Rain, sleet, and possible snow...

Hello..oo!

 

Well, it's COLD here! (Rain, sleet, and 27F) Cold for me, anyway. I know many of you are used to cold weather, but I don't work well in it... tend to want to hibernate (by the fireplace). 

Or stay in the kitchen (where it's warm) and cook. I made several things lately. Here's our breakfast Monday morning:

This is the way I fry eggs, no butter or oil, just spray with a Crisco Butter spray. I also use the little round metal thing (don't know if it has a name):

Think it's really for pancakes as I have several in different shapes - but it works great with eggs!

DH likes his egg sunny side up (like first 2 pics) and I like mine over easy, so:

mine

and then my over easy plated with toast soldiers:

If you'll notice, I can only have a small amount of coffee due to the acid... so I use an expresso cup and put in a tiny pat of butter. If you've never heard of butter coffee, google it. It's interesting and I find the butter doesn't change the taste at all... and if you're not worried about cholesterol, it's a great way to drink your coffee.

Then because it was cold and nasty out, I thought we could use a warm sweet treat. So I made the boys a peach dump cake. 

warm, crispy, and full of peaches!

Of course this is made with a cake mix - so I can't eat it because it's not gluten-free. But I did sneak a tiny bite of the peaches and pecans.

That's my cooking for the week. I did make the sour cream chicken enchiladas Sunday using corn tortillas instead of the flour ones - and we all liked them just as well as the flour ones!

Some cooking memes:

and last:

Have a great day! And stay warm!

Hugs (virtual),

Rian

a Saturday mishmash...

First, I have to say that I got my 2nd Shingles (Shingrix) vaccine Monday. I don't know if you remember, but when I got the first one back in September...  my arm was sore, red, and swollen for about a week. Well, this one only caused me to be sore for a day or so... and not nearly as bad as the first. Thank goodness.

Second, I saw my Family Physician (PCP) Tuesday as Tuesday afternoon, I had some strange pains in my chest. I don't get heartburn and all I had had about 2 hours before was some crackers and cheese... so I couldn't imagine what this pain was. 

And it wasn't a burning, nor a sharp pain, but rather a dull pain that came and went for over an hour. It also moved to my left side at one point and radiated to my back. DH gave me a baby aspirin... just in case... and the doctor told me to buy some Pepsid,  and if it came back, to go to the ER. Going to the ER for something that might be heartburn seemed a bit excessive, but I understand that women's heart attacks are sometimes different. Anyway, I never took the Pepsid,  and so far, it hasn't come back. 

Now I have to share this video of daughter's bunnies. It's so cute as you can see all the colors of the baby bunnies (white, gray, tan, and black). They are so-oo cute.

(I would suggest you click several times and enlarge it by clicking on the tiny square on the right)

And then...

beautiful kitty

This is the kitten (except in my story his eyes were blue) I had in mind in my second book. His name is Eragon and he belongs to Lizzy, Shamus the Bookstore owner's sister. He was a little monster and was called such until someone came up with the name, Eragon. My daughter saw this pic and sent it to me. I thought, "That's Eragon!"

And then I saw this...

reader's sanctuary

... and thought, "Wow! I love that!" 

 a person could spend their days reading and napping by that beautiful window! 

And before I close all this mishmash of unrelated ramblings,

 I had to share these:

I believe this

and this!

It's Saturday, I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Today I'm planning to make some sour cream chicken enchiladas... and use corn tortillas instead of my usual flour ones (the corn ones are GF). Will let you know how they turn out.

Hugs (virtual), 

Rian

a little about our food life...

I'm sitting here at 11 A.M.  drinking a cup of tea and thinking that I should post this morning about food... not sure why... possibly I'm hungry. 

Breakfast: DH and I have toast and coffee (sometimes tea for me) between 8 and 8:30, and usually have a light lunch around 11:30.  Some days when I'm feeling a little peckish, I'll do GF pancakes or a fried egg with soldiers... but not often.

Lunch: DH loves soup and usually his lunch is soup and a sandwich with chips. I tend more to crackers and cheese or a small salad - almost always half an avocado (love avocado).

3:00 P.M:  This  is tea time and we always stop whatever we're doing for Coffee/Tea and a snack. We do our Central Market grocery shopping on Wednesday and tend to get a slice of apple pie or cheesecake to split for that day. Otherwise, it's a cookie or whatever snack is available. 

Supper is generally at 6... and very versatile. DH is making a big pot of red beans and rice today, so we know what the next 2 days' suppers will be. But I usually do some chicken recipe with potatoes and veggies. Salmon for me once a week... love it! But DH and grandson won't eat it, so it's sausage and biscuits with potatoes for them on Salmon night.

I don't do much red meat... do Shepherds pie and cheeseburgers, but little else... occasionally a roast. They do like pork chops and pork roast, so that's always an option.

New recipes are fun too. Recently tried a carrot Souffle... which sounds about as appetizing as carrot cake - but both are good!  My SIL tried it and recommended it to me about a year ago. And I had no way to cook carrots except in a roast with potatoes and onions, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's really good! More like a carrot custard. All of us liked it.

The other foods we eat on a regular basis are nuts, bananas, apples, and bone broth...

Well, I've probably bored you enough with all this food talk. But I'm going to close with a picture of the food we ate at our Anniversary dinner Friday at an Italian restaurant. 

DH had a sausage entree (covered with cheese) that he loved. I had a chicken and veggie entree that I love (pasta was gluten-free)... and we had one slice of bread pudding to share for dessert. 

OK, that's it... no more food talk...

Oh, but I do have to post a pic of this orange milk we recently found at Central Market. The story behind this is that when my grandson (who lives with us) was about 4 or 5, we went to Owens Farm near us and they were giving out samples of Promise Land milk. He loved the orange milk... and for years we tried to find it... with no luck. This past week we found orange milk (not Promise Land) but made at a Farm in Terrill, TX. I bought it and although he is now 23, he still loves it!  Here is a pic:

Have a wonderful Sunday... and thank you for letting me share!

 (by the way, Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter are my food vices)

Hugs (virtual),

Rian

Jan. 20, 2023 - 55th Wedding Anniversary memories...

I look like a deer in the headlights...

off to our honeymoon...
 (2 days in French Quarter before Graduation from LSUBR)

So strange to think this was 55 years ago. We were both 22. Now we're 77... and (with the grace of God) still here. (DH was in Electrical Engineering and I was in Animal Science - LSU didn't have a Veterinary program back then).

We have 3 beautiful children who we love dearly and who (along with our grandchildren) mean the world to us. They are all such good people that it amazes me how lucky we are. 

our 3 in 1974...

a few years later...

These are all old pics... Kids are now in late forties and early fifties. Grandkids are 23, 21, 15, and 10...   (but I still dream of our kids as children... wonder if other mothers do that too?)  

Not going any further into this trip down memory lane. They say you get nostalgic as you get older. I think this may be true. But to all you adults out there who still have your parents... know that you'll always be that 'baby' to them - that child that taught them a new  unconditional kind of love.

It's Friday - have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs (virtual),

Rian

new item and old memories...

 

This is my new Apple iPad! I've never had one before as I've always thought that they seem to be just a 'giant iPhone'.  But since I've been doing a lot of reading and writing on my iPhone lately, I thought maybe having something a little larger would be a good idea. 

And I can see to play Roblox with my granddaughter on the iPad. She's always asking me to play with her on my iPhone, but I just can't see the images as well on the phone. 

(And that pic is not one of our ferals, it's just an image I found that I used as wallpaper)

African chicken peanut soup

chocolate peanut butter brownies

And this is the large pot of African Chicken peanut soup I made this week... and some chocolate peanut butter brownies (such a simple soup to make and one of our favorites).

My daughter sent me this. She thought it was funny... as it reminded her of herself... (in days gone by)

Yes, she was also a little red-head that wanted a pony... and got one eventually. Now she has horses at her place in the hill country and her own red-headed daughter that rides.

granddaughter riding 

Of course granddaughter is now 20... and getting ready to graduate from Texas A&M. But that picture my daughter sent brought back a barrage of memories.

Going to close this with a pic of the books I just finished that are on the floor beside my bed. I'm now reading a few on Kindle until I can collect another pile.

read and done... 



Thanks to all of you who blog and/or read my blog. I find it comforting to know that I can reach out to you at any time and know that there are friends out there who, although I've never met them and possibly never will, still I feel they care. That means a lot.


Hugs (virtual),
Rian

silly post...

this is my favorite spoon...

Talk about looking for 'something to write about'... but actually I wasn't. Let me explain: 

I make tea several times a day... and I take my either Irish or English Breakfast tea with cream/not milk and no sugar. But I need a spoon to measure the cream (4 tsp). Well, we have a conglomeration of different types of spoons (don't even recall where some of them came from) Our kids may have dumped ones from their college days in the drawer. Anyway, I usually grab one, any one, when making my tea.

This morning I grabbed this one and became aware that my smile brightened as I held it. This is one of our wedding spoons - picked out when registering for our China and Silver (do kids even do that any more?) 55 years ago this month. It is Royal Rose by Oneida... and I still love it! It feels perfect... right size, right weight, etc.  

So yes, this is a silly post. But if one can post about favorite mugs or favorite whatevers, then why can't I post about a favorite spoon? 

(And the reason it's resting on the bunny, is because I just took off the Christmas tablecloth and put on the Easter one)

Here's a few fun memes:

Hugs (virtual),

Rian

Putting Christmas away... finally

The weekend after New Year's is here!  And this is when we put Christmas away. (Traditionally we get our tree the day after Thanksgiving and we take it down the weekend after New Year)

I find it sad... and a bit overwhelming - as even though I think that we don't do much as far as decorating is concerned, when I look at this pile on the table, it's a bit much. 

And every year I promise myself that I will put things away where they can be easily found next year - never happens. I'm still missing a sign for the front door that I know we have somewhere.

So far this year I've been to the Eye Doctor for my annual exam and to the Dentist for my 6 month cleaning. I'm happy with the Eye doctor report as I was taking a product called Macuhealth for my eyes (to avoid Macular Degeneration) and I'm not very good at taking pills on a daily basis.  He didn't see any progression and that although it couldn't hurt, it may not be necessary... and my prescription lens didn't change. 

The dentist on the other hand found a tiny cavity and now I have to go back to take care of that.  I know it's not a big deal, but I really don't like people working in my mouth... but I'll do it (This is our new dentist and we do like both him and his office very much.)

Updates:

Daughter's bunnies are doing fine.

My friend is finally getting the last drain out (been 2 months!).

Kittens finding the possum fascinating.

New book (mentioned in last post) is going strong.

That's it! So much to do. So little time. I have to say that I'm energized lately... besides writing, I feel the need to get back to my pottery or start a new knitting or crochet project.... or maybe start sketching again? 

We've also become big fans of The Great British Baking Show... and watch it almost every night between 8 and 9. It's the only reality show we watch. But it inspires me to try more things... and I find Prue and Paul (as well as the other 2) very entertaining. 

Alright! Wishing you all a lovely Sunday! It's 50 F here and sunny. May have to walk the neighborhood today...

Hugs (still virtual),

Rian

 

time on my hands...

I'm putting this on to too much time on my hands... time when I should be putting Christmas away or cleaning my house, etc. However, recently I've come up with a new storyline for another sequel to my first 2 books (Time After Time & Carrick Cove). 

There's a possibility that there could be another - maybe a "Return to Carrick Cove"? 

However,  it took almost 3 years for the second book to come out, so (at my age), I possibly need to work faster. But as I've said before, a story tends to evolve in its own time. I had fully expected Carrick Cove to be the end of Annie's story, but apparently there's more to tell. 

On another note: 

Today DH and I checked out 3 stores (Trader Joe's, Central Market, and one of the new HEB's). We've heard a lot about Trader Joe's recently and thought maybe we needed to give it a try. I have to say that although it was interesting, we weren't that impressed. We did pick up 3 things; a GF stuffing mix, a box of protein bars that look very similar to the KIND ones we buy at Walmart but half the price, and a can of artichoke hearts/bottoms. 

At CM, we did our usual weekly shopping, and stopped by HEB to pick up the Brown Cow yogurt that I like - and although CM has it in Vanilla (which is good), HEB is the only one that has it in chocolate. And of course while we were there,  DH picked up half (yes, they sell halfs!) of a freshly made pecan pie. And I will say that pecan pies are not usually my favorite as they can be too sweet for my taste. But this one was excellent. We had some with coffee this afternoon.

Something else we came across this week was a new Stouffer's frozen entree.  I don't usually eat these, but the boys like their 3-Meat Lasagna (not gluten-free). Anyway, DH came across a Stouffer's Chicken Enchiladas that uses corn tortillas (I always use flour tortillas in mine - and I can get GF flour tortillas). But since it was using corn and not flour, I ate some... and it was good (not great, but good)... lots of rice in it which I found strange, but I like rice so no problem.

Closing this with this grocery meme:

I now carry a small plastic spray bottle of water so that I can open those stupid plastic bags...

Hugs (virtual),

Rian 

 

my year(s) in review... for what it's worth

Tom's post, "A Year in Review"

was a great post. However, I don't think I could go month to month saying what happened in 2022 (may not even be able to do that for  last week). 

I seem to have lost the last 3 years (2020 - 2023)...  to some extent. We certainly didn't do anything the first 2. Perhaps we've come out of exile a little in 2023. Our kids came by several times this year. We stopped wearing masks around the family (but still wear the out in public), and we have gone out to restaurants a few times lately.

I made one road trip to visit our son this past year - but it was only about 2.5 hours away. Haven't been on a plane yet... hope Southwest gets their act together because I hope to use them this spring or summer. Right now air flight just seems too big a hassle.

Knock on wood, DH and I haven't been sick. This alone has been great. We have the usual complaints for people our age (77), but these are minor inconveniences that come with age. We are more than happy to have survived to this point. 

Something I have learned these last 3 years is that common sense is 'not so common'.  This may be the most significant thing I've learned from both the pandemic and the political atmosphere. 

As for what I expect from 2023... not sure I have any expectations. It would be nice if Covid would just disappear, the 2 political parties could come to terms, the war in the Ukraine would end, and the erratic weather the world's been experiencing would stop. But... do I expect that to happen? No. 

But I would sincerely hope that somehow people have learned that what is important is people... not power. We need to 'come together' not pull apart.  That's the way to solve things (IMO). 

Enough of my ramblings. Nothing of real content here. I don't make New Year's resolutions... unless getting through the next year is a resolution.

I love sharing my thoughts with you. Can't imagine what you must think of me (naive possibly?), but it doesn't matter. Writing them down is therapeutic. So, it's helpful for me, and I imagine if it's too boring, you would simply stop reading. But thank you for being there just the same.

Here are some funny memes I found (at least I thought they were funny) :

isn't it??

this goes for 2022 also...

Hugs (virtual),

Rian

Oh wait... daughter just sent me bunny pics! The first are her 2 adult bunnies and the second and third are new babies... and this time there's a new little golden bunny!

too cute...

and

Rabbit Rabbit! White Rabbit!

(there are 2 in there)