Snowflakes on our Tongues

 It seems appropriate to highlight this book, considering the weather we've had in the Mid-Atlantic!

It's time for a wonderful, wholesome picture book!  The animals on this farm love to catch snowflakes on their tongues when the farmer isn't looking!  The delightful illustrations in this book accentuate the playfulness of the text.  The rhyming text makes this a most excellent book to read aloud - either to the child sitting on your lap or to a large group of children. When I've read the story out loud to a group, the children always end up helping me out with the refrain!  (I've read it three times this month!)

The kids absolutely love it! 

Elli Mochi Donut

For years, I ate gluten free. I learned to tolerate the weird consistency of gluten free food.  And then... I had cancer surgery and my surgeon put me together with a nutrition team. I'm learning to eat healthier.  I've also learned two other life changing (for me) facts:

1) I am lactose intolerant.  Who boy, does that explain a lot.  Wow.

2) I can tolerate gluten.  Who boy!  I'm like a kid in a candy store!

In an effort to eat better, lose weight, and still enjoy some of that gluten filled deliciousness, I am visiting one gluten loaded bakery each month and partaking in one or two items from their menu.  Believe it or not, I spend a lot of time looking up bakeries, checking out their menus and their online reviews, looking at pictures...  (drooling a little)  *sigh*  This honestly seems like the only way to do this - indulge in some sweet treats - and NOT gain the weight I am trying so desperately to lose!

My first stop on the bakery tour was Eli Moochi, in Ellicott City.  Their donut flavors very from day to day, but there is one consistent theme: YUM!

We had company when I stopped by to pick up a dozen donuts.  We demolished those donuts in a day!  They are very good.  They are chewier than a Krispy Kreme, and denser than a Dunkin'.  They are so very good!  Also on the menu at Elli Mochi are teas and smoothies, as well as Korean Corn Dogs.  What is a Korean Corn Dog?  As near as I can tell, it is a hot dog, wrapped in the mochi dough, and then fried.  While I would absolutely love to try one, my current status of "needs to lose weight" has me bypassing this delicacy for now.  I'll be back to try them once I make these 25 extra pounds a thing of the past!

A box of Elli Mochi Donuts!  They are little pieces of art.

The cookie monster one is so cute!

My personal favorite!
I added the little umbrella - they didn't give it to me.
I thought it seemed appropriate!

Massive Snow Storm Headed to the East Coast

The preparations for any major snowstorm in the Mid-Atlantic are always amusing.  People panic buy like we're going to be snowbound for a month or more.  The reality in 2025 is that we might be snowed in for a week, at most.  Even here in Maryland, our road crews are great at getting business moving again in pretty quick order.  I grew up in the Mid-West.  TBH, we are always prepared for bad weather.  We've always got enough food in the freezer and non-perishables to see us through for a couple of weeks in the winter time.  Blizzards are no joke.  We don't get many blizzards here in Maryland, and I'm not certain if this storm will be a blizzard or not.

But watching people freak out is a wonderful past time for me!  We have a turkey that I picked up on sale after Thanksgiving that we are going to cook tomorrow.  Somehow, I found a relatively small bird.  This one is less than 10 pounds.  The two of us should be set for days....  If the power does go out, it will be nice to have cooked food on hand.

I couldn't resist going to Wal-Mart yesterday.  This storm has been hyped so much, I was curious just how much people were panicking.  Let me tell you, the visit did not disappoint.  

Evidently, a lot of beef chili is going to be had in the Burg.
We need to have a chili cook off at some point!

Or maybe we're all making wings?

There's just a little milk left - all of it Lactose Free.
I love the half gallons of chocolate milk!
I really should have picked one up!
If only I wasn't on a quest to lose weight...

I enjoyed my visit.  I needed to break a $20, so I got a salad from Subway and sat down and watched the chaos at the registers for a while.  I give a lot of credit to the employees - they really kept those self check outs moving fast!  But I am wondering why someone needed 10 cartons of eggs.  If you're reading this, I want to know what you're making with them! Please tell!  Give me the recipes!

I admit, I did panic buy one item.  White acid free cardstock.  I'm working on an old scrapbook that I found from the 1950's.  Everything was glued down, front and back to the same page.  And the pages are disintegrating.  The items that were glued down are of historic significance.  I'm hoping to get at least some of the pages pulled apart and remade.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to safely do this without ruining all of the documents, please let me know!  I really would appreciate your input!

Seriously folks - if you're in the way of this storm, stay safe and warm.  This promises to be the first wild winter weather event we've had in Maryland in 10 years.  I'm thrilled to have some snow!  My hiking boots are out, and I found my sled!  There's a little hill in our back yard that I've got my eye on.  It's been 10 years since I last took a sled down that hill!

Woodlands: Pure Vegetarian Indian Cuisine

Indian Cuisine is fascinating, isn't it?  So many subtle depths of flavor in every single bite.  Up until recently, we had an Indian restaurant across the street from where I work, and I thoroughly enjoyed eating my way through their menu with the help of the owner who loved to recommend new foods for me to try. Since that restaurant has closed, I have moved on to search for other sources of Indian Food. This journey led us down to the Washington, DC area. 

Woodlands Pure Vegetarian Indian Cuisine is located in Gaithersburg, MD.  The location is in the bottom floor of an office building, and is rated as one of the best Indian Food Restaurants in the Washington, DC area.  Husband and I decided to set out on an adventure to try some new to us food.  We met up with friends. It turns out that this restaurant is a great place to meet up with a group!  Most of the food is served family style, so you are able to taste everything.  The servers were excellent at giving us recommendations for food based upon what we have tried and liked before.

I had the Uthappam.  Oh my goodness, it was amazing.  Giant hashbrown pancake with so many vegetables mixed in doesn't do this dish justice. It was the best thing I have ever had.  Sad to say, I refused to share more than a bite with anyone.  It was mine!  The sauces that came with the dish were not spicy and enhanced the flavor of the dish.

I also had the Mixed Vegetable Pakora.  Everyone shared in this delicious appetizer!  Potatoes, onions, and cauliflower are mixed with chickpea flour and then deep fried.  Oh my goodness!  It was amazing!

We had several curries.  I tried a bite of each, but I was so enchanted with my Uthappam that I really didn't try many of the curries.  We had a Chana Masala (one of my favorites), Vegetable Korma, Dal Makhani, and Aloo Gobi (another favorite).  What I tasted was amazing.  I was honestly hoping that we would have leftovers so that I could take them home and really enjoy them for lunch the next day.  Unfortunately, we had no leftovers.  We cleaned out everything! 

I'm in no way tied to the Woodlands restaurant.  But if you're in the Washington DC area and are looking for some amazing Indian Food - this place is great!

My Cookbook!

 I found this gem the other day, hiding in a box that I pulled from the storage unit.

 

It's the cookbook I put together back way back when I was young and innocent.  I was still in High School when I assembled this. I used this notebook in Junior High School. I think it came through Junior High School in better shape than I did, honestly.   I curated this wonderful cookbook using recipes from the Sunday Supplement in the Washington Post, the backs of cereal boxes, and various women's magazines. I look at some of these recipes now and wonder "what was I thinking?"  I wouldn't have eaten any of this stuff back in the 80's, and I'm even less likely to eat it now.  

Some of these recipes are classics!  I copied this lasagna recipe from the back of a box of San Georgio Pasta back in the 80's.  I've used this recipe so often, I have it memorized.  I've modified it a little over time (I add a ton of veggies to the sauce, and I've cut amount of meat and cheese in half.) But, the bones of the recipe are still very much the same.

For a while now, I've been searching for a "Holy Grail" recipe.  I used to make this all of the time, and it was one of my favorites.  Basically, you took a large instant biscuit, flattened it out, and then filled it with broccoli and ham.  You'd roll the biscuit up around the filling, and put that into the oven.  While it was baking, you would make the cheese sauce from scratch.  I mastered this recipe when I was 14, and for many years it was a staple.  I stopped making it sometime in college, and hadn't really thought about it until I found this notebook. I don't even know where this recipe came from anymore.  I hand-copied the recipe onto a sheet of notebook paper.

Younger me thought that this was a complete meal!  It has broccoli!  Older and wiser me would add a side salad, a baked sweet potato, or roasted veggies to round this out.  I hope you enjoy this recipe from the Way Back Machine!

Broccoli and Ham Roll Ups

Ingredients:

For the Roll-Ups

1 can of refrigerated rolls

1 cup cooked, chopped, broccoli. (squeeze the water out with cheesecloth or a paper towel.)

1/2 cup cooked diced ham

For the Cheese Sauce

2 TBSP butter

2 TBSP flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1-3/4 cups of shredded cheddar cheese.

Directions:

Pre-Heat oven to 375*.

Unroll and separate the rolls.  Flatten them out.

Mix broccoli and ham together.

Along the middle of the biscuit, place 1/8 of the ham mixture.

Roll the two sides of the rolls inward, around the filling, and place in a greased 9x13 inch baking dish.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

While this is cooking, make the sauce:

In a saucepan, melt the butter.  Add the flour and whisk until a paste forms.

Slowly add milk to the paste, and stir until the flour mixture is thoroughly incorporated.  Add the cheese, and stir until the cheese is melted into the flour mixture. 

Remove the roll-ups from the oven and pour the cheese sauce over top of everything before serving.

In A Rush

 In A Rush.  Kate Canterbary.

Content Warnings: Content Notes:

incidences and discussion of infidelity, incidence of body shaming, parental estrangement, parental divorce, brief mention of past domestic violence (parent/child), brief mention of past emotional abuse (parent/child), brief mention of parental death (ALS), chronic illness (main character–endometriosis). Note that there are several explicit sex scenes in this book.

Romance novels seem to be crossing my path a lot more often recently!  I love the happy endings, and I'm enjoying the spicy parts, too.  In A Rush is the second book in the Friendship, RI series. I read the first in this series - In a Jam - over the summer.  I fell in love with the well written characters and engaging storyline.  I love that the romance is a part of the plot, but not the driving theme behind the book.  If you are not into the spicy parts of this series, it is easy to flip past them and move on as the plot is not dependent upon the spice.  Characters in this series are friends and appear throughout each book - but each book revolves around the story of one of the friends.

In a Rush focuses on Emme.  She has just left a long relationship - after she discovered that her long term boyfriend had another long term girlfriend.  The twist to this romance is that Emme's former boyfriend is going to be the best man at the wedding of Emme's best friend.

Ryan Ralston is a pro football player. He is at the top of his game and could have anything he wants. The thing is - he has always wanted Emme.  Since their days as best friends in High School, he has been in love with Emme.  In the aftermath of Emme's latest heartbreak, Ryan finds his opportunity to move in and declare his love.

But will Ryan and Emme's love story have the happy ending he wants?  

Author Website: https://katecanterbary.com/books/in-a-rush/

Phoenix Upper Main Ellicott City

I took this picture in July of 2018. 2 months after the 2nd round of floods.

As part of my totally fun and irresponsible adventure for the month of January, I roamed through Main Street in Historic Ellicott City.  It's been years since the flash flooding destroyed much of the downtown area, and Howard County has been hard at work ever since, installing flood alert sirens and a tunnel project that should help divert flood water away from the city and down the tunnel to the river.  Above street infrastructure has been fixed and updated.  Some of the buildings at the bottom of the street, closest to the river are still being worked on.  Others have been demolished.  But the charm of the City is back, and many businesses are back up and running. 

More about the flood and the lessons learned here: https://umbc.edu/stories/learning-from-ellicott-city/ 

Most of the businesses on Main Street open around 10 or 11.  I arrived at 10:30, found a parking space and began exploring. I hit up many of the small businesses.  I did a lot of browsing!  

 

I stopped by the B&O Railroad Museum.  This is the oldest surviving railroad station in the United States.
It was built in 1831. Passenger service at this station ended in 1949.  I visited the ladies waiting room upstairs, the freight room, and the caboose. While I was there, a train went past on the tracks next to the station.  I LOVE trains, so I ran outside to watch the train go by right along with all of the kids!  If you'd like to know more about the B&O Railroad Museum, you can visit their website here: https://www.howardcountymd.gov/ecborail

After visiting more stores, I stopped by The Phoenix Upper Main.  This beautiful restaurant sits near the higher end of Main Street. If you are familiar with Chef Gordon Ramsey, he visited The Phoenix Upper Main in 2020, and helped them get back on their feet after the devastating floods destroyed their restaurant. Unfortunately, Chef Ramsey did this work in February 2020. Just days before everything shut down for the pandemic. Through sheer determination, The Phoenix Upper Main not only survived, but has since thrived. I stopped in for my very favorite treat - a hamburger and fries. Let me tell you - that was the BEST hamburger and fries I have had in a very long time!  From my seat, I was able to see into the microbrewery. 

If you're interested in finding out more about The Phoenix Upper Main, you can visit their webpage here: https://www.phoenixuppermain.com/