Sunday, July 31, 2005

Oh happy day!

Yesterday Dede and David came down to work on Dad's finances. I went over and helped Dede work on going through the big pile on front of Dad's front door. She has a clever strategy for fooling Dad into thinking his precious crap pile is still intact. She keeps certain boxes in the pile so it looks like stuff is still there. These are decoy boxes. Then he won't miss the masses of old, useless papers that have been thrown away. Yesterday I found an empty candy bag that had a note stapled to it that said, "Don't throw this away. If you find another bag like this one, staple it to this bag."

We found some good stuff, too. My grandfather's harmonica was in the pile. I took it home for safekeeping. Jim played it a little and then started hacking and coughing. He had sucked something down his throat. He said, "I wonder what that was?!!" I said, "Probably chewing tobacco." Jim pulled it out of his mouth and smelled it. Yes, it was chewing tobacco. Pa-pa used to chew. Jim was majorly grossed out. Pa-pa died about 26 years ago. That chaw has been there a long time. Jim is going to take the harmonica apart and clean it.

But for me the most fabulous find was my Black and Decker food processor. I had brought it down 14 years ago when we were getting ready for Stacey's wedding. I made salsa for everyone all week. After the wedding I could not find it. It just disappeared. I looked everywhere for it. Well, it was in a box with a bunch of crap piled on top. I know I asked Dad about it back then and he said he didn't know anything about it. Hmmm...

I loved that food processor. I even went online and tried to find another one but it had been discontinued. I searched thrift stores for one. And now I have mine back. Wheee!!!

After Dede and David were done we all went to lunch. On the way home we passed by a huge utility table by the side of the street with a FREE sign on it. Jim stayed with the table while I went home and got the truck. This thing is huge and really heavy. It'll be perfect for a workshop table. Just another little gift from the heavens.

We brought it home and put it downstairs. I checked out the scene down there. We have some of our things stored there which we plan to move to the container. Dad has been filling it up with Christmas tree oil and fertilizer and other generic crap. I have a big cleaning job ahead of me.

No calls on the dog yet. I'll call the rescue groups tomorrow.

8 comments:

Donita Curioso said...

It's a Black and Decker. I don't know it it's the best. I just like the simplicity of the design. I have a Cuisineart that's a processor/blender combo. The control panel is a bit confusing. It uses one of those riser thingies for the cheese grater that's easy to lose (and yes, mine's lost). The Black and Decker processor has one rocker switch and the cheese grater fits on top of the center post without an additional attachment.

It's also a nice size. And when I bought it at Costco all those years ago it was MUCH cheaper than the Cuisineart. I'll have to fire it up and see how it compares.

It was just such a mystery. One day it was in Dad's kitchen and the next day it was gone. EVERYBODY saw me using it almost every day. How could it have gone missing so fast?

The answer; DAD!

Ugh!

Donita Curioso said...

Yeah, I looked into replacing that part and it'll cost $6 plus shipping. Not too bad but that's a dinky part to be so important and yet so easy to lose.

Kitchen Aid mixers are da bomb.

Jim has informed me that Cuisinart doesn't have an "e" in it.

vivage said...

Cooking stuff: Bah.

I hate cooking, does it show?

Donita Curioso said...

Well, that's because you're too busy doing glamorous things. Plus, you have a husband who cooks.

I'm not wild about cooking but I do have my specialties. Dean's good at doing big dinners.

vivage said...

glamourous my ass. bwhahhaha.

Donita Curioso said...

Dean- Aw, pishaw. You're too kind. I'm good at what I do but I don't do a whole lot. And I screw up sometimes. Remember when I mistook the baking soda for cornstarch? That was some nasty chicken. Now my baking soda box has SODA written on the side in big, thick magic marker.

Virginia- Now you've got me thinking your ass is glamorous.

Here's a recipe I made up that I only made once but it was the best thing I ever made. I took some shrimp, crab meat, swiss cheese, chopped water chestnuts, Italian parsley, garlic, cream, lemon juice, green onions and chopped red ball peppers and mixed them all together and wrapped them up in Philo dough and baked them. I put the shrimp and crab shells in a pan with a little water and boiled them. I used the water to make a cream sauce. I made another sauce that was a darker color and did the thing where you pour the sauces on the plate and draw a toothpick through them to make shapes and swirls. I sliced the seafood Philo rolls and placed a piece on each plate. I served this with steamed asparagus. I did this for one of the Stitch and Bitch luncheons. It turned out awesome, the best thing I've ever made.

But boy it was a lot of trouble so I never made it again.

Donita Curioso said...

That's bell peppers, not ball peppers.

vivage said...

Now that recipe is fabulously in the glamour category.

My ass is not, gravity ya know. Not that it was ever perky, it was always behind me so I didn't care.

I'm glad you pointed out that it was bell peppers, wondered for a fraction of a second where I'd get ball peppers.