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The rants and recipes found here are solely mine.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Christmas Breakfast



Pull Aparts
24 ounces frozen dinner roll dough
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix--I've used cook and serve too, either works
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup melted butter


The night or several hours before, grease a 9 or 10 inch bundt pan (do NOT use an angel food tube pan, it will leak and burn). Mix brown sugar and pudding mix, white sugar and cinnamon together. Place frozen dinner rolls in pan a layer at a time. Sprinkle part of the sugar and pudding mix over a layer of rolls. Spread half the nuts and melted butter over that. Repeat until it's all layered in the pan.

Place on counter over night. Do not cover. Stare in awe at it's enormity the next morning. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 30 minutes. Let stand a few minutes and turn pan over onto serving platter or onto wax paper on the counter.

Warning: Husbands with high cholesterol adore these. Serve with a side of fiber, a long walk, and Lipitor.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Our Daily Bread...Pudding


You know what happens when you're expecting company and you light a fire in the fireplace without opening the chimney flue? You have to make bread pudding.

It makes perfect sense to me. Let me explain. Smoke doesn't smell good. Bread pudding does. By the time Young One's friend was here to finish working on their social studies project, our house only smelled like cinnamon and vanilla.

We needed a little comfort food this weekend. This is a super easy dessert. It's frugal because it uses up stale bread (or the ends of the loaves that no one seems to eat that find their way to a bag in my freezer to perish as breadcrumbs for breading or meatloaf). I lightened it up and I think it could use less sugar if you wanted to cut the calories even more.

Tastes best served nice and warm. I usually plan to take it out of the oven right before dinner is served. This recipe stands alone just fine or would be lovely with vanilla sauce, caramel, or sweet cream.

Super Sweet and Simple Bread Pudding

6 slices of bread
2 TB melted butter
4 eggs or egg substitute or equivalent egg whites
2 cups skim milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In an 8x8 inch pan that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, tear up bread into bite size pieces. Drizzle with melted butter. Mix all remaining ingredients until well combined and pour over bread pieces. Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let rest at least 10 minutes before serving.




Thursday, December 3, 2009

I Will Always and Forever Be...Your Duckman

Young One's locker keeps jamming because the girl next to him doesn't clean hers out. The papers from her locker ooze out and cause her neighbor's lockers to jam. Annoying, yes, but not life ending. I told him to talk to her about it. He blushed a ferocious shade of red and said, "Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm" and left the room. She's pretty cute, I've seen her. Maybe one day her messiness will be endearing.

I'm flashing forward to prom dates, corsages, first dates...

Now flashing back to my own school locker neighbors. I wonder what happened to the Duck Man that was next to me. He wore white shoes just like Ducky's. He drank vodka mixed with milk from an old Thermos. He told me it kept his ulcers at bay. And, apparently, fed his addiction. I wonder about him from time to time. I was always nice to him. Felt sorry for him. Worried about him.

In a school that held strong boundary lines between groups, I walked over the lines a lot. Our lockers were assigned by alphabetical order. I could have swapped with someone to be closer to my group of friends, but I never did. I preferred to have my own space.

My Ducky made me laugh between classes. We had our inside jokes. Sometimes, looking back on it, I wonder if I was the only person at school that was nice to him. He didn't have a lot of money. He dressed in his own creations of combination thrift store and hand me down. His white shoes were maybe meant to be fun, but my suspicions were that they were his one and only pair.

I wonder what's become of my Duck Man. I guess I need to do a little digging.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

14 Phone Calls Later...

I woke up this morning, not feeling quite right. Seems the urinary tract infection that I was in denial about yesterday was raging this morning. My back was killing me. I knew I had to get to the doctor.

  • One phone call later, the appointment was made.

Home again, antibiotics in hand, I settled in on the couch to prepare for Confirmation lessons tonight. I'd taken this antibiotic one other time before, so I knew what to expect. I'll feel better as the day goes on. I've had these infections before. They suck, but I caught this one very early.

And then, itchy throat, ears, eyes, skin, difficulty breathing, heavy chest--I was having an allergic reaction.

  • One phone call to the doctor.

  • One phone call to the hubby.

  • One phone call to Young One's friend's mom to let her know their study date was off this afternoon because I wouldn't be able to pick them up.

  • One phone call to school to leave a message for Young One that I won't be picking him and his friend up from school.

  • One phone call to church to call in the subs.

  • Three phone calls to a friend to see if she could sub for Confirmation.

  • One phone call from said friend to clarify sub details.

  • Two phone calls from the doctor's office.

  • One phone call to sit on hold returning the doctor's call.

  • One phone call back to church to let them know a sub was arranged.




Benadryl, Aveeno, rest, new antibiotic. Repeat all until well again.




Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Tangerine Dreams


A busy day requires an easy dinner or one that is already done when you get home. I made this recipe up from ingredients that I had on hand. We loved it.

Sage might be a nice change, I'll probably try that next time.

Tangerine Pork Roast


1 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp tangerine peel, zested
1 TB brown sugar
2 tangerines, juiced
1 bone in or boneless pork loin roast

Place roast in crock pot that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Place first five ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Squeeze zested tangerines over the roast in the crock pot. Rub roast with spice rub. Cook on low 10-12 hours or high 6 hours. Roast will fall apart when it's done. Great served as a roast the first day and as shredded pork sandwiches the next. Leftovers freeze well.






Taking a little time to play with words, to play with food, and just to play!