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Who’s got the muffin?

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Yesterday as we prepared to leave cold and snowy Lincoln, NE we stopped to get some gas and something to eat to tide us over until we got someplace where a real restaurant was open.

It was early. And did I mention cold? Yep, it was 6 degrees.

Holy cow!

While David filled up the car (with the motor running) I ran in to grab us something to eat. Such a freezing cold morning made me throw all caution to the wind and get a package of Grandma’s Peanut Butter cookies for myself. I love those. I got David a banana nut muffin.

As we pulled away from the gas station, I realized that I couldn’t find my glasses case. I just got my cool Ray Bans and was so freaked out that I may have lost them while loading the car up. So as I searched around my seat (it was so dark!) David slowly made his way back to the hotel.

I found them! They had slid to the side of my seat. Whew!

It was pretty warm in the car by this time so I took my coat off and prepared for our 9 hour trip.

OMG! Where’s my phone?!?!

David stopped again. I grabbed my coat and sure enough my phone was still in the pocket. Whew!

We drove on towards Little Rock in the cold morning, sun rising.

It seemed like a good time for cookies and a muffin but the muffin, which had been in my lap, was no where to be found!

I looked everywhere but it was so dark, I couldn’t find it.

Uh oh.

David was good about it, though.  He said he’d get something the next time we stopped.

As we neared Little Rock late in the afternoon, we stopped for more gas. I grabbed my coat out of the back seat and there it was!

Woo hoo! I found it! 🙂

I still have no clue how the muffin got in the back seat. I must have been searching for my glasses so fast and furiously I was throwing things. LOL! 🙂

Paleo Vegetable Beef Soup

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So it’s been super cold here.

Soup time!

I had been trying to think of what to do with all those (ha ha) soup bones I have in the freezer from the half cow we bought.

I’ve never used a soup bone to make soup before so I wasn’t sure how it really worked. This recipe called for 1/2 lb of beef and I would imagine we had that much beef on the bones I put in the soup. I could have just used the bones.

But, the soup is loaded with beef and chock full of veggies. It’s delicious and healthy and WARM! 🙂

Paleo Beef and Vegetable Soup
soup bone
1/2 pound stewing beef
3 quarts water
1-2 bay leaves
1 small head of cabbage
4 medium to large carrots
4-6 stalks of celery
1 medium-large onion
1 can tomatoes, cut up
6 oz. tomato juice

Put a soup bone and 1/2 lb. stewing beef in a large pot and fill with 3 qts. water. Add bay leaves. Simmer 2-3 hours, Skim top from time to time. Chop coarsely the cabbage, carrots, celery and onion.  Remove bone from soup and add vegetables. Cook 30 minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato juice.
Bring to a boil again and serve.

Calendar swap

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A couple of months ago, a twitter friend, Kelly from Design Crush, posted that she was hosting a calendar swap again this year. A calendar swap? How fun! I love doing swaps. The excitement of the unknown, the fun of picking out the items to send. So I signed up.

And then I tried to find a calendar.

My swap partner was Lu. The first thing I did was go to her blog. I learned there that her blog is very different from mine. It’s cool and random and I loved it. I also learned the she liked surprises and sparkly nail polish and had a darling little boy.

Now I was completely freaked out. How to find just the right thing to send?

When I went for a pedicure, I saw the new O.P.I. Muppet colors and knew that would be something I would send. Decisions, desicions – you know I’m a Libra and it’s hard. But I eventually picked Gettin’ Miss Piggy With It because it was red and the holidays are upon us.

I wrapped it with Rott-I-Tude and proceeded to look for a fabu calendar. There were none to be had in Bartlesville so I went to Tulsa.

I bought a lot of baby clothes for our new grandbaby while searching for calendars I couldn’t find. I didn’t want to choose the wrong thing. I wanted Lu to like it.

I finally decided to try Barnes and Noble. It wasn’t where I wanted to look. I wanted a cool boutique-style calendar but I was coming up empty. So to Barnes and Noble I went. Where I found a cool planner that I hoped Lu would like.

While I was trying to decide (again – decisions, decisions) I saw a Where’s Waldo calendar. Remembering how much Geoff loved Waldo when he was about the age of Lu’s son, I got the calendar for him.

And I sent them off, meeting the pre-Thanksgiving mailing deadline. Whew!

I got my calendar from Lu which is awesome!

I got a note from Lu thanking me for the nail polish and calendars. That she loved them and her son couldn’t get enough of Waldo. 🙂

This was fun, if stressful! I think I’ll participate in the swap again next year if it’s held but I will look during the year for sources of cool calendars and not just hope I can find it close by!

Phenomenal Pinterest Picks

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I haven’t been pinning very long at all. In fact, I wasn’t going to join Pinterest. I looked at it but couldn’t figure it out. My daughter-in-law kept telling me of the wonderful things she found on Pinterest so I gave in and asked a friend to be invited.

Well, it didn’t take me long at all. I’m hooked!

It didn’t take me long to find all kinds of wonderful things to pin to my ever growing list of boards.

I followed some friends from twitter and facebook. My boards continued to grow. I really like the fact that if I find something I want to get for the house, or a recipe I want to try, I can pin it to a board in Pinterest and I’ll be able to find it when I’m ready to use it.

I think it’s a joke that goes around about people pinning all of these things but never doing anything else with them. Well, I am excited to share that I made two Pinterest recipes for Thanksgiving. And they were phenomenal!

We spent this thanksgiving with our daughter-in-law’s family. They are nice people and we had such a good time. I liked the fact that we were able to contribute a bit of our Thanksgiving tradition with them.

I brought our family’s Corn Casserole, Fruit Salad and the chocolate pie (to DIE for!) that I make for David every year. At least once. 🙂

I’m good at baking bread and I volunteered to bring homemade rolls. This was my first Pinterest pick.

I made this recipe, stirring by hand even though they say you can make it in a mixer. They were DELICIOUS! Oh my goodness! It made the biggest bunch of dough I’ve ever seen. I had to let it raise inside my big soup pot. We ended up with 48 wonderful, buttery rolls. I’ll make these again. They were easy and the result was, well, phenomenal!

Our daughter-in-law is pregnant and I remember her telling me how she had wanted a piece of Italian Cream cake SO bad a couple of weeks ago. I had pinned this to my board:

and knew I had to try it, too. I liked the idea that I’d get to have some and not have to worry about a whole cake since other people would be helping me to eat it. David doesn’t like coconut so I don’t get to make things like this very often. It was so yummy! It also was fairly simple to make and it will be something I make again.

If you haven’t been to Pinterest, I invite you to check it out. There are so many incredible discoveries there! If you need an invite, let me know. I’d love to let you in on the fun! 🙂

Today is Friday

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You know I love twitter. It’s such a great way to connect and share with people. I have often told David that as long as I have twitter, I could be happy anywhere in the world.

Well, today, twitter brings more gold! I look at the trending topics:

And I see Today Is Friday.

Thank you, twitter! Some days I just don’t know what day it is and I’m so happy to be advised it’s Friday so I can take the garbage out. 🙂

I may have stomped my foot

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Squash is an acquired taste. I have to believe this because I love it now. But I remember a time when I was maybe 6 or 7 years old when I thought it was the worst thing ever put on my plate.

My dad took the whole family to dinner at the house of a business acquaintance.  They had kids that were about our age and I remember having a good time until we sat down for dinner and were served, you’ve got it, squash.

Having never eaten squash before, I took a hesitant bite of it and promptly turned into hell child. “I’m not going to eat this,” firmly stated my dad’s formerly perfect little business bauble. “No way”. I may have stomped my foot. They were embarrassed. They told me that if I didn’t eat my squash I could not have the ice cream and chocolate cake that was on the menu for dessert.

There was no way I was going to prostitute myself for a piece of cake and ice cream by eating that squash. And I didn’t.

Clearly it traumatized me because I remember it like it happened yesterday. Every time I prepare to eat squash. 🙂

But now, I LOVE squash.  Not only is it a great source of all kinds of good nutrition but there are so many delicious ways to prepare it.

Cruising around the internet the other day, I found this recipe for Roasted Acorn Squash. I found the acorn squash on sale for 99 cents at Aldi and so I got one and made this for lunch today. I don’t have a whole lot of spices since my kitchen is packed up and I just seasoned it with ground salt and pepper. But it was delicious! A very good vehicle for pepper.

Chilly day, toasty warm squash. NOM! 🙂

Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe

Serves 4, as a side

Ingredients

• 2 acorn/pepper squash;

• 3 tbsp clarified butter, tallow or coconut oil;

• 2 onions, thinly sliced;

• 3 cloves garlic, minced;

• 1 tsp ground coriander seed;

• ½ tsp nutmeg;

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste;

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F.

2. Cut each squash in half, but leave the seeds in. Place cut end up on a baking sheet and roast them for about 50 minutes to an hour, long enough so that the flesh is fork tender. Remove once cooked and let cool for several minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet over a medium heat, saute the onions in the cooking fat. Cook for close to 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent and begin to be golden brown.

4. Add the garlic to the skillet, followed by the coriander, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Continue to cook for about 2 minutes.

5. Remove the seeds from the squash and discard. Spoon out the tender flesh and discard the skin. Roughly mash up the squash and add it to the skillet. Mix well. Only leave on heat long enough to blend flavors.

Bad banana

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I make the same protein drink every morning for breakfast and it calls for a half banana. When David was at home, it was easy because I’d use one half and he’d use the other. Well, now I have an extra half every day so I’ve been wrapping them in saran wrap and freezing them.

I’ve learned through experience that this makes the banana VERY hard and it causes the bottom of my blender to come undone and leak protein drink all over the blender, counter, etc.

EPIC mess.

So today, I decided to take the banana out of the freezer before I walked Boo Boo.

When I got home, the banana was thawed. And super squishy, almost liquid-y. Which is not a big deal in the whole scheme of things since it’s just going to be blended up into the protein drink.

But dig this: it smelled like the banana that my mom used to pack in my school lunch after it sat in my locker all morning

Remember that smell?

Foursquare fitness

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If you’ve read my prior blog about foursquare, you’ll know just how much I love it. I love being the mayor of different places and I love, even more, getting badges.

I realized the other day that foursquare figures pretty heavily into my fitness equation.

Foursquare fitness? Yes. 🙂

There are several buffalo in town that are highly collectible, if you can call it that. Mayorship changes hands frequently if they are not visited daily. I love those buffalo. I WANT to be their mayor. This, gets me out the door on days when it might be a little cold or somewhat rainy. I know that if we don’t go on our walk and check into those buffalo, we might lose them.

My path takes me past the library. If I have a book to return, I’ll check in there. Then I head past the 66 Sculpture.

Turning left, we go by the First Presbyterian buffalo which, incidentally, is not currently there so I don’t check in right now. I do wonder what happened to it.

A couple of blocks later we arrive at the Bartian and Fabulous buffalo and Wooloroc Wiley.

We head back south, pick up the Frank Lloyd Wright Buffalo and the OKMozart buffalo

before heading over to Earl Sears Park to grab the Starry Night Over Bartlesville and Class of ’61 buffalo.

Then we head home.

This walk takes us about 45 minutes and we do it every day. Unless we aren’t home.

Yesterday, I got a new badge while we were out walking. It’s the Century Club badge and I got it because I had checked into the Bartian and Fabulous buffalo 100 times.

Exciting!

So if you live in a place like I do and are struggling with your fitness program. Consider foursquare fitness. It might be just what you need to get you out the door every day! 🙂

Why I LIKE the new @klout algorithm

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So I log into my klout account yesterday and I see that I’ve lost some serious pointage.

Just the day before, my klout score was 67 and I was classified as a Pundit. I liked that.

I look into my twitter stream and I see everyone is up in arms because their klout score has gone down. Well, I’m not too interested in my over all klout score.

I was never going to use my “klout” to get some poster or other little trinket. (Note: if they offer me a new Chevy Camaro as a klout perk to get me to tweet about what I’m getting, I sincerely will consider it).

But what I really like to see is my true reach number. That’s the one that’s important to me. I’m on twitter to meet people and build relationships so I feel that my true reach number should be relatively close to what my follower number is.

As I looked over this whole klout situation taking place in my stream, along came @mrautotweetwhitenoise (name has been changed so as not to insult anyone directly). I have blogged about him before. He, to me, is someone who just doesn’t get twitter.

Back when I first blogged about him, he had 50,000 followers and now he’s almost doubled that number.

But check this out:

My twitter follower count

His twitter follower count

And the very best thing:

Whoa! I have a higher klout score than he does, I have larger network influence, I have a larger true reach. Woo hoo!

Social media at the very minimum should be SOCIAL! It used to bother me to see @mrautotweetwhitenoise carrying a higher klout score when he was simply not present. Not social.

I feel vindicated, justified. I feel like my theory has been proven out. So, while you may bemoan your loss of klout points, realize that correction may provide a more accurate reflection of your true social media influence.

At least I’m going to go with that even though I still feel sad not to be classified a Pundit anymore. 🙂