This month’s winner: Jenna!

June 9, 2009 | My Jottings

Thanks to all of you for sharing your quirky food preferences. Some of them sounded pretty good to me, and others, as in Ronda’s squirrels, Carey’s dad’s block of cream cheese, and Jenna’s roasted Nicaraguan iguana, made me cringe. And Savannah’s friend who dips graham crackers into blue Gatorade? Oh dear are the only words that come to mind at present.

As promised, this month’s bloggy giveaway winner will be the recipient of something yummy, and that person is Jenna! Jenna wins a small box of See’s chocolates.

See’s candies were practically a staple in our home in Southern California. My mom loved chocolate, and passed on that rich heritage to me. Gee thanks, Mom. (I think.) See the piece in the box with the tiny sprinkles on it? I loved those – they were called Bordeaux. When I moved to Minnesota in 1981 I missed See’s, so I tried Fannie Farmer candies and was shocked at how different they tasted from the scrumptious See’s candies I’d always known and loved and been intimately acquainted with. In my humble opinion, other chocolates taste somewhat waxy and aged in comparison to See’s.

Since I’ve lived in the Midwest I’ve eaten See’s candies less than five times, and that’s probably a good thing. But I’m happy to share a good memory and a delectable treat with this month’s bloggy winner, and this small silver box of assorted chocolates will be shipped to Jenna very soon.

Don’t they look yummy? Maybe if you all e-mail Jenna, she will share her See’s.

Need a smile?

June 8, 2009 | My Jottings

This might help…

This is Audrey Elizabeth, who is eighteen months old. I think her parents like to dress her in clothes that match her little rosy cheeks. 

Just looking at her smile makes me smile too…

We interrupt this giveaway…

June 6, 2009 | My Jottings

…to bring two photos of scenes that are all too fleeting in warm weather-starved northern Minnesota.

This was taken through a kitchen screen (sorry) this morning:

And these perfume the kitchen today:

We love our lilacs. I remember what they smell like and pray that I can smell them again someday. In the meantime I will surely enjoy their beauty.

Back to the June bloggy contest now. Comments are still open and the winner of the scrumptious prize will be announced on Tuesday, June 9th.

Maybe one of your quirky food preferences happens to be lilacs. Our daughter Sara ate a lilac blossom yesterday and declared it sweet and good.

Food quirks

June 4, 2009 | My Jottings

Almost everyone I know has some sort of strange food preference, and I have a few myself – maybe they were inherited.

When my father wanted a snack he chose one of two. He would spread lardy Skippy crunchy peanut butter on a piece of white bread, then wrap that around a whole sweet pickle and eat it like one does a hot dog. If he didn’t have time for the bread, he would just dip the pickle in the peanut butter and eat it that way. I didn’t know until I was older how strange this was.

Dad also practically lived off of crackers and milk. He would crunch an entire sleeve of Premium soda crackers into a large bowl, then pour whole milk over it. It would turn into a half-crunchy, half-mushy white mess, and he loved it. I can still see him spooning that into his mouth while watching Perry Mason on TV.

He didn’t like chocolate, and also ate only vanilla ice cream, and he avoided most vegetables like the plague. He hated whole grain anything, would eat fruit now and then, and thought he was doing well to eat a small salad made with a few pale leaves of iceberg lettuce topped with Wishbone Italian dressing, which was a staple in our house. Despite his fairly unhealthy diet, he lived to be a vigorous 87 years old.

In my family we often had oatmeal on the weekends, but I never saw anyone put sugar or milk on their oats until I was an adult. We put crumbled, crisp-cooked bacon, and bits of scrambled eggs, and pats of butter on top of our oats. And then sprinkled it with salt. Sweet oats? Shudder.

I know of someone who likes white spaghetti noodles mixed with cold French dressing. Someone else I know craves pancakes topped with about an inch of peanut butter.

I like chocolate and peanut butter in almost any form, although that pairing might not be considered quirky. Considering how many new candy bars Reese’s is putting out lately, I think millions of others like peanut butter and chocolate too.

Sometimes I crave blue cheese dressing and peanuts together, so I’ll mix those two in a salad. Once a year or so I revert back to an old childhood snack and dip graham crackers in milk, several of them all held together and dunked in that manner.

When I was pregnant I used to crave blue cheese dressing spread over a slice of strong rye bread. It must be something about the mold in the cheese. Maybe I just have a compulsion to get as much mold into my body as possible. (Come to think of it, that might just explain everything…)

So this brings us to this month’s bloggy giveaway! What are your food quirks? Or the odd food preferences of someone you know? Do you like unusual food combinations, like soda crackers and milk, peanut butter and pickles, or chicken and grape jelly?

If there are three or fewer comments posted, I’ll use the eenie-meenie-minie-moe method of choosing this month’s prize winner. If there are more of you who share, I’ll consult random.org, so anyone who leaves a comment has a chance at the “yummy” prize. The winner will be announced in the morning on Tuesday, June 9th.

Bon appetit,

Edition 7 – Wednesday Whimsy

June 3, 2009 | My Jottings

“Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change.  And when we are right, make us easy to live with.”

Peter Marshall

I think I hear a Divine ahem…

Seven random things

June 2, 2009 | My Jottings

1.   The SAGs and I had our monthly dinner in Gilbert, MN last week, at a Jamaican restaurant called The Whistling Bird.

2.   I just finished a great book by Lisa Genova called Still Alice.

3.   I now have a Personal Assistant (she cooks, she organizes, she runs errands, she does paperwork!) and she is making a wonderful difference in my life.

4.   Michael and I will be visiting Madeline Island in the Apostle Islands soon, to celebrate our 28th anniversary.

5.   We went down fast water slides whooping and hollering, and swam for hours recently at The Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, WI.

6.   I’m memorizing Philippians 4:8 right now: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  (And pondering what my life would be like if I just put this verse into practice for one month. And wondering how people would respond if I chose to think of them in this manner too.)

7.   I like a handful of peanuts on my romaine, red onion and blue cheese salads.

Upcoming blog posts include: “Bring them here to Me…”, Who is praying for you?, When Oprah Came Calling, “…full of grace and truth…”, and Organ lessons.

Exciting stuff. You don’t want to miss it.

Now, what are your seven random things today? (or five or three or one?)

Inquiringly yours,

Not much longer…

June 1, 2009 | My Jottings

…and I’ll get to snuggle my darling two year-old granddaughter for the first time in over a year. Little Glee-girl and her family are coming for a summer visit soon.

I think she looks like she needs a good squeeze.