Me, Myself and Memories

Updates from February, 2017 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Noreen 4:41 am on February 12, 2017 Permalink  

  What a Gift 

  I am fortunate to have the gift of perseverance.  There is a huge difference between one who is a perfectionist and then . . . there is me.  I give it my all regardless of what I am doing.  With patience and an equal amount of perseverance, I like where I am today and what I am doing in “today.”  I have a sweet life.  With any given day, with any given task, I do have expectations as to the outcome.   

  This is a weekend that finds me home alone.  That does not happen as often as it has in the past when Dennis was on an active circuit of taking in trade shows.  Dennis knows his limitations in energy and physical endurance as to how often he runs away from home.  This show, in South Dakota, Dennis has taken in every year for 22 years.  He is grooming a friend of his who has shown an interest in taking over Dennis’ rental spot in a year or two.  Dennis would continue taking in the event, but not the setting up, tending it non-stop for the weekend, and taking it down and coming home a bit weary. 

  I have no set plans for a weekend such as this, it just evolves.  I am on livestock duty with the garage kittens.  Some of those kittens are getting a bit of age on them, not to mention the weight that they carry.  Yesterday while I was waiting for the shop to come and pick up the car that needed a new battery, I found myself giving the garage porch some TLC.  As we put down new carpeting last summer, we do have some carpet rag rugs taking a hit where the doors to the outside are.  Hmm.  I can still produce a pretty good snap when shaking the rugs.  My Mom would not approve as that puts a lot of strain on the warp of the rug.

  Some of the livestock chose to leave the porch and others just moved as I moved around with the vacuum.  Somehow dirt from two potted plants found its way to the carpeting.  That Snuggles just has to crawl in and around the plants.  I did leave the dusting for Dennis to take care of when he gets home.  It is surprising how much dust a television screen can hold.  Butter Ball kept an eye on me as I emptied the water dish and gave it a clean.  Of course, as I was putting new water in, his paw just happened to catch the water stream.  Butter Ball loves to play in water.  In the end the litter box was totally tidied, food bowls were cleaned and refilled and I left the porch for the cats to check out all that had been moved or cleaned.  A good work out on the perseverance.  When the fellows returned the car into the garage, they took a peek at the garage porch and were amazed as to how it was tricked out.  A perfect quiet place to put off cabin fever.

  I slept until nine this morning.  Amazingly the train two blocks away and the semi trucks that pass within 50 feet of our home do not interfere with my rest.  When my feet do hit the floor, I am ON.  One trip to the bathroom and when I came out the washing machine was filling with water.  By the time I had come in from letting the cats out for a run, the coffee pot had brewed some awesome smelling coffee.  I treated myself to an apple fritter to enjoy with the coffee.

  The sun did not stay out for the entire day, but believe me I had windows open on the east end of the house as well as the west end.  As I am typing, I am enjoying the last of the cold breakfast coffee.  I have had a rewarding kitchen type of day.  Chocolate cookies are filling the cookie container, cold crab salad is co-mingling in the refrigerator, pork steak is marinating in the blue speckled roaster in the refrigerator right beside the baking dish that is ready to pop into the oven.  That baking dish is comprised of our favorite carrot casserole.  Par cooked carrots layered with sautéed onions, Velveeta cheese and ready to have crumbled club crackers on it before going in the oven.  I am pretty sure the pork and carrots will be fixed for Monday’s supper.  I had the kitchen going and it just kept on going and going until I was tuckered out.  Man, there were a lot of dirtied dishes.   

  Good grief, I have had several great days.  I did not even go into the sewing studio since Dennis has been gone.  It is hard to explain, but going solo for a couple of days is good for my soul.  I can persevere and I do persevere at my own speed . . . at my own time.  Dennis will be home tomorrow, Sunday, sometime between five and six in the late afternoon.  I will be rested without anything left on my tick list . . . taking in all of the tales that Dennis will share about his weekend at the trade show.  Priceless!

   
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  Noreen 5:43 am on January 29, 2017 Permalink  

  A good day for domestic items. Several good library books are near my chair for enjoyment during evening hours. My new prescription to assist in good heart health was $2.00 for the month. While I was in the grocery story, I ran into Gloria. She had made all the pies for the Home Town Café for years. Strawberries were on sale, and as we visited she gave me her Strawberry Pie recipe. Our pie is now chilling in the refrig on Stauffer Ave. It had been a long time since I had made a Crisco pie crust. One thing I will never do again is to stir up a batch of peanut butter cookies and store the dough in the refrig overnight. It was as hard as a brick and took a long time to be workable. The Crisco and peanut butter really chilled out. Chicken tenders are in the oven, boiled potatoes are done and green beans will assist. A very good day for the Grammie on Stauffer. Time will be coming for feet up and checking out the new choices from the library.

   
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  Noreen 4:55 am on January 26, 2017 Permalink  

  The forecast of snow was right on. In between six and seven inches. Before next-door-Randy had left for work, he had taken several swaths down our driveway as well as his own. It had started snowing about seven last night, slow and steady right through this noon.

  About noon it looked like it was about to quit snowing and that is when the older ones on Stauffer got geared up. Dennis takes it slow and steady with quite a few breaks in the porch. Our driveway is 90′ of concrete. I can only imagine how hard it would be using a small snowblower on a gravel driveway with rocks flying God knows where. The pickup garage opens to Stauffer Avenue and the city fellows are very kind and make sure their blade is facing onto the opposite side when they plow through. That side of Stauffer is a lawn, so “no fowl” in regard to blocking someone else’s driveway. I do my duty on the end of a shovel clearing out the patio on the front of the house and anywhere else where a snowblower can’t do justice.

  Dennis and I have had a great workout and have enjoyed some down time since coming in. Supper: pancakes and bacon with strawberries that Dennis has had marinating since this forenoon. Dennis is thinking the berries as a side dish, I am thinking of them on top of the pancakes. I repeat: We had just the best workout ever!

   
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  Noreen 4:43 am on January 16, 2017 Permalink  

  New Chief 

  

  It was time to pull in some extra help in the kitchen. Dennis doesn’t mind helping out and does great in the kitchen.  My dad, Raymond, was able to make himself a fried egg sandwich.  Why such a limited amount of kitchen skills?  My Mom always made sure Raymond had choices in the refrigerator if she was going to be gone over a mealtime.  Love that.  Crab salad is one of our favorite “go to” when a snack is needed. Lots of celery, onions and of course the crab meat. It is actually Pollock. With a lazy Sunday coming to an end, this will be a perfect supper with some toast.

   
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  Noreen 2:34 am on September 9, 2016 Permalink  

  Now this type of day is what I have been waiting for. A bit of breeze, low humidity and low temps. The mosquitoes didn’t get the news flash that they could have the day off. My lawnmower didn’t let me down. We may have grunted a bit as the ground is just like a sponge. The front yard offered up three full bags of clippings. This surely must be the tail end of push, push, push. Here I am all cleaned up and Dennis is still out in the northeast part of the acre on the rider mower. This will be a good grill cheese and tomato soup supper night.

  Something about this day brought back a memory from times gone by. It was this time of the year many years ago that the kid’s dad, Orlin, announced the television was on the blink. Oh my gosh, Downtown South Branch and all it didn’t have to offer and now . . . no television. Though all we could get for reception was Channel 12 – WCCO, it was still the glow of the tube and entertainment. With no fluid funds to take it to Truman for the repair shop, the television set became a rather large knick-nack.

  School had just started with a fair amount of daylight in the early evenings. Kevin found things to do in his make-shift tool shed. It was a concrete block building that had once been a chicken house. Carrie spent more time on the piano. She tried out different recipes that made tasty suppers by the time Orlin and I got home from work. Quiet times in their bedrooms for schoolwork served them well. There was still a fair amount of yard work for all of us, as we were the grounds keepers for the next door church, the cemetery and the parochial school grounds. Fall turned into the early stages of winter. I am not sure how it was revealed to the kids when the television was re-instated after it had been taken to Truman for a new picture tube. The kids didn’t even complain when ole Chuck Pesket was the man of the hour for news or the host of the John Deere Band Wagon. The kids kept on with some of the things that had kept them occupied during that “black out.” It was a good thing.

  If my memory serves me, Orlin had pulled the “television is broken” one time when we lived in Madelia. The television set was actually put into a closet. After a lengthy spell in the closet, Orlin and I came home from being out and about and the kids met us at the door. Oh my gosh! “We just tried plugging it in to see what would happen and it worked!” Poor ole Dad, it’s hard to pull something past kids that have inquiring minds. The wonderful thing is that Carrie and Kevin did have, and still do have, inquiring minds to continue broadening their horizons for themselves and their families. Now that’s a good thing.

   
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  Noreen 3:12 am on March 1, 2016 Permalink
  Tags: Dennis ( 40 ), Kevin ( 8 )   

  Tidy Up 

  After a sewing project or two the threads are everywhere.  As many wastebaskets that I have in various locations in the sewing studio, some are still bound to take flight.  Dennis cleaned the vacuum filter after I was finished and he was wondering if I sat in a corner making small bits of thread.

  

  The bright colors were fun to work with even if some had to be spliced to be able to be used.

  Yesterday after folding up the large turquoise and coral quilt with the embroidery motifs, I had not planned on starting anything new.  I thought I was burned out.  Not!  I was in the process of making tidy the work area when I could not help myself from thumbing through the scrap box.  At the very bottom was a half yard of a printed panel.  It was a panel of the alphabets, three letters to a block.  Before I knew it, I had some scraps for this and a few scraps for that and the challenge was on for making a crib sized quilt.  Not all projects need to be queen or king sized.

  I knew I had supper in the bag.  From roasting out a large turkey from Kersten and Kevin, we had several bags of roasted chopped turkey in the freezer.  I planned on using some cream of chicken soup to add to the turkey for hot sandwiches.  The sandwiches coupled with a lettuce salad and the menu was planned, giving me ample time to sew a few seams.  I did call it quits when I realized I had sewn the last seam placing the right side of the quilt to the wrong side of the border, rather than the two right sides facing each other.

  It wasn’t much fun knowing that the first job of the day was taking the seam ripper out and taking out that last seam.  It did give me time to consider what sort of backing to put on a crib quilt.  When all was said and done, I had taken everything out of each tote to find just the right yardage.  I am not going to mention just how many totes that entailed.  When I saw the Crayon print yard goods, I knew it would be the right fit.  It may have been a good find, but I shot myself in the foot.  As I went through the totes, I weeded out bits of scraps that had been folded into the larger pieces.  I had been working very hard to use up scraps and now my scrap box is again just as full as before all the pot holders and placemats have been cranked out.  This puts a whole new slant on job security.  Care must be given when one is doing a tidy up.

   
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  Noreen 5:54 am on December 14, 2015 Permalink  

  Nice packages of bite size turkey in the freezer to be enjoyed another day. I do not skimp and think every scrap has to be used. For me there is nothing worse than biting into grizzle when thinking about a nice turkey sandwich.

  I was doing some kitchen duty, so Dennis brought in all the squash that was left in the garage and we did a “bake out.” It’s a good feeling to know that they won’t go to waste. Several good packages in the freezer.

  I was done in the kitchen and Dennis took over and used some of the freshly baked squash to mix together a squash dessert. No pie crusts: 2 cups of squash, 1 cup of sugar, one can of evaporated milk, 2 eggs and cinnamon and bake at 325 for an hour. It makes for a fairly healthy treat.

  The weekend was gray and damp, but the weekend has been good.

   
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  Noreen 5:15 am on December 13, 2015 Permalink  

  Here we are on a Saturday evening on Stauffer Avenue.

  Monday when I came home from Kevin’s, I was accompanied by two huge frozen turkeys, both of which were larger than the kids’ apartment oven. One of the frozen turkeys were left in the refrigerator to begin the thawing process.

  This morning at 9:30 a.m. with the oven preheated the turkey went into the oven to roast. At 4:30, the pop up button in the turkey as well as our meat thermometer indicated the 180 degree temperature had been reached. For our evening meal, I enjoyed a portion of one drumstick and one wing. Dennis is a white meat type of person.

  After the turkey has cooled down to take the goodies from the bird, there is going to be a lot of diced and cubed meat to be put into portion bags and frozen for future use. A can of cream of chicken soup and a baggie of cut up turkey will make great hot sandwiches or to be used in a hot dish with noodles and veggies.

  My Dad would be waiting in the wings for a turkey commercial. For the novices out there, a commercial is sliced hot meat in between two slices of bread and then cut in half as they are snuggled up to a mound of mashed potatoes, with the entire fare smothered in hot gravy.

  No doubt some of this bird will be headed north for the contributors to enjoy. It will be some time before bird #2 is roasted. The size of these turkeys must have been in the 11-12 pound range. Look as I might, I did not see the weight on the wrapping of the turkey.

   
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  Noreen 2:28 am on July 29, 2015 Permalink
  Tags: Creamed Cucumbers, Dennis ( 40 ), Mom ( 5 )   

  Dennis Knows How to Shop 

  

  Dennis stopped at the Farmer’s Market this afternoon and he knows how to shop for good produce. That ole cowboy picked out wonderful cucumbers and onions. The slicer that was my Mom’s might look the worse for wear, but I can’t imagine slicing cucumbers or raw potatoes with anything else. It really saves on the hands. Cucumbers, onions with dressing is co-mingling in the refrigerator for supper. It would not surprise me if Dennis had a huge portion of the creamed cucumbers with a slice of butter bread and calls it good. Dennis also knows how good the plate of Peanut Butter cookies is that he found at the same vendor. The Platz family from Springfield work hard at multiple locations with fresh produce, canned produce and the all time favorites in the baked goodies. Wait until they come with their chocolate zucchini bundt cake. Dennis is bound to bring one home touting the benefit of eating zucchini. Ya right!

   
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  Noreen 3:55 am on July 16, 2015 Permalink  

  I had a spurt of energy this morning hitting the porch with coffee in hand at 6:45. With the help of Butter Ball and Snuggles a few weeds were pulled before the alert went out to the mosquitoes that there was fresh meat out and about.

  This evening for supper, I am going to have my first bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich on whole wheat toast of the season. I can hardly wait. While it was still cool out there were 2 lbs. of bacon being baked out in the oven. With restraint, that stash of bacon will serve us well for quite a few meals – whether bacon and eggs or for sandwiches. As I said, “restraint.” We have not had bacon for some time, and it sure smelled good as it was caramelizing in the oven.