Head Colds, WiFi and other stuff.

Butch has had a head cold for 3 or 4 days now and despite being extremely careful he has successfully transmitted it to me. I had been having a bit of trouble I considered allergies but this morning it has shown itself to be a full-blown head cold. I started with the Zicam swabs right away so I hope to make this the shortest cold in medical history.
Butch and I have been watching Netflix. The only Internet we have right now is the parks free WiFi. Yes, that is correct. The parks FREE WiFi! No, I did not hack into their system to do it. I hesitate to say exactly what I did but if you are the least bit techy you can probably figure it out. I do not think I have regular readers from this park yet. That is the only reason I mention it. The more people on this system the less likely it will work but so far, so good! Last night we watched 2 or 3 episodes of Ozark without even a hint of a glitch.
If you were/are a regular reader of the Magnolia Park Blog you will find that Deon Spangler is keeping that blog up to date. It is nearly impossible to keep a timely blog going when you are not in residence and since I have been keeping that blog up and this one for nearly 20 years I am more than willing for Deon to do it. You can still send me info about that park and I will post it or send it on to Deon.

When we were in Missouri at Amanda and Brad's new home I went to the basement and saw this box. No doubt in my mind who packed this box. Brad on more than one occasion has reminded me of my sister Myrla.  

Here is an example. In 1993 Myrla, my youngest sister was helping Mom pack her house for a move. When I was helping Mom unpack I found this.

Can you see the resemblance?

School pics of Elise, Leo, and Devon. 

And the latest selfie I tried. I am not very good at it. This old lady doesn't resemble me in my mind's eye.

In my mind's eye, I look more like this.

Browned Butter Banana Bread

I had a conversation the other day about my NuWave oven. I wrongly stated I didn't bake in it because when I bake and it is rare, I do use my NuWave oven. Yesterday I made banana bread. I would have made my Greek yogurt muffins but lacked the Greek yogurt so switched to the recipe below. It was a good one and will make it again.

Browned Butter Banana Bread
*****
Ingredients
1 h 20 m 6 servings 389 cals

 1/2 cup butter
3 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
Directions
Prep 15 m Cook 50 m Ready In 1 h 20 m
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat; bring to a low simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until butter is browned, fragrant, and foamy, with brown bits in it, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Measure 1/3 cup of browned butter; reserve remaining browned butter for another use.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a loaf pan.
Mash bananas in a large bowl; stir in brown sugar, white sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and 1/3 cup brown butter.
Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a bowl. Fold flour mixture into banana mixture just until all ingredients are moistened; pour into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
Note to self: I made this in the NuWave oven, added the ring, and baked at 350 degrees for 24 minutes.

This is supper...

Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup Recipe


Unstuffed cabbage roll soup has all the great flavors of traditional cabbage rolls, without all the fuss.  It's hearty, beefy, and full of veggies.

Prep Time 5 minutes Cook Time 35 minutes Total Time 40 minutes Servings 6 (2 cup) servings
Calories 242 kcal

Ingredients
1 lb. extra lean ground beef I used 96% lean
1 medium yellow onion chopped
3 garlic cloves minced
5 cups chopped green cabbage about half of a medium sized head
4 cups 32 oz. low-sodium beef broth
3 cups tomato sauce (24 oz.)
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup uncooked white or brown long grain rice
2 dried bay leaves
3 tbsp. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
Instructions
In a large soup pot, add the beef and place over medium-high heat. Break it apart with a wooden spoon. Add the onion. Cook about 8 minutes until the beef is brown, stirring occasionally.
Add the garlic. Stir and cook 1 minute.
Add the cabbage, beef broth, tomato sauce, carrots, rice, bay leaves, brown sugar, salt, oregano, and pepper.
Bring to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to simmer and cover the pot. Cook until rice is tender (25 minutes for white rice and 45 minutes for brown rice).
Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice. Let the soup rest uncovered for 10 minutes to thicken up before serving. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Will let you know if it's worth repeating. Instinct tells me it will be.

Mexico today

Biggest News of the day! We went to Mexico today and when we came home Butch took a nap...and woke up with a head cold!! Not good news for me. I went into warrior mode. Handwashing extraordinaire and doing my best not to touch my face.
We met up with Liz and Dave at Jessica's. Liz was getting dental work done and after spending some time at Jessica's we made the trip down to Hector's. Picked up some meds and learned a thing or two as we always do in our time talking to Hector. In talking about the peso and the state of both countries he suggested I read an article about what is going on in Mexico and how it has set Mexico's economy on its ear. Mexico's president has canceled a big project of building a mega-airport in Mexico City. You can read about it here.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-10-31/what-is-next-for-mexico-city-airport-after-mega-project-axed
 Here is a picture of Liz and Dave dancing at Jessica's

Other stuff:
I bought a head of cabbage and I do not believe I have ever cut into a head of cabbage as dense as this one. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to cut through it and the resulting coleslaw seemed to be tough. It was better today. I think I will fry the rest of it.

Aaargh!

Photo of the Day

Very foggy morning so when Butch and I made our trek around the park (1.1 miles) I spotted this pretty spectacular spider web.

We decided to go to The Huddle House for breakfast. After 45 minutes and watching folks who came in after us on our right and left get their food before us, we got up and walked out. Went to the El Dorado and had our traditional and delicious breakfast taco's. Huddle House will not see the likes of us ever again. We had not been particularly happy with them a couple of years ago. Sad to see nothing has changed.