles from everyone. I used up all my bottles for the 10 cases I made for my sons wedding. I didn't feel like dragging them all back here again, I'm kind of regretting that now.

Long slog

I finally finished The Rebels of Ireland: by Edward Rutherfurd. I ended up paying $3.50 in overdue fees at the library for it. I usually pay about $20 a month in fees. But I've been really good lately. I enjoyed the book, just have a minor ciriticism of it. The ending just stopped. It's like he ran out of steam and had a deadline and HAD to finish the book. Although the ending was sort of Ok, at 2am it kinda sucked. I took the book everywhere I went determined to finish it. I can't believe it took me so long. Of coarse I really can't just read a book in one or two sitting any longer because of my migraines. This one just never seemed to end. If I had appointments downtown I took the C-train just so I could read THE BOOK. I came early to appointments just to read. But It's finally finished. I met a surprising number of people who were reading the first one or just finished reading it.
The next book on the pile is The Rent Collector. I read the first chapter and I don't know...it's a little overdone with it's ethnic religious base. It's a rather thin novel and I think If the continuous religiousness of it were somehow dimished, it wouldn't be more than a couple chapters. That's why I started reading Which brings me to you. ONe I read when I'm upstairs and other I read when I'm downstairs. Neither one are really astounding at this point. So I started a third one "She May Not Leave". Sadly it also hasn't grabbed my interest either.
I've been stirring, degassing and racking my wine. It looks good sitting on it's throne over there. I also made a batch of pickled bing cherries. I"m looking forward to those at Christmas time. Last time I made them (about 20 years ago-wow) they were a hit at a party. Every year since I plan on making more, but never seemed to. But I did this year.
I've been putting up shelves all over the basement and garage lately. I gotta say that since my hand is pretty much useless it's been difficult. I have to take breaks after screwing in two screws. The power drill is all of a sudden to heavy for me. I need to get one of those bits that predrills and then holds the screw. I think I saw them on a commercial once.
I finally sorted out most of my files and paperwork. I plugged the shredder in and ended up with bags and bags of shredded paper that I should have done before I moved instead of after.
There's a construction site of future condo's across the street and over a bit from us. And the other day we had such a wind storm I couldn't see anything out the front window. I couldn't believe it, this brown dirty ucky cloud of soil. My husband was upstairs sleeping with the window open. That night I went to bed and all I could smell was dirt. Everything was covered in this thin layer of dust. So the next day I took the drapes down and threw them in the washer, changed all the sheets, washed the blanket, and took out the vac. I gotta say I'm not sure if having a heppa vaccuum is such a good idea. It's frightening what that thing sucks up. I've been leary of going into my daughters room, who knows what lerks in there. Ugh.........it really needs to be vaccuumed, but I can't even see much of the floor. She keeps complaining that so many of her clothes are missing-well she need only to look down. Instead it's off to the store again.
Still sending out resumes with out much luck. Only two call backs and the ads were a little deceiving about what the position was. Don't you hate when they do that. I almost wanted to charge them $$$ for wasting my time. Not to mention parking fees, and gas to get there in the first place.