Tea ~~Dentist~~Blueberry Pie

Hi there everyone....what a lovely day it has turned out to be. Hope you are having a good one today. I saw a cute picture on Facebook and thought to save it....but didn't. It said, "Only in Wisconsin do people get excited about 40 degree weather." Ha! that sure is the truth though...cause this weather feels so much like SPRING has sprung!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!!

Well, it is time for tea, got your cup? Think I could use one as I type this little post. As you can see in the following picture I visited the dentist today.... it's not my favorite place to go. So yeah...I need a cup of tea to quiet my soul.

It was actually a necessity to go today. Wednesday as I was flossing, a tooth broke. The top, back molar. Not knowing where to go, I decided to call the place we used to go to and could not get in till today. Have not been to a dentist since 2001....yeah, I am a big scardy cat. We have had no dental insurance all this time. I did pick some up last year for JP, but he did not want to go....neither did I for that matter. So being the "sometimes unwise people" we are, we cancelled. Wouldn't you know it....now we need it and could use it.

So today I went in....as I said, it was the old dental office we went to years ago....but with a different Dentist. The dentist we had, retired....this dentist.....I really liked him, very pleasant man and seemed to really want to help. His assistant was really nice too. They made me feel really comfortable. Never once scolded me for not coming in all these years. It was a nice visit....I will let you know after a couple more visits, what my opinion is then.

They did a complete x-ray exam, and it was all digital......I could actually see all my teeth, fillings and cavities on the screen. Then they went tooth by tooth and what each one needed....I did not understand a word they were saying. END RESULT.....the tooth will be pulled, verses saving it. Saving it, will cost $1600 verses $338 to pull. Yeah...that's the route I took. I also have 6 cavities that need to be filled and also need a DEEP CLEANING going under the gums....gosh all this time I thought my flossing was helping....he said, "partially, but because of diabetes my gums are in desperate help and will need to be cleaned every 3 months".....darn these sugars.

So the plan is, next week on St. Patrick's Day I get my tooth pulled and they will give me some "LAUGHING GAS" so I won't be feeling much pain....that is fine with me. (Darn....so much for corned beef and cabbage.) Then in about a month starts the teeth and gum cleaning....then the cavities. Sounds like quite the agenda....hopefully I can keep up with the payments. In June or July I might be getting cataract surgery.....so we shall see how this all fits together, time wise and finacially.

Does this dessert not look delicious???? (I am thinking it is diabetes worthy, don't you???) "Blueberry Icebox Pie" 313 calories per servings....oh-oh 52.3 grams of carbs, oh, but it has 11.4 g of protein. That's okay.....one slice can't hurt, can it???

Here is the ingredients:
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 1/2 cups finely ground reduced fat graham cracker crumbs
4 teasp. light butter, melted (or buy a store bought graham cracker crust)
2 cups fresh blueberries (or frozen and thawed)
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 teasp powdered unflavored gelatin
8 oz reduced fat cream cheese
8 oz fat-free cream cheese
14 oz fat free sweetened condensed milk
Several fresh mint leaves

Preparation:
Preheat oven 350 F. Lightly coat a 9' spring form pan or glass pie pan with cooking spray. Combine crumbs and butter in a bowl and press into a pan. Bake 10 minutes. (or just use an already made graham cracker crust)

Puree 1 1/2 cups blueberries; mix with lemon juice in a micro wavable bowl.

Sprinkle gelatin on top and let stand 10 minutes. Microwave on medium 10 seconds to dissolve gelatin, then beat with an electric mixer or food processor at a medium speed.

Beat in cream cheeses and sweetened condensed milk. Pour mixture over baked crust and chill until set. Garnish with mint and remaining blueberries. I think I shall make this pie sometime this week.

Well time to close.....just one more reminder, leave a comment and for every comment is a chance to win a St. Patrick's Day card from me. Tomorrow is the last day to qualify for a card from me, because I shall be picking names on Wednesday and sending the cards out by Thursday.

Have a great day and enjoy the weather and keep looking up!!
Cheers ~ Louise

Made a Few Things Last Night ~ 4 Sanity's Sake

Hi there everyone, hope you are all doing good this lovely last Wednesday of October. Where did this month go??? I know, I am always asking that question. The older I get, it seems the days zip by so quickly, I wish I could get a handle on this retirement part of life. After working for over 40 years, I guess I feel I must be doing "something", cause if I am doing nothing I must be lazy and sitting on my thumbs. Oh well, so yesterday about 3pm I gathered myself together and started making things.

I made a pot of "winterland" Roobius tea (sipping on it right now). I usually send JP to work with a large cup of hot tea. So he received this tea yesterday and today. Do you notice the Popsicle stick trivet?? I made that years and years ago. I am almost thinking it is over 55 to 60 years old and that I made it when I was in either Brownies or Girl Scouts.....My mother kept it for a long time, then I inherited when she died. I have kept it in the china cabinet for these last 13 years. Cleaning the drawer out, I thought is was time to start using it. What am I saving it for????

In this picture is my cranberry water. I have been buying a bag of cranberries every time I go shopping. I rinse the berries, then put them in a microwave glass pot with one cup of water and some organic coconut sugar, cover and cook in the microwave for 5-6 minutes. Let them cool a bit then mushed them with my pastry masher and Wah-Lah! Cranberries!!!! Then I take a couple of large tablespoons of cranberries, a packet of stevia and pour filtered water in the bottle, mix together and I have some wonderful cranberry juice. Sometimes I even add this juice to my smoothies in the mornings IF there is any left, as the husband likes this also.

So I am still working on those two large cabbages  I received about 2 weeks ago. This last cabbage, I cut up and made this awesome cabbage dish. My stepfather used to make this all the time and now I do. Fried some onions in bacon grease till the onions are translucent. I added some garlic to the pot too.



In this picture I have added the cabbage that I had soaking in a little salt water so it was already soft and easy to work with. Cooked it down a bit and added some caraway seed and pepper. (no need for salt as the cabbage is already salted) Then I added some of my tomatoes from the garden (yes, I still have a lot of tomatoes from my garden which are slowly turning red for me.) I should have taken a picture of all my tomatoes. It was a very good year for them....so I was pleased.

In this picture is the almost finished cabbage dish. Added some fresh and frozen tomatoes and red peppers from the freezer, and some already cooked bacon from the freezer, mix it all up and you have this wonderful cabbage dish. MMMM I think I shall have a bowl of this tonight.


So while I was doing the cabbage I decided to cook up my small spaghetti squash in the microwave. 10 minutes was all it took and I was able to cut the squash up like in the picture below. Why did I cut it like that? I read someplace that cutting it length wise causes the strings of spaghetti to be short. If you cut it like I did in the picture below the strings of spaghetti will be longer. Honestly, I did not notice a difference. After I seeded them and stuck them in the oven to roast, I then was able to scoop out the squash..........now what to do?????

Well, I did not take any pictures, but I made some tomato sauce with my Roma tomatoes, nope, no pictures. I par boiled them, then dunked them in cold water, peeled them and squeezed  the seeds out. Mushed them up, added spices, water, garlic, onion and then added the spaghetti squash. I turned it into Italian sauce.

Today's lunch for JP was the Italian tomato sauce over macaroni and hamburger patties along with some fruit and salad. He eats well, as you can see.

Well, time to go walk Kylie before it gets too dark. It is 5:39 pm. Daylight Savings starts this next Sunday (Nov 2nd). So this time next week it will be DARK OUT!!!! Gosh, I wish there was no Daylight Savings....I like the light!!!!!

Have a great evening and keep looking up. Tonight I will be working on making some cards. My next post will be a few cards I have been making....yep.....I like to make things I guess. This keeps my Sanity!!!!! LOL!!!
Cheers ~ Louise

500 Posts and Hibiscus Tea

Hi there everyone. How is your day going? I am loving this weather...mid 7o's is just perfect and not high humidity....perfect, perfect. I am not a hot weather person and especially as I get older, hot does not agree with me or my ankles. So I have been praying....God keep it cool....and He has. But there is still August and September....then comes October, November and December and we know how cold those months can be. But for now, this has been a very comfortable Summer in my books.

So today is my 500 post on BlogSpot. I guess there should be a celebration of sorts....it's been fun blogging, don't know if I have a lot of followers that are actually following every word I type....it would be nice....but that is okay if you are not. It has been good therapy for me and maybe hopefully helped someone along the line.

Through the course of blogging here, I have ended up with a 2nd blog at: cards4ubylouise.wordpress.com  I was forced to go there because I could not up-load my pictures on blogspot. To say the least I became very frustrated, and started a 2nd blog. Wordpress is still a bit confusing to me, but it seems to attract more followers and reach more people for some reason. So, I will keep it going for the time being.

I have made some hibiscus tea. In all the years I have had this plant, never realized I could make tea with the flowers. Now I am hooked and can have fresh hibiscus tea during the winter too!!! I looked up on Youtube how to make the tea and it has lots of good properties like Vitamin C and also keeps the blood pressure down. Which I need.

So you take a tea pot with filtered water and boil. Take your hibiscus flowers and pull the petals off. and place in the water and let them steep.

In this picture you can see the petals starting to lose their color. I take the flower petals out when they go completely white and have lost all their color. The water will have turned pink as you can see in the two pictures below.

I also added a half package of stevia to sweeten the tea a bit. Such a pretty color and very tasty also. I think I am addicted to this luscious and refreshing tea.

Here's another picture of the tea.  I have also been making Hyssop tea with the leaves, which has a bit of a licorice taste to it, and Bee Balm tea, which you can use the petals of the red flowers (and you can eat the bee balm petals also, good for bad breath). I suspect you can use the leaves of the bee balm also...have not done that as yet. I think I have enough teas to keep me busy drying for a couple of weeks. I do have some lemon mint leaves to dry also.

Well as you can see....been busy making my own teas. JP likes the Hyssop tea the best. It's mentioned in the Bible and was used for Passover in Exodus 12:22. So yeah, he likes that Hyssop is in the Bible. So it must be good for our bodies in some way.

Time to close and get going on some of these teas. I told the Pastor's wife I would bring some mint tea for her to try tomorrow. Maybe I should google "how to make lemon mint tea" and see what it says.

You have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

PS I blogged about this wonderful tea on Saturday. Not exactly sure why it did not post....I guess I need to contact Blog Support...have nothing but frustrations with this blog. Sorry for my rant!!!

In 13 Hours......the drawing!!

Hi Everyone......It's 2:03am....and there still is time to leave a comment or follow my blog. The drawing will be TODAY at 3pm or when JP gets home from practice. (He'll be picking the 3 names). If you go to the previous post you can see the gift for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

I am celebrating going on 7 years of blogging. Where did that time go...blogging can be great therapy and a way to journal your life. I have heard that you can actually have your blog posts put into an actual book. If and when all your posts disappear from blogland, you can still have your blogging in book form. Not sure how much that costs, but it sounds like a good idea.

So add your name to this lovely plastic bowl and receive 5 homemade cards, anti-bacterial hand lotion soap, a photo album, a pen, coffee or tea (your choice), and a special surprise!!

See you all later today. I will let you all know who won. Email me with your address and what your preference is for coffee or tea and I will get your gift off in the mail this week.
Cheers ~ Louise

Starting My 7th Year....Gift Give Away!!!

Hi everyone. Hope your day went well. Mine was pretty busy...lol...shopping takes a lot of time. I hit a new store in town. GFS Marketplace. It's a bulk-type store for food services, restaurant and party supplies. A small building with a lot of stuff and a lot of people, ailes were not wide, so you were bumping into people with the cart and waiting for them to come around the corner...BUT there were free hamburgers and coffee...such a deal I could not pass up. Tomorrow they will be sampling the different foods in the store.......I should try and get there for that...hahahahaha. I did pick up their hamburgers, a large bag of salad, vegetable stock, naan flat bread. I might go back there to shop, hopefully when it is not so busy. It is sort of like Sam's Club but on a smaller scale.

Tomorrow, actually today starts my 7th year of blogging....I can't believe it has been that long already....I must have been having fun cause the time sure went fast!!!

I have been keeping track of how many times you have come to my blog to either comment or follow me and have put your name in the bowl. 

As you can see, the bowl is not full. You still have time to enter for the gift above. The drawing will be on Saturday at 3pm and my husband will do picking of names. You all have 3 chances to win as there will be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The gift includes:

5 cards - a Birthday card, Note card, Garfield card, Anniversary card and Get Well card. - To send to that special friend.
1 pen - Who doesn't need another pen???
1 small photo album (to carry your kids and grand kids around in)
1 bag of Door County coffee or 3 bags of Bigelow tea
 (your choice)  - To take some time to unwind
1 bottle of anti-bacterial hand lotion - Clean hands....clean heart!!
I might add a "special mystery gift" to make things exciting, of course it will be something I made.

It's not a lot, but it's fun things that we can always use. So you still have some time to enter the fun.....fill my bowl up!!!!

So hurry, hurry and comment please, help me to celebrate these 7 years !!! Have a great day, keep warm and dry!! Cheers ~ Louise

Ode to my Little Coffee Maker - Part 2

So here is a little snap-shot of my Melitta Coffee maker. I bought it back in 1972 or so. Used it for quite awhile, then put it away, often thinking I should sell it in one of my garage sales. It actually did make it in a sale but there were no takers...(thank goodness for that...huh??)
So one day I brought it up from the basement and started using it after my regular coffee maker died and have used it ever since. That has been a couple of years now....maybe longer. I have found that I am better off with 1 or 2 cups of coffee a day, rather then a whole pot.

Years ago I over-dosed on too much coffee, aspirin and diet pills, a bleeding ulcer developed and I was rushed to the hospital, bleeding from both ends in 1981. Actually, I did not learn my lesson the first time and again drank too much coffee and aspirin minus the diet pills. This episode was in 1986 and resulted with an operation and cutting the nerves in my stomach and my spleen taken out. Guess I almost died from that one but did recover. To this day, I do watch the caffeine intake. For many years I did not touch coffee and drank only tea. I started drinking coffee again about 2001 when I started working for someone who loved coffee. One of my many jobs was to make coffee and every morning would give him a cup. I had to learn how to make that PERFECT cup of coffee. Well, that boss left and I inherited a "new boss" who was also a coffee drinker, so by then I was close to being a "professional coffee maker." Also, another one of the bosses in the office liked his coffee too....but much stronger. I was making his coffee also!! So you see, I was making LOTS of coffee and I think that is where my down-fall came, cause that coffee would smell so good, I started drinking it again.

So here I sit.....my little coffee maker has bit the dust so to speak. I don't want to go with a 10 or 12 cup coffee maker because the temptation would be there to drink it allllllllllllllll and that would be dangerous for this girl. So, I shall continue my quest to look for a new one-cup coffee maker. Until then, I shall use T-filter sacs and dunk them in hot water.....makes for a good cup and I can keep it down to 2 cups a day. Oh, I still drink tea, lots of water and at the moment coconut milk and vegie and fruit smoothies. Not a soda drinker, too much sugar in that substance. 

The above picture is one of JP's meals that I make him for his late night dinner. Stuffed pork chops and roasted vegies. Cabbage, red potatoes, onions and kale. There's a dab of butter on top with some Mediterranean seasoning. Parsley embellishes the dish. He also likes his fruit with a dollop of yogurt on top. I think he had soup with this lovely meal also.

Tonight's menu is fish, broccoli and potatoes, fruit with yogurt and toast. He eats pretty good, but we do have to watch that his "gout" does not flare up and erupt cause that can last 4-6 weeks at a time. So we keep things simple with chicken, fish, chicken and fish and pork, chicken and fish, chicken and fish, beef and back to chicken and fish. With LOTS of vegies and fruit. Oh and he likes a fruit smoothie every day for lunch along with his big lunches.

Smoothie of the day:
1 apple
2-3 florets of broccoli
1/2 banana
1/2 cup coconut milk
Mix together and enjoy!!!

You all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh!! Cheers ~ Louise

Valentine Cards

Just added these Valentine Cards to my etsy store tonight. A set of 6 cards of various kinds for that special someone. They are $2.50 a piece or $15.00 for 6 plus, for your order of these cards you will receive one free bonus Valentine card along with one free bookmark. Just for stopping by. You can see all my cards at: http://www.cards4ubylouise.etsy.com/

I am going to add a few new cards in the next few days, probably St. Pat cards and then a few Winter cards. Trying to get a large stock of cards in my store, so when people come by they can sip a cup of tea and just enjoy the moment.........sounds good to me!!!

Getting late, so I shall close for now, take care and have a great day. ~Louise~