GruvEMom Living

While I'm Here, Doctor....

2013-10-03T07:02:00.003-07:00

I am not posting my normal musings today, not a complaint about "manners" nor a bewildered posting about a successful recipe.

Today I am writing to request that you, my Dear Friends and Indulgent Readers: Please get yourself and your family tested for Diabetes!

Type One or Type Two, it doesn't matter, they're both bad. They can both result in kidney failure, blindness, heart disease/ attacks, high blood pressure, circulatory problems - including amputation.

I know that October is traditionally "Boob Month", but while you are at the Dr. getting your annual exam and the prescription for the mammogram, ask him to test you for Diabetes. He or she or the Phlebotomist should do a simple finger prick to measure your blood sugar. It will take a few seconds, and it could save your life.

If you do have diabetes, I would like you to know that it is not the end of the world. You will have to watch your intake of sugars as well as carbs. You will need to educate yourself about Diabetes and the treatment plan that is best for you.

You will need to find an endocrinologist. Even though you love your regular physician, he or she is not necessarily educated in the cutting edge, up to date treatment you will want. In addition, your endocrinologist's office most likely employs a nutritionist who can help you establish a meal plan that will help you, and your family, to handle the change.

My family has lived a pretty normal life with Diabetes for forty years. You can, too.

Thank you for getting checked!

Roasted Cauliflower - Who knew how good it is?!

2013-09-17T09:46:00.002-07:00

I don't know about where you live but, here in New England, Fall has definitely arrived! I am not going to complain about August - it was one of the most delightful Augusts ever in my life - but September is supposed to be a bit more temperate and just this morning, it was 44 degrees this and it might MIGHT, hit 70 this afternoon! WHAT?! This is unheard of!

I am still not going to turn the heat on until November 1. Not. going. to. do. it!

As the temperatures have dropped, I have begun my annual (actually, my daily) search for yummy, filling, warming foods that all of us can (and will) eat.

Some of you know that my family lives with Diabetes. I don't care if all of us don't have Diabetes, when one family member has it, you all have to live with it!

When I cook, not only do I have to be careful about the sugars in everything (and that's the natural sugars as well as added, refined sugar), but I have to be super careful about the carbohydrates. Believe it or not, a lot of vegetables are LOADED with carbs. High carbs means it's a no-no for at least one of us.... DARN YOU, GREEN BEANS! Why you gotta be so carby?

Now, add majorly picky eaters to the Diabetes situation and you may understand why I am just stymied sometimes. I have had my days where I want to bring home a bag of prewashed salad for every day of the week and just throw it at someone. But....sigh... that's just not who I am.

While perusing the grocery store sales flier the other day, I noticed that cauliflower was on sale (like $1.50 per head on sale!)..... which reminded me of the recipe for Roasted Cauliflower that flitted past on my Facebook page recently... so I thought, "Wellllll, what the heck?!".

So, I bought a head of $1.50 Cauliflower, and then Googled "Recipe for Roasted Cauliflower". There were a TON of recipes, some of which I couldn't use, and some that had some good ideas but wouldn't make it with the picky palate eater....so, I improvised a bit... took a couple of ingredients from this recipe.... a couple of directions from that recipe.... decided a few things on my own.... I still somehow cooked up a hit! No one is more surprised than I am!

So, here's my version of Roasted Cauliflower:

This recipe served 3 people - no leftovers, no seconds

1 Large head Cauliflower
6 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Cloves Garlic, crushed then minced
1/3 Cup Grated Cheese
Salt
Pepper

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees
Line a baking pan with foil and spray with baking spray
Trim Cauliflower of leaves and stem pieces, then cut Cauliflower into "Two Bite" pieces.
In a large plastic zipper bag, combine Oil, Garlic, Grated Cheese, then Salt and Pepper.
Add Cauliflower and shake or flip a few times to coat.
Pour everything out onto the prepared baking sheet
Cook for 20-30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or so, so it browns evenly.
Serve immediately.

I hope you love it!

Update 9/28/13
I also tried this Roasting Method as follows - Brussels Sprouts:
1 Bag Brussels sprouts, stalk end trimmed and big ones cut in half
Roughly equal amount of fresh Carrots (trimmed but a little of the green left on)

6Tbsp olive oil in a roasting pan
1/2 stick butter, cubed and put in roasting pan
2-3 cloves Garlic (smashed w/ side of knife and minced)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put prepared vegetables in roasting pan and stir to coat
Roast at 425 for 20 ish mins, shaking every once in a while to prevent scorching.

ENJOY!

A Lesson in Gratitude

2013-09-12T18:56:00.001-07:00

I'm sure that, just like I did, all of you greeted the new school year with joy, sorrow, relief and dread.

Joy for some quiet time and possibly relief from additional day care costs.

Sorrow for that youngest baby who started kindergarten or High School, or whom you last saw through your tears and the rear view mirror as you drove away from their college dorm.

Relief from the "craft days" that resulted in more glue on your velvet sofa in the living room (into which Absolutely No One went that day, cross our hearts!) than on the macaroni and paper for which it was meant. Or the extra food bills because ya gotta feed those kids and they have friends....big ones. And they know you have food....

Dread because of the upcoming birthday parties that they might not be invited to, the teams they won't get selected for, the prom dates, and the homework... oh my God the homework....

My MiniMe started High School the other day. Her first day of High School was her first day of public school, her first day in a grade that had more than 25 kids in it (380 kids in her Freshman class), first school day not wearing a uniform, her first ride on a school bus - ever.

She got a weird elective that is an introduction into the school's "career track", she didn't get the Latin class she wanted (gee, public school, thanks for the heads up on that one - not), she got an AP class for history (I didn't know they did that for Freshman - but thanks for the College Credit!).

She's adjusting... we're adjusting....

I know for sure that the DogMan is happy to be back to his morning Dog Park schedule with our regular posse! There have been a few changes there, too.... Dog Man doesn't get to see his friend, Mac, because his owner gets out later in the day than she has the last few years. Blonde Maggie has been "replaced" by Little Maggie because Blonde Maggie comes earlier, and Little Maggie comes with her owner after dropping her Boy at school. Little Maggie's friend, Tula, has joined us as well, which is great. Her mom is totally cool... and Wiley is still as crazy as ever and with his super cool mom who is just as in awe of some of the stuff that goes on around here as I am...

Ofcourse the human Dog Park Posse pretty much echoes the Dog Pack.... we stand around and talk about our kids, parenting our parents, parenting our children, how are we going to pay for college, whose kid got what teacher and are they horrible or are they great....

So, as our school year has settled in, the Human Posse has started checking in with one another... "How was that parent coffee? How many of those damned things can one person go to?", "How is the new school/ teacher?"....

So far, everyone is up beat and off to a good start. One 5th grader is overwhelmed by the size of her class, but the school is being proactive. My MiniMe is busy getting back into the swing of things and relearning the meaning of time management (no, you do not have 6 hours of homework), as well as getting used to a new environment, a new school format and did I mention: NO UNIFORM!

Two of the Human Posse started to talk to each other about "IEP", "504" and "Whether it's time to get an advocate", or "Hey, first time ever! PPT went well! No one cried!".... and these parents - members of our human "pack - told the rest of us a little bit about their incredible children, who have challenges that none of the rest of us have ever had to deal with.

The learning and communication disabilities, the physical challenges, the arguing with the school, while trying to seem like you are on their side, just to get your kid a place at the desk.

And I realized that it was time to take a lesson in gratitude for just how lucky I am as a Mom (I really am, you should meet the MiniMe - Best. Kid. Ever.), how lucky she is as a kid.

So, I'm going to try to take a step back from being annoyed at the idea of MiniMe making cupcakes in Foods & Nutrition this semester, and the fact that she didn't get the Latin class that she wanted.

I'm going to dry the homework tears and not worry too much about the start of the year blues and confusion,
And I'm going to be thankful that MiniMe has the ability to do most things for herself, and the ability to communicate (whether or not I like what is being communicated!), and the ability to be successful at school and in life.

Why I DO NOT want to meet the Kraft Zesty Guy

2013-09-03T18:04:00.001-07:00

Recently, I have noticed, every time I log onto Facebook, or AOL.com or whatever, that there is a contest out there to win a chance to meet and get a cooking class with the "Kraft Zesty Guy".

Now, not since the Diet Coke Hottie Ad Campaign of 19-I don't know what, has there been an ad campaign that I've paid much attention to like I've paid attention to the "Kraft Zesty Guy".

Let's face it, there's not a healthy woman - or a healthy number of men - on earth who doesn't want to get to know the Kraft Guy in a Zesty way! Am I right? I know I am!

But here's the thing... much like I prefer Mike Rowe as my TV boyfriend, I prefer the Kraft Zesty Guy as the dressing on my Facebook Salad!

I don't have to be disappointed by his blathering on about the Jets when I prefer the Patriots.
I don't have to listen to drivel about the team from New York that wears pinstripes while I love the Boston Red Sox.

I don't have to listen to his liberal, left wing politics (mind you I don't for sure know either Mike's nor Zesty's politics, just saying) while I, screaming financial conservative that I am, believes that Big Daddy, Mike, Zesty and every other honest business person deserves to keep and/or spend their hard earned dollars as they see fit.

Now, where Zesty is concerned, I have some serious misgivings about getting all of that spray tan stuff out of the sheets and his clothes. It takes an awful lot of ... spray... to sculpt that 8 pack, and I really am not sure that there is enough OxiClean in this world to get that stuff out of my cotton sheets!

Not to mention, I've seen an awful lot of Zesty hanging out in sand... I do not like sand in my laundry... neither does my laundry... neither does, as a matter of fact my salad!

Salad is not where sand - zesty or not - belongs!

But I digress... Zesty is the thing that serious fantasies are made of... that hair, those eyes... the spanking of the dough... sigh....... anyway... the problem for me is that he just looks like he smells like spray tan... and at the end of the day... if my man has been spanking the dough - or me - Hawaiian Tropic is not what I want to be smelling!

Holy Jalapeno!

2013-07-26T09:07:00.002-07:00

Big Daddy has spent about 20 years dreaming of growing his own fruits and veggies. It was tough to do in South Florida with the rather wet, hot weather, the sandy soil and the sun burning down on you with no relief.

When we bought our house a couple of years ago, Big Daddy's eyes lit up when he saw the 16 x 16 foot garden, already fenced in. He had plans for that area that did not include any of the flowers that were there...

He spent the winter of 2011 flipping through seed catalogs, buying soil testing kits, having our water tested (it's City water, so I'm not sure what he was looking for), taking the soil temperature.... boxes and boxes of plants and seeds were misdelivered through out the neighborhood, so we got to know our neighbors a little bit... actually, in a few cases, I got to know the housekeepers as some of my neighbors apparently don't answer their doors themselves.

Weird.

Big Daddy bought Peat Moss and mixed and mixed and mixed it in to our soil.

He bought some funky dunky compost from Canada that's made with lobsters and he mixed and mixed and mixed it into our soil.

He took over my indoor growing area in the mud room with flats of seeds that he was starting...

I asked for two things in this garden: Jalapeno plants and Tomato plants.

I got 3 Jalapeno plants which pretty much took their sweet time to get used to their new home.

Then they started to produce the mildest peppers you have ever encountered. What? We had given a whole bag full (probably 1 lb) of peppers to a friend. Who is from Texas. Who wanted them for some kind of super hot Jalapeno jelly.

Weren't we embarrassed when the entire batch was "ruined" because it was so mild?!

Eventually, the plants started to produce hotter peppers (can someone please explain this to me?)... and we were getting maybe 1/2 pound of peppers per day... now there's only so many Jalapenos you can put into a salad before it's too hot to trot, so we had a bit of a build up....

Until one day.....

I was making Buffalo Wings.... See my recipe somewhere here, under recipes, for Wings. We love wings.

I figured, the flour was out, the panko crumbs were out... I had some sour cream and "shred ched" (shredded cheddar) ... the oil was hot.... are you thinking what I was thinking????

Home made Jalapeno Poppers!!!

They were hot! They were spicy! They were tasty! They were delicious!

Here is your chance to make my "Poppahs"!

Jalapeno Poppahs Ala GruvEmom:

6-8 whole Jalapenos
4oz Cream Cheese, softened for 15 seconds in the microwave
2ish oz shredded cheese
1/4 C flour seasoned with salt and pepper
1/2 C Panko crumbs w/ Italian Seasoning or Flavored Bread Crumbs (your call!)
1 egg whisked and in a saucer or small plate

Preheat about 1-1/2 inches of vegetable oil to 350degrees
Line a
Cut tops off of the peppers, then use a steak knife to remove the seeds

Stir the cheeses together and use a spoon to fill each pepper from the top

When the peppers are stuffed with cheese, one by one:

roll them in the egg
roll them in the flour
roll them in the egg
roll them in the panko/crumbs

Carefully, put them in the hot oil

Turn them gently with metal tongs and cook 2-5 minutes until the bread crumbs are a toasty brown.

Remove the peppers to a small plate or small flat cookie pan that has been lined with paper towels and let the peppers drain and cool for a minute.

Serve hot with any kind of dipping sauce you like (I prefer Bleu Cheese dressing!) and a napkin or two.

Feel free to make your own decisions on cheeses/ stuffing/ coatings - but let me know how you like them!

Oh, PLEASE be sure to handle the peppers with care. ALWAYS wash your hands after handling them and before touching your face or eyes or kids... just trust me....

Gruve On!

You would not believe the year I have had

2013-07-09T18:37:00.001-07:00

Hello.
So, yes, I know, I haven't posted since January. I know. I can't believe it myself. sigh.

Seriously deep breath.

I know....

So, last year at this time, the "fam" and I were hanging out at our annual summer gig in an uber preppy New England hotspot - so hot that "TSwizzle" and her Bestie, "SelGo" were spotted here last week (last week 2013 not the 2012 that we are discussing)....

We had non-freaking-stop company last year and for the 3 years prior, and I could have just kicked myself in my own arse for doing that!

3 teenage girls - I'm not going into the gory details - but girls (and boys) do not do this to yerself. If you have 8th graders or soon to be 8th graders, or all too recently 8th graders, take one friend or take 3 do NOT NOT NOT take your one and 2 additional teen girls with you on vacation. Do freaking not do it.

So Big Daddy and I had the brilliant idea to take 3 teenage girls on vacation, during which we were celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary, an event which I'd decided to celebrate with a party - but neglected to mention to one and all that it was an anniversary party, so I ended up - on my 20th wedding anniversary - waiting hand and foot on friends and neighbors.... sigh...

Friends, do not do this to yourself. Do NOT throw your own anniversary party. Even if YOUR anniversary falls on a fave holiday like 4th of July (hey, that's MY anniversary) do NOT NOT NOT have a party on that day or you will spend the day popping the tops off of bottles of "Summer Shandy" for your guests and not having a good time, kicking back and having your Big Daddy hubby worship you in the manner to which all of us would like to become accustomed!

So, after 5 days of teen aged behavior, we were down to 2 teens... which was fine until we realized that the one teen that was not ours, would not be going home until WE got her there. I kid you not. The child in questions' biological family (as opposed to US with whom she has spent most of her time in the last year) actually drove past our freeway exit 4 times (FOUR TIMES) during the 2 weeks that we had said child with us last year, yet the family was never quite able (frankly I think they drink and forgot all about her) to make it to our house 10 mins from said exit.

Are you exhausted just reading about this? Let me tell you, it does not stop there!

So, we had this two week vaca, which, quite frankly, was no vaca for me, since I still do all the cooking and laundry and meal planning and shopping - do I need to say more?

And moments after this so called vacation, upon our return to our home, MiniMe and I packed up again and departed for the "opportunity of a lifetime" (this according to my mother). Which was a cruise from Seattle to Alaska.

Have you ever been up in the Seattle Space Needle? If you do go, I suggest that you look down on the Port of Seattle. If you have children, you will note (as many other parents have noted to me) that the Port of Seattle looks like it came straight out of a children's TV series. Busytown, is how I think some have attributed the area.

So, the cruise was lovely. My Mom, MiniMe, My Sister and I all went on a Royal Princess cruise. Now, let me state that I once worked in the Marine Safety Industry and Cruising is NOT NOT NOT my idea of a good time. When you know how this stuff works, there is NO romance! When you know the cruise workers all hale from semi cannibalistic, third world, Asiatic societies, one spends an inordinate amount of time avoiding the elevators which leads to walking through casinos, which is the only place people can smoke on board. Kill me.

Let's not forget that the Costa what do you call it (no offense) rolled over the week prior to our vacation, nor will we add in the fact that the very ship upon which we were to sail was adrift and afire the week prior to MiniMe's birth (though in another Cruise Region so apparently it didn't matter.. plus... they "fixed" it, right?).

Alaska is amazing. The water is many colors of blue and green and clear - almost as many colors as the greens of Ireland.... There was a waterfall so wide and twisting that it looked like a road, air so fresh it almost hurt to breath!

Unfortunately, every single thing we did was tourist based, ridiculously expensive, and every place we landed was only open during the cruise season. What are you going to do? Almost every house (in many of which I would be pleased to live) had a rusted out hunk of a vehicle in the driveway and a beautiful, new, shiny (and I imagine, leased) float plane at the dock in front.

Let me tell you one thing that the cruise companies will NOT tell you (and it's on purpose): Your "first day" is a freaking travel night mare! Do yourself a favor- fly into Seattle a day prior to your cruise departure!

Not only did we have a 6ish hour flight that started at O God O'Clock in the morning, East Coast Time, but we had to take a SeaTak airport train to the spot where we spent an hour-ish wait with our pink tickets for our bus to our cruise ship. THEN, we had a 40 minute on your feet wait to go up the escalator THEN we had a 1 hour wait to go to the window, THEN we had a 90 minute on your feet walk onto the cruise ship... our embarkation photo was the best photo taken of our group on the trip. and my eyes were closed. Do you need more info? Really? Do you?

I would have encouraged "Big Mama" to walk ahead of us in the line and sit on the occasionally provided benches until we caught up with her, but the French Polynesian family behind us (who out weighed us 4 to 1) kept bumping into us and talking crap about us - in French - in a most provocative manner that, had they been any "smaller" or had my sister and I been hammered, might have resulted in headlines and FOX News "Breaking news" moments. Jeez, those chicks were built like the proverbial brick shit houses!

Oh, call me a racist if you want, my sister was there.. she would back me up.....

Yeah, and note to those who speak French or a dialect thereof:..... French is more widely spoken than Spanish or English so if you are going to talk crap about the family in front of you in line to get on a cruise ship, you might consider for a nano second that those people could be multi lingual and understand when you talk about their fat mother is or how you think they are bitches even though your only social intercourse has been your own bad cellphone manners and lack of personal space. By the way, your Brobro's pareo is slipping and the theme of this cruise is NOT "Free Willy" ... if you get my drift...

sigh

But I digress.... So, the cruise was very nice, though I am accustomed to observing basic manners and dress codes and the rest of the ship seemed to have brought nothing but TShirts and dirty jeans. I kid you not.

The first night, my sister and I went to dinner, appropriately dressed, only to be sat at the "A" table. We couldn't imagine why the wait staff would seat us, two 40 something women in almost identical tunics and white slacks, until we realized that everyone around us was wearing ass-crack jeans, wife beater shirts and baseball cap, askew... no, sadly, I'm not kidding.

It didn't get any better as the trip wore on, so we stopped eating in the... "public" dining rooms and retired to the specialty restaurants (which cost extra but are worth it!).

Upon my return home, it might interest you t know that Big Daddy and I embarked on what we thought would be a 6ish week redo of our house. I may have mentioned it in a previous entry... the windows, siding and insulation...

Did I mention the lead paint? As in "we need to charge that $X thousand dollars extra for lead remediation. The results on your paint have the highest lead content we have ever encountered in the 25 years we've been doing business"?

I have so much material from "Demo Day One" that I could do a life long blog just on that one day. Let me tell you.... so, the shingle siding came off, the housewrap stuff came off, the plywood sheathing came off.... you know what was under all that? The original 300 year old battenboard siding. That came off.... and you know what was under that? Anyone? Anyone?

N-O-T-H-I-N-G

I know, you are all scratching your heads out there, thinking... whaddayamean, nothing?

The entire structural integrity of my house had... for lack of a better term... "Taken a Powder". A Powder Post Beetle, to be exact.

The contractors told us to move out (like yesterday) because the house was likely to fall down. The good Lord knows that it tried to fall down... on several occasions, but our lovely crew of incredibly talented and determined construction guys just pushed her back up and built temporary walls and braced others till the cows came home.

Can't tell you how many times people said to me - "It'll be cheaper to knock it down".

Can you imagine being the one to live in a crazy snowglobe New England town that loves all of it's "character" and you tear down the oldest house in town? Can you? Well NOT me!

So, our 6 week windows-siding-insulation project turned into a 4 month drama of rot, lead, carpenter ants, powder post beetles, no electricity in 1/2 the house, squirrels nests, asbestos, more asbestos and hey, do you know you have asbestos?

The lovely electrician made sure we had power to parts of our house where it mattered - kitchen, laundry and den. Big Daddy, determined not to be inconvenienced or displaced by our revolting and revolutionary home, ran a multitude of orange extension cords to lamps and fans so he could stay in our bedroom. I and MiniMe decamped to the den where we had a large AC in the window.

We made Tom Hanks and his "Money Pit" look like a day at the beach.

Because of the amount of structural "issues", the project had to go much more slowly (read: expensively) than anyone had anticipated: One Wall at a time. ugh.

I learned to fear comments such as "Change Order", "Engineer", "Based on what we've seen, we expect everything to go smoothly from here on out". It never did. Oh, and 2 of my very fave phrases: "I didn't want to put this in an email" and "Do you have a minute? I'd like to show you something.". Sister, (and bros) that last one just about put me over the edge. Drove me to tears. On more than one occasion

I absolutely lost my way the day the Project Manager said "uh, Don't know how to put this but you need a new roof over the mud room."

I swore at everyone. I stomped my feet. I put on a cry that rivaled "Asbestos Day".

I said..... "You know what? I'm not writing another check. Not. Another. Single. One! No. No NOOOOO. Not. Going. To. Happen. No.
Stop everything. Do not do one single thing more.... Pull off every single bit of siding from the back of this house. Tell me what more needs to be done, then we are going to ask Big Daddy to cut one O-N-E. more check. That is IT with Two T's. One more check."

Sigh

So, they stripped the entire back of my house to see what more might need to be done, what dramas would unfold, what horrors lurked below the innocent looking shingles.... Fortunately, the answer is nothing....
except, ofcourse, the aforementioned roof...

close your eyes... raise your eyebrows.... yeah... still that bad....

So, to conclude; never buy an antique house. No matter how "cozy" or "cool" it might sound. Don't do it!

I will be back with more... this is all I can give you for now.... I will be back soon... I'm not going to promise because you will just scoff at me and roll your eyes and I won't blame you!

What is Wrong With Me?

2013-01-30T16:37:00.002-08:00

I swear. I can NOT make chicken soup!

What is wrong with me?! Someone please tell me!

I google recipes for chicken souup. I read recipes for chicken soup.

I write them down. I study them.

I buy rotisserie chickens and styrofoam trays of cellophane wrapped "soup greens".

I buy cut up fryers organic, locally grown, dirty because they were just wrestled from the ground this morning veggies.

I buy bouillion (ew). I buy "Better Than Buillion" (YUM).

I buy chicken stock. I buy Organic Chicken Stock.

I buy Rachael Ray's Chicken Stock.

I buy College Inn Chicken Stock.

I buy wine. I try putting some in the soup.

I MAKE chicken stock from the present chicken and freeze it until I have the NEXT chicken.

And still! SUCKY CHICKEN SOUP!

sniff sniff.

My chicken always comes out dry.

The veggies never NEVER have any flavor or texture.

Big Daddy lives dangerously and claims that my Chicken Soup has no taste.

I add Salt!

I add Bouillion!

I add White Pepper!

I add Black Pepper!

I add Hot Sauce!

sigh

I hang my head in shame.

I can't make brownies from the box, either.

Nosey Children Beware!!!

2013-01-22T10:56:00.003-08:00

It has come to my attention that my teenage daughter (and a friend or two) has been cruising the pages of my blog, ladies!!!

Worse than that, she's using it as fodder to make fun of parents with her Posse!

What?!

Despite the fact that my blog is new, and rather short, as a Mom, I have ways of knowing what certain children (who trespass on their Mother's - or their friends' Mothers' - blogs) are up to.

This is Me glaring at You guys
~@@~

Fleece or Fleeced?

2012-12-01T05:48:00.001-08:00

Someone! Please, tell me! What has happened to FLEECE!!!???

Remember way back when, in the late 80's or early '90's when either Land's End or L. L. Bean introduced us to the new and innovative fabric called fleece? Remember?!

Fleece started out light,warm and, well, it looked bulky but it really wasn't...

Fleece was fleece back then. Actually, back then, it was all Polartec. And it was all produced at Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusettes, by "The Mensch of Malden", Aaron Feuerstein. You might remember that, in 1995, Mr. Feuerstein shot to fame for doing the right thing. A fire gutted Malden Mills, ceasing production of Polartec and put 1500 people out of work.

At that point, Mr. Feurestein could have chosen to move production to Asia and shut down the local, now ruined, mill. He didn't, though.... He repaired, rebuilt, and retooled - all the while paying his employees their regular salary and their medical insurance. Mike Wallace featured Mr. Feuerstein on the TV Show "60 Minutes" because of this, and when he asked Mr. Feuerstein why he had continued to pay his employees during the "hiatus", Mr. Feuerstein answered "Because it is the right thing to do."

"The right thing to do." Today, those words usually mean "The right thing to do for me" or "for my company" or "for the bottom line". How often these days do businesses - big businesses - do the right thing for their employees?

But I digress...

In the beginning fleece was one weight. There were a few "bejeweled" shades of color, mostly trimmed in different a "bejeweled" accent color. There was one fit. It was warm, it was soft and comfy. It was like wearing your favorite childhood "woobie" (no relation to the Sahalie catalog's uber soft garment) out in the open.

Sure, there were some challenges at first.
Everyone looked like an oompah-loompah because the bottom was trimmed with some elastic-y trim to keep it at your waist, rather than being hemmed so it might fit in a more flattering fashion.

Fleece was static-y as all get out! If you had long hair, it was always sticking up or flying away or, if a hair fell out, it gathered like birds nests in your fleece-y armpits. Try to kiss a fleece wearing friend and the two of you could end up with 2nd degree burns and a black out in the neighborhood.

Fleece could go from soft and smooth as your favorite blanket to shag rug rag in one wash, it attracted lint like a pair of black velvet pants in a white cat household. Once you figured out that the best way to wash it is to turn it inside out, do up any zippers or snaps, and toss it in, that challenge was conquered and you were good to go.

People started to want more from their fleece. They wanted the garment to be windproof, weather resistant, less bulky, more colors, warmer, cooler. Different manufacturers started using the fabric in different ways - lining jackets, outerwear "systems" (the multi layer garments where the fleece and other layers zip or button together, becoming more than one garment). Making it thinner, making it thicker... Making it out of recycled plastic soda bottles.

"Premium brands" like Helly Hansen, Marmot, and The North Face are other brands that offer fleece for "high performance" if you don't mind paying more and acting as a walking bill board. My hot pink Helly Hansen fleece is great, but it's made for the dog park - not the board room.

The stores have given us what we asked for - or have they? The last several fleece garments that I have purchased have been almost weightless. The fabric is so thin that it's nearly opaque. I bought an "active wear" fleece that turned out to be what I call "1/2 fleece" - the fuzz is only on the exterior, it's uber thin, and offers almost no insulation whatsoever.

I've purchased several fleece quarter zips for my husband, who often gets cold, only to receive the exact same garment with a different label in it. The material is too light and thin, the weave too loose to provide the desired insulation. In other words - he's still cold!

So, where is it? Where is the fleece we all know and love? Why has fleece become difficult to figure out? At the end of the day, I'm looking for a warm, comfortable, not terribly unflattering fleece to wear. WHY CAN'T I FIND IT????

Happy Thanksgiving, You Big Turkey!!!

2012-11-21T18:14:00.001-08:00

"Gobble, Gobble, Happy Thanksgiving, You Big Turkey!!!"

If you call my home at any point on Thanksgiving Day, this is the greeting you will get when I answer the phone. So my family RUNS to the phone in order to prevent me from answering in just this way.

One Thanksgiving Morning, many years ago, I picked up the ringing phone and answered it with my customary Turkey Day greeting.

A British Accent responded with "ahhhh... yes, ..... that little holiday that gives all of you Americans an excuse for another day off!".

Now, the company my husband worked for at the time had an office in London, and we were very friendly with his British colleagues, so I wasn't surprised when I heard someone "trying to take the chuff off" - especially on one of our best, biggest, most sacred holidays (hear THAT, Target??).

I said. "What's this? A bit of sour grapes, do I hear?!"..."Sad because you sit in the office while we sit at home, stuffing our selves and watching our favorite sport like Brits on Boxing Day?"... "By the way, what, exactly, do you all do over there on Thanksgiving? It's not like you can work because we are all at home. Is it like a British day of mourning? Do you spend time pondering the loss of a few million acres? The loss of all of that tax revenue? You know, the taxes for which some of my ancestors got no representation in Parliament? And therefore they had to open a big ole can o whoop'ass??"

The Brit on the other end of the line paused for a moment and responded "WHAT?! We were trying to HELP you!! You don't understand! Your ancestors were LOST, and we came to get you back to civilization!".

"Help us!" I said,barely able to stand up I was laughing so hard, "Help us! If YOUR ancestors were here to "help" us, then why were they CHASING us with all of those guns with the bayonettes on the ends?? They just wanted our money and our tobacco, and tried to tax the bejeezus out of our one comfort from home - TEA!!!"

The gentleman kindly explained to me that we were a very expensive, young colony, but he didn't expect me to understand that, as it is WIDELY known throughout Britain that the first subjects of The Colonies, were perhaps not the most shining stars of HRH George's subjects. The "first ones" were rather ... well, of narrow breeding, lacked education, sophistication, culture and a level of taste that one would have found in a higher bred example of the British Subject.

I thought about that for a few beats... "You mean the ones you left behind? Those British Subjects?! The ones who were too dumb to get back on HRH's scows before they RAN back to England?"

We both burst into laughter at that, and then a moment I will never forget occured.... sigh...

I said "Hang on, Paul, I'll get Big Daddy for you".

And the Brit said. "aha. uh. well. hem... I'm ... it would seem... This is actually "Sir Topham Hat" from "One of the Most Important Companies" in Big Daddy's industry." He didn't say those actual words but as names have been changed to protect the guilty, that's the best way to explain it.

Well, if you don't think I about swallowed my tongue, that my scalp felt like it was on fire, that my heart dropped right out of my body and went splat on the floor and that my eyes rolled back into my head, you would be wrong! I actually had to steady myself by putting my hand on the wall. My knees were weak.

My voice broke as I stammered..."OH. Uh... I'm so sorry, I mistook you for "Don Smith" from Big Daddy's London Office. I.... I... I really hope I haven't offended you in anyway. Please PLEASE don't hold it against Big Daddy... hang on!"

So I run like the blazes to the bottom of the stairs, and "whisper yell" up the stairs "GETTHEPHONE, GETTHEPHONE, GETTHEPHONE!!!"

It's Sir Topham Hat and I may have mistakenly caused an international incident. I'm sooooooo sorrrryyyyy."

Ofcourse, Big Daddy is looking at me with those big "What the He!! have you done!" eyes, runs to the phone and picks up.

I ran to the den, sat on the couch, curled up in the fetal position, covered my face, and rocked like a lunatic until he came down stairs for the "explanation".

I heard him coming, his bare feet slapping on the tile floor. I wanted more than anything at that moment to just have the floor open up and swallow me whole.

Fortunately for me, the gentleman I had been speaking to, really was a gentleman, and my husband wanted to know why Sir Topham Hat was worried about the possibility of having offended ME.

He explained to Big Daddy that we'd been having a friendly laugh about that skirmish of 1776 (and again in 1812) that resulted in our Nations "parting ways" in a not so amicable way, though we have since come to an understanding....

Whew! This is one reason I thank the Lord for Caller I.D.!

Well, Gobble Gobble, Happy Thanksgiving, You Big Turkey!

My Love for L. L. Bean

2012-11-17T04:57:00.002-08:00

I am not receiving any recognition or compensation from L. L. Bean for this post. Just want to say that up front. Because I loooooove L.L. Bean!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! There's a link below. Go there. Shop. Be one with the Bean.

I can't tell you exactly when I became aware of L.L. Bean, it's just always been part of my life. When I was a kid, Dad would take hunting trips to Maine with his buddies and midnight stops at L.L. Bean in Freeport were a part of that tradition. Dad brought home stuffed animals, kid sized snow shoes (the old school kind made of wood and tanned leather), birch bark Moose calls, and one time a basket backpack "just like the Indians used to use". That basket was awesome and I loved it.

The L.L. Bean catalog was in my home just as often as the Sears Christmas Book catalog.

I poured through the pages to look at the hunting gear, the camping gear, the fishing gear. Oh, what I wouldn't do for a split bamboo fly rod!!!

And the clothes! The fairisle sweaters (and sweater dresses), the patch madras dresses and skirts, the great coats and the shooooeeess..... sigh... penny loafers with leather soles, hand made in Maine. And you could really put a penny in them (though the style at the time was to use dimes so you'd have money for a phone call - take that whippersnappers!).

My very first "on my own" purchase from L. L. Bean was a pair of penny loafers, a pair of the uber stylish Bean boots (6" and there were no color options then), and a navy blue "Norwegian Fisherman's Sweater". Believe it or not, I still have that sweater. I think it might even fit.

I remember that I saved the money from my first job - scooping ice cream at Charlie's -and gave it to my Mom who wrote a check for me. There were no shipping fees then, and if you went into the store the prices were exactly the same as in the catalog. Because L.L. Bean picked up the shipping fees, they didn't have a toll-free number and I used to know their number by heart. The area code is 207.

When I filled out the order form for my first order, I wasn't really sure of my shoe size so I called the customer service number. The kind lady at the other end of the phone told me to trace my foot and they'd figure it out. She reminded me that I'd have to do it twice as I wouldn't wear heavy socks with the loafers, but I would with the boots. I traced, Beans figured, the shoes fit.

I placed the envelope for my order in the mail box while I was waiting for the school bus and 2 weeks later I had my stuff. The sweater, the shoes, the boots (which are still made in Maine) ... everything was of a great quality.

The penny loafers died a noble death on the streets of NYC when the sole ripped and the cobbler told me "these-a good shoes but you need-a buy new".

The Bean boots lasted for 30 years. I did have to have the leather resewn onto the boot once, and then I replaced the boot. Unfortunately, then the leather rotted out while I was living in the Tropics.

The Beans pledge of taking anything back at any time for any reason is still in effect. They have reinstituted the "free shipping" policy, and their merchandise is well priced.

If you wonder where to do your shopping this Christmas, I suggest you go to www.LLBean.com and go wild! Be One With the Bean!!!

Today. Sigh.

2012-11-07T09:35:00.003-08:00

So, we just lived through Mega Storm Sandy, my heart is so heavy from current events that I can hardly see straight, and it's snowing (about which I am happy), so I can't go on my "safari" to the Christmas Tree Store (about which I am NOT happy).

I'm going to the library to return the books I took our for Sandy and to stock up for this Nor'easter. sigh.

This soup is what I'm making for dinner. I will chop up a ham steak and mix it in after I use my immersion blender to make the soup a little smoother - and to hide the actual amount of broccoli my child is ingesting

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/11/broccoli-cheese-soup/

I hope this link isn't a no - no since I'm being clear about where this recipe came from!

Keep on Gruve'n and be extra nice to your friends. They love you and everyone deserves to be happy.

Baked Ziti

2012-11-06T23:28:00.000-08:00

Hello.

I spent yesterday with a the local kids from a social organization that MiniMe belongs to.

I made lunch for them.

Some of the members are teen aged boys.

So I made 100 pounds of baked ziti.

And they ate 75 pounds of it.

I have questions -

Why are teen aged boys given the metabolism I pray for?

What should I do with the other 25 pounds of baked ziti?

Why oh why, does my baked ziti go dry?! (I did not do the recommended al dente, either, I cooked that pasta!)

Why are corner brownies so much better than the rest of the pan?

I know. I KNOW!

2012-11-03T18:21:00.002-07:00

I know, I got you all riled up and some of you read my words and some of you even came back time and again, One of you entered my contest -which my sister did not because she could not remember her log in... to her sister's own blog... hmmmm... Dr. Freud, what say you?- and if my sister had entered, she would have been disqualified as she knows someone "at the top".

One of you sent me reminders that my posts might be stuck in draft state. I loved that the best because the writer doesn't know me "IRL" (that's in real life) and was trying so hard to tell me how to possibly fix it, without coming out and telling me I might not know what I'm doing (which is frequently the case) and simply stripping out my password and fixing herself. You are a doll face!

I love ya all.... I do, in fact, have several posts stuck in draft stage. Because they're still drafts. Because they're not finished. Because I had a VERY TRAUMATIC SUMMER.

First off, I have to say that everyone is OK. I am still married and my husband has started speaking to me again. If I call him at work, he has stopped sending my calls to voicemail and texting back "How Much This Time?".

Can you guess what happened? R-E-N-O-V-A-T-I-O-N.

So, if you read here, you know that I bought an old house. The house of my, my sister's, my mother's, and my grand mother's dreams. I bought a 1720 built Dutch Colonial in - hand to ear for your chorus: "The quintessential New England town"! Exactly!

By the way, a Dutch Colonial is also called a "Gambrel Roof Colonial". I really must figure out how to put pictures on this thing because words are not adequate to relate what happened here.

I'm thinking of writing a book about it: "My Renovation or What the Hell Just Happened Here?"

So, my neighbors found a contractor for their house and I watched the crew come in at 745 every morning and work until it was too dark. THEN they would clean up and come home and do it all over again the next day. There was a Project Manager on site every day, the contractor had a special website to communicate (also known as the Portal to Hell where the Change Orders, Invoices and Pictures were posted), they have a great relationship with their trades. Could you ask for anything more?

So, off Big Daddy and I went to the Contractor's Office. We'd like one round of Windows, Siding, Insulation, please! I had watched the workers put a shingle roof on the house next door - it went on in 2 days! They re-sided the back of the house in 1 day! How difficult could my house be?

What? What's that bump on the side of my house? Ignore that bump. Just don't look at it.

So, the Contractor does an extensive amount of research to give us a proposal. Contractors come, window guys measure, for some reason the designer came by and took pictures of wood trim and threatened to call "hoarders" on me.Let me tell you, I thought that was hilarious.

I told him "Listen, Mr. Mid Century Modern - Zen is a style of gardening! That may look like old stuff to you, but it's a style called "Early American Pack rat" and you should find an appreciation for it!". He didn't do any actual work on my project (since we were doing nothing interior) which is fine, but we continued to make fun of each other.

So Big Daddy and I go to the Contractor's Office for the "Big Reveal" of the proposed project and the contract. When I tell you that my eyes rolled into the back of my head and I broke out in a sweat, and I thought I was going to barf on that table, the language is not too strong, I promise you.

The Hizzle done fizzled my shizzle..

Of course, Big Daddy and I have been accustomed to doing one project at a time which one usually has a financial grasp for what's coming down the pike. We chose to do 3 (2 major 1 not so major) projects at once. They kind of had to be done at the same time so we would get the optimal seal around all the openings (I mean how much sense does it make to do siding then rip the windows out?).

Then the workers found a prodigious amount of lead paint. Now, lead paint one should expect from a 300 year old house, but "the most heavy concentrated lead paint we have ever encountered in the 25 years we have been in business" kind of lead paint set the stage for the entire project (little did I know). And it wasn't just on the trim. It was on the clapboards we found under the shingles on the entire front of the house, as well as on 75% of each side of the house.

So, of course, that had to be taken care of in the most upright, state certified kind of way - read: Expensive.

Big Daddy nearly blew me away when he whipped out the check book and calmly wrote the first of many many many checks. I swear to God, if we knew then what we know now, I PROMISE you we would have sold this place in a flash. Even at a loss.

So we drove home in one of those "Oh my God, I know he's beyond mad at me right now, please don't make me talk to him" silences. I had my hands over my face the entire ride and my jaw was clenched and despite the air being on "arctic" I was sweating up a storm. That's how big the number was.

I would have moved into one of the brand spanking new great big houses with 5 bedrooms that I turned my nose up at when we were house hunting. Why did I turn my nose up at one of those houses with crown molding and shiny granite counters and professional stoves and soaking tubs the size of a small swimming pool, and a 3 car garage that looked like it fell off the screen of House Hunters? Mostly because I didn't want to spend the money on furniture or to heat it for just the 3 of us. They all had forced air heat and I can't stand that stuff. Give me a big old cast iron radiator any day! Now that's heat!

But I digress.... So, because we are living in the house during the renovation (apparently the contractor is used to people who move out), they are doing the project in 3 stages, the front and sides of the house, the garage area and the side of the garage, then the back of the house.

The day comes, the guys arrive, the dumpster (1st of 3) is delivered, the scaffolding is erected and the siding starts to come off one side and the front. Most of the windows are removed, and the very odd, old and not as sturdy looking as I had imagined it siding underneath the shingles is exposed. As is the aforementioned unmentionable "bump". hmf.

Day two comes and it's the first of several "Lead Removal Days". Very large "Poison" signs are posted in my yard, driveway, and on various places in the interior of my home. hmf. Of course it was 800 degrees and there my guys are in the hot sun, wearing Tyveck suits (head to toe), respirators and goggles. I'm sure they loved me at that moment. The offending siding starts to come off, and then the quiet of lunch time arrives. Except I look at my watch (yes I still wear one) and I realize it's 2 hours to lunch. hmf.

So, I have a secret stash of icy cold water meant to convince the workers that I was not so bad, after all.

I walk out my front door and there were a lot more people than I expected. I found my project manager, the senior project manager, the owner of the General Contracting company, the head of the construction crew, an additional construction crew, a man who was introduced to me as Sam from the environmental company and Steve. Steve was the engineer. I was fine until I heard the word engineer. I looked at the owner of the GC. Nobody was smiling. They were not here for a tour of my very cool, authentic colonial house. I turned around and looked at the house and saw what they were looking at.

Oh. My.

So, The wall with the bump on it - not actually attached to the house (this would explain the draft in the cold front room last winter). That unmentionable bump? the main joist between 1st and 2nd floor had actually rotted through, which is why the wall wasn't attached to the house.

The sills were completely rotted through on 3 sides, the corner posts on the front of the house needed to be replaced (these were not completely unexpected), NONE of the studs rested on the sill - instead they'd rotted away and were "fixed" by someone who nailed a stick to what was left of the studs and rested it on the rotted out sill, this is how my house was being held up.

The joists in the basement - the authentic300 yr old logs that had been trees, felled and seasoned and finished and laid by hand - upon which the weight of my house rested - wre writhing with suddenly not dormant powder post beetles. Seriously. I kid you not. It gets better.

So, the entire south and front wall of my house has to be rebuilt. all of the joists in my basement need to be replaced, it's 800 degree end of July/ early August, we are LIVING IN THIS HOUSE, and the GC says to me, "You know you have a lot of asbestos down there, right? A lot? Define "a lot".

I know there is some asbestos, as in those sleeves on heating pipes, which are wrapped and coated and which we have absolutely no plans whatsoever to ever touch. Well, joke's on me! Turns out that we ARE going to have to touch those heating pipes because they have to be moved for the new sills.

Oh, do you know your oil tanks (yes, that's tank S as in 2) are leaking and need to be replaced? like now? Well, yes in fact I did know that because the man from my oil company who came to clean the furnace 2 days before you started told me about it and very kindly stopped my oil deliveries so I wouldn't have 600 gallons of heating fuel in my basement. I plan to attend to that after this project because I know darn well that my boiler guy (not the oil guy) is going to be one hell of a lot cheaper than the contractor, and because he gave me the idea to replace the 2 old tanks with one big one. Read: Cheaper.

Well, that's all well and good, but it turns out that there are pipes above the tanks that the workers will have go get at. Oh, and the ceiling boards above the tanks and boiler are asbestos. And the area above the asbestos ceiling boards is pumped full of vermiculite, which is also known to be a carcinogen. And we believe the pipes in there are also wrapped in Asbestos (of course it was).

And you are going to have to move out because your house is going to be mostly without power for several weeks.

Well, if you don't think I just stood there in front of the 27 men in my front yard and let the water works go... deep heaving no hold 'em sobs... you would be mistaken. I could not stop crying into my sleeve. and wiping my eyes with the tail of my dirty button down. The GC kept asking if I wanted to take a break to "gather myself". I asked him if the "tour" was going to get any better and when he couldn't reply in the affirmative, well I tell you what, I just said "oh just keep going"... I'm pretty sure he got a snot bubble or two.

Ok, I'm exhausted. I just lived through Hurricane Sandy and my fellow Americans are only looking as far as their own non working ice makers and travel plans. I'd like to knock some of them into next Tuesday or maybe Thursday. They should watch a little of the news from Staten Island or Long Beach Island or Breezy Point, which has already lost so much and see how unimportant their "problems are".

Plus the wound is still fresh and it's difficult for me to relive too much of this summer at any one time.

so I will see you soon. I will
I promise!

I'm going to prove it by not even putting this into draft state for a proof read, so don't give me a tough time about my mistakes! I am going to spell check though.

sigh.

Good night I hope you are all well.

Recipes - To Share or Not to Share????

2012-08-04T16:30:00.002-07:00

I just finished reading the book "Angelina's Bachelors" by Brian O'Reilly. It was a quick read/ chick lit/ mind candy book that I didn't love, but didn't dislike. It took me all of overnight to read.. I'll review it more in depth another time though, because this post isn't really about the book. It's about the question.

Normally, I don't go to the back of a book and read the "Book Club Discussion Points" because I don't belong to a book club and if I like a book enough, I don't need the publisher telling me how to discuss it. I will already have plenty to say.

In this case, I just happened to flip to the back and one question caught my eye: "Angelina is furious when Amy passes off a store bought cake as her own. Why does this anger [Angelina] so much? How would you have reacted?"

Now, this is no spoiler, so you won't mind my posting it here. The scene is set pretty clearly and it's a minor scene in the book.

But the question - as well as the passage in the book - reminded me of something that happened many years ago and I wonder why I still remember it. And why it still bothers me.

When we were first married, Big Daddy and I became friendly with another couple in our neighborhood. We'll call them Martha and Jack.

Young couples just starting out were a rarity in the 'hood, so it was nice to have someone else to hang with. Martha and I did small decorating projects together (small as in re upholstering a tag sale sofa using 1/2 price fabric, a glue gun and a staple gun), and Jack and Big Daddy would figure out how to patch our stucco houses, change exterior porch lights, caulk bath tubs, or assemble grills.

We thanked each other for the free labor and creative input by cooking for one another at the end of the project or the day. On "Grill Assembly Day" we were promised ribs, but due to technical issues (not reading the directions) we got pizza. That's one day that I was truly disappointed.

When I have people to dinner, I frequently serve a dessert that we call "Wedding Pie" as that was the desert at Big Daddy's and my wedding. It's tasty, easy and refreshing. I'm waffling on giving out that recipe... you'll see why....

So, I cooked for Martha and Jack a few times and they - like everyone - loved this dessert. Martha asked me for the recipe, which I happily gave to her without a second thought. Our friendship and co-opting of talents continued, and we all made more and more friends and acquaintances around the neighborhood.

About a year or so after befriending Martha and Jack, another couple that we'd gotten to know invited us to a lovely cookout. I offered to bring something and the hostess asked if I would bring a salad. Sure! No problem! Happy to help!

I went to the store, bought a couple of bags of salad, some tomatoes, a can of artichokes, a can of hearts of palm, a bag of croutons and some dressing. It was unremarkable but easy and it was what the hostess had asked for. I threw it in a bowl and bopped on over to my friends' soiree.

I went to put my unremarkable salad on the buffet as directed by the hostess, and.... my oh my, encountered what looked like 3 wedding pies! huh. To be honest, I was a little stunned. I was seeing Wedding Pies but they weren't Wedding Pies because I did not make them. Who made them? Who made Wedding Pie?

Yes, you probably guessed it several paragraphs ago; Martha had gladly volunteered to make the pies.

Now, Martha wasn't bad at making those pies. They were just as good as mine... after all, it was my recipe. The one I got from my Mother, who is the person that made all of those Wedding Pies for my Wedding Day and many other occasions.

To be honest, Wedding Pie is a fruit tart for which I'll bet the recipe was found in a magazine many many years ago. However, the fact that I had never, ever encountered anyone outside my family who actually makes that exact pie..... sniff... that couldn't mean anything, could it???

I do feel the need to point out that Martha used a frozen topping, not the fresh whipped cream that I always make to go with Wedding Pie.

20+ years later, though,what I think about is the fact that while the pies were praised high and low and around the world by the rest of the guests, Martha never let on that it wasn't her recipe, but did admit it was the first time she'd used it. She was very coy while accepting praise and compliments. I heard her once claim that it was "a family recipe". She just didn't say whose family.

I stood there and watched. She saw me watching. She didn't acknowledge a thing to me and I didn't say a word about it to her. I felt a wall go up between us. I suppose that I could have "outed" her, but I chose not to. I'm not sure what that would have accomplished.

After that, I started to notice a trend of similar inconsistencies in Martha's manner. Small non disclosures, half truths, dishonestys and omissions that just hinted at a much larger hole in the moral fiber of this supposed friend, than passing off a friend's simple recipe as her own.

Several weeks after that party, I was invited to another pot luck dinner and (cross my heart) without thinking, I volunteered to bring my "Wedding Pie". I arrived with the pie and the fresh whipped cream - none of that frozen stuff.

When the dish appeared at the end of the meal another guest exclaimed "Oh, you made Martha's Pie!". I felt a sensation in my scalp that made me think my hair had spontaneously combusted. I felt my face freeze, I saw an unattractive shade of crimson and my neck hurt from the way my head whipped around to address the speaker.

I responded "Oh, I hope you like it! We had it at our wedding instead of cake... I guess Martha liked it, too!". I said nothing more about it, just hoped that the message was clear.

Time moves on and here I am, 20 years later. Though I haven't been in contact with Martha and Jack for at least 15 of those years, I still remember this incident and I have to say that, when the memory is tickled up from the back of my brain, I wonder why. Why do I remember it? Why does it still annoy me? And mostly..... what is Martha doing with my recipe????

Cool as a Cucumber Salad

2012-08-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

If you are like me, and you have a scary garden, you might have planted a few cucumber seeds last Spring.

Maybe you planted 5 seeds and they grew. And you were pleased.

And the cucumbers grew some more. And you were very pleased. Because you like cucumbers and were excited to be able to not spend money on something you buy every single week throughout the year.

And then you went on vacation for two weeks.

And you came home to find that those 5 seeds took over your garden and swallowed your house.
My house is fine, but only just. The cucumber vines are watching me. I can feel them. They are waiting to make their move.

Big Daddy had a great idea this year, he took a section of mesh fencing and a couple of old, metal fence stakes, and made a sort of an angled trellis for the cucumbers. He trained the vines to grow on the trellis so that the cucumbers don't sit on the ground and rot. The cucumbers dangle through the fencing and grow really, really, really big.

They grow really big, very, very, very quickly. They are almost zucchini like in their size and number.

Fortunately, Big Daddy works with a lady who has a teen aged son. The lady refers to her son as "Hoover". I don't think he's named for President Hoover, I think he just inhales every bit of food in her house.

I hope her son doesn't decide not to like cucumbers. If he does, I'm going to have to set up a farm stand at the end of my driveway and you will see me on the news because I don't have a license or permit to do so and the town will come down on me and I will have to call the news channels to come and document my liberties being squashed (or in this case "cuked").

Just so you know, if that does happen, and you see me and my house on TV, we are renovating. I don't really live in a burned out meth lab. It just looks that way. There is no way to dress up a dumpster.

So, if you, like me, have a plethora of cucumbers, here is a simple, inexpensive and versatile salad for your end of summer dinners, picnics and par-tays.

If you come up with your own yummy version, won't you come back and share it with us?

Ingredients:

2 large cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise and sliced as thinly as possible
8 oz Sour Cream (whole fat, skim, no fat, it's up to you)
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
Salt and Pepper to taste
Optional: herbs of your choice - I use Dill Weed (dried)

In a large bowl (because you need room to stir it up), place the cucumber slices and the onions.
Sprinkle with Salt and Pepper.
Dump the Sour Cream on top
Stir thoroughly to combine
Sprinkle in some Dill Weed or whatever dried herb will enhance the delicate flavor of the cucumber and stir again.

Cover tightly and refrigerate for a while . Stir again before serving.

When you remove it from the fridge, the salt will have made the cucumbers sweat so it might look watery. This is completely normal and will thin the sour cream out a bit, which is desirable.

Consume with in a day or two, stirring before serving/ eating.

ENJOY!

Time's Up! Nifty Gifty Giveaway Winner!

2012-07-31T21:56:00.001-07:00

And the winner of my first ever Giveaway is Poster #1, Sheila!

I have sent you an email. Congrats on winning 8 large scallop shells in which you can make my Gaga's Stuffed Clams!

Warmly,
GruvEMom

The Summer Cold

2012-07-30T12:55:00.003-07:00

Who ever came up with the term "Cold" for the illness that now prevails in my body? The fever, the sore throat, the stuffy brain and head. It is not a "Cold" it is a plague - a PLAGUE, I tell you!!!

I happen to prefer the term one might encounter in a Jane Austen novel; "Ague" (though I think in P&P, Jane aught a "Chill" when she went to visit her boyfriend's sisters).

I don't know how to say "Ague". Is it "Ache"? or "AgUh"? or "Age" with a hard g? Whatever way it's said, "Ague" looks good. I think the Modern day term, I believe, is "ugh". And that sums it all up.

As we all know, these things usually last a couple of days, so I'm sure this will go away soon.

I hope you are all healthy and enjoying your summer.

ugh.

Stuffed Clams a la Gaga - and my First Ever Giveaway!!!

2012-07-24T13:21:00.003-07:00

I'm giving complete credit for this recipe to my Gaga, who cooked everything for us that was ever worth eating. She made these stuffed clams every 4th of July.

The stuffed clams, fresh out of the oven, fragrant with sage and butter and clams, each contained in it's own real clam shell, were the highlight of our annual family 4th of July at my Grandparents' house on the lake. These clams are one of those foods of summer. The kind of food that got the kids out of the water, the Moms out of the kitchen, and the Dads away from the explosive devices. Serious 4th of July food.

Every summer, Big Daddy, MiniMe and I spend 2 weeks by the sea. Usually, we are there in June, after school lets out and before the tourists descend. This year, end of school was delayed because the beginning of school was delayed, so we had 4th of July in the middle of our vacation.

Fourth of July 2012 was Big Daddy's and my 20th Wedding Anniversary. Where, did the time go? We don't look all that different from the day we pledged our troth (ok, I admit, different glasses and color from a bottle). It feels like it was just last week....

Because we were going to be on vacation, because it was our anniversary, and because we felt like it, we decided to have a 4th of July party. A real party. We still did the cooking and decorating and cleaning up, but we had invites printed with a "RSVP" which we sent to most of our friends, old and new.

Though I had never made Gaga's stuffed clams before, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try them. They were a hit! I didn't have the quahog shells, like Gaga had, but I made do with some scallop shells I found on the docks where the local scallop fishermen dump them on a regular basis.

Here's the recipe. I hope you have a summer party for which you can make them, too! Or, if you are feeling beachy this Christmas, maybe they'd make a good appetizer for your holiday feast.

Please don't ever admit that there are no fresh clams in this recipe. I never have and I never will!

Oh, and warning - this recipe's got some Paula Deen amount of butter in it so beware!

You will need:
1 15oz Can Clam Chowder not "Ready to Eat"(Gaga used Campbell's which I couldn't find. I used 1/2 can Chunky brand)

1 Can Progresso White Clam Sauce

1 16oz box Ritz Crackers

1/2 C Parsley finely chopped

1 egg

1tsp ground Sage

Pepper

Paprika

1 Stick Butter

1) Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F and place the rack just above the middle position -NOT at the broil position!

2) Remove sleeves of crackers from the box and roll and crush them to bits before opening packages and dumping into a medium bowl with the Clam Chowder. Using an electric mixer, mix cracker crumbs and chowder until they come together

3) Add the White Clam Sauce, the Pepper, the Parsley, and the Sage and mix thoroughly. The mixture will have the consistency and appearance of oatmeal. Don't hold it against me. I promise you, it will taste better than it looks at this point. PROMISE!!!

4) Spoon the mixture into individual clam shells or scallop shells, if you can find them. The amount of stuffing per shell depends on the size of the shell. I used an ice cream scoop to fill the scallop shells. Put about 1/4 Tbsp of butter on each clam (1/2 Tbsp for scallops), then sprinkle with Paprika. Place them all on a baking sheet - it's ok if they are crowded.

5) Pop clams into the preheated oven and Bake 5-6 minutes for clam shells, I baked the scallops for 10 - 12 minutes. The tops will be nicely golden brown when ready. If you aren't sure, poke a fork into the biggest, fattest one and make sure the fork comes out hot.

Eat 'em up with a fork and a smile!!

ENJOY!!!

Disclaimer: I have no commercial, personal or impersonal relationship with any of the above referenced brand names. They don't know me from Adam!

I used about 10-12 large scallop shells (6 ins across) or maybe 20-24 large clam shells for the above recipe. Be prepared to replace the shells every so often. They get thrown out by mistake, taken home as a souvenir of a great day, or sometimes (ew) used as an ashtray. The edges of the shells can be fragile, so they break easily as well.

When you get them home, scrub the shells with whatever you use to scrub a pot, then run them through the dishwasher. You can put them in the silverware basket if they won't stay in the racks.
If you get scallop shells, they should be about the size of a cocktail plate - put them in the top rack.

I know you are going to want to know - "WHERE DO I GET SHELLS????" If you aren't by the sea or near a fishing port, find a raw bar or a sea food market and ask if you can have a bunch of their cast off shells.

Giveaway: Because my collection of shells is readily replenished, because it's Tuesday, and because I've never done it before, I will give 8 of my Scallop Shells to a randomly selected entrant.

Or, if there's only one entrant, they get it. US shipping addresses only, please!

Just leave a creative comment below by next 11:59 PM Tuesday, July 31, 2012! I will announce the winner on Wednesday, August 1st.

May the odds be forever in your favor!

I'm Back!

2012-07-20T05:16:00.002-07:00

Wow, I can not believe I last posted on May 31! How can I make it up to you? I'd invite you over for tea but it's like Hell outside, so we should all stay in our airconditioned pods for the time being!

All I can tell you is that Memorial Day hit and all Heck broke loose in the GruvE World. Not in a bad way, just in an end of the school year/ summer's here/ let's renovate the house way... Yikes... I'll post more individually but here are some of the highlights of the last 2ish months

Father's Day - This entails not one but 2 weekends of Father related events as I invite my Dad to have a special day the week before FD, so Big Daddy can have a special day with just his girls

End of School - Field Day which was postponed twice then cancelled due to weather.

Eighth Grade Class Night - MiniMe's class served and cleared at this annual celebration it was one night so why did it seem to take up so much of my time???

Final Exams - I didn't take them but again, where did my time go?

Splash into Summer - FINALLY the last day of school came - 10 days later than originally scheduled, what with unusual August hurricanes and October blizzards - On the last day of school, I loaded up the Subaru "Animal House" style with MiniMe's classmates and we headed home for a day of splashing. She has a tiny class - 19 kids so I wasn't over whelmed. I hired a lifeguard to guard their lives and they played a wild game of ... you won't believe it ... Duck, Duck, Goose. I kid you not.

2 days later, we left for our family vacation - 2 weeks of living by the sea. Fortunately, we have amazing, happy and wonderful new neighbors. Unfortunately, they celebrated the purchase of their new home with a complete renovation - just like the amazing, happy and wonderful new neighbors we have at home. My vacation was filled with the same construction sounds as my life has been full of for a year.

We took 2 of MiniMe's friends with us.... wow.... teenage dynamics and spending time with other people's children.

4th of July - my favorite Holiday! Celebration of all that is good and wonderful - our country! Also my 20th wedding anniversary. Where did the time go? WHERE??? We had a fun get together with friends old and new. It was a PERFECT DAY!

Home from vacation and MiniMe and I packed up (again) and took off for an Alaskan cruise with GrandMa for her annual "Grandma's Great Adventure". This is usually a trip for just GrandMa and MiniMe but this year, Auntie and GruvEmom decided we needed to be there! Our motto for the trip: "Social Selectivity is not an Anti Social behavior!"

Remind me to tell you about the Alaskan activities and shopping that I liked!

Why does Harry Styles wear a beanie?

Home from the cruise and 1 meeting with Project Manager for our Siding/windows/ insulation - more on that later, 1 appointment at the Orthodontist (yeesh - 2 more in August) 1 meetup with my Aunt to send GrandMa onto the next leg of her trip.

Monday the Contractors show up - It has come to my attention that I signed a contract with them that allows them to be at my house from 7 am to 7 pm 7 days a week - to replace the windows/ siding and insulation in My Old House. What was I thinking? Next time I'm buying a condo.

Books Read:"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children", "The Icing on the Cupcake", and "The Flight of Gemma Hardy". Reviews on those eventually!

Ok, so I have to get to work, take the kid who has a cough to the Pediatrician because ofcourse we were in the North West for all of 10 seconds and now we find out that there is a huge outbreak of Whooping Cough up there.

Pray for me. Or light a candle. Or just give me an extra 6 hours in every day. I need a nap!

Flour Tortilla Buildup.....

2012-05-31T08:25:00.001-07:00

I went grocery shopping the other day and came home with a ridiculously small amount of food for an enormously ridiculous amount of money.

Is it just me, or are groceries getting more expensive? I mean, really more expensive? I don't think it's just me. Thank goodness Big Daddy and MiniMe planted a garden ... ofcourse the chipmunks will be eating better than the family....

So, I came home to put the sacred offerings and ingredients away in the fridge. As I'm moving stuff about, I realize that I've got 3 different open packages of flour tortillas. I mighta bought tortillas for enchiladas, but I'm not sure. I probably used a kit for that.....

Now, I use the tortillas for Fajitas which all of my family members can, will and love to eat. All 3 of us eating exactly the same thing at exactly the same time is some kind of red letter meal in my house.

Anyway, I do want to make Fajitas, but in the mean time, what the heck do I do with 7 flour tortillas of different sizes and "use by" dates?

Steak quesadillas for my lunch today! woo hoo!

Heat - Not The Movie

2012-05-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

New England has not mastered the art of Central Air Conditioning, people!

Can you imagine that Pilgrims and Puritans wore all of those layers of clothing plus kept a fire going in the hearth 24 hours a day?

Hot! ssssooooo HOT!

Drink plenty o' water and try to keep cool....
Gruve On

What Are You Reading Now?

2012-05-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

I'm still reading/ working my way through Julia Cameron's "Right to Write", and enjoying it. (Thank You, Lisa).

However, occasionally I feel a need for the literature that I call "Mind Candy". Ok, mostly what I read could be labeled "Mind Candy" ... a zip-through-it reads that I pulled off the "new fiction" shelf at my local library.

My current selection: "The Maid of Fairbourne Hall" by Julie Klassen.

Privileged and pampered Margaret flees her home and evil Stepfather who plans to marry her off to a cousin or some such, so the SF can control a large inheritance that Margaret will come into at her next birthday.
Margaret poses as Nora, a lady's maid, and ends up working in the house of brothers - both former suitors of Margaret. Of course the scene is 18 something England, full of costumes, mob caps, corsets (really, people?) and clean reputations.

I'll let you know how it goes!

If you don't check in until after the holiday weekend have a Happy Memorial Day

"Remember, Salute, Honor"

Love
GruvEMom - DAR - God Home and Country

What are You Reading Now

2012-05-23T14:45:00.001-07:00

I just finished Meagan Donohue's first novel called "How to Eat a Cupcake". All I can say is if you are going to talk about all of those fanciful flavors, a person could put a recipe or two in the back of the book. Just sayin'. Otherwise, it was a quick, cute, chick-lit read. And we have a Crumbs bakery in town.

They stock Red Velvet and know me by my first name. sigh.

Over and Out.
Gruve

My Day in "The Preppy Handbook"

2012-05-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

(Updated 4/12/2013)

Have you ever had an experience that was sort of like an out of body experience but not really?
An experience that, at one point or another, left you thinking or saying: "Wow. This stuff really does happen!"? Like a scene from a movie or a play, or maybe you meet someone who reminds you of a character from a book, or someone whom your grandparents knew when you were growing up.... "Whoa, that guy was Charlie Chesley reborn!".

Every once in a while, MiniMe will get a many labeled package that was sent from some far corner of the known or unknown universe. Puppets and theaters from Czechoslovakia, dirndles and skirts from Bavaria or a "rare" Webkin from Ebay - it can be like a scene out of "Mame". Sometimes I get a little worried when I see the boxes arrive.... remember when "Auntie Mame" sent her nephew, Patrick a GIANT hindu statue at his college fraternity?

I know my sister. You'd worry, too!

MiniMe is a member of a kids' philanthropic organization. I'm so proud of her! When asked, I took on a "Senior" roll with MiniMe's branch of the organization. I don't get to stand in the rain at 8am on a Saturday like a Soccer Mom, but I do have to smile and look pretty for formal dances that start at 12:30AM.

This is not easy after a full day of driving to the event, several hours of business meetings and a marathon banquet, but I try to do it in style... I really do!

But I digress....

Who remembers "The Preppy Handbook" by Lisa Birnbach? 1982?

Anyone? Anyone? (and who gets THAT reference???)

As you may recall, I live in the Ground Zero, Preppicenter of the universe. Yes, Muffy, I see you over there in the corner! Where DID you get those whale pants?!

I was asked to make a presentation about MiniMe's group, in hopes of increasing membership at a newer branch of the group in a nearby community.

Today, I went to do my best at a lunch meeting that was held at a local Country Club.

Let's review the major talking points: Preppicenter, Lunch Meeting, Country Club.

I think you are with me. Are you with me?

I sat between 2 lovely women. Bitsy and Winkie.

It IS 2012, isn't it? Because I'm telling you, I am pretty sure I stepped back into 1984.

No, I"m not kidding.

I'm not. Seriously!

Don't ever doubt me. I'm too busy to lie to you, I swear!

I wore my patch madras dress (from L.L. Bean) with a pink cashmere cardigan tied around my neck and carried my Vineyard Vines bag. I have never missed my Bermuda Bag so much! You remember those - wood handles, color/outfit coordinating changeable covers that buttoned on? Don't worry, my shoes were black and close-toed. It is before Memorial Day, after all!

The ladies could not have been nicer or more open to hearing about MiniMe's group, the activities, the opportunities available to the kids and how their children (or grandchildren) might get involved.

All in all, it was a lovely day, but as I drove away from the club house, I swear I saw a woodchuck on the golf course and heard the theme song to "Caddy Shack"!

And was that Bill Murray, watering the plants at the end of the driveway?

On this day, April 12, 2013, let it be known that the "new ish" Purveyor of Preppy Paraphinalia, "Vineyard Vines Has resurrected that Bermuda Bag!!! Let the Preppy Sun Shine! Let the Bells Ring! Let Angels Sing!
And PLeasePLEASE let Vineyard Vines make more covers!!!