Quarantine Boredom

No, not me. I never get bored. But I saw this on Facebook and this is what it's called. A little quiz. I like little quizzes.

Quarantine boredom. 

Think about your SENIOR year in High School. 

Class of: 1970

1. Did you marry your high school sweetheart? 

No.

2. What did you drive? 

I never had my own car. I drove the family car---a burgundy Plymouth Belvidere.

3. Where did you work?

Target---express lane cashier. In order to work on the express lane, you had to be able to check out one person per minute! Way before scanners.

4. Where did you live? 

St. Louis, MO

5. Were you in a band?
No, but I could have been. My mom put the kibosh on that dream!

6. Still talk to your best friend? 

I just re-connected with her a couple years ago, but don't talk to her much. Now if we're talking about my cousin--Chrissy who was also my best friend in high school, then the answer is yes---all the time!

7. Ever get suspended? 

No

8. If you could, would you go back?

I had great teen years, but I don't think I need to go back. I like where I'm at right now. 

9. Still talk to the person that you went to prom with?
Oh, hell no!

10. Did you skip?
Yes, on senior skip day, only to find that no one else had!

11. Go to all the football games?
Not really. I probably went to a few, but never to watch the game---totally social.

12. Favorite subject?
American and English literature.

13. Do you still have your yearbooks?
Absolutely!

14. Did you follow your "original career plan”? 

I didn't really have a career plan. I went to school to become a court reporter. I ended up getting married at 19 instead! Still happy nearly 49 years later. Best decision of my life!

15. Do you still have your senior ring? 

Yes, but it doesn't fit.

16. Favorite teacher? 

Sister Karl Mary, although I didn't like her Latin class.

17. What was your style? 

Scooter skirts. I always got dressed up for dates--no jeans!

18. Favorite shoes? 

I loved platform shoes--they made me a bit taller.

19. Favorite thing to eat for lunch?

OMGosh! The cafeteria food was amazing! I traded my "brought from home" lunch with a friend who "had" to buy. She gave me her lunch token in exchange for my lunch every day!

20. Favorite band?
Chicago and still the Temptations!

21. High School?
Rosary High School in Spanish Lake (north St. Louis). Sadly, this is a bad area of town now. Rosary is still there, but it merged with two other Catholic high schools (Mercy and St. Thomas Auqinas) to become Trinity High School. 

22. Favorite hang out?

140 Steak---Steak and Shake, we drove around and around. If it weren't for 140 Steak, I wouldn't have met Butch!

23. Favorite thing to do?

Dance!!! At home or teen town on Sunday nights, Monday nights in summer and all around town in between! Dancing with my cousin was our life!

24. Favorite food?

At home, making fudge. Out---Steak and Shake.

25. Favorite tv program?

American Bandstand and the St. Louis Hop! 

If you want, you can copy and paste this in to an email for me. I'd love to hear from you:

orgnz4u@comcast.net

What I Buy Wednesday---The Soup Can Challenge

It all started about a week ago when Connie texted me that she had just cleaned out her pantry and discovered 38 cans of soup! "OMGosh," I thought. Then I decided to see how many cans of soup I had. I first guessed how many cans I thought I had, and then counted the actual amount. This is reminiscent of the "shoe challenge" we did a couple months ago.

Soo, I decided to put it out there to family and friends for another challenge. Guess how many cans you think you have and then let me know how many you actually have. This did not include any stocks or broths or dried soups---just cans. The results were interesting. In order from highest to lowest:

Connie---ding ding ding! We have a winner! 38 cans---I asked her to take a picture. 38 cans doesn't really look like that much.

That's a lot of tomato soup---at least 10!! I'll be borrowing some of those from her since she said she wouldn't eat that many in a year!

Me---I thought I had about 12 cans of soup. In reality, I have 20. There will be a better explanation of this a little further down. I have 4 cans of tomato soup.

Janet---thought she had 10, in reality she had 18.

Chrissy---thought she had 12, actually had 14.

Nancy E.---guessed 8, had 12.

Joyce---thought she had 11, actually had 10 (she was so close, someone must have eaten a can).

Sandy---guessed 5, actually had 7.

Judy---guessed 5, actually had 7.

Mindy---guessed 2, actually had 4. She said she'd have more if they didn't live in a high-rise, urban lifestyle condo where canned goods storage is at a premium.

Nancy A.---guessed 2, had 4.

Jennifer---guessed 3, had 2 (someone ate one of hers too).

Sharon---guessed 2, had 1 (Matt must have eaten one).

Janice---thought she had 3, but only had 1 (not sure this is really possible since she's in Salem with Jennifer. Did she really bring a can of soup with her from Texas? And if so, how did she think she brought 3 cans??)

Susan---guessed 0, had 0!!!!

Stephanie---0 & 0 (what??? Who are you??)

Karolyn---guessed 1, had 0!!!! She said she makes all her soups from scratch.

Okay, I get that!! I make most of our "eating" soups from scratch too. Still there are times when a good ol' can of Campbells is just what the doctor ordered. Seriously, if I'm sick, I'm not in the mood to make soup from scratch. In the winter, when you can't seem to get warm, hot soup for lunch is quick and easy---and usually calorie friendly. And, you can't beat Campbell's tomato soup. Sure, I like all kinds of tomato soup, but Campbells is my "go to" comfort food with a grilled cheese sandwich. That is often our first meal when we get home after traveling. I would say that we eat tomato soup at least twice a month. It just doesn't get any better than that!

Two of our other quick and easy "go tos" are Bean with Bacon or Chicken Gumbo both with peanut butter crackers and a glass of milk!

And then, there's the cooking soups. Honestly, I can't tell you how many delicious casseroles I make that call for Cream of Chicken, or celery or mushroom. There's also soup recipes that start with a can of Campbells. I have a fabulous Clam Chowder soup that starts with several cans of Campbells. I have crock pot recipes that call for soup. They are versatile, easy and for the most part, cheap. Really, I can't do without canned soup. I wouldn't make half the recipes I have if I had to first make the soup that is required.

All that being said, we're having soup tonight. Now here's where the "What I Buy Wednesdays" comes in to play. A couple weeks ago, the Honey Baked Ham store had their ham bones on sale for $2.99 each. I bought two and put them in the freezer.

Tonight we're having split pea soup with cornbread. There's enough meat on the bone that I actually get two meals out of it. The first one was on Monday night---one of my family favorites from my childhood: Ham and Scalloped Potato Casserole. (I'll share that recipe on Saturday.) I used to request this for my birthday dinner. So good. You can't beat that---two meals with meat for only $2.99!

So, what's your soup count?

If you have another idea for a challenge, let me know. This is fun!!

Toilet Paper Tuesday!

Considering the worrisome times, I think we can all use a little humor. Apparently, the run on toilet paper has been a real problem. Of course, due to my multiples problem, I already had more than a sufficient supply. Not exactly hoarding since I've already shared with Morgan and Margarita! And there are just too many cute"funnies" about toilet paper going around to have to wait for Friday. So, here goes:

Lastly, nobody does it better than Carol Burnett! Enjoy!

Monday Mystery

It's a mystery to me as to why everyone loves their KitchenAid mixers. I certainly don't love mine---yet!

I got it for Christmas. I asked for it. I wanted the smaller version to take up less space. I wasn't really sure I needed it, because I don't bake that much. I was happy to get it. I've used it exactly twice.

The first time,  I made a cheese ball. At the time, all I could think of was, "this big contraption and all this clean up for a little cheese ball!" I wasn't sure it was worth the hassle.

On Saturday, I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies so Morgan could take them to the hospital. I was all excited to use my still "new" mixer. Then this happened.

 As I was putting the flour in, it puffed all over the place---including the floor. What a mess! Then I looked inside.

 The the beater thing was all glopped up. It was a sticky, goopy mess. So then, I was trying to get it off so I could try to scoop the cookie dough out. I knew that I needed to turn it so that the locking thing lined up. I could not get it to turn. I tried turning to the right and then the left. It wouldn't budge. I decided to call Mindy. I knew she's get a kick out of me asking her for cooking advice! I told her my problem and she couldn't figure out the problem either. Now I had no choice but to get out the book.

 By this time, Butch was trying to help. I read the book and complained that it had nothing about getting the beater out of the contraption. Then, I said "wait!" I re-read what it said about putting the beater "in"---the part about pushing "up"! As I turned to tell Butch to do that, he was gone!

 He had already figured it out. I texted Mindy. She responded, "I thought you knew that!" Apparently, it was just a flook that I even got the beater in and locked. I didn't realize I had pushed up. Of course, I had the biggest mess to clean up. I pretty much had it done by the time the cookies were baked.

"Alls well that ends well." Now there's an old saying.

So, once more, I thought using my KitchenAid was nothing but a big hassle. I'll keep using it until I "get it." But for now, it remains a mystery as to why so many people love it. And most of them have the big one!

What We're Doing

As it turns out, my life hasn't really changed all that much. I'm a social person, so pretty much everything is the same, minus my friends and family!

I am a creature of routine. That works for me, so I'm keeping it up with a few modifications. 

I do not get bored. In fact, I told Butch, that even though I have all the time in the world, I still feel like I don't have enough time to do everything I want to do! That's crazy and doesn't make sense, but it's true.

I'm walking and talking. Everyone knows that I am not a phone person. I've always felt like it was a major time waster. I'd rather sit down with you and have a cup of tea than hang on the phone. Now that I have all this time, I decided to make a list and call one person a day while walking the neighborhood. So there's that.

The ornamental cherry trees are in bloom in the neighborhood and gorgeous. It's a good time to get outside and walk. We've had a lot of rain, but I've still managed to get out every day---only once on the treadmill.

I'm having to clean the house, but my abbreviated version only takes an hour on Monday. Probably after a month, I'll need to dust the rest of the house that we don't really use much. 

I'm still watching movies and stitching. I'm also watching a lot of Datelines! I'm reading a lot. I haven't really cleaned any closets out yet. With the exception of Mindy's closet, which is stuffed with wedding gifts from 3 years ago, most of our closets are pretty neat. I just know I could get rid of a lot more stuff. I can't seem to get motivated for that.

I've done a little scrapbooking  and caught up on a lot of blog reading. I still probably have about 50 things on my computer reading list. I've also kept up with my own blog. That takes a lot longer than you might think.

On St. Patrick's Day, Butch celebrated with an Irish Whiskey.

I opted for Bailey's and hot chocolate in my Starbucks mug from Dublin. Yuuummmm! My favorite guilty pleasure.

 Since I've been doing a lot of cooking, I put together a "care package" for Mitchell. 

He's been sick. We don't know if it's the caronavirus but it sounds like it. Because he's young and healthy, the doctor didn't want him to come in to the office. He just told him to stay home for a full week. We brought him a thermometer, sloppy joes, chicken piccata, strawberry shortcake and soup. 

When I talked to him, day 4 at home, he said he's bored sick!! Then I told him how I never get bored and, in fact, felt like I still did not have enough time to do everything I want to do. He asked me what all I was doing. I told him. I'm sure it sounds pretty trite to a guy, but it's my life and it's pretty fun.

On Thursday, we finally got some sun in the afternoon. Butch and I went over to Deerwood Arboretum which is right behind our neighborhood.

 There's a one mile loop along The Little Harpeth River. So pretty. Temperatures reached 80, so it was perfect.

Butch has an eagle eye. He spotted a geo-cache sitting out in the open. Turns out, the river had risen and it floated away from it's original location. It was a muddy mess. Butch cleaned it up and we're going to take it back today and put it where it belongs. 

At the entrance to the park is this little lending library. I just love it when we come across these. They are so cute. I need to carry books with me to add. 

 I love all the little wildflowers in bloom.

 The river is so pretty too. We're going to do a little fishing once all this rain quits.

We decided to do a puzzle on Friday afternoon---happy hour, but a little too early to get the "kids" on FaceTime. 

This was the only one we could find! Strawberry Shortcake circa 1980. It turned out that there were two puzzles in the box.

 Or rather, two partial puzzles! I ordered a couple from Amazon that will be delivered this week. 

After the puzzle making, we Facetimed with all of the girls. We started with Sandy. Greg, who works for Google said that he can fix it so that we can all be on at the same time. He's going to get that figured out for us by next Friday happy hour. 

Anyway, that was so much fun! With FaceTime, it really is like we're together. Basically, by the time we finished with all 3 girls (and families), we spent two hours! 

I decided to make cookies for Morgan (our little nurse) to take to the hospital. That's a story in itself. I'll save that for tomorrow! It's a doozie!!

Besides all of that this week, I've figured out a way (thanks Stephanie) for my AYM (A Year of Memories) group to hang out. I'm going to plan some scrapbook layout for us to do together. 

And, I have another idea to have lunch with my friends via FaceTime!

I'm always thinking! And when I do, I realize, we are pretty darn fortunate to have so much available to us. Staying in is really no hardship at all. We have the internet, all the music we could want, a zillion movies and tv shows and a way to still spend time with our family. I'm so very grateful!

We have nothing to complain about! 

What We're Cooking

One thing with self-quarantining is that we're cooking more. Normally, we have lunch out several times a week---me with my friends and he at various meetings or while he's out geo-caching. That meant that we either had Lean Cuisines or sandwiches for dinner. I usually cooked about 2 or 3 times a week. And even those meals were very simple: grilled cheese and tomato soup, sauerkraut and polish sausage, vegetable soup, etc.

This week, I decided to try something new. I pulled out a bunch of things I've printed from Facebook or other sights and plan to give them a try. I also went through my recipe box to find old favorites and recipes from friends I haven't made in a long time. I'm going to share the best with you.

Since I have a pretty well stocked pantry and freezer, I tried to only buy things to make the recipes and use up what we already have.

Our menu looked like this:

Sunday,  Butch decided to cook. He wanted to use the air fryer and "fry" chicken---Justin style. He used the basic fried chicken recipe that came in the box with the fryer but added crushed Cheetohs (Justin's idea) and reduced the flour. It was yummy!! He served some instant mashed potatoes and green beans. The potatoes were a Friday "freebie" from Kroger. I was skeptical. They were really good.

Monday, I just opened a can of Manwich that I had in the pantry. We had Strawberry Shortcake for dessert. The strawberries looked so good, AND they had these little Entenneman's pound cakes BOGO. I just bought one box as Publix allows you to do that. We topped it with light Cool Whip.

Tuesday, I made a new recipe that was delicious--and so simple. I served it with 3 Cheese Bread I had in the freezer. I love recipes where you cook everything together and don't have to cook the pasta separately.

One Pot Chicken Piccata

1 T. olive oil

1 lb. boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cut in to bite size pieces

S & P

2 t. fresh mince garlic (I used 1 t. dried)

3 cups (32 oz.) chicken broth

2 T. fresh lemon juice (I used 1.5 T. of the concentrate)

8 oz. spaghetti, broken in half

1/4 cup capers (I left these out because I didn't have them)

1/2 cup heavy cream

Italian parsley for garnish

1. In a large pot, cook the chicken in the olive oil for 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add garlic.

2. Add all ingredients except cream and heat to boiling. 

3. Reduce heat and simmer 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally until liquid is absorbed and pasta is al dente. Stir in whipping cream and heat through. Garnish with parsley. 

*Notes: I used thin spaghetti. I don't know if that's the reason, but it did not absorb enough of the liquid. We ended up pouring out quite a bit of liquid. I was afraid that if I tried to let it boil away, the pasta would get mushy. I poured out most of the liquid before adding the cream. Also, I topped it with parmesan cheese, because, well, what doesn't taste better with Parmesan??? It was delicious! It would be really good even without the chicken.

Wednesday, I had planned to make 8 Can Soup---an old recipe that I think I got from my friend, Nancy E. I texted Mitchell and told him to come by for some of the leftovers---I was worried about him having some home cooking. That's when I decided that we would have it for lunch rather than dinner so that I could add it to his "care" package. Butch made it while I was out walking. This is the easiest of all. Don't let the ingredients fool you. They really work when combined.

8 Can Soup

Do not drain anything. Dump all together in a big pot and heat through.

1 can Veg-All

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can corn

1 can green beans

1 can Campbells Old fashioned vegetable soup (there wasn't any of this so I just got regular beef vegetable soup)

1 can diced potatoes (these were out too, so I got sliced and kind of sliced through them in the can)

1 can Hormel chili

1 can Hormel chili without beans (I couldn't get these either, so I used 2 cans of the regular)

This was really good too. I hadn't made it in a very long time. We just had crackers on the side.

Thursday:  we had cheese tortellini with pesto sauce. I made a salad with it and some garlic bread.

Friday: we had a charcuterie board with our happy hour. We like to do that. Simple and casual. Originally, I had the bright idea that we'd go over to Stephanie and Nicky's with drinks in hand. We could sit on their front porch, 6 ft. apart. After all, the temperatures are going to be in the 70's. Steph put the k-bosh on that. We're going to give it another week. As the weather gets nicer, we'll be able to get together on the patio in the fresh air. At least that's the plan.

Saturday: Since you are reading this on Saturday, my plan is to drive through Corky's BBQ. They are offering a deal---a slab of ribs, 4 sides and rolls for $2020. Of course I'll use bleach wipes on everything before we open the containers!

We are all taking this really seriously and trying to do the right thing. We are in no way in fear for our lives (although, the girls are worried about us---they think we're old). We're a couple of very healthy seniors with no underlying problems. But, we want to make sure that we are not helping to spread this virus in any way. Honestly, I thought we could have kept our normal life for another week. Butch was more adamant that we do our part immediately, so we did.

One week down. So far, so good. Tomorrow, I'll let you know what we're doing to pass the time.

Friday Funnies

Because we need to keep a sense of humor---I'm going to continue with my "Friday Funnies" posts.