Polynesian SPAM with salad and appetisers.

This is the result of my personal pantry challenge. Today’s use it or lose it was a can of spam and red and green bell peppers that REALLY needed to be used.   (the red one was a bit wrinkly)

POLYNESIAN SPAM

(the amounts are estimates because I don’t really measure)

1/2 can of Spam cut into small cubes
2 tbsp. oil
1 onion cut in slivers
1/2 green bell pepper cut into thin strips (reserve the other half — reverse if your red bell pepper is the prettiest)
1 red bell pepper cut into thin strips
1 generous handful of matchstick carrots (buy them already cut)
1 garlic clove, minced or use the stuff in the jar.
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 med can chunk pineapple in juice (reserve a few pieces)
3 tbsp. vinegar
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. or more ground ginger

Brown Spam cubes in hot oil in a large skillet.

Add onions, peppers, carrots and garlic; cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes.

Mix cornstarch with soy sauce; add to pan with pineapple and juice, vinegar, sugar and ginger. Bring to full boil.

Serve over rice.

Plating suggestion for entree,  please note the appropriate Dollar Store plasic plates that add that certain something to the presentation.  Start with a rice ring.

Spoon the Polynesian Spam into the center and garnish with slivers of carrot and pepper and half a slice of left out pineapple.

For Appetiser/Salad plate
Fry a few very thin slices of Spam until crispy
Spread whole grain crackers with cream cheese and a tiny bit of jalepeno jelly. Top with crispy Spam strip

Make skewers (use the ones that you saved that were holding the take out boxes closed — I know you have some) of tiny pickle halves, pineapple chunks, cheese and Spam chunks.

 

Salad:
Mash about 1/4 of the spam. Mix with finely chopped celery, mayonnaise, a hard boiled egg and chopped pickle. Spoon into a slice of the reserved bell pepper.

Close up of Salad:

This meal should be served with a large pitcher of Sweet tea.  The pitcher is best if it comes from Good Will and had to have tacky paint removed before it could be used.  The elegant classic stemware is available at a local restaurant supply for about .75 per stem.

The lovely salad plates with the tropical flowers that fit the theme so well  are also yard sale finds and cost a whole quarter each.

To finish the table presentation, might I recommend grocery store premium flatware?  There is nothing quite like buying groceries and having them give you the implements to consume it to enhance that ambiance of  understated elegance.

I love buying children’s books.  Tonight I got Collin , “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs”  He has his father’s sick, warped sense of humor.  He’ll love it.

But I have to get him a toy before I go over to visit.  I picked up a brand new (unfortunately naked) CPK doll at the thrift store.  Then a couple of days later I found a ganky doll with a cute outfit.  I bought the ganky doll.  Stripped her in the car, and gave the doll back to the thrift store.  So now I have a gift for Maureen but no toy for Collin.  I may have to suck it up and actually purchase something — gasp — new.

I also picked up a BBQ  sandwich for dinner while I was out, so I wouldn’t mess up the kitchen cooking.   I shouldn’t have.  REALLY, I SHOULDN’T HAVE.  It was dry and rather tasteless.  :(  I guess I won’t stop at Tay’s again. 

Self and I do not always see eye to eye.  Self has some very bad habits.  One of which is an addiction to Thrift Shops.  I think that she must have some magpie in her because of her love of pretty shinies.

 Copper and brass bowl?  $1.50  MUST HAVE!

Mikasa covered Christmas bowl?  GIMME GIMME

Clothing for the Living room dolls?  It’s going to follow her home.

I on the other hand have no use for such unnecessary items.  I don’t see what self sees in them.   I however am hooked on buying good Children’s literature for the smallest members of my family.  Tonight I brought home “The Wind in the Willows”, ”The Little Big Book for Moms”, a Berenstein Bear storybook, and an outdoor activities book.  Contributing to the literacy of the next generation is always a good thing.  Tonight I have been reading through the books (because of course you can’t give a child a book that you haven’t read) and thoroughly enjoying them. 

In fact I have even expanded my reading to other stories by Kenneth Grahame.  (Wind in the Willows)  I reread  chapter 7 from “Dream Days”.  I had forgotten how very charming the original was.  Most of the versions you see now are the Disneyfied editions.  If anyone wants to read a tale about an intelligent young lad, a very reluctant dragon and the valiant St. George, click the link….  http://www.online-literature.com/grahame/dream-days/7/  and enjoy.  Or better yet,  try sharing it with your favorite child.

 And if you know of any way to discourage self from self indulgence feel free to share that information with me.

BTW.  If you want the Disney version, it’s on YouTube.

Part 1:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=71Lu9MsQ1yM&feature=related

Part 2:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=NIvLpzt9yPQ&feature=related

Cleaning really isn’t a problem.  Get motivated – get busy.  I don’t have toss out remorse and I’m not particularly attached to my junk.  I just have too much stuff in too small a space.  I need to get over the mentality that I still have a larger home.

 But while most of the areas are clean there is always a bit around the edges that is a problem.  What do I do with ______?

One of the more problematic items in the living room was a bicycle wheel.  I leave my bike on the front porch/patio but to discourage theft, I bring the front wheel inside the apartment.  Unfortunately no matter how eclectic your decorating scheme a bicycle wheel is not going to be considered an object d’art.  And this one had a nasty attitude to boot.   It would jeer, blow raspberries and yell, “neener, neener” everytime I walked by.  When I leaned it against the wall in the hall, it would prostrate itself in the middle of the hall to trip me in the dark.  When banished behind the sofa, it got revenge by poking a hole in the sheetrock.  When rolled between the TV stand and the serving trays, it not only looked lovely, it would entwine itself around the legs of the TV trays and try to prevent you from using them.   We are talking about a tire with generally crappy attitude.

This morning I discovered that TIRE would fit in the small space between the wall and the water heater in the utility closet.  TIRE HAS BEEN BANISHED FROM SIGHT! ! !    It takes so little to give me the warm fuzzies.

 On a semi related note (cleaning issues)  This morning the toilet paper spindle appeared in the middle of the floor of the hall.  It disappeared several months ago and I was too stubborn to replace it when I knew that it had just grown 4 (or 8 or 12) feet and been batted somewhere out of sight.  TP is now hanging in it’s nice convenient little dispenser.

However a certain 4 legged critter is on my shit list.  I was chatting on the computer when someone who shall remain nameless (Sassy) jumped up on my computer desk and grabbed my diamond ring her teeth and ran.   Luckily I witnessed the theft or I would have been frantic.  Ring is now safely returned to my finger and all other jewelry that I assumed was safe on top of the computer desk has been placed in my jewelry box with the lid closed.

They’re so loving and sharing.  Of course the loving and the sharing go together.  All those wonderful hugs and kisses spread their little germs about.   I love my grandson dearly but I wish he had kept his sickness to himself.   Of course I would rather be sick myself than have him sick but that isn’t the option.

I am going to to have to get antiobiotics before Christmas in order to make it through the holidays.

Did you miss me?

 I made a discovery while I was visiting my friend.  I can deal with clutter, I can live with clutter, I can even embrace clutter — I do like “stuff”.  But I cannot deal with filth.  I can’t sleep when I know that there is mouse poop around the edges of the room.  I have nightmares about mice skittering across the bed.  I can’t eat when the kitchen is nasty.  I have to wash each dish before using it.

I am glad to be home and in my own messy apartment.   So it isn’t House Beautiful, it’s not inhabited by vermin and it doesn’t contain the filth of the ages.  I can wipe off my table and once it’s swiped, it’s clean.  It doesn’t continue to ooze off the finish.  I can vacuum the floors and just dump the vacuum.  I don’t have to take it apart every 2-3 minutes to dig out a clog.   When I wash out the tub, it’s white, not stained forever (except in one small corner where there is rust)  When I do the laundry, I can sit on the floor and fold it and not feel the need to rewash it because it touched the floor.

Oh please, give me clutter ANY day! ! !

 I am seriously worried about my friend.  She is existing in that squalor.  She doesn’t leave the house except under duress.   She doesn’t do anything all day long except go back to bed.  If the phone rings, she falls apart.  She doesn’t clean, she usually doesn’t get dressed, she just exists in a state like that of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.  The house in which she is living was built by her parents and they lived there until their deaths.  Her mother died over 10 years ago and yet her clothing still hangs in her closet and her shoes are still on the shoe rack on the door.  Her father’s clothing still hangs in his closet and he died about 5 years ago.  The furniture is still the same and there is probably the same dirt on the floors. 

My friend spends 90% of her time talking about the past and fretting about the “wrong” decisions that she made.  She is unwilling and unable to let go and move forward.  My heart breaks for her.  No one can be happy in that situation.  

Life is not stagnant, we can’t halt it’s progression, nor can we rewind and tape over the bad parts.  All we can do is let go of the past, do our best each day and look forward to the future.  I don’t care how many poor decisions have been made in the past, they cannot be changed.  The only option we have is to move forward.  We will advance into the future whether we accept it or not, so we might as well make the best of it and thank G-d often for giving us a fresh start in a new day.

Please, if I ever start fretting over the past, I want someone to smack me upside the head and remind me that, “THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HATH MADE.  I WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT!”  I am making a consicous decision here and now to let go of the past and refuse to dwell there.

Have a glorious Holiday Season and a blessed New Year! !  And remember to be glad that we are given this life to enjoy.  REJOICE!

I realized that all the photos of my dolls were going to be taken in the same spot due to the fact that the rest of the apartment was too messy to show, I decided that cleaning was in order.

 So far I think I am winning.  But I’m not entirely sure.  The clutter around here seems to have a really nasty attitude and a penchant for channeling old cult movies.  It makes cleaning a challenge.

I hope to get to the point soon where I can photograph the dolls about the house and get to enjoy them and play with them  as I do so.

But for  now, dianesdolls won’t necessarily be about dolls.  Just deal with it.

Maybe I will even remember that I take cool photographs and will get out and take more.   For now, here is a glance at one taken several years ago.

Margarethe is an Engel-Puppe that was manufactured for the Home Shopping Network.  She is an unusual doll in that with 15 joints, she is very poseable.  Unfortunately, her joints aren’t her most attractive feature.  She seems to be held together with phillips head screws.

She was an ebay find.  Most of these dolls have a resale value of about $150- $175 but she was posted incorrectly and had bad photos so I was able to get her for about $20.

 There is one on Ebay now that someone hopes to get $475.00 for.  I think they need to get a reality check instead.  Besides the photos of the doll on ebay are horrible.   Here’s a link if you want to laugh.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ENGEL-PUPPE-GERMAN-DOLL-MARGARETHE_W0QQitemZ5668187717QQihZ009QQcategoryZ339QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

** While I was taking the undressed photo, Sassy grabbed one of her shoes and ran off with it.  She put it in the litter box.  Does anyone want to scoop out a doll shoe and sanitize it?  I don’t know what she did with the socks. ** 

Hope is a special edition Build-A-Bear, for Breast Cancer awareness.   She was a gift from my friend Linda in Florida.  Hope has gone with me to chemotherapy treatments, she went with me into surgery.  She was with me when I went to sleep she was in my arms when I woke up.  I say she stayed with me.  And she went with me to radiation treatments.

Everyone needs a bit of Hope in their lives.

  That Zorro had blonde curls and dimples. 

 Happy Halloween.