Darlene's Pressure Cooker Split Pea Soup

Darlene's Pressure Cooker split pea soup

Made about 1 1/2 qts of soup. 6 Corelle-ware cereal bowls full. 

This method is different from most pressure cooking methods. We're not just dumping and pressurizing, so READ THE INSTRUCTIONS all the way through! 

By follow instructions pressure canning/cooking is VERY safe! THINK about what you're doing and pressure canning/cooking is VERY safe! But if you start "winging it" or not paying attention, you WILL have problems!

Plan on being in the same room with the pressure cooker/canner while it's going. Do NOT walk off and "forget it". This is not the time to be doing 3 things at once.You need to be able to hear the regulator rocking. If you get the heat too low or too high, the sound of the regulator rocking will let you know that you need to come attend to the heat level.

Preparing your pressure cooker:

Place the cooking rack (that came with your pressure cooker) and about 2 cups of water in the bottom of a 6 qt pressure cooker. Place medium-size stainless steel or Pyrex glass bowl on top of rack. Make sure there's room in the bowl for everything with about 2-2 1/2 inches from the food to the lip of the bowl to spare. Also, the bowl has to sit no higher than 3/4 of the way up the pot to allow for proper cooking under pressure. Food will boil in the bowl, so it needs some room to not overflow the bowl. Make sure you can get the bowl in and out of the pan easily so that the steam can go around the sides of the bowl - you don't want the steam pushing the bowl (and its contents!) up near the exhaust port! If that happens, food particles WILL block the port and you WILL have an explosion from the build-up of pressure. So that's why you don't want to force the bowl into the pan. (Do I REALLY need to tell anyone to NOT USE PLASTIC in a pressure cooker? Do YOU really want to be the butt of "dumb blonde" jokes? lol)

Reminder: Even with an easy to remove bowl, you will NOT be able to remove the bowl until the bowl cools down some, so plan to use a ladle to remove the soup from the pot. (You can't pour the soup out of the bowl because hot water from the bottom of the pan will ALSO come out with the soup! And the bowl will probably fall out - leaving a mess and you burned!)

The reason for the bowl is to keep the split peas from sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan. This method works for making chili in the pressure cooker too. In fact, anything that has a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pan is a good candidate for this method. It allows the food(s) to be pressure cooked, but keeps it off the bottom of the pan where it will stick and burn. Next time I make hash, I'm going to use the bowl in the pot. Last time, I almost burned the hash. If I used a glass bowl, I would NOT use a "quick pressure release" method of cooling down the pot. I think it will cause the glass to break. I'm not going to try it myself and see what happens and I would suggest you NOT try it either. 

Ingredients:

1 can of ham* (cannery processed in #2 cans) (Can use diced ham, bacon, ham hocks, Kielbasa or summer sausage for this too)

**1 3/4 cups - 2 1/2 cups water (I used broth from ham), chicken or veggie stock, or bouillon cubes/granules to add more flavor

1 cup split peas

1 large onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

4 small carrots, cut into 3/4" pennies

7 very small potatoes, scrubbed. Large dices

1 small bay leaf

3 turns of my little pepper grinder - about 1/4 tsp (I don't normally use pepper either. lol)

large pinch of ground ginger - about 1/4 tsp

salt - optional (I don't normally add salt to my food. And with the ham, I didn't need to add any. YMMV)

Optional:

Add to individual bowls:

2 tsp butter

1/4 tsp Sriracha Hot sauce (or hot sauce of your choice)

1 tsp red wine vinegar (I'll be fresh lemon juice would be good too!)

*I canned some ham at our local cannery in #2 cans. This is the first can that I've used. I ended up with about 2 1/2 cups of broth and 1 cup meat.

Directions:

Pick over peas and rinse. Place drained peas in bottom of bowl. (If not using canned ham, skip to "*Add ham") Drain and measure liquid from ham. You should have about 2 1/2 cups liquid from the can. If not, add water, stock, etc. 

*Add ham and liquid to bowl.

Add onion, garlic, bay leaf, pepper and ginger to bowl.

Prepare veggies and add to bowl.

Close pressure cooker and turn heat on high. Bring to pressure following your manufacturer's suggestions. When regulator starts rocking, slowly lower heat to a slow rocking of the regulator. Let pressure cook for 15 mins. When time is up, remove pan from heat, but let the pressure come down on its own. (It took about 30 mins for me to hear the safety valve click as it released.)

Serving:

REMOVE THE BAY LEAF! Don't ask, it wasn't pretty and 35 years later, I still remember it. DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE BOWL FROM PAN AT THIS TIME! 

**Either take a stick blender to the contents of  the bowl or use 1 3/4 cups of water. I think I'll stay with the stick blender because it thickened it up just right for me, but if you want chunks of meat and veggies, cut back on the water - unless you like a thinner soup. Ladle it into individual serving bowls.

It still "needed something". So I stirred in 2 tsp butter and 1/4 tsp Sriracha sauce (Asian hot sauce) into my soup in my bowl. Still "needed something". Added 2 tsps of red wine vinegar to top of the soup in my bowl and didn't stir in. YEAH!!! Disclaimer: I have an asbestos tongue. When my bottle of Louisana Hot Sauce proclaims; "One drop will do", I laugh at it, open the bottle UP (instead of using the dropper in the cap) and POUR it on my food - especially when I want "Hot Wings". As for the vinegar,  I'm of German/Dutch stock. I like SOUR just fine. In fact, I peel and eat grapefruit like most people peel and eat an orange. Except ya have to remove the membrane around the segments - those suckers are BITTER. (Ok, I'm from FL too. lol)

Alternate treatments:

Forget the meat/meat stock and you have a vegetarian soup. 

I believe this to be gluten free. I know there's no gluten in anything until you get to the Sriracha sauce. There's nothing to indicate anything that would be hiding gluten in it, but since I don't have a problem with gluten, I haven't investigated it.

Use 5 or 6 slices of bacon. Fry in bottom of pressure cooker until browned. Remove from pan and fry onions until golden, add garlic and cook a few minutes more. Add 1 cup of water and deglase the pan. Pour water/onions and garlic into bowl. Place 2 cups of water into bottom of pressure cooker, along with the rack Add bowl and follow rest of directions above.

Make cream of split pea soup by adding white sauce to it after it's cooked. (3 T flour, 3 T butter/bacon grease, 2 cups milk) I would definitely cut back the water in the bowl to 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups or the milk will thin it too much for most of us to enjoy.

Making do in a small living space

This past Aug, I moved from a 4 bedroom house to a 1 bedroom duplex. Not only is there fewer rooms, but the 4 rooms (bedroom/bathroom/livingroom/kitchen) I do have are MUCH smaller than their counterparts in my old house. My kitchen is almost non-existent. AND the notice that I had to move gave me less than a month to get moved. Not a lot of time to sort a lot of things. Some of my food storage things were easy to sort as I moved them. So were my homeschooling books/children's books. Those boxes went to DD and DSIL basement. They will be returned to the house as soon as I can get stuff here decluttered. Food storage stays, books will be sold.

Some things I've done to maximize space:

Gotten rid of a lot of stuff and am continuing to purge. The kids had to come get their belongs, if not...their stuff went to someone whom wanted it or to the trash.

I've repurposed some metal utility shelving and bookshelves that I already had and a dresser that wasn't "needed". I hang most of my clothing. Gotten/getting rid of a lot of things I never wear/think I'll fit back into "someday"/don't like.


Things I'm keeping have to do double duty. Duplicates are going. (Do I really NEED 3 BOXES of cookbooks? Uhmmmm...don't I look on-line when I want a new recipe or to check the cooking times on things?) Do I really need a flour sifter when I have a small-grid metal strainer? I now make Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day. Do I really need TWO bread machines? I mean, it takes me less times to mix a batch of REALLY good-tasting bread dough from which I can make 4 or so loaves of bread in less time than it takes me to fiddle with the bread machine!


Paperwork is outta here. I'm taking anything I "can't part with" that's paper - cookbooks I won't use but that do have one or two recipes I'd like to have, old slides (don't have a projector - never did! But slides took up less space and were cheaper to develope than pictures were.), negatives, receipt that I need to keep, old tax returns, etc are all being scanned into the computer and put into files. Then the files will be transfered to either CD, DVD or thumb/flash drive for storage. That way, there's a backup should I need it or want to look at it and it won't clutter up my hard drive or my storage space. (Wow, that will get rid of a LOT of boxes of stuff!) Then I can throw AWAY the originals (You need to keep tax records for 7 years or so and talk to someone who knows what YOU need to keep for other records. I'm dumping tax records that were done and filed online. These are copies. It doesn't matter that I toss copies.)

Get rid of a lot of my books. Things I haven't looked at in YEARS probably don't need to be kept. Things I reread - Agatha Christy, Lilian Jackson Braun, my scriptures stay. Also some of the children's books - I have 2 grandkids on the way! (Got rid of 2 bookcases full of kid's books.)

When I moved, I organized the jumble that was my food storage into cardboard boxes marked: Flours, sweeteners, fruits, veggies, meats, tuna, pasta, baking, condiments, grains, dried beans/legumes, milk and oils/shortening. Since I only have a couple of 1/2 and 1/3 sized cabinets, I'm keeping them in those boxes! I know at a glance which box something is likely to be in and I only have about 4 or 5 of each type box to look through. When I have more time, I will sort the boxes better - but this system is better than the "toss it on the shelf and lose it" method I had before. I used "milk" boxes. The local store gets their brand milk in a heavy box that hold 4 gallons. It has handles cut into it on 2 sides. Nice size/shape for storage. Not too heavy for me to lift and carry. When I have time, I could make the boxes look nicer by paint or putting contact paper on them. But for now, they stay as they are. Oh, and as I open a box, I write on an outside surface (NOT on the top of the box!) what's IN the box so I don't have to keep hunting through the same boxes each time I want tomato sauce, etc. I keep the written side facing out, that wasy I can see what's in that box without opening it.  And they're FREE, recycled and still recycleable when I'm done with them or they wear out.

These things are the "start" of getting rid of 21 years of kids and their "stuff". It's really hard because not only am I getting rid of the clutter - and that would be anything I'm not using that's getting in the way, but I'm having to deal with memories that won't be repeated. So I cry a little and I sort and get rid of a little. Slowly, but surely, I'm getting my new place cleared out. Hopefully, by the time we get the promised storage sheds put up in the backyards, I won't need one.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of you.

May this new year bring you happiness and prosperity.

About gauge in Knitting (and Crocheting)

Primarily, I'm talking about knitting here. But these facts also apply to crocheting as well. Gauge is gauge.  And to do a proper gauge swatch, you're supposed to knit at least a 4"x4" (10cm x 10cm) swatch, wash and dry it like you will do the finished article and THEN do the gauge check.

Let's face it, most of us do NOT do a proper gauge swatch. Some of us are doing good to get the swatch done at all and then we measure it without bothering with the washing and drying part. I'm guilty of said practice.

A sad but true fact. Very few patterns will turn out the same size as written if you don't check the gauge.  If you're an experienced kniter, you may know that you traditionally have to go up or down and how many needle sizes you usually have to change. But even then, unless it's the same designer who's patterns you've used before, you may be off gauge. The person that wrote the pattern (that's done by knitting something and writing down what you do as you do it - and frogging - A LOT!),  may have a different gauge themselves. If they have the same gauge as you do and you change needle sizes as you'd normally have to do, you'd have something too big or too small.


There are two camps or ways of checking gauge and each camp thinks the other camp is crazy. One camp thinks that knitting a swatch takes less time and then you have a "sample" to keep of how you knit with that size needle and that weight/brand yarn and that pattern (seed stitch, ribbing, etc). They start out with one size needle, do their 4"x4" square and measure it. If it's not to gauge, they switch out needles, but keep on knitting on the already existing swatch for another 4", measure that and then correct again if needed. The advantage to this method is that you then have a ball park figure for the next time you knit with those combos IF YOU'VE WRITTEN DOWN what you've done and kept it WITH the swatch. (paste a corner of a piece of paper to the swatch and mark on the corner what you did and how you did it. The cons to this method is that you've got yarn sitting there that could be in an item and you've spent time that you could have spent knitting what you want on an otherwise useless sample. OR you can make your swatch larger and when it's finished you both have a sample of your work and a washcloth/dishcloth for use.

The other camp is the "start knitting it and then see what the gauge is" camp. The value of it is that, if things are right, you can just keep going. AND you have all of that skein of yarn available to work with. Down side is this - if it's NOT right, you've got to frog it all and start again. And if it's a big project, that's a LOT of time wasted.

What I tend to do is go ahead and start a small item - one that I'm not going to have to cast on a bunch of stitches to do and then check my gauge as I go along, with the foreknowledge that I MAY have to frog it. Toe-up socks and top-down hats and mittens, squares for an afghan all make good examples of something I'd just dive into and do, then check to see if I'm on gauge. Usually you have only a few stitches to start with, and as the stitches grow you can both see and try on the item as well as measure it to see if  the gauge and size are correct.

Brim-up hats, cuff-down socks and cuff-up mittens/gloves, as well as scarves are a toss up. My feelings are that by the time I've done a swatch, I've cast on almost as many stitches as I would making the item. So I may as well go ahead and start knitting - again keeping in the back of my mind that in an hour or so, it could be frog pond time.

Something large - one piece or large panel afghans, sweaters, coats  - BIG projects that take a LONG time to do, I'd swatch. Also if I make something that uses a very fine yarn - like lace or novelty yarns, where frogging can mess up the yarn, I would also swatch. There is one time that I would go ahead and knit a big project and that's if I was making something that has sleeves that are a separate piece, cuff-up (so there's not so many stitches), I would go ahead and knit a sleeve to see if I'm getting gauge in pattern on that sleeve.

Remember to do the swatch in pattern to make sure you have the same gauge as the designer calls for. Sometimes, the designer will tell you to have such-and-such a gauge in ribbing, stockinette or garter stitch. Mostly though, the gauge will be checked in the main pattern that the item will be knit in. And I've seen patterns with swatching called for in ribbing with one size needle and another swatch in another pattern with another size needle. So ALWAYS read the pattern ALL THE WAY THROUGH!

Three other things that I have found will affect my gauge. One is the yarn itself. I did 3 swatches of a plain scarf with some Red Heart or Vanna's Choice yarn. The scarf was a simple stockinette stitch with 3 garter stitches on each side and about 3 rows of garter stitch top and bottom to control the natural tendency of stockinette to roll up on you. Well, I got to knitting and that scarf just "grew" on me. It's WAY wider that the swatch showed it should be and it's way LONGER than what I intended. And yes, my swatch WAS accurate - in 4". The finished scarf was only supposed to be 12" wide, so even if the gauge was off, it wouldn't have grown to 18" wide. I guess as I made it the weight of the fabric it caused it to stretch out. Since it was for a kid to take to school, I didn't loose any sleep over it.

The second thing that has fouled me up was changing types and "style" of knitting. When I went from using DPN's and either "Bates" or "Boyle" needles to using Magic Loop and Addis Turbos needles, I had a HUGE gauge change. To the point that I had to completely frog one of the Fingerless gloves that I was working on. It was my own pattern for a fitted glove. I wrote down what I was doing as I did it. And I still had the DPN/Bates/Boyle glove WAY larger (and fitting the recipient) than the ML/Addis glove, which was too small. That was about 18 hrs of work off to the frog pond. My fault because I should have checked the gauge when I changed, but never dreamed there would be a difference. After all, it was the same yarn and the same size needles. It wasn't until I had DD try them on that I found they were WAY too tight. To the point that the stitches were stretched enough you could see her arm through the stitches.

Third thing that affects my guage is what's going on in my life as I knit. Perhaps other more experience knitters can control this, but if I'm watching something tense on TV, having a disagreement with a kid or I'm upset over something, my gauge tightens a LOT. Crazy thing is, it's doesn't "feel" any tighter on the needles as I'm knitting, but I can see the gauge is off as I look at what I've done. Like when knitting a pair of socks one at a time. They take me a LONG time to do and when done, I can "see" if I've been knitting while something is "bothering" me or if I'm in a good mood. I can see it in the fabric. Again, that may be because I'm not really a very experienced knitter. Mostly dish cloths, 1 pair of socks, a several of pairs of wrist warmers/gloves and a couple of scarves. And while blocking cures a multitude of sins in a wool/wool blend fabric, it doesn't always do much for synthetics.

What I'm working on is collecting patterns that are really just the math equations for knitting certain items. I have socks covered with my Crazy Heels and Toes book. I can choose any size needle and any size yarn and then make my socks fit the recipient. I may have the math figured out for brim-up hats too. But to do these kinds of things, you have to understand HOW gauge works and then either do swatches or be willing to frog items. Oh, and keep a record of how many stitches you get to an inch on certain brand & weight yarns with certain size/brand needles.

In the end, with all knitting that needs to "fit", you HAVE to know how many inches you're getting to an inch and how many inches you need on the finished item. If I need an item that goes around a 9" ankle, and I know that I'm getting 6 stitches to an inch, then I KNOW I'm going to have to have about 54 stitches to get around that ankle. Then you factor in such things as negative or positive ease and number of stitches needed for the chosen pattern. Then those figures are add or subtract for the stitch adjustment(s) to the base number of stitches. So using my 6 stitches/inch and 9" ankle I know I need 54 stitches as a base. Then, usually you want some negative ease in socks so they fit properly. Usually between 10% - 15% is a good negative ease starting number. So 54-10% (5.4 rounded down to 5 stitches) = 49 stitches. If I'm using a k2, p2 ribbing on the legs and top of foot, I need a number divisible by 4 (2 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches = 4 stitches in the pattern). So I will need either 48 or 52 stitches to have the proper number of stitches. In this case, I would go with 48 stitches. That would give me a negative ease of  about 11%, which would not be too tight. 

And the bigger the item or the more stitches the item requires, the more important 1/2 and even 1/4 stitches have to the final size of the item. 1/4 of a stitch makes an equivalent of adding an additional stitch every FOUR stitches. 1/2 stitch per inch and you'd have the equivalent of 1 stitch every 2 stitches. If the pattern calls for something to be 40" and you're SUPPOSED to be getting 10 stitches to an inch, you need 400 stitches cast on. But if YOU'RE you're getting 10.25 stitches, then you've added 1" to your project without meaning because you've cast on the equivalent of 410 stitches. And if you're getting 10.50 stitches to an inch, then you've added 2" to the size - again, without meaning to do so because it's like you've cast on 420 stitches. Those inches can mean the difference between looking good and looking like something is two sizes too big. It can mean the difference between something that is supposed to be "fitted" looking like it's fitted and something looking sloppy and ill-fitting. And the reverse is also true. Too FEW stitches per inch makes something too tight! 40" of 9.75 stitches per inch is like only casting on 390 stitches. 40" of 9.50 is like casting on 380 stitches. A loss of 1" for the missing 1/4 stitches and a loss of 2" for the missing 1/2 stitches. So that 40" is now down to 38". And that's an entire SIZE difference on some items and TWO sizes different on other items.

Moral to the story - at some point, preferably not too far into the project, check your gauge! It will save you being unhappy with the final fit the project.

Cheater Potato Cheese soup

I have the "there's nothing to eat and I'm hungry" syndrome going on here. I want something quick. I want something hot. I want something creamy and smooth. I want potato soup. I want some BAKED potato soup. I do NOT want to have to cook raw potatoes. I do NOT want to fry bacon. Besides, I don't HAVE any bacon to fry. I don't have any sour cream. I do, however, have 2 packets of instant potatoes in the 4 Cheese flavor. I DO have grease saved from cooking bacon (hey, it's a Southern thing!) and I DO have cheese. Humm....I think I have an idea. Oh, nuts.


4 cups of water
1 package Idaho 4 Cheese instant potato buds
3/4 cup plain potato buds
1 Tbs bacon grease
4 oz medium sharp cheddar cheese (four 1/4" thick slices from the end of a brick of cheddar cheese)
1/4 cup feta cheese

Put the water into a microwave safe bowl and heat until it's "boiling" temp.

Add a packet of 4 cheese potatoes. Realize that what you thought was a second packet of potatoes is actually some yellow rice that will take 24 minutes forever to cook. Grab plain potato buds and dump in some - about 3/4 cup's worth, and bacon grease for flavor. Stir well. Let it sit for a few minutes to rehydrate. If it's too much like mashed potatoes and not soup, add some more water to it. If it's too watery, add some more buds.

Break up the cheddar into small pieces. Add it and the feta and stir again.

If the cheese doesn't melt, nuke the whole bowl for a minute or two. It will melt then.

Eat it. All of it. Because you haven't eaten today and it's 7pm. And you're HUNGRY.

"Why didn't you stop and fix something to eat EARLIER????"

"Because there's NOTHING to eat!"

"There are about 40 boxes that held 4 gallons of milk in EACH and they are now FILLED with FOOD! And the boxes are even LABELED with the category the food is in. What do you MEAN "there's nothing to eat?!?!"

"Ok, Ok. There's food to eat but I don't feel like cooking!"

"Since WHEN does flavored yogurt from the STORE have to be COOKED???? Since WHEN does milk and cereal have to be COOKED?? And green beans? It takes 30 seconds to walk to one of  at least SIX boxes marked "Veggies" and grab a can of veggies. 30 seconds to open the can and drain them and 3 minutes to heat them. You call THAT Cooking?? And it takes 2 minutes to grab a can of green beans, corn, tomatoes and a jar of the potatoes, one of the carrots and one of the chicken that you canned, pop the tops and toss the contents into a bowl, juices and all. Another 5 minutes or so to season it and nuke it. Garlic and onion powder, Adobo, a large pinch each of thyme, marjoram, basil and oregano. Gee, 7 WHOLE minutes 'cooking'. I'm sure it would have KILLED you to have SLAVED over that meal. AND you'd have had leftovers for tomorrow AND Sunday! Oh, and it would have taken you about 5 minutes to get the bread dough out of the fridge, shape it into two boules and let them sit for 90 minutes and then baked them for an hour. You would have had 2 or 3 days' worth of bread. You have pie crusts in the fridge. You could have eaten soup for 2 meals and then thickened the leftovers and made pot pie out of them and had another 4 meals from that! Another 5 whole minutes of 'cooking'."

Sigh. I hate it when I get all logical with me.

Hanging Laundry to Dry Indoors For Dummies

(Like ME!)

When I moved to my one-bedroom duplex from a four-bedroom house this summer, I had to downsize. A LOT! Some of the things that didn't make the mile trip to the new place was a lot of my homeschool books (still need to sell them), my freezer and my dryer. There is simply NO ROOM to have them in this house. Life is all about choices, and these things were not as important to me as what I kept here with me. So..my DK's let me keep some of my stuff in the basement of the house they're renting. Except the dryer. That's upstairs and they're using it. And since both work full-time and my daughter's pregnant, I figure the dryer is of more importance to them than it is to me. I'm not drying work clothing for two. Most of what I dry is what I kick around the house in and a few towels.

Which means, I've had to figure out how to get my clothing dry on some kind of line. I'm thankful that where I live has a nice clothes line in the back yard. I'm also glad for all the times as a child BD (before dryers), that I had to hang the family wash on the line.

But how to apply this to indoor drying. And WHY indoors. Well, I live in the SOUTH. The south is VERY GREEN. Lots of kudzu. Lots of trees. Lots of vegetation. And did I mention, LOTS of kudzu? But do you know WHY the south is green??? Because it RAINS. All. The. Time. At least where I do it rains all the time. Now, I'm thankful for the rain because I LIKE things green. If I wanted brown, I'd move out west. They have some pretty deserts. Brown deserts. That's nice to visit, but I LIKE green. So I deal with rain on a frequent basis. And you can NOT hang clothing to dry outside if it's raining. Or Snowing, Or..freezing.

So here's what I figured out to do.
Wash a load of clothing normally. If you MUST, wash it by hand. But my washing machine DID make the cut of "important" items to be kept. lol

I wash my clothes in homemade laundry detergent and rinse it in vinegar. I like the homemade soap better than commercial. It doesn't stink and I don't break out in a rash from left-over soap. Before I switched to homemade soap, I had cut back on how much detergent I was putting in the washer, but I still would have problems. My laundry detergent how-to is here. And for the record, you can make a batch of this up at one time. Sometimes, I'm just lazy and don't feel like spending the time grinding soap for a whole batch. And you could make liquid soap out of it, but again...it takes more room to store it that way and I've never had any problems with the soap not dissolving in the washer, but then I do grate it rather finely by using my smallest grating wheel.

So, the laundry powder goes into the washer just like you would regular detergent. I put the vinegar into the little holder that you'd normally put your name-brand-add-it-to-the-washer dryer stuff. And turn the machine on and let it work. It works, I go post on my blog. lol

Now you have clean clothing. And NOW it's raining AGAIN and you really don't want to let it hang on the line 3 days until it decides to stop raining. I mean, no one around here would EVER be guilty of ANYTHING like that. Oh, hey, at least the clothes were well rinsed!

So, what to do? Well, hey, I have some hangers and I have a shower curtain rod. Hummmm. So, I simply hung the clothes on the hanger and then put the hanger on the shower curtain rod to dry. I've not had any problem with the clothes dripping because my washer does a good job of removing the water on the spin cycle. But it's been raining off and on for weeks here and after 24 hrs, my clothes were NOT dry. It's winter. The heater is on. If you count it being set to 66 degrees as "on". (That's what sweaters, sweatpants/shirt and socks are for. That's why the old folks used to wear HATS. Go put on more clothes!) So why didn't the clothes dry?? Well, it's cold enough to close up the house and put the heater on, but my brick house is warm enough that the heater isn't cycling as much as the a/c was blowing with it set to 78. (Go put on a light-weight cotton shirt, go barefooted. That's why the old folks used to wear cotton. Take some clothes OFF! Only don't answer the door that way, please!)

What to do? Cue the....FAN. Yes, my little fan that blew in the house to circulate the air so that the a/c wasn't running as much was placed on the bathroom floor and turned on. It then took about 3 hrs for the clothes to dry. (Cotton underthings and socks on hangers set about 1 1/2 inches apart.) Today, we have towels. Heavy towels, drying. I just hung them up about 30 minutes ago, and they're already about 1/3 dry.

Some suggestions for using indoor drying methods:

When you go to hang up an item, give it a good "snap" or two. Shaking it out helps get wrinkles out.

Use "spring"-type clothespins. The "peg" type won't work on a hanger. At least, I've never tried them on hangers because they work by putting tension on the fabric by "jamming" it in place. Fabric gets caught between the peg and whatever you're hanging the clothing on. Common sense tells me that a small diameter hanger isn't going to "jam" enough fabric for the peg to hold the fabric in place.

Hang your clothing on a plastic hanger or plastic coated hanger. You can use wood, but they're more expensive. I sometimes use metal, but you're risking getting rust on clothes if you do that too much. Unless you have a coating on the metal hangers.

I hang shirts up like I would hang them in the closet. I use clothespins on hangers to hang everything else.

I use either those special pants/skirt clothes hangers or clothespins and regular hangers. I hang pants by the waistband. I open the pants out flat and put the hanger behind the waistband and clip it in two spots. I do not stretch the waist out with elastic waists, but do put them straight across the top part of the hanger. I end up with portions of the waistband not on the hanger, but the portion that is on the hanger is enough to let the pants dry.

I hang underwear by twos. I lay one pair flat, put down the hanger so that the "BOTTOM rung" of the hanger is where I'm going to put the clothespins. I then lay the second one on top of the bottom part of the hanger hanger and clip them together, one clothespin on the left side of the item, one on the right side. I then take and clip a pair of socks to the "upper rung", one on each side of the hook. I fold the sock over the edge of the hanger and clip it in the middle of the sock. One pin to each sock.

And for Christmas, I was sent a Wally-world gift card and bought myself - a second shower curtain rod. One that is tension mounted. And I put it so that it ran parallel to the regular shower curtain rod, but in the middle of the bathtub, and above the shower head. Tensioned that bad boy in place and then washed a 3 of loads of laundry.  I hung the heavier pants and shirts I had on the screwed in shower curtain rod and hung the lighter underclothing, socks, and smaller towels on the tensioned rod. Worked GREAT!

And when the clothes are dried, there's only a few things that need folding. The rest get taken straight from the shower curtain rods to the closet and hung up. Woo wee! No more laundry piles. Well, at least CLEAN laundry piles. Now if I'd only DO the laundry more than once every two weeks, I wouldn't HAVE 4 loads that need doing. Oh, well. Baby steps, baby steps.

Fire retardant in furniture and green living

I received an email a while back asking me about washing upholstered furniture and curtains with soap to remove fire-retardant from them. (Soap as opposed to detergent. Detergent is what all of the stuff you buy in the store to clean yourself, your kids, your dishes, clothing, etc. is. Soap will remove fire-retardant, detergent will not.)

About the fire-retardant. That's a toughy. I was a paramedic and I know that most people that die in a fire die from smoke inhalation, not burns. In other words, they die from breathing in toxic fumes rather than the fire touching them. The offending fire-retardant chemicals are what keeps petroleum products from going up like charcoal lighter when the fabric is exposed to a flame. It is supposed to slow down ignition of the fabric. And since the FEMA website states that a house fire can become dangerously involved in only TWO minutes, and that a house can easily become fully involved in FIVE minutes, you want as much time as possible to get your family and yourself out of the house.

You probably can remove the retardant by washing the item in soap. You're going to either have to take the pillows to a commercial laundromat with a large-item front loading washer or do them one by one in the bathtub. You could also simply remove the covers, wash them, hang to dry and then put the pillows back into them - assuming they have a zipper construction in the back/side of them.

I would simply cover the offending pieces of furniture with a 100% cotton sheet. It will keep the "toxins" off of you, but yet, if some how they are exposed to flame, they won't go up like charcoal soaked in gas.

In fact, if you're worried about/allergic to the chemicals, instead of washing it out of all your furniture/curtains/clothing, I would be replacing my stuff with 100% natural materials. Natural materials are not as quick to ignite and they don't burn with a toxic smoke - though the carbon monoxide/dioxide will still kill you. Until I could afford to replace my belongings, I would simply cover my things with natural materials.

Do a YouTube search of house fires and see how quickly man-made items ignite. From the time of ignition on a house, you can have a house fully involved in less than 5 minutes. A house trailer can be up in 7 SECONDS. It's because of all the petro products used in them and they way buildings are constructed. This is why fire-retardation formulas were invented - to slow down the ignition and give people more time to get OUT of a burning house.

You can make your own fire-retardant. It's near the bottom of the linked post. 

Truth be told, you're probably going to have more problems from the materials that furniture is made from than the fire-retardant. If I recall correctly, foam has formaldehyde amongst other things in it. And formaldehyde is in carpet, furniture and other items. The borax and boric acid are at least naturally occurring minerals -as opposed to the myriad of petro-chemicals found in most of the items we have in our homes and there isn't a lot of it used to flame-retard clothing, bedding and upholstery.

All-in-all, if it were me, I wouldn't remove the fire-retardant, I would use cotton sheets or make cotton slip covers and use those to cover my furniture. (How to do that is available on the 'net.) The extra minute or two that the flame-retardant provides can be the difference between getting yourself and family out of a burning house or dying in it or suffering permanent lung and/or brain damage from toxic smoke.

 

Cake in a mug (or bowl)

OH, my stars! Do you REALLY want me to teach you this trick???

Ok, here goes.  There's 2 ways of making cakes in a cup/mug/bowl. One requires a boxed cake mix and a small  box of instant pudding. The other is completely homemade.

Homemade

5 Minute Cake in a Mug
Large Mug; or small bowl (Make sure it will hold 1 1/2 cups liquid because if it's too small it will spill out.)
4 Tbs flour (that's plain flour, not self-rising
4 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs baking cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbs milk
3 Tbs oil (cut to 1 or 2 tbs)
3 Tbs chocolate chips(optional)
1/s tsp vanilla extract

Spray PAM in mug. Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix  well.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk, oil and vanilla extract. Mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and  mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 1 1/2 to 3 minutes. It's ok if the cake rises over the top of the mug.
EAT! (This can serve 2)

To make a vanilla cake: Add 2 Tbs more flour and don't add the cocoa. (can add any flavor extract)

To make lemon cake: Add 2 Tbs more flour and leave out the cocoa. Add 1 tsp lemon extract. instead of vanilla extract.

Here’s a more brownie-like, simpler/faster recipe:
4 Tbs flour
4 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs cocoa
2 Tbs oil
2 Tbs water
Cook for 1 minute. A little longer if your  microwave is old.


Jello 5-Minute Cake
4 Tbs all-purpose flour
3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp sugar-free jello powder, any flavor
1/8 tsp baking powder
1 Egg white
3 Tbs milk (or soy milk)
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 Heaping tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 Microwave-safe bowl or mug

Mix flour, sugar, Jello and baking powder
Mix in egg white
Pour in milk, oil, applesauce and vanilla, and mix  well
Put in microwave for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 minutes (add 30 sec if necessary) on maximum power
Cake is done when it looks "dry" on top and just starts to pull away from bowl. When you touch the center top, it springs back, but doesn't leave any "goo" on your finger pad.



Peach cobbler in a mug
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
Measure all into a small Ziploc bag, seal and shake to  combine.
1  (4oz) container (snack size) peaches

Place the peaches cup in a mug lined with tissue paper, add  the cobbler mix on top.

Attach Tag:
Melt 1 T. margarine in mug;
when melted, add mix and 2 T. Milk. Stir well. Add peaches on top of the batter and cook 2 minutes.


Gingerbread Cake In A Mug

Microwavable/Oven Safe Mug (must hold at least 1 1/2 cups)
4 Tbs Flour
2 Tbs dark brown sugar
1 tsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
Round Tag
Snack or Sandwich size Zipper bags

Piece of Homespun (opt.)

Place these instructions on tag:
To make Gingerbread Cake

Gingerbread Cake Mix

2 Tbs Molasses
1 egg, small one is good

2 Tbs Warm water

In a small zipper bag, place all ingredients, zip bag and shake them together, and tie off with a piece of homespun (opt.). Place into mug for later use. On  Round tag write, "Gingerbread Cake Mix"
Attach a nice gift tag to the mug handle or tuck a small  card inside your mug with the following directions:

To Make Gingerbread Cake
In a small bowl, place Gingerbread Cake Mix from small bag. Add  molasses, egg and warm water and blend together with fork until thoroughly  mixed, about 1 minute. Pour mixture into a lightly greased mug. Place in  microwave for 1 1/2 - 5 minutes on High. Since times can vary for each microwave, I recommend  checking every 30 seconds after 1 1/2 minutes to see if it's done. Enjoy!!!


Cakes from a boxed mix:

Birthday cake in a mug (this will make 8-9 individual cakes)
Place mix in a pretty mug, lined with tissue paper, add a  couple little birthday candles and a book of matches (if the recipient is old  enough to light them! Great Birthday idea for College students, Elderly who  may only want a "little" sweets, etc.)

cake mix any flavor
4 serving size(small box) instant pudding mix , any flavor
Blend ingredients well until completely mixed.
Measure 1/2 cup dry mix into sandwich bags. (Makes 8-9 bags worth)Tie it closed using ribbon or use sandwich, snack or quart-size zipper bags

Yellow cake mix - vanilla pudding - chocolate glaze
Yellow cake mix - lemon pudding - raspberry glaze
Lemon cake mix - lemon pudding - lemon glaze
Devils food cake mix- chocolate pudding - Hazelnut glaze
Pineapple cake mix- coconut pudding - cherry glaze
Butter flavor cake mix - butterscotch or cheesecake pudding - strawberry

Glaze mix:
(only makes one bag, so if you're giving away these mixes/want them made in advance, you'll have to make 8 or 9 of these bags.)

In a separate snack or sandwich-size zipper bag combine the  following ingredients:
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp dry flavoring - you can use Koolaid, lemonade mix, breakfast drinks (Tang), cocoa, Coffee-mate flavors (powdered), or extracts. Extracts will have to be added by the cake maker, unless you have powdered extracts.

In a large coffee mug place a Cake Mix; a glaze mix and  attach a tag with the
instructions for cooking.:
Grease or spray coffee mug/bowl with cooking spray.
Empty Cake  Mix into mug
add:
1 egg white
1 T. Oil
1 T water.
Blend with fork  until smooth.
Place in microwave and cook on high for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.

While cake is cooking add 1 ½ tsp water to glaze mix in zipper bag. Close and gently rub bag until glaze is smooth. When cake is done, remove from microwave, cut a small hole in the corner of glaze packet and apply glaze to your mug cake.

Eat while warm!

You can add a couple teaspoons of either Just Whites egg replacement powder or Powdered Eggs to each individual  packet of Cake "mix". On directions tag, you will need to add an additional 1 T water (so it says to add 2 T instead of 1) to recipe and remove reference to adding an egg white from instruction card.

Brownies in a mug

4 Tbs instant brownie mix
1 Tbs mini m & m's
1 Tbs Chopped Walnuts
1 Tbs Chopped Pecans
1 Tbs Dried Chopped Cherries

Measure all small Ziploc baggie, seal.
Place in a Mug lined with Tissue paper, attach pretty  tag.
Attach Tag:
Pour mix into mug
add
2 Tbsp water; mix well.
Microwave for 1 minute.


Cinnamon Honey Bun cake

Measure the following into a zipper bag and seal.
1/3 cup yellow cake mix

Add the following into a separate zipper bag, seal and label as Topping Mix:
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp finely chopped pecans
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Attach Tag:
Empty Cake mix into mug.
Add
2 tsp Oil
1 T. Water
1 Egg White
Mix this together well.
Sprinkle topping packet on top.
Cook on high in microwave for 2 minutes.


OPTIONAL OVEN METHOD: Mix everything just as described  above. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place Mug in oven and bake for 20 minutes.  Enjoy!!

Tips:
 I forgo the cup in favor of a cereal  bowl that came in my dish set. It's not the very smallest bowl, (old-fashion finger bowl size) but the next size up (cereal bowl size) - it holds about 2 cups. I don't have to clean up any  overflow and before, they sometimes would overflow the cups.But then, I  don't have any really large mugs. I only have the regular-sized ones  that come with Cornelle dishes.

I have an old microwave and I only cook my cakes for about 1 min, 30 seconds to 1 min, 45  seconds or they are overcooked. Some of these times seem awfully long for newer microwaves.


The cake is done when it springs back  when you touch it, but doesn't leave any cake on your finger. It will  also just begin to pull away from the edge of the bowl. If you leave it  in too long, and 15 seconds longer than 1:45 for my oven is too long,  and the cake will begin to get hard on you. It's still edible, just not  as good. so keep an eye on the cooking until you know what works in your  oven. Oh, and my oven is an older, lower-powdered oven, so newer ones  may cook these cakes even faster.

I also use a whole large egg. Sometimes people give me "yard" eggs. I  use what I have. I got tired of throwing away the egg yolk. The yolk is  where the nutrition is. Of course, it's also where some fat, calories  and cholesterol are too. So use common sense. If your Dr. says no egg  yolk, don't use it, just separate the egg or use egg beaters-type  product. Otherwise....toss the whole thing in and save yourself a minute  in separating it.

I have found that I like to mix the oil, water and egg up together  in my greased bowl and then add the dry cake mix part. I then just cook it in the bowl. Wash the fork off and use it to mix the icing and  then use it to eat the finished cake straight from the bowl. Nice  serving of cake, one bowl, one fork and a cup to mix the icing in is all  that you've messed up in the kitchen. Clean up time, 45 seconds! lol  And nobody will be any the wiser!

I've added everything into my cakes - nuts, choco chips, a spoon of  jelly, candy. You name it, it can go in. About 2-3 Tbs is about right  amount of total add-ins. I stir things like nuts into the mix on top of  the oil/water/egg mixture so it gets a little coating on it so it  doesn't sink as badly. Things like jelly, I just plop around the top of  the mixed up, but uncooked cake and then nuke it. (Chocolate devil's  food cake with chocolate fudge pudding and raspberry jelly on top to  sink into it. OH! YEAH!) covered in just plain powdered sugar or  chocolate frosting. Uh hum, Oh YEAH!)

For the frosting/icing/glaze, I have used just plain powdered sugar over the top. I've used powdered sugar and extracts with some added  water to make a paste/frosting/icing or glaze (how thick it is is whether it's a paste/etc. or glaze). I've added some softened butter in,  I've left it out. I've added cocoa powder to it. You can add Jello to  it - sugar free (ok, so we're making cake and we're going to save 30  calories or less? ) or regular. You can add different  "Coffee-mate" coffee flavorings to it. (if you use liquid instead of  powdered, make sure you add that BEFORE you add ANY water. 

And I'd mix  the powders together and then add the liquids to it. Some things like  cocoa don't like to mix in just plain water. But mixed with the other  powders and it doesn't give you any grief. I've also used lemon juice in  the icing with a yellow cake mix/lemon pudding mix. Same rule with  adding liquid extracts. Add those FIRST because it counts as part of the liquid that liquefies the powdered sugar and then add any more water.  But when I've messed up, I just add more powdered sugar. lol You can  even use regular sugar and heat it on the stove adding everything you want to add but the extract . Add the extract after it's off the heat so the flavor  doesn't disappear on you. I prefer icing over a glaze, so I  don't add as much liquid to my powdered sugar.

Darlene's Christmas simmering potpourri

Darlene's Christmas simmering potpourri

6 springs from Christmas tree (Frazer Fir is what I had)

1 orange skin in pieces. I had taken the skins off in about quarters.

1 grapefruit skin. I had taken the skins off in about 6 pieces.

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp nutmeg, ground

1/2 tsp all spice, ground

1/2 ginger, ground

6 whole cloves

1/2 mace, ground
1 Tbs cinnamon, ground

water to nearly fill the pan

Put in large saucepan. Bring to near boil. Turn down, let simmer for as long as you'd like to smell it. Check every hour or so and replenish the water as it evaporates.

This is as free form as you want to make it. Have whole spices instead of ground ones, use them. Conversely, only have ground spices - use those instead. Add the smells that you like. Don't use those spices. Only have dried fruit skins or zest - use that instead.

Just WATCH the water level. I have been using a 2 quart sauce pan and have had to refill the water about every 2-3 hrs. I'm so ADHD that I have to set a time to remember to check the pan!

Next time I make this, I'm going to put the tree sprigs on a paper plate and cover it with another one and use a hammer to beat the pieces to release the oil in them. I think I'll have more of a "Christmas tree" smell if I do.

The tale of the pumpkin pie

One time about 25 years ago, my sister, her husband, my youngest sister and myself all got in the car in north Florida and drove to my parents house in northern Pennsylvania. It was about an 18 hr drive. We had a nice drive, arrived late and after greeting the family, went to our various assigned rooms and fell asleep.

It was Christmas time and so, there was snow on the ground - fun for FL kids. There was food to be cooked and presents to be set out and there was some last minute shopping to be done.

So we commenced the cooking. While some of the food was cooking, I happened to go out onto an enclosed porch to look around. (This was not the home we grew up in. It was the parsonage for the church they had at the time and we hadn't been there before.) My dad came in from outside and I asked him about the corn on the cob that was sitting out in the rafters and that had been chewed on. He said he was saving the seeds for next year. He also had some other seeds that I noticed had been chewed on and asked him what was eating his seed supply. He replied that it was some clever chipmunks that figured out how to get in and out and that he couldn't stop them. (Cue "Chip and Dale" intro). He had tried a variety of ways to stop them, but nothing was working. He didn't really want to hurt them, just stop them from eating his seed supply.

Well, the cooking was finally done and mom was ready to go shopping. Before we left, mom decided that the pies would be cooled quicker if she placed them on the enclosed porch.

Hummm..

"mom, won't the chipmunks get into them?"

"Nah, they've never bothered the pies before. They don't care for pumpkin pie."

"Oh. ok."

And off we go for a couple of hours.

And we come back.

And mom goes out onto the back porch to get her pies.

And we hear hysterical laughing going on.

So...we go check.

There on the top of one of the pies, in a corner, are little chippymunk footprints! And TEETH prints!

Yes, Virginia the chipmunks DID like pumpkin pie. And YES, they DID get into pies on the porch!

So, mom cut the wedge off where they had nibbled it, put it on the porch and wished the little beggars a Merry Christmas.

And we ate the rest of the pie for Christmas. Yes. We. Did.

And it was GOOD!

Spaghetti Soup

SOUP??? Spaghetti?? Yeah, that's right. Soup. Spaghetti soup.

Why soup? Well....I have a cold. The monster cold of all colds. It's gone down into my chest - like it always does. Triggers the asthma - like it always does. Now it's turned into bronchitis, hasn't done that in years.

It's 3pm. I'm just now eating "breakfast". (No, I did not just get up. Actually, I've been up since early am.) It's that now I'm hungry enough that it's worth enough to me to move and start the coughing. So I went and cooked something.

Why don't you have TURKEY LEFTOVERS, you ask? BLEEEEECCCHHHH. I eat turkey 2 times a year. Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's it! I eat left-over turkey for 2 days afterwards. And. Then. I'm. DONE!!

I've never been very fond of turkey anyway and the older I get, the less fond of it I've become. Actually, I once broke out in hives from eating too much turkey. I quit the turkey and the hives went away. (long story, short. I lived alone, fixed a turkey and proceeded to eat it for 3 meals a day for a week - I wasn't throwing out food.) I'd say I'm allergic to it because after 2 days of turkey, I start having a sick stomach. So NO turkey!

Anyway, I left the left-overs at my DD and DSIL's house. They LIKE turkey. They both work FULL-TIME. DD is pregnant. THEY did a happy dance to have the extra food. Especially food that didn't require cooking or dirtying dishes. lol

And I'm HUNGRY. So....what's in the fridge? What don't I have to cook? Yogurt? Blech. Not today. Salad? Double blech! Not today.

Some ground buffalo that a friend picked up that was on sale. (Thanks Kathleen!) Ok. What do I want? Hamburger? Nahhh. I know, I'll fry up half of it and wing it. (proceeds to turn on eye under cast iron skillet and dumps in 2 tbs of rendered fat from some fatback. Hey, I don't want to hear that. It doesn't MATTER that I "could" DIE from heart disease because this cold is gonna KILL ME FIRST! I'm pretty sure this is my last meal! EVER!)

And step back from MY cast iron skillet. It's well seasoned. It's the heir to my fortune (sorry kids) and if you step back now, you'll live to tell the tale! Touch it and you DIE. IMMEDIATELY!

Oh, back to the food. Whoa, here's 1/2 an onion from T'day wrapped in foil and it's still good. (Chop, chop, chop. Toss, Sizzle, sizzle.)

Hummm. Probably need to add a little salt and garlic powder to this. This is a normal amount. A sane amount. Not I can taste crazy amount. I eye balled it like I normally do when I fry meat & onions.

Looking about done. What do I want to do with this? sigh Hash? Naahhh. sigh

Oh, here's some left-over cooked spaghetti - must be 2 cups of it in the bag. (Dump. Sizzle, sizzle.)

Humm....what kind of tomato products can I find? Well...here's a can of diced tomatoes and here's a can of tomato paste. (Opens can of diced tomatoes and dumps them in. Adds about 1/4 can of water.)

And now for the paste. Oh. Interesting. I don't believe the can should be shooting tomato plasma out of it when you puncture it. Must of been in food storage too long. Why haven't you bothered to DATE any of your stuff?? sigh (dumps the can of Tomato paste and washes can opener).

Man, that's some watery sauce. Ok, lets go looking for some more tomato products in a different BOX because there's still 9,005 boxes not unpacked yet. There's no place to PUT the stuff. It's in boxes with labels. Fruit, Veggie, Milk, etc. So...(dig, dig, dig) Oh, look there's some tomato sauce! SCORE! (Opens can and dumps it in, rinses out the can and used about 1/4 can water to do so.) (Looks at pan and goes; "Oh, crap! Man, that's watery!)

Hum...something missing. Oh, yeah, better season it. salt, garlic powder, fresh rosemary, fresh oregano, fresh basil - ok, it's drying out on the plant. but since the plant is not yet dead, it's still "fresh", Italian seasoning, brown sugar.

Still missing something. Hum....here's some Feta cheese.

Yeah, that looks good.

Does it taste good? Did you NOT READ the first paragraph? HOW THE (mystery word) DO I KNOW?? I have a COLD! The only thing I can "taste" is the salt in the feta and the large pieces of the rosemary - which I failed to think about needing cutting UP so it didn't overwhelm my mouth.

So here's the "recipe". Note of caution. You probably do NOT want to use the amounts of herbs that I put in here. Hello, I have a COLD!

Spaghetti soup that wasn't

1/2 pound of ground something - beef, chicken, turkey, pork, buffalo - not kid, it would not taste good! (You'll have to find another way to dispose of unruly children.)

2 Tbs of fat if you're using a lean meat like buffalo. Olive oil, shortening. Whatever ya got.

1/2 lg onion

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

2 cups left-over spaghetti (COOKED)

Sauce:
14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes + 1/4 can water (rinse out can with it and dump contents in pan)

15 oz can tomato sauce + 1/4 can water (rinse out can with it and dump contents in pan)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp Italian seasonings

(Crazy amounts of the following. If I could taste, I probably would only use about 1/2 of these amounts!)

5 semi-dried out fresh basil leaves or about 2 tsp dried basil

1 TBS fresh rosemary (chop 'em up folks or they're STRONG!) or about 1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp fresh oregano. This one might be ok as is. Normally, I would used about 1/2 tsp dried oregano in something like this, so 1 tsp fresh is probably spot on.

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Get the skillet hot, add the fat, then the ground meat. Cook over med-low heat until done. While it's cooking, chop an onion and toss it in there. Season it with the salt and garlic powder (or use 2 cloves of fresh garlic and don't use the second amount of garlic for the sauce.

When the meat is no longer pink and the onions done, add the spaghetti and let it "fry" while you find the tomato products and deal with disaster.

Make the sauce:
Add the tomato products and the water. Mix it around. Turn up heat because it looks like it's gonna be really soupy.

Add spices. Turn down heat as you realize that 1.) it's spattering all over and 2.) it's not as bad as you thought it was and you don't want it too thick. (Did I just imply that spaghetti sauce can be TOO thick?? NEVER!)

Heat until it's all hot. Don't wait for the flavors to "marry" because YOU CAN'T TASTE ANYTHING, ANYWAY!

Add feta and serve.

Eat a bowlful and write a useful blog entry.

Go back for seconds. Realize that as it's sat, it has thickened and it tastes better. Or is that because I have more feta in the second serving and THAT'S what I'm tasting?

And for the experienced, adventurous, broke cook:

1/4-1/2 lb meat, ground, shredded, cubed. Cooked or raw

an onion

garlic if ya got it.

fat to cook above so it doesn't stick to pan

some cooked pasta, egg noodles, rice, chow mein, or rice noodles

some kind of tomato product or spaghetti sauce, watered down a bit for "broth" or whatever kind of sauce floats yer boat or cranks yer tractor.

seasonings for the meat/onion mix and more to sauce - unless you're using spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce.

Cheese, what kind? I don't know, look in YOUR fridge!

black olives, mushrooms, more/different kinds of cheese, etc

Cook/heat meat with onion and garlic. If meat is already cooked, you may want to start the onion cooking first and then add garlic and then meat. Remember to not brown your garlic as it makes it bitter. (I thought only humans got bitter. humm...wonder if it was a divorced garlic that was tested?)

When the meat is hot, onions cooked, add the pasta and let it cook for a few.

Add the sauce. Whatever kind would work. Water it down a little bit so as to make it more soupy. You want soupy. Make a white sauce if you want to instead of tomato based "soup". Add some Parmesan to the white sauce and call it "Alfredo" which is what Alfredo sauce IS! lol Season it as ya need to.

Add cheese. Add black olives. Add mushrooms, whatever's in the fridge that needs usin'. Eat it as is, or put it in a casserole and sprinkle it with cheese. Put it under a broiler or in a 350 oven until the cheese is golden.

I know there's no black pepper in this recipe. I don't LIKE black pepper, so I don't USE it. Knock yourself out. Use it if ya wanna.

And then when you're done eating. Decide that the bathroom floor can just not STAND another day without being swept. And washed.

And then get side-tracked by remembering it's trash day (at 4:30 AM!), as you collect the trash and are in the process of emptying it, notice that there are MOTHS coming from a storage box of FLOURS and RICE. OH! NO! PANTRY MOTHS.

And will someone PLEASE answer my ears? They're ringing.

Yah know, tomorrow has GOT to be better! If it's not, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to just curl up in the fetal position for a while. Maybe pull the covers up over my head. You know- HIDE. Sort of like the hog-nose snake that the minute you touch it, it plays dead. Then when you walk away, it comes back to "life" and crawls off. Wonder, if I play dead will stop beating up on me? Nah, I don't think so either, but...it was worth a thought. Ah, the fairy tales we write for ourselves. lol

Oh, my one ear just popped. YEAH! It's stopped ringing. Oh, fun. Now it sounds like the ocean. Hey, I grew up in St. Pete. I LIKE the beach. And hearing the sound of surf on the shore sure does beat the ringing! Now if only the other ear will pop, clear and perhaps I'll have the ocean in stereo. Or be able to HEAR again.

Sledding in North Georgia

I have a tale to tell.

Background: I WAS born in Philadelphia, PA. Only we left when I was 6.5 years old. Went to St. Petersburg, FL.

The second year we were here in North Georgia, we had a really good snow. In fact, the next day, there was still snow all over the ground, though the roads were clear. (Even then, there still wasn't anything to write about for traffic, everyone was staying home because of "the SNOW".

The kids and I got dressed, grabbed the sled and went crunch, crunch, crunch, through the snow to the park downtown. We had a really fun time on the short hump that went down to the Railroad tracks. Mommy and kids pushed each other in the sled. Ok, the kids were 1 1/2, 3 and 7. Mommy did most of the pushing and pulling - there and back! oy!

Well, we were done and I pulled them all home. Got home and crunch, crunch, crunched through the snow back up the hill. Then MOMMY got the BRIGHT idea of putting the kids on the sled at the top of the hill and telling them to staying put until I got to the bottom of the hill. Did I tell you that it drops the car out of gear into a lower one when I go up that hill? No? Well, it does.

I told them I'd catch them at the bottom because I didn't want them to go into the street as there was a LITTLE bit of traffic. And if, for some reason I don't catch you, just roll sideways off into the snow. So I get to the bottom of the hill and call up to my oldest telling her to push off. OH, YES. I. DID. (ok, look guys cut me some slack I WAS RAISED IN FLORIDA!)

They came ROARING down that FROZEN, SLICK hill like a bat from you know where. I went to grab them and the sled hit me so hard it was like getting sacked by Reggie White. Oldest managed to roll off the sled, but the 3 year old froze. I tried to grab the sled. Well I STARTED OUT on the left side of the sled. Got hit by it, the force flipped me completely OVER the sled, my foot hit my son's mouth and give him a bloody lip, but I managed to get him off the sled before it slid out into the street. But I was on the ground on the RIGHT side of the sled - that's how force the sled had.

So...lessons learned:
1.)There is a science called PHYSICS.
2.) Lack of knowledge of it does NOT suspend the CONSEQUENCES of ignoring it.
3.) If the snow CRUNCHES, that means there's a layer of ICE on it.
4.) Ice is SLICK.
5.) HILLS that make a car shift gears are STEEP! It's NOT just that I'm fat and out of shape!
6.) Son FREEZES in an emergency.
7.) As much as I wanted to play football, I am NOT 17 any more. The calendar does NOT LIE about how old I am.
8.) I didn't know my body could still MOVE in those directions.
9.) Getting sacked HURTS!
10.) NEVER TELL A KID TO PUSH OFF OF A HILL! YOU WILL NOT "CATCH" THEM! You WILL ALL crash!

sigh