I "Shrewly" Am Busy, Busy, Busy

My horoscope today said that I should “Remind people how much they mean to you.” What better way than to do some of what I do best, and that is to share a recipe I recently received.

Everyone who knows me, knows that I love to cook and bake, and bake and cook, so I am always adding more to my list of recipes. By the way, I was finally able to sort through my ever-growing pile of recipes last weekend and now have them in folders, ready to be bound into my individual category binders. One step down, major step to go! I love doing this because it gives me a chance to revisit recipes and try some new and try some old. My binders have been crying out for some major attention from me and it is about time I give them their due time. Each gets tender loving care when adding new recipes, as I index and cross-reference each with other category binders (i.e., a Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo recipe may go in the Pasta binder, but it will be cross-referenced in the Seafood binder index so I know where to find another shrimp recipe when I want it). But it will also be indexed in a few different ways in the Pasta binder index (i.e., under fettuccine, under shrimp, under Alfredo). It is all in the details, baby, all in the details. That is my forte’ and if I can’t busy myself with details, I am not a happy camper.

Busy, busy, busy. All my time spent nursing and sitting with my dying Aunt, (God rest your beautiful soul as I love and miss you so much), things were sort of getting behind at home. I am now trying to catch up on all those little things that eventually turn into big things when left unattended to. I caught up on my filing for the farm. When not able to do that for four months, it becomes quite the pile. This is now all neat and put away in their respective folders in the filing cabinet. The next thing I have to catch up on is putting everything into Quicken since the beginning of the year. I don’t like to fall behind on this as it gets to be an even bigger pain in the butt later down the road. So, that is probably going to be priority number one on my “next to do” list.

Well, that would be after I catch up on my outside work which actually needs to head to the top of the list. There are more plants to plant, mulch to put down and trees to trim. But Bob and I have other projects around the farm that also needs to be done. He has his priority list and I have mine. We try to combine a little of his with hers and work together on some of these. He has a “need your help” project in the freestall barn that is at the top of his list now that he has crossed off working on the mower.

My mower is starting to get to that point of “no return.” It was also in need of some tender loving care. It has a hole on the top of the deck where it continuously spews out grass right at me until it finally gets plugged up. Then at the beginning of the mowing season this year, one of the tires that guide the deck cracked right where it is welded onto the deck. It started to become more of a pain wondering when it may fall off, so Bob just yanked it off where it was cracked at the deck. This caused a hole on the right side of the deck, which then created an eruption of grass from both sides of the mower. At some points during the last mowing session I had, I looked like what is left on the ground after Edward Scissorhands had a go at a few hedges – covered with expelled green stuff. This became too big a problem so I got my major mowing done this past weekend and Bob took the deck off to take it in to get some welding done. They called last night to say it is done, just in time to get started again this weekend. At least now I won’t have to don a rain jacket to stay away from being bombarded with mowed grass.

The poor seat on my 20+ year-old Cub Cadet mower was also shot. Our anniversary was not a very happy one this year, as it was the day before Auntie died. But Bob tried to brighten it a little for me by pimping my mower out. Well, as “pimped” as a couple of old fogeys like us can get. He got me a new seat for the mower. (You can see it doesn’t take too much to please me.) At least now I don’t have to throw a towel over it to cover up the rips in the old leather seat, plus it has a higher back. A little more comfortable on some of the bumpy rides I have to take over my mole-tunneled lawn.

Now, that is another problem. I need to get these moles (or maybe they are shrews or voles) under control. I’m not the only one with a yard pest problem. My sister, Suzi, confessed to me a couple months ago that they have new “friends” who have decided it was time to party in their yard. Voles. Voles, shrews, they are all about the same, aren’t they? I’ve been calling them shrews, so maybe in Wisconsin they are the Shrews and in Minnesota they are their up-north cousins, the Voles.

According to Suzi and Greg’s pest control person, they have adopted around fifty! My yard is bigger and it is part of the farm – I must have a whole village-worth. I imagine they have retired here now and are building condos and whole retirement villages. Hopefully, they don’t invite the Minnesota cousins down, or I am having thoughts of putting the tiller on the mower and just having a go at it with the entire yard. Now that would be almost comical to see, little shrews flying through the air as I furiously dig paths through the yard. They probably burrow too deep to even get them that way. I bet they are putting me on their terrorist alert list, as we speak.

Our cats find them, and apparently don’t like the taste of them, because they leave them laying around for me to find. I yelp when I do find them, and then get a shovel and throw them over the fence and just hope they decay or that something bigger, that doesn’t have such a persnickety appetite, will come along and eat them. Thank God, Pongo just sniffs at them and walks away. He is as picky as the cats, which is good for me. I don’t think I would want him feeling he overate on a shrew meal and then leave me a little present in the house. (Okay, wish I had never said that because that will be all I can think of now for a while.)

All this work to get done, now I am starting to feel a little tired. Maybe it is nap time . . . but then, I am not really sure what that is anymore. I’ll just have to grab one of my new books (David Baldacci’s “Deliver Me From Evil”) and work on that for a little bit. At least, then I don’t have to think about dealing with those shrews. And, I “shrewly” am not up to that at the moment.

So, before I forget or doze off to sleep, here is the recipe I wanted to share with you:

PEPPERIDGE FARM MILANO COOKIES

Rich, dark chocolate sandwiched between two layers of shortbread cookies.

Shortbread Cookies
3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup salted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour

Chocolate Sauce
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon salted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 325*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. To make the chocolate sauce, melt the chocolate chips and the 1 tablespoon butter in the top of a double boiler, being careful not to let it get too hot--the chocolate will burn and the butter will separate. Set aside at room temperature until ready to use.

3. Cream the sugar and 1 cup butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and the flour, 1 cup at a time, and stir until well incorporated.

4. Shape the dough into 20 1-inch balls and press them into 2-inch-long ovals. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheets and bake 17 to 20 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely.

5. Dip the flat side of each cookie into the chocolate sauce and press the 2 chocolate sides together to make a "sandwich." Let the cookies rest on the cooled baking sheet until the chocolate hardens a little.


Happy Eating!