Sarah Cynthia Slyvia Stout

One of my favorite poems by Shel Silverstein is about garbage! LOL "Sarah Slyvia Cynthia Stout would not take the garbage out.  She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans, candy the yams and spice the hams. And though her daddy would scream and shout she simply would not take the garbage out."  

The poem goes on and on about the curdled greasy food that has piled so high it nearly touches the sky! I love this poem so much I have it memorized, I don't even have the hubs cell phone memorized but Shel Silverstein has such a way with words that I just can't forget...and I used to read his poems to our daughter when she was little.

As I drove around the corner to our driveway this morning I saw that hub had put the trash bin on the curb. What I saw wasn't just a green can sitting there, oh no...we had the leaning Tower of Plastic Bag Pisa! 

Ok that's a slight exaggeration but come on, that is a lot of trash... dontcha think?  In our defense we missed the trash pick up TWO weeks ago.  Mhmmm if you forget to set your trash out on the pick up day you have to wait 2 weeks before you can set it out again. One week is trash, then the next week is recycling and then trash again.  I HATE that! 

How often is your trash picked up? I've never lived anywhere (and I've lived in 6 different states and England) that only picked up every other week. The trash collectors won't pick up any bags that are placed on the ground next to the bin so if you can't get it inside your out of luck and have to save it until they collect again. I think my hub is pretty clever...he ties all the bags together that he cannot get into the bin and places them on top.  Hopefully the trash men will think it's acceptable because at this point if they don't take it away I'm afraid our neighbors will start to complain.

Say cheese!

Confession…I just don't get selfies! I don't know what goes through the selfie takers mind just before they snap one off of themselves. The car selfies really baffle me…are you in the car on your way to Target when you glance up in the rear view mirror and BAM! It happens…you look at yourself and think "Shoooooot I look so good and I'm just going to Target, I better take a pic and show everyone how good I look!"  Seriously, I need to know. WHY?!

FAIL!!!

I'm not trying to be mean or call anyone out on this narcissistic behavior, especially since I have several dear friends and family members who are daily seflie posters/posers and I'd never want to hurt their feelings but a very wise teenager once told me…"Anyone over 20 should not take selfies, ever!"

I, for the most part agree with a few exceptions... 

1. Selfie is acceptable if you are updating your FB profile picture.

2. You're standing in front of a WORLD WONDER (Eiffel Tower, Grand Canyon, Drag Queen who looks just like Dolly Parton) alone and have nobody to take your picture.

3. You've just put on an herbal face mask and want your friends to get a good laugh!

Ooops wrong kind of mask lol, but this is my BFF and this kind of selfie is OK as it falls into the "I'm just a dork category."

There that's much better…this also falls into the DORK category and yes it IS me behind the herbal face mask! What? It takes work to look this good.

The only other acceptable reason I can think of for a selfie when you're over 20 is..

5. You're selling something and I don't mean YOURSELF!!!  OR you're all dressed up for a special occasion, you do look incredible (for your age) AND you haven't posted a pic of yourself in quite some time. But there is risk involved, you may still come off a bit conceited but it might be worth it if you look that good…and there will always be haters no matter what.  lol

What is your take on SELFIES? I really want to know!  Like them? Hate them? Know someone who abuses them?

Happy New Year from across the pond!

Happy New Year!  

We rang in the New Year at our favorite local pub, The Green Man.  It only seemed fitting as we spent our first NYE in England at this pub and now our last NYE here. The Green Man felt like home the second we walked in 3 1/2 years ago, everything about it we love from the sweet family that owns it to the comfy cozy atmosphere inside it's several hundred year old walls.

Today we stuck with our "Southern" tradition of eating black eyed peas for good luck in the coming year along with one of our new adopted English traditions of drinking a glass (er...two) of "Buck's Fizz."  I'm not rocket scientist (although I am often confused for one) but from what I can tell "Buck's Fizz" is a Mimosa. LOL Whatever you call it I for one like them!

Buck's vs. Mimosa

See for yourself...the recipes are very similar...

See what I mean? So no matter how you pour it, shake it or sip it...it all goes down with orange bubbly goodness.

I mixed things up this year...literally and made a Black Eyed Pea dip instead of the way we usually eat them.  I gotta say the dip was FAB and I will be making it again next year, I may even make it when it isn't NY's.

I know someone will want the recipe so here it is, I got it from  "The Pioneer Woman" and my best bud Kathy.

• 1 can (14-ounce) Can Black-eyed Peas
• 1/4 whole Onion, Chopped Fine
• 1/4 cup Sour Cream
• 8 slices Jarred Jalapenos
• 1 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• 3 Tablespoons Salsa
•  Hot Sauce, to taste
•  Salt And Black Pepper To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain black-eyed peas and partially mash, leaving some whole.

Add all other ingredients, stirring to combine.

Spread into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish and bake for 20 to 30 minutes until hot and bubbly.

Serve with tortilla chips!

*Note: if you have them available, you can use the canned black-eyed peas and jalapenos (they're canned together.) If you do this, you can omit the extra jalapenos.

Enjoy and Happy New Year! 

Food for thought.

My grandma passed away this year just after her 86th birthday in April. She was a lovely woman with a gentle soul, I never in all my life (46 years) saw her angry. Grandma was good at many things but the one thing everyone knew...is she was a FANTASTIC southern cook. I could show up at her house hungry, look in the fridge and think there was nothing to eat.  And in no time at all she would have whipped me up some homemade soup and cornbread. She was a magician in my eyes!

When she passed among her things that became mine were her wooden rolling pin, tin measuring cups, a pie plate and her recipe box. My Mom told me her rolling pin is likely be the only one she ever owned.  It is well seasoned from Crisco! I could feel and still smell the grease that had been worked into the wood over the years...she was a pie maker and would never dream of using a pre made pie crust.

A few days after Christmas I sat at the kitchen table and removed the rubber band that was around her recipe box. Her "recipe box" was really an old shoe box. Grandma kept most of her recipes in her head.  She didn't often use measuring utensils or cookbooks. She was the oldest child of 4 and responsible for cooking most meals in her household from an early age, and growing up in a time when people didn't dine out except for maybe a very special occasion meant she cooked 3 meals a day 7 days a week even after she married as well.  She didn't need Betty Crocker to tell her how to make meat loaf...truth is she probably taught Betty how to cook.

Once the rubber band was off the box and I was actually looking inside I was overcome with sadness. Knowing she would never again stand next to me in her kitchen cooking and baking with me is a hard thought to have. She taught me lots of tricks and shared many secrets with me over a recipe or two...and then I realized I wasn't crying out of sadness anymore but happiness. Happy I have those memories, happy she took the time to share with me the art of cooking. We live in a world where sadly many women do not know how to cook.  I'm very old fashion in my thinking,  I truly believe a woman should know how to cook, families should eat meals together and when possible they should be eaten at the family table. Nowadays everyone is plugged into a smart phone and barely takes the time to look up and acknowledge each other. Some of our best conversations are at the kitchen table over a home cooked meal and eaten only after saying grace.

I sat in my kitchen smiling and teary eyed,  remembering each recipe I found. The ones with stains on them I know are the well loved favorites and it was then I decided I HAVE to find a way to keep them safe. I need to put together a recipe book with them so that someday my daughter can flip through the pages and smile knowing they are long time family recipes, recipes that filled our bellies and our hearts and were preserved so that she too can call herself a good cook and hopefully tell her family of the times when she was just a child helping her mommy out in the kitchen. 

Grandma and my dad standing in my mom's kitchen...

Another of the Eiffel tower.

The Louve - Paris

Mona Lisa was much smaller than I imagined but still standing in front of her (with quite easily 100 other tourist) I found myself teary eyed. One more check on the bucket list.

Roman Bath

The Roman baths in Bath, England. By far the is one of my favorite places so far. I could have spent days just at the bath alone.