Kinky Loved It, Too!

Friday was a great day, because Eileen, Lisa and Sharon, our great friends / volunteers, came out! Our dogs and us were so happy to seen them, because it has been over two weeks since we have seen them, because of the cold weather.

When I came outside to greet them, Eileen and Lisa had taken off walking some dogs, so I went down to Annie Oakley's pen where Sharon was busy working her magic on our Annie. After watching Sharon do some miracle work on Annie, she gave Annie a dog treat and told her to rest, and then we had a really fun visit. We love Sharon Griswold of "Rover Misbehaving?"for volunteering her dog training expertise to help make our dogs more adoptable and I truly do believe that she is one of the best dog whispers in Texas.

When we saw Lisa and Eileen returning with Pilgrim and Pumpkin, Sharon and Annie went back to work and I took off to go greet them. After howdies and hugs the laughter commenced as we caught up with each other's news. I was glad to learn that Ellen is doing okay after her hip surgery, but I laughed when they told me that she was no longer a happy camper, since they had taken her off of the morphine and she also doesn't care for the food they are serving her. "She said, "It tastes like cardboard!"" Eileen said, before we started laughing again.

Before leaving the rescue ranch to go eat lunch in Medina, I showed Eileen and Lisa my latest work in the Space Ship and they loved it and could not believe how much work I have done to it and that made my day, because I am so proud of it.

When Sharon and Annie were finished with their dog training session—Sharon hugged us and wished us a Happy Valentines Day and then she gave us a basket full of delicious, heart-shaped chocolates.

So now I want to do a couple of shout-outs—"Thank You, Sharon, Lisa and Eileen! We love you as much as our dogs do and we cannot thank y'all enough for all of the good work that you do!" And this shout-out is for our sweet friend Ellen Jackson—"Just Say No To Drugs!" We love the picture that Eileen e-mailed to us, of you in the hospital bed, but I am not going to post it because you look a little too happy, if you know what I mean!

After lunch I spent most of my day checking and rechecking my e-mail, as I worked non-stop on "My Secret Project," in hopes that Sandy Wolfmueller would send me her cheese grits recipe, because I could not wait to fix it.

At five-thirty the phone rang and I decided to keep working on my top secret project, and let Carlton take the call. "Hi, Nancy, this is Sandy. I'm calling to find out if you cooked the cheese grits recipe and if you liked it. Call me. Bye."

"What? Sandy hasn't sent me the recipe," I thought, as I got up and grabbed the phone and called her right back. "Hi Sandy, it's Nance. I was working on my secret project when you called and I haven't received your recipe. I've been checking my e-mail all day for it..."

"What?" Sandy said, sounding a little disappointed. "Nancy, I sent it to you at five-thirty this morning..." A few minutes later the "missing recipe mystery" was solved—Sandy had sent it to an old address of mine that I rarely check.

Today has been great, because I cooked Sandy's cheese grits recipe for lunch, and I had to lie to Tone about it not being Sandy's recipe, because he hates grits with a capital "H." When he took a big, second serving of what I told him was, "Cousin Nancy's Bacon & Cheese Souffle" he started laughing. "Nance, this is really delicious and I like it, but I know that it is Sandy's recipe, because I can taste the grits..."

Later this afternoon I went over to the Lodge with a big slice of Sandy's cheese grits to get Kinky's opinion on them. "Nance, this is absolutely delicious!" He said, as he fed little pieces of it to Sophie, Brownie and Chumley. "You made this? What's in it?"

"Yes Kinky, I made it. Sandy sent me her recipe for it and I love it, too and it is real easy to make. It's got grits, cheese and....." Then I told him about my idea of doing a "Cousin Nancy Stolen Recipes" cookbook and he thought it was a great idea.

When I came home Tony asked me if Kinky liked the cheese grits. "Yes!" I said. "Kinky loved it, too!"

P.S. Thank you, Sandy Wolfmueller for sending me your secret, super delicious recipe that I have now stolen and renamed, "Cousin Nancy's True Grits"recipe.

Y'all have a great evening!

"A Weird Food Person!" or "True Grits!" or "A Chocolate Miracle!"

Today has been great! This morning I cooked blueberry pancakes for Charlie Cooper, who came out to help Tony with his morning chores, and for Kinky, Frank and Tony and they all told me they were delicious, which at that time I thought had made "my day," but I was wrong, again.

After I cleaned up the kitchen, I sat down and checked my e-mail and when I read my dear friend Mari's, of NoMad fame, who I so admire for so many reasons—it made me tear up, because it was so sweet and kind. So, I want to thank Mari for truly making my day great! In fact, I am still on Cloud Nine!

This afternoon we went to Kerrville to have lunch with Patty Kearns, another one of our great friends from Florida, because she was back in town visiting her father and his sweet wife Peggy. Needless to say, our lunch was filled with non-stop laughter as we caught up with each other's news and then when we started talking about Miles of Chocolate, that Ben & Miles make, Tone finally got a chance to talk and he said, "I forgot to tell you, Nance, that Miles of Chocolate have released a new video and it is great. It starts out with Ben and Miles, his business partner, sitting in lawn chairs, on a patio, sipping wine and there's even a monkey in a tree and it...." When T. was done talking, Patty and I vowed to watch it as soon as we got home.

After an enjoyable lunch with Patty, the three of us decided to go see our friends Sandy and Jon at Wolfmueller's Books and I'm so glad that we did, because it was fun and filled with laughter, too. At one point when Sandy and Jon were busy checking out some customers Patty whispered, "I love this bookstore so much. It is my favorite bookstore in the whole world. It is a Texas treasure and Texans should declare it a historical..."

"I know. I love this bookstore, too," I said. "And, I love the vibes in here." Then after the paying customers left the bookstore Sandy came over and took off with Patty to show her some books that she thought that she might be interested in. When they returned we started talking about food and that is when I discovered that Patty is a W.F.P.—"a weird food person," because she confessed it to us and then after a hilarious discussion about it, I announced, "Y'all, this is a secret, but I might as well tell y'all. In a few months from now, when my "Secret Project" is finished, I am going to write a cookbook. I'm going to call it Cousin Nancy's Stolen Recipes and I am going to ask everyone that reads my blog to send me their favorite recipes and I will give everyone credit for their recipes and then write a little something about them and then I'll rename each recipe as "Cousin Nancy's Stolen....!" I think it will be a lot of fun. What do y'all think?"

After everyone said, "Yes! Do it!" Sandy says, "I've got the best Cheese Grits recipe that I will give to you. It is the best and is to die for..."

"We're talkin' True Grits here," I joked. "Sandy, we're fixin' to go to H-E-B right now to get some groceries. Please tell me what to buy, because I want to make that recipe. I've never eaten grits and..."

"I hate grits," Tony moaned, as he shook his head sideways. "I ain't eating them, Nance. I'm sorry, but..." After Sandy, Patty, Jon and I quit laughing about T.'s remark, Sandy told me what I needed to buy and I bought them.

When Trigger got us home safely, Frank came over for a visit and we had a nice one in Outer Space. When I told Frank about Sandy's delicious cheese grits recipe that she is going to e to me tomorrow, Franks says, "Nance, I love grits. My mama used to make them for us when we were growing up in Georgia. Cheese grits are the best and if you add a little bacon to them—they're delicious!"

This evening before writing this blog, I went to YouTube and checked out the new Miles of Chocolate commercial and I loved it. And, yes, there is a monkey in it and Ben and Miles were great in it and I loved what a fan had written to them, declaring it—"A Chocolate Miracle!" because I totally agree with her.

P.S. Charlie, thank you so much for coming out today to help Tony. I hope that you and Ellen enjoyed the Miles of Chocolate that we gave to you this morning!  

Y'all have a great evening! And I want to thank all of y'all for keeping me laughing and for being my friends. I'm so lucky!