Cheap Gas! GLORY!

Here's something I'm thankful for right now...

I bought gas the other day...

Look at the prices!

I notice price changes when I go to the pump. Because unlike you, I don't have much of a commute. I live only 4.6 miles from my job, you see. As a result, I fill up Lucy Jr. the Lexus once every three weeks. And Pam the Protege... I think she gets a fill-up (well, maybe 2/3rds a tank) every 3 months or so.

The last time I bought gas, before this last time, I paid $3.99 per gallon. And that's because I bought gas downtown. It's a lot cheaper in the suburbs.

That picture above was taken in the suburbs, near church. I love Quik-Trip.  Good cheap gas!

They say gas may drop below $1.99 a gallon. Wouldn't that be GRAND!!!???

Thank you President Obama for low gas prices! I know they be hatin' on you! But I'm not hatin!

Thank you, Sir!

The Monday After...

I went back to work after 4 days off.

I am feeling a bit... off. I think that's why I don't take too much time off. Sigh.

Alas, it is December! I hope you all got your eat on, got your shop on and all that. And oh yeah, I hope we all remembered to reflect and be thankful.

Like I said last week, I went to my sister's house for thanksgiving.

I am still full.

And that gal, she know she was cooking it up.

And here are a few pics.

First of all, she made my day by having liter bottles of my favorite Italian water available.

I can't pronounce that! But my sister knows I like water in glass. And she had to hear me go on and on about it.

"Water in glass," I said. "Nothing like it. Tastes great, absolutely no aftertaste. Water in glass!"

I said that with every sip. You would've thought that I was singing a song.

Heck, I didn't even have to eat anything. But I did.

So, I saw this sitting in the middle of the table:

I got excited. "Oh, we're having soup?"

"No," my sister said. "That's the pot roast. I was trying to keep it moist."

Oh yea, the pot roast. Keeping it moist. Under an inch of water. Ah yes.

And it worked. I had a little piece. It was good. And moist.

I made some cabbage. 

I bought it already shredded, and I added some sliced onions. I sauteed it, and it went super quick. Gonna try it again.

She wanted some of my favorite dish... the butternut squash, pear and cranberry bake. That was really good. (Is that a glass of brown liquor next to the beans?)

 The color was retained this time! Oh joy!

And her string beans were awesome. I took a container of that home and I've been eating them all weekend.

Dinner rolls!

Rice!

Beverages!

No brown liquor here... only tea and soda. The water in glass was for me... hence, it is NOT on the table.

A million dollar pie!

Go look up the recipe. The ingredients are something kin to condensed milk, whip cream and pineapples on a graham cracker crust. Sweet, but VERY good.

Double chocolate cake!

I've made that before.  My friend Dawn calls it the "Better than Sex Cake".

Humph. I am puzzled every time I hear my friend say that. It doesn't quite register. I guess she just REALLY likes chocolate cake. Really.

My sister said she wanted to make that cake. I asked if she needed a copy a recipe. It turns out she copied it from my Southern cook book a few years ago. 

That's it for our Thanksgiving dinner. She fried some chicken also. And she wanted some ham, but she didn't want to go buy a whole ham.  There was some sliced ham at the Whole Foods hot bar, so I got her a few pieces.

It's easier to buy a few slices than to buy a whole one. That was enough for her.

I also made some dressing.

I don't care to chop veggies for dressing for some reason... But here they are:

I do well when I lay everything out like that.  I think I chopped it up while watching the news.

Here is the dressing before baking:

 Here's the finished dressing.

That was super easy because I had two slices of cornbread in the fridge. I bought one leg quarter and boiled the hell out of it. I sauteed up some mushrooms, onions, peppers and celery and that was that. Super easy. It could have used a can of chicken broth, but it was very good.

I roasted some Brussel sprouts. 

Those didn't make it over to my sister's house, as I was eating those all morning long. Maybe next time!

All in all it was a good meal. My sister cooked a ton of food. I think she just wanted to cook. Nothing wrong with that. She had friends coming through, and she has her leftovers for the week. Good for her.

And good for me. I got all my veggies. And my water in glass.

And my sister got her "Cook on".

Most important of all... we spent time together.

And that's truly what matters to me.

THIS Black Friday Freestyles

Happy Black Friday to you!

Did you get out there and fight fight fight over those electronics?

Not me. I don't fool around, babes...

Plus it's 29 degrees right now in my beloved ATL.

I am in my warm house, on the sofa, under this crocheted blanket watching television.

The high will be in the high 40s today. I may venture outside then.

The biggest goal today is to get out in the backyard and sack up some leaves. I bought 20 lawn bags on Wednesday. Hopefully that's enough. I think I will sack up 5 bags.... then bring my tail back into the house.

Speaking of lawn bags... I bought those at my local Home De.pot. And the guy showing me where they were gave me some huge lecture on why I shouldn't shop on Black Friday, and how all black folk need to boycott Black Friday as a protest of all the police injustice.

Okay. I understand that. But black folks aren't a cohesive group. Especially when Wal-mart has 50 inch TVs on sale for less than $200. Or Staples has laptops for $100. Damn protesting... gotta get the cheap electronics.

I told him I am not concerned with that, as I don't shop on Black Friday. The last time I did was some 15 years ago. My sister got hold of some Macy's coupons in the newspaper, and we were standing in line at the store at 5 in the morning. I bought something for 40% off in the housewares department. I haven't been out since then.

And I don't hate on people for doing so. For some people it is tradition shared between family and friends. There is nothing more exciting than getting up and getting out there for the sheer joy and experience of it, than finding the #1 bargain... That's what I think.

And fighting over the bargains reminds me that we are a nation that has high class problems. We are standing in lines for hours at a time waiting for the store to open so we can get that cheap iphone or tv. We are NOT standing hours in line waiting for the workers to give out our food rations for the day. We are NOT standing in line for hours at a time, after walking for two days, to get desperately needed medical treatment.

High class problems. That's a good thing when you come to think about it.

But I have a deeper issue: I really can't stand the commercialism of this season. I just don't like it. And that is just my own personal thing. You know me: I love homemade items. My budget for Christmas gifts is $100. That's it.

This season falls pretty much during the last month of the year, and for me, it's a time of reflection. I think about what's gone well, and what's gone wrong. I think about what has changed and what I need to change. And I think about the areas of decrease and increase in my life.

Things have changed. Not as much as I like. And that's okay. A new year is coming.

And that's what I'm thinking about on THIS Black Friday.

Quote of the Week. I am sitting here watching Joyce Meyer. She and another minister are having a chat about relationships.  And they said something that caught my attention.

"Make sure you have the right 'they' in your life."

This means make sure you surround yourselves with the right people.... The right "THEY".

People who are

Tough
Honest
Encouraging
Yielded to God.

Pray about your relationships. Surround yourselves with people who replenish instead of diminish you.

"Have the right "they" in your life... so you won't become prey."

That is awesome.

Like I stated in a recent post, when I thumb through the pages of my gratitude journal, I am amazed by all the conversations I have. God sends so many folks around at just the right time to replenish me when I need to be filled. He allows me to replenish. And this is on an ongoing basis.

No I am not popular. I'm not a member of the cliques. I tend to keep to myself. And I have my ways. Lord knows I have my ways.

But the whole cycle of replenishment.

That makes me VERY rich. Very rich indeed.

And somehow I feel that I am developing in something...

Something more than that which is common and base.

Today I am thankful for all the "Theys" in my life. And I hope that am functioning as someone's "they"

And that's what I am thinking about on THIS Black Friday.

Song of the Week. William Murphy "It's Working"



My coworker Commader By plays that in the lab these days. And he and I were walking down the hall singing it hard. And we are not real singers, you see.

Another coworker was walking down the hall and she simply said "Stop it."

No. We didn't stop. Because it's a good song. And even though we can't sing, we sang anyway.

It made our hearts glad. And the whole song is a GREAT confession in itself.

So I sing it on THIS black Friday!

You have a good holiday weekend. On purpose!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

It is 10:00 a.m. as I write this post on Thanksgiving Day and I have finished my cooking.  I will post pictures later. But I only made veggies (and some dressing), and I am headed over to my sister's house at noon. She doesn't have cable, so I will miss football (darn). But that's okay. I will watch the highlights on ESPN later on tonight.

But as you can see, I want to do something different on a holiday, as I usually put up a banner of some sort and go on about my business.

I have been meditating on a particular scripture for nearly a year now.

Colossians 3:16 (Message Version)

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

There's a lot going on in that scripture. But for some reason the part I highlighted in red... that's the part that has stuck in me. That's the part I've been meditating and chewing on.

Those three simple words... And cultivate thankfulness... are action packed.

The word "cultivate" is an interesting word. When I see it, I think of a garden, and how you have to break up the soil to prepare the garden for seed, or to keep the plants growing properly.

There are several definitions of the word "cultivate":

Prepare or use land for gardening.
Try to develop or acquire a quality sentiment or skill
Grow or maintain living tissues in culture
Try to win the friendship or favor of someone
Apply oneself to improving or developing one's minds or manners

Whatever the definition may be, it involves some action on our parts... prepare, develop, acquire, grow, maintain, favor, apply and so on.

Back to that statement... "Cultivate Thankfulness"

To me, it means work on my thankfulness (or thanksgiving). Be mindful of it. Think on it, meditate on it. Grow in that area. Apply myself in that area.

Cultivate, cultivate, cultivate... just like working the soil of the ground, I have to continually work on being thankful, working it into the very fabric of my life.

And you would think no one would have to say "cultivate thankfulness", or it wasn't important to point out. For we all have things for which to be thankful, right?

But let me ask you a question...

How many people have you been around who murmur and complain incessantly? How much have you murmured and complained?

How many thankful people have you been around? More specifically, how many people have you been around who always find the good in a situation and who always find the silver lining of the dark cloud?

If you're anything like me, and if you are paying close attention, the numbers are severely lopsided. There are many many more complainers than thankful people in our lives. People are well developed in either one direction or the other. And that's sad.

That's why that verse has stayed on my mind.

Our hearts are very fertile soil. Anything-attitudes, beliefs, morals, idiosyncracies, etc- will grow in this "soil" when planted. And it will grow like crazy.

As for myself, on this Thanksgiving day, and frankly all this year, I've made a considerable effort to grow thankfulness in this fertile soil of mine.

And I'm glad of it. It has freed my mind.

So today, be mindful of one thing:

"And Cultivate Thankfulness"

And the more thankful we are, the more there will have in the future to be thankful for.

I can promise you that.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!! 

Before and After: My Favorite Veggie Dish

So my sister has her Thanksgiving menu together.

She is cooking a bunch of interesting stuff... pot roast, fried chicken, mash potatoes and gravy...

Then silence.

It's just the two of us. Not sure who's gonna eat all of that. I know she likes to eat for the week and freeze stuff. Not sure how one freezes fried chicken, but oh well...

"I'm bringing vegetables," I said.

We talked about that for awhile. I think I will make a nice salad. I will make a kale dish and a cabbage dish.

And she made a special request: my butternut squash, pear and cranberry dish.

That happens to be one of my favorite veggie dishes to prepare. It is simple to make. As a matter of fact, I was making it while we were talking.

Here it is before going in the oven:

Bright! Vibrant! Colorful!!

The recipe is simple enough.

4 cups of cubed butternut squash
2 cups of pears
1/2 cup of dried cranberries.
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup water

Mix all that together. Place into a 400 degree oven, and cook it until it is done, up to 2 hours. 

(That is it. I suppose you can add some cinnamon and sugar and all that. I just don't like sweet sweet stuff. Trying to keep it somewhat healthy. I have also had it with garlic, but I don't particularly care for garlic).

Here it is after a couple of hours in the oven...

I cooked that color right on out of it, didn't I?

I think next time I will cook the butternut squash first. Then after an hour, I will add my pears. They seem to cook at different rates.

I may add some pecans to it.

That'll be good!