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Happy Mother’s Day

14 May

Back on February 28th, the Men’s Group at Resurrection hosted the annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, and the proceeds from that were set aside to pay for the Mother’s Day Brunch this morning.

Somehow, The Squire ended up being in charge of both events – not that there’s anything unusual in that, goodness knows. I found an interesting recipe online, and we gave it a whirl sometime in late April, just to make sure we didn’t poison anybody.  Last night, we whipped up a triple batch, and had it ready to go into the oven this morning.  We got the tables set up and the food in to bake, then I went to early church while The Squire and his cohorts got things organized in the kitchen.

The meal was a grand success, and I had several requests for the recipe, which I will put in the next issue of the newsletter. We had enough left that I could pack up meals for two shut-ins, which I delivered during late service.

And without further ado —

This recipe originally called for one pound of sausage to be browned and then added to the pan, but we omitted it, and served sausage patties separately. You may do as you wish, but the pan is so full without it that you may run out of space. Your cup running over in the oven makes for a real mess!

1 8-ounce round of brie                                               3 cups whipping cream, divided

6 white sandwich bread slices                                    1 teaspoon dried sage

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese                                   1 teaspoon seasoned salt

7 eggs, divided                                                              1 teaspoon dry mustard

Trim outer rind from Brie (not the top and bottom) and discard. Cut Brie into slices and set aside. Cut crusts from bread slices and place bread evenly in the bottom of a lightly greased 9 x 13 pan. Cover with Brie and Parmesan cheese. Whisk together 5 eggs, 2 cups of whipping cream, and the spices; pour evenly over the cheeses. Cover and chill for 8 hours or overnight.

Whisk together the remaining 2 eggs and 1 cup of whipping cream; pour evenly over chilled mixture and bake at 350° for 1 hour or until set.  Let sit for ten minutes before cutting into squares and serving.  Serves 8.

This is not, heaven knows, a low-cal dish, but it’s just the thing for special occasions. Serve with sausage patties (or meatless links) and fruit cocktail.

 

Beep, Beep. Beep, Beep.

12 May

The Gas and Electric company is doing something up the hill from us. In fact, since we live in a valley, they are working up both hills from us.

They start at some ungodly hour – around 6:30 or 7:00 – using what our eldest used to call diggers and pushers. Some folks think they are drilling massive holes to set up the big, single pole towers for the power lines. The “erector set” towers came down over a year ago, and there are already poles in place. I think, but don’t quote me, that they are putting in vaults to bury the lines. But then, why would they have already erected the poles and then come along and bury the lines?

Whatever they are doing is loud. The heavy equipment makes so much noise that I thought The Squire was running the leaf blower outside.  And when the trucks are backing up, the warning claxon is maddening. Beeb, beep. Beep, beep. The truck goes beep, beep, beep.

It is penetrating, and it drives poor Blazer to distraction.

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Fizzle

2 May

I never watch TV – well, I do watch the Big Bang Theory, but that’s it – so I was surprised last night when a friend at our knitting group told me we were in for a big storm. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “They are talking about flooding, with high winds and all that stuff.”

I hustled home, and The Squire and I moved our cars to the top of the hill, put floatables up on the picnic table or stashed them in the tractor cart. We had picked up some things to FreeCyle for a friend who is moving, and we lugged those items into the kitchen. Actually, we were kind of hoping for a big blow. This house is not salable, and if we ever want to move the only thing is to hope we can get insurance money if a tree falls on the house.

My anticonvulsant wasn’t working last night, so I had to get up and take a second pill. (Don’t let anybody tell you Restless Leg Syndrome is a “minor inconvenience! It rapidly goes from Restless Legs to Restless Arms, and all points in between.) By the time I finally got to bed, it was midnight and the stars were shining. If we got more than fifteen drops of rain, I’d be surprised.

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The Party’s Over

22 Apr

When I went to fill the feeders this morning I discovered the front porch wide open, and about a dozen squirrels chowing down on peanuts.  The “regular” birdseed is in a galvanized trash can, so they  couldn’t get to it, and they had not been interested in the finch food, but – boy, howdy! – did they have a blast with the peanuts.

When Blazer and I went out to feed the fish last night, the dog found a snapping turtle headed for the pond.  I  called The Squire out to take care of that little problem and he had come out through the front door, and then inside via back door, leaving the slider wide open in the process.

Nothing a good vacuum and wipe down couldn’t fix. That and a new metal bucket with a secure lid.

 

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I Really Need More Sleep

20 Apr

I’m making a cake for Sunday, and everything that can go wrong, has. So, one more trip to the grocery store, and there is a big sign on the door.

FLUSHOUTS

Huh? What heck is a flushout? But – there is another sign by the pharmacy. They are offering

FLU SHOTS.

I need to go to bed early tonight.

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Gonna Get Himself Killed

12 Apr

Blazer does not like to be tied out.

He used to runch himself out of his collar and go chasing up the hill. We bought him a harness – which he did NOT like. He snapped at The Squire in the process of putting it on, and we didn’t try it a second time. He didn’t connect, and I think he just wanted to make his point perfectly clear. Instead, The Squire put an extra hole in the collar, so it darned near strangles him, but at least he doesn’t back out of it anymore.

Today, I had some errands to run, so while my husband zipped around on the mower, I tied the dog outside to let the stink blow off, as my mum used to say.

When I came home, the dog was inside and The Squire was outside. I was informed that while he was mowing, The Squire caught a snapping turtle heading for the pond, and turned off the mower to deal with it. While he was turtle-wrangling, he heard tires squeal and horns blaring and looked up to see Blazer standing in the middle of the road!

The blasted dog had rolled around in the grass until he had gotten the lead unhooked and headed for the hills. Or, in this case, the street.

Houdini never had it so good.

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Busy Weekend

10 Apr

Saturday was the annual Equitable Alumni Meeting. Normally we have it on a Wednesday night, but this time we decided to try a Saturday noon event, since none of us are getting younger, and invited non-E spouses to join us, for the sake of those don’t like to drive alone.  A lot of funny stories, as usual. One fellow told us about a kidnapping threat he received, when he was told they were holding his pregnant wife for ransom. Much derring-do with the FBI, and money bags stuffed with newspaper.

Palm Sunday was our annual scramble.  For the last five or six years, Resurrection has joined the Roman Catholic church in meeting on the Presbyterian parking lot for the blessing of the palms and the traditional All Glory, Laud, and Honor. DSCN0268Because our service is at 10:00 and both of the others meet at 11:00, we compromise on 10:30. Of course,  there is always somebody who forgets completely,  or arrives just as we are leaving, and all that good stuff, but it is nice to worship together in God’s great outdoors.

One of the members of Good Shepherd brought a miniature donkey, and everybody got their photo taken. I don’t know the name of the new minister there, but this is Rev. Kim and me deciding we didn’t want to ride into Jerusalem or anyplace else on Jack. I tried to convince her I was too tall, but she was short enough to do it. Obviously, she didn’t buy that theory.

And then, in the afternoon, The Squire invited me on a date. Really. No particular reason. Nice!

We went to a lovely Nepali restaurant for dinner, and then to the movies.  We both like real Indian food – not Americanized stuff – and this was the real McCoy. The waitress asked how spicy I wanted my food, suggesting one to ten, with five being medium. I opted for six – and lived to regret it. Six is D— hot, thank you very much!

And then we went to see La, La Land. It was a very good movie, and we both enjoyed it. It didn’t turn out the way we thought it would, but that made it even better.

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Well, Yeah

5 Apr

There was an announcement on the air this morning that an Air Force jet had gone down near DC, during National Guard maneuvers. The Grandson is in the AFNG, so I froze for a moment, until the reporter said that the airman was based at Andrews, and had ejected safely. He had steered the plane toward an patch of trees before he bailed out so there were no injuries or damage on the ground, although the people in the area had been evacuated for several hours as a precaution.

“The pilot was an adult male, and was taken to a military hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.”

I don’t care if the pilot was male or female, but I am very glad to hear it was an adult!

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You Talk Too Much

3 Apr

 

Last night was absolutely dreadful! I was in a terrible amount of pain from my throat, and was up and down several times, trying to either relieve the soreness, or just get myself bombed enough to sleep in spite of it. I even took a painkiller that had been given to me when I had my throat operation. It’s a wonder I didn’t poison myself! Not that I’d have cared at that point.

The doctor checked me out and we got that squared away – lungs clear, blowing my nose was unproductive, yadda, yadda.

I am still reading Dr. Warraich’s book, Modern Death, and we batted around our various horror stories. He had one patient who was braindead, and the family agreed to remove the tubes and machines. “How long will it take?” “Most people die within two or three days. Some longer and some shorter.” The machines were disconnected – and the family waited. And waited. And waited.

The woman began breathing on her own, and then sat up. She was completely lucid – other than the fact that she was convinced it was the early 1950s.  She discussed the place where she worked, believed Eisenhower was the President, knew where each of the children went to school, and was convinced her oldest son was her husband.

After a few days, she lapsed back into a come, only to awaken a few days later – in the 60s.  She woke up, a decade at a time. The doctor said she was just rebooting. Verrrry slowly. She recovered completely and walked out of the hospital, hale and healthy.

By the time The Squire and I sat down to whatever meal it was, my throat hurt so much  from chattering away that I couldn’t eat, and forget about talking. If nothing else, I’ve dropped several pounds with this plague. We have knitting on Monday evenings and Thursday mornings, and I’d missed Thursday’s get-together, but I was in no shape to go out tonight.  The Squire, bless him, offered to run to town and get my medicine (why do they give people with sore throats such BIG pills? Yeesh!) and drop off some stuff for the knitting group.

Sometimes, I look at him in complete wonderment. Where did he learn to be such a perfect husband, and what did I ever do to deserve his love?

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The Plague and I

2 Apr

Since last Wednesday night I have been grappling with either the world’s worst cold or a case of strep. Probably the latter.

I called a friend from church on Wednesday evening and told her I wouldn’t be at knitting in the morning, and spent most of Thursday curled up in bed with hot tea and warm oatmeal.

The Squire kept me well supplied with books, tissues, and soft food. I’ve eaten a lot of scrambled eggs this week, I’ll tell you!  He even fixed me what passes for scrapple in our house, bless him. Oh, I am so lucky to be married to that man!

When you come down to it, I felt well enough to go to church this morning, but I can’t talk (oh! the horror!) and we’ll just draw a curtain over my attempts to sing. I had called a friend to serve as chalice bearer this morning, but he sent me an email at 10:05 saying he wouldn’t make it. (Seervices start at 10:00, so that was no help at all.)  If I’d known in time, I’d have shoveled myself into a heap and gone anyway. As long as somebody else read for me, we’d have managed.

I already have an appointment with the doctor for tomorrow, so while he checks my latest meds, I can have him take a look as my throat.

 

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