Just Blabbing 1-12-2020

Thoughts and Quotes: You CAN have too much of a good thing. Me

Recipes are a good thing; as a matter of fact, I think recipes are a wonderful thing. I have so many, I don't even know what I have, as evidenced by my experience this week. 

Friend Audell told me she made Pecan Pie Muffins during the holidays, and everyone loved them. She didn't have the recipe at hand, but said she got it from Pinterest. No problem. I got a recipe from Pinterest and made the muffins. Actually I made spoon muffins, because that's how you'd have to eat them. I had to dig them out of the muffin tin.

I wanted to show the photo, but couldn't find it, so I thought I might have put it in my Muffin photos folder, and when I looked, I found this:

PECAN PIE MUFFINS

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup chopped pecans.

Heat oven to 350°.

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream butter and brown sugar.

Beat in eggs.

Gently beat in flour.

Fold in pecans.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 15-17 minutes.

I made these in May, 2018, and the recipe has the very same ingredients; just different measurements and a different mixing method.

So now I'll check my files before I make something new; I might have already made it. Maybe I'm just getting forgetful? In that case, good. I can save more recipes.

Tidying: Cleaning? Heaven forbid! But I did finally take my picture out of the closet and get it reframed so that it's back on the wall where it belongs. Remember I told you that it fell off the wall during the new roof project and landed right on the corner of the frame - couldn't be salvaged. The new frame is different, but Michaels didn't have one like the old one. And have you ever noticed that the 70% off coupons are always for frames that don't work for you?

The picture was a present from my kids and I love it. The photo doesn't do it justice. First of all, my reflection in the glass doesn't help, and the picture is actually 3-D; the items are paper and several cut outs of each, then layered. It feels as if you could walk right up the steps and take a seat and wait for the maid to bring your afternoon tea.

Tasting: Remember the layered 12-Hour Salad from last week? I wondered what I'd do with all that salad after I tossed it.

Good news - it's good the next day and the next. I ate almost all of it.

Tissue Box Cards: I have another side from this box, so might try another. I really like this box.

Trash Cards: I made this card from a picture I cut from a catalog. Junk mail is a good thing at my house. I love going through it to find things I can use. And the tree on the envelope is cut from an obsolete rubber stamp catalog I bought from a scrapbook store. 

Got a little tired of Christmas - these cards are made from wallpaper.

And more Christmas cards for Katie's shut-ins. Slow going so I decided to do some production line cards.

Four snowmen

Three Santas

Three Mrs. Claus

Four Penguins

Tasting: I've heard that a word to the wise is sufficient, so listen up, Wise People. Do not order fish and chips in an Italian restaurant. Stick to what they know best, which is obviously Italian. My fish, shrimp, and calamari were heavily breaded and tasteless. The fries must have been air fried or baked. Not good. And no tartar sauce. The seafood red sauce was okay, but the other was sweet and spicy. Ordinarily I get very good food here, but I order Italian, so I'm hesitant to share the name of the restaurant.

Brother Bill shared my view of the calamari, but said his pasta was okay.

Tasting: National Soup Month, so I tried a recipe I got from Friend Joey. My brother said that it sounds like Bachelor soup, because it's so easy. The original recipe did not have ground beef and onion, but I think it needs more ompf! so I have the ground beef thawing to add today. And I might add a squeeze of lime juice. The photos are from yesterday, with no beef or onions.

SEVEN CAN SOUP

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 cup chopped onion

1 can Hormel chili without beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can great northern beans

1 can black beans

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can Rotel

1 can corn

Cook the ground beef and onions in a large pot. Drain.

Drain the can of corn and add it to the pot.

Do NOT drain all the other cans, and add to the pot.

Mix well and simmer 25-30 minutes.

Serve with tortilla chips and grated Monterey Jack cheese.

Time for Soup, for sure: Take a look at this snow, biggest flakes I've seen in a long time.

Thank You: To all my visitors from Russia and Ukraine. I've had more page views from your countries this month than I have from the USA. Welcome and if you have questions, please be sure to leave them in the comments section.

Enough for this week. Here are the National Days coming up.

MONDAY: Eat Peach Melba, Clean Off Your Desk, or Celebrate Stephen Foster (maybe sing Beautiful Dreamer, Swanee River, or My Old Kentucky Home - no wait; save that for Derby Day).

TUESDAY: Eat a Hot Pastrami Sandwich or Shop for Travel

WEDNESDAY: Wear a Hat, Eat Strawberry Ice Cream or a Bagel. It's also Booch Day. I had not a clue what that means, so I looked it up. It stands for Kombucha which in Japanese is Kelp Tea. I'll leave that for my health-conscious daughter.

THURSDAY: Eat Fig Newtons or just veg out. It's also Do Nothing Day.

FRIDAY: Bootlegger's Day and also Hot Buttered Rum Day, so you know where to get your rum, right?

SATURDAY: Lots of choices; Winnie the Pooh, Peking Duck, Thesaurus, Use Your Gift Card and hey! to everyone from Michigan as it's also Michigan Day.

SUNDAY: We can Eat Popcorn, Buttercrunch (that nice crispy lettuce), or Cheese as we Celebrate the Birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

STAY WARM AND TOASTY

DRINK YOUR TEA

MAKE SOME SOUP

AND SOME SALAD TO GO WITH IT

STICK TO THOSE GOALS

THANK YOU FOR SHARING MY LIFE