Archive for 2015-02-15

melissa

digging to China

as a kid, and probably even now as an adult, my imagination is brilliant. If I could put whats in my mind into writing, and knew what to d...

melissa

missing our Elvis

I was just reading a post about a dog, and I am reminded of an Elvis story Ill carry with me till I'm too senile to remember it anymore....

melissa

Baked spaghetti recipe

I am an artist at heart, and when my cataracts got so bad that I didn't feel like my painting was as good as I'd like for it to...

as a kid, and probably even now as an adult, my imagination is brilliant. If I could put whats in my mind into writing, and knew what to do with it once i got it into writing, I am certain I could write a best seller. I have a blog that I have tons of stories that I have started, but none That I ever finish. One day I hope that I, or one of my children will learn to love the written word and finish something Ive started.

But that isn't what I have come here tonight to talk about.. I came here to talk about China.. Not China, china, but "China" .. The place we all tried to dig to as kids. The place that was just beneath the surface, the place we all dreamed of that was just below that bubbling pool of "black gold", "Texas tea", and those dinosaur bones we learned about in school.. It all started with a couple of kids innocently playing with the garden hose, enjoying some 1980 style summer fun, when we discovered that if we held the hose to the ground that it would dig a hole.. SO we ventured even farther.. letting the hose go as it wanted deeper and deeper into the ground. after the hose had gotten to a point where we could no longer pull it back up out of the ground, we decided we better start digging, because if our parents saw that we had forever lost their garden hose deep into the earth we would be punished good. SO we dug, and tried to pull it back, and dug and tried to pull it out, and to no avail. there we were two little ten year old girls certain that the earth had taken our garden hose never to return it. No matter how much we dog the hose was not coming out of that ground. But we kept trying for fear of what our punishment might be for sending the garden hose all the way to china.. As we dug, we watched for dinosaur bones, and envisioned our faces on the cover of the news paper for striking oil. We talked about what we would do with our oil money, we talked about if we would tell the museum about our dinosaur discovery, we talked about how we didn't know a word of Chinese if we dug that far, and those two little 10 year old girls with the run away garden hose believed beyond belief that we were digging to china, or at least to dinosaurs bones, cement ponds where we lived next door to the Clampetts, and world fame.

We had no idea that as we dug deeper our garden hose went deeper and that we would never get it out the way we were going about it.

imagine our disillusion and disappointment when the grownup caught wind of what was going on and simply cut of the water and pulled out the garden hose. So much work gone to waste.. I swear my grand baby can dig to china all she wants. I cant wait for that summer, when I might even get out there and help her dig for china.. Oh the adventures we will have together..

Did you ever dig to china as a kid?

missing our Elvis

I was just reading a post about a dog, and I am reminded of an Elvis story Ill carry with me till I'm too senile to remember it anymore. Elvis was an inside dog, and was happy to be with us. Point blank. We were his world. Until one fine spring day when a female dog at the neighbors house went into heat. Tis the nature of all male species to chase tail I suppose, and our Elvis was no exception. He went to her and we spent hours looking before we found him. Once we found him he left her for us and we took him home, thinking we could walk him on a leash until she was out of season and all would be fine, and all was fine in to confines of our house, until... the air conditioner would kick in. The central unit air conditioner would come on and the poor horny little guy would go nuts wanting outside. It was an exceptionally warm spring and the air conditioner was running a lot and we weren't sleeping, we weren't getting much r and r at all. The A/C would cut on and he would wine and pace the floor and look at us with those pleading eyes begging to go outside. Well it took, probably less than a day for me to realize something must be done.. At the time I was a single mother of 4 children living on a 9.00 an hour walmart tire and lube job, and I did not get any government assistance at all. Hubby gave me 100.00 a week to supplement what I made, so you can imagine my budget was minimal at most. So.. We went down to the local gas station and bout about 5 or 6 or those car air freshener Christmas trees and attached them to his collar in hopes that the STRONG smell of those trees, I forget what flavor we got.. But we hoped they would be more smelly than that bitch dogs Virginia.. and.. It worked.. Stanked up the whole house, and we couldn't stand to get close to him without hiding our nose in our shirts.. 5 or 6 trees is a powerful smell.. But it worked.. He didn't cry to go to that girl anymore.. Lawd I miss that boy.. He was a good one..

Elvis is the old guy in this pic. He hing in there with us for 15 years.. I miss you boy...

Baked spaghetti recipe

I am an artist at heart, and when my cataracts got so bad that I didn't feel like my painting was as good as I'd like for it to be, I turned to cooking. Cooking is kind of like art. But it was an art I could do with a little less need for the eyes. I can smell, and taste when its done, and while details are important because pretty food always tastes better, I didn't have to worry about intricate details, small lines, color choices, staying in the lines. Food became my art, and i hope I am as good at it as I think I am.

Thanks to my wonderful doctor at Aiken Opthamology we have one cataract down and one more to go and Ill be fully sighted again. The surgery on the one eye has made such a great difference that i thank my cataract doctor at least 5 times a day. I am driving again, I am active again, I am cleaning house again. I am living life again and I love it.

My family is loving it too. I was honestly to the point I wasn't really living anymore. I was to the point i didn't drive, I felt trapped in my own skin, my children had to pick out my clothes for me to wear because I couldn't tell what was mine and what was my oldest daughters who is one size smaller than me, and don't even get me started n matching.. I played it off as intentional, they all thought i was just lazy. But I couldn't see shit.

Maybe now I will have some more interesting topics to blog about now that I am re-entering the world of the seeing, venturing out more, seeing, and doing things again. But I wont stop recipe-ing because I am a huge fan of good food.

So.. with all that said.. Ill leave you with my baked spaghetti recipe..

Baked spaghetti

1 jar bertolli 5 cheese sauce

1 jar Bertolli Italian vodka sauce

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 cup cooking wine

2 lbs ground beef

3 or 4 fresh tomatoes depending on size

1 tbsp oregano

1 1/2 tbsp sweet basil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 white onion

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 cup Parmesan cheese

3 tbsp sugar

salt

1 package spaghetti noodles

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1 cup chicken broth

for noodles:

boil the noodles per package instructions but instead of adding all water make one cup of that water chicken broth... Trust me you wont regret it... don't cook all the way done you want the, at a point where they are bendy like done noodles should be, but still have a little hardness at the center. The reason for this is because when you put the spaghetti in the oven they will continue to cook, if they are completely done before the oven time they will be over cooked. boil noodles drain and pour into a large mixing bowl you will need a bowl big enough to contain ALL the ingredients before this baked spaghetti adventure is over..

sauce

While noodles cook, brown your ground beef and diced onion, drain of grease, and transfer to the large mixing bowl. add both jars of spaghetti sauce, the tomato sauce half of the basil and oregano, the ricotta cheese, half of the mozzarella cheese, and dice and add the tomatoes leaving enough tomatoes to slice and cover the top. (my dish took two whole average size tomato slices to cover the top, so that was two tomatoes dices into squares in the mixture and 2 reserved for the top. you should have a mixture of all the ingredients, sugar, pasta, sauces, meat, mozzarella ricotta and Parmesan cheese in you mixing bowl, reserving half of the oregano, basil, ricotta, Parmesan, and all of the cheddar for the top..

mix well pour into greased baking dish, top with cheddar, tomato slices, Parmesan and mozzarella, and then finish with a sprinkle of basil and oregano for color. cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees then uncover and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.

*note: the sauce will seem soupy, but that is OK, because as your noodles cook they will absorb that extra liquid.

This dish has never failed me.. Not once has there ever been any leftovers, and I serve it usually with garlic bread and salad, but sometimes with just plain bread and butter. Either way it is well liked around here and requested.. I am a huge fan of oregano, and sweet basil, but if you are not then geel free to add less or more of the spices.. they are guesstimated anyway... I just sprinkle til it looks right mostly..

On a final note I have to ask.. Because I read other blogs and they have so may comments.. Please tell me why no one ever comments a single one of my posts? If it is a problem with posting, then message my email lissame73@gmail.com, or on facebook at Melissa Osborne and let me know what I can do differently to increase the comments I get...

Thanks and (as Clarissa says) peace out Homies....