2017 in Review

As 2018 is about to get itself underway, I find I’m still an accidental resident of Mount Savage, MD.  Accidental in that I never intended to be here and then when I found myself here, it was only supposed to be for a few days. That was just over a year ago.  My neighbors include a couple of giant raccoons, a fearless Momma possum, some rogue deer, and judging from the scratch marks on the deck… a black bear that wants to be a whole lot more friendly than makes me comfortable.  There’s an assortment of dogs and cats and even some humans, too.  I’ve managed to meet a few of them, even some of the people, this past year and one person, Barbara, has transformed from possibly the most negative and prickly woman I’ve ever met into a true and faithful friend.

I’ve only begun to explore my habitat but already found that Mount Savage is one of those historically significant places that no one’s ever really heard about.  Through the convergence of location and natural resource availability, it became a center of industry in the late 1800s and has fame for rolling the steel for the first railroad track ever produced in the United States. It was also a company-owned town for a time when the clay taken from the surrounding mountains produced a uniquely high-quality brick that’s still prized by collectors and those doing period-correct property restorations.  One day I want to find out more and go take some photos of the old brick ovens. I also want to check out the museum now housed in the town’s original one-cell jail built specifically to provide drunks a safe place to sleep it off.

One of the things that kept me from exploring was an accident early in the year where I badly injured my right shoulder. That ‘grounded’ me for several months. With Jack’s efforts as nursemaid, support brace, heating pad, exercise machine, and 24/7 comforter, the breaks and tears and nerve damage of a total dislocation are probably about as healed as they’re ever going to get now and it’s mostly ok.  There are some activities it inhibits, though… Like crocheting and cooking and cutting the dog’s toenails.  Those have become decidedly short-duration undertakings due to the numb fingers they trigger.  I also had to take time off school because I couldn’t get my hand up to the computer keyboard to post in discussions and write all those papers but I’m back at it now and making progress.  A few days ago I had that breakthrough moment where I actually felt competent talking Psychology and that this might be a real viable career choice for my last shot at that sort of stuff.  That was an awesome feeling!

The most exotic place I’ve been this whole year is the County dump.  It’s a unique arrangement here where you have to stop along the way at a specific Payless Drug and buy stickers to put on your trash bags.  They are $1 each and every bag needs one.  If you arrive on site without them, you’ll be ushered the 7-ish miles halfway back to town, or about the same distance on out the road to a different store in another town, to get them.  Just ask me how I know this…

I’m still being a culinary adventurer.  This year’s ‘new to me’ winner foods include quince, Sugar cakes, and Apple Pan Dowdy.  Quince is a fruit that resembles a yellow apple but has a much more perfume-like scent and taste.  I understand (now) that it’s meant to be cooked but when I found some at the grocery store I just bought one to taste and me and the boys ate it raw. I’m intrigued enough to put it in the orchard I’m imagining for my someday place… and Lightning, my resident foodie, found it delicious.  Sugar Cakes are huge, pillowy, cake-like sugar cookies.  Imagine a Lofthouse cookie and a homemade yellow cake had a round pale-faced baby… and you’re sort of close.  They can be frosted when cooled or just sprinkled with a little sugar prior to baking.  Oh, they are yummy! And Apple Pan Dowdy may be my favorite dessert ever.  It is the perfect combination of pie and bread pudding and caramelly baked apples. Where has this been my whole life?  The Sugar Cakes, Apple Pan Dowdy, and several uniquely Pennsylvania Dutch dishes like Slippery Pot Pie and Rivvel Soup are Barbara’s contribution to expanding my gastronomic curiosity.

Gizmo kissed a cat.  And the cat liked it!  Out of all my guys, his herding tendency made me worried about how he’d get on with the cats.  But he loves Crybaby, a yellow-striped tom that’s also part of this motley crew, and Crybaby loves him.  Crybaby actually likes all the boys and works hard to engage them in goofy little games much to his Mommy’s consternation…  Barbara is over-worried one of them is going to pounce “and break his back because they are so big and rough.” Yes, you just heard my eyes roll but I respect her discomfort and regularly call them off.

Plans for 2018 include finishing up the final classes for my BA in Psychology, making my final selection for grad school, and getting things underway for my MA.  My concentration area has been Social Psychology but I’ve enjoyed the Forensics classes so much more that I think that’s where I will focus my graduate work.  My other goals are pretty tightly focused on job and home and community getting adequately situated in all of them.  I also want to get back to taking little adventures and finding delight in the extraordinary details of day-to-day life that exist if I’m purposeful in paying attention to them. And if I can, I hope to sneak in some art and creative writing.  Which brings us to the goal that’s relevant to this blog: When my life isn’t all that interesting, I lose steam.  So… either I’m going to live a blog-worthy life or take the blog down in this coming year.

Cookie Salad

Thursday I made a dessert for a Relief Society activity... and it was so good I made it again Saturday for a potluck dinner!  Though it has the word "salad" in it's name, you'd have to make some creative substitutions to make it Weight Watchers friendly.  It is rich, delicious and just a little bit decadent!

And it's simple to make, doesn't heat up the kitchen and travels well!

That's a winning combination on every front!!

With friends who love to experiment with food as much as I do, we've come up with some yummy combinations of ingredients...

We all start with this basis:

1 small pkg instant vanilla pudding
1/3 cup milk
32 oz of thawed whipped topping (aka CoolWhip)

Whisk the pudding and milk together until smooth, then fold in the whipped topping.  Next you add crumbled up cookies and cut up fruit.

Some combinations we've tried and really like:

• Carmello cookies (or Twix or Snickers) with a tangy apple like Fuji or Granny Smith
• Pecan shortbread cookies with fresh peaches
• Vanilla sandwich Cookies (aka White Oreos) with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries
• Fudge stripe cookies with mandarin oranges
• Chocolate animal crackers and mini marshmallows and tangy apples
• Ginger snaps with peaches, pineapple and halved grapes

We've all eaten them so quickly that no one has got a picture so here's one I stole off Pinterest of the Snickers/Apple combination.

Photo from dailyleisure.com

The Fry Cutter Incident

Since Derek and I are in the midst of splitting but are still sharing the house this may seem a little like sour pickles to be posting stuff about him.  Oh well... I can live with that.  Besides I want to preserve these memories as much as a reminder of how miserable he made me sometimes so I don't ever make this mistake again as for the comic relief that a life stranger than fiction can sometimes provide.

A couple of nights ago we had an incident involving a french fry cutter.

You know I'm a die-hard Idahoan in my heart and nothing but fresh cut potatoes make real french fries... those over-processed garbage things from the freezer aisle are not real.  They are plastic fries.  And we do not eat plastic at my house.

Mine isn't this fancy but it works the same way.  It's
just a $10 "As Seen on TV" jobbie from Walmart.
The cutter pictured is from Rawsie.

A little before bedtime Derek poked his head in my office and asked me where the fry cutter was.  I went down and pulled it out of the cupboard because that was just easier than trying to explain...  Never thinking that he needed remedial fry cutting lessons, I went upstairs and did my thing and got ready for bed.

Around 2 am some loud banging from the kitchen woke me up.  Followed by a little cussing...  While I was still trying to decide if I should get up and see what he was doing or let it go, he came and poked his head in my door and said "I broke the fry cutter."

I was incredulous and asked "how?"  I don't know if he answered or not since even in my half asleep state I was thinking "how the H. E. Double-Toothpicks does one break a fry cutter?" but I followed him back down to the kitchen to see what mess he'd left for me this time.

Sure enough.  Remedial lessons should have been given.

The insanely obvious take it out of the box, set it on the counter, lift the top, put your potato inside and push the top down... I guess was somewhat less than obvious to him.  He took the whole thing apart.  Even parts I didn't know came apart!  And then jammed the top down over the base an inch farther than it should go and without the blade inside.  And it was stuck together.  I mean stuck!!

I tried pulling it apart and wedging a knife between the parts to get some leverage to wiggle them apart.  A table knife, not a sharp one.  I may be reckless but I'm not stupid!  Before I could get any movement, he took it away from me.  Just grabbed it out of my hands... same as the time he grabbed the new breaker thingy out of my hands and electrocuted himself on the breaker box because he took too much of it apart and touched an exposed wire.

Heaven forbid that I might know just the tiniest bit about what I'm doing...

Anyway, he still couldn't get it apart.  And he started wailing about the lack of assembly instructions on the side of the box.  I was miffed because he grabbed it out of my hands.  And he was angry and frustrated because he wanted fries and couldn't make them.

Yes, I said "couldn't."

Go ahead.  Roll your eyes.  I did as I said I'd just cut them with a knife and figure out the cutter in the morning.  So he hands me a big butcher knife.  The biggest one out of the drawer.  Like I'm gonna clean up potatoes and slice them into french fries with a gargantuan knife meant to hack a side of beef into all those different cuts?  Right...

I asked for a smaller knife.  And he handed me the next one down.  Again, too big for the job.  But... I took it and did what I needed to.  Nicked my thumb and it bled all over the kitchen.  I wrapped a clean dishcloth around it and cut his fries and then went and put a bandaid on my owie and crawled back in bed.

No thank you was proffered.  No inquiry if the cut was bad enough to need attention.  Nothing.  How rude, right?

The next morning it took me less than 10 minutes to work the fry cutter pieces apart.  It really didn't need all the cussing and pounding and wailing in the night.  So, yes I am going to refer to him as "dumber than a fry cutter" from here on out.  Maybe only in my imagination, but still!

Peanut Butter Cup Rice Crispy Treats

Since the advent of Facebook and blogs and, especially, Pinterest... I've seen this same basic recipe in many dozens of places with about the same number of people taking credit for inventing the yummy bars.  I first learned to make them in High School, probably 1981.  It was a recipe shared by the new Home Ec teacher that year...   Her name was Cindy James. She was young, and cute and before we realized she was a teacher (barely 4 years older than most of us) all us girls were walking the halls trying to size up the new competition.  And, until the administration cracked down, she let us call her Cindy and not the more formal Miss James.

I've heard they don't teach Home Ec in school anymore... and, should that rumor be true, it's sad.  It was a great class to learn needed life skills and how to run a home and manage a family.

Cindy James' Scotcheroos
 Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly:
1 cup light Karo syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter

Pour over 6 cups of crispy rice cereal.  Press evenly into a greased 9 X 13 cake pan.

Melt together 1 cup chocolate chips (milk or semisweet depending on your preference - mine is and probably always will be milk chocolate) and 1 cup butterscotch chips.  Spread over cereal mixture in pan.  Cool until chocolate is set then cut into bars.  Store airtight.

Inspiration picture from cookingclassy.com.

I've also pressed this into a loaf pan and cut as slices.  That is a pretty presentation on cookie plates at Christmas-time or for a party!

I wrote about them here not long after making them for Derek the first time.

But, you know, at my house these things must be tinkered with...  and tinker we have!

My first alteration to the recipe...
The first time I wanted to make them, Derek pulled faces and informed me that he doesn't like butterscotch.  So I started making them with just plain milk chocolate chips, using closer to 1 1/2 cups.  I still like the hint of butterscotch in them, but they are very good with just plain chocolate on top.

My second alteration to the recipe...
I started adding about 1/2 cup more peanut butter trying to get a slightly softer texture to the finished bars.  And I eyeball it since peanut butter is so icky to get out of the measuring cup and I'm 100% of always stuck with clean-up duty.

My third alteration to the recipe...
Cut 12-15 miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups into fourths and sprinkle over the top of the cereal mixture.  Melt 2/3 cup chocolate chips and drizzle over the top of the peanut butter cups.  (They look very much like the picture which was what inspired the addition of the peanut butter cups.  Proudly, mine didn't last long enough to get their portrait taken!)

The next requested alteration...
He wants more chocolate!  So we're going back to the melt 1 1/3 cups of chocolate chips and spread over cereal mixture.  Cut 12-15 miniature peanut butter cups into fourths and sprinkle over the top of the melted chocolate layer.

Chocolate Molten Cake

Usually I can hold my own in the kitchen... but tonight's baking was rather much of a FAIL.  And yet, I don't know if I'm willing to accept all the responsibility for it being one of those "less than" kind of desserts.  I think the directions left a bit of key information out.

Last time we went grocery shopping, Derek picked up this cake mix declaring that the cupcakes "looked delicious" and they do!  And this time, unlike a previous incident with baking mixes, the frosting was included.  And it's the old-school frosting mix you beat with butter and a little bit of water not the pre-mixed canned stuff like you can buy now.

Do you remember when frosting came as a boxed mix?

Or does that just make me seem really old?

After we got home I was reading the instructions and happened to notice the recipe on the side of the box.  You know the suggestion they always include for something else you can make with the mix.

Uh huh... Chocolate Molten Cake.  Derek's favorite thing.  Favorite!  Like in the history of EVER.

And it didn't sound so hard to make.

So I opened my big mouth and said, "Look, we could do Molten Cake."  Well his face lit up and I knew my task was set.

According to the box, you mix up the frosting just like it tells you to on the back.  Easy peasy, no problem.  Then using the included pastry bag, you pipe out 24 quarter-sized disks onto a baking sheet and freeze them for at least 30 minutes.  What they don't tell you is that using their frosting you can easily do the 24 disks about the diameter of a quarter but they are each at least as thick as if you stacked enough quarters to have a couple of bucks.  I froze them for an hour and I really kind of think it should have been longer.

And since a baking sheet won't fit inside the freezer part of my smallish side-by-side I used one of those plastic mini-quiche trays that I kept to freeze yogurt treats (Peanut Butter Banana Pupsicles) for the dogs last summer.  Perfect shape and size!

And then this is where things went awry...

The directions simply say to mix up the cake batter, again just as directed on the box, and divide amongst 12 papered cups in a muffin pan.  They REALLY NEED TO SPECIFY that you should use a large-size muffin pan not the standard cupcake size.  By the time you put 2 frosting disks on top of each little pot of batter, the cups are too full and it overflows during the baking process.  And the 'lava' escapes so there's no squishy, liquidy, flowing yumminess just a sort of pile of gooey fudge/cake chunks.  They are a mess!

A tasty mess, for sure.  But a huge horrible mess!!  A mess on the scale that leaves me  really dreading clean up tomorrow...

It was so overflowed I struggled to get the pan out of the oven without wrecking my pretty granny square potholders.  (At least I was smart enough to put a baking sheet underneath and all those drips aren't coating the bottom of my oven!!)  Then I struggled again getting a cooled cake onto a plate and the paper cup removed.   The flavor is good.  And I really think the larger muffin tin will help keep things contained so the cakes bake right and the lava stays inside.  After I can purchase one of those pans I'll try it again, but for now I am terribly disappointed.

And shame on you Duncan Hines!!  The mess could have all been averted if you would have just told me I needed a piece of equipment I don't have.  Then I wouldn't have mentioned the molten cake being a possibility...  And I wouldn't have chocolate baked on like concrete to pry off the muffin tin and baking sheet that caught drips tomorrow.  Nor would I have a disappointed man who's looked forward all day to a Chocolate Molten Cake and all he gets is a messy pile of fudgy glop.

Forgotten Skills

Photo credit:  Village Green Network

One of the Facebook/Blog pages I follow started this morning off with these words:  "Amazing how a decision to start growing your own food cascades into so many different things in your life. New friends (invaluable support), baking your own bread, making your own taco seasoning, making your own laundry soap. The list goes on and on..."  (Karen Taylor of Old Pa Farm) Not sure my list of mostly forgotten skills would look exactly like that but the words and sentiment got me thinking about how many old and [by many people] forgotten skills I use in my day.  Some things I do because it's how I learned to do it growing up and some is a conscious choice for either thrift or to leave an environmentally softer footprint on the Earth.

I garden.  Most years I do anyway.  And I will be when this coming Spring finally gets itself underway.  In the past I've used much the same methods I learned from my Dad - organic for the most part but willing to bring in a chemical for limited use if I found myself dealing with a pest I couldn't otherwise control.  In the past, I've hired someone to rototill the ground but this year I'm going to experiment with creating permaculture beds.  That's something I'm pretty excited about!

I preserve garden produce for later use.  This summer I want to make red and green salsa, dilly beans, apple pie filling, applesauce, spaghetti sauce, garlic preserved in vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, refrigerator dill pickles, strawberry freezer jam, frozen diced tomatoes, and several dried herb blends.

I cook from scratch.  Well, sometimes.  I admit a lot more boxed stuff has slipped in during the past 18 months.  It's been a time of big adjustments that affect all parts of my life and that's part of the reason that real cooking has fallen by the wayside.  It's something I laugh about now and then, but Derek loves the TGI Friday's(TM) Tater Skins from the freezer isle and would eat them 3-4 times a week... I about had a heart attack right there in the frozen food section when I saw the price and started making them at home.  Mine are so much better he tells everyone that they "are the bomb!" And I want to get back to even more real cooking over the coming months.  One of the first things I plan on doing is getting my sourdough starter going again and making our bread.

I make many of my own cleaning products.  Again, I've slipped a little in doing this but getting back to it more and more.  I've found that I can make my own product that is very effective for much less money. Some of my forays in cleaning products have been laundry soap, dryer sheets, and a concoction (I hope I can replicate) that did an awesome job getting puppy stains out of our carpets.

I create things.  For Christmas I made Derek an afghan in his favorite sports team colors and since we have serious lack of bedding (thanks, in part, to puppy chewing) it's been helpful in keeping him warm on some of those unusually cold nights we've had lately.  Over the last year and a half I also made some of the items we've gifted for birthdays and Christmas, cards, our potholders and some of the decor on our walls.  Several items have used recycled or re-purposed materials.  I love that it saves money, but even more I love that it is unique, kind of quirky and very personal.

I do my own home repairs and upgrades.  Inasmuch as it's safe and I have the skills to do a reasonably good job, I do my own repairs and upgrades.  A recent example was replacing a burned out breaker in our box.  Calling an electrician would have run around $100.  A few friends telling me it was an easy do-it-yourself job and a Youtube tutorial later, I did it myself.  The new breaker cost $11.84, including tax.  Money savings aside, it was a powerful feeling when I flipped that switch and everything worked!

I get to know my neighbors.  For me, a sense of community is important.  I am a naturally friendly person and I like finding people nearby who can share information and skills and, sometimes, garden tools.  Besides, being sociable is a good skill to have... so many of us suffer from nearly unbearable loneliness these days.  I also want to try and barter for things I can't do on my own like get our one neighbor who co-owns a dog grooming business with his daughter to cut the dog's toe nails.  I've talked to him a number of times about gardening and learned that he's diabetic and baked goods won't appeal as a trade off... so I'm hoping this summer to woo him into a barter arrangement with lots of fresh garden-ripe tomatoes!

Could I do more?  Sure.  Will I?  In time, probably.  I've already started a list of upgrades and additions for the 2015 garden...

Tater Skins

Not long after Derek and I first got together, he came home with 'snacks' one night that included a couple of boxes of TGI Friday's Potato Skins.  I was flabbergasted!  They're almost $5 a box and you get like 6 or 8 skimpy little pieces with hardly any toppings.

Flabbergasted, I tell you!

And so I set out to remedy his spendthrift ways...  well, that's another post entirely but I did manage to convert him to my home-made Tater Skins.  Which is very cool because he didn't even know you could make them yourself.  So he was very very surprised at just how much better they taste, too!

In case you didn't know how easy this little treat is to make, here's my step-by-step instructions.

First, you need to bake some potatoes and let them cool.  I just wash them, wrap in foil, pierce with a fork and bake at 350F until they feel 'done.'  Then I set them aside until cool.  (In all honesty, you can go ahead and make Tater Skins while they're still hot.  It will work.  But you'll burn your fingers and they tend to fall apart more.)  Next you want to cut them into pieces.

The beginning cuts are just to make wide slices.  These are Idaho Russet #1s.  I guess they're supposed to be what passes as a baker these days.  That's the hazard of growing up in Idaho's Potato Capitol... you know how big spuds can really get and that the puny little things in the grocery store are a far cry from it!  Anyway, I cut these average-ish sized potatoes into fourths crosswise.

Then I cut each piece in half so I got 8 Tater Skins from each potato.  Yes, they are sticky.  And yes, your fingers will be a nasty feeling mess after just a few.

I used a teaspoon from my silverware drawer to hollow out each piece.  Leave about 1/8" of flesh attached to the skin so you get pieces that look something like this.

The flesh you are scooping out of the middle... is great for potato salad, baked potato soup or to chill overnight and cut up a bit more to make hashbrowns for tomorrow morning's breakfast.  Hashbrowns are the destiny of these beauties!

Arrange in a baking dish.  These are going in the freezer for later so I've set them on foil inside a plastic freezer dish to make it easy to lift out later and set on a baking pan.

I sprinkled with a bit of Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning (use your favorite seasoned salt), a little sprinkle of grated cheese, some bacon bits and more cheese.  I'll fold the foil all in on itself, snap the lid on and freeze.  When Derek is ready to cook them for his snack, he'll just need to pull the foil out and open it up on top of a cookie sheet.  Bake at 350F until heated through and the cheese has just barely started to brown.

Here's the haul I made tonight with approximately $5 worth of ingredients... one heck of a lot more than the 6-8 little chunks from the TGI Friday's box!!

There's a pan for us to munch on tonight and 4 snack boxes for later on.

And here's how they look after baking and right before you pop one in your mouth.  (I ran out of bacon bits... so these just have cheese but you get the idea, I'm sure.)

Mmmm... happy mouth!

Gooey Cake

I love chocolate!

Really I do.  Except for those times that come up now and then when the mere thought of chocolate makes me want to gag.  That was tonight.  So for dessert I made a Gooey Cake.

Gooey Cake is also known as Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cake (surprising since in her heyday she was the queen of butter and this recipe calls for only a modest single cube) and Chess Squares (no clue where that name comes from) and Texas Gold (maybe because most recipes start with a yellow cake mix?) and maybe a few dozen other things.  My point is that there are already dozens of posts on blogs and cooking websites about making this cake and so I'm not going to do step by step instructions.

Just show you a couple of pictures.  After all, I do want you to be tempted...  And I'm going to tell you that it is delicious!  And very gooey.

Perfect for a cold autumn evening!

And I'll give you the very very simple recipe.

Before we get started, you can choose any flavor of cake mix you want to use.  Yellow seems to be pretty traditional, but white works.  So does vanilla, lemon, strawberry, orange or even chocolate.  I used a white cake mix this time.

So... here we go.  Let's make some cake!

Gooey Cake

1 Cake mix
1 cube of melted butter (not margarine)
1 egg

Mix together to form a soft dough and press into the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13 baking pan.  Fingers work great to press it into place.

Beat together until well blended:
8 oz cream cheese, softened and broken into small pieces
2 eggs
4 cups of powdered sugar
(add up to 2Tbl of cocoa powder if you are making a chocolate cake)

Pour over the top of the cake mix dough and bake at 300F for 45-50 minutes or until just set in the middle.  I tend to over bake... and it's still tastey, just not so gooey.  Let cool before cutting.  Enjoy!

Like I said, I used a white cake mix.  And while it is yummy all on its own, it would be even better with some sweetened sliced strawberries over the top or even drizzled with chocolate syrup.

Chicken Noodle... Chicken Noodle... Chicken Noodle Soup

Now sing it like this...

I've been craving Chicken Noodle Soup for months.  Even through the hot part of summer I wanted some.  But I just couldn't bring myself to pop open a can of Campbells...  I don't know why I put off making soup.  For some silly reason, I kept telling myself homemade soup was too much work.  But really it's pretty easy and fast to put together and doesn't require a whole lot of ingredients.   Yesterday, I finally gave in to the crave and made a big pot of soup.

And it is divine!!

One of the chief foods of the Gods I tell you!

And this is how I make my super simple Chicken Noodle Soup...

Start by dicing up your vegetables in same-sized pieces for even cooking.  You can use pretty much whatever vegetables you have and like - I had (and like to use) onion, celery and carrots.  I used a whole large onion, 4 ribs of celery and 3 carrots.

Then, because carrots are the hardest and therefore need the most cooking time of all my vegetables, I started to saute them in a couple of Tablespoons of butter.  When they were pretty well heated through, I added the celery, stirred it up and let that cook for about 5 minutes and then added the onion.  Stirring occasionally, I let that cook until the onions started to soften.

Next add water.  I'm gonna guess at around 8 cups to start.  And then I add one of my favorite kitchen staples:  Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base.  You can find it in most grocery stores, Amazon.com and directly from the manufacturer.  Just add it by generous teaspoonsful until the beginnings of the soup tastes good.  Soup will get saltier if you have leftovers in the fridge overnight, so show a little restraint and don't overdo it.  (If you do get carried away, you can add more water to bring that balance back.)

Bring the vegetable and broth mixture to a low boil, add 1 can of chicken (or about 2 cups shredded breast and/or thigh meat) and simmer for 30 minutes.  Add 3-4 cups water and about 1 pound of egg noodles.  You can use the dry pasta that's widely available or a freshly made, refrigerated or frozen egg noodle of your choice.  If you live in a market where it's available Grandma's Egg Noodles is an awesome choice!

Cook until pasta is tender.  And the soup's all done and ready to eat.

So... dip yourself up a bowl and enjoy!

Leftovers, first cooled to room temperature, can be stored for up to 3 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container.  It can also be frozen for later use.

See?  Not hard or really time consuming at all.

Oh Martha...

Martha, Martha, Martha...

(I bet in your mind you said that like the old Brady Bunch lament of Marsha, Marsha, Marsha... I know I did!)

Thanks to 5MinutesforMom.com for the image/
screenshot of Martha Stewart's interview segment.
You can listen to it here, if you'd like.

Dear Martha,

I'm a blogger.  Of sorts.  Not a very famous one, but I do write and share blog posts all the same.  And you're right...  I'm not a trained editor.  I'm just an average person trying to make my way in the world as best I can.  I claim no special expertise in anything but being me.

I don't have the privilege of hiring expert decorators when I furnish my home.  I pick out the furniture and paint and accessories myself because they are things I like.  Usually a room comes together in layers over a long period of time not in a matter of days like a professional would do it.  And mostly I think I do a pretty decent job.  My colors match, or anyway coordinate, pretty good.  The furniture is comfortable and usually the decorations come with interesting stories.  It's enough that my family and friends and I are happy to be in the room.  And for me that's the point of having it - sharing it with other people who are just as real and average as me.  None of us care, truthfully, that the decor will never be featured in Better Homes & Gardens or on an HGTV segment.

And I don't have formal training as a chef from some hoity toity culinary institute.  While I sort of covet those amazing knife skills I'd gain with that kind of training, I wouldn't trade the lessons in running a kitchen I received from my mom to get them.  And I've never poisoned anyone with what I've fed them!  In fact, I get a lot of compliments on my cooking.  Lots of my average people family and friends seem to think I cook quite well.  And on those occasions when I don't?  Well, they have no problems telling me that either.  You see, the test kitchen that's meaningful to me is my own family dinner table.

And you know what?  The last art class I took was [a deep departure from my Business major] Fashion Illustration in college probably a good 20 years ago.  So I guess it's safe to say I have no real expertise with arts and crafts either.  But mind blowingly... I do them!  And quite often successfully enough that I want to share a picture, sans any training in photography, as sort of a brag about it with my friends.

I also did not attend Divinity School, so I can't claim any special religious expertise beyond daily communion with my Father in Heaven and time spent in the scriptures.  I have no degree in Psychology so advice and commentary on the human condition fall outside my realm of expertise, too.

And to go even further, I have no special training in writing.  Sure, I got good grades in my public school English classes (composition and grammar and sentence structure were part of basic English back in the day) but that's pretty much where it ended.  I just happen to like words.  I like how they feel rolling off my tongue, or I guess fingertips since I'm sitting here typing this out.

I guess this leaves me pretty unqualified to write a blog where such topics are discussed!  But I do it anyway.

And I'm not going to stop.

Doing and writing and sharing about my life make me happy.  It keeps me sane.  Or maybe I should say, it keeps me less insane.  Blogging is my therapy; my release from everything that would become a demon to torment my nights.  And if that's not ok with you Martha, I can live with it.

There was a time when I looked at you as a role model; someone to emulate and study because of your own uncommon rise to success.  You were a fashion model and then a stock broker by trade, correct?  Ironic how that worked out...  I don't seem to remember reading where you found the expertise to start your catering business or to build it into the empire that is Martha Stewart Living.  Where did you get to be an expert about decorating or cooking or crafting or how to compose an enticing photo?  When did you get the training to be an editor or social media guru?  I'm wondering if perhaps you're no expert either?

And that's an oddly comforting thought.

Sweet Tater, Sweet Tater

I gave in to a craving today.

Who knew I would ever be able to eat a sweet potato without pulling a face that speaks volumes about icky?  Let alone spend the last 9 months craving them...

9 months.  Yeah.  Time for some folks to have a baby.  They can create a whole new human being and I'm over here in the corner with a little drool hanging off my lip thinking 'sweeeeeeet pooooootaaaaaaato.'

I guess I should clarify, I've found one, just one, recipe for sweet potatoes that I like.  I will still cringe in utter disgust at that marshmallow encrusted pile of yuckiness I grew up with during the holidays or those sweet potato fries I grabbed by mistake in the grocery store once... but these I like.  I mean I REALLY like them!

Hot from the oven!

Sweet Potato Casserole

Heat oven to 350F.

Mix together and spread into a greased casserole dish:
3 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (canned is ok)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter (not margarine)
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix in a small bowl until it forms small clusters:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3 Tbl melted butter

Sprinkle clusters over potato mixture in casserole dish.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit at least 10 minutes before serving to finish setting up.

[Edit:  the original recipe, which I modified slightly, called for 1 egg in the potatoes.  I forgot to add it!  I think if you did, it would add a little bit of lightness to the texture and perhaps help it hold its shape a little better when serving.  But it worked just fine for what I was craving without the egg.]

A comical side story...

I grew up saying praline like PRAY-leen.  When I moved to Georgia, Derek's family says it like prah-LEEN.  I knew they were a Southern thing so I just assumed I'd been saying it wrong all along but then, when I was buying the brown sugar and pecans for this dish, the grocery clerk said it made her think of pralines and she said it like I do!!  Now I'm all sorts of confused...

How do YOU say praline?  Do you say PRAY-leen or prah-LEEN?

Cast Iron Surprise

Due to different ages, locales and family values in our childhoods Derek and I grew up much differently.  My family was poor, poorer than I realized until I was an adult making my own way really, and worked hard to conserve what we had.  Derek's family was more affluent and indulged in what we now call 'retail therapy' from time to time feeling that if something was ruined it could easily be replaced.  Some of those traits are a cause for conflict between us now and then.  And then something will come out of his mouth that is so "me" it just surprises the stuffing right out me!

Like the need for cast iron cookware.

In the months I stayed with his mom and sister, I never saw a single piece in their house to hint that this was coming.  Mostly they have kind of beat up teflon pans... So when he grabbed it up one shopping trip while I was lovingly caressing a cast iron frying pan with a wishful look in my eye, I was surprised.  Very surprised!  And then when he went on to say that every home should have cast iron frying pans and a dutch oven or two, you could have knocked me over with a feather!!  And when he agreed that not only were they the best for all around cooking but would be very handy to have if there was a time when we had to cook outside or in the fireplace they would be absolutely among the best things we'd ever invested in, I had to pinch myself and see if it was reality or if I was caught up in some freaky dream.

Well, reality it was!

4 lovely cast iron frying pans now are a part of our cookware.  They've been sitting on the counter for a few days waiting for me to get around to 'seasoning' them.  It's easy.  Like even a child could do it kind of easy.  I don't know why I hesitated and let that step in their care intimidate me... but until about 45 minutes ago I did.  Finally, though, they are in the oven getting their first baking.

Photo from goodhousekeeping.com.
(My stubby little sausage fingers aren't that pretty!)

I started by washing them with hot soapy water and letting them dry.  Seems easy so far, huh?

(Ideally, this is the only time in the life of the pan it will ever have soap in it.)

Then I used olive oil and a paper towel to coat each pan and set them in a 350F oven for 90 minutes.  Why olive oil?  It was handy.  I looked up and read more than a few blog posts about seasoning and caring for cast iron and it seems like every single one of them called for a different oil so I'm interpreting that to mean that the fat source (bacon drippings, vegetable oil, olive oil, peanut oil, flaxseed oil, coconut oil, crisco, etc.) doesn't matter so much as getting something fatty on there to absorb into the iron.

These are mine sitting in the oven cooling down for the first time.

Then they sit in place and cool back to room temperature.  And I repeat the process of coating them in oil and baking for 90 minutes another time or two to have fully seasoned and ready to go cast iron pans.

It's time consuming, to be sure, but there's nothing at all difficult about it.

And it seems like the ongoing care isn't all that big of a deal either.  Most of what I've found suggests just rinsing with very hot water and drying well.  The oil in food you cook should keep it pretty well seasoned.  At our house I think that might be a true statement - I know bacon is a planned item.  And fried chicken.  And a buttery cookie/cake dessert item in one of the smaller pans.  For food bits that are stuck on, you first scour with a mixture of oil and coarse salt then rinse with hot water and dry well.

That's pretty similar to how I used to take care of my teflon pans... and they lasted forever once I quit putting dish soap in them!

Next I'm gonna get the dutch oven I've had for years seasoned and try making that heavenly crusty bread in it!

And I'm going to be on the lookout for more in thrift shops and at garage sales!!

Baked 'Smores

Too often lately I'm finding a recipe for sweets that becomes a temporary addiction around my house...

It's the addiction du jour until the next tempting morsel comes along, anyway!

And this is one of them.

Baked 'Smores

Mix together and press into the bottom of 12 regular or 24 mini cups of a muffin pan:
1 c finely crushed graham cracker crumbs (about 7 whole crackers)
1/4 c powdered sugar
6 Tbl melted butter

Bake at 350F for 4-5 minutes or until edges are bubbling.

Break 2 big (1.55 oz) Hershey Milk Chocolate Bars into rectangles.  Remove muffin pan from oven and place chocolate on top of hot crumbs, dividing evenly.  (That works out to 1 rectangle per cup if you're using the mini muffin pan.)  Cut 12 large marshmallows in half crosswise with scissors that have been dipped in warm water and place on top of chocolate in muffin pan with the cut side down.  (That's half a marshmallow per cup if you're using the mini muffin pan.)  Set pan under broiler and watch closely for 1-2 minutes until marshmallows soften, start to puff and lightly toast on the top.  Remove from oven and allow to cool 15 minutes in the pan before carefully transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Break 1 Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bars into small pieces and melt in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave.  Dip the top of each marshmallow in the melted chocolate, or drizzle it over the top with a spoon, and return to the rack to cool until set.

You're going to think I'm a 'yes man' as I try to anticipate some questions you might have.

First yes... you could substitute chocolate chips or the small bite-size chocolate bars.  I did.  My grocery store did not have the plain Hershey's Bars and I didn't want the ones with almonds or their special dark blend so I got a bag of the bite-size nuggets.  They're just a little thicker so I put the pan in the oven for 1 minute between the chocolate and marshmallow steps in the recipe.

Second yes... your scissors will get sticky but don't worry... it's just sugar and that comes right off with hot water.

And third yes... this is a lot of directions for something so simple!

Just in case you're a picture person, here's the step-by-step (or blow-by-blow, if you prefer):

Mix crumbs, sugar and butter together then press into the bottom of your muffin cups and bake 4-5 minutes.

Break up chocolate bars, cut marshmallows and place on top of hot crumb mixture.

 Broil 1-2 minutes then allow to cool completely.

Dip or drizzle marshmallow tops in melted chocolate and allow to set.

Eat!  Smile!  Be happy!!
(Leftovers, should there be any, can be stored in an airtight container.)

The Quest for MORE Cookies

I've decided I want to make some frozen balls of chocolate chip cookie dough to bake a few cookies at a time when we want them for dessert or a snack.  My first step, obviously, was to consult Pinterest for a recipe and some tips to ensure success.

It seems I just need to whip up a batch of our favorite cookie dough.

Can it really be that simple?

Seriously... where are the extra steps to make it work as an individually portioned freezer-to-oven treat?  Just the same cookie dough I would make anyway will work?

I don't know if to be impressed at its ease or miffed that I did not already know this!

I think this is the cookie recipe I'm going to use since we already have all these things in the pantry.

Except eggs.

I forgot to get them today.  So I do need to buy eggs tomorrow when I pick up strawberries for the dessert pizza we were requested to bring to the 4th of July party at Derek's sister's house.  We're also taking  baked 'smores... check for that recipe, pictures and a description of their heavenly yumminess to be posted tomorrow.

Before I get too far off track, the cookie recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

12 tablespoons of butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup of firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
2 egg yolks plus 1 whole egg
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips  (use your favorite - I have a predilection for milk chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine melted cooled butter, sugars, and salt, and mix on medium speed until mixture starts to look smooth, about 1-2 minutes.  Lower speed and add vanilla and eggs and continue mixing until well combined.  Add baking soda and flour to bowl and mix just until combined.  Add chocolate chips and give a final stir with the mixer to incorporate.  Measure out two tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Place cookie dough on parchment paper lined baking sheets.  Bake cookies for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven when edges start to brown. The center half of the cookie will still be puffy and look undone. Firmly rap cookie sheet on countertop to promote wrinkly appearance. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Cookies will continue to wrinkle as they cool.

Not overstate the obvious or anything but since I'm wanting to freeze the dough we'll be stopping where it says "...two tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball."  The next logical step would be place on a lined cookie sheet and freeze, but there's a problem with that.

Actually 3 of them.

• my freezer is pretty small.  It's a side-by-side, which I love, but it does mean the space is too narrow to lay a cookie sheet flat.
• my freezer is very full at the moment.  Yesterday was our first big trip to Sam's Club.  And, yeah... we went just a teensy little bit over board.
• my whole kitchen needs a re-work.  The only place for the fridge to sit puts the freezer door against a wall which means it doesn't open all the way.  Anything wider than about 5 inches isn't going in there.

My solution?  Ice cube trays.

I'll use ice cube trays just like in this picture blatantly ripped from the boards of Pinterest!!  Right-sized for my freezer and perfectly portioned.

Score!!

Besides, by getting the ice cube trays tomorrow for the cookie dough I will have them Friday (or Saturday, or...) to make those frozen yogurt dog treats I've been promising my boys to help them beat the summer heat.  I'll post that over the weekend with updated pictures of Thunder and Lightning so you can see how much they've grown.

Ugh!  I'm distracted from telling the tale of my cookie quest again.

Once the dough is frozen, I'll pop them out of the ice cube trays and store in a ziplock bag in the freezer.  When we get that cookie craving, I'll just put half a dozen on a baking sheet and give them a few minutes in a hot oven.  And then... yum!

Cookies... Gimme Cookies!!

Way back before Christmas I posted the recipe for some bomb-diggity chocolate chip cookies that Derek's Dad made when he was home for a Christmas visit.  (He works out of state.)  I made them again last night, except we didn't have enough chocolate chips... so only half the batch got finished according to the recipe.

I just took half of the dough out of the bowl before that final step of adding the chocolate chips.  So we got some chocolate chip cookies and some not at all chocolatey ones from my little burst of kitchen creativity.

Using the 'plain' dough, I then formed walnut-sized balls.  Then I rolled them in cinnamon sugar and placed on a baking sheet.  Finally I used a fork and squished them down nearly flat.

And guess what?

That same recipe (minus the chocolate and adding a little cinnamon and sugar coating) makes some stinking dang good Snicker Doodles!!

Click the link above for the recipe.

Best Banana Bread Ever

Thanks to a Pinterest recipe and having to adjust because the right ingredients weren't in the pantry, I made the best banana bread I've ever made in my whole life last night.

The.  Best.  Ever.

And the simplest ever, too!

We've been talking for a week, maybe a little more because I was procrastinating, about using some over ripe bananas I'd broken up and tossed in a ziplock in the freezer for the actual purpose I froze them for:  banana bread.  I had my trusty old scratch recipe I got from my best friend twenty years ago out of the box and ready to go.  I just didn't want to do it.  So I kept putting it off...

In the meantime, a few more bananas got a little too ripe for good eating.

It was time.

So I did what any self-respecting procrastinator of decent skill level who's pushed to the wire does... I looked for a short cut.  And I found one.  And then I looked in my pantry and adjusted it for the ingredients I actually had to work with.

And it turned out FANTASTIC!

Banana Bread

1 box vanilla cake mix (can substitute yellow, but vanilla is better!)
2 eggs
3-5 mashed very very ripe bananas (I used 5 kind of small-ish ones)

That's it.  Just put it in a bowl and stir until everything is blended and scrape into buttered loaf pans.  Bake at 375F for 30-40 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and tops are golden.  This recipe makes 2 regular, or 4 small, loaves.

Could that be any easier?

Next time, I'm going to add a bag of milk chocolate chips...  mmmmmmm!  Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.  Maybe I should do that as muffins and freeze some so we don't inhale them all in under an hour?

Warm Corn Salad

We had corn on the cob left over from our Mother's Day BBQ.  And I know I won't eat 6 ears before they spoil.  And I know Derek doesn't do any leftovers very well.  So...

I cut the kernels off 3 and froze that corn for another time and used 3 for for my evening's meal.  Derek is working late tonight so I'm cooking just for me and can make stuff that he wouldn't like.  He's not much of a vegetable guy... and I'm dying craving them!  That's the long, if not totally polite, way to say he wouldn't even get close enough to sniff something like this, let alone take a taste.

Oh well, that means there's more for me!

After a quick shopping trip because I didn't have most of these ingredients just sitting here waiting and a few minutes chopping stuff up I was ready to cook my dinner.

I was even more ready to eat my dinner.

And yes, I ate it all!  Don't judge.

At least not before you taste my Southwest-inspired culinary masterpiece...

Warm Corn Salad

Cut the kernels from 3 cobs of fresh corn into a large non-stick skillet. Add 2/3 cup chopped onion, 1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper and 1/4 cup butter. Saute until onions are soft. Add very finely minced jalapeno to taste and 1/2 of a small can of medium or mild diced green chiles. Toss to mix. Add 2/3 cup (more or less) chopped fresh cilantro, the juice of 1/2 - 1 lime (depending on your taste preference) and salt and pepper to taste. Toss. Sprinkle with crumbled cotijo cheese (a Mexican cheese quite similar to feta in texture but with a slightly milder flavor - I substitute the feta if I can't find cotijo and it works just fine!).  Serve either hot or cold - I like it best warm, but not steaming hot - as an accompaniment to BBQ ribs, grilled steak or chicken.


(Hints and confessions:  My corn was already cooked this time, so I added it after sauteing the onion and pepper and broke it apart with my fingers so it could just reheat with the other ingredients.  If you have a choice, get the really bright deep yellow corn.  It gives a better contrast against the white cheese so the dish looks prettier.  And yes, you can use frozen corn kernels to make this.  If you buy one of those 1 pound-ish sized bags, double the other ingredients for this recipe and use the whole bag.)

Strawberry Pizza & Crack Stix

The menu for yesterday's Mother's Day BBQ at our house:

Grilled Chicken Breasts

Corn on the Cob

Baked Macaroni & Cheese

Vegetable Kabobs

Crack Stix  (Recipe to follow)

Strawberry Pizza (Recipe to follow)

Chocolate Cream Pie

Ice Water, Strawberry Punch, Coca Cola

Photo credit: http://fashionablyfoodie.com/2012/02/01/keshias-kakes-on-super-bowl-desserts/
(Ours got ate so quickly I didn't get a picture of them!)

Crack Stix

You'll need:

1 loaf thin-sliced bakery white bread, crusts cut off

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup butter, melted

Directions:

Flatten bread with a rolling-pin. In a bowl, combine cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar. In another bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon; set aside. Spread about 1 tablespoon of cheese mixture on each slice of bread. Roll up, jelly roll style. Dip in melted butter, then in cinnamon-sugar. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Yield: 16 roll-ups.  Delicious warm, cold or at room temperature.

Yes, as crazy as it sounds... flattered bakery white bread is THAT good!!

But I did manage to snap one of the pizza!  Yay me!!

Strawberry Pizza

You'll need:

Sugar cookie dough (Pillsbury roll, home-made, from a mix -- your choice)

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup (appx) confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Sliced fresh strawberries (I used a little less than a 1 quart package)

Red fruit glaze (little plastic tub, Danish Dessert, home-made -- your choice)

Press the sugar cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet or pizza pan.  Bake as directed until set much the same texture as you'd like a cookie to be.  Remove from oven to cool completely.  In a medium bowl beat the cream cheese, confectioners sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy.  Spread evenly over cookie pizza crust.  Arrange sliced strawberries over the top.  Using a pastry brush, lightly and evenly coat with fruit glaze (I had the kind in the plastic tub and used about 1/2 of it).  Chill until ready to cut then slice into pizza wedges for serving.

(Note:  I used the Pillsbury roll of sugar cookie dough this time... and I'm not sure if I over cooked it just a little or if it's not quite the perfect product for this use but it was difficult to cut.  Next time I will be using a soft sugar cookie dough.)

Dreaming of My Future Kitchen

Hi!  I'm Kathy... and I watch way too many cooking shows.  For some people it's soap operas, some can't get enough reality tv but me, I watch HGTV and Food Network.  And then I plan way too many projects to do and dishes to cook.

Photo credit: housewifeglamour.com

Tonight I'm watching a re-run of the Chopped Grand Championship interspersed with commercials for a new show called Worst Cooks In America.  Interesting to ponder on the differing dynamics of the best and the worst that a kitchen can offer.  Myself, I fall somewhere in between.  I can hold my own in a home kitchen.  Which is not to say that I don't have the occasional epic failure...  But I don't have any professional training.  Sometimes I really wish that I did.  I'd love, for example, the chance to get some mad knife skills and be able to do that almost magical technique to chop chop chop my vegetables.  You know the one where you curl your fingers under and guide the knife with your middle knuckles of one hand and chop very quickly by almost rocking the knife over the food with the other.

Photo credit:  http://www.foodsaver.com/product.aspx?pid=8308

While I'd love to master these classical skills, I also love things that offer shortcuts and the ability to extend quality fresh ingredients.  For example, one of my favorite tools is a FoodSaver.  I use it to package single chicken breasts, sometimes in a marinade, for the freezer or to break down a bulk, and therefore more economical, package of hamburger into single meal proportions.  This is the model from their website that looks and works most like mine.  You can purchase them directly there or from a retail store of your choice.  Now and then one of the frugal shopping/couponing guru websites will showcase a special offer where you can save a substantial amount of money on both the machine and on the plastic packaging material.

Another thing I insist on for my kitchen (and has become a home improvement project in past kitchens) is a  gas range.  If I had to use an electric cooktop or one of those horrid sealed surface units, I'd quit cooking!  Happily Derek agreed to this condition for our upcoming house hunting adventure...

Photo credit:  Foodchannel.com

Just like garden ripened tomatoes are the only ones truly worth eating...  Great ingredients are the key to making the most of these tools and skills and I'm willing to go to great lengths for some of them!

I grew up in Southeast Idaho, right in the heart of potato country.  And no other potato compares to an Idaho Russett!  My personal preference is the Burbank variety, but Norkotah seems to be an easier variety to find.  And oddly, I'm finding better potatoes here in Georgia than I ever did in Utah which is a neighboring state or what my friends out West report they find in their local supermarkets.  They've lamented several times that what they find is scrawny and scabby and just plain sad while I have my choice of big, smooth-skinned, Grade A bakers.

Photo credit: coxshoney.com

Another kitchen staple I special order is clover honey from my hometown in Idaho.  I've bought other clover honey and I give it a lukewarm okay to sweeten tea or for cooking but it's just not the same.  For my taste buds to be truly happy when spreading it on toast I have to have creamed honey from Cox's Honey Farms.  (For some fascinating more general information about honey, click here!)

Once we get settled in, I want to explore purchasing foodstuffs from both Bountiful Baskets and Zaycon Foods.  I've heard wonderful reviews about the quality of their products and the prices are attractive.

What are some special things you use in your kitchen?