This Stop Willoughby

I don't usually feel the need to do much spring cleaning on the inside of the house. I have a pretty good system that keeps my house clean on a daily basis (click here if you missed it the first time I posted it, and want to know more). The windows and screens, though, always need to be cleaned by the time the weather warms up. We take the screens down over the winter and store them in the garage. I'm not sure why that seems to be standard in this part of the country. I don't think the snow would damage them. I think it's probably a hold over from a time when people put up storm windows. The only reason we take ours down is because we hang Christmas wreaths on the windows and we have to remove the screens to do it. In any case, they get dirty sitting around in the garage. The weather was pretty nice on Saturday, so I decided it would be a good time to clean the screens and put them back up. I was planning to wash the windows, too. As it turned out, I got start...

Yes, the bar is open again. I have a bonus Saturday Afternoon Drink Demo to share. This isn't a prohibition era classic cocktail, but it's a good one. Presenting.........the Cosmopolitan! This recipe will yield four drinks (if served in martini glasses). Start by cutting your lime in half and juicing it. We used an antique glass reamer. See? You can use bottled lime juice if you prefer. Now fill your cocktail shaker about 3/4 full with ice. Then add: 2 oz. vodka 1 oz. triple sec juice of half a lime (approx. 1 oz.) 3 oz. cranberry juice Shake well and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a twist of lime peel. You can rim the glasses with sugar if you like. Enjoy responsibly! Happy Saturday!

When life hands you lemons......make a Tom Collins! This is a simple, elegant, classic drink. You should feel ever so sophisticated and yet a little rebellious drinking it. Why? Because the Tom Collins was a popular drink during prohibition. The upper crust would sit at white linen covered tables overlooking croquet matches and lawn bowling tournaments on hot days, sipping these lovely drinks at summer parties. Alcohol was illegal from 1920 to 1933, so this drink was also found in blind pigs and speakeasies (illegal drinking establishments) where those of lesser means could enjoy it and feel sophisticated, too. It is gin based and gin was easy to make because it doesn't require the long fermentation period of other alcohols. If you've never had a Tom Collins, it is very refreshing with a taste similar to lemonade. If you follow the recipe as stated, it is quite tart. I, personally, add a bit more sugar. Either way, it's a great drink! Fill a cocktail shaker half way with i...

I'm generally a non-confrontational person. There are exceptions of course (you may remember this post), but I'd rather not have an ugly incident if it's avoidable. On the other hand, I'm no shrinking violet. I was thinking about this today because I saw a woman that I strongly dislike. I won't bore you with the details of why I dislike her, but I've got some good reasons. We made eye contact for a moment and I thought she was going to say something to me. I think she dislikes me as I much as I dislike her, so I wasn't sure what she might say. I know the way she is, so it would likely have been an insult of sorts, disguised as a pleasantry (I know you know the type). My mind started racing immediately, I had to decide what I might say in return. Should I be polite, should I pretend I didn't hear her, or just let it fly and rip her a new one? In the split second I was contemplating ripping her a new one, I measured that response against my mental yardst...

I put the last juice pouch in my daughter's lunch this morning. This really irritated me because it meant another trip to the supermarket. I'm generally a pretty organized person and I try to stay on top of what we have in the house and what we're running out of, but I'm not always successful. So after dropping my daughter off at school, I headed to the store. If I have to go, I prefer to go to the supermarket first thing in the morning. At 8:05, the store is pretty empty and there are no lines at the checkout. I can get the things I need and get out before the piped in music gets to me. I have heard that extensive research is done on the effect canned music has on shoppers. Could this possibly be true? Does anyone actually buy more food because of it? When I walked into the store this morning "Incense and Peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock was blaring. I had no urge to buy more than what I needed. I didn't buy any incense or peppermints. I didn't ...

Before school this morning, my daughter told me I was pretty. She wasn't buttering me up to ask for something, or trying to get me in a good mood before telling me she did badly on a test. She said it sincerely and she meant it. She's full of compliments, this girl of mine. On a daily basis she tells me how nice my hair looks or how much she likes the clothes I'm wearing. I'm a good "cooker", too, according to her. The compliments are not just for me, either, she spreads them around. She has no ulterior motives, it's just her way of making the people in her life feel appreciated. Her observations can be very honest, too. She calls 'em like she sees 'em. Once when she was about six, she wanted to "do" my hair for me. Before she started brushing it, she asked me if she should start with the blond part or the brown part. I picked up a new box of hair color the very next day. I'm used to that sort of honesty, anyway. My son was the same w...

We had to make a quick stop at the supermarket after school today, and the kids were hungry. They wanted me to pick up the ingredients to make their favorite cheese spread/dip. This recipe is fast and easy, and uses ingredients you may already have on hand. Serve it with crackers, tortilla chips or pretzels. We like tortilla chips best! Willoughby House Cheese Spread 8 oz. cream cheese, softened 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 2 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon horseradish 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon garlic powder dash hot sauce Place all ingredients in bowl and beat with electric mixer on high until well mixed. Serve with crackers, tortilla chips or pretzels. This disappears quickly at my house, so I usually double the recipe.

I don't have any food or drink recipes to share with you this morning, nor do I have any fun projects. What I do have is another stupid story. You know, the ones where you can laugh at my ridiculous predicaments? Years ago, before my kids were born, I worked in the legal department at the headquarters of a large retail company. I was a legal assistant and my job included things like preparing merger and acquisition paperwork, being a liaison between store managers and the in-house attorneys, compiling legal documentation, and preparing materials for legal seminars. I know, it doesn't sound very exciting, but I liked it. My boss was an accomplished attorney named Deborah. She was extremely intelligent with a wicked sense of humor. Before taking the job, I had heard that she was demanding and difficult to work with, but we had very few problems. She was demanding but if you did things her way and on time, she was happy. Deborah had no patience with incompetence, so she disliked a...

After I posted my Friday Night Drink Demo, Donna asked me how we come up with the drinks we make. I don't know if anyone else has any interest in knowing, but I thought I might share a little "behind the scenes" information with you, just in case, and give you a sneak peek at what we're planning next. I guess I should start by making sure that no one gets the wrong impression about the drinking habits at the Willoughby house. First of all, we have a cocktail or two (or a few glasses of wine)over an hour or two. We're not getting drunk, and under no circumstances are we driving. I'm not gonna lie, we like our alcoholic beverages around here, but we're responsible about enjoying them, and I urge you to do the same, okay? I feel better having said that. Let's move on. Since I know that we are going to make cocktails on Friday evenings, I usually start searching for recipes on Friday afternoon. We rarely follow a recipe, but I like to look at a few for ins...

Purple Hoodie Chick came over after school yesterday. My son (her boyfriend) had track practice so she had two hours to kill before he got home. What to do with the time? Make cookies, of course! We couldn't decide between chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies, so we made both. She made the chocolate chip cookies and I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. We couldn't get my daughter interested in helping or we might have made three varieties. Yes, I know, that's a lot of cookies, but it's not unusual to have a house full of teenagers at my house on the weekends. The cookies I made are a little different from the norm because they are flourless. They are super fast and easy to make and don't require refrigerating the dough before baking. I got about 1 1/2 dozen cookies out of a single batch, but this recipe doubles well if you want more. Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies 1 cup peanut butter 1 cup packed brown sugar 1 large egg 1 teaspoo...

It's Friday night, so you know what that means.....the Friday Night Drink Demo! Tonight's drink is light and tropical. Here it is. Island Sunset 1 1/2 oz. coconut rum 4 oz. cranberry juice 1 oz. coconut cream In a cocktail shaker or blender, combine all ingredients. Shake well or blend until coconut cream is incorporated and mixture is frothy. Pour over ice and serve. Enjoy responsibly, please! ~Note~ Coconut cream (not coconut milk) can be found with other bottled drink mixes.

I hate the idea that you may be sitting at your computer reading my blog on an empty stomach. How can you concentrate if your stomach is growling? It's just not right! That's why I'm going to start with a recipe today. If you have the ingredients, it takes only minutes to make. You can whip it up in a flash and be right back here with something wonderful to eat while I drone on endlessly. I've got a lot to talk about today. Warm, Filled Croissants I guess it is a stretch to call this a recipe. It doesn't require making anything from scratch unless you make your own croissants (not crescent rolls, croissants). If you do, I'm impressed! They're not easy to make. I buy the cocktail size in a one pound box for less than $5 at the Sam's Club bakery. I didn't actually count them, but I think there are close to two dozen in a pound. You will also need cream cheese and jam. Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. While you are waiting for the oven to h...

I don't usually share a drink demo in the middle of the week, that's reserved for Friday. However, Mr. Willoughby, in honor of my birthday, has created a new drink. The ingredients should look familiar if you saw last Friday's post, but the amounts and the technique have changed. When made correctly you will have a blue drink with a purple bottom. What did Mr. Willoughby name his new creation? Bikini Bottom, of course! Here it is: You should recognize our cast of characters. For each Bikini Bottom you will need: 2 oz. light rum, 3 oz. coconut rum, 1 oz. blue curacao, 6 oz. 7-Up, a drizzle of grenadine and ice. In a cocktail shaker,mix all ingredients except grenadine and ice. Gently stir, do not shake! Pour into glass over ice. Drizzle a small amount of grenadine on top, do not stir. It will sink to the bottom of the glass causing the bottom portion of the drink to turn purple. I did my best to capture this with my camera, but the flash makes it difficult to see. Here it ...

Thanks To My Fellow Bloggers I would like to start today's post with a great big thank you to two of my fellow bloggers , Katie of Katie's Korner and Donna of My Tasty Treasures , for the recipes I got from your blogs. This is the Shrimp from Katie's Korner . It was spicy and delicious and the perfect side for our thick cut strip steaks. Thanks, Katie! Here is Chicken Mutz , compliments of Donna and her Firefighter Husband. The recipe calls for stuffing the chicken with mozzarella cheese, but I strayed a bit and also made one stuffed with pepper jack cheese and one with colby jack cheese. They were all delicious. Thanks Donna! The St. Patrick's Day Story I know you've been waiting to find out the reason I dislike St. Patrick's Day. You couldn't sleep last night and you've been waiting for my new post all morning, right? Well, maybe not, but here it is anyway. Today is my birthday! Because I have had the same birthday all my life, it has always been t...

Today's post will not be St. Patrick's Day themed. There will be no shamrocks, no leprechauns, and no green cocktails. I know, you would think that I, of all people, would be sharing a drink recipe in honor of this day. But you would be mistaken. I'm not a fan of St. Patrick's Day. I don't want you to mistakenly think that it has anything to do with Ireland, Irish people, shamrocks, leprechauns, St. Patrick (or anyone named Patrick, for that matter) or green beer. I actually like all of those things. If I gave you fifty guesses, you would probably never guess why I don't like St. Patrick's Day. If you really want to know, though, I'll tell you.........tomorrow! However, in the meantime, if you would like to take a guess, please post it in my comments (unless you are Purple Hoodie Chick, you can't guess because you know the answer, that would be cheating!). Today's post is a project I would like to share with you. It's simple, fast, and inexpe...

Ok, it's a little late. I meant to post my usual Friday Night Drink Demo last night, but I've been feeling a little under the weather so it has become a Saturday Night Drink Demo. We were looking for a drink where we could use more of the Blue Curacao from last week, but wanted a drink that wouldn't be blue. So here it is; Purple Crush. For each drink you will need: 2 oz. light rum, 1 oz. blue curacao, 1 oz. coconut rum, 1 oz. grenadine, 4 oz. 7-Up, and ice. Place all ingredients except 7-Up and ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake well. Add 3 ounces of 7-Up and stir gently. Pour into glass filled with ice. Float additional 1 ounce of 7-Up on top. Enjoy! This makes a very sweet drink. When I say very sweet, I mean very sweet! It has a flavor similar to a grape popsicle. Please enjoy responsibly, no driving or operating heavy machinery, ok?

I've always thought I was a pretty cool mom. I listen to current music, I play video games (the Wii and Nintendo 64, but those are cool, right?), I'm somewhat computer literate, I know what fashions are popular and I understand text speak abbreviations (lol, omg, brb), so I must be pretty hip. Or so I thought. This morning, my son broke the news to me that I'm not entirely up to date. His car is in the repair shop (yep, the one we just bought him) so I'll need to pick him up from school after track practice today. Here's how the conversation that ended my illusion of "Cool Mom" went: "Call me after practice is over and I'll come and pick you up." "I forgot to charge my cell phone last night, but if it's dead, I'm sure I can borrow someone else's phone." "Or you could use the pay phone at school. Do you have some change with you?" There was no verbal response for a minute, only laughter. "Pay phone? ...

Not So Touched Last week I confessed that I watch/listen to "Little House On The Prairie" on a regular basis. It comes on the Hallmark Channel everyday (weekdays) at 10:00 am and 11:00 am. Since I'm usually not watching a whole episode, I don't always turn the television off or change the channel when it's over. That's how I stumbled up the show "Touched By An Angel", it comes on after "Little House On The Prairie". I should start by saying that I have never watched a full episode of this show. I don't really know the premise of this show, so my comments are based on the bits and pieces that I have seen. If you are a fan of this show, by all means feel free to set me straight and tell me I'm wrong about it. Yesterday, I happened to catch part of an episode where a man was dying (I'm guessing someone dies in every episode). He was a fairly young man and was leaving behind a wife and children. I got the impression the viewer is me...

I was too busy to post anything yesterday. What was I so busy doing? I'm glad you asked. I was making lasagna. Not just one lasagna, but four. It all started because my husband promised a friend that I would make him a pan of lasagna in return for a favor. I decided that if I was going to make one for him, I might as well make one for us, too. But then my son's girlfriend had a short day at school yesterday. She's taking her college aptitude exams this week and gets out of school earlier than the kids who aren't currently taking them. You may remember her from my onion cutting demo . In my mind the equation went like this: kid with no school + lasagna to be made = free help! Of course, it wouldn't be fair to have her help me and then leave empty handed, so that added one more. I happened to mention it to my dad when I talked to him and he said if I was already making three, why not make one more for he and my mom. That brought the total to four. I bought all of t...

Just a quick note in case you're sitting at your computer, bored and looking for something to do. I'm a fanatic for puzzles of all sorts. Crossword puzzles, anacrostics , number puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, you get the picture. My recent obsession, however, is with KenKen puzzles. Have you tried them? They're like Sudoku, but a little more challenging. I've even got Mr. Willoughby hooked on them. They say (who are "they", anyway?) that puzzles like this keep your memory sharp and can even increase your I.Q. I don't know if there's any truth to that, but they're fun to do. Want to try one? You can find them here . Have fun!

More Great Blogs As some of you may recall, I posted a challenge to find some new blogs to share. While I have been anxiously awaiting the results from the rest of you, I found a few more myself. Here they are: Southern Hospitality - Gorgeous pictures and great decorating! I could spend all day on this blog! Queenies Vintage Finds and Treasures - More gorgeous pictures and beautiful vintage finds. I would love to shop where she shops! Check them out when you have a minute, I'm sure you'll enjoy them. I'm anxiously awaiting the day our local flea market opens for the season, and looking at the pictures of the flea market finds and vintage items on these blogs has me counting the days. My Kitchen When I looked at the "after" picture of 5th Sister's kitchen, I laughed out loud! She and I now have almost the exact same paint color in our kitchens. Anyone else have a yellow kitchen? The actual color is deeper than it looks in this picture. There was quite a bit o...

It's been a while since I've shared a stupid story with you. I have so many that's it's hard to choose, but I think something food related would be a good one for today. This happened a little more than 16 years ago and I was pregnant with my son at the time. My parents took Mr. Willoughby and I out to dinner at a buffet style restaurant. This was toward the end of my pregnancy so I was pretty big and standing or walking for any length of time was incredibly tiring. I went up to the buffet and put some side dishes on my plate, but when I got to the meats, the fish was gone. I wasn't interested in any other meat, I just wanted some fish so I went back to the table and sat down. A few minutes later a server was refilling some of the bins in the meat area so I went to check and see if the fish had been replenished. It hadn't so I sat back down. Again, we saw someone come out with bins of food, so my husband asked if I would like him to get me some fish. I said no, ...

Mr. Willoughby and I enjoy spending time together in the kitchen; talking, cooking a nice meal, having a glass of wine (or cocktails) and listening to music. He's quite a catch, if I do say so myself, but that's not the catch I'm talking about tonight. The catch of the day today is flounder. We made shrimp, too, so does that make it catches of the day? I don't know. I have to tell you that we discovered a new wine tonight, too. I always buy four bottles of wine at a time because my grocery store gives a 10% discount when you do that. I usually get three bottles I know we'll like and try one new one. We're kind of middle of the road when it comes to wine; not to sweet, not too dry. I randomly grabbed an Australian Riesling and put it in my cart. When I got home, I noticed it was a screw top! A screw top? No self respecting wine has a screw top! I put it in the wine rack and decided to save it specifically for cooking. Mr. Willoughby took it out tonight for our ...

It's late, I know, but I'm finally posting my Friday Night Drink Demo. It was Mexican night at the Willoughby house, so we decided on Blue Dolphin Margaritas to go along with our Cheesy Chicken Quesadillas. I'll include the recipe for those, too. Blue Dolphin Margaritas Just so you know, there are no actual dolphins in this drink. What makes them blue is Blue Curacao. If you have to ask for it at your local liquor store it's pronounced kur-ah-sow. I don't wan't you to make a fool of yourself and mispronounce it! Ready to begin? Let's go! Here's what you'll need for a pitcher of Blue Dolphin Margaritas, go get them. Place 2 cups of ice, 1 cup of frozen limeade, 1 cup of Blue Curacao, 1 cup of Tequila, and 1/2 cup Triple Sec into the pitcher of a blender. Blend until ice is completely crushed. Pour into salt rimmed margarita glasses and ............. Enjoy! Cheesy Chicken Quesadillas 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar ch...