My Day...so far (Love you, James!)

I woke up this morning and noticed that Bob had gone for a run. I could be wrong but it seems like he left about 4:30am, and he was not back by 6am, so I got dressed and stood outside for a while looking for him. I started planning his funeral in my head, and wondering what route I should drive looking for him, when he came around the corner jogging. He said he could not see me as I was wearing dark clothes, but he could see the reflectors in my running shoes.

What is the definition of a precept?? What are precepts? Is it a Bible word? Our assignment from Effie yesterday was to look for all the occurrances of the word in Psalm 119. Each paragraph has one. Precept: a rule or pinciple prescribing a particular course of action or conduct. Law. An authorized direction or order. Writ. It only occurs 27 times in 27 verses, and most are in Psalm 119. I noticed that the word does not stand alone in Psalm 119. It is always, "Your precepts". As in belonging to God---God sets the standard, God designs the laws to keep us safe, and bring order. In this time of rampant relativity, I like to keep in mind that the precepts belong to God. God invented law, rules, order, ways, commandments, ordinances. God is not a god of chaos.

I ventured out to Walmart and purchased $176 worth of groceries for the next week. We have never had a smoked turkey. So, I put a smoked turkey breast in the crock pot to test it out. Expensive test. But, why wait? It may be just Bob and me on Thanksgiving Day. Why not be thankful today?? I am all for being thankful every day. I don't purchase celery and onions and garlic every day, but they sounded good sauted in stuffing. Stuffing can be frozen for fancy meals later, too. Frozen pilsbury rolls are in the freezer which will make fancy any meal--and surely, make Bob smile. The small red and thin-skinned small potatoes come in cute little plastic "steamer" bags now. I don't think they will need to be added to the crock pot until 2 or 3pm. Man, is Bob gonna be surprised at supper tonight. Kinda like a dress rehearsal. Dole has fancy frozen blueberries--sure were good for a late breakfast. And blueberries are good for the bladder just like cranberries.

Still on a quest for cranberries, and those little oranges called "cuties". But, I am ready for any pecan recipe. Walmart was pretty crowded for a Monday morning---that economic crisis, ya know. I was reluctant to purchase a "fresh" turkey which felt pretty frozen. And the spiral cut hams had expiration dates all over the place.

What a country. I can motor over to Walmart, purchase fresh, canned and fozen goodies fit for a king, bring them home, fill my frig, and start cooking. What a country. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for good quality food and water, and luxuries. And Thank You, Lord for Walmart. Please protect them from the libs.

Sallycat is tracking the sunspots on the carpet. Beautiful day. Turned off the furnace, and opened the windows.

9pm report: The dressing turned out nice and moist, but the smoked turkey breast cooked in the crock pot was overdone, hence, dry. I cooked it too long. Even from frozen, it does not need but three hours on high. Low would be better---if you can stand the smell all day. Smelled like a smoked ham. Had to keep telling myself it was a turkey. I slipped in the small red potatoes at 2pm, and they turned out fine. Too much food, but this was a practice run. I won't have to cook tomorrow..or Wednesday...when Bob is home.

The low sodium dressing is good, but I am leaning more towards a cornbread dressing, so I may just make up a pan of cornbread and season it myself. That would be an easier way to control the salt. Or wait and do a cornbread cassarole to use up the smoked turkey someday. Surely, the smoked turkey will freeze okay for cassaroles.

We were too stuffed to eat the blackberry cobbler. Oh well. Bob did not complain (or see) the garlic cloves in the stuffing. I love garlic. And celery stewed is more easily chewed. But, purple onions turn brown in stuffing. Might as well buy the cheaper yellow ones next time.

Bob beat me 403 to 383. He bingo-ed at least twice. I started the game with a long word which helps open the board. But, Bob knows his seven letter words for an extra fifty points.

Breakfast Cookies??!! What will they think of next.

A Fun Way to Eat Oatmeal

Oatmeal on a Stick

Oatmeal Cookies: Here is what you’ll need: Assuming you have been married thirty years and the heavy-duty mixer bit the dust. And the cheap little Black’nDecker works fine, but two of the beaters broke a spoke.

Start with a big mixing bowl. Whisk four fresh, raw eggs. Add a cup of sugar. Brown or white. Soften in the microwave in a microwaveable measuring cup a stick and a half of butter (broken, then stirred) for 22 seconds. Add cooled butter to the sugar and egg mixture. Add a package of Pilsbury Pumpkin Cake mix. And more cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Have fun. Sprinkle away. Brush spilled cinnamon off your shirt. Those newly opened spice jars can be tricky to get off the glued paper seal. Dump in oats---old fashioned or quick. Four cups or more. Mix. Dump a cup of raisins out on the counter or table top and pick through them to remove any offending little stems or debris. Add raisins to the cookie dough if you like raisins. They are good for you. A good source of iron, you know.

Now you are ready to bake your cookies. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place a spoonful of cookie dough on your cookie sheet spaced at least two thumb widths apart. Cook for fifteen to twenty minutes or until done. Test for doneness by pressing the hot cookie lightly. If it springs back, its done. If your imprint stays, cook a little longer. Store cookie dough in a buttered baggie in the freezer and carefully cut chunks of the dough to bake a fresh batch. Or, cook up the whole batch and freeze the cookies you do not plan on consuming in the next few days.

A sweet neighbor gave me a tub of Otis Spunkmeyer’s breakfast cookie dough. Since I was unable to find more of the dough at the grocery store, I decided to make my own.

Chocolate chips and chopped nuts would be a good addition to these cookies. And they can be mixed with basic bowl and spatula, so good for guys living on their own without a lot of huge kitchen appliances. You do need an oven, however. Even a little toaster oven is needed to cook cookie dough. It will not work in the microwave, sorry.

Cake

One of my favorite sites to check each day is Cake Wrecks. It is funny, well written, and the comments are hilarious.

All that reading about cake, even ugly cakes, and I was in the mood for cake.

Pepperidge Farm has a few offerings. A coconut concoction of three layers, but when I scraped off the icing, the cake was kind of tasteless.

I looked up a recipe on the website called: Cooking For Engineers. The pecan coffeecake sounded good, and while I did not have any pecans, it would help me use up my jar of blueberry jelly and Braum's new cream cheese that has a soupy consistency. Not being able to waste Braum's cream cheese, I figured I could cook with it, and I could not very well enjoy my blackberry jam until we had used up all the blueberry.

My Mother will laugh and shake her head to know I used a recipe as the basis of a creation. To me, recipes are the start, the jumping off place. I was kinda surprised that the cupcakes fell. They taste pretty good. I suspect my dough was too thick. And I did use three eggs instead of two. More protein, right?

Now I have plenty of ugly muffins/cupcakes in the freezer, and one shaped like the pyrex measuring cup as I had way too much batter. Maybe it would have been better to make or shape the dough into those crispy cakes you dunk in coffee. When the name come to me, I'll insert it here.

It has been eight days since we played Scrabble. Yikes. While supper was in the microwave, I set up the board and pulled the table into the middle of the living room floor so that we would not forget to play tonight. Some women meet their husbands wrapped in saran wrap. I meet mine with the Scrabble board at the ready.

Bob and I were tied at 261 each, but he went out first, so he played a final word for eight more points, and got my eight points from tiles I had left. Strange looking board. I was racking my brain for words that end in "C" or "P".

And its always a good day when I find my Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn on sale at Walmart for $1 each. I hope Walmart is not discontinuing the yarn. Maybe they were getting rid of an overage.

Nothing is open

Christmas Day reminds me of every Sunday when I was a kid. The only thing open is the occasional self-serve gas station, and a seven-eleven type store. We actually got in the car and took a little drive before dark. Only on this day once a year do we see even the McDonalds closed and empty. And the 24-hour a day Wal-marts--what a contrast to yesterday when every parking spot was full, and I had second thoughts about buying that cornmeal.

I love Wal-mart. They are bad-mouthed in the press and envied by liberals, but they gainfully employ vast numbers of people, and because of the great turn over of products, that box of Sun-Maid raisins I bought is fresh and the raisins are plump and good compared to the very same box and brand purchased at Tom Thumb or Kroger---my other two haunts---but their boxes of Sun-Maid raisins are old and turned to sugar and only good for cooking.