Cold strikes same day as first snow

Snow arrived as predicted this morning. Fresh white covered the ground, but just barely. We only got a couple inches and that has all but melted away save for a few spots here & there. Our dogs, Nikki & Jr. Got officially moved to our back yard as of yesterday. Tanya spent some time & constructed a cable that allows another cable (attached to the dog) movement like on a pulley, so now she has lots of room to move about. That whole corner of the yard! There are lots of squirrels & rabbits who live back there & I'm thinking they'll have more to look at facing west. This works and old habits die hard. They still go to the front door to get out. Sometimes after coming in from the back, they still want to go out front. Guess they miss their old part of the yard.

On Saturday, I went shopping for cold supplies for all my sick family & friends. Today I am using those remedies and am glad I stocked up. Except I wish I had chicken to make soup with. I baked & ate a head of garlic (smeared on bread) I'm sure that should cure what ails me. Baked a killer loaf of bread using whole wheat, oat, millet, sunflower, & raisins. It came out very good now I am using "conditioners" to make my bread rise better. I guess working with various grains calls for extra help with gluten and such. Yeah, who knew? Tomorrow I'll try to make soup. At least it feels like the coldness has moved on. I hate fever conditions...Don't cha all? Cold & chills just makes me cranky & whinny. ick. Gotta get another cup of tea.

Work is cooking right along. I got a 2nd project which is good, except I haven't been real strong at multi-tasking lately. Lucky for me I read in a book that it really isn't healthy & can tax ones resources to concentrate on more than one item at a time. It said it's better to focus on 1 and I liked that, because it works for me, but then again sometimes I might just be being lazy. More green tea & less coffee & I should be able to handle everything. I need to work on filling that daytimer of mine. It's hard to work so far in advance.

Winter has arrived with all it's frost & snow. After last winter in Florida, I'm thinking it's amazing so many people live & really thrive in this environment during wintertime. Then again, it's good to freeze & kill all the bugs and diseases. This way spiders & snakes don't get so big & alligators can't live. Okay, Iowa may be a wonderful place to be. Each paradise has it's cost.

Using leftover church potatoes

So after Thanksgiving lunch at church, over a gallon of mashed potatoes lay abandoned. "Take them if you want," someone said. "They'll just get thrown away." Well I just couldn't let that happen. Volunteers kindly peeled all these taters, then we prayed over them. Something about church food makes it seem more valuable than usual so home I went with a gallon of mashed spuds.

I suppose not everyone would consider an evening in the kitchen a good time, but I do. My whole Friday night I spent making this & that, except when I was eating my creations, and what a wonderful time I had. To begin I made potato patties (or pancakes depending on your family jargon) and they were okay. Not spectacular, but etable. I added an egg, chopped onions & red peppers (sweet) and fried 'em up. Boring. The next dish had to be better than that one.

Next I made potato bread. My new bread machine (from my mother) is one of my favorite toys right now. I added all the ingredients listed in my handy dandy bread book, used up 2 cups of those precious taters, and left it to mix & bake.

Then I moved on to soup. Somewhere in my travels, I ate this yummy potato bacon soup, so I thought I'd try & copy that out of my memory banks. I started with a veggie broth (I should add this is entirely made from scratch, with the exception of one chicken bouillion cube I added towards the end). To make the broth, I cut up one onion, 3 sticks celery, 3 large carrots, 3 large cloves smashed garlic and a tea ball with herbs (bay leaf, rosemary, & a little marjoram). Boiled that for a little over 2 hours.

In another pan I fried bacon that I cut into 2" sections. After the bacon was crispy, I removed it from the pan & sauted onion, celery, and some sweet red pepper in the bacon fat. Now another option would be to not use the bacon drippings and maybe just some non-stick spray or something. Everyone is so fat concious these days, but I was looking for flavor not diet control.

Into the sauted vegies, I added the mashed taters. Then I added this to my vegie broth (which I strained all the vegies out of). I added in a little over half of the bacon bits and reserved the rest to garnish each bowl. I found I needed a little thickening, so in another pan I melted 2 T butter and added 1/2 c flour. It needed a little more liquid, so I used some of the soup until the flour was all mixed up. I cooked that a few minutes before adding it to the soup pot. A little celery seed, some white pepper, and yum!!!!!

About this time I checked the bread. It was like looking in a window where someone was looking back! There was way too much for the little bread machine & dough was risen & pressed against the window at the top. Oh, well I'm sure it will taste good.

Now I still had more potatoes. I mixed shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, hidden valley dressing & a bunch of potatoes. I put this in muffin tins & froze it. Now if someone wants cheesy taters, individual servings are all ready to pop into the microwave & eat.

And that did it for the leftover church food. The bread was nice, soft, spongy & delic!!! Soup-excellent. Mmm I could have my own restaurant someday. That is probably one of my all time favorite ways to spend a night, cooking & baking away.

People should spend more time together in the kitchen. And I think that should be a must for my potential partner, to love food, either cooking and or eating it. Nothing like playing with a loved one in the kitchen. Isn't food kinda like sex anyway? It can be good or bad or just okay, but 'cha gotta have it sooner or later.... okay, I suppose some people out there don't gotta have it. Oh well, that's another entry.

Everyone have a great day!!!

Turkey day 2004

Hello everyone! Happy happy holiday season!!! I have got to get better at updating this more often or ya'all will get bored & not look me up. I do apologize for the lateness of my news, but surely everyone knows how life & procrastinating through it goes.

Thanksgiving day was a pretty good one. My mother talked the whole family into helping at her church to serve dinner & the grand count was around 250 people that we fed! It was great fun & we all enjoyed it. In fact I could see doing that every year. It's much more fulfilling than cleaning my own kitchen (& hanging in it all day!) My daughter even turned out to help. That was my greatest thrill in my day, hanging with her.

Her dad's presence was missed (Gary Reed Oct 11, 1953-Oct 7, 2004). however I wonder if it helped our holiday to be uneventful. No drunken outrages nor family members disappointed because someone didn't show up (well not ones I'm acknowledging). Tanya's friend came to pick her up last night & we joked about getting together as family units and how stressful that really is. If 1 or 2 people don't show, it's usually a better gathering. Oh how disfunction functions and how families perk.

I'm still working hard with this account in Wisconsin. I've scheduled another training when I go up there in December. I'm loving how one job after another comes at me. Keeps me afloat & busy. That's good. Too much dwelling on my personal world is just not healthy. After this I'm going to type right up till 3 o'clock when I get to help my friend, Brenda, clean her craft garage.

Those crazy dogs. Let them out, let them in. The "let me in" bark is a shrill high pitched one time yip. They need to learn patients just like I am trying to do. On the other side of that, they need dog houses with pens and it's high on my "to do" list. Now if that list wasn't so long!

I've been thinking of so many people in my life who I haven't seen lately. Funny how I mean to call, but never take the time. I'm not real thrilled with leaving messages. Especially when I'm sad, I don't want to leave sadness in a recording, so I'll just hang up. Maybe anyone who's had one of those calls from me will understand....

The holiday season brings on past flashes & current pain calmed by gaudy santas & fattening food. Comfort food I'm sure. Although those extra pounds won't be very comforting come January. Yesterday I must have eaten 4 pieces of pie. Well it was good. And much easier than sorting through my emotions. This is a time for growing and I don't mean out. If life is like a novel, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out. I've some great theories, but no idea how our great author will see it.

Well I really wanted to say hello to all my friends & loved ones out there.
To Dawn, gosh I would have loved to ride to Ohio with you. I'm glad you are coming together with your daughter.
To Connie: I hope your day was fantastic. I thought of your pie all evening....
To Alex: are you coming for Christmas? I'm planning to be in Wisconsin the 13th-20th or so. If you still want me to help you drive, we are going to have to schedule that plane ticket soon!
To Gloria & Billy: wish I was there to bake cookies with you!
To my tahoe friend: Sure is nice to touch base after all this time. I hope nothing but the best & happiest for you.

Holiday greetings to everyone! Be sure & reach out to those in your heart, time is short & so is life on this earth.

Another day in paradise.
It's cloudy here, but not cold enough for snow. That's good, because I'm barely getting my cold clothes out of the storage unit. Finally did bring home some totes this weekend. Now for sorting through everything & bringing it indoors. Last Nov/Dec, I was rather harried when I packed my life up, now since I've been here all summer & haven't touched anything, I've got to wonder just how bad I want &/or need all that stuff. I do see this as a new beginning although it's not that comfortable.
It's challenging writing to everyone at the same time. Let's see,,,

to those in TX: gosh I wish you lived closer. We'd be sharing time & space every day. Come up with any Christmas plans yet?

to those in FL: I do hope work is steady & pays more than you're worth. (haha) Couldn't we all use such a dream? I'm looking forward to January in the south. I was thinking of the whole winter, but I'm sure financial situations will define my time.

to those in Quimby: hey lady, how's it going? got things all smoothed out after your company left? I'm looking forward to getting together again. How is your month looking? What are your plans for turkey day?

My mother has offered to let Tanya & I accompany her down to her church on turkey day. They do a large meal and anyone can come eat. We're all looking forward to helping (& eating!) I'm just not in the mood to do a meal here at the house. Maybe by Christmas time. Nothing like an empty chair to change plans.

I've got lots of work to do here. I was somewhat productive over the weekend. Baked lots of cookies & tried to bake bread. I put too much healthy stuff in the loaves & they didn't rise right (but they taste great!!!). I did spend some time reading about what I may have done wrong, so I'm ready to try again today.

to those in Des Moines: when should we plan a craft day?

words of the day:

spar

to box, esp. for practice

to bandy words about; wrangle

what kind of word is bandy? gosh, what year was that dictionary published?

bandy

to toss back and forth

to discuss or exchange in a casual or frivolous manner

that's a cool word, that's what it is. Sounds old, but it's just underused. And the dictionary was published in 1983. Not really that long ago.

and from the thesaurus:

doubt (noun)

distrust, mistrust, disbelief, suspicion, misgiving, skepticism, apprehension, agnosticism, incredulity, lack of faith, lack of confidence, jealousy, rejection, scruple, misgiving, indecision, lack of conviction, ambiguity, dilemma, reluctance, quandary, feeling of inferiority. Ant. belief, conviction, certainty.

doubt (verb)

wonder, question, query, ponder, dispute, be dubious, be uncertain, be doubtful, refuse to believe, demur, have doubts about, have one's doubts, stop to consider, have qualms, call in question, give no credit to, throw doubt upon, have no conception, not know which way to turn, not know what to make of, close one's mind, not admit, not believe, refuse to believe, not buy. Ant. trust, believe, confide.

Now, feel free to send me words. They are one of my favorite things to play with.

A day in my life, Any small town, Midwest USA

What a great day! My daughter & I walked our dogs around the neighborhood. Sounds quite ordinary, but it's a special occasion. Even if we live together, it's harder to get together than one would think.

Last week my work took me to Brookings, South Dakota. www.brookingssd.com Nice little college town whose origin is detailed on their history link. I worked with a great group of people up there. To respect their privacy, I won't go into details, but I will say I'm richer with every bond I form while on this earth and am thankful that I am presented so many opportunities to grow and love.

One night after work, I took time to wander around McCrory Gardens which is also the South Dakota arboretum. Calming trails decorate landscape that glows with hours of dedication. Many benches branded with various names adorn cozy corners of this nature experience. I guess a plaque is a nice way to remember loved ones. Mental note especially since I attended my last funeral only 3 weeks ago. They had a great walking/jogging/biking trail that although not very long, was lined with readable signs so you could clearly identify varieties of groups of trees & shrubs planted in patches dotting this path. A hawk showed off his flying skills for me. Probably looking for a rabbit, after hollering at me, he circled around & I'm pretty sure landed right where he started from.

Restaurants to note: Cafe Ruby & Bake Shoppe. Just the spelling of shop tells you they have good food. I ate a black bean vegetable patty served with their soup of the day, mixed bean & ham. It was delicious & surely made from scratch. During my meal I could hear the cook sharing a recipe with his assistant. That's what I'm looking for, a cook who loves his art & is always discovering new ways to exploit food. Another night I ate Mexican, which was also very good. Since this is a college town, it looked like they had quite the selection of places to eat. Hobo week (one of their annual celebrations) had brought in some extra people & I found downtown crowded with no place to park. I was headed to Georges which was reported to offer an artichoke pizza, but now that's on my list for next time.

On the way home I went through Pipestone, Minnesota where I always stop. www.pipestonestar.com/guide A very easy town to get around in, almost every store & building has a copy of their tourism guide just waiting to be of use. I highly recommend visiting Pipestone National Monument. When I visited the Indian Cultural Center, I got to see native Americans carving & they spent time telling me about their craft. All rock is removed from earth by hand, no machinery is used in gathering this red treasure. Quarries are known to have existed here since at least 1650. At the monument they have a gift shop where you can buy a pipe or artifact. www.authenticpipestone.com

Just 9 miles south of Pipestone on highway 75, I stopped at Harmony Gardens & Gift shop. Sitting on a farm, this is a great place to find a gift or pick up that perennial you've always wanted. They also sell trees & yard ornaments. I collected a few Christmas presents and got back on the road.

Still on Hwy 75 just north of the Iowa border sits a Minnesota county park complete with an observation deck great for viewing the flock of migrating Canadian geese gathered on the water. I wondered if I'd bother the geese - I was only shooting with a camera, but like they could know that. With hunting season in full swing, I hoped they would not get used to human presence just because of me. They were troubled & made lots of noise to let me know I was not going unnoticed. Their call echoed through the flock like a domino effect with sound. From the deck I watched our sun set & thanked God for such a beautiful world. More pictures & I was ready to hit the road again. When I was returning to my car, it was just more than the wild birds could take and over 100 took to air all at one time. This nights' east sky was lit purple and faded into pink as my eyes lifted up. As I watched this huge group of birds fly away, I was in awe at how gorgeous they looked sailing low across the recently harvested fields.

Harvest is in itself a season here in the Midwest. It's common to see machinery comb autumn readied fields. Lit with insect like headlights, they hungrily gobbled up corn plants dried by crisp fall air. I was careful to watch for deer who might be scared onto the road by one of those loud machines. Dedicated people finishing tasks before winter's gale blows fragile humans towards in of doors. As much as I love summer, I look forward to the cold with equal enthusiasm. It's a great excuse to bake. God bless all farmers.

This return trip my Camary had been contracted by relatives for an extra stop. That's fun. One thing that 7 years of traveling with my job had brought me was a desire for anyone to go along. I picked up my ex-sister in-law's husband's brother and he accompanied me for 2 1/2 hours of my 5 1/2 hour drive. It was great chatting with him, getting to know who he was & sharing bits of my fragmented life at the same time.

Around midnight on a Friday night, I made it home. Lots of chores awaited. Best of all, the dogs, Nikki & Jr. Were the happiest I was home.