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Category Archives: Cooking

Life skills

by Mary Anne

Sometimes when I look back at my childhood I have to wonder how it is that I grew up without learning very much about real life. Maybe my parents expected more from the school system than the school system could provide, I don’t know. Home economics was taught in school, but it was very basic. I can remember learning to cook a little bit, a little bit about personal grooming, and how to sew.

But nothing was taught about interior decorating, or such basics as the practicality of using Bed Skirts to hide stuff that you are storing under the bed, or how using Satin Pillowcases might be good for your hair and skin. And not a word was spoken about doing laundry, about sorting by colors, and different temperature settings. Come to think of it, that is really weird because I can remember there were washers and dryers in the home economics room! And for the sheer economics of extending the life of your mattress, how one should use water resistant Mattress Covers on the bed. Nothing about the right way to clean a house, how you should dust from the top down and vacuum after you dust.

In this day and age, these are important things that every person should learn, regardless of gender. I wonder how many students are being taught these life skills now.


Alcoholic drinks

by Mary Anne

I have never been a big fan of alcoholic drinks.  I usually order the “virgin” version of pina coladas or frozen strawberry daiquiris when we go out to dinner.  However, it seems that every time I go to a social occasion, wine is being served.  Red wine gives me a headache, so I tend to avoid that.  When I was married to my first hubby, every wine we had was “dry” wine, which I don’t like at all, so I have pretty much avoided wines in general.  I have been talked into trying some of the sweet white wines, and I have to say that some of them are pretty good.  So now sometimes, when I go out to dinner at a restaurant, I might order a sweet white wine.  I’m still learning which ones are sweet!


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.


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