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I never used to be an early riser. When my husband and I were first married you’d rarely see me out of bed before 8:30.
Now that I’m older and hopefully wiser, I greet the dawn more often than not.
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It rarely disappoints.
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❤️
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Good morning!
That’s it. We’re moving to Denmark…
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I saw this online the other day and realized damn, we may have to move to Denmark.
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Imagine it.
People could borrow my husband and he could tell endless stories all day long. If that isn’t his idea of perfect I’ll eat my hat.
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Guess I’d better brush up on my Danish.
🤣
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News you can’t use.
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Useless news I can’t stop not using.
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Damn, frogs.
You boys need to step it up…
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Like we women need a doctor’s prescription to start us on the road to crazy cat lady.
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Who can blame him?
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I find that very easy to believe.
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Lasagna rocks.
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Apologies to Dolly, but that’s really not news.
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Paying our respects.
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Veterans Day is important… and in this house it does not go unrecognized.
Hitting the road with our flower bouquets early yesterday morning, we set out to visit my husband’s family.
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His father is buried in Maine’s largest Veteran cemetery.
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Lovely well kept grounds on the top of a hill…
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With mature trees and many places for peaceful reflection.
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The second family member we visited was my husband’s uncle who was buried just this summer at the new Maine Veterans cemetery.
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This setting is more traditional with endless rows of white headstones.
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Personal endearments are allowed at the bottom…
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Like the AKA Grump my husband’s cousin chose. Perfectly fitting as he was a lovable old grump.
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There’s something about walking through these lines of identical markers that shatters me every time. All those service members who sacrificed for their country.
It’s beautiful… and quite humbling.
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This airman made me smile. I hope he finds some coffee.
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Apparently Crown Royal was more to this soldier’s taste.
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Our final stop of the day wasn’t a Veterans cemetery, just a small country graveyard. Quite a few of the husband’s ancestors are buried here but we’d come to thank his other uncle who fought in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
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It’s not often you find someone who saw all three.
💕
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Building a better monster ….?
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Driving down Route 1 the other day we saw a leftover Halloween decoration.
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A very large leftover Halloween decoration.
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🤣
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Don’t bother with this one either.
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As I’ve previously stated, I’m all about the macaroni and cheese. It’s the ultimate comfort food and while I usually make an old fashioned recipe of my MIL’s that includes the dreaded Velveeta, I’m always willing to try other versions.
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6 cups of cheese? How can you go wrong.
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This looked promising when put together. Very smooth and so creamy it seemed positively soupy.
(I had to add crushed Ritz crackers tossed with half a stick of melted butter because the husband likes a topping.)
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Out of the oven it looked good.
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But when I spooned it out? The consistency was weird, almost quiche like.
And the flavor? Virtually non existent. Dull. Boring. Bland. Dry. And even though it had a large bowl of cheese… not cheesy at all. How the Hell did that happen?
I’ve been known to consume my weight in mac and cheese and that little square was all I ate… so you know it was bad.
Very disappointing.
😩
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Runaway pricing.
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Prices have gone up everywhere on everything. It’s nuts and no matter how much we bitch and complain there’s not really anything we can do about it except pay more… and bitch and complain.
This is me.
Bitching and complaining.
We live in Maine…a clean, beautiful, environmentally friendly state. We have returnable bottles and cans, a ban on plastic grocery bags and numerous recycling programs. You rarely see trash on the sides of the roads and while all that is wonderful it comes at a cost.
Like this one we just had to pay to dispose of a dead window air conditioning unit.
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Yikes.
And speaking of ridiculous charges?
When I reserved our rental car for the week long anniversary trip I planned… the price was $654.73.
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Until I got to the confirmation/pay page and it jumped to $911.39… a difference of $256.66. That’s one helluva lot of add ons.
Surcharges/Fees:
County Tax 5.00%:
Concession Recovery Fee
(11.11%)
Customer Facility Charge 5.00/
day:
Vehicle License Fee 4.00/day:
Taxes:
It’s the world we live in… but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
😡
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Things that made me laugh today.
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As you know I’m always up for a new cocktail recipe.
But there are limits to what you’ll hear me yelling at my local pub’s bartender from across the room.
“Gimme a Viking’s testicle” is one of those things.
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It just doesn’t make sense. How did a Flirtini became a testicle?
And where would a Viking find a pineapple anyway…
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Ah, hypocrisy.
Thou art a fickle bitch.
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There.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels the need to announce bovine presence.
🤣
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Let’s play.
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Because I want you to, that’s why.
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I’ll start.
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He may be tired, but that honey do list is still a mile long.
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Damn, that’s harsh.
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Honestly, he’s hardly ever right.
But I love him anyway.
Your turn.
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I found a good one.
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Yes, I tried another recipe I found online.
I can’t help myself at this point, but at least this one turned out to be tasty.
I don’t know the name of it so let’s just say it’s an Italian-y tortellini soup.
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Easy to make and quick… at a little over half an hour cooking time… I’d say with a few tweaks this one’s a keeper.
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Ingredients:
½ bunch kale, stems removed and leaves
chopped
⅓ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium sweet onion, diced
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to
taste
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
Instructions:
Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven
over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and cook
until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure
to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess
fat.
Stir in garlic, onion and Italian seasoning. Cook,
stirring frequently, until onions have become
translucent, about 2-3 minutes; season with salt
and pepper, to taste.
Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
Gradually whisk in chicken stock and tomato
sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer,
stirring occasionally, until reduced and slightly
thickened, about 10 minutes.
Stir in tortellini; cover and cook until tender,
about 5-7 minutes.
Stir in kale until wilted, about 1-2 minutes. Stir
in heavy cream and basil until heated through,
about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper, to
taste.
Serve immediately.
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I only changed one thing when I made this and I’m sure you can guess what that was.
Yes, I axed the noxious green devil’s weed called kale and substituted spinach.
When I make this again I think I’ll cut back on the sausage. If you like it really meaty, leave it as is… but a little sausage goes a long way for me.
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River's world..... 