Thursday, March 6, 2014

I posted earlier about having made apple cinnamon pancakes and coffee. What I didn't tell in that post was what happened to the coffee.

The coffee got done just as I had finished my pancakes, so I went out and poured myself a travel mug full and brought it back into the living room to finish watching the television show I'd turned on. Then, I got up to take my dish back into the kitchen planning to come back upstairs to do more work on the computer. I set the mug on top of the radio that has been sitting on top of the stair newel for almost a year now. In the very same spot I've been setting it at other times as well (I have ADD, so in order for me to remember to take things with me, I have to make sure they're sitting where I'll see them.)

Anyway, I hadn't walked more than five feet when I heard a loud crash! I turned and saw that the radio was on the floor, the lid had popped off the coffee mug and ALL of my coffee was now quickly soaking into the carpet. UGH!!! (and loads of curse words)

So, I picked up the radio, plugged the power cord back into it (thank god it was one that could be plugged back in) and then picked up my mug and its lid, now in two pieces. I grabbed a dish towel and the dish cloth and folded them, laying them on top of the spilled coffee, set my shoes on top and stepped down on them in order to soak up as much of the coffee as possible. I then went back to the kitchen to see if my lid was actually broken or it is was just components that had been forcibly separated. Thankfully, it was the latter of those two possibilities. I managed to get the lid back together and poured myself a second cup of coffee and came upstairs.

The next time I went downstairs, I picked up the towels and replaced them with paper towels to absorb some more and went to the basement to throw the dirty washable towels in with the load of wash I was going to wash. Now I have to find another rewashable cloth to take down with me so I can spray the very large stain with some cleaner solution and scrub at it to try to remove as much staining as I can. I'll take a picture of the spot before I start cleaning and post it with this post.

But, all I got was a tentative sip from that first cup of coffee. I'm glad I always make enough to have a second mug full. But, that truly annoyed me. Have you had something like that happen?

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photo taken by me after I wrote this.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes


When I saw a fellow Bubbler's post about having pancakes and coffee for breakfast two days ago, I immediately knew what I wanted for breakfast. So, I went right downstairs and, after feeding the ever hungry cats their breakfast, I made a batch of quicky Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal pancakes The flavoring aspect was inspired by a recipe I saw on the San Luis Obispo blogs found on TheTribuneNews.com. Dang, they looked good!!

Anyway, I didn't have any apples on hand and I HATE making pancakes using a recipe, so I used my "complete" just-add-water pancake mix and added a package of instant apple and cinnamon oatmeal. Then I added water and pulsed it all together in my mini-processor before heating the pan to cook them. 

While the pan was heating, I got the coffee pot ready and lit a low fire under it so it wouldn't boil over. I enjoyed those pancakes, believe me!! By the time I got done eating them, the coffee was ready. Perfect timing!

I love simple and easy ways to accomplish a tasty treat, although I admit that finely diced apples would probably have put the pancakes over the top. Still, they were very good and a nice change from plain old pancakes.


Photo credit - the San Luis Obispo blog at sloblogs.thetribunenews.com/andallthetrimmings/apple-cinnamon-oatmeal-pancakes/comment-page-1/#comment-37395. Feel free to check out their page if you want to make yours from scratch. They look fantastic!!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Sausage Gravy Wanted!

I've been craving breakfast sausage lately. Not the kind in links and not the patties, but the loose sausage that you can turn into sausage gravy. I had bought some of the brand Gwaltney, but was so disgusted by what it was that I didn't want to chance buying anything like it again. 

Sausage is a pork product, right? (Usually.) So, since pork is pink, sausage is also pink (maybe darker because of spices). The Gwaltney was pasty and....GRAY! And, it smelled like death. Seriously - it was plain nasty. And, it was FRESH!!! (Meaning - it wasn't even close to its "use by" date.) I know that Jimmy Dean and other national brands have good reputations, but I just didn't want to find out the hard way that I shouldn't have tried them. So, I went looking for some decent "loose" sausage I could use for breakfast.

I thought I'd found some. A pack of ground seasoned pork calling itself "sweet" sausage. It didn't say it was Italian sweet sausage. I know what that is. But, I got it out to make some sausage gravy tonight that I could keep in the fridge to enjoy for a couple of days. I checked the label for what spices were in the sausage, but all it said was "spice blend". Lovely. Time to flip a coin.

So, I opened it and discovered by fragrance and the accompanying recipe UNDER the label that this sausage was Italian seasoned. I'm sure the external labeling was not intentional. Someone just forgot to add "Italian" to the print line.

::disappointment::

Now this was why I made pasta meat sauce. But, I would love to be able to find some breakfast sausage that wasn't in link form that I could brown up as easily as I would ground beef. I know I can get it at the Amish market, but that's way out of my way. Why can't I get it in a regular grocery?? Apparently, in some groceries in this country, you can buy it. I wish I could here.

UPDATE - I did find an easy make at home breakfast sausage recipe that I think I'm going to try. I have all the spices it calls for here, so I just need to buy some ground pork. We shall see!!


photo credit (sausage) - Some rights reserved by Brood_wich (www.flickr.com/photos/brood_wich/)

Sausage gravy over biscuits
photo credit (gravy) - Some rights reserved by @joefoodie (www.flickr.com/photos/montage_man/)


Monday, March 3, 2014

Pasta Sauce in the Slow Cooker

I'm headed to bed with a pot of pasta sauce slowly cooking in the kitchen. I had bought some "loose" sausage at the store the other day hoping I could use it for breakfast and maybe some sausage gravy. Unfortunately, the seasoning turned out to be for Italian recipes (they never list the actual spices - why is that?), so I browned in my slow cooker pan and added a can of peeled plum tomatos, a can of crushed tomatoes and a can of "Progresso Recipe Starter" Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce plus some Italian spice blend and some Adobo seasoning (basically, garlic powder).

Tomorrow I'll decide whether or not I want to make a baked pasta dish with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses or cook the pasta separately with the sauce for topping. In the meantime, the flavors will blend perfectly during the night.

Again, I don't have a photo of what I'm making because I didn't think of it while I was downstairs, but the one I chose is a close resemblence.


photo credit - Some rights reserved by Monica Arellano-Ongpin (
www.flickr.com/photos/maong/) (It even has the chunky plum tomatoes like mine that I mashed with my potato masher - hope mine tastes as good as this looks.)