What Do You Do On a Rainy Day?

Rhubarb Three-Layer Dessert

So what do you do on a rain day? Do something you've wanted to do in a long time, or catch up on projects. As you can see I baked. I didn't bake just anything, I baked one of my oldest recipes (1980) from my personal cookbook ledger.

You see, back in 1978 (I was 18 yrs old), I started a cookbook ledger that was filled with family recipes, and new recipes that I started collecting. I was excited back then about starting my own recipe collection, just like my mother and my grandma Fannie. I worked really hard on that cookbook ledger. Even when I was busy at college, I still managed to take some time and add new recipes.

This cookbook ledger tells the time of history in my life. When I look back through the pages and see the recipes with the date, I remember what I was doing in my life at that time. I have recipes that reflect when I graduated from high school, to when I went through my college years to when I got married and then had children.

I always laugh when I come to the 4-years span in my college days, because I took a lot of nutrition and cooking classes, and one of my professors had me believing that one day in the future the United States would convert to metric. So what did I do? I recorded all my favorite recipes in metric!!! Thanks a lot Dr. Earl....did we convert to metric? No! I still kind of remember the conversions from milliliters & grams back to cups and pounds. One of these days I'll have to go through those recipes and convert back to US measurements.

I even have recipes that reflect my former Australian boyfriend, who taught me how to make Lamingtons and Pavlova. Lamingtons were these cake squares that you dip in a bittersweet chocolate sauce, and then roll them completely in finely grated coconut. I have never seen these cakes made or sold in the US, but I have the recipe, hee, hee!

The Pavlova is a large meringue in the shape of a pie shell. After you bake the meringue to a golden brown and cool it, you then fill the center with lots of real whipped cream and top with fresh fruits like, bananas, strawberries, kiwi, pineapple etc. I guess that was an Australian favorite.

I have so many stories I could share with you about my cookbook ledger. The pages are worn, dirty from baking supplies, and the binding is now breaking. I cherish my 29 year old book and I now treat it with respect so it will last another 29 years.

Are all the pages filled? Yup, that happened sometime in 1990 when my children were still little.

PS. If anyone is wondering, this rhubarb dessert has a butter crust with a custard filling and a meringue topping. If you want my rhubarb dessert recipe just let me know and I'll email it your way.

Yes...It Was Windy Again Today

Fire & Ice (hosta)

Woke up early this morning and felt good. Decided to bike into work, so collected all my "stuff" to travel by bike. It was a great ride in...Ted was home today so he rode with me to work and then continued riding north after dropping me off. He ended up riding 40 miles today, despite the windy conditions.

At the end of my day, I rode home a different way because of the windy conditions. Decided to take river road which follows the Red Cedar River....it's so relaxing with dense wooded areas and river scents. No traffic either! Well that ended quickly when I reached the state highway. Lots of vehicles rushing home after work. Then I had this woman who slowed her truck down along side me on the highway and had her windows rolled down. The next thing I know this woman is talking to me through her truck window as I peddaling up this hill. She says, "whoo, looks like your really going fast...like 10 miles per hours, wowwwwww."!!!!!! Boy, she's lucky I didn't give her the finger. Real funny Aunt Krissy....where's your bicycle, hah?

Red

I couldn't help but catch the moment of red this morning. It is such a beautiful morning that I decided to eat my breakfast outside.

I enjoyed a plate of crackers with aegean tapenade (red peppers, kalamata olives, green olives, feta, olive oil & oregano). My beverage of choice this morning was a crisp strawberry italian soda.

The red new guinea impatient set the mood of a restful early morning meal, with song birds singing all around for entertainment. In the background I could hear the faint chatter of kitty cat's teeth, as Annabelle especially enjoyed the tunes of the nearby spring birds. The northern oriole won the prize for the loudest bird...he was just waitng for me to leave so he could sneak up on the hummingbird feeder to enjoy the sweet syrup!

My Big Daddy!

Big Daddy (hosta)

Faithly did my vertigo exercises last night and this morning and believe it or not, I'm starting to feel better. I still can't look up or make sudden movements without feeling lightheaded, but at least I didn't feel nausated at any time today.

Bought a Netti pot today at my local pharmacy. One of my blog followers gave me some good advice. Always make sure you wipe your nose clean after using the Netti pot so you don't have salt crystal that form and dry around your nostrils....not a pretty site, especially if you work with the public!

I made a spaghetti pie and delivered it to a family (from church) who recently welcomed a new baby girl. Mom and baby are doing well.

Tomorrow is another day, hopefully a warm sunny day with no wind!

PS. Hope you like our "Big Daddy"

I'm Suffering From the Big "V"

Aureomarginata (hosta)

What a difference one day makes! I thought I was just dealing with allergies, but was surprised when I woke up this morning and stepped out of bed and almost fell over. My head was spinning round and round and I soon realized I needed to walk much slower to the bathroom. I've never felt like that before. Besides feeling dizzy, I discovered I was running a small fever so I knew I must have caught some kind of virus. As it turned out from my doctor's appointment this afternoon, I am experiencing Vertigo so that is why when I turn my head or try to walk, the room spins. There's no medication for Vertigo except doing these exercises where you sit on the edge of your bed and slowly flop over from left to right...you are suppose to keep repeating this exercise everyday until your symptoms go away! Oh great, so how long with this last???

As for my allergies, I was prescribed a special nose spray for the sinus drainage, and was also told to buy a Netti pot (Kellie was right) to drain my sinuses with salt water. The only problem with a Netti pot, is that I've been told that sometimes the salt water can drain into your ears...that actually happened to my dad. I'm considering buying a Netti pot, but will take a few days to think about it.

It's a bummer to be sick when the weather is so nice. Another windy day today, but what's new hey!

Allergies Are Getting Me Way Down

I Pandora's Box (hosta)

I will be featuring hostas here and there in my posts from now on. Since our yard is filled with this wonderful no-maintenance plant, I thought I would feature some of my favorites. Enjoy

For the the three weeks, I've been suffering with spring time allergies...this has been a bad spring for me. A couple days ago either my allergies got way worse or I have come down with a virus because I felt extremely tired & light headed today. I went to work with eyes that felt dry & scratchy as well. Halfway through the day my ears & throat started hurting and my sinuses started dripping again. It was another breezy day today so that doesn't seem to help at all. I wanted to ride my bike to work this morning, but ended up going back to bed since I didn't feel well. This is so weird for me. I think our dry and "no rain" conditions are also the problem. We need rain sooooo bad.

I sure hope I feel better soon. I will be going to the doctor tomorrow afternoon and finding out if I should start on allergy medication. I just so wish I could have my energy level back to normal. I put my mountain bike in my car in hopes that I will feel well enough to do a ride on the Red Cedar trail tomorrow after my doctor's appointment. I plan on going to bed really early tonight....extra sleep might help, but not guaranteed.

Does anyone else suffer from allergies? Any suggestions?

Breezy Sunday Ride

Striptease (hosta)

Gosh, it was an active Sunday today. Went to church this morning and helped out in the nursery. Then stayed for a potluck lunch, and then met up with my son so we could go grocery shopping together, then lastly, went for a bicycle ride over the river and through the woods to Aunt Krissy's house (well make that corn & soybean fields), hee, hee! Despite the massive winds AGAIN today, it was an enjoyable ride. Had to learn how to maneuver through freshly graveled roads, but I only aborted once out of my clipless pedals...it was pretty much lack of confidence on my part. Once I lessened my grip on the handle bars and shifted my weight forward a little, the gravel wasn't too bad and my skinny tires performed nicely. Thanks Ruby girl!