Confessions of a Non-Cook

In the last two days I have made cookies and soup in addition to squeezing three large oranges and zesting the skins.

If my children read this (not likely) they will be convinced someone else wrote it. When my children think of me, it has nothing to do with my cooking.

There are two more containers in the back

First the soup.

I made a batch of Quinoa Vegetable soup. I didn't have the required paprika (what? That has to be remedied immediately) and I used shredded carrots not called for in the recipe (I bought them to use in the cookies and had left overs). It takes time to sauté, boil, simmer, add, simmer some more, cool and package. I had a yield of eight containers. There are only six in the freezer, because I gave one away and consumed another. That took up the morning.

I can count. There are not 9 cookies on that plate...but I know where the missing ones are! Yum.

On to the cookies.

I found this recipe from a Facebook link. Anything calling itself CARROT CAKE in whole or in part will get my total attention. As unbelievably beyond delicious these carrot cake sandwich cookies are...way too labor intensive for such a small yield.

First the carrots have to be tenderized with brown sugar.

Then the batter is prepared and the carrots added. The batter is supposed to make 28 cookies. No way. I got 19...which means nine and one half cookie sandwiches.

While the cookies are baking the filling is made.

Cookies baked and cooled. Filling spread on one cookie and capped with another cookie.

Now the tasting. Out of this world good. BUT...for all this work, and all I had was 9 1/2 cookies? It's late afternoon...I'm exhausted from a whole day of cooking.

I have soup in the freezer and cookie sandwiches on a plate. After a couple hours rest, I was able to appreciate life is good.

Now for the orange zest.

And here we are today (Wednesday). Because I needed orange zest for the cookies, I bought three large navel oranges on sale. I needed one teaspoon of zest. (Oh, come on. I bet you've done the same thing). I took my one teaspoon of zest yesterday so today I needed to zest the rest of the oranges.

Mmmmm. Look at all that delicious pulp! I actually ate it.

First I squeezed the oranges for their juice. Not going to let that go to waste and I don’t like to eat oranges. Then I proceeded to scrape the skins. In retrospect I should have done it the other way around.

A little messy.

It took me a few tries to get the hang of zesting an orange and not my wrist or knuckles (It won’t take long for them to heal).

My kitchen smells amazing!

The zest is currently drying on a paper towel so I can package it in small amounts and freeze. An internet video I saw, stated that you cannot buy zest in the grocery stores. If you think I'm ever going to do this again you have another thing coming! I probably have enough to sell for a hefty profit!

I hope you enjoy the pictures. I took these not so much as a show-and-tell, but as a warning to anyone thinking of doing the same thing. Think twice!

I slept in this morning. I earned it. Now, will someone please keep reminding me that just because I said I’m going to accomplish such and so all in one day, doesn’t mean I really have to. Just because I said I was going to do this all in one day, I felt obliged to. Now I get it. I need to acknowledge when enough is enough. Ok. I have enough soup and nowhere near enough cookies!  

Spring, Spring, Beautiful Spring

Well at least the calendar says astronomical spring will arrive today. Looking out my windows I still see lots of snow. Dirty. Snow. But, I have to be fair…there is a lot more grass showing up in my back yard. Here in the condos, we don’t exactly have what you would call a front yard. Most units have shrubs. Then you have people like me who must have flowers. However, the space is very limited.

The weather forecast for this afternoon is for temps to go up into the low 50s! Goodness gracious me! The low 50s. That will feel like a heat wave around here.

If the forecast holds, I will put my bike on the bike rack (which was never taken off the car this winter) and take it to the nearest gas station to get the tires pumped up. I’m one of those optimists who just knows there is going to come a day…soon…when the weather will be perfect for my first ride of the season. I intend to be ready.

Oh! Spring, spring! Beautiful spring. 

(Don't think I'm not going to post any more Maya pictures. You bet I will. Just not today.)

Beautiful Baby

On February 9^th I became a Great Grandmother. Maya was born to my granddaughter, Jessica, and her husband, Matt.

Maya has a few interesting ties to the family. She was one week overdue and born on my late parents wedding anniversary (did she wait?). Her sun is in Aquarius (the same as her late maternal great grandfather) and her moon is in Gemini, which matches her father’s sun sign and mine. She is the first child of my first grandchild…if that means anything. I will have to study her chart more to see what other links there might be.

I have been buying books for Maya since we first knew of her existence…which was 6 months ago. Jess and Matt kept the news under their hats until after her first trimester. I have become my own book of the month club!

I hang around a local bookstore for gifted and imaginative kids, Tell Me A Story, and have a good resource for the best of the best books for kids. My most recent purchase is Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Yes, one book containing this one lovely, short poem. It’s the illustrations by Susan Jeffers that make the book unique. The poem tells a story, but the illustrations tell another. And it’s the illustrations that bring the poem to life with its “back story” if you will. Everyone…run out to Tell Me A Story right now (or call and order it) and buy that book for children you love.

But I digress…

Getting back to Maya. I have included a couple of pictures of her (she's 5 days old in these pix) and I can’t get enough of looking at that face. She knows something! I hope to be there when she lets us know what it is she knows. 

Rocky's New Home

Back on December 25th I said I would post a picture of Rocket J Squirrel in his new place after the holiday decor was put away. Here it is! He now keeps Nameless, Faceless Baby Doll company, while he looks out over the area where the birds and wild squirrels feed on seeds. Rocky is very happy as he is warm and dry...which is more than his counterparts in the wild can say.

New England Snow Storms

Recently the Hartford Courant (http://www.courant.com) has been running a series of stories compiled from the last 250 years. I haven't paid much attention to them...until today.

In this morning’s Courant, the “250 Years—Moments in History”—was all about monster snow storms that have hit New England, and specifically Connecticut, over the last 250 years.

You can read the article here: (It may be available for only a short period of time) http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/courant-250/hc-250-snowstorms-blizzard-weather,0,3451839.htmlstory

My kids and I had our own adventure during the Blizzard of 1978 (Storm Larry). I wrote about in in my Christmas book "Come Ride With Me", Vol. 1. At the time, the woman mentioned in the story lived in a small house behind ours and shared the driveway and garage space.

A Blizzard Named Larry  —  FEBRUARY 6-7, 1978

We knew a snowstorm was coming, but no one knew just how intense it would be.

It was Monday and I had gone to the store for groceries to see us through the storm. As I put the car into my section of the garage, “T” was standing there looking strange. When I got out of my car she said to me, “I’m going to commit suicide.” At first I didn’t believe her then I looked at her again. “Well, if you do, please do it on your own side of the wall. I don’t want your mess on my side.” I was all heart as you can see.

I brought the groceries into the house and told the kids what had just happened. I recognized what she had just done was a cry for help; what made me mad was the fact she had involved me and I felt responsible for her. Her! Of all people! The two of us had an ugly history, but that’s another story.

I called the visiting nurse in town who I knew to be a friend of “T”’s and told her what had happened. In the meantime, the snow had begun falling and was accumulating fast. The visiting nurse arrived accompanied by the local police. After an hour or so, an ambulance came and took “T” away through the rapidly deepening snow.

For the remainder of the storm we listened to the radio for information on the outside world. We also watch cars being abandoned right and left on Route 5. At one point a VW Bug (the original model) was stopped at the traffic light at Route 5 in front of the high school. Along came an ambulance (with a patient inside we later learned) and we watched it run right up and over the VW. That brought police and two more ambulances—one a replacement of the first and the other for the driver of the car. Driving conditions were so bad that drivers were unable to navigate the deep snow and they couldn't see through the white-out conditions.

The storm lasted two days. At the end of that time, Governor Ella T. Grasso, closed everything in the state for 3 days so clean-up could be done.

The day after it stopped snowing, we had about three feet of snow in the driveway, and along came an ambulance. “T” was dropped off at the edge of the road and made to wade through the snow to her house. It seems she has an ugly history with many people.

The ambulance attendants were pretty angry. They had trudged through all that snow to get her to the hospital and they were not going to do it again. “T” decided she didn’t want to stay. The ambulance crew told us she was nuttier than a fruitcake! We knew that.

Eventually a truck showed up to plow the driveway—I think it was the landlord’s son. He hooked the plow onto the dumpster to move it out of the way, and tipped it forward, dumping garbage bags everywhere. It took over an hour for the plow to get the dumpster set upright and all the garbage re-collected. We watched from the window in an upstairs room and laughed hysterically! The landlord’s son was not one of our favorites, either.

On Cape Cod: This was the storm that took out Coast Guard Beach, the parking lot and bath houses, and most of the dunes south toward Nauset inlet. The Outermost House was thrown way back into Nauset Marsh/Salt Pond never to be seen again. This storm was just the beginning of major erosion that goes on to this day.

Christmas Greetings

This time of year is given over to Peace on Earth to Men of Good Will. It was Christmas 2009 (My Christmas Ah-Ha Moment) when I said that as soon as there were sufficient men of good will we would have peace (or words to that effect).

This year I'm doing my part to spread Peace. If you are a regular reader of my online journal, you know how I have been at war with squirrels. I finally won the war (I think) by putting seeds in the feeder that squirrels do not like. They can eat as much of the safflower seeds as they want and I won't go ballistic. HA! They don't like safflower. Is that peace or is it an impasse?

In an attempt to bring the Squirrel Wars to an end and achieve lasting peace, my granddaughter, Jessica, and her husband, Matt, brought me a present last night (Christmas eve). A squirrel Christmas tree ornament all my own. He's so cute. He doesn't eat anything. He hangs upside down from his butt (remember...he's an ornament), and he was given to me by people I love. 

I can't put him on my Christmas tree because my tree is very small. But, he will live on my mantle until I take the Christmas decor down. Then...then...I'll have to find a place where he can look out at his wild kin and know how lucky he is to be warm, dry, and not hungry. I know! I'll put him right in front of Nameless, Faceless Baby Doll. I will post pictures when that happens so you can see how benevolent I am. (I'm trying very hard not to sound sinister, hehehehehe).

So, here he is. The new love in my life (never thought I'd say that about a squirrel) Rocket J. Squirrel (Rocky) named after the rodent who was the sidekick of Bullwinkle the Moose.

Thank you, Jessica and Matt! Love you!!!!

Critters at My Bird Feeders

This past Thanksgiving I went down to my family room intending to read. However, the critters (mostly birds) at the feeders were way more entertaining.

In the picture above, the wooden gazebo-like feeder has safflower seeds in it because it’s the only one the squirrels can get into and they will not eat safflower seeds. The metal feeder is constructed so squirrels cannot get at the seeds so have given up. The thistle feeder is the long tube and the suet is in the double cage. Squirrels don’t go for thistle and for some reason haven’t tried to get at the suet…yet.

Your geographic reference is: I live in North Central Connecticut.

Sparrows are by far the most numerous, followed by Juncos, and Goldfinchs. Next come the Mourning Doves, Redpolls and/or Purple finchs (I can never remember how to tell them apart), and Chickadees.

The numbers fall off considerably when it comes to Nuthatchs, Titmouses, and Blue Jay. Robins (yes they come around now and then and will eat seeds if hungry enough) outnumber Cardinals. I know that’s crazy at this time of year, but that’s climate change for you.

I find the woodpeckers (Hairy, Downey, and Flicker) quite interesting as they hammer away at the suet.

I’ll mention the bright yellow parakeet that showed up on Thanksgiving afternoon, although I’m sure it was someone’s pet that got lost. Haven’t seen it since.

In addition to the birds I have a squirrel, that seems to fly when I chase it. And finally, the ‘possom that comes after sundown to clean up what’s left on the ground.

Better than TV.