My Dear Jade,
Being my best girl buddy ever, I'm sure you still love me even if I don't visit this blog as often as I should. Do you know I have my moon in Aries? This makes me constantly seek new fuel to burn and when the flame dims I'm off to seek some new fuel. I don't know if Aires in the Sun sign causes the same effect in you or Mykel. What do you think?
I thought we needed a little Hardy-Har-Harmon Family style humor to change the subject. I love this. I am so sick to my everything of pumpkins. Not the nice, normal, easy-going veggie, but what they've done to it! I applaud the art aspect, but the pumpkin flavored everything has reached the breaking point for me. Pumpkin cream cheese at Lisa and Ad's was weird, as is the pumpkin flavored shakes and coffee at the fast food places. Every recipe on-line for the last month and the next is pump pump pumpkin. I think the only thing I could go for pumpkin-wise would be soup like we had at the Italian restaurant on L.I. we went to for Thanksgiving years ago with Nanny, Uncle George and crew and us.
That Thanksgiving was the first time I met Ian. It was the nice part of the trip. At the restaurant, Ian swallowed a steak in 3 seconds. When we all went out to dinner before my Mom's memorial, Ian had a huge plate of ribs and didn't get a speck on him. I was amazed. I get messy just looking at stuff like that. I know they 'taste' great, but the stringy stuff in my teeth after any meat is just too gross these days. I'll be down to soft food after the artery op so it will be a new kind of Thanksgiving for me this year.
"Salmon shake?'' suggested Dad.
Nope, I will be fine on Lipton's extra noodle soup. I have a mind-fix about that stuff from eating it when I got sick as a kid. Now, I only eat it when I'm feeling uckish. I love soup, as you well know. I used to make it so often. I did this week and had it for lunch for a whole week and it had lots of quinoa in it, too. I love that stuff, too.
Stir fries are what I'm trying to steer to these days, not just to get my cholesterol down, but to lose weight and feel more energized. When my back is better, I so much want to exercise or more likely, do yoga again. For the last few days I've skipped all bread. Wow. That is dramatically hard but grains taste even better. For lunch I slightly cooked 1/2 a yellow squash and tomato. It tasted so good. No matter what I get when I eat out, I don't really like. You cook great and I always enjoy your creations. Dad is so cute about the whole cooking process and I've finally 'let go and let Gary' and most of the time he is so happy puttering, frying, dicing, and so forth. The last batch of his cookies were the best cookies I've ever had. Maybe because he loves making them so much.
Your peach pies from your own peach tree are so special. I know it is in the genes. I don't recall my Mom every making very many except for a few blueberry and apple. They looked like fiascoes but they tasted divine and we ate every crumb.
My Nanny Case from Patterson, NJ was the pie Queen! I have such fond memories of her at her large old dinning room table rolling out the dough for the Thanksgiving or Christmas pies. Oh, mince was my favorite. Seeing her crimp the crust (she did it with a fork, you know I finger crimp) and cutting the big circles. She would give me the left-overs to play with along side her.
My Nanny Case was so creative. I see a lot of her in you. She was strong, a real caretaker of her clan and always making food, dolls, and crafts. I loved the big, big family gatherings. 'Madge' had 6 kids, all with kids themselves, it was a wonderful time for me being one of her 14 grandchildren.
The Case tree in NJ was always huge and filled with every imaginable trinket and bulb. Underneath, the pile of gifts was breathtaking. Every grandkid got 2 gifts, but you can imagine what over thirty looked like in those days to a five year old!
I know Christmas isn't your thing, but how I loved that tradition with the Case side of the family. You are starting your own traditions and I love that, too.
But most of all, I love you, My Daughter, My Friends, My Wise Master, My Little Elf, My B.G.B.E.
That Thanksgiving was the first time I met Ian. It was the nice part of the trip. At the restaurant, Ian swallowed a steak in 3 seconds. When we all went out to dinner before my Mom's memorial, Ian had a huge plate of ribs and didn't get a speck on him. I was amazed. I get messy just looking at stuff like that. I know they 'taste' great, but the stringy stuff in my teeth after any meat is just too gross these days. I'll be down to soft food after the artery op so it will be a new kind of Thanksgiving for me this year.
"Salmon shake?'' suggested Dad.
Nope, I will be fine on Lipton's extra noodle soup. I have a mind-fix about that stuff from eating it when I got sick as a kid. Now, I only eat it when I'm feeling uckish. I love soup, as you well know. I used to make it so often. I did this week and had it for lunch for a whole week and it had lots of quinoa in it, too. I love that stuff, too.
Stir fries are what I'm trying to steer to these days, not just to get my cholesterol down, but to lose weight and feel more energized. When my back is better, I so much want to exercise or more likely, do yoga again. For the last few days I've skipped all bread. Wow. That is dramatically hard but grains taste even better. For lunch I slightly cooked 1/2 a yellow squash and tomato. It tasted so good. No matter what I get when I eat out, I don't really like. You cook great and I always enjoy your creations. Dad is so cute about the whole cooking process and I've finally 'let go and let Gary' and most of the time he is so happy puttering, frying, dicing, and so forth. The last batch of his cookies were the best cookies I've ever had. Maybe because he loves making them so much.
Your peach pies from your own peach tree are so special. I know it is in the genes. I don't recall my Mom every making very many except for a few blueberry and apple. They looked like fiascoes but they tasted divine and we ate every crumb.
My Nanny Case was so creative. I see a lot of her in you. She was strong, a real caretaker of her clan and always making food, dolls, and crafts. I loved the big, big family gatherings. 'Madge' had 6 kids, all with kids themselves, it was a wonderful time for me being one of her 14 grandchildren.
The Case tree in NJ was always huge and filled with every imaginable trinket and bulb. Underneath, the pile of gifts was breathtaking. Every grandkid got 2 gifts, but you can imagine what over thirty looked like in those days to a five year old!
I know Christmas isn't your thing, but how I loved that tradition with the Case side of the family. You are starting your own traditions and I love that, too.
