A party to r remember

Recently we received an invitation to a Christmas party. DH has to read everything to me and get it on our  calendar.  He read me the date, the time, that we were supposed to bring a food item, and--last but not least--we were to bring a white elephant gift.

 Now, from my life experience, a white elephant gift is something that is inexpensive, insubstantial,    and part of a party game.  So I made a salmon spread,  dressed up in my Christmas finery, and thought about  a whitrf elephant  gift.

 I still had  three lovely  Honeynut squashes from my ganden.  Relunctantly  I would be willing to share one of them with someone.  So I polished it all up and put it in a fancy bag and we started off to the party.

 All went well until it was time to do the gift game.  As people begin opening the white elephant gifts, it was immediately evident that I was unaware of something very important.  All the gifts were neither insubstantial nor inexpensive.   I looked over at my  husband and he said “Oops. I forgot to tell you that the gift was supposed to be  $20.”  As I watched gift after gift being opened, I sank  lower into my chair.  Luckily, a friend  opened my squash and expressed great joy.    I immediately decided I was going to have to make it up to her. 

 I had the highest number and was the last person to pick a gift. There was only  only one gift left and it was a small red gift bag.  When opened, it was an Amazon gift card for for $50.  So, someone else had misread their invitation.  But it made me doubly embarrassed. I not only brought the cheapest gift. I went home with  the most expensive gift. But all’s well that ends well, because when we entered the gift card code it said it was invalid and had been already redeemed.  It turns out that my beautiful squash was the most prescious gift of all.

  

It's not that I mind winter.

 

The first thing I think of when I awaken is how many days until the days start getting longer.  It is SO close now.

 

It's not that I mind winter. Actually, I like quite a few things about winter.  I really wouldn't want to live  where there was no winter.  How boring to have the same climate year-round.  I think that nature intends for   living things to have a rest during some time of  the year...but not too long.

I lived in Alaska for many years, and the winters were much too long and too dark.    

 

By fall, I am tired of digging and I ache in all my joints. It feels good to listen to food shows   and try new recipes.   All year we always wake up at 6:30 and eat breakfast about 7. There is about a month in the winter where the sun comes up just at the time we eat breakfast. Life is good when watching a spectacular sunrise streaming through the kitchen windows.  If I want to see a sunrise in the summer, I have to get up at 4 o'clock.

In the winter there are also lovely foggy mornings that turn into glorious blue crisp skies.  In the winter I actually have fingernails and there's no dirt under them.  

 

Winter also has  advantages not often memtioned.  There are no yellow jackets and pesky flies.  And there is very little mud to track in the house,   And finallly it is much easier  to pick up dog poop in the snow.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talk to me

 

I just love it when an inanimate object  talks to me.

I can remember as a child   listening to the radio as I cut out paper dolls.  Does anyone play with paper dolls anymore?  I loved  the mysteries like The Shadow, The Whistler, and Inner Sanctum.

Then along came tape recorders, television,

and answering machines.  And now a whole new array of talking machines with Alexa being the most vocal.  She helps me find my phone several times a day.  Of course, now even my computer talks.  And the car patiently tells us where to go.

 

A couple years ago, Lilac City Services for the Blind gave me a talking watch which I love.  It announces the time every hour on the hour.  And I can ask it the date and year in case I forget.

 

Now, a new member of my talking machines has joined the household.  My benefits from my Health Insurance provided me with a talking scale since I could not read the digital scale anymore.  Not only does it give me the weight, when I step off the scale, it tells me “Goodbye.” What next ?

I'm behind on blog posts  right now and have a mental queue ready  to be dictated. But I am trying to learn a new way to do my blog post that will not be quite so conplicated.  It involves using the text reader in  Word and not depending so much on Narrator.   Of course it involves learning a new set of keyboard commands.  Also a different way of assembling the material as well. 

 

I'm at a very awkward stage where I'm continually messing up.  Hopefully, I will get it straightened out.  I wish that I had learned how to do all of this while I could still see, as it would have been so much easier.   

"Ban Boring Breakfasts ."

 Thought I would share my progress with "Ban Boring Breakfasts ."  I am doing pretty well.  The first one was corn fritters with leftover corn on the cob.  They were delicious, but next time I would add more peppers and top with sour cream.  

The second one was ricotta orange crepes. For the filling, I just added some orange marmalade and orange zest to ricotta cheese.  After I used it to fill the crepes, I made a sauce of marmalade and orange juice to go over the crepes . This was my favorite. and it was yummy yummy.  Next time I will fill them with ricotta and peaches mixed. 

Then on Sunday, we had salmon with hollandaise sauce and poached eggs.  This morning I followed Flora's suggestion and made a breakfast sandwich using charred sweet bell  peppers, scrambled eggs, and prosciutto on a ciabatta bun.  But I think I'm going to pass on her husband's recipe for making an omelet.   

Next, I have some lamb meatballs in the freezer that I'm going to do something with for a jazzed-up breakfast.   Maybe on a baguette with olive  tapenade and mozzarella.