Funny Farm Facts and Fantasies # 7 What happened to our January thaw? Probably the same thing that’s happened to Indian Summer! I haven’t been able to locate that for the past few years either. One thing I do know, miniskirts (maternity yet!) were not made for this weather. Especially if your car is equipped with plastic or leather seat covers. Sure makes you sit up and take notice! The sun has been beautiful, however, I prefer the cloudy days myself. In all this sunshine, every nose print on a window, every speck of dust and each cobweb stands out like a sore thumb. I guess I’m a “fair to middlin” housekeeper, but there are some places I forget to clean week after week. One is the oven – I’d rather be shot than tackle that job! Why, for heaven’s sake, do they put windows and lights in ovens! Who wants to advertise the fact that their oven is running a close second to Phyllis Diller’s? Another is the refrigerator. I’m always saving little dabs of this and tiny hunks of that. If you put them all together, there wouldn’t be a meal for one person, but I still save them. More often than not I even have my own little Penicillin factory flourishing in the bowels of the refrigerator also. I’ll say one thing, when I do get around to heave stuff out, it’s in “living (or dying) color.” The worst are probably the cobwebs though. I never see them but HRT thoughtfully points them out to me. I really did clean some down before Christmas. I had planned to spray them with hair spray and sprinkle glitter on them for the Holiday season but got cold feet at the last minute. Where do they come from? I haven’t seen a spider in months! I haven’t driven a car in the winter time in ten years. However, my hair finally got to me this week and Monday I bravely ventured downtown to get a permanent. I’ve found when you’re pregnant there isn’t much you can do to improve the way you look except to concentrate on your hair. We’d gotten $10 for Christmas to buy something for the family and I blew it on my hair! It improved my disposition 100 percent and that was beneficial to the whole family. I belong to two different ladies clubs and somehow they both manage to meet on the same day. I usually make them both as one meets at noontime and the other after the kids are laid away. At the noontime meeting everyone brings a covered dish to pass. I always stuff myself, everything looks so good. We each take a turn having it at our home and the members are neighborhood ladies. It was probably started originally to take the place of quilting bees and such. All age groups are represented and I really enjoy it. Everyone exchanges ideas on cooking, child raising and housekeeping. The one that meets in the evening is the Stitch and Gossip Club. That really isn’t the exact name of it but I don’t think the real one would get past the censors! We don’t do too much sewing but sure have a good time gossiping. One member has been embroidering the same dresser scarf for three years. The hostess always serves a real yummy dessert with tea and coffee. Needless to say, once a moth on club day, the Tracy clan has soup and sandwiches for supper. I have missed the deer this winter. I guess the snow is just too deep for them to do much traveling We were going up towards Puckerville the other night and saw four in the road. Some of the farmers up this way have been putting silage along the back roads to keep them from starving. I found a good, cheap recipe the other day. I made it for the ladies club and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It’s a meat-cabbage casserole. Shred one large (about 2 pounds) head of cabbage. Melt 3 tablespoons margarine in a large skillet, fry pan or Dutch oven and add cabbage. Cook, stirring until wilted. Add 2 tablespoons of Soy sauce, cover and cook stirring occasionally with a fork, 15 minutes. Add half teaspoon of sugar and half teaspoon of salt. While cabbage is cooking, mix half teaspoon of salt, a dash of pepper, 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 egg and 1 pound of ground beef together in a bowl. Gradually stir in 1 cup of milk. Add either 1 package of dried onion soup mix or 1 teaspoon instant minced onion. Alternate layers of cabbage and meat mixture in shallow 2 quart baking dish, beginning and ending with cabbage. Dot with margarine and bake, uncovered in moderate oven (350 degrees) about one hour. Makes 6 servings. If you have more than six to feed, double the recipe. Did anyone read in the paper this week about the new drug L-Dopa and its side effects? Maybe I have a perverted sense of humor but for some reason it struck me funny. I could just see those previously senile gentlemen chasing nurses in their new found youth. And when they started sending nurses into the rooms in pairs on sort of a Buddy System – well, that really broke me up! On the other hand, all this investigation concerning “the Pill” has probably made many people uneasy. I know I would have many second thoughts before taking it again. It can’t help but make you wonder that maybe someone jumped the gun in releasing it for general use until every possible test was made and each complication fully explored. One parting word of advice, if you have been putting a light bulb under the hood of your car these cold nights, please open up the hood before starting the motor. I’ve always heard “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” but one of the most effective ways I know is with the fan of a car. I speak from experience – we had a nice yellow cat last winter. One cold night he crawled up onto the warm motor of the car and HRT unknowingly started it. Not only did we have the only fur lined hood in town but it also took the belt off from the power steering!
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 00:16:56 +0000