It has bananas in it.

So I'm thinking about lunch today and I remembered that I had one banana on top of the fridge that is turning brown. It needs to be eaten soon. But one banana is not enough to make banana bread or even banana muffins. WAIT! I have ice cream in the freezer! Add hot fudge topping, walnuts, whipped cream and a couple of maraschino cherries and, viola, lunch. Hey now! There's a whole banana in that.

Mija was in my lap until I let her see the inside of the bowl when I was done. They come into the kitchen when I'm cooking but haven't really expressed a desire for my food. Mija did lick some of the melted ice cream off the bottom of the bowl but not very much. That's good because I don't want to share.

Beverage: Assam tea

Deb

Favorites

This will be the first in an on-going series of posts on my favorites. Today's favorite, socks.

Anyone who knows me knows I like my socks loud. If they aren't loud, I don't buy them. I do have plain colored socks for those times when loud would detract from what I need to do but 90% of the time, patterns and colors are what I look for in a sock. You saw, back in May, where I was sewing the holes in the toes of socks and how all of those were patterns. Today, I am wearing solid chocolate brown socks.

In the morning, I reach to the bottom of the sock drawer and fish out a pair. Whatever pair I grab, unless it's the trouser socks or the fluffy bootie socks, that's what I wear. The knee high trouser socks are for those occasions where decorum must prevail over humor or I wear them with mid calf-length skirts. The bootie socks keep my feet warm. I would rather go barefoot but, in the winter, that's a mite chilly so I wear those.

To the left here are my all-time favorite socks. Carole gave me these for Christmas. They are soft and sturdy and feel very good on my feet. The socks shown above are my second favorite. They aren't as soft but they are colorful and I feel happy when I wear them. I was on a job when I took the above photo. Yeah, I was kind of bored because my job on this project was to be "gopher" and there wasn't anything for me to go fetch at the time. My third favorite pair is a medium teal blue pair made from hemp that my sister gave me two Christmases ago. They are also really soft and are a thicker knit. I like to wear those when I have to wear my work boots to a job.

I don't really need socks right now. Carole gave me three pair of Gold Toe socks for Mother's Day. Fixing the holes in the toes of all the rest has given me a huge pool for my daily choice. I could use a couple pairs of Iowa Hawkeye socks, however. Must put that on my Christmas list.

Beverage: Assam Tea

Deb

If it happens, I'm sorry.

One of the blogs to the right that I read, Citizen Azeroth, popped up in my virus detection software yesterday. It seems there was an attempt to use that blog to distribute a computer virus. This has happened with the Citizen Azeroth site before. I did some searching and discovered this comment from Robert Ambrogi's LawSites. It's dated 2005 so this is an ongoing problem.

Blogger users can host their blogs whereever they like, but if they choose Blogger's free BlogSpot hosting, a navigation bar appears across the top of the page. On that nav bar is a button labeled "next blog." Click it, and you are taken to a randomly selected Blogger blog. Now comes word from lawyer Alvin Borromeo, writing on MT Law Blog and then again here, that randomly clicking the "next blog" button can leave you infected with viruses and spyware. The same thing happened to the author of the blog Obiter Dicta.

There are two ways to avoid this. First, as comments pointed out here and here, this would not have happened had they been using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. Second, the problem is not with Blogger, but with coding added to some of the blogs hosted by Blogger. If you use Blogger and want to avoid sending your visitors to some random, virus-infected site, stop hosting on blogspot and instead host on another server. You can find Web site hosting deals for a couple dollars a month.

I like Blogspot because it's easy to use. I think any site has the potential to be infected and Blogspot, with its millions of users, is no different. Hackers would go after Citizen Azeroth because it's a popular blog visited by a lot of people who play World of Warcraft. My lil' ol' blog here has a very exclusive readership and isn't likely to be the target of some hacker looking to infect your computer.

BUT...

For your own good, make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date and use Firefox if possible. those readers using Apple computers are relatively safe for the moment.

I do apologize if you try to come here and your screen screams that my blog is unsafe at any speed. Just be aware that I really don't want your credit card or bank account information. Pictures of your gardens, your pets, your kids or grandkids, your vacation to Rock Creek, Kansas are welcome, however.

Beverage: Blackberry tea

Deb

In cleaning out the cabinets

One of the tasks I set out for myself was to clean out the cabinets. I could swear I had a Tupperware container filled with raisins but I'll be damned if I can find it. That was enough of an excuse to clean out the cupboards and find out just what exactly was there. Plus, I was looking for the barley to make chicken barley soup and that had been shoved all the way to the back of the cupboard where I wasn't going to find it unless I removed everything in front of it.

So, I found the organic canned pumpkin which will be turned into pumpkin pecan bread. I found the organic cream of chicken soup. I think that's to go over chicken breasts for chicken with rice. I found another half-used bottle of vegetable oil. I just don't use it that much. Oh look! TWO unopened bottles of low-salt soy sauce. One of those can go in the fridge where I'll actually use it. And then I found this, sitting sideways behind the vinegar. 

Nope, I have no clue. I'm not that fond of mandarin oranges but I do have this great salad recipe that uses them. Was I going to make that and if so, when? During the Reagen administration? 


Now Carole will tell you that I save a lot of stuff that quite possibly should be ditched. My spices have some of the oldest "best buy" dates on the planet. But when you need 1/4 tsp of curry powder and you don't have any, there is just no way to go into Whole Foods and buy, say, a tablespoon. What happens if you're trying a new recipe and you're in need of mace? Yes, I have some of that, purchase date probably some time mid-1980's. Why do I still have it? Well, you just never know. 


In the case of the oranges, no question those visited the garbage. And I know cooks tell you to replace your spices every year. But when you're looking at a $170 reinvestment every year, I'm just not inclined to do that. Plus, I'm tossing out what seem to me to be perfectly good food. I do enough of that when it gets accidentally shoved to the back of the fridge. "Well, this is fuzzy. Gonna toss it." 


I have one shelf cleaned out and am starting on a second shelf. What mysteries will it hold? I found the last of my add-water organic hot cocoa mix that Patt sent me for Christmas three years ago. I thought I'd used it up. Nope. That's good. Hot cocoa laced with cinnamon schnapps is a good way to warm up. 


Beverage:  English Teatime


Deb