Focused at Fifty

Ready to eat, YUM!!!  Several  pre-quarantine  weeks ago, the Big Ragu and I won a frozen pack of cod filets at our local firehouse social club. We always play the "tear-off" gambling games and have won many a pack of filet, lobster, fish, ribs, or chicken. We have literally stocked our freezer some seasons with their "meat boards." Good stuff too from local butchers, markets and a seafood store!  Veggies chopped!  I made the entire frozen pack of cod, like 12 filets. I added seasoning to them and just baked them in the oven, nothing special, with a topping of salsa. I had half of the cod left over so the next day, I set out online to find a good recipe to use of the rest.  Scouring the internet (ok, like one page on Google), I found this recipe for potato and cod soup. The link for the recipe is: (the link is SAFE) https://www.olgasflavorfactory.com/lunch/potato-cod-soup/ Simmering away on the stove. The potato and cod so...

"2020 is a dumpster fire"  Sorting through paperwork of years' past, I came across this list below which I had sent my Mom back in August of 1992! I was pleasantly surprised when I came across it. I don't know where it comes from. I may have even wrote it myself.  To update it, I added some quips and quotes after each one. Honestly, 28 years later, the list doesn't need much updating. But what's a blog post without at least a little bit of my bite. Enjoy and stay safe and healthy everyone!  1. Eat with chopsticks (Most days I cannot even handle a fork.) 2. Share a task (Or just let it go, someone else may do it!)  3. Ask for a back rub (Max the Cat gives excellent back rubs with his paws. He's cheap, just some catnip!)  4. Walk to the nearest park (But you may receive a ticket for non-social distancing.)  5. Bake bread (I know alot of you have been doin' this! I just EAT bread.)  6. Enjoy silence (Really ... shut the heck up...

Melted Potatoes As with my usual frazzled blog content, I am usually all over the place. 😁 I decided to put up a recipe that the Big Ragu and I tried the other evening called melting potatoes. I describe it as baked potatoes with enough butter to coat your insides. But let me tell you, they are INCREDIBLE! Hope you like them! I included any changes I made to the recipe in parentheses.  This recipe can be found several places online. I don't remember which website I grabbed it from. The cooking time was spot on. The juices from the stock and butter reduced and made an awesomely rich herbed sauce.  Melting Potatoes Hands-on Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 50 minutes  Yield: 4 servings Ingredients:  * 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced 1 inch thick (Honestly, we used another type of baking potato and sliced it a little thinner, probably from 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick.)  * 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of unsalted butter, me...

"A Fav Pic, 1988, Mom and me" During my isolation with the coronovirus pandemic, I have like many of us, been sifting through mounds of papers we have a habit of keeping. Bills, newspaper articles, old cards ... you name it, I got it! I came across an old weathered newspaper article that my mother had sent me back in the late 90s. She was always sending me nuggets of wisdom and lists to help get me though life.  I find it particularly meaningful that I rediscovered this article the day before the 11th anniversary of her passing away. It was as if she were exclaiming from the great beyond, "Don't forget about your Jewish mother! I am still here to give you advice!" And how could I? Not a day goes by that my thoughts do not turn to her in some way or form.  Therefore, this blog is dedicated to the  memory of my mom, Abby. Her wisdom and guidance is still making its way into my life as I approach my 50th birthday.  A couple of the items are a li...

"Sports Antiques from our Collection"  A lot of you may be surprised to find this out but I like sports. After years of watching them on the couch with the Big Ragu, I have really come to enjoy watching them either on TV or live. Like the majority of folks, m ore than likely  it's gonna be on TV. Tickets to any major sporting event are so expensive. Sure you can get nose bleed seats but you always get a better view on your couch and there's no line for food or the head. However, nothing beats the camaraderie of sporting fans up in the nose bleed sections of ANY stadium or sports arena. You can get that live sporting-thrill by going to local little league, high school or college games without breaking the bank on tickets. There are even sporting clubs such as rugby or touch football leagues where you can see some rough action without spending a dime. Just bring your own lawn chair and favorite libation! Unfortunately due to the Novel Coronovirus, all that has ...

Photo by  Spencer Selover  from  Pexels The other week I visited the local Five and Dime to pick up some odds and ends; allergy meds, some batteries, a belated birthday card, and a granola bar to stave off that afternoon hunger. There she was at the register, the young cashier I often see, asking me once again for my rewards card. I smiled and said sure, give me a sec, as I fumbled through my wallet.  She had the eyes of a young spring doe, beautifully large and round, so expressive. She blinked slowly as she laughed, watching me continue to fumble. Oh here it is! I exclaimed, handing it to her. We smiled at each other in amusement.   She began to ring up my miscellaneous items, focusing on the register. My eyes wandered from the locks of hair framing her twenty something face to her funky earrings, to the colorful tattoos adorning her neck then peeking out from her ivory décolletage, continuing down her arms. She was hauntingly beau...

"Bittersweet" The smoke ring: wisping, ethereal, dreamily floating upwards like my drifting, wandering thoughts.  Smoking in the golden age of Hollywood was considered classy and elegant. Masculine and or feminine. Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, James Dean, Lauren Bacall, and so many others. I still find it so. Those movies, black and white, people staring each other down. Taking a drag while composing their next thought. A pause before the biting remark, wit or wisdom ... definitely was a different time. I grew up in a 70s household of wafting smoke clouds through the breakfast room, on the front porch, or the back deck. Mom never smoked anywhere else in the house though. Mom and her cigarettes. Dad and his cigars. It was a part of my upbringing. Ironically, we three kids never took it up besides a cigar or a joint here and there. Mom would sit at her head of the kitchen table, back towards the kitchen so that she could see the breakfast room in front ...