Right Before Your Eyes

Just two weeks ago, we had a crazy snow storm. Today, it was 63 degrees and I found these in my yard:

There is an end in sight--it might take a while, but I'll have flowers in the yard eventually.

Reminiscing: Flavorite Recipes from the Farmers' Almanac

Another gift from Sue's collection:

If you don't know what a Sooner is, go here.

All the way from 1972, let's start the party with some "Peach Mello," a delicious concoction of crushed peaches, marshmallows, and whipped cream, all frozen together and served with a side of "Topless Cheese Cake."

Two things here. First of all, "Potato Candy." I'm torn on this because I love potatoes and will try just about anything to eat more of them, but I just can't imagine the texture of this candy. Perhaps I should try to make it? "Bethel Bars" are basically the same as Hello Dollies, but I really love the comment at the end of the recipe: "If you can't make this--give up!" These Sooners sure are straightforward, no nonsense types!

This is the "Diet Delights" section of the book, which includes a recipe for an "Ironed Cheese Sandwich." Why would you iron a cheese sandwich? Just put it in a pan on the stove! Chances are that if you don't have a stove, you don't have an iron. Maybe this is for use in motel rooms?

Another recipe for pups! "Hobo Bundles" sure look interesting, no?

First of all, I seriously think that they should reconsider the name of the first salad--"Try-and-Guess Salad." The caption at the end is fairly telling: "This sounds horrible, but don't be afraid to try it!"

More desecration of avocados--"Avocado-Cheese Molds." Nothing like some lime gelatin, avocado, cottage cheese,and canned pineapple all molded together, is there?

Par-tay, gentle readers! Perhaps I will make "Yankee Doodle Salad" for my birthday this year. I'll definitely "try it on my political friends." I think it would be quite eye catching placed on a table with some "Bologna Stack-Ups" inserted "porcupine fashion in a standing avocado, grapefruit, pineapple, or what have you." Round out the tablescape with a "Penguin Egg," which combines hard cooked eggs and black olives. This one would certainly cause Brother of Ken, a.k.a. The Olive Fiend, to think twice before popping it into his mouth. He would probably just pick the olive parts off of the penguin and leave the egg with toothpicks sticking out of it.

Anyway, bear in mind that "One or more of these little figures on your table will cause plenty of comment at a party. They can stand by a food platter, hold a flag or tiny decoration in keeping with the occasion." You could also use them as place card holders if necessary.

I loves me some "Honky Tonk" and some "Elephant Stew."

As I was reading the recipe for "Elephant Stew," I thought, "I'll bet you can buy elephant meat online these days." Yes, yes you can. You really could make this, but only add the rabbits if necessary because "some people do not like to find a hare in their stew." Hahahahaha.

More to come soon...

Make Me Lose Control

Well, gentle readers, after yesterday's inspection, I'm down two more tomatoes and a bathtub drain. I'm really trying not to lose it with all of this invasion of my space.

I noticed yesterday when I got home that my bathtub upstairs was full of dirt and gunk that wasn't there before. I just figured someone stepped in to look at something while wearing shoes. This morning, I turned the shower on and when I went to get in, I noticed that it wasn't draining at all and I had about an inch of gross dirty water standing in there. I thought that maybe they checked the drain and that it had gotten clogged (it was fine yesterday morning), so I got the plunger and gently tried to fix it. Once it drained, I poured some Drano in and went downstairs to take a shower. According to the directions, I was supposed to wait for 30 minutes and then run hot water down the drain. When I did, it still wouldn't drain and I noticed that the drain stopper had been pushed down.

I felt like an idiot that I had gone through all of this when I just needed to pull the drain control up. However, when I did so, the entire knob came off in my hand. I no longer felt like an idiot, I was annoyed that they broke my drain. Granted, it may not have been in the best shape to begin with, but I have never had a problem with it (I don't use that faucet often anyway, I use the other one) and I certainly did not leave the tub in that shape yesterday when I left the house.

After conferring with Father of Ken, I successfully extricated the broken parts of the assembly, put it into a plastic bag, and headed for the hardware store. Please excuse the filth in these photos--my bathtub usually doesn't look this awful.

I found the replacement parts without incident and brought them home:

I'll spare you the details of how I put it back together and simply say that I may soon be moonlighting as a plumber. Look at this:

A thing of beauty. Now my drain works and I can clean the Inspection Filth from the tub. Thank God.

Stay Up Late

Sunday night was Oscar night at Ken and McKenna's house and we have a tradition of eating a delicious meal of appetizers for several hours while watching the broadcast. This year, we had grapes (the only healthy part of this spread), bread and cheese (I don't know what kind--some semi-soft cheese that was in the "cheese bits" bin at the store), Mexican beef and cheddar pockets, and Ellie Krieger's spinach and artichoke dip with tortilla chips.

For dessert, we had molten chocolate lava cakes:

Kenna also enjoyed a nice sock:

It was quite an enjoyable evening for both of us, but the show did keep us up past our normal bed time.

This is Kenna's "I want to go to bed soon" look:

"Please can I go outside and then go to bed?"

After a while, she gave up on going to bed and played with her blue ring while stretching out as far as she could:

Since Sunday night, we've been hard at work getting the house ready for the inspection this week. Now that it's over, I have some "Reminiscing" to do...

Obsession: Updated

Sorry about the link mix up, gentle readers. I've corrected the mistake, but I maintain that this is a serious misuse of Scooby Doo.

This week's favorite thing, to go along with my current craving for comfort foods to distract me from the creepiness of people coming into my home and eating my tomatoes, is my very favorite chocolate bar in the whole world, Nestle Extrafino:

I discovered these when I lived in Spain and I always had one stashed somewhere. Every time I go back, I stock up and bring them back to give as gifts. Each square melts in your mouth like chocolate silk. Plus, you get some of your recommended daily calcium intake!

If I can't get any Nestle Extrafino, I also love a good Hershey bar. There is something wonderful about the simplicity of Hershey's milk chocolate bars with their slightly waxy texture and the way that the smooth chocolate melts in your mouth. Don't even get me started on s'mores made with Hershey's chocolate...

Of course, there is a place in my life for higher end chocolate and I understand the health benefits of dark chocolate, but when I want chocolate comfort (or a good, gooey s'more), I'm turning to Nestle's Extrafino or Hershey's milk chocolate.

Is There Something I Should Know

Today, Kenna and I had to hit the road and get out of the house while some people came to take a second look. Since the realtor had told me that they would only be there for a little while, I didn't want to drive into town, so we went down to the lake to take a walk and take some photos for the blog. Lovely and bleak, no?

...and this is why I depend on my light box to get me through 75% of the year here.

So, the past few days have been pretty interesting. The people who looked at the house today also came on Sunday. When I returned on Sunday, I noticed that they had taken some clementines from the bowl on my kitchen table. Okay, I thought, that is weird, but if they want something to eat, that's fine. Side note: what is the deal with people who come to look at this house and insist upon pulling the shower curtains open and not closing them when they are done looking? These same people use the bathroom (kind of weird in and of itself) and leave the toilet lid up. The lid is closed when they arrive, the lid is closed when they lift it to use the toilet--who leaves it open in someone else's house? Why do people leave toilet lids up at all? They have lids for a reason--it looks nicer and leaving the lid up when you flush the toilet allows germs to spray up to six feet away from the toilet. Gross.

Fast forward to today--these people wanted to see the house again over their lunch break, so I straighten and polish things and thoughtfully bake some chocolate chip cookies to leave on the counter because A) I know these people like to eat and were missing their lunch break and B) it makes the house smell good. I purposely did not leave a note--after Sunday's clementine give away, I wanted to see what would happen. Upon arriving home (after they were here for 1.5 hours), I found both shower curtains pulled back, a toilet lid up, cookies eaten, another clementine gone, and a missing tomato! Who takes a tomato? Again, I do not care--if people are hungry, they can help themselves, I just think that taking a tomato is strange.

All of this activity at the house and having people here, looking at my things, leaving things askew, eating my food, etc. kind of freaks me out. I know it is necessary in order to sell the place, but I find it creepy even though I am never here during showings. Anyway, it makes me really crave comfort food. I wanted to make a chicken casserole to use some of the chicken in my freezer, so here's what I came up with:

Yummy! I sauteed about a cup of onion and a cup of leeks in 1/4 c. of butter and a tablespoon or so of olive oil until both were tender and then I added about a tablespoon of minced garlic. Once the garlic cooked for about a minute, I added about 1/4 c. flour and cooked it for one to two minutes. Then, I added two cups of my chicken consomme and a cup of whole milk. While that thickened, I chopped about 1 1/2 c. cooked chicken breast and added it along with a cup of frozen peas. The last ingredient was about three cups of (slightly under) cooked egg noodles. I seasoned the whole thing with salt, pepper, and some Mural of Flavor from Penzey's to taste and then put it into a 425 degree oven until the top browned and the casserole bubbled. Definitely worth a try if you like a light, but filling casserole with lots of flavor.

This week, I also perfected my granola bars, which are loosely based on Ina Garten's recipe. I was determined to make mine more healthy than hers (not difficult to do), so here's my adapted recipe (apologies for the fuzzy photo):

2 c. old fashioned oats

1 c. sliced almonds

1 c. shredded coconut

3 tbsp. canola oil

2/3 c. honey

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 c. raisins

1/2 c. dried cranberries

1/2 c. chopped dried apricots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x12 inch baking dish and line with parchment paper or foil.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

Combine oil, honey, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the oatmeal mixture. Add the dried fruit and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, pressing the mixture evenly into the pan with dampened fingertips. Bake for 25-30 minutes until light golden brown. Cool for at least 2-3 hours before cutting into squares. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in a cool, dry place--they can also be frozen.

You can vary the types of nuts and fruit, too--I sent some to Father of Ken made with pecans that he really likes.

While I eat to cope with the invasion of my home, I hope that the potential buyers are thinking of a fair and reasonable offer for the property...