I Love my Neighborhood

     I live in a very small Community.

It took a little adjusting. We lived on acreage before we moved here, so I was not used to having so many people so close together.

     I Love it now. There are 65 homes in our neighborhood and everyone knows everyone.

You can find an everyday meeting at the mailboxes.

To tell you how wonderful the people are here. One of our neighbors, his name is Bill turned 91 last Saturday. Now this Man has been a Bachelor all his life and always kept to himself.

Always polite and waving as he drove by our Cottage.

Every so often my Husband would take over a home cooked dinner or baked goods that we would share.

Last January he was no longer able to drive. His daily routine consisted of coming and going in to town about 3 times a day. To Breakfast, to watch the fishermen at the Harbor and to the Market.

Well that all stopped as he no longer has a Car.

     I have noticed the other day this Man looks so Happy.

The difference in his life is that now he sits still on his front porch going nowhere but now seems to have contact with more people than ever.

The Fishermen friends stop by to visit and all of us neighbors make the effort to go to see him.

One neighbor even rounded up a scooter now so he can drive around our 5 streets here in our little community.

He recieves meals on wheels and lots of great foods from many of us also.

He is a joy to talk to and a wealth of knowledge.

What a difference it has made in his life and what a gift he is giving to all of us younger folks.

He never complains and never gives up.

Wish you lived next Door

  Mama Zeno

Good Old Fashioned Cooking

     Yesterday while we where in the Car driving home,  I started to make a running list of all the things I use to cook.  Now that is a long list when you have been cooking for 41 years.

      The reason I started this list is because I have realized I just do not cook like I use to because we just do not eat like we use too. The days of Family cooking are very few and If I do make a recipe we like, we end up eating it for 3 days.

But the truth is I really miss cooking good old fashioned meals.  I collect new recipes and have a binder of someday I will try to make this recipes, but I never get around to it.

The other week I pulled out this binder and looked for a good one to try.  As I searched it has occured to me most of these recipes are complicated or call for an ingredient that I do not generally keep in the pantry.  That is when it hit me....... When did Cooking become so complicated ?

I think when I started to watch the Food Network !

All the new ingredients and all the new gadgets you need to make a recipe that may end up costing 

52.00.  I think that is when I stopped my good old fashioned cooking ?

Collecting these new "Gourmet Recipes" may have somehow made the easy cooking seem not

Good enough !

When our Grandkids stay with us they love my simple things I make them chicken noodle soup and 

Grandma's meatballs that I leave all the extra spices and salt out of.  Simple uncomplicated goodies.

So I may have convinced myself that Adult meals need a little whala to them.

     But as I made this long list of meals I have cooked in days long gone.  I came to realize how 

Many where so simple and easy with ready ingredients.

So I have decided to go back to just Good Old Fashioned Cooking. I will learn to freeze the leftovers or better yet invite a neighbor over to enjoy a Casserole.

Oh sure,  I will make a complIcated dinner once in awhile but for the most part my new motto is 

Grandma's Down Home Cookin !!!!

Besides I want my Grandkids to enjoy the same good food as their Dad enjoyed.

So if you smell..... Meatloaf or breaded pork chops or beef stew cooking it will be coming from my

Kitchen.

Yes......

Good Old Fashioned Food.

Now where is my Apron !!!

Mama Zeno

Give it Up !!

Did you ever just have one of those Day's ?

     Well today is my One of those Day's.  Everything I touch today is not working out, no matter 

What I do.  Maybe the Earth is tipped.

     Finally I woke up to a very Sunnny Morning after a Gloomy cold week, so I thought today will be a huge get things done king of a Day.  Not so..... 

No matter what I try to do it all goes wrong.  I will give you an example.  I found a new recipe for cupcakes to try. So I bought these pretty cupcake liners to use.  Purple with white polka dots.

I wanted these so they would look festive,  as I was planning to surprise my Neighbor Thelma with a special treat.

Everything baked fine and they smelled wonderful.

But when I took them out of the muffin tin,  to my surprise all the butter in the recipe seeped through the liner leaving the cake dry and the bottom of my favorite tin is stained purple. It will not wash out.

I dug through my garbage to find the label to the papers and what I found  was a brand I never heard of and they where made in China. On top of that when I tried to take the paper off it would not come

Off the cake.

I had to throw out the whole dozen of orange cream cupcakes.

What a waste !!

This is not my first disaster with a product made in China that I used for cooking.

My other one was a Colander that I bought at Walmart.  It  melted when I poured the hot pasta into it.

Even though the label said hot foods where safe.

So maybe it is the day I am having but....... As of Today no more made in China anything in my Kitchen any longer.

When I Googled if any one has ever experienced these type of problems, to my amazement I am surprised we are all living to even write a blog post about it.

Between melting burning and toxic fumes I had to stop reading.

I am sorry but sometimes it is worth paying more for a product that is made in the USA.

So my lesson has been learned and maybe this post will help save someone else's Cupcakes.

     Now to explain to my Sweet Husband why that wonderful cake smell that has been wafting 

Through the Cottage, is no longer a sweet treat to enjoy today.

I Give Up !!!!

Hugs

MaMa Zeno