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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Easy Garlic Cheese Biscuits


Back in my waitressing days, Red Lobster was one of the dozen or so restaurants under my waitressing belt. These are basically the exact same biscuits they serve, made pretty much the same way. Our kids love them, and they are so easy to make. Great complement to seafood or soup.






Easy Garlic Cheese Biscuits

3 cups biscuit mix
1 1/2 cups water
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 stick butter, melted
2 tbsp garlic powder
Italian seasoning or parsley flakes (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a large baking sheet with baking spray. Combine biscuit mix, water and cheese in a large bowl. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheet. Bake approx 14 minutes or until they start to turn golden brown.
Combine melted butter and garlic in a small bowl. Brush on hot biscuits. Sprinkle with italian seasoning or parsley flakes if desired. Makes about 14.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Crabcake Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Recipe


This recipe earned me an honorable mention and publication in Country Woman magazine. It can be adapted for smaller mushrooms, and the filling would fill approximately 2 12 0z packages of regular sized mushrooms. The other directions would remain the same.

Crabcake Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

3/4 cup finely diced sweet onion
2 tbsp olive oil, divided, divided
2 cups canned lump crabmeat
1/2 cup Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs
1 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
1 egg
1 cup Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
6 large portobello mushroom caps

Preheat oven to 400. In small skillet, sautee onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil until soft.
In a large mixing bowl, combine remaining ingredients except portobello caps. Add sauteed onions and combine. Stuff portobello caps with filling mixture. Top with paprika, grated parmesan and drizzle with remaining olive oil. Bake on nonstick or lightly sprayed cookie sheet for approx 14 minutes until lightly browned. Serves 6.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

All That Glitters

I am fairly sure that in another life I was a raccoon or a crow. If it sparkles, my eye is drawn to it. I find myself drifting towards it in a zombie-like trance. "Shiny thing.... must touch..." When it comes to clothing, I have to remain very alert to this tendency and use great care, lest I end up dressed like Mike Meyers "Linda Richman" character on Saturday Night Live.

Luckily, I do not feel compulsively drawn to holiday themed sweaters with big, glittery snowmen/Santas/Christmas trees/ pumpkins on them. I think that is a whole different affliction, and my thoughts and prayers go out to those who suffer from it.
Years ago, my husband and I started attending estate auctions and tag sales as a hobby. First just to buy things for ourselves and home, then later to sell on ebay. I did really well selling vintage glass and collectibles on ebay for quite a long time. Until ebay changed and pretty much went down the toilet. So now it's back to just buying things for us when I go.
I started collecting vintage costume jewelry and evening bags that I would find at auctions/sales. I am a bargain hunter, so I've never paid a lot for any of it. Lots of sparklies for few dollars! Sometimes to get to the jewelry at an estate sale one does have to fight through the very aggressive jewelry dealers, many of whom are 300 pound man who have no qualms about body slamming a woman out of the way if they both have their eye on the same bracelet.
I missed out on a legendary fight one day between a very flambouyant male jewelry dealer (it takes a confident man to sport full eye makeup and rhinestone chandelier earrings as daywear in Akron Ohio) and a female who wanted the same Bakelite bracelet. The way it was told to me, there were many ugly things said, and a threat of face scratching (by him) as they played tug of war with that bracelet.
Feeling totally non productive on this snow day, I decided to take out some of my vintage glittery things, and take afew pictures of my favorites.

I do wear some of these things on occasion, though I generally limit myself to one piece at a time.

Whenever I take the sparklies out, my daughters ask if they can have them. I tell them "Absolutely. When I'm dead, you can split them". They both seem amenable to that.

I could go to a fancy gown event every night for quite awhile with all of my shiny purses. I don't go to that many fancy events, but I find reasons to use some of them relatively often. The white, box type purse is made of Lucite and is from the 1950s. I use that one quite a lot actually, since it's not flashy. Just unique.

The silver bag on the top left is also quite versatile.

With these one can go from demure,

to disco...

The one with the purple and black stripes IS a 70s disco bag

These 2 are my favorites. The tiny beadwork on the blue one is so intricate and well done. The other is mostly rhinestones.

For everyday life, I tend to prefer an enormous purse that I can fill with stuff until it weighs 20 pounds.

Another snowstorm 1/28/09


Once again we are snowed in. Steady snow started falling sometime last night, and is expected to continue throughout the afternoon. The whole family is home today, so it's kind of cozy.
A lot of people in Ohio complain about the snow all the time. Although I'm not a big fan of driving in it, I actually like it otherwise. Snow is beautiful. Winter does get tedious after awhile, but so does everything else. When I lived in southern California, the sameness of the weather got really old. I would get excited on those rain occasions when we got a nice drenching of fragrant acid rain. Just for something different. I'm just a 4 seasons type of woman I guess.
Our neighbor plows our driveway for us, and pushes all of the snow into one big "mountain" for the kids to play on. They had an awesome snow fort going last week. The horses have thick, furry coats and getting covered with snow doesn't seem to bother them one bit. The dogs are in and out all day, rolling around and playing.



Winter can seem long at the time, but time always flies. Especially the older I get! Before long, it will be spring. With seasons, there is always something new to look forward to.



Poor St. Francis. He is pretty well buried. We have to have a St. Francis statue, because we love animals, and because my husband is Italian. He said that as he got older, he felt a genetic pull towards lawn statuary.