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So 2020…What a B!+c# 860 460 Mari Bickmore

So 2020…What a B!+c#

Hey there, so how’re ya’ll doing? I haven’t had anything to write about, because there is absolutely nothing going on in the world right now….uh, maybe that’s not entirely correct. So what’re your thoughts on 2020 so far? I read that there were asteroids heading toward earth but that they are going to miss us. I wonder if they’ve calculated 2020 into their equations yet? I refuse to say “well what else can happen.” Does it count that I wrote it?! I hope that in the future when they invent time travel, they purposely program it never to go to this year. Reminds me of a piece out of Ghostbusters:
This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
What do you mean, “biblical”?
What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Exactly.
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…
The dead rising from the grave!
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

But coming to the point – I do hope that we, as an entire nation, work most diligently toward equality and being color blind. Everyone should be free to live without fear or discrimination, to be able make the choices best for them in their lives without having to ever think of that. If they have to protest I’m here to stand with them; however, to riot…destroying or defacing public or private property or harming anyone does no one any good and actually harms the cause and should be stopped wherever it is happening. Those who are suffering the greatest losses right now had nothing whatsoever to do with the horrid death of George Floyd. I do wish I knew what would magically, overnight, change all of that! I think we all do.

However, no one is ever going to be economically equal. Not only are we all born into different families (we were barely middle class, though I didn’t realize it at the time), we are born with very different talents and aspirations. So those who study hard, work hard, and strive are going to be more successful than others, as it should be. So I’m not saying the government should make us all economically equal…far from it. But no matter what your race or gender, you should be able to make what you want of yourself here in this day and age, in this country. And you shouldn’t have to fear being out at night because of the police or anyone, any more than anyone else fears being out, ‘cause there are places I wouldn’t go at night…or in the day…I’m just saying. You get my meaning–Equality. I like this quote by Obama (not my favorite person but he can certainly give a speech), “This is a moment, and we have had moments like this before where people are paying attention. And that doesn’t mean that everything will get solved, so don’t get disheartened, because this is a marathon, not a sprint. But the fact that people are paying attention provides an opportunity to educate, activate, mobilize and act,” Obama said. “And I hope we are able to seize this moment.”

Again I didn’t talk about design, but right now, today, this seems to be the most important topic to discuss, and I didn’t do it justice. Love you all!

Texas Clam Chowder – The Best 1024 727 Mari Bickmore

Texas Clam Chowder – The Best

Well this beginning has nothing to do with Clam Chowder, Texas or otherwise (that comes later).  In the middle of the night, many times, I have thought about topics I wanted to write about and none of those times did I follow through; they’re now like the misty stuff of dreams.  Here’s one I remember though…A couple of weeks after the inauguration I had a great conversation with a friend on the wrong side (oops).  We disagreed on many things, agreed on some, and did so amicably.  One of her big problems was the theory that Trump had some connection with Russia, still unsure as to what.  I don’t buy into any of that, nor do I think Trump has a man crush on Putin.  Anyway, as it turns out everyone and their dog has had a meeting with the Russians…on both sides of the fence…except, it seems, Sarah Jessica Parker, if you follow that sort of thing.  I recall a statement by Obama before the last election when he thought the mic was off that goes like this:  “After My Election I Have More Flexibility.”  Did you see the MSM go after that?  None of them seemed to have a problem with that…but now it’s like they’ve all went CRAZIER.   Also, how can they say the Russians interfered with the election exactly?  Even if they did hack the DNC and reveal things that they had done…then the DNC did those things.  Somehow the real “criminals” are  made to be okay just because their crimes were revealed by the Russians (if that is even true).   I know, we’re living in the Twilight Zone.

And now we see the true (tolerant HAHAHAHA) Alt-Left…breaking private property, impeding regular people’s road right-of-way, beating people up, acting like idiots, and trying to stop the free speech of others with differing ideas…the list goes on and on.  I’m glad we didn’t act that way when the travesty that is Obama was elected.  Sure, I complained, and hopefully so did millions of other people, but that was mostly words on a screen and not looting and assault.

Finally, I’m moving on.   I’m still looking at those resolutions and my work on them is a bit stifled, so I went to the gym yesterday for the first time this year.  And today I was shamed again, so I went on a 2.5-mile walk.  Who knows, maybe it’s a trend!  However, I have been playing tennis a few times a week.  Does that count?  First time playing on a mixed doubles team and it’s fun!  I was always intimidated about playing with guys so I always turned down the invites to play on those teams.  We are in second place.  Bummer.  Maybe that will change.  In any event, I had to make food to take to a match the other day and remembered how yummy my recipe for TEXAS Clam Chowder was, so I made it.   Instant hit!  I’ve been perfecting this one for many years.

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Mari’s Texas Clam Chowder
TEXAS CLAM CHOWDER — ONE OF MY PERSONAL FAVS
1/2 pound smoked peppered bacon, chopped into small pieces (I chop it small before I fry it, but you could just fry it and crumble later; it’s just easier to put it all in the pot to fry chopped small)
3  jars or cans baby clams and/or minced clams (I actually buy fresh clams if I can find them but that is unusual)
1 cup water
1 Tbsp cornstarch
4-6 medium red potatoes (peeled or unpeeled), diced
6 medium carrots peeled and diced
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp Tony Cachere’s Creole Seasoning (you can try jalapeno pepper too)
3 celery ribs, finely chopped
6-8 ounces large fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 red onion, minced
Whipping/heavy cream about 1-3 cups depending on the consistency you want, I’m usually at about 2 cups.
In a large pot, fry chopped bacon until crispy browned; remove and drain on paper towels.  Drain off all but about a 1-2 Tbsp of the rendered fat.  Mix the cornstarch with a little water and mix until smooth.  Add clams w/juice and water to the pot along with the cornstarch mixture.  Add chopped potatoes and carrots, white pepper, parsley and seasoning to taste (I usually use about what is listed above).  Add chopped celery and mushrooms, then onion.  Crunch bacon into small pieces and add back to pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until carrots are done.  Add enough cream to achieve desired consistency.  I serve with oyster crackers.
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Try it and let me know you loved it!  If you do then click Sign Me Up! on this site.
Gram Camp Days 1-3 1024 704 Mari Bickmore

Gram Camp Days 1-3

Before I delve back into the joys (and pitfalls) of renovation, I am going to recount my successes and failures of Gram Camp (grandmother/father camp…mostly mother) for my only two, fabulous granddaughters (ages 3 and 6).  They are the apples of my eye, my joie de vivre, my angels.  I have spent several months planning the agenda for this, my first foray into a planned agenda for these little tykes.  Even with my experience raising four children, I went into this thinking my spreadsheet would be followed  meticulously to perfection.  Elaborate breakfast at 8:30.  Activity from 10-12.  Lunch 12-1.  Activity 1:30-3:30.  Snack 3:30.  Downtime.  Dinner at 6:30 with cooking lessons at each meal and snack. Followed perfectly every. single. day.  Bwahahahaha!

Some things did go on schedule–I picked them up from the airport on time!   This was on a Tuesday, and they had just gotten back from 6 weeks in Japan that previous Sunday, so there was some jet lag going on, but that didn’t stop them too much, but did take a couple of days to get back on a sleeping schedule.  With all the planning that I did, I still didn’t have lunch ready for them coming in from the airport, so we stopped at Burgerocity in Folsom, CA, on the way home because it had such high ratings. Just a head’s up, for the price just go to In-and-Out.  Not much difference.  Okay, okay, for those of you burger afficianados, Burgerocity does use 100% Hereford and has more choices, but still…

Another head’s up, on the first day of Gram Camp take it easy.  Pool time.

Making homemade popsicles and homemade gummy bears to be ready later.

Easy cooking lesson for dinner…prefab flatbread and pizza toppings.  Easy stuff.

 

Day Two:  This is really day one, but who’s counting.  Still thinking of perfection, I get up before everyone else and make strawberry and banana cars for breakfast (and add cereal to the menu because one of them doesn’t like bananas and it just isn’t enough).

banana-car

Already going off schedule on the first full day,  we decide to go to the water park.  Wanting to leave early so that we can be there when it opens at 10 a.m., I get everything together.  Sunscreen–check, towels–check, swim shoes–check.  However, my older granddaughter just sleeps and sleeps, and who can wake her since she is still on Japan time…but when it is edging past 10:30 we drag her out of bed.  Arriving to the park at just before noon, there is not a single parking place to be had anywhere and it is crowded, so we ditch the water park.  Since my nephew’s wife just had a baby yesterday (several weeks early), we decide to buy flowers and a treat and drop by the hospital.  This buying process takes a few hours, as those kinds of things can do, because we have to go to several places to find the right thing.  Ends up the places we finally buy at were in a couple of blocks from the water park where we started out…so is the hospital.   Go figure.  Nothing gets done off my list, except for breakfast and dinner–Nothing.   Girls get to spend time with their grandpa in the pool in the evening…so all is well.   They are still the best granddaughters in the entire universe.

Day Three:  Still maintaining that we are going to get back on track, I get up early and make grape caterpillars and an orange slice bird for breakfast.  Go me!

We are now going to make a tic-tac-toe board with painted rocks for the X’s and O’s!  My plan now is to find rocks in the upper back yard where there is a drainage bed for when it rains (which is only in the winter.  Ever.  Not a drop from May-November…now how weird is that).  Anyway, I am envisioning finding these nice, smooth, oval river rocks (maybe I should have taken a look back there prior to this plan).  What we find is far from that, as you will see in the photos.  My plan is to have them paint cute little lady bugs and tadpoles on these rocks to use for tic-tac-toe.  You know really pretty, crafty things.  What I didn’t remember was that a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old would be doing the painting, and that they would have their own vision.

My vision vs reality:

 

But the fun they had painting them and the fun they had playing the game they had personally made far outweighed the vision.

We break for lunch and popsicles.

popsicle

For the rest of the afternoon I had planned on playing a beanbag game with hula hoops that just doesn’t happen (hula hoops are still in the box these many weeks later, as are the beanbags).  Might in interject here that I had a very long list of items to order that I wanted to use.  At about two weeks out from “camp” day 1, I made a plan to go shopping for these items.  That really didn’t sound very appealing to me, running around hither and yon to procure those things in the heat (not to mention not knowing where to go), so I spent an  evening ordering everything from Amazon, from soap-making items to the hula hoops to molds for the gummi bears.  Now I know why people get hooked on the shopping channel, getting all those boxes delivered to my doorstep was so exciting!

Back to Day Three, no beanbag game, just a little more downtime for me and their mom, and a little TV babysitting for the girls, and a great dinner of pureed cauliflower, zucchini fritters and corn on the cob.  Girls loved it.  I LOVE the pureed cauliflower and most always make it instead of potatoes now.  It is just YUMMY!  Make sure to think of healthy dinners and lunches, because you are going to have some not so healthy ones too.  If you want recipes for those things, just send a note.  The pureed caulifower looks just like mashed potatoes and so the kids never know the difference and the fritters were just yummy.   Then I got to watch Ever After High (oh boy!) before bed…every night.   These girls are full of life and energy…a  lot more energy than I have.  I don’t know what I would have done without their Mom here to help!  Hint:  Get help for your camp!

 

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So we are now September 12, the day after 9/11.  As all people do, I remember that day very well.  Funny how major catastrophes indelibly print those days in your memory.   I won’t go into the day’s minutiae for you, but I will say that I thought we, as a country, would prepare itself for the Islamic crap that was to follow.  We didn’t.  We elected a (p)resident whose middle name is Hussain and who spent his early years in an Islamic country and who is the biggest Islamapologist there is.  Political correctness is now rampant, which leads to loss of freedom of speech, which is part of what America’s greatness comes from.  Heck, we have a bill introduced into Congress, H.Res 569, that would protect Islam from hateful rhetoric, among other things.  What a load of Malarkey!  Everyone who reads this should call or write their reps to kill this NOW.  All over the world.  Every. Single. Day. an atrocity is committed in the name of Islam, and the Western governments continue to let them invade our countries and commit those atrocities in our countries.  Our governments should be tried for treason.  Okay, that’s what I’m thinking about 9/11.  Instead of protecting us more, they are importing the terror in the form of “refugees.”  Refugees my !@*)!@.   Merkel, especially, should be hanged, drawn, and quartered, after a trial, of course.

On another noted, if you think that Hillary’s medical issues are something like “walking pneumonia,” then you’re part of the problem.  It is obviously much more serious than that.  And if you think her doctor tells you the truth, then you probably think Hillary tells the truth also !  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

El Dorado Quesadillas 1024 739 Mari Bickmore

El Dorado Quesadillas

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This 2016 election year is the election year from Hell.  As I have mentioned, we have a woman who is as corrupt and self-serving as the day is long.  She is no more a public servant than a man in the moon…there is no man in the moon…

Don’t think I wouldn’t like a woman president, but one who is strong, honorable, and worthy of the title, not one who cleans up her husband’s womanizing problems with her witch’s broom.  Back in 1992, when we lived in Memphis, we had some good friends who lived in Arkansas and were friends of the Clinton’s.  Even though they were friends, they had some pretty bad/wild stories about the Clinton’s, and many revolved around just those things…and they were their friends.   If you are not a liberal wearing blinders, then you have to have read soooo many terrible things about them over these many years, but they seem to be teflon and get away with it all.  Probably because the people who could throw them under the bus are either DEATHLY afraid of them or they have dirt on that person, i.e. blackmail.  But basically they just don’t want to die a early and mysterious death.  I’m sure Hillary has collected enough dirt on people to fill several books.  In any event, this new book by the ex-secret service guy on their staff, just backs up all the things I’ve known or thought I knew (Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate by Gary Byrne).  But do I think liberals will be able to process it???  HAHAHA!  Absolutely not.  They did elect ZerO a second time, and look how he has morally and fiscally bankrupted my country.  I still haven’t figured out how the American public thought electing someone who spent their formative years in Indonesia instead of being steeped in the American culture and learned to love America would be a good choice for President.  It never made sense and still doesn’t.  Anyhow, somehow being a statesman and having integrity is not important for getting elected to President in our current pop culture society.  I find that quite sad and disturbing.
The other day someone I know made a post stating that Christians shouldn’t post things that are judgmental about candidates and that instead they should only post positive things about their own choice for office.  I absolutely and unequivocally disagree with this posit.   Not only when someone is running for office are they laying their life bare for all to scrutinize, but as Christians we are supposed to do some investigation to find the best candidate to strengthen the values we want upheld in our localities and country to maintain for us and our children.  Exposing a bad apple is a good thing.  We are supposed to hate the sin but love the sinner, but when you “hate” a public figure you are hating what they stand for, since we don’t actually know them on a personal level.  We are actually supposed to judge a righteous judgment (that’s true, look it up).  I don’t condone maligning someone with untruths, but, especially in this case, you don’t have to look too far until you see the abyss.  Hillary is like black mold in the walls of a house that is spreading through the cracks and corners and the liberals are like the homeowners who are in denial and just keep painting over it.   We may all do things that are wrong (not as bad as Clinton by any stretch) and make bad choices, but we are not running for political office and then acting like we are in it to help people.  I find her scary and justified in noting it.  We won’t even go into how much she lied on her recent Email-gate investigation and how she somehow wiggled out of getting indicted, although who really thought they would do that to a Clinton…they live above the law and know it.  That’s why they do the things they do.  I will address this later.

On a lighter note, since I always have to end with food, fashion, or design, so food it is…again.  This is a fairly quick and easy dinner, and just yummy.

El DORADO QUESADILLAS

4 boneless chicken thighs

1 large boneless chicken breast

1/3 cup Kitchen Bouquet sauce

1 tsp Tony Cachere’s Creole Seasoning

Grated sharp cheddar OR Mexican cheese blend

Cotijo OR Queso Fresco

1/3 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Good quality flour tortillas

1 Granny Smith apple or other tart firm apple

Cinnamon

Butter

1 Haas avocado

Creamy chipotle sauce (recipe below)

Place all chicken in a glass bowl and stir with the Kitchen Bouquet and Tony’s; let marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.  Meanwhile prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Cut the apple into semi-thin slices and halve.  Sprinkle very lightly with cinnamon and saute in butter until al dente and set aside.

Saute the chicken on medium-high until golden on each side, just a couple of minutes, and then reduce heat to low-medium until done.  Cool just until able to handle, then shred.

In a nonstick skillet, either melt a small amount of butter (my choice) or use an oil of your choice and heat on medium.  Place a flour tortilla in the skillet and twirl to evenly disperse the oil.  Sprinkle all over with both of the cheeses (I don’t do it very heavy, but depends on how much cheese you like).  On one side place chicken pieces, apples, and sauce.  On the other side sprinkle onions, cilantro and some avocado.  Fold the quesadilla in half and cook until golden on each side.  I slice some tomatoes and use the extra avocado to garnish.  Really yummy!

Chipotle Sauce

Okay, this is just something easily made up.  The first time I made it I used ½ cup prepared Chipotle Mayo, about 3 Tbsp of cream, 1/4 tsp cayenne and 1/4 tsp salt.  Way good.

The second time I used ½ up mayo, 3 Tbsp prepared chipotle sauce, 3 Tbsp cream, 1/4 tsp cayenne, and ½ tsp salt.

They are both equally as good in the quesadilla.  The first one has an edge on just tasting out of the bowl.

EAT UP!

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