Italian Eggplant

            Forever, my daughters and I have dyed our own hair.  Wherever we went, people never knew what color to expect until they saw us.  I have sported almost every color of brown, orange, and red on the market.  Candace has gone so far as to have her hair colored like a sort of punk rainbow, which was one of my favorites.  Today is a first in dying hair history.  For the last six months my hair has been blond, (“my name is blonde, platinum blonde).  Candace is at work, so I decided to go and pick up some more hair dye alone.  I always forget which color I used the month before and just pick one.  Well, let’s just say that today was a big mistake.  I bought an ash blond, the lightest one on the shelf.  I wanted to look really cool.  I guess blue looks cool, kind of like ice blue.  Oh, I am really going to have interesting hair for the next month.  I do not dare color it again, least I fry it.  I guess I could always go dark, but I’m not going to chicken out.  Like Rockhound said, “It’s time to embrace the horror.”

            Tonight we ate more turkey from Thanksgiving. We thought it was all gone and then Brian found a huge container in the refrigerator.  Boy am I happy, that was a tasty bird!  We also played “what’s in the fridge” and emptied out all of the bowls of extras from the last couple of days.  Before you get totally horrified with me only eating left-overs (again), I made corn bread and Italian eggplant backed in the oven.  Yum!

            Italian Eggplant 

            Slice an eggplant lengthwise into four pieces.  Cut each of those pieces lengthwise twice.  Now cut 2 inch slices and put them in a bowl.  Pour olive oil over the pieces, shake salt, Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese over the pieces.  Now shake the bowl, make sure all the pieces of eggplant are covered in the oily mix.  Place in a 375 F oven. After 10 to 15 minutes, flip all the eggplant over to brown the other side.  Eat plain or with a ranch, or marinara sauce. 

French Fries

For the last six months Fen repeatedly asked to go potty outside and walk around for fifteen minutes, having fun sniffing the different plants and animal tracks in our yard.  Tonight a nice cold wind is blowing in some frigid air, so when he asked me to go out I was worried that he would want to walk around smelling everything that he can find.  Not tonight.  At this time, I’ve figured out a trick which I am sure to have to alter once the snow falls, that is, I don’t put his coat on and he goes quickly just to get back in the house.  Actually, he decided to chew up his warm winter attire and now I need to sew him some new ones.  Just after supper, Fen jumped on my lap and started licking my face to tell me he needed out.  I was not happy to have to face the cold, but he is not a cat and must go outside; he doesn’t use the cat box, except as a snack bar.  I threw a coat on, and put on his leash.  We walked outside in the whipping cold air.  I needed to be careful that I did not turn my face toward the arctic breeze or it would dry out and chap.  Luckily, before I even had a chance to get cold, Fen was done and running for the house.  

            Tonight we ate burgers, home aid French fries, and cauliflower. We had our nephew Ben and his wonderful wife Tina over to eat.  It was a perfect meal and a great visit.  

            French Fries

Wash potatoes so that they are really clean.  Slice in half from end to end. Take one half and slice it into ¼ inch pieces, repeat with all the potatoes.  Put in a large bowl and pour about 4 glugs of olive oil over the wedges, add salt and Italian seasoning. Cover the bowl and shake well. This will get all of the oil and seasoning evenly distributed on the potatoes.  Lay flat on a cookie sheet or a flat pan and put in a 400 F oven, turn over after wedges are golden brown, brown the other side and serve.

Chimichanga

   Mika and Fen

            Walking in the side door, I am greeted by my dog Fen.  Not just a simple hello, but a crazy dancing dog that refuses to let me stop petting him.  I try to stop but he is running around in circles and dancing on his hind legs, anything to get my attention.   I walk over to Mika, our cat; and pet her, but my over-excited puppy keeps pushing me away from her like a jealous kid.   Muca, our old cat, is sitting on the heater grate over in the family room, I walk up to her to pet her head and say "hi".  All of a sudden Fen realized that there was affection being distributed in the home and he is not on the receiving end.  His way of settling this problem is to push Muca out of the way so that my hand will be on him and not her.  What a nutty dog, yet I have to admit I love every minute of his hellos when I get home. 

            Tonight we ate home-made chimichanga, with fresh cut vegetables, green onions, yellow sweet peppers and cucumber.

            Chimichanga

             Take flour tortilla and spread cream cheese down the middle of the shell, place the meat and bean mixture (leftovers from last night) down the middle on top of the cream cheese.  Fold both ends over about an inch.  Now roll the shell so that it is a closed cylinder. Place on a cookie sheet and put in a 400 F oven. Cook one side about 15 minutes and turn over and cook for another 15 min.  You will know that they are cooked enough if they shell is light golden brown.  Serve with sour cream, grated cheese, green onion, yellow sweet peppers, and cucumbers.  

 

Hectic Holiday Menu Special # 1: Beef/Bean Burrito w/sautéed Peppers & Onions

            My daughter Candace and I went to the mall today to find an outfit for her to wear to her company Christmas party.  Often these shopping trips do not end as nicely as they start, but today was a totally different story. We arrived at the mall an hour before normal closing hours.  The first store we hit had some nice sales, but not the right size dresses.  Remembering that Thanksgiving had just passed and now the new Christmas hours have begun, we decided to take a walk to the other end of the mall, hitting some of the other large anchor stores.  While heading to the other stores we realized that the smaller stores were closing up.  I looked at Candace and told her not to worry; the big stores will stay open.  We got to Macy’s and she walked up to the first sales person in the store to ask about extended hours.  Sure enough, this store was open until 9:00; we had at least three hours.  We took a tour around the store in search of the perfect dress for the party, but none was found.  Off to the next store, Kohl’s.  This store seemed to be catering to everything but formal Christmas dresses for parties, so off we went to JC Penny’s.  As we walked into the store we joked around with the sales associates about the extended hours.  They told us that they were open until 12:00.  “Jackpot!” We had almost the entire store to ourselves, with up to six hours to shop; it was so peaceful.  It was hard to believe that just two days earlier the store was jam packed with crazy Black Friday shoppers.  Candace and I found the dress department and were pleased to find that most of the dresses were on sale.  After trying on a handful of dresses, Candace settled on one that was both sexy and comfortable.  Nowadays that is a rare combination.  In addition to the perfect dress, she found the greatest pair of stilettos, also on sale, of course.   As we walked out of the store, she looked at me and declared that the dress and shoes cost as no more than just a dress in one of the other stores.

           

Hectic Holiday Menu Special # 1:  Beef/Bean Burrito w/sautéed Peppers & Onions

Two pounds of Ground beef browned in a frying pan.  Add ¼ cup taco seasoning and ¼ cup wait  about 5 min, add two cans of refried beans to the meat and stir until completely mixed together.  Slice up green peppers, fresh mushrooms and onion and fry them in a different frying pan until they are tender.  Take a flour tortilla and add the meat and bean mixture, pepper mushroom mixture, grate cheese, add sour cream and salsa.  Roll and eat. 

Open Face Turkey Sandwich

            I have a couple more weeks left of the semester.  Six more classes to go and I will graduate with an English bachelors and a Writing minor.  I never thought that I would even go back to school ever, no less in my forties.  I’ve learned a lot about myself in these past years.  I am smarter than I ever gave myself credit, even though I am ADHD Dyslexic I can get an English degree, (although forget about the math) and I really love learning.  Who would have ever thought that a girl that hated reading in elementary school would learn to love Classic literature and especially period British literature?  Well I did and every dollar spent toward college has been worth it.  One of the most exciting points about going to college has been, true to the Rabourn way of doing things, having my daughter in some of my classes, my husband in many classes, and my son choosing to sit with his parents in public at college.  Kids at school talk about that family who eats and hangs out together at college and how strange it must be to go to school with your parents; "Oh yeah, do you have something you are hiding from your parents?"   They’ve said that they went to school to escape their parents, and here our kids go to classes with us.  This is so like our family.  My daughter and I enjoyed art classes together so much that now we are thinking of going to culinary school together.  

            Today’s food: Thanksgiving leftovers, our refrigerator is full with them and they must be eaten.  For lunch Brian and I ate one of my childhood favorite post-Thanksgiving meals:  open faced turkey sandwich with hot gravy over the top.  It doesn’t get any better.

Black Friday

            Black Friday:  the busiest shopping day of the year, the day that I vow to never be caught in a store.  About six years ago my friend Tracy and our girls had the bright idea to wake up early and fight the crowds.  We must have hit the wrong stores because we did not find any store busier than the mall back in the prosperous years in America.  I remember as a child going to Fairlane Town Center mall in the Detroit area.  Now that place had large crowds; Fairlane was the first three story mall in the Detroit area in the 1970’s.  For a young kid, it was absolutely amazing to be able to look down from the third floor all to the first floor.  Great for those who love to go people watching.  Every time we went shopping there, mom would stop at the store that made only cookies, another thing not heard of back in the 70’s, and let us select our “cookie of the day”.  I always love the sugar cookies that had Rice Krispies in it.  What a fabulous invention!  Back when my friend and I went shopping on Black Friday the stores opened at 5:00 am.  Today they open at midnight and the craziest thing is that people are willing to stand in a line for hours to get a good buy.  Well, I refuse to bow down to the God of Black Friday.  I would rather pay full price than risk being pepper sprayed in the face like the people at Walmart experienced in California this morning.  

            As for cooking today, that was not going to happen.  Since Thanksgiving was served at my home, I did enough cooking yesterday for two days.  I have a refrigerator full waiting for us to eat. 

                                                         This is not what I call fun.