Cashana's Musings on Life

2012-01-25T19:21:00.001-06:00

Creative Cooking...Pineapple Coconut Cupcakes

Pineapple Coconut Cupcakes

I told you guys I tried to make these cupcakes back in December, but they didn’t turn out right and they tasted like cornbread. Everyone knows I detest cornbread. So I search for another recipe. Anyway, using the recipe on catesworldkitchen.com I decided to try it again.

Ingredients:

10 oz can of crushed pineapples in juice
1 cup of flour
¾ cup of sugar
2 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp of baking soda
¼ teaspoon of salt

With my oven preheated to 350 degrees. I combined the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Then put the egg and oil together and mixed and then added it to my dry ingredients. After mixing well, I added my crushed pineapples. I did not use the mixer for this recipe. I poured the mix into my cupcake line muffin pan and cooked until they were golden.

I basically did a simple buttercream for the frosting except I did add crushed pineapples to the frosting. I topped the frosting with toasted coconut.

1 stick of butter room temperature
1 tsp of coconut extract
2 cups of powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp of crushed pineapples
Toasted coconut
Heavy cream as needed

Verdict: The recipe was quite easy, but honestly the cupcakes were just okay. I can’t seem to find the right blend of icing and cake that work well for flavoring. The cake itself was quite moist and not overly sweet, but it was a bit dense for me. As for the icing, I am finding that I prefer a cream cheese frosting on my cupcakes. Go figure. Maybe you can try this and find a way to make it wonderful. Although they tasted fine, I can’t say this is the recipe for me.

2012-01-25T17:03:00.002-06:00

Um, I have tried to stay off Pinterest, but I took a look. I can say as soon as someone invites me, a monster will be created. So much stuff!

2012-01-24T09:32:00.000-06:00

Five Years of Sisterlocks...

Taken on January 21, 2012

On January 9, 2012, I celebrated 5 years of having Sisterlocks. My how time flies. I do not have this long diatribe on how 5 years of having locks has changed my life or anything of that sort. As I have said over and over again, my hair is boring. I still get questions and compliments about it but nothing extreme or blog worthy.

Yes, I still band and twist my hair. See my look of frustration.

Yes, all my hair is under 2 of plastic caps

I regimen is simple. I wash with Sisterlock Green Tea Formula and depending on my mood I will use the Sisterlock Reconstructor or Moisture Treatment. However, I have incorporated Oyin’s Handmade Honey Hemp Conditioner. It is the one new product I have tried and love how it makes my hair feel. This particular conditioner keeps my hair soft between washings and I use it as a leave in conditioner. I also use their Greg’s Juice as a spritz ever so often. Not regularly. I still hate washing my hair. I consider it a project of immense proportions. It really doesn’t take that long to wash. Usually about 20 minutes, but it is the process afterwards of separating the locks, sitting under the dryer with the conditioners and plain getting my hair dry. In the summer, I usually wash on a Sunday morning and by late night my hair is dry. In the winter, I sit under the dryer for about 30 minutes then I spend about 15 minutes or more blow drying my hair. Can’t walk around with a wet head when the temperature is low. I retighten every 3 to 4 weeks and if I wait the four weeks I have done some spot tightening in between. It usually takes me 2 hours to do the front and about 2.5 hours to do the back, because the hair is so dense back there. I find that it is best for me to retighten my hair at my own pace and while I am relaxing at home on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

See me smalling because I am done. Hair is finally dry!

I still do not regret getting my locks. I still wish they were a bit larger, just because the base would be stronger. I have lost a few locks but nothing like before. I have combined a lot of them, because it was just plain necessary to strengthen the base. I try not to where my hair in ponytails a lot, because I can tell where the hair ties thin the locks when done too often. I tend to where my hair a curled bun atop my head and take it down to have a cute curly do. I normally roll my hair with soft spike curlers. I haven’t used my flexi rods in a minute, because I can’t sleep in them. I have done a Caruso set once, which gave my ends a really nice curl and giving my hair a lot of body.

Blurry picture of length.

Fresh retightening

So you see after 5 years of having Sisterlocks, the maintenance is still the same absolutely boring. One question I have been asked a lot lately is how long I will let my hair grow. I will not have locks down to my butt. I do not want my hair longer than bra strap length. This hair is hot in the summer and great for the cold of winter, but this hair is heavy and I know my limitations. Happy Sisterlock Anniversary to me!

2012-01-06T16:16:00.001-06:00

Pump the Brakes...2012 Is Going Too Fast!

Happy New Year's Everyone! I hope you brought it in with a bang and have the memories to savor.

Let's see...I worked that night and I mean I literally worked because I was shorthanded. Although, I could have flipped my wig, I took it in stride and was thankful one of the day workers stayed to assist us through our rush. When he left, we could literally count the customers from that point on. Can you say slow? Next year, we need to close at 7 pm. Hell, most places around us closed early. And what was funny were the customers saying, "I can't believe you are still open. Aw! I hate you have to be here until 9." Really? I don't think you really were That sorry.

However, I guess I was in a pretty good mood because I knew I would have two whole days of no working, just relaxing. Yes, for all day in one's pjs.

I got home and prepared me a light dinner of Bang, Bang Shrimp and fried calamari. Yummy! Then I took a long bath. Wished Happy New Years to my sister! And when Central time called for a New Year's countdown I counted down the last 10 seconds and drank a glass of Martinelli's, who told them to put pear in that?, and I hit the bed. I was sleep by 12:30 pm. I had to wait until the idiots stopped shooting off their guns before I officially went to bed.

I woke up the next morning and cooked up a small batch of turnip greens and black eye peas. I need the extra money, and some veggies. Then I proceeded to watch Law & Order and sleep all day. And the next day wasn't much better. I mean my house was clean and frankly I needed the rest.

A little funny before I go. The Wednesday after Christmas I woke up with a floater in my left eye. Anyone who has ever experienced this can tell you it is weird and scary all at the same time. So I made an eye appointment immediately. Well, after I consulted Web..M.D. Seriously, I tell my sister to stay off the site all the time because she is forever diagnosing herself with some type of ailment. Most of them contrived. After reading web.m.d, I became completely distraught and figured I was going blind because of a detached retina. First of all, my family is prone to the dramatics. We can put on a show. So after my research and figuring I would be blind in my left eye I went to thinking about the future. Oh yeah, I was ready to research disability and since the Internet said one should get someone to help them with day-to-day activities and of course finding a driver or using public transportation to get around, my mind was in turmoil. However, I put on a good face and said I wouldn't worry about it. I have been a praying fool, too! Well, I had my appointment this week and I do not have a detached retina. My doctor in a very kind way said is so many words, "Stay your azz off Web.m.d." Well what he said was, Web.m.d has a lot of information on it, but you have to know exactly what you are looking for, because they seem to give you information on the worst case scenario. Prepare for the worst and you won't be devastated later. Because you know I had been sitting in the room in tears thinking I was going blind. I do have a floater, but it isn't going to cause me blindness. He explained what floaters are and really there isn't much one can do for them and I really didn't have anything to worry about. Thank goodness! I had worried myself to near a catatonic state.

I will be back next week with my 5 year Sisterlock Anniversary post with pictures. Happy New Year!

2011-12-30T15:07:00.000-06:00

After Christmas, Really, this is my life?, Lala and more Holiday Randoms…

(Be warned. This is long and filled with pictures)

Do you realize in two more days it will be 2012? This is mindboggling. This year has gone by so fast and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. I guess when you are older time flies and when you are younger it goes too slow.

I was off from my main job on December 23, 2011, and I did absolutely nothing until it was time for me to go to my second job. It was sunny that day.

On Christmas Eve, I thought about staying in my pjs all day, but I just got real casual and lounged on the couch watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent most of the day.

Exchanged gifts with the guy on Christmas Eve. I gave him his gifts which included the infamous cheesecake. I forgot to take a picture, but it came out pretty good and it had no cracks. I also made a strawberry topping to go along with it.

It rained all day Christmas. When I tell you I had a minor meltdown because of the rain, I am not joking. It was a sad sight to see. It has been raining here like every other day and I don’t know about you but my mood can correspond with the weather, and rain depresses me so.

I got up early Christmas morning to bake the dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. Besides the rain being frustrating, there wasn’t anything on television at 5 am. Man, was I frustrated. And that is why I took my azz back to bed when I finished baking.

Do you know how hard it is to pack a car with food when it is raining?

Gratuitous outfit picture.

Christmas dinner was a low key event this year. Just family. And that was really nice. Food was pretty good, but being in the company of family is absolutely priceless. At least being with most of the family. Remember from your etiquette lessons, if you are invited to dinner, always bring the host something and if you don’t, do not under any circumstances pack up plates to take home with you. Food ain’t free!

A few of the family waiting on dinner to be served.

We watched movies together after we were informed by one of the cousins there will be no talking during the movies. We watched The Help and Planet of the Apes. Let’s just say, we failed majorly during the Planet of the Apes. That movie is wonderful. I loved it. This coming from a fan of the original Charleston Heston versions. The quality and believability was amazing. “Caesar is home.” Watch it.

Wine Rack

Here’s what the guy got me for Christmas. I mean I really needed a wine rack and it fits perfectly on my entertainment center. I got him a pullover and fleece jacket. I also wrote him something that I put in a picture frame. For some reason, I have to make something to give to people because it gives that extra perspective in gift giving. He texted me when he ate some of his cheesecake saying, “It was hitting.” Thank goodness. Because on Christmas Eve, he was sick from some devil eggs and I knew if it tasted bad or he got sick, he was going to blame my azz.

My gifts to the Guy

The guy also got his son the MJ Experience. He has challenged me. What? I told him be prepared to get his azz whipped. But, I better get in some practice sessions. Quick!

I made it back home to go to bed at a reasonable time so I could take down my decorations on Monday. I got up about 7 am and was at the Dollar General to garner some plastic bins for my decorations by 8:04 am. I didn’t want to think about dealing with lizards next year. I started taking down the decorations about 9:45 am and by 10:15 am I was done. Containers in the storage shed and my back hurting, trying to put that damn heavy tree back on the top shelf in the storage room.

Skipping along to Dec. 27th, my sister texts me she thinks her water broke and she was at the hospital. I asked her if she was going to be tweeting the birth, I was kinda kidding. Um, but they sent her azz back home later that night.

My sister was mad as hell because she said she was so over this pregnancy. So Wednesday night she was cooking and cleaning trying to go into labor. Bless her heart. I mean she has been making some mean dishes I told her we should do a siblings cooking show since we are all cooking it up it seems.

Her stuffed chicken w/salad

Her herb roasted chicken

His beef and broccoli

On Thursday morning she texted me she went to labor and delivery again because her contractions were 3 to 6 mins apart and HARD. Well, Thursday afternoon they sent her azz back home and gave her two Ambien to take. Seriously, one is too much! So she was sending out drug-induced texts. I was like put the phone down and go to sleep! Last night, she calls me and says she is finally and really admitted this time.

As she is talking to me she gets a contraction and I am like, “Um, I ain’t about to listen to that damn groaning. Go do what you got to do and holla at me later.” You can tell I have never given birth or been around folks who have for real. My brother and I laughed about this for a good 10 minutes.

All three times my sister went to the hospital, her best friend was right there. Thank goodness. And bless her heart.

I get a call at 5:51 am this morning from my brother saying the baby was here. I was like good and I am about to go back to sleep. I did look at the picture she sent me and forwarded it to my cousins. One said, ‘where is the other baby?’ She just knew my sister was having twins because she was so big. The other cousin said she looks just like you. I responded, “You reaching now.”

Meet Layla Ann, 7 lbs 2 oz born December 30, 2011 born 6:30 am eastern time zone

And as soon as I rolled back over and fell right back to sleep, my damn doorbell rang. Are you serious? I looked out my window and it is the police. Oh shyte! I grab my housecoat but because I am so sleepy I cannot get it together so I wrap it around me and answer the door. They said they got a 911 call from my house and a hang up and they needed to make sure I was okay. I looked like I rolled out of bed and I know I didn’t call 911 and the other phone line is unplugged because I got tired of the stupid phone calls. I don’t know what happen, but sometimes that particular line will get crossed up. At this point I got up, because someone was telling me to get my azz up, now! If I wasn’t actually living this life, I wouldn’t believe this happened.

I am addicted to my morning mocha from my local coffee shop. Well, today I had my last cup from them. They are officially closing their doors. They told me on Wednesday and I have dreaded this day all week. I was a loyal customer, but a person who understands that you can’t keep a business going on a few loyal customers. So I am sad to see Regina and Ralph of Stop and Sip, go. We will keep in touch! My co-workers are going to miss them too, when the espresso withdrawal kicks in. And they wouldn’t even let me pay for my coffee today. Man, it was all I could do to keep from crying. Yeah, it is just that serious.

My house is almost completely cleaned for New Years. In fact, when I get home tonight I will mop and wax floors. Tomorrow I will wash, change linens and vacuum and I will be done.

I have no plans for New Years Day. No one is cooking, because none of us want to see much food right now. I am working New Year’s Eve, but I should be back home no later than 9:30 pm. I am planning Martinelli’s as my toasting drink and I plan to go to sleep and rest. Low-key and laid back.

2011 has been an incredible year. I have gone through a gamut of emotions this year. I have experience much happiness. I relish the peace I feel all around me. I am so blessed and so thankful! My family has been wonderful. Wishing you and yours, A Happy New Year! See you on the 2012 side.

You know I wouldn't leave you without a hair picture. December 25, 2011

2011-12-23T15:27:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas Randoms…

I do not like blogger right now because I can’t do any slideshows, which is so aggravating.

Last week I was so busy with my meeting I barely ate. Not good at all.

I told my sister this will be the last time I mail gifts to Virginia. It is ridiculously expensive now.

I finally found The Guy his Christmas gift. Lawd, I am so obsessive and anal at times it is crazy. Maybe because I am a little crazy.

I have had great parking at work all week. I guess because most people took off. Not me. I rather be at work than at home bored and eating.

My niece, Hunny Bunny, got her cookies on Wednesday and she told my sister I should have put icing on them. I told her I do not do Royal icing because of the eggs and she said, she should have just bought icing and did them that way. Negative. She needs to just enjoy the damn things because it will be a long while before I make cookies.

And my niece Three 6’s wanted to know why she didn’t have all the different kinds of cookies her mother had. Because you are allergic to every damn thing. If I was her, I would try not get in any more trouble, because her mama may be pregnant, but I heard she is still giving out azz whippings.

My sister called me crunching in my ear talking about her cookies. Then later she called me with a stomach ache. Really?

One of book club members said she laid in bed and ate her cookies, but didn’t eat dinner. The calories were all three meals together. Geez!

In my last post I stated I did two types of cupcakes. Um, the Coconut pineapple cupcakes were nasty. They tasted like cornbread. I do not like cornbread. They were dry and just awful. I couldn’t make myself take a picture of them.

I took all the left over candy from the meeting to my second job. Unlike last year there were a few pieces left when I left Sunday night.

I am taking my tree down Monday. What? I got to work all week and I do not play about the tree being down before January 1.

I need to take some days off next month. Seriously, I do.

It has been raining all week here. Makes me sad.

I had to take the boxes to the post office for our Book club community service project through The Sister Soldier Project. I followed the directions I received from the agency, but of course nothing ever goes perfectly. First of all, it was raining Tuesday, so I decided to go that morning instead at my lunch break so I wouldn’t be caught in a deluge of rain. Well, I got sprinkled on as I went into one of the few small branches still open. Luckily, folks were coming out so they could hold the door. Then the clerk saw me standing and struggling so she let me give her the boxes and then she and her cohort decided to joke on me and send me back out into the lobby to fill out my labels. I thought the declaration forms were the labels. Then back to the counter to get everything mailed. I had to sign and date forms and they laughed because I listed the feminine products and one was listed first. What? I did what the agency told me to do. Geez! The ladies at that branch are hella funny and what could have had me pulling my hair out ended up being a pleasant experience. Next time I take someone with me.

Saturday I will be in my pajamas all day. That. Is. All.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and hopefully I will be back with some holiday foolery from Christmas before the New Year!

2011-12-22T14:59:00.000-06:00

Book Club Meeting 2011...

Now I am breathing a sigh of relief because I can look forward to Christmas and the New Year, because I can finally relax. Hosting my usual and annual book club/holiday meeting takes a lot of my time leading up to the big day. And I am realizing I am not 30, but 42 so I have to really organize myself or I will end up sitting in my living room crying, hoping my book club members don’t notice my puffy eyes and the obvious signs of strain.

I try to get the member’s gifts ordered and done well before the meeting as well as getting all the book club stuff ready as well. This year we decided to participate in the Sister Soldier Project, where we send personal and hair care products to African-American soldiers deployed. So I had my hands full. So from the weekend before Thanksgiving, I am working towards preparing for my December meeting.

I like to host December’s meeting because of my love of Christmas, so with the decorations in place things come together in a chaotic fashion. Since I host alone, it is imperative that I have all my ducks in a row or like I said above it isn’t a pretty picture.

My meeting was this past Saturday, so I really kicked things into high gear on last Monday. I started baking the cookies for the individual members and my sister, who you know lives in Virginia. To prepare for the baking I had containers already set up with the flour, baking soda and salt. I also had my Chocolate Candy mint cookies already mixed up and I just had to get them to room temperature to bake. I did all that on Sunday, as well as baked a batch of sugar cookies for the nieces. I also, seasoned and boiled my chicken breast for chicken salad and made my ham salad all on Monday as I was making the cookies. So using 3 cookie sheets and mixing the batches of cookies I was able to bake 3 different types of cookies in less than 3 hours. Normally, I would have been at it for 6 or more hours, so pre-planning helped. Tuesday, I came home from my second job and did some dusting and setting up for my batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip raisin nut cookies. Wednesday, I baked those cookies and managed to wrap all the book club member gifts. Thursday was my day to go and get the fresh veggies and fruit as well as shrimp. So I left work about 4 and was home and ready to start making my Asian wings and honey barbecue wings. I also marinated my jerk wings to grill the following morning. Then I set up my dry ingredients for two different batches of cookies and for my two different cupcakes. I gave my kids on my second job cookies for Christmas. So you know I will not be baking anymore cookies anytime soon.

I got up early Friday morning and got to mixing up cookie dough and getting my coals ready for grilling. This was also the time to get my heating dishes from the storage room, which meant they had to sit outside to insure I wasn’t bringing in any lizards. I baked cookies and made cupcakes all before I had to go to my second job, because I only took off from my day job. When I go home that night, I set up trays, iced cupcakes, marinated shrimp, cleaned my den, put down carpet fresh and was in the bed by 1 am, and then I was up by 5 am. This is when I made my chicken and ham salad sandwiches, meatballs, broccoli crunch salad and vacuumed and mopped and waxed the kitchen and foyer. And after running errands and picking up my punch, I came home took a long bath, ate lunch and slept for two hours. I was TIRED.

Everything came together well before time. I learned to stop microwaving my wings, and put them in my roaster, which heats them properly, so that saved time. Frankly, I over organized myself because by 5:45 pm, everything was done and I was turning around in circles thinking I had forgotten something. But alas, everything went smoothly, and I was able to enjoy the meeting. My organization even helped to make clean up easy. I was so proud of myself. I finally got to taste my food after 9 pm, and I did a good job.

I had real nice captions to show these pictures as a slideshow, but after hours of aggravation I said F-it!

2011-12-15T09:20:00.000-06:00

Creative Cooking… Easy Plain Cheesecake

I must preface this particular segment with the fact that I do not eat cheesecake. I don’t like it. I have eaten one Key Lime cheesecake that I could tolerate, but the ability to really taste that cheese, um doesn’t work for me. Because remember, I do not like cheese.

The guy doesn’t eat many sweets and he doesn’t eat any of the desserts that I make except a few cookies. I tease him that he doesn’t like my cooking, but it is all right. The less I actually have to do. Anyway, his favorite dessert is a plain cheese cake with fresh strawberries.

My sister calls me the Internet crawler because I will find anything I need to know on the web by just goo.gling it. So that is exactly what I did. I googled, Easy Plain Cheesecake Recipe and this was the easiest to follow, plus it had pictures. Who doesn’t love pretty pictures? I got this recipe from whatscookingamerica.net.

I did this Plain Cheesecake exactly as the recipe on the site except I didn’t use fresh lemon juice. I used the concentrate from the bottle. What? They do a better job of giving step by step instructions than I would ever do so go on over there and get the full step by step directions with the pretty pictures.

Ingredients:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) melted and cooled

3 (8-ounce) packages of cream cheese softened to room temperature

3 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 cup heavy cream room temperature

If you follow the directions as listed on the site, I pretty much can guarantee you will get a great result. It isn’t difficult but from the directions I figured it was best I followed them accordingly. Yes, I crushed my own graham crackers, I do have a chopper so it didn't take too long to crush up 2 cups, my problem with forming the crust, but I did okay with it. And I did let it sit in the oven until I could cool and then on the wire rack for further cooling. Yep, lots of steps, but the results were worth it.

My crushed and formed graham cracker crust

All mixed and ready for the oven

The cooling in the oven process!

Cooling in the pan on a wire rack

Verdict: Per family members, it was delicious. I macerated some strawberries to go on top, but it was according to family, really good even without the fruit. The cracks you see on the top of the cake were not done by the cooking process or the cooling process. It was done as I tried to shift the cake from my springform pan to the cake pan. Um, my cousin does not return dishes and I would hate to have to stop talking to her about the bottom of my springform pan. I can’t wait until the guy gets a chance to taste it.

See the cracks, so impatient. And yes that is parchment paper.

The finished product doesn't look too bad. And according to my cousin, he was surprised it tasted so good. He don't sugarcoat nothing, hurt feelings or not.

2011-12-07T10:53:00.000-06:00

Creative Cooking…General Tso's Chicken

I seemed to have found a true liking to cooking and eating Asian type dishes, that I would normally only get from the Chinese restaurants. However, making them yourself is quite fun. I was perusing the internets and found a recipe for General Tso’s Chicken from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen.

Ingredients: as adapted from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen: www.sweetpeaskitchen.com

 1/2 cup garlic hoisin sauce

 1/4 cup white vinegar

 3 tablespoons soy sauce

 3 tablespoons sugar

 2 tablespoons cornstarch

 1 1/2 cups water

 1 1/2 pounds (about 4) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces

 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

 2 tablespoons of minced garlic

 1 tablespoons powdered ginger

 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

For Frying:

 1 1/2 cups cornstarch

 1/2 cup all purpose flour

 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 4 cups vegetable oil

 1-2 green onions, thinly sliced

 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds

Combine your hoisin sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch and water. Salt and Pepper your chicken pieces and allow it to sit in the fridge for an hour or overnight. Then in a saucepan combine your sauce and add your garlic and ginger until fragrant. You sauce will thicken.

To fry your chicken, I veered away from Sweet Pea’s recipe by only coating my chicken with the cornstarch, flour and soda. I fried them until golden brown and drained on a paper towel.

Once frying is completed I used my warm sauce to coat the pieces thoroughly and served with brown rice, garnished with sesame seeds and green onions.

Verdict: Amazing. It looked and tasted fantastic. The flavor was superb.

2011-12-03T18:06:00.001-06:00

Test

2011-11-30T10:20:00.002-06:00

Creative Cooking...Mozzarella Sticks

Every once in a while I have a taste for a snack, rarely does that taste run towards anything cheese. Just like Guy Fieri doesn't eat eggs, I don't eat most types of cheese. I only eat mozzarella, Parmesan and American cheese. No other will I try. If it smells, get that away from me. I remember when McDonald's started having the fancy salads and I didn't know it wasn't the usual cheddar cheese you can easily remove. Oh no, they had to use feta. OMG! I couldn't even eat the damn thing because it smelled so badly to me. I would say what it smells like but, I don't want to ruin your appetite. Me know likey cheese. But I do like mozzarella sticks, so I decided to try a quick and easy baked version.

Ingredients:

Mozzarella string cheese 50% less fat
Italian breadcrumbs
Parmesan grated cheese
Marinara (I used the jarred variety that I spiced up)
1 egg
1/2 cup of flour

Basically, you combine your breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. I cut my string cheese in half making the portion only 25 calories. Then in separate bowls have your breadcrumb mixture, flour and beaten egg. FYI - you can use just the white to eliminate a few more calories. I didn't.

First you dip the cheese stick in your flour coating evenly. Then you place it in the egg coating all over, then you roll it in your breadcrumb mixture until fully coated. Then place on a greased sheet pan. Repeat until all your sticks are done. Spray the tops of the cheese stick with your cooking spray. Then you must freeze your sticks for an hour. I did mine overnight. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and pop in the oven. Watch them carefully, because they will melt on you and lose their shape. Let cool enough to eat and enjoy.

Verdict: Yummy. And you can freeze them and cook as you need them, which is what I did. Easy, quick and will not bust your weight loss program.

2011-11-28T16:11:00.000-06:00

Me - 1 and Lizard - 0… After Thanksgiving Randoms

My roasted brined turkey. It is moist and seasoned all the way through.

Does anyone find the Mayhem commercials from All.State hilarious? I laugh out loud. The raccoon one is a mess and the GPS one is equally as funny.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did. I actually made some of the best yeast and cinnamon rolls of my baking career. Family was fun. Food was okay. Thankfulness in abundance.

However, why in all that is beautiful and glorious would you come to someone’s house and immediately pack food and you didn’t bring not nary a damn dish, paper towel or something to contribute to the meal? Bad enough you ate elsewhere, and were here only for dessert, but we see dessert also means the food you didn’t get to sample. How do you deal with that damn uncouthness in your family? Since it wasn’t at my house…but if it was, somebody’s feelings would be hurt.

Oh, baby Carson was so much fun. I taught him how to be vain and Rick Ross songs and everything. Now he did get a little fussy, but we had about 30 minutes of baby giggles, spit bubbles and the most precious of smiles imaginable. I also told him to look in the mirror everyday and say he is fabulous, gorgeous, and wonderful. His grandma said if he starts doing that he is gonna have to live with me. There is nothing wrong with being vain.
He even had the nerve to grab my hair and not let go. Ouch! LOL!

Mr. G with little Carson

Me and Little Carson before the vanity lesson and rap song lesson!

My cousin JT tweeted about our dinner and the fun we had afterwards. He said he didn’t know half of the folks there, me either. No really, I didn’t know several of the folks there. But I tried to be cordial and stay with my cousins so as not to appear anti-social. Not sure that it worked.

My niece made the rolls and cinnamon rolls in VA. They looked good, but my sister says they weren’t too bad. The student needs more practice. LOL!

My brother made a nice Thanksgiving spread for a friend and her family. No questions please. Because I have no answers. Thatisall!

My sister’s sweet potato soufflé came out pretty good. So she can do more than pull up to a drive thru menu?

My friend, who had been praying on Black Friday shopping with me, got the right answer. Yes, she went with me and had the best time. Although she says I make her spend money she didn’t plan to, but then I reminded her it really was Tiffany’s fault. However, um, home girl was not ready when I arrived at her house at 2:53 a.m. She was still sleep. But baby she was dressed and ready to roll in 10 minutes. She was also amazed that I knew exactly what open at what time and how meticulous my list was.

Black Friday was even easier this year than last, because folks were out on Thanksgiving night and at midnight. So I wasn’t fighting folks for items I wanted. I didn’t have any big ticket items on my list this year. And at Target, the cashier came and got us to check out. So very different from last year. Here is a little thing to notice, not all the big ticket items on sale are gone by 6 am. There were a few of those items still available. Lucky for me I got the last copy of Bridesmaids.

Our Black Friday Haul and there was stuff on the back seat.

At 9:40 am I was back in my pjs and in bed for my rest. However, I woke at 2 pm and it was a wrap on the sleeping.

Saturday, was put up the tree time, so I planned to go out to the storage room at noon and get my Christmas tree and decorations. Well, my fear of lizards had me working up my nerve to go out there and I finally went out there by 3 pm. Ya’ll, I shook each box and looked tentatively to insure there were no nasty lizards amongst my things. Mind you I had purchased some mothballs and put them out there hours before I went to retrieve the boxes. I even let the items sit on the car port for a minute in hopes if there was a lizard in my things it would mosey its azz right on out of there. So about 6 or 7 I heard a rustling by the boxes I had still in the den. (I was still spooked and said I would put the tree up Sunday.) I immediately started yelling, “No, no, no. I made sure there were no lizards in anything.” Then tears formed in my eyes and I went to look by the boxes and didn’t see anything and figured it was maybe a water bug or something. So Sunday I have put my tree up and was in the process of setting the dining room table and was taking a break with my Dsi in the den, because the guy was on his way over for dinner. As I looked out of the corner of my eye, what the hell did my lying eyes witness? A damn lizard. I jumped on top of the couch and started screaming and shaking to death. I couldn’t believe it. I was just done. I thought I could wait on the guy to get there or try to get the nasty creature out of the house. So I ran in the kitchen to get the broom and I opened the back door. By now the damn thing went under the lazy boy chair, but I moved that sucker and was like, “Go, lizard, lizard, go,” and I tried to sweep it towards the door and the thing almost went behind my television stand but I was able to redirect the thing out the door and I slammed that door. Me - 1 Lizard – 0. I still haven’t finished decorating. My nerves are tore the hell up. The guy was like he was glad I got it out of there, but he promised to get me some snake away stuff. He also has to get my wrapping paper out of the storage shed, if it hadn’t been raining on Sunday that would have been thoroughly checked. Note to self: time to buy the plastic containers that can be sealed.

My finished tree, 2012!

Did anyone watch Sisterwives? Robin is gangster. She delivered that baby like a champ. She wasn’t screaming or carrying on and she had that baby without any medical intervention aka epidural. LOL! And the thoughtfulness in her question to Meri about being her surrogate, made me cry. I may not agree what their lifestyle, but I can’t deny they really are invested in making their lifestyle work for them.

I watched the Soul Train Awards. Dry. Why does Lalah Hathaway’s voice always makes me sleepy, like really as soon as she starts singing I start yawning and tears start rolling down my face? My sister kept asking why does everything Cee-lo Green wear look like a costume? Because he is little and rotund. Why didn’t they just let Joe, Robin Thicke and Eric Benet do all the Earth, Wind and Fire songs? All those other folks were horrid.

The Original 7 aka The Time, were cute and when my sister said they were on tour I was like with 5 songs, really? No, really?

Nice tribute to Heavy D.

I made the cheesecake, my folks approved. The guy was like wow, with just looking at the picture. Recipe coming soon.

My finished Cheesecake!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving was really peaceful and full of joy. Spending time with family and being grateful for all that has been giving is always great!

And for vanity sakes...A Thanksgiving hair picture! What?!

2011-11-23T15:47:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving Randoms…

My fedora from New Orleans

Can you believe it is already time for Thanksgiving and it will soon be 2012? Crazy because this year has zoomed past and I keep asking where did the time go.

Besides cleaning and getting rid of lizards for the holidays, I have some random thoughts running through my mind.

What is the best way to broach the subject of cooking a better turkey to a host? I mean, is there a right time or place to say to someone that they may want to try a new way of roasting their turkey? My boss on my second job said their family Thanksgiving dinner, which they had this past Saturday, the ham was dry and the turkey was even drier, but he enjoyed the sides and the company. I could feel his pain because there is nothing like a dry ass bird and a ham dry, just forget about it.

How do you explain etiquette to grown people? Shouldn’t it be a given if you are invited to dinner, that you bring something even if the hosts says not to? I am just asking.

The radio is playing Christmas music right now. Really?

Why must my sister torture me with questions about cooking things? I googled the recipes, why can’t she? She is not going to follow the recipe anyway, so why worry me. Geez!

My brother will begin culinary school on January 9, 2012. Progress.

My turkey breast is brining at home right now. Yummy! I have to always have something to eat at my house because I rarely take home leftovers from the hosts.

Carson, the baby, is here! I can’t wait to get to his cheeks.

Lil' Carson

Last night on my 2nd job, I really wanted to get rid of all the workers. No seriously. They had plucked my last working nerve. Thank goodness I know when to take a few days away from folk’s children. I have never seen a bunch of lazy, unconcerned and spoiled children all together in my life.

My eyes have been itching all day. My allergies are out of control. I guess I should take my medicine tonight, early.

My brother is as vain as I am. It’s hereditary. Maybe, because my sister doesn’t get why we are so vain. I really believe my mama found her in the bushes. I told her this most of her childhood. What? I was the oldest child and she was the middle child, who felt tortured.

Just because I am so vain...3 hair pictures...

My cousin plans to ignite some shyte tomorrow by saying my cousin and I should have cookie cook off, the cousin and her brother-in-law a texting challenge and whatever mess he can instigate. I have not told my cousin I bake cookies, because I haven’t wanted to hurt her feelings. I just think cookies should spread out and not be lumps. You have seen the cookies I have baked. Just saying…

I guess I will be doing Black Friday by myself. My friend is still praying on it. Really?

Let me ask you, do you have family or friends who will tell you when someone you don’t know has passed away? I don’t know how to respond to that because I am not absorbing that information.

My niece aka Damon’s seed, says it just doesn’t seem right to not be here for Thanksgiving. I hate it too, but I am sure she will have a lot to be thankful for nonetheless. Her partner in crime, her cousin, says now he want have anyone to talk to. These two are probably going to be looking like lost orphans. Next year… There is always next year if God’s willing.

Of course Turkey Day Classic activities are underway, I won't be participating in them but I know my folks will have a ball.

I am thankful for a lot of things this year, mostly the ability to have peace all around me. I am thankful for family as we transition without my aunt. I am thankful for all He has seen to make happen for me. Finding peace and happiness is so what living is worth and this year, I have lived. And, um, I am really thankful for being off from both jobs for 4 days! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

That is all I got for now. I am sure some tomfoolery will take place when the family gets together to give thanks tomorrow, which will make for another addition of randoms. Until then…Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T12:15:00.001-06:00

Creative Cooking...Chicken Parmesan - Baked

I got this recipe from Skinnytaste.com, and I changed a few things up, but for the most part stuck to the directions.

• 4 thinly sliced chicken breasts

• ½ cup of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

• ¼ cup of Panko breadcrumbs

• ¼ cup of grated Parmesan Cheese

• 2 tbsp of butter

• Mozzarella cheese

• Jarred Marinara sauce

• Cooking spray

My changes were I added Panko breadcrumbs to my Italian seasoned breadcrumbs and used my favorite Marinara sauce that I jazzed up with some Kalamata olives and some diced tomatoes. I also only sauced and cheesed up the individual breasts when I heated them for dinner throughout the week.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Sprayed my pan with cooking oil.

Combined my breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese in a container.

Combined Panko breadcrumbs, Italian Seasoned breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese

Melted my butter. I then brushed each of the fillets with the butter and dipped and covered them with the breadcrumbs in my separate pan and placed them on my cooking pan. Did this for all the breasts. Then I sprayed the top of the breast with some more cooking spray.

Coated and ready for baking.

I baked for about 10 minutes on one side and then turned them over and baked an additional 6 minutes on the other side. Depending on the size and thickness of your chicken breast will determine how long to cook, but do not overcook them. Then for each fillet I used my heated marinara sauce and then added my Mozzarella cheese with a few sliced onions and heated in the microwave to melt the cheese.

Brown and still juicy.

Verdict: Very good. The seasoned breadcrumbs give it the right amount of seasoning and the marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese give you that authentic Chicken Parmesan taste. So although it is baked instead of fried and then baked, you don’t lose much flavor just a few extra calories.

2011-11-21T16:17:00.001-06:00

My Uninvited, Early Thanksgiving Guest...

My incessant fear of lizards is legendary in these parts. Everyone in my family understands my fear of lizards is no joke. I have explained previously when my uncle was alive, he was the one to remove the lizards from the house for me and to open the door for me at night when they would cover the door and there was no way in hell I was going to even attempt to get near the door until the nasty, filthy creatures were out of the way. And when the way was clear, I would haul butt into the house breathing erractically and shaking uncontrollably. This no joke.

I even threaten to leave my ill aunt in the house alone because of a lizard, and I would do anything for that woman before she died. But even she knew me and lizards didn’t go well together. Not at all. Lizards will make me cry, hard.

So Sunday morning I began cleaning bathrooms and finishing some of my hard cleaning. The back bathroom in the master bedroom is rarely used, but I give it a good cleaning once a month. And since the holidays are upon us, I headed to the back to get it tidied up. Mind you I was in there the night before blow drying my hair so I knew it wasn’t too bad. So when I was almost done, I decided to grab the trash can, which only had a few pieces of paper in it to take it outside. When I looked down and preceded to move the can over, I saw a medium size lizard. My breath caught, and I screamed, loudly. And I ran like the devil was on my back to the front of the house. Out of breathe and hyperventilating I went outside on the front porch. I know you are probably asking why, but hell I went to see if there was a crack head walking around so I could get him to get the lizard out. Not only were there no neighbors home, not one and I mean not one crack head was walking around. I stood on the porch looking left to right, still shaking and scared to death.

I went back inside and went back to the bathroom and that damn lizard was still sitting on the trash can like his life was truly worth living now. I mean seriously, he was about to have a whole bathroom to himself. I closed the bathroom door and wedge a blanket at the bottom of that door. I really couldn’t have that nasty thing roaming all over the house.

I calmed enough to text my cousins, here is what I said, “Um, I know ya’ll in church, but I need someone to come get this lizard out of aunt marie bathroom. Ya’ll know I can’t breathe. No crack head walking around either.”

Then I text my sister and she decided to have a great laugh at my expense.

Me: There is a lizard in aunt marie’s bathroom. Scared the shit out of me. Send hunny bunny down here. You know I closed the door and put a blanket at the bottom of the door. I text gail, kay and pete that someone need to get it outta there.

Sister: ROFLMAO!

Me: Hell now I can’t stop shaking. I even looked outside to see if a crack head was walking around. Nope.

Sister: OMG…Stop!

Me: No you stop laughing. How did the thing get in her bathroom? Filthy creature! If bruce wasn’t preaching, I would call him.

Sister: Lord. Well I hope it don’t escape n suck the blood out of u. LOL.

Me: Um, that blanket is wedged so tight nothing, not even a fart could squeeze through. And you ain’t funny. When hunny bunny getting here?

My cousin Kay, called me laughing. Really? My whole world has tipped on its axis and everyone has become a comedian at my expense. Geez. She comes by and goes to the alleged dealer’s house, and a man and a teenager came to the house and in 1 minute they have the lizard in the garbage bag and took him away from our house. Talking about setting his ass free. Just get it away from my house. My cousin Pete came by as well, he reminded me he don’t mess with lizards. I already know that, but I knew he would figure out a way to get that thang out there.

Now all is right in my world, but seriously that lizard almost had a whole damn bathroom of its own.

***I was going to put a picture of a lizard on this post, but I went to breathing hard and I just couldn’t.

2011-11-16T20:01:00.000-06:00

Creative Cooking...Samoa Bars

This is the recipe for those who crave Samoa cookies around Girl Scout time and want to make them yourself. I saw several recipes and one had me making my own caramel. Um, that was going to be doing the most and frankly, I ain't that damn ambitious. So I found one on bakingbites.com. This one uses Kraft caramels that you melt in the microwave. Yeah, that is more my speed.

Samoa Cookie Bars as adapted from bakingbites.com

Cookie base:

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

According to bakingbites.com, you need to make the crust first. First, in your mixer combine your sugar and butter and mix until fluffy. Then add your egg and vanilla. Then slowly add your flour and salt mixture on the lowest setting for your mixture. Your dough according to bakingbites.com, your dough should be crumbly. Mine was not. It was smooth, which made it difficult to place it in my 9 x 13 parchment lined pan. But I did it even as my OCD was getting the best of me. I don’t like stuff on my hands. Don’t ask. In your preheated oven, bake on 350 degrees until edges are brown the middle is set. Let cool.

Topping:

3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

12-oz good-quality chewy caramels

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp milk

10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate chips are ok

On a parchment lined cookie sheet, place your coconut on it and place in a 300 degree oven and brown until golden and set aside.

In your microwave, unwrap your caramels with your milk and salt melt, stirring occasionally. Only took about 3 minutes in my microwave.

Mix your caramel and coconut and spread on your cooled cookie and let it cool. Once cooled cut into squares approximately 30, um I did less I have the patience of a gnat.

I melted my chocolate over a double boiler, although bakingbites.com recommends the microwave, I rarely have a good occurrence from this method. With the cookie squares, dip the bottoms into the chocolate, now if you had the problem I had with the cookie actually crumbling a bit, I just used a spatula and smeared the bottoms and places them on wax paper to cool and set. Using the baggy method, I drizzled chocolate over the tops. I actually placed the bars in the refrigerator to set a bit faster.

Blurry just shows how impatient I got.

VERDICT: Flavor was right on for the Samoas. However, I didn’t like the consistency of the cookie because it was so crumbly. I mean you have to eat it with a napkin or crumbs are everywhere. Maybe if my dough had been more crumbly this would not be the case. Not sure I will make these again. Although they were tasty and my kids on my second job enjoyed them, we all agreed the cookie part needed some adjustment maybe some baking powder or soda? Hey, you try and tell me how they work out. Bakingbites.com recipe is simple and easy to make.

A little closer view of the caramel, coconut and chocolate...

Just so you know I have two more recipes I have to test one is a coconut, pineapple cupcake and just for the guy a plain, in the springform pan cheesecake. Lawd, help me. No really, I need prayer on that one because I do not eat cheesecake. No siree! But for him, I will use my guinea pigs at the 2nd job to test. So pray. Pray hard!

2011-11-09T14:13:00.002-06:00

Creative Cooking...Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Raisin Nut Cookies

My grandmother was known for her temper and her oatmeal cookies. For as long as I can remember, my cousin has raved about how wonderful my grandmother’s cookies were. I don’t remember eating them myself, but my cousin has been trying to replicate them forever. Her version tastes okay, but I have always thought cookies should not look like mounds, but round edible goodness. If I put here what her cookies look like you may not want to try this recipe.

I saw this recipe a year ago and I even tried to do it, but if you don’t have enough oats and are lacking in raisins, um, that just want work. I don’t know what those cookies were, but they did taste good. I added the chips to the recipe and changed the nuts to pecans, because I like pecans better than walnuts in cookies and I added the chips because one of my favorite bloggers, Ladylee of the House of Ladylee makes oatmeal cookies in differing variations and adds chocolate to them. Don’t think I didn’t try to see if she had her recipe on her blog, because baby her cookies always look wonderful and I know why folks hoard them when she gives them away. I stayed closely to the recipe as seen on http://www.simplyrecipes.com/ but added those two variations.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Raisin Nut Cookies as adapted from SimplyRecipes.com

Ingredients

2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 large eggs, well beaten

1 Tbsp vanilla

3 cups rolled oats {Do not use instant oats.)
1 1/2 cups raisins

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add sugars; beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla.

Mix flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in medium bowl. Stir dry ingredients into butter-sugar mixture. Stir in raisins, chips and nuts. Stir in oats.

Using my cookie scoop I placed dollops onto a prepared parchment lined cookie sheet, leaving at least 2 inches between each cookie.

Bake until cookie edges turn golden brown, 10-12 minutes. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets. Then carefully remove them, using a metal spatula, to a wire rack. Cool completely.

Up close can you see the raisins, nuts and chocolate chips?

Verdict: Amazing! Absolutely wonderful. These cookies were crispy around the edges and moist and chewy in the middle and the combination of the raisins, chocolate and pecans just made them extra rich and tasty. This took me about 15 minutes to do so it is simple and easy. Try them and you will not go wrong. Sorry cousin, these are better than yours!

P. S. The reason I didn't have a picture of the cookies on the cookie sheet, is because I froze all but four so I could take the picture. I told ya'll I like cooking, but I can't eat all that I bake.

2011-11-08T15:06:00.000-06:00

Lifestyle Change

January 2007 - Before Picture

One of the most asked questions I get is how do I stay motivated to work out on a consistent basis? In fact I was ask this again today as I trudged along to do my 30 minutes of exercise on the elliptical. And I thought what a good blog post.

First of all, I do not love working out. There are days when the thought of working out irritates me so much I think of excuses on why I shouldn’t workout today. Most of the time, I just say forget about it and change into my workout gear and go workout. I am pretty lucky my agency has a workout room with treadmills, an elliptical machine, weights and bikes. It also has a television and fans to keep you cooled down. Most places do not have this set up. So I am thankful for having a dedicated workout room.

When I began working out in December of 2009, it was because I needed to lose weight because my body was acting a fool, and my doctor didn’t like my numbers. So I began his weight loss program and for a year I went to the doctor once a month to monitor my weight loss and make sure I was working the program well. I lost the most pounds of his female patients who were in the program of 70 pounds. Remarkable, but actually a lot of hard work because it is when the pounds started to melt off did I realize how important exercise was to my regime.

I began by using the Wii games such as sports and sports active. With sports active, you do a 30 day challenge where you work out two days, and one day off and do this for a month. I began on the easy setting, which initially was kicking my butt. I was sweating like an animal, but I loved the way I felt once I finished. I began the program when my aunt was in rehab, so there were no interruptions and you would find me working out in the morning or night depending on what my responsibilities required. Each time I completed a 30 day challenge, the feeling of accomplishment was exhilarating. By April of 2010, I decided I would utilize our agency workout room. So onto the treadmill I went. I started by walking a mile and built up to 3 miles in 40 minutes with intervals of jogging. And then I would go home and do my Wii challenge. So I was working out about an hour and half most days. I always looked forward to rest days. So on average I working out 5 to 6 days a week. Every week. Plus, with my caretaking duties I was really putting in a lot of exercise whether it was purposeful or just part of my responsibilities as a caretaker. I did a lot of lifting, and I learn to do it properly so as not to injure myself and a lot of walking in the house. So my pounds melting off wasn’t effortless, it just seemed that way to those looking from the outside.

After a year of the weight loss program, I was pretty much on my own. After my aunt passed, it took me a moment to realize I could sit my ass down when I got off work and it was okay. Of course I found other hobbies to keep me busy, but I continued to workout at work and at home. I finally decreased my home workouts because frankly the Wii got boring and started to irritate me to no end. No seriously, the damn remote on your leg not registering will send a sane person to the edge of no return. I would do my Michael Jackson Experience once week and that was fine. I continued to work out but only 4 to 5 times a week. And in the spring, I incorporated walking at my community center, where I could walk and jog for 40 minutes in the early morning. I honestly liked doing that because it was peaceful to be outside and I was able to challenge myself fully. I also liked that it gave me an extra boost to get chores and errands done on Saturday morning while most folks were sleeping. I also realized I gain weight in the summer, because I really do not like to exercise in the heat. 15 pounds, and so far in the last two weeks I have lost 6 pounds. Go me.

How? Exercising and cutting back my calories a whole lot. So what motivates me to exercise? I just don’t want to gain all the weight I lost back. I worked too damn hard to lose it to gain it back because I am being lazy. I see the benefits of working out. My numbers are fantastic. I have strong muscles in my legs. I feel great after a good and strenuous workout. Although, to be at my ideal weight I need to lose another 30 pounds, it is the challenge of trying to reach that goal that keeps me motivated. I made a promise that when I returned to the doctor in November, I would have lost 7 pounds and I will have come that day. Then my next goal is 15 pounds by Christmas. And with motivation and determination 15 more pounds by May 1, 2012.

I do not work out because I love to, but because I have to. When I say I am going to do something I do. I believe in follow through. I am all about commitment. To not follow through stresses me out. Exercising isn’t always fun, but I try to make it so by challenging myself. When I started working out at work, I and the secretary would go, and there were about 4 or 5 other people going on a regular. Now, only I work out regularly. At 11:30 am, I head straight for the workout room. I workout 30 minutes or more, alone with my music and I don’t worry about others not doing it, because my challenge is my own. I always like to finish what I start. So exercising consistently is the lifestyle change that I will not eliminate from life. My life is too important to do that.

October 31, 2011 - After Picture

2011-11-02T12:06:00.001-05:00

Creative Cooking...Stuffed Mushrooms

I love stuffed mushrooms and it is getting to be the season where you can find stuffer mushrooms. These are the mushrooms that are bigger than your average button mushrooms. Alas, I had to use some large button mushrooms until I can drag my azz into the Sam’s by November where they have the fresh stuffer mushrooms on sale.

This is one of the dishes I serve at my December book club meeting I host every year. I actually brought some to a potluck meeting prior to adding it to my menu so I could test my member’s reactions. Um, they loved them. This is a variation of the kinds I make for the meeting. One is a meat variety and one is a veggie one.

Stuffed mushrooms (You know I don’t measure right?)

¼ of a package of hot pork sausage

Some chopped onions

1 cup of frozen spinach

1 small tomato

2 chopped green onions

Some real bacon bits

Italian bread crumbs

Olive oil

Mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sautee your onions and sausage in a pan and then drain them. Set aside to cool. In a small boil mix in your cooled sausage and onion mixture, bacon, tomato and frozen spinach. Add in your cheese and bread crumbs. You want the mixture to be dry but moist, hence the olive oil. Luckily, I didn’t have to add any more oil to my mixture.

I added a little extra Mozzarella cheese to the tops.

Clean your mushrooms after removing the steams. Please, and I am talking to my sister, do not wash your damn mushrooms. A nice damp cloth or paper towel will do the trick. Mushrooms have a lot of water in them and you will cause them to break down too much with the extra water.

Place mushrooms on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until they are brown.

My vegetarian version came from watching an episode of Giada’s Italian cooking show on the Food Network. It consists of canned dice tomatoes (drained), chopped black olives, green onions, mozzarella cheese, Italian bread crumbs and olive oil to moisten the mixture. These taste like mini pizzas.

So when I start seeing stuffer mushrooms I get excited because you can eat them as a meal or a small snack and not feel too guilty about eating them. I would give you a verdict, but hell I loved these because the recipe works for me and it is a variation on several I found but these works for me. Enjoy!

2011-10-26T11:42:00.001-05:00

Creative Cooking...Easy Baked Egg Rolls

Have you ever just wanted to try to make something you have eaten, but not sure how it would turn out? I do that mess all the time. I like cooking. In fact, dare I say I love to cook, although reading will always be my favorite past-time? I decided to make egg rolls, but I didn’t want them fried. Since, I am trying to increase my metabolism, what better way than with a healthy snack enriched with protein and veggies?

So I scoured the Internet in search of an easy and the optimum word is easy, baked egg roll recipe. Once that was done, I knew I was in for an adventure in finding egg roll wrappers, because living in Montgomery; folks ain’t making their own egg rolls. We aren’t talking about fried chicken, corn bread or greens, we are talking about egg rolls. I knew not to check my usual grocery store, so I went to my local Publix and for a reasonable price I got my first package of Nasoya Egg Roll Wrappers.

Easy Baked Egg Rolls as adapted from Joyful Abode.com

Egg roll wrappers

Bag of coleslaw mix

1 cup of chopped fresh mushrooms

½ cup of chopped carrots

½ cup of chopped onions

½ tsp of dry ginger

1 tsp of minced garlic

2 tbs of soy sauce

1 tsp of oyster sauce

3 chicken tenders

1 tbs of olive oil

Pinch of sugar

1 tsp of cornstarch

Cup of water

Seasoning

Sauteed cabbage w/carrotts, mushrooms and chicken

First I sautéed my seasoned chopped up chicken tenders, mushrooms, onions, garlic and carrots until soft in a tbs of olive oil. Then I added my bag of cole slaw and toss in the pan until they were softened and then added my soy sauce and oyster sauce in which I mixed in my dry ginger and pinch of sugar. Toss and coat and then set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. I did this at this time because I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to roll these suckers up.

With my cornstarch and water mix in a small bowl, I laid out my first wrapper moistening all the edges and had it done in a diamond fashion and placed the cooled filling directly across the wrapper. First I rolled up the bottom and pulled it back on the filling then brought in the two sides and rolled. Not hard to do just a bit labor intensive. LOL! As my sister says, I be doing the most!

I placed my egg rolls seam side down on a greased pan and sprayed the top of my egg rolls as well. Placed in the oven and baked about 25 minutes and turning over half-way through so the other side could brown.

As for my dipping sauce:

Just soy sauce

Two squirts of Srirachia chili sauce

Rice wine vinegar and a pinch of sugar

Close up of the tasty insides of these easy baked egg rolls. And yes they were crispy!

VERDICT: I do not care what the hell my sister says; doing the most has some great benefits! The egg rolls are flavorful and great the next day. You should be able to freeze and cook as needed if you don’t want to have as many as I had, because I used the entire package of egg roll wrappers. These little nuggets of goodness are my snacks this week. The only changes would be to not cook my cabbage as long, add a bit more seasoning and use ground chicken, but seriously they are really good as they are.

2011-10-24T11:22:00.000-05:00

My Brother's Home

I am happy!

For the last 24 hours I have been in overdrive. I have been so excited and happy I haven’t been able to contain it. My sister asked if I had been smoking or something because I am so excited, but it is all natural this exuberant feeling is pure and unadulterated happiness.

After 17 years, 17 long years my brother is finally coming home. As nonchalant as I have been about his incarceration, in reality I have never been that nonchalant about it. It has always been in the compartmentalized area of my heart and mind where I store things I can’t and will not put too much effort into dealing with, because there is nothing I can do to change the situation. To this day, I will not forget him calling me one Thursday night and although the conversation was pleasant, something in my heart knew something was wrong. The next morning on my way to work I had a complete meltdown and all I could contribute to it was something was wrong with my brother. And less than a month later, I was finally told, after being kept in the dark for a week or so about it, what was wrong.

Over the last 17 years, our contact has been sporadic and for the last two years it has only been the Christmas cards I send to him. Um, he is Muslim now and maybe I will not accept that part of him fully, but the cards were the only way I could let him know I am still his sister and he is still my brother. No matter what he did it never changed the fact we were bonded by blood and unconditional love, because that is how family loves or supposed to, unconditionally. I never condoned what he did, and I always blamed it on the fact he never had to accept consequences when he was a child, because he was the baby and the only boy. I never denied having a brother and I never disowned him. The last two years of quiet was because I was hurt and angered by his last letter to me. It took me a few weeks to let go of that anger, because he has a right to his feelings and no matter what I could say his memories are his truths and I can’t change that. I accepted it and made sure to keep up with what he was doing through my sister and his stepmom. Not once, did my love waver.

I have just been so giddy. When my sister contacted me Friday saying the “folks” were messing with his head I was like he betta get his ass in the car and go home and forget about those people. He did his time; it is time for to learn to live again. Yesterday, I was just plain happy and today I am ecstatic. My brother is home. I think even the guy was shocked at how excited I have been the last two days. I can’t help it. My brother is home. After 17 years, he is home. He was 17 years old when he was arrested and he is now 34. Half his life now you think about that and take it in?

I have been acknowledging my blessings for a while. And this is one of them; I can’t praise Him enough for all he has done for me, when I am so not worthy most of the time. Hearing my brother’s voice as he laughed and laughed was just plain beautiful. He’s home. He said he didn’t even know what to do. He has a long road ahead of him as he reintegrates into society, transitions and works hard to move forward in life. When I hung up the phone, I sat at my desk and cried because you cannot fathom 17 years when someone is locked up. My brother didn’t kill anyone, but you would never know it from his sentence. My brother is intelligent, incredibly talented artistically, he writes amazingly, he is a voracious reader like my sister and I and he deserves a chance to improve his life. My only prayer is he can make this transition smoothly and he is able to live out his dreams, because he does have them. Welcome home, Christopher. My Brother is HOME!

2011-10-19T20:39:00.002-05:00

Creative Cooking...Chocolate Mint Candy Cookies

The kids on my second job guilted me into making these Chocolate Mint Candy Cookies as adapted from Poetinthepantry.com. I had no intentions of making anything sweet right now, but one Friday night the part-time assistant manager said, “It would be nice if we got a treat cooked for us tomorrow.” When I hemmed and hawed he called me Selfish! Whatever, but I haven’t made them anything since July. So here is another item I used the kids on my second job as guinea pigs. They loved them. The Manager loved so much she had left the building, after I told her to get her a couple more cookies because they will be gone when she returns, she said she had plenty, but she got to the traffic light and had to turn around and come back and get her a few more. They must have been really good.

Chocolate Mint Candy Cookies (Think about Thin Mints from the Girl Scouts, but different) Adapted from poetinthepantry.com

3/4 cup (12 Tbsp) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed

2 Tbsp water

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 large eggs

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 10-oz package Andes Crème de Menthe Baking Chips

1 tsp of Vanilla extract ***

1. In a large sauce pan, melt the butter, brown sugar, and water. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips until melted. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

2. Transfer the chocolate mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and sea salt. Slowly add to chocolate mixture, mixing until just incorporated.

4. Remove bowl from mixer and stir in the Andes Crème de Menthe Baking Chips.

5. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

7. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a medium cookie scoop, portion out the dough on the cookie sheet, spacing 2 inches apart.

8. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Don’t worry if they don’t look all the way done when you take them out; they finish baking outside the oven. Leave on cookie sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

9. I followed the recipe to the letter except I added the vanilla extract, cookies with out vanilla don’t seem right.

I will say this food blogger is onto something because her directions were spot on and the cookies looked undone, but as they sat out, they harden up and still remained chewy in the middle. I really liked how easy she made her directions.

VERDICT: Loved them. My sister wants me to mail them to her ASAP. And the kids at my second job loved them. They are rich, however, and I may add a nut like a pecan or walnut, because they are so rich. If you like the GS, Thin Mints you will love these. They are easy to make and don’t take too much time. Yeah, you have to cool your chocolate and put the dough in the refrigerator for an hour, but it is well worth it.

Yummy!

2011-10-17T15:58:00.000-05:00

The Hair...

What is my hair doing? Absolutely nothing. I still need to wash it, because looking cute and asking folks to help you isn't working, so I will buckle down and wash it sometime this week which means I must blow dry it. Then I need to retighten it, because between the workouts and this little growth spurt, I have no choice.

A little bit about my regimine. I started using Greg's Juice and their Honey Dew Moisturizer back in August. Lawdy, these product have made my hair so soft I do not know how I missed having the in my life. My hair is no longer suffering from dryness. I also got my Sisterlock Green Tea Shampoo with the reconstructor and moisture treatment, so my hair will be given some good tenderloving care. When I finally wash it.

So I wanted to let you know I found some products which keep my hair moisturized.

I hope you had a great weekend, I know I did. Enjoy the pics!

2011-10-11T13:20:00.000-05:00

Busy October Randoms...

I know it has been a while. Life has been busy and I was in the proverbial dumps last week as I tried to wade through reliving the transitioning of my aunt. By the end of the week I was feeling better, but baby on Tuesday I was done. Of course other family members were dealing with the same thing, some of us better than others. My cousin who does the Thanksgiving dinner, yeah the one, who doesn’t use seasoning on her turkey, said sometimes you can be in a room full of people and still be lonely and the same can be said about grief. Some folks when dealing with death, surround themselves with people and activities but don’t take the time to truly grieve and begin the healing process. I allowed myself a moment to be sad, but I wrote about it on my anonymous blog and shook it off. My aunt would beat my azz to not see me moving oh and living life.

But I have a few randoms to throw out here into the Internet land…

• Speaking of Thanksgiving, my sister has ruined Thanksgiving for me. You can send her an email her about messing up things for me and my nieces later. Seems my sister decided to be on bed rest until her baby is born in January. Don’t side-eye me! She didn’t tell me until a week ago. Yeah. What? I told her she knows I cannot afford to take care of 3 kids, so she needs to make better arrangements. Talking about the oldest will be gone in two years. Unless she has a contract with God, she better find someone who can take all three because just because one goes to college doesn’t negate your responsibility towards them.

• How did she ruin Thanksgiving? Who the hell is going to go shopping with me on Black Friday? I asked one of my friends and she said she had to pray on it? Really? Why prayer? SMH!

• Now I got to figure out how to mail cookies to Virginia. I got to make sure Hunny Bunny gets her sugar cookies because you know she is going to retire me right?

• Oh, but the universe is sending my cousin, his wife and his baby (the baby who came Mother’s day and wasn’t due to June or July) will be here. So Andrea, let’s go! She likes to shop. Loves it!

• I might as well go shopping with her because maybe she will allow me to touch the baby. Talking about she don’t trust me around her child because I keep threatening to still him on Facebook. What?

• Reed Between The Lines is premiering on BET. I wonder if I will watch it. I love Tracy. I just don’t love watching BET.

• I want Satellite television but do not know which one to go with.

• I still want a yorkie, but I just don’t have time right now.

• Fantasia. I am so done. Stupid. She needs therapy.

• My hair is interesting this week. I need to wash it. I should have done that this weekend, but I didn’t. I asked the guy and he laughed. What the hell is so funny about washing my damn hair?!

Side bun, which are my numerous twists I rolled into a bun. Looks like a cinnamon roll. LOL!

• The weather is cooler here and it has been raining off and on for the last few days. All I really want to do is curl up in my bed and sleep. But I did that Sunday and realized I wasted the entire day. Not again!

• Best Man 2 is coming. Are you excited? Me, not so. I disliked that movie. I really did. I only liked Terrance Howard and his grimy behind. I hated the concept that the groom could not get over his bride having slept with someone else. Go so where with that, when you have been with numerous other folks, while with her, but she gets with one guy. One guy and you can’t marry her. Yeah, he was your best friend, but you didn’t care so much about that as she gave it to someone else. Ugh! Please do not get me started on this.

• I have several Creative Cooking posts scheduled. Go me!

• It is time for some winter shoes. Let’s go!

• I have already started my Christmas shopping. I am limiting myself this year. I am giving away a lot of cookies that is for sure.

• I hired two people last week on my second job because I am tired of interviewing and waiting on folks to do the reference follow ups. I need to go to work and do so in peace. This Friday is going to be a mess, because I will have a cashier who is only this week training on the register and I will not have a full staff on that day because everyone and there mama wants to be off.

• I had a mother call me to interview her son. I listened to her on the phone and in my head I was like this boy will not be interviewed by me, because his mama is going to think she works here and tell me how to do my job. If your child is seeking a job, parents do not call for them. Why? It means he doesn’t want to work and it makes prospective employers angry. Plus, when your child has on his application he won a spelling bee and he spells Unkle and Ant like this, somebody is lying or he won the spelling bee when he was in kindergarten.

• Have a great short week!

2011-10-10T12:56:00.001-05:00

Creative Cooking...

Yes, I have been cooking some. I have laid off the sweets for a month or so because I want to lose a few pounds before the holidays and as you know when you are testing recipes you taste too. I will be testing a coconut cupcake and a chocolate candy mint cookie before the holidays officially commence. One thing about keeping the weight off is eating complete meals. Although I have gained about 10 pounds back since I lost 70 pounds in the last two years, I am always mindful of the things I put in my mouth. I also notice I do better in the weight game when I eat complete meals. So recently I decided to try a new chicken recipe and see if I could perfect Piccadilly’s carrot soufflé that I love so much.

Carrot Soufflé adapted from Allrecipes

2 lbs of cleaned carrots

1 stick of butter

½ cup of sugar

3 tbs of all purpose flour

1 ½ baking powder

1 ½ vanilla extract

3 eggs

Confectioner’s sugar

I steamed my already cleaned baby carrots for about an hour. It took that long for them to get as soft as I needed them to be. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In my mixer I placed the still warmed carrots, melted butter and sugar and mixed on medium until they were smooth. Then I added my flour, baking powder and vanilla extract and as it was being incorporated I added the eggs one at a time. One of the things I notices when reviewing differing recipes, some folks found the soufflé to be extremely egg tasting and you know I have an allergy so I just hoped this wouldn’t be the case. Once everything was incorporated I sprayed my pan lightly with cooking spray and poured my mixture in and let bake for an hour. I wanted it crisp around the edges.

You will notice that it will rise, but it will surely flatten when it is removed from the oven. Once removed from the oven I sprinkled Confectioner’s sugar on the top and hoped this tasted a little back like what I crave from Piccadilly’s.

All incorporated and ready to bake.

All done!

Finished product

Verdict: I loved it. I mean it was crispy around the edges and it was firm and not overly sweet. The one you get from the restaurant is bit sweeter than mine, but I like it this way because the original recipe I saw the soufflé has over 400 calories for a serving. No egg taste either This one is half the calories.

Spicy Honey Balsamic Vinegar Chicken adapted from The Girl Who Didn’t Eat Everything blog

Chicken wings, breast or thighs

Rub:

2 tsp of garlic powder

2 tsp of chili powder

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp seasoning salt

1 tsp of cumin

½ cayenne pepper

1 tbs of olive oil

Glaze:

½ cup of honey

¾ cup of Balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 375. Clean and dry your chicken. I used chicken wings and one chicken breast. After combining the rub mixture I rubbed the chicken down in the oil and the rub. Prior to this I tasted the rub and it reminded me of Lay’s BBQ potato chips. You know I am going to make my own chips soon, right? I then placed in the oven on a rack with a pan underneath. I know ingenious, but I can’t take credit for it I found it on a cooking blog and thought, yes. In a sauce pan, place your honey and balsamic vinegar and cook until thicken. Cooked the chicken for about 15 minutes and turn over and start basting. Reserve a small amount to cover chicken with when done. Baste the other side after about 15 minutes and then turn your oven to broil and cook for about 10 more minutes to darken and caramelize your chicken.

Almost done, basting.

Verdict: The chicken is okay. It needed more salt and more spice. The sauce is good, but I think this recipe works better if you grill your chicken so the sauce can really caramelized on the chicken. I will try again but using a real grill and more salt and cayenne!

Looks yummy!

2011-10-05T16:47:00.001-05:00

Test

2011-10-04T11:17:00.001-05:00

The Finale of New Orleans...

Canal Street from our Hotel room at night

Besides our community service commitment, we were also having a destination book club meeting. We had been discussing this since last year and made plans in April to make it happen. Everyone was excited about going and some like me, haven’t visited the city since Hurricane Katrina. So it was a bit disappointing that the week of departure so many of my members were unable to go due to some unforeseen circumstances. If I learned anything from this last trip I learned, have folks do a deposit with only a portion of it refundable should they be unable to go, set a date and do not change it – because we will never do something trying to make everyone happy and always have a contingency plan in place so we aren’t homeless for a couple hours before our arrival. LOL!

We were hoping to have our meeting the lobby area of the hotel, but hell I forgot about the college football games and the area was full, plus it was happy hour. So we met in our room and discussed Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza, maybe I should say I discuss with a little participation from those who managed to read a bit of the story. LOL! Sad, I know, but the book was well over 500 pages and really could have been shorter, but I did encourage them to finish it because although the length was daunting the story itself was really interesting. And we finished the meeting with another bottle of wine.

We decided to go to Mother’s for dinner. Can I say New Orleans finally redeemed itself with food? Thank goodness because I was really sadden by the food this go round. I tried their famous Ferdi sandwich, and it didn’t disappoint and the much raved about by Sunny Anderson bread pudding, which was okay, but not something I would order again. The sandwich is a ham, roast beef, debris and gravy with cabbage, mayo and pickles. I loved the sandwich because it was flavorful, moist and just an explosion of food contrasts that went well together. But it was too much to eat in one sitting. Their bread pudding isn’t typical because they make it with fruit cocktail. I wanted some raisins and if you are a texture person, this will not work for you, very mushy. It was tasty, but not something I really want to try again. Folks enjoyed the etoufee and fried chicken as well. We were all satisfied up leaving. In fact, that is probably why seeing the lady who was walking around topless, but painted was nothing to get up in arms about.

Famous Ferdi Special Sandwich. Look at that juice!

From there to walk off some of that food, we did some more shopping and I found a Fedora to fit my big head. Yes! We headed back to the hotel and drank some more wine and talked until we all fell asleep.

We saw a lot of these guys out performing. No money, no dancing. Money and they move. LOL!

Sunday we headed home at check out to try and miss the traffic for the Saint’s game. We should have planned a bit better and maybe tried to attend since it was an early game. We all had a wonderful time bonding and just loving on a city that has had its share of hard times. Although everything wasn’t perfect, I think we it was perfect we were able to go and fulfill our community service commitment and bond. Fini!

Back home safe and sound. I finally took my braidout down Sunday before our depature. Hair looked good too.

Bread Pudding. Tasty, but no something I would try again. Oh, I ate all of it I think I like the sauce more than the bread pudding.

Blurry picture of etoufee.

Fried Chicken and turnip greens.

2011-10-03T17:00:00.000-05:00

Part 5 - New Orleans: Some things change, some things stay the same

Some things stay the same, but most things change is how I would describe New Orleans right now. Saturday after a good work out, I ventured out onto Canal Street to people watch. Yes, there are still panhandlers, but they basically walk up to you and ask for a cigarette if they see you smoking or money. I was asked for money but since I had just finished working out and had my cup of coffee from Starbucks, I didn’t have any on me. Plus, I do not give folks money on the street. However, this guy was really nice and we chatted for a few about how beautiful it was outside and our blessings. The street was coming alive with people and transit, so I knew the day would be quite interesting.

On our agenda was shopping because some folks needed shoes much more comfortable than what they had with them. We did eat at the IHOP down from our hotel, where I proceeded to eat an egg substitute that ignited a nice little allergic reaction from me making my eyes look like Quasimodo’s. Someone should have explained it thoroughly to me that egg substitutes have eggs in them, just not yolks. FYI – I am allergic to eggs and can only consume them cooked in food items. After, the shopping on Canal Street we took the trolley to the French Market. New Orleans temperature was quite mild and I have been there when you are sweltering. So it was pleasant outside.

Famous Cafe Du Monde

We went through the French Market and shopped along the streets as well. What we found was that I remember when things in the French Market were reasonable prices, but I purchased nothing because I could get the same things cheaper in other places. I wanted some Shea butter and the tub I wanted was $10, but I can get the same tub here in Alabama for $5. So things truly changed. What I noticed while people watching, was that the fashion trend is to wear boots, mostly tall ones, with dresses and short shorts. I said the temperature was mild, but it wasn’t cold or cool enough for me to even consider sweating my feet. Ugh! But that didn’t seem to stop the fashionistas I witnessed in that attire. Cute, but a mess.

Along the Art's District

From the French Market we headed to lunch at Deanie’s Seafood Restaurant. A word of advice, drinking beer and walking a mile to eat ain’t fun or comfortable. Luckily, I didn’t do that but I saw the effects on those who did. LOL! We were immediately seated and when I opened up the menu I was trying to find their famous boil, which I did but of course it didn’t have a price on it because you had to ask the waiter. When Harrison arrived, he brought to our table some boiled potatoes. Um, that was different. Initially, I didn’t know what the hell they were. I thought they were hushpuppies. Anyway, I did inquire about the boil and he told me the individual prices for the shrimp and crab. I found that interesting and odd. We all ordered and were blown away with their fried seafood platters, which were huge. I personally do not care for much of my seafood fried except for catfish because the batter can be overbearing and caused the seafood flavor to disappear. After our orders were placed, Harrison came back to the table and told me that they were out of crabs. A seafood restaurant in New Orleans was out of crabs, yeah okay. He wanted to know if I wanted to change my order or get additional boiled shrimp. Mind you he was standing beside me with a plate of boil shrimp. Remember I ordered their seafood boil and when I think of boil I think of shrimp, crab, corn, potatoes and sausage. I got a plate of boiled shrimp. I couldn’t concentrate on what the hell he was saying because before me set a plate of about 8 jumbo shrimp. I just said I would just eat the shrimp, at this point thoroughly disappointed. One of my book club members ordered one of their salads and although she prefers vinaigrette the only one they had was sweet fig balsamic vinaigrette, which was on the side. Harrison assured her it was very tasty. Well, it was too sweet for her and when she asked about additional dressings this was the only vinaigrette they offered. She didn’t eat her salad and it sat there while she read from her Kindle. Harrison returned to the table and asked if she was finished with her salad and then he took it away and he charged her for it. I found the food and service at Deanie’s Seafood to be deplorable. As a waiter, when Harrison noticed his customer was not eating her food, he should have offered an alternative or suggested another meal option he did neither and he should not have charged her for the salad, but he did and said, “There wasn’t anything wrong with the salad.” Yes it was. You recommended a dressing that was deplorable and you had no viable options, so yes something was wrong with the salad. She didn’t argue but the rest of us knew it couldn’t be us. So far all the food in New Orleans was blah. I have always enjoyed my food in New Orleans and to find that Katrina took away the flavor too was a bit much. So some things did change, but at least the people, the history and ambiance hadn’t.

My Famous Deanie's Seafood Boil...yeah right!

Next up: Book club meeting and finally some good eats and we say goodbye!

2011-10-02T19:00:00.001-05:00

Part 4 - Lost looking for Dinner...

Our young mother recommended as well as other folks we consulted with recommended we try Deanie’s Seafood in the Quarter. According, to the directions we were very close to the restaurant. Hey, we all saw the street when we were going to our hotel. Please tell me how we missed the street and were on our way to the hood? Not only were we lost, but folks were whining about the walking, the heat, can’t we take the trolley, yada yada yada. Needless to day, I was at my breaking point. One, I do not like to be lost. Two, I can’t deal with folks complaining. When you visit New Orleans you prepare to walk, riding the trolley is cute, but you miss the sights and sounds of the Quarter when you do that. And the weather in New Orleans was wonderful. We were hot because we had already started drinking. Some of us can handle our liquor, and some of can’t. I ain’t calling no names.

My 1/2 dozen raw oysters, they were yummy, but no one else wanted to taste them.

Shrimp Po Boy. Which was blah...no flavor

One of my members Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich

Anyway, they stopped and asked a woman passing us, who politely instructed us to go back the way we came because we were heading into hood territory. I was already walking back. I wasn’t waiting on a trolley; hell I was ready to eat something. We finally made it back to Dauphine and would you believe when we turned on Dauphine; there was Deanie’s Seafood on the corner and a long as line to get in. Of course that was a no go. We took a walk down Bourbon and ate at Desire’s Oyster Bar. I have eaten there plenty of times and I was truly disappointed in the food and service. My oysters were phenomenal and my shrimp po boy was okay, but my usual hurricane was horrible. I couldn’t taste any liquor and normally one will make life right, this time I just drank a glass of orange juice. No one was completely satisfied. One member liked her gumbo, but most everyone was talking about the lack of flavor. Oh well.

This horse was so beautiful and fiesty as hell. He kept an eye on me.

Then we proceeded to venture down Bourbon Street. It was still early around 9ish or so. Bourbon Street hasn’t changed much. Still smelly and a disgusting street, but the party atmosphere was still quintessential New Orleans partying. I did notice a lot more “gentlemen” clubs. You couldn’t miss them because the scantily dressed workers were in the doorways and on balconies tried to entice customers to come in. I didn’t see the female impersonators club though. You can still get a tall daiquiri, but I suggest you pay the extra money for an additional shot of liquor, because those were weak too. All the liquor on Friday night was weak. No buzz and no one got tipsy, well almost no one. I did do what I do almost every time I go to New Orleans, and that was to pat the police horses. I love how majestic they are and usually the officer on its back isn’t too bad to look at either. LOL!

You should have seen what drunk folks were doing to this art piece. Because he wasn't real and the artist showed us that he wasn't by emptying the bucket of money and placing him on his bike. Some folks let liquor go to their heads.

Sights of New Orleans...

As we went back to our hotel on Canal Street, there was a band on the corner doing its thing. I loved it. And it reminded me why I love New Orleans, the culture; the music, the art and the people make it a city worth visiting often.

Next up: Some things stay the same but most change…

2011-10-01T17:02:00.000-05:00

Part 3 - New Orleans...Meeting our family

The young lady we decided to help has two children, females. So as we were on our way I called her to touch bases with her and find out the location of the uniform place to set up an account for her. She then begins to tell me she had to take her kids out of the charter school because they were so unhappy and they were being stagnated in the school. They weren’t learning anything. However, she had found an African centered school that they both loved and she has seen a complete change in their attitude and wanting to learn. In other words, they were finally being challenged. Although they are not in the same expensive uniforms, they still are in uniforms which consist of dashikis. She then begins to tell us how hard it has been to garner school supplies and when she finishes paying bills she only has a few hundred dollars to live out of and she doesn’t qualify for food stamps. She was literally crying on the phone. I felt for her because here she is working and trying to make sure her kids are giving a chance, but the struggle makes you have to make difficult choices. In fact her oldest daughter had a school project to do and she couldn’t afford the supplies needed. I listened because I do that pretty well, but I knew I was just going to give her the money we had for her and she could do what she needed it with it. It wasn’t a heaping whole lot, but at least she could get a couple more uniforms and the school supplies she needed. I told her we would call her when we got closer to New Orleans so we could meet. But the closer we got to NOLA, is when we find out we were homeless. Initially, when we decided to give the family a gift card to use where needed, but a month before we left members were like they could give more items than actual money, but you see how that turned out. I am a believer if I give money to someone for good, then it is on them to do right by it because if they do wrong it is on them. My thoughts.

Lucky for us, she called us and left a message hoping we were okay and safe. Once we got settled into the hotel we called her, or rather another member did. I can’t handle crying on the phone. Don’t ask. Anyway, we agreed to meet her at our hotel about 6:30 pm, unfortunately her kids had to go out of town after school with a family member so we wouldn’t be meeting them.

I am so glad we were able to meet her because first of all she loved my hair. Vain, I know. However, she showed us pictures of her daughters, she talked about her work and she offered us ideas for dinner and fun in her home town. She was so gracious and so humble. Life is hard for her, but she is trying and in my book that is pure strength. We talked for a bit and took pictures. And I am glad we fulfilled our commitment, because I really do believe the more you give the more you receive and it doesn’t have to be monetary, but it can just be spiritual.

The whole time we were in NOLA, she checked on us and wanted to insure we had a good time in her city.

Next up…Dinner and how we got lost…walking…

2011-09-30T16:42:00.001-05:00

Part 2 - New Orleans: Homeless

My left eye was jumping all Thursday evening. I trust in my left eye because it usually means something bad is going to happen or I will get mad as hell. On Thursday, I went to the hotel website to check on availability of rooms and actually tried to book a room as a precautionary plan or back-up plan. Originally, our Activities Coordinator had booked 2 rooms, now this was when we had 10 folks committed to going to NOLA. We stated we expect those who committed to be going because getting a refund of the deposit was non-existent and we didn’t want the AC to be charged if folks weren’t going. This was stressed heavily for 2 months straight. Well, as I mentioned before the week of the trip, Tuesday to be exact, folks started emailing their issues and inability to go on the trip and dropping like flies. My people, this is how we do and why I stopped doing these type trips years ago because only a small fraction of us would attend and it defeated the bonding purpose because the same 5 or so folks were the only ones bonding. Anyway, the AC cancelled one of the rooms on September 21th, so she thought. When we finally hit the road on Friday, we decided to call the hotel to insure we still had a room and to see if we could get an early check in. Everything was a go and they told us they would let us check in early if there is a room available. When traveling to LA from AL, there are areas where cell phone reception is dicey at best. So when I looked at my phone about 2 hours later, I saw a call from the AC, so I checked my messages and knew exactly why my left eye had been jumping since Thursday.

Unbeknownst the AC, she didn’t cancel one room, she cancelled the entire reservation. She was assured only one room was cancelled when she did it, but we were homeless ya’ll for about an hour. I called the AC back and had another member on the phone with the hotel to get clarification. A mess. They could only promise us one night because they were booked through the weekend. You know the Saint’s played on Sunday. I was so angry, but I tried my best not to act unruly and let my other member deal with the hotel. I told the AC we would have to look for another hotel because I’ll be damn if I was going to unpack and repack my stuff and move. I can’t handle uncertainty, I am a true Virgo and this glitch was sending me over the edge. Homeless.

Luckily one of the members is a gadget guru and she had her IPad. BTW, it’s okay, but it ain’t all that. One member found the hotel and the other member booked and we were only homeless for an hour and a half. By this time we had been on the road long enough to get gas and finally stop for lunch. And when we hit the road again we were 45 minutes away from bonding, fun and really New Orleans!

The trade off for the changed hotel was a $10 price increase, $3 parking increase and no free breakfast or free wifi. However, the service was good and the hotel was clean. Just needed a bigger room. Oh well, next up…

Our meeting with our adopted family…

2011-09-29T16:17:00.001-05:00

Part 1 - New Orleans 2011

Canal Street

Okay nobody guessed, but I did mentioned it a while back that my book club was having a destination book club meeting in New Orleans in September. And let me tell you this was a meeting that threatened not to happen.

Here is the scenario. We start discussing this back in January or February and decided to make it happen in April at our annual business meeting. Each month until our meeting in August we discussed what we were going to do, stay and completing our community service commitment. I had one member in charge of locating a school for us to donate books to in New Orleans and a family that was still struggling years after Hurricane Katrina. After a couple of months we found a school and a family. However, my book club members were being wishy-washy. We had decided to get books, but a month before we leave folks wanted specific books or magazines they needed. Well, that part of the community service got scrubbed because the contact just didn’t have the time to compile the information on such short notice. One of the members was in contact with the young woman we had adopted to see what her children needed for school and the member was astounded to discover her kids were in a charter school where they had to wear a uniform which could only be purchased from one supplier and the uniform cost $50 each and she had 2 daughters. Each child had one uniform, so she was hand washing the uniforms every night. Upon hearing this, I decided then and there the books to the school were out, because I already discovered on my own there are a lot of drives going on in New Orleans to help replenish the libraries and frankly this mother doesn’t need to be washing clothes every night because the school system requires uniforms that are really too costly for most folks. So imagine my thoughts when the week of our scheduled departure we had lost more members who were to attend, which meant our hotel costs would escalate. I was so disturbed by this I shut down for about 8 hours and when I returned I sent out an email that basically stated: We made a commitment to this family and we will follow through on it, all members are to donate at least $20 towards us getting her uniforms and the book club will make up the balance and as much as I really want to go to New Orleans we will not go if do not have enough folks for bonding and if we can’t even garner a measly $20 to help someone else. I was hot. Not because I didn’t understand folks have hardships and shyte does happen, but the week of the departure you acting shady and not thinking about the others this decision would affect was not cool at all. Needless to say, folks responded immediately and once we had the drivers in place, 6 folks firmly committed and money pledged New Orleans was still on.

A few members wanted the trip to be cancelled and we meet at a local restaurant, but honestly I wasn’t having it. I wasn’t. I thought about this and I had saved my money from April until now and I had family vacation in between this scheduled event. We had actually changed the date to accommodate folks, who incidentally didn’t even go. I just could not see myself sitting at a restaurant with folks who didn’t plan or save better for a scheduled and planned trip. I would be resentful and plus it just wasn’t fair for those of us who took leave and really saved our money.

So with a revised budget, we were headed to New Orleans on Friday, September 23. Why was my left eye jumping?

Part 2 tells why my eye was jumping…

2011-09-26T12:00:00.001-05:00

Where in the world has Cashana been?

Here is a clue...

Any guesses?

2011-09-15T16:44:00.001-05:00

Mama Nem's - Review

In Montgomery, as a restaurant, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Montgomery has a plethora of restaurants depending on what your taste buds are craving; chances are there is a restaurant here to help you out. We have an overabundance of chain restaurants, but one thing for certain; even the chains have a hard time making it here. For example, I remember when Whataburger came here. Folks were excited about the promise of great burgers and the fixings. Um, Whataburger may have lasted 6 months. Why? The food was mediocre and the service was the worst! I went, once. I was in the drive thru line for 30 minutes and when I got to the window to pay I saw workers dancing and playing. I saw a young man who had put in an application on my second job and I am so glad I dodged that bullet. Folks in Montgomery are not going to wait for mediocre food and service. We just won’t. Lone Star Steakhouse is gone. O’Charley’s is gone. Macaroni Grill is gone. I could go on and on, but that isn’t the premise of this post.

For my birthday, I and two of my friends went to dinner the Friday before my birthday. I decided to try Mamma Nem’s again; even though the Urbanspoon reviews rated it 45% of the people liked it. The most recent reviews were quite good with only one being lackluster basically stating the food was warmed up and the food wasn’t fresh. I wasn’t scared by the reviews because I know how Montgomery is when it comes to our food and restaurants. So we got there a little after 6 pm and funny thing is the waitress who served my sister and I back in November was still there and just as friendly. She asked me about my first experience and my thoughts about things then and I was quite honest. The food wasn’t great and it wasn’t worth the 2 hour wait to get it. I understood they were working out the kinks, but I was reluctant to return until I was sure the kinks had been worked out. From some the reviews I read, I saw that they had gotten rid of employees and revamped their menu and hours.

Upon entrance, you walk into the building that has this urban feel with the African-American art and eclectic design. The dining room is a bit of a hodge-podge, but presentable. We were immediately greeted and seated. Our server told us about the buffet, which basically serves the same thing that is on the menu. We started with drinks. I ordered a glass of Merlot and one of my friends ordered a Margarita. My glass of Merlot came out cold. Like the wine had been refrigerated. Where do they do that at? I had to sit there waiting on it to get to room temperature. Actually, that was my only bad moment.

My friends ordered the fried tilapia and catfish and I ordered the fried chicken. Hell, I was craving it. And about 15 minutes later or orders came out piping hot and delicious looking. I ordered lima beans and smashed yams as my sides and they didn’t disappoint. The chicken, which is a supposed to be ½ a chicken, was hot, flavorful and juicy I ended up with a leg, wing, and two breasts and I was quite happy because I don’t like thighs. My lima beans were quite tasty and the yams although had a bit more nutmeg than I care for, they were quite good. Nothing was over-seasoned. My friends were enamored with their fish entrees which looked and according to them tasted as good as it looked. We enjoyed our meals immensely. I enjoyed it so much my family and I ended up there Sunday as well.

Fried Tilapia w/fried okra and smashed yams

Fried Catfish w/macaroni and cheese and fried okra

Fried Chicken with smashed yams and lima beans. I don't like cornbread so I gave to one of my friends.

My family ordered the buffet and I ordered the fried catfish. My folks enjoyed the buffet and found something to their liking and the cleaned plates were an indication of the deliciousness of the food. My fish was yummy. Not fried too hard, flavorful and not greasy. I kept to the same sides and they were just as good as on Friday. Our server was a young man who was as friendly as our previous server and that always makes a dining experience wonderful.

Mama Nem’s is still be reincarnated. One of the chefs took my folks and me on a tour of their lounge rooms and meeting rooms as well as the porch area they plan to use for those who just want to come in and enjoy the jazz music and drinks. They are planning to change their hours once they get the jazz musicians in Friday and Saturday nights, but they plan to keep the terrific food in place. They do serve breakfast on Saturday, which one day I will try to get to just for the tasty bacon. So although their start hasn’t been the best, they are working to make it better and hopefully, some of Montgomery will return to get another impression to erase the previous one they experienced.

2011-09-09T12:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Taken Labor Day after a Soft Spike ponytail curl.

It is almost that time again, you know the time when the bell starts to toll and you realize the gray in your head really means you are getting old. Come Saturday, I will celebrate 42 years on this earth. Sometimes it is hard to believe I have lived this long and outlived my own mother’s life. I should never take for granted living. However, I cannot tell you the countless times I have, but I am going to blame it on my youth because now that I am older and have lived some, I truly know I am blessed.

This time last year I was filled with an uncontrolled fear of my aunt not living and it was two days after my birthday when I knew she was alive but she wasn’t living. It broke my heart that night while talking to my sister and I cried, which I don’t normally do with my sister, but the pain had reached a fevered pitch and I needed some type of release. With acceptance comes calmness, and from that day until she passed it was hugs, kisses and lots of I love yous. So this year’s birthday is bittersweet. She is gone, but she left with me this idea of living every day.

I am learning to enjoy life and make the experiences count. I really do take the time to smell the roses, even though they are the ones I am growing. I make time to just feel, because when you are running around doing things for others you become numb to your own needs. I am living and enjoying my life. It may not be perfect, but it is mine to enjoy.

I have no big plans just dinner and drinks with friends. I plan to just relax and do whatever I want to do with no pressure and no agenda. I may answer my phone and I may not. I may drink all the wine I have in my house (5 bottles), and I may not drink any alcohol all weekend. I am going to read, take long baths, work-out and I may spend some time with the guy, but this weekend is all about me living and enjoy this life that has been carved out for me. Cheers and Happy Birthday to me!

I think I make 42 look great! So Cheers and Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-09-08T16:29:00.000-05:00

Creative Cooking...Easy Buttermilk and Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits

Easy Buttermilk and Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits

As the old folks say, I must be nesting because I had the idea I would conquer a fear, the making biscuits. And I purposely looked for recipes that didn't use shortening. This is an easy recipe and the more I make them the better they come out so here it goes.

Easy Buttermilk biscuits (adapted from Homesick Texan blogspot)

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

¼ teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of sugar (or to taste)

½ teaspoon of salt

1 stick of butter (cold)

¾ cup of buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450. Mix all your dry ingredients together. Cut butter into pieces and work into flour mixture with your hands or pastry blender (you know I don’t have this, but it is only my wish list) until you have crumbles. Add the liquid mixing it together until it is sticky.

Dry ingredients.

Place on a flour surface and knead until smooth and no longer wet. I had to keep sprinkling flour when it would get sticky again. Make dough into a ball and hit it with a rolling pin, hey this is what the blogger said to do and I did it and do this for a couple of minutes.

Mixing the buttermilk with dry ingredients this includes the cinnamon, sugar and raisins.

Roll out dough until it is ¼ of an inch then fold in half. Using a glass like me or a biscuit cutter cut out your biscuits.

Into a ball

Place on a greased baking sheet close together because according to the Homesick Texan so the dough will rise up not out and bake for 15 minutes or until brown.

Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits

Same ingredients as above adding the following:

½ cup of sugar

Cinnamon to taste (hey I didn’t measure)

1 cup of raisins

Mix these ingredients in after you add the buttermilk.

For the glaze:

Confectioner's sugar
Milk

Start w/the powdered sugar and add milk slowly and mix and add sugar or milk until you get the consistency you want. Nope, didn't measure that either.

Yummy!

Verdict: Delicious. Easy to make, but they are a food that you have to keep doing in order to perfect them. The first batch I made were really small, they rose but they weren’t big so when I made this batch I used a bigger glass, which truly helped. My butter stays in my freeze until I need it and my butter for these biscuits was frozen, but as your hand manipulates the butter through the flour it does warm up. These biscuits weren’t hard at all. Even the small ones were light and fluffy and flavorful. And this recipe doesn’t make a lot of biscuits and what I did was freeze what I didn’t eat and next time I will freeze them before I bake them. They were truly yummy! Made my sister jealous…LOL!

2011-09-02T15:34:00.000-05:00

Labor Day Weekend Ramblings...

A few curls taken 7/11.

Well, I haven’t been blogging over here since last week. Not much going on so I guess I’ll ramble my way through a post. I mean really, my DL picture needs to not be the first thing you see, right?

Last week was the week a few of my important things were expiring. Driver’s License was one, and you know how that went and my pistol permit. Yep, I have had a gun and a permit to carry it since I was 21 years old. It is just small .22, but it is helpful since I know how to use it. I am ready to upgrade, but just biding my time on that one. My pistol permit picture looks way better than my DL picture. Only thing is, rarely am I asked to show my Pistol permit.

This month not only is it my birthday month, I also have to renew my tag. Unless you live under a rock, which really isn’t a bad thing with what’s going on in this world, you know AL passed a very strict Immigration law that was to go in effect on Sept. 1st. This meant instead of me going online clicking a few links I was going to be forced to go into the Office, pull a number and wait patiently until it is called to renew my tag and registration. See, I have the patience of a gnat. I get frustrated when I see folks taking too long to process their registrations and any other thing that shouldn’t take long, but for some reason becomes some kinda of rocket science. Since a judge has pre-empted the law to review, maybe I can forego going through the bowels of hell to get my tag renewed.

This is Labor Day weekend. I will be laboring all weekend on my second job. Lately, it has been a bit complicated over there at the 2nd job. I am so use to it being a haven away from stress and for a small portion of time this last week, it was a cause of stress for me. This weekend I will be training a new asst. manager so maybe things will return to happy, happy soon.

Congratulations to Beyonce and Jay-Z! Man, they looked so happy on television.

No I didn’t watch the MTV Video Awards. It is kinda hard to take them seriously when they really don’t play videos much now.

Since it is Labor Day weekend, it is time to replant some things, dry some herbs and finally stop watering. Yeah, because my allergies have taken to making bumps on my exposed skin and that mess has to stop.

Gorgeous!

I so dislike having to ride people to do things. Why or Lord can’t they just follow thru in a timely manner? Seriously, why?

My birthday is next weekend. I have mixed feelings about it because during the same time period last year I realized my aunt was dying and I needed to learn how to accept the situation. Man that was a hard time for me. However, this birthday weekend I plan to have fun with friends and family. 42 is the new 24, didn’t you know?

I am updating my book club’s website. This is the most time consuming thing to do because I am changing up the format, getting rid of pages so the updates will be simple from this point forward and my need for perfectionism is really making this project take a really long time.

Did you take a collective gasp when you read Will and Jada were separating? I did. Then I was like I will just wait and see.

Speaking of Jada, HawthoRNe was officially cancelled today. Can I tell you a secret? This season was the most dramatic it has ever been, but it also veered to far away from what made it a hit, Jada playing an aggressive nurse, this year we saw the ins and outs of what has made her who she and scandalous things happening all around her. Now we get no closure. Damn it! I hate when that happens. I am waiting on Memphis Beat to be cancelled as well.

Can someone bring back the original Law & Order? I am going to keep asking until someone hears me.

Footballs back. Enough said. You can miss me with that.

TI went to a halfway house on yesterday, only for them to take him right back to Federal prison, all because of his mode of transportation. Hell, it didn’t cost the feds anything so they need to be thankful.

My cousin is BBQ, which is good because she actually uses charcoal. Seriously, I can barely tolerate gas grills because of the taste and ever since I went to the Rendezvous in Memphis, TN I only want meat grilled over charcoal.

I am finally getting my Sisterlock products, and the shipping was only $5 which meant I could get my shampoo, reconstructor and moisturizer. Yeah!

My cousin called a few weeks ago for a co-worker who wants Sisterlocks. This is the cousin up until a year ago thought I wore weave. Yeah, think about that for a moment. This after I have told her a million times it was my own hair. I don’t think her co-worker understood she knows nothing about hair. Anyway she calls me and I reiterate the same thing I have told her a million times, my consultant is the only one here in Montgomery who is certified. (Of course, if you go on the website, her name isn’t listed.) She is certified and is trained to teach retightening. Well, the lady must have gotten in touch with my consultant because she thanked me for the referral.

Lil Carson is so juicy looking now. It will not be long before he comes home. He has come a long way since he was born back on Easter. Prayers are a beautiful thing.

My sister emailed me right after the experience the earthquake last week. Wow! All the way in Virginia Beach. Then they had to deal with Hurricane Irene. I think Jesus is needed in Virginia.

I have to post another creative cooking post about biscuits and cinnamon raisin biscuits.

A teaser!

One of my best friends is perturbed with me because I haven’t returned her call. From a month ago or something. I did call her back but she was unavailable and after that I was unavailable. Man, I cannot be at work talking to her for 3 hours and when I get off work I just don’t want to talk on the phone. Either I am going to my second job or needing the quiet of my home. Sometimes I think when one isn’t working, they forget what it feels like to work a 9 to 5 and having a few moments of spare time that they don’t want to spend it chatting on the phone unless it is important. Sorry, I can’t be strapped to my phone after work or during the few times I actually can sit down and breathe. Maybe I’ll call her Labor day? Or not.

Everyone have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

2011-08-23T15:04:00.000-05:00

Why?

I have a question for you, when you go to the DMV to renew your license do you make sure to have your hair combed and you are picture worthy or at least in your opinion you are picture perfect? Then why in the hell does your picture inevitably come out looking like this?

No seriously, my hair is sticking up. I have a nonchalant look on my face and ya'll I was smiling. Finally, it looks like I have gained 20 pounds and I haven't! Now I got to walk around for the next four years with this shyte!

Why can't we just send in our favorite photo?

This was taken a week ago. I was so cute here!

2011-08-22T11:26:00.000-05:00

Creative Cooking...Sesame Chicken

I haven’t been doing as much cooking lately, because it is just so damn hot which means I ain’t trying to heat the house through trying to cook. If I do cook it is late at night. This week I wanted to make my own Sesame chicken and since chicken breasts were on sale, this was the perfect time. I scoured the Internet searching for the perfect recipe, but I was finding recipes doing entirely too much. I wanted simple. Wasn’t that easy either, so I basically used a portion of the recipe as found on the Crepes of Wrath site and a mixture on what I was seeing on Allrecipes.

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon ~~grated fresh ginger~~ ground ginger

~~1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder~~ I couldn’t find this so I left this off

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 pound chicken breast

2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons ~~peanut oil~~ canola

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 chopped green onion

Added: 1 teaspoon of Sesame oil, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon oyster sauce, garlic powder, teaspoon of cornstarch. I also doubled the recipe to insure I had enough sauce.

My sauce. Like my little whisk...me and my gadgets.

I mixed my soy sauce, water, maple syrup, garlic powder, ground ginger, sesame oil, brown sugar, oyster sauce and set aside. Then I mixed my flour and cornstarch together with black pepper and heated up my pan with canola oil. I floured my chicken breast which were cut into cubes and fried them in the canola oil until brown.

Browned chicken

Once all of the chicken was cooked I return them to the pan, which had very little oil left and added my sauce coating the chicken pieces with the sauce. Once completed coated I sprinkled my sesame seeds and added my green onions. I served it over some brown rice that I added soy sauce and sautéed onions, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms and a pinch of sugar to.

Coated Chicken

Brown rice with veggies

Finished dish

Verdict: Remind me that Sesame oil is strong. I used a bit too much, it didn’t make it too bad though, thank goodness. It actually tasted like the take out you get often from local Chinese restaurants. I was pleased with its outcome. Now I want a wok just so I can brown chicken like they in the restaurants.

Yummy!

2011-08-19T19:45:00.000-05:00

If Youth Are Our Future, Things Are Going to Be Bad

I should have posted before now, but I just haven't felt like it lately, but I am sitting here on my second job fuming. When I say fuming that is an understatement. I really think these kids think adults don't already know the tricks, because they are constantly trying me.

I recently hired a new cashier, young girl never had a job, but the bubbliest personality. Loves the friendliness she displayed through her interview and orientation. So why Lawd, do I want to punch her in her throat?

On Sunday, the assistant manager on duty stated she got angry because she wasn't allowed to run the registers. Sunday is our busiest day and the customers coming from church don't necessarily act like they just left the House of Worship and I knew they would not have the patience of Job to deal with her still in training. So she was regulated to taking out orders and busing tables. Not fun, but everyone has to do it. She got mad and stumped away. Seriously? Really? And later told one of the cashiers she wasn't busing anymore tables and proceeded to go in the back and sit down and text on her phone. Really? Oh hell no!

So I knew I needed to have a come to Jesus discussion with her. And I did. I explained what was expected and what she needed to work on. I also told her to cut her nails because the constant tapping on our touch screens was unnecessary and hell that shyte gets on my nerves. She said she understood. Yeah, right.

Today when I get here, they tell me she is going to be late because of a medical emergency with a family member. No problem, but she was supposed to be her by 5:30 not 6. Then she hops on the register and proceeds to tap again. So you know I am ready to pull my hair out, but being the professional I don't say anything in front of the customers or her co-workers. But when I did I let her know that was not going to work. She was a bit shook after that because of course I am watching her.

Cell phones are forbidden in the building and if you must bring one it is to be turned off. All new hires are informed of the cell phone rules. I take them and play on them and even text and call folks on their phones. You will learn. Anyway, the other day the owner got on a cashier about her cell phone and she was scared to death. Why or why did the new girl get caught by me texting on her cell phone? The damn phone is so raggedly it is pitiful. I can' t deal with the cracks all over the face. I let her know in certain terms cell phones are not to be seen AT ALL! Yeah she is scared, but for how long?

These kids just don't get it and they are so spoiled and selfish it is just unbelievable. Normally, when you are the new kid on the block you try to fly right, but these kids just don't care. Well guess what? I do and I ain't having it. If the work ethic is shaky on their first job it is going to be hell if they work any other jobs in the future.

Next time I will be back with a real post and not a vent. No really.

2011-08-07T15:11:00.001-05:00

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Family Vacation Randoms...

Don’t let your family fool you into believing the road trip will be fun, exciting and of course we will not be in the car driving for 9 hours like the GPS says.

Don’t let your family fool you into a mini vacation because 2 days does not a vacation make.

Your GPS on your phone really works.

Encourage family members to not drink coffee before you hit the road or to take diuretics because it will insure you will have your first bathroom break an hour into the drive.

If lots of traffic is passing you on your left, you are going entirely too slow.

McDonald’s is not a good road trip meal. Next time, just fry the dayum chicken and have some light bread for sammiches. Yes, I said sammiches.

Some folks do not have a sense of direction. Really they don’t.

I know the comfort should be of the driver, but old music that makes your passengers want to hurl, is problematic.

Don’t forget your confirmation number.

You have to really love your family to go on a family vacation.

An itinerary means nothing to family.

There is a such thing as eating fat. I did it, my sister did it and I saw other family members doing the most---dayum eating.

Godfather’s pizza doesn’t taste the same.

Could people please wear cover ups over their bikinis because it is distracting to young black men?

My family will have some kinda card or gambling game going on every vacation. Every vacation.

Liquor + Family = Good times

Liquor + Family – Bottle Water = Moscato with breakfast

16 year olds are the devil spawned.

Hot Krispy Kreme Donuts are the business except they now cost almost $9 for a dozen.

Indecisiveness is the bane of my existence.

Hot and humid = no makeup at all on vacation.

My sister had folks dropping their mouths wide open. Seriously, she needs to really take care of her problem, it makes absolutely no sense. Hell, even her children were side-eyeing her.

Some folks do not know how to pack light. Seriously.

Watching a 60 year old enjoy things they have never experience is priceless.

Although I was apprehensive about the family vacation, due to its length and the distance, it was fun to be with family and enjoy each other’s company. When my cousin turned to me after the wine tasting and asked when we were going to do it again, it was really worth all the good, bad and ugly.

2011-08-05T17:00:00.002-05:00

Final day of Family Vacation

Sunday morning I got up at 6 am to catch the sunrise. As I looked out over the ocean, I saw a couple who had taken it upon themselves to actually sleep on towels on the beach. And believe me they were sleep, you should have seen them tossing and turning. And within a few minutes two of the lifeguard stations had folks sitting in them. They weren’t lifeguards. The sun began to rise around 6:40 am and I took pictures as it made its grand showing. Just so you know it was already getting hot and humid during that time. After such a beautiful beginning to my day, I took my azz back to bed. I am on vacation. Geez!

Around 10 am, I started getting calls about the day’s itinerary since we wanted to go to the outlets in the area. So they decided to hit the beach first then go shopping. Let me disclose a bit of information here, I do not do sun, water, sand or heat and this vacation was all about being with the family because I do not like the beach. When I was younger I loved the beach especially when we lived in Jacksonville, Florida. Now, my little OCD quirks and issues with cleanliness are such that you will not catch me in a pool because I think of them as unsanitary and in the same way that is how I feel about the ocean. Plus, if sand gets on me and I go to wipe it off and more gets on me, I am liable to have a mental breakdown. So family members took my youngest niece to the beach and she put on a show. First of all, she isn’t going to go too far into the water and when the water touched her ankles she was like that is enough. Then she decided to go stand at the edge of the water and holler, “Save me! Save me! Neptune is going to get me! Save me!” All the while waving her arms frantically, and of course my cousins get concern and rush over to her because she sounded so distressed only for her to say, “There goes a wave.” Yep, she had folks thinking she was about to drown in an inch of water, as she states she felt they were bored so she decided to entertain them. A mess! My 60 year old cousin went to the beach and promptly got knocked down by a wave, which I heard was a sight and then he went under trying to negotiate the lazy river, which was this pool where inner tubes circle this pool all slow. Oh he can’t swim, but he got back in the tube and had a ball.

We went to the Tangier’s outlet and got really disappointed with the fact shyte was not discounted in my opinion. I did go in this Kitchen store and I remember looking at the decorating tips and saw about 6 I could use and realized I was doing too much and had to get out of there because I do not do that much baking and I was thisclose to crazy to even consider buying them. I love kitchen gadgets, but I don’t use all of them. I purchased some cheap hardcover books and of course found me a pair of shoes in the Nine West outlet. Then we headed back to the hotel for you guessed it, a nap.

For dinner we went to a Japanese Hibachi steakhouse and had a ball. Folks had never been before so it was an adventure. Unfortunately, my cousin ate something that aggravated her allergies and had to go to the doctor upon returning home.

When we got back to the hotel, Johnitis promptly appeared. What is Johnitis? My uncle was notorious for going out of town and planning to stay a certain amount of time, but inevitably he would be ready to go a day before and when he was ready you betta be ready or you were going to be left behind. I have been afflicted with this condition for years so when we got back to the hotel, I immediately packed and was ready to go, just in case my ride said let’s go now!

2011-08-04T15:35:00.000-05:00

The Help...The Movie...

Since I do not want to give away too much about the movie let me tell you about the screening and a few tidbits about the movie. A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a Disney intern asking would my book club be interested in attending the screening of The Help in Montgomery. I received the email the day before book club meeting, which was great and of course members jumped at the opportunity and a couple vowed to read the book before the screening. Not me. I knew about the book, the controversy and the effect it had on readers and reviewers. Plus, I just didn’t want to rush to read a book just because it was coming to the big screen. We all know they have to take some dramatic licensing for the movie to play well to an audience.

Now getting the passes to the screening I felt like I was jumping through hoops. The intern promised to FedEx them that Wednesday, which meant they would get to me on Thursday and no later than Friday. And since they were coming from Atlanta I figured no big deal. Want to guess when I finally got the passes? Wednesday before the Thursday screening. I had to contact the intern about the passes a couple of times and found out she supposedly sent them by mail, I still haven’t received the mailed ones. All I am saying is someone wasn’t being upfront about sending the passes. And if the book club members weren’t so hyped about the outing I would not have followed up as I did. I mean the family vacation would commence the very morning after the screening. Thank goodness they came in time and I emailed my members and told them, you can’t be late, no video cameras and seating was first come, first seated. For once, the members heeded my notice.

I was there well in advance and from what we could tell, the film folks had done their research on women’s groups and book clubs in Montgomery in order to fill the screening. And it was full. The “security” for Disney, Sony and some other film companies was this big, tall African-American guy with the personality of Will Smith, totally witty and fun to converse with.

The film started a few minutes after 7 pm with no previews. Straight screening. LOL! It takes place in 1961 Mississippi during the early happenings of the civil rights movement. A young white college graduate comes home to Mississippi and wants to be a novelist or journalist and after a particular incident decides she wants to write the stories of what is like to be a maid for white women. The movie is funny, insightful and there are moments when you must have tissue ready. I barely recognized Sissy Spacek, “I’m gone have a baby.” I am sorry that is like my favorite line and I say it all country too! You will see Cicely Tyson and will be awed by her appearance. However, the main characters Aibileen and Minnie played by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer respectively give this movie heart and character. FYI – the guy I date (yeah I am still dating) went to high school with Ms. Spencer. I wish I could tell you my favorite line from the movie, but I would be giving too much away. On August 10, find your way to a movie theater and check out this movie, I am sure you will enjoy it!

BTW – One of my book club members told me I embarrassed them with all my damn crying. Whateva!

2011-08-03T15:50:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of our Mini Family Vacation in Myrtle Beach

The second day of our mini family vacation had me up at 6 am, for an early morning workout since I was still feeling fat after the dinner the night before. Of course, calling my cousin who wanted to join me was a waste because she slept through her phone ringing. The exercise room was seriously, in need of a cleaning and please I do not even want to talk about the nastiness of the machines. I had begun my workout when I noticed just how nasty the treadmill was. Seriously, why wouldn’t you wipe your dayum sweat off the machine when you finished? Really? Folks are just nasty!

After my workout, I promptly settled down to watch Law and Order, and then I took a nap because my sister and I were hoping to the Jeep tour of the area and then make it to the Aquarium. Well, my sister decided to get some free stuff by sitting in on a 90 minute timeshare spiel. She was livid because the person giving the tour and talking about the place, which by the way isn’t built yet, was new and just kept rambling on and on. When she finally returned to the room, it was just too late to go on the tour. So we headed to Broadway on the Beach for lunch. When going with family, reason #1051, always have someone who can make a definitive decision about such things as where to eat and what to do if you want to do things as a family. We finally settled on Johnny Rockets. Okay, I ate a grilled chicken sandwich that I had to take the bread off because it was just too much.

Some really weird eel like fish.

My sister and her kids and I went to Ripley’s Aquarium. I have been to several aquariums and by far the best was New Orleans, with Baltimore coming in a close second. This aquarium was just okay. Nothing grand about it. It had an impressive amount of sharks, but it just wasn’t big enough in my opinion. My sister at least got free tickets for this from the timeshare tour.

Shark!

Then we decided to get some snacks. We went to Piggly Wiggly. Now I asked my cousin did the store stink earlier that morning and she kept asking me why I wanted to know. Well, I have yet to go to one that didn’t stink. And this one did stink; we were in and out of there. Then we went to Godfather’s Pizza. Ya’ll I haven’t had Godfather’s pizza in 20 odd years I was giddy with excitement because I love Godfather’s pizza. From Godfather’s pizza we went to get more snacks from Dollar General (there was one on like every dayum corner), then it was back to the room to rest.

Godfather's Pizza - Jumbo Combo!

Saturday was also the day we were to visit Carolina Vineyards for a wine tasting. So about 7 pm we were off to the winery, which is a storefront in the really ritzy Barefoot Landing area. Before you could walk into the store your nose was assaulted by the actual fermentation of wine done on the premises. I was in heaven, the aroma was intoxicating. We had a ball learning about the wine and tasting more than the allowed samples, because the guy liked us. Even when my cousin AJ asked, “My cousin, Shana, down on the end, wants to know if you have any Boone Farm.” Really? I have never drunk that in my life. Silly. I also realized that I prefer dry red wines, sweet wines turn my palate off. We left there a bit tipsy to head to Thorny’s Steakhouse. After already eating a slice of Godfather’s pizza I really wasn’t hungry so I ordered a salad with steak, but um, the salad wasn’t that good, but those dayum yeast rolls filled me up. LOL!

Not so good Steak Salad

Carolina Vinyards

2011-07-30T00:47:00.000-05:00

MAPQUEST AND GOOGLE MAPS WERE RIGHT! REASON NUMBER 2,033 TO NOT GO ON A FAMILY VACATION!

Yep, you guessed it is Family Vacation time! And my book club members ask why am I so adamant about not wanting to participate and I usually can say, “Let me count the ways!” Ugh!

This was a busy week for me even though I only worked 3 days, but I worked all three days. Then I would come home and retightened my hair. Go me and yes I am tired! Guess when I packed? Thursday. Wasn’t in a big hurry, because the more I thought about the actual drive from Montgomery to Myrtle Beach I felt an ominous feeling deep within me. I knew I would end up in a vehicle for too damn long and I was.

The plan was to leave at 5:00 am. Yep, I was squeezed in the vehicle with three us one seat, but you will be surprised how much grown folks will curl up when they sleep. Plus, I just couldn’t do Smoky, no matter how much I loved him. Oh, let me also preface this trip with I was up Thursday at 5 am to workout and ran errands and packed until I went to a screening with the book club for the movie The Help. I’ll blog about that experience next week. But when it comes out, make sure you go out and see it. After the movie, which started at 7 pm and ended about 9:30 pm, we went to dinner and I didn’t get home until a quarter to midnight and I had a few things to do before I went to sleep. However, I only slept 30 minutes and just got up. So folks I had no damn sleep so I just knew I would sleep the entire trip. But I didn’t. I guess I only require two hours of sleep. Sighing…We left about 5:20 am and the family trip had begun.

However and hour and 15 minutes later, we were making our first stop. And when we got to Atlanta we made another stop. This is when I noticed it took us an hour and 15 minutes to get to the GA state line, damn it I do it in an hour. And getting to the 285 bypass should have taken no more than 2 hours, but it had taken 2.5 hours. Somebody was driving to0 damn slow for the distance we had to travel. And when we had our second stop we were told we only had 70 miles from Augusta, um someone miscalculated because they left out a whole 279 miles. I was nice and ripe with annoyance and people I was just so damn tired and achy I was ready to get out of the vehicle for good. Really! And the music was not the get you hyped stuff, it was old stuff that I don’t ever remember hearing and it was too slow for driving music, but I tried to keep it together because the driver needed to be comfortable, but damn I fidgeted so much I gave myself a back ache.

When we finally stopped for something to eat, it was at McDonald’s. I do not eat at McDonald’s. I only eat at select fast food establishments because I do not waste calories. And of course we couldn’t just eat and drive, we must eat in. My cousins and I were over the whole thing we just wanted to get to Myrtle Beach. And let’s not forget we were lost which costs us about an hour. I sent an email to my book club members after being in the vehicle over 9 hours letting them know I was still in the car and I was ready to just die.

Then I go to check in for me and my sister, who is only 15 minutes away, they can’t find our reservation and I know damn well they charged my damn credit card. Oh yes, being tired means the angry, frustrated black woman comes out. And after 20 minutes of them looking they find the reservation. Want to know why they couldn’t find the reservation? Because my sister has a hyphenated name. All her fault. Oh and by this time we discover my sister is so damn lost and her GPS is giving her erroneous directions she is ready to just abandon the car especially as she is stuck in traffic. Yeah, she was ill by the time she got here because; she was lost for 2 hours. She knows Myrtle Beach like a native.

We played a good trick on my niece too funny. I wish I had pictures of her stank face.

All wasn’t lost though because we are all here together. Plus, we went to Benjamin Calabash’s seafood buffet and baby we got full! When I say they had so much stuff on their buffet I was dizzy. I literally wanted to turn around in circles in an effort to grasp the enormous amount of items on their buffet. Their crab legs were to die for as well as they clams and mussel bake, shrimp, oysters, oysters Rockefeller and oh their hushpuppies tasted like a sweet, succulent ball of cake. Yummy! It was worth the expensive ticket. Yet, I am walking around feeling fat! And greedy!

So although the day started with it doing the most, it really ended on a high note because dinner was great especially since it was with family.

2011-07-11T14:36:00.000-05:00

Reason 1, 029 Why I don't like going on Family Vacations!

There are so many reasons not to go on a family vacation, but I try to keep the loving feeling in the forefront and hop on board to what I hope will be great time with the family. Now, I love my family I really do, but um, sometimes I don’t like being around them for long periods of time and some of my folks I prefer to not be around them at all if possible. My mouth is all I am going to say.

As I have mentioned before, the family is going to Myrtle Beach for this year’s family vacay. I have been trying to work on the itinerary and such, but something or someone always derails me in completing it. Hell, someone pisses me off and I am like forget about it!

On to this particular reason, we are driving to Myrtle Beach. We are driving from Alabama, Georgia or Virginia. Last week I decided to MapQuest and Google map this trek. When I did, I started to hyperventilate. No, I couldn’t breathe properly for a minute or two. Imagine being forced to see on two different map services the time is calculated to be almost 9 hours! Okay, 8 hours and 55 minutes, but that equates to 9 hours. I immediately emailed my sister and she says, “How did you all miscalculate that?” No help from her. So I start examining the maps and I still cannot see this trip taking more than 6.5 hours. I have driven through SC and it only takes 1.5 hours. I don’t get it. But I also know that it is suppose to take a little over two hours to get to Atlanta from here and I can do it in an hour and 55 minutes. Don’t ask. So this has me all discombobulated because I hate road trips with a passion so fully imbedded in my soul, and yes I am being the most dramatic here. I cannot be in a car longer than 5 hours, because after that I become someone else. It isn’t pretty. Now I have to take valium and sleep the entire way.

So not only am I going to be in a vehicle with family I am going to be in there with them for almost 9 hours. Now to the next point, we discussed the travelling arrangements early on. I was going to ride with my cousin and her husband and their son. Then the son decides to bring a girlfriend. Then the son who was flying directly into to Myrtle Beach is now driving to Montgomery and riding. Count the number of passengers for a midsize SUV. Yeah. So now I am thinking reason 1,029 why I don’t like planning vacations with family.

My other cousin is so excited about going and he has already booked his car rental and made plans for me to ride with him, pick up my luggage the day before departure and me driving with him and his wife to Myrtle Beach. He called and told me this last week and I didn’t respond one way or the other because he undoubtedly didn’t get the memo. I love my cousin, I sho do, but I don’t like riding in a vehicle with him and me and his wife are not best friends and his ass smokes. Sisterlock folks, know we don’t play that because the smoke will get trapped in our hair. Homey don’t play that, for real. Furthermore, I will not be handing over my luggage the day before we leave, I am funny about folks going through my luggage and touching my underwear, seriously. I got issues and I don’t trust folks with my stuff and frankly I will not do my final inventory until I go to bed that night, so no way am I going to be separated from my luggage. Seriously, I am allergic to smoke I will not have my luggage or myself smelling like smoke so I can’t breathe the entire trip. What kind of vacay would that be if I can't breathe?

So now that my travel plans are all upended, I remember why on the last family trip I flew to Orlando. I can’t. My family is too wishy, washy and frankly I don’t like to be aggravated before vacation. If I even go to Myrtle Beach, this will be the last family vacation. I will only be vacationing with my sister from here on out, because we make a decision stick to it and do it. My family on the other end be doing the most. The most to get on my nerves. I told my sister I may not be going on this trip because if I have to ride with smoky the bear cousin, I am done and I will mail my half of the room to her. Her response “Let a sista know something because I am not going to be up there with them either, that defeats the purpose.” Like they ain't her family too!

2011-07-05T16:23:00.000-05:00

Happy Belated 4th of July!

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July and enjoyed the holiday. I don’t know about where you live, but the weather was nice and hot and with the right number of afternoon showers so the ground wouldn’t be to dry for fireworks.

I enjoyed the weekend doing absolutely nothing and whatever I wanted to do. I didn’t do any creative cooking unless you count the grilled turkey dogs, turkey hamburgers and corn. Yep, low key all the way. So let me give you the rundown.

Friday I spent time working and later working on the family vacation itinerary. My cousin called me to see what was on the agenda since I am now the official “Activity Coordinator”. In my head, I am thinking all I want to do is shop, get my facial and massage and drink wine I ‘ont care what everyone else is doing. Alas, I am still working on the itinerary and hopefully, I’ll be finished this week.

Went to the second job and tried to not get too frustrated, but by the end of the night I was ready to cuss and was fuming, because the kids were making stupid mistakes affecting the customers and then we didn’t have a favorite item and folks were downright ornery about it, even though it was a supplier issue. I was so happy when I was on my way home.

Saturday was up at 5 am to work out and send the guy a have fun text because he and his kids were going on vacation to Virginia Beach and DC. I ran a few errands in preparation for my vacation and made it home by 11 am. I did some things around the house and then I napped before work again. Luckily, Saturday night wasn’t a repeat of Friday night. Easy breezy! Just like I like it.

Sunday was up at 7 to catch Joel Osteen and then outside to grill my few little items. Was done by 10 and I immediately took a bath and since I already planned to wash my hair I got on that. Speaking of hair, I am completely out of SL shampoo and desperately need some reconstructor. I have been waiting patiently on the website to really be up and running, but it is still in the designing stage but you can order products. Let me tell you, it took me 3 days to order the reconstructor. I got issues and I know it but seriously SL products are already expensive, but that doesn’t compare to the shipping and handling charge. They need to do better. My reconstructor costs $10.95, but the shipping was $11.50 and no that isn’t a typo. Seriously, they need to do better and although I needed shampoo, I went to the LIU group and saw where using the Clarifying shampoo was okay with the SL office and frankly spending $10 or more for shampoo is doing the most. If I didn’t need the reconstructor, I probably wouldn’t have purchased it. I love the Green Tea shampoo, but I don’t love the price. Anyway, I washed and used the last of my moisture treatment, don’t ask me when I am going to purchase more, and let my hair air dry. I think my hair was officially dry by midnight. Ugh! Longer hair doesn’t mean easier. Since we were damn near dead on Sunday night at work, I decided to start retightening my hair in the back. Did that for an hour and a half and went home and work two more hours and the back was finished, which is a record for me it takes me 5 hours to do the back of my hair, but I had been doing some spot retightening all week so there weren’t a lot of rotations to do.

Monday got up and started on the front of my hair at 9:30 and took a breakfast break at 10 and finished my hair at about 1:30 pm. All the while watching a Law and Order Marathon. I was so happy! Then I proceeded to roll my hair on flexi rods, no pictures this morning because I was in a hurry and the curls don’t look like they will last longer than today. And Monday consisted of getting ready for the week and resting. And I enjoyed it immensely.

Even though the little heathens of the neighborhood were shooting illegal fireworks, the 4th of July went by with just enough sizzle for me to be happy. So I hope you enjoy your week. I plan to.

2011-06-27T15:33:00.000-05:00

My Motivation Randoms...No Really How Tall is Kevin Hart?

FYI – I didn’t watch the BET aka EBT awards except the last 30 minutes and the after show until Law & Order: Criminal Intent came on.

Can we have a moment of silence for L&O Criminal Intent?...Thank you because last night they aired its Series finale. The final curtain went down. I was devastated. I am a true Law and Order fan and my heart was broken even though I knew this was its last season. Thanks for giving me closure unlike the original Law & Order, which didn’t get a chance to say bye to fans. Lawd, I think I am still in mourning.

I woke up this morning rested and feeling like a million bucks. Happy, happy. Yeah. I hope this feeling of euphoria lasts all week.

My weekend was low key and quite uneventful. I took naps on Saturday and Sunday, which wasn’t the best idea because I ended rushing to my second job both days.

We have a guy who solicits our customers for money on our drive thru. I cannot tell you the number of times we have ran him off and threatened to call the police. Scared one of our customers so bad she drove off without her order after paying for it. He had her shook. Um, he doesn’t scare me but no one wants to be harassed.

Here are some funnies about the awards:

My sister texted me throughout the show until I got home different aspects of the show. So you know that was funny.

My sister: Mary J opened, looks like she gaining that weight back. Anita Baker. That is all she said about Anita Baker. I saw the pictures I understand. Bless her heart.

My sister: Chris Brown won male artist. I loves him.

My sister: He Fat! Rick Ross. I laughed at that one I was like I hope he keeps his shirt closed. Too late. Geez.

My sister: Idris!!! OMG I love that man and his swag! I do too.

My sister: I got to go get Jill Scott’s album.

My sister: The Five Heartbeats!! I love Leon!

My sister: Who is Dirty Money? Ya’ll me and her went back and forth on who the hell they were during the holidays and I just refused to waste characters trying to explain the group’s concept. Geez!

My sister: Whoever is the beep guy is horrible! He missin all the cuss words, and bleepin out whole verses!

Then she does this doozie. My sister: OMG! Atlantic Star! My response was nobody but us older folks know them. Then she goes: My bad, Alexander O’Neal and Cherelle.

How the hell she confuse those two with Atlantic Starr? Really? Then she said he smiled and looked like yuck mouth. LOL!

My sister: Trey off key again. I like this Kelly Roland song, nice performance.

I saw the performance this morning and she kilt it! Yeah, I said kilt!

My sister: OMG. Ceelo doing the Patti tribute…can’t decide if this is a joke or not. LOL!

Then I get home when Drake, Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled and Rick Ross were on. My first response: WTF with the dayum bleeping?

Beyonce’s performance was just blah. And I told my sister folks gonna be wearing panties and a shirt and belt out in the clubs because of her now. Dayum! Ya’ll know I am telling the truth and it ain’t gonna be cute.

I also got to see BET’s try to correct the biggest mess up of the night with Chris Brown. A mess.

I don’t think I missed too much. I saw the House Huband clips and found them funny. I was a bit confused though. How tall is Kevin Hart? No really?

2011-06-24T12:41:00.000-05:00

"4"

First of all, I am not a Stan for Beyoncé; I will be the first to tell you she needs to sit down and let somebody else have the spotlight for a minute. However, I give her credit for her work ethic and knowing that in show business there is no time for rest because you have to strike when you are hot. It only takes a second for you to become a footnote in celebrity history. Then we have to watch you being tortured on Celebrity Rehab, Fit Club and other such nonsense.

As a celebrity blogger lover, I have seen the conjecture on the possibilities of Beyoncé’s new album not garnering the success of her previous ones. Bloggers have gone so far to say that her record company is so worried they are trying to hurry and push another Destiny Child album, because they are that scared. I have heard her new management group isn’t handling the project properly, so of course that puts Jay-Z in for some blame should the album really and truly flop. I have even seen “4lop” on the blogs. Wow. It doesn’t take long for stuff to start to sour in the record business.

On June 23, 2011, her record company gave folks a free listen to the entire album on MSN and being me, I took the opportunity to take a listen. I am cheap folks I don’t buy CDs until the holidays and only after I have had a chance to hear a few tracks. I know, my Ipod nano (nope haven’t upgraded.) could easily garner more albums, but again folks I am cheap. I will not download illegally (legal background) so if I spend money it better be worth it.

Back in the day, when CDs were much higher I would purchase and listen to the entire album in my car going and coming for weeks. I would know which songs I loved the most, but I knew every song on an artist’s album, nowadays we can just download what we want and I really wished it was like before because then you really got your money’s worth and if it was a quality album it could stay on the charts for a long time. Now, folks like one or two songs and then the artist is in the studio in less than a year trying to put together another album before they become sour.

Now back to the reason for this post. I enjoyed listening to Beyoncé’s new album. I know the first two songs aren’t resonating as hard for folks like her songs from her previous albums did, which had folks tripping from the very first song released was played. At least for some people, because the last two albums didn’t play like that to me because to me they were too similar in sound, at least the singles did initially. Really. In my opinion. I didn’t even get the last album, so shoot me. Now for 4, I am going to purchase it because to me it doesn’t sound like the previous albums. The sound seems more mature and each song is different. Of course, my favorites are Starting Over, I Care and Rather Die but my absolute favorites are Love on Top and Countdown. I would buy the album for just those two songs right there. End of Time and Run the World sound almost alike, not bad but too close in sound. I work out to Run the World, but I don’t think it made the same impact as Single Ladies did, and for the record I didn’t love that song. What? I told you I wasn’t a Stan for her.

4 may or may not be the commercial success of Beyoncé’s previous albums, but the sound is more mature, it isn’t like her previous albums and frankly change is needed in the music industry because it has been failing for a long time. Whether this album will help pull the industry up, fails to be seen but at least I will have an album with quality songs to listen to.

2011-06-20T19:33:00.001-05:00

Creative Cooking…

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I wasn’t really bored, but I really was craving some peppermint chocolate chip ice cream. I mean I really just wanted to taste some but you know how hard it is to find exactly what you are looking for, so I decided to make my own.

I own a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and I keep the freezer bowl in the freeze. Always. And I haven’t made ice cream in about two years. So after book club and before I went to bed I made some. And it was delicious. Nope didn’t eat the whole container. Had my taste and got rid of the rest. My taste buds were satiated.

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

2 cups of fat-free Milk (You can use whole, 2% or whatever.)
1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
1 tsp of Vanilla extract
1 tsp of Peppermint extract
½ cup of Sugar
½ cup of Mini Chocolate Chips

In a mixing bowl combine your milk, cream and sugar and whisk until the sugar is dissolved, then add your vanilla and peppermint extract.

Following the directions of your ice cream maker and in my case I poured the ingredients into my freezer bowl and turned my machine on. Once the ice cream has thicken you can add your chocolate chips and churn for a few minutes more. Then you can place in a good freezer container and put in the freezer for harder ice cream. I prefer my ice cream hard. Although it tasted good after it was first made, it was better in my opinion after it had harden.

Verdict: Definitely would make again. Great flavor. Even though I used fat-free milk, the heavy cream helped to insure the consistency and flavor weren’t extracted from the recipe. Yummy! You can use this recipe as a base if you take out the Peppermint extract and chips and add whatever other flavors you may like. It’s summer and everyone deserves to eat just a little ice cream.

Yep, it is good and yes this is a tiny bowl!

2011-06-16T14:41:00.000-05:00

"The only lasting truth is change." Octavia Butler

Um, you may have noticed I have updated the title of the blog. I felt like it was time because I really don’t talk about my hair often enough to keep it as the main focus. As stated, I will mention my Sisterlocks, because I know newbies are always looking for reference materials about them. Plus, I want folks to know that it truly has been a journey and right now in my life I am over my hair. I take care of it and maintain it, but there isn’t much else to say about it. My hair does its thing and I am content with it right now and who knows what will happen in the future.

My blog is really focusing on other aspects of my life. Like my Randoms where I ramble about things I see and note as well as things I find interesting in my own life. Like my endless boredom recipes and other hobbies, such as reading. Although I do write a lot, I don’t put much of that writing on here because of its personal nature and this blog not being anonymous and all. I will say that my other blog has a small following now which trips me out, but as long as I don’t know them I can keep being open over there. So I hope you will continue to stay tune…

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Why did Chris Bosh cry like a baby after losing to the Mavericks?

I am preparing for the end to all things Law & Order. SVU is on its last leg and CI is doing its final episodes and I am having a hard time watching without tearing up. Geez, Law & Order has been in my life longer than any man has been. A love affair ending… Makes me sad.

Folks are talking about taking off on my second job to watch the BET Awards. Why?

Someone needs to do an intervention for Soulja Boy, I tried to watch the video of Conceited and frankly I just gave up.

When will television returned to well written scripted shows? I am over all the reality shows i.e. Basketball ~~Whores~~ Wives, 16 & ~~Dumb~~ Pregnant, Mob Wives, Kate and her kids, 19 and counting ~~more and more kids~~, and on and on. I do like the Little Couple, Extreme Couponing and Toddler’s and Tiara’s. What?

However, I was so hyped to see my beloved Memphis Beat and HawthoRNe on Tuesday night. Loves them both. Closer and Roselli and Isles are on in July…Now that is television.

Speaking of television why is the cable company going up on their prices for services? Really?

I realized my family trip is cheating me out of a true vacation. 4 days is not nearly enough, but you can bet I am going to get a week’s vacation.

Speaking of family trip can someone tell my sister to stop asking me for an itinerary and packing list? I cannot plan an itinerary when we don’t have but three days and two of them half days for activities. Really all she wants to know is where we are eating. Anyone know of a restaurant we must try in Myrtle Beach?

Hunny Bunny says she needs a swimsuit. She is one little one who doesn’t care what you think about her is a swimsuit. I just want to know how she will get to the water without touching the sand. Just asking…

We had a customer on my second job come in and threaten to blow a cashier’s brains out over a free cup of water. Even I don’t say anything to him because I know he is touched and I am known for letting the less than desirables know they are not welcome in our store. Aunt Marie didn’t raise no fool!

Speaking of customers there are a few when I see them getting out of their cars I walk away from the counter or go to the back. Why you may ask? Because they do the most. Adding extra stuff, complicated orders, ordering their own concoction of stuff, trying to get shyte for free, been to the store a hundred million times and still take ~~hours~~ minutes to place an order.

Speaking of customers, I know you love little baby Billy. In fact, he is the cutest 6 month old one ever did see, in your eyes, but when you put your sweet adorable baby on the counter it is rude. Why you may ask? One’s bottom, azz, derriere should not be on the counter where others may be in contact or worse food will be passed across. I know you don’t think anything is wrong with it, but think of it like this: You as an adult sit your azz on the counter and see how many folks want their bags of food or food tray to be passed across that same counter.

Oh and to the lovely customer who changed her baby diaper in the booth and left the diaper for my workers to clean up, please never return. Please and thank you! This really did happen.

Will it ever rain again?

:::get closer to your screen::: I enjoyed watching Lil Wayne’s Unplugged. That is all.

I really want to be an extreme couponer. Seriously. Really.

I will be in Jamaica in 2012. Write it. Speak it. It shall happen.

I think I should tweet the family vacation under an anonymous name. Maybe not. I don’t tweet.

Sure Thang by Miguel is a catchy tune, but the artist is different.

My good friend loved Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones, but didn’t like the ending. I told her it was as it should be. I guess if you have a relationship with your father affects your response to the ending? Maybe not. Um, I just talked to my sister and she is mad after finishing it at 3 am this morning. Uh, oh! Ya’ll better run out and get this book if you haven’t.

Ya’ll feel sorry for Hefner? I betcha Holly at home just a laughing.

I didn’t see Oprah’s final show. Maybe someone will let me see it on their DVR. If not, oh well.

I am having a busy weekend ahead. So everyone have a great rest of the week and make the most of your weekend!

Let this beautiful bloom inspire you to stop and smell the roses too!

2011-06-08T14:43:00.009-05:00

Creative Cooking...Yet Again!

Over the weekend, during some of my down time, seriously I was just bored and needed some blog fodder that was appropriate for this blog; I decided to make Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

I couldn’t have been too bored because I didn’t fix these until 10 pm Saturday night. Sue me, I took a long nap Saturday and was wide awake prior to finally crashing after 1 am. Plus, I had to work that evening. Anyway, I didn’t have to purchase much from the store because I had everything but Orange extract, walnuts, pineapples, white chocolate and heavy cream. For the exact ingredients, Google White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Carrot Cake Cupcakes and find the one from Allrecipes.

I consider myself an organized cook so I chopped up my carrots and set them aside. Then mixed up the flour mixture (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger) and using my mixer I mixed the sugars, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Then I added the carrots and pineapples. Then I slowly added the flour mixture until evenly moist and finally folded in my walnuts. Then I put them in my lined muffin pan. And for my stove it took 30 minutes for the cupcakes to cook. So while they were cooking, I made my frosting.

Cupcake batter mixed together. See the carrots and walnuts?

Over a double boiler, I melted 2 oz of white chocolate and let it cool. Then I mixed my butter, 1/3rd less fat cream cheese, vanilla extract, orange extract and white chocolate. I slowly added about 3 cups of confectioners’ sugar. Ya’ll know I can’t follow a recipe to the letter, 4 cups of powdered sugar was doing to damn much and it would have been overly sweet. I think I used approximately 2 ¾ cups of sugar and that was plenty.

White chocolate, melted.

Cream cheese, butter, white chocolate and confectioner's sugar. Frosting.

Once the cupcakes were toothpick tested done, I placed them on a cooling rack. Once I thought there were cooled accordingly I piped my frosting on each cupcake. I wanted to put some shaved chocolate on the cupcakes, but hell I was tired by this time and just wanted to taste these bad boys.

Cooling Carrot Cake cupcake. Looks yummy!

Verdict: Best damn cupcakes I have ever made and that is saying a lot. Okay not much since I have only made two types previously. The carrot cake was moist and I have not tasted a carrot cake that moist in a very long time. The flavor was awesome. The icing was delicious, absolutely amazing. My kids on my second job asked if I had put meth or some other drug in them because they were so good. They started asking me do I bake. Um, I didn’t want them to get any ideas, hell no was my response. I didn’t bring any back home. My bestie brought her son over Sunday and they tried them and she was begging me to make her some if she buys the ingredients. I’d just make them because seriously, I don’t bake for anything but making folks smile. And these cupcakes made several people smile. This is a very simple recipe, although there is a bit of prep, it is definitely worth it. The guy doesn’t eat sweets, but next time he is going to have to taste them. So run out and get your ingredients and make them by sticking to the recipe and you should be successful.

Finished product! My sister says my icing is getting better.

My piping is getting better too!

Look at this delicious moistness.

Perfection!

Just a little closer look!

2011-06-03T14:31:00.000-05:00

First Friday Randoms...

A small bouquet of my flowers cut on 6/2/11

I only woke up tired this morning, so why does it feel like I woke up on the wrong side of the bed?

I am starting to despise going to my coffee shop on Friday mornings. There is a barbershop open now and he opens early on Friday so all the parking is gone with all these overly accessorized cars ie oversized rims, chrome fixtures and such and today a customer from the coffee shop had to park in front of the building making it hard to park in the one parking space left. Ugh!

I get to work and low and behold the elevators are not working according to the security guard. I was like I am supposed to walk up 4 flights of stairs with both my hands full? I looked at her incredulously and I was thisclose to taking my azz back home with the quickness. I had to take the freight elevator to the 2nd floor then walk to the other freight elevator on the same floor, which is like walking through a maze, since our building use to be a hospital. Then one of the attorneys came in and said he rode the supposedly broken elevator and said, “Sometimes you have to take chances in life.” Like he had said something really profound and I was like if I had done that the elevator would have plummeted.

On Tuesday night I get home and first thing I notice was my trash can was not out front like it should be. Of course, me being anal, I obsessed about it until I went to bed. Got up Wednesday I check around the house for the missing garbage can to no avail, so I called the sanitation department for assistance. First they didn’t know if they had taken the can or not, but if they did it was because it was damaged. It wasn’t severely damaged when I put it out front Monday night. So they promised me a can by that evening or first thing Thursday. It’s Friday and I still do not have a garbage can. So I called them this morning after the elevator mess and parking war games and they were like they were behind because of the four day week blah, blah, blah. I said succinctly, “I have garbage in my house that needs to get out of my house today.” He says to me, “You didn’t put the bags out yesterday?” I breathed in an out for 10 seconds and responded, “You know you all will not pick up a bag on the curb for anyone, plus I wasn’t going to be cleaning up garbage strewn all over the lawn by the stray dogs.” He goes on to say they will ‘sometimes’ make an exception. Dayum lie! He tells me he will have a garbage can at my house in 30 minutes. You know I am going home early to see right?

Here is my sister’s response to my antics this morning, “All this for a d*mn garbage can?? You need to go home, get back in bed and try again next week! Lol”

Do you know how hard it is to conserve garbage? Seriously.

100, 101 and 103 are the projected temperatures for Sat, Sun and Mon. When will fall be here? I may not make it through the summer.

I need new shoes. Today. Why? I will feel better with a new pair of shiny shoes.

I am still in my feelings as it relates to Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. I really should move on.

Some people like to see me go from 0 to 100 in anger. It is not pretty.

My male kids on my second job either act like they are going to hug me or they actually tell me they love me. You may think it is cute, but um, if you didn’t know any better you would think I was in a relationship with them. I do not rob cradles. No I do not hug any of them, in fact, the look of mortification appears and they usually fall back. And with the love you thing, I am ugh!

Monday is a holiday but with the 103 temp, I’ll be in the house all day.

My sunflowers are on their last days. I am glad because watering them is a pain in this heat. RIP – mint. My mint literally died because of the heat. My rosemary never grew. Oh well.

My grocery bill last week was $72 but with coupons, rewards and discounts it was $20.00 less. Yes! Winning!

My workout mojo has been lacking all week. Maybe next week will be better. Time to incorporate weights more now because I think my muscles are tired.

I really need to go to Wally World this weekend, but I just can’t deal with the people.

I had an author tell me her book was returned unclaimed she sent my book club. I told her if you send anything certified I will never get it because the post office isn’t convenient. It is open when I am at work and on Saturday, if I am not in that area for errands it ain’t happening. Pssst…I only go to the P. O. Box once a month. What?

I have no plans for the weekend except the normal errands, work and rest. It is going to be too hot for any exertion of any kind.

Um, I went home on my lunch break and discovered this:

So now my sister can rest. Okay, okay now I can rest.

I think my youngest niece is going to retire me. She is in a play this weekend and she knows everyone’s lines including her own and since she is so dramatical like her aunt and her mama it is only right that she become an actress/rocker. Oh, she started a rock band in her aftercare and she is in need of a real guitar now.

Lil Carson is still hanging in there, but it has been a struggle but we all know prayers works.

The heat outside actually makes me want to get in a pool, but those who know me know that will not happen. I got germ issues…and other mental issues but I don’t think we need to go into those little problems right now.

If I feel inclined ~~bored~~, I will make some carrot cake cupcakes with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

I retightened my hair this week, but now I am looking for more up do styles. Seriously, this hair is hot. And I mean steamy as in my head sweats.

No family antics to report right now for the family trip, yet.

Can someone go to work for me this weekend? I am tired. Plus, it is hot.

Have a great weekend! And yes I am off on Monday, and no I don’t quite know what the holiday is and as easy as it is for me to figure out, I want. Everyone needs a day of just plain relaxation.

This morning at 7 am

This is at noon today. The red minature hybrid smells heavenly.

2011-06-02T10:38:00.001-05:00

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones (Possible Spoilers)

Love this story and our book club discussion is going to be very interesting!

One of the things I like about Tayari Jones’ writing is the voices she gives her characters and how authentic they seem. In all three of her novels, I can picture her reading in those voices and making the story truly come alive. FYI – I met Tayari when she was promoting Leaving Atlanta and she was at local independent bookstore here in Montgomery. To this day, the one thing I remember is the animated voice she gave to her characters from that novel; she is one author who does a great reading.

This story is broken into two parts Dana and Chaurisse. The opening line was poignant because it propelled you towards a story we may have already seen play out or know someone who has been in similar circumstances. I don’t want to give away too much of the story but know it deals with bigamy, infidelity, self-worth, legitimacy and other deeply rooted issues. Dana’s character gave me a real insight into how a child, who must be kept a secret, deals with the choices her parents made and its effect on her emotionally. I felt for Dana’s character on several levels, but mostly the feeling of wanting the security in knowing her father loved her unconditionally. Chaurisse’s character was also strong because she had to face some unpleasant truths about the life as she knows it, I loved that she was angry and defiant and I could empathize with what she was dealing with.

When I finished this story, I was in tears and very angry with James. Somewhere between the last pages and remembering my own life the dislike of my own father trickled within me and I understood so clearly how much Dana hurt, because I do not understand the inability of a man to not acknowledge his child. How does a real man sleep at night or teach his son’s to be a man if he has never “manned up”?

The characters grew up during the same timeframe as I did so of course I could identify with the music, television and clothing of the time. Jones had me relieving my school years with the authenticity. The story moved in an exacting pace and built up to its climax, which I wasn’t quite sure how it would go, but I knew a revelation would come and Jones did it right. Silver Sparrow is well-written, with lyrical moments and poignant truths and no unrealistic fairytale ending.

Rating: 4.5

2011-05-31T10:56:00.000-05:00

Some hair and flower pictures...

2011-05-29T15:36:00.004-05:00

GARDENING PART DEUX...

Container Gardening 2011

My gardening this year has been quite the success, especially since I decided against planting tomatoes. The drama that ensues after last year’s disaster was the only reminder of how much I hate bugs and I am refuse to deal with them.

So as homage to my aunt, I planted some geranium plants and they are quite lovely now and filling up our planters quite nicely. Those suckers fair very well especially since two nights a week I do not get an opportunity to water them twice a day, which is my norm. And with Alabama temperatures the heat can wreck havoc with your plants and lawn. But everyone knows I don’t do outside and water grass ain’t gonna happen.

Geraniums 5/11

I also planted some roses. A hybrid red rose and a Queen Elizabeth pink rose. Initially, the few buds bloomed and then it looked like they died. Well I got some Rose plant food and followed some online information on pruning and now they are about to bloom again. I have always loved roses and nothing gives me more pleasure then knowing I am growing them myself.

Two types of roses Red & Pink 5/11 (I should have blooms in 2 wks)

As I said in my recent random, my niece Hunny Bunny was confused about why all my plants were in pots. Bless it, but I am not tilling and all that to do a garden in the back yard, lest you forget I plan to get a dog, one day. Container gardening is easier to maintain for me. Now when the plants get too big you have to upgrade to larger pots, but containers aren’t too expensive. This year my crop of cilantro, basil, mint, green onions and chives has far surpassed my expectations. My cilantro, mint and basil of last year don't compare to this year’s crop. Go me!

Sunflowers make the meanest of people smile. I grew these so I could smile when days seem a bit sad or I am having a particularly rough day. My sunflowers are huge and it hasn’t been easy to grow them either. One thing is I didn’t realize I had the HUGE plants so I should have used a bigger container. Next year I definitely will do that. And they take a lot of water. Them suckers, literally suck up water and when it is hot I have had to water 3 times a day instead of just twice. Geez!

Tell me you didn't just smile!

This is one of the biggest of the sunflower plants

My sister claims this type of thing especially my gardening makes me old, I don't care. It gives me something to do because this time last year I was a caretaker and while both are rewarding emotionally and physically, gardening is easier. I mean, who doesn't smile when they see a Sunflower?

2011-05-25T14:13:00.003-05:00

Creative Cooking...Again

On the Gina's Skinny Taste site, she made a dish called “shaking beef”, which is an Vietnamese inspired dish. When I saw it, I figured hey I can try that and it doesn’t require too many ingredients. That’s what I like the most, because I am a lazy cook.

On Sunday, after washing my hair, I got to the business of preparing the dish. The night before, I prepped the beef by marinating it in light soy sauce, garlic (minced), fish sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. I cut the beef into chunks, next time I will cut into thin strips since I had it w/angel hair pasta.

Now you know I strayed away from the recipe. Disclaimer: I am not doing the WW diet, but I find the dishes on this site to be low in calories and actually have flavor. Nothing I despise more than tasteless food. No one has money to just throw away. Oh, the straying away from the recipe part I made a sauce to put over the beef after I cooked it.

Before thickening in a sauce pan.
2 Tbs of Rice Wine Vinegar

1 tsp of ground ginger

2 Tbs of Oyster sauce

1 Tbs of fish sauce

2 Tbs of sugar

To taste Sirachi chili sauce

Combined in a sauce pan to simmer and thicken. Once thicken place to the side.

Now it is time to do some other prep before you go to “shaking beef”. I cut up some roma tomatoes, cilantro & green onions from my own garden, and red onions.

With a screaming hot pan with canola oil I quickly cooked my beef, being sure not to overcook. Then in a change again in the recipe I sautéed some yellow onions and my tomatoes to add to the cook beef I sat aside. Once it was finished I stirred in the previously made sauce and tossed the beef and sautéed onions and tomatoes.

Somewhere in between I boiled some whole wheat angel hair pasta al dente. So yeah, do that or you can serve it as Gina Skinny Taste says with the salad, but I have eaten enough salads for the last few weeks and I need a break. I think it would be great with rice, if you like rice. I also made the dipping sauce of lime juice, kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Yummy!

I garnished the dish with the cilantro, red onions and green onions.

Shaking Beef with whole wheat Angel Hair pasta, garnished with cilantro, red and green onions w/lime, kosher salt and black pepper dipping sauce.

Verdict: Loves it. It is flavorful and easy enough a novice like me had no trouble making this tasty meal. Only thing I would do differently is to slice my beef thinly.

Side note: Why did the Asian store I normally go to not open on time Saturday? Geez, I had to get my fish sauce and oyster sauce from a grocery story. The horror!

Next was Fudge brownies with a pretzel and toffee topping. This is so easy all you need is a box of your favorite brownie mix or if you are ambitious, you can make your own brownies from scratch, I ain’t. What? Once you follow the directions on the box and in a lined muffin pan fill half way with mix and top with crushed pretzels and toffee and bake according to the box directions.

Verdict: Easy. Tasty. Rich. And evidently the book club members enjoyed them because I didn’t bring any home.

Yummy!

Now you know I was supposed to take the pineapple cupcakes to book club, but I got lazy and I had so much to do I just didn’t feel like working it out that icing issue I have with the recipe. This brownie recipe was inspired by Crepes of Wrath so check her out as well.

Technically, I wasn’t really bored this weekend to be doing all this cooking, but I really do find joy in preparing and sharing food with my friends and family.

A little closer view. And yes, this is a saucer serving.

2011-05-22T18:48:00.000-05:00

This Weekend’s Waiting on the Rapture Randoms…

So what time zone was this Rapture supposed to happen at 6:00 pm? I am so confused. Probably why I do not watch the news.

Thanks to Mrs. TDJ, who pointed out that if you weren’t a google account holder, you couldn’t comment on my blog. I never knew, but I have corrected it. Yeah! Now how long have I been blogging?...

I had big ideas of being an extreme couponer, but last Sunday my paper had absolutely no coupons. Maybe I'll try again next week.

We had our book club meeting Saturday. It seems like just yesterday we had a meeting. We have some big things happening in the way of community service this year. Our book for June is Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. I love her work. I am so excited to open the first page, because unlike the majority of my book club members, I do not have a Kindle or Book Nook. I am still in love with smelling the pages of a new book and touching and turning every page. Plus, damn it I need page numbers. I am anal like that.

We are having a Girls Night In Summer Cookout meeting at my house. They were asking were we going to be grilling that evening. Of course I was giving them the side-eye and WDTDTA? Because I grill early in the morning because I do not do heat, sun or mosquitoes.

I left the book club meeting upon finishing the benediction and this time I did have a date. LOL!

I sent my sister another cute picture of myself. She says I am over the top and she can’t deal. Is she jealous of my vanity?

You should see the full picture of the dress. When I upload from my camera this week oh yeah! I am so vain sometimes.

I made two new dishes this weekend and my sunflowers are blooming. Guess what, I will have some blog posts this week of my old lady antics.

I was so glad my yard guy finally cut my grass because the weeds were touching my legs and I am crazy enough to think it is a snake or lizard so I was getting a bit scared. We have had quite a bit of rain these last few weeks.

I washed my hair today. Why in all that is beautiful and glorious do I dread this process so much? But before I could even begin to wash I spent two hours retightening. Having Sisterlocks ain’t easy and don’t let nobody tell you different. You still have to do your hair.

I was told I needed to eat because I look as if I am about to disappear. I lost 6 pounds in the last two weeks, but um I had gained 10 during the winter and this go around I seem to be distributing the weightloss differently.

Ya’ll Beyoncé’s Run the World song will make you do extra laps on the track or treadmill. I did three extra laps yesterday so I could prance and walk to the song. I must have been a sight to see.

I still fool people on the phone with my work voice. I guess I shouldn’t use it at home when I answer the phone because some folks are totally confused.

My lil cousin, Carson is still hanging in there. Keep on praying.

The book club is going to New Orleans in September and we will be doing some community services things upon our arrival because the debauchery will begin soon after. I hope we have a very good meeting since we are having a destination book club meeting. Plus, we have several members who have never been to New Orleans. Yeah, we are gonna have some fun.

Did you all see my sister commented on one of my posts?

Hunny Bunny likes my container garden, but she seems perplexed by why everything is growing in pots.

My sister likes to torture my older niece and have her literally in tears. Why must she be so cruel? I even felt kinda guilty and text the poor soul that her mom was tripping and it wasn’t true.

Have you ever met someone whose fear of something far outweighs your own, because you don’t have a similar reaction. Makes you think, hell I am good with this flying compared to other folks. Geez.

I am embarking on another week of no sugar. Pray for the little children at my 2nd job. And hope the espresso of my morning coffee compensates so I am not miserable on my full-time job.

My muse is itching to write something crazy and I guess I better get on it because he or she can really be off the chain when I do not respond in a timely manner to their gentle and persistent urgings.

Well, it is Sunday I am still here and either I missed the Rapture or Hell is right here on Earth, someone’s prediction was off yet again. I am just mad there were folks really believing some regular man.

Have a great upcoming week!

2011-05-16T12:00:00.003-05:00

Creative Cooking...

Yet, again I have been doing some cooking, because I have been bored. As everyone keeps telling me, I am getting old or nesting. Whateva. I find peace and joy cooking and sharing food and the relaxation and feeling I get from gardening and watching something I nurture grow is truly priceless. Yeah, yeah I am getting old.

I mentioned before the Skinny Gina site which has all these weight watcher meals on it and several I can't imagine not trying. So on this lone Saturday after working out and running errands I baked some pineapple cupcakes and Cilantro Lime Shrimp.

The pineapple cupcakes I was trying out because they seem really simple and they would be easy to make each month to give to my book club members in celebration of their birthdays. I mean the recipe is absolutely simple.

1 box of Yellow Cake Mix
1 20 oz can of Crushed Pineapples

The icing is a simple cream cheese frosting

1- 8 oz 1/3rd less fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 - 20 oz can of Crushed Pineapples completely drained
1- cup of powdered sugar (variation from original recipe)
2- tablespoons of unsalted butter

The cake you combine the box cake and pineapples in your mixer and mix until smooth. Then you place 2/3 of the batter into each cupcakes lined section. Cook according to the directions on the box cake.

Now let me tell you about the damn icing. I followed the original recipe for the icing, but it was so runny and was horrible looking to me. It tasted ok, but if you fail to drain the pineapples completely it will break down the cream cheese badly. So I resorted to powdered sugar and butter, although it may increase the calories it held up better. Barely.

Simple as pie, almost.

Into the Mixing bowl.

Well mixed. Thanks Kitcheaid!

Golden

Pineapple Cupcake w/ fresh mint from my garden!

Another yummy view

Verdict: The cupcakes were flavorable and moist even without eggs, oil or butter. The icing isn't as firm as I would like, it is tasty, but a bit too sweet for my taste. My kids (employees) and the manager on my second job loved them! I will make them next week for the book club members and see how well they like them.

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

I am not even gonna front these were some of the best tasting shrimp I have had in a long time and I recently made some of my barbecue chipotle shrimp and they were good too. Want to see a picture that made my sister mad?

These were scrumptious over a garden salad.

The recipe calls for 2 pounds of shrimp cleaned and deveined, 6 cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup of cilantro, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 lime and salt and pepper. Well you know I don't follow directions right?

I had a pound of Jumbo shrimp cleaned and deveined
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
Cilantro from my garden for taste
1 lime and some lime juice
Seasoned with Tony Chachere's

I seasoned my shrimp w/Tony's and let it marinate for an hour. Then I heated my caste iron skillet w/the olive oil and when the pan was hot I added my shrimp and when I turned it over after 2 minutes, I added the garlic and some black pepper. Cook until done, do not overcook your shrimp. When the shrimp was done I added the juice from the lime and lime juice and tossed in my cilantro. OMG!

(I had to cook the shrimp in two batches b/c I was too lazy to get a larger pan.)

Lime and my fresh from my garden cilantro

Finished product!

This is how I ate the finished product. Yes this is a cup saucer. Portion control.

Verdict: It is easy and absolutely delicious. I would make it again and definitely a quick week day meal. The flavor is unbelievable.

So this is what happens when I am bored. Oh well, good food, good eats and frankly it ain't fattening.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

2011-05-11T14:11:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother Day...To Me?

Over the weekend, I was wished Happy Mother’s Day several times. My kids on my second job did, and they all know there is no way in Hell I have or will have any children, but they said I was their work mom. Aw…Then I commenced to cuss them out for sending out undercooked fries. What? Don’t all mamas do that?

At my local grocery store, one of the guys in the meat department wished me Happy Mother’s day and believe me I never get all up in arms I usually reply casually, “Thank you. Although, I don’t have any I appreciate the sentiment.” He was like, “What? Wow? Why not?” No one really wants to hear the real reason because seriously it is not some long or dramatic story.

When I was younger, I was always a little thinker. I mean I was an only child until I was 4 years old and my sister came along and prior to that time I was being raised by my grandmother. You know how much she played with me, so I learned to entertain myself. Even at 4 years old, I said I didn’t want to get married and I wasn’t having children. This has been my mantra for as long as I can remember. In my little, immature brain the thought of being married and being a mother wasn’t something I aspired to do. Don’t get me wrong there have been moments in my life that the mantra got a little shaky, but it has always lived in the recesses of my mind.

I was my sister and brother’s little mama when my mother was working, so my raising kids began when I was quite young. I have been around my young cousins since they were babies and frankly, those are my children. They still call me to talk and hang out. And that was enough of the maternal instinct for me. I love when a new baby comes into the family, but you will not see me running to hold them. Not me. I don’t do that, because I actually am thinking about germs and such. Little boy babies seem to like me the best. Why do the little girls act funny? Don’t ask me. I love my nieces but I pray my sister remains healthy and is around until their adults. Now, I would take over if need be, but um, I ain’t trying to see that happen right now.

In my mind, I have always felt that my purpose wasn’t to bear children, but to be an influence in some child or kids’ life. I have contemplated adoption and fostering kids, but they would not be the babies. I ain’t got the patience. However, my sister scared the bejeezus out of me about fostering or adopting an older child. Seriously, she did put some doubts in my head. So that is out. So I keep my second job and try to be a positive role model on these young kids. And you know what makes me smile? When they come back years later just to say hi to Ms. Cashana.

So it is fine that I don’t have kids and I can’t have any now anyway, but I feel like an amazing woman nonetheless because you don’t have to have children to mother them.

2011-05-04T15:45:00.000-05:00

Randoms on the fly and because I have been busy...

My book club has been together 12 years. And to think last year I was about to disband and now I couldn’t be prouder of our accomplishment. Sisterhood bonding over books can’t beat that.

I could have cared less about William and Kate. I hated her dress and the only reason I saw it because the media thought everyone was interested and thought this was newsworthy. I loved her sister’s dress though.

Easter came and went and I was off two days. Easter was nice and quiet. I am now reminded why I am not a fan of Ruby Tue.sdays. Being with family is priceless, however.

I enjoyed my second day off, immensely.

My muse has been on fire lately and she or he is a mess. Too bad I can’t post all the stuff he or she has me writing on here.

One of my book club members asked why I don’t talk about the other blog. I told her, “If I knew they were reading it, I would censor myself.” It is my private space that allows me to write without repercussions.

Osama bin Laden is dead. I didn’t celebrate and I like the quote posted on Ladylee’s blog. I didn’t mourn either. I was proud of the way our President handle it and they buried him properly. And no pictures will be released.

President Obama is gangsta. And his jokes for Trump were funny. While folks were questioning his birth certificate and education, he was handling business.

I was so mad last week about all the hoopla over the birther mess, I was just too angry to put words to paper because it wasn’t going to be nice.

My second cousin welcomed the birth of his son, Carson on the Monday after Easter. He was born 3 months prematurely. He is a beautiful baby and he is a fighter. I told his mama this side of the family is considered fighters and that is where he gets it from. She told me nope, he got it from me. Ya’ll I laughed because I fight for what’s right. All the time. I can’t wait until I can steal him. Please keep him and the family in your prayers because as you can imagine it is stressful and each day is a miracle.

My sister threatened to send my nieces to me Sunday. My youngest, Hunny Bunny called her cheap because the comb she was using to do her hair broke and underneath her breathe she kept saying, ‘cheap, cheap, cheap’ and she told her the braids she had done were different sizes. Sometimes adults just can't handle the truth. LOL! And the oldest one spilled gas on herself and in the words of my sister she spilled $10.00 worth of gas on the ground and that made my sister livid. However, when she said someone needed to show her how to pump gas, my sister was prepared to send her on a one way bus trip to Alabama. No one taught us how to pump gas, no one! You know I was going to send them right back right?

Book club meeting was this past Saturday and when we finished I left. Although I had taken a brief nap, I was still tired. Why were those still there asking where I was and did I have a date? I hardly ever stay late after meetings anymore because half the time I trying to get to some place before it closes if it is on that particular side of town. I will have them know I went home alone. That. Is. All.

Continue to pray for those who went through the tornados of last week. Montgomery was spared, but I was nervous nonetheless. I prayed and let go and let God handle his business.

I was sick Thursday evening after work I was in the bed by 8, which is almost impossible for me.

One of my 2nd job cashiers asked me when I was baking some more cookies. I said I don’t know because I am not eating sugar right now. She gave me the most serious side-eye I have ever seen in person.

There is so much drama on the 2nd job it is making me tired. Looks like my next weekend break will be sooner rather than later.

My niece officially has a job. I am so proud. When her mother told her to not give away free food to her friends she responded, “No way. I am too much like my Aunt Nana, I follow the rules.” Did I mention how proud I am?

One of my cousins going on the family trip is making this his official honeymoon. He and his wife were married not long after my mother passed in 1983. Yeah, you do the math. I wouldn’t call it a honeymoon, maybe I am over this marriage honey so let’s go on vacation? But when the other cousin mention the freedom they would have to stir cocoa (Black n Bougie), I threw up in my mouth a little.

My garden is looking good and as soon as the sunflowers bloom, I am going to be posting that bad boy picture. I have been diligent and loving to my plants. You just wait.

I finally got the gift certificate for a new radio. I ain’t in the mood for Wally World right now.

In music I love Kelly Rowland’s Motivation, Jill Scott and Anthony Hamilton’s So In Love and Chris Brown’s video to She Ain’t You. Have you heard Beyonce’s new one? I have only heard it twice here, so that means it hasn’t caught on here in the south. It sounds like something I can work out to and really get it in while listening to it, but it is going to have to grow on me.

And for vanity sake here is a fresh, finished retightened hair picture…

2011-04-25T15:42:00.002-05:00

Gardening 2011

You remember this right?

Wondering how the gardening is going so far this year? Well, it is going. In fact, I look forward to getting up in the morning and spending time with my plants and coming home in the evenings to do some watering and checking on their progress.

My rosemary didn’t sprout and I am not sure why. I tried and I tried and then I just dug around in the container to see if anything tried to sprout, but nothing did. So I purchased another package and I am sprouting them in the house then I transplant them in the container later. Nothing yet there either. I need to do some research on those suckers.

During my mini-me relaxation vacation I also planted roses and some garden flowers in a container. We shall see how they do. I purchased a Hybrid Tea Rose in Red and Queen Elizabeth in Pink.

This was taken Thursday 4/21 morning.

Thursday 4/21 Evening

The plants in the largest pot are Sunflowers and I cannot wait until there are real Sunflowers there, because you know Sunflowers make you smile. You see how well my mint has spread. I'll need a new container soon. My cilantro is coming along and faster than it did last year. My basil is also doing well. The small container next to the rectangle one was my Rosemary. The green pot are my chives and green onions them little things sprout everywhere, but when will they get bigger. Geez! Oh and let's not forget my Geraniums

4/21

3/11

As you can see they are still blooming and filling out. Let's see how things go next month.

2011-04-21T16:38:00.001-05:00

Before Easter Randoms...

I woke up wrong today. I really did. I woke on the wrong side of the bed, head at the foot of the bed and on my back. Well that is what it felt like when I finally woke up. I dragged my evil azz out of the bed cursing under my breath. How does one wake up feeling like shyte, when they went to bed feeling like the world is their oyster and feeling loved. I woke up like a stepchild to the evilest of stepmothers.

Then I paid bills. Enough said.

For all the politicians who are making the “hard decisions”, your constituents see you. Enough said.

Where is my gift card for my broken and static ridden radio that was broken by the cleaning crew?

When you go to an agency you were a former worker and all the workers there look stressed and overweight, you know you made the right decision and give praises to God for delivering you from that manifestation of stress.

It is okay no one ran up to hug me, but they smirked, “Hey, Cashana.”

I am not getting married. I can’t have children. So stop asking and hoping and praying for the impossible.

I need another mini-me vacation. I do.

I like Fantasia’s Collard Greens and Cornbread song, but just between you and me, I can’t stand either of those two foods. At all.

I walked and jogged extra hard today to get rid of the negative vibes swarming around me and it worked a little bit. Wish it had worked a whole lot.

My sister has become self-conscious about my blogging, always worrying if a blog worthy story will be put on my blog. I told her no one reads my blog. She said that was a lie, she says I have a following. I told her I only have a few comments. She said that was a lie too. I think she is paranoid.

She told me a funny one yesterday involving my 16 year old niece who wanted to get her hair done before she returns to school (they are on their spring break right now). When my sister demolished her plan, she texted my sister with a plea to at least perm her hair because get this, “I am feeling really ugly right now.” First of all, I have mentioned this before my nieces are as vain as I am. We have never seen a mirror that didn’t like us. She was playing on my sister’s emotions because my sister is really sensitive to self-esteem and body image. I laughed. And laughed. My sister didn’t find anything funny about it and said it better not end of on the blog. LOL! Dare me. I don’t run from dares.

My cousin broke her foot. I told her I am enjoying life too much right now for me to have to take care of her, dayum it!

I am feeling better now. Here’s to a Good Friday to everyone. I will be right here at work and wonderful Easter.

2011-04-18T12:58:00.001-05:00

Long-winded and Long Weekend Randoms...

Let’s see, do you know how it feels to be off three full days from both full and part time jobs? Absolutely wonderful. Prior to this mini-me vacation, I would have said absofcuklutely. I had learned creative uses for the word fcuk. Why? Everyone, especially the kids on my second job, had worked my last working nerve.

So let me describe the greatness of being off. On Friday, I got up early did the elliptical machine, heck this was the only time I did it this weekend, but I did get in a good work out Saturday, without actually working out. Winning!

On Friday I decided to purchase my rose bushes and get some more gardening supplies. Can someone tell me why planters cost a mint at small nurseries and cheap as hell at the Wally World?

Why did my local Wally World have signs posted that stated, “Wal-Mart will officially have new hours beginning April blah, blah. The new hours are 6 am to 12:00 pm. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Blah, blah.” You notice the problem? When I read it, I shook my head saying, “My people, my people.” I asked the greeter about the hours and said, “Your sign says you will close at noon, because 12:00 pm is noon and they need to correct it.” He didn’t understand what I was saying. Someone else must have said something because before I left they were in the process of changing all the signs. Guess they didn’t proofread before they posted.

I ended up having to go to the local hood Wally World, which I deplore with all that is humanly possible. Two weeks ago they shot a shoplifter who was trying to flee the scene after hitting a police officer in her car. Yeah, it is truly gangster at this particular Wally World. They had plenty of rose bushes though, I should have known. However, why were there only 3 that were worth taking home? The others were dying or dead because they haven’t been watered in a month of Sundays. I told the cashier in the garden section and she said this one looks fine. I side-eyed her and explained the majority of the rose bushes hadn’t seen any water and they may want to check on them. You know they ain’t busy; she and the other worker should have been working on the flowers.

However, I went to this Wally World in the afternoon trying to beat the storm. Why was I in the local dollar store purchasing plastic drain pans and the Tornado sirens went off? Yeah, I was in the store thinking please hurry up so I can get my behind home ASAP. But you probably know already they only had one cashier, and fiftyeleven folks in line. A customer in line asked if they had someone else to come and assist her and the cashier said the other young lady was on break and by law she must have her break. Damn, they are serious about breaks at the dollar store.

On Thursday night I did my taxes. What? I always have to pay and when you have to pay you mail them in on the tax deadline day. Yes, I mail them. Damn the electronic filing I normally have to pay. All I knew was before I did them and depending on how much I owe would determine how many shoes I can purchase on Friday. What? I love my shoes. Since I don’t owe anything and what I get back will not put two fill-ups of gas in my car, I needed to celebrate. What better way to celebrate than with some shoes?

On Friday, I did get three pairs of shoes and one purse. Winning!

Friday night we were still dealing with the remnants of the storm, which incidentally killed 45 people over the weekend from the monstrous tornados. I was a bit nervous being home alone, but with a glass of Pinot Noir I was able to relax enough to watch, Why Did I Get Married Too, hoping I didn’t lose power.

BTW, I liked the movie, but it was entirely too long. The Rock at the end…Yummy!

Saturday morning I got up to do my gardening, since the storm made it impossible to do on Friday. But since it was really cool that morning, I washed my car. I haven’t washed a car in 11 or 12 years. I did a pretty good job; she was shining a little bit.

I replanted a peace lily, planted some garden flowers and my two rose bushes in containers and feed all my plants. Then I decided to take me a nap, and boy was it a good one.

Saturday night I watched For Colored Girls and Hustle and Flow. I love me some Terrance Howard all sweaty and talking like folks from Memphis. I had to re-watch For Colored Girls because the 1st time was at last month’s book club meeting and you know how women get so chatty during a movie. And I had one or three glasses of Pinot Noir.

Why didn’t anyone tell me how wonderful Pinot Noir is? OMG, I love that wine and the way I was drinking it all weekend there was no denying it. Thank goodness I had a big bottle of it. Don’t side-eye me, the smaller bottle cost more.

I enjoyed spending some quality time Saturday evening watching movies, enjoying my wine and my company. Don’t ask because I don’t talk about that on this here blog.

Sunday, I woke up at 10 am. I haven’t slept this late in a longtime.

Sunday’s late start made that my official be lazy day and I definitely enjoyed my last day off.

Have you seen Black Swan? I encourage you to do so. That was like one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. It was magnificently dark, moody, emotion-filled and artsy.

Then I followed it up with Obsessed. You know the movie with Idiris Elba and Beyonce. Let’s just say this could have been a Lifetime movie. Beyonce needs more people. I couldn’t get a grasp of her actually feeling the need to whip old girl’s behind, she needs more life experiences for it to be convincing and I just wasn’t convinced. But I was entertained by all that Idiris embodies.

I tried to get an early start to bed Sunday night, but since I didn’t wake before 10, I missed the early showing of Joel Osteen. Oh well, as soon as it went off I was sleep within 10 minutes last night.

Then I woke up and it was Monday morning and I am tired as hell. What happened to my relaxed mood from the weekend? My sister texting me like it is 10 instead of 6 am. Ugh!

Then I get to work and right before I get to my office, my co-worker tells me the cleaning folks broke my radio’s antenna on Friday. WTF? Are you serious? How you dusting and breaking shyte? There goes all the relaxation I had from the weekend. Now my azz is pissed. I need my radio to make it through the day even if they play the same damn songs over and over again. BTW, I have had the radio for over 14 years; it can’t really be replaced because they don’t make them like this anymore. They offered $20 to replace it. Yeah, as I sit here with a radio with scotch tape on the antenna trying to listen to music over the static.

Then folks are calling on my phone, emailing requests and I haven’t had a chance to drink my coffee. Ugh! Welcome, back to the real world!

So why is my best friend calling me at 9 am like I ain’t at work. Damn it! She needs to get a job; folks cannot be on their jobs talking to her for 2 hours about nothing. I didn’t answer because I was busy.

I am calmer now though and I am so thankful I could take a few days for myself and I enjoyed every minute of it and I will continue not take my life for granted.

This was done Saturday morning and I took a picture, because it was so apropos.

Hope your Monday started off relaxed and your week is wonderful!

April's Hair picture. Soft Spike curls.

2011-04-15T12:00:00.002-05:00

Creative Cooking Part 3...

Yeah, I seriously need to get a life, but alas, this is my life. In between working two jobs, working out at work and at home, gardening (ok container gardening) and reading I find time to cook when I am bored. On April 2, 2011, I decided I was going to replicate the Bang, Bang shrimp I love from Bonefish Grill. You know you can google anything on the Internet, right? Well that is just what I did. And after reading reviews of folks who had tested the recipe I was ready. All I needed was some shrimp and Thai Sweet Chili Sauce. And since shrimp was on sale...What's a girl to do?

I rinsed my pound of peeled and deveined shrimp and dried them and then tossed them with cornstarch as I heated my Canola oil in my caste iron skillet. My skillet is old and pretty much has been passed down in the family so you know it is well seasoned.

To make the sauce you need 1/2 cup of mayo (I use Miracle Whip. I don't like real mayo. Don't ask.), 1/4 cup Thai Sweet Chili Sauce and 3 drops or to taste of Sirachi Chili sauce. That is it. (If you don't add the shredded lettuce and green onions.) Now you know I had to add some things. I don't know why I can't just follow the damn directions. Anyway, I added a pinch of salt to the sauce and I added way more than 3 drops of Sirachi Chili sauce because it didn't taste like the Bang, Bang shrimp I was accustomed to. I also added a bit more of the Thai Sweet Chili Sauce. I kept adding things and tasting until I felt it tasted just like the Bang, Bang sauce.

After I fried up the shrimp, I tossed them in the sauce.

I was surprised the shrimp brown accordingly w/just cornstarch.

After I coated the shrimp completely, I plated without the lettuce, but with the green onions. And let me tell you, they tasted just like the Bang, Bang shrimp from BFG. And the longer they sat in the sauce, oh boy the better they tasted. I even took the leftovers to my second job and allowed the cashiers to taste them and they loved them. They wished I had given them more. Um, I gave them over a half of pound of shrimp, because I didn't trust myself to not eat the entire pound by myself in a 24 hour period.

Final presentation and again on a small saucer. LOL!

2011-04-14T12:39:00.000-05:00

With Age Comes...Adult Onset Allergies...

Do not read this post before eating or directly after eating. You have been warned…

Since I was very young say about 4 years old I have had an aversion to cashews. Literally, I can see pictures of cashews and get extremely nauseated. One day when my mother worked at the local K-Mart, we went to pick her up and back then they use to roast cashews all the time. You all remember when you could buy a sub sandwich and roasted nuts and chocolates in the middle of K-mart? Whatever. Maybe I am older than most of you. Anyway, when we arrived and went into the store I smelled those cashews and before I could say I need to go to the bathroom I had thrown up all over the freshly waxed floor. I remember standing there in a bit of a shock. I also remember my mother being embarrassed, but somehow we didn’t have to clean that mess up. I remember that day like it was yesterday because all I remember smelling was those damn cashews. My only explanation for my severe dislike for the nuts is my mother must have eaten the hell out of them when she was pregnant with me because I shouldn’t have had such bad reaction to just smelling them joints.

Needless to say, eating cashews is not one of my hobbies. I do not eat them, do not like to smell them and please no pictures of them damn nuts either. Seriously, even typing this right now has my stomach queasy.

What brought on the walk down memory lane? I was reading a blog post today about adult onset allergies. This blogger is having intolerance or an allergic reaction to almonds. I was like OMG! I snack on almonds all the time, please don’t let me develop that allergy. Then I remember my adult onset allergy to eggs. One morning while in undergrad I was waiting for my boss to open the store, I was enjoying a McDonald’s egg and sausage biscuit. I was really enjoying it, when I felt this funny feeling in my stomach. I then started to feel nauseous and the next thing I notice I am throwing up violently into the McD’s bag. It was so painful and nasty. I didn’t realize it was the eggs initially. I just stopped eating the biscuits. Then one day I really wanted some scrambled eggs with a piece of ham. I mean I had my mouth set for those eggs and ham. Again, I started enjoying the flavorful eggs and ham then I started feeling funny in my stomach, then I started gagging and the next thing I know I am hugging the porcelain commode. It was so painful I burst the blood vessels in both of my eyes. A hot mess. I am allergic to eggs, but I can eat them in cooked items but not alone. I can eat a boiled egg, only one. Don’t ask how I know. So no I do not take the flu shot because of the allergy.

As I have gotten older, I have become allergic to things I once had no problems with. I mean I don’t remember the change of seasons affecting my allergies as they do now. I cannot be outside for a prolonged period during high pollens days if I want to go to work the next day. I am officially allergic to penicillin and this happen over the last 10 years, because I had surgery in 1999 and wasn’t allergic then. I guess what they say about adulthood is true. The older you get the more your body breaks down. But I still look good…Robin circa Waiting to Exhale the movie.