Autumn Leaves

As you probably know, the desert doesn’t see autumn leaves, so I asked my friend and traveling buddy, Pat, to send me some autumn leaves when she was in Chicago last month.  So now they’re an added addition to my Thanksgiving place mats tomorrow.  Thanks, Pat, and I’ll be thinking of you for sure.  As I will all of my loved ones, friends, and fellow bloggers.  When I count my blessings, I count all of you.

I’ll be getting up early to get the turkey in the oven, making sure the favorites recipes have been prepared as much as I can ahead of time, then go over and pick up my parents.  We will then welcome my uncle, everyone will sit down to share the anticipated meal, eat too much (most likely) and then yours truly will probably collapse.  Ha!  Good thing this only happens once a year.  (Foxy and Daisy love holidays like this … turkey, in moderation of course, is one of their favorites).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  Namaste’

Warning: Don’t Read If You’re a Vegetarian

With all the warnings about chicken jerky treats for dogs (made in China), we decided it would be prudent to be safer than sorry.  I decided to take some fresh chicken breasts and make my own jerky.  It was really easy.  Just slice it thin (easier to do if the meat is somewhat frozen), then place the slices on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick olive oil spray and bake for three hours at 180 degrees.  If you  have a food dehydrator, that’s even better.  There are plenty of websites out there with recipes for doing this, either in the oven or in a dehydrator.  My recipe said these would last up to three weeks … yeah, right!  I predict they’ll be gone in a week.  Hubby and I like them, too.

Yes, our “girls”, Foxy and Daisy loved them.  I didn’t add any seasoning – dogs don’t need it.  Namaste’

Seems Like Yesterday – But Not Quite

Today’s photos are of an old recipe book and an actual recipe for cheese cookies that I used in my high school Home Economics class, which was … uh … 47 years ago.   The cheese cookies are so easy and make a great canape’ for cocktail parties.  I haven’t made these in a long time so maybe one of these days I will.  I noticed that my handwriting was a LOT better then than it is now.

Side note: In high school I had three very close friends.  We liked to ditch school once in a while and we actually got away with it.  Why?  Because I was very good at forging their mothers’ handwriting and writing their excuse notes.  Then one day we decided to go to my house in the middle of the day and thought we were being sneaky by putting my friend’s car in the garage. Well, my nosy neighbor happened to see us and called my Mom at work.  Needless to say I was grounded for a month and couldn’t even use the phone.  Did it stop us from cutting school after that?  What do you think?

So that’s my bit of nostalgia for the day.  Namaste’