Mosquito spray

Tested out my Mosquito spray tonite. They have been riding in on the dogs so I thought I would try a little garlic spray on their coats to see if it would work. After I sprayed them, on a hunch, I sprayed my own arms and legs as well. We walked out at sunset and it worked just fine. The mosquitos flew around me but didn’t land. I don’t know if it works for very long, but it worked fine this evening. We’ll see how the long term goes. To make my garlic spray, I simply took one clove of garlic, cut into quarters and pressed through the garlic press. Then I microwaved the pulp with a cup of water for 4 minutes. I let this cool and strained into a spray bottle. Knock wood, it works fine.

Memories of Mom

Making Do by Rhonda Esakov

In many of my writings, recipes and so on, I noticed a trend when I mentioned my mother or my grandmother, their comments and how they ‘handled’ things. Whether it was a lean year with no money, a foreign location or just a drop of the hat moment, mom taught me one of the most valuable lessons in my life without even knowing she was teaching or without me even knowing I was learnin’. That is the art of ‘making do’.

I think the first time I really noticed this was during our first stay in a foreign country. Subconsciously, I wrote about this in my memoirs. Later, I wrote it in short stories. I write it in recipes that I am trying out or sending to a friend. If there is not the exact right ingredient to put into a recipe, I always know what to ‘make do’ with. If I don’t have a gift to give someone, there is always something around that I can throw together and ‘make do’ with [a centerpiece, a sewn object]. If I don’t have the right first aid, there is something on hand to ‘make do’ with. If I don’t have a new dress to wear – yep – I can cobble something to ‘make do’.

I’ll share one of my sad memories of how I had to pass on ‘the make do principle’ to a young relative of mine. Out of the blue, I got a phone call from one of the young children of a relative. She was crying on the phone about nobody home [she was about 9-10 and watching her 2 years younger sister] and there was NOTHING to eat in the house. They weren’t very close by or I would have rushed over and fed them AND stayed in the house with them until a ‘responsible’ adult came home. But here’s what I did. While the little girl dragged the phone cord [what’s cordless??] around the kitchen, I had her look in the pantry, the cabinet and the ‘fridge. There really wasn’t much to be found. But what I have her find was this: ketchup, crackers, butter and spices. They needed something hot in their bellies but also, they were little and there is also the need for taste without yuck. While still on the phone, I talked her into boiling water and taught her how to make ‘ketchup soup’ with a few spices thrown in. These kids loved ketchup, so the idea wasn’t as nauseating to her as it was to me. I had seen her and her sister dip fries into ketchup, all the way to their knuckles, put it in their mouth, suck off the ketchup without taking a bite and then do a double dip. Ick!!! Anyway, while I had her warming the ‘soup’ slowly, I had her take a fork and mash some butter, add some cinnamon and sugar, then spread it on some crackers. I told her not to cover all the crackers, but only half of them. They sat down to a warm meal of Aunt Rhonda’s Okay soup and crackers for dipping and then had the delight of cinnamon crackers to top off the meal. I told her she couldn’t and could not let her sister eat any of the cinnamon crackers until after they each had a half bowl of soup. They ate it all and learned a valuable lesson – not making do, exactly, but to learn that some people are dependable and will help them in their most desperate moments.

So now, when I need to clean a nasty spot and don’t have any fancy store bought stuff, I make do. If I’m cooking – I have become a genius sometimes at substituting [another fancy word for making do]. I can make a rug out of plastic bags, a pair of breezy slouch pants from a sheet or a pillow case out of a shirt, rouge out of lipstick, a serving tray out of cardboard and pretty paper or foil, a centerpiece out of my endless supply of emergency candles and a little greenery from the yard and scraps of material, a baking pan of foil and more. I simply don’t often panic and rush out to a store when I need something quick or don’t have a vital piece. Like my mother inadvertently taught me, I have learned the art of ‘make do’ and hope if ever I pass anything on to my child, that it is to have faith and make do.

Wild Sorrow Debut

Watch for the release of Wild Sorrow, Sandi Ault’s newest book in the Wild series.

Gingerbread People

What makes these cookies special more than anything is to find a cookie cutter that expresses who you are. If you are an animal lover, get some animal forms. Make those gingerbread people dress and look like the people you love and admire. They take a lot of work and a lot of time, but are so worth the effort.

 

 

 

 

Rhonda’s Gingerbread Characters

 

Don’t heat that oven yet or grease a cookie sheet! You won’t bake these for hours, or even days.

 

Ingredients:

 

½ cup shortening (like Crisco – not oil)

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup molasses (you can substitute honey in a pinch)

2 Tablespoons Vinegar

5 cups all purpose flour

1 and ½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

 

Cream shortening, butter & sugars. Beat in egg, molasses and vinegar.

Sift together in separate bowl the dry ingredients. Blend with the wet mixture slowly until well mixed. Cover and chill at least 3 hours. (Half can be frozen for later use)

 

When you are ready to tackle the cooking part (at least 3 hours later); preheat the over to 375 degrees. Roll dough to 1/8 inch on a lightly floured surface. Cut into shapes and place at least 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets. (If you place the boys and girls too close together, they tend to reach out and hold hands while baking and the airplanes like to crash into the balloons). Bake for 5-6 minutes. These are very soft cookies, but easy to handle when cool. If you like a crisper cookie, add a couple minutes baking time. Cool slightly and remove from cookie sheet onto parchment paper or whatever surface you have prepared. Don’t decorate until completely cooled.

 

For decorations – go wild. You can buy over the counter frosting in a can or make your own. (Personally I like to make mine with butter, powdered sugar and vanilla with a few drops of cream to get the right consistency) Allow yourself plenty of frosting so that you can use various shades of food coloring to make different ‘clothes’ and other decorations. Plain white works just as well. I usually have several bowls handy with assorted M&M’s, crushed candy cane, dried blueberries and cranberries, candy corn, red hots, Skittles and more. For fine detail, I use some old syringes that you would use to give liquid medicine. Practice first if you are not used to fine details. Sometimes I just cover the whole cookie in white and stick things on it to make a pattern.

First Deer with a Bow

Black Friday

This year, the day after Thanksgiving, I decided I wanted to join my sister-in-law for an early morning visit to the stores for “Black Friday” shopping. Our families had spent a small quiet Thanksgiving dinner together, 4 adults and 3 children, and the two of us girls had actually made it to bed before midnite. Since we were in their town on the edge of Dallas/Ft. Worth, she was to be the driver and store selector as I had no clue where to go. I am happy to say our experience was a lot less tragic than the stories we later heard on the news about injuries and deaths in other locations.

Our first stop was a Wal-Mart store. We didn’t go at 5AM as the store advertised since we didn’t really have any ’special deals’ that we just had to rush in to get. We did go at 6:30AM though. When we first pulled in to the parking lot – the lot looked completely full. We drove down the first clear aisle we saw – and got a parking space right up front! My SIL was thrilled of course. When we got in the store, the first thing we saw were the lines at the cash registers. OMG – people had one or two baskets piled to overflowing and every register had lines that started at the front of the store and went all the way to the back. We weren’t even sure we could squeaze through the lines to look at merchandise! Our luck held as we went straight back to the rear of the store to electronics. After less than 5 minutes looking in the cases, my SIL had found the game she wanted for her son’s birthday, had gotten an employee, who was standing by with keys, to unlock the cabinet, acquired her game and we made our way into the rest of the store where I wanted to look at some clothes and shoes that were on sale. After pawing through piles of sale items in the clothing areas, we chose – nothing, except to leave the store. This chaos, while not wild, was not fun either and we figured we could live without the experience any longer. Luck still holding, we got to the front of the store and found an express line with only a few people in it; paid for the game and made our way past the security guard checking receipts and out to the car. We were in the store no more than 30 minutes. It wasn’t bad, but definitely not an experience I want to repeat. I do have to say also, I went to my own Wal-Mart store on Sat evening and found the hoodie and shoes [advertised: on sale only Fri 5AM-11AM] I had wanted – in the correct colors, sizes AND with the same sale price! No crowds, just the standard two or three persons in line as always.

To continue our ‘Black Friday’ shopping experience, we went to a large indoor mall off of I-20, I think it was in Arlington, TX. We drove into the underground parking structure [did I mention it was raining a little?] and drove right up to a spot about 3-4 car spaces away from the walkway over to the entrance. My SIL has great luck with parking, and the traffic wasn’t bad. I haven’t been inside one of these giant multi-story indoor malls in years, so didn’t really know what to expect. It was clean, it wasn’t crowded and the people weren’t frantically grabbing at sale items. My SIL commented that it wasn’t crowded as usual. Maybe it was the early hour [8AMish] or maybe the early crush had already come and gone. The stores were busy, but not packed. We found some good sales and didn’t have any problem with long lines at check outs or clerks to help us. The sales clerks [Macy's, Dillards, S&B's, Perfumania, etc] were helpful and courteous. This was NOT the Black Friday I had expected. I did buy one frivolous item from a gal in one of those outdoor kiosks [buy one today AND I'll give you a second one free PLUS you get this free gift item], but the rest of my purchases were clothing for my husband and son and really deep discount prices. I found – in THREE stores – the perfume I had been searching out for weeks with no prior luck, but I’ll leave that for my husband to buy now that I know where to tell him to go. (Yea, I’d like to tell him where to go, but I am cutting him some slack because he lost his job a couple weeks ago).

All in all, Black Friday is NOT something I want to make a special effort to attend, although I will always in the future take advantage of that weekend’s sales – just on a more reasonable day and time. And maybe I’ll get my sister-in-law to drive!

Teenage Angst

The more I have to deal with my teenager, the more I appreciate what my parents went through to raise 3 of us – and my parents were very young when they had us. By the time my mother was 19 (dad about 24-25), they had 3 babies to raise up. Ick.

Tonite, in a fit of whatever the heck teens get into, my son messed up something on his computer (read: tore something up that can’t be fixed), then went outside in a fit of anger to call someone, dropped his cell phone, it flew into two pieces and he couldn’t put it back together, so now his phone is broken and I can’t fix or replace it (though I still have to pay for the dang service) and apparantly, this comedy of errors has resulted in ‘everything in the world’ is wrong and shut down of communications. And THEN, my husband gets involved – oh, now it’s fun. No computer and no phone the rest of his (son’s) life and now they both think it’s all my fault and both are mad at me. Never mind finding out what the problem is and solving it first. What a fun evening it is.

Hawk attack

A fantastic piece of nature played out within arms reach of me today. I was sitting on the front porch near the Koi pond, when suddenly, an explosion of feathers hit the Sego Palm & holly bush in front of me. Then, in a blink, a little blur flew in front of me, quickly followed by a Hawk as they battled it out in the Red Tip Photenia. If I had bent over and stuck my hand out, they would have brushed my fingertips – it was so close! If only I had a camera.

Broad Wing Hawk

After much research in our bird book and a few pictures on line, I determined that this bird was a Broad Wing Hawk, not your typical Red Wings of the area. For the past couple of weeks, my son and I have seen several hawks hunting the area, different from the normal buzzards we have. So this explosion of fury, while exciting and unexpected, I guess was bound to happen somewhere nearby. I guess they must be in their winter migration.

Oh, and by the way – the sparrow got away! (This time)

Local Robbery?

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. Last Tuesday, as my son was walking across the yard to the bus stop, he stopped, bent down and picked something up. “Look mom, he yells, it’s a cash register, and it has money in it.” I didn’t really think that could be true – but it was a cash register drawer, torn from a register and still holding some coins in it! This is fodder for a mystery story! More later as I tell you about the police investigation….

Hummingbird wars

The Hummingbirds around my feeder are getting more active the past two weeks. Generally, there are one or two of them, but today I observed at least six different birds. For sure, one is an adult male Ruby Throated Hummer, while others appear to be a female Black Throated, and two immature birds, both probably Ruby Throats.

All year long, there has been one Hummingbird who has made claim on all four feeders. He/she runs all the others off and the zooming battles are impressive. Today, one of the birds decided to ’stalk’ me. Every where I went in the yard or on the porch, this bird would zoom around me. It went onto the porch and flew to the front door of my house then back to hover in front of my face, I could almost touch it with my hand if it weren’t so skittish. He (I’m sure this was a boy) had a brilliant green back, a dark stripe on his eye with a small teardrop white spot behind the eye. A small blush of color seems to be blooming on his chin, this could be a male Black Throated Hummer. I think the female of the same species is the one who guards the feeders, so this could be her baby boy.

Earlier this summer, when out on the gun range, we were daily buzzed by large Hummers. I thought at the time that they were attracted by our red hats, a touch of color in the desert sparseness, but perhaps it was the bright yellow shirts? Today I had on the bright yellow shirt and that could be what is attracting the birds.