Finding Frogs

Over the past few weeks, I've been cautiously dipping my toes into the world of online dating. And let me tell you... it's scary out there folks. 

I actually met my ex-husband online, which I suppose isn't a stellar recommendation, since he turned out to be a boil on the butt of humanity (there's a Steel Magnolias quote for pretty much every situation in life, isn't there?). But I have friends who have met perfectly charming guys who became perfectly lovely boyfriends or husbands, so figured I'd give it another try.

While I have tentatively struck up conversations with a couple of guys that do seem nice, I'll share some initial observations:

1. Maybe I'm just getting old (OK, probably), but I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of these men are shaving a few years, if not decades, off their ages. 

2. Manitoba does not qualify as "within 50 miles of Atlanta." Although if Trump wins, I might reconsider.

3. Screen names that end in "4U" AND mention a body part or sexual position are actually kind of a turn-off. Ditto screen names that include "LUV."

4. If every last one of his pictures include images of fishing, dead animals, motorcycles and NASCAR stadiums, I'm just not sure we're going to have that much in common.

5. While they're probably judging my boobs and my butt, I'm judging their grammatical and spelling choices.

Bonus. Professional wrestlers need not apply.  Especially those in metallic hot pants and a keffiyeh. I'm not kidding. Really. And keep in mind the age range of my dating profile. I need eye bleach.

How Girly-Girls Hunt

The excitement of the hunt, the thrill of the chase... for me it's antique hunting, and it's definitely an inherited trait. One of my mom's favorite things to do was to browse around junky antique stores. She and my cousin Becky would roam all around Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee to every antique mall, regional show and out-of-the way junk shop they could find -- and I was usually happy to tag along. The first piece of furniture I bought for myself was a 1920s chifferobe for $145 -- a staggering sum to me at age 19!

When I moved into my first apartment, Mom was there help fill the space with some fun pieces like a stained glass window panel and a vintage typewriter. And she kept bugging me to pick "something" to collect, so she'd have something specific to hunt for me. For her, it was English chintz china, in a specific pattern. She might buy other things that caught her eye, but that was her "hunt" - every store she went into, she was on the lookout for a new piece. When I'd go to antique shows or shops around DC, I knew her pattern, and the one Becky liked, and would keep an eye out.

Mom wanted something to be looking for for me, preferably china or glass, but I didn't have a clue... I was in a smallish apartment with a teeny-tiny kitchen. And knowing my Mom's tendencies for going overboard and being extremely generous, I wanted to pick something hard to find, so I wouldn't get shipments by the truckload!

Looking around my apartment, I noticed some pink depression glass candlesticks that my high-school bestie had given me when I moved away. And a second pair I had bought with Mom and my aunt at a flea market in Mobile. So I called my mom and said my collection was going to be "pink depression glass candlesticks." There! I had picked something so specific, there was no way I would be inundated! That Christmas, I got two more sets of pink glass candlesticks. Plus eight pink wineglasses, a pink glass candy dish, a pink glass platter and some miniature pink glass cordials. Oh dear...

Thus began my love of depression glass. Over the ears, I've expanded my color palette, and tried to limit myself to one pattern per color. Still, I've got two jam-packed china cabinets full of sparkly stuff proving that yes, I am my mother's daughter in so many ways.

Last month, I was finally able to make it to a depression glass show held near my house, and despite endless temptations, walked away with just two small pieces in my chosen pattern, and the guest pitcher set above, that I just couldn't resist. Isn't it cute? I've got friends coming into town this month and crashing in my guest room/office -- maybe they'll be thirsty!

A Week Full of Yummy (and healthy)

The vegetable bin in my fridge... the place where good intentions go to die. Especially in the summer, when a trip to the farmer's market holds endless temptations. But life gets busy, and after work, a trip to the gym and errands here and there, too many days I come home and cooking dinner is the last thing I want to do. 

So this afternoon, I've had a cooking bonanza, and made a few healthy things that I can take to work for weekday lunches or eat on the quick in the evening.  These are some of my tried-and-true recent favorites that I hope you'll enjoy... I know I will.

Sheet Pan Tikka Masala
Smitten Kitchen is one of my favorite foodie websites, and this one from Deb doesn't disappoint. One thing I like about her recipes is that there is usually a lot of room to improvise and substitute with what you have on hand.  For this dish, I used chicken breast tenderloins cut into chunks instead of thighs, and since I had some Penzey's vindaloo spice blend, I added a 1/2 tsp of that. I marinated the chicken, potatoes and cauliflower in the spice-yogurt mix (fat-free yogurt to keep the calories down), then added some sliced red onion before cooking. This is so good, you don't really even need the chicken. I could just eat a plateful of the veggies - the cauliflower is to die for!

Greek Chicken Poppers
These chicken meatballs come together quickly, and the zucchini keeps the chicken from drying out in the oven. I grate about 1/4 cup of onion into the mix instead of the chopped green onions, leave out the cilantro (I'm one of those people with a genetic disposition to hate the stuff) and add 2 tsp of Penzey's greek seasoning. They don't look all that pretty, but with some tzatziki on top, they taste great!(this one from Skinnytaste is fat-free and delicious)

Kielbasa and Cabbage Skillet
This is a really easy, flavorful dish. I usually cut the recipe in half, and use turkey kielbasa to make it healthier -- you may need to up the olive oil a bit if you find the cabbage sticking to the pan, as the turkey sausage adds flavor, but doesn't render as much fat as the regular kind (which is good thing in the end). Also, you can use any light vinegar if you don't have rice wine vinegar - maybe reduce the amount a little bit though.

Back to the Blog

So this blog has been a bit of a start-and-stop for me, but here I go again... it may be sporadic, it may be random, but hey, it's my party, or so the song says. Expect a little bit of politics, a little bit of house envy, a whole lot of recipes, and maybe more. Life is a journey, and I'm enjoying mine more than I have in a long time, so hopefully I'll have exciting, or at least interesting and perhaps funny things to share.

Bourbon Citrus Slushies

My introduction to bourbon came at my first UGA football game as a college freshman, poured into plastic cups of Coca-Cola. While the stadium was technically "dry," the smuggled-in liquor flowed freely. A suspicious police officer might check a frat boy’s blazer or look for a flask-shaped bulge in the pocket of his dockers (khaki or bulldog red, of course!), but no cop in the 1980s deep south was ever going to look under a girl’s dress. Those  big-skirted Laura Ashley monstrosities came in handy for hiding a flask or two. And while garters seemed classier, they weren’t terribly practical... bandage tape worked much better for keeping that flask in place! :)

Growing older, my appreciation for bourbon has become a bit more, um, adult. My go-to drink is bourbon and ginger ale with a slice of lime, and when presented with a fancy cocktail list, I'll usually go for the bourbon-based ones. In Atlanta, 1821 Bitters has an apple cardamon shrub that is particularly tasty with bourbon and ginger ale... 

On vacation last summer, I mixed up a batch of Garden & Gun’s Bourbon Slush Punch for a lazy afternoon with friends. And while we all thought the combo of citrus, bourbon and strong tea was a winner, we decided the recipe was a tad too sweet, and began to adjust accordingly. Working with what was on hand, we added some ginger ale. The next day we made a new batch, and adjusted a little more.  I’ve tried it a few times since, and a couple of weeks ago, I think I hit slushy perfection. 

And what's even better - you can keep the base in the freezer and make them one or two at a time. INSTANT BOURBON SLUSHY! NO BLENDER NEEDED! I may just be a genius. :) 

How to make it:

• 2 cups strong tea
• 2 cups bourbon
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• One large container frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• Diet ginger ale (ok, it doesn't have to be diet, but it makes me feel better)

Mix the first five ingredients in a tupperware bowl with a tightly sealing lid. Freeze completely. When you want a slushy (or two, or six), drop a few ice cubes in the bottom of a tall glass (to help your drink stay frozen longer). Use an ice cream scoop and fill the glass loosely with the frozen punch base. Top off with ginger ale and enjoy frozen slushy, boozy goodness.

Tween Glamour Revisited

So Bonne Bell is going out of business. Buh-bye lip smackers. Farewell streaky bronzer. It was fun knowing you. For a brief period of time in the early 80s – before sensitive skin and allergies took me into the land of Clinique, Bonne Bell was one of those brands that represented grown-up glamour (at least in my middle-school mind). The sad news of the company's demise had me wanting to rush out and seek a final few tubes of Dr. Pepper or watermelon-flavored lip gloss. Instead, I sat down and came up with a round-up of the must-have beauty products of an early-80s tween. Here’s what we put on every morning and discussed between classes. Play some Duran Duran or early Madonna and see if these bring back a few memories…

Village Lip Lickers. Bonne Bell was a favorite, but I always loved those little vintage-looking tins, and while my memory may be a little fuzzy, I think they tasted better. And they’re still available today (I sense an online order coming) Plus, you could get them at Spencer’s, and let’s face it, no store epitomized cool to an 8^th-grader more than Spencer’s.

Maybelline Kissing Potion. Yeah, kissing was a major concern back then. We all wanted to be prepared with the perfect shiny, great-tasting lips for anything that might (but probably wouldn’t) happen. What happened instead is that your first attempt at a sexy hair flip would send your hair into your mouth where it would get stuck in a layer of lip gloss that would make the cleanup crew for the BP spill nervous.

Speaking of your bouncy, shiny tresses, who didn’t love the new Studio Effects line from L’Oreal with the bottles that looked like a Mondrian painting?  At least until Aussie Sprunch Spray came out and our bangs could be taken to previously-unknown and grape-scented heights.

And how many of us were convinced that Halsa shampoo (the one that you bought to match the color of your hair) would actually give us highlights?

Of course if you were really serious about highlights, you probably went the Sun-In route, or if you were like me, combed lemon juice into your hair and sat out in the sun for hours.

Not that sitting out in the sun was a problem back then. In the south were I grew up, sunscreen was for wimps. Maybe, if you were really concerned about your skin (or your mom was overprotective) you used a SPF 4 or 6. But if you wanted to get that perfect shade of golden brown, hard-core tanners would skip the Panama Jack or Hawaiian Tropic and go straight for a bottle of baby oil with a few drops of iodine mixed in.

Your perfect tan was set off with purple glitter nail polish (it only took approximately 15 coats to get your nails to look like this), and once you got past your mom and into the girls bathroom at school, some shimmery purple eyeshadow to match too, right?

And speaking of nails, remember when the scoop was that gelatin would help make our nails grow stronger and longer?  I kind of misunderstood that one and mom came home one day to find me soaking my fingers in a bowl of unset lime jello. My nails didn’t grow but my fingers were an odd shade of green for a while.

But didn't we look (and smell) totally awesome, strolling through the halls enveloped in a cloud of Love’s Baby Soft or Impulse Body Spray?

        

What have I missed?  What were your favorite tween beauty products?