Today is Tyrone’s first day of school. When I was young, my mother made us pose for first day of school pictures. Sometimes she’d have the teacher pose in the picture with us. Now I get electronic pictures from relatives on their first day of school.

This tradition has carried over to my family. For the past 3 years that I have known Tyrone, I take a picture of him on his first day of teaching. After working the same job without breaks for years and years, I am somewhat jealous of the clear boundaries of the academic year.

I’ve been trying to piece this website back together and get it all updated. While waiting for some databases to update, I made a pie.

This is a peach and nectarine pie, based on the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. Tyrone’s mother swears by the oil-based crust, but I couldn’t get it to roll out properly without crumbling or sticking. The bottom crust is just pushed into place, and the top crust was formed into small circles that I could cover the pie with. The recipe also calls for the pie to be topped with brown sugar, butter, and pecans, but I’ve got more work to get done now.

As I type this, my nose is on fire!

We got home from Nebraska on Sunday, and on Monday, Tyrone whipped up a batch of fridge pickles, with layers of green beans, cucumbers, peppers and onions.

I had a few pickles today, including a hot pepper. At that point I must have touched my nose, and now it is ON FIRE!

Also baked some zucchini bread yesterday. I doubled the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook’s recipe and baked it in a round cake pan. MMMM….

Working on the pictures to post on this blog and how to say a few other things, but as I said, right now my NOSE IS ON FIRE!

We had some fun food for Halloween too.

Tyrone hates the taste of candy corn, but enjoyed these cookies:

Here is the recipe. I dipped the tips in vanilla almond bark, because I used unbleached flour.We made some mulled cider too. I don’t really like orange juice, but I do like cider and rum. This recipe worked for us.





Sarah brought over an entire “coffin” of “gummy body parts”. I like translucent gummy candy over opaque gummy candy, so I headed straight for the eyeballs.

Independence Day has got to be one of my least favorite holidays; in the past it has definitely been a harbinger of weirdness. People play with alcohol and gunpowder while the temperatures soar…and most of them have to work the next day.

I’m not a big fan of fire, waste, or uncontained noise, but I do love the food and drink. It is also a holiday meant for friends and/or family, we got to entertain both. This year I made a simple strawberry-topped brownie, held together with an American Flag.

Earlier in the day Tyrone and I whipped together cold salads: pesto shrimp, purple cabbage, and green beans, as well as a black bean/garbanzo bean salad with baby carrots (chopped) and rice wine vinegar. On the hot side, we grilled beets and I cut a bunch of sweet potatoes into fry-like shapes. The deep-fat fryer went outside (the smell) and I cooked 3 small batches. My sister came over and mashed together 2 lbs of hamburgers, onions, peppers, mushrooms, bacon and garlic powder into the most delicious hamburger my father has ever eaten, and he used to raise livestock and smoke his own meats! Everything really impressed his palate, and he’s not normally very impressed by anything.

Later we went over to Jackson’s where he lit off his 12th box of fire: box of thunder.

I’m glad we have friends that like good food too. N made his famous calico beans, not pulling any stops for his vegan guests, and Dan and Ruth made Taziki inspired by their Grecian honeymoon. D lit off a bunch of fireworks with names like “Friendship”, “Laughing Crocodile”, and “Happy Showers”. From 27th and Yankee Hill, we had a great view of Lincoln’s most expensive fireworks smuggled from Missouri, without the hassle of lighting them ourselves.

After two hours, I had enough. When we got home, and the bombs were still bursting in air at midnight, I had really had enough. I almost became that lady who walks outdoors in her bathrobe to tell the little wipper-snappers that she’s going to call the cops….almost, but not quite.

We biked to the track to celebrate in Tyrone style. He won 5 for 7 bets. I only won what I told him to bet for me.Last night he mentioned in passing a rhubarb upside-down cake. I found I had just enough flour and eggs to make the pineapple upside-down cake from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It turned out pretty nice, and he was surprised to see the cake appear a couple of hours later.

My mother had just sent us a ton of rhubarb on Sunday night. It totaled 14 cups cleaned. I had to borrow some from my neighbor last Thursday to make 2 sets of rhubarb custard bars for the potlucks. (I definitely owe her some bars/cake now) The bars went over great! Each only had one piece left! I’ve been modifying the recipe to use up a bunch of powdered sugar. It really makes the custard more fun somehow.

When my mother found out that Tyrone like rhubarb, she started bringing me a big bag every couple of weeks. The “big bag” usually yeilds about 14 cups, which is way too much. I guess they’re not making wine with it this year.

I enjoy making rhubarb custard bars. This year, I made the first batch with Splenda, and it was so weird that I’m never making pie crust portion with it again. I’ve used 1/2 splenda, 1/2 sugar for the filling, and that seems to work out well.

Last night I cut up enough for another round of bars (5 cups), and 2 cups for Rhubarb-Strawberry Sorbet. The recipe was a variation on the Strawberry Sorbet that came with the ice cream maker:

2 C Rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 C Strawberries, hulled, quartered

1 C Sugar

1 C Water

2-3 Tablespoons lemon juice

In a blender, pulse the strawberries + rhubarb + water. Pour into your ice cream maker with the sugar and juice. The original recipe called for 1/4 C of corn syrup, but I don’t like cooking with corn syrup. The sorbet actually turned out pretty tart. I added 2-3 tablespoons of Splenda, mid-processing, to make it sweeter without adding to the calorie content (we get enough of those).