MARMELODIAN: Blog/Diary

 
Hi,  I want to share this recipe with you.  It's a staple in my repertoire of simple family desserts.  I didn't create this recipe.  I read it in the Knoxville News Sentinel Food Section at least ten years ago.  I have, however, enhanced and modified it somewhat.  How?  Well, I've changed it to make it a little bit healthier.  
Not low calorie, mind you, just healthier, by substituting whole foods for refined and processed flour and sugar.
Here's the basic (UNmodified) recipe: 
 
1 stick margarine
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
3 cups (more or less) of any fruit
 
 
 
 
 
For a family size cobbler, take a square pan.  Put a whole stick of good quality margarine in the pan.  (NOT the light, low calorie kind, which is watery.  You need a full calorie, quality margarine with a high oil content.)  
 
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  After your oven signals it's [...]

My house and studio are down a long drive way and in the woods.  The woods are beautiful, but there are some major drawbacks to living deep in the woods.Right now, one of the disadvantages that I'm really NOT liking a lot is the snake in the laundry room. The WHAT???????Yup, the snake!We found the evidence last weekend:  a (big) tattered snake skin.  It's hard to tell what kind of snake, because it was left in tatters as he slithered along the edge of a wall.  I'm hoping it's a corn or king snake, NOT a copperhead.So, right now, I'm keeping the laundry room door tightly closed AT ALL TIMES!!!! And putting on a pair of stout boots every time I go in there.  Oh yea, I'm also looking up at the rafters and studying the walls before I enter.  If a snake drops on me from the rafters, I think I'll probably have a heart attack on the spot.Then, there is the small (in fact, pin sized) matter of the deer ticks.  Lordy, lordy!  What good ARE ticks?  And [...]

As some of you know, our house and my studio is down in the woods in East Tennessee.  I suppose our woods are healthy, if the abundance of animals is an indicator.  We have many deer, raccoons, skunks, rabbits, gray squirrels, birds, possums, foxes, bob cats, and even an occasional coyote.
Sometimes I sleep on the screened porch attached to my studio.  It's sort of like an enclosed tree house, sitting high on stilts amongst the trees.  You'd be surprised at all the activity in the woods at night: much rustling of leaves, little foot falls and maniacal cackles of bard owls as they survey their nocturnal kingdom.   There are some unsettling noises too.  Nature isn't gentle and predators aren't sqeamish, often eating their prey alive as it screams. 
This morning, I woke to the raucous brawl of a murder of crows in the woods.  Yup, that's what you call a flock of crows: a murder.  Telling, isn't it? 
Crows [...]

March 15th is almost over....and I'm 59 years old.  REALLY!  I've been practicing saying I'm 59 for several weeks now, but it still sounds strange to me.  Oh well, consider the alternative, as my husband says.  
I had a wonderful birthday with my two sons.  The three of us went out to lunch and the owner of The Bistro asked me about my companions.  "They're my sons," I said.  "We're eating lunch out because, guess what!  It's my birthday." 
His face lit up.  "Guess who else's birthday it is," he said.
"Yours?" 
"Yes, and I've never met anybody else who has the same birthday," he said.  "Happy Birthday!"
"Happy Birthday to you!"
"Hey, do you like chocolate cheese cake?" he asked.
"YES!" we chorused.  He said he would bring us a piece of his birthday cake for dessert.  The food at The Bistro is wonderful and we were stuffed, but we managed to make room for cheese cake and it WAS delicious! 
It's so much fun when a [...]