Knock, Knock........

Anyone still here?


My poor abandoned little blog.. So faithful and so abused.  Waiting day after day for me to come and say hello, and let her speak my mind.


For a bit there I was quite simply afraid I had lost my words, and the words that were there were not willing to wander into the blog-sphere and  make themselves seen. 


Now it seems that the words are back, with a vengeance. They want to be seen.  They want to show themselves and say "See - this is my world, welcome".  


Who am I to sentence  them  (pardon the pun) to a world where they are stifled and hushed. 


So now I am here.  With the words dancing through my mind pushing to get to the screen and be seen.  Wanting to tell their tales of fun, food, friends, family, fabric, travel, school, etc. etc. They  are inviting you to be with them on their journey -  or not.  Choice being yours of course.  These fabulous words wanting nothing more that to see the light of day and share their letters with you.  


I hope you enjoy their journey as much as they do......................


         

   

Plugging along

Life is quiet, noisy, busy, and still all at once.  Crazy isn't it?  Not cooking much, too darn hot! 

We have been blessed by extra company these past two weeks.  Our wonderful family/friends from Arizona came out for three fun days and we wandered off to Reno for a little R & R.

It just happened to be there weekend of the Chicken Wing Society Cook-off, but we didn't try any of those. My guy and my friend don't like them because they are so messy. I would have, but then I am more daring than most!

We ladies then headed for the Grand Sierra Resort and the Quilting show (which I will be attending as a vendor next year! Whoo Hoo!) and had big fun looking at everything and picked up just a few items - how could we not! There were no pictures allowed at all, but trust me it was well worth the venture up.



I was very good and only picked up a few pattens...

These are a couple of shots from the book that is in the top picture.. Lots of fun and easy ideas

The next weekend we were visited by our friend from Reno!  Lol.  He brought down the car he has restored and modeled after "KITT" the Knight Rider car.  We BBQ'ed and went thrifting, and just had a good time.

This coming weekend I am back to Arizona for the 1st Birthday of little Miss S. I m working on a couple of outfits for her

 From these fabrics: 

I will post photos as it goes along, it has been a bit since I have sewn anything little, so this is going to be interesting. I am sure photos will follow



I started this program, after a few friends tried it with really good results, and after talking to my Dr about it.  I refuse to call it a "diet".  Since the food is not stuff you would not incorporate into regular meals and there is no crazy stuff , I am considering it a change plan.

It is really going well!  The plan is easy to follow and there is no end of options. The food is realistic and normal food.  So far 14 lbs have left , since starting this plan. That makes a total of 54.  There is much more that needs to go, but it is a good start. It has given me a real jump re-start.



Oh, and after last weeks awful incident with the grandson pick up, it seems we (or specifically me) are to be punished. He is not here this week, only on Wednesday - even though he told his Dad he did not want to go where he is taking him. 

I truly hate that we are at the mercy of this custody issue.  We did nothing but love these people and now we get shot in the foot for it and made to pay the price of something we had no control over.

My SIL came to dinner last week,  after my Grandson basically begged him to stay, and later told someone it made him sad because he misses all of us and what used to be.  Minus the marriage I guess.

Welcome to the club. 

We have been very luck these past few weeks to have the Sunshineman with us a lot.  The custody agreement in place is such that my daughter has him when the soon to be ex son in law is at work. She works three days a week right now, so when she works we get to have him stay with us.  And with her at work during his weeks we get to have Sunshine those days too, his Dad drops him off and picks him up from us.

The little dude likes to be here, a lot. We love him being here too, but we try very hard to remind him that Mom (or Dad) will be picking him up and when he asks when he is coming back and we are very clear on how many days or "sleeps" it will be. It is getting into a routine.  He gets dropped off in the mornings, and when the parent whose week it is comes off he goes.  It has been going pretty well. Until today.

Today was, for lack of better wording, pure hell.  When Dad came he did not want to go. At all. He refused. Then he grabbed the door jams with both hands. Then he started to cry, and did not stop. He begged not to have to go, tried to refuse to go, and sobbed.  His Mama tried to talk to him, and tell him it was time to go and not to keep Daddy waiting, that he would have a good time at Daddy's, but for some reason this time he was not buying it at all.  She asked Daddy to talk to him and he refused and told her to handle it, and at one point I guess he told her that Sunshine was getting overwhelmed with "everyone" talking to him.  But no one other than his Mama was talking to him. It just came across that he did not want to deal with it at all.

Rather than acknowledge the little man's feelings and go from there he told him that it "wasn't fair" to him and that he hadn't seen him all week, ie = my time now.

My husband (Baba) ended up walking with him to his Daddy's car. Where I understand  the sobbing continued.  Last thing my husband saw of him was the little guy sitting in the car saying "No No No" over and over.

To make it harder, we have houseguests and of course they don't know what to say, so we just sit there.  But I guess that is better than if no one was here, at least this way I was forced to maintain some composure.

I know that he is fine, and that he probably calmed down within minutes of leaving. It does not make it easier really.

I worry about his feelings a lot. I know my dtr does too, and I have to assume and hope that his Dad does - the line of communication there closed long ago so there is no way to tell.

It is going to be a long time until Tuesday (when he comes back). That's what I know.

4 long days, 4 sleeps

These are a few of my favorite things......

In case i have not mentioned it in awhile, I truly love fabric. 

I love everything about it

The patterns, the texture, and,  if  I had any sense of smell, I am sure I would love the smell of it

I am working on putting a lot of fabric on Ebay and Etsy.

Next I will try to learn how to do my own website

In between school, and life that is.

But for now, I will just enjoy it

No matter what, the site of it always makes me happy

I am Italian

I am an Italian woman by birth and by nature.  Italian and Indian.  A rough combo.  Raised in the suburbs of all things.

I have a bit of a fiery temper at times, and I also run a little high and low at times.  Not easy to have two fiery genes running though the body and fighting each other all the time.  Lol.

So when the low times come  I do what all good Italians do.  I cook.  Sometimes a lot.  Today was not as much as sometimes.

First was chicken with onions and peppers, nothing fancy. But tasty nonetheless

1/2 each red and white onion

1 each yellow and orange bell pepper

Add 2 sliced chicken breasts, and whatever seasoning you like.

I used some greek seasoning, and a little vinegar

But it was a good start. 

Then I moved on to Zucchini "crab" cakes. 

I found this interesting recipe here: 

 http://allrecipes.com/recipe/connies-zucchini-crab-cakes/detail.aspx

1st in goes the Panko crumbs and some onion

Add some grated zucchini 

Then add an egg

Mix well and shape into patties
(sorry, biffed pictures on this step - I am still learning )

And since I wanted to do a comparison, I went ahead and split the batter, and then added crab to half 

Mix more panko with a little flour

Coat the cakes with flour / crumb mixture and place on cookie sheet

I of course put them on parchment paper because as we all know, I have a long standing love affair with parchment paper.

Plus, some of my cookies sheets need to never have food on them.  

Bake at 425 for 14 minutes, turn and bake 14 more minutes on other side.  They should be a golden brown

And they are yummy! 

Zuchinni version

or 

Crab version? 

I baked them, but next time I try them I may fry them, or at least brush them with a bit of olive oil before baking. 

I know that I will cut back a bit on dredging, and will bake them a tiny bit longer

Next up: Sriracha Chicken and Shrimp

This is my own creation, lol

Mixed   1/2 cup  sriracha with 1/2 cup half and half

Toss the chicken in the bowl to do a little marinading

Meanwhile,  fussy cut 1 medium onion

And saute with a pound of spinach

Add a large can of chopped tomato ( I used Ro-tel, we like chilies) 

Remove from heat

Cook chicken  - 2 breast chunked, and  2 dozen medium shrimp 

Careful not to over cook, it is one of those color mixes that is easy to do

Add onion, spinach, tomato mixture back into pan and stir to combine

Pour over pasta, or rice, or eat all by itself! 

Super yummy ! 

Then this is the lonely salad.  Poor salad, all your photos got lost in computer land.

But you were very yummy too.  

Now I must do homework. 

Then maybe I can sew something