Recipes Worth Sharing - DaMamma's Pineapple Cake

My mother-in-law makes this super easy cake several times a year. It's great on its own, with ice cream, any variety of fresh fruit, whipped cream... anything you'd put with an angel food or pound cake.



DaMamma's Pineapple Cake

• 1 20oz can crushed pineapple in juice
• packaged Angel Food cake mix (use brand name)

1. Bake cake as directed on packaged mix, substituting pineapple & juice for liquids in directions.

Too much

I don't know what else to say - it's simply too much.

This time of year is normally hard on me, as I work harder in these 3.5 months than I do in the other 8.5 months of the year... combined. It's the nature of the beast tho, and by sacrificing my sanity during the often brutal (and always unpleasant) months of Michigan winter, I get to rejoice in much reduced work hours during the off season, including having every other Friday off.

Add to that the insanity that is convention season. That committee I talked about here is planning a weekend long convention for approximately 300 attendees. We have scheduled events for Friday evening, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning. My role on the committee is primarily to handle the registration data entry for all attendees. It's not difficult, but it takes TIME. I figure I spend 3-4 hours per week for about 8 weeks. Again, not difficult, but time consuming. During a time of year when my "down time" is already significantly reduced.

Now, I should say that I'm used to those 2 things falling on my calendar during the same months. That's the way it is for me, and has been for the last few years. I can deal with that. Even though I don't enjoy it, I've learned to tolerate it, and can still manage to keep the rest of my life mostly in tact.

What qualifies as too much - what is driving me to a mental place that I haven't been to in a long time, and one that I'm not too keen on revisiting - is all the other crap that I have going on:

• My mother-in-law is still undergoing chemo. Tomorrow's treatment is tentatively scheduled as her last, but we have no idea what comes next. Her spleen still needs to be removed, she still has some recovery to do from her knee replacement in December, and she is still a very sick woman.
  
  
• My surgery and recovery, though not currently an immediate concern, has me freaked right the fuck out. What if the March 10 appointment doesn't go well, and they have to do the surgery sooner? What if waiting until April causes more harm than we thought it would? What if I have to go through another 6 weeks of recovery, locked in my house putting semi-permanent ass prints in my couch? How will the post surgical Lupron treatment go? What if the endo is more involved this time around, and I lose some parts that I really kinda need? How much is this whole thing going to effect my fertility (or, lack-thereof, as the case may be)?
  
  
• Thanks to the asshat that stole my debit card #, our finances are even further out of whack. (Sidenote, what is "in whack"? Can anyone answer that for me?) In my attempts to work us out of some unplanned financial ugliness, I managed to cut things shorter than normal for the last few months. It's been ok, and it will be ok, but that bastard just ratcheted up the stress level another few notches for me.
  
  
• I have absolutely no energy left during the week, and I try to spend my weekends enjoying some time with Grumpy. This means, of course, that my house is an absolute, God-forsaken, disaster. "Cleaning" has been limited to vacuuming about 20% as often as I need to, and throwing a load of laundry in the wash when I get the "I'm on my last pair of underwear" text message. I've never been what you'd consider a "clean freak", but it's been a long LONG time since my house has been in a condition that I'm embarrassed about... and it's there now.
  
  
• And the latest and greatest on my pile... I spent over an hour on the phone last night with my cousin. She's a freshman in college, and away from home for the first time. Except, she's no longer away from home. Right about now, she & her parents should be pulling into their lovely little suburban home, after G (the cousin) has lost all ability to cope with daily life. She's facing some health concerns (both physical and mental), and literally cannot handle the daily expectations of college life, dorm life, meeting her own most basic needs. She feels broken, and doesn't know how to fix herself. My heart breaks for her, and I want so badly to help, but I have no idea what I can do for her.

Can I PLEASE take a nap? And could that nap PLEASE last until... oh... April 15?

Recipes Worth Sharing - Jiffy Corn Souffle

I found this recipe online here and it looked pretty darn easy. Turns out that not only is it incredibly easy, but it's very inexpensive, and tasty, too! It's a GREAT carb side for any kind of soup, stew, or chili. Think cornbread, but more moist.

• 1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
• 1 can cream corn
• 1 can regular corn, drained
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1 stick butter

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Melt butter.
3. Add slightly beaten eggs and sour cream to melted butter.
4. Add corn; stir.
5. Add mix; stir again.
6. Bake uncovered in an 8x8 baking dish for 45 minutes.

I used Aldi brands for all of the ingredients, and my total cost for 1 batch was $2.03. I cut it into 6 GENEROUS servings, costing about $0.33 each. I should have cut it into 8 servings, which would drop the per serving cost to about $0.25 each.

Hey Wendy!

I see you done gone and went all "invite only" on our asses... WTF?

Seriously tho, Ms Nancy & I would love to keep up with you, if you'd want to share. Leave me a comment with your thoughts on it, and we'll work out some kind of slightly more secure way to exchange emails (assuming, of course, that you'd want us to be keeping up with you).

Hugs darlin!

The straw...

As I've discussed ad nauseum (or at least it feels that way... I've talked a lot about all of it IRL, but I know that I've been a pretty quiet blogger lately, so this may not feel so ad nauseum to you, but it definitely feels that way to me!), I seem to have a lot going on in life these days. As a recap:

1. My mother-in-law is going thru chemo (for the 4th time) for her leukemia. Once her condition improves to the point that she's strong enough for surgery, she will need to have her spleen removed.
   
   
2. It's crazy season at the office, and I have very little time to do anything (often including real work) during my work day. Most days I feel like I spend all my time answering stupid questions, making appointments, and trying to get other people's work out. Everyone seems to forget that I'm responsible for about 50% of the billable work that goes out of here from now until April 15, so I don't give a shit that you need me to proof-read this letter, or fix that spreadsheet.
   
   
3. There is some other family drama going on that I'm choosing not to discuss around here (privacy concerns and all that jazz), but believe me when I say that it's taking it's own toll.
   
   
4. I'm a jackass, and have volunteered (again) for a committee that I don't really want to be on, that plans a function I don't really want to go to, for an organization that I am regularly decreasing my involvement in. Oh, and I volunteered completely out of a sense of duty & obligation, rather than it being volunteer work I'd enjoy doing. Sense any resentment on that one?
   
   
5. My surgery is scheduled for April 18. To say that this whole situation was a surprise would be an understatement, and a lie, at the same time. I have endo, and it sometimes comes back. I've had to have surgery to remove a GIGANTIC FUCKING CYST before, and it looks like I get to do it again. The good news is that Dr. N thinks he's got a 50/50 shot of removing the cyst robotically, so same day surgery & about a week's recovery time. The bad news... the need for surgery itself sucks, the other side of that 50/50 equation is another laparotomy with a 3 day hospital stay & 6 week recovery, I won't know which procedure he does until after surgery (so I'm stuck in this lovely hoping for the best but preparing for the worst mind-set), and I have to wait EIGHT FUCKING WEEKS for the surgery. That, in and of itself, could be enough to drive this poor girl bonkers.
   
   
6. And the kicker... the one that I must laugh at for fear of screaming myself mute, or pulling all of my hair out one handfull at a time.... I discovered Tuesday that some asshole had stolen my check card number. And used it. In New York. To the tune of $500. Fortunately, my credit union is FABULOUS, and I will have all of the money credited back to my account by the end of business today (after 10 pages of faxes, several signatures, and multiple phone calls). We didn't have anything hanging out there payment wise that will bounce because of this fiasco (Thank God!). And at this point, the only inconvenience left is that I don't have use of my card. I should have my replacement within a few days tho.

That last little assualt on my sanity was the one that did me in. The proverbial straw that broke this camel's back. So, I spent yesterday alternating between napping in bed, and watching bad tv on the couch. Not exactly what I should have done with a Wednesday in the midst of tax season, but exactly what I needed.