Todays dinner will be Italian Chicken with a New Orleans Spaghetti Bordelaise. It's a little bit time consuming but it is soooooo worth the effort. I had Amy buy groceries for me a couple of days ago. Then this morning what happens? I wake up with back pain! ugh. I do have problems with chronic back pain but it has always seemed to come in spurts. I've been so lucky not to have any problems this summer- even with moving the kids and hours in the car on road trips. But today for no particular reason it returns. grrrr... Oh well, it's got to be done. I'm just going to have to recruit help.
I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. If you are inside remember... this is SHARK WEEK!!!!
SHOW ME YOUR TEETH!!!
Good morning! It's going to be a beautiful day out. I'm sad though, because I'm missing my high school reunion. :( So, in an effort not to think about it I've already thrown myself into my day! I have a breakfast/brunch dish in the oven. Will post a recipe later! It's yummy. It's soul food.
My Chile Rellenos were good last night but I want to make them-like- even better. (In my King Julian voice) . I know I can do it. It's a task I'm willing to suffer through.
Here's your daily MCT update. I wasn't going to set the trap last night. We usually don't on the weekends because normally Joe hauls them away when he's going to work. But Joe and I were sitting out on the back deck and I heard a loud thunk. I knew it was the wooden pole that was on top of the trash cans being knocked off. Joe went around to check it out and then came back in a minute and said that the raccoon had run into our garage. I went through the house and opened the garage and when I did it ran back out the back door. (shewwww!) Joe said when he rounded the corner the raccoon had his butt in the air digging in our trash. So we set the trap. I could tell when he got caught last night because the ruckus he raised woke me. This morning I went out expecting to see a big raccoon but it was another small one. I'm starting to think the little ones are more aggressive. I felt bad for him so I gave him some ice cubes. He looked at me with love and appreciation. Ok, so that last part was a stretch. He was huddled in the corner and was ready to attack me if I got any closer.
Hope everyone has a great day! I'm going to go enjoy my cup of coffee while breakfast is in the oven.
Conversation yesterday:
Carrie: Do you want to go walk in the morning?
Me: It's too hot
Carrie: We'll go early
Me: That would mean I'd have to get up early.
Carrie: Well, you want to go eat breakfast then?
Me: Yes!
Summer has me spoiled. I've loved being able to sleep in. :)
Off to breakfast now!!!
I know I've gotten quite a reputation as being a coon trapper. I cannot tell you WHY there are so many around here. But I suspect it has something to do with wild berries growing in abundance somewhere near here. I'll spare you the details of why I know this. Ok, yes, it's poop. There. I feel better having said that.
I may look friendly but I'm telling you.. I mean business!
There are 2 reasons why they have to go:
1. Trash. They break into trash cans.
2. Sleep. The dogs hear them and get up all night going to the door to bark at them and chase them off. Sleep deprivation makes people crazy.
We have had our trash cans secured with bungee cord and they still get in. We put a big post across the top of the cans- they merely push it off. We've had to start keeping trash inside of our garage.
So the MCT comes back out... That's the mobile coon trap you know! You can read about it on an old blog.
http://trish-lovinlife.blogspot.com/2010/05/operation-mobile-coon-trap.htmlI've caught several this summer and I've caught two just this week. But last night as I went out to go set the trap I could hear one of the little boogers over by my trash cans. They were empty, but it had tumped 2 of them over and gotten the lids off of them. It was chattering up a storm. So, I got the trap set and went inside. But I just couldn't resist going back out and seeing if it would go in the trap with me watching. It didn't. But it did go squeaking all through my yard. IT MOVES FAST.
I kept thinking 'what would I do if it came up behind me?' Scream like a banshee probably!
To make a long story short.... we did catch it. It was little. It got relocated and the mobile coon trap will soon be loaded to catch another. (sigh)
I'm amazingly successful with my trapping. I've been told that it would make some men jealous.
These two perhaps?????
This man sat in front of me and Amy on a flight to Dallas. Not sure what kind of tail that is but this is a man that loves critters.
Truck with a "coon hunter" sticker sitting at a stoplight in Grove.
I just never imagined that trapping wild animals would be one of my talents in life. You just never know!!! My friends have encouraged me to patent my trap. Mira asked if I had an hats for sale. Lori wants me to have my own show that will air right after Billy The Exterminator.
Don't worry, you won't be seeing any recipes involving critters!!!
Life is good! (critters aren't)
Do you have people in your life that always make you smile? Do you have a friend that you know you can call and they'll make you laugh every time- without fail? Be sure to take the time to let them know how special they are!
And....
Remember to take time to be silly today!!!
Being happy will keep you healthy!!!
Mixed Berry Medley with sugar-free angel food cake
I'm not going to post this as a recipe because it's really not. But I wanted to share with you a simple dessert idea. I was reading my Nigella Lawson cookbook yesterday and was thinking about some of the things Brittish people eat. It's very interesting! But I saw a recipe for summer fruit pudding and it caught my interest. It's not a pudding like you or I would think of, but more along the lines of a figgy pudding. Where you line a pan with bread, add sauce, the smoosh it down with something weighted and let it refrigerate overnight. Frankly, it sounded like work. Sometimes I love having to work for meals and sometimes i don't. But the fruit part of the recipe caught my eye.. it called for fresh strawberries, frozen blackberries, frozen raspberries, frozen blueberries, and frozen strawberries. Then I decided to use this: Actually I used 2 bags.
I was going to use a pound cake that I had in my freezer and drizzle it with my mixed berry sauce but.. (again, keeping it real) my pound cake was past it's freshness date. I could have hammered a nail in the wall with it. We ended up just having some fruit with a little bit of whipped topping and it was great. I'll run and get some short cake or pound cake today so we can enjoy the rest of it.
Here's what I did.
In a saucepan use one cup of cranberry juice, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 bags of this frozen berry medley. Heat over low heat until your sugar dissolves. You can either turn the heat off and let the frozen fruit thaw on it's own like I did or you can continue to heat it over the low heat until the fruit is thawed.
This was easy-breezy!
If you try new things you're bound to have screw ups occasionally! I sure do! But hey- you never know if you don't try, right? Something could turn out to be a masterpiece or just "a piece" if you know what I mean. I had one of those brainstorms yesterday for a great meal idea and went to the store, bought ingredients, came home and got Amy to help me, and wow! It was horrible. My meal disaster was empanadas. I know it can be done! The last time I made empanadas was YEARS ago when I hosted a wedding shower for a young lady that worked in Joe's office. I found a recipe (which I think I still have) in Gourmet Magazine. It turned out to be very authentic. It had beef, and had a sweet taste to it. I'm thinking it even had raisins in the mixture. All I remember is they were a huge hit! But I'm not so much into "authentic" Mexican food. What I really love is Tex-Mex. So my lame attempt yesterday was about making Tex-Mex empanadas only using a short cut. I used all ready pie crust. The empanadas came out tasting like a pot pie...and it was doughy inside. And the first batch burst open because we over filled them. The second batch was funky because I used a store brand of pie crust rather than Pillsbury. Then I tried deep frying some instead of baking them in the oven- thinking that this would eliminate the doughy texture problem. WRONG. They were nasty.
At first everyone was saying "they're not that bad" which is code for "that is bad". I know this because when my family likes something they'll be sure to say so. My second clue to how horrible they were was when I asked Joe if he thought we should save them and he just looked at me and shook his head "no."
I'm not a quitter though... I'm just going to go lick my wounds and then when I've gotten this horrible meal out of my mind I'll go back to the drawing board. I'm going to make my own dough next time.
The one good thing was I made a cool guacamole dip to go with the empanadas and it turned out to be delicious! We had that and chips for dinner instead of the empanadas. I think before I attempt this meal again I will first make a batch of sangria! That's bound to help!
I'm typing this blog in red because that's the appropriate color for this weather. It is RED HOT outside. I forget how many days we've had that our temperatures have been 100+ degrees. At some point counting seems pointless. I'm not complaining though!!! Even though this weather has caused us to have 2 flat tires. I came across blizzard photos today and remembered that I promised not to complain this summer.
I've lost one shrub out front and my neighbor has lost a tree not to mention the flowers are just pathetic. They usually don't achieve this level of crispiness until mid August. But you know when it hit me how really hot it is?? Today. We were washing the big boat. You guys know that by "we" I mean Joe. He washes and my job is to rinse. I have a great job! I get as wet as the boat. But today in spite of me being sprayed by my own water hose I was DRENCHED in sweat. My head was totally wet with perspiration. That's hot folks! Not even the water hose was cooling me down.
We got excited that storm clouds starting popping up. We could hear thunder and see ground strikes. It looked really promising and in typical Grand Lake fashion the storm went RIGHT around us! rats.
I'm happy to report that my girl made it back from Norman! It was her first time to drive completely by herself for that 3 1/2 hour drive. I worried that she'd end up taking I-44W instead of the turnpike because that could be confusing. Or that she'd get on I-240 west rather than I-40 because there is a sign there that also says "Ft. Smith" just like the exit she should take. But she managed just fine! And of course I was worried about a blow out because the boys had one yesterday morning and we had one on the boat trailer when we were coming home from Lake Ouachita . The roads are HOT. But she's home safe and sound and she had a complete blast meeting new friends. She's definitely fired up for college.
We are off now to boat up the lake (or down the lake I guess) to go eat at Oliver's Twist. We love that place! My friend Kelli would give it a 5 minivan rating on her restaurant review. They have the best catfish and the tomato relish is the bomb. Is it too out of date to say "the bomb?"
Who knows... since we're taking the boat out there's a good chance it will storm! It's just how it works with us. :)
<3 Stay cool!!!
The blog is slowly being built. As you have seen, I had trouble transferring recipes from my old blog site and so I basically had to do a link to the old site. It seemed better than totally re-entering all of it over again. This afternoon I posted my first "recipe" for ice cubes. haha!! While I was working on that I discovered a MAJOR problem with this new blogging site. I can't post multiple pictures when I'm posting a recipe. UGH!!! Just one picture. :(
Daddy's home!
I'll find a way though... I'm stubborn! And it could be that I just don't know what the heck I'm doing!!!
I did hear from Amy today. She's having fun. She got tackled by some guy last night while she was at the Huff and her leg is hurting. Sounds like she's met new friends.
I've spent my day battling the Japanese beetles. It's either going to be them or ME! Or I may kill my plants in the process. We've also had a problem with raccoons getting into our trash. They must be hungry. I think this heat is getting to everything!
Me, my plants, the animals....
Can't we just go back to the beach?
I remember our first day there. We just sat and stared..
It's that feeling of... just relaxing... feeling the tension fade away! Peace.
I want my vacation back!!!!
P.S. Guess who has two thumbs and figured out how to fix the recipe problem??? This girl!!! lol
Hello!! Thank you for all the positive feedback! I appreciate your support.
It's been a busy couple of days. I went to Norman on Wednesday. We had my car loaded down as well as Amy's car. We got everything unloaded and set up and then later Amy and I drove to John's house to go meet Lauren and the twins Tara and Tori. Lauren sold a table to us for Ev's apartment. Tara and Tori are absolutely precious! You can't help but smile just watching them. It was so good to see them all! John was telling the twins that I'm his sister. And they just stared. Probably not too sure about that!
Evan's apartment is shaping up and is just about ready to live it full-time. All he needs is clothes and groceries. He's been a good sport letting me and Amy decorate but I know he's ready to get in there and make it his own place. We did spend the night there for the first time. I slept great, although, we all agreed that getting used to hearing other people move around in the upstairs apartment is going to take some getting used to! May need to buy one of those noise machines that sounds like a gentle rain, or the ocean, or whales. haha.
Evan and I had to leave early the next morning to get him back to work and Amy stayed on to go to Camp Crimson. It's basically a fun camp for incoming freshman aimed at teaching them college traditions and having a bonding experience. Amy sent me a message last night that during one of the films about campus she teared up! She's my kid!! That sounds just exactly like me, and my sister Kitty, and also our friend Michele!!! Sentimental saps, we are!!! I tear up every time I hear the fight song, or hear the band play Oklahoma! And the chant?? Well, forget about it!
I was talking with one of my girlfriends yesterday about how it's so hard to let your children go off and make a life of their own. But honestly I can't imagine NOT letting them. How selfish would I be if I encouraged them to stay home? I'm really excited about them spreading their wings, making new friends, finding out what they love in life, and making their own way. Everyone deserves the chance to grow up and be independent. I'm really happy for both of my kids that they have this opportunity.
Talk to you soon my friends!!
