My brother, Bubba

As you can see, he was incredibly excited to be having his picture taken. He's even showing me some single finger love. Oh, Bubba, you're an awesome little brother. ;-)

Well, I was relating a story the other day to a friend of mine about when Bubba and I were younger and I thought you'd enjoy a chuckle or two or three.

My grandparents would often come out to our house on the weekend and we I would beg nonstop to go and spend the night at their house. Well, I was a typial big sister and I used to pick on the kid nonstop. I'd say we were about 5 and 3 at the time of this particular "incident". I would poke him and he'd say, "Stop it, Sissy". I'd poke him again and he'd say, "STOP IT, Sissy!". I'd poke him again, just for the sheer fun of seeing him turn red, and he'd scream at me, "STOP IT, SISSY!! I MEANEDED IT!!!!!" Usually this is where I'd stop, cause I know I'd pushed him to his limit. But this one day, at my grandparents house, I decided to push the envelope. Be a rebel. Go for the gusto. Win one for the Gipper. Go where no man had gone before. So I poked him again. I don't think I've ever see a kid that red before. The next thing I know, Bubba's gone and picked up a croquet mallet - we'd been playing croquet in the front yard. Before I can get my 5 yr old wits about me, he's whacked me over the head and yelled one more time, just for good measure, "I SAID I MEANEDED IT!!!!!". Of course I screamed bloody murder and my grandmother, my Nannie, came running. I am sure she was holding back the giggles as I'm sure we were quite a sight. She promptly went to tending the pump knot that was forming on my head. I even have a photo to memorialize it. She got an ice pack....one of those old fashioned ones that was a cloth bag and a screw top....and tied it on my head with a scarf. Being the comedienne that my Nannie was, she then took a picture of me and Bubba, with our arms around each other, and him holding that darn croquet mallet. Wouldn't you know, Bubba was grinning like a Cheshire Cat and I look like I've been on a three day crying jag. That was the day that Bubba got the best of me. It would be many more years though before I finally wised up and started to leave him alone to run like like a crazy person after I've pummeled him a bit.

Bubba, Happy 33rd Birthday - a little belated.

Nature is a powerful thing

The town where my brother and sis-in-law live, Smoke and Kris I'll call them, was hit by a massive tornado last night. They live in Jackson, TN - a town that has truly suffered it's share of heartbreak at the hands of one of nature's most destructive forces. Luckily Smoke and Kris are fine and their house sustained no damage. They went further south of the city to stay with Kris' parents - all the damage was on the north end of the city.

This is the second time (or maybe third time) that our family has been closely affected by a tornado. You'd think that being from Tennessee would somehow make you immune to that, but no.

Whenever we have bad weather this time of year, I always fret a little bit. I remember 1993 and the tornadoes that ripped straight through the state of Tennessee. I was in college and we were all piled into the basements of our dorms as the storms screamed through with their anger. I had called my parents (as I always did on Sundays) to check in and to tell them that I wouldn't be able to call back for a while because we were heading down to the basement. Once our ordeal was over, I called my parents back and got no answer. I started shaking...I knew my Mom wouldn't go anywhere...she'd wait for my call, to know I was safe. I called and called and called and called. As soon as the answering machine picked up, I'd hang up and call back. It seemed like an eternity passed, but realistically it had to have been only 15 min. Smoke finally answered the phone and after I ripped him a new one for not being around to answer my call, he started telling me the names of all our neighbors whose homes were either laid flat or partially destroyed. By the grace of God our home was spared - although my Mom would have told you that she wished the trees had landed a little closer to the house and had taken out our deck so she could have gotten a new one. Ha!

What came two weeks after those tornadoes lives in an equal amount of infamy in our family. Two weeks after those storms we had 2 FEET of SNOW at our house. It was my spring break from college and we were snowed in from Saturday through Thursday. You had never seen a family with cabin fever so strong. We were ready to gnaw off limbs to get out of the house.

Anyway....whenever we get storms this strong during this time of year....I always laugh and think, well, I guess the snow's a coming.

I'm a...collector

I've realized that I'm a collector.

I'm a collector of various bottles, glasses and junk on my bed side table.

I'm a collector of unfinished knitting projects.

I'm a collector of kitchen gadgets.

I'm a collector of white t-shirts and black socks.

I'm a collector of dryer sheets on my dresser top.

I'm a collector of junk mail on my dining room table.

I'm a collector of good ideas that others should implement.

I'm a collector of books on organization but haven't read one of them.

I'm a collector of collars for my dogs.

I'm a collector of websites that sell collectibles that I want to start collecting....

I've never....

I got home tonight and Shooter was on the couch watching The Karate Kid. We actually sat down and finished watching it because we hadn't seen it in so long. I really do like that movie...totally cheesy though....but cute.

So anyway....to the "I've never"....there was a commercial for something about Bruce Lee and I realized I've never seen a Bruce Lee movie before. To be honest I have never seen a kung fu movie of any kind before.

Am I alone in this "I've never"?

Yesterday's recipe

I wrote down the "tweaks" I made to the Everything Cookies and thought I'd post it for you.

Everything Cookies
adapted from PioneerWoman Cooks!

1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 1/4 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/3 cups quick oats
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups Cascadian Farms Organic Oats and Honey Granola
3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup Cran-raisins
3/4 cup Golden Raisins
1 1/2 cups apricots

Cream butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Next whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and then add by the spoonful to the mixer. At this point you'll want to transfer the batter to a larger bowl. Add in oatmeal and granola. Fold in pecans and other ingredients. (I used my hands as the batter is so stiff I couldn't work it with a spoon or anything) With cookie scoop or two spoons, drop onto cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 10 minutes. I made several that were "breakfast cookie" size and I baked those for about 13 minutes. This makes about 3-4 dozen cookies, so you can certainly halve the recipe.

Baking is cathartic

I just spent this afternoon in the kitchen. I pulled down my Kitchen-aid and sat it on the counter. Oh so carefully measured out my flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, butter, eggs and vanilla. At this point, I thought, I could make anything. This recipe could take me anywhere. But then I proceeded to dole out the oats, granola, white chocolate chips (you should know I began typing white like this...shite...ha!), diced dried apricots, golden raisins, dried cranberries, and chopped macadamia nuts. Now we're talking! I adapted my from a recipe over at PioneerWoman Cooks called Hyacinth's Everything Cookies. I wanted to try tweaking it a little and let me tell you, these cookies are amazing.

But I stray from the purpose for my post. There's something satisfying about poking around in my kitchen. Measuring out ingredients, mixing them all together, and making something satisfying to the stomach and nourishing to the soul.

One of my first memories of my grandmother, Nannie, is her teaching me about making biscuits. I had this little footstool that I would sit on and watch her lovingly knead the dough, but not too much or you'll make them tough! I had a little cutter that had this little wooden knob on top. She showed me just how to cut them out so you'd get the best rise out of them. Straight down with a little twist of the wrist. Oh how I loved making biscuits with my Nannie. Actually I loved just being in the kitchen with her. I learned my way of cooking from her, a little of this and a little of that until it's just perfect. My Nannie was an amazing lady who spent far too little time on this earth. I look forward to sharing more about her with you.

My newest obsession

Okay....so I can become obsessed with certain things. Like the time I discovered this Icebox Cream Cheese Cake from Publix. Oh Lord...how fast my thighs expanded. Or the time I learned to knit and knitted like a fiend....until my ADHD kicked in and it began to bore me cause I wasn't finishing things quickly enough. Or my handbag obsession, don't we all have one? Lordy, I just bought another handbag....one I had actually FORGOTTEN I'd bid on through eBay.

Well, my latest love is the Joe-Joe. Those of you not near a Trader Joe's are missing out. These things are dangerously addictive. Think of an Oreo only BETTER! These are all natural and even have vanilla beans in the cream filling. OH...they are hands down one of the best cookies out there. So, if you have a Trader Joe's near you...go, go fast and buy some!

By the way, one of the best things I like about them is that they separate really easily. They're filled with lots of cream and the cookie is really crispy. Best of all, the cream doesn't stick all over your teeth or leave your mouth feeling like you just ate a spoonful of Crisco.

I hope you can find some...let me know if you find them and what you think about them.