Everything And Nothing

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The Galley Kitchen

A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home.
~ Chinese proverb

And here's your proof. My mother's makeshift galley kitchen - created in the poolhouse - in a corner which used to hold a tanning bed.

Cement floors, but fabric covering the walls to hide the bare studs.

This is what the walls would look like without the fabric.

The other side of her kitchen. The butcher block top was in the house when it flooded, but she scrubbed it for hours and it hasn't shown any mildew yet.

And here's my mom cooking in her kitchen. I really do think she deserves some kind of Martha Stewart Award for her transformation. Talking about making do with what you got - I was never more proud of her!

The only problem she couldn't fix - no sink in the kitchen. We had to walk to the front of the poolhouse for water to cook or to wash dishes. But some things can't be helped.

Live Across the Street from Jerry Lee Lewis

The home's "killer" kitchen

For the ultimate Jerry Lee "The Killer" Lewis fan...

Guy Leonard recently built a house across the street from Jerry Lee Lewis' house in Nesbit, Miss., and he is selling the house within the next few weeks. You may view it online here.

The home is DIRECTLY across the street from Jerry Lee Lewis as you can see from the photo above, according to Leonard. He also adds in the information e-mailed to me that he failed to put into the description that the house also has an 8 ft X 18 ft garage. He reminds me that Jerry himself was quoted in the local paper back in June of this year (after getting his divorce) that he would die here and never leave his ranch - so maybe the ranch will become a national shrine (just like Elvis Presley's home just a few miles up the road). 

Leonard says if the house doesn't sell by January 2006 he will auction it to the highest bidder. The home many over-the-top amenities, including a $21,000 digital, computerized heating/A/C system. For more information, contact Guy Leonard, owner, at (662)890-7773 or (662)404-1177.

The Rites of Manhood

Photo via Flickr

The Rites of Manhood
By Alden Nowlan
From What Happened When He Went to the Store for Bread (Nineties Press)

It's snowing hard enough that the taxis aren't running.
I'm walking home, my night's work finished,
long after midnight, with the whole city to myself,
when across the street I see a very young American sailor
standing over a girl who's kneeling on the sidewalk
and refuses to get up although he's yelling at her
to tell him where she lives so he can take her there
before they both freeze. The pair of them are drunk
and my guess is he picked her up in a bar
and later they got separated from his buddies
and at first it was great fun to play at being
an old salt at liberty in a port full of women with
hinges on their heels, but by now he wants only to
find a solution to the infinitely complex
problem of what to do about her before he falls into
the hands of the police or the shore patrol
—and what keeps this from being squalid is
what's happening to him inside:
if there were other sailors here
it would be possible for him
to abandon her where she is and joke about it
later, but he's alone and the guilt can't be
divided into small forgettable pieces;
he's finding out what it means
to be a man and how different it is
from the way that only hours ago he imagined it.

Cranberry Salsa with "Tree" Chips

Cranberry Salsa

1 bag (12 oz) fresh or frozen cranberries (no need to thaw)
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and cut in eighths
1/2 large red pepper, cut in large chunks
1/2 medium red onion, cut in large chunks
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup apple juice
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp chopped pickled jalapeno pepper
1 tsp grated lime zest

Chips

1 pgk (14 oz) spinach tortillas

Salsa: Put cranberries, apple, red pepper and onion in food processor; pulse till chopped. Transfer to a large glass bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients till blended. Cover and refrigerate, or spoon into crocks or jars and refrigerate.

Chips: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Have ready a 3-inch tree-shape cookie cutter and baking sheet(s).

Using cookie cutter, cut six trees from each tortilla. Place on ungreased baking sheet(s) and bake 8 min. or till crisp. Remove to wire rack to cool completely. Put in plastic bags; serve (or give as gifts) with salsa.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

1 quart fat-free half & half
1 box (3.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Garnish: whipped cream and ground cinnamon

Have ready a 13x9-in. baking pan and eight glass 8-oz Irish coffee mugs (or others of same size).

Whisk half & half, pudding mix and cinnamon in a large bowl 2 minutes. Pour into baking pan; cover and freeze at least three hours or till frozen hard.

About 20 minutes before serving: Beat cream, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl with mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted. Refrigerate till ready to use.

Put coffee mugs in freezer. Remove mixture from freezer; leave at room temperature 15 minutes, or till it can be cut into large cubes. Place in food processor; pulse till smooth, scraping down sides occasionally. Divide among chilled mugs. Top with whipped cream; sprinkle with cinnamon and serve.

Per serving: 248 cal, 1 g pro, 28 g carb, 0 g fiber, 11 g fat (7 g sat), 41 mg chol, 329 mg sodium

[ via Woman's Day magazine, December 6, 2005 ]

Two Timer

This time of year, my oven timer alone just won't cut it. (I'm always juggling more than one thing in the kitchen - but once November hits, it's more like three or four things.) So I added OXO's Good Grips Times Squared Timer to my Wish Central Wishlist.

It's two timers in one - a 100-hour digital timer for keeping track of long cooking times and a one-hour analog timer for shorter-interval work. The surfaces are angled so you can see them easily. $24.99, oxo.com.

Your Own Personal Wishlist

I'm a fan of Amazon.com's Wishlists, but Wish Central is a bit different because you can bookmark any page anywhere on the Web - it doesn't have to be on Amazon.com. Ranked by priority, your picks include descriptions, costs and categories. The site works directly with your Favorites, so adding items while you surf is simple. You can also include products at bricks-and-mortar stores too. (And if you don't know what you want yet, you can borrow ideas by browing other members' wish lists and clicking on "I want this too."

And you can sync with your Amazon Wishlist too. It's the best of all wish worlds! Here's my wish page. I only have one so far, but I'm sure it will grow. (I haven't synched to my Amazon WishList yet. It was down - I would guess that the weekend after Thanksgiving would not be a good time for the Amazon Wishlist function to be down.)

A Manual for Life

At birth, there is a manual for life that is given to each of us. Here it is:

1. You have received a body. It will be yours for the duration of your stay this time around. You may or may not like it, but it is yours.
2. Pay attention to the lessons to be learned. You are enrolled in a school that is full time and informal-it is called life. In your school, you will have chances to learn lessons. You are free to like the lessons or think that they are very stupid.
3. Keep in mind that there are no mistakes, just lessons to be learned. You will be involved with a process of trial and error, and this process will, with luck, incite growth. The "failures" you experience will be as much a part of your process as the parts of your life that "succeed."
4. You will repeat the same lesson, in its various forms, until it is learned. Then you will be free to go on to the next lesson.
5. Your learning in life is never over. As long as you are alive, there are lessons to be learned. There is no part of life that does not contain a lesson for you.
6. Places other than where you are will always look better to you, but this is a trick of the mind. It is never better to be other than what and where you are at the time. But it will always feel like you should be someplace else, be something else in order to find "happiness."
7. Your fellow beings are merely reflections of yourself. Whatever you love or hate about them is exactly what you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of life is up to you. You have everything you need to live life. What you do and how you live is up to you.
9. The answers to life's questions are within you. You just need to listen and trust your inner knowledge.
10. You will forget you have been told all of this.

[ via Clint Maun ]

Designer Dog Houses

Your pup will be living large in Michael Graves' contemporary painted wood doghouse, featuring a slanted roof and water-resistant awning (removable for washing, of course). Includes stencil kit for painting your pet's name.

(The damn dog still will never actually go into the dog house, of course, but it will still look better in your back yard than the others. This - the not going into the dog house - is one of those unexplainable rules of dog nature. See...they can't even get the model dog to go into the dog house. He said, "I'll just sit out here and play with the ball. Thank you." )

$59.99, target.com