Tropicalsenior

You are so lucky. I very seldom get lost because I'm able to retain a visual map in my mind and once I have been somewhere I never forget it. But if you ask me if I had to go north, south, east, or west to get there I couldn't tell you. I have one friend who is so challenged that she had to give up on driving a car because she could never find her way back home again.

The weird thing for me is that I can get it right every time if I'm giving directions in Spanish but in English, I have to point and say that way. Does not being able to distinguish north, south, east, and west count as directional aspasia? There is no such thing as a straight Road here in Costa Rica. I get so turned in my directions that it is scary. For instance, for me, at my house the Sun comes up in the south and sets in the North. This makes it really hard for me to find places in Costa Rica because they have never been able to figure out how to put street addresses on anything. Everything is given by directions. For instance, our official address is 25 m. South of Farmacia San Joaquin. It doesn't help that that pharmacy has been gone for 10 years. I usually have to hunt up the nearest church because all churches face West except for the ones that don't. But that is Costa Rica.

How about a backpack?

I have something like this that I take to the farmer's market. Maybe it would work for you. Although I can't believe the price. I think I paid about 16 bucks for mine.

I did a double-take when I saw your light fixture. I had to blow it up to make sure it wasn't a Birdcage. I once catered in a house that had a Birdcage right over the cooking Island with a huge parrot inside. Yuck and double yuck. By the way, I love your pantry space and I agree with you on the dishwasher. Too far away from the sink.

That might work well in some supermarkets but I have found that they are going for thinner and cheaper bags in most markets and they are impossible to tear off cleanly and almost impossible to open.

I had the same problem so I bought these. They're kind of a lightweight nylon mesh with drawstring tops and I got them on Amazon. I don't have the link but they were one of the best investments that I've ever made.

Labels on grocery items are a complete pain. I don't go anywhere without this in my pocket.

Is that where you have trouble telling your left from your right? Or at least trouble telling others to go left or right. If it is, I've had it all my life I just didn't know what it was called. As for not being able to do what you used to do, that creeps up on all of us. I can no longer multitask because of mobility issues. I have learned to cook a lot of things ahead of time and just reheat them in the microwave. I understand that you don't have a microwave but it might be a good investment for you because it saves a lot of work. You can make whole meals when you are able and reheat them when you want to. Might save you from a lot of early am meals. I would say that surviving old age is a lot easier if you readjust your priorities.

I have been craving Swiss steak for ages. I like it with lots of onions but since it's a No-No in our house, I had to make do with mushrooms and tomato. Doesn't photograph well but it sure was tasty. I used to shy away from making popovers because I've had some colossal failures but I found a no-fail recipe that always turns out perfect. Served it with a salad made with broccoli, mango, celery, and walnuts in a Greek yogurt and honey dressing.

And double shit for the white print on a light blue background. What are these people thinking?

Just recently, I have been able to download most of @Jazz's cookbooks for the instant pot and I am really enjoying reading them. Although I have been using my knock off instant pot for about 3 years, it seems that every page I turn, I learn something new or a new way to do something. Her directions are so precise and so easy to follow that you feel like you have an instructor right at your elbow. I particularly like the way that they are written to be used in the computer format. The links within the chapters are invaluable. They are the easiest ebooks to navigate that I have ever seen. Now I just have to go from reading to executing. There are so many that I want to try that I just don't know where to start.

That sounds like the way my foot looked when a Tennessee Walker stallion stepped on my foot, picked up the other three feet and pivoted. At least it felt like he did. I was wearing sandals at the time.

That was about 45 years ago and God hadn't made clogs available where I lived.

I've had a #10 can of tomatoes fall on my foot one time. It broke two toes.

OMG, that's terrible. I hope you didn't damage the roast.

Yours looks much better than the recipe does.

Yesterday was my friend Lenora's birthday and she's been up to stay with me for a few days. So last night I made a few of her favorite things for a light dinner. I also managed to sneak in an entry @Duvel's cook-off. I made a country pâté A small quiche And a small cottage cheese and tomato salad Served with a delicious vintage, non-alcoholic sangria. I put anchovies in the deviled eggs and they were good but I think I prefer just plain old country style deviled eggs.

I made a country pâté for a light birthday dinner for my friend Leonora who is staying with me right now. I combined several recipes and adapted them to fit our taste and product availability. I let the meat marinate with brandy and spices for 24 hours. Ready for the oven. Baked and pressed for 24 hours. Served with pickles, homemade bread and homemade sweet mustard, (not shown).

That reminds me of a recipe that I found years ago in one of those old Community cookbooks that was raising money for missionaries in Africa. Elephant Stew 1 elephant salt and pepper to taste 2 rabbits (optional) brown gravy Cut elephant into bite sized pieces. This should take about two months. Add enough brown gravy to cover. Cook over a kerosene fire at 465o for about 4 weeks. This will serve about 3,800 people. If more are expected, two rabbits may be added, but do this only if necessary as most people do not like to find hare in their stew.

I had one of those, too. That's why I started putting them in the plastic bag and then I always refill the ice cube trays. Finding two cubes in an ice tray always caused me to have enough steam coming out of my ears to melt the rest of the ice.

I'll second that! I break the ice cube trays out into a plastic bag so that I can grab two or 20 whenever I need them. I've never had the desire for an ice maker.

Agreed. My daughter worked for a warranty company and the biggest problem in electrical appliances is ice makers in refrigerators. You couldn't give her one as a gift.

Thank you. That is probably one of the main reasons that I don't post as much. Having worked in restaurants one of the most important things to me is serving hot food hot and cold food cold. That said, here is our dinner for tonight. I'm pretty proud of this chili. It doesn't look like much but it was really good despite the fact that I can't use any onions or garlic in it. I served it over rice with chopped tomatoes and queso fresco courtesy of @blue_dolphin. It was pretty crumbly but very tasty. We had fruit salad with mango, melon, strawberry, and pineapple. Also cornbread muffins, not shown.