#snowday and creative sled riding

#snowday and makeshift trail!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_nP8KZNtEc&app=desktop

Pressure Cooker of Life and Recipe for Success

#Pressure Cooker #T Fal

Made an old recipe last night….picked up a new pressure cooker over the holidays and hadn’t had a chance to try it out until now.

I chose the simplest of recipes that I could remember from high school days living on the farm with my grandparents and mom.  Cube steak, potatoes, and green beans.  I began by browning the cube steak in a skillet.  It’s really funny how vivid a memory becomes when it comes by way of a familiar scent.  Almost immediately, I felt the warmth of a smaller and cozier kitchen, with my Granny and my Mom, standing around the stove fixin’ dinner and mixing up the corn bread mix, for the little cast iron pre-formed corn stick molds.  An egg, a pinch of sugar, and milk until you get the right consistency. 

I can still see my Granny standing over that stove, one hand on her hip and sadly, the other holding a cigarette as she effortlessly threw together a meal with just about any staples in the kitchen. 

I sometimes helped with dinner, but was usually shooed away to find a rubber band to pull back my unruly hair, that dangled well past my back.  She was funny about hair and ran a tight ship in the kitchen.  She also never actually taught me how to cook…I had to watch and guess.  She said no one ever taught her how to cook…she learned on her own, and so should I.  Okay, I get it.  Don’t share the secret family recipes!  

But I watched every time she was in front of that stove.  I paid even closer attention when there was peanut butter chocolate fudge involved.  But the nightly dinner, it was pretty routine.  It started with a walk out in the back to the garden, where I’d pull a few tomatoes and fresh ears of corn.  In the meantime, my Granny would grab her “go to” kitchen essential for country cooking in the summertime…an old fashioned pressure cooker, with a removable “whistle top.” 

I realized later that this was one of the most efficient ways to throw a meal together quickly when frozen dinners and eating out weren’t even considered an option.

So we continued our routine, with little variation.  Most nights, after dinner, we played partners in a friendly, but competitive game of #Rook. 

I spent evenings waiting for the cooker to whistle and I knew dinner was close.  I always was impatient…when hungry, in life…pretty much in everything.  But there is no rushing a pressure cooker.  It takes time to build up the steam and also requires time to cool off before being able to safely remove the food inside.

Tonight, that familiar scent brought a smile to my face and a few stray tears I quickly wiped away.  It had been years since I’d used one, but the cubed steak and potatoes came out perfect and the first bite into the tender steak with Worchester Shire Sauce is still the definition of comfort food for me.  I wish that I had some corn meal in the house tonight.  I’ve improved on that recipe and now add a few pinches of yellow pudding mix.  The corn bread turns out amazingly moist and sweet.  And I now have my own cast iron corn stick pan to season, care for and treasure.

Sometimes I think life is a little like that old pressure cooker.  We turn up the heat, throw a bunch of stuff inside, and stand, hand on our hip, waiting for it to finish way faster than it should.

Funny thing is that you can’t see what’s inside a pressure cooker when it’s cooking or test it to see when it is ready.  You have to pace it, time it, and even then, you still wonder if you let the whistle simmer long enough.

And with life, it’s kind of the same thing.  You’re watching it all the time, waiting until it’s finally ready, but you can’t check on it to see if it’s coming along the way you expected it to.  You don’t always know when there’s too much pressure inside and sometimes impatience releases the steam way too fast and you find yourself unprepared for the outcome.

So in life as with cooking, my advice is to always watch the burner so it doesn’t get too hot, let out the steam slow and steady, being mindful not to burn yourself or anyone else nearby, acknowledge that you won’t get it right every time and you will learn as you go, and most importantly, don’t worry about what anyone else is cooking! 

M

Before there was #Monday, we all knew how to #Dream

My favorite place on earth #Granny&PopFarm

6/15/93

Dream

Step along my path and follow me at play

See the world a little differently today

Dance the dance of dragons

Woe the fiery foes they be

Sing the song of angels

Merrily the imp sings delightfully

Skip into the wood that turns into a forest

Slip into the sunlight dancing between the trees

Stop by the stream to pick wild flowers

Catch a glimpse in the stream of who you could be

                    See the birds in flight

                Hear their songs of delight

         To partake you must be a child it seems

Nay, tis no prerequisite to find this in your dreams

                                    M

#TBT Often Times . . . before there were #fiftyshades PG-13 #Valentine

A longing, lustful poem...from so long ago, a much younger self ...might make you go "Hmmmm..." when you read this and look at my reserved self now.  Lots of layers in this onion.  Keep peelin'!

Often Times

Often times I dream of a place where you and I are free

Where what we share and what we feel exists without degree

Often times you take me there

I'm sure you're unaware

But often times I find you trapped within my thoughts alone

You come up quietly from behind and slip your arms around me

I turn to meet you face to face

You look at me and answer the troubling question in my eyes

Silencing my doubts with your lips

And answering all I feel with your embrace

What starts as tender innocence quickly turns to flame

And I am engulfed in the passion exchanged between our bodies

Often times ... I think too much

M

Everything But the House #EBTH ... How to Go Treasure Hunting

 Welcome to New Find Saturday!  For all those thrifty shoppers, who frequent yard sales, consignments, and auctions, each week I'll share a new find...either something I've picked up or a new place to dig for treasures.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/112027109457351035/

So if you’ve read my blog, you know I am a huge fan of an auction site called “Everything But the House” (ebth.com)  Today I want to share my latest treasure, which has been nicely incorporated into my family room, where we have a large brick fireplace.

I absolutely love the Victorian period.  The romanticism of a long gone era, with traces of its melodic charm left in one of a kind treasures like my new set of Cherub Andirons.  They are massive and stately, in brass.  You might say they’re a little too massive for our fireplace, but I would disagree.  I like the charm it brings to the room.  

I’ve shopped andirons online and saw them priced anywhere from $300.00 and up.  I considered my whimsical set a bargain at $80.00.

I have to admit my #EBTH habit has become a bit of a challenge.  It’s hard not to look and if you look, you are almost guaranteed to find the perfect something for your home, your wardrobe…just about anything you can think of.

What I like about #EBTH – they’re honest.  And that is saying a lot for this field.  Do your own homework and don't rely on the auctioneer or other bidders to tell you what it is or isn't worth.  As for EBTH, they clearly detail all flaws of auction items.  I can attest to this as the majority of what I buy, is purchased online before ever seeing it in person.  And on the rare occasion when something has been accidentally broken, they were quick to reimburse me for the items, with absolutely no hassle at all.

What I wish they did a little better – I don’t always feel like every sale is a bargain.  I see items go significantly higher on EBTH than a live auction.  I’m amazed they can bring great interest in vintage clothing, and further astounded when they can get more than two people bidding on someone’s gently used clothes (that would typically be hard to give away at a onsite auction).  I’d say that has a lot to do with their reputation and the quality of the estates and consignments they take on.  I'm still shaking my head over an outdoor sculpture that went for over $55,000 a few months back :)  They sell quality items, often antique or highly collectible.  They do their homework.  They provide as much information as they can and share lots of pictures, so you can get good idea of what you're bidding on even if you don't go check it out ahead of time.

If you want a better bargain - start with their newly seeded market cities.  For example, a recent West Virginia sale had very reasonable prices and for small items, there was just a small surcharge to transport and pick-up at their Cincinnati Warehouse.  Other shipping of larger furniture is pricey, but if you find something you really like and get it at a great price, taking a road trip isn’t such a bad idea.  And then you’ve got this great conversation piece for where you found a treasure, how you drove down in your pick-up truck, balanced it on your back, and sat in the back seat holding it in place in the back of the truck cab….wait, I think that was me the time I bought a bedroom suite.  But I digress.

If you want to know if you've bid enough - #Ebay is a great resource to get an idea of going rates for just about anything.  Just be sure that you search by "sold" listings as that is the only way to get a true pulse on what you might expect to pay elsewhere.  Sometimes you can and sometimes EBTH has something so truly unique, that you're willing to pay a little more to finish a room or look in your home.  

Online Access and Technology Rocks! - The appeal of bidding online from the comfort of my couch in front of my fireplace is a huge selling point.  I'm not saying I don't miss the banter with dealers on a hot day in the middle of nowhere, waiting for hours for the auctioneer to get to a decent lot.  Or waiting out said dealers until they leave and only a handful of folks are left to grab those box lots for a buck or two.  

Yard sales and church sales will always be your best and cheapest hunting grounds for a great buy or unique discovery.  Bu that will limit you to being a fare weathered bidder and your paddle will hang idle for months at a time! A live auction still holds a certain degree of charm if the weather is nice, and the auctioneer is a character, who likes to bait the bidders and joke with a crowd.  If you still want to find a good old fashioned estate auction, check out auctionzip.com and you can find every auction within the mile radius you select. 

I don’t like auction houses that host weekly auctions.  Most charge a 10% or more premium and I don’t like having to factor that in on the back end.

#EBTH has given me a solution to the winter time blues, when it’s too cold for an auction and the yard sales are still months away.

I’m hanging up my paddle for now, but dear friends, you really should check out EBTH.com.  It’s fun, you can follow items, and best of all, if you give me as a reference, I might be able to afford bidding again and "pop some more tags"!  HAPPY BIDDING and please share your pictures and stories with me!

I've even tried my hand in consigning a few items - stay tuned for results.  If you want to check them out go to https://www.ebth.com/users/sales/9133-cincinnati-ohio-jewelry-accessories-couture-sale/promote

M

#Inbetween

Thinking about my two sons in middle school, who are having growing pains...trying to move from being little boys into fine young men.  Remembering my own struggles when I was stuck in the middle of "#Inbetween."  (1984)

We are no longer adolescents or youthful teens

Nor are we adults of countable means

We reach for the past as the future comes plunging through

Wishing for the old and rejecting the new

Our lives have been planned out so long ago

And yet we find we are not allowed to know

Which paths we will take

Or what decisions we will make

It seems that our lives are full of dreams

But cannot become reality or so it is deemed

Our lives are at the threshold of Inbetween

M

It Must Be #Monday

Must be #Monday