Raige Creations

 It had been raining for days and days.... Not that I was complaining. I love rainy days. And I don't mean a little rain and then back to normal sun. I mean grey, cool, rainy days. Whole days of clouds and rain. Days where you can just settle in and chill under a blanket.  Sadly I had to drive in and home from work during most of these days. Forgetting my rain coat, many a trip from car to building and back. But I didn't mind, a bit refreshing actually. And there is a beauty in rainy days.  Rainy View in Traffic And going in to work gave me some break from the news . Today I can breathe a little easier though, knowing some dignity can be restored to the world. I try not to bring my political views in to my public postings, but dang am I glad to be rid of the current POTUS. That's all I have to say about that.  From NOAA National Hurricane Center From  NOAA National Hurricane Center Saturday brought some heavy winds, and loads of rain, from TS Eta . We weren't ex...

Photo Courtesy of Raige Tea, those deliciously 'evil' hazelnut and chocolate sticks, and the chili stirring spoon makes for a lovely Sunday. It means all the chores were done by the time football starts. The laundry folded and put away, the dinner prepped (just stirring intermittenly throughout the afternoon), showered and in Sunday comfy clothes.  You might not understand the big deal of the Pirouline's  . These, once upon a time way back when we were a younger family who was content with enough to be able to treat ourselves with yummy treats and the time for tea, were our favorite. A very fancy to us, decadent treat we allowed ourselves when times were good financially. When we took the time to enjoy tea, sweets, and each other.  We then hit tougher times, busier times. We were working harder, for less rewards. We cut back, we skimped, we scraped by. No chocolate hazelnut goodness. No tea time.  Years went by living under these circumstances. We accepted...

"American Woman!" Said in not so nice a way.....to me....by Hubby..... Guess why? Because I didn't cook rice with dinner last night. I cooked potatoes. Who cooks rice WITH potatoes? Not me. And last night, we had potatoes. But apparently, I was reminded yet again,  "There must be rice with every meal!" Damn Caribbean Boy. He grew up with rice, or rice and beans with every meal. But he knew when he married me I was not a cook. I have come a looooong way since then , but apparently I still don't always get it right. It is true, we haven't had rice with a meal in a  few days...4 days without rice, I believe.  And apparently that is just one too many days without rice. So, tonight, rice, with something I don't know yet. Maybe even rice and beans. Because I don't want 'American Woman' to mean 'Can't cook worth shit' anymore. 

If you haven't heard, the south has had a bit of a snow storm . (and if you haven't heard, I would ask what rock you have been under) Now, having grown up in the Buffalo area, then moving BACK to the Buffalo area (after my other life in the Caribbean) before moving here, to the mountains of NC, I am quite familiar with snow. I grew up with snow, and my kids spent 5 'love-slash-hate' years dealing with it. This? THIS is snow. photo: Raige Creations I can drive in it, I can shovel it, snow blow it, and basically deal with it. I have even shoveled it off a roof when we got more than 5 feet of snow in one day. (yes, that happened.) Nothing closed up there unless there was a blizzard or sub zero temperatures AND a blizzard. School was open that day we had 5 feet of snow in a day.  Yes, that is several FEET of snow. and there still was school, and everything stayed open. photo:  Raige Creations So now we are in the mountains of a 'southern' state. (...

If I hadn't made it clear in any of my earlier posts, I think I have hinted at it, planning dinner stresses me out most of the time. I have tried having the kids cook, hubby cook, asking for requests, and  planning days ahead . Ultimately, these things fade away, and I am back to stressing about what to cook at the last minute , order , or suggest for dinner. This morning, having this discussion with my 2 kids who had the luxury of a 2 hour delay of school, we had some fun with weekly dinner plans. Today, being Tuesday and having our oldest son coming home from college who loves anything as long as a tortilla is involved, we decided to have our 'Taco Tuesday' . This is a popular one we have been doing for years now. Celebrating a Previous Taco Tuesday My kids drew this for me. photo: Raige Creations This led to 'Meatloaf Monday ', since that meatloaf was a huge hit the other day, and 'Spaghetti Sunday' , since we have pasta at least once a week...

My daughter had been asking for meatloaf for days (!), as we all get so tired of the same old meals, and we hadn't had meatloaf in forever! So meatloaf it was. (I just said meatloaf way too many times.....) As you know, hubby can't have any dairy, so milk was not an option. So here the easiest, milk free, recipe for a great meatloaf. Ingredients: 2 lbs Meat - I used a mixture of ground chicken and ground pork 4 Green Onions - or one regular would do just fine 1 heaping tsp Garlic - I used jarred, but fresh or powdered is fine Ketchup - a squirt - then about 1/4 cup for topping 2 tsp Pickapepper Sauce - then 2 tsp more for topping 1 Egg 1/4 cup Breadcrumbs Salt and Pepper Dried Basil and Parsley to taste Crushed Red Pepper to taste Olive Oil cooking spray Instructions: One reason I love meatloaf is that it is so easy! Just throw everything in the bowl and mix. That is basically it. But I took pictures so you can see the progression. Slice the green onions...

I am notoriously bad at cooking fish. I do not like pan frying it because it sticks to my pans and falls apart so easily. Deep frying it, I always get burned, and have the same problem of it falling apart. Baking it, well in the past when I tried baking fish, let's just say we ordered pizza that night. But I was determined to find a good fish recipe I could handle, because we are all sick to death of chicken!   This fish recipe sounded just like something we all could eat and enjoy. (thank you Food Network )  But of course, I did not have all the ingredients on the list, so I tweaked it with what I had on hand. Here is my take.I substituted parsley and tarragon for the cilantro, and lemons for the limes. Plus, I used just the pineapple juice instead of the chunks of pineapple. I also doubled the recipe when I made it because we have hearty eaters here, but this one here should be enough for normal people. OJ and lemon photo courtesy of Raige Creations Ingredients:...

Well, it's late on a Friday. I am sitting here watching a movie with my family, stressing about what to write about for the first day of National Blog Posting Month .  Fall Country Road photo courtesy of  Raige Creations "Didn't she just do that?" I hear you asking.  Well, kind of. Well, yes I took part in National Blog Writing Month , where the goal was to write every day in the month of October.  But National Blog Posting Month is the month of November, and I joined a group on Blogher.com . As the day wore on, I felt so uninspired, yet felt the pressure of getting something posted. I realized, not for the first time actually, that I am tired of stressing . Camouflage Tree photo courtesy of  Raige Creations Dinnertime came. Pizza was on the menu (see tired of stressing above, and I DO stress about dinner regularly), but we had to go to the place to order it, and wait for it.  (They don't have to-go menus, and I actually find...

I get tired of roasts. They are just boring sometimes. I sometimes want something more cozy, comforting. Less dry.... So this time I decided to try a slow cooker stew.  I found some good recipes (like  this one that I AM going to try  when I get some squash), but ended up using several as a reference and tweaking, as usual. Potatoes and onions in the Crock-Pot photo courtesy of Raige Creations I started with using the same ingredients I would with a roast. Ingredients: Potatoes, onions, carrots, meat.  I cut up the potatoes and onions and popped them into the Crock Pot dish. Meat photo courtesy of  Raige Creations I got a Pork Loin Roast, it seemed like a better deal, and tried to cut off some of the fat. Leave a little, it adds to the flavor.  Cut that into cubes, about 2 inches square-ish. The supporting cast photo courtesy of  Raige Creations Then I assembled some spices and the juice needed to make it more stew-like, and ad...