Happy Birthday Randy

Happy 47th Birthday, sweetheart.
I let him pick all the movies this week.
I also cooked/cooking some of his favorites.

At the beginning of his birthday "week"
I made him Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake.
It's very moist and he liked it just fine.

For brunch a couple of days we had
Impossible Tuna Pie (quiche like).
For snacking I made Macaroonies.

For his birthday meal later today with parents:
Sicilian Meat Roll and Banana Custard Pie.
On the side: beans, coleslaw and lbuttermilk biscuits.

Weekend Events

Mom and dad come over for dinner Saturday.
I made Hearty Chicken and Noodle Casserole,
Blissful Ambrosia and Chocolate Cream Pie.

We finished watching about two dozen Buffy episodes.
Then we started watching season one of The Closer.
Movies we watched were Fargo (1996) - AFI Pick
and Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) - computers.

Midweek Update

This week is about new recipes - four of them.
I made two yesterday and there are two more coming.
Traditional Maine Apple Cake - never heard of it before.
I found it because I had a bunch of baking apples to use.
I really enjoy it - reminds me of a coffee cake texture.
For lunch/dinner I made an Impossible Chicken Pie.
We are really liking the "Impossible pies from Bisquick.
What can be easier in one pan to bake - meat and cheese.
Mix up Bisquick, milk and egg and pour over meat/cheese.
The other two recipes I plan on trying are for the weekend.
For Saturday is Cowboy Casserole - BBQ beans and beef.
And for Sunday Brunch is French Toast Casserole.

This week we have not been watching as many movies.
Instead we are watching a tv series on DVD.
We are both enjoying "The 4400" seasons 1 & 2.
We do hope to see season 3 & 4 eventually.
We are also anxiously awaiting (any day now)
Alien Nation - Ultimate Movie Collection.
We already saw the series - these movies are followup.
I've not seen as many tv series as Randy over the years.
I would like to see the pilots or first show(s) of
"Andromeda", "Earth: Final Conflict" and "Babylon 5".
And Star Trek spinoffs: "The Next Generation",
"Deep Space Nine", "Voyager" and prequel "Enterprise".

Getaway Food Finds

Pepperidge Farm outlet
I'd been wanting to try some of their crackers
so took this opportuinty to pick up a couple:
Wheat Crisps (baked naturals) and Golden Butter
And who can pass up their creme filled Pirouettes?
NOT us!!! So we each picked a flavor we liked
Cathy's French Vanilla and Randy's Mint Chocolate
Almost forgot - originally went in for cinnamon swirl bread

Russell Stover Candies outlet (going out of business)
Randy was browsing and found left over eggs.
For himself mint creme and coconut and to share
chocolate creme and brownie center (YUMMMY)

Yummies: Candy and Nuts of Maine
We had two coupons - one for each of us.
If we spent ten dollars we saved one dollar.
Cathy's picks: sanded horehound drops,
australian licorice and licorice twists
Randy's picks: white peanut butter cups,
dark chocolate mint wafers and cherry slices

When Pigs Fly: Sourdough Breads
Picked up Multi-Grain Anadama Bread
The crust was too hard - we cut it off

Busy Morning Again

I started another blog called Video Pairings.
I had started putting them in this blog
but decided they would be better separate.
Once we watch a movie I blog about it here.

Randy has already been up and out shoveling.
We probably got 3 to 4 inches since yesterday.

I peeled and cut up potatoes and carrots.
They went into the crockpot with the pot roast.
This is only my second crock pot experience.
We are using 3 pound angus bottom round roast.

Afternoon Ride

It was a nice enough day so I wanted to get out.
We had a few groceries to get for specific recipes.
I was able to get out and help with the shopping.
And even checked out in the 14 items or less aisle.

Picked up apples for apple crisp recipe.
Picked up potatoes and carrots for crockpot roast.
Picked up crushed pineapples for pineapple cheese muffins.
And baking essentials: choco chip, coconut and marshmallows.

I was not ready to go home immediately so we just rode.
I was curious about a church school that people spoke of.
It was a couple of towns over and I wanted to look at it.
Vineyard's small groups remind me of the structure of Xenos.

Upon our arrival home we saw a package outside apartment.
It was a Farberware 12 inch skillet from Bed, Bath and Beyond.
It matches the rest of our Farberware Classic Cookware set.
We used a 20% off coupon to purchase it (available online only).

Food tasters

Not officially but we have been trying new food options.
Both for snacking and actual real meals - breakfast and dinner.

Chex Mix snacks - different types:
Salty, Chocolate, Sweet and Salty, Fruit and Nuts and Simply Cheddar

Nutri-grain yogurt bars
The yogurt is a creamy filling - very good.
Claims to have 20% of Recommended Daily Value for calcium

Pillsbury Toaster Scrambles and Toaster Strudels
I preferred the toaster scrambles - easy way to get my eggs.
Down side is that all six are packaged together in the freezer.

Barber Food Stuffed Chicken Nuggets - four cheese
Could not find it on their list of hors' doeuvres.
Had this with the calzone mentioned below.

Hot Pockets Calzone
We had the four meat and four cheese- it was good.
May have to do this as a replaceement for pizza again.

Quaker Oatmeal To Go
I love the banana bread and the brown sugar cinnamon was okay
I did not care for the apple cinnamon yet I eat that flavor as regular oatmeal.

Valentine's Day recap

The day started with a snow-rain mix.
We mostly were planning to stay in anyway.
In the morning we watched Freedom Writers.
It's a love story of a different kind - a teacher's.
I will write more about this movie Saturday in the blog.

I made some Macaroonies while Randy cleared snow.
There was a lot of ice so decided to see if sun would help.
So we watched second movie of the day: Catch & Release
It's a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Garner of Alias.
I liked it although there were some strange elements.

Randy again attempted to go out to do a few errands.
We needed the paper because I had placed a "love message".
Decided to watch another movie: Come Early Morning
It stars Ashley Judd in what some say is her best performance.
It was a good relationship movie that included country music.

Randy finally headed out while supper was heating up in the oven.
So I did not have to cook we decided on On-Cor lasagna.
I was going to make bread sticks but temps varied too much.
When out Randy picked up Little Caesar's cheese bread sticks.
We ate by candlelight with a glass of Welch's Sparkling fruit cocktail.

During the course of the day my left eye had become a "red eye".
My nose was also draining pretty heavily as well - thinking allergy.
I decided to lay down and put a hot compress on eyes for a little bit.
This gave Randy a chance to sit down and read the paper.
He did find the "love message" I had placed for him.

We finally settled into watching the last movie of the day.
It was Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst.
Since I was not feeling well I feel asleep in Randy's arms.
I saw the beginning and the end. Will watch the rest of it later.
Evening snack: Chubby Hubby for me and Moose Tracks for Randy.

Week ending 02-02-08

I did not blog last week but wanted to mention some things that we did do partly for our own benefit so we remember what we did when. I tried a few new recipes. The first new recipe was Macaroon Cookie Cake, a chocolate cake with coconut topping made with pre-melted chocolate. It was from an OLD cookbook my mother had given me from the sixties, a Pillsbury Cook Off compilation. I asked my mom if that ingredient still existed today and found that it did. Me thinks I will use it again; it beats melting chocolate squares. The second new recipe, Potato Bacon Casserole, was my first use of our crockpot. It went well enough. The original recipe called for hash browns but I replaced it with potatoes thinly sliced. Only slight problem was that even after cooking for 6 hours the potatoes were somewhat hard. We both did like it so will be doing it again with precooked potatoes. I will be backdating the recipes a little later and adding links in this post.

If you know us you know we love movies. I was still a little out of it health wise so spent even more time than usual watching movies. I'll list by genre things we or just I watched. Later I may backdate entries to expand on some of these so look for last weeks entries a little later. The sci-fi picks included Taken (mini series), Lost Room (mini series), Alien Nation (original movie), and Stargate (original movie). Musicals watched Babes on Broadway, Broadway Melody of 1936, Broadway Melody of 1940, Ziegfield Follies and Words and Music. Comedies including romantic comedies included My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Repli-Kate, Just Like Heaven, My First Mister, Music and Lyrics and The List. The latter is the best romantic comedy I have seen in a long time.

During the last week we also found imdb's My Movies feature. It's your personal subset of their database. We each created an account over there. Randy is inputting all our movies and tv shows. Right now he is doing the DVDs and later the VHS. I am keeping track of what movies we actually watch. I have it set up by genre according to us (not imdb). Some of these will be linked on our website. Needless to say we are keeping busy.

Anadama Bread

When Randy was out today he picked up some Anadama Bread at Wild Oats Bakery and Cafe. Anadama Bread is one of the breads it makes on Saturdays. I've had it before and liked it so wanted to share it with Randy. We used it for our sandwiches for lunch.For those that do not know Anadama Bread is a traditional bread on New England. It is made with white flour, cornmeal, molasses and sometimes rye flour. It's "very hearty, nice & dense, and just sweet enough" bread.

There is no clear cut answer as to where the name came from or when or where the bread originated. The most common story as to the name "anadama" is ... a fisherman, angry with his wife, Anna, for serving him nothing but cornmeal and molasses, one day adds flour and yeast to his porridge and eats the resultant bread, while cursing, "Anna, damn her."

While I have repeatedly read anadama bread "traces its roots back to colonial New England, the northeastern part of the US. It is characterised by its inclusion of cornmeal and molasses, which are two very American ingredients" I also read a story that suggested it came from California and it was miner's wife that was "damned".

Update Sunday: For breakfast I like it lightly toasted and buttered.

(Considered MO of HUMORE)

Another Road Trip

In the afternoon we very all of a sudden decided on a road trip.
We had been looking to purchase a sale item from Target.
Our local Target store did not have it so Randy got a raincheck.
I got online and learned the item was in stock in another Target.
So we dropped our other plans and decided to go check it out.

We indeed found the item and had a choice of colors - Yeah!
The Target we went to was in South Portland, near Maine Mall.
We got a little lost trying to find it, so much for Yahoo Maps!
But we took the opportunity to see what else was around.
We spotted the new Big Al's - the original store is in Wiscasset.

Our dinner plans were to try Hannaford's hot "meals to go".
Tuesday is pork loin, Wednesday is meatloaf, Thursday is ribs.
Picking up the ribs in South Portland gave them time to cool down.
On the way home we had a few more stops to make while out.
We swung by Tim Horton's for low fat blueberry muffins.

The final stop was at Movie Gallery, a video rental store.
Randy has gobs of both VHS and DVD but does not have everything.
We ran into a problem though trying to sign up with 2 pieces of id.
Randy only has his license and nothing else with name and address.
I may have a problem too because my license has not been changed.

Brunch, Brownies, Beans

We had a late breakfast so made it brunch.
Pulled out the new T-fal griddle to use.
Cooked up scrambled eggs and left over rice.
Cooked up the sausage in the microwave.

In the afternoon I wanted to surprise Randy.
I had found an interesting reipce on Crisco packaging.
I knew Randy liked chewy and brownies and cookies.
So how could I not make Chewy Brownie Cookies.

For dinner I decided the old Saturday standby ...
Baked Beans with hotdogs and Brown Bread.
Randy thought I was a little crazy when ...
I asked him to pick up bread in a can.

Cookware Set

We packed up all my old kitchen stuff to give away.
That included bakeware, cookware and silverware.
We were hoping this weekend maybe to see a deal.
We knew in the past Bed, Bath, and Beyond did coupons.

We took another road trip today to my cousin's town.
This is also where I lived about six months last year.
Randy is glad I no longer live in the "boonies".
We ate some peanut butter cream pie at Moody's Diner.

My cousin has 4 children from teens to early twenties.
Three of these are woman soon to be out on their own.
I left my old but still good kitchenware with them.
We really were counting on faith to replace cookware.

When we got home Randy went to get the mail.
In it was a Bed, Bath, and Beyond 20% off coupon.
Coupled with $70 dollars worth of gift certificates ...
allowed us to purchase 15 piece set for just $10.00.

It's durable Farberware - the classic series.
While it is stainless steel also has aluminum base.
The matching frying pans have non-stick surfaces.
A couple of the saucepans come with spout and strainer.

Movies and Ice Cream

This morning we watched The Polar Express (2004).
That was the last of the Christmas movies.
This evening we watched Going My Way (1944) with Bing Crosby.
Midway thru the movie we stoppped for an ice cream break.
Okay it was for make it yourself sundaes.
Vanilla ice cream, caramel and chocolate toppings,
whipped cream and cherries and crushed honey nut cheerios.

Tired Now

I did the last of my Christmas baking today.
That included Macaroonies and Banana Bread.

Mom and dad stopped by for a little bit.
They had been at Kohl's for our wedding gift registry.
What they purchased thus far was 2 muffin pans,
9 inch square baking dish and 13x9 casserole.
Some items were temporary out of stock.

For supper I made Chicken Casserole.
And for dessert Chocolate Pudding.

My throat has been sore since yesterday.
Think I will take it easy tomorrow.

Dinner and a Movie #2

We watched The Thing Called Love with River Phoenix,
Samantha Mathis, Dermot Mulroney and Sandra Bullock.
It's about young country western writers trying to make it in Nashville.
I love country western songs so liked that aspect of the movie.
Guest appearances by Pam Tillis and Trisha Yearwood as themselves.
I really enjoyed the movie although it was 2 hours long.
We put the Hamburger Casserole in the oven at the beginning...
then paused half way thru the movie to have dinner.
Then later that night we played the games Phase 10 and Wordsters.

The Ultimate Gift

This is the first time we turned on the phone or tv all week.
We ordered delivery from Pizza Hut.
We had finished up the Sicilian Meat Roll at lunch.
Then we figured a movie would go good with the pizza.
Randy picked The Ultimate Gift with Abigail Breslin.
It was a great movie. Brought us to tears a few times.

The movie was about a grandfather dying and what he left.
In order to get the inheritance Jason had to complete twelve tasks.
In turn these tasks were teaching him life lessons thru self discovery.
The "ultimate" gift was really 12 in 1:
the gift of work, money, friends, learning, problems, family,
laughter, dreams, giving, gratitude, a day, and love.

Company times 2 by 2

Mid afternoon we heard that JD and Mike had arrived.
JD is the guy that helped Randy move here.
Mike is the best man and Randy's former boss.
After they had lunch they stopped by our apartment.

Randy went with them to my parents to see wedding site.
They then returned for dinner and visiting with us.
Dinner was pork loin roast, green beans and mashed potatoes.
Dessert was vitamin pie (coffee cake with fruit cocktail).

Later in the evening John and Sarah stopped in too.
They had made up a card with Nicholas, my old cat.
They used a program to put him in a tuxedo top.
They also gave us a generous monetary gift. THANKS!!!

Thanksgiving

Made a somewhat big breakfast of ...
scrambed eggs, ham and hash browns.
It was more the brunch time frame ...
knowing there would be a big dinner as well.

For the Thanksgiving meal it was just the two of us.
I made cajun injected turkey breast, potato casserole and corn.

We started to watch the Thin Man series I had given Randy.
And we watched The Devil Wears Prada with Meryl Streep.

Sweets for my sweetheart

In addition to meals I prepared sweets for Randy.
I focused on things I expected he would enjoy.
Including CHOCOLATE, peanut butter, cherries and coconut.

I made the following cookies/bars:
Chocolate Shadows (chocolate and peanut butter)
Macaroonies (coconut and chocolate chips)
Orange Oatmeal Chews (healthy-ish)
Magic Cookie Bars (coconut and chocolate chips)

We would eat some the day I baked them.
Then I would freeze the rest for his trip home.

I like bread so made two types:
Cranberry Fruit bread (brought to reunion)
Banana bread (small loaf also sent home with him)

Couple other desserts:
Chocolate Bread Pudding topped with Cool Whip
- need to make different consistency next time,
Frozen Cherry Dessert
- very sweet and included cherry pie filling,
crushed pineapples, coconut and Cool Whip

Anybody really wonder why he gained about 10 pounds on vacation?