Speaking of Chee-huah-huahs, y’all may recall the infamous Joe Dawg, for whom I serve as an occasional nanny and habitrail. Last Sunday was Joe Dawg’s 10th birthday. We celebrated. Yes, I went to a bday party for a dog last Sunday afternoon. Joe Dawg got to eat some steak and we toasted him with mojitos. He also got lots of skritches and tummy rubs which he just luuuuuuuuuuuuuuurves, so it was a good day for Joe Dawg all around. I gave him six bags of his favorite fake bacon treats as a present. I’m a good nanny/habitrail!
Well, I don’t have any teeny purse dogs…mine is big and noisy and the closest he’s been to “dressed up” is when the dog groomer put a bandana around his neck.
All this talk of soup has me thinkin’ that I haven’t made homemade, from scratch soup in a long while. On the other hand, I was also thinkin’ of making brandy beef stew. That is really good stuff and it has been forever and an age since I made that too. I think I’ll make the stew instead, just for sumpin’ different. I’ll have to go to the liquor store first to pick up some brandy, though.
Well thank goodness it’s finally Friday. Although I had Monday off to wait for the 'puter, I had to work the rest of the week. Believe me, I’ve had nothing but Monday’s this week, so I didn’t get to skip the Monday blues by taking Monday off.
Tsk…Swampy , just what do you consider "cold’? Does your lawn turn white in the mornings and can you see your breath when you’re outside? Or, is your idea of cool 60 degrees? 60 degrees is darn near pleasant for us folk up North. 
Well, I best get back to my ever growing spreadsheets. Lines and grids and tables, that’s all I see.
I have sent Mr. Lissar off for his fun 11-hour workday, and am sitting comfortably in front of the computer with a big mug of jasmine tea. Life is good- for me, not for Mr. Lissar.
All of you are coming to the TrannaDope, right?
Hmm. I love stew, but beef is really expensive around here right now, so we’ve been eating a lot of pork. I hate paying steak prices for stewing beef and pot roast.
The real reason I do big potfuls of food is so that I don’t have to cook for several days, especially when we’re working opposite schedules: Mr. Lissar will be in bed by the time I get back from work, gone by the time I get up tomorrow, and home just after I leave. We’ll see each other late Saturday night and all of Sunday, so it’s okay.
My favourite co-worker is quitting. 
But my other favourite co-worker’s wife is going to have a baby in June! Whee!
Piping hot pumpkin pie rolls for everybody! The ones in this pan are topped with toasted pecans and in the other pan, those are topped with toffee bits. Yummy icy cold whole milk or real coffee from the french press if you can wait another minute while it brews. Help yerself.
Good Og! Aviator goggles are expensive, ninety bucks to start. The leather helmet head thingey is probably costly enough to cause seizures. And people are putting them on their pets (is it bad that I would buy some for my cats in a heartbeat?). Maybe I’ll just squint.
So I bought the ingredients for minestrone and do you know they didn’t have pancetta? Also, I always mix up pancetta and prosciutto. They’re both italian and start with a p and are delicious, but still it makes me crazy. So minestrone with italian sausage (medium not sweet as recommended because they didn’t have that either) for lunch tomorrow at my house. All willing to travel to East Nowhere are invited.
Chi hooah hooahs reminds me of WKRP in Cincinnati. Sigh. I loved that show. I wonder if they’ll ever put it on DVD?
Well, my co-worker’s wife gave birth on Tuesday and she had twins. So there! My co-worker has more babies than your co-worker, nyah, nyah, nhay! and they are the cutest little bitsys–a bitearly, but both over 5 pounds and breathing on their own. Little Lucy and Ivan will be my surrogate great-neice and nephew, because my neice and her soon-to-be-born twins are too far away to be any fun. Plus, I’ll find something cute, buy it to send down to my neice, not get around to it and then I’ll give it to Lucy and Ivan before they grow out of whatever it is. Plus, I’ve got twenty, twenty! baby toes to jiggle.
So far today, I have pried Aerin out from behind the fridge, and rescued Bailey from the top of a ten foot bookshelf and squeezed him out from behind the microwave, which is on top of the fridge.
I just looked over my shoulder to find Bailey on top of the microwave. Seven feet up. They’re going to fall behind the fridge, get stuck, and be cooked by the radiator coils. I should have left him there.
They’re both for sale.
Don’t suppose we could get a recipe, Ashes[sup]2[/sup]? Yum.
Very sadly, Mr. Lissar doesn’t like muffins. I love them. I am a friend to almost all baked goods- not red-bean-paste stuffed Japanese desserts, but almost everything else. Maybe I should get some doughnuts (note the proper spelling) on the way to work.
Well, that depends, are they dogs, cats or children? We have quite a few recipes for children in the Pit, though most of them were considered in poor taste.
Chihooahooas should clearly be simmered in a tequila and lime sauce. Without the goggles.
Recipe? Hrmm, well, you grab yourself a favorite recipe for the bread part of cinnamon rolls and make that. Then grab yourself a can of pumpkin innards, the 15 ounce can not the gigantor one. Open that puppy up and blorp it into a bowl, then add some cinnamon, nutmeg, and maybe even cloves to taste. Add some sugar, about maybe a half a cup or a full cup if you like it sweet.
When your dough has risen, roll it out into 2 biggish swatches, the size of your cookie sheet. Glop the pumpkin guts all over the tops of the dough and then roll em up, slice into eight or nine discs each and put them into pans to rise again. Sprinkle goodies over the tops or don’t, it’s a free country. Pop them into the oven for twenty minutes at 350 or whatever else time and temperature you feel might work best for you and yours.
Sounds like your kitties need parachutes along with goggles Lissla. That, or glue them to any convenient surface.
Cats. Stupid Cat and Stupider Cat. Sometimes referred to as Emergency Food Supplies #1 and #2.
Pumpkin buns. I may have to make those early next week. Thanks.
Did I mention that there’s a Cinnabon that just opened right on my way to dance class? Argh. For those of you in Cinnabon-free cities, they make very large, very gooey and sweet cinnamon buns. Sometimes with pecans and caramel. I have thus far resisted, but I may have to give in next time. Drool.
Ashes, you may be along-lost sister–you do recipes the way my family does them!
Example, family recipe for a meat sauce for spaghetti or lasagne: Take tomato sauce, chopped tomatos (fresh or canned, or none) and tomato paste. Maybe saute some celery, garlic and onions first. Add your spices. Add the meat you cooked (with onions) and drained. Adjust consistency (add water or tomato paste) Simmer. Taste. May need vinegar, wine or maybe sugar. Add mushrooms, olives. Adjust spices. Simmer. Continue to adjust consistency and seasoning until it’s time to use the sauce.
With this recipe, I can make a lasagne, or a lasagne and a half, but not just a half lasagne.
Cookie recipes are even more cryptic: make cookies, but use butter only, and light karo syrup instead of brown sugar, and melted chocolate chips. Chop the hazelnuts very fine, and add just a drop of almond extract, or cinnamon. Roll in nuts.
I swear to the gods this was the exact recipe I received when I asked my sister about a new type of cookie she had made. What’s worse–it made perfect sense to me.
I just put a cake in the oven - devil’s food with chocolate pudding. It will be frosted with triple chocolate fudge chip.
Too bad you don’t live near me - you could come over and have cake.
I have a killer, er… to-die-for, er… faaaabulous recipe at home for Death By Chocolate cake. It’s got pudding, chocolate chips, and sour cream in it. Guess I’m going to have to dig it out this weekend cause your house is too far away.
I can never give anyone my sketti sauce recipe. I wouldn’t be able to give measurements on ingredients other than “till it looks like enough.” I use crushed tomatos, tomato paste, fresh garlic, Romano and Parmesan cheese, sugar, red wine, olive oil, onions, oregano, marjoram, bay leaves, and assorted other spices. You’d just have to come watch me make it and take pictures if you want.
I tried to give my daughter my sketty sauce recipe, but I couldn’t. I told her to watch me make it, but she’s hung up on the measuring thing. Poor baby…
If it’s not a secret, I’d love your death by chocolate recipe… please?
I may not live close enough for some chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but I figure I’m…what, an hour or two away from those pumpkin buns? I think there might need to be some Quality Control done on those to make sure they are Up To Snuff™. Don’t you think?
I had a harrowing experience as I was driving my pickup up Hwy. 99 this morning.
There’s a traffic light part way to the next town where the speed limit drops to 45mph so the people in the subdivision there can get out. As I was approaching the intersection, the light turned yellow so I stepped on my brakes to stop, and, as I was stopping, I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw that the semi-truck behind me had smoke coming out from under his tires! :eek: And he was starting to slide sideways! :eek: :eek: and he wasn’t stopping! :eek: :eek: :eek: The light was already red by this time and I was going pretty slow, but I took my foot off the brake and stomped on the gas. My old truck said “Huh? You talkin’ to me?” but he eventually got the idea and we accelerated through the intersection. Fortunately, all of the people on the cross street waiting their turns must have seen what was happening, 'cause they all sat still while we danced. Og bless 'em.
As of right now I am officially off of my diet, for a little while. I just ate a cookie. Hell, I might just eat another one. Then I’m gonna go outside and hit something with a hammer.
Okay, you can go back to what you were doing. In fact here’s the recipe for the cookie I just ate. The Missus baked them this morning for the Chamber of Commerce auction.
Ali’s Oatmeal Cookies.
1 cup butter flavored shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
2 ½ cups old fashioned oats
1 cup chopped hazelnuts
1 cup dried apricots
10 oz. coarsely chopped white chocolate
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix shortening, granulated and brown sugars, eggs and vanilla. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended
Combine 1 1/2 cups of flour , baking soda & salt. Stir into shortening mixture. Stir in oatmeal & nuts.
Toss chopped apricots with a tablespoon of sifted flour. Add apricots to dough, stir in white chocolate chunks. Drop 1 1/2 in. balls, flatten slightly and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 11 to 13 minutes until slightly moist in center and just beginning to brown around edges. Remove to waxed paper or rack to cool.
Soon as I get home I’ll dig it out and post it. 
Jeepers creepers Bumba! Come over here and lie down while I get you some tea and a pastry of your choice. Giant sledding semis in the rear view are not nice. Lemmee bolster that tea with a spirit of some sort, poor dear, your nerves!
No need to drive all this way scout, I’ve nearly got one of these pumpkin buns crammed into the cd tray. Soon as I get the door closed, bob’s yer uncle, snack time!
And just what’s wrong with my recipe Kalley? Why everything’s just as clear, well hmm, okaaaay… clear as mud. Nevermind. Plus, it does look like we may be related, it’s perfectly obvious to me how that cookie recipe should be.
For lunch I had a perfectly dreadful chimichanga and flat grape soda. Come the revolution, all school cafeterias will be stripped of their buns (hee) and then it’s up against the wall with 'em.
For the record - my cake is yummerrific! Soooooooo moist it almost didn’t need frosting.
Yep, too bad y’all live so far away…
I can be there in 3 hours. I’ll bring the milk…
I’ll leave the light on for ya!
Oh, and if you need a testimonial, you can ask welby - he experienced one of my chocolate cakes a few years ago…