Another Kind Of ‘Never Have I Ever’ ~ #2

I am just about to turn … harumph – mumble mumble mumble … years old and I have never, I mean EVER done this … 

… BURNED MYSELF! 

🤬 

NO, REALLY! 

💩 

I had reached across a screamin’ hot pan and just barely touched the side of it with my forearm.

It didn’t hurt much but I’m grateful that I have always had an Aloe plant in our house since moving to the “Mainland”.  

This one I’ve had for a LONG TIME, and it even produced a baby plant. 

I simply snip off a small piece from one of the succulents leaves and give it a good ole squeeze. A green ooze comes out, no joke, and you carefully schmear that on your burn for a few days and – bingo bango – your wound will be better in no time. 

Now, back home in Hawaii, every home has an Aloe plant growing somewhere and we pronounce it differently from you folks here on the Mainland. 

Ah-loy  

Ah like Ha with a short A sound and loy like boy. 

I know that you can buy Aloe products, juice, gels, etc. But the original plant does me just fine, thanks. 

… heh, if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded.      

MAHALO! 

Just a general meandering …

 

DH & I had to go check on my Mother today, her cell phone seemed to be out of order, again, and she hasn’t got a clue what’s what. 

Once we were finished, we headed in the opposite direction to fill up the gas tank in our car. 

WELL! 

What else is along that path but See’s Candies!  

🥳

We finally have a permanent store here in Cowboyville Arizona (it was seasonal pop ups only previously). 

I grabbed a basket and we started to pick out our favorites. 

As we’re waiting for our turn in line to cash out, all, and I mean all of See’s Candies Nation wide had a huge IT problem … their computer systems went down – kaput – frozen – Houston we have a problem!  

So everyone else in the store put their candies back on their shelves and left. 

NOT ME, I’m stubborn and I wanted some See’s Candies, damn it all! 

I stood there, chatted up the nice folks behind the counter, had ourselves a nice time … about 15 minutes went by and still it was a no go. 

So they asked if I would be back in the area again some time soon and I said yes I would. 

They took my name and phone number down to i.d. my goodies later. 

They kindly put my items in a lovely bag and gave me about a pound’s worth of samples to tide me over.  

And I’m not kidding! 

When we got home, I weighed my bounty on my kitchen scale, yup, they gave me just shy of a full pound of candies. 

Do you have any idea as to how much that would have cost me to put together what they call a “Customized Box of Candies” at See’s?

$35 that’s how much. 

😯

The folks were so kind, they said that I was so nice and patient, waiting for their systems to come back up. 

I said as I did finally give in and leave, “Watch, you watch, as soon as I leave it’ll start working again!” 

Sure enough, as we were driving home my phone rang, “Are you still in town?  We could ring up your purchase now.” 

😆

… if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded.     

MAHALO! 

BINGO!!

I may have shared with y’all previously that my Neighborhood Gal Pals and I have the best time going to the Community next to ours to play Bingo. 

My pals thought that I needed to get out and about, so … you know me, I’ve got to take a treat along to share with the entire class. 

These Cupcakes were a big hit! And they were super easy to make, and dang delicious too!

Take a box of Pillsbury Pumpkin Quick Bread & Muffin mix, follow the directions on the box. I made 12 regular sized cupcakes and finished them off this way with frosting:

Ingredients:

¼ cup unsalted butter, softened 

4-ounce cream cheese, softened 

1 teaspoon maple extract 

2 cups powdered sugar 

To make frosting, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in maple and powdered sugar and mix for 2-3 minutes.  

Pipe the frosting over completely cooled cupcakes and then sprinkle over about 

½ cup Heath milk chocolate toffee bits 

DELICIOUS! 

And it was easy enough for me to do in stages. 

I made the Cupcakes a few days before hand, and then frosted them the afternoon of Bingo. 

Oh, and I WON!!! 

Can you see the last number that was called for me to get Bingo?

🤣

I smashed that so hard with my dauber that I sprayed ink all over the place … our table was a mess of yelling and screaming … what fun … and do you see how much I won? Dont’cha know I cashed that check and put the money in my wallet … I told DH, this is my mad money to do with as I wished … I bought take out dinner for us that night. 😎

Cook for your friends and family!    

… and if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded.    

MAHALO!

I’m Still Here!

As we close out 2023, I thought that I’d catch y’all up, yet again. 

You may have noticed that my last blog post was back in the early part of May 2023. I would put together several posts at one time and schedule them for later publication. 

I suppose that was a good idea, seeing as I became gravely ill at the end of April 2023. 

I wound up in the hospital, twice, and underwent FIVE surgeries in a matter of FOUR MONTHS! My last surgery was at the beginning of November, and knock wood, it looks like I’m in the clear, for now. There are other medical issues that are being addressed, but we’ll just have to wait and see where it goes at this point.  

Oh but wait, there’s more. 

In the middle of all this chaos, both my dearest husband and I contracted Covid 19 for a second time. Thankfully, this newest strain is not as “sock you in the face” difficult.  

Through all of this, I have not been able to sit down, put my thoughts together and write anything. All of this had really thrown my body into something that I couldn’t explain to you – I was super jacked up, as the young folks say. 

Today, I got a notice from WordPress that my subscription to this blog hosting site was renewed … yup! I pay for this blog to be supported and I thought, ya know, I probably should get my stuff together and get back to something that I enjoy doing – blogging. And no, I don’t pay someone to write my blog for me, as I know others do. These are all my own words, photos, recipes, ideas, experiences – everything is all me. And so, ya got me for a while longer. 

Cook for your friends and family!     

… and if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded.     

Mahalo for sticking it out with me 

Kitchen Fail ~ Part 9

I kept seeing posts on social media for Dump Cake and how easy and delicious it is.

Okay, let’s try it. 

NOPE! 

That was terrible, I mean just gross – the whole thing went into the trash, it was that bad. 

I’m just grateful that I thought to use a disposable aluminum pan for this and didn’t ruin one of my good pans. 

Cook good food for your friends and family!    

😆

… and if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded.    

MAHALO! 

Wildfires!

California had been having fire after fire after fire! 

(`Member now, we’re still talking about 2022 here) 

It was getting so bad that loads of smoke was even blowing our way in Arizona!

😮

And as I recall, the smoke could be seen from the Space Shuttle. 

So glad that we got Mom out of there. With smoke like this, it wasn’t doing her any good. She was forever getting sinus infections. Well, she was living in the valley, so that made things worse for her. She spent a lot time indoors because of this. 

Let’s all be safe out there! 

… and if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded.    

MAHALO! 

My Automatic Dishwasher DIED!!!

😲

That may not sound terrible to a lot of people, but for me that spelled trouble with a capital T! 

(Please recall that we are still talking about what happen in the previous year that I was absent) 

😉

I was feeding three adults, three times a day, you do the math.

😆

I called “Our Guy” to see if possibly he could fix it. Granted this was the fourth time he had to fix the dang thing AND it’s only 5 years old.  

It had something to do with the electrical panel that was a known problem with this brand. He recommended just buy a new one and gave me a list of dishwashers he liked. 

Don’t ‘cha know that I was on the hunt for a new one IMMEDIATELY! No resting on my laurels. 

It took me a while, but I finally found a good one, ordered it and had to wait SIX WEEKS for delivery and installation. Any idea what this did to my hands? And no, before you even ask, I was not smart enough to wear rubber gloves.

🙄

Out with the old, and good riddance I say. 

🤬

And in with this new, gorgeous, well worth the money machine that will be around for a long time. “Our Guy told me that this the same one he has had for many years with no issues whatsoever. 

👏🏼

Wash the dishes for your family! 

… and if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded.    

MAHALO! 

January 2022 ~ We Got Sick!

YUP!

🤒

Both DH & I got SAR-CoV-2 Coronavirus – Covid!

💩

As soon as we started to feel ill, we self-isolated in our master bedroom that has an attached full bathroom. My Mother was still living with us at the time and we did NOT want her to get it too. So the rule was that DH or I would knock on the inside of our bedroom door and say, “MASK ON PLEASE” before we came out to the rest of the house.

😷

We were fortunate that our local pharmacy was offering the rapid test, where could find out if we were positive or not within 20 minutes.

DH & I hunkered down with all of our needed supplies …

I even brought in a cooler for water.

Food wasn’t a problem, I had a large grocery haul delivered to the house, mostly convenience types of stuff, you know, frozen microwavable meals for all three meals. This made life much simpler for all of us.

We both had our tablets and power cords for them, so we could go on the Internet whenever we weren’t sleeping that is.

🥱

We did alot of sleeping!

Both of us did a telemed video call to our respective PCP’s. My nice gal said what we were already doing was the best way to go and she highly suggested that I binge watch Yellowstone, never heard of it, but we don’t do television any more, we stream. “YES!” she said, “that’s the only way to watch it. It’s so worth it!!”

She was right!

After two weeks of living in our bed, we went back to the pharmacy and finally tested negative!

👏

This whole situation got us thinking … what if something worse happened to DH & I ??? What would happen to Mom ???

We all sat down as a family to talk about Mom getting her own place. But that’s a whole other story that we’ll get to on the next issue of My Kitchen In The Middle Of The Desert… stay tuned.

… and if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded.    

MAHALO! 

HANG ON! There Seems To More To Catch Up On!

Let’s back this bus up yet again … 

😄

During the Summer of 2021 (yeah, I know, that was a long while back!) My Mother, who was living in her hometown back in California, was having multiple day-to-day life issues that she just couldn’t deal with. 

Her ancient land line telephone service, cable television connection, air conditioner, well, just about everything in the apartment that she rented in a Senior Living Community, aka “The Home” as Mom called it – all of these things were forever on the fritz and she just didn’t know how or who to get to fix them. 

I made numerous calls, sent emails, texts – all with tons of resistance!

😡

Somethings got repaired and others, like her telephone, did not.  

My dearest husband and I were making multiple road trips (9 ½ hours one way!) out to California to get things taken care of for her. 

I finally convinced Mom that she MUST get a Cell Phone, but this was the last straw I think for her. 

When we got back home on the last trip, I called her let her know. In our conversation she said, “I think I made a big mistake by moving here!” 

Well, there was my open door! 

DH and I had been discussing for months previous to this that we’d ask Mom to move to Arizona… she jumped on that quicker than you could say “Jack Robinson”!! 

👏

By the middle of August 2021, we had packed Mom up and moved her in with us for the time being. 

It took us awhile, but we found another Senior Living Community a short 30-minute drive from our house … MUCH BETTER!!! 

Mom is loving her new freedom. 

She’s made friends with a nice group of folks that she has breakfast with each morning (by the way, her breakfast is included with her rent). There’s loads of different activities throughout the day, excursions on their “Bus” as Mom says, dinners out (on your own dime, of course) and she’s even gotten back to crafting AND painting.  “The Bus” takes the residents grocery shopping, to religious services, appointments of all kinds, they’ll even drop off/pick up at our house!!!  

So, this brings us to, well, I’ll say December 2022 and then we’ll be going forward from there to catch y’all up the rest of the way, to 2023 that is. But I think we’ll get there pretty quickly.  

… remember  

Cook for your friends and family!    

… and if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded.    

MAHALO! 

Kitchen Fail ~ Part 8

I got a new kitchen toy a whiles back, can’t remember when just now, but oh well…

I finally broke down and got an Air Fryer.

I saw one that I thought was a fair price and not too big either.  I think it’s a good size for us two.

I’ve been playing around with all sorts different foods cooked in it and my one complaint is the clean up with some things.

For instance, RealGood Foods Co. Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Three Cheese is best done in the AF.

Yes, they are delicious but the mess is a bear to clean up.

😒

I was reading somewhere that you could purchase pre-cut perforated pieces of parchment paper to help with this.

I have loads of parchment paper that I could cut myself and break out my hole puncher!

OOPS!

😜

I started to smell something BURNING!

*Note to self: wait until the Air Fryer has pre-heated, then place the parchment paper and food product on top of that.

😁

Cook or bake, for your family!

And as always … if you could, hit that ‘like’ button, leave a comment below maybe just to say ALOHA; subscribe to my blog if you like what you’re reading and get an email when a new post has been uploaded. 

MAHALO!