Big Bags

Yes, they are popular. One must have a BIG bag. They are no longer called purses for those left wondering. Three guys in my 'hood now carry them everywhere. The question for many observers, "What could they possibly contain that must be lugged to and from every destination???" Essentials: car key, driver's license, credit card (or a wad of cash), phone. For the gals, perhaps a comb and lip gloss. With door codes, the office key and home key can be eliminated. Perhaps it's the lowcut style of pants that won't allow the essentials to be stuffed in a back hip pocket and leaves our women carring baggage enough for a two-week vacation and our men carrying purses.

The Fall of Fall

Fall is over.

It's hard to admit, but it begins with Halloween - the first bite-sized Snickers bar....followed by at least one sampling of each type of Halloween candy offered to your little tricksters....followed by a sample of each (chocolate only) type left in your kids treat buckets before they get home from school....followed by an occasional find in various sock drawers....followed by those you hid in the freezer for "later"....

Then comes Thanksgiving - you won't overdo it this year....just a small sampling of the lemon meringue pie filling while it's still hot in the pan)....followed by one more helping of "the pineapple cheese favorite"....following by a "tiny slice of each type" when pie choices arrive....followed by a "sliver" of cold pumpkin pie (gotta have the whipped cream too) on Black Friday and one at 10 am when you return from shopping....and one at noon....and perhaps just a bit of soda cracker pie before bedtime....

On to Christmas - THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING....it's full-blown legal to begin the comsumption of sweet nothings at offices, friends' homes, deliveries to your own home, treats you make for parties....until you become sugar comatose....add to this my one-week, fourteen-different candy recipes produced at work with my professional responsibility to at least sample each one....

Around the corner....Valentine's Day....St. Patrick's Day (gotta have shamrock sugar cookies)....then Easter

I guess that's why a peeled boiled egg with a salt/pepper mixture for each bite is appealing mid-April

Quilting Miracle

I started a quilt because I was in love with a bunch of matching fabrics...it became a quilt about 4 x 4 feet...too small...trip to Brigham City, great additional finds...5 x 5 feet...too small...trip to EVERY STINKING FABRIC STORE in the valley...gave up :(

Then I thought to buy online, but how to match what I had with the millions and millions of fabrics out there??? For two weeks the quilt has been on the floor, a guilt-ridden beginning of my unbridled creativity. Tonight I thought that perhaps on the printed selvage...a clue...yes indeedy...modafabrics.com pattern 6314...purchased and on it's way...a perfect match! :) (hopefully)

Scents of Riding

Because I'm gifted with a great sense of smell, I enjoy fragrances as I ride:

• bacon cooking at the drug rehab center
• campfires in Nunn's Park
• pancakes in neighborhood kitchens
• cottonwoods
• purple petunias
• wet leaves
• moss along the Provo River
• diesel smoke from the Heber Creeper

I few surprises today as I sniffed along:

• sweet, insense-like smoke from a passing Audi (perhaps texting while driving takes a back seat to this)
• glue from an old guy's (at least my age) 7-up bottle as he walked the trail - must be working on repairs ?

TheMotherInMe

So, I'm walking behind this kid at the Lord's University, and I totally saw his under-the-jeans unmentionable through a huge rip among the many rips all over the outfit. I really wasn't looking. My first impulse was to let him know so that he could cover up, but thought better. Perplexed, I wondered for several minutes if his mom would have wanted me to help him out, and now somehow I'd let her down.

BYU Flood

Plug the drain, turn the faucet on full blast, and leave the room to help some students get some ingredients. Then....help them in a different room by answering questions and showing them the proper consistency of bread. As they leave to go to "devotional," make sure to plug their drain and put the tools they used in cold water for easy clean-up later on, plug the drain, turn the faucet on and then realize (gasp) that the faucet in the other room has been running for a full half hour. Run full steam back to Room #1.

Result - flooded floor, drawers, cupboards in Room #1. Begin mopping.
Realization - Room #2 is now flooding from the breadmaking clean up. Run full steam back to that room to turn off the water. Begin mopping....and mopping....and mopping....and mopping....

Vegetables

What's not to like with vegetables? I'm surprised at how foreign vegetables are to my students. If a dinner doesn't have at least two vegetables as sides and a salad as well, it doesn't feel complete. I find myself feeling like I should eat more tomatoes just because by Wednesday (so says the weather man) they will all be frozen. After they're gone, we will survive on those tasteless things in the stores that are labeled "tomatoes." My recipe to you:

Squash in Sour Cream

1 ½ pounds Hubbard or Acorn squash
2 Tbsp. Butter, divided
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. instant onion (blend dried minced onion in blender until the size of sesame seeds)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. dill weed
1/2 cup sour cream
pepper, 1/4 tsp. Mrs. Dash seasoning and 1/8 tsp. dill weed to sprinkle on top

1. Scrub the squash, cut half and remove the seeds.
2. Cut in smaller sections to fit in the pan.
3. Cover the squash with water and bring to a boil on high heat. Lower temperature to a low boil and cook about 15 minutes, or until tender.
4. Drain the squash in a colander and cool with running cold water. Using a spoon, remove the squash from its shell and cut into bite-sized pieces.
5. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in a saucepan or in the saucepan that was used to cook the squash.
6. Add the squash to the saucepan with the butter, cover with a lid and toss the squash to coat with butter. Sprinkle with 1 tsp. sugar.

Sauce to squeeze over the cooked squash at serving time:
1. Melt remaining 1 Tbsp. butter, add onion; remove from heat.
2. Add sour cream, salt and ¼ teaspoon dill weed, stir well.
3. Place hot squash on platter; sprinkle with pepper.
4. Place dill sauce in zip lock bag. Snip a small part of a corner and pipe all the sour cream mixture over the squash.
5. Sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon dill weed and Mrs. Dash Seasoning.