Challenge# 17 Just The Facts

This challenge is from a small writing group.  We have a large series of questions and the challenge is to select one and write about while sharing it.  A second goal is to complete one each week.

Question:

List five facts about yourself that most people don’t know.

What you don’t know could hurt you?

I am a pretty private person but will talk to complete strangers for hours and we may not ever exchange names and certainly not phone numbers.  So you want me to share with the universe my secrets??  Much of my secret life will always remain a secret, I am just a big fan of not fixing whatever is not broken.  Some of these things I will share my children already are aware of.  They just think these are a part of my DNA and tune out when I speak about any of them.

I have been in love with Bing Crosby all my life.  As a very small child my  mom became very upset because I broke a record of hers by him,  and she stayed angry about that for years.  It must have impressed upon me that he was something very special.  I did watch and still do watch his movies whenever I have the opportunity.  Who doesn’t love “White Christmas” in the middle of July.

As an 11 or 12 year old I hung out a lot at the neighborhood settlement house.  This was a social meeting place a few blocks from my house where they offered a variety of opportunities.  It is where I went for Girl Scout meetings.  I also signed up for and took Fencing lessons.  For almost 6 months I learned all things fencing.

I very much enjoy concerts, any kind almost that you can think of.  My first was a piano concerto at the Symphony Hall and I truly loved it.  It is one thing that I almost always say yes to.  Over the years I have literally been to hundreds and already have tickets for my next two.

I also enjoy watching parades, again all sorts and sizes.  I was recently walking in the neighborhood where I grew up and as I walked past these 2 houses my first thought was this is where we stood to watch the parade one block away from my house.  I have crossed a couple of bucket list parades off my list, Macy’s Christmas and the Rose Bowl Parade.  Both were big checks on my bucket list.  I have only seen three in other countries and only one was specifically planed for.

I love almost every vegetable except peas.  I love to eat and make split peas soup, I love all varieties of beans and bean soup.  As a kid I enjoyed shucking peas while sitting on the front porch with my aunt, I are them because I had to.  Now that I’m an adult I don’t add them and avoid at all cost.

The rest of my mysteries will just have to stay hidden.

Challenge #15 Turtle Poem

This challenge comes from a small writing group.  We have a large series of random questions that we answer and share.  The goal is to answer at least one per week.

Question:  Write a poem of what you think a turtle would be like without its shell?

• Have you ever lost your house?
• Would you be quiet like a mouse?
• My home is a great big shell,
• It protects me from rain and sun as well.
• If you are wondering, I’m a turtle named Bob,
• And someone must have thought I looked like a slob.
• Trying to help they removed my shell,
• Now I feel like I’m living in hell.

• This was my home
• This was my security
• This was my covering
• This was my camouflage
• This was my protection
• This was my life.
• So I now have been fitted with a tuxedo
• Oh, well it could have been a Speedo!

Maple Walnut Bon-bons

I  read another blog about this wonderful treat and it sounded so delicious I had to make these.  Sandra McCall, Sugar Free Maple Walnut Bon-bons blog on December 1, 2019.  If I knew how to link to her blog, I would do that, but that is nothing I have ever done on the blog.

I did a slight variation on these and made them with 3 different coatings.  The taste of the filling is light and creamy, a very delicate flavor and it was hard to not just eat them all without the chocolate coating.

I first did the batch with dark chocolate, my family and I love dark chocolate and that was what I had in the pantry.  The dark chocolate coating proved to be overpowering the flavor.  Next I did the white and milk chocolate covered and really loved these, yes both of them.

Feeling the after holiday glow, a glass of egg-nog and these wonderful candies.

 

Challenge – 8

This challenge comes from a small writing group.  We have a large series of random questions that we answer and share.  The goal is to answer at least one per week.

Question:

Write 10 thoughts that could be stuffed inside Fortune Cookies for perfect strangers to read.

Fortune Cookie Thoughts

1. This is a special month for you.
2. A song in your heart will keep you awake all night.
3. You will meet an exceptional person today.
4. A spoiled child will always stay at home.
5. The path you are traveling will change dramatically.
6. Always bring your own rainbow and snacks.
7. Your home is a place of serenity.
8. You must find a balance between work and play.
9. Any pet will bring joy into your life.
10. Don’t forget to eat dessert first/
11. Be very careful of your secret wishes.
12. Your ancestors approve of your current situation.
13. Someone from your distant past will come back into your life.
14. The next book you read will follow your life exactly.
15. Make sure you get your exercise in tomorrow

 

Now for a little fun.  In case you didn’t know, Fortune Cookies, like Chop Suey are American inventions.  If there is no fortune in your cookie something good will happen to you soon. (Like the Fortune Cookie Fairy owes you one????)

Don’t forget to add the words “in bed” at the end of reading your fortune cookie aloud to those you are dining with.  As you take your cookie make sure you don’t touch the others.  That would cause them to have bad luck.

It is possible to order special fortunes to be placed inside cookies if you are celebrating a special event or having a party. There is also fortune cookie jewelry and fortune cookie fabric to create your own items. Finally a video on You Tube on how to make your own cookie out of felt or videos on how to make your own actual cookie.  OK, OK this is way more information than anyone ever needed about these fun little cookies.  I will stop now.

Holiday Breakfast

Do you have a small or elderly person in your house who does not always eat as well as they should.  I just thought of an easy way to make breakfast festive.  This can be used for all kinds of holidays, all year long.

A healthy bowl of oatmeal or other warm cereal with fruit, in my book is delicious, but how to convince a 5 year old.  A simple sprinkle of just a tiny bit of colored sugar.  And I mean tiny, this had about 20 red and 20 green sprinkles. (Maybe 30.)

Suddenly, I see little red hearts near Valentine’s Day.  Then pastel flowers and sugar as we are approaching Easter.  I would probably only do a small amount of the black sugars near Halloween.  This could be a good thing gone bad.

On this snowy day here, what a fun treat to start my day.  Have a good one.

Dahlonega, GA

Perfect day trip in the Atlanta area, about 2 hours north  of the city and in the mountains.  This adorable little town has a beautiful square in the center of town with lots to entertain all year long.  Gold was discovered here in 1828 but the gold strikes on the west coast were much larger and more publicized.  Gold mining still happens here though at various points along the river.

While the square is a big attraction, the tubing on the river is lots of fun in the summer along with camping.  I have visited a number of times over the years and part of the joy for me is the winding drive through the mountains and all the other small towns as well that are nearby.

On the day we just went to visit there were  lots of tourists and several classes of school children in town.  The people on motorcycles love the drive with the winding roads to get here as well.  On an average Tuesday in October, there were a lot of people around.   The city hall in the center of the square has a commanding presence  as well as a museum in it.  Surrounding  on the square are lots of small shops , the required fudge shop and a nice variety of places to eat and drink.

Definitely consider this a destination if you are spending a couple of days in Atlanta.  This is a nice visit any time of the year.

County Fair 2019

Enjoy the sights from our county fair.

Recently went to our local county fair with my granddaughter and great-granddaughter.  I am very proud of our little fair, this county is fairly rural and lots of small farms that have not been eaten by malls or highways.  We have the animals on display and tractors everywhere.  Displays of winning produce and hay along with hand made items, a demolition derby and a beauty queen.  All things that I enjoy seeing on display.

We have a chainsaw wood carving on display and all the yummy carnival food  you can handle.  I have in the past taken home a rabbit or two who became members of our family so we no longer look for the animals available to purchase.  My great-grand loved the bunny with red eyes.  Not sure if she thought it might scare her friends or what.

Part of the tractor parade that shows you how wonderful the old ones sound.

One of the 4-H exhibits and our beautiful chainsaw carving on display.

Day After Breakfast

What to do when the refrigerator is filled with hard-boiled eggs and left over ham.  Put it on a plate in an appetizing  way and add mock Hollandaise sauce.  I sliced some eggs and ham and warmed them up in the micro.  For the sauce, its one spoonful of mayonnaise and the same of sour cream and a little lemon juice, heat and spoon over food.  A small dash of paprika for color and flavor.  I left out any bread or English Muffin to keep the calories down.  Delicious and quick. The other picture is from a card I made and then used a photo app to add texture and background.

A few Easter quilts from the Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge this past March.

A Multitasking Morning

I am not sure I look at multitasking the same way others do.  A typical morning, the TV is on the news channel so I can hear and occasionally see what is happening in the world.  A load of clothes has just gone into the washing machine, that should be moved in 45 minutes.  The dishwasher needs to be emptied and everything put in its correct place.  I need to figure out what I will wear today and I am starting to get hungry for my breakfast.

This is an everyday multitask  list before I even get out of the house.  Then comes the schedule for the day.  Is this a day for the Senior Center, for quilt guild, for shopping, for travel or just a trip to the sofa to veg. Retirement hasn’t taken the multitasking away, it just changes the direction it takes.  Oh the golden years, life is grand.

Nailed It

This is in a good way.   We have all seen the internet fails of people who tried to make something they saw on the internet and it became an epic fail.  The head fell off the doll, the soup  was saltier than the Dead Sea, or the wallpaper wound up on the dog, cat and human attempting to put it up.  Occasionally, I have an idea of something I want to try and it works.  This is a success story.

In a blog I read and follow I saw a comment about a Ham Pot Pie.  This began the thought process,  we had just eaten a made from scratch chicken pot pie, I had just gotten a good deal on ham the week before.  This could be a marriage made in heaven,  my family was very skeptical since we had never heard of this before and had no point of reference on how it would come out.  In my head I had already created the recipe.

I didn’t actually write a recipe, I am more of a handful of this and a pinch of that type of cook.  I decided that sweet potatoes would be best in this pie, so I sliced a sweet potato into 1/2 inch slices and roasted until it was soft.  I knew green beans had to play a part so I got those.  In the refrigerator I found a handful of sliced carrots and celery leftover from the past Sundays gathering, those went in. The whole family likes corn so that jumps into the picture.

To pull as much flavor as possible and to protect my aging belly, I always lightly fry onion before adding it into any dish.  So I added all the veggies into the pan with a bit of diced onion to soften and to  bring out the flavors and added a fair amount of parsley to this mixture.  Tossed this in a bowl with the diced ham.

For a “gravy”  I started with a white sauce, butter, flour and milk, in the same pan I used for the veggies to pick up all that flavor.  I used a generous tablespoon of brown mustard for my secret ingredient in the white sauce.  Next I added about a cup of freshly shredded parmesan cheese to this.  This went over all the meat and veggies in the bowl and into the pie dish.  Crust on top and then into the oven for about an hour.

With no added salt because of the ham and cheese already included, this tasted really great.  Most of us had seconds including the teen-aged male resident who likes nothing new .  All of us were skeptical initially, my daughter as I am putting this in the oven said “I will try it, but we do have other leftovers if necessary.”

I even had a bit of leftover pie crust and did what my grandmother always did with it.  Cut it into small pieces and put cinnamon/ sugar on top and baked for a few minutes.  There is a moral to the story,  just do it and say yes.