The Recipe List

1. A pan of tiramisu -- for tonight's dinner.
2. A batch of sweet potato latke's -- some for tonight and the rest for the freezer.
3. 5 lbs. of homemade hash brown potatoes (I can't believe how much they charge for these at the grocery store!!!).  We use these a lot in breakfast casseroles.
4. Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Banana Bread.
5. Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies.
6. Gluten Free Pancakes (Frozen, for a quick microwave breakfast, served with maple syrup, or homemade preserves).
7. Regular pancakes (Frozen, for a quick microwave breakfast, served with maple syrup, or homemade preserves).
8. Gluten free granola bars -- for snacks and lunches.
9. Breakfast burritos
10. Applesauce Cookies
11. Italian Sausage Sandwiches for the freezer

OAMC - Shopping Day

I've done once a month cooking type sessions in the past, and thought it was time I invest in another session, just to give myself a break during the week.  So today was shopping day, and all I can say is WHEW!!!  The store was absolutely jam-packed, and the lines to the registers went all the way up the aisles, so we were literally shopping through folks who were waiting in line.

But I got the whole list, and I'm sitting down to make the plan of attack for tomorrow.  There will be a concentration on baking, both gluten free and regular, and some made up entrees, as well.  This time, there will be some interesting dishes, a little out of the ordinary.  I got some smelts and some calamari.  Then there are the usual staples like ham, bacon, sausages, chicken, etc.

Here's what the ingredients look like right now:

As you can see, there is even a little kahlua in the front, for the tiramisu we're having tomorrow.  Our friend Rob is coming over to play guitar with Steve.  Some good music should make the work more pleasant.  He may bring his little girl over, which will also be nice.  She's a real nice little thing, a good kitchen helper, and she'll perk the place up while I work.

I'll post the list of recipes later -- as soon as I get myself together and get these groceries put away.

Tomorrow is supposed to be bitterly cold and very windy.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......  What a blessing to be able to spend the day in a warm kitchen with plenty of food.

Angels

If you are angel material, even if you think you're not, but you wish you were, there are almost 2,000 soldiers deployed in harm's way waiting and praying for an angel.  The limit is three.  I'm at my limit.  So I'm begging you, be an angel and adopt a soldier today.  It could change your life and get you off your comfy fat-a$$.  Sorry, but Anth (Army NG) told me that the Drill Seargeants have no tolerance for weenies eating fatty-cakes.  So maybe you could forego the fatty cake a few times a month and bless a soldier who is SACRIFICING EVERYTHING FOR YOU TO BE A COUCH POTATO.  I'm just sayin'.

http://www.soldiersangels.org/

It's OK -- We'll Be Ok

So many good folks have asked about our absence.  It's just that we're grieving the loss of our friend.  Our best friend as a couple.  There were times he was our only friend and only advocate as a couple.  And that is a huge loss.  Something you can't do neatly, in a day, or a week.  As I told someone yesterday, what can you say?

Well, tomorrow we'll be back.  And we'll have something to say.  A tribute to Theo, the awesome.  And then we'll be back.

Thanks so much to all of you who care.  It means more than you know.

Well, you chop onions and peel carrots

That's what you do when there's nothing else to do.  So numbly, dinner was:

Salmon, oven baked with sofrito, then topped with cheddar cheese and re-baked, along with deconstucted stuffed peppers with rice, mushrooms, onions, and cheese, served with sage cornbread.  I'm sure it was very tasty.

For tomorrow, I've already simmered a chicken carcass, and added some dried zucchini and leeks from the garden, along with carrots, celery and onions.  If history repeats itself, it will be very good.  It's just that I've lost my sense of taste and smell along with my bestest friend.

If Theo has his way, I will resume real life.  It's just going to take a while.  In the meantime, I'll be peeling carrots, and chopping onions...

Theo -- 1996 - 2010

Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Matthew 25:23

Our hearts are heavy.

Ear Scratching Smiles!!!

Of course, dinner (especially with an entire chicken carcass on the table) draws the attention of the resident canis lupis familiaris!!!

But chicken carcass aside, there ain't nothing better than ear scratching!!!

Just look at that smile...

Our Secret

You'll need to read this whole post to learn the secret!!!
A productive day at the Haney Place, if I may say so.  Stiva built an enclosure for the dishwasher with  a plant rack.  Tomorrow, then, I need to repot several plants to make them presentable for the new piece of (as yet unfinished) furniture.  As soon as Stiva paints it with something highly glossy (and thus wipeable,) I'm going to adorn it with some Amish hearts, or something like.  See here:

I don't know how he does it.  I am almost ashamed to admit it, but when I do a sewing pattern, Stiva often helps me figuring out the layout.  There was a time I got him involved in a pattern, and he ended up doing the whole thing!  But I digress.....Then he went and built up a thingy (the technical term) for Theo's food dish, so that his old, arthritic spine and neck wouldn't have to bend over so far to enjoy his dinner (one of his few remaining joys).  Looky here:

So now, it's time for dinner, and the "boys" have been fed and they are well content, especially Theo, to whom I have given one of my mother's hand sewn pillows upon which to lay his head.  And if you should tell Nonnie about this, I'll be sure to eat your liver sometime soon!!!!  That's the secret, and if you let it out, I'll come and find you.  Bwaaa-haa-haa!!!!

At any rate, it's Spanish style roast chicken tonight, with baked potatoes (upon which to heap the roasted salsa, tomato, garlic sausage-y type stuff that was roasted under the chicken.

I'm just sayin'.