Kerplooey !!!!

There's a reason they warn you NOT to place most glass bakeware on a stove top burner!! I blew up my beautiful heavy blue glass 15" x 8*' baking dish last night. I loved that dish!!

This is the sister dish to that beautiful
rectangular one. they came in a matched set of 3!

We were fixing a smoked turkey dinner with all the fixings (Thanksgiving in Sept.). We have houseguests this week. The guys did the turkey breasts on the smoker outside. I took the easy way out and made stove top dressing in the microwave (2 boxes full). I spread the finished dressing in the baking dish with the idea of sticking it in the oven to warm up and get a little crispy when the turkey was done and resting. (I got that together a little ahead of time and sat it on the top of the stove.)

Those birds DID look good!

They carried the tray with those beautiful golden brown turkey breasts on them in and set them on the kitchen counter. I then stuck the potatoes in the microwave and turned the burners on for beans and sauerkraut (It's Mid-Atlantic thing with turkey!) on the stove. Now, you would think after several years with this stove, I'd know which knob controlled which burner.

Within a minute or so, I smelled something burning and realized I'd accidentally turned the burner on under that glass casserole! I turned it off, touched and found the dish already warm and grabbed it off with potholders. I carried it in the dining room where the table was empty except for a wooden cutting board. I lifted the casserole and checked for damage before sitting it down on that board. (Thank goodness, I'd dragged my feet on setting the table!) I turned and walked back into the kitchen when it sounded like the entire dining room blew up! (Scarey, considering we have a smoked glass table there!)

...and glass rained down upon EVERYTHING!!!

Little square chunks of glass blew everywhere!! You heard them ping off everything in the room. (I have shelves along one whole wall full of collectibles!) Believe me, we got everyone's attention. It did break into what seems like millions of little 1/4" square pieces - like windshield glass breaks.

Everyone scrambled to get shoes on and jumped in to clean it up. (Dinner was already running fairly late as the turkeys had taken their own good time getting done. Apparently, they were very happy snuggled out there on the smoker.) They laughed at me as I calmly stood there and said "Dinner will be delayed a bit more and the dressing is now scratched from tonight's menu." (I was not calm. I wanted to throw myself across the bed and cry!)

Luckily, there were only a few chunks of glass that had bounced lowly onto the kitchen floor. Had they been high-flying, we'd have had to toss everything for fear of glass contamination. I've always wanted to take the wall out between my kitchen and dining room. Last night might be the first time I was glad we didn't. A fair amount of glass did fly through the archway into the living room, though. What a mess!!

It took SEVERAL bottles of wine to calm us down!

We all swept, vacuumed and wiped with a damp cloth and within an hour we did sit down to eat what turned out to be a great (though late) meal. Several bottles of wine were consumed in an effort to "calm our nerves." I did have one more box of Stove Top so I threw that together and dressing was back on the menu. (Of course, everyone only had a very small serving of it.)

We did sit back and laugh about it later. My friend also laughed about me wandering around still clutching both potholders in my hand while I used the broom. I had never put them down from moving the dish to the dining room! She thinks I was in shock.

Those danged shelves still have a lot of glass on them!

I guess today I need to start the very time consuming job of cleaning those shelves again. They are full of glass pieces. It seemed best to just ignore those nooks and crannies last night. We were all hungry!

Anybody interested in being invited to my next dinner party?

Bits'n'Pieces

You never know who you'll spot at the Post Office "just taking care of business!"

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I've had some odds and ends of news and stuff floating around for a few days but had specific posts planned so just held them in. (I should have made some notes!)

Facebook:

First, and foremost, I FINALLY set up a Facebook Fan Page for my Estsy shop, Splashin!!! I started out to do this almost a year ago. At that time, I didn't set it up correctly and ended up simply canceling the account. Recently, after being begged by quite a few friends, I rejoined Facebook with a personal account and have had a ball reconnecting with old friends and setting up quicker communications with family members. (Most of the younger ones moved on from e-mail to Facebook quite a while ago.) It was those younger ones who were pushing me to get a Fan Page going.

As many of you know, Facebook requires you to have 25 Fans before allowing you to have a short page title. When you start out, it's a little bit of a complicated link with several parts and lots of numbers. Right now, 30 hours into this venture, I'm still a few short of that number but you can check out my page and Fan me if you'd like by clicking on the Facebook button on the left sidebar here. Or, you can click here and get there, too. Whichever you'd prefer, I'd love to have you stop by and check it out. Please let me know what you think of the page and what you'd like to see there, either by commenting on the Wall, leaving me a note here or even e-mailing me from the Splashin page.

Splish'n'Splash Kitchen:

In other news, I'm developing a second blog. This one will still be my daily spot to chat but I wanted a designated place to discuss food and everything related to food. Yes, I admit it. I AM A FOODIE. So, to deal with that fact of life, I'm diving into a food blog.

I'll be launching Splish'n'Splash Kitchen this weekend (probably on Sunday.) There will be a recipe from time to time but this will mostly be a place for food news, food humor, cooking tales - good and bad, family cooking and eating together, features about folks who are involved with food in some way or do a craft that is food oriented or inspired (I've already lined up a few of those.) I have some food events I plan to tell you about and maybe even a food game or two. The reviews of all those culinary mysteries I love to read, will now appear over there.

This will NOT be a low-fat venture!!!

I don't know if I'll be posting there daily but I hope to get something up at least 4 or 5 times a week. I've spent some time preparing some posts to start off with and I will be reprinting a few that have run here over the last two years, also. I hope you'll take a few minutes to check it out from time to time. I'll let you know which day it actually takes off.

BBQ Competitions:
We'll be judging at the first BBQ event of our season this weekend. Pork in the Park will take place in Salisbury, Maryland Friday through Sunday. This particular contest has grown quickly to become one of the largest competitions in the country and the biggest this side of the Mississippi. They are expecting 125 competitors this year.

Keep your fingers crossed that we'll have good weather. The first few years, this event was plagued by monsoon-like rains but last year was absolutely perfect and the crowds definitely turned out. Over 31,000 people came for the food, crafts, music and other entertainment. We're definitely ready for some great slow-cooked BBQ!!! It's been a long winter.


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There were some bits of national news that fired me up earlier in the week ("enraged" might be a better word) but I've had a few days to calm down and won't repeat my tirades here. ( My family and friends were already subjected to to that!)

Finally - A creatively productive day!!!

I spent the day painting both orders and some new holiday items for the shop. I have a bunch of stuff to photograph and list by next weekend when I believe (or at least fervently hope) folks will hit the computers with their credit cards handy and start buying - a lot!!

I did get some holiday potholders listed yesterday and I've already sold a few of those. I was also able to list a product that I've been selling off line for a while but had trouble working out a practical means of shipping until now. I haven't sold that one yet but it did get quite a few views yesterday when I first added it to the shop.

In between painting, I also did some major cooking and even caught a little interesting news along the way.

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Did you know, you could actually be arrested for refusing to tip a waitress?

It happened in Bethlehem, PA recently! A group of eight friends reportedly spent a little time at a pub and racked up a $73.00 bill. Service was awful. It took over an hour to get their order and one of the women needed to get up and get their own napkins and silverware. The place was busy but this was a bit unreasonable. They even had to go up to the bar themselves for a soda refill as the waitress "never came back."

When the bill arrived, there was an 18% ($16.00) gratuity tacked onto the bill since it was a large group (not an unusual practice). This was just too much to bear for one of the couples. They went to the bartender in charge and complained about the gratuity when service was pretty much non-existent. Supposedly, the bartender offered to comp the food but demanded the gratuity be paid. They refused to pay the tip but paid the bill for the food in full. The bartender called the police and the couple was actually arrested and charged with theft since the gratuity was officially a part of the bill.

They have a Court date scheduled for next month!

I know they felt it was a matter of principle, but wouldn't it have made more sense for the establishment to simply forgive the tip in the interest of customer service, OR, in the alternative, wouldn't the customers have made out better to pay the tip under protest but accept the comp on the food? To quote my b-i-l, "Let's pretend one of us wasn't stupid here..."

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On a sad note, the U.S.P.O. has discontinued Operation Santa. There's hope it will be resurrected. The Alaskan town that serves as North Pole Central is frantically working to resolve the issue. I'll tell you about this one in tomorrow's post.

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Okay, now for something a little lighter...

Let's look at some of my new stuff!!!!

Here's one of my handpainted tables that I've finally been able to list in my online shop.

I love painting these and they sell fairly well offline but I had been unable to find a practical means of shipping them. I could not locate boxes for packing them and could not afford to swallow the costs of having one of those shipping stores box it for me. (Boxing and packing is where those guys make their profits!)

Recently I read a thread in one of the Etsy forum posts about shipping framed artwork and it was suggested they use boxes available from the U-Haul Stores referred to as "mirror boxes." I checked this out and they do have an appropriate box at a reasonable cost. The actual shipping, once it was boxed, was not outrageous. Look for more of these tables in the shop in the future.

I was also able to get some holiday potholders listed yesterday and today.

Want more details, simply click on the pic for a link to the listing at Splashin (my online shop).

Santa and Frosty are all smiles. Wouldn't these be great Secret Santa items?

I'm sure Granny and Great Aunt Mable would love them in their kitchens, too!

Then there is Mr. and Mrs. Ginger, "the cookie couple." I listed these this morning just before lunch, ran out to the grocery store and came home to find they'd already sold! So, I listed a second batch of them.

These have proven to be the most popular in my offline sales, as well.

This is Ray the Reindeer, he's the lesser known cousin of Rudolph. He wasn't blessed with a glowing nose so he's been relegated to helping Mrs. Clause in the kitchen!

****There's a bonus Christmas Cookie recipe included with every potholder purchase.

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Oh yeah! I mentioned cooking today, too. Seems we bought some oversized produce this weekend. What can I say, I can't resist a bargain. Among our purchases were a bag load of bell peppers at 4 for $1 ( I cut these up for the freezer. We use an inordinate amount of peppers around here. They're as much a staple in my kitchen as flour and eggs!) and a giant head of broccoli for 75 cents! We do love broccoli, so we just cut that up and have steamed some every night this week. (I believe I will be ready for a different green veggie in the next few days. I like it, but enough is enough!) Then there was the large economy size head of cabbage, weighing in at close to 6 lbs!! This was the deal at only 50 cents!! I couldn't resist taking their picture ( the soda can is for size perspective) and sending it off to my b-i-l the "bargain king". He's so jealous!!

Today I shredded all that cabbage and I'll be cooking it tomorrow. I have a great recipe for a hot spicy slaw that tastes like a richly seasoned sauerkraut but is much more colorful. it really looks "harvesty." (Is that a word?)

Julie & Julia - A Movie Review

Sorry there's no Working the Shows Wednesday feature today. I did attend an event Saturday where there was supposed to be a few crafters exhibiting their wares but I found none so I have nothing to report on this week. I am hoping for much better luck this week.
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I do, however, have a movie review for you today!

I've had a friend visiting for a few days and we took advantage of matinee prices today and went to see Julie & Julia. We loved it. It is really a chick flick so leave the guys at home and go with a friend. Basically, Nora Ephron has taken two true stories, Julia Child's memoir of her life in France in 1949 and Julie Powell's account of blogging about cooking her way through Julia's famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and blended the two into one truly entertaining movie.

The movie flips back and forth from Julia's life in Paris in the late 40s to Julie's life in Queens, New York in 2002. Meryl Streep does a fantastic job of portraying Julia. If you are old enough to remember watching Julia Child on TV, you may forget this really isn't her. Meryl's that good! As the movie opens, Julia finds herself accompanying her diplomat husband to Paris. She's absolutely thrilled to find herself among the beauty and mystique of the famous city but she is also quite bored and needs to find something to occupy her time.

Critics have not been kind to Amy Adams in this role but I liked the character and I feel Amy definitely did it justice. (Okay, so maybe I was a bit sympathetic to start with. She does play a blogger!) Amy plays Julie Powell, a frustrated writer, or at least she wants to be a writer, only she's stuck in a stressful job that keeps her on the phone in a tiny little cubicle, dealing with very trying callers. She wants to find an outlet for her creative juices and eventually finds her way to blogging. As bloggers, we've all reached that point early in the experience where we wonder if we're talking to ourselves and Julie asks her readers early on, "Is there anybody out there?" (I can identify with that moment!)

Both women find their way to cooking as the solution to their doldrums. It gives them a creative outlet, a goal in life and it definitely adds some zing to their existence. Both women eventually reach their goal and bask in the thrill of completing a job well done.

We left the theater hungry. After all, we had spent 2 hours at that point watching the characters eat some fantastic looking food that they and their companions raved over, making almost orgasmic sounds as they savored the meals. My friend has vowed to go home and make Julia's Boef Bourguignon as they showed it at least four times throughout the last half of the movie. You could almost smell it in you mind. It did look wonderful!!

Father's Day Memories of Dad

I played with the idea of just what to write on this Father's Day. My Dad passed away almost 34 years ago but the memories (and lessons learned) are still very real. In the end, I simply decided to reprint something I wrote about my memories of him a while back. I published a family cookbook that featured essays and comments by various family members about those who are no longer with us, calling that chapter "Our Family Legacy." Because it was a cookbook, we geared those comments and memories to food related themes. My Dad always loved a good meal and thoroughly enjoyed all sorts of food. I have edited this essay and eliminated the pictures to protect the privacy of the rest of the family but I hope you will enjoy the tales and will take time to think about your special experiences with your Dads and Grandfathers. Be sure to wish them a Happy Father's Day. They deserve it.

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Reprinted from Cooking With Family:

Like many men of his generation, Dad was never known for his cooking. For the most part, I’d simply say, he DIDN”T cook. He always made sure we were fed if Mom wasn’t around - but he usually didn’t cook it.

When I was little, Mom was involved several days a month helping to prepare church dinners and the monthly dinners for the Kiwanis Club that met at our church. Before she returned to working full time, she would spend the better part of the day at church on those preparations. When she had gone back to work at the school (practically next door to the church), she would head over there on those days as soon as she got off work to help get the meal ready. She would then be there to help serve and return home in the early evening. On those days, it was Dad’s responsibility to see that my brother and I were fed. (I don’t remember my sister being at the house at that time. I guess she was either already married or out working by then.)

I now believe it was done mostly for my entertainment, but I remember him sitting at the kitchen table looking around the room where he had, literally, opened all of the cupboard doors and pretending to search out the appropriate pot, pan and/or dishes needed for an elaborate meal like boiled hotdogs and beans or frozen fries. (Mom had left a simple plan for him.) He’d make a big production out of that meal preparation. OR…, more often than not, dinner turned into take-out pizza or subs. (In those days, these were very special treats.) Sometimes, he’d simply take us out to eat at a restaurant.

When I was growing up, we always owned a boat that was kept at the marina where there was a clubhouse and bar. Mom used to make Dad take me along when he was going to the boat under the theory of how much trouble could he get into with a little kid tagging along. It didn’t always work as well as she’d hoped but he did make sure I was fed.

I can remember Dad and my Godfather sitting me up on the back end of the bar there and providing me with a nice fruit platter. (Oh wait, that was the cocktail garnish tray!) Well, aren’t orange slices and maraschino cherries fruit?

When I was a young teen, I’d often spend the weekend on the boat with Dad. It was basically a floating hotel tied to the pier. Mom would frequently choose to stay home with my grandmother who lived with us or tend to other matters on the home front. The galley on the boat was usually fairly well stocked with things like peanut butter, jelly, mayonnaise, Spam, chips, etc. We’d usually carry bread, lunchmeat and such with us. Dad made sure I was fed - but not necessarily from the on-board stock. The clubhouse at the marina had one of those (then) “new-fangled” microwave ovens and prepackaged refrigerated sandwiches and individual pizzas. These fascinated Dad and he considered them appropriate for any meal. See, he DID cook in his own way!

Dad was big on late night snacks. We’d run out to get pizza just before the pizza shop closed at night. (Back then, it was probably 9 p.m. - you know, just before they rolled the sidewalks up.) (At that point in time, we’d never even imagined home delivery of pizzas!)

He got on one jag when he decided Chef Boy-R-Dee boxed pizza mixes were tasty. It is one of the few things I do remember him making himself. I think Mom thought it better to simply steer clear while “the Chef” was at work and hose the kitchen down later! Luckily, that phase passed. It took me thirty years to grow out of wanting a late night snack!

Among many other lessons, Dad taught me to have fun, enjoy a good restaurant and the company of friends, and - instilled in me, a deep, deep love of peanut butter.

Mom said peanut butter flowed in our blood. I’m sure if they ever did a DNA assessment, Skippy or Peter Pan might show up! Peanut butter was Dad’s answer to everything. It was appropriate for any meal - breakfast, lunch or dinner (and snacks). You can put it on most anything. If all else fails, just eat it by the spoonful! I remember Dad finishing dinner before the rest of us and asking what was for dessert. Often it was fruit or brownies. He’d shrug and just go with a PB&J (usually grape jelly but apple would do in a pinch). If there was an interesting dessert, he might just fill in with half a PB&J while waiting for the rest of us to finish the meal.

We ate many a late night peanut butter sandwich. Sometimes, he got creative and made “chocolate peanut butter”. If the jar was real low, he was known to add a bit of Hershey’s chocolate syrup and stir it together. This went well on bread, graham crackers and even plain saltines. He encouraged Mom to make grilled ham and peanut butter sandwiches for lunch sometimes. And then there was the ultimate - the peanut butter and chocolate chip sandwich! White bread, peanut butter and chocolate chips! (Believe it or not, I did finally find someone else - not related to us - who ate these as a child. Of course, they did grow up on the same river where we kept our boat so Dad may have had some influence over them, too!)

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Thank you for indulging me, Dear Readers. If my Dad were here today, he'd be about to turn 89 and I'm sure he'd still be eating peanut butter every which way he could !

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Maybe it's my mojo coming back - slowly.

Late last night, I finally took time to revamp the Welcome Page for my etsy shop as well as my Profile and Shop's Policies pages. It's basically all the same info - just rearranged, I did add a little language about the safety of my merchandise. I've been meaning to do this for quite a while now.

With the CPSIA threat out of the way for now, I've begun to add new children's merchandise to my shop. The two newest additions are my Fun Frogs Set, featuring a onesie and matching pants, and a Tool Man In Training Onesie. I've offered the latter as a 2 pc set for a while but keep getting requests for just the onesie so I've finally listed it by itself.

If you're looking for something different for a little one in your life,

please check out these and others in my shop at www.splashin.etsy.com.

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Today went a lot better than yesterday. I'm not sure I've actually recovered all of my mojo but I did find some energy. Since the creative juices hadn't started to flow, I threw myself into the mundane necessities of life like laundry, grocery shopping and cooking.

The Big Guy took pity on me last night and fixed dinner so I decided he deserved a decent meal tonight. He thoroughly enjoyed his pork enchiladas and black beans this evening. The best part (for me anyhow) is there's enough leftovers to constitute a second dinner from the effort.

I've never learned to cook for just two people. When I worked 45-50 hours a week, I used to spend one entire day cooking and stockpiling a bunch of meals for the freezer. Favorites have always been things like jambalaya, pulled pork, chicken parmesan, stuffed shells, etc. I'd do that like once every six weeks or so. Since I've been at home full time, I haven't stopped that system I still appreciate painting all day and then being able to produce a quick home-cooked meal by simply heating something up.

Here's one of the recipes I like to use for such meals:

CHICKEN PARMESAN (without breading)

**When I make this to stockpile, I simply prep the chicken and then freeze it in a freezer bag. It only takes a few minutes to assemble the chicken with the sauce and cheese before putting it in the oven.

4 boneless skinned chicken breasts
Salt-free lemon pepper
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 jar tomato sauce of your choice (I usually use Prego)
Italian seasoning
Garlic powder
Shredded mozzarella
Spaghetti
*Generously sprinkle chicken with lemon pepper. Coat a non-stick pan with just enough olive oil to cover the bottom (1-2 Tbsp.). Brown the chicken slowly over low heat. (The slow cooking tenderizes the meat.)
*When chicken is cooked through, place the breasts in a baking dish and cover with tomato sauce.
*Sprinkle with Italian seasoning and garlic powder to taste.
*Top each breast with a handful of shredded mozzarella.
*Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, until cheese bubbles and browns.
*Serve over spaghetti, cooked as directed on the package.

Add a salad and garlic bread and you’ve got a meal!


I hope to get some new painting done tomorrow. We'll see.

Till then, think creative thoughts.