Fat Frog Diary

  Take the marinated cucumbers recipe. Pack the veggie you want (cucumbers are just the start!) in a jar. Pour the hot vinegar mix over the veggies. Close the jar and let the jars cool down on the counter. Stow in the fridge for 1-3 days. Then consume. Yum! I love not only cucumbers, sweet peppers, and green beans. Next month I intend to try cauliflower. Let me know what you try. UPDATE: I had some fresh baby carrots leftover, and popped those in a jar of the marinated vinegar/sugar mix. OMG! Soo good. 

  Really, this is easy!!  https://www.allrecipes.com/video/1411/carnation-simple-white-sauce/?internalSource=videocard&referringContentType=Search&clickId=cardslot%206

   https://www.allrecipes.com/article/make-casseroles-without-a-recipe/?did=593338-20201226&utm_campaign=alrcom-whats-cooking_newsletter&utm_source=allrecipes.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=122620&cid=593338&mid=47540518127 Wow! All I can say at this point is, Wow! If you haven't learned the joy of a thrown-together casserole, then it's time to learn.  Weeknights are hard enough. You get off work and race into the kitchen, only to discover you forgot to take something out for dinner. Oops! Now what? Delivery? Not very nutritious and very bad for the diet. What if it's the day before payday and the bank account is looking a little slim? But what if you had ingredients saved in the freezer, and all you had to do was assemble and warm up? Much better, right? That's all a casserole is!  By having these ingredients in the specified amounts already on hand (some can be leftovers!) you have "free" meals. Have 1 quart and 1 gallon bags handy,...

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  Take the marinated cucumbers recipe. Pack the veggie you want (cucumbers are just the start!) in a jar. Pour the hot vinegar mix over the veggies. Close the jar and let the jars cool down on the counter. Stow in the fridge for 1-3 days. Then consume. Yum! I love not only cucumbers, sweet peppers, and green beans.Next month I intend to try cauliflower. Let me know what you try.

I've heard so many say, “When Biden is elected, I'll be so happy. This nightmare will be over.” True. The nightmare will be over, but the work begins now, whether he wins or not. Today is yesterday's future. We plan and execute the future every morning when we open our eyes to begin the day. It's true we won't have an administration that hinders and even destroys reasonable, common-sense things like respecting medical advice to wear masks to stop a pandemic, and enacting controls to stop climate change because you respect the scientists. Well, maybe we will still have that administration, but we see the common sense, and we still have hands and voices. We can still take along a trash bag and clean up a beach or trail as we enjoy it. We can wear masks and demand others do the same. (It's time to stop being polite about it.) We can vote with our wallets and buy American. We can shop at the small businesses we choose to support. We can stop mowing useless lawns on...

 That's it. 2020 has officially destroyed my peace, goodwill, and general feeling of kindness toward my fellow man. I'm done. I'm coldly angry. It's not a white-hot rage of someone who has an emotional overload. Nope, this is the cold ashes of someone who has no emotions left to feel. Trump bugs me. (A lot. Really a lot.) Climate change is not a happy thing, but I can focus my inner hippie on some serious social justice for this. A pandemic? (Okay, let me start making masks. Thank goodness I sew well.) Murder hornets? You're kidding, right? No? (sigh) Black Lives Matter! (More inner hippy social activism! I gotta help with this! What? I'm a member of a vulnerable group? I'm not allowed to march? But...but! I brought masks, and signs...) A hurricane season with so many named storms they had to go to the Greek alphabet? (Damn.) The Notorious RBG dying? (Curse words are now beginning to run out.)  I actually enjoyed the lockdown. Most of my friends are going nu...

 It's kind of official. I've lost at least 75 pounds now, if you start from the highest weight I know about, which was 297 lbs. That's the day I got very, very scared and told myself, "This has to stop." As of my doctor visit last Friday, I weigh 222 lbs.  I've been struggling with weight loss since COVID-19 hit and we went into lockdown. Not for any good reason, really. I stopped monitoring what I ate. That's it. And that's a stupid reason I can't blame on the lockdown.  Truthfully, I'm lucky. I'm an introvert. I don't care if I go weeks without being physically in the company of humans. I love Zoom. I can talk and get business done without feeling social anxiety. I like text and email. That's "personal contact" enough for me.  I used pushing the lawn mower as exercise. In the heat of Florida, that's a workout! We have a battery powered lawnmower that lasts between 30-45 minutes before it needs a charge. That's a ...

Globally, we are now into our seventh month of this pandemic. These various quotes made me laugh, which I SO needed.  📷 1. So let me get this straight, there’s no cure for a virus that can be killed by sanitizer and hand soap? 2. Is it too early to put up the Christmas tree yet? I have run out of things to do. 3. When this virus thing is over with, I still want some of you to stay away from me. 4. If these last months have taught us anything, it’s that stupidity travels faster than any virus on the planet, particularly among politicians and bureaucrats. 5. Just wait a second – so what you're telling me is that my chance of surviving all this is directly linked to the common sense of others? You’re kidding, right? 6. People are scared of getting fined or arrested for congregating in crowds, as if catching a deadly disease and dying a horrible death wasn’t enough of a deterrent. 7. If you believe all this will end and we will get back to normal just because we reopen everything, rai...

1.The head of the USPS backed off from slowing down the post office, removing post boxes, and dismantling the sorting machines. But what about what he has already done?  2. Reminder: Russia colluded with Trump.  3.Colin Powell, a prominent Republican, will speak at the Democratic National Convention tonight.  4.Michelle Obama spoke eloquently at the DNC. 

I'm very happy. She is smart, articulate, and aggressive. Pence is fucked. If Trump attacks her black race, he is a racist. We knew that. If he attacks her gender, he is a misogynist. We knew that too. If he attacks her record, at least he read something. 

https://www.hometalk.com/43747359/the-simplest-way-to-clean-silver-naturally I know! I should wait until fall when everyone pulls out grandma's silver to polish for the holidays, but I say, "Why wait? You're special too!" Seriously, what's wrong with using the "good" stuff only once or twice a year? Have a tea party in the air-conditioning with the family or have a "Christmas in July" feast. You're bored, right? It can be a chance to try out a few new recipes before you serve the guests during the holidays.  The recipe and "hack" above from Hometalk uses boiling water, aluminum foil, and baking soda. That's it. The hardest part is boiling the water, and the only concern is if you have to turn a large item, so use tongs! 

It is a small issue in the bigger scheme of things, but to me it hurts. Others laugh about gaining the Covid-19 weight. I don't. I live in terror of weight gain. My stomach hurts so bad when I eat too much. Sometimes I threw up. But I love baking bread. Normally I would take it to church and I would be lucky to have a crumb. Now church is online only and I must find ways to do other things than eat. Sewing masks helps. 

Wow. George Floyd's funeral is today, but the protests and calls for reform will not die. While I agree with the protesters, I have reservations about the calls to abolish police entirely. Change, yes. 

Today the military surrounded the Lincoln Memorial and military vehicles drove through the streets of DC. Authoritarianism has come. I'm horrified. Should we flee? The cowardly Republicans have not squeaked. This is America, not a battleground. I blame not only Trump, but also William Barr and all the Republicans. 

I was born in 1959. I grew up hearing and unconsciously participated in the systemic racism. We had a black maid named Ms. Martha. I adored her as a child who knows no color does. I played with the little mixed race girl down the street named Patti. I was innocent enough to envy her "great tan" without prejudice.  However, I was still blind and deaf to racism. I heard and dismissed/excused use of the N word, though inwardly I shuddered. But I didn't open my mouth and call them on it. I knew that there were certain areas of town where "they" lived. I didn't think to question why. I didn't question the inequities, and I admit with shame I often did not even think about it.  But I grew. I worked with some persons of color, who slowly educated me and removed the blocks placed in my mind by systemic racism. I thank them all.  I've actually heard someone say to me that they grew up with racism and they "meant nothing by it, it was just the way I was r...

I'm putting my head in my hands. My brain pains me and my shuddering won't cease. I'm almost nauseated at the stupidity and outright prejudice described below. I just saw some female on a video recording herself talking about how we're going to be fine in Jacksonville because --get this!-- we (she, I'm guessing) drinks Natural Lite beer from aluminum cans and not like the "Mexicans" in Miami who drink Corona beer in glass bottles. And because we (again, I assume she) eat lots of salty foods like bacon, grits, and boiled peanuts then we can't get the Covid-19 virus. Moreover, she firmly believes that because we ingest all that "natural" beer and salty foods, we're so safe that there's no reason to close our beaches. I'm surprised she didn't bring up the fact that the ocean is salty. Or was that too much science for her? I don't even want to bring up or mention her prejudiced assumptions that there are just "Mexic...

https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/uses-for-household-borax/   I'm giving this lady full credit! We all know about baking soda and how many wonderful things it can do, but borax equals or exceeds it. I've made the laundry soap and found it beyond excellent. I've used it to scrub delicate china without removing the artwork, and I knew it could do other things but I was stunned by the advice from a friend to try it for an insect infestation. Little brown cockroaches had invaded my home from a grocery bag kept a little too long, and bug spray just wasn't doing the job. Not only was it expensive, I was tired of inhaling the poison while I wielded the Raid spray like a weapon. Not the way I want to enjoy my coffee in the morning. I live in Florida, and bugs are a constant issue. We have cockroaches the size of your thumb we term "palmetto bugs" but let's not mince words. They are giant flying cockroaches you have to kill with a hammer. No, I'm not k...

Much delayed surgery on my thrombosed saphenous vein on my right leg. Covid 19 Quarantine had us locked down for over a month. I had hoped I would soften my memory of the last two surgeries and how painful they were. The memories have not faded. I wonder if I will sleep. 

Just when I thought the stupidity could not get any lower, #45 (I will NOT give him the dignity of a title he has not earned.) has encouraged his devoted, fanatical followers to protest. They have responded witlessly and defied the quarantine to get out and blockade city streets to the point of blocking entrances to hospitals so doctors have to come out and beg them to let the ambulances through. I'm putting my head in my hands and I want to cry. It's not bad enough that the fools want to get out and win the Darwin Award en masse, but they're taking some poor innocent person in need of medical care with them. If I were a Covid-19 victim in that ambulance, I'd demand to be released from the stretcher so I could go out and cough on each and every protester I found, like a zombie biting them all. If they want to die, let them die. If they're taking me with them, I'm going to give them all big sloppy wet kisses goodbye first. Good riddance to stupid rubbish....

Let me state up front that I'm well aware I'm different. I have a work from home job in the medical industry and I'm a born introvert. I'm buried in work all day, then loving the Zoom meetings on certain nights of the week that fulfill what little craving I have for social interaction. I have always preferred to shop online and --when I indulge at all-- carry out or delivery of a meal is fine by me. I know there are a lot of people without a job, struggling to put food on the table, unable to leave the house to even search for work. The gig economy and the service industry are struggling and dying. There's no one leaving the house to go to a show, have a meal out, or even meet with friends for drinks. The entertainers, bartenders, wait staff, and even the zoo staff have no one to entertain. You don't realize how much of the economy depends on the service industry until it isn't there. The only ones left working are fast food/carry-out restaurant workers an...

Maybe I'm being idealistic, but I do believe there is good in the Covid-19 Isolation. We must all physically distance ourselves, but this does not mean we must be anti-social. Why then do we have SOCIAL media? I'm getting great ideas on how to socialize without harming others. People putting six-foot chalk circles on their driveway and everyone sits in the center of their circle, getting to know their neighbors. In the picture I saw, each had their own drink cup (probably brought from home, since none matched). What a great way to get to know your neighbors! I saw a suggestion to put up holiday lights for the cheering aspect. Yep, I'm doing that one this weekend. My church has embraced technology and installed Zoom so we can have meetings virtually. (Now if I can just remember to attend!) I want to take walks. My fat butt could use a few miles. LOL! The point is that physical distance doesn't mean that we must isolate ourselves socially. We just have to get in...

Alton Brown (@altonbrown) tweeted at 9:46 AM on Sat, Feb 29, 2020: I know what we're doing today! #grandmotherrecipes https://t.co/VxYEUZldNm ( https://twitter.com/altonbrown/status/1233765433502728194?s=09 ) Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download?s=13 Yes, the original recipe of Sock It To Me Cake. I was stunned to find it, so it's going here where I have a record of it.

Hertha BY  ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE I am that which began;                Out of me the years roll;        Out of me God and man;                I am equal and whole; God changes, and man, and the form of them bodily; I am the soul.          Before ever land was,                Before ever the sea,        Or soft hair of the grass,                Or fair limbs of the tree, Or the fresh-coloured fruit of my branches, I was, and thy soul was in me.          First life on my sources              ...