DINNER TONIGHT - Busy Saturday
Crock Pot Beef Casserole
Salad & Fresh Fruit from this morning's visit to the Farmers' Market

What a busy day! Lots of errands, a little house cleaning and visiting friends. I just put all these ingredients in the slow cooker for tonight's dinner.

Do you love your slow cooker as much as I do? My "BFF", I use it at least 3 days a week for workday and busy weekend dinners. Even less expensive cuts of meat come out tender and delicious cooked slowly in a savory casserole. Wild rice and almonds give this dish a special look and taste.

Crock Pot Beef Casserole

Slow Cooker Dinner Recipe

Serves 12 - This recipe's large enough to take to potlucks and sure to please.

1 cup uncooked wild rice, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
2 cans (4 ounces each) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1 large onion chopped
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3 cups beef stock (or 3 beef bouillon cubes & 3 cups water)
2-1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
2 pounds boneless round steak, cut into 1-inch cubes

Place ingredients in order listed in a slow cooker; do not stir. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until rice is tender. Stir before serving.
Serves 12

If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for
what he's going to get.

~Frank A. Clark

Style - Fashion: Figure Fixer

Don't Look Bax

Acronyms can be scary.
WMD. GMAT. ASAP.

But the most threatening —and pervasive — of them? Those dreaded under thing related ones.

VBL: visible bra lines.

FBF: false back fat. A condition created by too-tight bras that cause unseemly ripples and lumps.

UBSR: uniboob sports rack. A situation commonly brought on by the sports bra.

Leading the fight against such evils: Sassybax, seamless stretch bras that started out as a pair of control-top pantyhose (go figure). They come in three styles, multiple colors, and provide comfort, support, and, most importantly, a smooth, bulge-free silhouette (even when worn under ludicrously tight Lycra get-ups).

Which means you won't find yourself pulling and shifting all day.

And you won't have to tell anyone to MYOB.

Available online at sassybax.com.

Goose Track Quilts: Free Instructions for T-Shirt Quilt

Cathy Hooley, owner of Goose Tracks Quilts, offered up this link to her instructions for making your own T-shirt quilt. Cathy is a custom quilter and a member of the Custom in Common e-Guild.

She works at home in New York state and has been in the quilt-making business since 1992. She is primarily a maker of custom quilts - including T-shirt quilts, memorial quilts, childhood memory quilts and various other types of quilts.

With this long weekend (at least here in US), it's a great time to haul out all your old T-shirts (you were already pulling out summer clothes anyway, right?) and see which ones to keep and which ones to turn into a beautiful memory quilt. May is Personal History Month, so this is a great time to get started!

You can read more about Cathy Hooley on her website at Goose Tracks Quilts or contact her directly if you would like a custom quilt.

Have a great holiday!

-Carol

Jazz Cat: When You Need a Break from Keyboard Cat

Weeknight Dinner: Tuna Noodle Casserole

Tuna Noodle Casserole
Tossed Green Salad
Steamed Broccoli
Sliced Pears from a can with shredded sharp cheddar cheese on top.

Today's entre is one of my favorites because this was the first dish I ever cooked when I was 8 or 9. I made it at my Grandmother's house, and my Grandpa said it was the best meal he had ever eaten. That was all the encouragement I needed, because I've been cooking ever since! My first tuna casserole had potato chips crumbled on top, and the salad was (picture this) a pineapple ring atop a lettuce leaf with a peeled banana standing up in the center of the pineapple ring. This was my first creative cooking moment. My Grandmother commented that the salad was supposed to be chopped, but my Grandfather said he like it my way much better. I can just imagine how they laughed about that salad later, when I was out of earshot, of course. To me, it was one of my triumphant moments and I remember it like it was yesterday. In fact, I made it for dinner tonight (sans the potato chip topping) and the husband agrees, we should have this more often.

This recipe is totally quick and easy. Tonight I called home from work and asked the husband to set out everything we needed. I got home at 5:20, changed clothes and put the water on to boil for the noodles. I opened a bag of frozen broccoli and put it in my Tupperware microwave steamer. (I wish I had one of those big pots with a steamer basket, so I could cook the noodles and steam the broccoli at the same time, but I have to either heat another pan on the stove, or use the microwave.) I opened a package of pre-made salad and tossed it with a little lemon juice to freshen it up; then, for dessert, I opened the can of sliced pears and fixed us each a bowl with shredded sharp cheddar on top. (I put the rest in a little container for my lunch at work tomorrow). Then I drained the noodles, returned them to the pan, added all the ingredients, put it in the baking dish and put it in the oven to bake. While the casserole was baking, I washed all the pans & utensils I'd used and then went out on the deck and helped Hubby finish watering the garden and all the plants. Then - at 6:30, everything was done and we ate! All in 1 hour!

This quick and easy recipe bakes in a 3-quart baking dish and can serve 6-7 people, or 4 with second helpings. MAKE AHEAD TIP: Divide this recipe into two smaller baking dishes and freeze one for later.

TUNA NOODLE CASSEROLE

1 package dry noodles (1 lb.)
2 tablespoons butter

2 cans condensed mushroom soup (can be low salt and low fat)
3 cans flaked tuna

1 can evaporated milk (can be low fat)

1 can peas

Cook noodles per package instructions. Drain noodles, return them to the pot, and toss with butter until coated well. Add mushroom soup, tuna, canned milk and peas and mix well. Put in 1 large 3 quart baking dish and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. (or divide between 2 smaller baking dishes, bake 1 for dinner and freeze 1 for later).

This is the basic, simple recipe. Over the years I have added shredded cheese both in the casserole and as a topping, and I've added all sorts of vegetables. Plan or fancy, nothing really beats this as a cheap, quick and easy weeknight meal.

The Grand and Secret Order of Obituary Cocktail

Obituary Cocktail: The Great Saloons of New Orleans.

This is my favorite coffee table book. Being from the South, New Orleans was only a short jaunt away, and my friends and I traveled there several times a year for "the weekend". I have been here in the midwest, now, for many years, and this book brings back great memories and a certain nostalgia for the "old days". The book was published in 1998, pre-Katrina, and is a beautiful documentary of the city’s historic watering holes. The photos, combined with the stories, are romantically warm, and the recipes are magical.

Birth of the Cocktail

New Orleans claims to have given birth to the cocktail. Southern Comfort, Ramos Gin Fizz, Sazerac, Herbsaint and Peychaud's Bitters all got their start in the French Quarter. Obituary Cocktail relates these stories and recreates a great history of the vieux carre.

On Royal Street, Antoine Peychaud created his curative bitters in the 1830's. Often mixed with brandy and absinthe and served in an eggcup, the concotion was called a coquettier. Over time, the name became pronounced "cocktail". The ultimate cocktail, The Obituary Cocktail, was created at Lafitte's Blacksmithshop in the French Quarter, with the added splash of absinthe. Here is the recipe adapted from book:

The Obituary Cocktail
• 4 jiggers dry gin
• 1/2 jigger dry vermouth
• 1/2 jigger Pernod (a legal absinthe substitute).
Chill in a shaker and strain.

Ms. Cafferty's book has won two national publishing awards, was named Book of the Year by the New Orleans Gulf South Book Sellers Association, and inspired both the Southern Comfort Cocktail Tour and the festival, Tales of The Cocktail.

A group of the book’s fans even established an enduring social club known as The Grande and Secret Order of Obituary Cocktail Drink­ers (they call themselves Obers). To commemorate the 10-year anniversary, legend­ary absinthe master distiller Ted Breaux created a new cocktail — The Obituary Decade, which featured a healthy dose of his own lucid absinthe. Also for the anniversary, Kerri McCaffety created a design for the first official Obituary Cocktail T-shirt featuring a glowing martini glass centered on a transparent fleur de lis with the words Obituary Cocktail, The Spirit of New Orleans. The Grande and Secret Order of Obituary Cocktail gatherings started in 1999 in the New Orleans French Quarter for the purpose of making friends. The only requirement to be a participant in OBIT is to attend a gathering. Do not expect any efficiency, organization, governing boards, structure, by laws, organizational meetings, budget, elections, goals, objectives, required attendance rules or a responsible leader or even a leader, because none of those exist. However, Obit is a great place to make friends who appreciate a fun gathering.

You can visit their site at http://www.obituarycocktail.org/

About the Author: Kerri McCaffety earned a degree at Tulane University, where she concentrated on ethnographic documentary. The Society of American Travel Writers awarded her its coveted gold Lowell Thomas Award. Her writing and photojournalism appear in publications including The Oxford American, Town and Country, Historic Traveler, Colonial Homes, Southern Accents, Travel & Leisure, Metropolitan Home, and The Seattle Times. McCaffety's other books are The Majesty of the French Quarter, Pelican Publishing 1999, and The Majesty of St. Charles Avenue, Pelican Publishing 2001.