Random Thoughts #2

Since I got such overwhelming response from my last Random posting, (Thank you, Gladys! I don’t know what I would do without my faithful Reader) I decided to do it again…

*Stuff They Don’t Make Anymore That I Really Miss

Delaware Punch: This was a non-carbonated soft drink from around 1970. It’s owned by Coca Cola, and is still made, but very difficult to find. Haven’t seen any in this area for 40 years. I totally loved this. Could drink it all day long. Since it wasn’t carbonated, it went down real easy, real fast. I probably wouldn’t be able to drink it now, since I can’t stand anything that isn’t sugar-free.

Pillsbury Toaster Strudel CHOCOLATE flavor: These are really good strudels, but chocolate was the best. I’ve seen the TV ads promoting these things as being something healthy to give your kids for breakfast. You can’t fool me: these are pure SUGAR! So why not make them CHOCOLATE and really make ‘em good? Don’t know why they discontinued them.

Pepperidge Farms Blueberry Turnovers: My absolute favorite flavor of turnovers. Used to get them all the time. The other flavors are OK. In fact, they are very good. But I want blueberry! They stopped making them! Why?? I haven’t seen blueberry turnovers in the regular bakery section of any store, either. What’s the deal???

Beef Noodle Soup: Campbell’s used to make 3 different noodle soups—chicken, turkey, beef. All good, but my favorite was the beef noodle. I loved to fix it and put crushed potato chips in it. Made it really salty, but WOW, was it good! According to their website, they still make it, but trying to find a store that carried it yielded no results. It is available online, if I want to buy it by the case and pay shipping.

*Toy Food

Everybody loves miniatures. They’re so CUTE! “Look at that little ceramic turtle! Only as big as my thumb nail! Isn’t it CUTE?” “Look at that little tea set! Isn’t it CUTE?” “Tiny Sticky Notes! How CUTE!” Well, I happen to love miniature consumables, i.e. FOOD and DRINK. Here are some of my favorites:

Booze—how cute are those little airline bottles?? I LOVE toy booze! And they hold just enough to make a decent drink serving. Very expensive, though. Especially if you have to ride on an airplane to get them… They are available online and in some liquor stores, where they are STILL expensive. But they’re SO CUTE!

Soft drinks—Also expensive are the little half-sized cans of soda. The main place I would see them was in nursing homes and hospitals., but they're in stores now. Cute, yes, but just not enough volume for me to bother with.

Pickles—LOVE TOY PICKLES!! They’re usually called “baby”, “cocktail” or “snack size” but to me they are toy pickles. Yummy AND cute! What more could you ask for?

Watermelons—I have just recently seen the toy watermelons in the stores. They’ve had small sized watermelons before, but I thing the ones on the market now are even smaller. Have no clue what they taste like. BUT THEY ARE CUTE!

Remembering Dana Garret

Dana Garret died recently, at the age of 63, and for some reason her brother decided there was no need for any kind of service. He was not a Christian, even though Dana was, and had many friends at church. He didn’t think anyone would come to a service. He was wrong. Here’s what I would’ve said if I’d been given a chance at her service:

Dana Garret was a member of our church. She was a quirky gal with a good sense of humor. She loved people, she loved kids, she loved cats. Most of all, she loved her Lord and Savior.

In her later years she was unable to get around very well. She had many health and mobility problems. She kept coming to church as long as she was able, and after that she was housebound. But she was not silent.

She loved to call people on the phone. I would answer the phone and hear her voice: “Hello, honey-bunny! How ya doing?” She would always say she had to check up on us, to see if we were being good. But not TOO good, because that wouldn’t be any fun, would it?

We would chat, talk about cats, about grandkids, nothing earth shaking. She would always ask how her “boyfriend” was doing. That’s what she called Marv. She would always end the conversation by telling me to give her boyfriend a kiss. Then she’d say “I love you guys.”

I will miss her phone calls. I will miss being called honey-bunny.

April Book Report

OK. I’ll admit that playing Ravenwood and Cityville on Facebook is cutting into my reading time. That does NOT mean I’m addicted!

So…the 2 books I read in April were:

“The Boy Who Reversed Himself” by William Sleator

This was from the Young Adult sci-fi section. Sleator is one of my favorites. Even though his books are geared to a younger reader, I enjoy them tremendously. Well written, with a real plot you can sink your teeth into. Laura is trying to fit in with the popular kids in high school. When Omar moves in next door, she knows he’s “odd” somehow, and tries to distance herself from him. Her curiosity gets the better of her, though, and she finds herself joining Omar in traveling into the 4^th dimension.

“The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow” by William Arden

Another in the 3 Investigators series. Just happened to read 2 Young Adult books in a row. One sci-fi, one mystery. I still enjoy these books a lot, even though they are a bit dated by now. The 3 boys hear of a fabulous treasure hidden long ago by the ancient Chumash tribe. They not only break the code and discover where the treasure is hidden, but they thwart an unscrupulous Australian crook in the process.

OK. Now it’s back to Facebook time to take care of some laundry, and maybe play some Ravenwood read a little. I AM NOT ADDICTED!!

Alphabet Soup - part 1

I came across a blog prompt site that had a lot of great ideas. They had one for April that was a daily challenge. Blog about a different letter of the alphabet each day. I don’t want to commit to something like that, so I’ll just take a letter or two (or three) and babble about it a bit each week until I get to Z. No big articles, just little vignettes about the particular letter.

A – A is for Apple

Every child knows that. That’s in all the coloring books and papers that kids bring home from kindergarten. Although nowadays, a child pretty much has to know their alphabet, shapes, colors and numbers BEFORE kindergarten or they will be left behind.

When we were first married, we lived next to an apple orchard that was pretty much abandoned. We were told that we could have as many apples as we wanted. I made so many pies that first year! And they were fabulous. One of my favorite memories from that first year is when I had some pie leftover and I took it to Chico to share with my grandmother. I had every intention of giving her the whole portion, but she immediately got 2 plates out, divided the pie, and we shared some pie at the kitchen table where I grew up. Nice little memory. I sure miss Grandma.

B – B is for Brownies

My close friend Shirley lived across the street from me. We were at each others house all the time. She had a cookbook written for kids that had very simple recipes in it. One was for brownies. Shirley and I used that recipe several times and it is still my standard recipe for brownies. It’s in my recipe box, titled: Brownies (Shirley Plain recipe). One of the things I liked about the recipe, other than it was super simple, was that it didn’t call for nuts. I didn’t care for nuts in my brownies back then. I still prefer to throw in a few chocolate chips instead of nuts. Here is the recipe:

Melt 2 squares unsweetened chocolate OR ½ C. cocoa and 1/3 C. butter

Add 1 C. sugar, ¾ C. flour, ½ tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. salt, 2 eggs

Mix and spread in a greased 8 x 8 pan.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Recipe may be doubled.