Crispy Chops & Banana Nut Bread

The past few weeks have been busy ones, but I’ve found some time to cook a few things. Friday night I made some Crispy Pork Chops of which the recipe derived from Nigella Lawson (one of my favorites) that I found on a fellow blogger’s – “Anne’s Food” – entry (click here to see the recipe). I omitted the egg as one comment had suggested. They turned out to be quite tasty. I took a couple of pictures, but they turned out quite fuzzy, so I won’t post that. (My really cool camera’s batteries are down and I just picked more up today.)

Then, last night I made some Banana Nut Bread from a cookbook that my hubby & I received as a wedding gift. It’s one of those small town cookbooks put together by a community or in this case, First Baptist Church in Dyer, Tennessee. The recipe was submitted by Ms. Christine Ramsey who was a lunch lady at Charles’ school when he was young. Here’s a photo of it:

Here’s the super simple recipe:

3 medium bananas

1/2 c. margarine

1 c. sugar

3 eggs

2 c. self-rising flour

1/2 c. chopped nuts

Mash bananas. Blend margerine, sugar and eggs in separate bowl. Add to banana mixture. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time. Fold nuts into batter. Pour into sprayed 9×5 loaf pan. Bake at 325 for 1 1/4 hours. (I used a glass loaf pan which was baked at 300 degrees for the same amount of time – 1 1/4 hours.)

This recipe turned out to be good, but not quite sweet enough. Next time, I’ll add a little more sugar.

Now, what to make tonight? Hmmm…maybe we’ll have burritos. But, that’d be the frozen kind – El Monterey Beef & Bean – we love those and top each with 1/2 slice of sharp cheddar. Yummy!

A Wonderful Promotion

This morning, I was working on some of my new goodies that I’ll be listing in my new shop next Saturday. I started thinking of the first 5 customers and how I wanted to do something special for each of them for the jumpstart to my business. Then, I came up with an idea to purchase things – samples – from fellow etsy sellers. This would allow those special sellers to get their name and business out there to others, too. So, I posted an alchemy with this information. I have been amazed at the response. Now, I just have to sort through everything and figure out what will be a great fit with items I will be selling. There’s so many – 24 at the time of this posting – and I’ll have to turn so many of those away though I want to purchase from all of them!!

When things start arriving, I’ll give you a sneak peak at the free gifts for those first 5 customers as well as talk about the seller of those items. This is so much fun that I’m neglecting getting busy on my things, but it’s worth it.

There are so many special, sweet, cute things on etsy that I could spend all my waking hours just shopping happily!! This has definitely lifted my spirits and I’m adoring etsy all the more.

Please be sure to bookmark this blog to see all the upcoming goodies, as well as get in on other promotions I’ll be doing. I plan on being very active here and I’d love any input you may have. If you are like me and mostly a lurker…you may wish to make comments here. There’s an exciting promotion I’m thinking of for that……

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Edit: The total number of bids on the Alchemy was 45 before I closed the bidding! WOW! There were so many lovely things – I wish I could have bought them all to give as free gifts with purchase for my first few customers. Again, WOW!

Update On My New Shop

You know…there is SOOOOOOOO much to do to get a shop opened. My goal is to not allow my new etsy shop to look like it is just some things thrown into an online shop, I want it to look great. I’ve put so much into it and I have such high hopes for my little cozy loft!!

I’ve completed several more projects and checked those off my list. My avatar is now completed and I’m feeling good about it. Now, I just have to get some more actual PRODUCTS finished! Honestly, it looks like a force of nature blew through my home right now. Should anyone knock on my door, I couldn’t invite them in! Talk about embarrassing!!! Slowly but surely I’m getting things knocked off my “to-do” list, but I’m not anywhere near where I thought I’d be by today!!

My plan is to open the etsy shop “thecozyloft” on Saturday, April 5th and have wonderful things inside. For opening day, I plan on having some exciting promotions going on and I’m hoping that also helps with getting folks to visit.

So far, so good, though. Since the loss of our kitty, I’ve been pouring all of my heart into my work and I do hope it shows when I start listing things on the 5th. I do plan on giving anyone who’s reading my blog a sneak peek before then.

Sad Update On Our Kitty

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Any of you who know me knows that I’m never up early in the morning. I woke up about 4:00 a.m. Monday morning to check on our kitty cat and she had passed away. For this, I am so very thankful to God. She went peacefully, at home, and with us.

I’ve never, ever understood how someone could put an animal – a member of the family – to sleep. Although I’ve read so many things about folks doing this, it was always something I felt I would never consider. I read that pet owners say “you just know” when you have to do it. Now, I truly understand how someone could come to that conclusion.

My heart doesn’t feel heavy about her now. Although I’m sad and broken in spirit, I feel mended somewhat to know that she’s not suffering. We knew that she was hanging on for us and we knew she suffered for it.

It’ll be hard to deal with her not being around after so many years and I already miss her.
Anyway, for any of you who might have read my entry on Sunday and helped us pray for her, I thank you for listening to my thoughts and for caring.

Thought you might like to see a picture of her. This was taken a few months ago when she was feeling great and high on catnip! She’s lying on our floor exhausted staring at her catnip ball. We had soooooo much fun with catnip and that little kitty cat!

My Heavy Heart Therapy

This is going to be a sad entry, but I read somewhere it was a good idea to write things out when things are bad in your life. Somehow it’s a form of therapy…so here goes.

Tonight I write this wish such a heavy heart. It seems as though my husband and I are about to lose our sweet little angel kitty cat. She’s been with us as long as he and I have been together and she was with him long before that. She’s 19 years old, which is a LONG life for a cat, I know. Back around Thanksgiving, she showed the first sign of trouble with some neurological problems and walking in circles. A visit to the vet took care of that and she was better until January. January found her retinas becoming detached and she became completely blind. Then, she started experiencing cycles of rapid breathing. Another visit to the vet and some near death spells, we thought she was getting better. Until yesterday afternoon. Since that time she has been in a cycle of walking into things and she has now, done the worst…quit eating and drinking. Our little girl isn’t herself and is just lying down kicking her feet now. So, from everything we’ve read, we have to have her put to sleep because without eating and drinking, she will be in tremendous pain. Supposedly, it is the kindest thing we can do for her. Tears fill my eyes as I try to type this all out. My head feels like it weighs a ton. We were up almost all night last night with her. So, basically, we have had little sleep and we’ve cried off and on (mostly on). Though we know it’s the end of her life here with us, we hurt for her and for our loss.

I’ll tell you a little bit about her….

Her name is China and she’s part Blue Himalayan and part Siamese. She is a BEAUTIFUL GORGEOUS long haired cat with the sweetest disposition you have ever seen in a cat. Anytime since I’ve known her, she’s always been there for me. When I’ve been sick with the flu or some other illness, she sensed it and would get on the bed with me and snuggle up close to me. That little girl always made me feel better because she cared so much. Anytime I have been sad, she comforts me. When I come home, she’s at the door waiting. If I’m sitting somewhere, she wants to be what we call our “lap kitty”.

Now, I write this with her lying on her side consistently moving her little paws back and forth in a repetitive motion like she’s walking or swimming. I cannot stand to think that this time tomorrow night, she won’t be here. It’s absolutely breaking my heart.

Maybe it’s worse because we don’t have children. It’s just always been the three of us. Anyway, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve broken down during this post and I really don’t know whether or not it helped me to write about it. At any rate, thanks for listening and I’m sorry to write such a depressing and painful post.