Sunday November 5th 2023

Editorial Team / Admin · Nov 5, 2023

Hello all!

Joe, I agree with baking cookies being time-consuming (though they are delicious)! In the past (with kids around, working full-time and taking call), I have made the batter, then spread it in a pan to bake, rather than making each. individual. cookie. Turned out fine, just cut it up like brownies! Potato pancakes sound good!

Slept poorly last night. Slept for 2 hr, then woke up and couldn't get back to sleep till after 6. We will meet fiddler today and practice a little, work on the Christmas set list. And just enjoy company.

It should be 85 degrees today, and clear.

Have a good day!

Tweety, BSN, RN · Nov 5, 2023

G'day.

Dianah, sorry about the sleep disturbance. As you know I can relate well.

Joe, that's a lot of cookies. Around here when we have covered dishes only a smattering of people will make something home made. Most people buy ready made stuff. Last one I brought two buckets of KFC and they ate it all.

As is my usual state lately I don't have much gumption to get stuff accomplished. I wanted to wash my car today and likely won't. Likely won't go to the gym either. I am doing a few things in the kitchen for side dish prep. Marinating some tempeh bacon for BLT's later for dinner. Bleh......

No Stars In My Eyes · Nov 5, 2023

Joe~ 5 dozen cookies? Yikes! But, now, latkes, (potato pancakes) YUM! I got a recipe from Parade magazine in the early 70's, and I used to make them a LOT. I love 'em! Hubby never liked them with onions, which, to me, is what makes them so good, but oh well! I think you just gave me a great idea, to start making them again. Nannie usually likes and eats what I like, so it will be easier to make them without 'someone' saying, "What are you cooking?? Eeuuww!"

Tweety~ We all know I am a member of the "No Gumpties" Club a good deal of the time; welcome to the club, bub! It's a tough row to hoe, I swear. 'Things' and 'stuff' LOOMING, waiting, wanting to be done. TYRANTS! Bah!

Dianah~ 85 degrees? Izzit Summer all over again where you are? We are having 74 today and 78 by Tues or Weds., and yes, indeedy-do, "IT SURE IS BRIGHT OUT THERE!" (to which I always reply, "Yup, that's what the sun does, it gets bright.")

I am 'pleased as punch' (who did the media make fun of for saying that? Was it Hubert Humphrey? Does knowing that show my age?) .... Ahem, I am happy to say I woke up at 8 AM and went down to put broth, stew beef, little potatoes, little carrots and a chopped onion into the crockpot, and started it on low, and went back to bed. Then, when Momo walked all over my head at 11 AM, I got up, fed her, turned the crockpot up, and went back to bed again. She came back up after a while and we snuggled until (OMG) 12:30 PM. Now I am up and should get the Nannie-person up. Yeh, yeh, soon.

I remembered a restaurant my mother and I ate at where the beef stew was sooooo delish, and I wanted to know what they added to it. They wouldn't tell me, but as we were leaving, a waitress walked past me and said one word: 'coffee'. HUH! So I added 6 oz of brewed coffee to the crockpot. But now that I think of it, I wonder if it was spaghetti sauce they added the coffee to? Oh well, it can't hurt, what I added today, because it was a watered down cup of coffee; ie weak coffee. If it was spaghetti sauce I was making, I would've added a full-strength cup of coffee.

Will have to go out and get yogurt and dog food, as those are the two things I run out of most quickly and often, and I didn't dash out to do it yesterday. Bleh.

When I went to get Nannie's absorbent disposables the other day, I paid for them out of Nannie's checkbook, so BiL would know that those three products, in the larger size packages, cost a little over $72 !! I wanted to be able to show BiL when he gets the guardianship, what it takes to keep a Nannie-person dry. She ALWAYS "has to have" two pads inside the pull-ups, which used to gripe me, but sometimes it makes things easier, for instance, just the top pad gets soaked, so you can just change one pad. As long as the pull-ups are still dry, and the pad that goes in first is still dry, it's not necessary to pull it all off. And just as often she soaks through all the pads, the pull-up AND her pants, and whatever her bum is sitting on....Ya gotta change it ALL! And do laundry, too. ? But she is already 1/3 of the way through the package of pads I got, so that is what has to be purchased most often...at something like $25 per package. GADS!

I'll call the lawyers office tomorrow for a recommendation for a Financial Counselor... like, maybe, JUST MAYBE the lawyer or the financial person would know how to barrel through the IRS's phones' brick wall, for getting through to get a copy of my 2016 tax returns? One can always hope! Other stuff I need before I make an appt with SSA, is going to be coming to me through the mail. I'm not sure that there might be a few other pieces of documentation I'll need, but I'll have to check my list for what else I might need. This is ALL such a PIA! If I'd have known it would all be needed, I MIGHT NOT have packed all that stuff up the way I did when we moved. I assumed the boxes labeled "Drop at house first", would be dropped off at the house BEFORE unloading the rest of it into the shed! You know what they say about ASSUMING. (Yes, and I'm the asz for thinking the volunteers who helped us unload the truck could or would read the labels!)

Blah-dee-blah-blah. All for now~

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Nov 5, 2023

Hubs charged into the bedroom and announced it was 9:45 (church starts at 10:30 and we needed to be there at 10 to practice with the choir). But it was only 8:45. So I went to church (he didn't) and we didn't sing because the new pastor tested positive for Covid on Thursday. She recorded a sermon on video. We did have dinner at church. I took pumpkin bread.

The boys brought home pumpkin tiramisu from their party last night. I sampled some today. Pretty good.

Hubs is in the garage. His mother is dozing in her chair. Twin A is at work. Twin B is playing video games (and goes to work tonight). I don't want to do anything but should. It's 75 degrees and sunny. Very nice.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Nov 5, 2023

I am not a huge fan of football, but I follow the Huskies because that is my alma mater. And I will usually watch the Seahawks, because it is usually on the TeeVee machine.

I rode to breakfast, and then took a long route home, because it was dry and not nearly as cold as last week. It rained most of yesterday, and I had zero gumpties. Sleep is elusive, not sure why. Dh is going on 3 weeks of cough, and I've had a bit of achiness. Today is better. I will take the dogs for a long walk, and then do some clean up in the back yard. The sheets are in the wash, and I've vacuumed the living room.

I am thinking about making some molasses cookies later. I found a recipe on line that looks good, but it calls for cardamom and I don't have any. I don't really want to make a special trip for that. We have a couple of overripe bananas, so maybe I'll make banana jumbles instead.

No Stars In My Eyes · Nov 5, 2023

Goodness Gracious Sake's Alive!

You can't even begin to imagine what went on here at the house when I sneaked out on Momo, to go to the grocery store. Nannie said "the dog was weep-weep-weeping and yap-yap-yapping", so Nannie got out of the recliner (the correct way, using the remote) and came over to sit with her on the sofa. She said, "I asked him if he was hungry or if he needed to go out," and I interrupted: "Don't EVER let her out!" She probably wouldn't go out, anyway, but you never know.

{That was how her little shi-tzu got killed by a car....Nannie let her out, just as hubby was saying, "Don't let her out!" and the dog ran straight around the house and across the street, and a car ran her over. Boy was hubby MAD about that!}

Nannie said she "had to" come sit with the dog on the sofa because....get this > There were two classes of 8 year old kids, one of boys and one of girls, who came in the back door and were running around all over the place, up and down the stairs, and the dog didn't like them at all! Then somebody stuck their head in the back door and got all the children to leave. Nannie stayed on the sofa until I got back because, she said, Momo would only hush if she was being patted and petted. (She doesn't know the dog's name, and is always calling the dog "him".) Anyway, I had to keep going out to the car to bring in more bags of groceries and Momo yelled at me every time I went out. When I finally settled on the sofa, Momo climbed up on my chest and pressed herself under my chin. Pitiful, traumatized li'l girl!

The good news is that the crockpot will be ready within the hour, and I also got some biscuits to heat up. Nannie is from a family that ALWAYS had a roll ,or cornbread, or biscuits, or crackers, or toast, with EVERY meal. My family generally didn't, unless it was garlic bread fresh out of the oven on Spaghetti Night (Saturdays). Usually I will make her toast or just slap some butter on a piece of bread.

Okay, gotta set up our supper trays. Tawk whichoos laydah!

Editorial Team / Admin · Nov 5, 2023

My favorite spice cookie recipe:

Spice Cookies with Pumpkin Dip

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup molasses

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

Additional sugar

PUMPKIN DIP:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

2 cups canned pumpkin pie mix

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

Cream butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and molasses. Combine next 6 ingredients; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill overnight.

Shape into 1/2-in. balls; roll in additional sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° until edges begin to brown, about 6 minutes. Cool 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

For dip, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in pumpkin pie mix. Add confectioners' sugar, cinnamon and ginger; mix well. Serve with cookies. Refrigerate leftover dip.

Nutrition Facts

3 cookies with about 2 teaspoon dip: 108 calories, 5g fat (3g saturated fat), 18mg cholesterol, 147mg sodium, 16g carbohydrate (10g sugars, 0 fiber), 1g protein.

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Nov 5, 2023

dianah, those sound delish.

And I love molasses cookies but don't make them often because I'm the only one who loves them.

Stars, you sure had a lot going on at the house while you were out! ?

I do enjoy football and follow Oklahoma because that's my alma mater. They were not very good while I was in school there in the early 80s but won a Nat'l Championship in '85. They've had a total of 7 but none since 2000.

I never really followed a pro team until living near Indianapolis. I think I moved to Indiana the same year the Colts did ('84). Hubs always liked the Browns but they have really disappointed him over Baker Mayfield and Deshaun Watson. So we're supporting Baker with the Bucs. But that has been about as painful as watching the Sooners.

Editorial Team / Admin · Nov 6, 2023

Ado, whenever I bake these and prepare the dip, they are a HIT! I have made them in the fall for years, got the original recipe from Taste of Home. They are more of a spice cookie rather than "just" a molasses cookie. Yummy!