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Charlene's Mac & Cheese

12/5/2012

Charlene's Mac & Cheese

1 Square pan
3 Cups dry elbow macaroni = 7 cups cooked approx. 200 grams grated cheese.
3 heaping tablespoons cheese whiz
1/3 - 1/2 cup milk

Put cheese whiz into bottom of baking pan with 1/2 cooked macaroni (still warm) and mix thoroughly.
Add rest of macaroni and mix.
Add 1/2 to 2/3 of grated cheddar cheese and stir, then put rest on top.
Pour in the milk.

Heat oven on 350 deg and in upper third place pan on rack and time for 30min.

Check.    When suitably crusty remove from oven.

The more milk, the creamier.

Cheers,
Charlene

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Glenna's Creamy Tomato Soup

12/5/2012

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Glenna's Creamy Tomato Soup

Thanks again for the great night last night, I had a lot of fun. They are a great bunch of ladies!!
Here is the tomato recipe I said I would send.

1-- Saute 1 large onion and 1 cup diced celery
2--Using blender to the above add 1--28oz can diced stewed tomatoes, and 10 oz chopped fresh tomatoes
3--Add 10oz chicken broth and 1/2 cup of Clamato juice and dash of Tabasco
4--1 tbsp. dry dill

Simmer all above ingredients

Now make white sauce

1/4 cup margarine, 1/2 cup flour, 4 cups Homog. milk
Cook and then add 1 cup of cheddar cheese stir till melted then stir veg. mixture into white sauce.

ENJOY!!

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Pam's Broccoli Salad

12/5/2012

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Broccoli Salad

2 bunches of broccoli cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup chopped onion
10-12 slices of bacon cooked and chopped (or 1/4 c bacon bits)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (mozzarella or cheddar)

Not on the original recipe, but I added:
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans

For dressing mix:
3/4 cup mayo
1//2 cup white sugar
4 tbsp vinegar

Mix together and pour over the salad at
least 1 hour before serving (not too long)

Enjoy!!! - Pam

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Pineapple Punch

12/4/2012

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Getting ready for our hook-in Christmas party and thought I would share this punch recipe. Deliciously zippy, it's hands down the best punch I've ever tasted!   It's like pineapple Champagne!

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup orange juice
2/3 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup lime juice
1 cup white sugar
1 46 oz can of pineapple juice
1 large bottle bottle gingerale
1 large bottle club soda

Combine the orange, lemon and lime juices with the  sugar and chill for several hours or overnight.

When making the punch put ice in the bowl and then pour the fruit juice concoction over it. Next pour the can of pineapple and then gently pour the gingerale and soda down the edge of the bowl to keep it fizzy.   Add slices of orange, lime and lemon with cranberries or cherries for garnish.

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House Cleaning

12/4/2012

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I’m still cleaning my house.  It’s amazing how things fall to pieces when you’ve busy.  It’s been over a month since I last dug out the vacuum and I’m paying dearly for that snub. The last thing I have time for is housework. My mother was the ultimate white tornado. You could have eaten off any surface or corner in her home. The ironing alone took forever; she sprinkled and pressed everything we wore as well as the dish cloths and bed sheets. That was her life. She excelled at
domestic chores and was proud of the fact that my father went to work with a brilliantly white, starched shirt every single day.   Through genes I’ve been handed the same gift, I can clean with the best of them, I'm thorough and conscientious, I just don’t find any joy in it and choose to not do it unless of course I’m forced too. No one would want to eat off of the corners of my house unless of course you’re a four legged rodent. I’m busy. I run a business and have four dogs!  But
I do have my pride and I can’t let my friends know my dark secret, so when they arrive for the party they’ll think I’m a domestic goddess. Just don’t look under the rug!

For the past few years I had a cleaning service and I thought I died and went to heaven. Twice a
month two wonderful angels came through the door touting their cleaning paraphernalia and went through my home eradicating all the dust and grime of day to day living.   The house sparkled like a new penny and smelled as fresh as a summer breeze. But disaster hit just before last Christmas, things were never the same and now, sadly, there are no angels.

We had just taken receipt of Jake, a three month black poodle who flew in from Quebec.   Puppies are a going concern and along with my other three they kept me hopping. It was Friday and I had an appointment with a client, so I packed up the pups and headed out the door a bit on the frazzled side. I’m a creature of habit and as I go out the door, I usually lather on a bit of hand cream and put on my rings that always rest in this little wooden bowl on my kitchen island.     But this morning I was a bit distracted with Jake and left empty fingered and never thought twice about rings until I was leaving the house Saturday morning for work.

I went to the bowl and my trinity diamond ring wasn’t there per the usual. I figured I must have taken it off in the bedroom and it was too late to run upstairs so I opted to wear the solitaire. There had been five rings in the bowl the previous day, but now there were only three and both the trinity and solitaire were missing. Alarms went off immediately. I wore the trinity daily and the solitaire only occasionally but they both should have been in the bowl. A sick feeling began to spread in the pit of my stomach as the implication set in. The rings were stolen, and it had to be yesterday as they were definitely there on Thursday. The only people in the house were the cleaners.

Now it isn’t easy to accuse someone of theft, I hope you never have to do it!  I worried I wouldn’t be taken seriously. If my allegations were denied, who would the cleaning company believe?  There was also the worry that the innocent of the two women would fall under suspicion. The older of the two I knew from way back, we actually worked together in a restaurant in my youth, and I trusted her without a doubt. She had also worked for the company for twenty years so was tried and true. The girl with her was a trainee, only on the job a few months and I never even got to meet my nemesis, because for the first time ever, I wasn’t home when they cleaned.

So I spent all weekend hoping I was wrong but knowing that I wasn’t. Frantically searching the house, the car and the shop for the rings,  it was so much better thinking I had goofed instead of thinking someone had stolen from me. I felt violated and let me tell you I tortured myself the entire weekend wondering what I should do. I even considered not saying anything just to keep the peace. You see, I knew something the thief didn’t; the two rings stolen had fake diamonds in them; Diamonelle to be exact. The #1 simulated diamond in the world with a hardness of eight and most are not able to tell without a jewelers loupe. I was happy with the fake diamonds, as I never had to worry about losing them. Collectively I paid around $500 for the rings, most of the cost was for the real gold settings. The thief, on the other hand, thought she was walking away with approximately $10,000 worth of rocks and that is why I had to make that call, to spare another home owner from knowing this kind of grief.

The thief was clever and spent a bit of time setting up a scenario. She mentioned to the upstairs woman, when she came downstairs to empty her cleaning pail, that the owner of the house had beautiful things and that the three rings in the bowl on the counter were lovely. That brought the second woman’s attention to the bowl, noting there were three rings present, so later, when questioned, she told the police that is what she observed. They interviewed me and I told them I was positive, without a doubt, that my rings were missing and the only people in the house were the cleaners.   They zeroed in on the new employee pretty quickly, and to my surprise she confessed. Said she took the diamonds out of the settings and buried them in the yard and flushed the gold down the toilet.  I never quite believed that, especially when there was an ad in the local paper of someone at the mall that very weekend buying gold. According to the police, the woman had a drug habit and stole to support it, so it was unlikely she threw guaranteed money down the drain.

The police retrieved the fake diamonds, prepared their case against her and before they issued a warrant for her arrest she absconded to England, her childhood home.   During the investigation, the also discovered she stole from a few more homes that day, even the parents of the person who owned the cleaning company. The police waited for her to return but months went by and they finally just dropped the charges.

When the police called to tell me she confessed I burst into tears. They offered grief counselling but I said this was just the relief of being believed and having the ugly mess over. I had a lot of stress over that nightmare.   I worried I wouldn’t be taken seriously, stressed over someone innocent being fired.   So much was weighing down my shoulders, the confession lifted the burden and the relief washed away through a river of tears. The cleaning company reimbursed the cost of my loss and life went back to normal. They continued to clean my home with the proviso that only their older, experienced women did the work. No more trainees ever! Over the next few months there were several times when it wasn’t possible to send the regular team, appointments and sickness and life being what it is. So they kept cancelling and I got a little frustrated and said forget it, I would clean my own house but I should have kept my mouth shut.
I’m not interested in doing housework on top of all else I have to do and I don’t want to live in filth!   In the New Year I think I’ll phone them back and work something out or look for an independent.

So they say every black cloud has a silver lining and this tale does have a happy ending. My hubby felt so badly for me, knowing how much angst I went through over the ordeal, that he bought the real deal for me that Christmas. It was a lovely sentiment, but now I have to worry about a real diamond, and let me tell you, it never leaves my finger so the next person wishing to take what’s mine will be forced to pry it off my cold dead hand!

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Insomnia

12/4/2012

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Well, I think it’s official. I have insomnia. That’s a
self-diagnosis but considering I'm not sleeping, I don't think I need a degree to call a spade a spade.

I’ve always been a late nighter but over the past few years I’ve successfully turned my internal clock around and, for the most part, manage to get to bed before midnight. But, for the past month, I seem to be up until 2:00 am or later and then drag my tired body up the stairs to toss and turn like a chicken on a spit, growing more and more frustrated as the hours tick away.   You’d think I’d get up and do something productive but I keep hoping sleep will come so I lay there deep breathing and counting sheep.   I'm surviving on two to four hours a night and I can only wonder, how long can this last?

For lack of a better reason, I’m blaming the new website. I’ve been so excited lately my mind has been in hyper drive. I have fallen head or heels in love with rug hooking again.   After twelve years things had gone a bit stale but now the endorphins are pumping through my veins like water through pressured pipes. Now, if only I could get a decent night’s sleep!

So, I wanted to finish my hooked piece but got home Sunday evening and found a flea on one of my pups so I had to vacuum the entire house and then bathe all four hounds. That took four hours and finally finished around 1:30. My feet were dragging and I tripped over my eyelids a couple of times so I figured…tonight’s the night, I’m so bloody tired I’ll fall asleep for sure. Well, good thing I’m not a betting women or I’d have lost my night shirt. No sleep until around 5:30 and then I snuggled in like a baby until rudely awakened at 8:00 by a screaming alarm that pulls you into consciousness with the subtlety of a cannon boom. I might be able to fall back to sleep if not for the fact that I have work to do and four tiny full bladders to take outside.

So, no hooking again last night…I'm busy cleaning my house to ready it for our Main Street Hooker’s Christmas party on Wednesday evening. This will be the Christmas scour so I should be ready with only a bit of dusting and vacuuming for the holidays.   As I work I ask myself, “Why do I have all these little things to dust?” "Stuff" my husband calls it. Sure, most of it cost a pretty penny but none of it is necessary or supports life in any way, shape or form. Stuff that you can live without. Stuff that if you packed it away and didn’t see it for two years would be forgotten. We gather all this stuff into our nests until we need to build on rooms to accommodate it all.   Maybe I’m just getting old and tired, well tired anyway. Still don’t feel any older than twenty in my head although the mirror tells me otherwise. I have a birthday this month, I’ll be 54! I don’t know where the time goes!   Speaking of time, it’s now past 1:30 am so better scoot off to bed. Fingers crossed this is the end of the sleep draught, but if not, tonight I get up and polish the silver or clean the wood stove pipe.

Someone posted the above picture on Facebook....send the swat team to my house immediately, I’ll gladly take a shot to the head!

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So long to another Father Christmas Festival!

12/2/2012

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Father Christmas Festival is almost over for another year. The rain is sprinkling and the crowds are thinning, the smell of apple cider is wafting in the air, a lingering reminder that the festival happened.

We had another St. Nick pop in for a visit. A chap from Lunenburg this time. I didn't catch his name but his costume was divine. Love the real fur trim.   He needs a bit of growth on the beard and a bigger belly, his words not mine.

This year left a lasting impression and a joy for the holiday to come. I'm pretty stoked for Christmas for some reason, I don't know why, it's not the usual, maybe I'm mellowing. I'm loving the Christmas tunes more than usual...our Anne Murry is singing "White Christmas as I write this.

I'm looking forward to putting in a tree and doing a bit of decorating. Who knows, maybe Santa will leave a prezzie this year. At our house, we don't do commercial Christmas, just buy the best darn grain feed, free range turkey I can find and have a feast with all the trimmings. The smell of turkey roasting is a memory of my childhood and of my mother who loved every aspect of Christmas. Then, following the Christmas feast, even if there isn't any room, we manage to stuff in my son's favorite dessert, homemade apple, open our belts and play a bit of Majong.

This Wednesday is our annual Christmas party for the Main Street Hooker's so my house will be filled with fun and laughter. It's pot luck too, is there anything better than a good pot puck? It's why I host the party...I'm not stupid.   Casserole dishes enter full and leave empty and zip lock makes sure all the leftovers stay in my fridge...I dine like the queen for the rest of the week!   And what do I have to do for all this free food? Just a bit of housework and play the hostess!   Seems like a fair exchange to me!

The shop was so so busy today. A lovely customer came in from the city and chatted a bit. She tried our Kuerig apple cider, pretty nice stuff actually. The ingredients sound very organic. Sue dropped by yesterday to hook and today Glenna popped in for a chit chat. All in all a great weekend!

I am putting the finishing touches on 'Stocking The Chimney' that I hope is completed by bedtime tonight. I usually hook stocking per year, but I'm thinking about doing another one right after this one, just because they work up so quickly and customers do like a colour guide with the pattern. I have so many new, unhooked designs I might have to do even more of them.   No harm in hooking Christmas stuff in January and February!

The secret to making the bricks pop is to hook one row to the left side and along the bottom with a thin line of darker colour. I used the Dorr Antique Red in a #3 cut.

The bricks are hooked with our spot dyed formula Red Maple in horizontal lines and then I used a grey/charcoal plaid for the mortar. The bricks and mortar are hooked in #5 and #6 cuts. The santa suit and sack full of toys is hooked with #4. The snow was pixelated in a #3 cut.

I am going to take the mittens out and rehook them with a herringbone as they are too dark and will be absorbed by the dark sky. My goal, this evening, is to hook the horn to look like real brass. Wish me luck!

The beard and whiskers will be hooked with wool fabric but the fur trim on his sleeves and hat will be done in curly mohair, and of course that has to be done last. The night sky is going to be hooked with Blue Heron spot dye. I don't think I will put any faux fur on the top of this one. I like to mix it up a bit and do each one a little differently.

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Forward>>

Charlene's Mac & Cheese

Glenna's Creamy Tomato Soup

Pam's Broccoli Salad

Pineapple Punch

House Cleaning

Insomnia

So long to another Father Christmas Festival!

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