Friday, January 28, 2011

#19. Master a signature family recipe

This post is for my grandmother. In my ‘grandmother land’ post I told you a bit about my favorite place in the world. Now I’ll tell you about the woman who makes it so great, and for whom we’ll be celebrating her 80th birthday this weekend.

My first memory of childhood is of my grandmother. I was in the hospital with pheumonia at age three and they had me in a crib that felt like a cage. I'm not sure of what my diet was back then, but I do remember the hosptial food being absolutely disgusting.  I can clearly recall my grandmother visiting and letting me out of my 'cage' to eat smuggled in chicken mcnuggets. Hero status achieved.

My grandmother lived in ‘grandmother land’ a few hours from my home so we often only saw her 4 or 5 times per year. We would sit in our front window for hours waiting for her to arrive. My grandfather knowing we'd be watching would flash the car lights once they had turned on our street. We would race to the door to find cupcakes, or cookies, or pie, and of course a new Barbie.

If we were visiting her in ‘grandmother land’ there would always be treats upon arrival and either toys to play in the sand in the summer, or sleds to ride down hills in the winter. We would spend our lazy afternoons on walks on the beach collecting shells and water glass, or on the back trails in the winter looking for animal tracks. We watched the 'Price is Right' every morning religiously before lunch. I became a pro at american grocery prices.

My grandma hums and whistles songs when there is silence which adds just the little bit of unexpected happiness to your day. My grandmother has always been a trendsetter for fashion wearing whatever makes her happy and puts far more time into her hair than I could ever imagine spending.

As a child this woman brought me fairytales and in adulthood she provides me more comfort than she knows. My grandmother will always listen, never judge, and always remember to follow up on whatever issue with the next phone call, card, or letter.

I am very happy to be celebrating my grandmother’s 80th with her, I just wish it was her 70th, or even 65th, as I never want my time with this wonderful woman to run short.


So here is a recipe for my grandmother’s ‘Sinfully Delicious’ (my comfort food) that will be a staple on the dessert menu of my home:

Ingredients:


½ cup margarine, melted


1 cup chopped pecans or maraschino cherries (if desired)


1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs


1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese


1 cup of sugar


4 cups of frozen whipped topping, thawed


2 packages of instant pudding mix


3 cups of milk


Directions:


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C)


2. To make crust in a medium bowl mix together margarine and graham cracker crumbs (and pecans if you desire). Pat into a 9 X 13 baking pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until crust is brown. Allow to cool completely.


3. In a medium bowl beat together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in 1 cup of whipped topping. Spoon mixture onto crust.


4. Prepare chocolate puddings with milk as per directions. Allow pudding to set before pouring onto top of the cream cheese layer. Spread remaining 3 cups of whipped topping over the pudding layer.


5. Chop up maraschino cherries and sprinkle on top.


6. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

#78. Make friends with the neighbours

I’ll start by telling you I live on a quiet street in a small town that is somewhat Wisteria Laneish in terms of cliques. The ‘originals’ seem to have all bonded during the building phase; we’re the newbies, or the younger crowd that is slowly moving in. Since we moved in in November 2009 two other homes on our street sold both to dinks (dual income no kids).

Making friends with the neighbours was harder than expected just due to age difference.

Beside us we have a widowed Dutch woman who is quite the character. Last winter the man I thought was helping me snow blow my driveway who I wanted to buy a case of beer happened to be this woman. She designed and built the house after her husband had passed away and takes care of everything herself. I awoke to the noise of a lawnmower at 8am one Saturday morning last summer to discover she deems cutting her grass during a lightning storm perfectly acceptable behaviour. I stood and watched with my phone in my hand waiting to call 911. I watched until she was finished and waited to see her return to her house, only to see her pop up her umbrella and take her tiny white dog named Brutis for a walk. Some people just can’t be helped.

Then there is the young couple across the street. They have a pool so it was key to become their friends. They are like watching us a year ago. Having moved from a condo to a house they had to buy shovels when it snowed and are slowly learning the upkeep of a yard. We bond over learning experiences and alcoholic beverages.

A co-worker introduced me to a friend of hers that lived with her parents on my street. She has a house of her own in another city but can’t find work there. Living with your parents in your twenties can definitely be difficult so we will often go for walks, drink, golf, shop…anything really. She’s become a great friend, and it’s nice to have someone so close by when T travels, or when I don’t want to drink alone!

Now if only warm weather would come so we could spend more time outdoors with our neighbours around campfires and pools than hibernating inside.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

#45. Hook something high tech up by yourself.

In October of 2009 Ontario introduced a hands-free law, which makes talking on a cell phone, texting, emailing, etc while driving illegal. I completely agree with the law, especially the texting. However have I not been 100% compliant.

I don’t make or receive many calls while driving partially due to the fact that I don’t hear the ringtone of my cell over the volume of the stereo and my singing. And when I do make calls I use the voice command to call the person, then hit the very tiny button for speaker phone then place the cell either in my lap or keep it in my hand. And yes, to & from a drive thru the other day I kept up a text conversation with my sister while stopped at intersections. I should just go turn myself in.

My parents often on the receiving end of a speaker phone phone call bought me a Bluetooth for Christmas. Let me point out that speaker phone conversations on blackberry’s are exceptionally clear, while iphone speaker phone conversations are very broken up. Blackberry’s also receives greater Wi-Fi signals than iphones. Sorry, getting distracted. T and I have an ongoing war about which phone is better.

Anyway, I decide that I’m going to hook up my own Bluetooth, as T hooks up pretty much everything else. I married a tech geek, may as well put his skills to use! I take the Bluetooth out of the package and just start pushing buttons and wonder why it isn’t responding? Oh, right, it needs to be charged. Plug it into the wall, wait for the light to go green, decide I don’t have the time to hook it up and toss it in my purse deciding I’ll do it later.

Later is 19 days later. I pull it out of my purse and start pushing buttons and nothing happens. So I consult the advice received from googling the make and model of it and determine that I have to ‘pair’ it to my phone. Why read the instructions that came with it? That would be too easy.

I also decide that it is indeed dead again, which is not cool considering I haven’t used it at all since its last charging. (It is not actually dead, I'm just an idiot)

Now I’m considering just handing over both the phone and the Bluetooth and asking the IT guy at work to do his magic, but that would indeed be giving up.
I charge it again. Find the ‘set up Bluetooth’ option on my phone. Have my phone ‘listen’ for the device while I push on the one and only button on the thing other than the volume control and I get nothing. I find the instructions and they are of no help stating I should see an indicator light of some sort. There are no lights no matter what I press and I’m now referring to it as a ‘piece of crap’. And I’m thinking I’ll just continue on the way I have been only I’ll drive over this useless little piece of s*#t to put it out of its stupid misery.

And then I look at the diagram of the Bluetooth on the instructions and discover the teeniest of buttons even my finger nail will barely push is a power button, and from there we are off to the races. ALL this time, I just needed to actually turn on the power. The only way I can explain this teeny tiny button is to tell you that comparable to a belly button it is an 'inny' and all the other buttons are 'outies'. Does that make sense?

So there you have it, it’s hooked up. Don’t ask me how to use it. Hope you enjoyed my blonde moment.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

#62. Make more money then you spend

Anyone have any good New Year’s resolutions? I think this year I’ve signed myself up for pretty much all of them. T made the resolution to not make any resolutions – what polar opposites we are!

After Christmas and our trip and the purchase of T’s birthday gift all ‘just because’ spending has come to a halt. This is very difficult when you have a lunch hour to kill every day and you work extremely close to a mall and EVERYTHING is on sale.

The purchase of a house and the plans you have for that house all include money, money in which I like to spend on shoes, and lunches, and clothes, and booze, and…..

So looking at the year ahead, and forecasting the purchase of a shed (I just can’t get excited over this), the purchase of new dining room furniture (a little more exciting), and finally the purchase of a new vehicle (as exciting as it’s going to get), it’s time to start saving the pennies.


How is this going to be accomplished you wonder? To start, no more Timmies mocha and bagel for breakfasts, it’s now herbal teas and homemade smoothies. No more eating out for lunch every day – time to start making lunches or learning to love leftovers. Ugh.

I’m going to start making use of the free entertainment I have at my house. No not T (although he is his own reality show), the Wii, the PlayStation, the treadmill, pvr’ing anything that I might find interesting, and reading borrowed books. Basically I’m going into hibernation until spring.

I’m going to attempt to not purchase anything except the *necessities until April 1st. This is going to be very, very hard. Deep breaths into a paper bag hard.

I’ve cut out breakfasts, lunches, and excess spending – any other good suggestions out there?





*Necessities include **groceries, the Saturday Free Press, gas, house cleaning services, and movie tickets


**Boxes of wine can be purchased at the grocery store so therefore they are considered groceries :)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

#53. Be seen in public in a bikini

To make sure that absolutely no one except T witnessed the scariness that is me in a bikini, I decided I’d do this task in Mexico. What possessed me to do this right after 4 Christmas dinners, many, many drinks, and endless buffets, I do not know?


The bikini(s) – yes there were 2.5 (last minute I had gone out and bought black bottoms and 2 different colored tops) were only worn once I got to my beach chair, the less witnesses the better. As I enjoy sharing embarrassing moments with you I’ll share that the 2.5 bikinis went to 2 bikinis one afternoon. As I was standing to move my chair the cheap plastic latch that held the top closed at the back gave up. The blue triangle top went north, the ta ta’s south, and I turned a shade of red not caused by the sun.

Speaking of ta ta’s, while I lazily napped one afternoon T woke me with excitement of spotting “a topless chick in the ocean!!!”. I look to see what the excitement could be (there were topless 70 year old women everywhere) only to have T to tell me he couldn’t look again as “she looks 17”. Then came the awkward conversation on just what was he judging her age on?!

As every time T pointed the camera in my direction when in a bikini I threatened to remove his balls the only proof I can provide you with is this picture he snapped of me facing 2 fears. 1 being seen in public in a bikini, and 2 being in water with fish.



So, done and done.

And for all my female readers don’t think I forgot about you while on vacation, MEET ORLANDO!