I Loved My Week End!

Friday, I decided to clean my oven, even I can only take so much smoke. Now don't be too shocked, I am showing my oven. Just like on the BBQ and stove top, I seem to find a way to boil over, spill and produce my "home cooked" smoke where ever I cook. Mariah gave me teflon oven liner a couple of years ago and does it ever save me time. It took five minutes to remove that and get the shiny oven using just that little green scrubby pad and dish soap. No fumes from spraying or when I turned the oven the next time. The liner also took about five minutes to clean. I love it! I forgot to mention, I have a self-cleaning oven . . . hate the heat, hate the smoke and scared of that high of a temperature inside my home. I had an oven missing insulation once and that one would have started a fire if I had run it in the cleaning mode!

Then I scrubbed the counters and cabinet fronts to renew my 80's almond laminate, cuts, chips, slices and all. Those generic Mr.Clean erasers work really well on 35 year old formica. It felt good to clear them and get this done, finally!

That night was a wonderful open house for one of the cutest couple. Jorgen and Amy should have a wonderful future! It was fun to see all of Linda and Nick's kids again and just enjoy the great company. A very pleasant evening, with Jon around, besides.

Brianna and my little dollies came over for the day. Brianna had a bridal shower so the girls and I had some good Gra' Nanny/ Princess time. We had so much fun! After the long drive over the girls needed a little rest . . . . for some reason, they love the crib, now that they are too big for it (giggle). Then it was time for Tatie to go potty (and story time with Papa) while Arianna helped me water the garden.

Next Papa accompanied us to Costco for a couple of things and let me see . . what else . . oh yeah! . . . . try the samples. It's easier with the girls since there is no problem with the soy thing.

When we got back home, Arianna decided to treat me to her special, super duper soup! She didn't say that it was a secret recipe, so I'll share. One stalk of celery (flat parsley, sliced carefully (with adult supervision), several pinches of millet, add a little salt, freshly ground pepper from the pepper mill. Stir carefully and add three dashes sprinkles, the secret ingredient. Sip often and share all over the counter, floor that needs to be swept and table, leaving stains behind. If it seems to be lacking, Lawry's will do the trick. So much for my scrubbed counters! The few stains are well worth watching her and trying her soup!

When Mariah and the boys came over it got pretty wild, but really was fun! I made creamy mac and cheese . . they must pretty special to talk me into that one . . I love red mac and cheese!

Saturday evening, I decided to make chile rellenos with some pablano chiles that came from, you guessed it, BB. I usually roast them under the broiler in the oven,. not in this heat, thank you! So Jon let me try his little blow torch. Interesting, kind of fun, but way too slow! I finished that one up over the burner, like in college. So I did the other ones in the toaster oven, on the patio. The rellenos were yummy, and if you have never tried them the pablano chiles made good ones. Recipe on my other blog in a day or two . . . got other things to do today!

I went to the home ward on Sunday. It was really nice to see friends I don't seem to see often enough these days. I sat with Mariah, Stephen and the boys. Not quite like being in a barrel of monkeys this time and the smorgasbord was limited, but soy free cheese bunny crackers sure make an old gal thirsty! They were both very generous this week.

The choir sang a beautiful piece with Kathy Merrill joining the piano accompaniment with her violin. I was really enjoying it when I heard Gabriel whisper, "that is so pretty!" When she had another section as a solo, he looked up at me with the biggest brown eyes and sweetest expression on his face and told me "Nanny, that is so-o-o sweet!" His little face was absolutely radiant . . . I just never know what to expect from that little man! He would like a violin for his next birthday.

After dinner on Sunday evening, I asked Mariah to look at this

cook book and tell me what she thought about it. She was pretty excited about it because it is written for those with limited cooking experience. In fact, she advised me to give one of these to each couple down at the institute ward when they got married.

Then she found a section that was called, "Survival". Now we are talking about a girl

who, says that all meat originates in the back of those meat cases in the grocery store. Pretty funny seeing that she lived in the country til she was almost 13. She started laughing, kind of weird, and this is the look on her face as she was retching , turning red, and sputtering! I guess she would starve before she would give in to frogs, toads, rats, skunk, lizards, grubs, grasshoppers and hairless caterpillars! the more she read, the more she was gagging . . . pretty funny . . . . since it never went beyond the gagging stage.

The rest of this book is EXCELLENT! If you can get copy, don't shy off by the last few pages . . . and who knows, you may find it useful!