Choice Morsels

The Mama Kat blog prompt for today is" "Share one of your "did that really just happen to me" life moments..." To win something was a surprise. That people I knew and invited wanted to go with me made it amazing! It was 1977 and I happened to fill out a little form at some store for a local pizzeria to win a "free pizza party for you and 6 friends." To my huge surprise, I actually won. I very excited. I'd never won anything before! Plus it was December, my birthday month and I thought it would make a great birthday celebration! But the trick was how to get there and who could might actually want to go with me? I was in the Air Force then, stationed in Omaha, Nebraska at Offutt Air Force Base. I didn't have a car. It wasn't necessary to get around on base and to work back then, since base buses ran every 30 minutes and, at night, one could order a free base taxi ride to work from the motor pool. This pizzeria, however, was in a

This morning, this is what my yard looked like:     This may look like snow, but it's not. It's ice crystals. (That's garlic)     Below, the cabbage in my garden:   It is, of course, unaffected.       My Hen & Chicks in their strawberry pot:     And icicles on the gutter, even tiny ones, is an rare occurrence I've never seen here in the 28 years I've lived on the Florida Panhandle!       I did have a little blue ceramic cat in my large front pot garden---well, he exploded overnight. His face is gone and his left ear blew off.   Now I have to find some other cute bit of yard art to replace  him. It was so cold outside my fingers would start hurting within minutes of going outside with my camera between 8:30 and 9 a.m. and I'd have to go in to warm up before going back out for more shots. Ice can insulate, though. Local farmers spray strawberry fields and orange orchards with water when there is danger of a free

 Greetings! There's an system moving east from Texas promising to bring a cold blast to the Gulf Coast. Maybe ice and possibly---snow! We picked my car up from the shop yesterday, all fixed. Radiator needed replacing. This morning went to the fitness center for Zumba, then home for a nice lunch of smoked salmon on salad. (I love fish in a tin like herring, sardines or salmon, especially smoked. Such fish are full of Omega 3's and a great way to get that twice-a- week fish in!) Today's Good Eating recipe is ChocolatePudding Cake. It goes by names like hot fudge cake sometimes. Basically, it creates it's own "pudding" sauce during baking. This particular recipe is an old family recipe I believe my Mother found on a Hershey Cocoa can. Normally, it's baked, but I changed it up this past weekend and made it in the slow-cooker--it worked great! The difference is you can serve more people with a baked 9 x13 pan versus a large oval slow-cooker. The c

With Valentine's Day coming up, today's finds are some sweet gift and card ideas: A gorgeous 3 heart mug Design can be put on any mug style, whether ceramic, travel or stein. An cute card themed on grade school love notes: You can customize your own message inside! Visit here , to see more Valentine options! Have a great day and come back for more Good Eating on Monday!

Mama Kat prompt topic for this week is: "Share a recipe that everyone in your family loves." I have a bunch of Air Force kids over for dinner and Bible study Sunday evenings, so I'm going to go with what they love:  I have to say it's my spaghetti. My friend, Megan, who usually comes on Sunday's, happened to be out of town this past week when I made it. Her email this morning was, "ooooooh, I missed the spaghetti!!!" What's my secret?  Well, it's the sauce. I use Glen Muir Organic. I used to use the cheaper canned Hunts or Del Monte, but they were giving my husband terrible gas, so I tried the Muir Glen Organic and no more gas. So, that's what I stick with, but let me tell you, this sauce is so deliciously seasoned already, it doesn't need any extra seasoning to spruce it up. (unlike the Hunts & Del Monte) If I make meatball subs, I just simmer the meatballs in a couple of jars of Glen Muir straight up. It costs a b

This morning I spent 2 hours from 10 to 12 using the leaf blower set on the vacuum/mulch setting to clean up Bay & Maple leaves and turn them into mulch to spread around on the beds to provide a little protection from the 4 night freeze we're having this week. All my asparagus fern suffered freeze-burn from the last round and I trimmed all those branches off yesterday. It will come back, though. It's tough as a nut. I'm concerned my Amaryllis bulbs in my two front pots might not---we'll see. The previous freeze totally burnt their leaves off, but they're a bulb--it's possible they'll rise again. Other Amaryllis in the ground in another bed are fine. I Today's Garden Pic is my new "insect hotel" I was working on yesterday: It's still a work in progress as I decide how to fill the spaces. This is an out-of-the way location in my woodsy themed bed in the far corner of our back yard. It's resting on blocks, which will make it a g

The Mama Kat prompt for today is: "Pinterest inspired! Share a pin you actually tried. How did it go?" The thing with Pinterest food recipes is they aren't always expert or tested. Sometimes they're a cooking experiment someone thought worked well enough to post on a blog that got pinned.  I found this photo-pin about Roast Cabbage I thought looked pretty good, so I tried it. Studying the picture now I realize that cabbage isn't cooked tender all the way through--it's just hot all the way through and that's exactly how mine came out. Which isn't right.  The cooking time just wasn't adequate. Perhaps the blogger who devised this recipe didn't know a "done" cabbage ought to be fork tender. Sometimes that happens with people trying out new veggies.  She also cooked it with the core left in---something I would never do. So here's the original recipe followed by things I'd do differently to fix it.  Roast Cabbage:

The fitness center we currently belong to has something the Y didn't---a steam room. I love steam rooms! It gives me fond memories of visiting a Turkish Bath in Istanbul while I was stationed in Turkey in 1978. Have you ever been to a real Turkish Bath? This particular one was a centuries old bath in downtown Istanbul. Inside it was a marble cathedral of steam--a huge, circular space with wide floor to ceiling pillars and a high round vaulted ceiling I could barely make-out.The floor was marble, the walls were marble--everything was marble. I went with 2 other Air Force girls. One, of them, Kathy, was quite the adventurer, always interested in exploring and trying new things and it was she who got us there.  We paid a fee, received a white towel & washcloth, entered a disrobing area, then walked into the steamy bath itself. A wide, raised dark marble dais occupied the center of the steamy room and low-set marble sinks ringed the walls. Each sink had a little stool beside

"Gluten Free" seems everywhere and on everything these days---but do I really need to worry about eating gluten?  Watching Iron Man 3 today, where Jarvis reminds Tony Stark that he had "gluten-free waffles for breakfast," spurred me to look this up. What is gluten? : It's a protein found naturally in grains, cereals & breads--all those things that are important sources of fiber in our daily eating. Who actually needs to avoid eating gluten?:   According to WebMD, only people with celiac disease or those with a known allergy/sensitivity to gluten should avoid it.  For them, having this boon in gluten-free product options is a blessing. What about the rest of us who don't have celiac or allergies to gluten? Will going gluten-free make us healthier?: According to WebMd, the answer is "no." In fact, going gluten-free when you don't really need to omits a ton of fiber needed for good health, weight loss and feeling full. P

 Today's finds are a number of items from Zazzle's " Marvel Extreme" store. Zazzle is licensed to publish Marvel comic related images on numerous products and here's a few I like: A Pencil Marvel Mac Sleeve: Features a mix of popular Marvel characters! A Pencil Marvel Mug: Features Iron Man, Wolverine, Thing, Captain America and other Marvel Characters! A Pencil Wolverine iPhone 5 Case: Gorgeous Pencil  Wolveine Wall Poster: Brown Wolverine Art iPhone 5 Case: I hope you enjoy these Marvel Extreme finds! For more, be sure and check out  the Marvel Extreme Store ! 

      If you read yesterdays blog, you know an outside faucet pipe  burst in our garage yesterday morning. The plumbers arrived about 4:30 and tapped it off. The spraying water did manage to melt most of my nice cardboard Christmas storage boxes that were sitting on the floor where it was, but that was proven to be an opportunity to upgrade. Luckily plastic storage boxes were on sale at Walmart this this week and picked up a pair of "light" storage boxes with hinged lids & string holders to wrap lights last night. This was, of course, after eating dinner at Ruby Tuesdays---who wants to cook-in after all that!  There were two Mama Kat prompts I liked today:     "List 8 things you think people have forgotten how to do." and  "Show us what winter looks like in your neck of the woods."  8 Things I Think People Have Forgotten How to Do: 1) How to not constantly fiddle with their phones--all the time, everywhere. 2)  How to really listen

Oh, man, a outside faucet in pipe on the north  garage wall burst around 10ish this morning---just shortly before I walked out the door intending to go to my Zumba class. I got to the car only to see a flood of water streaming down the driveway! Funny thing was my husband went into the garage before he left at 8:30 and everything was fine, then I went in there sometime after 9 to get my gym stuff and it was fine then, too. As soon as I saw the water I knew what it was---I ran back into the house and into the garage to see a spray of water shooting across the room. I dashed through the spray to the garage door, threw it up so all the water on the floor could escape more easily. Luckily, our garage floor is strongly slanted toward the driveway, so the garage can't flood and only the front end of the garage was wet. My shelf I keep all my garden stuff on was soaked and I lost a few card-board boxes, but that's it. This pipe has burst before, since it's in an uninsulated

 Baby, it's cold outside. Here, in northern Florida, it will be 16 tonight, with a high tomorrow of 39. I was pleased to harvest some Romaine from my garden to lunch today! Also some Cilantro, which proved to be great in a salad! (Just a little--it can be overly strong if you use too much!) While it's so inhospitable outside, I've had indoor tasks on my schedule, like organizing my jewelry box, my file cabinet and craft projects, such as re-stuffing my large sofa pillows with fresh fluff. Since I know how to bead now, winter is a good time for jewelry projects, like re-furbishing bead necklaces that need re-stringing or taking apart old jewelry to make something new with it. Making something new and usable out of old is my favorite thing to do. Today's Good Eating recipe is something I made up to use brats or sausage and Bavarian sauerkraut that I  call "Bavarian Stir-Fry." It just involves sauteing sliced brats or Italian sausage with Bav

Today's finds are some cool dry erase board designs for home, college or school locker!  Things to Remember  Coffee Cup Dry Erase Board (A neutral tone board with a border of coffee cups down the side.) Pizazz Chocolate Border Keychain Dry Erase Board  (This one has hooks along bottom for your keyrings, which I think is a nice feature.  Available in several style-sizes including a horizontal keychain style!) Pretty Pansies~Dry Erase Board This one was designed by a Christian English lady and features scripture at the top. For more of her designs, visit Shining Light! Pencils White Board For more fun designs by this artist, visit Jinkaroo ! That's all the finds for today! Come back for a new year of Good Eating Monday starting Monday!