Freakin' Sugar Ants...

Okay, am feeling better so I feel the need to post!

My kitchen is inundated with sugar ants. You know, those little black boogers that shimmy all over the place?? I was posting on one of my boards and just had the cutest way to explain what they were doing. (well, cute in my world...)

They are/were all over my kitchen counter, on my bedroom's nitestand, out on the deck doing a conga line...why my hubs even found beaucoups of them in the freezer! How in the hell did they even get IN there? But there they were. Bunches of little black mummies.

There are even little fried crispy critters in my stove! You'd think they'd get a clue and take up stakes when they got a little 'warm', huh? Nope, brilliance isn't their middle name, I'll tell you what.

So what does hubby do? What any red-blooded man would do...he gets out the bug spray and sprays EVERYwhere. On my kitchen counters, on the floor...on the deck. I have to wipe and wipe before I feel like it's safe to put food on or walk across.

I think it's been so much wetter this year than years before and the varmints are looking for a dry spot (good luck) to hoist their buns into. So they bug the snot out of me.

Will Be Back Soonest....

I have the muther of all sinus infections or something really close. Will be back maybe later today or in the morning. Thanks for reading and keep checking back please! :-)

Cooking Is Fun...But Clean-up Is A Drag

Okay, I'm seriously annoyed now. I've re-discovered cooking at this late stage of my life but the downside has now shown itself.

The Clean-up.

Not fun. It's soooo much fun to get in the kitchen, get flour all over everything, use multiple pans, use lots of wooden spoons (my fave for the time being), measuring stuff, having the ingredients out all over the place...even filling up the sink with lots of deitrus. Then, when things are baking or simmering, all the stuff that caused the fun becomes an elephant in the room. (To understand where I'm going with this today, I must say I don't have a dishwasher...more on that sometime down the road)

The dishes and pans just sit there intruding on your peripheral vision and consciousness. After a while they start to chant in a low tone about how they need to be washed "and put away". It's one thing to wash them (I guess you could apply this to the dishwasher too) but then they need to be put away as they won't do it on their own. Ingrates.

So there you have dishes sitting there and they start a new chant. I mean, why can't your family just swing by and pick out what they want when they need it?? Need a fork? Welp, it should be in with all the other silverware. A plate? Lookie there...right in the rack thingy.

The dishes are just going to get dirty again so why do ALL the work?? Part-way works great for me. You do have to wash them for sanitation's sake but nothing says you have to put them away. They won't be out long enough for any ooky germ wafting through the air to settle on them so why the extra work?

But then, after I'm settled in my Barcalounger, those dishes sitting out start to thrum in my head. I can't get away from it. You can tell they aren't happy sitting out. They have a place to 'be' and sitting out isn't it. So after quite a bit of thrumming, I can't take it any longer and hoist myself up and into the kitchen. Takes me all of, what, six minutes to put the d*mn things away??

Then the thrumming stops and I can relax with a bite of what I baked. Absolute bliss.

Woo-Hoo!! I Haz Da 'Net!!

Finally!! I have an excellent signal so now I can blog to my widdle hearts content! So, hang with me just a bit longer. I'll have a post at least by tomorrow...life is intruding again, you know how THAT goes... :-)

Sorry Again!!

I have plenty to say about my cooking...new adventures going on every single day but it doesn't help when I can't get a decent signal and can't post...or do a half post and then lose the signal. So this coming Friday, I'm getting a new service that I hopefully won't have to worry about snow, rain and other snarky weather.

Please hang in there with me! I appreciate my readers!

Not Much of a Signal...Again...

It's the rain or snow or the internet gods in the sky but it's still hit or miss whether I can post. So, today is mainly a 'check-in' and hopefully tomorrow I can get back to real posting. I used to write my posts for my other blog the night before and do a cut and paste thing when I had a good signal. Guess I'll have to go back to that!

Anyway, please re-read my existing posts or visit my other blog! :-)

My Spaghetti Sauce Experiment

I did it, I did it!!

I found a really good recipe for the makin's of SS. I went to http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spaghetti-Sauce-Mix/Detail.aspx and tried it out. It was great but something was missing. Just needed a little bit of oomph for the tomato taste. I couldn't figure out what but will keep experimenting till I get it right.

Love this site for recipes!!

Exactly What IS A Garlic Clove??

This is one of my better stories so sit back and enjoy. My kids like to tell on me because I'm such a dip in the kitchen.

I found this really neat mexican dish on the back of the Minute Rice box. Since I'm from the lower Southwest, I appreciate good mexican food. So I bought all the ingredients and once I got home, started in on the cooking.

Doing fine till I came to the part that said I needed a clove of garlic. (Can't you see this one coming??) So I picked up the whole thingy of garlic, wondering all the while if that wasn't just a bit much but hey, the recipe said 'a clove of garlic'. Good enough for me!!

So, I peeled the little boogers down and chopped them up. I felt like such a big girl because I was cooking for my family...y'know, taking 'care' of them!! What could be better??

All went well till we sat down to eat. The kids were happy... Mom was cooking!! Wowie!! They dug in, kind of masticated the mouthful around a bit, got really, really big-eyed and then the tears came. Everyone's eyes sort of teared up like a really bad pollen day.

My oldest daughter either spit it out or swallowed it (can't remember which) and yelped. She asked what was IN the food! I also had taken a bite and teared up and was wondering the same, even though I had prepared it.

So I looked back on the box at the recipe and checked all the ingredients...glove of garlic...check, the whole works... What could be wrong??

Later, after everyone had avoided my grub, (the finks wanted to eat something else...*grumble*) I was talking with someone and mentioned the problem. The look I got was one of wonder. Didn't I KNOW what a garlic clove was, asked this someone?? Well, as far as I knew, it was the whole garlic thingy. No, no, no!! says my friend, a clove is the little piece you pick off!!

Oh...

So, that is one mistake I've never made again. Live and learn... :-) BTW, I never made that mexican dish again. Once was enough...

About That Squid Dinner...

Now there is some discrepancy in my family about whether it was a squid or octopus...so please bear that in mind, okie dokie?? I checked with my son and he thinks it's the octopus and I'm in the squid camp. I guess it doesn't matter one way or the other but it's still a good story! Read on...

I had this bright idea one fine day that I was going to get serious about cooking. I've always been a fan of seafood, any kind, any where. As long as I can catch it, I'll eat it. Well, cooked also but you know what I mean.

So, my son and I were in the store looking at the frozen food section, the kind of sections that are hip high and in the middle of the aisles, not the ones behind the doors. My son found a package of frozen seafood. I admit, I didn't read the package very closely, just assumed/saw that it apparently had frozen veggies and 'seafood' in it. The package was one of those kind that everything is loose inside and the packaging was clear plastic but very iced up.

I paid for it and we went home. I boiled a pot of water and dumped the package in the boiling water. I kind of had an impression that something wasn't quite right but that was sort of normal state for me with cooking anyway, so I ignored the feeling.

Seems like I boiled rice or noodles to make a bed for the seafood and then I served that part. I drained the seafood and spooned it onto the bed of rice/noodles.

After a bit, I noticed that my son was playing with something that looked like it was flat topped but with little appendages sticking out. What in the hell is that, think I. Kind of like a flattened starfish but with lots of pointy things all around.

So I reached over to pick it up and realized that it was a baby squid/octopus that the top had been lopped off but the little legs were still attached to the body! I didn't realize that the things in the package weren't ready for cooking! They were only in the bag, ready to be processed.

My son was kind of wigged out to find that parts were missing and wouldn't touch the whole meal after that. He thought it was kind of like a toy that you find in Cracker Jacks! Oh, gross!

So now we have the baby squid/ocotopus story...top that if you can!! :-)

Will Be Back Soonest...

Life is getting in the way again but I'll be back. Please check in a day or so. Take care, all!

Let Me Explain...

I was typing my second post when I realized, my readers won't have a clue what I'm talking about so I better explain better my vision of cooking. I'll explain the squid dinner in a later post...you won't want to miss it! Really...

Reading recipes, in my mind, is something up there with deciphering ancient Egyptian before the Rosetta Stone showed up. Recipes just don't make sense to me. I get the big 'T' mixed up with the little 't'. On a measuring cup, I'm very capable of using the wrong marker for, say, the half cup. I'm ever so adept at burning beans and can't seem to smell it till someone else yells about the incinerated beans. High altitude, you say?? Doesn't mean a thing to me.

When it comes to presenting the food...I'm good with spooning off a big chunk of meat loaf and dumping it on the plate, then calling it good. 'Presentation' is not in my vocabulary. If it's edible, does it REALLY matter what it looks like??? Hmmm???

Why, hell...I told my three kids once, when they were small, that I had found a new recipe to try. Their response?? As one voice, they said, "Uh-oh."

But, hey, if my horse needed shredded beet pulp in his feed, I seem to intuitively know how much, how best to get it mixed it, whether it needs to be dampened or soaked. But when I have to cook for humans, something gets lost in the translation.

So, this is my explanation for this blog. Actually, my kids think it's a good idea...a good idea, not great...as long as I don't identify them. :-)

My First "Lost Cooking" Post!!

Welcome!!

An explanation is in order... I am not a cook. I'm a middle-aged grandmother who has NEVER managed to learn to cook. I try, Lord knows, I try but it has always been hard for me. As you read this blog, you'll see all my screw-ups and mistakes...and every so often I actually have a rousing success! Basically, I'm a cowgirl who is better at fixing windmills and building a fence. I was standing behind the door when God passed out the domesticity. Just ask my kids...

I try to write how I speak in real life so I don't think this blog will be suitable for the under 15 year old crowd. I do let fly now and again with a curse word that might tick off a pastor. I would prefer that over 18 year olds only read this blog but if you're under 18, you've been warned.

There may be a post every day or every few days. I'm not sure but I'll post when I can. I have another blog but I also have a life outside of the 'puter. I'm not really good at blogging but I try. My other blog is my first attempt and it's doing pretty well so I thought I'd give cooking a shot. I will also have a comment section but I will censor any absolutely profane or vulgar posts. I'm funny about that! I found that posting this has kept things civil even in my emails. :-)

Anyway, I hope you'll bookmark my post and come back time and again to read. Please enjoy and tell others about my blog. Hopefully I'll make you laugh and have a good time!!