St. Patrick's Day Celebration 2023

I debated if I should write another blog about our annual St. Patrick's Day celebration this year. We have celebrated for more than 45 years, but I have written a blog about this family celebration for ten years. I either write about the celebration, our resident Leprechaun named Shamus or a new recipe. As you see, I just had to write about it again. Every year it's just a little different. The grandkids were ages 2 to 12 when we discovered a leprechaun lived in our woods. They now range in age from almost 13 to 22. They still play along searching for the elusive Shamus the Leprechaun. This year it appears that Shamus has relocated once again.  It looked like Spring was coming early to Wisconsin, so he left wherever he winters and came back to get ready for summer.  Then the snow started coming. I'm not sure how or when he accomplished it, but he left his spot in the woods with a view of the water.  It is a mystery.  All the kids went outside to look for him, even my daughter’s dog Piper. Suddenly Piper bolted for the old garage/storage shed. There was a hole in the door and Piper went right on in. Investigating further the kids discovered tiny foot prints in the snow.  They lead from a tiny outdoor privy right into the garage.  

 

Dylan, age 21, lifted the garage door and lo and behold there was the leprechaun house right under the workbench! It looked like he was setting up his homestead under cover this year. Since Wisconsin weather is so unpredictable, it was a perfect choice. This garage is seldom used and was really quite comfortable.  Of course Shamus was no where to be seen, but he had been very busy. He has flower pots, dirt and seeds ready to go. He has a new rug and some new decorations. He even has a hammock ready to be hung on a frame. We aren't sure if he put the hole in the door or something else did it, but being an opportunistic little fella, he took advantage.  I hope he's comfortable.  The door makes a lot of noise when it gets opened but the garage has plenty of hiding places and exit points.  I'm sure he feels quite safe.

This year we had the celebration a week early.  Scheduling with my adult daughters and their adult children is getting hard.  I am just amazed that they all showed up. Everyone is very busy doing all good things.

I won't bore everyone with pictures of corned beef and ribs, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, rutabaga and dinner rolls.  I made the usual fare, but my grandson Ewan made his delicious cake and secret icing. If you haven't seen his famous YouTube video from last year, it's a must see. Leprechaun Cake  He helped his mom with an amazing rainbow jello and my other daughter made a colorful salad. I made a dairy free and gluten free desert resembling Dirt Cake without the Gummy worms.  I will put the recipe at the bottom of this blog.

 

It was another successful day even with a snowstorm the day before.  Many years we are outside in our shirt sleeves for this day.  Maybe it's a blessing because Shamus would have been harder to find without the snow trail. 

A Dairy and Gluten Free Variation on Dirt Cake

A smaller version could be made in a pie pan, but I made it for a 9 x 13 cake pan

2 Pkg. of Gluten Free Mint Oreos (these are gluten free and dairy free)

4 small packages of Chocolate pudding mix  (Use Jello brand or read the label, off brands have dry milk, Jello does not)

7 cups of Homemade Cashew milk*

 

To make cashew milk take 1 cup of raw cashews and soak them for 2 hours in 2 cups of water.  Then rinse them and add them to a high speed blender with 2 cups of fresh water.  Blend for two minutes.  Then add 2 more cups of water.  Blend for another minute. That's all there is to it. Cashew milk does not need to be  strained. It's ready to use after blending. I have even made Cashew Greek yogurt out of it using dairy free starter. It is made with the very same process as Dairy yogurt. Save a small amount from the batch to use as starter for the next batch. I drain the yogurt when it is finished to make a product resembling Greek yogurt. Cashew yogurt is very expensive in the store. This method saves a lot of money and is delicious.

 *I shouldn't call it Milk. Milk comes from lactating animals.  I am using the term milk for lack of a better word.  Cashew water doesn't sound very appetizing.

Crush 1 1/2 packages of Oreos with the frosting and press into a 9 x 13 pan.  Save some of the crumbs for sprinkling on top. At this point you can choose to bake for 5 minutes or just use as is.  Next mix the chocolate pudding mix with the cold milk and pour onto the crust.  Sprinkle with more crushed crumbs.  Chill for a few hours or overnight. You can serve with whipped topping or without.  I forgot to put it out and no one complained.  It doesn't look great, but it's really good.

Easy Method For Cleaning Bakeware

When I first started this blog I wrote a lot about household things, recipes and DIY projects as opposed to my recent thoughts and insights. I have to say the latter was a lot more popular. My ideas don't always mesh with others, so I'm here with a helpful hint.

Just before Christmas I was visiting with a friend. She had an old cookie sheet sitting on the table. She wanted to ask me how I would clean it or should she just toss it. I told her to toss it if she didn't want to use it that way. It was perfectly good for baking, it just didn't look new anymore. I had tried for a long time to get that brown baked on grease off oven racks and baking sheets. I tried ammonia, razor blades, steel wool and various cleaning solutions. Some of them worked but it required a lot of elbow grease and energy.  

Lo and behold I found the solution on Tik Toc. All it takes is a pumice stone stick. I ordered some and started cleaning up my bakeware.  You can easily get them online and probably in most home improvement stores.

The first thing I tried was my small sheet pans. I use these often in the toaster oven for roasting veggies. They just didn't clean up well. 

This sheet had baked on grease as well as discoloration from water. First I wet the pan and the pumice stone. Then I started erasing the gunk.  

Next I did some muffin tins. I timed this one. I always hear from people that they don't have time to do certain things. If you actually time how long something takes, it never takes as long as you think it will. I cleaned this muffin tin in two minutes. Pumice may scratch a little depending on what you are cleaning.  Aluminum will scratch more than iron. It might be a good idea to test an area first.

 There are tons of ideas and remedies on social media apps that don't work, but in this one is great.

Growing Up In The 1960's

This is going to be a quick blog. I just want to put my thoughts on paper before they leave my mind.  Sometimes I feel like a fax machine (this probably dates me too). My brain throws out information faster than I can grasp it. If I don't write it down, it's gone. Sometimes the thought leaves before I can even write it down. I guess having an active mind is good for a person 75 years old, but sometimes it's a curse. I can create problems that aren't there and stress that doesn't even matter in the long run. I can also create very happy enjoyable moments from almost nothing. Simple things like seeing a bird or animal travel through my yard brings me joy. 

Today is Martin Luther King day. Today started me thinking about growing up in the 1960's. I was thirteen in 1960 and was married before the decade ended. Living through it was sad at times but looking back now they were pretty traumatic times. We listened to the radio more than television.  I can still hear the news announcements in my mind. I also remember the television coverage of JFK's funeral. Young people these days have their own stress and issues, but we lived through so many assassinations in the 1960's. I am sure I am forgetting a few but these are the ones I remember clearly. It started in 1963 with civil rights leader Medgar Evers, then in November of 1963 President John F. Kennedy, 1965 was Malcolm X and in 1968 Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were killed. All of them were shot. President Kennedy was 46, Robert Kennedy was 42 and the others were under 40 years old. I didn't realize at the time how young that was. 

Has the human race learned anything from these tragedies more than 50 years ago?  I'm not so sure.

Sugared Pecans and Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

Every Christmas season I host a cookie making day.  Usually it's just my youngest daughter, her youngest son and me.  Some years we have more people but this year it was just the three of us.  We try to make some new recipes each year. Sometimes they are great and sometimes they are not.  Mostly we stick to the old standby's.

This year we had two successful treats to add to our Christmas plate.

The first is Sugared Pecans.  I had posted a recipe for these a few years ago but these are much easier to make.

Sugared Pecans ( or any nut)

Ingredients:

⅓ cup water 

1-2 t. vanilla

1 cup sugar

2 cups whole nuts (pecan, almond, cashew)

Instructions:

Add 1/3 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar* to a heavy duty saucepan or skillet

Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat.


Once boiling, add the nuts and stir constantly until the water is boiled away. 

The sugar will begin to dry out and start to stick to the nut. Keep stirring them around, so they don’t have a chance to burn to the bottom of the pan.
 Keep stirring until the sugar is dry and sticking to the nut.

Let them cool completely.  These are so good, I will making them at other times of the year.

If they seem less crunchy than you want, put them in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.
*If you want a flavor like cinnamon, add to the sugar

 I have only done this with Cashews and Pecans, the process is the same.  The above picture is finished sugared pecans.  The pictures below are cashews.

The second cookie we made for the first time and really liked are Chocolate Chip Cookie and Rolo cups.

Rolo Cookie Cups

These chocolate chip cookie cups are baked in a mini muffin pan, and are topped with a Rolo. They are good with a little sprinkle of salt. 

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1 package 24 count chocolate chip cookie dough*
24 unwrapped Rolo candies
Sea salt 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. and Grease a mini muffin pan generously with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Place one cookie dough piece (or about 1 tablespoon chocolate chip cookie dough) into each mini muffin cavity.

3. Bake until cookies are golden brown, about 12-14 minutes
4. Press the Rolo candy into the cookie. 
Let the cookies cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. If you try to remove the cookies too soon, they can break. Remove cookies from the pan and finish cooling. 

*Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
If using chocolate chip cookie dough, place 1 tablespoon of dough into each mini-muffin cavity.

A Great Way To End 2022

We had a great Christmas this year. This was the second Christmas without my husband, but we feel he was here in spirit. The first Christmas was more grieving, this day was more about memories. It is always changing. Sometimes things happen, whether real or perceived, that are comforting. I was handing out the presents to my family. It was a job he always enjoyed doing. While passing out the gifts, Mike wore a Santa hat with the Green Bay Packers colors.

I had handed out the presents, and we were going to take turns opening them so everyone could see. My daughter asked who was going to wear the Santa hat that dad always wore. The words were no sooner out of her mouth when a beautiful Eagle flew right passed the patio door. I was facing the door and said "oh my gosh, an eagle just flew right in front of the door".  My daughter said she didn't see it and it turned around so we could see it fly past again. The timing was perfect.

The grandkids are all grown.  They range in age from 22 to 12 and they all showed up.  They played games, ate all kinds of junk foods and just hung out at grandma's house.  

The good part was not one gift had to be returned (that I know of).  Even though being together should have been enough of a gift, we all got things we needed or wanted. I even got a gift I didn't even know I needed or wanted, but it was awesome.  It will provide me with entertainment everyday for a long time to come.

It is a bird feeder with a camera.  The camera is connected to wifi and through an app I can access activity from my phone in either real time or pictures.  If you are watching live and see something fun, you can video it or snap a picture. The app saves the pictures until you delete them. If you aren't watching Live, it will record the activity to be watched later. There is a SD card and a solar panel for power.  Initially I had to charge it up through a charging cord because our lack of sun this winter isn't going to be very helpful until we get more sunshine. Here are some examples of pictures that were saved.  I posted a few of these on Facebook, but I also want to save them to this blog.

Most of my friends who read this blog know my youngest grandson Ewan. Ewan is an outdoors man for sure. If his parents would let him, he would sleep outside in the snow under a tarp. He likes making things and always makes me a gift or two at Christmas. This year he wanted to make something for the birds. He convinced his mother to help, and they made these suet and seed donuts. I guess it was a pretty messy job and I should enjoy these because I may never receive more.

However there is more to the story.  Everyone knows how much I like seeing deer wander through the yard. I could never be a hunter, but that is my personal opinion. I can barely eat beef so venison is not an option. Shooting for sport is not something I was raised with. My grandson's other grandfather is a hunter. Ewan went to hunter safety class and went deer hunting this year. He shot his first deer. Part of being a hunter is dressing it in the field and then butchering it for the meat. Well, in the process of butchering the deer, he cut off all the excess fat and guess what he did with it. Yup, melted it down for Nana's bird donuts. They didn't just melt it down in a pan on the stove, they melted in a pan on an old wood burning cook stove. He is all about being authentic. I wouldn't have known any of this but after I opened the box and handled them, I was told to go wash my hands. I thought that was a strange request. Then I learned why. Fortunately the birds like them and they look cute hanging outside. I won't have to touch them again.

I also got some useful items including water softening salt.  It will be so nice not to think about filling my water softener tank with salt for a while.  

After presents Ewan and his parents went snowshoeing out on the marsh while the others watched football and played video games. We had just gotten a lot of snow so it was perfect for snowshoeing. They walked a long way and he was in his glory.

It is a good thing they did because a week before Christmas there were ducks swimming on this pond and four days after everything was melting.  

This is my tenth year writing this blog, and I want to thank everyone who takes the time to read it. We are now on to 2023 and all the adventures waiting for us.

Happy New Year!

No, I Don't Want To Be A Minimalist

Being a minimalist is all the rage. There are Facebook groups, podcasters and bloggers promoting this way of life. I say it's all a bunch of hooey. I'm not saying you should be a hoarder or even disorganized, but living in a sterile hospital environment is not for me. They say living without "stuff" makes you less anxious and calmer. Maybe it does that for some people, but I like my "stuff". It gives me comfort. They say things don't make you happy, but having something on hand when you need it is less stressful than spending a day going store to store finding it. We always say "they say", but who are they and how are they experts?

In an attempt to reach a happy medium between starkness and clutter, I went through the house. I organized and eliminated some things that I knew I wouldn't need. That's where the trouble began. I pretty much knew where everything was in my house. In case I ever have vision problems, I could still find my way around. Not so much now. For example, I always kept my address book in my closet on a shelf. My thought process reasoned that it really should be in the desk drawer and so I moved it. A few days ago I was sending a card in the mail. I went to my closet and couldn't find it. I panicked a little and wondered if my mind was not as sharp as it once was. It wasn't as sharp but not in the way you would think. I moved the darn thing and forgot that I put it in a "better" spot. It took me a while to remember. It went back to the closet. Muscle memory is much better than my real memory.

The same thing happened with my checkbook. I put extra store cards and the checkbook in a safe place before I went on my last trip. Yesterday I went to my purse for the checkbook and of course it wasn't there. Another panic feeling in the pit of my stomach. Did I lose it? Did someone steal it? That couldn't be, I hardly ever write a check anymore. Then it dawned on me to look in the safe place, but where was that again? Another hour wasted trying to find it. 

Heaven knows you can't have piles of papers sitting out in plain sight so they have to be stashed away from human eyes in case someone drops by and thinks you aren't taking care of your life. It happened with a birthday card I recently bought for my sister. I am notorious for buying the cards but not sending them. In fact I found a bunch of them in the desk drawer while looking for my address book. I had been to the store for the candy canes we used in our latest craft project. For some reason I felt the need to put the card in the bag of candy canes. More time wasted looking for it. I even emptied the recycle bin in case I threw it away. It would have been so much better and more efficient to leave it on the counter until I mailed it.

My grandma was like that.  By the time she got into her 80's she wasn't much of a housekeeper, but you could ask her for anything and she could come up with it in seconds. One time my parents decided to help her out and clean her house. She was so darn mad. She couldn't find anything anymore. That's how I feel about this minimalist nonsense. I refuse to take the toaster out from underneath the cupboard every time I want a piece of toast. I like my kitchen utensils next to the stove so I can grab what I need. I like decorations and stuff hanging on the wall. Not so much on flat surfaces, but I don't have much of that.

To each their own, but for me I find joy and memories in my stuff. It doesn't have to look like a mess to keep things, but if you're happy in a mess then so what. My kids can throw it away when I'm gone, but for now I am going to be a maximalist if that's even a word. Plus if I ever get robbed, they couldn't find any valuables. Nothing is in the logical spot. I almost submitted to peer pressure at my advanced age, but I came to my senses before it was too late.

Resourceful or Stubborn, Who Knows

Today is Thursday, December 1, 2022. I am 75 years old, but I still try to keep up the usual Christmas traditions. I should be working on that now, but I don't feel like it. That is the beauty of being 75. Every year I vow to cut back on decorations and on buying gifts, but so far I just can't. It may take me a bit longer, but I get it done. Actually the pressure is on from before Thanksgiving and everyone feels they have to be completely ready before December 1. Since I start earlier things are getting done as they always have. Buying online makes it a lot easier and fun. I can sit in my chair, order things and have the fun of having boxes delivered to my door, but that isn't what this blog is about. I may not have the job experience, several college degrees or a brand new house and car, but I have common sense and will always try to figure things out.

I am telling these stories from just one week of my life for my grandchildren and the great grandchildren I may have some day. They can say that this old grandma was resilient and resourceful.

Almost everyday something comes up that has to be figured out. It may be computer issues, mechanical issues or just why the light in the bedroom isn't working when it has a new lightbulb in it. My solutions may not be done to the standards set by others, but so what. Some of them work and others don't, but I always try. The night before Thanksgiving I decided to take a short cut and buy my pie shells. I always like to pre-bake the crust a little to prevent the soggy bottom that can happen with pumpkin pies. I put the shells in the oven for four minutes and they burned. I can't imagine why other than the crusts were made from oil, but they did so at 10pm I made pie shells from scratch. They weren't the greatest but I got the pies baked before bed. As you can see from the photo I overbaked them a little but I actually like them that way. I really need to check the temperature of my oven, but that's another day.

Next I wanted to put up my All Through the House decoration.  The collection was started by my mom, but I have expanded it to the point of too many pieces. It is actually a living room setting at Christmas released by Dept. 56, so to make it more realistic I bought a bath mat and I'm using it as carpeting.  

Then my printer kept powering off.  I did the usual and unplugged it.  That was an easy one, it worked after that.

My dishwasher was next.  I loaded it up and turned it on.  Nothing happened and the lights began to flash.  I turned the breaker off and back on.  The lights stopped flashing but began again as soon as I pushed the start button. I have to admit, I went to YouTube. I tried several things and then came upon a video saying I needed to reset the electrical panel by pushing certain buttons alternately five times and wait for the restart. It worked and my dishwasher went through the whole cycle just fine. I haven't tried it again and I'm sure it's a sign of the appliance failing, but at least I didn't have to unload and wash those dishes by hand. If only appliance repair people were easily available. I see a new dishwasher in my future. I know many people think dishwashers are unnecessary, but I am not one of them.  I make the broth, I make bread, I experiment with things all the time. I need the help of a dishwasher.

I won't go into all the little things a person has to figure out on a daily basis, but this is something my children and grandchildren will just shake their heads at. As many of you know, I make bone broth to drink every morning. I have done it for almost seven years and have blogged about it a few times. I buy my bones from a local farm that raises grass fed cattle. Some of the bones are large and don't fit into my pressure cooker very well. It was never a problem. I had a dedicated saw blade in the drawer and would just cut them to size. As I have gotten older, I don't have the hand strength I once did. Today I remedied that situation. My husband had a lot of power tools that are just sitting on a shelf in the basement. I went down and found a saws-all or saber saw. I'm not sure the name, but it was cordless. I popped the battery in, found and sterilized a new saw blade and cut the bones into sizes that will fit my cooker. My daughter told me not to do it while I was here alone, but geez how else am I going to get things done. It worked like a charm, and I still have all my digits.

Oh yes and I put the hood up on the car and checked things.  Remember when I made mouse poison out of salt, peanut butter and birdseed. I put some in the garage and the next couple times I drove the car I could smell cookies baking. I was worried the little varmints had hidden some poison in the engine. I finally remembered to check and found a few leaves but nothing else. Maybe someone in the neighborhood was actually baking. I was a bit worried about how I would explain an engine fire that smelled like cookies.

I also used the leaf blower to dust the stones on my fireplace and the ceiling fan.  Of course it was before I vacuumed but it was amazing all the little dust bunnies that fell to the floor.

Another thing I did this week involved repurposing and feeding the birds. Last year I was gifted a beautiful Bird Lodge. The birds loved it and I re-coated it several times during the winter. I used a method that involved mixing flour and corn syrup. It was pretty messy, but it worked. This year I received another one.  

Within a few days, the birds ate almost every seed. I had saved the house from last year and I tried a new technique. I just painted on corn syrup without anything added. It was very sticky and I sprinkled safflower seed all over it. I let is dry for a while and put it outside next to the new one which I will have to work on soon. The birds love this one too.  

I am certain there are many of us in this older generation who refuse to throw things in the garbage until we know for sure they are completely broken and unusable. I am certain it would never occur to young people to improvise like we do, but maybe they won't have to. I have a robot vacuum cleaner cleaning up after my leaf blowing activity. Who knows what the future holds. There may be a robot that does all the chores while a person is off to work or just having fun. Look how everything has changed in the last few years. Y2K was almost 23 years ago. Remember how afraid everyone was that the world would shut down. We didn't miss a beat and life with all the technology continued to move faster than we have. Good or bad, we can't stop it now. We just have to hang on tight and do the best we can do.

I Don't Like Mice

For those who know me and either read this blog or have me as a Facebook friend, you know that I am into nature. I love watching the birds and keeping track of other animals that come onto my property. The balance of nature is amazing which contradicts what I am going to say. There is a member of the animal species that is at the very bottom of my list. They are rodents like mice and rats. In my opinion these rodents have no redeeming qualities except to provide food for snakes and other animals. For this reason I have no qualms about eliminating as many as possible. I have been known to put a bee, a cricket or even a spider back outside if I find one indoors, but not a mouse.  I am sure there are purists who like all living breathing things but mice give me the heebie-jeebies. Mice are part of life when you live in the country. I have sealed up this house like a drum, but occasionally one gets into my laundry room. I have a couple traps set at all times and check every morning. This is the time of year they want to get in, and I rejoice at every one caught in the trap.  

Fortunately my house isn't a problem but that is not the case with my garage, shed and the old original building that served as a garage when this house was built. I have kept it in its natural state but it's starting to look pretty bad and is really easy access for mice.

This past summer I cleaned out this garage and organized what was in there. I found many signs of mice.  There were gross nests and chewed up items. It was disgusting. I can't set that many traps and keep up with it, so I found another way. I didn't want to set out poison and risk other animals getting into it. I did a search and came up with this recipe. It is safe for larger animals, but I would recommend putting these blocks near foundations or areas that are difficult for pets to get at. There is no sense taking a chance with getting your pet sick. This much salt can't be good. This website has tons of good information about a lot of DIY help.  http://diynatural.com

The recipe for the mouse poison is here.  https://diynatural.com/natural-rat-mouse-killer-pet-safe/  

It is basically four ingredients.

Just mix together 2 cups of birdseed, 1/3 cup of table salt, 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1 egg and pat it out about 1/2 inch thick on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. I used a small 8 inch cake pan. Bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes to set up the dough. I cut the bars before I baked them so they broke  apart easily. Mice and rats have a unique digestive system. The huge amount of salt sits in the mouse intestines and dehydrates them. You won't see dead mice and they won't smell because they dry up before they smell.

 

If you truly love mice, there are ways to live trap them and relocate to a cornfield or meadow. I have used these poison blocks for a while, and the mouse population is diminishing. At first, these blocks were devoured overnight but now they are sitting uneaten for a while. The mice are either getting smart or new populations move in as the old ones disappear. Eventually the mice population will be manageable. No worries, the mouse and rat population will never be endangered.