Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom!

Though we live half the country away from each other, we manage to get together pretty regularly.  And we have had some great adventures!

Last fall we went to London together - had dinner in a pub....

... rode the London Eye...

... actually went to the Klingon Monster Ball at a Star Trek Convention!

We wandered the British Museum...

... and tried to see the Queen at Windsor.

We did see the Crown Jewels at the Tower...

... and visited one of the most recognizable grouping of stones in the world.

We also too a Caribbean cruise together!

And not to leave out my Mother-in-law.   We all vacation together frequently - and we enjoy it!

And when we're luckiest, we get to travel with the newest Mama in the family - my Sis and my little Girly!

I'm lucky to have such great Moms in my life.  I learn from them every day.

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Grandma's Molasses Cookies

My Grandma had this great cookie jar.  It was shaped like a chef.  He had a striped shirt and blue pants.  He sat on a counter between the kitchen and the back room.  I haven't been to that house in many many years, but I can still see it perfectly in my mind's eye.

The best part of the cookie jar was the cookies.  She always had cookies.  Usually cookies that she had baked.  {It only occurred to me as I was writing this post that she probably baked them in anticipation of visiting grandchildren...}  We would grab some cookies on our way through the kitchen and go play on the piano in the back room, or maybe go visit her neighbor Jenny (who once had a Christmas party for my Sis and I in the middle of the summer!)  or head down the the basement with all the great toys from my Dad's childhood and tons of comic books and the scary cat clock.

After a while, we'd go back for another cookie.  You can do that at Grandma's house.  My two favorite cookies were sour cream drop cookies and these amazing molasses cookies.

I felt the need to make them the other day.  I couldn't find the recipe (!!) but my Sis came to the rescue.  She sent me a picture of her recipe card and I was set!  Here's how I made them (and they were just as good as the ones in my memory!):

Molasses Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup shortening (butter also works, or a combination)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 1/2 cups sifted flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

Sift together dry ingredients and set aside.  Cream shortening (and/or butter) and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and molasses.  {Quick tip for measuring molasses:  spray the inside of your measuring cup with cooking spray before you pour in the molasses - it will slide right out!}

Stir in the dry ingredients.  Form into walnut-sized balls and roll in sugar.  {In order to make mine uniform, I weigh each ball.  You don't have to do this.  It is a little obsessive.}

Flatten to the desired thickness with the bottom of a glass.

Bake at 350F for 10 minutes.

Perfection!  I served these with my Rum Ice Cream and they were the perfect compliment to those flavors.

These cookies bring back memories of sitting at Grandma's table, eating these cookies and drinking cold milk from a brightly colored aluminum cup.   They taste like childhood.

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Tortuga Hellfire Chicken

One of the places we visited on our cruise was Grand Cayman.  Lots to do there - great sea life to explore, wonderful beaches, and of course, rum.

While The Mr. and I were snorkeling and playing with stingrays, my Sis, Dad and Katy went to Hell.

Seriously.  It turns out, Hell is a group of short, black, limestone formations located in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. Located in West Bay, it is roughly the size of half a soccer field. People are not allowed to be amongst the limestone formations but viewing platforms do exist for visitors.

There are numerous versions of how Hell received its name, but they are generally variations on "a local official exclaimed, 'This is what Hell must look like.'"

It is also claimed that the name "Hell" is derived from the fact that if a pebble is thrown out into the formation, it echoes amongst the limestone peaks and valleys and sounds as if the pebble is falling all the way down to "Hell."

Regardless of how it first came to be called Hell, the name stuck and the area has become a tourist attraction, featuring a fire-engine red hell-themed post office from which you can send "postcards from hell", and a gift shop with 'Satan' passing out souvenirs while greeting people with phrases like 'How the hell are you?' and 'Where the hell are you from?'

And my Sis, knowing how we revel in hot sauces (the hotter the better!) bought us some Hellfire Sauce.

The ingredients are pretty simple:

• Water
• Scotch bonnet peppers
• Vinegar
• other spices

Basically, a nice habanero sauce.  I used it as a sauce for my chicken the other night and it was tasty!  (Though, The. Mr. didn't think it was quite hot enough...)

First I browned the chicken in a non-stick pan.

You want to let it cook over medium heat until it is nice and gold brown - don't move it around much, just let it brown.  Then turn it.

I added a tablespoon or so of the sauce to each piece of chicken, and finished cooking.

Innocuous looking, right?  It's a "Hell" of a surprise!

Would you try Hellfire Hot Sauce?

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A Glimpse from Our Vacation So Far...

Cruising the Caribbean is tons of fun!  Right now we are in Fort Lauderdale and I thought I'd show you a couple of images of our vacation.

Katy and The Mr. play in the incredible blue water and white sand at Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.

(Confounded waterproof camera does not have the ability  to turn off the date/time stamp.  Also, is not entirely "waterproof" which is a bit of an issue.)

My Sis and I with the ship in the background.  I could stay on Half Moon Cay a while I think.

On the rocks!

We did not proceed beyond the sign.  Even though it didn't look that dangerous.

And Sheepy is enjoying so much great food!  Baked brie.  One of his favorites.

While in the Bahamas, Sheepy insisted on having a Bahama Mama.  That's a lot of drink for a little guy!

We're enjoying ourselves, relaxing and rejuvenating.  One more whole week to enjoy.  We'll be in Grand Turk, Puerto Rico and St. Maarten next week - check on back to see how we're doing!

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Making-a Ba-lur-ch-a!

We've been noticeably absent from the blog world of late, but we have a good reason.

This little one has been staying with us and we certainly wanted to soak up every last minute we had with her!

She's even more adorable in person than in pictures.  And to celebrate her last morning here in San Diego, we made a special treat - BA-LUR-CHA!  {you might recognize it as glurch, but Katy knows just what it is}  If you've never made it before, it is a very easy and inexpensive way to entertain kids (and grown-ups) for a morning.

You'll need:

8 ounces of white glue

8 ounces of water

2 teaspoons of Borax

1/3 cup water

What you'll need to do:

1.  Pour the glue into a bowl.  Fill the glue bottle with water and add to the glue.  Stir to combine.

2.  Dissolve 2 teaspoons borax in 1/3 cup water.

3.  Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture.

4.  Stir until the blurch ;-)  has thickened.

Like this!

Now... play!

Cookie cutters are fun with blurch.

Katy liked to chop it into smaller pieces.

Teddy bears and airplanes are fun.

But a blurch train is the best!

If you leave it on the counter all day, it looks like this:

And later, you can squish it back together and it turns back into a nice smooth solid-ish liquid-ish mass of blurchy delight.  I have read that it keeps for some time in a plastic bag in the refrigerator - though I can tell you that you want to make certain that it is well sealed or it will blurch all over the refrigerator!


Now, can anyone tell me what I am supposed to do with 4 pounds (less 2 teaspoons) of borax?

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