cooking – Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie

Kitchen News

December 5, 2020December 5, 2020 by annemariedemyen, posted in family

I was in the mood for doing some cooking this week. I started on Thursday by doing up a batch of Carmel Corn. (My late Mother’s recipe).

Yesterday morning I cooked a couple of pounds of bacon to have on hand for when we have salad. (It keeps the lettuce from sticking together 🙄)

Then yesterday I baked chocolate chip cookies with my sister, Lorraine. Since we are a few hundred miles apart, we couldn’t judge them on a taste test – but it doesn’t look like either of us burnt them, so we will call it a win-win 👍. Chances are the hundreds of miles between us saved our cookies. We baked a ton of buns together one time, burnt the lot, and tried to stash them in a garbage bag before our husbands came in for lunch. On the off chance that they did not notice that the house reeked of burnt buns, the bag fell over when they walked in the door and about two hundred blackened buns rolled out – one by one by one. Saddest friggin parade I have ever seen. 🤣🤣🤣

The only thing I am making today are croutons for our Caesar Salad tonight. Is there any reason why croutons have become scarce as hen’s teeth and rediculously expensive lately? Have the TP hoarders turned their attention to croutons? It seems odd. 🧐

Hope everyone is having a great December weekend💞 ❄️

Ps for Neese – my recipe collection leaves is less than elegant but here you go!

Learning to Retire

June 29, 2020June 29, 2020 by annemariedemyen, posted in retirement

Before I retired, I was determined not to waste the best years of my life by sitting in front of a television, letting my life slip away… I have been retired for three months now.

During my first few weeks of my retirement, I cleaned and polished every nook and cranny of our house. Then I started to cook and bake, which of course messed up the house, so I had to clean and polish all the more. 🤷

I could see this becoming a losing battle, so I backed off on the cooking and started to focus on my dog. I was walking her, bathing her and grooming her. And there was dog hair and wet dog smell everywhere! Which meant more house cleaning and polishing. 🙄

Finally spring arrived and I was able to get out in the yard – with my dog! I tidied up the yard, planted plants, and painted flower beds. Kat was at my side, in the house, back out, back in. There was now pine needles, sand, leaves and muddy pawprints throughout the house. I cleaned up the house. Polish – not so much😒

With spring planting behind us, I am looking at doing a couple of small renovation projects and getting back into a few hobbies I once enjoyed. I have a sneaking suspicion that renovations and hobbies are going to circle right back to more housecleaning. 😟

Maybe I should just rethink my original retirement plan, curl up on the couch with my dog and check out some daytime television. 😉