Can Instructions

I see nothing weird with these cooking instructions, do you my friends?  Sounds about accurate to this little oinker – snorts with piggy laughter.

 

Helpful Tips – Let’s Share

My friends – I’ve thought of something so cool.  Today, let’s share some helpful tips.  Perhaps there is something that you do to make life easier for you that could make life easier for everyone.  

For instance, mom has three magnets on the refrigerator.  One is a dog, one is a cat and one is an alligator.  Yes you read that right.  An alligator – rolls piggy eyes.  Mommy couldn’t find a piggy magnet.  Too funny that the alligator represents me – snorts.  Anyway, they are always kept in the same spot on the fridge.  When mom feeds the cats, she takes down the cat one.  When she feeds the dog, she takes down the dog one.  And then when she feeds moi, she takes down the alligator one.  That way, just in case she is running late or sleeping in and daddy has to feed us, he knows which one of us have been fed or not fed.  So no more double feeding – darns it.  

Another thing mom does at work is that she keeps a shot glass on her desk.  Snorts and rolls with piggy laughter – not for drinking you funny person.  She keeps her staple remover in it.  She goes through a LOT of papers and a lot of times has to remove the staples.  She removes the staples and then puts them in the shot glass to hold them while she goes through the entire stack of papers.  Then all she has to do and toss the contents from the shot glass when she is finished.  Something easy that helps her out a bit.  

Do ever wonder how daddy is able to do household chores without ‘seeing’?  For anyone that has vision problems, these are very helpful tips.  Mom taped a toothpick to the washing machine.  When daddy does the washing, he feels for the toothpick so he knows how far to turn the dial.  Mom also taped a key disc (you know the ones that are colored and are empty in the middle that you put on your keys for coding) to the oven on the “on” button.  If daddy wants to cook something in the oven, he feels for the disc and is able to turn the oven on.  Mom also put a key disc on the on button of the microwave.  

What are some helpful tips that you can share?

 

 

Shopping Around the World

My friend Fozzie and I have scheduled a group posting today of Shopping Around the World.   We thought it would be interesting to see the differences between different countries all over.Here are our prices for the following from our area – Georgia USA.

 Items to price this month:

• Spring/Summer is quickly approaching my friends on this side of the world.  On the other side of the world, Autumn/Winter is quickly approaching.  That is if Mother Nature starts playing well with others 🙂  It was suggested to post what you pay during this time of year for the month for your heating and/or air conditioning.  What temperature do you set your thermostat on?  Discuss.  Okay we keep it pretty cool here at the Hotel Thompson.  Mom likes to hang meat sometimes so daddy has to keep her in check.  Our monthly bill is a ‘flat rate’ bill.  We pay the same thing every month for 12 months.  Sometimes we use more watts than other months but it makes up the difference over the year.  We pay right at $205.00 a month in electrical – heating/air conditioning.  Our house is totally electric – no gas at all here… unless you count the gas that comes from this oinker – snorts and rolls with piggy laughter.
• Meat.  Fajita beef.  We buy a pound package for $4.99 at the market.  It’s already cut in small slices.  All you have to do is brown.
• Vegetable.  Head of cabbage.  When we are lucky, we can get this as cheap as $0.29 a pound.  This week though we paid $0.49 a pound.  An entire head cost us around $1.26 – awesome deal.  Have you ever eaten the core of a cabbage?  Mom highly recommends it.  It has a bit of a spicy flavor and is awesome!
• Random Item.   A can of peanuts.  We buy the store brand for only $2.99 a can.
• Homemade Dish.  See Below 🙂 This entire meal costs less than $5.00 for two people – and you have leftovers the next day for lunch!

  A ‘go to’ dish here at the Hotel Thompson is our version of a Chinese dish.  This is easy and takes less than 15 minutes to prepare.  It’s a huge hit!  We take the fajita beef and brown it in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil.  While that is browning, we use two boxes of the Lo Mein noodles that you can buy in the store for $0.99 each.  They come with the seasoning packs.  You open the packs, fill them with water and microwave them according to the package.  While the fajita beef is almost brown, add some chopped up cabbage and cook together.  When the Lo Mein noodles are done, pour them into your mixture of fajita beef and cabbage, add the seasoning mix packets, stir together and cover.  When the noodles have come together and the cabbage is soft but yet still has a crunch to it, top with peanuts and sesame seeds for taste.  There you go – instant meal that will please and is so delicious.  Remember to put a little back for lunch the next day.  Warms up wonderful!

I hope you had fun my friends with this month’s edition of Shopping Around the World.  Hope to see you shopping soon!

 

Silent Sunday

Let’s stop time while we can this year so it doesn’t fly by like 2014 🙂

 

Bacon’s Show and Tell

Is it time for Bacon’s Show and Tell now?  I thought it would never get here this month.  This month we are highlighting the one toy that you really wanted as a child but never got while growing up. This should be really interesting today to see – here we go with mom’s.

When mom was little, she wanted an Easy Bake Oven.  I bet there was more than one person who wanted this that didn’t get it.  Can you believe that over the years, there have actually been 11 Easy Bake oven models?

In 1963 (way before mommy was hatched – snorts), the first one came out.  It was turquoise and cost $15.95.

In 1965 (still before mommy’s time – snorts), Hasbro introduced Easy Pop Corn Popper, Birthday Cake, Party set and Kid dinners for the Easy Bake Oven.  I guess that was one inventive way to get kids to eat their veggies.

In 1968 (mom still not born yet), General Mills came out with boxed versions for the Easy Bake oven.

Finally when mom was born in 1969 – see all of this wonderful stuff led to mom’s birth – Hasbro came out with the Easy Bake oven in green with more dials and even a hood.

Then in 1970, the green was replaced with gold and it cooked cakes twice as big.

In 1978, the Easy Bake Oven went stream lined and came out looking like a brown and white microwave.

Over the years, more improvements were made and more colors and sizes.  Nowadays, the price of the average Easy Bake Oven goes between $29.99-$39.99, depending on what kind you get.  So not much of a price difference really in 51 years.  So many kids have loved these and played with them over the years.

Mom looks back and says she wanted one then but now she has a ‘real’ oven.  She didn’t miss out on anything growing up in not having one… well maybe more calories on her butt but then again that’s a good thing she didn’t have one – snorts.

 

Help – Who Is Right or Wrong?

Snorts.  Friends – I need your help again on this one.  It’s really important that you sink your teeth into this one and help us out here at the Hotel Thompson.  You see, mommy has a problem.  When she gets stressed, she hits the hard stuff.  Straight up from the box.  That’s right – she goes for the ice cream… or in this case the Gelato.

 We are not talking a small bowl – we are talking get the entire tub out and graze straight from the container.  It helps that she bought this new stuff from the market a couple of weeks ago.  That’s right – a couple of WEEKS ago.  See, she hasn’t done too bad in stressing – there’s still some in the container – snorts.  And it may last for several months here at the Hotel Thompson… especially this flavor cause daddy doesn’t like it – snorts.  That’s fine… it’s more for me and mommy.

And by the way, this new stuff is awesome.  Nods head up and down.  I *might* have gotten a couple of tastes… of course in a bowl silly – snorts.  Mommy wouldn’t share her spoon.  This is caramel swirl Gelato.  You want a closer look don’t you?  Here you go:

 

See all of that caramel goodness?  When mommy gets her ‘tub’ out, she is in piggy heaven!  (I know I was.)  But I digress.  Here is where we need your help my friends.

When mommy takes her tub of gooey goodness out of the freezer, she nukes it in the microwave for 10 seconds to get the ‘hardness’ off of it so she can dig in with her shovel spoon.  Daddy says she’s two steps from insanity when she does this and that it’s not “right” to punish ice cream like that.

What do you think?  I mean personally, I like it either way and I’m not complaining – snorts.  But mom and dad laugh every time mommy does this.  Tell me she’s not the only one in the world that does this.  Tell me that daddy is not going to have to call the men with the little white jackets to come and take mommy away.  Thoughts?!  Please discuss.