One of the things a person comes to accept about living in California is that there is a level of unpredictability when dealing with the seasons. You just learn to go with the flow.
Continue reading Snow! Snow! Snow! … For Now
Twenty-six years (and counting) of teaching has given me more than a little bit of experience in planning. It has also taught me that plans don’t mean jack-diddly-squat.
Continue reading The Best Laid Plans… Will Get Changed.How long do you give plans a chance to work before you decide… meh, maybe it’s not happening? I mean, I’m a pretty stubborn person, but even I have my limits.
Continue reading The Third Time Wasn’t a Charm… Sort Of.
I have avoided doing any posts dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and all the other turmoil happening these days (or as we like to say in California speak “all this s&%t going on”). This story will be no different… kind of.
Continue reading Homestead Sweet Homestead (Well… Sort of)
No one has ever asked me for my spanakopita recipe. No one cares if I have one. I have no problem with this.
Continue reading Mom’s Spanakopita
Kids in this part of California have never experienced the joy of missing school due to snow. Fog, on the other hand, is a different story.
Continue reading It’s Baaaaaack…If you recall a while back, I was “gifted” a large surplus of blackberries and lime juice from my parents in an attempt to clean out their freezer. Let’s just say I had a large amount of material to work with.
Continue reading Blackberry Lime Sherbet
Congratulations!! You are now the beneficiary of the fact that my mom just cleaned out her freezer! No, really, this is a good thing (most of the time)!
One time, my reward from my dad for a semester of good grades was a jar of Planters Dry Roasted peanuts to have all to myself. No joke, one of the best treats I’ve ever received.
There are times when I curse the summer heat here, and when it’s 105 F and hotter day after day, I can’t be blamed. But then I remember that hot days do come with certain advantages, like excuses to eat ice cream.
Sun tea seems to be one of those beverages that evokes memories of summer visits with one’s grandma, sitting on patios and porches while enjoying an icy cold glass of this classic drink. And then came the health warnings.
The sad reality is that many military lives aren’t lost on a battlefield, or even during any military activity at all. Many are the result of the after effects these events have on them. Tristan was one of those lives.
I have been struggling with how to write these words, but another beautiful life has been unfairly taken by COVID-19.
I guess this is the California version of the winter sleigh song, though if you go high up enough in the Sierra-Nevada mountains you will find snow. It’s just not where we were.
Continue reading Over the River-bed and through the Avocado Orchards to Grandfather’s House We Go…
Greeks like bread. No… we LOVE bread. There is literally a bread made specifically for every main holiday, and this doesn’t even cover the bread used daily and in religious ceremonies!
This last weekend was a little busier than our typical Thanksgiving holidays are. My grandson was baptised on Saturday into the Greek Orthodox faith. It was kind of a big day.
Hello, I’m Dorie, and I’m a gravy snob. I do not need a support group to get over it, thank you very much.
There are likely more recipes for mashed potatoes than there are people on this planet, and yet they all seem to ignore the ONE ingredient that will make them perfect. Okay, there’s more than one, but one of them is really important. Continue reading Simply Perfect Mashed Potatoes
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Fine if you’re in a hurry, but it sure makes for a boring trip.
Our hot summers have the up-side of providing the ideal conditions for growing heat-loving veggies like tomatoes and eggplant. How fortuitous that they taste so good together!
Mostly Greek 