Learning How to Cut a Fresh Pineapple

At Sam’s Club they had a fresh shipment of pineapple and it was priced really cheap – only $1.49 per pineapple. So I went ahead and bought one. I love to find a good bargain, and Sam’s Club is always a good place to find cheap prices on fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. The only drawback to shopping at Sam’s is that you have to buy such a large quantity, so I have to process most of it after I get home and often put half of what I buy into the freezer to eat later.

A can of pineapple at the local grocery store is about $1.25 for a small can of either pineapple chunks or pineapple rings. I figured the fresh pineapple was going to yield about the same amount of pineapple that would be in four cans. So this was a bargain and I was looking forward to something fresh and different.

Well, I’ve never bought a fresh whole pineapple before and had to figure out what to do with it. Thank goodness I found a video on the Internet, that showed how to cut off the bottom and then slice down the sides to remove the tough, outer skin. Then you slice the exposed yellow flesh into 1.5″ rings.

Some people like to cut out the core, but I left the core. I wanted to keep the rings intact and then grilled them to go along with my barbecue pork dinner. It was easier to cut and prepare than I expected.

The groundhog says

Groundhog sees his shadow

Groundhog sees his shadow

From what I understand the groundhog is calling for a late spring. I hope he is wrong, but I have to say that the winter has been much milder than usual this year, so if it stays this mild then I really won’t care about how late spring is. There have been fewer school cancellations because of winter weather this year so far, which I’m sure upsets the school children to no end. It has been a long time since school cancellations affected my family, but I can imagine the disappointment that a lot of kids would be sharing if they don’t get the chance to build at least one snow man or snow fort and have a good snowball fight!

Baby Shower Games

Last autumn I received an invitation from my brother’s long-time live-in girlfriend to attend the baby shower she was throwing for her son’s expectant girl-friend. I had mixed emotions about going to the party, since I throw a lot of family parties and invite my brother and his girl-friend and their entire family to them and they rarely attend. I have heard my brother say on many occasions that he wished he was an only child, and I am pretty sure he really means it! I really had the feeling that the invitation was more of a “don’t come, but send presents” type of thing.

But I decided to attend the baby shower, thinking that if I showed up to their parties, then they might be more inclined to show up at mine! The party was being held the weekend before Christmas (which I was unhappy about, but oh well!) so I had plenty of time to figure out what gift to take. I ended up taking some tie-dye baby clothes that were made by my good friends at Milky-Wave Tie Dye in Opal. I figured that no one else would give them anything like that!

So I attended the party. At first I felt very out-of-place – there were a lot of people there that I didn’t know! But I put my shyness aside, and put on my best “party-face” and “party attitude” and tried to be friendly and outgoing, and I ended up having a really nice time, meeting a lot of new people! And they had the best baby shower games I had ever seen at the party! They did a dirty baby diaper game, an advice game, a “guess how big the pregnant tummy is” game, a game where you tasted different baby foods and guessed which flavors they were (I won that game!) and a game where the single people had to try to diaper a baby-doll blindfolded (the fastest time won!) There were lots of prizes, and lots of good food, and lots of laughter going on! The tie-dye baby clothes were a really big hit, too! I’m really glad I went!

Horses were my youthful passion

horse (free clip art)

horse (free clip art)

For as long as I can remember, I have always loved horses. Unfortunately for me, we lived in a suburban area and my parents had no interest whatsoever in indulging my wishes for pets of any kind, let alone a horse! So I resigned myself to a pet-free childhood, and resolved that when I was old enough to live on my own that I would have whatever pets I could afford to have.

One year my parents decided to go on a week’s vacation without the kids and they farmed me out to a cousin’s horse farm for the week. I was in horse heaven that week! My parents bought me a pair of used horse riding boots and dropped me off at Cousin Betty’s house and I was totally emerged in horse farm life for the week. One of the things that Cousin Betty had me do was to help straighten up and clean the saddlery that was in the tack room. She showed me how to use saddle soap to clean the saddles and halters and reins. She had me muck some stalls, which was hard work, but I didn’t mind at all. I was with horses on a horse farm! She showed me how to groom a horse, and she gave me a few riding lessons. I wished that week would never end!

Happy New Year

Tonight we’re staying in to celebrate New Year’s Eve. We’ve bought some sparkling cider and some fancy appetizer type foods and we’re going to watch the big party on television and watch the ball drop in Times Square. It is bitterly cold out and really windy; I can’t imagine being outside on a night like this! When I was driving home from the grocery store the car was being pushed around a lot on the road; I was really glad to get home! I was upset when I was driving home to find that the road was blocked by a huge downed tree just 1/4 mile from my house. It was too big for me to move it, so I had to do a detour to get home.

That would not be a big deal to someone in the city – just drive around the block! Well, out here, driving “around the block” is about a twenty minute detour! Oh well, I made it home safe and sound – to discover that we had no power! We had no power until about 5pm, so the housework that I was planning on doing (vacuuming and laundry) didn’t get done. So I guess I’ll be ringing in the New Year with a dirty house and dirty clothes! Oh well, life goes on! I’m glad the power came back before it got dark out!