I’m old now, I like routine, I like things to stay the same, but the Daily Dish needed a clean-up job. That’s why the new index page, a cover page, where you can just click and go.
If anybody has any thoughts, suggestions, criticism, etc., email me, and let me know. I want this site to be easier to navigate, not more difficult.
~ jan
I come home, I’m back on the computer again, still have the windows open, enjoying the fresh air.
I hear a tractor….. It’s the farmer in the field next to us, he’s spreading manure – HE’S SPREADING MANURE…. M-A-N-U-R-E!!!!!!
OMG, the smell is horrendous, it must be pig poop. Now I have to close the windows! Geez Louise, so much for the country life, I can’t even enjoy fresh air!
It was a wonderful morning in Heavensville, warm, breezy, sunny, I worked on the computer all morning, promising myself that when the temperature got to 70 degrees, I would take a break and take the M&M’s for a ride on Milly.
Sure enough, the temperature went to 70, so I poured coffee into my favorite Starbucks travel mug, ummmm, well it wasn’t very hot, even though it had been in the carafe that is supposed to keep it steaming, but that’s okay, it’s kinda warm, it will be fine…
I grab a healthy snack for us, a couple of multi-grain crackers for them, no doggie biscuits in this house, those things have nasty stuff in them, a Weight Watcher oatmeal cookie for moi, put them on the golf cart, put on my sunglasses, grab hubby’s lightweight jacket and put it on, after all it’s breezy, and roll out of the garage.
Of course, by now, the sun has gone in, no need for the sunglasses, and even though it’s 70 degree’s, forget breezy, it’s escalated to really windy, but that’s okay, it feels really “brisk,” so I zip up my jacket and roll on down to the creek, my favorite spot to sit and ponder and drink my coffee.
I break up the crackers for the girls, unwrap my cookie, and a big gust of wind comes by and blows the crackers on Mildred’s floorboard, where I promptly step on one and crush it to smithereens, the cookie wrapper blows to heaven knows where, and when I take a drink of my coffee the lid wasn’t on tight and the damn coffee spills all down the front of hubby’s jacket, soaking my chest and the whole jacket sleeve. Good thing it wasn’t hot, huh?
And the dogs decide they don’t really want to eat those crackers, they would have probably rather had doggie biscuits instead, and they are blowing off the cart anyway, and my puny little diet cookie that I ate in one bite tasted stale, but I’m still undeterred.
So, I continue on my way, still determined to enjoy the “weather.” By now it’s blowing gale force winds, the sky is looking rather ominous, and my chest and arm are freezing because they’re wet, and the girls are practically blowing off the the seat from the force of the wind! And to top it all off, I have on my bluetooth headset, I’m using it to talk to hubby, and some old guy is getting his mail and looking at me like I’ve lost it.
Okay, think about it, here is this stupid woman with a wet jacket, hanging on to two little dogs for dear life, driving her golf cart in a windstorm and appearing to be talking and laughing to herself.
Oh wow, can’t wait for summer… This was so much fun, today!
I just read about her in People Online. She said she is consumed by thoughts of food 75% of the time and eats like a pig.
Hey, me, too!! I’m totally obsessed by food I and eat like a pig, too…Finally, someone I can relate to. My kind of woman, just tellin’ it like it is!!!
Can we be friends???
But wait a minute, how come she looks like this and I just look like….. a pig! I’m just doing what she’s doing!!!!
“Oink, Oink”
I’m changing some things around on the Dish. Time to shake it up a bit, not a lot, just tweaking it. Links will be disappearing on the sidebar, but they’ll be back. So if it looks strange, don’t worry, I’m fixing it. Um hmmmm, sure thing…
We used to wear “things” in our hair. Cute “things” like barrettes, and headbands, scarves and scrungies, even fake hairpieces. Oh, I had a whole drawer full of ‘em. We didn’t look silly, at least we didn’t think we did, we were young and we thought we looked trendy…
Today, however, I wasn’t trying to look trendy, heaven forbid, not at my age, I look stupid with anything in my hair, but I was working on this &*$%@*# computer, and my hair kept falling forward, and so I grabbed one of the dog clippie things and anchored my hair back with it, and promptly forgot I had it on.
Hubby comes home, takes a look at me and says, “why in the hell do you have a dog barrette in your hair?” Oh, Geezy Pete, I forgot all about it, and long gone are the days when he would have smiled and thought it looked cute, now he thought it just looked stupid. And he’s right, of course. Why do we have to give up so much when we get older because we no longer look good???? It’s just not right!
He could have been more tactful, though, well he could have, darned man anyway! Men Schmen!!!
This lady is just precious! She has a whole series of Depression Cooking videos on YouTube. You can access them here, just look in the right sidebar! Enjoy… ~ jan
Mary Lee sent me this today, just had to share. Can’t you just see a little girl saying this?
She was in the bathroom putting on her makeup under the watchful
eyes of her young granddaughter as she'd done many times before. After
she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, 'But
Gramma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!'
I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye....
It was late, hubby and the M&M’s were fast asleep, and I had been engrossed in a good book. I switched off the light, rolled over on my side and put my hand in Maggie’s bed, not touching her.
After a bit I felt this little paw slip under my hand. I wrapped my fingers around it, and she licked my hand and then let out this huge sigh.
So much joy from such a simple little thing…
Researchers in the United Kingdom found that test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message's details than those who didn't doodle. The findings were published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.
"If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream," study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, said in a news release issued by the journal's publisher. "Daydreaming distracts them from the task, resulting in poorer performance. A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task."
"In psychology, tests of memory or attention will often use a second task to selectively block a particular mental process," Andrade said. "If that process is important for the main cognitive task, then performance will be impaired. My research shows that beneficial effects of secondary tasks, such as doodling, on concentration may offset the effects of selective blockade."
In everyday life, Andrade said, doodling "may be something we do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task, rather than being an unnecessary distraction that we should try to resist doing."
Better Than Robert Redford Dessert
adapted from Family Circle 
Lord Have Mercy, does this ever look good!!!!
When I published the lemon desserts, I totally forgot to put in our family favorite, especially John’s favorite, Better than Sex aka Robert Redford Dessert.
And since he’s coming home this weekend, I’m going to make it for him, and since it’s easier to Google the recipe than to find it in my cookbook, I was looking online when I found this variation.
Holy Schmoly, does this look awesome or what???? But no, I’m going to make our tried and true, and I need to get my original version added to the lemon dessert section as well as the family favorites. It’s wonderful…
You can get the recipe for this adapter Family Circle version on Jan Can Cook.
~ jan
Okay, ladies, there is something for everyone here. Great springtime desserts for you, wonderful for Easter, too. Access by clicking on the lemon in the right sidebar.
I’ve been doing so many things this month on the computer, if you sent me a lemon recipe and I didn’t get it on here, please send me an email, let me know. Even though I did try and drag everyone’s recipes into a separate folder, I might have missed somebody.
Enjoy, these all look absolutely amazing!!!! And thanks to everybody who took the time to send me their lemon favorites.
I also did a little long overdue site maintenance. I put up links again to my other recipe pages, as well as all of my other blogs. It’s all in the sidebar.
~ jan
More specifically, the great lemon desserts you all sent me. I have errands to run, some actual “work” that I have to do on the computer, but the lemon desserts are all ready to go, I just have to index and publish them. I’ll do it later today. I’ll give you all a little sunshine.
And I did have sun peeking thru the clouds this morning, specifically two little dogs that always make me smile. They sleep in, if the house is quiet, they seldom get up before 10 am. Mollie always barks when she’s ready to get up, she won’t jump off of the bed.
I heard her a few minutes ago, and I go in the bedroom and she was standing in the middle of the bed, doing her morning stretches. Maggie woke up, got out of her bed, she had to stretch, too, then here they came. Mollie crawled in my lap, Maggie jumped on me and gave me a sloppy kiss, and I smiled. Even on sad days, life is good…
For a few weeks now, I’ve been thinking, “I need to call Ramona and see how she is.” She’s older now, seventy-seven and I haven’t talked to her since last fall. Obviously she’s been on my mind, as I posted her recipe just a few days ago for her wonderful Butterfly Salad.
This morning, I was reading the obituaries, which I always do, and she passed away. I feel so sad, that I didn’t listen to my inner voice telling me to call her. Learn from my mistake, if there is someone in your life that you care about and that you haven’t taken time to call lately, do it, right now, today. Don’t put it off, tomorrow may be too late… Rest in peace, sweet Ramona, you were a kind and gracious lady…
Probably not, but you know me, I’ll post anything. Ewwwwwwww, no big girl panties, either!
Aren’t you glad I shared?
Hey, it’s late, I’ve been in the whirlpool too long tonight, the steam has fogged what’s left of my brain… Maybe I’ll delete this tomorrow, but probably not…..
Kate Winslet – looked amazing, old world movie star glamour with her dress choice, and she has a real body, not a twig. Loved it when she told her Dad to whistle. He was so debonair in his hat!
Jennifer Aniston – what was up with the braid in her hair. I’ve seen her look awesome, but last night wasn’t one of her better evenings. The dress was not that attractive, and I was surprised because you would have thought she would have gone all out because of Angelina Jolie being there. But, hey, good for her, maybe she didn’t feel the need.
Angelina Jolie – the emeralds worked. I still don’t like her, but those emeralds were stunners.
Sarah Jessica Parker – what was up with the boobs? Implants? They looked silly.
Goldie – older, heavier, still adorable.
Sophia Loren, ageless.
Sean Penn – arughhhh, can’t stand the man, why doesn’t he leave his politics at home “You commie, homo-loving sons of guns.” And why didn’t he thank his long suffering wife. He is so obnoxious!
Reese Witherspoon, adorable, but her dress got hit by the ugly stick.
Mickey Rourke, disappointed that he didn’t win, only because his dog died, silly, yeah, I know….
I thought Beyonce looked amazing, she has a real body, too.
It wasn’t a memorable night, but I did like the theater in the round and the special effects of the backlit screen.
Its just not the same as it in the old days with Johnny and Bob and Whoopi.
The M&M’s have acted like a couple of little sh*ts all day long! I swear, dogs can be as naughty as little kids…. Bark, bark, bark, whine, whine – I’ve been really busy, and they are so spoiled, they weren’t getting enough attention, so they’ve just been little terrors. I know, I know, it’s my fault for spoiling them, but enough already! If this keeps up, they are going to have to take me to obedience school!
Egads, what a day! But I did make hubby a nice dinner, including Ramona’s Butterfly Salad, which he adores. Barb made it for her Valentines Day Party, and it reminded me that it’s been awhile since we’ve had it, and I had fresh strawberries and pineapple, and I sectioned some oranges to put in it – it was wonderful.
I’ve gotten quite a few lemon recipes, thanks to all of you for helping me out with this. I’m going to post them later this week, when things settle down a bit.
I’m also revamping the spring salad pages, and I will be posting our great salad recipes. I would love to have more to add to the collection, so if any of you have salads to share, email me at munchiebusiness@gmail.com, and I’ll include them.
And yes, I know, you all want to know what Ramona’s Butterfly Salad is like. Ramona is a wonderful lady that I’ve known for several years. She is in her early eighties now, and she’s just delightful, and one of the best cooks I’ve ever known. So here’s her recipe, this is absolutely wonderful! If you blend the dressing for quite a while, it becomes as thick as honey. I usually set it out of the fridge for a bit before I drizzle it on salads, it’s so thick. It’s a sweet dressing, good on any kinds of greens.
I’ve also had great success making roasted sweet potato salad with it. I just roast sweet potato chunks tossed with olive oil in my oven until they are tender and starting to brown, cool them, toss them with red onion slices, dried cranberries, walnuts and this dressing, then chill in the fridge. It’s awesome!
And now, I’m going to cuddle my little monsters for awhile, even when they’re naughty, they’re still adorable! Oh what a sucker I am…
Ramona's Butterfly Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
My friend Ramona gave me this recipe last year. Her daughter, Jane, made it for a brunch, and she LOVED it. I love it, too - the dressing is so thick, it is like honey.
It's a spectacular salad, good with chunks of cooked chicken tossed in, also... I made it recently and substituted strawberries and grapes for the kiwi, and used pecans instead of almonds - it was yummy! This works well with any kind of fruit.
~ Jan
Salad:
1/2 C. (or so) sliced almonds, toasted
1 T. olive oil
1 T. sugar
4 crisp romaine hearts (or a bag of loose romaine heart lettuce, divided among 4 plates)
2 kiwi, peeled and sliced
15 oz. can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 C. (or so) coarsely grated Parmesan cheese
Poppy seed dressing:
3/4 C. sugar plus 1 1/2 T.
1 t. dry mustard
1/2 C. chopped onion
1 t. salt
1/3 C. balsamic vinegar
1 C. mazola oil
1 1/2 T. poppy seeds
To make salad:
In a skillet, stir together almonds, olive oil and sugar. Cook over medium to medium-low heat until almonds smell "toasty." Allow to cool slightly.
On 4 plates, arrange equal amounts of romaine hearts, kiwi slices, mandarin oranges and Parmesan. Sprinkle with almonds.
To make dressing:
Whisk together all ingredients until you can no longer feel the sugar grains (because they have dissolved in the liquid) and the whisk leaves a trail in the thickened mixture. Drizzle, to taste, over plates. Makes about 3 cups, so you will have leftover dressing.
NOTE: When I make this, I find it necessary to blend dressing ingredients in my blender to get the silky smooth, honey like consistency, I prefer. ~ jan
Serves 4.
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