Saturday, March 10, 2012

♫ Stayin’ alive, Stayin’ alive ♫

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♫ Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive ♫

♫ Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive ♫

♫ Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive ♫

Look this palm, it’s green, it’s healthy, it’s actually thriving.  But I can’t take credit, we brought it inside last fall, along with the larger palm you can just get a glimpse of in the right upper corner of this picture.  LC has faithfully watered and fertilized them both all winter.  It’s amazing what good lighting and a little TLC will do for plants.  They will both go back outside next month, since they’re both stayin’ alive.  Simply amazing…

Some of the reasons I love Pioneer Woman….

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She’s real!  When you watch her show, you know that she knows her way around the kitchen, and you can take it to the bank that the food she is cooking are not recipes that assistants show her twenty minutes before show time, she really makes this food for her family. It’s not artfully displayed, it’s doesn’t contain exotic spices and obscure herbs, it’s real food, everyday food, that families eat.

Her family actually works.  This morning the kids were helping dad chop down cedar trees, and those little boys know what they’re doing.  I’m sure some people are appalled at the child labor, but that’s how it is in the country, it’s a hard life, everybody pitches in.

I think why I really enjoy this show so much is that I can relate to her at that age, I cooked much like she does for my family.  And yes, I bought Crisco Oil in those large gallon plastic jugs and fried everything, as my mother and her mother before her had done for their families.  And you know what,  I miss it, all that fried food, but it’s not healthy and we’re at a stage of our life when we are trying to prolong the inevitable, so I no longer cook this way, and when I do fry food, I use olive oil and when I buy a quart of canola oil, it lasts for a year.

I was in the kitchen all the time when the boys were growing up.  I made pies, cakes, cookies, I made pasta, using a crank pasta maker, the kids helped, and now they make pasta themselves.  I baked bread, I made biscuits, and had to laugh as I watched Pioneer Woman this morning, because her biscuits didn’t look any better than mine.  I never could master high as the sky, flaky biscuits, mine always spread like hers did and were flat.  Thank goodness for Pillsbury and their frozen Southern Style, those things are high in the sky with no effort, and they never flop.

And the boys helping their dad, that was my boys.  LC always expected them to work alongside him, and they did.  And now that they’re grown and know how to do the things around the house that need to be done, I’m grateful for what he taught them.  They know how to do so much and it’s helped them as adults, saving them a lot of money, too,  unlike most of their friends who have not a clue as how to perform home maintenance.

So now I’ve had my Pioneer Woman fix for the week, it’s bath time for the girls this morning, life goes on, and for me, with a smile on my face.  So thank you, Ree Drummond, for bringing so many memories back to me, and allowing us to look inside your world.  I do love that woman!

Friday, March 9, 2012

It’s a beautiful morning….

I rode along with hubby thru the country early this morning.  They were moving a house down the highway, and of course he was absolutely thrilled at the thought of seeing it.  Why???

I just went along because it was in the country.  And I didn’t take pictures, who wants to see an ugly brick house rolling down a concrete slab at a snail’s pace, not me.  Men and women are so different, he was craning his neck, observing everything, talking about things like blow torches and brick pilings, and I was sitting there thinking that I forgot my chubby tube of Bonnie Bell Dr. Pepper Flavored Lip Gloss.  How old am I?  Ummmm seventeen?  Okay, so I’m sixty-two, but some things  never change!  Well, they don’t and my lips felt dry and I do love Bonnie Bell lip gloss, I’ved used it for more years than I want to think about and it’s just yummy!

The birds are singing, the yards are soggy from the rain last night, the grass is growing in uneven tufts as it does in early spring.  The country sounds of my childhood surrounded me, I sipped my coffee and lived in the moment.

Oh, and I totally ignored that house, it just spoiled the look of the landscape!  It’s a a glorious morning in Heavensville, I always love it after the storms pass thru, the sky is so blue, everything is new again, and it’s good to be alive…

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Goldie Hawn looks totally trashed…

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She’s 66-year old now, and leaving a party at 4am after celebrating the launch of her new children’s charity, The Hawn Foundation.  Talk about bad press!

And here’s how she looked going in, oh my, that must have been some party! 

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Trisha Yearwood is coming to Food Network…

trisha-yearwood-440I’m a big fan of Trisha Yearwood and I love her cookbooks, so I’m anxiously awaiting her premiere on Food Network, April 14, 9:30am Central.  Wow, they’ve got her following Pioneer Woman, a double header for me on Saturday mornings. 

I haven’t had this much fun watching Saturday morning tv since I was a kid!!!!

You can read details here

It’s a sad day….

Thought you all would like to know that my iMac is dead, totally fried, kaput...

Don’t send flowers, cash will do nicely.

~ jan

Okay, enough joking around, this is SERIOUSLY THE PITS, ladies!!!!!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Who doesn’t love a bunny….

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This is Marigold.  We went to visit her today, she’s two weeks old and such a little sweetheart.  Her human’s name is Nanette, this really neat lady with all her baby bunnies in the house.

Just what I needed to take my mind off of my computer problems.  A bunny, a furry, cuddly, sweet little bunny!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, March 5, 2012

GCB Review, it was trashy television at it’s finest, oh-so-good!!!!!!!

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The GCB (Good Christian Bitches) premiered last night and it was wonderful, trashy, decadent television at it’s finest. I loved it! It’s getting good reviews, who doesn’t like Southern women, and these ladies do it right!  Pilots aren’t always the best, there are so many characters to introduce and you’re trying to understand the plot, but by the second half, Deanna and I were laughing out loud. 

We were still in Nashville, and the guys, who had been watching NASCAR all day, had strict instructions that we had clicker control at 9pm.  They weren’t as enamored as we were, but that’s okay, this one’s for the girls anyway.  I haven’t enjoyed Southern ladies so much since Designing Women…

If you’re thinking, “drats, I forgot about it,” you can watch it here!

Pioneer Woman’s Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

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I made Pioneer Woman’s Peanut Butter Cake from her Tasty Kitchen site last week, and our family loved it.  You can find the recipe on Jan CAN Cook.

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I have a new Grandbunny…

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This is Petunia, afffectionately known as Bun-Bun, and yes she’s totally adorable.  John and Deanna wanted a black and white bunny, in memory of sweet Oreo, John’s much loved cocker spaniel who’s gone now, and here she is.

Deanna is an animal lover and Christmas ‘10 LC made her a rabbit hutch.  It sat between the birch trees in the back yard all last year, with cabbage planted underneath it, just waiting for a rabbit.  It was a busy time for them, so they didn’t pursue adding a bunny to their menagerie, but last weekend the time was right.  John found a breeder, and they drove to see her during the height of toronado warnings, while I stayed home with the dogs.  Needless to say, she arrived in a whirlwind!

She’s the gentlest little soul, loves to sit on your lap and let you cuddle her,  and she’s so soft.  Their cocker spaniel Izzie is wild with glee and will no doubt torture her relentlessly until the day comes when she’s a little bigger.  Then I have a feeling she will bite Izzie right on the snoot, and put her in her place.

Don’t you love baby animals in the springtime?  There is nothing better than fuzzy, downy little creatures that make you smile just to look at them…

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