Penny

I was frantically cleaning out my closet this morning, trying to find some sheets for the camper that seem to have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle of my house, AND purging my closet of second-hand clothes to recycle through St. Vincent De Paul. (That's not a trendy boutique, despite it's French sounding name...it's the second hand store in Miles City. I buy most of my clothes there. The rest of my wardrobe comes from Karen's Closet, a very exclusive place in Billings. So exclusive, in fact, that only her daughters and I get the castoffs. The price is right, and Karen has impeccable taste. )

Anyway, I came across a white cotton sleeveless blouse that I've had for 12 years, if I've had it a day, and laughed out loud. "I have to tell them the story of Penny!", I thought to myself, while I continued to dig and fold and sort. (Yes, I have THAT type of closet...) I went on with my day, and took 4 bags of recycle-able clothes to Miles City and traded them for 1 bag of new-to-me clothes and 1 bag of books.

So here's the story. My friend Ty Yost once dated a very nice girl from Colorado named Penny, who also had impeccable taste in clothes. (Come to think of it, most of his girlfriends did!) I met her once, I believe, the first summer I lived with Yosts. Anyway, she had used this white shirt for a rag, and Karen Yost found it, unbelieving that she truly meant to treat it in this manner. Penny said that yes, it was old and she didn't want it any more. Karen, recognizing quality, quietly washed it up and put it in her own closet. After a couple of years of wear, she passed it on to me in a bag of hand-me-downs, and laughingly told me the story.

I loved the shirt! It's tailored, with subtle insets of stitching around the edges of the hems, and looks great with jeans, skirts, shorts, suits, capris...the perfect sleeveless linen-look cotton blouse without all the care of linen. I've worn it to family photo shoots, weddings, picnics, you name it. And somewhere along the line, I started calling it Penny. Penny and I are starting to look a little alike, sadly. Sort of dingy, a little worn around the edges. And when someone compliments me on my blouse, I say, "Oh, this old rag...?" and chuckle to myself at the truth of the matter.

Penny made the cut, once again, but I know it's not going to be too much longer she stays in my closet. I think I'm going to have to start wearing her when I garden or gather cows. I don't think I will ever be able to send her back to the rag bag, though. We have too much history, together. I have no idea what ever happened to the girl, Penny, but I think of her every time I wear the shirt and shake my head at her choice of rags. And I bless Karen for rescuing one of the nicest blouses I've had the pleasure of wearing.

Seedy

Okay, I have several weaknesses. Books are like kryptonite. Coffee, will bring me to my knees. (Or up off them!) And seeds and plants enslave me.
















Here's the short list for what I'm ordering from Cook's, Johnny's, Renee's and Scheeper's:

• Lemon cucumbers
• Forellenschuss lettuce (It's named after trout...how can I resist that?)
• Borettana Cippolini onion
• Milano Black zucchini
• Petit Poi Precoville peas (alliteration at it's best)
• Purple podded pole beans (a close second)
• Pinapple tomatillo
• Pistou basil
• Rapunzel (for Maggie)
• Kale (also for HRH)
• Kaleidoscope carrots (purple, red and yellow carrots)
• Blue and Yellow Duo peas
• Carillon beets
• Lemon balm
• Rouge d'Etamps pumpkins
• Charantais melon
• Borage
• Caribe cilantro
• Dukat dill
• Mignonette
• Starburst Aura Sunflower
• Snackers Delight tomato plants (an extravagant experiment)
• Cinnamon and lemondrop basil
• Stock
• Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate
• Status
• Ammi
• Golden Sunshine Bean (pole)
• Scheeper's Baby Leaf Salad mixture
• Lolla rossa lettuce
• Parisienne Cornichon de Bourbonne cucumbers

I'm not ordering them ALL for just me...some go to Traci, some go to Anne, some go to those who email me frantically with seed exchanges, some are for Maggie because she wants to plant her own salad.

AND, (for those who know my personality you'd better sit down) I have a planting diagram. And a garden journal. Those are some serious boundaries for someone who plants zucchini under the rose bush. We'll see. I'll place the seed order today, when the kids nap. If you have any requests or ideas, post quickly or email me! (And yes, many of these are French varieties....I can't pass up a Charantais when compared to a Sugar Baby. Wouldn't you rather wander through your garden dropping names like Cornichon de Bourbonne and Cippolini? Especially if you live in a flyspot on the map named Cohagen? I'm the only trailer in this park...)

We were one CUP short...

...of a tea party, but we gathered anyhow! Our Perpetual Hostess, Anne, told us she was flying to Dallas on Wednesday and would be unavailable for the party. SURE, she's flying to Dallas...(We'll see if the postcard shows up. We are not empty CUPS, I'll have you know! If she says she's going to Dallas, we need proof. Otherwise, it would appear she's avoiding us, and we'd take that rather personally. In a group of 3, one notices an absence...)

At any rate, the two remaining CUPS members and their Cupcakes met at Mary's house for Sumatra french press coffee and generous helpings of pumpkin gooey cake with cream. And we weren't actually feeling all that abused!

Because Mary was hostess, there were no crafts, BUT we DID peruse foodie magazines and seed catalogs. The seed order will be placed later today, and you'll have a complete report in the next post, because we know y'all are just dying to know what sorts of plants we're going to start, then neglect to death, this year in our gardens.

Traci took notes on cucumber health and we plotted out what to put in the ungainly bed in front of her house. She was not going to plant ANYTHING there, because of a possible garage! This offended my horticultural sensibilities greatly! Who has ever heard of someone not planting because of impending construction?!! The girl has a long ways to come, in her gardening obsession. ( Around here, if someone leaves a boot on the step too long; say, 36 hours, it's fair game to plant in. Flip-flops are tricky. I digress....) I think I have her convinced to put some scarlet runner beans and taller annuals there. It needs some height. We read up on Mrs. Greenthumbs classic Greek proportion; 2:1+1 (10 foot wall: 6 foot plant).

*And a word about Traci and her food magazines/cookbooks/recipes...

The girl needs help. At the risk of offending, I called it her porn. And she laughingly agreed! But, after we pulled out the seed catalogs/gardening books/planting diagrams and I reacted in much the same way, we called it even. Is there a twelve step program out there for people who can't stop cooking, or people who plant too much? If so, please leave the contact information discreetly in my comment box. Lives may be saved.

The Cupcakes played quietly, much to our surprise! Ben and Maggie, at this age, were snarling, biting, and whining. It was survival of the strongest. Angus and Allie circled each other, eyed each other, then went their separate ways. Shocking! But SO nice!

We missed Anne, terribly. She's just as crazy about food and plants, and offers a good balance for us. I guess I'll order her some mystery seeds from John Scheeper's and we'll see her next week. At her house.

Respectfully submitted,

Secretary and Arts and Crafts Director Mary Pluhar

When you start feeling abused...

...make yourself some Paula Deen Gooey Butter Cake and a big ole pot of Sumatra french roast coffee with a generous dollop of heavy whipping cream, and listen to a Beth Moore lesson. It'll pull you right out of those doldrums! And don't give me any whining about calories. You are feeding your SOUL, my dear...calories simply have nothing to do with medicine. (It's true! Go ahead and Google "gooey butter cake and medicine" and see what you come up with.)

Because my friend Traci is feeling sorry for herself, and I believe she has the recipe, but I'm not altogether positive, here it is. Do NOT skimp on the cream cheese or the sugar, sweetie! (Don't you think cream cheese has medicinal properties? It's bound to....I always feel better after ingesting some. Even just reading a recipe with cream cheese brightens my day.)

Gooey Butter Cake

Mix together: 1 box yellow cake mix

1 egg

1/2 c melted butter. (Use REAL buttah, darling; no margarine!)

Press mixture in bottom of a lightly greased 9 x 13 pan.

With electric mixer, beat 1 8 oz package cream cheese until smooth;

add 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon REAL vanilla, and mix.

Dump in 2 cups powdered sugar and blend.

Reduce speed of mixer and add 1/2 c melted butter; mix well.

Pour filling onto cake mixture and spread evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes...until it smells done, and the middle acts fairly set up.

(If you put a toothpick in it, it will come out a little gooey. That's perfect!)

Cool until you can't take it anymore, then cut yourself a goodly portion and put it in a bowl.

Now, spoon some cherry or blueberry pie filling over it, and add gen-u-ine whipped cream. Don't skimp on the whipped cream! You should still have some left from the coffee, but if you don't, whup up some more.

If you feel the least bit abused, after a bowl of this, the coffee and Beth Moore, you probably need professional help. I've done my best, and so has Paula Deen.

Vote for the Book

Our bookclub reading theme this year is Non-Fiction...that's it. It's completely open to whatever we want, after that. I ADORE non-fiction! And I have to have my selection ready for the group by March 12. The big problem being: which of the 10 books to choose? I have it narrowed down to, gulp, 6 books. Hey,out of the original 27 choices, I think this is progress!

I've decided, with Patricia's encouraging comment, to let my blog readers (some who are also Underground Book Club members) choose the book and menu. Here's how it will work: I'll give the title and menu options in this post, then have a corresponding poll widget for you to vote on. If you have reasons for your choice, comment here. OR if you want to remain anonymous in your selection, that's cool, too.

1. Too Much Tuscan Sun-Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide, by Dario Castagno

Menu: Crostini, spinach salad with weird stuff like cranberries, feta cheese, etc.; homemade pasta, wine, fruit tart.

2. People With Dirty Hands - The Passion For Gardening, by Robin Chotzinoff

Menu: Flower pot-pies, green salad with weird stuff like apples, almonds, sharp cheddar, etc.; veggie appetizers, lemonade, dirt cake.

3. The Rock that is Higher - Story as Truth, by Madeleine L'Engle

Menu: Homemade tortillas, chorizo-potato filling, watergate salad, tortilla chips and salsa, rock-y road cheesecake.

4. Confederates In the Attic, by Tony Horowitz

Menu: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade rolls, coconut cream pie or chocolate cream pie.

5. Why Beauty Matters, by Karen Lee-Thorp and Cynthia Hicks

Menu: Spa food...fruit smoothies, cucumbers to eat and to put on puffy eyes, great build-it-yourself salad bar, beautiful dessert...cream puffs with strawberries, kiwi and peaches.

6. Once Upon a Tart, by Frank Mentesana and Jerome Audureau

Menu: Three onion soup, roasted potato tart with tarragon, sauteed mushrooms and melted gruyere cheese; peach and blueberry free-form tart, baked lemon tart, couscous salad with roasted veggies and sun-dried tomatoes. All recipes from the book, which happens to be a cookbook that I've read over and over!

You see my dilemma. If you want a closer look, I got the pictures at Amazon, and they have excerpts there.

Too much!

Alright, the kids went with their dad to go feeding AND visit the grandparents and I'm ignoring the dishes and laundry. The house is totally quiet, with the exception of that noisy betta fish in the corner....all day long: burble, bubble, slosh!

So I wanted to blog, of course! And all day yesterday, I wrote them in my head. I was eloquent, descriptive, witty, clever....all those things. Today, with no one hanging on me, I can't seem to form a paragraph! But I have a bunch of random thoughts, so I'll toss those out and see what we come up with.

1. I have about 600 packets of seeds, marked in my catalogs and I can't seem to narrow down enough to order any. There's no possible way to plant that many flowers and vegetables without a staff of 6 Mexicans to help tend them!

2. We may have a problem. My daughter says she's from Texas. And when pressed: Cohagen, Texas. Perhaps I took the Red Raider thing too far...

3. Maggie ALSO has a list of seeds to order for HER garden. She likes exotic things, like ruffled kale and kaleidescope carrots. So we have to till up another acre for her crops. And she'll eat them, too, which is the exciting part!

4. I have to figure out where to put an antique upright piano in an already crowded trailer house. And how to prevent young Beethoven from playing it, less than tunefully, all the time. Perhaps it's time to build on.

5. #703 had a bull calf yesterday morning....let the games begin!

6. I have a list of about 10 possible choices for my bookclub selection next month, and I need to narrow that down to 1. Would you all be willing to vote on a poll, to help me choose? I have menus to go with them, if that would influence choice.

7. Guess what we found in the heat vent, yesterday? (No, it wasn't the other 85 socks...) A bigfoot truck, two crayons and a bunch of ponytail holders. And this was because we were stopping Angus from putting the cat down there.

8. I had one of the blog lurkers call yesterday to see if I was alright! I guess the Cohagen Chronicles ARE read by more than my husband and sister-in-law. So, for those faithful readers who didn't get any Chronicles for a week, I apologize...and I miss you, too. I live for the comments. (And that's a sad little commentary on my life, right there!)

I guess that's about it for this morning. Now I'm going to ease back into the kitchen and do dishes. And throw some clothes in the washer. I like to let them get down to their LAST pair of underwear before I get in a hurry. That way the whole laundry process is applauded and given the weight it deserves. You've never seen a more grateful man than one who is staring at an empty underwear drawer, then Voila! boxers appear before his very eyes! (Maybe that falls under the category of too much information. Well, now you have something on the Farmer....)