Twinnie Time

They say everyone has a doppelganger somewhere in the world. I recall many years ago going to the Circus in Sea Girt NJ with my friend Carroll and in the bleachers across the tent I saw a girl who looked just like me!  Of course, I lost her in the crowd after the tent emptied out. Not that I would have said anything. I think I was 14 or 15 years old at the time. I think I just wanted to get up close to her and see if we really were that similar looking.

This week I met up with a friend of mine visiting Florida from NJ and we spent some time standing in the waves at Lido Beach, near Sarasota. I noticed some girls sitting on the beach and I swear one of them looked just like my daughter Alyssa. In my usual creepy manner, I staged a fake photograph. I asked my friend Sandy to stand between Beach Girl and me, and then I took a shot of the girl behind her. It wasn't really close up so I didn't get her facial features.

 

I showed it to Alyssa when I got home and of course she scoffed at the suggestion that the beach girl was her twin. When I showed it to other family members, they said "Oh, yeah, the hair!"

 

So I guess Beach Girl and Alyssa's hair are twins. 

Lovely Lettering

We received a check in the office this week that nearly took my breath away. No, not because it was a large amount, but because the handwriting was so striking. It hearkens back to Old English times when writing was an art form and also reminds me of when I dabbled in calligraphy. Nowadays most correspondence is done via computer and I'm constantly reminding others and myself to keep the font SIMPLE because older/tired/strained eyes simply can't read fancy fonts with excessive serifs and swirls. If your audience isn't able to read your message, no one benefits from it.

My older sisters have lovely handwriting because they attended Catholic schools where that was the only acceptable type of handwriting. I'm able to make my handwriting pretty but don't often take the time anymore.

This check makes me think that this client is an artist who simply writes like this all the time. I really think it's beautiful. Of course, if I didn't know what it said, I wouldn't know what it said. But it's still beautiful! It makes me want to dust off my artistic tendencies and create something.

Recipe Results

Although I have an entire bookcase filled with a vast collection of cookbooks with thousands of recipes I have not yet tried, I continue to subscribe to recipe lists and copy recipes from magazines and the internet. As a result, I have loose pages of recipes on top of my cookbooks, nestled between the tops of the cookbooks and the shelf above. The piles are (in my mind) organized into three piles: main courses, desserts, and sides/beverages. Once I try a new recipe, I informally survey my family of critics, mark the recipe with a smiley, sad, or indifferent face (and possibly some editorial comments), and file it away in one of the many binders I've created to (in my mind) organize my loose recipes.

Here are our most recent food adventures:

Parmesan Rosemary Oven Fries (from some weekend newspaper magazine): quite a hit with everyone and quite simple to make! Just toss potato slices with oil, rosemary, salt & pepper flakes, and bake 15-20 minutes. I was also thrilled to use my crinkle cutter, which may be the first time that's ever happened.

Ginny's Chocolate Chip Cake with Classic Chocolate Buttercream (from Country Living magazine): mixed opinions on this. I thought it was good, but too much work. A simple box cake mix would make me happier. My future daughter-in-law, however, claimed it to be RIDICULOUSLY good.

Ginger "Beer Can" Chicken (Southern Living magazine): very good. I did alter the recipe to use boneless chicken breasts in the oven rather than a whole fryer on the grill.

No-Bake Chocolate-Pretzel-Peanut Butter Squares (Trisha Yearwood): I made this in a square 8x8 dish rather than a 9 x 13 dish because I thought the squares would be too thin in the larger pan. However, in the 8x8 pan the pieces were just too thick and too much. They would have been great in the 9x13 pan - if I had followed the instructions. Just goes to show I should follow my own recipe rule. The first time you make something, follow the recipe. Once you've tried it, the next time you can adjust to your own particular taste.

Smothered Pork Chops with Smashed Potatoes (Ree Drummond): very good! Simple, tender, easy. The Smashed Potatoes were more popular than the Pork Chops, though.

Caramel-Peanut-Popcorn Snack Mix (Southern Living): huge hit. This is a mix of homemade caramel popcorn, peanuts and Reese's Pieces. The recipe is easily adaptable to use M&Ms or similar type candy rather than Reese's Pieces. Or you could leave the candy out completely. The caramel popcorn was disappearing from the counter while it was cooling before I even added the candy. Barely lasted through the night. My girls said "That was so good you should make it all the time, but don't ever make it again."

Steak with Roasted Vegetables and Mustard Pan Sauce (Woman's Day): fabulous. This is probably my favorite recipe from the past few weeks. I threw in some yellow potatoes with the roasted vegetables because not everyone in my house likes sweet potatoes. The sirloin steak was tender and delicious and the mustard sauce added just the right tangy taste.

Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi (Ree Drummond): okay. I made this because my daughter is a vegetarian, and also because I prefer a white sauce to a red sauce on pasta. This is made with fontina, parmesan, romano and goat cheese. It was a little thick and bland, and the consensus was just okay.

Baked Quesadilla (Publix): big hit!  I substituted ground turkey for the ground beef for my son. Very quick and easy and it has a bit of a kick!

No-Melt Sundae Pie (Kraft): another quick and easy recipe that was very popular with the family! The biggest problem was trying to figure out what to do with the leftover Sweetened Condensed Milk.  Fortunately, I came across a fudge recipe on Facebook that will take care of that!

 

 

It seems like removing these recipes have barely made a dent in my paper piles, but slow and steady wins the race, right?

Snark Attack - Professional Version

Well, now I'm going to snark about grammar and spelling errors on "Professional" documents. Of course, Chinese Restaurant menus don't count. Those are just like "Where's Waldo" puzzles for foodies.

For example, here is a snippet of a brochure for an insurance company with whom I do business:

 

Really? Was this done by a professional advertising service? Or a low level employee in house, printing on glossy paper? In either case, wouldn't Spell Check pick this up? Or is "aparments" really a word? What. The. Heck. And how many copies of this brochure were distributed to agents?  I would not want my Apartment Building insured by this company because the fact that they can't spell it makes me crazy.

Snark Warning

Fair warning, I am on a snarky rant. Maybe not politically correct, but I'm doing it anyway.

Yesterday, someone in management used the term "drownding" near my tender ears. This came from someone who is a well read, talented writer who normally impresses me with her grasp of grammar and spelling. (We already know I'm a spelling and grammar snob, so don't look so surprised.) Sadly for me, bad grammar and spelling seems to be the norm or I wouldn't be so surprised when I see something written correctly. And no, I'm not perfect, and yes, I make spelling and grammar mistakes, but I'm mortified when I see them, because I know better.

I'm reminded of those Facebook pictures that pop up regularly stating something along the lines of "Some days my greatest accomplishment is keeping my mouth shut."  So I did.

 

 

It was so hard for me not to say something, but I knew nothing good would come out of that for either her or me. Instead, I entertained myself searching for the appropriate visual response:

 

 

I feel better now. Thank you.

 

Jeepers Creepers

We came home this evening after dinner and as I glanced through the mail, I noticed a brochure from Danbury Mint, publicizing a "dazzling" diamond pendant for only $99, so affordable in three monthly installments. I was about to toss it when I noticed something that totally creeped me out. The front, back, inner two panels, order form, and inserted sales pitch letter all had a sample engraving on the back of the pendant: "Terri, I Love You, Ronald".

I guess the Danbury Mint thinks this is an appealing way to draw buyers in but I found the personalization invasive. I showed it to Ron and he immediately said "that's creepy".

Hey Danbury Mint, are you stalking us? Are you parked down the street watching us? Peering in our windows in the middle of the night? Rifling through our mail?  Even if you just bought our information from some other mailing company, I don't like it!

Eggcentricity

Growing up on the New Jersey shore in the best part of the Garden State, close enough to the beach to enjoy it whenever we wanted, yet far enough away from it to be blessed with rich dark gardening soil, allowed us to have a back yard full of juicy Jersey  tomatoes . During those glorious Jersey summers, there was often a line of tomatoes on the kitchen counter just begging to be devoured. We had thick slices with dinner, wedges in salad, or we just simply bit into them like apples. Our Sunday breakfast was often bacon and eggs. I remember being 7 or 8 years old, frying bacon and scrambling eggs. My mother had taught me how to estimate the right amount of milk for each egg, how to beat the eggs, how to melt Crisco in her special little egg frying pan, tipping the pan to just the right angle to coat it completely, and then pour the eggs into the pan, waiting until just the right moment to begin drawing the edges of the cooked egg mixture in to the center of the pan. Scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and buttered white toast with a few tomato wedges was a perfect breakfast then and it still remains my favorite breakfast to this day.

 

 

 

In my fifth grade class at Central School, Mr. Hooker taught us about atoms. We learned the different parts of the atom: electrons, protons, neutrons, and the teeny tiny center of the atom, the nucleus. The illustration in our science book was an egg.  There was a teeny tiny white spot in the yolk, which was referred to as the nucleus. This teeny tiny white spot in the egg, my science book explained, was the chicken embryo.  What?? That teen tiny white spot was a baby chicken?  My 11 year old mind reeled in horror.  I had been eating baby chickens??  Obviously, I knew eggs came from chickens, and chickens hatched from eggs, but I had never thought I was eating chicken embryos.  I loved scrambled eggs, but the thought of eating chicken embryos just seemed…..barbaric.  I also know where bacon comes from but I never experienced a similar horror when munching a BLT.

 

After that science lesson, I could not prepare eggs the same way again. I began removing those teeny tiny white spots (which I honestly had never even noticed before) with a fork and rinsing them away in the kitchen sink. Whether I was scrambling eggs, making a cake, or beginning my Christmas cookie marathon, I took those embryos out of my eggs.  Somehow watching them swirl away down the drain seemed more humane than actually eating them.  This idiosyncrasy is usually evident only when I’m cracking the eggs myself. Ordering eggs in a restaurant? No problem. Eating eggs that someone else has prepared? No problem - unless I’m watching my husband make eggs. He knows I’m watching, so he’ll remove the teeny tiny white spots for me.

 

For more than 40 years this has been my egg routine. Yes, when the kids were small, they asked what I was doing and I explained my reasoning to them, just to help them understand why I have this weird need to take those teeny tiny white spots out.  I never told them they had to make eggs the same way I do. I figure it’s my hang-up and my problem.

 

This past June my son Josh visited for a week and we met his girlfriend Kayla for the first time. Kayla told us a story about how she had made scrambled eggs for Josh when they began living together. He was very happy that she had made him eggs. Then he asked her if she had taken the teen tiny white spots out.  She said no. He said he couldn’t eat those eggs because his mom always took the teeny tiny white spots out.  So Kayla began her own teeny tiny white spot removal tradition.

 

Along with consciously teaching your kids to always say “please” and “thank you”, you never know what else you are unconsciously teaching them.

 

The eggcentricity lives on!