Macaroni and Cheese

Considering how much I love cheese, you'd think I would be a big fan of Macaroni & Cheese.  Not so.  It's okay, but I can think of so many other ways I'd rather have my cheese.  Last November Algernon posted his recipe for mac-n-cheese along with photos of the process.  It's simmered in the back of my mind ever since.  I finally got around to trying it and guess what?  It's great!!  I'm sure I'll make it again! 

I didn't have a chance to take any photos of my finished product so you'll just have to go look at Algernon's.  Click here for his recipe. 

My cockroach

Sometimes there are things in real life that aren't very cute, but when made "plush" seem entirely different.  A good example of this can be found in a recent post by Cruella.  In the real world, slugs totally gross me out!  However, I thought "Sluggy" was just too cute for words!

Reading about Sluggy got me to thinking about my cockroach.  Many, many years ago my sister gave me a cockroach hand-puppet.  His six legs are designed to accomodate either a right or left hand and his wings are made from leather. 

Isn't he a fine looking fellow?!?

iPod Roulette - April 2011 JAM

April is Jazz Appreciation Month at the Smithsonian.  In keeping with that, I've drawn solely from my Jazz playlist in my iTunes for this month's session of iPod Roulette.  Some of my favorites didn't come up, but it's still a nice variety.


1.     Livin' Inside Your Love (George Benson) - I've loved George Benson since I was in college.  Until recent years he was one of the few Jazz artists that I didn't mind using vocals.

2.     Sigh (Praful) - This group is described by Wiki as an "acid jazz" mixture band.

3.     Daddy Longlicks (Lee Ritenour featuring Joe Robinson) - This is from 6 String Theory, which I featured here.

4.     I Say a Little Prayer (Earl Klugh Trio) - A smooth version of a very recognizable song.

5.     Fives (Lee Ritenour featuring Guthrie Govan and Tal Wilkenfeld) - I usually skip when there is a repeat artist, but the guitarists featured with Ritenour here are so different from Joe Robinson that the selection had a completely different sound.

6.     Back in Business (Down to the Bone) - Their Wiki page has been removed, but the link to it referred to them as another "acid jazz" band.  Funny, I'd never heard that description before and here I've seen it twice in one sitting.

7.     Flamenco Sketches (Miles Davis) - No doubt about it, Davis is one of the greats of Jazz.  This is from Kind of Blue, considered by many to be his best album. 

8.     Sinkin' Soon (Norah Jones) - I must admit that I'm not terrilby fond of Norah Jones.  I only downloaded this song to try and give her a chance since I knew several of my friends love her music.  It didn't work for me.

9.     There Goes the Neighbourhood (Candy Dulfer) - From her first album, Saxuality. I love her version of Lily Was Here!

10.   The Girls Next Door (Pat Metheny Group) - Love, love this song!  The underlying beat is great!

11.   Tears in Rain (Vangelis) - This is from the soundtrack to Blade Runner and contains one of my favorite movie lines. 

12.   Somersaults (Bill Bruford with Ralph Towner and Eddie Gómez ) - Bruford was the first of two drummers for my favorite group of all time, Yes.

13.   Black River (Keiko Matsui) - Very smooth Contemporary Jazz.

14.   Siempre Hay Esperanza (The Sunset Lounge Orchestra) - This is from the Sade Cool Down Experience.  I couldn't find any kind of link to the Sunset Lounge Orchestra, but they evidently do covers of various groups' music.  I heard this one on my Jazz station and loved it. 

15.   The Lesson (Victor Wooten) - This is one of the few people in my Jazz playlist known for playing the bass!

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

Flavia de Luce, the precocious chemistry-whiz eleven-year-old, is back in The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley.  I enjoyed Bradley's first "Flavia de Luce" mystery (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie), but this one was even better! 

When noted puppeteer Rupert Porson makes an unexpected stop in Flavia's small village, he agrees to put on a performance of "Jack and the Beanstalk" for the locals.  However, the villagers get more than they bargained for when, instead of the giant's body, it is Porson that drops to the stage.  Dead.  Flavia puts her extraordinary talents to use and quickly finds out Porson wasn't a stranger to their village after all.  Question is... which of those who knew him had the most motive to kill him? 

As in the first novel, I was truly amazed at Flavia's abilities.  Obviously a prodigy!  I can't say I'm particularly fond of some of the secondary characters, but Flavia more than makes up for this with her charm.  It's certainly a series I will continue to read. 

This was my fourth book for the Cozy Mystery Challenge. 

Shadow Shot Sunday #25

Wasp Catcher

Shadow Shot Sunday
Hosted by Hey Harriet

Corny Chicken Bake

Here's another chicken recipe we tested out recently.  I don't think it was quite as good as the applesauce recipe, but it was good enough that we didn't mind having the leftovers the next day.  It's another recipe from Simple & Delicious magazine, this time contributed by Barbara Ramstack of Fond du Lac, WI.   


Corny Chicken Bake

3 cups corn bread stuffing mix
1 can (14-3/4 ounces) cream-style corn
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 celery rib, diced
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tablepoons spicy brown or horseradish mustard

In a large bowl, combine the stuffing mix, corn, onion and celery.  Spoon into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.  Top with chicken.  Combine the brown sugar, butter and mustard; drizzle over chicken.  Bake, uncovered, at 400F for 25-30 minutes or until chicken juices run clear. 

Applesauce Barbecue Chicken

This recipe was contributed to Simple & Delicious magazine by Darla Andrews of Farmers Branch, TX. I used chicken tenders which made this a quick and easy dish to prepare. Better yet, it was delicious!


Applesauce Barbecue Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (6-oz. each)
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2/3 cup chunky applesauce
2/3 cup spicy barbecue sauce
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. chili powder

Sprinkle chicken with pepper. In a large skillet, brown chicken in oil on both sides. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; pour over chicken. Cover and cook 7-10 minutes longer or until a meat thermometer reads 170F.

The end of an era

In April of 2009 I posted an entry about two of my aunts.  They were the last connections I had to my parents (who died when I was young) and to my childhood.  That fall I had an entry about losing one of those aunts to cancer.  I continued to visit the other aunt on a weekly basis until last summer.  At that time she really started slipping.  It reached the point where visits were not the happy experiences they'd always been, for either of us.  Her sitters told me that for hours after I left she would be hard to handle.  I made the difficult decision to stop visiting.  As much as I wanted to see her, I hated the thought that my visits disrupted her.  In recent months I knew that she was spending more and more time sleeping.  Last week she had a stroke.  Sunday she left us. 

I've had fleeting moments of guilt that I stopped going to see her.  However, my older brother told me guilt is a wasted emotion and that I'd been there for her during the time of her life that it really mattered. 

She was buried today, followed by a celebration of her life at our church.  At 99 years of age and in poor health, she'd been ready to join the rest of her family for quite some time.  Therefore, there really wasn't any sadness.  We smiled, shared fond memories, and rejoiced at the reunion we knew was taking place in heaven!

What makes me sad is knowing that she was the last.  The last of her generation on both sides of my family.  It feels strange to know that my cousins and I are now the oldest generation... and out of fourteen of us, three have already died!   

Death and Judgment by Donna Leon

Death and Judgment is the fourth book in the "Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery Series" by Donna Leon.  I read it as my third book for the Cozy Mystery Challenge.

The book begins with the crash of a cargo truck in the mountains of Northern Italy where an interesting discovery is made among the wreckage.  This is followed by the murder of a prominate Venetian lawyer, shot at point blank range on the train between Padua and Venice.

As Brunetti begins his investigation of the murder, he is contacted by Capitano Della Corte of the Padua police.  A successful accountant has committed suicide there and his phone records show a connection to the victim in Brunetti's case.  Working together, Brunetti and Della Corte find more similarities in their cases.  The deeper they delve, the uglier it gets and soon the case takes a personal turn. 

The more I get to know Commissario Brunetti and his family, the more I appreciate the sophisticated intelligence with which these novels are written.  He's a moral man, struggling to deal with right and wrong in a complicated world.  Leon is not afraid to tackle serious topics, yet inserts just enough dry humor to keep the story from becoming too ponderous.  I look forward to reading many more in this excellent series. 

Shadow Shot Sunday #24

Seeking Sunlight

Shadow Shot Sunday
Hosted by Hey Harriet