annie blog

To Help Me Get By

I remember a long time ago hearing a Garrison Keillor story that he told about his mother. The story was set during his childhood when she was the mother of several small children during which his father was often absent (I don’t remember why). What I remembered from the story was that he said that, every afternoon, his mother would take an air rifle and go behind the barn and shoot targets. After this activity she would return to the house with a sense of calm and purpose. Something about doing this activity just really helped her get by with the young children and the absent husband and just the natural relentless nature of that season of life.

Well, I don’t have a barn.

I don’t have targets or an air rifle — yet.

But I do have something to help me get by. Actually, there are several things. What I’m talking about today, though, is free mp3s. To be specific, free mp3s from hearya.com. This is a music blog that features live recordings and free mp3s from Indie musicians.

Do y’all know about the Indie music scene in this country? It is vast. I can’t navigate it and I won’t even try. But, hearya culls the Indie music scene down to a very selective great few. They do all the looking for me and I just get to listen.

Listening to indie music soothes my savage self, sometimes. (If that doesn’t work, I hit it with some opera. But we’ll talk about that next time.)

*Just so you know, there is some profane language on hearya. Consider yourself warned!*

My current favorites:
Angry Charlie by the Generationals. The title of this song is particularly ironic in my life right now. It is a feel-good song.

How You Like Me Now? is a James Brown-like song by The Heavy. They really groove and hit it about 3/4 of the way through the song. I like to crank this up in my kitchen. It goes well with my R&B background.

I Love You, But Goodbye is the breakup song of the year by one of my favs, Langhorne Slim. I really adore this song, even though I don’t want to break up with anyone. If Langhorne comes to St. Louis I would so like to see him.

Of course, this doesn’t by any means touch on all of my favorites. Click on over there and find some favorites for yourself!

By the way, I sort of wish that I was helping with y’all’s edification by recommending good free sermon mp3s or something like that….but music is what helps me and I’ve got to be real here. You know?

To Help Me Get By

I remember a long time ago hearing a Garrison Keillor story that he told about his mother. The story was set during his childhood when she was the mother of several small children during which his father was often absent (I don’t remember why). What I remembered from the story was that he said that, every afternoon, his mother would take an air rifle and go behind the barn and shoot targets. After this activity she would return to the house with a sense of calm and purpose. Something about doing this activity just really helped her get by with the young children and the absent husband and just the natural relentless nature of that season of life.

Well, I don’t have a barn.

I don’t have targets or an air rifle — yet.

But I do have something to help me get by. Actually, there are several things. What I’m talking about today, though, is free mp3s. To be specific, free mp3s from hearya.com. This is a music blog that features live recordings and free mp3s from Indie musicians.

Do y’all know about the Indie music scene in this country? It is vast. I can’t navigate it and I won’t even try. But, hearya culls the Indie music scene down to a very selective great few. They do all the looking for me and I just get to listen.

Listening to indie music soothes my savage self, sometimes. (If that doesn’t work, I hit it with some opera. But we’ll talk about that next time.)

*Just so you know, there is some profane language on hearya. Consider yourself warned!*

My current favorites:
Angry Charlie by the Generationals. The title of this song is particularly ironic in my life right now. It is a feel-good song.

How You Like Me Now? is a James Brown-like song by The Heavy. They really groove and hit it about 3/4 of the way through the song. I like to crank this up in my kitchen. It goes well with my R&B background.

I Love You, But Goodbye is the breakup song of the year by one of my favs, Langhorne Slim. I really adore this song, even though I don’t want to break up with anyone. If Langhorne comes to St. Louis I would so like to see him.

Of course, this doesn’t by any means touch on all of my favorites. Click on over there and find some favorites for yourself!

By the way, I sort of wish that I was helping with y’all’s edification by recommending good free sermon mp3s or something like that….but music is what helps me and I’ve got to be real here. You know?

To Help Me Get By

I remember a long time ago hearing a Garrison Keillor story that he told about his mother. The story was set during his childhood when she was the mother of several small children during which his father was often absent (I don’t remember why). What I remembered from the story was that he said that, every afternoon, his mother would take an air rifle and go behind the barn and shoot targets. After this activity she would return to the house with a sense of calm and purpose. Something about doing this activity just really helped her get by with the young children and the absent husband and just the natural relentless nature of that season of life.

Well, I don’t have a barn.

I don’t have targets or an air rifle — yet.

But I do have something to help me get by. Actually, there are several things. What I’m talking about today, though, is free mp3s. To be specific, free mp3s from hearya.com. This is a music blog that features live recordings and free mp3s from Indie musicians.

Do y’all know about the Indie music scene in this country? It is vast. I can’t navigate it and I won’t even try. But, hearya culls the Indie music scene down to a very selective great few. They do all the looking for me and I just get to listen.

Listening to indie music soothes my savage self, sometimes. (If that doesn’t work, I hit it with some opera. But we’ll talk about that next time.)

*Just so you know, there is some profane language on hearya. Consider yourself warned!*

My current favorites:
Angry Charlie by the Generationals. The title of this song is particularly ironic in my life right now. It is a feel-good song.

How You Like Me Now? is a James Brown-like song by The Heavy. They really groove and hit it about 3/4 of the way through the song. I like to crank this up in my kitchen. It goes well with my R&B background.

I Love You, But Goodbye is the breakup song of the year by one of my favs, Langhorne Slim. I really adore this song, even though I don’t want to break up with anyone. If Langhorne comes to St. Louis I would so like to see him.

Of course, this doesn’t by any means touch on all of my favorites. Click on over there and find some favorites for yourself!

By the way, I sort of wish that I was helping with y’all’s edification by recommending good free sermon mp3s or something like that….but music is what helps me and I’ve got to be real here. You know?

Culinary Goals

I know that it isn’t the new year, yet. But, with all of the traditional cooking and baking going on around here, I just know that I’m not going to be pushing myself to do anything new. The new year is approaching, though, and so I thought I’d list some of my humble goals for the coming year in the kitchen. Feel free to set me straight and point me in the right direction at will….

1. Learn how to cook a whole chicken and turkey. That’s right, I don’t know how.
2. Make my own hummus. I do know how to do this but I just haven’t, yet. When I do it’ll be awesome since I could practically live on this stuff.
3. Brisket.
4. Learn some great crock pot recipes that my boys will eat to have ready for Sunday lunches.
5. Pork roast — I need a good recipe for this, too.
6. Make the recipe for Thai soup that I copied from a magazine months ago.
7. Make the recipe for soup that I was planning for Mr. Jim. He died a week before he was scheduled to have lunch with us and I just haven’t had the heart to make it. Now I do, though, because I’ve decided that I’ll eat it and think of him.
8. I want to learn how to make several great (easy) lunch salads. And, I’m on the hunt for a tasty homemade creamy balsamic vinaigrette recipe.
9. I’m going to make some new tex-mex foods. Suggestions, anyone?
10. Lamb for Easter?
11. I need a new recipe for a hot sandwich.
12. I want to learn how to make a slow-cooked Italian tomato sauce. One that I can do in a big batch and freeze for later.

Guess what? I’m going to blog the making of each of these….so, that should be an interesting adventure.

Here’s to learning new stuff. Cheers!

Culinary Goals

I know that it isn’t the new year, yet. But, with all of the traditional cooking and baking going on around here, I just know that I’m not going to be pushing myself to do anything new. The new year is approaching, though, and so I thought I’d list some of my humble goals for the coming year in the kitchen. Feel free to set me straight and point me in the right direction at will….

1. Learn how to cook a whole chicken and turkey. That’s right, I don’t know how.
2. Make my own hummus. I do know how to do this but I just haven’t, yet. When I do it’ll be awesome since I could practically live on this stuff.
3. Brisket.
4. Learn some great crock pot recipes that my boys will eat to have ready for Sunday lunches.
5. Pork roast — I need a good recipe for this, too.
6. Make the recipe for Thai soup that I copied from a magazine months ago.
7. Make the recipe for soup that I was planning for Mr. Jim. He died a week before he was scheduled to have lunch with us and I just haven’t had the heart to make it. Now I do, though, because I’ve decided that I’ll eat it and think of him.
8. I want to learn how to make several great (easy) lunch salads. And, I’m on the hunt for a tasty homemade creamy balsamic vinaigrette recipe.
9. I’m going to make some new tex-mex foods. Suggestions, anyone?
10. Lamb for Easter?
11. I need a new recipe for a hot sandwich.
12. I want to learn how to make a slow-cooked Italian tomato sauce. One that I can do in a big batch and freeze for later.

Guess what? I’m going to blog the making of each of these….so, that should be an interesting adventure.

Here’s to learning new stuff. Cheers!

Culinary Goals

I know that it isn’t the new year, yet. But, with all of the traditional cooking and baking going on around here, I just know that I’m not going to be pushing myself to do anything new. The new year is approaching, though, and so I thought I’d list some of my humble goals for the coming year in the kitchen. Feel free to set me straight and point me in the right direction at will….

1. Learn how to cook a whole chicken and turkey. That’s right, I don’t know how.
2. Make my own hummus. I do know how to do this but I just haven’t, yet. When I do it’ll be awesome since I could practically live on this stuff.
3. Brisket.
4. Learn some great crock pot recipes that my boys will eat to have ready for Sunday lunches.
5. Pork roast — I need a good recipe for this, too.
6. Make the recipe for Thai soup that I copied from a magazine months ago.
7. Make the recipe for soup that I was planning for Mr. Jim. He died a week before he was scheduled to have lunch with us and I just haven’t had the heart to make it. Now I do, though, because I’ve decided that I’ll eat it and think of him.
8. I want to learn how to make several great (easy) lunch salads. And, I’m on the hunt for a tasty homemade creamy balsamic vinaigrette recipe.
9. I’m going to make some new tex-mex foods. Suggestions, anyone?
10. Lamb for Easter?
11. I need a new recipe for a hot sandwich.
12. I want to learn how to make a slow-cooked Italian tomato sauce. One that I can do in a big batch and freeze for later.

Guess what? I’m going to blog the making of each of these….so, that should be an interesting adventure.

Here’s to learning new stuff. Cheers!

Baking and Gifting

Well, I had intended to get to y’all earlier to let you know what I had decided to give for food gifts this year — especially after all the help you gave me before Thanksgiving. Let me tell you, I’ve decided for next year to just give away lots and lots of cinnamon rolls. Those things are always a hit. Not that I think my gifts from this year were bad. They tasted really good. I just want to do ONE thing next year. After that I can grouse about how sick I am of cinnamon rolls. Not really, I shall try to restrain myself from the grousing.

So, the gifting (cooking) began last Saturday as I made Toasted Coconut Walnut Fudge and Pecan Delights. The recipe for the fudge is the same as my Rocky Road Fudge, only I substituted toasted walnuts and toasted flaked coconut for the peanuts and marshmallows and added a bit of salt to make up for the salt it missed when I didn’t include salted peanuts. The Pecan Delight recipe was given to me by Jennifer S. who sweetly emailed it to me. The candy was delicious and beautiful. (I didn’t get a decent picture, dang it.) I discovered, however, that I don’t have the soul of a candy maker and so I feel that it was a miracle that the candy turned out well — especially since I found out that my candy thermometer was kaput once I was to the point of needing it (way to plan, right?). I’ll be happy to email the recipe for this gorgeous candy to anyone who would like it. Just leave a blog comment.

And may the candy force be with you.

So, I gave out a bunch of gifts and then found myself needing more. So I switched over to cookies. Both of these recipes can be found on Smitten Kitchen. I made the crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate and the peanut butter.

They were both really good. The peanut butter was particularly liked by my boys — only next time I’ll be making them without the chocolate or peanut butter chips. The boys want them plain and I sort of like plain peanut butter cookies, myself. The texture of these is really good.

Then I ran out of cookies. So, I moved on to this cracker that I also found on Smitten Kitchen although an example of it is in cookbooks everywhere. I just love this cracker because it is a combination of salt and chocolate and buttery goodness. Also, it is cheap and easy to make. And, I like to top it with walnuts and craisins.

What? My boys don’t like it that way? I guess that’s more for me…..I’ll stuggle through, somehow.

And, now I think that I might be close to being done with my Christmas baking, although I have a few more gifts to give. Maybe I’ll just bake up some cinnamon rolls for the remaining people. YES. We have a winner.

Baking and Gifting

Well, I had intended to get to y’all earlier to let you know what I had decided to give for food gifts this year — especially after all the help you gave me before Thanksgiving. Let me tell you, I’ve decided for next year to just give away lots and lots of cinnamon rolls. Those things are always a hit. Not that I think my gifts from this year were bad. They tasted really good. I just want to do ONE thing next year. After that I can grouse about how sick I am of cinnamon rolls. Not really, I shall try to restrain myself from the grousing.

So, the gifting (cooking) began last Saturday as I made Toasted Coconut Walnut Fudge and Pecan Delights. The recipe for the fudge is the same as my Rocky Road Fudge, only I substituted toasted walnuts and toasted flaked coconut for the peanuts and marshmallows and added a bit of salt to make up for the salt it missed when I didn’t include salted peanuts. The Pecan Delight recipe was given to me by Jennifer S. who sweetly emailed it to me. The candy was delicious and beautiful. (I didn’t get a decent picture, dang it.) I discovered, however, that I don’t have the soul of a candy maker and so I feel that it was a miracle that the candy turned out well — especially since I found out that my candy thermometer was kaput once I was to the point of needing it (way to plan, right?). I’ll be happy to email the recipe for this gorgeous candy to anyone who would like it. Just leave a blog comment.

And may the candy force be with you.

So, I gave out a bunch of gifts and then found myself needing more. So I switched over to cookies. Both of these recipes can be found on Smitten Kitchen. I made the crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate and the peanut butter.

They were both really good. The peanut butter was particularly liked by my boys — only next time I’ll be making them without the chocolate or peanut butter chips. The boys want them plain and I sort of like plain peanut butter cookies, myself. The texture of these is really good.

Then I ran out of cookies. So, I moved on to this cracker that I also found on Smitten Kitchen although an example of it is in cookbooks everywhere. I just love this cracker because it is a combination of salt and chocolate and buttery goodness. Also, it is cheap and easy to make. And, I like to top it with walnuts and craisins.

What? My boys don’t like it that way? I guess that’s more for me…..I’ll stuggle through, somehow.

And, now I think that I might be close to being done with my Christmas baking, although I have a few more gifts to give. Maybe I’ll just bake up some cinnamon rolls for the remaining people. YES. We have a winner.

Baking and Gifting

Well, I had intended to get to y’all earlier to let you know what I had decided to give for food gifts this year — especially after all the help you gave me before Thanksgiving. Let me tell you, I’ve decided for next year to just give away lots and lots of cinnamon rolls. Those things are always a hit. Not that I think my gifts from this year were bad. They tasted really good. I just want to do ONE thing next year. After that I can grouse about how sick I am of cinnamon rolls. Not really, I shall try to restrain myself from the grousing.

So, the gifting (cooking) began last Saturday as I made Toasted Coconut Walnut Fudge and Pecan Delights. The recipe for the fudge is the same as my Rocky Road Fudge, only I substituted toasted walnuts and toasted flaked coconut for the peanuts and marshmallows and added a bit of salt to make up for the salt it missed when I didn’t include salted peanuts. The Pecan Delight recipe was given to me by Jennifer S. who sweetly emailed it to me. The candy was delicious and beautiful. (I didn’t get a decent picture, dang it.) I discovered, however, that I don’t have the soul of a candy maker and so I feel that it was a miracle that the candy turned out well — especially since I found out that my candy thermometer was kaput once I was to the point of needing it (way to plan, right?). I’ll be happy to email the recipe for this gorgeous candy to anyone who would like it. Just leave a blog comment.

And may the candy force be with you.

So, I gave out a bunch of gifts and then found myself needing more. So I switched over to cookies. Both of these recipes can be found on Smitten Kitchen. I made the crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate and the peanut butter.

They were both really good. The peanut butter was particularly liked by my boys — only next time I’ll be making them without the chocolate or peanut butter chips. The boys want them plain and I sort of like plain peanut butter cookies, myself. The texture of these is really good.

Then I ran out of cookies. So, I moved on to this cracker that I also found on Smitten Kitchen although an example of it is in cookbooks everywhere. I just love this cracker because it is a combination of salt and chocolate and buttery goodness. Also, it is cheap and easy to make. And, I like to top it with walnuts and craisins.

What? My boys don’t like it that way? I guess that’s more for me…..I’ll stuggle through, somehow.

And, now I think that I might be close to being done with my Christmas baking, although I have a few more gifts to give. Maybe I’ll just bake up some cinnamon rolls for the remaining people. YES. We have a winner.

The Accidental Intensification of Insult
happened at our house the other day. My youngest son was shouting an insult at his next oldest brother. The insult was supposed to have been:

“You lily-livered landlubber!” but accidently became

“You lily-livered LAME BOOGER!”.

These boys of mine give my laughing muscles a workout sometimes.