Mint Pudding Cups

Mint Pudding Cups

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 5 mins Total time: 20 mins
Serves: 3

Easy mint pudding cups are the perfect treat for St. Patrick’s Day.
Ingredients
6 Mint Oreo cookies
1 tbsp butter
Instant vanilla pudding (small package)
2 cups milk
¼ tsp mint extract
green food coloring
whipped cream
sugar sprinkles (optional)

Instructions
Pulse cookies and butter in a food processor until finely ground.
Divide the cookie mixture between your serving bowls and press firmly.  Make pudding according to the package directions, adding ¼ tsp of mint extract and 2-3 drops of green food coloring. Pour the pudding into your serving bowls leaving about ¼ inch for the whipped cream.  Let the pudding set up and then add whipped cream & sprinkles.

Camping Fever

This cold-hot-cold-snow-melt-ice-hot-cold-windy-slushy in between season called March in Mid-Michigan is giving me a headache along with a serious case of camping fever.  It started when the sun came out last week and melted all the snow, exposing grass for the first time in forever.  To top that off, I saw a skunk in the road and had to wonder if it meant six more weeks of anything?

Yesterday I spied my first robin red breast full of blue eggs bouncing on the ground, collecting sticks and string.  Spring has arrived!   Now I’m deliriously dreaming about roasting marshmallows over a snapping flame with a stick I carved a tip into using my trusty Swiss while warmly wearing my Woolrich red and black buffalo check jacket with the big brown buttons buttoned just to keep the chill off.  Got all that?

My hibernating mind is starting to wake up with the crocuses and think about the smell of cowboy coffee boiling in my Grandpa’s metal pot and bacon sizzling in a heavy cast iron skillet surrounded by eggs, over easy.   I love the sound of kerosene gas flowing up into a Coleman lantern at night which, upon ignition, instantly becomes a bug magnet.  We always keep the lantern hanging on a nail, way up and off to the side,  just to trick the skeeters.

Soon it will be time to go mushroom hunting and time to put all the lawn chairs in a circle around the fire and time to sing Three Dog Night’s Joy to the World and time to collect mint leaves to brew Grandma’s mint tea and time to gather drift wood in the bow of a row boat and and time to pick daisies and black-eyed susans and time to wear flip-flops and time to chop wood and time to catch a fish and time to discover new trails on hikes and time to see eagles soar and time to see deer in the woods and time to catch a lightning bug and time to skinny dip and time to tell ghost stories and time to drop blueberries into a tin cup and time to appreciate a full moon and time to dig up a can of worms and time to take a picture of a sunrise and time to grill and time to just be happy and time to open the graham crackers and time to fire up the ‘ol Johnson 20 and time to strip down into your skivvies and crawl into the sack….exhausted from not having enough time when it comes to camping!

Fine Wine

Uncle Sam –as in Sam Wal-Mart– is teaming up in 2013 with Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery of California to produce full bodied wines at a $2-$5 price point.   Wine connoisseurs may not be inclined to put a bottle of the Wal-Mart brand reds or whites into their shopping carts but, “There is a market for inexpensive wine,” said Kathy Micken, professor of Marketing at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.  Branding will be very important so Walmart asked its customers to go online and vote for the most attractive name.

The top picks in order of popularity were:

10.  Chateau Traileur Parc

9.   White Trashfindel

8.   Big Red Gulp

7.   World Championship Riesling

6.   NASCARbernet

5.   Chef Boyardeaux

4.   Peanut Noir

3.   I Can’t Believe it’s not Vinegar

2.   Grape Expectations

1.   Nasti Spumante

The beauty of Wal-Mart wine is that it can be served with either white meat (opossum) or red meat (squirrel).

Mid Century Modern

Me.  Circa 1960

It dawned on me the other day that my baby hands held my great-great grandmother’s hands and she was born in 1876.  These same old hands of mine have held a newborn’s tiny grasp; a little someone born in 2012.  My mid-century birth has been a gift that has enabled me to bridge centuries.   In 1960, our family took a special picture of all the living women in my maternal line because we had a fifth generation, ending with me!

I remember my great-great Grandma Head.  She was born in Leipzig, Germany, and came to the United States by ship when she was five years old.  As a four year old, I remember she had shocking white hair that she kept in a black hair net and enjoyed burnt toast dipped in hot tea every morning.  She always sat at a rectangular Formica table next to a big white stove in the kitchen.  I played three-handed pinochle all summer long with her daughter, my great-grandma James, and my Aunt Robin.   I walked Grandma James’  toy poodle, Tiny, when I was in grammar school and had to be quiet in the house when she was taking her afternoon nap on the back porch.   Her daughter, my grandma Brock, took the bus every day into downtown Chicago to wait tables at the Palmer House Hotel for tips.  She supported her entire family, all women.  Her household held three of my grandmas and my mother and her three sisters.

All the women in Grandma Brock’s home.

I used to steal vegetables from backyard gardens in our neighborhood and surprise Grandma Brock with them.  She would scold me as she lovingly placed the contraband on her windowsill to ripen and then she’d ask me if I had seen any string beans around.  She always had a wink and a smile for me.

Now it is up to me and mom, who will turn 70 years old this May, to remember.  All my grandmas have been gone since the mid-1970′s or sooner, but I still remember how our lives were.  There was love in my grandma’s house and that love grabs at my heartstrings –especially when I see red tomatoes on a vine.

The Chicago museum used to do these moon pictures in the 1950′s. (L-R) is Aunt Joyce, Aunt Robin, and my mother, Paula.

Eggs 101

Every morning I wander out to our chicken coop to check for eggs.  One thing I’ve learned (the hard way) is to look first before reaching into the nest boxes.  One time I opened the latch on the egg door and started my reach just as I started bending over to look…a ditch tiger was in there hissing.  Who knew cats ate eggs!    Several times I’ve come close to petting a racoon and one time a smelly, dirty possom gave me a heart attack.  You just never know what you are going to get despite the best security plans.   After that possom almost killed me, I went electric.  Now those egg sucking bastards can fry.

Here’s a real oldie!

The thrill of seeing what has been set, of rustling the hens up off of their nests or reaching under their warm, soft bellies if they are feeling especially maternal, hasn’t left me after 20 years of pretending to be a poultry farmer.  Sometimes there are more browns than whites and sometimes the opposite, but after gathering up a fresh clutch of eggs, I always say, “Thank you,” to my girls.

Baby chicks each spring!

The eggs click and roll against each other and rattle in the metal bucket I carry as I walk back up the side yard to the house.  Remi turns into a boot licker when she hears the clatter, so I end up tossing her a tasty treat.   These eggs have been scrambled, whipped, boiled, fried, dropped, poached, flipped, and turned into the best noodles ever!  They have fed my whole family.  Over the years I have found a tricky way to make hard boiled eggs and I wanted to share my super secret technique with you.   Holidays and summer picnics will be here before the rooster crows so jot this down!

The best way to make hard boiled eggs

is in the  O V E N !!

Place these delicious ovals in a muffin tin, pop into a preheated 325 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

The shells will peel easier after cooling and the taste is ten-fold any water boiled egg. 

Just thinking about the goop that oozes from eggs if they crack while boiling, and then remembering how  the ooze turns into rubber, gives me the willies.

After your eggs are cooled, why not have some holiday fun by making carrot tops for them?  Use cloves for the eyes.

Charlie Harper Week

How could I have JUST DISCOVERED this amazing illustrator!

Charlie Harper (1922-2007) created over 50 “minimal realism” environmental themed posters for national parks, nature preserves and wildlife sanctuaries as well as being a frequent contributor to Ford Motor Company’s magazine Ford Times for nearly two decades.

He painted birds and beasts moving about in their natural habitat–breaking the portraits down into simple shapes and forms using vibrant color palettes.  He especially loved birds and bird watching.  His subjects are going about their business, undisturbed by the viewer.

My family expects  accepts my quirky collections, random interests, and impulse fetishes.  This week it is definitely Charlie Harper week around here.   I will spend hours researching this artist and his works.  All I want to do right this minute is save all of his illustrations in a file on my computer so I can enjoy them later.

Most of what I learn will fall on deaf ears as my family will, no doubt,  “fake listen” to me regurgitate new found facts and potent potables.  They will nod politely, say uh-huh, and smile while trying to hide the fact that they are texting on their phones in their laps.  I can see the texts now:  Hey, Adam, Mom is a cuckoo-cuckoo bird!