Here Comes the Sun

The sun came out today, it was still a tad windy though.

We ended up taking Lela to the Broadway Mall to play at Ikea, and eat meatballs and roasted potatoes. I was a little disappointed they changed from Pepsi products to Coke. oh well. Lela had fun. She loves playing with their toys. This time she was having a ball playing with their puppets. And we ended up getting Belle a cute plush rattle, on sale for 1.99, a giraffe driving a strawberry. It's so cute, Lela is having a hard time not taking it over though.

Then we went to turn in her summer reading log to get a free book from Borders. But, Borders had been closed down! It is so sad, seems we get less and less book stores. And Lela just loves books, and I just love book stores. It's so sad we are getting so few of them any more. I really hated losing the small local book stores we had when I was growing up. And now we're even losing the big box ones. I guess they are becoming obsolete. What a sad time we live in.

So we ended up going over to Target to get a few groceries, including another can of that instant latte. This time I got the Caramel flavored one. Only 60 calories, I think it will save me many pounds gained, as I really love that new 500 calorie Caramel Frappacino at Mc Donald's. This taste almost exactly like that, for a fraction of the calories!

I wore Belle in my new Baby Hawk, and every one oohed and awed over her. I must admit she is a pretty cute papoose!

I went back through my OTR (Old Time Radio) CDs, and found I had The Couple Next Door already. So we took that with us to listen to in the car. Boy is that one funny series! Vince, Lela and I just laugh our heads off. I'm so glad we can still have some family friendly wholesome entertainment this day and age. Especially the kind the whole family can enjoy. I'm going to download a bunch of Blondie and Dagwood and make us a CD of that for the car next, and of course the Bickerson's! One of our favorite comedy series. I'm thinking about introducing Lela to the Lone Ranger next. She really likes OTR Superman.

Then Vince dropped us girls off at home, while he went into after care for a rash he has. They just gave him some medication but didn't tell him what he had or anything. hmmm. I think it may be eczema, but I don't know, grandpa has shingles. So who knows.

Some how we lost our Watchtowers, and didn't realize it till yesterday at the meeting when going to get them out of the bag. So I ended up printing us new copies from the site. Boy did my printer print them weird, 4 pages per a page, and then when you turn over the page, it printed the next upside down on the other side. Hmm. Odd, but hey didn't take much paper to do it that way! So, we're studied up for next week now, as long as these copies don't mysteriously disappear too.

Gonna have to practice, practice, practice the songs this week. Yesterday was caught off guard by a hard one!

House Party

We went to Vince's cousin, Karen's, house warming party yesterday. She has moved to New Jersey. It was a really nice party. A lot of people showed up and we had fun talking and eating, and just getting to see family for a while. It was the first time most of them got to see Belle, so of course every one was excited about that. She was really appreciative of all the gifts she received, and every one seemed to of brought gifts.

On the way home we stopped by our favorite Pathmark on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn to get a few groceries and there was some man yelling and screaming at the front threatening the staff. The manager and the police had to take care of it. I tried to stay at the back of the store till that was over! Thankfully it ended with no one hurt.

Had meeting this morning and as usual it was a good one! We've been having a lot of visiting speakers for Sunday though. In fact, I can't remember when the last time we had a brother from our congregation give the talk. Boy was the opening song to the Watchtower this morning a hard one! Will have to practice that one a whole lot more! Thankfully the closing song was a old favorite and much easier.

Boy had it gotten cold, last Sunday at the meeting I was sweltering, and both Belle and I was sweating to death. And Vince's soda exploded from the heat in the car. This week it's frigid! And windy, whoa boy it's been windy!

We had Popeye's for lunch. Then we took Belle to see Vince's grandparents. They just loved seeing her. Lela goes over there every weekend, but this was Belle's first visit to Brooklyn. Had a nice time visiting with grandma and grandpa. But, poor Grandpa has the Shingles. On the other hand, grandma is doing really well getting around since her leg was amputated. She's such a trooper. She was telling me she is excited about going in to learn how to use a prosthetic leg. I hope they can fit her well and she will have the strength to do that. Cause she's sick of the wheel chair and the walker. I'll be praying that the prosthetic will work out for her. As strong as I am, I don't know if I would be taking all this in stride as well as she has. And I sure don't know how willing I would be to learn to walk again with a prosthetic at her age! She's pretty inspiring, and I admire her greatly for that.

I think I'll end my day with some more of that Vanilla Bean Latte, it's soooo good!

On Target

I finished my egg-one down, two to go towel! And started Sally Strawberry. The egg design came out cute, and Sally is really shaping up.

We are about out of food at home, so we went to Panera Bread. They have a limited time new sandwich, and I splurged. It was a lobster salad sandwich, which was pretty expensive, but I got it on the pick two. I had it with a large bowl of their new soup that came out a few months ago and quickly became my favorite, Vegetable Pesto. It was a really yummy splurge dinner. The lobster was huge, and not a lot of mayo. Very good. I did have it on the asiago bread though by request instead of the bread it was supposed to come on.

Then we went to Target and purchased Vincent's cousin, Karen, her house warming gift from her registry. I had never bought from a registry before. Surprisingly nice Target had it set up pretty well. Glad I doubled checked the registry when I got there though. As we were going to buy the waffle iron, but when we doubled checked, it had been bought by some one else, the registry said. So we bought our third choice gift, as our second choice, a toaster oven, was only available online. However, the registry had a isle listed that didn't even exist as to where the item was located. Thankfully, with a little searching, and determination Vince found it, and we were able to buy it for her. I'm quite sure it will be a useful gift, or at least I hope so. It was at a decent price as well.

Target had instant latte on sale, even the sugar free version. Which I had bought a long time ago. And then they had discontinued the sugar free line for a while, but I guess they brought it back. Last fall I had bought the pumpkin pie spice coffee flavoring from Dunkin Donuts. So when I got home I mixed the pumpkin pie spice syrup with the Vanilla Bean instant Latte mix from Target. And mmmmm, it was delicious! That will save me some money on latte's from Dunkin Donuts for a while! I think I'll go in the kitchen and make another!

Sweet Tea

I was reading some emails from friends today about pillow cases their grandmothers had made for them and was inspired to get out my embroidery I haven't done in a while. I have a cute egg pattern I was doing on a kitchen towel to finish. It's really near done. I can't wait to finish it. I always like having more kitchen towels. I would really like to do myself some pillow cases. I've never made myself any. Only friends. I know the exact pattern I want to use. It's a girl in a field of flowers. My grandmother had half finished me cases in this pattern. It's a discontinued pattern, and took me a long time to find online. But, finally found it on a ebay auction. And I can't wait to make it for myself and finish it. It's really pretty. Now to get it out and get started. But, I have 2 and 1/4 towels I want to finish first.

Called the doctors office and I did indeed miss my appointment yesterday. UHG. Will have to reschedule. Good thing I have some insulin in the house. I hope they will see me soon, and prescribe me the medications I will need to control the diabetes.

I had a nice cup of my favorite Candy Cane Lane tea, with almond milk. I was so happy last time I was at BJ's they are now selling almond milk too! And it's at a fairly good price. More tea! yummy!

Swirly Whirly

Belle went to get her sonogram today. It was so sad, because they didn't want her to have any milk, only water. We had to buy her nursery water. She had never had water before, and she was not happy at all with it. She cried and cried. Then we got started, and boy was jelly every where! She didn't like that either, as she hates having her clothes off. Then finally she was able to get her milk, yet still had to be naked and smeared in jelly to watch how the milk would do in her. So she wasn't too happy about that either. *sigh* Hopefully we will hear about the results from her doctor soon. In the commotion I believe I missed my doctor appointment. I think it may of been today. But, I'm not sure. We'll have to call tomorrow and check. It was either today or Friday. UHG!

I tried Subway's new breakfast sandwich. I had the steak one. I thought it was pretty good. I'd have it again if I have to be out for breakfast again. It was pretty filling, and tasted good too.

Went to BJ's and seen eggs have went back down in price. Now the regular eggs are 5 something for 5 dozen. There for a while they were up to nearly 12 dollars for that much here! I ended up buying brown farm fresh eggs by Land O Lakes though, 18 for 3 dollars. I wasn't too unhappy about that. They taste pretty good too, and have that bright orange yolk that I like.

Last year we bought a whirly pop popcorn popper. Ever since we haven't been able to eat any other kind of popcorn. Man had our taste buds been ripped off, so many years eating microwave popcorn, and we thought it was good. Now it just seems nasty compared to the whirly pop. We literally can't bring ourselves to eat microwave popcorn any more. Even the scent of it stinks to us. We made some the other day in a hurry for Lela and both Vince and I were trying to figure out what the stench was! Well it was the microwave popcorn! Hard to believe we used to like it! I remember when microwave popcorn first came out it was such a novelty then it became a staple. And here we are back to the oldest way to make popcorn and can't even stomach the thought of microwave popcorn any more!

Lela ask every day for popcorn. But, neither of us has felt like making it for about a week. But, sweet Vincent made us some tonight. So the whole family is happy munching our popcorn and watching tivo.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

The day started out very very windy, and stormy looking, but ended up hot and sweltering. I had to take a bath just to feel a bit better from sweating my brains out all day long.

Poor Belle has to get a sonogram tomorrow. They say she can't eat anything for several hours before, but I'm thinking that's not correct with a baby of her age. They don't think breast milk is a clear liquid, but every thing I've always read says it is! UHG!

I said I would share how I made the Jollof with cous cous instead of rice so here's how it went.

I steamed the carrots first, then put them into a bowl to the side. Then I cooked the diced onion till translucent and almost caramelized, and added the sliced mushrooms, then finished cooking till the onions were caramelized, and mushrooms cooked through. I dumped them into the same bowl as the carrots. Then I used 1 can of chicken broth (around 15 oz), and 1 small can of tomato paste, and the two teaspoons of curry, stirred together and brought to a boil. Added 1 1/2 cups of cous cous stirred till well combined. Put a lid on it and turned off the heat. Five minutes later I fluffed it. Then folded the turkey and the vegetables back into the cous cous mixture. Came out great!

Margaret Appiah-Kubi's Jollof

I went to the store today to buy the big container of cous cous. And wouldn't you know it? They were already out of it! So I had to go to another store and thankfully they had it. Came home and made my cous cous version of Jollof. It was yummy! Came out just how I remember it! While at the store I seen red quinoa as well, so I bought it too. Guess what's on the menu next week? You guessed it, a quinoa version of Jollof!

We also went to two more bowling alleys. Glad we looked around. One was really ran down. But, the other one was really nice and big, had super clean bathrooms, and every thing. So we found the one we'll join. Has a big parking lot too, so it will be easy for all the friends to meet us there as well. It's right off Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadows. I think we'll have a lot of fun this summer meeting up with the friends for a few games a week.

In Ghana they do not write down recipes, you only learn to cook by watching and listening to your mother. One year, we decided to focus on learning about Ghana, that included eating foods they would eat there. My mom looked high and low for recipes from Ghana turning up nothing! (that was before the days of recipes.com and google!) So she finally asked her friend Margaret who was from Ghana if she could help her. Margaret explained they did not have recipe books in Ghana. But, invited my mother to come and watch her fix a meal for her family. The meal my mom observed prepared was Jollof. A traditional meal served in Ghana and also Nigeria. My mom diligently wrote down every thing that Margaret did to prepare Jollof, and it's been a family favorite ever since.

Margaret Appiah-Kubi's Jollof

• 2 cups rice
• 6 cups water
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast cut in small pieces (or whatever the hunters found the night before)
• 1 cup mushrooms sliced
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup diced onions
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Put water and chicken on to cook, boil for 45 minutes. Add rice and vegetables, (more water may be needed). Cook 25 minutes or until rice is tender. Add tomato paste and spices. Stir and serve.

Other vegetables you have on hand may be substituted as well, according to Margaret.

Gonna Ghana

I have such a great hubby, Vince brought me breakfast this morning on his way home from work. What a totally sweet surprise.

Ok, I've been making Akua's mothers recipe for Jollof since I was 7 or 8 years old, and never knew the name of it. My family would just call it African rice. haha I decided to ask Akua yesterday what it was called any way, and turns out my mom had the origin wrong as well. So good to have that corrected. See Akua's family had lived in Kenya for a while so mom thought it was from Kenya, but really they were from Ghana so of course the dish has Ghanaian roots. Wikipedia and Akua says it's also Nigerian. But, I'll be telling people when they ask me from now on that it's Ghanian since Akua's mother was from Ghana (she's since passed away, her mother and father both have, they were such sweet people I surely miss them!) and it's her recipe that I make. I'm still pretty stoked to try it with cous cous in place of rice!

Went to meeting this afternoon it was good, a ton of people there and in our sister cong downstairs. Lela slept through her comments though, first time in a long time. When we got to the car, Vince decided to open a soda to drink, it was so hot it spewed all over him and his brand new suit! It was a purple Grape Fanta! Of course it had to be light colored suit too and not the dark one! I hope it will come out of the suit.

We went around to a few bowling alleys to choose which one we want to pick for the kids bowl free summer registration. We want to check out one right outside of Valley Stream first, but pretty sure we're going to go with one in Garden City. The ones we went to sure are nice. A few years ago all the ones we checked on were run down and scary looking. But, the ones we went to tonight were really clean and nice and neat. The one in Garden City is medium sized, clean and nice, also had a good parking lot. We went to one though in Mineola, and it was HUGE! Had two parking lots, 44 lanes, huge! But, boy were they crowded. So it's between the one in Garden City and Valley Stream, kind of want to check out the one in East Meadows maybe too before we make a final choice. But, will choose one. A few families at Cambria Heights (our sister congregation) said they would sign up for it too and come with us. So should be a fun summer doing that. Also the Garden City alley had a sale on shoes and I need a new pair, so think I'll get a pair next week.

I think Belle may be getting sick. Poor baby. She's got goo coming out of her mouth and her right eye. I hope she gets better soon. Every one was falling all over her at the meeting as usual. I hope she didn't get something there.

Curry in a Hurry

I've been making a lot of cous cous lately cause it's so easy and fast. Yesterday at the grocery store I seen a new flavor I usually don't see at the store in the instant cous cous, curry. I bought some. I also seen a huge tub of cous cous I almost bought that was unflavored, but I was thinking I didn't really feel up to coming up with a recipe for it so didn't buy it, even though by the pound it was a TON cheaper. And it was cute too-different colors! Then I was laying in the bathtub today thinking about what to do with the curry flavored cous cous when it came to me, I have a favorite dish I NEVER make because of the time it takes to make brown rice. It's good friend of mine's mother's recipe, she was from Ghana. I rarely rarely make the dish any more because of the time involved, but it was always a family favorite. And it came to me, I could make that dish with cous cous instead of rice, and it would have the same flavor! Oh my goodness, why didn't I ever think of this before. Now I can't wait to try it. And I won't have to buy the preflavored cous cous, I can make it just fine with the plain cheaper cous cous, and it will be pretty with that multi colored one I seen. I just can't wait to give this old family favorite a twist and see how it comes out. If it works, it will bring the time down so much this could literally be a weekly dish and not just special occasion dish! I am so excited, I just can't wait to try it!