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Category Archives: Cooking

Wouldn’t you know it

by Mary Anne

When I was younger I saw a really pretty spice rack for sale that just “spoke to me.” Now, you might think that is rather weird, that I am a person that speaks to spice racks, but what I really mean is that for some crazy reason I simply fell in love with it. It was a wall spice rack, and it had a country look to it that just made me feel “at home” for some reason. I don’t know, maybe it reminded me of the spice rack in my grandmother’s kitchen and I never realized it. But the thing is I bought it on a crazy impulse and brought it home with me. Wouldn’t you know it my hubby hated it and told me that he did not want it in our kitchen. So it was relegated to the basement for a very long time.

When my hubby and I split up and I moved out i brought that spice rack with me, intended to mount it on the wall of my new kitchen. Wouldn’t you know it, all of the kitchen walls were completely filled up with cupboards so there was no space to put that rack on the wall! I did find space for it on the counter, though, beside the stove and there is where it stayed for a good number of years.

Eventually all of the original bottles from the spice rack broke and I could not find replacement bottles that fit, so the little rack got “freecycled” away when I moved again. Now I store my spices in my pantry, and have tried various methods of storing them, but I really have not found a suitable system for the spices. I miss that rack!


An avoidable tragedy

by Mary Anne

Guest post by Linda Bradshaw

When my hubby and I moved into our first house, we were so excited to share our joy with our friends. So we had a big Independence Day party; complete with a pot-luck barbecue and pool party. The guests were completely enamored of our litter of five week old keeshond puppies, which were confined inside their six foot tall chain link kennel run.

One of our guests (which I did not want invited but hubby insisted) decided that he would light a string of black cat firecrackers and throw them into the kennel run. The quick bang-bang-bang and yelp-yelp-yelp brought my hubby and me running quickly to see what in the world was going on. When we saw the inebriated guest laughing at the upset puppies, we asked him to leave the party. Needless to say, feelings were hurt.

The next morning when we went out to feed the puppies, we discovered that someone had removed them from their kennel and put them inside the fenced in pool area. The puppies had all drowned in the pool. My heart was completely broken. Later that day we went to the pool supply store and bought a pool cover for our swimming pool in the hopes that this kind of tragedy never happens again. And I never spoke to that guy that had thrown firecrackers into the puppy pen, as we suspect that he was the one responsible for relocating the puppies. It would have been impossible for the puppies to escape their pen and enter the fenced in pool area on their own.


Gift baskets

by Mary Anne

One of the many gifts that I like to give is a gift basket. Sometimes I like to make them up myself of lots of little things that I’ve made, either crafting or cooking, or a combination of the two. Doing that pretty much ensures that they are not getting a duplicate gift that someone else has given them.

Sometimes life gets hectic, and an unexpected gift giving occasion arrives and time doesn’t allow the luxury of making the gifts. That’s when buying a gourmet gift basket comes to the rescue. There are so many gourmet gift baskets on the market, it is pretty easy to find one that will suit almost any occasion and please any recipient.


What’s for dinner?

by Mary Anne

I’m cooking a wonderful pork roast in the crock pot for supper tonight.  It is being seasoned with cranberry juice cocktail, craisins, and chicken broth.  I’ll be serving it with green beans, rice pilaf and freshly baked dinner rolls.

Yummy!


Home made gifts

by Mary Anne

I like to make home made gifts for people on my gift list.  I enjoy working with my hands, crafting or cooking things, so making the gifts is therapeutic for me.  And the entire time that I’m making the gift I am thinking about the person I’m making it for, so I like to think that the gift is being infused with loving thoughts.  I like to think that the recipient will appreciate the time, effort, and loving thoughts put into the gifts that I make.  I take into consideration what the person’s interests are, and try to make a gift that they will love and use.

The vast majority of my home made gifts have been well received, and I often get special requests from the people who are on my gift list.  I have been surprised, and sometimes dismayed, when I discover that my gift ends up being turned into a cat toy (by a child too young to appreciate the money, time, and effort put into making the gift) or tucked away in a closet because it is appreciated so much that the recipient thinks it is “too good to use” and is afraid to use it!  Or even more dismayed when the recipient turns up their nose at the gift because they think that the homemade gift represents the thought that I was “too cheap” to “buy” them something from the store.  Those people don’t realize that the raw materials used to make the gift often will cost more than buying a gift from the store.

So, giving home made gifts can be tricky sometimes.  I need to research the individual and make sure that they will actually appreciate the home made gift before I go through the time and effort to make it.   Sometimes the best gift to give someone can simply be a gift card, to let them buy what they REALLY want.


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