ROAD TRIP...................
See you all in a few weeks.... I will be back with puppy stories......Toddler hijinx.... And one Birthday Celebration where the Boss meets up with the "Cake Boss"....... sort of.... See you soon!!
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A LITTLE HEAT RELIEF........a story from the Motherland.
It's been so hot lately with temps in some parts of the country in the triple digits that I thought I would bring you this Cooling story straight from the Motherland.... Rahway...New Jersey... Oh we are so proud of our hometown for this one.... This might be even better then the fact that we are also home to The Rahway State Penitentiary Remember the t.v. documentary Scared Straight.....Yup...that was our town! But this story is more refined and cultural.... Think Museum quality..... I give you.... The Venus de Milo.... In Snow... The picture on the right is Venus in all her naked glory...... That was before the police got complaints of a naked snow statue.... Oh you have to be kidding.... Nope... Some idiots complained to the police that Miss "V" was in the Buff..... So the Rahway Police made the Homeowner dress the poor thing.... Here is the Happy Homeowner showing off her sculpting talents... It's pretty good wouldn't you say..... She was quoted as saying... ...
LIFE BEFORE BLOGGING.........Big Hair......Bad Suits.
As alot of you know who have been kind enough over the past two years to read my ramblings.... My blog gets turned into a hardback book after I finish each year... So every now and again I post things more for myself so I can pass the books along to Miss "B" someday... She can learn a little about her crazy Grandmother.... This is one of those posts.... Do you ever wonder what some of your favorite Bloggers did before blogging..... I thought Sophie might ask one day "What did Grandma used to do.....?" No....I was not a model for the "Hair Club for Women" although I could have been......have you ever seen such big hair.... And I wasn't even living in Jersey at the time... And that was my favorite "Mob" suit...complete with lapel flower.... Here I am with my Posse' out of New Orleans... I also oversaw a similar group of wonderful ladies here in Atlanta..... I was the "Southeast Regional Training Manager for the Custom Decorating Studio...
PORK CHOPS WITH A BLUEBERRY GLAZE.......
One night during our stay at Martha's Vineyard we had dinner at the restaurant at the infamous "Resort" Both the Boss and the SIL ordered the pork chop with blueberry glaze.... and they raved about it.... they both said it was the most moist pork chop they had ever eaten... I am not a fan of pork chops....I find them dry and tasteless.... Butt is more my cup of tea....pork butt that is... so I was intrigued.... So I did what all good cooks do..... I went right to the horse's mouth.....I put a call in to the head chef at the resort.... Hey......this works Folks. he got right on the phone.....calling at an off time between lunch and dinner seem to be the key.... and he was kind enough to go step by step with me on achieving moist pork chops.... and he even told me his secret in making the blueberry sauce.... I went to the butcher and got one very thick pork chop....about 2 inches thick.... the butcher said to cook it until it was well done.... The chef's advise........
From Moldy to Magnificent.......
Well perhaps Magnificent is too strong a word for a pair of porch rockers.... But these chairs have sat on our front porch for the past 25 years... Our first house purchase when we moved down South.... Because every Southerner with a porch has a rocker.. And we wanted to fit in. A little neglected over the years... We maybe sat on them twice... Because we are from the North and people from Jersey just don't "Sit a spell" You will see the real reason in a minute.... I finally decided to get out the spray paint.... 4 cans was all it took to take them from gross to gorgeous..... okay....that's too strong a word for porch rockers... Here they are back up on the porch..... Keeping company with my new flag....a wonderful purchase from the Christmas Tree Shoppes... it has real embroidered stars!! Here is the real reason we don't use the rockers.... Can you see how small the width of the porch is... Our builder was only half right when he built it..... not thinking we wo...
Betty Crocker Meets Sandra Lee.......I'm a Big Baking Cheat.
My bad habit started way back in High School...... Entering and winning a cake contest I was asked for my secret recipe...... Jiffy Mix with a little pineapple juice thrown in for good measure... I managed to graduate without revealing my secret... And then I met Joyce....everybody's favorite Flour Power Lady ...... and I couldn't lie anymore it involved oatmeal cookies at a blog lunch and that's all I'll say..... Well...I can't keep my secrets all to myself anymore after making these wonderful Muffins for breakfast today.... I love Mr. Hines and go to him for all my cake and muffin needs........ They were having a BOGO at Publix so I thought I would try these.. 100% Whole Grain....healthy?..... Can they be any good.. My real secret is that although I do cheat and use box mixes I always add a little something extra....or as they say in New Orleans a "Lagniappe" I made 6 huge muffins and only used about 3/4 of the crumb topping..... And I added a cup of bi...
MEET OUR NEW "GRAND-DOODLE"
We would like to announce to newest arrival to our Family Tree............ Meet "Felix" The Labradoodle 10 weeks......and 9 pounds of pure cuteness.... Miss "B"s new sibling.... And he can swim!! we will be visiting with the new family member in a few weeks and will report back with lots of pictures and puppy stories....
More Vacation Fun with the Abernathy's
Who are the Abernathy's???? I'll be explaining that in a little bit.... But in the meantime I thought I would share some more pictures from our recent vacation back to the Motherland....Along with going to Martha's Vineyard for a week we also spent two weeks in Jersey..... This wonderful sign greeted us.... We started out trip off with a little birthday celebration for..... Our "Miss B"..... You all know that if it's Sophie's birthday a pony is involved.... This year there were two!! Here she is giving instructions to the man pulling the horse..... I say horse because this was just a small horse....not a pony... Did you know that they can live to be 45 or 50... This horse was 15 years old... One Happy Little girl! All the girls showed up.....even our resident "nose picker" The child never and I mean never has her finger any place but up her nose... The weekend included a visit from the Kenosha Grandparents....... so we all took a drive down to ou...