Monday Meals

Good Monday afternoon! It is time for another Monday Meal recipe. My blogfriend Bill Coupe tried the enchiladas from last week over the weekend. I'm interested to hear what he and his family thought about them.

Today, we are going a little Key West with easy stuffed mushrooms, coconut fried shrimp with dipping sauce and cool and refreshing Strawberries Romanov - a delightful, light desert from La Madeline. This is a great dish to celebrate the warm spring days as they head into the HOT summer nights!

First up is the stuffed mushrooms.

BAKED STUFFED MUSHROOMS WITH CRAB:

These crab-stuffed mushrooms are a longtime favorite at Phillips. Tip: Use a melon baller to scoop out the mushroom stems.

2 large eggs
1 heaping tablespoon plus 1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound crabmeat
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
24 large mushrooms (each about 2 inches across), stems removed
2 tablespoons half and half
1 teaspoon crab boil seasoning*
Shredded Mozarella and Parmesan cheeses

Butter 10x15-inch baking dish. Combine 1 egg, 1 heaping tablespoon mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in medium bowl; whisk to blend. In another medium bowl, combine crabmeat and breadcrumbs. Pour egg mixture over crab mixture and mix gently.

Stuff mushroom caps with crab mixture, mounding in center and pressing gently to adhere. Arrange stuffed mushrooms in prepared dish. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.) Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Bake until mushrooms begin to release juices, about 18 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk remaining egg, 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and half and half in small bowl. Remove mushrooms from oven and drizzle each with sauce, then sprinkle with crab boil seasoning and top with mozarella and parmesan cheeses. Bake until mushrooms are tender and sauce thickens slightly, about 8 minutes. Serve hot.

* Crab boil is a seafood seasoning mixture sold at specialty foods stores and in the seafood section of supermarkets.

Makes 6 servings.

Parrot Bay Coconut Shrimp

Ingredients:
1 lb Medium - Large Fresh Shrimp (cleaned,shelled, and butterflied)
2 Eggs
1/4 C. Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay
2/3 C. Corn Starch
7 oz. Package of Premium Flaked Coconut (small flake if possible)
1 Tbsp. Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 C. Flour

Preparation:
Mix eggs and water. Set aside. Place 1/3 cup of corn starch in bowl for dusting of shrimp. Mix in separate bowl 1/3 cup (the remainder) of corn starch, coconut, sugar, salt, and flour, blend well. Heat oil for deep frying. Roll shrimp in corn starch, then in egg wash, then finally roll in coconut mixture. Place shrimp in hot oil and deep fry until done. Shrimp will float to the top when cooked. Take care not to overcook shrimp. Serve with Joe's Crab Shack Pineapple dipping sauce. Yumm Yumm.

We have found the results to be slightly better when you process the coconut in a blender for a few seconds. It will grate up the coconut just a bit more.

Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:
1 (8 oz.) Can Crushed Pineapple Natural Juice (do not drain, add juice)
1/2 C. Sugar
1/4 C. Red Plum Preserves
1/2 C. Sweet and Sour Sauce ( the yellow type not the red sauce, we used Kraft Sweet and Sour Sauce)

Preparation:
Place all in a sauce pan and simmer on medium low to low heat for 20 - 25 minutes stirring frequently until mixture thickens slightly.
This sauce is also great with Chicken Nuggets.

Serving Size: 4

Strawberries Romanov
Ingredients:
1 lb. Strawberries or 2 pints
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp. Powdered Sugar
4 Tbsp. Brandy

Preparation:
Wash strawberries, and cut the tops off. Let strawberries drain. Mix together heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and the brandy. Beat with a mixer until this becomes thick. Place strawberries into glasses and spoon over the sauce. Makes 3 to 4 servings.

On a personal note, the brandy sauce for this is DIVINE, so you might want to double up on the sauce recipe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bon Appetite, y'all! I hope you enjoy this delish dish. Please let me know if you try it and find it to be any good!

Today's Top 10 Words of Wisdom List

Top 10 Words of Wisdom

1. Admit your mistakes.
2. Don't postpone joy.
3. Use your wit to amuse, not abuse.
4. In business and family relationships, remember that the most important thing is TRUST.
5. Chose your life's mate carefully. From that one decision will come 90% of all your happiness or misery.
6. The secret of achievement is to not let what you are doing get to you before you get to it.
7. A man is rich according to what is is, not according to what he has.
8. Life can only be understood by looking backward, but it must be lived by looking forward.
9. Falling down doesn't make you a failure but staying down does.
10. Slow dance.

A Tribute to My Wonderful Mother

My mother...nothing I could say could adequately convey the love/annoyance relationship that we have. It's the same relationship that every mother and daughter go through. I never have had a love/hate relationship with her. But she has annoyed me plenty, just like I have gotten under her skin too. My mom is #10 out of 12 kids. 6 boys and 6 girls were born into this Dutch family. My maternal grandparents immigrated from the Netherlands when they were children and found each other in the small Dutch farming community in Minnesota. Out of all my aunts and uncles on my mom's side, one aunt didn't get married ever. She was the "eccentric" and "odd" aunt in the family. Every family has one of those be they aunt or uncle. Everyone else had 2 or more children. Well, everyone except my mom that is. My mom found out that out of a very fertile family, she was the one who could not have children. She had surgeries, etc. and nothing worked. So she and my dad decided to adopt. She at first wanted two little boys. But then changed her mind and prayed to God for a little brown haired, brown eyed girl.

At the time, she was working for a local OB/GYN. One day he comes to her and says, "I have someone I want you to meet." So he took her to the hospital and she saw...me. He had delivered me from an un-wed, young woman who had decided to go through with having me and giving me up for adoption rather than the preferred method of her parents. Abortion. She was 3 months pregnant with me when Roe V. Wade was passed. She was given the choice to
a) have an abortion and be welcomed back to the family
b) have me and give me up for adoption but not set foot inside their house until it was done
or
c) have me and keep me and no longer be their daughter.

She chose b. I'm sure that was such a difficult decision for her to make. I'm glad that she made it though. B/C here I am today. Blessed beyond measure with my own little girl.

My mom told me that as soon as she saw me she knew that I was the one that she had prayed about. She and my dad took me home at 8 days old. My mom has been defender, protector, comforter, prankster, influence, friend. Among many other things. My mom and I have an unusually close bond. You see, my dad had problems. Mental problems. He was diagnosed with severe clinical depression and severe OCD. Of course, back in those days, they did cocktails of meds, etc. They never worked for long. But that didn't change the fact that my childhood was not always normal. Rarely normal, in fact. My dad had his "good days" and "good weeks", but I can remember never inviting any school friends over in elementary b/c I didn't want to have to explain why dad was off in his study crying and raging. My dad's rages were verbal in nature toward my mom. He was never physical with her, just very very loud. And, honestly, he couldn't help it. Nothing the dr's were giving him helped him for any length of time. It was how his mind was built. I only had one slumber party and dad stayed in his study the whole time, slept in there too. There were only three friends in elementary school who knew what my father was like. As we grew older, only one of them actually stayed my friend. One betrayed me in Jr. High and told me at her slumber party - the last birthday party of hers I ever went to, that I was only there b/c her mother made her invite me. I didn't want anything to do with her after that. One went to a different school and we lost touch.

Jr. High kids can be so cruel. I had entered a REALLY awkward stage and went from one of the class cuties to thick glasses, short hair and overweight for my age. Not severely overweight, but enough to be made into the class joke. I went to a really small private school. The teachers never did anything to stop it. It was the kids in the high school there that were the nice ones. The ones who made me feel wanted and accepted. And I loved them for that. I never got it from the kids my own age group. 6th-8th grade is when your self esteem really starts to develop and when you start carving out who you want to be. I wrote my first story in 7th grade. It was a horror story. It was really good. Wrote another story, it was a romance. Darn teacher read it out loud to the class b/c she thought it was really good. She only ended up embarrassing me really badly. I was the one who was picked on, made the butt of all the jokes, had the mean, unkind words thrown at me. Then in the summer before 9th grade, something happened. I decided to go to a different school. I started growing up instead of growing out. I got contacts. My hair started growing out too. In short, I really blossomed. In just two short months. I went to a Summer Wednesday night kids thing that all churches do (my former school was associated with a church). I saw several of my former classmates there and not a single one of them recognized me. People I had gone to school with, most for more than 5 years. In two short months I had gone from ugly ducking to swan. They all wanted to get to know me and were STUNNED, literally jaws dropping, when they figured out who I was. At that point, I just laughed them off and went on my merry way.

Scars like that, never really heal. They get thicker with time and fade, but never really fade away.

Why do I tell you this stuff? B/C it was my mom who wiped my tears on literally a daily basis when she would pick me up from school between middle of my 6th grade year through the end of 8th grade. My mom who told me that things would change. My mom who borrowed her boss's hot red Mercedes to pick me up from school one day just to give me something to smile about as I walked past the people who were so cruel to me. It was my mom who took me out of bed in the middle of the night when my dad's rages got fierce and would take me for a drive for sometimes a couple of hours at a time so that I could sleep uninterrupted in the car. She always seemed to know when my dad's rages had passed on and would bring me back home. It was my mom who taught me perseverance and unconditional love. Right from wrong and unwavering support, even though a lot of the decisions I made in high school and after disappointed her. It was my mom who held me and wisely said nothing when my first truly deep relationship fell apart and my heart was shattered at the age of 21. It was my mom who has given me cards out of the blue just to let me know she's thinking about me, or that she loves me, or that things will get better, or that she's proud of me, etc. It was my mom who has stood beside me through the thick and thin of life and the difficulties in my marriage. She has been my rock. My guide. I would be lost without her.

She survived a fierce battle with breast cancer and has been in remission for 3 years now. I am blessed to have her in my life. She is my answer to prayer, just as I was her answer to prayer so many years ago.

She was my first blessing and continues to be so. Thank you mom for giving me life. Even though I wasn't grown in your body, I was grown in your heart. You chose me out of every one else. My life has been better for it ever since. I love you!

To all the wonderful mothers and "motherers" today

What is a motherer? Someone who is not a mother, but whose actions lend themselves to takeing care of people, friends, family, strangers, just like a mother would. They can be male or female, motherers have no set gender. They can be the single person who never got married or had children of their own but who loves everyone else like their own child. They can be married with many children and who take care of everyone else with the same love a care they take care of their own children. They can be single parents who, for whatever reason, find themselves raising their children without much or any outside help and yet always have it in their hearts to care for others as well. They can be any age, gender, shape, size, color. To borrow the list from a dear blogfriend Susie, not b/c I'm lazy, but b/c she covered it so very well. A motherer is someone who:

~ doing what you don't feel like doing, because you care enough about someone else to put yourself out like that

~ voluntarily sacrificing for someone else's well-being, comfort or happiness

~ being someone else's biggest fan, without keeping track of how many times they don't measure up

~ using whatever you have -- money, affection, cooking skills, sense of humor, etc., to lift someone who doesn't have quite as much at the moment

~ praying for someone faithfully, even if they never know it

~ being truly happy for someone else's success; or truly sad for their misfortune

~ taking care of someone, with no regard for "what's in it for me"

~ making it your business to do all you can to help someone else succeed

And I'm not talking about "co-dependency;" there's no "co" about it. Mothering gives without expectation of getting. If you don't "get" this post, I guess that means it wasn't for you. But if you do get it, then celebrate yourself, celebrate that although no one has awarded you the title, you do mother someone. Maybe a lot of someones -- mate, siblings, parents, grandparents, neighbors, students, pets, friends . . . And I know that if you really ache to be called "Mom," this is small consolation, but just consider, if you were called "Mom," you might not have been able to mother all the other people that you have, during your life. Your contributions are no less significant than if your name were "Mom."

She has such an eloquent way with words doesn't she? I just love going to visit her site on a daily basis b/c it's always interesting. You will never feel "meh" about reading something on her site.

Anyway, for my own contribution to Mother's Day!

MOTHERS ARE....

The young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is this the long way?" she asked.

And the guide said "Yes, and the way is hard, and you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning."

But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, she fed them and bathed them, taught them how to tie their shoes and ride a bike, and reminded them to feed the dog and do their homework and brush their teeth. The sun shone on them and the young Mother cried, "Nothing will ever be lovelier than this."

Then the nights came, and the storms and the path was sometimes dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and covered them with her arms and the children said, "Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come."

And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary. But at all times she said to the children, a little patience and we are there."

So the children climbed and as they climbed they learned to weather the storms. And with this, she gave them strength to face the world. Year after year she showed them compassion, understanding, hope, but most of all......unconditional love.

And when they reached the top they said, "Mother, we would not have done it without you."

The days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the mother grew old and she became little and bent. But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage. And the mother, when she lay down at night, looked up at the stars and said, "This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned so much and are now passing these traits on to their children."

And when the way became rough for her, they lifted her, and gave her their strength, just as she had given them hers. One day they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide.

And Mother said: "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk with dignity and pride, with their heads held high, and so can their children after them."

And the children said, "You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates."

And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her.

And they said: "We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A Mother is more than a memory. She is a living presence. Your Mother is always with you. She's the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street, she's the smell of certain foods you remember, flowers you pick and perfume that she wore, she's the cool hand on your brow when you're not feeling well, she's your breath in the air on a cold winters day. She is the sound of the rain that lulls you to sleep, the colors of a rainbow, she is your birthday morning. Your Mother lives inside your laughter. And she's crystallized in every tear drop. A mother shows every emotion........ happiness, sadness, fear, jealousy, love, hate, anger, helplessness, excitement, joy, sorrow..... and all the while hoping and praying you will only know the good feelings in life. She's the place you came from, your first home, and she's the map you follow with every step you take. She's your first love, your first friend, even your first enemy, but nothing on earth can separate you. Not time, not space.......not even death!

This is my Mother's Day plaque called Mother and Daughter. Emily is just about that tall too. She comes up to my ribs at 3 years of age. She is my miracle. My joy. The light of my life. I love being a mother. I love being her mother!



"For this is what the Lord says: . . . As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you . . ."

Isaiah 66:12-13


Happy Mother's Day for all the mothers and motherers out there! You are blessed and are blessings indeed.

15 things about me

Most people do the 10 things about me or 100 things about me. I will do neither. I am going to tell you 15 Things About Me tonight.

#1. I am allergic to raw onions. I can have onions cooked, fried, etc. In fact, I love onion rings. YUMMY! But raw onions gives me itchy, red blotches, a red ring around my neck and makes it difficult for me breathe. Each time I accidentally eat part of a raw onion, my reaction gets worse.
#2. I sing in the car - all the time. Heck, I sing everywhere.
#3. I grew up playing classical piano. I stopped playing it in 6th grade b/c I was practicing 3-3½ hours a day. I never learned how to read notes. Did it all by ear for 5½ years. I can barely play piano now. And that's sad.
#4. I've been in 2 movies and was in the music video "Amy's Back In Austin" by Little Texas.
#5. I can make a "cloverleaf" with my tongue. I will post a picture when I can get a good one captured.
#6. I haaaaate thunder, but have learned to control my responses to it b/c of Emily.
#7. When I am highly upset I shiver uncontrollably. Sometimes for hours at a time. It can get very tiring b/c I have to tense up continuously to lessen the effect.
#8. I own two G-U-N-S. A .45 Kimber Custom CDP II and an AR-15. I am an excellent shot.
#9. I'm a sap for really romantic songs. Hate to love them, but love them I do.
#10. I danced with Harry Connick, Jr. as he was trying to learn how to two-step for his dance scene with Sandra Bullock in the movie Hope Floats. (He is much better at disco than the two-step)
#11. I used to beer-bong tequila. In fact, Tequila is one of the only liquors I have never gotten sick on. I LOVE IT!
#12. I used to teach C&W dancing.
#13. I'd rather look for the good in people than the bad.
#14. I've never been outside of the contiguous 48 states. A day trip across the Mexico border notwithstanding.
#15. I can say the alphabet backwards from Z-A without hesitation.

These dogs won't hunt anymore tonight

Question, when one has the choice between wearing steel-toe boots and cowboy boots for an assignment where they will be on their feet and walking all day, which one do they choose?


I chose the latter.


My decision SUCKED.



I see you out there wondering "why didn't she wear tennies like a normal person would do?"

Well, I would be just too happy to enlighten you to that. When I was pregnant, tennies hurt my feet. Made them cramp something awful. Really made the arches hurt, even though they were arch support shoes. Ever since then, I have not been able to wear tennies with any degree of comfort for extended periods of time. I would rather wear my steel-toes, than tennies. In fact, my steel-toes are more comfortable than any tennis shoe I've ever tried on. That being said...yes, I know what you are thinking. "If that's the case why didn't she wear the steel-toes?" Well, think about it. Doing security for a festival that is held in a park that is several acres big for several hours, you kind of want a lighter shoe than a steel-toe. Since sandals, mules or heels aren't acceptable for this kind of duty, it fell to the cowboy boots.

No, I'm not in security, however, I am a member of the City of Austin Travis County Office of Emergency Management Community Emergency Response Team. COATCOEMCERT. Yeah...um, no. That's kind of a mouthful. It's just CERT for short. We volunteer for community events to help get our faces out there in the community and to help with crowd control for large community events.



So, what does this shirt mean? It means that I am a licensed, trained volunteer with the City of Austin's Office of Emergency Management (COA OEM). In case of a natural or manmade disaster, search and rescue mission or, God forbid, a terrorist attack I am one of the only non-official emergency workers who are allowed to be out and interacting with emergency services to keep things under control, answer questions, perform first-aid, keep a perimiter to prevent curious, hysterical or downright stupid people from getting in the way and getting themselves or other people hurt. In otherwords, I am one of the few people given permission by the COA PTB (Powers That Be) to save your ass in the most extreme of circumstances.

My name is Nicole and I wear a green shirt of Power. Ok, not really, but that was really fun to type!

My feet are damn tired and so am I.

Looks like Yoda isn't the only Star Wars blogger...

Thanks to a new and dear blogfriend Lois Lane, I have found another humorous blog by none other than Darth Vader. There is a rather interesting post of parenting advice from the dark father. You can find this blog at The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster.

Thank you dear Lois!

The Tag Man Cometh

I'VE BEEN TURD TAGGED. Thanks a bunch. No, really, thanks. :^P

I'm sure, I KNOW, that many of you out there who read my blog have already been tagged and that leaves me with very few people to pass my "TAG" on to.

So here is my Turd Poetry. I don't think I've poached on anyone elses, if I have, I'm sorry.

Turd in a punchbowl
The size of a pear
Turd in a punchbowl
What's it doing there?

Rules for the turd tag:
1. Write a four line poem with the 1st and 3rd lines being "turd in a punch bowl"
2. Make lines 2 and 4 rhyme, using any topic. Not SO bad, as tags go.
3. Pass along to 3 unsuspecting punchdrinking bloggers and make them put it on their blog site.

I tag my dear CP Chris.
The bubbly Brenda.
And one of my new blogfriends Bill, who is currently posting all kinds of poetry on his blog.

Pass on the love my dearies!

Ok, I've had another one "floating" around in my head and it's not going to leave me alone unless I post it, so here is Turd Bowl Tag #2 (pun!)

Turd in a punchbowl
It sure is a sin
Turd in a punchbowl
To use that instead of gin

Friday Field Trip

Ok, so today is the first Friday Field Trip, which shall henceforth and forevermore be known as FFT. It's just plain faster to put down. The purpose of the FFT is to show you obscure, or fun little sites that you would not normally go to or know were there. I was going to do todays FFT on cyber paper dolls. It's a lot of fun and there are over 100 "celebrities" you can dress up online including doing makeovers, etc. It actually is a fun little stress reliever. Alas, they are down today. So that might be next week's FFT if they are up and running again.

However, this Friday's FFT is to an amusing place called Eric Conveys An Emotion. A TRUE example of someone having waaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands. Inside the weather's always nice so no need to bring an umbrella for this FFT. Just click here to go watch Eric convey an emotion.

If you have any sites, clean ones please, that you want featured in future FFT's please email me and you just might see your's featured in future FFT's.

Oops and The Beautiful Pain Inside

Ok, yes, there will be a Friday field trip posted later, so be patient.

First up is Oops. And I mean OOPS in a BIG way. I wrote a letter last night to a woman who is my "other mother". She and her husband are my mom's best friends. I have known them for many, many years. In fact, if anything ever happened to my mom when I was in high school, I would have gone to live with them. Her husband was the one to walk me down the aisle in lieu of my own father. I will post about that in a different post for a different time. I love my "other mother". She had emailed me this beautiful story on the journey of a mother. Not just me, but several people. Well, since I don't get to talk to her as often as I would like, I decided to write her an in depth, deeply personal email to her and her husband. I told her about my new job that I will be starting in a couple of weeks. I talked about how things were going between me and Matt, better, and to thank her for her support and biting her tongue, when it was so very difficult for her to do, as she saw me going through some pretty bad times in my marriage. When you're in a marriage that has problems, you don't like or appreciate "well meaning" advice b/c there are reasons why you do things that nobody else would ever understand. Needless to say, this letter was very deep and from the bottom of my heart. I hit the "send" button and off it went on it's merry way...

To EVERYONE on the list.

Oh, yes. OH NO! is right. Like a complete and TOTAL idiot, I hit the "reply to all" instead of the "reply". Right after I sent it, I notices that the "TO:" field did NOT just have "darrell" on there as it should have. It had "darrell, betty,..." My heart went up to my throat, my stomach to my toes and I felt thoroughly sick to my stomach. Not only was this a letter not meant for other eyes, there is one person on the email list that should NEVER, ever, ever have seen the contents of that letter. Someone I posted about several posts ago as part of my cathartic posting process. Too late for going back. I can't retract the letter b/c it was sent from my gmail account and not from Outlook or Groupwise. So I have to sit here and try to not bang my head against the wall over and over and over and over and over...

Life does not have a DO OVER button. Neither do computers. Though, don't I really wish at this moment that it did!





SIGH. And life goes on.

Now, about The Beautiful Pain Inside. On of my blogfriends, Lois Lane, posted a very beautiful and personal story in her life about her mother-in-law. It is captivating, poignant, deeply touching and a true example of mending bridges. To share something so deeply personal and from the heart to the world is a rare and wonderful gift to those who skim blogs and never really see someone reaching deep inside to share some of their most difficult moments in their lives. Her post today is a celebration of beautiful pain, the knowledge that sometimes wisdom comes with maturity and cherished memories.

Lois, you are beautiful inside and out. You can read her inspiring, touching post here.

Happy Mother's Day