M iss Me?

The more you have the more that breaks and believe me we have a lot of breakages here at Many Branches.  Today is the first time we have been on line and functioning correctly in several days.  We had a new electrical system put in because we had been living on borrowed time.  Finally,   the system said the hell with it and shut down completely.  It took two men a full day and a half plus me running up and down the stairs for an hour straight to get things up and running and proofed.  HOWEVER, No on line internet or tv came to after all had been proofed.  The electrician said there was electricity to the units so it was not their problem--but it was.  They had unplugged Spectrum, our server. Covered it up in fact, but, a Spectrum guy came and in 10 minutes he saw the problem and fixed it.  We are whole again, but I am, just in case, adding a new book to my Kindle so I'll be ready in case we go dark again.

I have not cooked, as you can imagine, for days.  Right now I have a large skilled of pancetta, onion, peppers and other garden goodies sauteing on the stove.  I have rice pilaf right beside it and I am considering the skillet contents and making two dishes out of it.  Oh, the joy of choice.  OR, I could do just one and get back to my computer, iPad, phone and other communication endeavors. I'm giddy.

Fracture

Today I have been building up things that don't need electricity because tomorrow at 8:00am shut down is on to fix our amps problems. Everyone is gone all afternoon today so I watched Fracture a really good movie with Ryan Gosling and Anthony Hopkins.  If you haven't watched it, you are missing out.  It is on Netflix but I bet it is on other places too.  Andy watches youtube and I expect it is on there as well...and I bet that is not how you write youtube is it? lol

In preparation, I have been filling my Kindle with a book or two.  I am back with John Sanford  in Twisted Prey.  I read many of his books and then got tired of him and now I am back and will catch up on his latest offerings.

You know my kitchen is closed so after church Sunday night we were Lucky to find Lucky's Chinese food in front of us for a delicious meal. One of the dishes was sweet and sour shrimp and I took the sauce to save it for a pork roast for when my kitchen has electricity again. The sauce will be delicious on one of those small long pork roasts either fixed on the grill or in the oven along with roasted potatoes and caramelized carrots.  Here is hoping two men can fix us up in an all-day wiring marathon, we are old and need our air conditioning and I am eager to get in the kitchen. It has been three and a half days and I am ready to cook! The up side is that I am cleaning sections of the kitchen a bit at a time and they are staying that way for now. Sadly, that won't last, but I enjoy the sparkle right now.

Just now a gentle rain has started and that's when I like to open the back kitchen door and cook while the dogs lay in the doorway content to wait for Andy to get home from class. Sigh.  Next time.

Punished for whining

Friday 13th got us good!

The last post I whined about minutia and we were punished...severely.  God decided to give me something to whine about other than bad tv shows and boring new releases in the field of books.

Yesterday was going swimmingly, in more ways than one.  Then suddenly the electricity went out without a warning as it pleases.  The neighbors had electric.  The apartment and pool pump had electric but the main house...nada.  Bad eerie feelings began to crawl up my back and somehow I knew we were in for it and in for it we were!  Called AEP three times one to report it, one to say we had fixed it by flipping the main switch which is hidden outside with no instructions, and one call back to hurry and come hither.  The electric popped on at first switch flip and we were saved.  Not so fast.  The electric went off but not before I recalled AEP to say don't come it's fixed.  THEN it went off and stayed off.  By then Beth was home and the phone search started because AEP says (on the third Friday late call after business hours) it is not their problem.  Mr. Electric came on a Friday evening (so guess the cost of that)  Nothing to compare to the final cost of $8,000.  Yes, those figures are correct.  We had been running on luck with a voltage not up to our needs and the grace period had been going on since 1997 but enough was enough and BAM. We had added one sequin too many. Now it will take two men two days (no electric for us during that time) to install new whatcha ma call its, very expensive whatcha ma call its to put us on a safe path with 400- amps?watt voltage.  Our hero somehow got most things going again except NO KITCHEN service. YEA. Nada.  No cooking, no lights, dark and mysterious. Just the way I like it.  I am free for a week because AEP is involved and they do not move quickly and Mr. Electric is at their mercy as are we. However, that means everything came out of the SubZero and moved to the basement fridge and chest freezer.  Beth and I cleaned it out, she did the running up and down the stairs and we both declared NO shopping for groceries until this food was cooked and eaten; which will probably be sometime next year.  Now since Andy, Beth, and Mike are going to Cincinnati to a birthday party I have to stay home to guard the voltage and to baking soda out the fridge and freezer and float in the pool until I see their sweet faces come home to me again. No, no, not complaining, please, I give up. Don't send me to the poor house.
Thank you for not making it worse. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Maintenance Day

Maintenance day today. No floating in the pool.  It is time to get spruced up for the week end.  I got plenty of sun yesterday so I will give it a rest until tomorrow.  Today Andy is off to get a hair cut and then I am off to get a pedicure.  Then we meet up to go buy a gift card for the birthday boy in Cincinnati. If I am lucky we will go to lunch.

We may stop at Sam's to pick up more ribs to test, a rotisserie chicken for the dogs' breakfast meals, (Yes, they eat well) and some fresh items in produce.

I will try to ignore the pool when we get home, but Andy will take a dip for sure.

I think I am done with Cook's Corner on Wednesdays.  I might miss it, but what I really miss is the local woman's (editor's) touch each Wednesday as she guided us through recipes and tips that were well placed and thoughtfully helpful.  Now it is so professional it is like watching the TV's cooking shows with no common community touch. I don't think I have used a recipe from the paper since Lisa left. Sigh. All good things come to an end.

I have not found a really good book to read in a long time and of course, there is nothing on tv during the summer. Why are they still running the Crosby shows (for many reasons), The Golden Girls, Lavern and Shirley; well, you get the point? On the bright side, there is Netflix. As I read this I think about people with real problems and hang my head in shame.

Sassy sauce

Another glorious day!  I am alone with the dogs and have been floating in the pool for two hours.  Now I am a lazy woman after years of hard work (I started full time teaching at 19 years old) and hard travel. I make no excuse for being retired for thirty years and due to our excellent retirement systems, we can enjoy our senior years.  Thank God for foresight, something that is missing in many people's lives.  They just don't see the big picture.  They just don't see getting old and being able to adjust to the inevitable. It's a total surprise when one day they wake up and are not prepared in any form for what is to come...and come it will.

Yesterday I started the rib rodeo. I am trying ribs in every way I can find to select the very best taste that I can acquire.  Yesterday the ribs were well received, but not lauded.  Today we are having them (boneless) over Trader Joe's rice medley.  I am going to Sam's for the next batch because they are less expensive there and one can really load up to cook up. 

I have to start writing down the recipe as I test the sauces.  Most of the time I can't create the same thing twice because I fly by the seat of my pants and put in what calls me.  It is difficult when people like this but hate that--some even have the audacity to believe people should remember what they don't like. Look.  I am not serving offal on toast points, or floating eyeball island, or lobster waste a la king.  I just make a lot of normal dishes and they eat what they like and skip the rest...or they could just skip the visit. (I must have eaten some of that sassy sauce today.)

This day, 7/7/2018

We must mark this day as the perfect summer day. A cooling breeze, no humidity, blue skies, and sun. After the 90's heat wave, this is simply delightful.  Beth is in New Orleans, however, and I bet she is frying down there.  This is a glorious summer and one to remember.

Everyone has flown the coop today, so Andy and I are rolling with the wind.  Reading, computers, a bit of cooking (he loved his brunch), and a self-satisfied air of peace and contentment.

Have you had any of the fresh dark cherries this year?  I have been putting them in the fridge and they have the most pleasant crunch with the sweetness getting to all parts of the grateful mouth.  I like the Queen Ann cherries too, but the dark ones ummm.  Writing about Ann, I have found the Netflix Anne (with an e) series very disappointing for some reason.  I started watching the second in the series, new today, and I just don't like it.  Oh well.  That's how it goes.

Next Saturday we go to Cincinnati for Andy's brother, Jim's, 70 birthday party. For the first time this summer we will see the Cincy gang.  We expect to be delighted. lol

You might think it too cool for the pool today, but my floating chair is calling my name like the Sirens of Greek Mythology.

Bush's baked bean recipes

Google the recipes for Bush's Baked Beans and you are in for a surprise of delight.  I happened to see a guy on TV put a can of baked beans in a blender and he added the results to a BQ sauce recipe.  I didn't get it because it went so fast so I started researching and there is a recipe for Bush's Baked Bean bread that I am trying soon.  I'll let you know.  But that blender idea gives me so many ways to use the sauce that blending offers.  So many possibilities.

I have been in the fridge this morning and here are the results; three things to keep me out of the kitchen and floating in the pool today.
WHEW! It is hot in Ohio.

Out Daughtered

Yesterday I got caught up on a new program that was introduced last year called Out Daughtered.  This very young couple had traveled the world and then had a baby girl.  She traveled with them and life was bliss.  They then decided to have one more child and ended up with five baby girls in one go.  That has only happened twice in recorded history.  Five babies of the same sex.  Needless to say, the father is like a deer in headlights, but very hands on.  Stunned though he appears he is a great help to his little powerful wife who seems to be able to face almost anything. (He does have therapy, however.)  Well, it is very interesting and spellbinding to watch and the new season has begun.  Yesterday they started running the show from the beginning to catch up. Glad it was them and not me is all I can say!

It is early on the 4th and we are having a laid back day with no company, the first time in years. We plan to grill, swim, and be slugs for the entire day.  May not even raise our heads to watch fireworks. But we do have pickles to look forward to which is a big relief.  I could not go on without those hot sweet thinly sliced delicious pickles.  

An old friend dropped by

 Yesterday we had a bad 5 minute rain storm and of course, branches fell at Many Branches. We were just finished cleaning up what we could manage when a strange man got out of a car and started talking to Andy.  Andy burst in the kitchen and said Ben Richards was here.  WHAT?  A favorite former student.  Well, we hugged and chatted and then he gave me a very big surprise, his mother and sister (whom I had taught too) were in the car with Marcia's ailing husband.  Well, in they came and our jaws were flapping and tours through the house and apartment were led for after all this was once their home.  We bought this place from Marcia Richards who had been my room mother for several years because I taught three of her four children.  I had said once or twice (lol...more than that) if you ever want to sell let me know.  We want to buy.  She said when I am 58 I'll sell it to you and she did.  Now she is 87 and is living in upstate New York near Ben, her son.  But they are selling again and moving to a retirement center in Westerville, where Andy and I graduated from Otterbein University.  I can't wait until they are settled which will be a couple of months and then they are all coming for dinner.  I want to catch up.

Marcia and I traveled together while antiquing on several trips and I must say she was the perfect travel companion next to Andy.  We had the best time ever.  One time we made the mistake of taking a third woman on this one trip and three women on a trip rarely works out I have found from personal experiences.  The third woman said she wasn't happy and was going home on the bus and I said why not take the plane, it's faster.  I meant it in a good way, but unfortunately, it was taken the other way...and off she went in a huff and that was that was it for the rest of our born days. Sigh.  Relationships are soooo tiring.  Constant maintenance.

We are taking an entertaining break on the 4th.  It is on Wednesday and seems unnatural to have a big to-do in the middle of a work week. But we are doing a Labor Day bash.  I have so many recipes to try out on the guests.  It will be fun.

I'm off to find those sweet hot pickles that disappeared here in a week.  I am trying Carfagna's first because I Googled the company name and it is an Amish organization and Carfagna's, Italian though they are, sell Amish canned goods and pies.
Note:  Carfagna's do not carry the sweet spicy pickles.  We drove to Plain City to the Amish store and there were three jars left, so we took them all.  We bought a lot of things there this morning because there are two round-abouts into Plain City that are a plain pain in the butt.  So we don't go often, but we get good stuff when we make the trip.

Have a lovely day.

In the mood to cook, but ouch

I got so much done so far today that I asked Andy to go to Kroger for a list of interesting items to turn into something delicious.  We are having taco night tonight around the pool so we can jump in at a moments whim.  Beth's Bible group is coming tonight so I want to fix a snack for them. I have done chicken salad already this morning and I want to do another batch of Rice Krispy treats for the Bible girls.

I am trying to ignore the spot where a motorcycle ran into me in Paris, well actually Chartre, I was there for an auction and trying to cross the street when a man on a large motorcycle scraped under my breast with the handlebars and knocked me to the ground.  I lay across four lanes of STOPPED traffic and the French do not usually stop for anything.  Luckily I had a heat wrap with me and used that during the night.  They wanted me to go to the hospital to be checked out, but I was afraid I would miss the auction.  I was sore but on foot.  Yesterday that spot started ticking away at me; not awful, but a reminder that it is time to see the doctor for my yearly checkup.  After all, Andy and I are in our doctor's top ten healthiest seniors list and he is head of Genetics at OSU. That is a broad scope.

I can't wait to see what my personal shopper brings home this morning.  Andy usually does a really good job, but sometimes he goes out on a limb and what to do with 'it' is a real question.

I found a great product but can't recall where I got it.  I think Carfagna's, but today I want to make sure because the jar is empty and we are all whining about that.  Hershbergers Cannery hot sweet thinly sliced pickles.  Man, I am putting it in everything except the Rice Krispy treats...by the way those ten bags of marshmallows are now down to 3 bags left. I thought we could never use ten bags of marshmallows; one of Andy's surprise specials from Kroger.  I don't want ten bags of anything after this run.

Lovely day for a dip, but right now my man is driving up the driveway with some interesting items, so start your stoves and make something good today.

Peach thief

Andy went to the outdoor market Saturday and came home with a big basket of peaches. We didn't think they were quite ripe (they were) so we left them on the big table outside.  This morning every single plump, beautiful peach had bites out of it.  Ruined~  That starts Sunday off as bummer.  Now no produce can be left outside all summer long and the garden is producing like crazy now. 

The Pioneer Woman's pimento cheese recipe is very good.  I started out with that bases and of course, could not leave well enough alone. Every time I make it which is every other day now, I add something else to it.  The latest, slivers of pickles called hot and spicy.  We went through a jar in one week.  Once the pickles were gone I added the juice from the jar to chicken salad, pasta salad, and to slices of cucumber/onions and tomatoes.  But the best thing is this pimento cheese in a grilled cheese sandwich.  It is delicious.  I have cut the sandwich into four triangles and serve it as a side with soup, as a snack, or a party starter.  I am serving these on Labor Day when we have the family and friends party.  Yum.

Another pool day, another 90's day and another enjoy the summer day.