Saturday, January 28, 2012

Snippets And Odds And Ends...

I get things running around in my head sometimes... I call them many things like wonderings, idiot attacks and/or brilliant revelations so I decided to jot down one or two... or seven. Who knows?

Do you know how to fold a fitted sheet? I do know how to do that because my momma taught me how many, many years ago when fitted sheets were first introduced to the market. The second part of this mind wandering is if you know how to fold them do you care whether or not you do?

Am I the only person who wonders why the advertising people pay people to trash a place and put leftover food out on the counters and blindfold people to see if their air freshener covers up the smell... when all they would have to do is go to most any college kids apartments without giving them notice and film it for probably a 6-pack and a twenty dollar bill and then lower the prices on the air freshener?

And, following along this line, has anyone besides me ever thought about giving someone a snow shovel to make it easier to clean their house? I didn't, but I sure thought about it...

Is there a gene that makes some people inventive and others (like myself) the ones without the gene that are saying, "Why didn't I think of that?"

What about that person this past week that won 14.3 million playing the wrong lottery game?... I keep telling our good Lord that winning the lottery wouldn't spoil me or change me and I keep getting the reminders that you have to buy the tickets before you can win... no matter which lottery you play.

No matter how much closer I move to where my sibs live, the older I get the harder it is to make myself drive to visit them... or even go to the grocery. Or maybe that is my state of mind right now. Just sayin'.

Do you ever feel like your doc is just experimenting on you?

Does anyone else have brilliant thoughts while out and about and then when you get home and go to write them down don't remember what they were? And how hard would it be for me to get it through my thick skull to carry a little tape recorder around so I could save these thoughts for posterity with just a click of a button...

There were a bunch more things running around in my brain but evidently they fell between the lobes while I was trying to document the wonderment of my thought processes... Next time maybe I will have more that I've written down or recorded to share with you but for now...

That's all, folks!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Grits Aren't Just For Deep Southerners...

Any more, anyway... I told you all about the Chili Cheese Grits that Carol whipped up for Christmas. Neither she nor I have ever been a fan of grits but she ran across this recipe in a magazine and thought it sounded good... I thought she was nuts trying it out on a Christmas lunch but we were having company and she figured it would be more likely to be eaten, I guess. Not wanting to rain on her parade and since it had green chiles in it which gave the dish a southwest or Mexican nod I thought, "what the heck... give it a try". Dang, it was good. Almost like a spoon bread in texture. So I had to eat 'crow' along with everything else for lunch on Christmas. Here you go... enjoy.

CHILI CHEESE GRITS

3 Cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Cup quick-cooking grits
1/4 Cup butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 Cups Longhorn cheese, grated (about 6 ounces)
4-1/2 ounce can chopped green chiles
2 eggs
1/2 Cup milk
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Bring water to a boil and add the salt and garlic. Slowly stir in the grits and continue stirring for 4 or 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat.

Add the butter, 1 Cup of the cheese and the green chiles, stirring until butter is completely melted. Beat the eggs with the milk, add to the mixture and mix well.

Pour into a greased 2 quart baking dish and bake, uncovered, in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and serve.

Whomever wrote the original recipe should have added that the recipe might make a non-grits person into one who would request this dish. Obviously if I talked about it and took the time to copy the recipe for you all it is something that I would eat again.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks... or new foods to eat and like. I think Carol just wants to see if she can make something that neither of us has cared to eat into something good and yes, ma'am, she can!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Texas Trash And Other Tidbits...

First off let me say that Chloe (and mom) made it through her health crisis. She's eating and cleaning the floor for any little tidbit that may have been dropped, she's barking at anyone who dares to darken her door or the little kids that she can see playing when she's in the yard. I'm so glad to have her back to her old self that I don't even threaten to beat her for her barking... I just pet her and tell her to hush her mouth.

Now on to the inquiry about Texas Trash. Originally I believe it was more commonly known as Chex Mix and the recipe you can find on all the Chex cereal boxes. Where we got to calling it Texas Trash was from additions and augmentations to the original recipe by friends in Texas and it just seems easier to remember for me than Chex Mix and more fun to say. The original recipe calls for (this is just guesstimation from me... we don't have any cereal here now for me to be exact) 2 cups of each of the Chex cereals, Cheerios, pretzels and nuts. Carol has also used Bugels (the snack) and usually uses mixed nuts. She also uses a full stick of margarine or butter instead of half a stick. You melt that down and add to it a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and some seasoning salt, a couple of teaspoons I think. I can't remember if there are other ingredients and Carol is in the shower as I write this but if you don't find it on the Chex cereal boxes, give me a shout and I'll find out for sure the recipe. Anyway after you melt your butter or margarine and add the other ingredients, you pour it all over the cereal, pretzels and other treat stuff like Bugles or Goldfish or whatever and stir it up good. I would suggest you put in one of those throw away turkey cooking pans because then it goes in the oven on a low heat, probably like 250F. and every 15 minutes you pull it out and stir it up to get all the seasoning to all of the cereals and stuff. You do that two or three times and then you dare people to not eat it until they are full of it, too.

Really it is one of those snack things that folks will sit and pick at while watching football games or visiting with folks that stop in for a visit. It's fun finger foods for the little ones and everyone figures out what their favorite part is (mine are the rice Chex, for now) and you will catch them picking out their favorites. It is a snack that is easy to add to or change around like our friends that like to add Tabasco for a little kick (mmmm good!) or different types of snack foods like the Bugles or Goldfish crackers.

In a day or two I'll get Carol to print out the recipe for the green chili grits and pass that on to you all. I've never been a grits fan, nor has Carol, but she ran across the recipe and decided to try it. We are both glad she did and will have it again soon.

So that kind of explains about the Texas Trash/Chex Mix. It's fun to eat and easy to make, I could probably make it but don't tell Carol. You can have it going in the oven while you do other things and folks sure don't pass it by...

Enjoy.