Side Tracked

I have been AWOL for awhile!!!  My, how time flies!  My excuse...I have been consumed with a huge home improvement project.  No energy or brain power to post on my blog.  That's what happens when you are a Baby Boomer trying to accomplish these things by yourself!!  The project was re-painting our kitchen cupboards - doors and all.  My body just does not twist into pretzel shape to paint the inside of  those bottom cupboards any more nor like being up and down on the chair to reach the higher cupboards!  Oh, but the satisfaction of a job well done and completed!!!  New lights make it a new looking space!

I have also been side tracked with slides, home movies and old VHS tapes.  The time is now to have these put on DVD's or CDs.  So I spent a whole day organizing the slides so we can begin that process --- I hope with the little machine I bought that scans slides and photos to digital. Still trying to figure that all out!!!

All this nostalgia sent me on other rabbit trails!  Therefore, I am sharing a couple pictures that are from the ancient times!!!  These were my first reading books in First Grade!  Very simple, aren't they?

Our oldest daughter, Amanda, asked one day about the cookbook that she remembered I always used.  She is our gourmet chef of the family therefore cookbooks are a keen interest of hers.  Of course I still have that cookbook!  Complete with sugar, cinnamon, flour and who knows what else spilled on it. That makes it a real treasure, right?  :)

Cookbooks have to be utilized in order to really have success when cooking or baking!  Too bad I didn't pay attention to Mama's cooking or think to use the cookbook!  Let me share an incident that my brother, Brian, and I haven't forgotten!!

Another move we made in late spring of my 7th grade year was to a ranch in Hinkley, California.  (Remember the movie regarding the exposing of the chemical dumping, starring Julia Roberts?  This is the same town!)  Hinkley wasn't much of a town back in 1958-59 but we loved our life on the ranch.

My mother was required to travel to Los Angeles and assist in the care of our great grandfather for about a week.  Brian and I were left behind with our Daddy.  I was given instructions on making spaghetti and gravy for some dish.  That all went well but then Brain and I decided we needed dessert.  Making a cake was no problem.  However, the frosting was a bit of a challenge!  After we added the sugar it just didn't look right. So we added food coloring, more sugar, more food coloring, etc.  It looked disgusting!  No way was this going on the cake!!!!  So...we fed it to our dog, Lady!!  Shortly after Lady's sweet treat was consumed, we wandered out to the dry creek that ran through the ranch -- Daddy was out in the field working and who knows what trouble we could have gotten into!  Anyway, as we walked along the creek, suddenly the dog started vomiting!!!  Guess she had way too much sugar! When Mama returned home, I learned something new!!  You use POWDERED sugar for frosting!!  Lesson learned and fortunately the dog did not die from a diabetic coma!!