- Good food, good company, good advice from Grandma

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I received samples of coffee from Coffee Bean Direct for this review.

Coffee Bean Direct is a coffee company located in New Jersey. They roast their own beans and ship from their own facility. They carry over a hundred varieties of coffee and over 70 varieties of tea. They sent me a sample of their City Roast Colombian Supremo. It tasted great brewed in our Cafe II Il Duomo Krupps coffee maker.I want to try some of their half-caffienated coffee soon.

However, I enjoy making just one cup in my Keurig One Cup Brewer. Coffee Bean Direct made it simple for me to use their coffee with the reusable one cup filter. The one cup filter has a measurement line inside that lets you know how much coffee to put in it.

With Coffee Bean Direct you can place your order 24 hours a day. Your order ships next business day. Shipping is a flat rate of $7.50 up to 25 pounds. Orders over 25 pounds ship free. They accept credit cards, Paypal, and Google Checkout. The website is completely secure and encrypted.

If you would like to try out the Coffee Bean Direct Coffee, one reader can win a pound of the City Roast Colombian Supremo and a one cup filter. Just use the Giveaway Tools form to enter:

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My Mama

Karen · 11 Comments

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My Mama is the best cook that ever lived. When I was growing up I never wanted to eat at anyone else’s house because no one could cook like my Mama could. She is the one who taught me to cook, and over the years since I became an adult, I called her so many times to ask her “how do you make” whatever. So when she called me a week or so ago, and asked me how to cook fried eggplant, it was a shock. She has been cooking fried eggplant since before I was born.

A day or two later, my sister, Linda, called me to tell that they had taken Mama to the ER. When she arrived her blood pressure was 220/110, or thereabouts. She was dizzy and felt sick to her stomach, and had a headache. The doctors ran all kinds of tests, but did not find any sign of a stroke or bleeding on the brain, and no sign of a heart attack. They kept her in the hospital for four days, and sent her home when her blood pressure was stabilized.
That was Saturday.

On Sunday, Linda went to check on Mama. She was feeling ill again, and couldn’t get up out or her chair and could not walk. She hadn’t bathed in quite some time, so my sister and brother-in-law carried her to the bathroom and helped her get cleaned up. Then they called 911 and took her back to the ER.

Upon arrival this time, her blood pressure was 88/45, too low this time. They took her off of all her blood pressure medications, and ran a zillion more tests. These test showed that she has acute renal failure, with only 17% kidney function. They also found signs of congestive heart failure and diagnosed her with Parkinson’s Disease. She is still in the hospital. Her renal function has increased to 33% since Sunday. She was seen by a physical therapist today, who recommended that she go to a rehab facility when she is discharged from the hospital.

Linda has been handling getting the rehab facility set up, and has found her a bed in a local place not far from the hospital. Mama doesn’t want to go, but we have no other choice at this time. Linda has to work. She just started a new job at the beginning of the summer, and they have been very good about letting her take time off. But since Mama needs someone with her 24 hours a day, Linda is not able to do that. I am not able to take care of Mama either, with the shape I am in physically. I will be going to sit with her two days a week, though, so she won’t be alone. We are working together as a family to work out a schedule.

We have known this day would come, but even with that knowledge, it is still hard. Hard to accept that our mother, who has always been a strong, independent woman, can not longer live alone. It’s going to be so hard to do this. I know we are not the first family to do it, nor will we be the last, but this is MY MAMA. I still need her to tell me how to cook.

Farm Fresh Friday: Five Cedars Farm Cedartown Georgia

Karen · 6 Comments

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Fabgrandpa and I went out to Five Cedars Farm in Cedartown yesterday. I saw on their Facebook page that they had squash and green beans ready to go. Becky and Rafe are coming to dinner on Saturday, and I wanted to make a squash casserole for them, so this was good timing.

The squash was soooo pretty! I bought about 4 pounds of it so I could also put some in the freezer. I have been slowly stocking things up throughout the summers so that when winter gets here I will still have farm fresh veggies to cook up. Just a little bit each week adds up, and doesn’t tire me out completely.

Just look at that beautiful eggplant. Although I made eggplant parm this week, and we ate it twice, I still wanted one of these so I can make some fried eggplant. I love that I can get the smaller, less bitter eggplant at the farm. The ones you get at the grocery store are so big, and just don’t taste as good.

I picked up some red onions, a couple of bell peppers, and about 4 pounds of green beans to finish up my shopping. When we got home, I prepared the green beans and squash for the freezer, and wound up with three quarts of beans, and four quarts of squash in the freezer, plus enough to cook for our dinner guests on Saturday.

For dinner tonight, I used one of the bell peppers and one of the onions that I bought today, and served up some flounder with peppers and onions. Fabgrandpa was one happy guy!

Flounder with Peppers & Onions

1 bell pepper

1 medium onion

3-4 cloves garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 lb flounder filets, cut into serving size pieces

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Cut the bell pepper in half, and removed the seeds and membranes. Cut into slices. Peel the onion, cut in half, and slice. Peel the garlic cloves and chop them up. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet with a lid. Add the vegetables to the skillet, and stir fry until the garlic starts to brown. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning on the flounder filets. Push the vegetables to the side of the skillet, and add the fish pieces in, covering them with the vegetables as you go. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Cover the skillet, and cook for 10 minutes until fish is done. Serve over rice. Makes four servings.

I am looking forward to the coming weeks at Five Cedars. They have muscadine grapes, tomatoes and corn that will be ready soon. And Debbie said she is cutting okra tomorrow! I might have to go back and get some of that.

Tomatoes ready soon — Tomatoes not ripe yet.

The corn will be ready soon!

Five Cedars Farm is located at 835 Cherokee Road in Cedartown, Georgia. Like their Facebook page to keep up with what is available for sale, and the dates they are open. Right now, they sell direct from the farm Monday thru Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. You can also call before you go at 678-246-1216.

Finally Got Some Pictures Hung On The Wall

Karen · Leave a Comment

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We have been living in this house since November. In all that time, we only put up some things on the dining room wall. Last week, we decided it was the day to hang things. I bought those two pieces of native American art in Arizona last year on the way home from the Grand Canyon. They look so good hanging up there, but the wall is so big it needs more, something else. I’m thinking about getting a mirror to put in between them. I think that would make for a really nice arrangement. What do you think of this one?

I put one of Becca’s paintings on another wall. Because of where it is located, it doesn’t seem to need anything else with it.

The print that we found at a thrift store in Bremen went on the short wall that separates the kitchen from the living room. We definitely need some more pieces over there. I’ll be looking in the thrift shops for more interesting pieces to go with it.

That is about as far as we got so far, but it is a good start. At least the walls are not as bare as they were, and it is starting to feel more like a home around here. I’m hoping to be able to paint those walls soon too. Ah, there is just so much to do in this house!

Bloggy Buffet:Soup Soup Soup

Karen · 3 Comments

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This week at the Bloggy Buffet we are sharing our soup recipes. While it may be hot as blazes out there right now, it won’t be long now until there is a chill in the air and the leaves start falling, That is when I get in the mood to make soup. The soup I am sharing with you today is my version of Lima Bean Soup. For many years I just made beans. Dried beans, water, salt and pepper, with a chunk of salt pork to season them. Then one day I decided to make that same old pot of dried beans have some personality. This is the result of that inspiration:

1 bag dried baby lima beans
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
4 fresh tomatoes, skinned and diced
8 oz frozen shoe peg corn
1 smoked ham hock, skin removed, and meat cut up in chunks
salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Place dried beans in a pot of water and bring to a boil. Boil for five minutes. Meanwhile, place all other ingredients in crock pot and turn on high. Pour hot beans and water into crock pot and cook for several hours. Serve hot with corn bread or biscuits.

What is your favorite soup? Link up your recipe below:

PickURGift App Review

Karen · 2 Comments

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This post is brought to you by brandfluential.com. I received compensation for this post, but all opinions are honest and 100% my own.

Do you have people on your gift shopping list that are just impossible to shop for? I know everyone has at least one person that fits that description. But even if your friend or family member is easy to please, wouldn’t it be great to know that the gift you give them would be just what they wanted? Now, with PickURgift, you can shop knowing that the money you spend will be for a gift that is truly appreciated.

PickURgift.com is the new place to go to for you to be the person who gives the very best gifts. To get started, you go to the website and register for a free account with your name and email address. After that, create a contact list. You’ll need a name and email address for each person. This contact list is your list of people for whom you will be shopping.

The contact list for friends, family, co-workers, and anyone else on your list

After you have created your contact list, you can then create a gift list for each person. To do that, you download the UR button to your menu bar of your browser. When you are shopping online and find an item that you think your contact would like, click on the UR button, and add the item to the gift list for that person. You can add as many gifts as you like to the list. Adding them is so easy to do!

When you have added all the gift ideas to the list, you can then send the list to your contact person. They can look over the choices you made, and decide which item they would like to have. Once they make a choice, you will receive a notification that the person has selected their gift.

You will be notified when a gift has been selected.

The only thing left to do is to click on the link to the gift and purchase it for the intended person. Because the recipient was able to chose from a list of things you chose for them, you can be sure they will like it when it is received.

In the process of this review, I was paired up with Zippy from Champagne Living. I had to look over her blog and her Facebook account to learn something about her, so that I could choose gifts for her gift list. I picked out several things I though she might like, then sent her the list. She chose the wallet I picked out for her. She said she has wanted one like that for a long time, but that like me, she is stingy when it comes to buying things for herself.

The gifts she picked out for me after getting to know me included a Simplicity Bias Tape Maker. I have wanted one of those for so long! It was like a dream come true when it arrived at my house! Like Christmas, only without the tree. You know I can not wait to try this out!

When using this program, I found that downloading the UR Button, adding the gift items to a gift list were the easiest parts. While I did eventually figure out how to add a contact, it was a little hard to to do that part. It was also hard for me to figure out how to create a gift list for my contact person. Then, when I was ready to purchase the gift, it took me a little while of clicking around on the website to find my recipient’s mailing address. I think that the developer of the program should make it easier to find that information. Overall, I feel that this program is a very good idea. It would help me a lot in finding gifts for my teenage grandchildren or for relatives who seem to have everything they want.

Who would you create gift pages for?

Simple & Casual Jewelry Options

Karen · 11 Comments

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For a lot of popular products and luxuries, shopping is more fun on the so-called “high end” of things. Superior products, despite coming at higher prices, can simply be more enjoyable to shop for and look through. Whether it’s perusing your favorite clothing collections, looking for new furniture, or whatever else you need, there’s an undeniable appeal in wealth and quality!

However, for certain items, high-end shopping is almost too easy, and ends up taking some of the fun out of things. Take jewelry for example, It’s easy enough to find a high-end website offering valuable jewels and gold pieces at premium prices – but isn’t it a bit more fun to get out into the world around you and find some unique, casual jewelry with a bit more personal appeal? Casual accessories made from simpler craft-type materials can be a great deal more unique, and add some stylish touch to your outfits – here are a few specific suggestions to think about.

Charms & Pendants

The easiest way to design some cheap, personal jewelry is to do it with simple charms and pendants. This might mean anything from a little metallic “peace” symbol, to your initials made out in pewter, or whatever else you find that interests you. Just grab a simple thread or thin metal chain for a bracelet or necklace and add pendants as you see fit over time.

African Paper Beads

You’ve probably seen these beads around, even if you don’t know it. Various villages and communities in Africa produce incredibly beautiful beads by rolling colorful paper into beads and dipping them into lacquer before stringing them. You can find these beads at different sites devoted to selling them to help make money for the communities that produce them.

Seashell Necklaces

If you’ve ever tried to make your own, you may have found that it can be surprisingly difficult (just because it’s tough to poke holes in shells without ruining them). But, whether you fashion your own shell necklace or buy one at a beach kiosk, this is a great piece of casual jewelry, particularly in the waning weeks of summer!

Wood, Hemp & Leather

Nothing specific here, except for a few casual materials to consider. Too often people limit jewelry to just a few materials: metals, jewels, pendants, and beads. But bracelets and necklaces made of wood, hemp, and leather bands can be a great deal more unique (not to mention cheaper!). Again, the beach kiosk is often your best bet for these pieces.

Feather & Flower Compliments

Finally, put some flowers and feathers into your jewelry box! Not loosely, of course – but believe it or not, fake flowers and feathers are actually pretty trendy in this year’s best fashion collections. These are quirky options, but great ways to make cheap fashion statements.

My Visit To The WOCN

Karen · 2 Comments

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For those of you are interested in knowing what a stoma is and how to apply the colostomy bag, here is a YouTube Video. It is not me, and not my stoma, and it may be TMI, so don’t go look if you get queasy with stuff like that.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed when I took off my colostomy appliance (the flange and bag that adheres to my abdomen) to change it, that I had some irritation on the skin surrounding the stoma. I was afraid that it was getting infected, so I called the Wound Care Center associated with Tanner Medical Center to try to get an appointment with them. They said I would need to go to my primary care physician first for a referral.

The next day, I called Dr. Howell, my primary, and made an appointment for that same afternoon. When I went in, I told her what was going on, and she took a look at my stoma. I did not take the whole appliance off, just opened up the bag, but she could see the red irritated area I was talking about. She diagnosed it as Ulcerated Stoma and told me I was right to come in and get a referral. She called to make an appointment for me at the Wound Care Center, and did not charge me for the visit to her office, which was very nice of her to do since I still do not have health insurance.

It was five days until my appointment at Wound Care. I worried the whole five days about having an ulceration because that type of thing can lead to failure of the stoma, which would mean more surgery. On the day of my appointment, I went in the room, and talked to the nurse, and told her what was going on. I took the appliance completely off, (and hoped that I wouldn’t have any “activity” while it was off).

When the WOCN came in she took one look, and asked me if we had any of my supplies with us. Fabgrandpa got one kit out of my backpack. When she looked at my kit, she said immediately that I was using supplies that are too big. The irritation of the skin around my stoma was because the opening of the flange was too big, allowing feces to get on my skin and stay there.

She gave us some samples of supplies of the correct size, and showed Fabgrandpa how to care for the irritated area so that it could heal. She also said there was no actual ulcer and not even any infection so I did not have to get an antibiotic. I have a follow up appointment in three weeks for the WOCN to check to see if the irritation is clearing up. I think it is going to be just fine. And now that we know what to buy, we’ll get the right size and won’t have this problem again.