Wishing You A ...

Happy 21st!!!!!

Hawaiian Poo-Poos

It’s hard to go wrong with a Friday Happy Hour appetizer that calls for two of the ingredients to be swathed in bacon. I made Hawaiian Poo-Poos for the first time last weekend and must say they’re really good. They’ve got a pleasant balance of savory and sweet, plus a lot of different textures going on.

My friend Stevi has an outstanding recipe on her blog, Good to be Home, for another bacon-wrapped appetizer. I only made them once because I’m seriously unable to control myself around them. I woke up the next morning and said to myself, “Good god. I ate the equivalent of half a pound of bacon and ¾ of a brick of cream cheese last night!”

At any rate, here's the recipe for Hawaiian Poo-Poos:

2 8-ounce cans of whole water chestnuts, drained
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup soy sauce
1 pound of bacon, slices cut in half
Pineapple chunks (canned is OK but fresh is even better)
1 cup brown sugar

Direction:

Put soy sauce in a bowl, stir in garlic powder, then put water chestnuts in the mixture to marinate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Drain marinated water chestnuts. Place a pineapple chunk in the center of each piece of bacon then place a water chestnut on top of it. Wrap the bacon around both and secure with a toothpick. Repeat with remaining bacon, pineapple and water chestnuts.

Put brown sugar in a bowl, then gently toss the bacon-wrapped appetizers in the sugar.

Bake 25 minutes on a rack, then turn over and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot.

This is what they look like:

A Milestone For Son 3

Son 3 turns 21 on Thursday.

That means his friends are taking him out for drinks tonight at midnight once he’s officially eligible to imbibe legally, and again Thursday night because that’s his actual birthday night, and again Friday night because, well, it’s Friday night, and again Saturday because, well, just because, I guess.

He’s squeezing us in for a family barbecue in his honor at our place Sunday.

Got to say that we’re mighty proud of him. He’s attending college full-time, holding down a demanding part-time job at a swanky restaurant and living on his own with a trio of buddies.

Hard to believe he’s all grown up.

This Is More Than A Trifle Tasty

Here’s a great autumnal dessert. I made it the other day and sent it to work with Honey.

The recipe (although I’ve tweaked it slightly) comes from Paula Deen. I saw her whip it up on TV one Saturday morning a few years ago and thought it was sheer culinary genius and a perfect annual addition to our Thanksgiving dessert table.

Gingerbread Trifle

2 (14-ounce) packages gingerbread mix
1 (5.1-ounce) box cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix
1 (30-ounce) can pumpkin pie filling
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping
1/2 cup gingersnaps, optional

Directions

Bake the gingerbread according to the package directions; then allow to cool. Meanwhile, prepare the pudding and set aside. Stir the pumpkin pie filling, sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice into the pudding. Crumble 1/2 of the gingerbread into the bottom of a trifle bowl. Pour 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the gingerbread, then add a layer of whipped topping. Repeat with the remaining gingerbread, pudding, and whipped topping. Sprinkle of the top with crushed gingersnaps, if desired. It’s best if you make it a day ahead.

We're So Impatien!

They’re here! Nine gorgeous flats of impatiens just waiting to find their respective little homes in the yard and the various pots on our patio.

The conversation over what colors to plant is typically a lengthy one each fall at our house. We consider and discard several combinations before we hit on one that suits us both.

This year, though, we went back to the ones we planted and loved last fall. It’s a grouping I never would have picked myself, but after it caught my eye at the entrance of a local hoity-toity gated development a couple years back I fell in love with it: pink, purple and orange.

It's going to look sssooo cool.

Next week: geraniums!

A Lesson On Barware - And Life In General

Friday Happy Hour, my friends, is as much about the barware as it is about the alcohol. Socializing is more enjoyable when you’re sipping from a beautiful glass instead of a long-neck bottle or a Tervis tumbler.

We have accumulated, between purchases of our own and gifts from others, some unique glasses over the years. Here’s one of my favorites. It’s a Nachtmann pilsner glass from a set we bought in Germany a few years ago. This picture doesn’t do it justice. The glass is thin as paper and etched with delicate leafy vines. While we were there we also picked up the wine glasses in this same pattern and some fun stemmed cordial glasses that have a look all their own.

We never consciously intended it to be this way but for several years all of these glasses were more decoration than function. We kept them on display in a cupboard with a glass-insert door, but they never got used. Fingers never wrapped around them. Lips never touched their rims.

A few months ago I happened to glance at them and it suddenly dawned on me how sad it was that glasses like these were not holding beverages and being enjoyed. I’ve been making sure to pull them out as often as possible ever since.

So my Friday Happy Hour advice this week is this: Use the good stuff. An empty glass, no matter how pretty it is, is just taking up space.

The whole thing with the glasses got me to thinking about this old Erma Bombeck missive. It's so, so true:

If I Had My Life To Live Over

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love yous" More "I'm sorrys."

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute ... look at it and really see it ... live it and never give it back.

Getting Squashed

Reason to love fall number 452: squash.

I picked up a couple of acorn squashes at the market yesterday and baked them tonight. Not only are these things yummy, they’re healthy as well. Here’s the nutrition information for a whole squash. You can pretty much divide these numbers in two if you’re like me and prefer just half a squash at a sitting:

Calories: 172
Protein: 3.4g
Carbohydrate: 44.9g
Total Fat: 0.43g
Fiber: 6.46g
Excellent source of: magnesium (138mg), potassium (1,495mg), vitamin C (47mg), and vitamin A (1,454 IU)
Good source of: calcium (142mg)

Admittedly, my method of preparation is pretty ho-hum. I nuke each squash for about five minutes until it’s soft enough to cut easily. Once it’s cut I put it flesh side down on a cookie sheet and bake it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. When it’s done I salt and pepper it and sprinkle a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar Splenda on each half.

Here's the finished product:

I can’t believe I hated this stuff when I was a kid.

Friday Happy Hour Quiz

I'm sure you've wondered, as we all have, "If I was a cocktail, would I be a sexy cosmopolitan, a sophisticated martini, a wild and wacky margarita or something altogether different?"

Now you can find out!

One of my friends at work turned me on to this quiz. She's a mai tai, BTW.

Me? Turns out I'm an all-American brewski.

You Are Beer!

You don't need to get totally wasted when you hit the bars. More of a social drinker, you just like to have fun with your friends. And as long as the beer keeps flowing, you're a happy camper. But don't mix things up: "Beer Before Liquor, Never Been Sicker!"

What Alcoholic Drink Are You?

Don't Get Cocky With Me, Mister

Honey had to work Saturday, so by the time I woke up shortly after 7 a.m. he was long gone. I shuffled into the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee, took a spoon out of the drawer and stirred in a splash of non-fat dairy creamer and two Splendas. Then I sat down, read the paper and sipped my coffee.

The phone rang just as I was preparing to pour a second cup. It was Honey.

"Hey," he said. "I'm going to stop by Lowe's tonight for some bait and some spray. I found a cockroach in the kitchen this morning."

"AAAAACCCCCKKKKK!!!!!!" I replied. "That's disgusting. Where did you find it?"

Well, blogosphere friends, you probably know where this is heading, right?

Here's his answer: "In the silverware drawer."

OMG, I thought. I drank cockroach poo, or at minimum ingested whatever diseases it was carrying on the bottom of its vile little feet.

Two options came to mind:

A. Vomit

B. Scrub the kitchen until it's so clean that any self-respecting cockroach would leave.

I chose B.

Opened pantry staples were tossed. Every piece of silverware, every dish, every pot, every pan, every, well, every everything was washed. Every surface in every drawer and every cabinet was wiped clean. Then it was all put back together.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with anything but along the way I discovered that in my pantry were five bottles of vanilla; three containers each of baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and powdered sugar; seven envelopes of taco seasoning; and four sets of food coloring.

The scrub-fest was followed by a trip here, where I loaded up a cart with $73.92 worth of impermeable food storage containers.

This is what the pantry looks like now (she said with pride):

What Hue Doin'?

I stumbled across a fun quiz here the other day. The goal is to place all the tiles in order of hue. The lower your score the better you did. I took it over the weekend and was pleased when I came in with a 20. Son Three and his Lovely Girlfriend were over last night and scored 44 and 52, respectively. Honey mopped the floor with all of us with his 4.

Click here if hue want to take it too.