annemariedemyen

February 3rd – Shingles Vaccine

February 3, 2022February 3, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Updates - February 2022

Looking back at previous blogs that I have posted, I came across this one regarding my run in with shingles.

https://seclusion101withannemarie.com/2019/10/29/shingles-vaccine/

Since I wrote this we have had global debate and debacle over vaccines. I understand this, but still felt this post was worthy of update.

While you may be reluctant to get the vaccine for shingles (or anything else right now) I would like to share a bit more information on shingles.

1) Anyone who has had chicken pox, regardless of age, can get shingles. When I had shingles, and in the weeks after, I heard horror stories from people of all ages, who had experienced this horrid condition.

2) Shingles can erupt anywhere on one’s body. I had it on my face and scalp (particularly nasty as it can cause loss of sight, hearing, and permanent disfigurement). I heard of people experiencing outbreaks on their shoulder, back, waist, and thighs.

3) The first sign of shingles may not be a painful, itchy, crusty rash. Mine started with stabbing pain, seemingly deep in my sinuses. Next, there was redness and swelling and my eye was bloodshot. There was one small obvious blister on my forehead, which did not register with me due to everything else causing me misery and discomfort.

4) There is medical treatment available – but one must start treatment within 72 hours of initial signs of outbreak. I was fortunate that while I had no idea that I had shingles, I did go to my doctor on time and was able to receive effective treatment.

I wouldn’t wish shingles on anyone. I would still advise anyone 50 or over, who has had chicken pox, to get the shingles vaccine. If you choose not to, I hope this information helps you to identify the condition if you ever have a breakout and that you are able to get the treatment before you are faced with months of devastating pain and worse. I heard so many stories of people who went through hell with shingles. You really don’t want to become one of them.

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day! 💞

February 2nd Update – 10 Things Anyone Under 40 Should Never Do

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Updates - February 2022

For the second day of February, I am looking back at a blog that I posted while I was still gainfully employed and before I allowed my hair to turn a natural shade of grey. Then as now, I was aware of ageism in our society.

I stand behind everything that I noted in my original post but I do have a couple of things to add.

Number 1 – While I still take exception to much of how aging is portrayed via the youthful ‘internet experts‘, this agism thing has become personal for me in the past two years. I am regularly treated with less respect and consideration than I had come to expect from family, strangers, and acquaintances. My age has become a determining factor in my worthiness. FYI – I refuse to accept that or buy into it at any age.

Number 2 – I have one more rule to add. Regardless of your age, do not compare yourself to anyone who is years or decades your senior. We may not have your youthful beauty, or stamina, quick wit or nimble fingers – but we do have qualities that you will not recognize or understand until you become one of us.

https://seclusion101withannemarie.com/2019/09/26/10-things-anyone-under-40-should-never-do/

**Aging gracefully and gratefully for all of my life’s experiences**

**My father-in-law… living out his final** ***years*** ***cherishing*** ***the memories*** **of a life well lived, the family and friends he loved, and the community he** ***supported***.

**My mother living her final years in a nursing home – Mothering, grand-mothering, and great-grandmothering**. **Regardless of parenting fads and fashions through the generations, it always came down to common sense** ***and caring***.

**My Dad – 83 years old, living with cancer and dying with dignity. Still kind, still strong, still aware and interested in** ***everything happening in his family and his community.***

That’s it for today. For those of all ages – take care and have a great day!

February 1st – Updates

February 1, 2022February 1, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Updates - February 2022

Here we are starting a new month – YAY February! Soon the days will be noticeably longer, hopefully warmer, and much calmer than the last day of January – which brought us a rather noteworthy blizzard.

A new month means a new theme for my blog here on WordPress. I generally prefer looking more forward rather than back, but this month I have decided to indeed look back. Recently, I have had a few visitors post likes or comments on some of my earlier posts. I click back to my original post to check it out, only to discover that I have more to add, changes to make, or just something that is worth repeating. So… that is my theme for February 2022. A review of previous blogs.

One might as well start at the beginning, so today a quick look at my very first blog. This blog was written mid 2019 when I was still gainfully employed in the Saskatchewan construction industry.

https://seclusion101withannemarie.com/2019/08/18/my-very-first-blog/

Update of “My Very First Blog”
Contrary to my earlier thoughts on retirement, I have not consumed any impressive amount of tea, read many books, or done a significant amount of needlework.
I have spent a lot of quality time with my husband and I am happily anticipating the day when Dan will join me in retirement. 💞
I do not miss working – AT ALL. I loved my job, I did it well and I am proud of all that I accomplished. I cared for most of the people I worked with and for. I do not regret or resent a minute of it… But, I do not miss it!
The most significant thing about my life now, compared to then, is that now for the first time in my life as an adult, I put myself first. There were forty some years when, I put myself last (if at all). It was how I lived my life and I would do it again. I do not regret the years that I spent being a wife and home maker, raising a family, catering to grandchildren. I do not regret being there for my aging, ailing parents. I do not regret the dedication I put into my career. But, it left nothing for me. Now I have time to put myself first. I have time to focus on my health and my all around well-being. I would never have guessed that would be the best thing about retirement. (It never occurred to me that it even was a thing 🙄)

If you care to comment, I would love to hear your thoughts on retirement. 🤗😧🥳

That is all for today. Take care and have a great day! 💞

January 31st – The End!

January 31, 2022January 31, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Canadian Meal Options

The end of January is finally here! January is not a kindly month in Saskatchewan, what with the short, frigid days and the arrival of Christmas bills for many. (I have always managed to avoid that but can see how it easily happens).

As much as I could do without the short frigid days, ice, snow and the like, I rather appreciate January – especially now that I am retired. The arrival of January means that we survived another December and we don’t have to deal with that for another year. 👍 January is the beginning of a NEW year – filled with fresh hopes and dreams, adventures, and resolutions. And… January is just a nice laid back month. One does what one must absolutely do and it is perfectly acceptable to do nothing more! January is the perfect month for couch potatoes. 🥔🍟

It would have been great to end this month of Canadian Meal Options with an extravagant kitchen finale. However, having had a filling brunch yesterday morning and considering we had a fridge full of leftovers to deal with last night, that did not happen.

The most ambitious thing we did for supper, was to perk up the leftover rice with the shrimp mix that was leftover from Saturday’s supper. And.. we added one fresh egg. (By we, I mean I handed Dan the egg and he added it to the rice. Just one of the things that I can never manage to make work the way it should. 🙄)

Anyway, this is the last day of January so I have big plans to make the most of it – a little meditating, a bit of putzing around, a peek out the window, maybe a nap. 🤗

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day!💞

January 30th – Kitchen Duty

January 30, 2022January 30, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Canadian Meal Options

The last couple of weeks have been rather hit and miss when it came to home cooking so it is time to get back to pulling some kitchen duty.

Dan was home last night so it was a good evening to cook up a package of (frozen) shrimp we picked up last week. They were smallish shrimp so they were not the best – and they were a pain to clean, but overall the meal was doable. Dan helped by de-veining the shrimp and slicing up the garlic, onions, and mushrooms. 🤗

**Frying a bit of garlic in butter to start the shrimp off with.**

**Sliced onions and mushrooms were added to the garlic**.

***Seasoning a small beef tenderloin that we would share. (Small but THICK)***

**Supper is served – Shrimp, garlic, mushrooms, onions and herbs on a bed of Fettuccine Alfredo, grilled steak and asparagus on the side. With ice water.** 😊

Being Sunday, we started today off with a brunch of bacon, eggs, and toast. To be honest, we started the day off with coffee and by the time I had the bacon cooked, it was brunch time. (Ok! It was lunch time but we still called it brunch.)

I always cook more than enough bacon so we have some on hand for Caesar salad and the like. (This past summer I discovered egg salad sandwiches with bits of warmed bacon sprinkled on the eggs – SO GOOD!)

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day!💞

January 29th – Tim’s Kitchen

January 29, 2022January 29, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Canadian Meal Options

I could not let this month’s ‘Canadian Meal Options’ theme come to an end without one night of Tim’s.

Every viable town in Saskatchewan has at least one Oriental restaurant. Regina, the capital city of this province, has several. We have two favourites. One is Peking House. When my sister Lorraine and her husband Jerry visit, we take a trip downtown to have an eat-in experience at Peking House. Their salt and pepper dry ribs and their various hot pots are amazing! If Dan and I are ordering in or picking up, our goto Oriental experience comes courtesy of Tim’s. Tim’s Kitchen is a small, take-out only shop, conveniently located a few short blocks away from our house. All of their food is great but their Wor Wonton Soup and deep fried wontons are exceptional!

Last night was a Tim’s night.

***Tim’s Work Wonton Soup & Fried Wonton***

***Dry garlic ribs, beef chop Suey (with shrimp from the Shanghai noodles which I do not eat), deep fried wontons, vegetable spring rolls with plum sauce, szechuan chicken, and Tim’s special rice.*** ***Pepsi in the wine glass – and yes Kat firmly planted under my table in case anything happened to (accidentally) fall her way***.

We have plenty left over for another meal. We can never narrow our options down to a one meal experience.

That is it for today. I have a busy day planned with some kitchen deep cleaning and an ambitious supper plan. 😉

Take care and have a great day! 💞

January 28th – Take the Cake!

January 28, 2022January 28, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Canadian Meal Options

Yesterday was one of those days that just does not recover around food. Dan brought me a Robins raisin bran muffins for breakfast. A huge muffin! It kept me going until supper. For supper, Dan and I both had leftovers. He had the leftover seasoned ground beef from nacho night, mixed into a dish of Spanish rice. It looked and smelled amazing. I had the leftover roast pork, warmed in a pan with butter, sliced onions, and fresh mushrooms, with a generous side of buttered brussel sprouts. It was delicious but not as photogenic as it sounds

Our less than heroic kitchen efforts yesterday, left me lacking anything for my January Canadian food blog, so I did what I had to do to stay on point. I assembled some historic photos for today’s cheat day.

Welcome to great cakes through the years!

**Celebrating my 4th birthday with sisters Denise and Elaine and brother Pete. My mother made delicious birthday** – **often angel food made from scratch – and a lot of eggs**!

**Salted caramel cake from the Co-op bakery. OMG!**

***Another July birthday cake for me.***

**Those were cakes that Jen made for Maddy & Prim💞**

**The German Chocolate cake that Dan made for his and Amanda’s wedding. Best chocolate cake EVER!**

That is it for today – I could fill a month of posts with cakes that we have enjoyed over the years. Lots of birthday cakes, wedding cakes, Christmas cakes, chocolate cakes, white cakes – you name it, we take it! It isn’t a celebration until the cake comes out. 🎉

That is it for today. Take care and have a great day! (And if you get the opportunity – have cake!)

January 27th – Nearing the End

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Canadian Meal Options

We are seeing the tail end of January and we can already see and feel the difference. The days are dawning earlier and the sun is setting later. The ‘warmer’ days are getting warmer and the cold days do not seem quite as cold. Maybe I am acclimatizing.

I cannot say too much about my cooking efforts yesterday.

***Supper was leftover gnocchi stew with garlic toast in lieu of the crusty buns we had for the stew debut.***

**I did assemble some spices and Parmesan cheese to make a fresh batch of** ***croutons.***

**Out of the air frier and ready to go!**

***And.. Another*** **evening with Orville Redenbacher**

That is it for today. Take care and have a great day!

***Getting excited anticipating sunny skies and frilly flowers. 💞***

January 26th – Nachos

January 26, 2022January 26, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Canadian Meal Options

WordPress seems to be having issues this morning. Every time I add a photo, it changes any previous photos to the new photo and adds multiples….

Anyway, Dan and I had a nice time out and about yesterday. It had been a couple of weeks since I had been anywhere, so it was nice to get a change of scenery – even if most of our scenery is buried under an abundance of snow.

We stopped at Mark’s for their seasonal clearance sale, where I did not buy anything. We stopped at Walmart, where I did buy a few things including three pairs of round the house lounging pants. We stopped at Old Fashioned Foods to pick up raw sunflower seeds and enjoy the heavenly aromas of that store. Finally we drove across the city to a little shop to pick up some CBD cream. With all the running around, it was too late to put together the supper I had planned on, so… we made nachos for supper.

***Brown ground beef and add taco seasoning.***

**Spread on tortilla chips with green onions, red pepper, jalapeno peppers, green and black olives**

***Cover with shredded habanero cheese***

**Bake until cheese is melted and broil until cheese is browned. Serve with salsa and sour cream.**

That was a painful experience! I hope this post goes through as I made it and you are not treated to seventeen copies of the same photo. 😕

That is it for today. Take care and have a great day!

January 25th – Gnocchi Stew

January 25, 2022January 25, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Canadian Meal Options

Another chilly day in the north forty! I have places to go and things to do today, but fortunately Dan is home today to take me where I need to go.

Dan went shopping yesterday and picked up gnocchi so we could make the stew I had originally planned for supper on Sunday. Nothing like a pot of steamy, tasty, comfort food to get us through a frigid spell of Saskatchewan winter.

**Browning the beef in seasoned flour…**

**Adding the vegetables Dan chopped – onions, garlic, red pepper, mushrooms, celery, carrots, and parsnip. Add beef broth and … Into the** ***oven*** ***for an hour or so.***

**Add the gnocchi, more broth, and a can of Swiss Chalet beef gravy**… ***Back into the oven.***

**Add frozen peas..and back into the oven!**

**Ready to serve with fresh baked, buttery, Pillsbury crusty buns!**

While I was cooking the stew, I made a rediculously obvious discovery about the new stove we bought a few weeks ago. 🙄

I don’t know how frequently most people replace their stoves, but we had our last one for twenty years ago. Like this one, it was a Whirlpool, glass top, electric, self cleaning stove. Over the past twenty years, Whirlpool has made a few notable changes. Our new stove has no power outlet in the top control panel (which was so handy on our last stove since our kitchen is seriously lacking power outlets!). Our new stove has a convection fan – which I love – especially for some things like cooking thick cut bacon. And our new stove has a BIG oven. It takes away room from the drawer at the bottom of the stove but it is BIG! And big is always better – right? Except that ever since we have gotten our new stove, I have struggled to get things in and out of the oven. Especially big heavy things like Dutch ovens full of stew. What the hell?

The salesman was so excited about the big, roomy oven! What he didn’t mention (no doubt because it was so obvious) is that the big oven came with a BIG oven door. A door that anyone five foot nothing would have issues reaching across to put things into or take things out of the oven. Like really? Who do they design these big ovens for? Nobody in my family for sure. When it comes to size, I am kind of the pick of the litter. My sisters can only dream of being five foot nothing. 😧

I just called my salesman and told him that this issue might be something to mention to other height challenged home makers. I also suggested that people should be encouraged to use the floor mounting bracket that comes with these stoves, as the bigger oven door does tend to make the stove less stable than our older one. Our salesman definitely agreed that these suggestions were noteworthy and would be passing them along to his co-workers. 🙂

That is it for today. Take care and have a great day!