Category:

Just A Quick Cat One Here And Then On To Show And Tell

6/7/2012

I'm an early riser.
I typically wake up happy.

Credit: malariaworld.com

I do my best work between 5-7am every morning.
I'm clear headed, creative, productive and like to get a lot of work done during those two hours.

The cats, however, have other ideas for me...

Here we are now. Entertain us.

*Sigh*
This is 18 year old Holyfield who is always the first to jump on my work table, before the coffee's even done brewing.
We play a game every morning for 25 minutes where Holyfield tries to lay on the keyboard of the laptop and I push him away. He then tries to lay on the keyboard of the laptop. I push him away. Again the keyboard. Again pushed away. And again. And again. And again. Over and over.
Holyfield calls it "getting petted and loved on".
Angie calls it "pushing the cat away from the keyboard."

And Vinny here insists on being wherever my camera is.
All.
The.
Time.
This is no
exaggeration.

Told
ya.

Vinny's brother Pepper, enjoys attention too.

But what Pepper enjoys more is...

...corralling his brother Vinny every single morning and leading a loud, raucous meowing chorus of
FEED US OUR TREATS YOU OLD LADY!!!
NOW!!
MEOW!!!

Now I know you think I must be embellishing about these annoying cats in the morning...
magnifying the reality.
But Ima tell you,
THEY JUST WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!

Case in point!!!!!
You didn't believe me, did you?

And then after repeating the following;
five hundred times every morning...
"Get off your brother!!!"
"Get off Holyfield!!!"
"Get off my keyboard!!!"
"Get off the kitchen counter!!!"
"Stay out of the oatmeal!!!"
"Stop biting my feet!!!"
"You've had enough treats; no more!!!"
"Stop eating Holyfield's treats!!!"
"Leave the dog food alone!!!"
"Leave the dog alone!!!"
"Are you in or out? I'm tired of this Grand Central Station stuff!!!"
"Leave the ##@*&% mouse outside, that's disgusting!!!"
They finally settle down and I get some peace and quiet.

Right about 7am,

when my clear headed, productive, creative mojo is waning.

zazzle.com

But, they're all keepers. Especially Holyfield.

Who you will see has assisted me in presenting the following
Show And Tell items we picked up on a weekender in Stillwater, MN.

Let's start with this small stained glass cross we picked up at a really quirky bead and gift shop.
$20.
Not bad eh?

The craftsmanship is beautiful, the gold detailing in the corners is not visible in this picture.

Tim bought this and I almost fell on the floor cuz he NEVER spends money, well other than a pop and an occasional cigar.

This is that fun and quirky bead shop where we bought the cross.

Love it!

Moving on, this is my absolutely favorite tickle-me-pink thing I bought on the trip.

A super cute red and white french fry basket.

Ca-ute!!!

Look at that cute plastic-y basket weaving!
Don't ya just want to fry up some fries, throw them in there, slather them with salt and ketchup and GO TO TOWN??!!!

Don't ya??!!
Yes??!!

Actually, I bought this basket at an antique mall in a cute town called Cannon Falls, right outside Stillwater. This mall was a bit pricey.
However......this basket was just one buck!!! One buck!!! Doing a dollar dance here, lalalalallalala, dolardollardollardollardollar. *head spinning round*

Know what else I bought there?

This big plasticy spoon rest.

It's like a foot long.
As in inches, not sandwiches.

See, it says Betty Crocker on it!! How cool is that??

That sticky stuff above Betty there is the remnants of the sticky price tag.

Guess how much I paid for this.
It was more than a buck.

Five bucks.

Not too bad eh?

Not only is this spoon rest functional but it doesn't break the Bank-O-Angie.

Q: Hey, could my background display tablecloth be any wrinklier???!!

A: No.

Oh don't even get me started on these appetizer plates!

You know how I loves me the dishes!!!

We bought these at a store named appropriately enough "The Dining Room Shop" or something like that.

The label on the front tells you they are appetizer plates for the top of your glass.

The plates are safe to place on the top of glasses because of this foam thing on the bottom.

Myself, I just love the colors in these plates.

So soothing.

I even used them already for the Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms.

OH!

At this antique shop I paid a buck for the following item....

Gulf Oil paraffin wax!!!

Now I collect oil and gas related stuff but I never thought I would see Gulf Oil on a paraffin wax box!

Hilarious!

Aren't the colors great though!

And here's the instructions on the back.

Love it!

Again, only paid a buck.

Now we went to this antique shop...it was humongous, never-ending, super busy, full of life, and fun!!!

It had three floors!!

The third floor was nothing but furniture. Furniture everywhere!!!

Hundreds and hundreds of pieces, big and small.
It was kind of creepy and gothic up there.

All I bought was a $2.99 vintage Christmas bulb though.

Yes, I paid $2.99 for this tackmeister, tackthousand, tackiest-ever bulb.

I know you want it.
You can't have it.
It's mine.

I saw it first.

Okay, last thing to show you...Tim picked this up...again, oddly hilarious.

Readylite Emergency Battery Candles.

Candles that look like batteries.

And size "D" batteries to boot according to the box.

Crazy!!!

And they really are candles.

This is the side of the box.

And the back with the candle instructions...
remove paper before lighting.

Um, okay.

So, that was the extent of our shopping excursion,
that didn't include food anyway. :)

Hope everyone has a good Thursday!!!
This IS Thursday, isn't it?
Yes. Yes, it is. Just looked at the calender.
It's Tim's Dad's birthday!...Happy Birthday Richard! Don't party too much today, cuz you know, no one's gonna come bail you outta jail :)

Have a good one guys,
talk at ya soon!

Someone Stole My Kitchen!!!!

2/19/2012

Someone stole my kitchen.

Right out from under me!!!!

Kitchen thievery is a

VERY!

SERIOUS!

CHARGE!!

I'm gonna be discreet so as not to embarrass anybody.

Just sayin', that's all.

They started out by stealing all my pictures and created a beautiful entryway that they stole from me.

They stole pictures and plates...see that small rectangle landscape picture with the green frame over to the lower right, under the print of the little baby.....?
Uh huh, you got it........S-T-O-L-E-N.

The bandits stole artwork and photographs....

and this was just in their entryway!

Seriously,
did
they
think
I
wouldn't notice
they
lifted
my
stairs
too
?!?!!!!
*sigh*

Herb,

whach yu lookin' all innocent for?

You don't look nervous at all.

You act like you OWN this kitchen.
This beautiful, functional, joyous piece of art kitchen....

that was mine first!

It's mine, it's mine!!! Whaaaa!!!
M - I - N - E
MINE!!!

I want it! I want it!

I WAAAAANT it!

*foot stomping* *arms flailing*
*tears streaming* *sticking out tongue*

And I want this too!!!!

I want it all! I want this wall of cupboards with that cubby hole with all that bright, shiny stuff in it!!!

See the round tray on the lower shelf with the fruit. I DID have that at one time.
In my barn.
When I ran an antique and junque shop out of it.

Just for the record, Peaches did not steal that tray.
Unlike the kitchen and entryway anyway.

Every dang thing is functional
in Peaches and Herb's kitchen.

Every.

Thing.

It is a cook's kitchen.

They even have a warm, cozy

sitting area in there...

Tim parked his hard-working self in that cozy chair and had a few appetizers with Sherry.
Sherry the wine, not Sherry the girl :)

And you can sneak a peak of the warm living room from the kitchen...

I love the color of the walls, that blue,
it looks like old-world leather.
It also feels very contemporary and refreshing at the same time.
And there's beautiful artwork in there; I took a quick snapshot on the left, of a vignette on one of the living room walls.

And I love the simplicity of the potted plant on the old green painted plant stand up there in the photo on the right. That green contrasting with the red, orange and blue...absolutely loved it.

And look who I discovered in the living room...

a very sleepy Millie!
Hi Millie!!

Of course, one is never without furry companions at Peaches and Herb's house. The other furry canine who I loved as well is not in these pictures; Sal must have been sunning his pretty brown-haired doggie self somewhere.

Well I hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of the kitchen that Peaches and Herb kind of stole, or not really stole, but still, stole from me. Stole from my heart anyway.

I always love a space where form and function meet and their warm, cozy, beautifully functional kitchen sure meets the bill on that one.

Hey, have a great evening and talk at ya soon!!!!!

Peaches and Herb and Yorkshire Pudding

2/17/2012

Do you know what Yorkshire Pudding is?

Clearly I didn't because this is Yorkshire Pudding.
And it's not pudding.

It's a puff pastry!!!!!!

Say WHAT??????

I'm forty blah blah years old and I thought
Yorkshire Pudding was,
well,
PUDDING.
From freaking ENGLAND.

In particular, oh, I don't know,
YORKSHIRE!

No, I learned Yorkshire Pudding is a
puff pastry,
served traditionally with beef.

T'aint nothing like a Sunday dinner shared with wonderful folks who cooked the meal :)

Tim and I had the best time on a lazy Sunday afternoon, having dinner in the kitchen of Tim's cousin Peaches and her partner Herb.

Clearly those are fake names.
Remember Peaches and Herb?
Reunited and it feels so good, reunited cuz, well I don't know the words but you know who I mean.

Herb is an amazing chef!

Look at his humble little kitchen he has to work in.

Oh my gosh, I about fainted when I walked in!!! The colors, the commercial stove, the equipment, the decor, the food!!!

The word SWOON comes to mind with this one folks.

Clearly this kitchen is huge and gorgeous and colorful and every single thing is FUNCTIONAL!!!!

Every! Single! Thing!
Functional!

This is a cook's kitchen. It just happens to be supremely beautiful as well.

I'm going to show more pictures of Peaches and Herb's supremely fantastic, uplifting kitchen in my next post this weekend but for now I just want to share the Sunday dinner Herb made for us.

The Sunday dinner was a traditional English meal.
Fortunately Herb is from England and he learned much from his mother who was an excellent cook who learned from her family's cook in South Africa when she was a little girl.
So Herb shares his gift often with family and friends.

Thank goodness Herb cooks like a chef. See that Yorkshire Pudding up there? See that beef? Crap, now I'm really hungry!

Tim and I knew things were going to be amazing when we saw Herb slicing the roast after it had rested a bit.

After some nice chatting and catching up....we sat down for a relaxing Sunday dinner.

Notice who was first to sit down?

Hi Stud Muffin.
:):):)

And then because I am annoying, I made everyone stop so I could snap a couple pictures.

Let me tell ya, all I wanted to do was start with the inhalation of this fantastic meal.

There were these gorgeous green beans but look at that colorful trivet too??!!
Too cool!!

The contrast of the white dishes and food was so pretty and appealing.

Wait!!

There were cooked carrots too!

Such a natural sweetness.
Yum!
I could have ate those all day and night.

And roasted potatoes. Simply amazing.

And tangy roasted parsnips too although I forgot to take a picture of them.
Tangy roasted goodness is what they were.

And we had gravy in gravy boats!!!

I love gravy boats!!

I use them myself sometimes but it's so fun to have gravy in someone else's boat sometimes too you know!

Oh yeah, here's the scoop on Yorkshire Pudding....
It's a very old food custom....

Yorkshire Pudding was originally used as a first course filler for poor people who could not afford much meat. Years ago, when the meat was cooked on a spit or trivitt, the batter was put underneath and the fat and meat juice dripped onto the batter. If there wasn't enough meat to go around the children would get Yorkshire pudding and gravy as their main meal. Now the dish is almost always served with a roast beef main course to form part of a 'traditional English dinner'. From H2G2.com website.

And it's made with beef fat dripping at a super high heat; 450 degrees.

Herb is a master at Yorkshire Pudding.
Seriously, Tim and I were in Food Paradise.

And of course I loved that the meal was served on Herb's mother's china,

just like a traditional Sunday dinner would be.

Of course we toasted to this

wonderful meal

and friendship...

See the plate in the lower left corner, THAT'S MINE!!! Doesn't it look fab!!

After all that food and drink, all we wanted to do was move Cal out of the over-sized chair and plop down and nap.

Me Cal and me say you no wan 2 touch me or make me mooove. Capiche?

Cal had other plans for the chair, so we let him be.
And instead devoured apple tartlets and brownie oatmeal bars! Uh huh, that's right. Imagine that. Tim and I eating dessert. Huh.

Tim and I are not shy with food, that's for sure.
We had a lovely afternoon, shared our appreciation, Tim joked that we would see them next week, same place, same time, and finally said good-bye.
Ten bucks says they couldn't wait for our waddling bottoms to hit the door :):):):)
I am so excited to share a few other pictures from Peaches and Herb's kitchen, so watch for my next blog post this weekend.

OH!
I've been cooking a lot too but sadly, several of the dishes and pictures will end up in the my Icky Food Blech posts.
But there has been a couple gems!

Hey, have a great Saturday!!!

Enjoy the weather!!!

Talk at ya soon!

Angie And Her Skillet Are Flying High Now

1/6/2012

I am in love with a skillet.....

Remember Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show band from the 1970's?!?!

They sang
"When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman."

Well, I sang this song several nights ago after I had just gotten my NEW AWESOME CAST IRON SKILLET from my sister-in-law for Christmas.

Except I sang out loud and proud, "WHEN YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH A BEAUTIFUL SKILLET."

Does that seem weird to you?
Don't answer.

Just for kicks,

and because I have just learned how to embed You Tube videos here...(YAY),

I embedded Dr. Hooks video from 1978 of the band singing that Beautiful Woman song.

Here, take a little peek...
I guess you need to use like Mozilla to see this video. If you are using Internet Explorer (Hi Mom!) you may need to go to another computer to enjoy all the fineness of Dr. Hook's music.
I also took some liberties with the written lyrics below.

When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
It's hard .
When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
You know it's hard .
Everybody wants your skillet
Everybody loves your skillet
Everybody wants to take your skillet home .
When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
You watch your friends
When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
It never ends .
You know that it's crazy
You want to trust the skillet
then somebody hangs up when you answer the 'phone .
When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
You go it alone .
Maybe it's just that ego problem .
Problem is I've been fooled before
My fair weatherfriends
and faint hearted lovers
but every time it happens
it just convinces me more .
When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
you watch your eyes .
When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
You look for lies .
Everybody tempts the skillet
Everybody tells the skillet
She's the most beautiful skillet they know .
When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
You go it alone
When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
You watch your friends
When you're in love with a beautiful skillet
It never ends .

I think I'll name my skillet "Sylvia" after
Dr. Hook's other song,
"Sylvia's Mother".
Remember Sylvia's Mother Mrs. Avery?
What a witch!
Just kidding.

"....and the operator said 40 cents more for the next three minutes, PLEEEAAASSSEE Mrs. Avery, I, just gotta talk to her, I'll only keep her a while...."

And just to keep things interesting, I'm embedding Jon
"say what the what?" Bon Jovi singing "Sylvia's Mother."

Don't hate me!

Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's busy, too busy to come to the phone
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's tryin' to start a new life of her own
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's happy so why don't you leave her alone
And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes

Please Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her,
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell her goodbye

Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's packin' she's gonna be leavin' today
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's marryin' a fella down Galveston way
Sylvia's mother says please don't say nothin' to make her start cryin' and stay
And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes

Please Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her,
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell her goodbye

Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's hurryin' she's catchin' the nine o'clock train
Sylvia's mother says take your umbrella cause Sylvie, it's startin' to rain
And Sylvia's mother says thank you for callin' and sir won't you call back again
And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes

Please Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her,
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell her goodbye

Tell her goodbye...
Please... tell her goodbye..

Well crap.
Those lyrics were depressing.

Ima not name my skillet Sylvia after all.

Ima name her Rocky.

Because one day we may run

up the steps of the Philly Art

Museum together.

Don't laugh. It could happen!

Okay fine,
I won't bore you with any more videos.

But I will be showcasing Rocky quite a bit on this here blog in the future.
The skillet, not the actor.
Duh.
Sheeeezzzz....

Happy Friday!!!!
By the way, I want to paint my bathroom this color coral; isn't it pretty?
Pretty 80's probably, but still.

NEW PANINI MAKER and it just ain't for rich folks...YAY!!!

1/1/2012

Happy New Year everybody!!!

Hope it was a good one!

I'm SO EXCITED!!!
I must tell you about my new

PANINI MAKER GRILL THING.

It's AWESOME!

It looks like a crab here,
making it's way across my kitchen counter,
but in actuality it is a stationery electrical appliance.

See, it won't hurt you.

But it will make you LOVE sandwiches better.

At least it did me.

Look, it's opening it's mouth and telling you to feed it.

"GIVE ME YOUR CRAPPY, BORING SANDWICH AND I WILL MAKE IT EXCITING"

is what it is saying.

Okay,
so I took the bait and ponied up two slices of boring Wonder 100% whole wheat bread.

*Yawn*

I slapped some deli sliced turkey on the bread.

*Sheez, can someone wake me up when this boring blog post is over?!?!?!*

OH MY GOSH, I CAN'T STAND IT...Pepper jack cheese????

NO!!!

Well, NOW things are really hoppin'!!

Throw the other slice of bread on top and you have...ahhh...hmmm....
well, uh, yeah, a boring old turkey and cheese sandwich.

*What? Is it like midnight or something, cuz I'm dying of boredom of my own words and pictures here.*

Wait!

Hold the presses!

What is this? Pam Olive Oil spray?

What do I do with this?

Why is this important to this blog post? Much less this sandwich?

Say what the what?!?!

You want me to spray both sides of the sandwich with Pam cooking spray?

Why?

Whatever good can become of spraying bread with olive oil? I'm confused! That's just WEIRD!!!

Well, after getting over my initial shock of spraying bread, I sprayed both sides and
placed the sandwich on the panini press.
And closed the lid.

Now if you haven't passed out or clicked away of boredom yet,
hang in there please.....

Cuz wait a couple minutes and then open up the fancy dancy panini press and

LOOK

WHAT

YOU

HAVE!

A non-boring, warm,
tasty,
oozy
turkey and pepper jack cheese extraordinaire sandwich!

On a really messy, crumb-filled plate no less!

Dear Mr. Boring Turkey Sandwich,

You don't look boring at all now.

Love,
Angie

In fact, you look even better up close....my stomach is gurgling noises, saying feed me, feed me.

Oh, and the best part?

The panini press is easy to clean...

Triple YAY!!!

I know this is not clean yet, I took the picture immediately after taking the sandwich off the griddler, but all the crumbs wiped away very handily.

Okay, I lied. I haven't cleaned it yet but I can tell by the non-stick surface it's easy to clean.

So I learned a couple things today:
1. Panini makers aren't just for hoity, rich folk. Mine was a Christmas gift from my Mother-in-law. The press is a Cuisinart brand, I think original price around $100 on sale for $50.
2. Paninis elevate the taste of a sandwich and are verrrrry easy to make. Even a monkey could make a panini. As you witnessed above.

Photo courtesy of photoshoppix.com

Angie aka Bubbles the Monkey
says

HAPPY

NEW

YEAR
and go out and buy a panini press, you won't be disappointed

and the next post will be all about an exciting Spicy White Bean Chili!

Hold yer hats on for that one :)!!!

Have a great Monday!!

Hope everybody's Holidays

were awesome!

The Best $2.99 I've Ever Spent

7/26/2011

Hello gorgeous plastic things. I luv u.

I saw a display of these hard plastic produce savers in the grocery store
produce section last week.

They were $2.99 each.

I'm a sucker for end cap displays, especially if they're bright and shiny.

Well, of course I had to have one, the onion.

Then I walked back and plucked the tomato too.

Uh, can I just say, best two dollars and ninety nine cents I've ever spent!
THEY REALLY WORK!!!
Both the cut tomatoes and onion were super fresh days later!

Three days after having the cut onion and chopped tomato stored, the onion was crispy still and the tomatoes were fresh.

AND I can locate both of these produce savers easily and immediately even in my unorganized, somewhat-not-the-cleanest-in-the-world pre-World War II era refrigerator.

Choose us, choose us! Don't go for the cream cheese, we are healthier, Choose us!

Best of all, I never have to wrap a cut onion in a paper towel or baggie again. And I noticed I've used my cut tomatoes just about every meal now, since I can find them while they're still fresh,
and not 2 1/2 months old.

I think the store had other produce savers too, a lemon for sure that I can remember. Fresh lemon slices in water is apparently very good for a person.

The cashier who rung these up, said she's had all of them for a year
(bought them 1/2 price when they went on sale), and swears by them.

Best $2.99 I've ever spent.
Well, that didn't involve the words cheese and cake anyway.

Just A Quick Cat One Here And Then On To Show And Tell

Someone Stole My Kitchen!!!!

Peaches and Herb and Yorkshire Pudding

Angie And Her Skillet Are Flying High Now

NEW PANINI MAKER and it just ain't for rich folks...YAY!!!

The Best $2.99 I've Ever Spent

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