Rain rain go away.

The weather report said there was a chance of severe thunderstorms, floods, hail and all the other nasties associated with clouds and stuff. Lucky for me I didn't hear anything about tornados.

I went to work this morning and the skies looked friendly. However around 9am the skies shifted. I took some pix with my digital and snapped this with my Mint.

I can hear thunder and all the managers on the south wall have their lights off to watch the lightning show. Creepy!!!

Now the power is flickering and I can hear the rain beating down on the bldg.

What? You act like I've never seen rain before... Not like this :)

Why am I so irritated?

Is it because of PMS?

Is it because I had to go back to work after a nice long weekend?

Is it because I'm worried about my financial stability?

Maybe yes to everything.

Most awesome biscuits.

Yesterday my cousin Les and his girlfriend Wendy had their housewarming party in combination with James' fifth birthday party. His parents, older brother and two of his kids were there too.

All the women were hanging out in the kitchen, making tea, mashing potatoes and peppering peas. The guys were out watching the bbq, watching TV and geeking out on the pc. Occasionally we'd all end up outside together in the garage chatting it up.

The amount of flies reminded me of when Sam and I put in out grass and the flies were just waiting to get in. Don't you just love fresh sod?

Somebody mentioned there were no biscuits, so Laura and I took James for a ride to walmart to get some cheddar, sippy cups, and pancake bisquick batter. Interesting. Weird they're using pancake batter, but I'll take the recipe.

My aunt cooks like my grandma. No measurements. I watch while she pours in some milk two eggs and pancake batter. The consistency is thick biscuit-ish. My aunt buttered up a cake pan and stuck it in the oven until the butter melted. (she used 1/3 of a stick of REAL butter). After that she used an ice cream scoop to measure out the biscuits, then used the butter from the pan to pour over each biscuit to give it that golden color.

The result was some really awesome biscuits. Oh yea, everything else was great too.

Lemon Lime Slushies

I haven't made one of these silly collages in a while. This one is ultimately cheesey but I don't care.

I was driving home today and all I could think of was getting home and making my slush. Todays temperature seemed to be hotter than usual (it said 89 but it felt hotter). The sun was also out which intensified the heat.

Cinders greets me as usual. I change from my office clothes to my hang out cottons. I'm almost outta ice so I turn the ice maker back on. Hopefully I won't have to throw the first few batches away like last time.

Pop the ice in shaver and walk away. Take the frozen glasses outta the freezer, the syrup outta the fridge. Pack it all in the glass. Have a seat on the floor in front of the fan. Instant cool down. Oh yea, life is sweet.

Gotta love grandma's

This past weekend I spend some well deserved time in the salon, before I left the studio I went to the restroom and left my sweater. Oops. I called on Tuesday and lucky for me it was still there. Too bad I can't say the same for the glasses I lost @ Target.

Oh well.

I went to pick up my sweater @ the Salon and since it's kinda in Grandma's neighborhood I gave her a call and asked if it was ok to stop by. Lucky for me she wasn't outside in her garden or at the market.

I've always loved going to see her and now that I live so much closer and don't have the financial restrictions I had last year I can see her as often as I want. The best thing about going to see her has always the food she would make while we would visit. I believe the food has gotten better over the years, especially since I have a more adventurous palet and try all those spicy salsas.
When Eddie was overseas he always wanted my grandma's salsa's in his care packages. He would tell me they never lasted more than a day. No matter how caliente they were, it was always finished and then he'd ask to send more.

I really need to sit down with her and write all her recipes down. One thing I learned long ago when Eddie sent me to grandma's to learn to cook was that she NEVER measured anything which is something I've pretty much never done either. This is something that my mom could never figure out (but she still buys me measuring spoons and cups). It annoyed Adam because sometimes I would mess up meals and they would be over or under flavored cause I never measured stuff. Sam would point out and wonder why I didn't use the tools my mom bought me. Eddie never cared, he ate anything and never watched me cook. I would usually say that I was never taught that way but the real reason was I didn't want to clean the spoons and cups.

The funny thing is when I watch the food network cooks unless their stuff is pre measured and put into those cute tiny serving size dishes they tend to 'eye-ball' the ingredients they toss in. So guess me and grandma are doing something right, right?

One of the last times I was there she had mentioned that she wanted to give me a fryer for my fish tacos. She couldn't find it at the time but after looking inbetween visits she found it. It's one of the classic fryers and not like these new ones with multiple parts that may or may not be dishwasher safe or may or may not be washable. I know those fry vats at fast food and fine dining establishments rarely get cleaned... but still, I'd like to be able to clean my electronics from time to time without worrying about electricuting myself. Basically it's one piece and has adjustable temperature.

Sweet!

She asked me when I was going to see my parents again, I told her I wasn't sure so she went ahead and gave me a book of photos of my grandpa to deliver to my mom when I next saw her. In the book are some photos I've not seen. When I called my mom later, I asked her to bring her scanner if she comes to visit before I do. I want to make some copies of these photos and hang them on my wall or better yet, flickr 'em. Some of them are very arty and I see where my eye comes from.

We spent some time in the garden too and she sent me home with a fresh seeded pot of rosemary and another filled with basil. You just know I'm gonna be cooking soon.