June 16, 2020
June 9, 2020
May 28, 2020
I made Chocolate cookies with Splenda
Yes they are not good for diabetics, but Ron asked and I agreed to do it. However the next cookies I will make for him are going to be oatmeal which wont be so sweet for him, but will be cookies he loves to eat. Hugs
May 13, 2020
Some meals I have made over the last few days.
So I have been off the computer a lot lately and one of the reasons why is I am trying to cook more. I enjoy cooking but a lot of time my pain levels get too high and I simply can not do stuff.
Yesterday as I said I made a meal for Ron of breaded pork chops, deep fried french fries, and green beans. I used the two store bought mixed breading stuff and added my own seasonings which I felt might go good with this.
Tonight I made tacos. I will include in the pictures our seasoning rack and drawer. This is not all of our seasonings, but the ones we use most often. Yes when you have cats you learn to work around them on counters. I like to brown my meat and season it to our tastes, then drain it, put the water in the pan and bring it to a boil, stir in the mix mixing it up really well. Then add the meat back in. Hugs
May 11, 2020
Time for a new aviator
I was not going to stay clean shaven, but then Ron asked me to please stay clean shaven for at least a month. I do not know if I will ever grow my face hair back while Ron is alive. On and off in my life as soon as I got out of the military I had a beard. When I had a job that wouldn’t allow it I shaved it off. Years ago when my beard first started to come in grayish Ron demanded I shave it off as he was too young to be with anyone who had grey hair. Remember he is 8 years older and had gone white / grey long before I did. But he has always been sensitive about his age. When he wanted to grow a mustache / goatee and it came in all white he suddenly decided white was not a problem.
During my teleheath appointment this morning my pain doctor noticed my clean shaven face. She was laughing at how I looked decades younger. Not sure how I feel about that, with my history about being young. Now I have to have every two months spine shots to keep walking and shoulder shots so I can keep using my right shoulder. I have to have them every 2 months as it was explained to me. Oh well what is a lot more pain suddenly to save having pain over a longer time frame?
But I am old enough now and secure enough that outward appearances mean little, and the fears I have carried since childhood can be abandoned. If Ron would like me to be clean shaven then I am okay with it, I just must find a face cream moisturizer as shaving is making my face burn and chap. Really it feels like my face is going to either melt off or peel off. Ron says that is because I had a beard so long, but I do not think so.
OK, so here is where you all come in in this wandering stream of my thoughts, the avatar. Which would you think I should use? Now I don’t promise to use, but it gets a lot more weight depending on how many pick it. Hugs
*** After post edit *** Ron cut my hair to the new style and he is rather proud of it. Hugs
How have I been spending my time.
Hello all you grand wonderful people. Ron has been home for a longer period than normal, he has been off work about two weeks. If you noticed I have not been posting as much since I got over the bug I had it is because while it took me 6 days to get over, some of them rather miserable, the rest I just couldn’t stay awake, I slept and slept and slept. Ron caught what I had and had one night of chills and a couple days of being really tired and wanting to sleep. He told his bosses at work, he works in the ICU’s of a large hospital here. They sidelined him for 10 days and he had to take a CV19 test. The test came back negative but as the tests have such a high error rate they still had him stay away from work.
Ron and I have a wonderful relationship and one of the reasons why is we do not feel the need to hang on each other, allowing each other to do our own thing. Ron and I do not share the same TV, YouTube, Netflix, or any other media source interests. Ron created a whole office space for me so I could just do my own thing without bothering anyone especially him. I am into news, electronics, my blog, others blogs, and humor as you know from what I post. Ron loves wood working ( he has a really nice collections of tools I add to now and then, and that he suddenly seems to need for every home project no matter well how the other tools worked for the same job just days before ) he loves home project channels, tool channels, new car test channels, and anime, and all these Oriental movies and shows that need subtitles to watch. Those drive me nuts.
One of the things we have a joint interest in is cooking, and cooking stuff. We both have different things we like to cook or specialize in. That is why we started the kitchen remodeling and tore the entire old kitchen / dining room area of our house out ( finding massive wall damage that needed repairing and are rebuilding a kitchen that two people can cook and create in together without cursing each other out ) We are refining the kitchen plans as we work together. Like we found out a microwave over the stove is not really a good idea despite what the appliance store people say.
So as I said we both enjoy cooking and we have different interests. That is true of cooking, we each have things we like to cook, that we are good at cooking, and we trade off according the meal as to who cooks and what. Surprisingly what is hardest for me is being without my media, so for those who do not know I need a constant inflow of information to keep my mind focused. If you want more on that then ask and I will explain. But I have my Iphone, my earbuds, and the new super TV we bought last year for my office has Bluetooth which means I can get my stuff in the kitchen while Ron watches his stuff in the open concept living room kitchen we have and he is building.
We both love home cooked bread and now I have given up using a bread making machine, and instead use our kitchen tools and do it from scratch. I like it better doing it that way. However I have never made pies, cookies, or other desserts. Ron use to make them but has lost desire or interest over the years. So we have been working together to make different things, showing each other what we know and tips to make things better. For example I understand dough and can tell when it is done or needs to either have something added or needs more kneading. So lets start a week or more ago and here I will insert pictures.
So I am experimenting with Different types of bread recipes, this one makes two loafs so I decided to make one a cinnamon loaf.
As you can see on the cinnamon one I did not roll it thin enough and used too little of the cinnamon sugar. But not bad for a first try. Nan says I buy Ron all these kitchen toys is so I can use them.
So next it was on to the next try. An apple pie.
It tastes great and I just finished the last piece for lunch. However both Ron and I both were frustrated over the store bought crust and as we had far more apples than could be forced into one pie despite Ron trying had to do so. So we put the leftover apples into the fridge to make a second pie the next time with homemade crust.
But first there was a second try at the cinnamon bread yesterday. I used a different recipe. It came out much better and with a lot less fussing. It was so much better and softer. I think I found the recipe I like for bread.
Sunday after the Sunday news shows I made Ron a bunch of pancakes for lunch.
Then today. We did not like the way the store bought crust worked so Ron told me he had a recipe for pie crust made from scratch. Oh man did that turn out to be a morning ordeal. There are no pictures of this. Ron had a recipe from his grand mother he wanted us to try. However he forgot how to do it. So for a couple hours this morning we fought and cursed the crust. Then after we got the pie ready to cook, Ron remembered all the steps he forgot that would have made it workable.
But here is today’s pie with less apples and home made crust.
What new cooking experiences will be tomorrow? Here I must add that in the US I am lucky. Ron and I are not among the many that are food insecure. That is not bragging, I wish no one was. We are barely in to the lower ranking of middle class. We are not wealthy and we are definitely working poor, but Ron has a job that pays him less than it should but enough to live on and we combine that with my disability from years of working until my body just gave out. As hard as it is for us trying to fix our home and keep things going we realize it is a lot harder for others. In our park we often made a point to invite those we knew were cash strapped to meals or events, our treat, doing so in ways that did not make anyone feel uncomfortable or that they were less than. I still fix anyone’s computer or help them out with no charge, because if they can not call on me, they have no ability to get any help. Our country has a huge gap in living conditions and we are all so close to being with out, being the ones living on the streets. The thing is it doesn’t have to be this way. There are alternatives, 33 other countries in the world we claim to be more wealthy than, do those alternatives. Hugs
May 8, 2020
May 5, 2020
April 26, 2020
A quick note.
Hello all you wonderful people. I love the comments and it is my policy to respond to each one, even if it is just to say I agree or disagree. I look a the comments and replies as a conversation, talking with people.
I use the bell notification icon on the WordPress blog pages to let me know when a comment has come in and for easy reading and answering. Lately I have noticed I did not get notified by the icon of comments and when I opened it those comments were not listed. I have found this out because I was responding to comments that either referenced one I missed or when I went to the page to refresh my memory of the conversations before I replied I would see some I had not gotten any notice for.
As I really do like to respond to each comment if you do send one and in a reasonable amount of time, remembering I go to bed early in the evening, then please let me know. Drop me another comment letting me known. It may have been a temporary WordPress glitch, but one never knows. Thanks. Hugs
April 21, 2020
My other love, …
Hello all my wonderful internet viewers. Now that I am starting to be able to walk reasonably well, with out the risk of falling, with out needing constant support, I am indulging in an old passion I find rising in me again. Yes it is an achievement created by the spine shot and all the drugs I take including morphine, which makes my mind slow down and makes me really tired and want to sleep. I use to not be able to stay in bed due to pain, now I fight to get up, I end up debating with my self if being awake is worth it.
Yes the computers, and the people I interact with are grand and hold a special spot in my life, but I also love to cook. Most of our time together over 30 years I did the major amount of cooking. Granted in the early years Ron showed me many cooking things, seasonings I was clueless of, and when I can not walk he does most of the cooking. One of the things I really like is baking. I just free wheeled a loaf of bread that will soon go into cook. That means I had a recipe but no instructions. I think I made it work, so far.
I have over the years tried a few things, one thing I did that came out well I had no clue about was a quiche that really surprised me how well it tasted, and a breakfast bake of different potatoes and cheeses then a bunch of eggs. I can not find the recipe I used.
So I am asking my wonderful Toy Box friends for recipes, remembering I am not skilled at this nor knowledgeable in terms ( when I do try to cook I do so generally by feel and I am bit loose on spices which does come out mostly OK ) for their favorite cooked / baked items. I am looking for a bread recipe book that has good white breads along with other things. I have made a lot of desserts but I have never made a pie. I want to start doing that. If anyone knows a good recipe book for diabetics please let me know.
I am waiting to put the bread in the oven. I hope it bakes OK, because if not I will have to repeat all this in the morning trying to find a new recipe online. So far the ones I have found have not been great. Thanks. Now on to your comments. My love to all. Hugs
April 6, 2020
April 3, 2020
The imagery is perfect.
I love this. The wording is perfect. Hugs
March 28, 2020
March 25, 2020
Gordon Lightfoot – The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
My favorite song by him. It sent chils up my spine when I first heard it. It scared the poop out of me when I was in the Navy. It made me feel adventurous in the Army. Now in my older age it makes me feel discouraged and like I am fighting a future I can not change, one too powerful to stop, yet I must not give in until it takes me down. Hugs.
Harry Chapin – All 14 minutes of Taxi & Sequel
Sorry about the bad quality but I really like his music. Hugs
