Chatbug Karen

Ahhhh! A big sigh of relief has been emitted from my being. Does that sound too intense? Not if you knew about all that has been happening around here. I am too old to worry about my children but too emotional not to. Thankfully, they have worked out their roadblocks and all is well. Sorry to be evasive but I don’t want to put their personal lives out there for all to read. I know that many of you can relate to the saying that you never stop worrying about your children.

Today must be comfort food day. My husband just made waffles and threw butterscotch chips into the batter. I will be looking at those best way to lose belly fat ads in a whole new light today!
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My daughter just moved from her apartment. I have been thinking about how awful it would be to move. We have lived in this house for twenty-five years and have accumulated so much stuff. I keep sorting and cleaning but the stuff keeps multiplying.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I wish my husband would have had the push he needed to go to culinary school when he graduated from high school. That field was not as popular as it is today. He had various jobs, electrician’s helper, meat cutter and now that he owns his own business, he is a floor covering merchandiser. It is a rewarding field but his first love, in my opinion, is cooking.

For three days now, he has been talking about making French toast. That sounded great to me! I didn’t know he would be fixing gourmet French toast. LOL OMG! It was wonderful. He took a loaf of bread and cut it into thick slices, stuffed them with cream cheese and grape jelly, dipped them in egg batter and fried them. Yummy.

If you notice I am mia, I am in the basement, walking on the treadmill.

My daughter, the culinary guru, sent me pictures she had taken last Tuesday. She attended a culinary show in Orlando. Yes, my lucky daughter, who loves snow, lives in sunny Florida. She does not deal in cctv cameras, she deals in food. All types of food. She loves to cook! Eeew!

I had to share her version of an interesting frog display:

and then I have my version:

Can you believe we are up to #129 on Four foods on Friday? It is so much fun. You should participate. Simply click on the icon and you will be directed to Val’s blog, Fun Crafts and Recipes. She reviews products and has wonderful recipes to share.

This weeks question:
This week’s question is, Do you have any food quirks?

Okay, after thinking long and hard about this, I came up with a couple of quirks about my food habits.

I cannot stand old, mushy bananas. I feel really guilty though when I throw them out. I feel like I should make banana bread out of them but don’t need the calories. I love banana bread!

I have to shake the salt shaker on my food. I don’t even taste the food to see if it needs salt. I am so bad.

I don’t cook very much. You will find my husband in the kitchen using his new cookware. Yes, it is his cookware. I am allowed to use it occasionally. He is very picky about his knives. He is a collector of custom knives. He does not use his Spyderco Persian knife in the kitchen. No, he has Wolfgang Puck knives for that. I love that he cooks. I would rather clean the house and sew.

You would think that with the new year being new and all, I would be able to be on time. I have so much book work with our business that I find myself trying to decide whether to tackle the end of the year books or write myapidexin reviews that have been due for a while. Decisions, decisions!

All stressing aside, here is last weeks Four Foods on Friday question….
Tell me four hot teas you like or don’t like.

Oh no! I am not a tea drinker. I have no idea what types of tea are out there. I only think of tea when I am sick with a sore throat. I have heard that tea is calming to a raw throat. I don’t know if it works. I hope to read everyone’s answer to this question and find out a great tea to try.

Are any of you tea drinkers? Know of a great tea I should try?

I’m assuming that Val is caught up in trying to get everything done during the holidays, cook meals, working as seo of her home and working full time outside her home. Here is the Four Foods on Friday question for last week.

Tell me your four favorite fruits.

That is an easy one. I absolutely love a big juicy orange. Did you know that oranges originated in southeast Asia? It takes mutation to make my favorite, the navel orange. The naval orange contains no seeds so it is sterile. Poor thing. Navel oranges continue to be produced through cutting and grafting. I wonder what seo services it took to work through all that genetic makeup. If I had done it, we probably would have oranges the size of a quarter.

Oh! I guess we are supposed to list 4 fruits that are our favorites.
Okay, bananas because they are so easy to take with me. Apples because they help my digestive system and kiwi because they taste so good.

This weeks Four Foods on Friday:
Tell me four things that you like cold or uncooked almost as much as you like cooked.

I like tuna when it is made into tuna salad for sandwiches. I don’t usually like tuna warmed up. I do make a mean Tuna Casserole!

I too, enjoy a good meatloaf sandwich. Especially on whole wheat bread with lots of ketchup. We often eat our leftovers on tv stands in the living room. Shhh, don’t tell my kids.

I like rice when it is cold. Add sugar and raisins.

I like spaghetti when it is put into a cold salad and mixed with green peppers, red peppers, black olives and Italian salad dressing.

According to the contributors over at Tasty Kitchen, August is National Peach Month. I cannot tell you how happy that makes me! I love peaches.

It is an art to pick out a good peach but when you do, it is magical. There is no shame in relaxing in your favorite outdoor chaise lounges, taking a big bite of a juicy peach and allowing the juice to run down your chin. That is just part of eating another of God’s greatest creations.

I have to rely on farmer’s markets and grocery stores to find peaches in our area. Most of the peaches I find are grown in northern Indiana and Michigan.

While searching for information on peaches, I discovered that there are many folk tales and traditions associated with the delicious fruit.

From Wikipedia:
In China, the peach was said to be consumed by the immortals due to its mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who ate them.

While traveling through Ohio and Kentucky last week, we searched for quilt shops. We also searched for eating establishments that were locally owned. We found a wonderful place in Burlington, KY, near Florence, KY. Washington Square Cafe and Catering is one place that I am anxious to return to and share with my husband.

My sister, mom and I had the most wonderful meal that included a “to die for” bread pudding. We needed no Mesothelioma treatment after that filling meal. I had a meatloaf sandwich while mom and Grace each ate the Rueben sandwich. We tried to eat light because a man who was eating bread pudding told us that we absolutely had to have some. We took him at his word and OMG!, was he ever on the mark.

The restaurant is located in the Joseph Graves House, the 1817 building may be the oldest brick structure in Burlington and is one of the few surviving structures built on Union Square. Built facing North on lot 16, it was originally the residence of Joseph Graves (1773 to1836) an early prominent citizen of Boone County, born in Virginia. The Graves family moved to Boone County in 1797. Graves was instrumental in the development of Burlington as the county seat. In 1816, he and several others were appointed to draw plans for the new courthouse. Graves served as Boone County Sheriff from 1820-1822.

Washington Square Café & Catering – c. February 2010

Today Joyce McNeely is living her dream of owning and operating a hometown, family owned restaurant in this historic Burlington Community. Joyce along with her family, Dee & Mike Dragan & children Patrick, Ashley, Drew and Chelsea; Dawn & Brad Denham & son Kye; and mother Sophia Brinegar are proud to serve you at Washington Square Café & Catering.

While visiting my daughter in Florida last month, she introduced me to a restaurant I had never heard of. Since mentioning it in an earlier post, I have discovered it has been around for a while. I sure wish we had a Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation here in the mid west.

The Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation, same restaurant uses different names, is a restaurant that accommodates everyone from families with small children to mesothelioma lawyers who need a place to discuss business while eating lunch. These restaurants offer a cozy, comfortable setting and fabulous food.

My friend, Val, is offering a giveaway of a pair of Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes dining passes to celebrate “It’s Lemon Month at Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation!” Head over to Fun, Crafts and Recipes to get all the particulars on how to win the dining passes.