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Wow, so it's true. This really is a "community" of people that I think (hope) are really real. I've lived vicariously through RU's space, not quite believing that he had "real" friends. Not sure I do now, but I do understand (and hope) that the majority of you are true. If nothing else, you guys are a hoot!! I think I get it now that, like all relationships, I must resciprocate (ie visiting your sites). Mia culpa.

It's not even 10 PM, Thanksgiving eve, and man and animals are abed. I'd post a picture, but it might be ugly. Shoot, you're right...since when has that stopped RU? (Redneck...??... look in the mirror dude!!!). Shoot, I'm toast now...

This is kinda cathartic....I can just yap and not care if anyone's listening. I just had the most fabulous 18 day vacation to Italy. I swear, if it wasn't for RU and the kids, I could so be Diane Lane and live "under the Tuscan Sun"....but then again...there's no place like home (BTW...I've a ferverant reader and just finished "Wicked"....dang that was fun...guess I'll have to splurge and buy tickets to the play). So Venice, Florence, Rome and places in between were just as I'd left them. I truly believe that traveling abroud makes you a better world citizen. I took my 13 year old nephew and delighted in his discoveries. I swear, I saw him grow before my eyes. When I was his age, the farthest I traveled was to my grandparents farms in Nebraska...which to me was worlds away.

From a fabulous vacation I returned to have some major dental surgery. I decided to do some implants and veneers. Life is too short, so they say.

Here's me in Florence, saying...this is what life is all about!

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May 03

Fry Baby, FRY!!

Hey all. Yep, I got the "wild hair" again to cook up something different. It's Saturday, I finished planting my herbs (the one's Bob bitches about having to water...WAH) and don't really feel like cleaning house. I did clean up "my clutter" as Bob calls it, but my heart just isn't into major cleaning. My urge to cook is from reading too many "bon appetites" and watching too much "Food TV", oh yeah, and eating out at too many 5 star restaurants (yep, that last one was a brag)!

I'm not a fried food fan (gives me a belly ache) but I just die for fried dill pickles. More and more they're showing up on the menu of our local restaurants, so I' thought I'd give it a try. Mind you, I consider myself a good cook, but "frying" is not one of my things. (I did it once naked...need I say more?) J/K, you freaks!

My normal style of cooking forsomething I've never done before ,is to "google" as many recipes as I can find. I narrow them down and (usually) follow the recipe to the T.

My first mistake was using pre-sliced (aka hamburger dills) pickles.

Next time, for sure, I'll get big fat juicy dills (or make them myself if I can find a pickle farmer...hint, hint...pickle farmers please reply) and slice them myself (head slap for not thinking about that first...but in my own defense, this was an "experiment").

Another dissappointment was using the "flour" dredge process. Shoot, I knew it when I was dredging (I like to say dredge, almost as fun as saying thistle). Light bulb moment....what's better, lighter and crisper than "Panko" breadcrumbs? Another head slap, but too late, I already seasoned the flour dredge (hehe).

Here's my "dredging" station...hehe just had to say it again...

K, bottom line the pickles were actually quite tasty. Of course, I'll keep doing them over and over again until I think they're perfect. I brought over a plate of them to my neighbors and they loved them. I call them my "guinnea pigs" because they always sample my experiments. ...Just lucky or doomed????

Cheers all and have a great weekend. Remember, don't fry naked and pickles are our friends!!

XO's Becky

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April 29

I got canned! (On Watermelon pickles, that is!)

Ok, call me an old Nebraska girl (even tho I was born and raised in California), but I just love Watermelon Rind Pickles!! My folks and their folks come from the mid-west (Nebraska) and the depression era ...when everything was used (don't even get me talking about what they did with corn cobs)...yep, including the rinds of watermelon. Most of my LA friends think this is really weird, but I find it really yummy and get a kick out of cooking something they call strange (oh yeah, and trash). I also love reviving and twiking old recipes. Oh, and just you wait, next year it will be featured in the "boutique" stores in LA (and probably Gourmet magazine.....GRRR...you guys are my witness)!

I actually did quite a bit of research to come up with this recipe. You can make them fresh, but they only last a couple weeks in the frig, so I wanted to combine the recipes to keep the freshness, but also preserve them for eating later in the season. If anyone is seriously interested, let me know and I'll tell you both ways.

K, here it is:

Becky’s Watermelon Rind Pickles

Step 1:

-12 cups watermelon rinds (cut off green rind, and most of the pink, cut into 1” x ½” pieces

-½ cup kosher salt

Disolve salt in large pot/bowl of water, add rinds and let sit overnight.

Step 2

-Rinse and drain rinds

-In large pot, boil water and add rinds, simmer for 5 minutes.

-Rinse and drain

Step 3:

Combine:

6 cups sugar

3 cups cider vinegar

2 sticks cinnamon (broken)

1 T. whole cloves

1 T. whole allspice

1 t. mustard seed

1 t. black peppercorns

Bring to boil and pour over drained rinds. Let sit overnight in refrigerator.

Step 4:

Bring rind mixture back to a boil, prepare jars and pack with ¼” headspace. Process 10 minutes in water bath.

Ok, here's some pictues:

Oh, oops, did I mention I like to get "canned" while I can? Hehe...ok, never mind...

They're a strange animal...actually quite like a really good sweet pickle. I guess they could take on any flavor you throw at them....hmmm....that gives me some ideas about other flavors to make....

Got to go, head busy planning next food fiesta.

Cheers!!

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April 21

My Favorite Thistle

K, you asked for some recipes and since our local market has them on sale, 10 for $10. our diet consists of ARTICHOKES! I'm not sure why so many people are intimidated by them, but they're really quite easy and absolutely delicious. All you really need is a good knife. There's many ways to do them, but my favorite and I think the easiest and cleanest way to eat is to quarter them (Seriously, you can skip this part and steam them whole...just a little more work getting to the heart). Cut off the tough stem, the tip, then cut in half (if you want to get fancy, snip off the stem tips). I usually keep a bowl of water with the juice of one lemon nearby to dunk them in and keep them from browning. Quarter each half and use a small boning knife to cut off the hairy stuff you don't want to eat. Steam them for about 15 minutes or until a fork slides in. They can cool from there and sit til you're ready. Spray some oil (or brush with olive oil) and put on hot charcoal fire to finish them off and give them some smoke flavor)...just a few minutes. You can do this early and again, they can sit to be served at room temperature.

The secret to this recipe is really the dipping sauce. The best of the best is Seal Beach's Whalt's Wharf recipe, but I don't often have time, energy or really want to do the real thing. I'll give you my cheater recipe as well.

Walt's Sauce:

1/4 cup sesame oil

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons season salt (Lawry's)

2-3 oz. Worcestershire sauce

1 cup mayonnaise

That's the official recipe from Walt's. To tell the truth, I rarely make it that way. If you're really lazy, just mix mayo and a few drops of sesame oil and it's just as yummy. Tonight, I added some sesame oil and worcestershire sauce, it was too runny so I added honey. I think the olive oil in the recipe is way too much, so sometimes I just add a few drops. I promise, this is so good and you can't go wrong.

We host many friends from different countries and different parts of the USA and we are always suprised that artichokes are so unfamiliar. Oh, and did I tell you that one of my favorite words to say is "thistle"....lol...that's what they are.

C'mon everyone!! Brave-Up!! Artichokes are our friends!

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April 14

My Auntie Jo

Yeah, I know, I know. I'm a smuck for not posting more often and Bob is not a good teacher. He didn't tell me there were "rules". Why does he keep saying, "be patient, little grasshopper"? Is this when I just deck him? Plus I just learned that his web cam is actually working and he may have caught me snoozing (thanks, Sanjana for at least saying I had my mouth closed, oh and thanks Bob for not taking a picture to share) Sheez. Ok, It's been a tough week because I lost my dear Auntie Jo. She's not actually my aunt by birth, but was actually responsible for my birth. Guess you'll have to read her memorial to understand. I'm not a good public speaker (unless it involves petroleum marketing or just showing off), but my family, including Bob, insisted I do it. So I'm just going to suck it up, rewrite it about a hundred times, practice in front of a mirror, and call myself proud. I guess I'll give you guys a preview of my "rough draft". Since you don't know the old gal, don't get too critical.

Ok, so's here's what I have so far. Let me know if it makes you cry, like we both did when I wrote it. I'll take pictures at her memorial. The only thing I can add is that I hope I am so loved when I die. She had a fine 82 years on earth.

AUNTIE JO’S MEMORIAL

Jo Peacock was my friend, my aunt, my “other mother” and my mentor.

She lived life on her own terms and didn’t take anything from anyone, which is one of the qualities I most loved.

I met Auntie Jo on the day I was born. Every day on my birthday she would tell the story of how I was almost born on her dining room table during a poker game. Had it not been for her nursing experience they almost didn’t make it to the hospital. For years she called me her “cardboard box baby” for the time I spend on her table as my first babysitter. I always teased her that it would have made a better story if I’d been born on a poker table.

Auntie Jo always had a big part of the Bauer girl’s life. In one way or another, she helped Mickie, Jo and Pat in their early lives in California. When they each made their way to Southern California from Nebraska without knowing a soul, she became their family. In time, she became a big part of our lives. It’s hard to imagine Easter or Thanksgiving without her.

Auntie Jo had many talents, including nursing, gardening, sewing, sales and teaching. I believe it was her greatest talent as teacher. It was, of course, she who taught Jerry and Wayne to garden, me to sell petroleum products, Jo Lampert to sew and Jason to fight fires. Above all, she taught us all that life was short, so enjoy every day as if it were your last.

There are more memories of our life with Auntie Jo than I can recall here, so I’ll just give you some highlights. She is one of the original “driving Miss Daisy” club members that was founded on one of her “Valentine” birthdays. Being the youngest member, it was my job to drive the “aunties” to meet. We’d normally just have lunch and shop. This heart pin represents our club and Auntie Jo, “Mom” Jo, Mick, Pat and Nance are its original members.

A recent highlight was taking her to see her great love, Bob Barker, at “The Price is Right” show for her 80^th birthday. Josie Donohoe became our next “Driving Miss Daisy” member when she joined us on that venture. And I’ve got to tell you, Auntie Jo always tried to give me directions in places she hadn’t been in years, and normally we’d get lost. But I’ll be darned if she didn’t know downtown LA like the back of her hand and got us right on the freeway home.

I’ll never forget Thanksgiving and poker games at her house, picking kumquats and then trying to figure out what to do with them, lunches at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken House at Knott’s Berry Farm, her annual Disneyland passes to us kids, and just always thinking she’d be there.

We will miss her always sweet disposition, her crazy ass driving, her always strong opinions, her kindness, her stubbornness, her beautiful blue Norwegian eyes, her always knock-out legs, her laugher, but mostly, her always unconditional love.