Community Chat

[PamfromCT]

Hello Dear @Enufstuff,

Want to wish you are very happy Mothers Day.  You are an amazing person in so many ways, with so many traits to admire.  
I hope you have a lovely day and enjoy the attention you richly deserve.  Take care, and please write when you can.

Your friend,

Pam

[Enufstuff]

@shoekitty   Thank you very much. We must have grown up in the same era. I have all my Ginny dolls and more that I collected. I have all the clothes and furniture too. Ginny was my all time favorite doll.

 I had one Miss Revlon.

  Toni was actually the name of the doll made by Ideal. The name is not on the doll. They are marked on the back of the shoulders, Ideal and P-90 for the 14", P-90 W for the 14" walker and P-92 for the 16". They made larger size dolls too.

  Tonette was the name of the Toni home permanent that was promoted by the sale of these dolls. Gillette made home permanents kits, Toni for adults and Tonette for children.

Gillette made the hair products for styling the dolls hair, they collaborated with Ideal and Dupont, who made the nylon doll wigs and the Toni Dolls were sold from 1950-1956.

Most of the sewing is done on the sewing machine and some things by hand.

Look on ebay, you will be amazed to see what Ginny Dolls are being sold for.

[Enufstuff]

@SportyShorty07   Thank you very much for your lovely post and birthday wishes. Today was very busy day with  my three daughters, my friend and my brother and his wife visiting.

They brought me two cakes. We are all sugared out. My oldest daughter took me out for dinner tonight. It was nice to have everyone here. Tomorrow, my oldest son, his wife and my grandson will visit.

When I got home tonight, I got my younger son to post the Poodle skirt pictures.

Your pictures are beautiful, they look so delicious and make me crave cheese cake and Boston Cream Pie. They do look very professional. Aren't you something, making your own birthday cheesecake and even putting it in bakery packaging! 

It looks so decadent with the lovely strawberry sauce.

That Boston Cream Pie is the loveliest one I have ever seen.

You are really ambitious, making those mini donuts and having the patience to even decorate them all and each one different.I bet they were yummy! You are teasing and tempting me with these pictures. You do realize that you are really spoiling your family with all these goodies. How lucky are they!

Your Hawaiian style macaroni salad sounds very interesting. I imagine that it would contain some ham and pineapple. (or Spam) I'm curious as to what you put in the salad.

[SportyShorty07]

@Enufstuff  You're very welcome, Enuffstuff and thank you so much for your very kind words and compliments !  I am so glad that you had a wonderful birthday today! Your day sounds wonderful, full of friendship and family, a wonderful dinner and two lovely cakes to celebrate your birthday! They must've been so delicious- I love cake.  Mother's Day will be a lot of fun for you too- you'll get to see your son, his wife and your grandson.  It was so nice of your son to post the photos for you on the computer too. 

    I'm so glad that you liked my cooking photos! Cooking school before art college really paid off- I like to cook or bake anything that I put my mind to.  Thank you so uch for your sweet words about my desserts!! My family is at the point where my sisters and parents will request a cake, any cake they want and I make it for their birthdays.  I've made strawberry cheesecake, pineapple upside down cake, Boston Cream Pie, strawberry sponge cake with whipped cream, chocolate raspberry ganache cake, Russian honey cocoa layer cake, vanilla layer cake and the list goes on!   Those mini donuts were a lot of fun to make- I loved making the old fashioned yeast donut dough, kneading it and letting it proof and then cutting it out- decorating was the most fun since I set out all of the toppings and glazes in different containers.  I'm going to make cake donuts or jelly donuts sometime this month.  

   My family loves my cooking and they tell me that I'm their special home chef! Tonight I made chipotle marinated boneless chicken thighs with salad and a side of my Hawaiian Macaroni salad.  The Hawaiian macaroni salad is my copy cat recipe of a local Hawaiian style chain L&L Hawaiian BBQ's famous Hawaiian macaroni salad.  Mine has chilled macaroni and a sauce composed of apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, mayonnaise, honey and then I mix that into the chilled macaroni and add diced celery, shredded carrot and a little bit of diced white onion.  I let the macaroni really absorb the sauce overnight in the fridge and its delicious and keeps well for almost a week.  So great with spicy food or barbecue meat.  For Mother's Day I made a smokey and spicy dry rib rub today and rubbed it all over a rack of ribs and tomorrow I'm going to bake it slow and low and then baste it with BBQ sauce under the broiler.

Thank you for your excitement about my cooking- your family is really lucky to have you and your gifts in cooking and baking too! 

[PamfromCT]

@Enufstuff and @SportyShorty07,

A Very Happy Birthday to you Enufstuff!  May you enjoy being surrounded by your loving family on this occasion.  I know they are realize how special you are!  Your talents are amazing

and you have such a sweet heart,

May you be blessed with many more wonderful birthdays!

And Sporty, what an amazing cook you are, and your family eats like royalty.  I will print off your recipes and share.

Hubs and I are elderly, and we watch our diets quite carefully.

We do cheat once in a while, but the list of what we have to avoid is very long.

I did much cooking from scratch when I had a young family.

Our little son was "borderline hyperactive."  I did not want to medicate him,  so he - and the whole family - followed the Feingold diet.  It was restrictive, but it worked.  His teacher noted the difference without me telling her.  Many years back,

as he is turning 50 next month!

[Enufstuff]

@PamfromCT  Thank you very much.  Yesterday was such a busy day with family visiting. Today I am expecting more visitors.

I can relate to what you said about avoiding so many foods. With all the health issues during the past year, I had to do the same.

Most of it was due to problems with medications. Anyway, as a result, I lost 27 pounds which is quite a bit when you are under 5' tall.

Here I am trying to avoid too much sugar and my best friend and my oldest daughter each brought me a birthday cake. I had to try to have some of them take some cake home with them.

When the rest of the family shows up today, I will have to "Let them eat cake".

Isn't Sporty wonderful? She is so kind to everyone here and so generous to share her delicious recipes. She went to culinary school and knows how to make such great things.

That was so wonderful that the Feingold diet worked for your son. I remember reading about it years ago. My children did not have a lot of junk food or sweets. Sweets were mostly for special occasions. If only more people realized that what children eat, affects their behavior, cognitive abilities and longterm health.

We didn't keep sodas in the house. Ginger Ale for when someone  had a sick stomach and other times  they had soda to drink for a party or with pizza, never a daily drink.

Maybe once a week I would bake something and with seven

people in the family to eat it, no one had sugar overload. Candy was for holidays and special occasions too.

I feel badly for children who were raised on fast food and now as adults have no clue about good nutrition. My kids grew up loving fresh fruits and vegetables and a Mc Donalds Happy Meal was a special treat a few times a year. I could not eat that stuff, but I have to admit that I picked at their french fries, they were so good.

Your son is the same age as my son. He will turn 50 in September.

Right now, I need to get a little breakfast, but I will respond to

your other post, later.

  Have a Happy Mother's Day.

[SportyShorty07]

@PamfromCT @Enufstuff  @2sisters Thank you very much for your kind words about me and my cooking ! I'm happy to share my dishes and recipes that I make for my family and if I lived closer to you ladies, I'd make these dishes for your families . I hope that you enjoy my recipes!  My lovely parents have let me live at home until I find a career that can make me happy and able to live on my own and even when I move out someday, they've said that they want me to be their visiting guest chef any thime that I want!  My parents are great cooks too, but they like how much confidence my cooking gives me each day and they like how its another way for me to show them my love, so they give me free range of the kitchen almost every day. When my sisters visit on the weekend for dinner, I make special dinners for the whole family- its a lot of fun.   

    I think its great that you and your hubs watch your diets and cook delicious and nutritious meals!  My family and I cheat and get fried chicken or pizza every few months or so- its part of life to get takeout for go to a restaurant sometimes .   That is so wonderful and thoughtful that you helped yor son's borderline hyperactivity through the Feingold Diet- I bet the meals that you made then and now are delicous and Happy early 50th Birthday to your son! 

[Enufstuff]

@PamfromCT   Hi Pam,

                                 I hope that you had a lovely Mother's Day.

Today was  a great Mother's Day and less hectic and busy than yesterday. All my daughters visited yesterday, along with my brother and sister- in- law and my best friend.

Today my son, daughter-in-law and grandson came. My youngest daughter also came today with my son-in-law. It was quieter than yesterday. At least I got them to take some of that cake home with them.

Did your daughter-in-law love the tote that you got for her?

I got my four girls books for Mother's Day. It is a book of baby animals and their mothers, "Amazing Moms".

I appreciate your suggestion about using Tumeric. I think that you did mention it to me a long time ago. My Nurse Practitioner has discouraged me from using supplements, since I'm so sensitive and allergic to so many things.

 So many of these things are not regulated by the FDA and she is concerned that fillers that may be used, cause some of my issues and allergic reactions. I only take D3, since my vitamin

D level was dangerously low. I was diagnosed with Osteopenia

many years ago and probably have Osteoporosis by now. I don't get tested for it, because I will not take the medications.

Every medication that I take , causes more issues. The only thing I take now is for blood pressure. I had to stop three medications after all the problems they caused last year.

I do get a lot of calcium from milk, yogurt, cottage cheese and

occasionally ice cream. Dietary calcium is better for me since I get kidney stones and supplements would not be a good thing for me.

My back is not a constant issue, only when I stand too long. This had been going on since my last child was born, when a huge nurse jumped on top of me, telling me to push. I told the doctor about that after it happened, but he didn't have anything to say.

I do remember your telling me about how your son's father-in-law was doing so poorly. I'm sorry to hear that he has passed away.

How is your Winston? I hope that he is well.

Remember how I was looking for a red wool winter coat?  I still haven't found one in the right shade of red, without a hood, no stand color, no double breasted. Maybe next winter.

But, I did buy a few more berets. Now, I have raspberry, navy, red, brown, teal, purple, turquoise and leopard print on a camel color background. I do seem to collect things. Too many things. 

That is why I have enufstuff. (Actually, too much stuff).

I need to get rid of some clothes and some books. Two bookcases are full and I have a few stacks on the floor.

I've collected so many books for years and gave a lot away, too. I have been reading so much since Covid happened and bought a lot of books. That's pretty much all I did and shopping online and coming here to read the forums.

Finally, this past winter and spring I've gotten my creativity

back to do a little writing, make some jewelry and do some sewing. Making the Toni Doll outfits are fun to do after not

making any for 15 years.

I'm so glad that you are back here again. I did miss hearing from you. I look forward to sharing more posts with you.

     Good night for now,

                                Donna

[PamfromCT]

Hello Dear @Enufstuff,

I am so glad you had a lovely Mother's Day!  Hubs, my DB, and I went out to eat.  My favorite place, in an antique cape,

great food and service.  My DD and SIL were out of the country.  She was sent to an internal conference with two co-workers, and her hubby went along.  They stayed and toured for a while when her conference was over.   My DS and DIL are tied down now, as they are fostering two dogs, along with their own.  We went over for a visit after our dinner, and yes,

she loved her bag.  

How. Ice to give books for a gift!  Like you, do we have books!

All over the place.  Some fine day we will try to weed out.  I dread it.  It is over the top.  Over the top is my specialty, so

umfortunately.  

I do understand how sensitive your system is to many things.

I do think you have accepted and adapted better than I would.

I am glad you can take Vitamin D, as it is essential for your bones.  I, too, found out I was so low in D, and alas was diagnosed with Osteoporosis.  It has gotten better, and I am on Prolia twice a year.

How is your little kitty Katie?  Winston is fine, fully in command of this house.  

I bet somewhere, sometime soon, you will find the red coat of your dreams.  I also would not want a hood on a wool coat,  or a stand collar or double breasted.  I bet you look darling in your berets!  And quite a nice collection.  I know you told me,but I have forgotten where you get yours from.

Believe me, I understand.  I have so much stuff.  The house is overloaded, and oh, my clothes.  I think I am nutso.  Right now, organizing and my Jammie's, robes, etc.  Quite a pile in good shape I am donating.  What was I thinking?  Was I thinking?  Two closets jammed with clothes, coat closet jammed.  For my active life?  No, visits to doctors and dentists.  

Have started to go through jewelry for pass-downs.  Again, what was I thinking?  And the amount of lotions and potions, and makeup.

I was also wondering if you ever wore any kind of back support when you are doing much standing? They have all kinds, and I do wear one if I am going to be on my feet for a long time on a hard floor.

I will be checking to see if you have left me any other messages.  I think of you so often, and so admire your many talents and your "can do" attitude.  And fortitude!

Your friend,

Pam

[PamfromCT]

Dear @SportyShorty07,

I give you much credit for wanting to settle into a career that you love.  So many people spend a lifetime disliking their jobs.

I can bet your parents are enjoying your company and delicious cooking.  I myself was never a great cook,  but both my children are very good cooks.  At our age, hubs and I eat very simply and not nearly as much as we used to.  

We do enjoy eating out once in a while and an occasional cheat.  When our two GC are over, we always get Japanese 

takeout.  Their favorite treat, and we also like it.

Have you heard of Penzey's spices?  They have a store in a nearby town, and sell a big range of spices and special blends. They do have a large array and sell by ail through their catallog.  We use some blends that are salt-free and prefer to use our oven or outside grill often in cooking.  

Years back we would drive to the Culinary Institute of America, and have eaten there several times.  That whole area of New York State is exceptionally beautiful.  We have toured West Point, FDR's family home, and other attractions.

Please keep sharing your wonderful creations with all.  Even if people don't cook like you do, it is wonderful to read about it.

All my best to you.