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 |  I've maxed out. Closed this blog. |
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This is a way of making myself write something coherent and grammatically correct almost every day. I'm opinionated and need an outlet. I'm also prone to flights of fancy. Thanks for stopping by. |
| Yes, I agreed to try Avon. I like the idea of setting my own hours. What I like more is that they now sell online. You can place an order and get it delivered to your house directly from Avon. You send out emails or social media, and people can check it out or not without feeling forced. I still have to learn how to personalize my eStore. It has a blog which is right up my alley. I can write about skin care and fashion and be as opinionated as I like. I want to learn how to use Twitter for business purposes, too. Best of all, I can use the products, then share what works and what doesn't. I'm more into preservatives than war paint. But I still need a little of that. |
| Food trends are interesting, aren't they? I remember when a chef's salad was trendy. People thought they were being so health conscious and staying on a diet and would order one in restaurants. They came in huge bowls, piled with ham and turkey, at least half a boiled egg, and sometimes bacon bits. You could get them with chick peas in some places. They'd be smothered in dressing until people learned to ask for dressing on the side. Finally, someone realized it was like ordering a big sandwich with extra mayo. Eventually, they gave way to leaner salads. Then crepes were big. Restaurants specialized in them. Only the fillings changed. That gave way to quiche. The book, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche came out. I knew plenty of men who said that wasn't true. That gave way, too. Today, I only see quiche at women's gatherings or church functions. And men do eat them. It's just eggs in a pie shell. (The secret to a good quiche is the pie shell, and I'm lousy at pie shells.) Now almost anything with a Mexican flair can be found. Fried chicken never goes out of vogue. Pizza is constantly evolving, as they try to keep customers interested. Applewood bacon was all the rage for a while. In fact, you could put bacon in almost anything, and it could sell. I've seen bacon in cupcakes and bacon wrapped corn, bacon wrapped scallops! In general, cupcakes were all the rage for a while. Every store or bakery and women's magazine featured giant, fancy cupcakes. A true high calorie experience. But I've heard that trend is beginning to die out. Some trends never go away because people just like them or get nostalgic for them. Carrot cake comes to mind. They're still around, but not as common. Jelly rolls were big in the 40's, 50's, and 60's, but who sees them any more? Yet, you will see the concept with a different type filling. I've never made a jelly roll, but I made a pumpkin roll. It's hard work getting that spongy cake to roll like that without splitting. No wonder they went out of style. Frankly, I remember jelly rolls when I was kid. Can't say I ever met one I liked. It's hard to say what we'll see next year or a few years down the road. But we'll make the best of it! |
| Sometimes it's hard to pick a topic at all, and sometimes it's hard to pick just one. I'd like to talk about the candidates debate, but the public and the media have both had such a superficial reaction, I'd hate to step into a hornet's nest. I'd like to discuss Absalom and David, but I'd get preachy probably. Today, I was expecting company who went to the beach instead, and called us from the beach after I already had a big meal in the oven. There were only 3 of us at dinner, so we'll be having leftovers. My dad has to have corn on the cob every Sunday without fail. Sometimes, I skip it because we have so many fresh vegetables. I get sick of corn. I knew some people in Pennsylvania who ate it fresh from the farm nearby every day of the week. Not me. Dad buys too much, and shucks it all at once. So we'll have corn all week! I fixed baby straight neck squash (organic) on the stove top, steamed with my fresh basil. The main course was chicken drumsticks and potatoes. I made up the recipe after looking over some. It was delicious. I put them in a bag with some breading and spices. In a foil lined pan, sprayed with Pam, I cut up celery, carrots, and garlic. I put the breaded chicken on top. I put washed home-grown sage leaf in the pan. Before I did any of that, I peeled the potatoes from The Vegetable Lady, cut them and soaked them (it makes them crisper and takes away the gelatin like substance that's not good for weak kidneys). On the spur of the moment, I dunked the drained potato pieces into the leftover breading. Then I arranged around the chicken and stuck in the oven. After about 20 minutes, I sprayed them with Pam and turned over. A few minutes later, I sprayed again to be sure they browned okay. They were a big hit. We added fresh tomatoes and home-grown cucumbers and iced tea, of course. Here's the lesson: Don't use the cheapest available foil. Store brands are usually okay. The most expensive is the best, but I understand the desire to save a little. The foil I used I knew would be a problem the moment I opened the box. It was like silver tissue paper. I have never seen such thin foil. I know that sheet metal comes in different gauges. Apparently, aluminum foil does, too. It tears easily. It stuck to the bottom of the pan and came out in little tiny pieces. I had to really scrub the pan to get it up. I might as well have had the vegetables or chicken skin stick. |
| I never thought I would say it was fun, but I did actually enjoy freezing yellow squash today. My dad moved the sealer out to the garage and I can't find it. So I had to resort to Ziploc Freezer bags, and they just don't work as well. The squash was picked too late, so it's big and seedy. I had to cut out the mealy seed sections. They're edible, but not aesthetic. By the time the frozen squash is cooked, the seeds will be soft. They aren't good when roasted fresh or steamed. To cut them, I discovered I needed two kinds of knives--a long sharp one for cutting lengthwise, and a shorter sharp one with a smaller handle for carving out the pulp in the rounded part. (These are crook-necked squash.) The shorter one also cut the lengths into slices more cleanly. I've heard about the blanching and icing, but I've never done it before. My first batch was too large, so the 3 minutes blanching weren't enough. The next batches were smaller; three minutes were perfect. They were also easier and quicker to ice down, dry, and pack. I need to do zucchini, too. I labeled with the date--the most important part. I used the straw method to remove air, which, you can imagine,is far from the best method. I put two smaller bags inside a gallon freezer bag to try to prevent ice crystals. Next week, I might make pesto for the freezer before my basil plants play out on me. In my old age, I might become domestic yet. If anyone is interested in the history of food trends, you might look at the latest edition of Family Circle magazine. It starts with the 1800's, goes to the early 1900's, 1930, and every decade after that to the present. It's a great little sketch. |
| I'm getting my share of old movies this summer.I saw Katherine Hepburn in Alice Adams tonight. I vaguely recall seeing it a long time ago. Somehow, these old movies seem more meaningful now. Once you learn to appreciate the evolution of movie making and the careers of these actors their work just seems more significant. I looked at this 1935 movie and saw the beautiful young face of Hepburn. I don't think I ever understood how attractive she was in her youth. She played the ups and downs of this character, so that even her voice changed with her moods. I have to mention Fred MacMurray in this movie. He didn't have a strong leading role. He just had to look handsome and appear to be in love. I've seen him play a bad guy, too, but I mostly think of him in Disney movies or as the father of My Three Sons. The other night I watched The Little Foxes. I sort of fixated on Bette Davis who played the mother of a grown daughter. She was attractive, but not sexy. I watched for the famous eyes, but the role she was playing was so cold and controlled, they didn't have a lot of expression. In fact, it was hard to feel any sympathy for anyone in the movie. The story was intriguing. Lillian Hellman did the screenplay as well as the stage play, so the great lines, including scripture were there. I looked up the play, and I found it was inspired by the old system of leaving the inheritance only to the sons. Austen wrote about that, too, but in the old country, not the South. I didn't realize I watched so much TV until the summer schedule started, and I found myself with such little selection. At least I can brush up on the vintage stuff. |
| I watched the Republican debate tonight. What fun! It was extremely entertaining. Those guys can make some really good jokes, mostly at Hillary's expense, but D.C. politicians in general. I think Trump lost some ground. People like his outspokenness, but they saw him dodge issues and pat himself on the back too much. For me, his attitude about women stinks. At least now I know a little about the other candidates. My neighbor's daughter reads about 2 or 3 books a day when she's off for the summer. The neighbor is a doctor and just doesn't have time to read mysteries. So I have two boxes full of books today. We're going to pick out the ones we want. The rest will go to charity. We already have bought more than we can handle. I've got to make zucchini bread and put it in the freezer. It slices very thin just before it thaws out completely, and freezes very nicely if wrapped properly. Then we can have it all fall, for church events, or other functions, when I don't have time or fresh zucchini. Friday, I am the volunteer church secretary, so that the real secretary can go on vacation. We use volunteers for reduced hours just to take phone calls and handle emergencies. So I'll carry a book with me. Then I can walk around the parking lot, which is on several levels, since the church is on a hill. If it's not raining, I can get my exercise right there. I'll take my I-Pod for music and stop watch function. |
| Organic vegetable delivery today! I love the green beans. They put the perfect amount for 2 or 3 people. There are no bad spots to pick off. The last batch I cooked with the organic new potatoes, also clean and hand picked for excellence. This week included eggplant which we're trying to grow on the back porch. Ours are in pots, so they're smaller, and turning brown. I guess I should pick them before they get bigger. The box has one onion each week, which is sweet, not bitter. Several green peppers and little cucumbers (pickle size). The yellow squash are the straight neck variety, but weren't included this week. And we get 4 peaches each week, which are better than the ones in the grocery store. The tomatoes are healthy and ripe. Our homegrown ones are usually misshaped, or have lines in them. When Dad was more of a gardener (younger), he'd have more varieties, which included nice sandwich size tomatoes, as well as cherry tomatoes. We don't get enough any more to make fried green tomatoes, maybe at the end of the season, when it's too cool for them to ripen. The organic corn leaves a little to be desired. It's smaller than the commercial corn, and does have spots on it, or missing kernels. It saves us, though, from going to the farmer's market, where you don't know if it's really organic, or they just say it is. This delivery comes from a reputable farm. The box includes a newsletter from her farm, and includes her family life. The price isn't bad. What we grow in the garden feeds the local animals, especially the deer, and sometimes us. We've gathered the squash fairly well. We're growing peppers, too. He has pumpkins planted somewhere. The strawberry plants only feed the birds. I want to grow lavender next year. I understand it keeps mosquitoes away. If it does I can spend more time outdoors without being covered with bug spray. |
| We went to court today to testify against someone who stole cash from our house. We were disappointed with the court proceedings, but realized we wouldn't have gotten any of our money back from her. My dad didn't have to testify. I was only there to make sure he was okay and help with his hearing. My cousin brought her adopted child to our house to clean for us. We trusted her, to a degree. I was at work when she was there. My dad won't babysit anyone. But there were two rooms he didn't want anyone to enter. One of her weeks there, he happened to count the cash in his file cabinet and discovered a lot of bills were missing. On further checking, he found more money from other envelopes and bank bags missing. Then he searched the house and discovered a lot of coins missing. Rolls of quarters, dimes, and nickels. She didn't bother with pennies. Dad had rolled my brother's coins after his death, and they were substantial. Mom had bought old coins, worth more than face value. They were all gone. We tried to figure it out, how she got those heavy things out of the house without calling attention to herself. I'll skip the details for now. She admitted to the investigator that she took the coins over 3-5 weeks. She denied taking the bills. It came to over $3000, so that is grand larceny. She had 3 charges against her, but they offered her a plea bargain. Plead guilty to the first two, the third would be dropped. She'd have to do 60 days in jail, 10 months suspended, and pay restitution. Now we get to the part that I found surprising. The court decided our insurance company would be responsible for the loss, and she only has to pay the deductible! So if you rob someone of a million dollars, you only have to return the deductible on the insurance policy. Isn't that nice for the criminal? The insurance company won't be repaid ever, even if the criminal strikes it rich after the jail time. She gets a year to pay the deductible to the court after she does her time. They're working with her on her time to serve after her doctors' appointments. They're so understanding of her unemployment and circumstances! She did not go to jail today. Here's the thing, though. She and her boyfriend, also unemployed, do drugs. And they support his mother, also unemployed. I don't expect her to pay the court the money within the guidelines they give her. She'll probably go back to jail before the year is up. Plus, druggies need more drugs. Her boyfriend and his mom will probably get her to do something wrong again. I feel sad for her. She's in with the wrong people. But I'm shocked with the court system. |
| Think about the evolution of cameras in our lifetimes. The older you are the more you've seen. We've gone from Polaroid being cutting edge to Instamatic to disc camera to digital. Remember threading the film through the older cameras? If you got it in correctly, you could get an extra shot or two. I thought about this while I was watching a 1941 black and white movie in which Gloria Swanson struggled to get film in her camera on board the private ship (not a yacht). The movie was Father Takes A Wife, also starring Desi Arnaz as a handsome young stowaway. I remembered that we have many more pictures of the kids in my family now, all preschoolers, than we had of our whole first 18 years and beyond. Future family historians should have better records if these photos are saved. If they just stay in someone's phone or Ipad until it's replaced, they won't linger. I went through all our old photos, the albums my mother kept, the ones I kept, the loose photos that belonged to my great aunt, then my grandmother, then me. I scanned them all, identified them, and sorted them on my desktop. I'll have to make arrangements to save it on another hard drive. I don't know what future technology will be able to use them. I don't know what relatives to leave them to. They may just die with me and the computer. At any rate, I can make some pleasant PowerPoint presentations for anniversaries and retirement parties or family tree displays. I like to watch a little slide show every now and then, the old pictures, combined with digital ones, according to subject matter. They do conjure up memories. I'm glad pictures are so easily available now to anyone who can carry a device. If they will store them somewhere safe, they'll treasure them someday. |
| It's funny that when you make it a goal to get more sleep, you get less. At least I do. I went on this "health" kick to get 8 hours of restful sleep. Since starting, I can't go to sleep for hours, I wake up frequently during the night, and get up early. I can't take naps during the day. I was doing better when I wasn't thinking about healthy sleep. I am getting more exercise, less caffeine, etc. Sleep is supposed to keep away the wrinkles, make your skin firmer, avoid bags under the eyes, improve your memory and your blood pressure, and even help you lose weight! I'm turning the computerized devices off earlier. I'll have to increase the hard work some more. Maybe reading right before bed will help. My mind is just going constantly. And I have no stress! |
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