i don't get it

but most of my posts lately are about food.  Here's another but I spared you the pictures.  (You're welcome.)  Remember those Reese's baking pieces I posted about?  Well, I haven't been able to find those.  Instead of taking that as a sign to not make the peanut butter cookies, I picked up a bag of Heath baking bits and I'll make cookies with those later today.

Heard enough?  Too bad.  A few weeks back I had an urge to make tortillas so I bought a tub of lard (you know, that really doesn't sound very appetizing).  Okay, so I bought the tub and it's been sitting in the pantry.  Today I decided to make tacos so I figured homemade flour tortillas would be grand.  I haven't made them in so long but once I started mixing, it all worked out and they turned out pretty darn good.  Ultra thin, just like I want.  I did realize one thing though.  A regular ground beef taco isn't quite worthy of a nearly transparent tortilla.  I think some outside skirt is more deserving.  Next time I'll know.  Guess what.  All this talk about my tortillas have made me want to show you how they turned out.


See how thin they are?  I like them like that.  I don't like thick bready tortillas.  I understand that a thick one might be better for durability but it's still not my thing.

Those arrows are pointing to my fingers that can almost be seen through the tortilla.  I think that's due to my rolling as well as the lard.

I know it's empty and plain but yum.

We have plenty left over so I predict breakfast tacos tomorrow morning.  I don't eat it but there's also plenty of cilantro and onion that Cosme likes to have on his tacos.  I guess he can put that on his eggs in the morning, I guess...

when i saw the recipe

for a blueberry crumb cake, I knew I had to make it.  So I did.  As I was mixing it up, the batter looked so tasty.  When isn't a batter good?  Then I added blueberries to it.  Yum.

I guess what happened next is obvious.

I poured the batter in the pan and covered it with a crumb topping and 45 minutes later... voila, blueberry crumb cake.

The lady that posted the recipe said to top it with sugar and butter.  No thanks, I thought ice cream was better.  It was good but you know what was better?  The next time I had some I used butter instead.  Yum.

quick,

what is this?

Is it poison?  I'm paranoid now.  I see a lot of this and I want to know before I get any closer.

i did not take this

picture but I saw it on another blog.  I have to share it because these Reese's baking pieces are so cute.  They look like actual peanut butter cups.  It's like peanut butter cups for Barbie.

Seriously, could they be any cuter?  One more question though, who could actually bake with these?  I'm pretty sure I would have eaten half the bag before I get to that last step in the recipe in which these things are added.  Oh my gosh.  I really need some peanut butter cookies now.  Let's see, I already have butter getting soft for a blueberry thing I'm making today so I guess I'll add these chips to my grocery list and make some cookies next.  I'll let you know how much of the bag ends up in the cookies.

oh my gosh. seriously,

how long does a poison ivy rash last?  I'm starting to think it's forever.  I did get to the doctor yesterday for something a little more potent than calamine lotion and Benadryl.  So far I really dig the magic cream and itch-be-gone pills.  They're wonderful.

oops. i

haven't been posting.  I'll try harder this week.

Now I'm off to take some Benadryl.  I hate poison ivy, oak and sumac.  I've been wearing long sleeves to hide the rash on my arms.  Do you know how refreshing it is to wear long sleeves in SE Texas during the month of July?  I'll clue you in, not very.

beware the

three leaved beast.

Cosme and I have been miserable for the last few days.  We were all up in the bushes trying to trim them back and hauling it to the street.  I later went around pointing out the poison ivy in certain flower beds telling him that I was not going near any of that.  Yeah, if only I'd thought to look in the bushes...

We've been living on Benadryl and calamine lotion and it sucks.

a little random

something from Saturday.

No, I wasn't playing golf, I was waiting for Dodo to wake up.  The funny thing is I talked to Dad a few hours later and he was out playing golf.

breakfast is

served.

I started the dough last night and finished my cinnamon rolls this morning.

I drizzled this icing all over them. 

One goes a long way so I figure this will fill Eric and his friends up.  I hope they're hungry because four more pans are about to come out of the oven.

This whole post is making me need a glass of milk.

guess where we went

late yesterday evening.  Yeah, we left around 8:00 and went for a ride in the MG.  Yes, 8:00 in the evening is SO much better than 11:00 in the morning... if you're wanting a breeze and not so much a sunburn.

Here are a few images I have from our drive.  I know the first three are very similar but I'm posting them anyway.

 The Brazos River

and of course, the sky

we went to the beach

 yesterday and it made me think.  The media is all over the tar ball situation.  Yes, I understand that tar balls are not good and they're showing up at all the beaches now.  (Forget the fact that from my earliest beach memories, one of the most dreaded things about going was coming home with tar somewhere on me.  It wasn't occasionally either, it was EVERY FREAKING TIME.  There was tar.  It was what happened when there was a trip to the beach.)  Anyway, like I was saying... The trip to the beach yesterday made me think.  I saw a lot of things on the beach.

There was a bunch of garbage.  Oh, there was this jelly fish too but there was tons of garbage.

Guess what.  There were no tar balls.  Alert the media.  Who cares about the garbage?  As long as there weren't any tar balls, I guess it's all good.

the mg is

finished and street legal!

as soon as the rain lets up

I plan on doing a couple of things at Grandma and Papaw's house.  One of which is trimming back some of the brush growing in front of the shed.  Here are a couple of before pics.

After that I think I'll check on the fig tree and see if anything is ready to come off.  If so, I'll try my hand at fig preserves.

i'm just not feeling

this new design stuff Blogger has going on.  I'm trying to find something that's "me" and it just isn't happening.

i've received a few

texts from Lauren showing the weird things her cats are doing.  This has made me stop and think about my normal, lazy cats that don't like to sit on the refrigerator or watch the water in the toilet.  Today's spotlight is on Lucille.  She's predictable.  If you sit, she heads for your lap.  If she sees your hand, she rubs against it.  She is sweet.  Some days she likes to sit at the front door and just watch.  We joke that she's waiting for a package.

Other than that, she lounges

and takes breaks to rub against things to find that perfect scratch

and lounges

and rubs against things to get scratched

and lounges

That's Lucille for you.

now that was a rough

week.  Strep throat is one of the worst.  I hate it.  I've always been the type to catch a sore throat when at all possible and I've always dreaded it but topping it off with fever just plain sucks.  It's not so much the lying in bed with aches and chills, tylenol and a few blankets can put a temporary hold on that.  Now the throat pain is always severe and I do hate it.  One thing that doesn't make any of it better is knowing that as soon as I'm good enough to get around, I have to strip and wash all the bedding (as well as any other laundry I've missed the three days stuck in bed).  Oh, and the kitchen...  Even though I haven't been cooking, there's a guaranteed mess.  The morning I went to the doctor I came out of the bedroom to find take-out bags and cups littered across the island with dishes in the sink and 5-10 empty 2-liter Coke bottles.  ugh.  I turned around and ignored it all.

Later that day after I'd been diagnosed, medicated and sleeping off another round of fever, I heard Eric in the kitchen.  I heard a new garbage sack going into the can... and then filled.  I heard water running and dishes knocking around.  Eventually my door opened and Eric asked how to start the dishwasher!  This was a first.  I was as excited as one could be while lying in bed feeling miserable.  I explained to him the simple steps of putting the soap in the two compartments and then selecting the NORM WASH cycle.  Ahh, I went back to sleep.

As expected, the following day I was a little better.  I got up and made a few rounds through the house.  I walked into a now clean kitchen and smiled as I knew I had one less task to be done.  Saturday came around and I began to tackle everything I knew had to be done.  I started with the bedding and loaded it up on the sanitary cycle.  I made my way to the kitchen and decided I would unload the dishes Eric was so kind to wash the other day.  Once opening the dishwasher, I noticed a couple of the glasses had a film over them.  No big deal, I'd rinse them off and send them back through the washer.  I noticed some blue spots on some of the plates.  Fine, I just ran everything through again.  But why were there blue spots?  My Cascade is white.  This was clearly a blue gel on the dishes.  At that moment I realized I didn't clarify which soap is used in the dishwasher.

Oh well, there was no harm done and I cleared everything up with Eric on the difference in dish soaps but mainly I'm still just so happy he attempted to help without being asked.

day three

of lying in bed, day two of antibiotics, first day without fever.  I think I'm starting to see a light at the end of this tunnel.

i lied. give me

a break.  I don't feel well.  I have a sore throat and it's making me feel miserable.

omg, can we say

NEGLECT?  I will get out of the house this week and I will have something to talk about.  Today I'm cleaning.

wait a minute

hurricane season just started and there's already this thing out there, busting through the gates. 

I hope the next four months aren't going to be this active but something tells me hurricane season is sitting there like Al Pacino saying, "I'm just getting warmed up!" - hopefully it's not throwing in an "Oorah!"

i think a habit

is forming.  Don't expect a post today either.  I'm leaving this morning and will be helping Cindy today.  I might take my camera and might have something to say later... but don't hold your breath.

ugh.

It's going to be one of those days.  Just took a Zyrtec D.  Maybe I'll have something to post later.

the way the guy in the

striped shirt casually walks past the man in the gray shirt as if they don't know each other, one would never know they made a little exchange outside the liquor store five minutes earlier.

I'm just saying...

yesterday i ran to

Houston with Cindy.  We were in a fabric store and I was sitting at one of their tables.  All of a sudden, there was a head resting on my arm and the side of my face was being licked.  Meet Toro the Argentine Dogo.

He was huge.

Seriously huge.  Look how big his paw was compared to my hand.

It was the same size.  Toro liked to sit in this chair.  At times he would curl up like a lap dog but he would also sit up like a person and look out the window.

Look at his butt in the chair.  His head is at the same height as a person.  Here's Cindy sitting next to Toro.

Toro liked Cindy.  Cindy liked Toro.  He was a really sweet dog.

She got up to talk to the saleslady and Toro wanted her back.  He sat straight up in the chair, held out his paw and waved it, motioning for Cindy to come back and scratch him a little more.

So she did.  I think she wanted to haul something else home in Earl's new truck besides fixtures for the shop.

sometimes a little

fried mush makes everything better.

Every once in a while I get a craving for Jack in the Box tacos.  Yuck, I know, but like I said, every once in a while.  Yesterday I forgot breakfast, was on the road most of the day and lunch was overdue.  Fried mush is fast, cheap, sounded good and it was good.  Try it one day.

queue the chorus of

angels... and... the headlights work.

What is that I hear?  A trumpet?  No, it's the horn.

Progress, my friends.  Progress.

i bought a new pair of shoes

and I love them and I want more.

They are so comfortable.  I recommend these for everyone.  They are Sanuks and I can't decide which pair I'm getting next.