Random Thoughts and Taco Sauce

 Our state has been basically shut down for almost seven weeks now. I know so many people have been negatively affected by this pandemic.  I am not trying to make light of it but to avoid going crazy I need to look for some of the positive changes this has brought.

1. No visitors, furloughed or work from home employees means prime parking spots are available.  I no  longer have to walk so far to get in to work.

2. 90 percent of the routine meetings have been put on hold.  This saves SO much of my time.

3. I'm now allowed to wear jeans to work.

4.The big guy is at home all day so he has been doing laundry, cleaning up the kitchen, etc.  before I get home from work.

5. With him being home in the evenings we spend more time together and have dinner a little earlier. Which is something we rarely get to do during the work week. From what I've seen on social media, a lot of families are back to doing more activities as a family.

6. Air pollution all across the globe has significantly decreased. Animals are out running around in areas typically full of people.

7. Our eating routines haven't changed much but it is so nice to see so many people cooking from home.

8.  The pace of life has just slowed down and it is a very welcome change.

 Home made taco sauce. This stuff is awesome.  I even had some on my scrambled eggs one morning.

                                                      A gift from one of my Doctors.

Stay safe everyone!                                 

Things That Make Me Smile

I couldn't agree more!

Happy Easter and a dessert recipe

Happy Easter!  I hope everyone is doing OK and is able to spend at least a little bit of today doing something fun and or relaxing.  We are going to have a nice dinner of ham, mac and cheese, asparagus, deviled eggs and black bottom cupcakes.  I made these for the first time probably 13 years ago.  They are easy to make a delicious.  Think of them as a nice chocolate cake with cheese cake in the middle.  Oh yeah!

Black Bottom Cupcakes:

Cream cheese filling:
8 ounces of room temperature cream cheese
1 egg room temperature
1/3 Cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cream all ingredients together. I use a mixer.

Cupcakes:

1 1/2 Cup Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Cup water
1/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients.  Mix all wet ingredients.  Combine.
Pour into muffin tin lined with papers.  Spoon 1 heaping tablespoon of cream cheese filling onto the cupcakes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

I have a large stash of cupcake liners.  I thought I would use the bunny ones for today since it is Easter.

Before baking.

Cool and Enjoy!

Update and a new flour

It's been almost a month since I've posted. In 2020 I had full plans on spicing up my blog, posting more regularly and then COVID 19 hit.

Since my last post the big guy has closed his TKD school, temporarily.  Our state is on essential businesses only until April 30th (maybe longer, TBD).  Since he had already planned to move to a new larger building in June we felt it was the right thing to do and hopefully re-open in June instead of paying expenses on a business that is not making any money right now.

We have not been affected by any of the shortages.  Being raised the way I was and having lived in hurricane territory for over 20 years has taught me to be prepared. So we are still eating very well and have plenty of toilet paper.

My position at the hospital has been deemed unable to work from home so I am still going in.  It is a bit unsettling to walk past the quarantine tents into the hospital to have your temperature taken and mini health screening as the beginning of your day. People are stressed, scared and emotions are raw.  It is a bit much some days. There is SO much more I would like to say about all of this but...will  not.

So enough about the pandemic.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased flour online from Janies Mill here in Illinois. https://www.janiesmill.com/  I usually use Bob's Red Mill and will continue to do so for most things but I wanted to try something new.  One of the flours I ordered was their Italian Style.

I used it today for the first time and made a pizza.  It made an amazing dough!  I used the same recipe I always use.

I highly recommend checking out the variety of products on their website and try something new.

Stay safe!

*I have no affiliation with this product or company.