A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Coffeehouse 2152 -- All Ready For You!

Hi everybody!

The new Coffeehouse is all up and ready to play!

Come on in and help yourself.



Merme

thanks merme! - don't mind if I do.

Morning, everyone. I am still trying coffee as a wake up. Got laundry going and am beginning to get a little hungry but totally undecided what I want to eat. Well, I know I want something hot on a plate in front of me but not too sure I want to cook it. Our expected storms were delayed as often happens to tonight we will get blasted. But it is frosty out there. I got out my long underwear this morning.

I just pressed a fresh pot of coffee and I'm putting rolls in the oven to bake. We have real butter today to go with, so they will be yummsville!


A girl who worked at the rehab where I was in October called me today. She is going to visit.


Merme

Visitors are nice, Merme. And so are rolls, butter and coffee. I will pass my plate.

Thanks for reminding me, Tina! I must get Maxi's coat in the laundry!


Merme

Glad to be of service, Merme. When is Maxi off of school for winter break or whatever it is called in your area?
My kids have one more week of school then are off until just after the new year.

oohhh! and that reminds me I have to get my sons shoes scrubbed up for tomorrow.

Ok, I decided on leftover chicken and dumplings. It was the fastest hot dish I could think of. Now I need a nap so nap I will.

nap on, my friend.
I guess I'm gonna get started on candy making.
this should be fun.

Maxi and I have been going "head to head" on Guitar Hero. Of the 10 songs we played, I only won twice. My kid rocks on this game! I won on LaBamba and Beat It. He whupped me good on everything else! But ohmygoodness, Ozzy's Crazy Train made me feel like I was in a nightmare that wouldn't stop -- the notes just coming and coming and I had never heard the song before. Maxi just laughed at my dismay, the brat.

Tina, I truly don't know when Maxi's Christmas Break begins... I'm guessing they'll have half a day on perhaps the Monday before but I haven't looked at the calendar. I could ask him; he always knows what is going on.

Tuesday Night is band concert.

"Winter Break" refers to the week off in February. "Fall Break" is the week off in October and "spring Break" is the week near Easter.

Maxi didn't arrive here til late on Saturday instead of Friday night, so we haven't had much time.



Merme

Gee, I wonder how Cricket's candy is turning out and if Jiffy is also doing hers today?


We'll do ours next week.



Merme

crazy train is a fast song, now that I'm thinking about it. I so hope my son gets guitar hero for Christmas. I just love that game. It's funny when you start missing a lot of notes and the crowd starts booing.
I am dreading tomorrow. it will be a very long day. at least the hardest longest day of the week will be monday and we can get it over and done with.

the candy went fine up until the end then things got crazy! apparantly there is a very small window in which to do the cutting.
hubby finally came in and started banging the butter knife between the pan and the candy. little bits and pieces were flying everywhere, the dogs water bowl also got kicked over! and I just scrubbed the kitchen top to bottom last night.
but it is done, and it taste wonderful.

ohmygoodness, Maxi had me laughing so hard.

He was wearing his pj's and robe and got cold so he went to the dryer and pulled out a pair of jeans to put on. He slid into them, walking sprawled into the living room, trying to look down while asking me what was wrong with his jeans? He was hopping all over the place, pulling at his pants and suddenly reached inside the crotch and pulled out a sock, exclaiming "what the heck?!" You should have seen the funny look on his face with that! Something had invaded his jeans while they were in the dryer! "Totally random!" he explained.

That kid is a hoot.

We had BLT's for brunch and a cheeseburger for dinner which got cut short because his ride came an hour early.

Cricket, we had tacos for dinner last night. They were good.


Merme

Yes, my friend, there is a VERY small window indeed. It is important to have everything you need all laid out ahead of time and then just go for it to get the cutting done with all due speed.

When we do a taffy pull, we work in two man teams... two to cook it, two to cool it, two to pull it. But for the cutting station we assign a squad to work fast!


Merme

Really I think the quickest way is to just have a piece of wrap ready, cover it up and take a hammer to it.

I'm sorry that you have a short visit with Maxi this weekend Merme, but I'm glad the 2 of you are having such a fun time together.

So did you say that you were going to stay with your ex and family for Christmas? I thought you did but maybe I'm wrong.

for Ms Loz the Comedianne!


THAT wouldn't happen in a million years, truth to tell.


Maxi will be home on Christmas Eve and return to his dad's some time after that to spend the New Year with them. He usually spends it here with me, but not this year.


Merme

just poking in. i didn't make candy. i took one of my boxes of christmas ornaments over to kate's and we went through them. we decided that we had about 1/3 of the ornaments in that one box. i let her take out a bunch of hers, i only kept about 3. her first christmas, a brown construction paper ginger bread man, and something else, i just don't remember. we know there are more because so many of our ornaments were bought in 3's. and we only had one or 2 of some of them.

joe's mom let him take all his. so she was wanting hers. their tree isn't "pretty" as in picture perfect, but it is like the ones that she grew up with. a hodgepodge of what we like, what was gifts, and what the kids made. with a few "pretties" thrown in for good measure.

she also got some stuff out for ellie. but ellie has to suffer from a christmas ornament sorting like kate did to get her's. i didn't want her to have them until i was sure she was settled. i'm sure now. she got a good man.

I'll definatly do the candy again, and the wrap and hammer technique sounds like the way to go!
sorry maxi had to leave an hour early, but it does sound like you two had a really nice time!
so, you made tacos finally merme! good deal! they are very good and easy.
I went grocery shopping today, but I don't know what were gonna have. hubby helped put things away and I asked he leave something in the fridge so it'd be thawed for supper, but who knows if he did or not.
Hey, while I was looking for a spice in the grocery store I saw monosodium glutimate (I know I spelled that wrong) any way, isn't that the stuff we try to avoid being in our food? it must be some ingredient to make something special with? anyone know?

monosodium glutimate (spelled pretty well) aka msg is a common flavor enhancer and ingredient in oriental food. particularly chinese food. it is a white powder that is oderless and almost tatesless. just slightly salty.

it is avoided by many people because it can cause migraines. and others avoid it because it can make food that is older taste fresher, giving a false sense of how fresh something is. it also has preservative qualities.

oh, and i've bought it and used it. but i don't anymore mostly because i don't add much of anything besides onion and garlic to what i cook these days.

I just posted a short story in the Writer's forum that I hope you all enjoy. It is also a true story.



Merme

I use a lot of onion and garlic in my cooking too, jiffy.
thanks for the explaination. I really didn't know what it was exactly except some kind of imitation salt or something. and you always hear 'no msg's'.

I didn't realize it was a true story. makes it all the better!

cricket, that is because we all want our food as fresh as possible, and no one wants the dreaded msg headache.

msg doesn't give me a headache, fortunately, but as you say, Jiffy, we all prefer truly fresh food and nothing that's been doctored to make it seem better than it is, so I also avoid msg.


yuppers, Cricket, that was true. About the only good thing within my bad first marriage was that Craig was almost always willing to follow my lead when I'd get sudden ideas to do something like that! He rarely argued the point in those situations.



Merme

HEY, where did everybody go?


I'm hearing echoes in the CH!


Hello-o-o

'lo-o-o



Merme

I have a feeling no one in their right mind would argue a point that you took so seriously.

well, I'm cooking up some bacon and eggs and buscuits for supper. I hope there will be bacon left to go with our meal. every one keeps coming in a snagging a piece here and there.

That is way bacon goes. I love breakfast for dinner. But tonight I think I'm going with meatball subs. Sorry, Jiffy, but I can leave the mozzarella off of yours and give you un-tomato sauced meatballs.

I always cook our bacon on a cookie sheet in the oven so it is all done at once! Therefore no swiping of the done pieces while the rest cooks! YAY!


Jiffy there is a pizzeria here in town which uses cheddar cheese instead of mozerella. We like it better!



Merme

We cook our bacon on the rippled microwave dishes and all the grease runs away from it.

gets really crispy..

I used to have one of those rippled microwave pans also, Bali, and I liked it real well, too. That's a good way to make bacon!


Merme

I like microwaved bacon too. But the old man doesn't think it tastes as good so pan frying for him. My meatballs and sauce are in the oven. Soon it will smell nice in here and the oven helps warm the house a bit. My son is in his bath and will come out baby sweet soon enough. All is well in my world for the time being.

Sounds good, Tina!


Maxi had to leave in a hurry tonight and didn't have a chance to help me straighten up after our day's doings. So, I have the kitchen waiting for me.

It is cold here, so I am sleepy tonight, thinking about my very warm bed waiting for me when I get there.


Time to press some more coffee. Anybody want some?



Merme

I think I got my bowel at walmart.. It was full size of the oven dish.

b

I never stopped coffee all day long, Merme. Well, except when I napped. I am sorry you have the kitchen left to clean up when you are sleepy.

your Bowel???

Good thing Cindy didn't see this one,,,,,

Sorry Dodge I had too,, it was just too funny,,!
Believe me I've missed typed some words too,, that turned out hilarious,,

omg, I just saw Bali's typo and I'm cracking up! Sometimes typos are funnier than jokes.


Wal-Mart, huh? I'll have my girl look when she goes there after the holidays for me.


I won't have her shop for a bowel though!

At least I've got all the food put away and a new roll of TP put in the bathroom. My son emptied the roll and didn't replace it.

He had a tough row to hoe while he was here. Last night he crawled under my desk to connect the speakers to the pc and accidently unplugged the keyboard and mouse. Mama had a fitski so back under he went. No matter what he did, he couldn't get the keyboard back in and then he cried in frustration.

I told him to stop and try again in the morning. I could tell he was dreading going back under the desk to try again, so I gave him a big Pep Talk about how capable he is with such things and that I was certain he could get it this time.

He did.

He was also VERY apologetic for messing up my computer knowing how important it is to me when I'm here all week alone. I felt badly for the kid, but I did have to push him a bit to try again just because it is so important.

And this morning, he got it right on the first try!


Merme

He must have been just tired last night, Merme. Of course, I dread crawling back there in the wire jungle too so I can sympathize.