A favorite thing. . .

Sometimes it really is the small stuff that makes a big difference.

This past weekend (after the bump on the noggin but before the concussion symptoms appeared) I did some shopping.  I found something that just made my day--navy blue eyeliner!  For a few years now I have made my own eyeliner out of powdered navy blue eyeshadow and an applicator dipped in water. 

But Saturday I found an actual navy blue pencil the same shade that I had been using with that powdered eyeshadow!

Heaven.  So much easier to work with.

So cool.  Deep brown eyes and navy blue eyeliner.  Love it!

Bread and Gravy

Now those are a couple of my favorite things.  As I kid I preferred that store bought stuff they called bread.  I prefer more grown up breads now.

And gravy?  Surefire way to make nearly any meal 1000 times better.

When I was a little girl my grandparents often joined us for Sunday dinner.  Nana played organ for a church downtown so we'd drive down and leave a note on their car inviting them to dinner.  We didn't always get a chance to talk to them.  We just left a note and waited dinner until they could get there.

My papa loved bread and gravy as much as I did.  My mom made some amazing tomato soup gravy.  sounds icky but it wasn't.  Whatever meat she was cooking (usually a swiss steak) would go in the pressure cooker with a can of Campbell's tomato soup and a can of water.  When the meat was done, she used that tomato soup/water/juice from the meat as the base for the gravy--just add the four/water mixture and whip into gravy.

My paper would start the meal with meat, potatoes, vegetables and gravy.  Toward the end of the meal he'd look up and say, "Looks like I have a problem.  Can I get some bread to sop up the gravy?"  And from there the (potentially endless) cycle began.  He needed bread for the gravy but then dry bread wasn't as good as bread with gravy so pour a little more gravy in the plate and then oops, not enough bread so repeat cycle.

Those were the days.

For those of you more interested in the gravy recipe, it went roughly like this:
1 can tomato soup
1 can of water
cook with meat (pressure cooker, crock pot or dutch oven)

Remove the meat to a platter.  Keep the soup/water/juice in the pan over low heat.  

In a measuring cup mix 1-2 Tablespoons of flour and 1/2-3/4 cup of water.  Mix thoroughly so you do not have lumps.  Add this mixture to the soup/water/meat juice, stirring constantly so lumps do not form.  Stirring with a wire whisk helps keep the gravy smooth.  It will take a few minutes for the gravy to thicken.

Favorite Thing. . .mini food chopper

I do not get paid for endorsing any product.

I simply have a few things in my kitchen that I couldn't live without.

And this is one of them:

Proctor Silex 2 cup chopper

I was lucky enough to pick mine up from a clearance bin for just $10.

This weekend I spent a little extra on groceries so I could pick up ham.  A couple of my kids love ham and feel that we should eat it more often.  (Good suggestion kids!)

The ham is just five pounds but that's enough for multiple meals.  We sliced it for lunch on Sunday and then on Monday night I made quick ham salad. . .such a breeze with the little chopper. 

When I was a kid my mom would drag out the big meat grinder and attach it to the counter so she could turn the leftover ham into ham salad.

This is much easier.  Just cut up chunks of ham small enough to fit in the food processor, turn it on and bam--chopped ham.  Just add some Miracle Whip, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar and dinner is ready.

Good stuff indeed.

Crabby earrings

I was out shopping the other day because I felt like my closet wasn't jammed packed with things already and maybe I should fill the void.

OK, not really.  There isn't a void.  I just like getting deals on my clothes.  I lost enough weight for my dr to congratulate me and use me as an example of "well done" to others.  So now it's fun to go shopping for clothes.

We were dangerously close to spending enough money at Kohl's to get some extra Kohl's cash so we hit the clearance accessories.

And there they were.

Silver Crab Earrings

Go ahead.  Look at them.

Don't they make you smile?

They made me smile.

Thusly, they came home with us.  And I told my oldest daughter that they will be our "warning sign."

Yup, on a crabby kind of day, you wear the crabby earrings.

Because what could be better?

I think I'm going to need a giant chocolate chip cookie to go with my crabby earrings tomorrow.  It was just that kind of day today.

Trader Joe's Organic Chocolate

I can't say it enough.

Trader Joe's Organic Chocolate has turned me into a chocolate snob.

I cannot accept Hershey's chocolate anymore (unless we're talking m&m's because I still adore those).

Nope, several years ago my sister introduced me to TJ's Organic Chocolate Truffles.  First experience wasn't true love.  There's a bitter cocoa on the outside but once you get past that it's sweet dark chocolate.

They come in cute boxes at Christmas time because they are "seasonal."  Note the quotes there.  No woman would ever call chocolate anything a "seasonal" item.  Chocolate transcends all seasons.  It goes with all seasons.

One year a friend sent me a box of chocolate truffles.  No kidding. It was a large box filled with boxes of TJ's organic chocolate truffles.  I stashed them in my freezer and rationed them out carefully.  I had them hidden in the bottom of the deep freezer and kept 1 box in a different container in my upstairs refrigerator's freezer compartment.  I'd send the kids and hubby outside to play after supper.  Then I'd pull one precious truffle out of the freezer and let it thaw on the counter while I was cleaning up the kitchen. By the time they came in the kitchen would be clean and the truffle was long gone.

Since the truffles are seasonal, I accept the TJ's Organic Dark Chocolate Truffle Bars year round.  They cost about $2 each but each bar is divided into 12 squares.  Each square is about 45 calories.  They are the perfect finish to a meal.  Just a the right sweetness and chocolate to polish off any meal.

And I swear that when I have a little bit of dark chocolate to round out a meal, I always end up losing weight easier.  I figure it's about not feeling deprived.  That bit of chocolate is enough to keep my sweet tooth satisfied so I won't go off the deep end of the "diet."

Sadly, the nearest Trader Joe's is nearly 4 hours away from me, hence the friend mailing me a box of chocolates.  Sometime in the next few weeks my husband is going to be headed that way. I'm going to have to send a little extra cash along so he can get me stocked up on my chocolate ;-)

Favorite things

It's important to sit back and take count of the good stuff.  The favorite things in life.  So here goes. . .a list of things that make me smile.

• Creme brulee coffee in the morning with French vanilla creamer.  Always delicious but if it has caffeine it ceases to be my favorite thing come bedtime.
• "Brown-Eyed Girl" on the radio in the morning when I get in the car with my brown-eyed girls to go to school.
• Brownies.  Is there ever an occasion that couldn't be enriched by a plate of brownies?  I think not.
• Hot chocolate with French vanilla creamer (tastes like you added marshmallows but you didn't--just creamy amazingness!)  It's especially good at night before bed.
• Down comforters.  I absolutely love when it gets cold enough outside that I can put the down comforter on my bed.  Soft, lightweight and snuggly.  Perfection.
• Bracelets.  I have 3 that I love to wear together; they jingle all day long reminding me of the people who gave them to me.  The first is from my mother and is supposed to have a healing, calming energy.  The second is from my husband from his trip to New York City; he was well advised by an older lady on that trip to pick up a bracelet for me.  And finally I have one that my best friend asked her husband to make for me out of rosary beds.  In a pinch I can use it to say the rosary.
• My grandmother's amethyst ring.  I still remember seeing it on my grandmother's dresser when I was a wee thing.  I couldn't touch it but I knew I wanted it. . .one day.  After my grandmother died, my aunt passed it on to me for my birthday.  I was very touched because my aunt could have passed it to a cousin with a February birthday but she knew just how much I adored the ring so she gave it to me for my August birthday.  My grandmother's daddy gave it to her.  It is priceless.
• My house.  What can I say.  I had the luck of designing my home and getting just what I wanted.  OK, maybe not absolutely everything I wanted.  But that was because I was determined to have a "turn of the century" style home but just after the turn of the next century.  You have to make some trade offs when you update an early 1900's plan to the 2000's.    But we worked with an incredible builder who was willing to work within the limitations of the design and give us a new home with the feel of an old home, right down to the very narrow wood gunstock hardwood flooring we chose and the other 'old" finishes we insisted on having.
• A good old gas furnace with forced warm air.  There is nothing quite like it the first time you turn that baby on when the cold weather hits.  Some people hate the smell.  It brings memories of home for me.  It also delivers warm air for my always cold feet so who can argue with that?
• Mail.  Facebook and texts and email all have their place.  But there is nothing quite like the joy when you schlep out to the mailbox and find a card or letter "just to say hi!"

The weather is a bit gloomy out today so it's been good exercise in happiness for me to work on a list of ten favorite things today.  I can't indulge in coffee, hot chocolate or brownies at the moment.  In fact, I have some errands to run.  Maybe I should check into decaf creme brulee for when I get home tonight.

Some of my Favorite Things

3 day weekends

A good cup of hot chai latte

Open windows on a cool fall day (or a just starting to warm up spring day)

The sounds of Saturday mornings from when I was a kid—chainsaws across the neighborhood (looking back, I have to wonder who it was that always had to cut up trees on Saturday morning!), the record player in the living room stacked with the “Sounds of the 60s,”  some E Power Biggs and Marvin Hamlisch playing “The Sting”

Snow days.  I don’t care that they have to be made up eventually.  There’s just something magical about snowdays with hot chocolate, a big pot of soup and a good book.

Florida.  I love a good beach vacation.

Michigan blue skies

Fudge.

A well-timed phone call

Friday nights at home.  I remember when I thought that was the worst way to spend a Friday night; now I love my nights at home.