Apples or Oranges

That is the question.

two men walk into a bar...

Marshmallow Pops

I don’t meditate. I try and I just can’t. Meditating usually ends up with me napping the day away.

On the other hand, I have been told that I need to meditate or find some way to make my mind quiet so I can manage my stress.

Aha! This is my excuse to start baking! Over the past week, I have baked cinnamon rolls, loaves of bread, taught the teenager how easy it is to make bread from scratch, and now I’m starting on holiday goodies. Tonight’s project: Marshmallow Pops

 

The idea came to me when I saw these puppies for sale in the grocery store’s fancy-schmancy bakery case. They sell regular sized marshmallow pops for 75c each and 99c for pops made out of the jumbo marshmallows. Outrageous, right? So I stole the idea.

Start with pretzel sticks and chocolate meltys. Oh, and don’t forget the marshmallows. I used up the last of the caramel marshmallows along with some white marshmallows.

No Mom, I don’t eat marshmallows All The Time. I just happened to have a lot left over from summer.

You’ll also need baking decor sprinkles, chopped nuts, mini M&Ms or other tasty things. I grabbed whatever I could find in my box of baking supplies.

Stick two pretzels into the top of each marshmallow. You can see I tried 3 sticks in that white one there, but it was kind of crowded. The jumbos will need 3 sticks to hold the weight of the chocolate.

 

Nuke the chocolate for 30 seconds, check it and nuke it again for another 30 seconds. Repeat until it’s goopy and perfect for dipping.

By the way, chocolate chips are a little too soft for dipping. Use almond bark or, if you can find dipping chocolate use that instead. (Dipping chocolate can be found at a baking and candy supply store or in the candy making area of a craft store – I get it in bulk at Winco here in Oregon.)

Dip and swirl your marshmallow into the chocolate. The pretzels make a great handle.

 

Let the chocolate cool for a few moments, then dip in some baking decor sprinkles. My chocolate kept dropping into the sprinkles until I scraped the extra chocolate off the bottom before dipping into the sprinkles.

Halfway through, I found paper liners for mini muffins. They made these treats look fancy. Like 75c worth of fancy.

I also tried dipping the pretzels into a little chocolate before stabbing them into the marshmallows. Made no difference with getting everything to stick together, but you can’t go wrong with more chocolate, right?

Pretzels are kind of fragile and a few broke during the stabbing process. I dipped the little pretzel stubs in chocolate and stuck them into the marshmallow. I figured the extra chocolate would make up for the broken pretzel. Kind of like a chocolate apology.

I wonder if a chocolate apology would be acceptable in other situations, too?
Sorry I burned your dinner. Here’s some chocolate.
I’m sorry that I didn’t pick you up right away after your appointment. I brought you some chocolate.
Heck, I’d become demanding and impossible to please just so I can have more chocolate.
Oh wait, I already do that.
…It’s proof that it works!

I got bored with sprinkles so I grabbed slivered almonds and what I thought were chopped pecans. Turns out the “pecans” were really Andes minty chocolate bits.
Even better!

I couldn’t help myself. I had to taste one of the almond dipped ones. I love almonds.

Blech. Now I see on the package that these nuts are best before November 2010. They’re rancid. Oh well, two marshmallows for the trash.
They sure looked nice, though.

The rest of these look pretty darned nice, too. This was just a practice run with ingredients I already had on hand. I saw they have pumpkin marshmallows in the store this year. That would be nice with white chocolate and maybe a dip in cinnamon sugar and a dusting of nutmeg.

Meanwhile, I’m going to pack most of these up and give them to the neighbors. Not as a chocolate apology, but as a thank you for being friendly, helpful neighbors. (If a chocolate apology is a good thing, than a chocolate thank you must be a great thing.)

Rx Organization

You probably know that it’s easier to be frugal if you’re organized. It saves you time and you never have to buy duplicates (unless it’s a really really good deal!)

Here’s another frugal organization tip – it’s easy for the whole family to keep organized and easy for the CEO (that’s the mom in most cases) to know when it’s time to go shopping.

We have an old dresser that we keep frequently used items in. In past homes, the drawers have been used to store office supplies, prescription medication, baking supplies, craft supplies, sewing notions, frequently used tools, and grilling supplies/tongs/skewers. In our current home, one drawer is for prescription medications. Due to Frank’s interesting year, our family has a large variety of these at the moment. Right now the dresser is in the kitchen, and houses the coffee station on top. (And apparently some vitamins that don’t fit in the medication drawer…)

Here is our medicine drawer. Yes, it’s full. And so anal retentively organized that any one of us can find exactly what we’re looking for in an instant.

First, look at the lids of each bottle. When we get a new bottle home from the pharmacy, we write the first few letters of the medicine on the lid. There is always a black Sharpie in the drawer to make this a quick task. One bottle is even marked with a specific time, since that’s an important detail for that med.

Do you see the little boxes in the drawer? Frank has his current pills in one box, medicines that are currently on hold in another box, ones that need to be cut in a third box (with the pill cutter,) vitamins in a box, and my pills in my own box.

The boxes are the ends of empty cereal boxes. I just cut them down with a paring knife and scissors, then covered them in turquoise duct tape. I could have just left them the way they were, but they look nicer and more streamlined with the tape. Maybe I’m a dork; I’m just happier when it’s pretty. These two boxes are Frank’s, and they’re taped together. He knows which pills are on each side of the box divider.

Yes, there is a bottle with "Oxy Wow" written on the lid. I'm sure you can figure out which painkiller that one is. That's what we call it - because you take one and Wow.

You may be lucky to not have so many medications to manage, but this could come in handy if you take vitamins and supplements, if you have a lot of spices, or you need to organize your packets of taco seasoning and Lipton onion soup.

In our case, with all the medicines, each bottle has a home, and they’re all put away after the daily dose. When one bottle is getting close to needing a refill, the bottle is left out on the dresser. That’s the only time it’s not put away. When I see one sitting out, I call it in to the pharmacy. The bottle stays out until we pick up its replacement. Then the new lid is marked with the name and it’s put away. That’s just our easy way of managing all the meds without having to talk about it and risk missing a dose due to poor communication or a missing pill bottle.

Oh – with all the pill bottles we’re tossing into the recycling bin, I asked our pharmacist what we should do to protect ourselves against id theft. She said to peel off just the part of the label with our name and the prescription #. If the med is a narcotic or something with a street value, peel the medicine name off as well. Those parts of the label go in the trash and the bottle goes to recycling. 

Do you have a super-abundance of pills or spices or something else that you have all magnificently organized? Do tell.

How to lose 60 lbs in 40 days

This special weight loss diet is easy because all you have to do is lay around in bed for 5 weeks and then exercise like heck during the last week. Plus, you get to eat as much lemon jello as you want.

BEFORE         AFTER 
  

Here's how to do it:

Step 1. Have a relatively simple surgery.
Step 2a. Develop serious complications.
Take ambulance ride to another city for an emergency surgery. Ask if they’ll put on the flashing lights for the hour-long road trip.
Oh, they’re already on.
You’re probably too sick to be excited about all the attention, though.
Step 2b. Have entire large intestine removed.
That's 4 pounds gone that you won't gain back.
Step 3. Spend 2 weeks in the ICU. Remember, you have a breathing tube in your throat, so you will get your fluids from your IV for the first full week.
You are allowed exactly 4 ice chips, so enjoy them while they last.
Step 4. Plan on having about 8 more surgeries, one every other day, so no food after midnight on even numbered days and morphine for dinner on odd numbered days. When you get a break between surgeries, you're on clear liquids only, so you can have more jello and tea and broth until the next midnight deadline.
Yum yum. Don’t you just love jello?
And don’t forget, red food coloring makes your insides red, which is a no-no for intestinal surgery, so you only get lemon jello.
Lots and lots and lots and LOTS of lemon jello.
Step 5. Let the nurses hook you up to a TPN bag so you can get all of your nutrition through your IV instead of by mouth.
Be sure to joke with the nurses about strapping on your “feed bag.”
Step 6.  Slowly add more food to your diet but don't go too fast.
Try drinking Boost. It'll kill your appetite for anything else.
Step 7. By now you have been lying on your back in bed for about 3 weeks or so. You should have lost at least 40 pounds via muscular atrophy alone. Good job. (And don't worry about that huge scar across your back. It may look like you have been hit with a bullwhip, but it was just a sheet wrinkle bedsore, we promise.)
Step 8. By week 4 you should be mostly back to your old diet. Sorry the food is so bland; our diabetic menu is also heart healthy.
Why did you only eat half of your dinner?
It was gross?
Do you want some lemon jello instead?
Step 9. On week 5, you're going to re-learn how to get out of bed, walk, put on your socks, and sit in a chair. It's hard work, but you've got to get those muscles working again. 
To get the most out of your workout, call your physical therapist names and he/she will work you harder.
Feel the burn… and the stabbing pain… and the cramp…
Oh nurse, when can I have more pain pills?
Step 10. If you are losing weight too quickly, grow some facial hair. The weight of a mustache and/or beard should help to offset your rapid weight loss.
By the beginning of week six, you should be near your goal weight.
My goodness, you look thin. Nice job.

Little Girl Bugs

This morning I spied an odd looking bug in the back yard. It’s black with a spiky back and two yellow stripes running down each side from head to tail. I wonder what it is?

Here are more odd looking bugs on another leaf of the same vine. There are lots of these bugs and the spiky bugs all over this vine. These papery, shedding bugs are frequently sitting next to the spiky bugs, so I suspect they are the same bug at different stages of its growth.

Aha! The spiky bug and the shedding bugs are all baby Ladybugs.

Huh. What would a baby Ladybug be called? Little Girl Bugs?

Ollie’s New Cat Toy

The other day, I had a plate full of tomatoes from the garden.

The next day, a whole bunch of cherry and pear tomatoes were ready.

I also plucked two red jalapenos off Frank’s plant. (Aren’t these colors beautiful?)

I had to run up to visit Frank at the hospital that afternoon, so I put all the tomatoes and both red peppers on a plate to wait for me to get back and do something with them.

The next morning, one of the peppers was missing. It was later discovered on the floor in the hallway. I thought that was odd, but picked it up and put it back on the plate.

An hour later, one of the tomatoes had rolled off the plate and onto the floor.

At lunchtime, I wandered into the kitchen and saw Ollie on the counter, tossing the tomato and pilfering the pepper … again.

“Whut?”

I sat quietly with a book until there was a commotion in the hallway. It was Ollie and the red jalapeno.

The fun ended up in the bathroom…

… and due to cat teeth marks and the fact that it was batted around on the bathroom floor means that this poor pepper will not be eaten by humans.

I’m not sure where the pepper is at this moment, but right now Ollie is very interested in something under the couch.

Summer garden update

Frank has a cookbook featuring old fashioned recipes such as pickles, kraut, yogurt, sourdough, and all kinds of fun projects. One of their tomato recipes is a very simple tomato sauce that I have been dying to try.

As of this afternoon, I have the main ingredient ready to go:

I’ll post the recipe if my in-house food critic approves of the sauce.

Art Deco Mansion in Portland's Laurelhurst neighborhood

Art Deco Mansion in Portland - see desc for more story, originally uploaded by Scrunchleface.

'Tis near Frank's hospital. I heard this mansion iscurrently in foreclosure and in a sad state of disrepair. Next time we go up I'm going to see if we can locate this Portland icon.

Summer Reprieve

Summer is too hot. I’m going to roll back the calendar for a minute to early April, when our Redbud trees were just starting to bloom.

Now imagine Oregon in April: sometimes sunny, sometimes drizzle, all the flowers start blooming overnight. Everything is fresh and new. 

The temperature tries to get over 60, but it just can’t.
You wish you could ditch the wool socks you wear with your Birkenstocks, but it’s just not warm enough.
(I did say this is Oregon, didn’t I?)

Ok, back to summer again.
Now 75 degrees doesn’t feel so incredibly hot, does it?
(Again, didn’t I say this is Oregon? I do wish you would pay attention.)