Collectables

Earth to Moon Base...

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:14:26 -0800

Cold enough for ya?

And you should have seen these steps before my hubby shoveled them. Steps? What steps?

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Cookie Monster

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:11:17 -0800

Now that I'm back on my feet and well fed, it's time to return to my Christmas Cookie baking. Yesterday and today were chocolate-dipped coconut almond macaroons and pecan tassies (which look and taste like miniature pecan pies). I've still got to finish the chocolate Grand Marnier truffles, but hopefully will do that tomorrow.

Still have to wrap presents!

Macaroons

Pecan Tassies

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When She Was Good She Was Very, Very Good, but When She Was Bad it was AWFUL

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:01:18 -0800

Magnesium-citrate

I was supposed to go into a test tomorrow, a routine test for folks over 50 and a good idea, if you ask me.

This test, since it's intestinal, requires not a little prep beforehand. About five days before you have to stop eating nuts, seeds, corn or popcorn. After that you have to stop eating raw vegetables or berry-fruit. Canned is okay, but no skins. Nothing with whole grain.

Okay, I could do that. It would only be a week. I could eat any kind of meat except fried, and could make do with mushy white bread for a few days, certainly.

Yesterday was the killer, though. I spent the day consuming clear liquids only and getting ready for a certain something I'd be taking later in the day, as part of the (lower) intestinal prep. So far, so good. I was a bit low-energy, but managed to get through the day on water, clear tea with sugar (to keep my blood levels functioning normally) and non-fat, low-salt bullion. Yes, I was hungry, but I could hold out a day and a half.

A less pleasant part of this preparation would involve not-small doses of Magnesium Citrate, a compound which...well, let's say the examination area is nice and clean once the doctor needs to have a look. He inserts a laparoscopic camera in an area of the anatomy best not left to discussion. If the above-mentioned Magnesium Citrate has done its job - and believe me, you'll know within two hours about that - then you should have smooth sailing for the whole thing. Short procedure, reasonable levels of anesthesia. Then dinner afterward - a dinner that will taste all that much better now that you're starving and reamed out.

Alas, Magnesium Citrate and I were not meant to meet, at least under the conditions specified for the procedure. I was supposed to drink a bottle and a half (15 oz) tonight and another bottle and a half early tomorrow morning. Not the greatest tasting stuff in the world, but I had my bottles and down the hatch they went.

For a little while anyway.

I managed to choke down the solution between glasses of regular water, which I figured would be fine, since I had to drink mucho water after taking it anyway. The stuff was heavy, very salty, and had a lemony taste. I just held my nose and decided I'd just get it over with as quickly as possible.

It looks like my stomach was not at all interested in this beverage and decided, within three minutes of my finishing the entire first dose, to return it...immediately. I didn't quite make it in time to deposit the "beverage" in the sink and ended up cleaning spilled magnesium citrate off the hallways and the runners leading to the kitchen.

Well, let's just say I was in a mess then, and in more ways than one. I'd just upchucked an entire test preparation and had nothing left in me to do the job. There's no way I'm going to be able to repeat that and, besides, I'm already a day late on this carefully timed, two-day prep job. What to do? What to do?

My stomach was grumbling and growling from its recent bold and decisive action. I was still nauseated and now weak and feeling sick. I called the clinic's after-hours phone and said I'd need to talk to them tomorrow, could they call me? Then I listened to more of my audiobook, before nausea took the better of me and I retreated upstairs to return the very last of the magnesium citrate, this time to the toilet and sink on the second floor.

That and a headache medication later, I was feeling much recovered but I don't think I'll be getting my roto rooter exam tomorrow. That sucks, because now I have to go through that once again, after deciding white alternative potion that both I, as well as the scanning machine, can tolerate.

Well, live and learn I suppose, but I'd really have preferred going in tomorrow, wrung out and starving as I'd be. At least it would get done.

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:22:55 -0800

I started my Christmas baking with this recipe. It's fabulous. If you want to check out the original, pick up a copy of the Joy of Cooking Christmas Cookies by Irma Rombauer, et al.

Christmas Cookies

Ingredients

14 tbs (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

3/4 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup coarsely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

3/4 cup unsalted shelled peanuts

Cooling Cookies!

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix until light.

Add eggs gradually, one at a time.

Add peanut butter and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.

Add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until just combined.

Remove bowl from mixer. Add chocolate and peanuts by hand and stir until well combined.

Drop rounded teaspoons of dough 3 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake between 15 - 18 minutes, checking after 15 minutes.

Transfer sheets to wire racks to cool.

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Happy Hanukkah!

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:11:29 -0800

We're moving through the holiday season, so I thought I'd offer best wishes for a Happy Hanukkah. My nephews are going to be in town tonight to celebrate. We'll be going over to my in-laws' house for dinner and candle lighting. Then it'll be on to Western New York for Christmas with my side of the family!

Hanukkah Menorah

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iPhone Tester, Day One

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:13:59 -0800

Well, I'm now the temporary owner of an iPhone, as part of a test to see how/where AT&T - the phone's exclusive carrier - needs to improve. I have to take a bunch of photos and videos at various locations and then email them off to a special website. Then I had the phone off to someone else.

It's taking a while to figure out how to use the device, since I've never owned one. It's fun, but the novelty is wearing off pretty fast.

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When Good Yeast Goes Bad

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:41:48 -0800

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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Snow. Yes, That's Right

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:47:57 -0800

Thought it would never get here.

First Snow

View from my window:

Screened In

Brrrr! But it's not winter without it.

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Take THAT, 2009

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:43:35 -0800

I normally don't fuss about Christmas, but after this year I wanted a little holiday cheer to keep me going until the end of December. That meant a Christmas tree and assorted decorations, but done on the cheap and with minimal effort.

It was not an auspicious beginning. I decided to dig an artificial tree I had out of the attic, where it had sat for two years. I found the first part, the base and lower "branches," but not the top. I looked. I really looked. I even asked my husband to help me look. No go. Should we just go out and get a real tree, we wondered? Did I feel like doing that?

No. Call me a grinch, but I ended up getting another fake tree. It was cheap. It was six feet tall. Mostly, though, it was DRY. It was pissing rain most of yesterday, and tree sellers were looking a little sodden, along with their branch-ey boughs.

I set it up this morning. Not a bad little thing and my (Jewish) husband had a good time poking fun at me. He was a good sport about it, though. He came out with me in the cold and in the rain to get the thing and bring it home. Decorating it was on me, though.

But, hey, he liked it!

Add a tree with lights and ornaments, a glass of wine, and I think I might survive until 2010.

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Come to Asia! Watch Star Trek! Drink Juice!

nobody@vox.com(Margy) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:43:36 -0800

I indulged my Star Trek sweet tooth this evening, and tried to find episodes of The Next Generation. That entire series has gone missing on US video outlets, although earlier and subsequent versions of the Star Trek saga are there for the taking.

Well, I finally found what I was looking for, but not without some effort. For whatever reason, I can watch video streams of the series - all seven seasons - from either China or Korea. The shows are subtitled rather than dubbed, fortunately. I caught up with Captain Picard and his crew for one episode and intend to check in with more of the same.

It's a pretty bizarre feed, in that it stops, then starts, then stops, then starts. That signal must be traveling quite a long way to get to my computer here in Boston! After a while the signal sorts itself out and there's less interruption.

The commercials are a hoot. At one point an exultant Chinese (Korean?) couple are dancing around a beach singing the praises of some type of fruit juice. I have no idea what's going on there, but an ad is an ad wherever you go, I guess.

So, I got an hour of Star Trek, surrounded by Asian calligraphy and tacky commercials. There was even a little cartoon guy in the lower right hand side of the screen, drinking his juice. But, hey - I got to see Romulans, Klingons, Federation guys and the Starship Enterprise in its 1980s recreation. I'll drink to that!

Star Trek

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