I called upon my trusty lil’ helper – “Hey Logan, wanna help me make something disgusting?”  She was perplexed enough to come into the kitchen and happy to dive right in.  The best part of baking with this lil’ gal is that I never tell her what we’re making, so she remains excited the whole way through…plus I didn’t want to tell her they were called “slutty brownies” because then I would have had to explain what that meant and I didn’t care to open that can o’ worms.

I fussed about the kitchen getting all the ingredients together, while I made her do the manual labor. 

They were best eaten warm right out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to tone down how rich they were.

My kitchen table was purchased from an entertainment industry charity event. The table was formerly a Warner Bros. prop and I picked it up, together with 4 perfectly mismatched antique chairs, for a mere $11.00. It was initially painted an icky brown – not even a wood grain or nice finish – just a flat brown. I quickly covered it in a robins egg blue and was pleased with it for a couple of years until this past Christmas came around. I was using the tabletop to iron some fabric that I was making into pillows and I burned the top of it.

Sigh… I figured no big deal, I’ll just repaint the top at some point after the holidays. Well the holidays came and went and I was ready to fix that burn mark. I went to my stock of paints only to find I could NOT find the robins egg blue. How could that be? I had plenty of it – I’ve got all the other paints I’ve used. I figured I must have given the leftover color to another friend – which I am prone to do -but I don’t remember who, and I figured I would have a hard time matching the exact color again.

I decided, instead, to work with the imperfections of the table. I’ve been given free reign to decorate in any manner I see fit in my household and used that to my advantage.

I taped off my pattern...

Et Voila ... my Union Jack Tabletop

She has witnessed monumental events and an endless fountain of unparalleled historical drama from the auto age to the computer age. She watched as a man (purportedly) walked on the moon. She has lived through 5 Wars, including WWI & II. She has witnessed the happenings and characters that will live through the ages including FDR and JFK, Mother Theresa, the Babe, Princess Diana, Elvis, Amelia Earhart, Einstein, Martin Luther King, Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.

The Titanic sunk, the Berlin Wall fell, the U.S. dropped a bomb on Hiroshima and the Japanese dropped a bombed on Pearl Harbor. The Wright Brothers flew, there was a Cuban Missile Crisis, women won the vote, there was school integration, the market crashed in 1929, abortion was legalized, presidents were assassinated, two were impeached and one African American.

She witnessed the birth of television and movies, penicillin, plastic, microwaves, computers, the birth control pill, the automobile, the cloning of sheep, and the birth of the first test tube baby.

Born in New London, he has lived a quiet life for the most part in Noank, Connecticut. She has outlived her husband of 63 years and two subsequent boyfriends. She has outlived all of her siblings and one of her daughters. At the ripe age of 95 she survived cancer.  She had 2 daughters that bore 5 grandchildren and has 4 great-grandchildren.  While she was recently moved to a nursing home so that she would have people to watch over her, she lived on her own in a single apartment since my grandfather passed in 1994. 

She used to play in a band with my grandfather and she credits herself with teaching me to sing. She is an accomplished poet….she wrote this:

There once was a man named Trent
Who wouldn’t part with a cent
One day met he a spender
of the opposite gender
and now he’s not saving he’s spent

She is a beautiful spirit and she never ceases to amaze me. Happy 101st Birthday Grammy Mary Jane DeWolf Crandall!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TongueinCheeky

If you’ve found me thru my Blog … be sure to enter Coupon Code WORDPRESS for 15% of your Holiday order!  (expires December 13, 2011)

Have a Cool Yule Y’all!!

The tradition started about a decade ago when I was short on cash but still wanted to have holiday gifts for my co-workers and neighbors. I remembered my mom making a yearly assortment of cookies for friends and family but it always seemed like a lot of work for a small bounty.  I also remembered that as a kid I babysat for family that gave me a mason jar full of “bullseyes” one year for Christmas. They were delectable peanut butter covered chocolate balls. I’m sure I ate the whole jar in one sitting. I thought – “Holy Hell those were delicious … I should make those”. I found various recipes that I quickly altered to fit the following parameters: A) Easy B) No Bake and C) Yields War Supplies.

While mine aren’t nearly as “pretty” as the original bulleyes (in part because I make gazillions of them at a time moving as quickly as humanly possible) they were aptly named “Reindeer Poop” to account for their appearance, and I figured the kids would “eat that up” (no pun intended).

Reindeer Poop Recipe

1 40oz Jar of Creamy Peanut Butter
1 Box Confectioners Sugar
1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
4 bags Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Mix the peanut butter, confectioners sugar and sweetened condensed milk in large mixing bowl with hands. Roll into small balls. Melt chocolate in double boiler and cover peanut butter balls. Let cure in fridge or freezer.  Distribute to the masses.

I always make a little label “From Janelle’s Kitchen” (that nearly every year has that guilty looking reindeer image on it) and I’ve been known to use Chinese takeout boxes with holiday themed ribbon, but this year found cupcake boxes at orientaltrading.com to fit the bill.  And while I usually start getting orders for them around Easter, they are strictly a one-time-of-year process for me.  People throughout the office halls are already thanking me as well as cursing me and I haven’t even distributed them yet this year.

While I enjoy a turkey sandwich with the best of them, it’s my now signature Turkey Shepherds Pie that sets my leftovers apart from the rest.  Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t take a picture of this masterpiece that didn’t look like some sorta non-descript casserole.  Make no mistake you’ll wanna plow through the Thanksgiving Day festivities just to get to this delightful dish the next day.  And, despite kids’ aversions to foods that are “touching” I haven’t found a kid yet that didn’t think this was one of the greatest dishes they’ve ever tasted.

I start with a bottom layer of turkey.  I use the white meat and the dark meat and brown in a skillet with a little oil, adding salt and pepper to taste.  To that, I add a tablespoon of flour, and a cup of gravy – in the fortunate event I have any leftover – if not a cup of stock will do and a ¼ cup of worcestershire sauce.  That goes on the bottom layer of a pie plate or casserole dish.

Layer 2 is creamed corn.  I start off with a bag of frozen white sweet corn to which I add ¾ cup of heavy cream, a tablespoon of flour, a ¼ sugar and a teaspoon of nutmeg.  I mix that up till the sauce thickens (adding more flour to thicken the sauce as needed) and then I layer that on top of the turkey.

Layer 3 is the leftover mashed potatoes.  I make my mashed potatoes with skin on red potatoes to which I add scallions, heavy cream, sour cream, butter and parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.  I use no particular measured amounts.  I figure everybody has their method for mashed potatoes … use whatever you want.  The mashed potatoes go layered right over the corn.

The final layer is the leftover stuffing which will leave you with a nice baked crispy crunchy top. 

Place the dish on a baking sheet, because it’s bound to bubble over and cause a disaster in the oven – or a fire – oh yeah, that’s happened before.  I cover the top and bake this whole concoction in the oven at 350 degrees for about ½ hour, cooking it uncovered for about another 10 minutes to brown the stuffing layer. 

Serve with or without gravy – I like mine with a little side of cranberry sauce.

I hit the local accessory store last Xmas for a selection of earrings for her – but this year decided I could do better if I just made her some accessories myself.  This decision also may have had a lot to do with the fact that I can’t stand going to the Mall.

I got out my trusty jar of cabochons – oh yeah, I have a jar of them – and sorted thru picking out the best bits n’ bobs. I then took a trip to the local craft store and gathered up some findings for earrings, rings and bobby pins with flat heads so I could adorn them myself. I also picked up the essential e600 glue, which is the only glue to be used for this type of project.

After the bits cured to the findings for 24 hours, I attached the earrings to a little note card I had lying around, and the barrettes to business cards, that I printed various clipart onto … et voila … pretty little adornments fit for an 8-yr old fashionista.

While my kitchen table always has some sort of display on it, I wanted to do something that would work for Halloween into Thanksgiving.

I found a bowl at the local thrift store and spray painted it black. Found some ghourds at the grocery store and spray painted them metallic gold. For less than a bouquet of flowers that would likely be discarded in under a week, I have a nice fall display that will last me for like 2 months.

The phrase that drew me in to read further was “Good Grief! Ever wonder whatever happened to the beloved Peanuts gang?” Well, um, having been fully invested in the shenanigans of the Peanuts as a kid – why yes I’m intrigued – and I read on. Playing at a local theatre in Silverlake was “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead”. I promptly secured tickets.

The 90-minute story follows the gang a decade later – they are in high school (unfortunately we went on closing night because I would go see it again and highly recommend it to others). Charlie Brown, now known as CB, is left questioning the existence of an afterlife after his dog dies from rabies. None of the gang show up for Snoopy’s funeral save for Sally – who is struggling with her teenage identity and who has gone goth – this week. Linus, (now known as “Van”) having been obviously prone to addiction, is a burnout, and Lucy, who at some point in her life has engaged in a relationship with CB, has been institutionalized and labeled a sociopath after she lights the little red haired girl’s hair on fire.

Matt has become a coke snorting, womanizing, bullying germaphobe after having spent his childhood wallowing in filth and now becomes violent at the mere mention of the moniker “Pig Pen”. Tricia, or Patricia, or as we fondly remember her “Peppermint Patty”, is obsessed with Frieda (who was really only known as the girl with the naturally curly hair). Marcie and Tricia are best friends engaging in promiscuous sex and constantly drunk. Marcie is smitten with Matt, and Tricia, obviously boyish as a child, not just obsessed but also perhaps smitten with Frieda.

As with most kids, they all start off as best friends then alienate each other in their teen years like they never knew each other. The target of most of the gang’s bullying is Beethoven (Schroeder) who is still hiding socially behind his piano, but now, apparently, also because he is struggling with his sexuality. It is CB’s friendship with Beethoven, which blossoms into a full sexual relationship, which pushes teen angst to its breaking point.

Drug use, eating disorders, obsession, teen violence, sexual identity, rebellion and ultimately suicide all collide. While it was dark, it was also hopeful. I literally left in tears. I mean, it was about the Peanuts gang – the innocent, heartwarming Peanuts gang that I grew up adoring, but carried a strong message about growing up and how none of us, not even Charlie Brown, are immune to life’s trials and tribulations. It ended with CB reading a letter from his pen pal, who he had written to most of his life and who, thus far, had never responded. It was signed “Sincerely, CS”.