Potluck and the Fruit of the Spirit!

"Grandparents Day" was yesterday, (Sunday, September 7), and the 'Nurture Committee' of the church held its annual "Grandparents Day 'Potluck' Luncheon." This had been advertised in the church newsletter and for several weeks in the Sunday bulletins, so people knew that this event was happening and they were asked to bring something to share.

Now, 'potluck' is just that... one never knows what might show up on the table. That's not a bad thing, though, but one hopes that there will be more than just desserts!

Some communities might have a system where a few select people will call others and ask them to bring a covered dish -- either of their own choosing or something that might be suggested by the caller, just to make sure each food group is covered.

Some other group might divide the alphabet and have the caller of each letter group ask for a specific type of dish, such as a salad dish, whether it be pasta, vegetable, fruit, or gelatin. Then another caller might call the second letter group and ask for some type of a hot casserole, whether it be macaroni and cheese, mixed vegetables, or meat. The third group might bring desserts of one sort or another.

These types of systems could work very well because then the committee, who is sponsoring the event, could keep a closer watch on what types of foods were expected.

We do not have that type of system... we just leave it to the individual and trust their judgment to bring an appealing and tasty morsel... and we are seldom disappointed. There is usually an assorted array of foods from soft drinks to desserts.

Yesterday, was no different. Several interesting foods were brought in. Someone brought in soft drinks, while another brought in a large fresh fruit salad, and still another brought a large cold-cut platter and rolls. We had a savoury hot rice dish mixed with polish sausage and vegetables, a cold rice salad with water chestnuts and mandarin oranges, a Chinese-style chop suey, macaroni salad, potato salad, a cole slaw with green grapes, baked macaroni and cheese (not that boxed stuff with the powdered cheese -- yes, from me, who else!), and an array of various cakes and cookies, plus coffee and tea for those who prefer hot drinks.

As always, we had a nice luncheon. We may be a small group but one thing that I can say is that our 'potluck luncheons' prove that the folks are not just generous in their spirit of giving but in their spirit of love. After all, isn't that what the "Fruit of the Spirit" is all about? Love!

Old and New Tips on the Block!

I was sent an Email the other day about some interesting tips regarding foods and general housekeeping chores. Some of these tips have been around a while and some are the new 'tips' on the block! The comments have remained in tact but, of course, I can't resist to put in my 12 cents -- it used to be 2 cents but, due to inflation ... well, you know the rest! -- so, my commentary is in brackets -- in this color!

The first tip was not included in this group and it is one from me ... Some people don't like celery because they say that it's too stringy. Well, just give that ole' celery stick a "shave." That's right... just take the stalk of celery, get out your "handy-dandy" vegetable peeler, and "shave" down that stalk and watch the strings release. Then just use the celery as you normally would. This really works well and I'm glad I thought of it!

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it. Separate the bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. [Who knew?]

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold! [One more tip from me, personally, about cheese products: Each time I open the wrapper in which I store the cheese, I throw that wrapper away and re-wrap the newly cut block of cheese. This also keeps any bacteria or mold from quickly forming on the cheese. It works for me!]

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking. [I truly did not know this fact!]

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. [I always add a little water to ground beef, as well. Or, you could just purchase a leaner ground beef -- such as 90% fat free!]

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich -- Add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up. [I usually add 1 Tablespoon of milk or half and half for each scrambled egg. To omelets, however, I just add 1 Tablespoon of cold water. I do this because of a suggestion that was given to me many years ago by a French chef. He said that milk could make omelets tough and the water makes them more tender. I've been using his suggestion ever since. Again... it works for me!]

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes Mint chocolate squares in a double broiler, set over hot water, and pour the melted chocolate over the warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting. [Is there anyone who doesn't like chocolate mint?]

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if you want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover Snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core, and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!!! [I guess this is to "assume" -- (and you know what that means) -- that one will hand out Snickers candy bars for Halloween!]

Reheating Pizza -- Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to medium-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No more soggy microwave pizza! This tip was shown on the "Cooking Channel."

Easy Deviled Eggs -- After slicing the eggs in half, scoop out the egg yolks and place them in a Zip Lock bag. Seal and smash till they are all broken up. Unseal the bag and add the mayo, spices, or whatever are your chosen ingredients, reseal the bag and continue smashing up the yolks and mixing thoroughly. Cut the tip of the bag and squeeze the yolk mixture into the eggwhite shell. For easy cleanup, just throw bag away. [Personally, I find that just placing the yolks and other ingredients in a bowl and smashing with a fork is just as easy. Of course, this is my own personal method and you may have one of your own.]

Get more from canned Frosting -- When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving. [I like lighter tasting frostings -- not the heavy, grease-laden ones that are found smeared on some baked goods!]

Reheating refrigerated bread -- To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that have been refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster. [On a personal note, I usually wrap the bread item in a paper towel and heat it up that way in the microwave. You only need to heat a biscuit or muffin for 10 to 20 seconds. They heat quite quickly and you wouldn't want to heat them for a longer period of time because ... well ... you could use them as a doorstop!]

Newspapers keep weeds away! Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients into your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants, overlapping as you go, cover with mulch, and forget about weeds! Weeds will get through some gardening plastic but they will not get through wet newspapers. [This is to assume -- using that word, again -- that you keep your plants watered on a regular basis?]

Broken Glass -- Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily. [If you can't see them easily, then how ... ]

No More Mosquitoes! Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away. [It doesn't matter what I wear -- or put in my pocket, for that matter -- they'll find me! Now, that's a good question ... Of what use are mosquitoes and WHY did God create them? What was He thinking?!!!]

Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it. [Obviously, it's the peppery scent that keeps them away -- just as the "peppery-scented" Marigold flower keeps rabbits and other creatures -- great and small -- away!]

Flexible vacuum -- To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings. [This is a great tip!]

Reducing Static Cling -- Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! ... static is gone. [Ladies ... another great tip!]

Measuring Cups -- Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Pour out the hot water but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient -- such as peanut butter -- and it will slide right out! [Pending your use of oil in a recipe, this will do the same thing in helping sticky ingredients to slide right out.]

Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub them with the eraser -- works better than a cloth! [Good thing to know!]

Re-opening an envelope -- If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily. [Okay, here we go again... should we assume that we have an hour or two to wait? Just asking!]

Conditioner -- Ladies! Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner in case you didn't like it when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies! To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill 1/2 of it with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever! [WOW! I didn't think there was any way to get rid of Fruit Flies ... this is great!]

Get Rid of Ants -- Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it, so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed! [I like that tip because I hate ants!]

Someone sent in a story regarding her clothes dryer -- "The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load of clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material ... I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh and that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance, too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box ... well, this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time, (and to keep your electric bill lower), is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush -- (or other brush) -- at least every six months. He said that this makes the life of the dryer last at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that so, I thought I'd share!"

This is good information to know regarding clothes dryers and, perhaps, you could pass this on to other people you know. It could save someone's home and, most importantly, their life!

Welcome to New England!!! No More Snow!!!

I would love to share some photos of beautiful White Sands but, unfortunately, I can't seem to do that. I'm not sure why ... I was able to do it before my little hiatus ... so, I am a bit puzzled as to why I am unable to post images now. Well, I hope you have a great imagination ... unless, of course, you've already had the opportunity to travel here and there. Here we go, then ...

WELCOME TO NEW ENGLAND!!! You would think that for those of us who were born and raised in New England we would be used to all of its' weather wonders by now. Well, we are ... sort of ... but, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in a climate that is temperate year round and doesn't have to deal with the colder weather like ours or, rather, rarely deals with the likes of our colder weather -- that is, mountains and mountains of SNOW!! Some people just love the snowy weather while others hightail it off to sunny Florida to get out of the blast of cold and tedious shoveling. NO MORE SNOW!!!

I hear that San Diego, California has temperatures that are always near or in the low to mid 70's. I don't know how true that is, since I really don't know anyone from that part of the West Coast.

Also, there are warm climates in parts of New Mexico. Speaking of New Mexico, I had the opportunity to spend a long weekend in Las Cruces (The Crosses) around 1989 because my hubby was on a temporary assignment at the White Sands Missile Range. I 'loved' the parts of New Mexico that I was fortunate enough to visit and often think that it might not be so bad living in that part of the Southwest. In Las Cruces it was like being on Cape Cod (in Massachusetts) during the summer months. People walking around in shirt sleeves and enjoying the warm, inviting sun, and just biding their time -- never so much as in a great hurry to get to anywhere in particular. However, we would travel 10 miles north out of Las Cruces -- near Alamogordo and/or Sunspot (or Sun Spot?) -- and it reminded me of being in Vermont with its tall pine trees and cooler temperature -- but, not too cool -- and I was amazed at how different things looked in this Southwestern state.

I was there in late September/early October -- Septober? -- the climate was moderately warm and the people were easy going and laid back sort of folks. They were kind and polite and made you feel very welcome in their neck of the woods. In Las Cruces, it was interesting. You knew you were someplace different -- almost like being in another country -- at least, that's the way it appeared to me.

During that weekend, my hubby said that he was going to take me to see the White Sands National Monument. "Okay." I said while, at the same time, thinking to myself, why do I want to see some great, huge, concrete column sticking up out of the ground? As we were driving through the gate, onto the property, I was looking around and wondering where that monument was that he was talking about? Little did I know that the 'national monument' was staring me right in face ... affirmative! The 'White Sands National Monument' was the GORGEOUS WHITE SANDS surrounding this great, huge national park! I was in AWE at this bright white sight and the abundance of cacti and other greenery popping out here and there from amongst these mountains of sand. Hubby stopped the car and we got out to investigate these grains of pure, white, shimmering, rippled sand dunes.

I was wearing stockings but, not for long! They came off quickly and I ran through these grains of rippled sand that were just so breathtakingly beautiful and soft... soft... soft and COOL to the touch! The amazing thing that I learned was that this 'sand' was actually called Gypsum -- yes, the same ingredient that's found in drywall -- and that when the night winds blow, the mountains of sand change their shape and they are never the same as when they were seen the day before. For instance, foot prints, shapes drawn in the sand, the next day one would never know that anything was imprinted in the sands at all! We even saw people picnicing on the mounds of sand. My hubby is a camera aficionado and he enjoys taking pictures and, while we were there, he took a very cute picture of blankets, buckets, and spades that children had put down while off on their adventures in the dunes of sand!

This is one of the most beautiful memories in my mind and it's strange to imagine and see a giant beach with beautiful white, glimmering sands and no water ... who needs the water? What a beautiful beach, indeed!

Red Velvet Cake

Hello, again. The last time I wrote was Friday, November 23, 2007. To some, it would almost appear that I was so heartbroken by the loss of our little Phoebe that I opted not to write ever again. However, that is not the case and there is no point in relenting over the situation. Whenever I have the chance, which might not be on a daily basis, I will write a few words. So, then, let's start afresh ...

Red Velvet Cake

This fun and pretty cake has been around for decades and is always quite popular, especially around Valentine's Day or Christmastime. Some would liken it to a Devils Food Cake but it doesn't have a great amount of chocolate (in this case, cocoa) in it. As a matter of fact, there is very little cocoa in the recipe, but there is red food coloring to give it that "reddish" look.

There are all kinds of stories about the birth of this cake. Most of them are similar to the one that reveals the "famous Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie" -- I'm sure you know that one by now. However, the recipe that I have was given to me by a friend in the early 1970's and I was told that it was given to her by an aunt who had gone to a classy restaurant in New York City, where she was served this gorgeous red cake with fluffy whipped cream-like frosting. Well, there was no doubt about it ... auntie had to have the recipe! She summoned the chef and begged him to reveal his secret recipe. She was told that he would be happy to give her the recipe if she "promised" not to give it away. {Yeah, right!} Well, she did give it away to her niece, who, in turn, gave it to me. BIG SECRET ... shh ... shh!

Would you believe that for years, I guarded that recipe and would not give it away to anyone. Now I'm finding so many versions of the cake -- many are similar to the one I have and, depending on who is doing the writing, the ingredients and measurements can change. So, I guess there are several versions of this gorgeous cake and various frosting recipes, as well. Some of the cakes have a cream cheese frosting while others use a creamy vanilla frosting. So, what it comes down to is this -- make the cake and frosting recipe which best suits your taste!

I made one the weekend of February 10th because in our church, we have an annual potluck luncheon following our worship service. Anyone who brings an edible, must prepare it in the colors of red or pink (Valentine's colors) or in the shape of a heart. Of course, "yours truly" made a heart-shaped cake. The day was also the birthday of one of gals on the committee so I decided that making her a heart-shaped Red Velvet Cake would serve the purpose.

HOPE YOUR VALENTINE's DAY WAS HAPPY!