Lactaid and the Humble Little Almond

There are few things in this world i cherish more, food wise that is, than ice cream. It's cold and creamy smooth with just the amount of sweetness you're looking for at any given time. Feel like something gooey, ice cream and caramel. Care for something just a little sweet, with very little fuss, vanilla with a bit of cinnamon on top. Oh, this could take days. Especially, if you've ever seen what they do with ice cream at places like Marble Slab. There's a problem with this picture for some of us; Lactose. For some of us that is the biggest four letter word in our diets, next to cholesterol, trans-fats, and eggplant.

I am lactose intollerant. As near as i can remember, i started having issues with milk and especially ice cream in the Army. I loved my Army doctor. He was a good old fashioned country boy and on the subject of milk, he was like that old joke: Hey doc, it hurts when i do this, and the Doctor says, then don't do that. So, for the most part, i gave up milk. I drank powdered milk for a while, it seemed to bother me less, and i even had goats milk. It just wasn't the same and neither made good ice cream. Now, i must confess, i wasn't ever a huge fan of milk like some people. I generally only had milk with cereal and in ice cream. I wasn't one of those drink from the carton kids.

Several years passed and i got to where i just didn't eat cereal and only ate ice cream sparingly. Some where in there i was introduced to lactaid by a friend. Ah, ice cream, my old friend. For a while it seemed to work fine, but then its efficacy seemed to wane a bit. I could have a glass of chocolate milk, but again, ice cream was my drug of choice you might say. I could eat ice cream with lactaid and it was tolerable, but i'd feel ugly the next day. Preferable to the pain, but not a good fix. Alas, am i doomed to a life without ice cream??

A few months ago, my son "bucket-face", yes i really call him that but it's not his Christian name, was put on a milk holiday to see if there was something in the milk making his acne worse. He's a carton tipper, jug junkie and all around milk monger!!! ACK!!! While he was on this holiday we got him soy milk. There are a few different brands of soy milk and they are all faily similar. He and his 14yr old taste buds told me it was as good as milk, maybe better. I smelled it and it had this machine smell to me. I couldn't drink it. I did try it and like i said we bought a few different brands, but they all had that smell to me and the after taste just grossed me out. I have a thing about smells. Smells can send me every where from lust to hiding under a bridge. So, i couldn't bring myself to eat a bowl of cereal with the soy milk. What this did do however, was make me want a bowl of cereal. I started remembering how i would drag my mondo box of Grape Nuts to the chow hall and suddenly i was struck with a full on craving. Ya see, my regular chow hall in the Army had both kinds of cereal, corn flakes and rice crispies. I liked Life and Grape Nuts. Solution?? Take your own to the chow hall.

Which sort of brings me to the crux of this whole thing. I want a bowl of cereal, but i don't want the after effects of eating it. Oh, what's a forty something foodie to do?? Enter, the Blue Diamond Almond Milk commercial. Now, i went to Germany and have indulged in some of the wondrous things they do with almonds and almond paste, so i naturally thought that either the Germans or George Washington Carver must have invented almond milk. I was wrong both times. Shhh, don't tell anyone. Almond milk enjoys a very long history stemming from the Middle East. This nugget made Donna smile as she is of Lebanese ancestry. Anyway, back to the Blue Diamond commercial. I jumped up and ran to the store to get me some of that stuff. I figured the worst case scenario being, Bucket-face could drink it. Oh, don't tell me you've never bought something, found out you didn't like it and then gave it to someone else. Kids are good for disposing of food that doesn't hit the spot and as far as that goes, Bucketface is the best.

The store didn't have any almond milk. It took a few days, but i found it. It's just under three bucks a half gallon here and here are the results according to my experience and taster. All they had was vanilla, no plain or chocolate. I opened it and smelled it. Weird thing, it smelled a bit like almonds. Go figger, right?? I'm not sure what i was expecting it to smell like, but it smells a bit of almonds. I poured a swallow or two into a glass. Taste, it tastes like a melted vanilla milk shake with a hint of almond. It's absolutely lovely. It's even great on cereal. I had the first bowl of Grape Nuts in nearly fifteen years. In the last couple weeks, i have had it on Cheerios (if you are a sugar hound, Don't Sugar cereal with Vanilla Almond Milk), Life Cereal and i even put it in a bowl with a fresh hot homemade brownie much like you might use ice cream. Excellent! Test number two, if you freeze it, does it separate when it freezes and thaws. Ultimately, i am going to make awesome ice cream with it. It is fairly stable from freezer to thaw and back. It will need some fat to make a good ice cream. Most of the recipes i have found use coconut milk, but i'm thinking avocado. Why not?? Alton Brown from the Food Network makes a cake subbing avocado for both the egg and oil, and it's pretty good. Don't go ew on me just yet, avocado has a very light flavor in comparison to coconut and might more readily lend itself to ice cream. I'll let you know. Till then, don't fear the lactose and don't endure the soy or rice, enjoy the almond. Afterall, would i lie to you??

Y'all take care of each other, D

Sort of an apology blog, an Ablogogy

I started off this year with a goal set to put up a blog once a week. To that end, i have failed miserably. At present i have five drafts in various states of completeness and can't find the words to finish any of them. I guess that's the way it goes at times, but it doesn't assuage my own disappointment. Ya see, this whole thing started with over ten inches of snow and ended up with Kolaches. So, i will try to sum up the whole break into one posting so i can delete all of those drafts. Who knows, i might even make myself giggle along the way.





Draft #1 It Snowed a Really Lot


It snowed. It snowed a really lot for here. It was beautiful.


Snow fall: Ten Hours, Picturesque Winterland: Seven Hours, Sunny and Warm Afternoon: TEXAS!!!!! Heck, that's really not all that cool. Once i saw a rainbow and a dustdevil while playing in the rain under a bright sunny sky. Now i'd like to see you top that one. It's funny though, some people wonder how some Texans pick up the habit of wearing a jacket with shorts. Really?? It seems normal enough to me, but then again i'm crazy so don't take my word for anything.


Draft #2 Finally an Artful Commercial

I loathe the way business panders to the consumer. I know this may not make any sense, but there has to be a way to convince people to buy your product without something like the Buger King. The Burger King is Kreepy or Kreepisimo or even the mostest Kreepiestest ad prop i've seen in my life. Every time i see "It" i want to pick up a ball bat, hunt it down, and kill "It" for the sake of the human genome. It would make me quite happy if i found out that "It" won a Darwin. But on to other things. The DQ chimp riding the dog herding chickens was cute and the Chick-Fil-A cows are pretty cool and the talking butter tub was alright, but you just don't see a lot of art in modern commercials. I believe it was Honda that had one a few years ago where a car put itself together from a stack of parts that was pretty nice, but i hate the ones with kids acting like parents or worse. Now, take the lowly Saltine Cracker. What the hell could you do to sell that?? Make a commercial with splashing soup in vibrant colors set to the tune "Rock You Like A Hurricane". It's beautiful. It is to me anyway. I looked for a youtube link, but maybe i'm the only one that thinks it's so great.

Draft #3 The Desert or The Lake

Typically we spend Spring Break at Canyon lake or in Alpine, that's the desert. Most often, the guys and I will go and spend the week doing knuckle-headed guy things and Donna will join us for the weekend at the end unless she arranges to get the Thursday or Friday off too. To begin with, this year was no different. Before making a decision on which route to take i knocked-up a friend to see if she was going to be in the desert that week. (Get your minds back where they belong, knocking up is a British expression for giving a ring, or a buzz, or a call, an email, some sort of making contact, and it is in this regard to which i speak) She said she would be there the latter half of the week. So, i made a plan to leave on Sunday for West, Texas, not to be confused with West Texas, to get some Kolaches and then on to the tail-race of Canyon Lake for some camping and fishing. Follow that with a days long drive to Alpine and a couple of nights there. Then we'd come home to be here in time to rest up and get ready for my Army Buddy to visit on Saturday. Well... Someone far more famouser than i once said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans".
On Saturday, the night before we were to leave, my beloved Trooper you see pictured above developed an oil leak that prevented us from going anywhere until i could get my mechanic friend to look at it. Okay, Plan B: Make it up as you go along. Welcome to Spring Break '10


Draft #4 I Just Suck at Laundry???


Since i had nothing better to do over Spring Break, i did laundry. (insert giggle here) As though laundry only comes around at Spring Break or something. Though it did afford me the opportunity to address a growing concern i've had about my big kids socks. As you can clearly see from the picture on the left, there is a problem with his socks. I always ask if anyone needs anything from town and generally i am answered with "no". I guess it's a good thing he didn't need anything from town, you know, like a pair of shoes or something. The funny part of this is, i wondered just how old the nasty damn socks were and as it turns out, those are the ones he got for Christmas. Christmas!?! What?? Three months?? Ack!!! Suffice it to say, new shoes, new socks, timer reset for the next round which should be June?? Give me strength.


Draft #5 To West or Not To West...
Okay, since Spring Break was a bust, i had to try and capture some element of it just so i didn't feel so bummed out. Enter that quaint little Czech pastry, the Kolache.
Just south of here, about thirty miles north of Waco on IH35 is the town of West, Texas. It's one of those blink and you'll miss it kind of towns, but at the same time you drive through it the kids are saying why is Koh-Latch and Bakery on all the buildings. Kolaches are typically made with dried fruits or poppy seeds. Oh, the poppy seed ones are the best. So, in an attempt to capture something of the trip that never happened, i made Kolaches. Yes, those pictured are mine. No, you can't have any they are all gone. Like i tell my local friends, if you want some fresh bread, you have to get here before my older son (the one throwing Shot Put above) gets home. I don't call him Bucket-face for nothing. And before you ask, they were Poppy Seed, Apricot, and Prune. Hey! don't snub the prune. You might even say it's a true multi-tasker and quite tasty too.
I hope you got a giggle or two, until then, y'all take care of each other. D
P.S. Next time i'll tell you why i'll never miss milk again!!!!!!!

Hello all, how do you like the pic?? Donna has flipped her wig. hahaha, i thought it was cute. We were screwing around with the camera this last weekend and this is one of the snaps i took while reading the book. The focus isn't perfect and the depth of field is too deep, but like i said i'm still reading the book.

I have to admit i'm really looking forward to getting back out to the weeds and take some shots that I have taken before, but i like to revisit things from time to time. One of the shots i am dying to take is a reproduction of a post card my grandfather took of my grandmother and i along the river road. I guess i'll take it with just me cause i like the symbolism of it and then i'll take the same shot with Donna and the boys. Then of course, a whole lot closer to home, i'll have to go to LBJ Grasslands every chance i get and i'm going to the San Jacinto Monument this summer if i have to go by myself.

Ya know it has been six years since we went camping on the Guadalupe near Canyon Lake, so i think it's way past time we went back. We used to go there all the time, but our last trip was kind of a bummer and we stayed away for a while. I think we're ready to go back.

One last thing, I was watching TV today and a commercial came on where they are looking for subjects to test an investigational Bipolar medication. They are looking for people between 18 and 50 with depressive episodes that last for more than a month or those individuals that are hypomanic, something else, or have mixed episodes. Now i know that in these studies they set it up so that neither the patients nor the doctors know who is or is not taking the actual drug and who is taking the placebo. This brought a thought into my pointed little head. In order for a person to begin a new antidepressant medication they have to stop the old one. Okay, so that means that some of these people are going to purposefully go off of their meds and get sugar pills instead. I know clinical trials are important, but do you really want to take bipolar people off of their meds on purpose?? I know there isn't anyone i know that wants me to go off of mine, but it would make for an interesting doctors office. You guys be cool, D

P.S. I'm a huge Deadliest Catch fan and i feel like one of those little old ladies that gets misty when a soap opera character dies, but i sure am going to miss Captain Phil.

A Few thoughts on what i know.

My dear old friend Lavender Chick, should i say old??, posted a blog this week about the twenty five things she has learned in her years on this earth. I really enjoyed it. As a friend of mine would say, "It spoke to me". So i have decided to put down a few of the things i have found to be fundamental datums. So, Thanks for the inspiration Lavender Chick and just so's you know, i am using an empty Hummingbird Farms wonder lotion bottle as a dish soap dispenser. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Right??



These are in no particular order, i just put them down as they came to me.



1. Don't settle for something other than what you want. If you want Ro-Tel Tomatos, Del Monte Stewed Tomatos aren't going to cut it.



2. You can be as rich as you want to be in public, but you know how rich you are when you get home.



3. Girls lie, Girls make you feel bad, and Girls can do both at the same time. (If the sexist tone of this bothers you, change gender and see if it doesn't fit)



4. A glass of tea always tastes better when someone else makes it for you.



5. When a doctor gives you advice on the state of things, it is just that; Advice. What you do with it is your choice.



6. Nobody loves the way they look in pictures, just accept how you look.



7. If you like your car and it gets you where you need to go, it's good enough.



8. Nothing is too big when you do it for love.



9. When a child or a parent dies, they are never gone.



10. Rotisserie Chicken, Sun Chips, and Guacamole is the perfect meal.



11. Text messaging is for passing bits of information, Calling is for conversing.



12.Doing something unexpected for someone else makes you feel good.



13. Always have mashed potatos with english peas, the potatos will keep you from having to chase the peas all over your plate.



14. Some friends can be closer than family, they're not a replacement they're a blessing



15. Make time for the things you want to do, nobody else will.



16. Ultimatums rarely work out for those that make them.

17. People are who they are, either work within those parameters or don't, but change is not an option.

18. When dealing with life, the ability to compromise is important, but not as important as not compromising who you are.

19. Always leave room on your list to learn new things.

20.

...for this, I shaved??

I have resolved to be a happier person this year......(internal dialogue, major reminder for the minor minder) Well the 17th came and went and we got all dolled up for Donna's Company party thing they had out at the Hilton on the lake. I have about a million things to spill out here and i'm not sure which side of this bucket has the hole, so please bear with me. I guess first thing would be the dress. On an eleventh hour change of plan, i scrapped the empire waist and went A-line. Still a sweet heart neckline and two into four straps across the back and floor length. All in black. Naturally. However, the shawl had already been completed and she wore it. They went together fine, but i knew the difference. I know it probably doesn't make any sense, but this dress irritated the hell out of me and i missed my own deadline. I had it all set up to go to the cleaners for its first pressing Friday morning, but i ended up doing something else and didn't finish the dress until Saturday. They don't do pressings on Saturday. Water under the bridge. This party was the same as most other company parties i've been too. A whole load of phoneys trying to out phoney each other sprinkled with a few genuine people here and there. At one point, a woman asked me to hold her camera while she and Donna and some others took a picture. Naturally, i held her camera. After their picture was snapped, she looked at me and started yelling, wanting to know why i didn't take a picture. It wouldn't be nice of me to repeat what it was i was thinking at that moment, so i simply yelled back at her to take her camera. At that moment i was holding a shawl, my dr pepper, and her camera. It's not like i had a third arm, but she asked me to hold her camera, not to use it. ACK!!! I don't have to see her again. Woo Hoo!! It wasn't long after that we came home. We scarcely talked to each other the rest of the evening. Go figure, i had to be married for a hundred years to have a bad date with her.
On a better note, my Freshman beast child, a.k.a. Bucketface, is throwing Shot Put and Discus with the Varsity and he's competitive. So, i'm terribly proud of him. Right now he's battling acne, something i barely had, and the zinc alone isn't getting it all. Talked with a doctor friend that suggested a milk holiday as sometimes milk can bring about acne if you have a milk allergy. Evidently, you can have the allergy and still tolerate the milk. So to that end, it's Soy Juice for the kid. Bucketface is not the happiest kid in town over that, but he'll do anything for a clear face.
Further good news. The little one, Cheech, received a letter from the school district this weekend informing him that he had been accepted to the Math, Science, and Technology Magnet School. The really amusing part to this is the letter said that if we accept the offer, we'll have to fill out the application for the program and to just write "accepted" in the blank and mail the letter back. Maybe all of the lectures and redoing homework are paying off for him. I mean he's been in honors classes since they were made available, but he just doesn't get fired up about anything. Well i'm proud of him too. I told him today that you don't have to be a football hero to be loved, you only need to be yourself. He patted me on the head. He's my hugger, or in this case, patter.
Well, school and work return to our world tomorrow and i'll be back to my routine. I still need to get a battery for my car and replace my camera, but eh, i'll get there. In parting let me say this. I have made the dress that i made this time before and i believe i am going to retire it. She got the last one of those i'll ever make. Tomorrow, i'll check her closet and see what she needs and go ahead and make her something new for work. Someday, i'm going to get around to making me that poet shirt i want, but until then i'll just soldier on. Y'all be cool now, D

It's time to start the dress.

Okay, so she's five foot ten inches. Why is this relevant you say?? Well I'll tell you. A very long time ago i made dresses and never gave a hang about the shoes that would go with them. I had this "Positive Shoe Theory". This PST worked fine for a while, but as you know all good things must come to an end. I made a wedding gown once and set my PST as the bride having a three inch heel. I'd seen her wearing such shoes more times than not and just figured that was what she would be wearing. The afternoon of her wedding i was called to the church for a "repair". A very rare occurrence, but i do make myself available on the afternoon of the event for anyone that gets an occasional gown from me. Well imagine my horror to discover that she, the bride, was wearing flats with bangles on them for both the wedding and the reception and hence made her dress a couple inches too long and she kept tripping over the damn thing. What made this really fun was one of her friends had tried to use hem tape and an iron to move the hem up and all she did was make the drape of the skirt twist. One last little detail, i had thirty five minutes to fix it or the day would be ruined. well with about six needles worth of thread and a very hot shower in the rectory, the dress turned out, though the invitees had to wait about ten minutes on the bride. She did look stunning, but again, i think all brides look stunning. There is just something about the way a woman looks that is about to get married, it's happiness, it's promise, hope, joy,... all good things in one package. So, back to Donna's shoes. If she'll settle on shoes, i'll start on the dress and i even have kind of a plan.
Well, I'm going with the empire waist and a very full skirt. It should drape a little heavy, but that seems to be in this spring, especially for her body type. I'm considering splitting two to four straps with them woven across the back and a sweet heart neckline. And, since I'm not a huge fan of sleeveless, it's probably going to get a full shawl. Both will be lined and all the trimmings, now i just have to get my butt in gear. It's for the 17th, so I'm not too worried about it. Now, the hard part of this actually turned out to be color. As i wrote previously, I'm tired of the little black dress, damn utilitarian wonder such that it is. So, i layed out the following, bone white, cream, a silvery gold, a copper, and a very pale olive. And the winner is........................BLACK!!!!! For the shawl, following black was easy, i got a gold lace and a lite gold lining and a cool little gimp for the edge. I have some lead crystal buttons that I'm going to use and I'll end up gathering the straps. All i have left is to find a gold trim for the dress, but i won't add it just for the sake of having it. It will have to work or it won't make the cut. As i get it going I'll see if i can't post a couple pics just to share.
In the meantime, be great and take care of each other, D

My Resolution, Resolution.

In years gone by i have been among the portion of the world that makes New Years resolutions and this year, in a sense, is no different. With that said, this year i am taking a new tack toward a direction that has tortured me for a number of years. You see the thing i forget, and many others i would imagine, is that resolutions are nothing more than goals. Goals, you know, are supposed to be trying, but attainable with an amount of effort. The amount of effort depends on just how trying you want your goal to be or rather on the depth of the lesson you are attempting to learn. On any given year i have resolved to: stop getting irritated at my children for doing stupid crap, stop getting angry at people in line at the grocery store that feel the need to hover over me in line, stop getting mad at people who do not listen and still try to answer the question, stop wanting to park my car on people that don't talk and choose to keep everything bottled up till it boils over, stop getting pissed off at people that put things off until they have to be dealt with, stop getting crazy mad when my own stuff doesn't get done because i was helping someone else... There are others like my weight, smoking, and my growth as a writer, but I'm sure you more than get the point. So, here is my new tack for today and beyond.
I'm going to resolve to be a happier person. Should i become angry over something, I'll address it and regardless of the outcome, I'll let it go. If i miss my Rosary a day or two, I'll pick it up where i laid it down. When i get the person that hovers at the grocery store, I'll remember to smile when i say, "Hey, Scoochass back." When it comes to my growth as a writer, if i can't write at home, I'll just get in my car and go to the park and do it there. I'm just not going to wait on anyone anymore and I'm going to learn the word sorry. Out of all the words i know, sorry is the one i use the least and i probably should use it a whole lot more. I say that not only as "I'm sorry, i did that", but also as "I'm sorry, but i can't help you today."
Today, i am going to start my life. Sounds funny, start my life at nearly forty five, but that is what it is. I have things that have laid fallow too long. I have an Aunt that had a tremendous impact on me i haven't seen in over fifteen years. I don't know exactly how long, but I'd sure like to see her again on this side of the grass. I missed my first novel goal by about ten years and I'm through with that eating at me. There are others, to be sure, and i will take them on the same way i do everything else. For those of you taking notes, that would be head on, one at a time, left to right, top to bottom.
I bid each of you all the blessing of a new day and those things you so richly deserve, D
P.S. My boot heels where dug in, will stay dug in.
"I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if i could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man." Sam Houston.