The Kitchen Sink Cookbook

Today I wanted to make Russian Black Bread with the Zojirushi bread maker George found for me at a garage sale for $5.00. These are the substitutions I made because I didn't have the ingredients:

1) Used coconut vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar
2) Used whole wheat flour, barley flour and all purpose flour instead of bread flour and rye flour.
3) Used raw cane sugar and molasses instead of brown sugar and dark corn syrup
4) Used Postum instead of instant coffee granules

Here are additional alterations I made to the recipe:

1) Left out Caraway Seed. Didn't have any.
2) Forgot to add butter after I put it in the microwave to melt
3) Last minute, added a very soggy banana with an expiration date from last week.

It has a weird underlying flavor since I'm not sure all the ingredients have compatible flavors, but the jury is still out on this one. George will be the final judge. If you would like the recipe, let me know. What's that? You don't?

Grandma's Cupboard

Today I cleaned out a part of Grandma's cupboard. There were surprises. A secret bread board, two pull out shelves, a flour bin. I even marveled at the old crumbs I wiped out because I knew they were my grandmother's crumbs.

It's not all fun and games

Alice and I cooked up a party for last night. Their children were visiting and we were celebrating summer birthdays. My daughter's birthday is today and she had requested peach cobbler and was excited to come, but she and her husband were having some contention and she had found out that someone had been using her debit card and she was saying things like "Why do I work so hard? Why don't I just use people's debit cards?" My daughter was at my house trying to cool off from her husband, but the air conditioner is out. Everyone was in a foul mood. Even me. My daughters decided not to go to the party and I was fine with it since I wasn't too excited about it myself. But I had to go through with it. I had spent the morning making takoyaki at a reunion and squeezing fresh limes for fresh limeade, and trying to peel cling peaches for the cobbler but ended up buying canned peaches, and making a fruit salad, all the while just throwing things around the kitchen, forgetting about the clean-as-you-go concept. But I went knowing it would be stressful and it was.

Connecting with TJ Maxx, Ross, Nordstrom Rack...

I just noticed something about myself. Every time I go into a store, I buy something or two or three or four somethings. I keep telling myself that I am just going in to look because stores are like museums. And when I walk inside the door of a store, I leave my stressful life outside. But I never end up just looking. What I look at calls to me, "You can't live without me. I would look so good with your 10 pair of black pants and 20 black jackets. If you leave me here you won't be able to sleep tonight." So yeah, I just noticed that. What now? Can any of my secret followers help me?

Disconnecting the Air Conditioning

I have decided to reduce my footprint and discontinue using the central air conditioner. Well, OK, it broke two days ago. It is the hottest part of the summer. Oddly enough the evening that it broke, I listened to a RadioWest podcast about air conditioning which sounded boring but wasn't. It actually convinced me to do an attitude flip flop. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and blaming George for not being here for this crisis, I decided to enjoy it. After all, it is summer, right? What did the pioneers do? (Utah joke)

It was a call in show and I wanted to call in with my ideas on heat management which were better than those who did call in. Then I remembered it was a previously aired program so I will share my ideas with all of my followers. (I know you are out there somewhere) (Not) 1) Drink ice water constantly. 2. Go shopping in the heat of the afternoon and 3. (You are going to love this) Take frequent showers...........with your clothes on. It is the ultimate in evaporative cooling. Important Tip: Wring yourself out before traipsing through your newly clean house.

p.s. I am sitting by an open window in my den and a cool breeze just blew in on me. It was wonderful. I never noticed breezes with central air.

Connecting with my Home

After a week of debilitating jet lag, I decided to unpack. This simple decision lead to a severe cleaning manic episode. I am doing my Spring cleaning in the summer. I am detailing my house. I washed windows, replaced the mildewed shower curtain, went through all my clothes and shoes, tore down old brittle sheers, and vacuumed UNDER furniture. If you are like me, you have never done that before. It took me two days to do my bedroom and master bathroom, but it didn't end there. Actually it got worse. I weeded and fixed my garden. I placed an ad to sell my piano, I replaced the bag in the vacuum, without George (!) Remind me to do that more often. My family and the health department will be pleased to find out that I hauled off the Carey Family butcher block cutting block thing. George loves that thing, but he's gone, right? He'll be so surprised. I moved and threw out furniture, I organized George's vanity top and got him an organizer. He will love this. Actually he hates me to touch his stuff. It always disappears after I touch it for some reason. My home cleans up pretty well, and I am having some very fond feelings for it. I have even considered quitting work so that I can spend more quality time with my neglected domicile. Tomorrow..... the pantry and fultility room. If you don't see me after a week, call the police.

Things I Did Not Connect with Today

All of Stella's French Fries,like I usually do

Stella's chicken nuggets like I usually do

Stella's ice cream, I wanted to

One bag of black licorice and one bag of red licorice because I ate them last night.

Connections: Stella

Haven't seen my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter, Stella, for a couple of weeks. Today I picked her up at 11:00 to get her to her dance class at 11:30. She was talking a lot to me on the way. She told me how she went boating. Dad and mom got in the water, but Halla and Jordan didn't. They didn't even go. The boat went too fast. She went right into dance class and I went to Home Depot. When I picked her up at dance, I just couldn't take her back. So we went to Wendy's where she went on the toilet so I told her I would buy her a frosty. She ate her chicken nuggets and fries, dipping them in her cup of ice cream and saying yum. Then she stirred and stirred her ice cream with a spoon saying she was making blueberry ice cream. I didn't know there was a huge picture of some blueberries behind me. Yhen she made strawberry ice cream. There was also a picture of a strawberry. Then she stirred and stirred and said she was making coffee, every once in awhile dipping in a nugget or a fry and eating it. By then it was melted and she drank it.

Still couldn't take her home. So we went to Sugar House Park, where she went down the slides about 20 times, played with some girls who spoke Swahili, and became terrified when I started to put her in the swing. Before she would go down the slide she would throw her water bottle down the slide and say "I'll get it, grandma!" Then down she would go, pick it up and say "Grandma, I got it!" There was a wide slide so Stella invited me to go down with her.......and I did! It was fun because Stella was so delighted.

 

Connections: Heather, My Sister's Daughter

Two days after returning from Washington, I boarded a plane for Singapore. Seven hours to Tokyo, two hour layover, eleven hours to Singapore. Total: Twenty hours, but gained twenty-four. My poor niece, Heather, had to pick us up from the airport at 1:00 in the morning.

It was a wonderful experience. Visiting with Heather for five straight days was delightful and she was more than the perfect hostess. We went to a Night Zoo, Museum of Ancient Chinese Civilization, got a sucking fish foot exfoliation, saw Lion King, the play, went to China Town and Little India briefly, a 4th of July barbecue with Heather's expatriate friends, shopped at a huge mall and ate ourselves sick. So much food and so little time. Her "help" is from Indonesia? Malaysia? and made very good curry dishes and we ate at food stalls and at a nice restaurant on the last night. Great food extravaganza!

The shopping is phenomenal. That and the cleanliness, safety and architecture put New York City to shame albeit, the plane ticket is three times as expensive. On the day before I went home, I struck out on my own. A nice river with eclectic foot bridges that are lit at night, bisects the city so I knew I wouldn't get too lost, although after walking a few miles, I broke down and got a map. My goal: Takoyaki at the Singapura Plaza. Yum. So why I took the umbrella out of my purse and didn't put on the sunblock that was in my purse, eludes me. One positive: My $24 Teva mush sandals. I have worn the same ones across Scandinavia and all over the Mediterranean and they didn't disappoint in Singapore.

I found the Plaza, ate the Takoyaki and eventually found the river and followed it back to the apartment all the while taking pictures of the amazing architecture. I don't consider a trip a success unless I explore to the point of getting just a little lost.

Heather got up at 3:00 a.m. to take me to the airport. I'll bet she's happy I've come and gone. When the plane touched down in SLC, I checked my phone messages and found that my friend Bonnie wanted me to go to Cedar City to the Shakespeare Festival for a couple of days. I couldn't say no, but am paying with triple jet lag.