I'm On Fire!

Today has been great, even though our dogs and me overslept this morning. We didn't wake up until 7:30, but by the time Tony had returned home, from the Old Timer, I had already cooked up a big stack of delicious Aretha Frankensteins' Insanely Great Pancakes for him, Ben and me, to eat for breakfast. And needless to say, "Ben is now hooked on Aretha's pancakes too," which is sort of sad, because this morning, I used up the rest of Aretha Frankensteins pancake mix, that Eileen gave to us.

This afternoon I fixed sandwiches for Tony, Ben and me and after we ate lunch Ben and I decided to jam, because Ben had learned how to play and sing, Bruce Springsteen's great song, I'm On Fire. And within a couple of minutes, after Ben had told me what the chord progression was for the song, we put a bluegrass spin on it, which made Tony come out of his office and say, "Y'all sounded fantastic together! I want to hear that again..."

So, Ben played his mandolin and sang the song again for Tone, as I finger picked my guitar as fast as I could and not to brag, we really did sound pretty good. After we had performed Springsteen's song for Tony, he went back into his office aka man cave and that's when Ben I decided to have some fun and turn some old Motown songs into bluegrass songs and we had a lot of fun jamming together, until my fingers were killing me and I had to put my guitar up, for the day.

Early this evening we unplugged everything inside the trailer, because we actually had a few serious thunderstorms, thank goodness. Because we were unplugged, Ben, T. and me and all of our dogs went into Outer Space for a really fun visit. While we laughed and teased each other a lightning bolt suddenly hit really close, so I bolted and ran inside The Cabin, because it had scared me and when I finally came back outside to rejoin them, they teased me relentlessly for being so scared of lightning.

After re-telling them the true story about my mother being hit by an eighteen-wheeler, in downtown Fort Worth, when she was real young and having to have a metal plate put into her head and missing school for a year, with her identical twin, who didn't have a metal plate in her head, which no longer made them identical and the surgeons warning my grandparents, "that my mom was a walking lightning rod and to be careful during electrical storms" and then my mother putting the fear of lightning into my brother Ronnie, sister Cindy and me at an early, impressionable age—they roared so loud with laughter, that we could not hear the thunder going on around us.

When the thunderstorms had ended, we checked our rain gauge and we were delighted to find that we had received over a half inch of much needed rain. Then Ben grabbed his mandolin and adios-ed us, so he could get back to Austin. And that is about it for today, because it just thundered outside and we need to unplug, again.

Y'all have a great evening!

Just Ain't Worth Eating!

This morning I cooked Aretha Frankensteins Insanely Great Pancakes for breakfast and we about fell out of our chairs, because they are absolutely the best pancakes that we have ever eaten and I am not kidding!

I followed the easy directions carefully. I used one egg, from The Golden Girls, buttermilk, canola oil with the correct amount of Aretha's mix and then I decided to add some chopped pecans, because we love pecan pancakes. When I took this picture, I realized that I had used low fat buttermilk, but I don't think it mattered, because like Eileen had promised me—"The pancakes were to die for!"

While I cooked up our pancakes I took this picture of one pancake cooking in the skillet and I could just shoot myself for forgetting to take another picture of the fully cooked pancakes, because we had eaten them all up before I thought about taking a picture of a cooked one.

While Tony and I ate our delicious breakfast, in between bites, we vowed that we would only eat Aretha Frankensteins pancakes and no other, for the rest of our lives, because any other pancake just ain't worth eating. 

I hope that all of y'all will order a box of Aretha Frakensteins Insanely Great Pancake Mix, because it will change your thinking about pancakes forever and don't forget to use only real maple syrup, instead of the fake chemical stuff, found on the grocery shelves. And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening!

Aretha Frankensteins Insanely Great Pancake Mix—Rocks!

Thursday, Friday and today have been great. First off, I want to say that Wednesday night, Tony and I watched Dallas and we loved it—in fact, we are totally hooked on the show and we plan to watch it every Wednesday night.

Thursday morning, Ben came out to work and like always we had a lot of fun visiting with him, when he wasn't working outside.

Friday morning, when I went outside to greet and to thank our super volunteers/friends: Jim, Eileen and Lisa, for coming out to walk our dogs for us, Ellen was sitting, in front of the barn, at her grooming table giving Underdog a much needed haircut—that he did not seem to want.

When I got to the barn Eileen, Ellen and I started chatting, as Underdog's hair either fell on the table or was swept away by the wind. "Nancy, I have something to give to you," Eileen said, as she walked over to get something out of her car. When she returned with a box, she said, "This is the best pancake mix in the world and you and Tony are going to love the pancakes, but it says that you must use real eggs, canola oil and buttermilk. Then she handed me the interesting-looking box.

"Aretha Frankensteins Insanely Great Pancake Mix?" I said, reading the front of the box. "I've never heard of this. Aretha Frankensteins famous scratch pancakes. I love their packaging. It makes me smile just looking at it."

"The pancakes are to die for, Nancy," Eileen swore. When I looked at the back of the box I started laughing as I read some of the cute testimonials endorsing the pancakes:

"...so good it really should go by a different term, perhaps Powdered Awesome or Box of Magnificence..." —J. Scott Wilson, Food Editor

"Aretha's pancakes are Abbey Road era Beatles, the rest are Ringo solo stuff!"  —Jeff Styles, WGOW Talk Radio icon

"Aretha Frankensteins, that place rocks!" —Rachel Ray, Television Food Goddess

"I can't wait to make these pancakes," I said, "but first I've got to get some canola oil and buttermilk. Thank you so much for this."

Then Tony walked up and he started teasing Eileen about, "Being this close to being put back on probation," so I jokingly said, "Eileen, you will never be put on probation, by Tony again. In fact Tone, I might just put you on probation for giving Eileen a hard time. Look at this cute box of pancake mix that Eileen got for us, it's made in Chattanooga, Tennessee, called,"Aretha Frankensteins Insanely Great Pancake Mix."

Late in the afternoon, Ben, Tony and I went out to the barn, because Ben had bought some stuff, in Austin, so he could repair the small hole in my kayak and while he mixed up the mixture, in one of his  plastic Hat Creek Saloon cups, that he had cut the top off, we got to laughing about the ridiculously, hard to follow directions. "Why can't they just say, "mix one part to one part?" I asked.

When Ben started using his homemade wire whisk, that he had just made, using some old baling wire, to apply the clear goop, we really started laughing, as we watched the fiberglass mixture slowly fall through the hole, to remain in the inside of my kayak forever. As Ben kept applying more of the goop to try to fill the small hole, I joked, "Ben, you should start a kayak repair business," as the goop continued to slowly flow into my kayak. "If this doesn't start to set up soon, my kayak is going to weigh a ton and it will only go around in circles. I think we should go to my Plan B, which is to cut up a plastic milk carton and tape it down using my pink duct tape. I bet it would work."

After they had quit laughing at me, Ben placed a tiny piece of Bounty paper towel over the hole and jokes, "This should fix it from leaking inside."

"They say Bounty is the best, "I quipped, trying to sound enthusiastic, as I tried to remember where I had put my pretty, pink duct tape. Twenty minutes later, thanks to Ben and Bounty—the goop finally started setting up and had quit draining into my kayak—thank goodness.

"It says to give it a few days to completely set up before using it," I said, as we stared at the odd-looking, almost clear patch of fiberglass, that to me, looked sort of like a raw egg-gone-bad.

Today has been nice and quiet and that is why I am posting this so early in the day, because I am fixin' to go take a nap with Mama and Roy.

P.S. We're having pancakes for breakfast tomorrow and we can't wait! Thank you, Eileen!

Y'all have a great evening!