Trisha Yearwood is coming to Food Network…

I’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!!!!!

Who doesn’t love a bunny….

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!!!!!!!!!!!

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

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

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.

 

I have a new Grandbunny…

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…

Tornado alley....

What a day for tornadoes! We're in Nashville this weekend, the storms have gone North of us, Ryan and family are safe in Lexington, but it's been a roller coaster ride with this weather.

The dogs and I are snuggled in, I'm watching the radar, the rest if the family has gone in search of a rabbit. More about that later...

 

I think Betty White looks better than Angelina Jolie…

Carlene sent me this today, so funny I had to share!!!

How to Make Greek Yogurt

I love Greek Yogurt, but it’s really pricey and if you like to cook, you can make it yourself for a fraction of the cost.

Before I start this post, I have to give credit to Paula at Salad-in-a-Jar, I followed her techniques, and she made it so simple.

The first time is the hardest, but it’s really not that difficult, ladies.  I went to Amazon to price yogurt, 17.6 ounces of Fage Total Greek Yogurt is $6.99.

The weight of my yogurt was 18.8 ounces, and it cost me approximately $1.50 – I used a half a gallon of milk, and I paid $2.99 a gallon for the milk at Aldi’s.  Now I did have an initial investment of $1.69 for a tiny single-serve container of Fage Unflavored Yogurt, but I’m not counting that, because I will never have to buy this again, as I can save a couple of teaspoons of each batch when I make more.

To make yogurt you need a half a gallon of non-fat milk and 2 teaspoon of live yogurt culture.  Buy unflavored non-fat yogurt and look on the side of the container to make sure that it has live yogurt cultures.  I bought Fage, I’ve also heard that Dannon non-fat has live yogurt cultures, as well.

I have an 8 cup measuring bowl, so I poured 8 cups of milk into the bowl and put it in the microwave to heat to a temperature of 175-180 degrees.  This is much easier than doing it in a saucepan on the stove because you don’t have to constantly watch it.  Paula said that it took 17 minutes in her microwave, my 1000 watt microwave takes 15-16 minutes.

I have a Polder Digital Thermometer which makes it really simple to tell what temperature your milk is, but a candy thermometer would work just as well. 

I started putting my thermometer into the microwave and testing at 16 minutes, I repeated this several times as I had never done this before and didn’t want it to get too hot.  The next time I do this I will know how long it takes and it will be much easier.

You need to let this sit and cool to a temperature of between 100-110 degrees, it will take about 20-30 minutes to reach this temperature. I whisked in a Tablespoon of Fage unnflavored yogurt and went to the next step.

This is where it got tricky for me, I didn’t know how to keep my yogurt at 100 degrees.  I preheated my oven to 170, as low as my temperature allows, for less than a minute, and my temperature had already risen to 110 degrees, so I opened the door until it backed off to 100 degrees.  I left on my oven light, sealed my mixing bowl of yogurt with aluminum foil, wrapped it in a towel and put it in the oven to “ferment.”  Some ovens can be set to 100 degrees, if you’re one of the lucky ones that has that feature this would be much easier to regulate.

It takes anywhere from 6-12 hours to make yogurt, the longer you leave it, the more sour it gets, and I like it mild so I checked mine after 6 hours, and it wasn’t gelatinous, so I put it back into the oven and pulled it after 8 hours.  It still seemed thin, and I was pretty skeptical at this point, but I whisked it, covered it and put it in the refrigerator overnight. 

A lot of people ferment their yogurt overnight, but I made mine mid-day, as I didn’t know how to regulate the temperature.  I found that my oven stayed at a pretty consistent 105 degrees with the light on, occasionally it would start creeping up to 108 and I would panic and open the door until the temperature backed off to 100 degrees.  

This morning I took the yogurt out of the fridge, it still seemed runny, I didn’t whisk it again, I just poured it into my makeshift strainer.  You need a really fine mesh boullon strainer for yogurt, they are pricey $79 on Amazon, but I don’t have one so I had to make my own.

I have a strainer that sits over the sink, it’s wide, so I think it takes less time to strain, I lined it with a tea towel, and then put several folded layers of paper towel on top of the towel, as I didn’t want to yogurt to touch the tea towel and let it strain.

I quickly realized that I didn’t actually need the towel, I used an old one, it looked icky, so I just removed it and it worked fine to let the yogurt drain on the layers of paper towel.  You can also use cheesecloth for this, but then you have to wash it, paper towel is easier, you just toss it.

You can see that the yogurt has gotten really thick, look at the difference between picture 1 and picture 2, I let it drain for almost 3 hours.

Then I put it in mother’s old stainless steel bowl, my very favorite thing in the kitchen, but you’ve all heard before about how much I love this old bowl, and you can see how thick this is.  You could slice it with a knife, it’s so thick.

Then I whisked it, and it turned into this fluffy, wonderful yogurt.  Some people add a bit of skim milk at this point to make it even creamier, but I want it really thick, so I didn’t add milk back in.

I’m going to have a scoop of this on a baked potato tonight with some fresh chives from my garden.  Oh so good!

I put it in my Ball jar and the finished product yielded almost a quart.   I’m amazed by the fact that it reduces so much, but you’re taking out all of the liquid (whey) which some people use for different things, they use it instead of water for cookies veggies, for homemade bread, some people even water houseplants with it.

You’re probably thinking “this is a lot of work,” but it seriously isn’t, once you figure out the technique, it’s going to be really simple.

If you’re interested in this, Paula has a video, explaining it all.  You can access it here.

Note:  Some recipes called for powdered milk to give added protein and make it richer.  I was going to put it in, but I noticed a notation on salad-in-a-jar website that said she no longer does this, as she likes the texture better without it, so I left it out.

It’s healthy, it’s good for your gut, it’s cheap, it’s totally natural, it’s Yogurt!!!!!!!

2.22.13 Update:

I've now made a badzillion batches of yogurt, and I'm an old pro. I no longer have my digital thermometer, it bit the dust, now I just have a regular meat thermometer that I put in the milk.  I'm making it with whole milk, which is absolutely decadent, and the calories aren't that bad, it's so satisfying, I eat less, probably 8 ounces, so calories are about 100.

It's not that hard once you do it a few times, I can do i in my sleep now.  Make a batch and see if you aren't amazed.  Just make sure you get your temperatures right and you will have no problem.

I HAVE YOGURT!!!!!

The first time trying anything is a pain in the patootie, and I was skeptical about the temperature, but it worked, it really worked!!!!!!

Now I’m straining it for greek yogurt.  I’ve already had a bowl with  cherries this morning and it was over the top yummy deliciousness.

I’ll update you in a bit, telling you exactly how I did it, but I’m really excited.  This is so cool!!!  Maybe I’ll make cottage cheese next, ya think?

I read quite a bit about the process but decided to do it like Paula does over at salad-in-a-jar.  So thank you Paula, this is so COOL!!!!

Note:  I wasn’t kidding about the cottage cheese, and it looks like it’s a walk in the park to make.  Here’s how Alton Brown makes it…

Blogging, it’s such a good thing…

I sit here at my computer, looking out at at the horse pasture, and I open my blogging client (Windows Live Writer) and blog whatever comes into my head, not knowing who reads what I’ve written or for the most part what people think.

You seldom comment, my readers, and that’s fine, instead of comments, I get emails and I’ve met the most amazing women through this blog, it has truly expanded my world.  Some of you I hear from occasionally, others frequently, and it always brightens my day.

I have friends I would have never known, two women, especially who have become such good friends, Carlene and Seana.  And I mustn’t forget Alena, who lives in California and drove here last fall when she was visiting Nashville to stay overnight.  Recently, Holly, a delightful woman from Oklahoma, got in touch with me and we’ve had a flurry of emails going back and forth.  She’s going to try straw-bale gardening this spring, and I’m anxious for pictures and to see how it works for her.

This morning Holly sent me a tutorial, I thought some of you might enjoy as well, for labeling jars.  How clever, the way this woman did this, I may just have to give this a try with those Ball jars in my “working” kitchen.

Here’s the link with instructions, she even included the actual labels she made…

Life…..

Boy, howdy, it’s been a doozie of a day!!! 

Well, it hasn’t really, and no I don’t talk like this, but I always wanted to say this phrase, so I did.

I made yogurt today, actually I’m still making it, it will be out of the oven at 9pm, and then I strain it and hopefully it turns into creamy, smooth, greek yogurt.  We’ll see how that works out.

I don’t have a yogurt maker yet, so I made it the old fashioned way.  I may be saying “Boy Howdy” for sure if I take it out of the oven and it’s curdled.  I’ve only been working on this since noon.  It’s been a “doozie of a day!!!”  Omg, I’m such a dork!!!

And speaking of coffee...

 

This is on my bucket list

The idea of doing this has always fascinated me. It can't be that hard. Umhmmmm, sure it can't!

My take on the Oscars aka The Martin Scorsese show

First of all, I don’t care how talented this man is, the cameras played to him all night and he was referred to time and time again and it was a big yawn!

And don’t get me started on Angelina Jolie who looked absolutely ridiculous with that leg thrown out of her gown, posing with her arm on her hip while presenting the award.  She looked imaciated, intensely uncomfortable, and absolutely over the top full of herself. I am not a fan!

And of course I have to refer to Jennifer Lopez’s nipple slip – did it show or did it not?  I immediately thought I saw a shadow when I was watching her, but I did enjoy her and Cameron Diaz and their back pose that didn’t come off and their laughing at themselves.

Billy Crystal, amazing as always, the man is a treasure, and has the quickest wit, he simply amazes me.

Meryl Streep was wonderful, and even though I found myself rooting for Viola Davis, the woman is a wonder, no doubt about it, the most talented actress of our time and I loved it when she gave credit to her long time husband and they both teared up and he put his hand over his heart, it was so touching.

What I did like – when they did the segment about the celebrities that passed last year, they appropriately finished it with Elizabeth Taylor.  I was just waiting for it to be Whitney Houston, and if it was I was ready to throw my lamp through the television screen.  At least somebody had some sense and gave her the final tribute, very fitting.

The gowns – really pretty, glamorous, and even though people seemed to love Penelope Cruz’s look, I thought it looked frumpy. 

And that’s it, my quick take, the show was way too long, but not too boring, and I loved Ellen and her vintage JCP commercial, she was so funny, as usual.

Okay, I’m done with this, I’m going out in the sunshine now, I’m finished with the Oscars…

My new “working” kitchen

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like change.  I’m not one of those women who’s constantly moving furniture, redecorating, I get things the way I like them and I leave them, and the changes I do make are usually made with baby steps.

Last year I blogged about my pantry redo and it’s been great.  I’ve managed to keep the organization, but my organized bins were stuffed so full that I still didn’t realize exactly what I had.  And now that I’ve acquired more Ball Jars, I’ve been putting a few things, like coconut, chocolate chips, marshmallows and nuts into jars, but I had to stop because I had no room left.

I know you’re rolling your eyes, thinking “oh-oh, here she goes again with those damn jars” and you’re right, but it’s been such a life changing event for me.

Hubby has been telling me for months years to redo my two glass front cabinets in the kitchen.  When we moved here nine years ago, I filled them with blue willow dishes, I have indirect lighting in them, and it’s so pretty, but if I’m honest with you, I’ve never used those dishes once in all these years and I rarely turn on the lighting.  I have the bottom of my dining room hutch filled with blue willow, these were just for display.

It’s only been in the past few years that I’ve had any appliances sitting on my counter except for my red Kitchenaid mixer, oh and that pricey DualIt toaster like Queen Elizabeth has that’s a piece of crap.  My kitchen was always decorated to the hilt with pretty bottles and pieces of pottery, and it was totally non-functional.  The kids would throw a fit when they visited because there was never enough room to cook.  I finally got smart and got rid of all that stuff and put out the small appliances and it’s made my life so much simpler.

So, this morning, I took a deep breath and had LC take every single one of those dishes out of the cabinets, and then I started a sealing frenzy.  I took things out of the pantry, sealed them in my Ball jars, and started filling my cupboards, three jars deep with pasta, grains, cereal, beans, rice, croutons, etc.  This one is finished, the other one I’m still working on.  I only have two shelves with jars because I can’t reach the top shelf, so I put pieces from mother’s kitchen on the top shelf, her mother’s old coffee grinder, a salt crock and her butter mold.  Now when I open the cabinet I see her things and smile, and I never smiled when I looked at all of those blue dishes, actually I never opened the cabinets at all.

And the pantry?  It looks positively bare, well not really, but it is a lot more accessible now.  Oh, I’m getting so smart in my old(er) age, who woulda thunk it???

If only I would have had a digital camera when I was younger…

Clotheslines have to be one of my favorite things.  When the boys were growing up, mine was in the trees, very similar to this pictures, without the pretty aprons.  Oh, how I wish I had pictures of those little boy’s clothes drying on the line, and all of my 80’s clothes flapping in the breeze.

I think if I could go back, that would be one of the things I would change, I would have taken more pictures.  We don’t realize until we grow older how much these memories mean to us. 

And now I take so many pictures, but they are in folders, organized by date on my computer, and backed up on an external harddrive.  I should get them organized but it would be a herculean effort at this point, and it’s just getting worse as time goes by.   I often wonder what will happen to all of these digital photos we all have.  Will anybody want them, will people even know what the pictures are years from now?  Probably not, but it’s so easy to take hundreds of shots in a single afternoon, and I hate to erase anything, even the blurry ones.  I seriously need to get a handle on this, maybe this summer when it’s hot and the outside isn’t beckoning me.  Maybe…

Coming full circle…

I seriously think I am coming full circle, things from the past interest me more than ever, things that were important just a few years ago no longer matter.  The changes are subtle with the aging process, but it’s happening.

I won’t go into the Ball jar sealing obsession today, but I will tell you that I’m thinking of using pint jars as drinking glasses for iced tea this summer.  I’m once again fascinated with the idea of preserving jams and jellies, and most of all, I’m fascinated by cast iron.

I’ve had so many pieces of cast iron cookware over the years, and it’s long gone now, except for a big skillet that I use constantly, and I wish I had it back.  Especially my mother’s covered dutch oven, but it’s gone and now I’m going to replace it, not with new, but with old.  Hubby will find me one at an auction, he found me a cast iron cornbread pan a couple of weeks ago, you know the kind that makes the corn sticks.

And you’re probably going ewwwwww, that’s nasty, and you’re right it was, but I have the magic bullet, my self cleaning oven.  I wish I would have taken a picture, it was pretty bad, greasy, crusty, rusty, I thought it was hopeless and I had no desire to clean it, that would involve a ton of elbow grease.  But I read online to just sit it in the bottom of your oven and turn it on the cleaning cycle.  My oven needed to be cleaned anyway, so I did it, and it came out perfectly clean, everything was gone, no grease, no crud, just light surface rust.  We went to visit the kids so I didn’t have time to finish the process, but a quick scour with steel wool, then vegetable oil, reseason in a 250 degree oven and it will be good to go.  I’ll post a picture when it’s finished.

I got a catalog from Lodge in the mail, and I’ve decided that I now need a wedge pan for cornbread and scones.

Then I found this drop biscuit pan and decided that I need it as well.

 

My mother would smile if she could see my interest in all of these things.  I was thinking last night as I put pudding in dishes that I need to find the stemmed dessert dishes that she used to have.  She gave me a set, once again they’re long gone.  I never ever thought I would want these things, but now I do.  I’m fortunate that LC likes going to auctions and tag sales, he seems to always come up with the things I’m looking for.

I’ve also been straining my plain, unflavored yogurt lately to make my own greek yogurt, and now I’m going to buy a 2 quart yogurt maker.  I’ve researched them and I like the ones from YoGourmet and Euro Cuisine.  And yep, you guessed it, I used to have one and it’s long gone.  But it was individual cups, and these are two quarts. I like the idea of using a half gallon of milk and making a big batch, because when you strain away the whey to make greek yogurt it reduces by half.  I even made Granola a few weeks ago.  What is going on with me??? 

I’ve been eating really healthy this winter, no fast food, except for the occasional Egg McMuffin, hardly any processed foods, just daily salad-in-a-jar, beans, nuts, lots of veggies and a little lean meat, a lot of yogurt, brown rice, whole grain pasta and bread.  I feel wonderful when I eat this way, and no I’m not losing weight, but I’m not gaining either.  Will it last, or is this another one of my flash-in-the-pan whims?  Time will tell, but for now I’m enjoying what I’m doing.

And about that yogurt, my favorite way to eat it is to sweeten it with the one processed food I do eat, Splenda, well except for Diet Coke, which I adore and will never give up.  A girl has to have a few vices.  I add vanilla or almond flavoring to my thick yogurt, nuts (almonds, walnuts or pecans) occasionally chopped apples and it’s amazing.  Of course it’s even better with honey or maple syrup, but I’m not eating sugar right now, so I stick with the nuts and different fruits.  I like it so much more than flavored yogurt from the grocery store that’s filled with preservatives.  And homemade yogurt is so good, it’s amazing how much better it is than the kind you get in the store, so I’m looking forward to making my own.  When I used to make it the taste was delicious, much less sour than the yogurt you get at the store, but I thought it was a little watery, but now that I know how to strain it, I’m anxious to see the results, I bet it is wonderful!

I just don’t get my sudden intense interest in “making” all of these foods.  I’m even thinking about dusting off the dehydrator and drying some fruit.  I think it goes back to childhood when we made practically everything we ate, well except for my beloved Blue Bell Bologna.

So I’ll just go with the flow, and see what happens with all of this. You notice that it all involves food, no surprise there, I’ve always been a foodie and a kitchen gadget lover.

Hope you all have a good weekend, I can’t wait til Saturday, 9am so that I can once again be mesmerized by Pioneer Woman on FoodTV.  Jeezy Pete, I’m hopeless…

Dreaming of days ahead…

I’ve been talking to hubby about moving the roses you see in the foreground of this picture to the patio.  When I bought them they were “supposed” to be carpet roses, that’s what the tag said, and instead some of them were full sized knockouts, and they weren’t right for the space.  They were too big and made the front entrance look overgrown.

So this morning, I’m in bed, because I’ve had a bug that I’m trying to get over, I hear the garage door go up, think nothing of it, and in about fifteen minutes, my cell phone rings.  It’s LC calling me from the yard.  He’s moved the roses!  WHAT, HE’S MOVED THE ROSES!!!!!  Without me to supervise and tell him exactly which ones go where, OMG, sick or not, I hustle it out of bed and race out the door to find that he put them exactly where I would have.  But, of course, I had to pull up this picture from last summer to make sure he got the right ones where I wanted them, and decided to publish it, just so the rest of you could get a taste of what’s coming at your house.  Oh, spring, glorious spring, I can’t wait!!!!

Happy Birthday sweet daughter-in-law…

John baked Deanna her Hershey’s Perfectly Perfect Chocolate Cake last night for her birthday today.  This is the ultimate chocolate cake, fudgy, moist, it’s the wonderful chocolate cake we all remember from our childhoods, and it is perfect!  My buddy V told me  about it a few years ago, I made it for the family, we we all adored it, and it’s now one of our favorites.

And tonight she requested Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Fried Steak with mashed potatoes, gravy and biscuits.  Oh, be still  my heart

Happy Birthday Deanna, I wish we were with you to celebrate wth you.  Your father-in-law is absolutely salivating at the thought of that chicken fried steak! 

Central Kentucky is beautiful, even in the winter…

Good morning from a Kentucky horse pasture….

How do you keep a straight face...

 Me:  "Abby, do you want to taste this orange?"

Abby:  "No t'anks Grammie"

Me:  "How about just smelling it?"

Abby:  "NO MA'AM" (very emphatically)

Me:  "How about a cracker?"

Abby:  "Okay, t'anks"

Of course I laugh, I'm trying really hard not to, but I can't help it.  "NO MA'AM" she just cracks me up...

A little shopping trip….

Abby and I were at Hobby Lobby today, she was riding in the cart, this was our conversation.

Abby: “Abby get down and walk”
Grammie:  “No Abby, Daddy said you have to stay in the cart”
Abby:  “Abby’s gonna cry”
Grammie:  “Well, you just go ahead and cry, but you can’t get out of the cart”
Abby:  “Abby won’t cry”

Then  she gave me a big megawatt smile and we continued on our way.

The Country Life

bo·vine

adj \ˈbō-ˌvīn, -ˌvēn\

Definition of BOVINE

1 : of, relating to, or resembling bovines and especially the  cow

2 : having qualities (as placidity or dullness) characteristic of cows

— bo·vine·ly adverb

— bo·vin·i·ty noun

Examples of BOVINE

1. She stared at us with a stupid, bovine expression.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grammie  has been spending time with Abby while her Momma is away for a few days.  I’m so eager to take country pictures, but the weather isn’t cooperating.  It was really cloudy today, but the cows that live in a pasture behind their house seemed to enjoy the photo op, anyway.  Hoping for sunshine tomorrow, more to come…

 

The good, the bad and the ugly

The bad was I had a root canal today and my mouth was clamped open for two hours, the good was I didn't know that I was going to have one so I didn't have time to work myself in a tizzy. And the ugly, that's what my smile would have looked like if they would have had to pull my tooth, but they didn't.  Whew, dodged a bullet.  That is all...

So we go out to dinner last night…

Hubby took me out for an early Valentines Day Dinner to Angelo’s, our favorite Italian restaurant.

It was warm and cozy inside, they seated us at a corner table, they had just brought our drinks and I was watching the hostess and a waitress put tables together next to us to accommodate a large party.  They apparently ran out of tables, because I saw them carrying in an outdoor table to extend the ones they put together.  I thought at the time, that looks odd, it’s really small and wire mesh and had no tablecloth.

Then the hostess comes over to us and says, “Ma’am, we’re setting those tables up for an elderly party,  can we take your table away and replace it with that table on the end?”  They were both looking at us and smiling, and I looked at her and said “no!”

The look on their faces was priceless.  I wish I would have had a camera, the smiles just fell away and they had these stunned looks on their faces.  Hubby picked up the ball, because he’s more diplomatic than me and was trying to diffuse a potentially bad situation because he knew I was not a happy camper, and went on to explain that we had made reservations weeks ago, and that table was just not appropriate.

The hostess got her bearings and said, “uh, okay, uh.”  Then she did a perimeter check and asked if she could reseat us in a booth, which we would have preferred in the first place, and of course we were happy to do that, but no way was I going to enjoy my Valentine’s Day outing eating on that dinky little outdoor table.

Shame on them, this is a nice restaurant, they should have never suggested such a thing in the first place.  Can’t you  just see us sitting there, while they removed our table and put the other one in it’s place. Puh-leez.

The owner came over to us and apologized, I think he was actually embarrassed that they suggested such a thing.  And snaps for me for being a gutsy ballsy old broad who said no instead of going along with that silly girl. Now had I been younger, actually much younger, I would have probably said “okay”, but since I’ve been to a lot of rodeos by now, I’ve learned a few things, mainly to speak up instead of being pushed around.  This was worse than when you go to a restaurant and they try to seat you next to the kitchen, Come to think of it I think I’ve refused those tables, too. ;o)

The food was wonderful, it always is, and I always feel like I’m twelve years old, because  I always  usually order spaghetti and meatballs, but that’s what I like, I’m a red sauce girl.

 

 

 

 

 

And hubby, he always gets the same thing, too.  Chicken cordon bleu, heavy wine and cream sauce, mushrooms, chicken, not my thing, but he’s a big fan…

And the best part, drats I didn’t take a picture, but it’s homemade warm, buttery little knot rolls covered in chopped garlic, and their signature salad, crisp greens, black olives, red onions, tomatoes drenched in tart, homemade Italian dressing.

It’s a really good restaurant, John and Deanna went to Café Nona in Nashville, he called later and said that he likes Angelo’s better.  And we’ll go back, and have a better experience the next time, I’m sure.  Sometimes things sh*t happens, know what I mean, Vern?

Our cute little monkey…

The look of innocence….

Do you think little Miss Maggie Moo had her nose in my bowl of cottage cheese? Well, all I have to say is “one picture is worth a thousand words…”

My sunroom smells like a pine forest today…

This rosemary was on the patio, we’ve had such a mild winter that it’s still thriving.  Temperatures are forecasted in the teens tonight, I couldn’t bear the thought of losing it, so hubby trucked it into the sunroom until the cold snap passes.

It’s smells so good, wish I had smell-o-vision on this computer, or better yet, share a few sprigs with you today.  You have no idea of how wonderful it smells in here…

Obituaries are fascinating…

I’ve read them for years, you never know who you might see and even though I seldom know anyone, I’m astonished at the things people put in obituaries.  Often they show a woman’s high school senior picture, complete with the drape, and the woman is in her 80’s.  Or they show pictures of when they were young with a picture as they are now, that’s always interesting.  And I’m always fascinated by the men’s ears, it is true, they do grow longer as they get older.

This morning, they had a lulu in the Heavensville obits.  It was an attractive man, 63 years old, sad that he died that young, but anyway, the following sentence was included in his obituary.

“He enjoyed remodeling, shopping at Rural King, while enjoying the popcorn.”

While it’s funny, it’s also sad, surely they could have found something more worthwhile to say about the poor guy than this.  Jeez Louise, and I thought it was bad that I would want my dogs mentioned in my obituary.  Kidding, family, just kidding, well kinda ;o)

Salad In a Jar, 3 months later and still going strong…

I know you’re just dying to hear how my salad in a jar is progressing, umhmmm, sure you are, and if I’m sick of salad yet, and the answer is no!  I’m still as excited about it as I was in the beginning, sealing everything I can think of, and  still eating salad every single day for lunch.  Am I losing weight, no, but then I’m not gaining either. Maybe if I start eating it for dinner, too… **sigh**

I continue to tweak it, I no longer use the great big salad bowl and toss it together, now I chop on a big cutting board, fill the jars, and then use my salad shooter to slice a pile of carrots, add them to the top of the lettuce, dice some celery and add it on top of the carrots. This week I used a head of iceberg, a bundle of leaf lettuce, and canned it separately.  I’m dreaming of spring and using the leaf lettuce to make wilted lettuce salad with green onions and bacon.

Okay, I’ll shut up about it, until the next time. Have a nice day…

~ jan

Oh, I’m seriously thinking of making jam this spring, too.  Bet you all can’t wait to hear about that either… **wicked grin**

And that’s not dirt on the side of my refrigerator cabinet, it’s how they stained the wood, drives me crazy, too!  And my coffee maker isn’t dirty either, it’s camera glare.  Glad I cleared that up for all of you…

Somebody is lazin’ in the sun…

My take on Madonna’s Half Time Show

I wasn’t going to watch, but I decided to see what all the hoopla was about.

After it was over, the reviews came in fast and furious, the younger crowd thought she was awesome.

And yours truly, okay I admit, I’m biased, however, if you took away the glitz, the special effects, the costumes and just watched the woman, what did you see?  Ummmmm, a fifty something woman who wasn’t agile on the bleachers, who did a lot of bump and grind and lip synched.

Awesome, hardly, but then I’m biased…

Are you ready for some football????

NO!!!!!!!!!  I detest football, I always have, so I’m going to be watching Netflix tonight, hubby can watch it in the den, no football for this old girl.

Oh, I’ve tried over the years to enjoy it, seriously I have, but I just don’t get it, and I don’t enjoy it.  All the hoopla over the Super Bowl, and tickets going for as much as $10,000 apiece, holy schmoly what a waste!

But that’s just my opinion, and I’m sure most of you don’t think like I do, but I just felt like venting this afternoon.

Now go watch that game and enjoy yourselves, while I watch a movie.  And no, I’m not going to watch Madonna at half time, I can’t handle her either, the woman needs to retire for gawds sake, she’s 53 years old!

Well, I’m just in a great mood this afternoon. It’s not the game, actually, sinuses are giving me fits, I trekked to convenient care for some meds because I’m dizzy as a goose, poor hubby isn’t even getting Super Bowl goodies.

And that’s just the way it is this Super Bowl Sunday, Jan here in a p*ssy mood!