Your Purse Is Too Heavy If...

--the passenger side seat belt alert light is flashing and only your purse is in that seat.

--you have an indentation in your shoulder that is strap-wide and never fully goes away.

--you switch shoulders only to find that that strap-wide indentation on your other shoulder keeps your purse from sliding down your arm.

--you heave a sigh of relief when you set it down.

--you've put it on the produce scale at the grocery story because you want confirmation it weighs 10 pounds.

--you hand it to your husband to hold and he groans and asks, 'What do you HAVE in there?'

--you think you won't fall on an icy parking lot because of the added weight of your purse.

--you find yourself in some serious pain after stubbing your toe on it.

--you empty it hoping to find something you can permanently remove and only used Kleenexes are eliminated.

--you find yourself wondering how other women can carry those cute, TINY purses.

--you consider the weight of the purse with only the paper wads inside before making a new purse purchase.

--you glare at your husband if he asks if he can put his five pound wallet in your purse.

--if it (inadvertently) knocks over one of the metal poles holding the velvet ropes at the bank.

Laundry Origins

Thursday is Laundry Day. A load of jeans, darks, lights, and whites. I don't know exactly why I noticed it, but the tag on a pair of my jeans, purchased at The Gap outlet store, said they were made in Egypt! With the uproar in Egypt I was surprised to find they manufactured jeans and jeans for women. I decided to check the tags on the remaining clothes for their point of origin. I was really surprised at all the SMALL countries producing clothing for the American market. Here's my "laundry" list:
Egypt
Cambodia
Bangladesh
Madagascar *
Jordan *
Thailand
Malaysia
Vietnam
Pakistan
Maldives *
And of course, China and Mexico

There were a couple amusing tags: One sweater had a label that read "United States Sweaters" then it read Made in China. Another was a decoy because the jeans were "Arizona" brand but made in Bangladesh.

I did have one item Made in USA- a t-shirt from the brand Apt.9. I was just going to check the labels on jeans but when I couldn't find a Made in USA tag I decided to keep looking.

The ones with the asterisks really surprised me. I had to look up Maldives. It sounded vaguely familiar and I hate to admit it, but, I believe I'd heard of it from the Miss World Pageants of my youth. It's a small island chain in the Indian Ocean, just west of India. It's hard to imagine a clothing industry there. It looks tailor-made for the tourist industry.

Those tags piqued my curiostiy. I'm going to keep checking on my world-traveling wardrobe!

Hormonally yours,
Peg

Super Loaf in a Bowl

I made a loaf of bread from scratch today. And it was quite successful. I'm surprised because I had a bread machine and tried a number of times to use it and my loaves always weighed about 5 pounds and were just inedible. I'd never considered making bread from scratch until I recently received a free issue of A Taste of Home February/March 2011 and Dilled Wheat Bread sounded (and looked) delicious.

This was to be my treat for the Super Bowl instead of the usual munchie snacks. I didn't intend to watch the game- it's the ONE thing I can't stand doing with my husband. He has been a Steelers' fan ever since I have known him, as was my mother. He gets so emotional about what happens on the field and uses language that he NEVER utters at any other time. The kids and I went to another room and watched Despicable Me again. (I never tire of that movie.) We go through this all season. I would like to see the Steelers win, also, but I don't really care if they don't. It just doesn't affect my life in any way. It would make Tim much easier to live with if they- the Steelers- didn't flub up so much and wait until the end to pull out a win! But back to the bread...

There were some surprise ingredients in there: cottage cheese. It called for cream-style cottage cheese. Hmmmm. I searched 3 stores and none had "cream style." So I opted for small curd and liquified them in the blender. Another surprise ingredient was minced onion. I had some, but never used them much. So I was a bit concerned and under-measured those a tiny bit. Third, sugar. Other than zucchini or banana bread I don't think I've ever seen sugar added to bread. But it definitely couldn't hurt. Finally, though not a surprise, was the dill. I love dill. I've tried to grow dill. I have a Ranch Oyster Cracker recipe that calls for dill. It just adds something unusual but satisfying to a recipe.

I've started a new habit when trying new recipes: I circle things I would otherwise do improperly. Like adding the egg AFTER the dry and wet ingredients have been mixed. I would assume I would just add the egg to the liquid-y stuff. I also underlined "greased" where ever it was written. I had to grease a bowl-see peach bowl in picture- and flip the dough over to grease both sides. Greasing, that's a step I usually discover AFTER I've already put something in a container.

I've made boule bread and the rising part isn't overly important and I never had to knead it. I did need to knead this bread; it was fun! Then I put it by a register in my bathroom, COVERED, and closed the door. That was the warmest place in the house.



After baking for 30 minutes the smell in the house was DIVINE. My kids were outside playing and when they came in my daughter was dazzled by the smell. I warned her of some of the ingredients. She didn't care. The smell was too intoxicating! I pulled the loaf pan out of the oven and brushed it with butter and sprinkled it with kosher salt. The recipe called for coarse salt. I think it's the same?

We lightly buttered the slices. I had the end pieces and they were just fantastic.

Today's Moral:
Don't give up. Be aware of your usual mistakes and don't make them again.
The results could be delicious.

Hormonally yours,
Peg