Michelle's Musings

31 March 2020

Homemade Ranch

Again, since we are stuck inside and not social distancing, I wanted to share another of my recipes.

There are so many good homemade ranch dressing recipes out there, but this is the one that I use in my house. Why make it? Oh, it tastes so much better than store-bought and you control the ingredients, you know exactly what is inside there.

First of all, I have to make some buttermilk because I never have that. I pour about a 1 1/2 cups of milk (I rarely measure) into a bowl and add about a 1/2 teaspoon (again, eyeballing) of vinegar. I stir it up and let it sit for a few minutes.

While waiting for that I get another bowl out and add:
1/2 sour cream
1 cup of mayo (I use the Great Value brand)

I am sorry but I do these to taste or how I like them to be (so bad at measuring), these are all dry ingredients I keep in my cupboard:

Dill weed
Garlic Powder
Parsley
Onion Powder
guessing, I would say about 1 teaspoon to start out and see how you like it. I like about 1/2 garlic, 1 1/2 dill, 1/4 onion, and 1 parsley.

When I started researching ranch recipes many say to add a little lemon juice so I started adding a little bit and I admit it does give it a WOW!!! So add a little lemon juice. You can taste test it right now...isn't that yummy? It will taste even better after about an hour. If it gets to thick just add a little milk (a very little).

Mix all of these ingredients with about 1 cup of the buttermilk that you made. I store it in a glass jar, for up to two weeks, it never lasts that long.

Poppyseed Chicken

Since you are all cooped up in the house these days, trying to be "healthy at home", I am sure you are like me and going through all the recipes to see what new you can fix for dinner. I am going to share with you one of my easy fave recipes. I did not create it, I have no idea who did, but I know it is yummy.

Poppyseed chicken

3 cups chopped cooked chicken (the rotisserie chicken at Sam's is perfect)

1 (10 3/4-oz.) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1 (16-oz.) container sour cream (I don't use this much, I just add a big scoop)

3 teaspoons poppy seeds

31 round buttery crackers, crushed

1/4 cup butter, melted

Preparation

1. Combine the first 4 ingredients. Spoon mixture into lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish.

2. Stir together cracker crumbs and melted butter; sprinkle evenly over casserole.

3. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Bonus: I like to add cheddar cheese to the mix because I love cheese. I add to the mix before topping with crackers.

Second bonus: It is also good if you throw in cooked broccoli in the mix when you add the cheese.

Leave out the poppyseed if you don't like it and you still have a tasty meal.

30 March 2020

Relax, don't do it

Pick your pleasure:

You are lying on a beach doing nothing but sitting and listening to the ocean.

Or you are just swinging on your porch swing, staring into space.

Sounds wonderful right?

NO!!! That person is so not me. Yes, I like to go to the beach, but I will not simply sit there and do nothing. Yes, I like a good porch swing, but for about 5 minutes then I am done. I am simply not that person that can sit and do nothing. To me if just gets me uptight and anxious and makes me rest even less.

Even if it is forced upon me!!!!!!

January 29, I was at work. My back was killing me. Which was not out of the norm. My back has been hurting a lot there for months because my chair is simply too uncomfortable. So no big deal. I stood up like I normally do while I worked. Only today it did little to alleviate the pain. Lunch came and I started getting sick to my stomach. I thought it was my chicken and dumplins because it was a tad undercooked. So I ate some peanut butter. That seemed to do the trick. After lunch I went back to work and all the sudden my face got numb. Quite like it does before a seizure comes on. I stood up and drank a Dr Pepper. Thanks to the girls at work nurturing me through, I made it the rest of the work day.

I got home and all the pain increased, by now I thought I was having a heartattack. I call my mom because I want her. She's got the flu!!!! She encourages me to go to the ER. We do. I am a germ a phob, but at this point my pain was so bad I was rolling on the ER floor. I am grossed out by it now, but I was in horrible pain. Many many many hours later it was determined I needed my gall bladder out, but I was told they don't do emergency surgery in the ER. I was NOT in the frame of mind to argue or I would have. Had my mom been there, I am bet $100 I would have been wheeled into surgery. Had I not been drugged up, I bet I would have gotten better results, but at 3am.....everybody wanted to go to bed. I got up the next day and went to my doctor, she said if she could do the surgery it would come out now. She made appointment for the scans. Apparently, they won't take it out until you have had the scans, even though I had a PET scan in the ER. It was instantly determined I needed it out. I had one stone that was almost 1.5 inches big and another right behind it that was massive.

I was told it would be a two week wait to see my surgeon of choice. There was no way in this pain, that I would make that. I had some friends that called the doctor and I got an appointment for the next day. I went into the appointment on that Friday (having not eaten because I really could not eat, the pain was miserable) and he said "we are going to surgery now". Turns out I was very bad and should have had it out the very first night in the ER. The doctor did not even understand why they didn't call him that night. I now had a bad infection and required a drain. Almost a hospital stay, but luckily that did not come to be.

Fast forward one week....last night was my one week post surgery. One thing I have learned....when my body can't do something I sleep. I don't enjoy being in bed, on the couch....so I sleep. I guess that is good. Yesterday, Friday, was the first day I could do something. I learned how (since sitting up for a long time is still a problem) to make cards lying on the couch.

My cards may not be the most perfect, but I am very pleased. I started at 8am and finished around 8pm and I made 8 cards during that time. Not nearly as well as I could do if I was normal but pretty good for someone in my condition.

I am excited to be going back to work Monday. Even for a half day. I am excited for a schedule, for my friends and getting back to normal!!!

Have a great weekend.

Operation beautify your home: Laundry Room

I have been working on making my house a little more put together, a little more cohesive, a little more not so much a showcase for our yucky mismatched furniture, but a shabby chic paradise. My first project was the kitchen that you all ready know of, my second the utility room. This room is going to be my owl room. In reality I am the ONLY person that spends any time in this room so I am making it into something I LIKE! I started with redoing some of the picture frames that were in the room, then I made a canvas, then a quote, and next was the first owl. Today I made the second owl, and started working on the third and forth (those two won't make their appearance for a blog post or two).

Today addition was inspired by a quilt hoop that my mother-in-law gave me about 10 years ago. I held onto it thinking I would do a large cross stitch and would need it for that. NOPE that won't happen so I got it down and thought about what I could do. Since I usually work in paper I decided I needed a change of pace. I chose felt. I have a massive pile of felt that I stamp on and make into flowers. Since I have it by the yard it works perfect in the hoop.

I chose a blue for the background, and free handed cut out things from the felt. Since it was a laundry room I chose a clothesline and owl design.

I glued the shapes onto the felt and had all ready planned I would stitch around the pieces. This was the fun part. I used some of my stitches I learned from cross stitching.

When I was all finished with the sewing I painted the hoop black and I have the perfect addition to another wall in the laundry room.

Oh the places you will go....

I LOVE to travel...love to see the country/world. It started when I worked for a little company called Cracker Barrel. I was lucky enough to be a their traveling team, they paid ME to travel. However, they did work my butt off in the process, you were lucky to have one day off in a month and maybe a half day (a 9 hour shift instead of an 18 hour shift). But you know on that one day off (or half day) I made the most of it.

My first store was in Jeffersontown, KY...I had NO idea what to expect. No idea of the hours my new job would entail, and definitely no idea what it was like to share a room with a smoker...cough cough. I got to make a few side trips during my time off, I went to the Mall of St Matthews and thought I was big stuff because I got to go all by myself. I drove down to Elizabethtown one weekend to stay with my old preacher and his family (my dad met me there), and once I drove to Bowling Green to see John.

In Jacksonville Florida (this trip was a day and a half off because the store was not open yet), I drove down to Orlando and went to Disney World, not for the first time, but the first time by myself and it snowed in Orlando for the first time in many many years. The power went out and my cousin's dad, booked a hotel and then we got up the next day and went to WDW! It was nice to be in charge of what we were going to ride and what not. Oh, on that 1/2 day the day before, we did seaworld (my first trip).

Next Cracker Barrel sent me to Texas. God Bless Texas...I was so mad, my mom (yes I am still mad about it) told the company that I would fly down there. So 6 weeks in Dallas without a car!!! I got to drive by the Book depository, but did not get to see it...never got close to South Fork, did hit the hard rock on my 21st birthday, but had to bum rides, and walk to work across an interstate. That sucked big time. So I saw nothing here...NOTHING!!!

My next trip I totally made up for it...Round Rock Texas and I made the most of it...drove to Waco (the whole Janet Reno thing had just happened), San Antonio (river walk, SeaWorld, Alamo)...hung out all over Austin, whenever I could. Found a great used bookstore on Research Blvd, that I still think of to this day. Wonder if it is still there, Susan is it? I went to my first Hobby Lobby here in Austin...oh my I was hooked. I was driving all over looking for a Michaels and there was a Hobby Lobby near my hotel...duh. I enjoyed driving along the river bluff and seeing all the fancy houses and paying homage to the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue. I even ventured down to the famous (then...have no clue about now) 6th street and bought some BBQ...YUMMY!!!

Chicago was next...now this way happening...Sears Tower, John Hancock, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Museum of science and industry, great restaurants (I feel in love with food on this trip), first super walmart, first super target, first driving in snow, first bronchitis, United Center, Cominsky Park, and first run in with the law over Wrigley Field, McCormick Place, Grant Park, Water Tower Place (began my love affair with malls), Lake Shore Drive, The Drake Hotel, Oprah's condo, my first submarine at the Science Museum, watching a movie on the side of the Field Museum, and getting lost under the "el"...good times. We had some celebrities to come in the store here..Flo Jo, some chick named Oprah, Scotty Pippen...and a few more basket ball players. Speaking of basketball, we got to go into the new bb arena where Michael Jordan would get to play. They were just building it and yeah, we ventured inside. We were a little brave this trip. I really wanted to see the ivy at Wrigley Field. Very badly...well, we parked in the lot and walked up to the stadium, there were these security bars that we "overlooked". We climbed inside and got out onto the field. UH, this is where is got bad, a cop came in and told us we had 30 seconds to get out of there, I don't think that I have ever moved so fast...NEVER!

Next was the lovely city of Cleveland. Now I was really in love...really really. Cedar Point, all those malls, Rock and Roll hall of fame...This was great...This was wonderful. I drove all the way to Lima to pick up to go cups for the store, just because I could, we did need them. Football hall of fame (bored to tears, went with the gang), Wynonna Judd (yep stayed next to us at our hotel), Bath and Body seaspray (I really stocked up) and Lake Erie.

I remember the last store the best because I really wanted to soak it all in...This was the last one, the last time I would travel and make the big bucks and it was in Virginia. I was so thrilled to be opening Newport News. I had big plans....to see William and Mary, and to get to DC! My friend Scott had been to DC so he knew how long it would take and how to get there. So here we go on our one day off for the month, we get up VERY VERY early and head to DC. I get to see Mananas (the first big stop) then as we are driving along I see it! OMG it was so exciting. I was in the front so I had a great seat. The first thing we did was buy a bus ticket. This ticket would take us to the sights, we have ONE day its really got to count. Scott was the leader but he let me pick the sights because I was the only one of the 4 that really really really wanted to go to DC. First Stop the White House. In pre 9/11 days, we got to walk onto the grounds, Scott drove up Pennsylvania avenue so I could see the whole house. We could not tour the house today, the line was forming but if we wanted to do the other things we had to move on. Next stop was the Washington Monument. We climbed all the way to the top and I took some photos with my crappy camera (however they turned out good--got to get those scanned). I told everyone the story of Zachary Taylor at the base of the monument, then we trudged on (yeah cause it was freezing, the ground was like ice and there was a threat of snow). I wanted to see the Jefferson Memorial....we walked all the way over there but it was closed due to the fact that Air Force One was was tearing it up....everytime Air Force One took off a chunk of the structure would break, so the best I could do was see it from afar (the only disappointment of the day). We next saw Arlington House and ate lunch while walking (no time to stop). At the Lincoln Memorial I got teary eyed...this was the best trip ever (I wished my parents had brought me here). Well, I was crossing the street near the Lincoln and hit at ice patch, fell down right in the street flat on my back and could not move for a bit. Finally, I was helped up a little dazed but determined to go on. My back hurt and my head hurt but I kept going. Arlington Cemetery was next. My first stop here was JFK and William Howard Taft. Second on my list was the Challenger spot and then I could relax and look around a bit. I bought 2 books on Presidents in the gift shop and then the bus was moving us to the next location. The CAPITAL!! WOW!! Mesmerizing was the word that I used. I could not stop looking at the architecture and the beauty of the design. Oh my, this was our last stop, we had a 4 hour drive, it was late and beginning to snow. It sleeted all the way back to Newport News, I slept Felicia thought I had a mild concussion from the fall, but we will never know. This was the greatest excursion of any of my Cracker Barrel trips what a way to go out....