Seeking next door neighbor

FALLen angel autumn display. No one in my neighborhood found it funny.

Who would you like to live next door?

You know, the person who you wouldn't care popped over unannounced? Someone who has similar life priorities as you and the same sense of humor? And didn't judge?

I love that scene in Stepford Wives when Bobby commented on Joanna's messy kitchen. Since all her neighbors had turned Stepford, complete with immaculate homes and shallow personalities, Bobby commented that Joanna's sticky kitchen was a "home away from home."

I totally get it.

My mom had a good friend. Let's call her Carol. Carol's house always appeared lived-in and she was a riot of good times. She also wasn't consumed by creating a spotless museum for her family.

I'm still looking for my Carol. In my neighborhood, it's unacceptable to have laundry on the dining room table and the rusted running board from the Jeep in the side bushes.

Here's one lady I wouldn't mind as my next door neighbor: Nancy. She loves her family, cooks, creates, and has a great time with her grand-babies. I can imagine she would be a blast to hang out with.

Who is your dream next-door neighbor?

Baked apples in caramel sauce

The other night, the family was clamoring for something sweet.

I tried this on a whim and it went over well.

You should try it!

Baked apples in caramel sauce

Prepare the apples:
Peel and slice 2 apples. I used green ones.
Put apple slices in a microwave-safe bowl.
Stir in 1 Tablespoon sugar.
Shake the cinnamon jar once over the top. Not too much.
Microwave about 1 1/2 minutes on high. 
Test with a fork. Microwave longer if desired.

Prepare the caramel sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
4 Tablespoons butter
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring (or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract)

Mix together the brown sugar, milk, butter and salt.
Heat the mixture over medium-low heat for about 6 minutes. 
Add maple flavoring.
Heat another few minutes until desired thickness or until your patience runs out.
Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Drizzle some caramel sauce over the apples. 

Top with whipped cream if you have some and if you are in the mood.

There will probably be some extra caramel sauce. And that's juuuuust fine.  :)

Have a lovely day.
 

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Luncheon meat fit for a luncheon

It was the day of my just-because party. I invited a group of women to get together for some much needed girl time.

The chicken salad was prepared ahead of time. I made a cherry and pineapple dump cake and some sugar cookies. Fun slumber party type games were on the agenda. 

Anticipating the giggles and secrets, I almost forgot to set out the lunch meat platter. I grabbed the meats and cheeses and slapped 'em on a plate. 

My husband intervened. 

"Oh, no, no, no," he said.

"You shouldn't just stack stuff up like that," he said. "Fluff and fold." "Fluff and fold."

"This isn't laundry!" I exclaimed.

"For Pete's sake, at least unwrap the cheeses," said he.

He couldn't believe my callousness and indifference about the matter. 

I've since learned--it DOES look better when you fluff and fold your lunch meat...and unwrap the cheeses.

I don't really have a point. This is just something I've learned about displaying lunch meat. 

I mean, LUNCHEON meat.

Have a lovely day.

On again, off again

He used to bring me chocolates and whisper sweet nothings into my ear. Oh how we would giggle at our private jokes!

That was when we first met, about a year ago.

I relied on him and he let me down. He had been a dirty, dirty boy and I expected him to clean up his act.

It's a different story when he tells it. Says it wasn't his fault. Says I was using him. And neglecting his needs.

We tried to make it work and even brought in an expert (who seemed to take his side). 

Pop-dishwasher-psychology lingo was thrown around: the EPA's waterway cleaning  resulted in the removal of phosphates from detergents; and someone's food filter was filthy.

In retrospect, I wonder if I threw too much at him. Perhaps being responsible for such a large family wasn't his scene.

We patched things up with a couple rounds of a specialty dishwasher cleaner. His trap was scrubbed sparkling clean. He began using eco-friendly detergents.

"I feel brand new," he said to me as the morning sun kissed his start button.

We danced through wildflowers once again and sang the clean dishes song. His smile was as wide as the silverware tray on an industrial model as he strummed his ukelele.

Just when I thought we were reunited forever (or at least the next few years), he flooded my kitchen in an act of vandalism that blindsided me.

Relationships are built on trust. 

I'm not there yet.

Cooking with beagles

 

Do you see the potatoes on the cutting board? 

Do you see where I need to stand to cut those potatoes?

This is how it is every night. Mr. Cool positions himself to where I need to be. 

Then he becomes a wall.

This guy is no help:

Awww look at his paw tucked under himself all docile. 

Don't be fooled. The Little Weirdo can be on his feet before one potato piece hits the floor.

Cooking with these guys is challenging and kinda dangerous.

Have you ever seen porcupines in a playpen? 

It's like that. 

Top o' the hutch to ya

I see impressive decor vignettes on blogs all the time. 

Here's mine.

My style technique: red things go on top of the hutch.

The tour from left to right:
Peppermint candy tin. 
Wind-up robot I found in a box of my husband's stuff.
Girl doll and boy doll. They are having money issues.
Cookie jar. The family argues whether it's a tomato or apple. I say apple.
Egg beater with a red handle. You can't really see the handle.
Pasta maker.
Junior cookbook.

If you look closely, you'll see that the girl and boy dolls are NOT looking at each other. Like in any relationship, there are ups and downs. They're a couple of good kids. We would all like to see it work out for them.

Things are looking up. They are almost holding hands!

Anyway...

Even if a home isn't magazine quality, isn't it fun to see how neighbors decorate?

Have a lovely day!
 

Cream cheese fruit dip for real life

 

I made this fruit dip the other day. It was healthier than my normal recipe with all the powdered sugar.

Cream Cheese Fruit Dip for Real Life

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese

1/3 cup honey

2 Tablespoons milk

Directions:

Mix ingredients well until fluffy.

Serve with chopped fruit.

Here's the real life part:

Apparently, there is something sticky on the table along with a laptop, cooling rack and some drumsticks. Yeah, I live with drummers.

What's that you say? I can't hear you! It's too loud in here!

Have a lovely day!

 
Shared on these sites:
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Make Dad a Toasty Joe

We've grown quite fond of these cute little sandwiches. 

Toasty Joes are a take on traditional Sloppy Joes (or yip-yips as they used to say in the school cafeteria).

Toasty Joes

Brown 1 1/2 pounds of hamburger in a saucepan. Drain fat.

Add:
1/4 cup chopped onion or some onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon mustard
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3/4 cup catsup
1/2 cup bbq sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Stir add-ins into the hamburger and cook on medium until heated throughout--about 10 minutes.

Instead of serving on a bun, we like it on toasted "everything" bread. 

Do you have "everything" bread where you live? It's a French bread loaf topped with everything--poppy seeds, garlic, herbs, sesame seeds, and I don't know what all. It's good.

Then add whatever toppings to suit each person. I like shredded cheddar cheese and black olives. You could add sliced onions, green peppers, jalapenos, fries, sour cream. Whatever!

I like that I can crank these out in a hurry for all the hungry loiterers in my kitchen.

Try 'em!

Birthday spice cake

I told you about the birthday party we had last weekend. Remember? The wrapping paper made out of an old helium balloon?

Well, his other gift was this spice cake. It wasn't "the" birthday cake to share. This one was a gift for the birthday boy to take home. It's kind of a tradition.

The recipe is eggless and milkless. I believe it was used often during the depression. It has the density of a fruit cake. 

This cake is heavy, man. Heavy.

When topped with a cream cheese frosting, it is a real treat. 

Happy Birthday Spice Cake

Ingredients

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/4 cup water

1/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup raisins

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons water

2 cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Boil the brown sugar, 1 1/4 cup water, shortening, raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves for three minutes. Allow to cool.

Dissolve the salt and baking soda in the 2 teaspoons of water. Add to the boiled mixture.

Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the mixture.

Mix the walnuts into the cake batter.

Grease and flour an 8" x 8" x 2" loaf pan and pour batter into the pan.

Bake for 55 minutes. Allow cake to cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

2 sticks of softened butter

4 ounces of cream cheese, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Beat the butter and cream cheese together. Add the powdered sugar. Mix. Then add the vanilla. Mix well.

Frost all sides of the cake.

 

Since we were going out to dinner, I knew the cake would be out of the fridge for a few hours. So, I put it in the freezer for a while. (Dig the corn dogs in the back.)

I figured this would help the cream cheese frosting hang in there during the party. 

I only made one cake this week, so of course I have a craving for it. Guess I'll have to make one for our house, too.

Do you have a tradition of baking something in particular as a gift for someone?

 

Shared on these sites:
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Growing Home Blog
Handy Man, Crafty Woman

Real deal zeal

I read homemaking blogs. I read cooking blogs. I read vintage blogs. I read gardening blogs. I read style blogs. I read motherhood blogs.

If there's a blog, I've read it.

Wait. No. That's not true. There's no way I could possibly read all the blogs on the Internet.

Some are about sports.

My own blog doesn't fall into one of the above categories. It is of the neighborly genre.

When you visit me here, I hope you feel as if you are visiting the lady next door--well, if the lady next door likes to bake and loves cats and kids and loud music and doesn't always mow her grass in a timely fashion and is okay with it if you don't mow your grass that much, either.

On this blog, you won't find gourmet recipes, the latest home and fashion fads, parenting tips from leading child psychologists, advice from a master gardener, or how to run a steel mill on a shoestring budget.

But you will find recipes I've tried, my attempts at style, and ideas on mothering and family. We can take a stroll out back to see if anything happens to be growing in the garden. We can play with the dogs and aggravate the cat.

Let's share thoughts about making the world friendlier and not wait until our lives magically turn perfect.

This is a blog about lowering standards!

We are allowed to be neighborly even if our teeth aren't whitened and there is still laundry on the couch from the other day.

You're on your own with that steel mill idea, though.

Kitchen communication center

"Mom, what's to eat?"

Ah, the theme song to my life.

This menu board hangs in a prominent spot in our kitchen. I could list upcoming meals on it for all the family to see. Doing so just might give me some peace and tranquility. I would probably end up in a bubble bath surrounded by candles.

However, I'm fond of self-sabotage. So instead of using this board to communicate, I drew a cat on it. Made sense at the time.

I call this piece: Wet Scrappy Cat, because I thought kitty looked like he had been in a scuffle. My oldest thought he looked wet.

A few days after that, the kids were talking about the word, February. They were having the most fun trying to say both r's and then trying to say it the way they usually say it; but after repeating it so many times, no one could remember how they pronounced it in the first place. At some point, someone wrote "February" on the communication center. I don't know why there is an arrow.

Anyway, so this is the family menu board.

I don't have a clue what's for supper.

Finger food frenzy

Raw meat wimp-out update: Things are looking up. Just a few months ago, I wouldn't have entertained the thought of making these chicken fingers.

Sure, I would cook chicken breasts in the oven, not that I wanted to. The family kept demanding to be fed, though. What's a mom to do?

"Ick, ick, ick," I'd repeat to release some raw meat heebie-jeebies as I draped chicken breasts one by one into the pan and then into the oven. 

A puddle of dish soap and a paper towel would be waiting for me at the sink. I couldn't get my hands clean fast enough.

I still don't enjoy the process but look at me go! This chicken fingers recipe is pretty hands-on, but if I can do it, you can do it.

Everyone agreed it was yummy. I think I'll do it again sometime!

Chicken Fingers

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

1/8 cup baking powder

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

3 pounds of chicken breasts, thawed

2 eggs, beaten

1 stick of butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with foil and grease it. I used olive oil.
3. Mix the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Beat the eggs in a shallow dish.
5. Cut the chicken breasts into 1/2" strips.
     I used kitchen scissors and didn't even wear food handling gloves!
6. Roll some chicken pieces in the egg.
7. Then coat each piece with the flour mixture. Shake off excess.
8. Put chicken pieces on the foil-lined sheet. 
9. Drizzle with some butter.
10. Bake about 7 minutes. 
11. Turn the chicken over and bake another 7 minutes.
12. They should be white inside, not pink.
13. If they are at all pink, bake a few minutes more.

We had a finger food frenzy on Friday! 

On the menu: 

chicken fingers, cheese and crackers, pineapple chunks, pickles and green olives.

 No big whoop.

Hope you're having a lovely day! 

Like a biscuit in a loaf costume

Doesn't this loaf of bread look delicious?

Well, it wasn't.

I have been searching for a quick bread recipe to use as sandwich bread. Yeast breads are awesome and everything, but a concoction that can be mixed, dumped into a pan and baked immediately sounds like a dream. 

Kneading, rising, kneading, rising. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood.

So I tried this Irish soda bread recipe. 

Concealing its true biscuit identity in a loaf costume, it gave everyone a start--kind of like taking a drink expecting soda but getting an iced tea surprise instead. 

"It's OK, I guess, just not what I was expecting," seemed to be the collective opinion around the dinner table. The remains of this thing hung around the kitchen for days. No one would give it another chance. 

I believe baking powder is my ticket out of kneading and rising but this recipe wasn't it.

The search continues.

Old loaf pans three ways

Out of a stack of quite a few loaf pans, I only have two good ones. The rest have holes or are exceptionally rusted.

No problem. I just found other ways to use them.

Use #1: 

Forks and spoons holders.

The silverware drawer in the kitchen was ALWAYS busy with people grabbing forks and spoons. (Imagine that.) 

I would often turn from the stove quickly to grab a spoon, only to run smack into someone's back as they rummaged through the drawer. Aaack!!

My son gave me a silverware set for Christmas a couple years ago, so I was able to set up our serving station in the part of the kitchen where hungry people need to be--the dining part. 

Stay out of the cooking area, will ya?

Anyway, no big whoop, but here is our humble serving station:

I use the Dr. Seuss method for stacking dishes. :)

Use #2:

Medicines and first aid organizer.

Our home pharmacy actually requires three loaf pans. That stuff is everywhere!

Use #3:

Seeds organizer.

This time of year, I'm especially glad to have all our seeds in one place!

These ideas are really just ways to use crummy pans to organize stuff. I could see these being helpful in kids' rooms or the garage or the bathroom!

In addition to organizing, I envision little ones using loaf pans as "skates" and scuffling around the house. My kids are too old for this only because their feet are too big. Maturity doesn't apply.

Do you use goofy things to get things done, too? 

Momming is forever

Lovey dovey treats

This activity has it all:

feeding hungry love birds

busying bored kids

decorating for Valentine's Day

 Here's all you do:

• Line a jellyroll pan with foil.
• Melt a suet cake (about 12 oz.) in a saucepan over low heat.
• Add some birdseed and mix.
• When all is melted and mixed, quickly pour mixture into the foil-lined jellyroll pan.

• Chill pan of melted suet in the fridge overnight.
• Cut the suet into fun shapes using cookie cutters.
    (Some shapes will break. It happens.) 
• Poke a hole through each shape--for hanging with strings later.
    (Be sure to poke all the way through.)
• Freeze the shapes that look best.
• Save the scraps. The birds will eat them even if they aren't pretty.
• Remove the frozen shapes from the freezer.
• Thread a string through each hole and tie.
• Hang these festive creations in a tree.

Warm your heart while watching the birds enjoy their special Valentine dinner!

 

This post was shared on these neighborly websites:

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Growing Home
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