French Fry How To's

I was eating my lunch in a hurry today as I had to run some errands on my lunch break......I was driving down the road eating french fries pondering these questions:

1. When you eat FF's do you eat one at a time or are you a multiple-consumer.

2. If you are a multiple-consumer how do you determine the acceptable number of FF to eat at once?

3. Does the texture of the FF have any bearing on your decision? If I am eating crinkle cut fries, I tend to eat them one at a time but thinner cut fries are consumed at least two at a time.

4. Are you a conscientious selector of fries? Choosing the largest, crispiest or longest fry to eat first or do you just dive in, grabbing and eating?

5. What is your ketchup application technique? Do you dunk one fry at a time or do you pour/drizzle/dump ketchup on all the fries and eat them with a fork?

I am a dunker but have wandered over to the drizzle side of the fence occassionally....it depends on the situation, the availability of the condiment and the number of diners also engaging the condiments. I also like pepper in my ketchup. (Don't say ewww until you try it!)

6. Lastly, who makes the best frenchfries?

Our Baby

got saved last night. We went to the Community Block Party put on by our church and she gave her heart to Jesus. She was very excited to make her decision public this morning. We will be thrilled to watch her baptism soon....

Heaven is celebrating!! We are too. :o)

A Stellar First

Last Monday night Uncle Joe and had a "Stellar First". We went to the football track for our nightly exercise and on our first lap around we noticed a lone soul sitting on a bench in front of the stands. In front of this person were two instruments on tripods. We walked closer and closer and the face came into view.....it was my HS Basketball Coach, Coach (Glenda) McClain. She is married to my old MS Science teacher, Mr.(Cleon) McClain. They are both retired, but Mr. McClain came out of retirement to teach his dream subject: Astronomy. He went above and beyond the call of duty to make this class happen for Fort Gibson High School students. He wanted a class of 12 due to the limited amount of equipment he had but the turn out was so great, he has 17 students interested in Astronomy.



We stopped to chat with Glenda because she and UJ have the same heart condition and they compared notes and medications and it did them both good to share a little of their stories....moving on........she invited us to stay and view what the students were about to view: Jupiter and its moons. HOW COOL IS THAT? (of course we took them up on that offer!)

We stayed and listened to Mr.McClain teach a bit and it really took me back. I really enjoyed his classes. He was a great teacher and she was a great coach. Both were encouraging in their own way. He was more dry but funny and she was a positive, upbeat person who you just loved to be around. We all found it very strange they got married, but they have been together for a long time now and seem as happy now as ever. They never had any children, I guess all the students they had were enough. :o)



This is almost the exact view we saw from the huge telescope they had set up.

It was the first time I had ever viewed anything like this and I was so thrilled to finally see something so awesome. Glenda invited us to come back again for the next viewing: Saturn. I hope they don't forget to call.......

I think I know what I want for Christmas.

Stretching My Noodle-making Muscle

Saturday I finally got up my nerve and tried our pasta maker attachment for our KitchenAid mixer we bought this spring. The mixer came with a "Mixer Bible" and was chock full of recipes. The first pasta recipe is for beginners so I decided to start at the beginning and stretch my noodle muscle with a fairly easy noodle. So what if I messed up? It was only flour, egg and water!

It was much much easier than I thought to make them, and I would do it again.
I have been wanting to make Fettuccini Alfredo so this was the perfect opportunity. Uncle Joe seasoned up the chicken to saute, I made some mushrooms to add and when the combination came together, well let's just let the picture below tell the story.

Mmmmmmmm

UJ liked it and fussed a bit over the tasty plate. I ate that up along with the yummy noodles. :o)

Next I'll work on my tomato noodle muscle

Thank Goodness for the Day After Thursday!

I'll start by saying I am glad it is Friday and we all get to rest a bit tomorrow. I am a little short on words tonight so I'll just tell a funny story that Joe told me one day this week on our Nocturnal Stroll.

*Disclaimer: This is told in my own words and will not exactly match the story word for word as it was told to me. End Disclaimer*

One night while UJ was visiting Memaw and Pepaw in Heavener (translated: out in the boonies) he decided to take a stroll up to Aunt Dodo's house, about 1/4 mile away. (Approximately)

The night was dark and quiet. So dark he could not see his hand in front of his face. So dark it made your eyes feel strange to be open and not able to visualize anything. So quiet all he could hear were the country insects and the sound of his footsteps walking down the road.

The sounds he heard made him start to wonder what kind of varmits were lurking near by. Pepaw was forever telling a tale about a cougar or some other scary critter up near their house. Joe became a little nervous.....what if one was about to crawl acoss his foot and bite him?

He began to run in the darkness, feeling his way by the feel of the road beneath his feet. The farther he ran the faster he ran until he was at a fever pitch pumping his 20-ish yr old legs as fast as they would carry him. He was wearing Roper boots so he was really clippety cloppety running down the road in the pitch black country night.

When he came to his senses enough to look around he had run PAST Aunt Dodo's driveway and had to back track a bit. When he arrived at the house Aunt Dodo greeted him in true Blevins Sister fashion...."Hi Huh-neeee! What are you doing here so late? Did you hear all that racket on your way? It must have been a horse running down the road." He laughed. "No Aunt Dodo, it was me running down the road." They had a good laugh and I am not sure she believed that the noise she heard was him galloping.....er running down the road.

I have this picture in my mind......a skinny, (handsome) guy with quite a bit more hair, in Wranglers and Ropers running down the road in fast motion....like what you would see on an episode of The Little Rascals.......looking around realizing he missed his turn and running back, trying to get his aunt to believe thta racket really was him running down the road and NOT a horse. I laughed out loud every time I thought about it at work this week. I am still smiling. :o)

Did You See That?

Did you hear that speech by Sarah Palin?? (Did you see her daughter lick her hand to make the baby's hair lay down? So cute!)

Did you hear that speech by John McCain? Cindy McCain?

Wow.

Yea. What they said..........

I can't wait for November. I have never NEVER been interested in politickin' but this year has piqued my interest. I may not have watched the speeches if Joe hadn't been in charge of the tv remote, but in any case I paid attention and learned a lot and was inspired by the two candidates and their families.

McPalin! McPalin! McPalin! McPalin!

Gusty

Last night on my nocturnal stroll, I could feel the effects of Hurricane Gustav. He was blowing and throwing rain around a little here in Oklahoma. I just enjoyed the breeze and the cool drizzly rain ....

Pei Wei's Big Adventure

Saturday Uncle Joe asked me if I had heard of a restaurant called Pei Wei. I had because a drug rep catered it in for us last year. Then yesterday I had a fabulous idea: go try it. I knew exactly where it was, and it was easy to find for us country folk so off we went after CassiJo and I got in from Sunday School.

We bribed the children into staying home so we could have a nice lunch alone with Subway. Gotta love Subway!!

We arrived at PeiWei and were lucky enough to get a parking spot on the front row. :o)

We were greeted just inside the door by a man serving samples of honey seared chicken; a very tasty little tidbit to get our appetites whetted.

If you have never been to Pei Wei here is the proper procedure. (do not vary from this procedure or their may be consequences. All the dear folks in line with us complied with all the protocol so no one was hurt during our dining experience. ) A line is formed from the door to the cash register where your order is placed before you are seated. The menu appears on panels in the line area. You are to review and select your food choices before arriving at the cash register. The cash register is attended by a Soup Nazi. Do not dillydally or lollygag while ordering. You are allowed one question. Answer quickly any question asked of you, pay and get on down the line and wait for your seating assignment. Take your seat and wait for your food. Do not make eye contact.

We were seated right by the fountain drink station. Something that later I appreciated.

I ordered Shrimp Thai Coconut Curry with fried rice. (wish i had gotten white sticky rice, but that guy at the register scared me!) Joe ordered Thai Blazing Noodles with Beef and for our appetizers (we went a little crazy) Lettuce Wraps and Crab Wontons. Our appetizers arrived minutes after we were seated and they were very tasty.

When our entree's arrived we admired them a minute before digging in. Mine was very pretty with all the red peppers and greenbeans and Joe's was very colorful as well with quartered tomatoes and carrots and lots of noodles with a reddish tint. After the first taste he realized the reddish tint was Hell Powder.

Now let me tell you UJ has a tough tongue and a palate for hot and spicy things. ;o) After several bites of these hot noodles UJ wiped his brow and commented how hot they were. I tasted of them and I must have had some noodles off the bottom or some that escaped the Hell Powder because mine were not that hot. Apparently the heat is a cumulative effect because with each bite the heat multiplied exponentially until I saw steam coming from Joe's ears and nose and sweat beading up on his brow. He took several bites of my dish to cool his palate(or jump up to the fountain drinks that we were seated near) and would bravely dig back into his Blazy Beefy Bowl until he had just had enough. He couldn't finish it. I was famished and totally ate every bite of mine save the extra rice. By the time we left both our stomachs were on fire. We were in need of something to cool them down, so after a short trip to Sam's Wholesale Club we stopped at a custard shop called Freckles and UJ chose a Chocolate Alley for us: Chocolate frozen custard with smashed Snickers topped with whipped cream and chocolate chips. Mmmmm very nice coolness for the tummies on fire. :o) I was driving so he fed me and didn't even get any on me. Way to go Joe!

So in conclusion: Pei Wei's is a great place. The prices were very reasonable and the food was tasty. I would love to go again and try my favorite Thai dish: Pad Thai. (I am pretty sure UJ is done with Thai Blazing Noodles too, wouldn't you agree?) We had a nice day out and came home for a rest before our nocturnal walk and the movie Vantage Point.

A very good day was had by the Joe's

Today my laboring efforts were extinguished when the carpet steamer we rented Saturday will not work. Great. Lesson #1...always check to make sure the unit is working BEFORE filling with water. Now I have to move all the furniture back into the living room from the kitchen. Yay. They better give me a really good deal to make up for this.

Have a great day! Take a nap! You deserve it........I think I will.