Ohmy little blog. I’ve so neglected you.

Be it known I’m back for awhile and we’ll just see where this goes.

I woke up grateful today!

The world lost a wonderful woman overnight. Lenice Brandon, mother, homemaker, loving grandmother, awesome cook and matriarch, left her body behind to begin a new life elsewhere. In memory of her legendary pies, I made a breakfast egg potato and sausage pie.

Sadly Soulful Egg Potato and Sausage Pie

Layer 1:
2 cups frozen hash brown potatoes, pepper, 2 tb butter, ground “everyday seasoning” from TJ’s. Cook in microwave for 3 minutes and mix and press flat, going up sides a little when done. Put in preheated oven to 350 for 20 minutes or until somewhat browned.

Meanwhile mix 4 eggs, 1.5-2 cups milk, more seasonings. In another bowl warm in microwave: frozen cooked sausage, frozen butternut squash.

When crust comes out of oven, spread sausage and squash over it then pour liquid into pan. Sprinkle fresh parm over top and bake 35 min or until done.

DELISH!!!

Thank you Lenice Brandon. You will be missed.

So this morning my husband’s in the shower and my friend called saying she’s outside waiting for me in her car to go shopping and was early so she’d wait a few. So I went into the bathroom said “Sorry but I gotta pee before I leave because Amy’s outside in the car” He said “OK”.

Afterward I said Do you want me to flush (we have a water pressure problem) and he said “OK”

Leaving the house, I shouted “Love you” down the hall and off we went to the Assistance League thrift shop.

While checking out the nice volunteer is running my credit card and my phone rings. It’s David who says “Where are you?” Surprised, I say “at the Assistance League thrift shop and I’ve been here about 30 minutes.”

he then told me I never told him I was leaving and the dogs weren’t fed either–I had set everything up so he could fill their bowls…food out and everything.

It seems he thought I was saying “dogfood” (which we yell to summon the beasts to dinner) instead of “Love you”.

You read that right, SMOKED TURKEY PIZZA.
Homemade wheat crust, pizza sauce, thinly sliced red onion, asparagus, smoked turkey, parm cheese, mozza cheese, kalamata olives, with chipotle chilis sprinkled on top.

Awesome!

Last night’s dinner was a slamming success.

I made a rich stock out of the smoked breastbone (after carving all the meat off) then thickened it with flour for gravy–no added fat–and it was sublime over the mashed potatoes.

I looked everywhere but couldn’t find the potato masher so had to use a fork. What a pain but I kind of like the rough texture. I added butter and cream cheese to the potatoes and wow! Worth the calories.

So the dinner plate was: smoked turkey breast, fork-mashed garlic potatoes, herbed smoke gravy, green beans.

It doesn’t get any better than that.

Today we are test driving the smoked turkey breast using fresh turkey breast.

Brined turkey overnight in a mix of Better than Bullion, salt, brown sugar, herbes de provence, 1/2 red onion, 2 garlic cloves, a few cloves, a little ginger, allspice.

Setup smoker with applewood–4 hrs at 280°

Rubbed with mixture of paprika, brown sugar, onion powder, garlic salt, chile powder, ginger, herbes de provence, allspice–smelled amazing.

The bird is cooking now…David is looking forward to smoked turkey, garlic mashed and green beans tonight.

Day 8 in the continuing relationship with me and the cold. You’d think David would get jealous of my relationship to another. Instead he’s losing sleep to my nighttime hacking and snoring, yes snoring.. So loud it wakes me up too. I can’t tell you how feminine I feel. I got up early today just to leave him alone and undisturbed in the bed so he can snooze peacefully for awhile as he has no morning meetings. He’s in bed with a pillow over his head-just in case I come back to bed, I assume. He’s been sleeping with the pillow on his head for about a week now.

I have big goals for being healthy again. Like walking without a coughing fit in block two. I do want to focus on activity and weight issues and am finding the current situation depressing. Even my dogs are bored with me and my apathy. This lack of energy makes me realize how important having good health is…and I want some! NOW!

So the plan is to ixnay the oldcay, hit the road, stretch and keep busy while keeping my head up. Maybe some double dose of antidepressants here and there will help.

Now to reiki myself and make a flower essence for myself.

I am a coughing machine that specializes in hacking up industrial sized chunks of mucus and have been doing it for a week. At first it was cool to be tired and rest. Now it’s so not. I’m over it and I’ve informed the cold that this is the seventh day, eighth day actually, and we must part ways.

Do you hear me you stinkin little virus? We’re parting ways. I have no more use for you and I’m almost out of mucinex.

So I”m not dedicated to blogging. Obviously. But I do want to come back and process somet hings. I’ve been reading a lot lately about women’s issues and have gained a deeper understanding of myself and the women who have influenced my life.

I’ve decided my mother is my hero. Now there was dedication. In spite of a big job, a non-participating spouse, three noisy kids and a collection of animals to deal with, she had dinner on the table every night and I never woke up to a morning without breakfast. That’s not only dedication, but follow through.

Yup. Hero.

So this weekend Jane was here and we decided to do buffet style homemade crispy tacos Saturday night. I had chicken and fajitas stuff so I made that using my usual spices but adding tumeric, my new favorite spice. Served with a side of black beans cooked in homemade red sauce.

Amy came over and we all made our plates the way we like. I took broken taco tortilla pieces and used them to scoop the fajitas, lots of lettuce, some cheese and YUM. All three ladies were well fed but if I had it to do over again, I would use soft tortillas instead. Fajitas doesn’t lend itself to the crispy taco shells which was all we had.