One of my goals for 2017 was a list of movies I’ve never seen but felt I needed to watch.
Part 1 of the list consisted of the six original Star Trek motion pictures. I loved the original series. I love the rebooted movies (with Chris Pine). How could I have missed the movies with Shatner, Nimory, etc.?
I finally watched the last one. It was probably my favorite of the six, except maybe the whale one.
Now, on to Harry Potter.
When I was in the third grade, I needed to turn in a book report. I hadn’t read a book that I wanted to write a report on, so I made up a book (plotted a story) in my head and wrote about that. Imagine my surprise when my assignment came back with an A+.
I had gamed the system.
However, I also had a very active conscience. And a cousin, who lived next door who happened to have what our parents called the three-day measles*.
The night before the last day of school–where we reported at 9am and were dismissed at 9:30am–guilt kept me awake all night. After my dad left for work, I crawled into bed with my mom and confessed my crime. She told me I had to tell the teacher what I had done. However, when I went to get dressed, I discovered red spots all over my stomach: I’d caught the three-day measles from my cousin. No school for me!
And that’s how the measles saved my bacon.
*According to Wikipedia, the three-day measles and the German measles are both rubella. Back in my childhood, at least in my family, the two forms were considered different types of measles. But here’s what’s even more curious. As an adult, my doctor ran some blood work on me, and one of the tests was for measles, mumps, rubella. According to the results, I’d never had any of those diseases. Yet I clearly remember having the measles. It was hot. School was out for the summer. My mom pulled out her galvanized washtubs, filled them with water, and let my sibs at them. My parents have photos of me hanging around my sibs and cousins while they sat in the tubs to cool off. I couldn’t go in because I had the measles. Go figure. Anyway, before I got married, I asked my doctor for the MMR inoculation, because I planned to have children and didn’t want to take any risks. My doctor double checked my records, saw that I had remembered the blood work results correctly, and gave me the shot.
I found this recipe on Facebook and have seen it pinned all over Pinterest.
It’s a lot easier to make than it sounds. Trust me.
I tend to use the mild taco seasoning/salsa/taco sauce because some people aren’t into spicy. But if you want medium or hot, go for it!
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 package low-sodium taco seasoning
4 ounces cream cheese (remember when Philly came in 4 oz packages?)
16 jumbo pasta shells
1 1/2 cups salsa (I use a 24 oz jar)
1 cup taco sauce (I use an 8 oz bottle)
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup Monterrey jack cheese (instead of cheddar and Monterrey jack, I use a Mexican blend my supermarket has.)
For toppings:
Instructions
We rarely had store-bought cookies when I was growing up. Except for Oreos, of course. Mom was a full-time homemaker and there were almost always fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies when we got off the school bus. My grandmothers were cookie makers, too. I still have Grandma T’s recipe for half-moon cookies. And I was traumatized because of Grandma C’s oatmeal raisin cookies–my uncle’s dog wanted my cookie; Grandma baked them for ME. He won. I have the scar on my nose to prove it.
One holiday season, Mom found a new cookie recipe in one of her magazines (Redbook? Ladies Home Journal? McCall’s?) that became a staple. When I was single, I would bake and frost dozens of these cookies for my co-workers. One year, after I’d moved to another apartment with a smaller kitchen, I learned my cookie sheets wouldn’t fit in the oven. “Bring them in. We’ll use tin snips on them so they’ll fit,” one of the guys at work told me.
Then I got married. My husband came from a family that purchased birthday cakes and cookies from the bakery. When our children were young, I tried the cookie baking thing with them, but it didn’t go over well. That was my fault. I was not a full-time homemaker. I dropped some of the balls I was trying to juggle.
Fast forward several years. A critique partner brought the most amazing ginger cookies to critique one night. I got the recipe. X-Chromo, who was in high school at the time, enjoyed helping me bake a batch. She’s not a fan of chocolate, so I looked up a recipe for molasses cookies. She was hooked. She made molasses cookies throughout her college years.
Sometimes, it’s the little traditions that mean something.
Happy National Homemade Cookie Day!