Baking day!

Tomorrow (after I hit the yarn store and the grocery store) I am going to attempt to make these:

Sea Salt Caramels with Vanilla Bean
Ingredients

1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 vanilla bean pod, split and scraped
1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup Lyle's golden syrup (or light corn syrup)
1/4 cup water
Instructions

Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly butter parchment.
Bring cream, butter, vanilla, vanilla beans, pods, and sea salt to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.
Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.
Remove pods and carefully stir cream mixture into the caramel (mixture will bubble up) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248 on thermometer. Pour into baking pan and cool 30 minutes. Sprinkle another pinch or two of salt over the top of the caramel for a nice salty crunch and let sit until completely cooled. Cut into 1-inch pieces (I buttered a pizza cutter), and then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, twisting 2 ends to close.

If they work out, this may be what I take in on Black Friday. Then again, I have a tub of pumpkin chocolate chip cookie dough that the owner of Mary's Mountain Cookies gave me because she knows I love them. Maybe I will share...

And this:

Pumpkin Spice Sauce

Ingredients

For the pumpkin spice syrup:
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 cinnamon sticks or 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
3 Tbsp canned pumpkin
For a single latte:
1 shot of espresso or 2-4 Tbsp very strongly brewed coffee
6-8 oz skim milk, heated or steamed until very hot
1-2 Tbsp pumpkin spice syrup (or to taste)
Whipped cream, optional
Salted caramel sauce, optional
Instructions

To make the syrup: Cook sugar and water in a small pot over medium heat until the mixture is completely clear.
Whisk in the remaining ingredients and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Do not allow mixture to come to a boil.
Allow mixture to cool for 10-15 minutes.
Strain syrup through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer into a large jar or bottle of your choice.
Keep syrup in the fridge, it will last a while.
To make the latte, combine espresso with heated milk, and 1-2 Tbsp of pumpkin spice syrup (add to taste).
Top with whipped cream and salted caramel sauce, if desired.

Last year I tried several "copy cat" recipes for pumpkin spice lattes. This is the first that has a sauce, rather than just adding pumpkin and vanilla to milk (Blech!).

In knitting news, sadly Dot the Sparkle Monster is no longer with us. I got distracted by something on TV and missed several decreases, dropped a stitch somewhere, etc. Tomorrow I go to the yarn store to see if I can find a 16" size 7 circular needle in an attempt to save my sanity :-/

So tired

of staying late, coming in early, skipping breaks, missing lunches and especially of having to babysit my freaking employees! I'm sorry I didn't say thank you to you for doing your job, for getting your work done, for coming in close to when you were scheduled (only 10 minutes late) and for leaving the moment your shift was done. I am sorry for saying thank you to the other person who came in on his days off and came in early every frickin' day to help me while slighting you....

And did anyone fucking thank me for coming in early, staying late, missing lunches and breaks to do my job?? No. Am I upset about it? No, because the best damned thank you I get is that big fat bonus check next month. It's my job to make sure my clients are happy and if that means I miss a meal here and there to kick an order out the door, then that's what I will do, and most of the time I do it without whinging (though missing lunch does make me cranky, so watch out!).

Seriously though, why should I single you out just because you did your job without putting in a bit of extra effort when your co-worker worked his fanny off and did it whenever I asked him to??

And instead, I have to play nice and apologize to my employee in order to keep fucking harmony. What I really want to say is "GROW UP!" but I can't. I have to say BS like "You made yourself so invaluable to the team on a regular basis that we forget to thank you." Blech. And now I am going to have to go to my boss and restore harmony by asking him to make both of my employees Employee of the Month next month, even though only one actually deserves it.

Crazy

Crazy busy week. We had huge order after huge order which just gets stressful after a while. I have one employee who is awesome and will come in early and on his day off. I have another employee who always bitches about not having enough hours and says she will come in, until you actually ask her, then it's "Oh sorry, I have plans." I have stopped asking her, and just giving J. all the hours he wants. Thank goodness he was scheduled all weekend, because honestly, if it was up to the other person, I don't think stuff would have been done on time. And yay, everything should be done now, so I can actually spend tomorrow relaxing, or knitting Dot the Dress Up Box Monster, one of the two...

Yeah, about that... Dot take 1 was a nightmare. The Magic Loop is not magic for me. All I ended up with was a tangled mess that I ended up throwing away :( Take 2 ended up a mess when I somehow twisted my stitches. I finally gave up and stopped for the moment. I think I shall Kitchner Matt's leg instead. (Matt is ninja #2, since at the moment he has no arms and no legs and just lays there, like a matt, lol).

There has been no progress what so ever on the crazy quilt because I have been distracted with cuddly toys ;)

Meet Stumpy

Stumpy was named Stumpy during the regretful period where he only had one leg. Unfortunately for Stumpy, I had to go to work the next day, and just had to stop knitting. And unfortunately for Stumpy, the name stuck, even when he got his second leg. Although DD keeps calling him Bob.... What the hell kinda name for a ninja is Bob??

By the time I am done, I shall have knit an army of ninjas, and they may just band together and take over the world. Or maybe just the entire Tri-State area!

Seriously though, all my co-workers think he's adorable and for the low, low price of $5 each I have offered to make them their very own ninjas! The $5 covers my yarn cost, between them the little extra will pay for stuffing and felt. Honestly, they are fun and easy to knit, so as long as I am paid for supplies, my time is well spent. And when I am done I do believe we will have to take a picture of our virtual rainbow of ninjas taking over my copy center, before they head off to storm the castle.

What do you call a ninja with no arms & no legs?

A1: Mine!

A2: Nearly finished!

Hahahaha.

7 Squares

Here they are as promised, the 7 completed squares for my crazy quilt blanket.

7 Squares.

Click for a larger view with notes on yarn.

Crazy Quilt Update and other cool things

The weather turned lovely and cool last week, then wham! Shot right back up to 80 today. But it's still very much Fall around here. I have a 3 day weekend to enjoy, so I see much knitting being accomplished while I watch spooky-ooky shows on TV.

I have 7 squares complete, and I plan to lightly block them tomorrow, just so I can see them laid out and pretty, lol. I shall also take pictures! I promised the kiddo a pair of socks, since the very girly ones I knit for her are already too small. *Sigh* I will likely cast on for them tomorrow, but....

I MUST knit this first!

Isn't it cute?? It's Ninja (duh) from KnitWit, by Katie Boyette. So many cute patterns in there, but this guy is first and the DD is asking for a pink one as well, hahaha.

Edited to add: 10-17 I have most of my ninja's head knit, even after having to go back and unknit a row to find my start again after rearranging on my needles to discover I lost my stitch marker along the way, lol. I need to get some polyfill so I can start stuffing him as I knit the rest.

Down day

I've had a rough day today. I can't remember having a day this bad in years. It's not that anything bad has happened, I just feel very down. That's the demon named Depression. It leaves me alone most of the time, but then WHAM! There it is again.

I woke up with a headache. That kind of started it. After a while I started to feel sorry for myself and then I was crying about nothing. The weather outside is beautiful, but I can't muster up the energy to even get dressed today. I don't want to do anything, go anywhere or let anyone see me. I have nothing to wear, my shirts are all stained, I'm fat, I'm frumpy and on and on and on, the voice of Depression goes.

So I take pain relievers for the headache, then cry and make it worse. I tried to sleep, but one of the things Depression brings when it visits is insomnia. So I am more and more tired, and more and more depressed. As a result the demon grows stronger. It's a vicious cycle.

I sent my family off this evening, to an information meeting for a trip abroad that my daughter has a chance to take. I was excited about it, but today I can't dredge up the energy to go. I can't even make myself get dressed and go pick up my prescription at the pharmacy, telling myself that I can take one of my "spare" pills tonight and go get the refill tomorrow. So here I sit, thinking, crying.

Maybe it's good that I only had today off. Tomorrow I will have to get out of bed, get cleaned up, get dressed and go to work. There will be no debate with myself on what to wear, I'll throw on my black pants and my blue shirt, just like I do every day for work. I won't have time to sit and think and listen to the demon whisper in my ear. And for awhile it will go away. Maybe tomorrow will be a good day and it will go away for a good long time again. Or maybe it won't.

If that happens, I will know it's time to talk to my doctor again. Time to think about going on meds again. If that's what it takes to get me sleeping again, and on an even keel, then that's what I'll do.

What's the capital of Ohio?

Just watched the season premiere of Glee. Ok, watched is a bit of a stretch. Fast forwarded, more like. Hmmm. Glad to see more of Blaine, hope it doesn't become the Blaine show. Loved Quinn's new look, can she move along now? Glad to see Rachel taken down a notch, or two or ten. Still adore Kurt.

So far, Fall tv just isn't really doing much for me.

There's America's Next Top Model, re-run edition. Didn't like most of the women on there before, why should I care about them now??

Then there's Project Runway. Or as I now like to call it, Project Extra Sleep. Boooooooring. There's not a single person on there that I am rooting for this season, most of them I just want to see go home! Thank goodness for DVR, since I can fast forward to the end, see the finished product and listen to the scathing criticisms, lol.

As a result of lousy TV and a lack of books, I have gotten some knitting done. One of the ugliest socks I've ever seen, and by the end of today I shall have another square for the Crazy Quilt completed. The sock was done in a yarn I wish I had never bought. Full of different lengths knotted together, and really much better looking in the skein than knit up. And the second skein for the second sock is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more red than the first.

But the square is fun, it's got little bits of glitter in :) Probably why it knit up so fast, since I love it, lol.

Edited to add: Argh. I'll say it again, can Quinn just move along now? I find this storyline personally disturbing and sad. the Quinn-witch is a selfish, spoilt brat and only thinking of herself, not of her child. We have enough me, me, me! with Rachel & Santana. Move along, nothing to see here....

Speaking of Rachel. Really? Like Finn doesn't have enough issues without her trying to plan his life for him, just so she can be happy?

*Sigh* I will keep DVRing it, but I'm not much liking anything to do with the main characters, though I love the fact that there's more Beiste and the fact that Puck really seems to want to be part of his daughter's life. Though again, I would like to see him do the right thing and tell Shelby what the Quinn-witch is cooking up.

Celebrate the fREADom to Read.

Top 100 Challenged/Banned Books 2000-2009
1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2. Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8. His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9. ttyl; ttfn; l8r g8r (series), by Myracle, Lauren
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
12. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16. Forever, by Judy Blume
17. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20. King and King, by Linda de Haan
21. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
23. The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24. In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
25. Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan
26. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
27. My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier
28. Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
29. The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
30. We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier
31. What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
32. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
33. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
34. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
35. Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison
36. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
37. It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris
38. Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles
39. Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane
40. Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank
41. Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
42. The Fighting Ground, by Avi
43. Blubber, by Judy Blume
44. Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher
45. Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly
46. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
47. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, by George Beard
48. Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez
49. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
51. Daughters of Eve, by Lois Duncan
52. The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson
53. You Hear Me?, by Betsy Franco
54. The Facts Speak for Themselves, by Brock Cole
55. Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green
56. When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester
57. Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
58. Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
59. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
60. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
61. Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle
62. The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard
63. The Terrorist, by Caroline B. Cooney
64. Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park
65. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
66. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor
67. A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
68. Always Running, by Luis Rodriguez
69. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
70. Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen
71. Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
72. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
73. What’s Happening to My Body Book, by Lynda Madaras
74. The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
75. Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry
76. A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
77. Crazy: A Novel, by Benjamin Lebert
78. The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein
79. The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss
80. A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck
81. Black Boy, by Richard Wright
82. Deal With It!, by Esther Drill
83. Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds
84. So Far From the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Watkins
85. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher
86. Cut, by Patricia McCormick
87. Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
88. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
89. Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
90. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
91. Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George
92. The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Louis Sachar
93. Bumps in the Night, by Harry Allard
94. Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine
95. Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix
96. Grendel, by John Gardner
97. The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
98. I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte
99. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
100. America: A Novel, by E.R. Frank

Celebrate your Freadom to Read and Read a Challenged/Banned Book!

The World Trade Center

The Pentagon

United Flight 93

2,997 dead


Never Forget

Freddie

Happy birthday Freddie. You left us way too soon.

Watching the best live performance of all time, Queen at Live Aid in '85.

I remember being glued to the MTV, watching the historical event. I look back at it now and think how f-ing lucky those people were in the crowd, to be part of something that big. Something that will never ever happen again. Of course, I was glued to it for Duran Duran, lol. But you just couldn't help seeing that Queen and Freddie were something special.

So...

Not much has changed since I last posted. We're even having Cornish Pasties for dinner again tonight ;)

I've finished 4 squares for the crazy quilt, and I've another sock on the needles now. last few squares have been very pastel, and I felt the need for bright. So now I am knitting up my bright orange and red Bonkers yarn. And it's fitting, since what better way to celebrate autumn than to knit autumn colors?

Yes, fall is finally here. At least for the last two days. We've been in the mid-70s and I love it! Windows are wide open, all except for the dinner hour, and then once the house has cooled back down after dinner the windows open again. Wonderful!

We've had one rather significant change. The kiddo started junior high a few weeks ago (Ack! My baby!). And with that comes trumpet lessons. So we have a sick goose in the living room at the moment. But she loves it, so I guess my ears will recover ;)

And since Blogger decided to eat the rest of my post I'm going to stop here. I've got a heel to turn. See y'all in a month, lol.

Random bits

Cornish Pasties for dinner tonight, yum!

County Fair this evening when it cools down a bit. Swimming pool in a bit.

My blanket square is coming along slowly, mainly because I've had my nose in a book more regularly. I found a series of tattoo shop mysteries (because there's a series for EVERYTHING now, lol) and I've been reading them, and a few other odds and ends.

So, books I've recently read:

-The new Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead Reckoning. My reaction to it was just, "Meh." Didn't love it, didn't hate it.

-The new Queen Betsey book, Undead and Undermined. I have to say, I'm not enjoying them as much anymore. Betsey is just annoying and self centered and frankly, there's not much happening with the series, it seems stagnant. Betsey disappears, then has sex with Sinclair. Betsey fights with her sister, has sex with Sinclair.

Donna Andrews's new book, The Real Macaw was as enjoyable as always. The characters are fun and quirky and we finally get to find out what sex the new babies are :)

Cricket McRae's crafting mysteries, with Wined and Died most recently released. Cricket is actually a local author so I found her in a local display at the library. I've enjoyed all 5 books in the series.

And surprisingly, I like the latest Anita Blake book from Laurell K Hamilton, though I'm not sure where we go from here. Maybe back to Anita helping solve crimes? I'd like to see Edward toughen up a bit again too, that was the one thing I didn't care for, Edward just can't go soft lol.

Old favorites that I can't read any more:
Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan (funny I used to love this series, but I went back and re-read one and just thought, "What was I thinking??"

My Amazon wish list is looking pretty thin again, since I use it to remind me of books I want to read and now I've read most of them. Time to make a trip the the bookstore to scope out new releases lol.

What is it about summer

that makes me nostalgic for certain foods? Maybe it's because summer is block party and picnic season, so it was the only time we ever had them. But things like carrot cake, Pineapple Upside Down cake and of course my grandma's bars have been at the forefront of my mind for a while now. Carrot cake was easy to solve, I bought a single piece at the grocery store bakery. Yum!

The Pineapple Upside Down cake seemed an easy solution too, as Safeway sells slices. But it wasn't quite what I remembered from my childhood. Maybe because it was white cake, not yellow?

And of course Grandma's bars. I made them. I didn't cook the sugar mixture long enough, and I didn't put enough lemon juice in the frosting, so they were close, but not quite... I will try them again sometime.

Now there's a Pineapple Upside Down cake in my oven, Betty Crocker's recipe, which means it's probably exactly what my mom made when I was a kid, lol.

Now I just need some of my mom's potato salad and the cheese olive puffs ;)

Not sure how Pineapple Upside Down cake is going to go with our dinner of Chicken Korma, but oh well. Tomorrow is pulled pork sandwiches, it will go just fine with that.

Edited to add: The cake turned out perfectly, G loves it, though I haven't been able to get Isabel to try it due to the pineapple. Maybe tomorrow. Picky bugger, lol.

The pork is in the crock pot. Real simple, chop one onion, throw it in. Add pork roast, season with pepper and garlic power. I add a cup of apple juice for moisture and then 3/4 c of bbq sauce. Several hours on low and the pork will be so tender it will easily pull apart. I like to toast my hamburger bun before I put the pork on it. It reheats well, too.

Next up on the list of things we haven't had for awhile and must have soon: Cornish Pasties. Yum!

Trail Ridge Road

The family and I went up and over Trail Ridge today, the first time I've been there in years. It was absolutely gorgeous. With the well above average snow pack melting slowly up in the high country and the rain we were getting every afternoon, the wild flowers are just gorgeous. I can't remember ever seeing that many wild flowers, certainly not this late in summer. Even the alpine tundra was covered in little white and yellow flowers.

And the weather was just gorgeous as well. While Loveland hit 97 today, it was a nice 58 degrees at the Alpine Visitor Center. We drove along with the sunroof open and the windows down.

We spent some time walking around in Grand Lake and then on the way out of town saw tons of people standing on the side of the road. We pulled over and crossed the road to see two huge bull moose. The biggest one wouldn't take his head out of the greenery he was eating, but you could see he was a big boy with an enormous rack of antlers. The other bull was farther away, but he was out in the open and even gave me a nice profile shot or two.

bull moose (click image to see full size),
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

It was absolutely amazing to see them that close to town, that close to the road. the bigger of the two was literally a few yards away. Which was actually a bit scary, since moose can be quite dangerous, but these guys were too busy munching to care about anyone else, and the crowd was actually being pretty respectful and keeping their distance.

The saddest thing about today was seeing just how much devastation the pine beetle has wrought in Colorado. I noticed a ton of beetle killed trees on our side of the mountain, a lot of them new enough to still have the rusty needles. But the Western slope has just been decimated by beetle. There were swathes of trees that there were way more dead trees than live. And all along the roadway there were huge slash piles of killed trees that the park service has cut down. For the Park Service to cut and haul trees, there has to be a major issue, since the usual policy is to let nature take its course. It's such a huge problem that all they can do is remove trees that could be a danger in high use areas.

It's estimated that withing a few year's time ALL of the Lodgepole pines in Colorado will have been killed by the beetle epidemic. So for those who say Global Warming isn't an issue, come look at my mountains. Beetle only die off at temps lower than 40 below zero. Colorado hasn't gotten that cold in about 10 years, thanks to global warming. :(

My crazy quilt so far

all three,
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

The squares are actually quite quick to knit. Well, when I don't have a smashed middle finger anyway. Amazing how much that finger just gets in the damned way.

Two nights ago it got in the way of my sliding glass door as I went to shut it. Wouldn't be surprised if my mother heard me swearing all the way in Iowa, lol. Goodness knows, I swore long and loud, along with some crying and whimpering. Yep, I am a baby. Poor G was trying to help by making me stick my finger under cold water but anything touching it just made it throb worse, so of course that made me whinge more. I wouldn't even look at my finger for ages, I was convinced that if it hurt that badly I must have lost part of it, lol,

Today it's still swollen and sore, so I managed only one round on the light blue square. Waiting to see if the nail goes black and falls off. Ick!

Crazy Quilt

I'm cruising right along on my crazy quilt squares, two down and number 3 on the needles. I'm going to run out of yarn before I run out of love for this project. I just love the squares, with it's itty bitty hole in the center from where you start knitting in the "square" ;) they have a bit of a lacey look, and I can't wait to have enough to start putting some together. Lucky for me and my marriage, JoAnn's carries some decently priced sock yarns now so I can occasionally buy yarn just for my blanket.

Miche

Deniece,
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

Went to a lovely Miche party this afternoon and was very naughty. I bought two shells, Deniece, which is denim and "ostrich" skin, and Hope, which is their newest cancer awareness shell.

I swear, I only went with the intention of buying the Deniece, but then I saw the Hope shell and all good intentions went to Hell, lol. If you don't know what Miche is, you really need to go look at their website.

Miche is a bag system where you buy a plain base bag, and then you can change the look of it by changing the shell. It means you can change you bag's look to match your outfit, instead of changing everything over to a new bag! AWESOMENESS!

I do love my interchangeable accessories, lol.

Hope,
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

Memories

I was reading a book the other day and the protagonist served olive cheese puffs and I flashed back to my Grandma Penny's kitchen when I was probably 7 or 8, and eating olive cheese puffs hot out of the oven.

So I emailed my mom asking if she had that recipe. She of course doesn't remember anything like it, lol. And didn't find any recipe for it in her recipe box. Good news is, I did find what I think is most likely the recipe. I think I shall have to try it out and see if it is as good as I remember or if it's just good memories coloring it.

There are a few of my Grandma's recipes that I think about making. As a kid she had a desert bar recipe that was always my favorite desert. My mom didn't make it often but when she did, I was in heaven. I keep thinking I should make them, but then I think if my daughter knew what was in them, she wouldn't touch them, and I know my husband wouldn't lol. Kind of a strange desert, coconut, graham crackers, brown sugar with a slightly lemony frosting. Damn. I want them now, lol. I wonder where my recipe box is...