Tuesday 4 ~ What's Cooking?

 

What's Cooking?


Welcome, welcome. It's good to have you back for another visit. I hope you are keeping well and are up for another of Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 questions.

Could we discuss cooking and kitchens today?

1.How did you learn to cook?

Mostly by watching my mother.  She was an excellent cook, even though she had to work full time by the time I was old enough to notice. She always managed to come up with delicious meals every night after working a long 8-5 day at the Sheriff's Department as a Secretary.

I later learned more by trial and error after we got married and I had to learn to cook on a tight budget.  We ate a LOT of casseroles!

2. Do you have a favorite cookbook?

Yes, the Better Homes and Gardens "New Cook Book", which, in this case is not very new...I received this as a wedding gift almost 55 years ago!

I love this cookbook because it is like the one my mother always used, although hers was an even older edition than this one.  You can see that this one is "well-used".

I learned to bake cookies by following the recipes in this cookbook...

And also how to make a good pie crust, as this is the recipe my mother always used, and her pies were always the best.  I must admit, however, that in recent years I have resorted to using the Pillsbury refrigerated pie dough that comes in a box with two rolls of pie dough ready to roll out and put in the pie pan with your favorite filling.  My mother would be aghast! 

As May 7th, 2024 is the 18th anniversary of my mother's passing from this life, I thought it would be appropriate to remember her by sharing this LINK to a post I wrote about her pies several years ago.

My mother, cooking something good in her kitchen...her happy place! I sure do miss her and wish I could just step back into that kitchen and see her there once again, but I wouldn't call her back from heaven for anything. I bet she's baking her famous coconut cream pies for everyone in heaven. I sure look forward to seeing her again some day up there, where we will never have to say "good-bye" again.

3.What is your cooking specialty?

I don't think I have a specialty.  I really don't enjoy cooking all that much anymore, but I manage to keep up with the basics.  If I had a specialty, it would probably have been cookies and pies as needed...(but never quite as good as my mother's).  HERE is a fun link to a former Tuesday 4 post we did in 2020., entitled "All About Food", and I think I answered some of these questions there pretty well.

4. Is your kitchen well suited for you and if not how would you improve it?

It's okay.  I don't have quite as much countertop space to spread out when baking and cooking as I used to have in our last house, but there are fewer people living here now and we don't entertain nearly as much as we used to, so it really is good enough.  If I were to improve anything, it would be the cabinets underneath the counters. I would really love to have some nice big drawers to put pots and pans and baking things in as opposed to all these cabinets that are too low, dark, and so very hard to get to. I have to literally sit on the floor to find some things and then I have a hard time getting back up. However, I really can't complain. I do have plenty of cabinets and everything fits. It's just hard to get to for an old lady. LOL.  Here are a couple of pictures of my kitchen. Please don't judge the clutter and stuff on the counters, etc.   I did not clean up before taking these pictures, so it is what it is, the real deal, unretouched.  This is "how we roll" here...LOL.

I guess that's it for the Tuesday 4 for this week! You can join in the fun HERE! Thank you, Annie, for these fun questions each week.

While we are talking about food, here's a picture with a story:

When I bought this box of Cheerios recently, I felt sad that we hadn't heard from our only grandson in quite a while.  He's almost 25, and lives far away, so I guess I shouldn't expect too much. But I do send him text messages and send him cards on holidays, etc., and keep hoping he will just pick up the phone and call us some day, or at least respond to my texts.  Recently I sent him a lot of pictures of family activities and just some silly stuff, like me watching the eclipse:

And that finally got his attention, so he sent me his eclipse picture:

(He lives in Maine, so they had a better vantage point than we did in Florida)

I guess he felt sorry for me and wanted me to see what a real eclipse picture looks like. LOL. But the best part was, in his message he said he would call us later that day, and he actually did!  We had a wonderful long conversation and got caught up on all of his recent activities and work, etc., and it was really really great to hear from him. So yes, Cheerios, "Grandkids DO make my heart happy!"

In closing I will share the picture and verse I shared on Facebook Monday morning:

Matthew 7:7-11

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 

8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 

9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 

11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

Asking, seeking, and knocking...and praying about it, will bring about the blessings that we are seeking. I am thankful that God heard my little prayers about hearing from our grandson...and He answered those prayers.  I truly do give thanks to the Lord for this answered prayer.

What might you be asking, seeking and knocking on God's door about these days? I pray that your prayers will also be heard and answered in God's good time and within His will.

Have a blessed and wonderful week.

Friday Foto Friends From Still Waters Pond and Beyond...

This "Wild iris, or African Iris, or "fortnight lily", was growing outside of the eye doctor's office.

I thought, how appropriate that there is an "iris" planted beside an eye doctor's office. 

This was at the eye doctor in St. Augustine where I went with my hubby yesterday to see about whether or not he is going to have to have cataract surgery. Well, according to this doctor, not yet. His real issue is not cataracts, but something to do with the cornea...so there will be some further tests and possibly a referral to a cornea specialist. Right now he will be using some special eye drops to hopefully help the situation.  So we pray for a reasonable solution and healing.

These big beautiful trees are growing next to Still Waters Pond, near the little canal around "Goose Island".

I thought these verses went well with this picture...

Psalm 1:1-3

"1 Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

3 He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper."

Speaking of Goose Island, if you recall I told you HERE the other day that I was not sure what exactly was going on with the geese. 

Well, later that same day I saw Father and Mother Goose out on the little marsh island that was the Sand Hill Crane's nesting place, and they were both just sitting there.

Mother Goose kept tucking her head into her feathers, and I thought perhaps there were babies tucked inside there, although I wasn't sure how they got from the nesting site over to this site  so quickly.  I assume they spent the night out there, but they weren't there in the morning, so I went back around to check their nest on Goose Island.

The nest appeared to be abandoned...

And then I saw this down in the water just below the nest...it appears to be a cracked egg shell...

And this, which appears to be a lot of downy feathers scattered from the nest...

And this, which appears to be a whole egg, floating in the water...

Another close up of that cracked egg shell...

And very sadly there was no sign of Mother or Father Goose around, and no sign of any baby geese.  I have had to assume that either something destroyed their nest, or the eggs were not viable and they abandoned the nest...we haven't seen either of them since that last evening.  So, I am feeling kind of sad about all of that. Apparently this just wasn't their time to bring some new baby goslings into the world. King Solomon, with all of this wisdom, seems to address this subject very well for all of humanity, and perhaps, in a way,  it applies to the realm of nature as well...all God's Creation...

Ecclesiastes 3

1 To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

2 A time to be born,

And a time to die;

A time to plant,

And a time to pluck what is planted;

3 A time to kill,

And a time to heal;

A time to break down,

And a time to build up;

4 A time to weep,

And a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

And a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones,

And a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace,

And a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to gain,

And a time to lose;

A time to keep,

And a time to throw away;

7 A time to tear,

And a time to sew;

A time to keep silence,

And a time to speak;

8 A time to love,

And a time to hate;

A time of war,

And a time of peace.

The God-Given Task

9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."

And so we move on to the next event...I can't linger here for long as I have to just trust that the God of all creation knows best in every situation, and we have to trust Him, even for the lives of the geese, the bluebirds, the Sand Hill Cranes, and everything else that wanders into our pathway.

Today was actually a happy day.  Our church ladies' group, "Women in Faith", held their annual May Fellowship Day, where we invite ladies from all the neighborhood churches and beyond to come for a luncheon and a little program and just a time of fellowship and sharing God's love with one another.  It was very well attended, with almost 70 ladies!  Here are the pictures I took...later I realized that I didn't manage to get into any of these pictures, but you know what I look like anyway! LOL. 

I will not attempt to identify everyone in these photos, because I don't know many of these ladies myself, since many were from different churches.  But for those that I think you will find significant, I will identify them.

I am sure you will appreciate this picture below, because many of you will recognize Lily Grace.  The lady who is holding her is the sweet lady who made her Easter dress for her...and this was the first time she had actually gotten to "meet" Lily Grace in person! This is Ellen, and she is one of our snow-birds, and will be heading back home to NY state tomorrow, so this was a special time for them to meet:

This was my table, and you will recognize my sweet DIL Rose on the left. I was so happy she could make it for the luncheon, because she had to get up at 3:00 am to get ready to be at work by 5 a.m.  She works at Home Depot, and she worked from 5-9 a.m. this morning, and then came straight here to the church.  Such a sweetheart!

These sweet ladies below are each over 90 years old, but they remain very active in church and would not miss this fellowship for anything. Actually the lady on the left recently moved away from here with her son and daughter in law, but they came back to be with us today.

This is her daughter in law.  We sure miss both of them and wish they hadn't moved away, but that's just how life is sometimes...It was really great to see them both today.

We call this happy lady "Mary Sunshine". She's just a very special lady...and "Sunshine" fits her fun personality...

This was our speaker for the day, who is also a member of our church, and our Pastor's wife in the middle, and Norma, our group President. They were testing the sound system to get ready for her presentation, which was a monologue in the person of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, from His birth to His death and resurrection. Very powerful message.

Norma, our President, and a lady who just knows how to get things done. I've talked about Norma before...she's just really, really special...

Our speaker Barbara again:

The food table...it was all so good!

Everything was so nicely decorated...

This is my plate, and there's Lily Grace again. She enjoyed the "party" so much! And everyone just loved having her there. They may have thought I was a little bit crazy, but what else is new???

The dessert table:

I guess that's a good place to stop for the night!  

Here are a few verses to ponder from Proverbs 31, talking about a "virtuous wife", a role model for women everywhere...

"25 Strength and honor are her clothing;

She shall rejoice in time to come.

26 She opens her mouth with wisdom,

And on her tongue is the law of kindness."

"30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,

But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,

And let her own works praise her in the gates."

 Good night my friends. I hope you have had a wonderful day and that your weekend will be filled with joy and blessings.

Tuesday 4 "Time To Pamper You" and Wednesday Treasures

 I am running a day behind since yesterday I had an eye appointment and had my eyes dilated all day, so couldn't spend much time on the computer.  It was an interesting appointment at a new eye doctor (to me).  He said I do have some cataracts forming, but not bad enough yet for surgery...probably next year he says.  However I am getting some new glasses as the old ones are obsolete for my current vision.  He also had a new piece of equipment that they were just figuring out and I was the first patient to get to see the inside of my eyeballs from pictures taken with this amazing new kind of "camera".  They said I could take a picture of the picture, so here you go:

Left eyeball

Right eyeball!

You can say you saw all the way inside my eyeballs right here! Pretty amazing stuff, huh? He said except for the small cataracts and a very small non-consequential amount of macular degeneration, my eyes are very healthy and normal for my age. He said not to worry about the macular degeneration. It's within the normal range, but they will "keep an eye on it" in the future. Praise God! I am very thankful, indeed.  Tomorrow we will make a trip to St. Augustine to an eye surgeon for my husband to have his cataracts checked to see if they are ready for surgery yet. Most likely he will need to have them removed soon, but we will find out for sure tomorrow.  

So, that's the medical news for now.  Now to the Tuesday 4 meme for this week:

Time To Pamper You...

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

Let's talk about you personally.

1. Do you pamper yourself at all? If yes, how do you do that?

I'm really not too sure that I do too much pampering of myself. Aside from getting my haircut about every 6 weeks, I pretty much do everything else for myself that needs to be done. I have never had a professional manicure or pedicure, although I know I need the latter and have been thinking about having that done. It is getting increasingly difficult for me to cut my own toenails and they are in dire need of some attention. Our doctor's office will cut them for me if I ask them to, but I think I'd rather treat myself to a pedicure one of these days. 

2.What kinds of foods/dishes do you consider to be a real treat? Do you often pamper yourself by having them?

Now, a special way to pamper myself would be to have a little tea party. Although I'd prefer to have it with a friend, that isn't always as easy to do as one would think, so once in a while I will make myself a special little pot of tea and have a tea party and maybe a cookie or piece of pie or cake or whatever special treat is available.  Maybe I should do that right now...I have this piece of lemon-blueberry cake waiting to be eaten:

There's a story there.  Monday was our Ladies' Bible Study, and it was also one of our ladies' birthday. She is our church secretary/administrative assistant and does so much for our church in addition to her actual duties.  We don't always have desserts at our Bible Study, but once in a while someone will bring in something special, especially if we know it's someone's birthday. So, I had those fresh blueberries and thought that would be a good opportunity to use some. 

My sweet DIL Rose has made this recipe before and it is so good, so I thought I would try it. However, she usually makes it in a 9x13" pan. I thought I would try it in my Bundt pan. You use a lemon cake mix, and mix it up according to the directions on the box.  Then you fold in a cup of fresh blueberries. Well, the blueberries sank to the bottom of the pan, and with a bundt pan, when you dump out the cake, the blueberries should be nicely baked on top. However, in this case, they stuck to the bottom of the bundt pan, and I had to literally scoop them out and piece them all together again on top of the cake! What a mess!!!  Thankfully, the recipe also calls for a lemon juice/confectioners sugar glaze, so I made that and poured it over the top of the berries and the cake, and it actually ended up not looking so bad. And the best part was that it tasted really moist and good, and everyone enjoyed having a piece at our Bible Study! So that story has a happy ending. 

We can pretend this is my little tea party for today...this picture is on my Teapot Calendar for the month of May, which begins today!

And here is the quote from the calendar to go along with it:

yes, sometimes a pot of tea is a good way to just "pamper yourself" and put all your other "matters" out of mind for a while.

3. What luxury item/items do you consider would be very hard to do without? (like buying books, having your hair done.. just about anything you really could do without but prefer not to.)

Hmm, well getting my hair cut every 6 weeks...I'm not very good at cutting it myself. Getting books at the library...which reminds me, I need to go to the library today when I finish this post!  I don't "buy" books anymore, unless they are a bargain used book at a yard sale that I can't refuse. Then I give them away once I am done. I don't want to collect anymore books. I have too many already.

4. What kind of holiday or vacation would be a total luxury with which you might pamper yourself?

Oh my! This is just pretend, right?  I would love to take a trip somewhere like Prince Edward Island and go see the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery, who wrote the "Anne of Green Gables" stories.  Then I would love to take a trip somewhere where we can stay in a really nice old Bed and Breakfast and be treated like a really special guest...someplace really beautiful, with lovely gardens and  places for tea parties, etc.  That would be delightful! It would be really fun to do that with some blogging girlfriends  or some of my other girlfriends or my sister and maybe her daughter and my daughter in love and even my nieces...a real "girls only" kind of trip. 

This picture is on the Thomas Kincade calendar for May, and it looks like the kind of place I would enjoy visiting.  

That verse is perfect too!

While we are sharing May calendars, here is the picture for the John Sloane Country Seasons May calendar:

That would be a fun place to visit too! Maybe spend a week on a really sweet farm...maybe an Amish farm/bed and breakfast! (not when it is really hot, however, since they don't have air conditioning!)

Oh, here is the Susan Branch calendar for May...it's perfect for this little dream pampering too:

Speaking of birds...This Brown Thrasher was playing peek a boo with me yesterday morning as I went for my little walkabout on the lot next door:

You can just see his eyeball peeking at us...

And here's our Canada Goose couple, still patiently waiting for the babies to be born:

This is Mother Goose sitting on her nest.

Above is Father Goose standing watch and Mother Goose having a little break, standing up on the nest.

Close up of Father Goose...ever watching and guarding his mate...

And this is Mother Goose.  I'm not sure what was happening this morning. She actually went out for a little swim and then came back to the nest and it appears she is eating something.

I think the babies should be getting closer to making their appearance, but I really don't know for sure.

I will be sure to let you know when the big event happens!

I may not have an "English Country Garden", but here's the water lily garden on Still Waters Pond early this morning. Thought you might enjoy these water lilies and other little water flowers...

Okay, that's it for today and yesterday!  

Hope you are all doing well! 

Have a blessed and beautiful day!

It's 86 degrees here and very humid. Summer is upon us way too soon.

But still I am thankful for what God has given us to enjoy!

Let's go see how others are "pampering themselves" on the Tuesday 4 page HERE