A larping good recipe

This past weekend, my dear husband, I and friends had one of those dreaded trips to make, a wedding.  Except this one was in south Louisiana.  Any of you that are familiar with that area of the country understand what I am about to say.  This is one time you do not dread the wedding or trip.  All you can think about is the food and fun.

Well anytime I travel down I55 south and cross that Louisiana border, my mouth just starts watering.  And it doesn't hurt the wine is cheap down there!

Much less the great people down there, yall, if you look up hospitality, it will say southern Louisiana.  Lord help me, I will have to eat lettuce for a month after this trip.

They know how to put on a reception, we went to Tickfaw State Park and they had a pot of jambalaya the size of a washing machine tub.  How they cook all that rice to perfection is beyond me.  But the best of the entire trip was when the bride's Grandfather, played his guitar and sang the first dance for them.  It brought me to tears thinking of my Daddy up in heaven.

Yall know you can't go to that area without bringing home some fresh shrimp.  So here we are speeding down the highway to get home, and what do I see, a little hut selling fresh seafood.   Hold on, U-turn, shrimp boil tonite!   And the leftover shrimp is how the larping good recipe happened.

Ok, what is a larping good recipe, well yall know I married a big ole country boy.  Anytime I cook something extra tasty, he will say, that's larping good.  I love him too much to say, do you mean lip slapping good or finger licking good?  Anyway in south Mississippi where I was raised, it was slap yo mama good,  Well this is slap yo Mama and Grandmama good and super fast and easy.

Any amount of  shrimp ( leftover or you can use frozen, just thaw and drain first)
half a stick of real butter (yes girls the real kind, not margarine)
a big heaping teaspoon of minced garlic ( the bottled kind)
a generous skake of Cavender's Greek Seasoning 
a can of Campbell's cream of shrimp soup ( have no idea how it got in my pantry, but glad it did)
about a fourth of the soup can of water, just so its not so thick ( or milk) (or wine)
And for us wino's a very very generous splash of white wine


Just put all that in a skillet, stir and simmer while you are cooking some pasta ( I prefer angel hair)
Then put on a plate, grate some fresh parm cheese on top, and girls you got yourself a larping good dinner!

Old Southern Women's Beach Trip

Yes it is the dreaded season of swimsuits.  Have any of yall noticed that they do not make swimsuits anymore that can hold up the girls? ( yall know what I am talking about)

As I am sitting in my beach chair, watching all those little perky girls jogging up and down the beach, I tried and tried to pick the girls up .  Lord help me, it is going to cost me more money at the Chiropractor's Office than my beach trip.  After tying my top tighter and tighter, I can't hardly move my neck.

And not to mention trying to get up from that beach chair.  Ladies, there is just no graceful way to do this.  I just finally decided to pretend to drop something and roll out of the chair to pick it up, But then Lord help us then its my bottom side.  That is just not a pretty picture.

Well I had bought me one of those beach dresses, as I call them. So as I sat there trying to figure out a better way to rise gracefully out of the demon beach chair, it dawned on me, just put on the beach dress. The problem with this is, my husband bought me this cute hat, which of course I had to wear.  Well that was not going over that hat! ( some of you are thinking, just take off the hat) except  for a southern women, hat hair is worse than cellulite.

Then it hit me, I am a proud old southern women.  I love the events of life that brought me to this point of my life. I am proud of the bumps and wrinkles my body shows that I have been so blessed to have my wonderful children and grandchildren.

I hope all those perky girls on that beach are as blessed as I am as they become an older women.

Those pesty stickers, but what a deal!!!

Well we all know, nothing makes a Old Southern Women happier than a deal.  You know, half price, discount stores.  Here in Mississippi we have this wonderful, amazing place called Dirt Cheap.  It like Christmas morning when they get a new shipment. ( You can sign up for emails, so about 6:00 I check my email to see what shipment they are getting)

So excited, get up early, don't worry about makeup, WE ARE going bargain shopping today. And it's once a week, Black Friday every week. And Ladies let me tell you, you better get there early , have your cart ready, and running shoes on.  I will give you another hint from a professional,  keep a little pocket knife and a measuring tape in your purse, trust me you will need them.

When those doors are unlocked , the race is on.  My mother-in-law used to go with me but her health prohibits that now, but we had a system, She was the guard over the buggy.  Honey yes, they will steal your stuff out of your buggy. It is a jungle in there on shipment day.

I have decorated my home, my deck, all my family's homes from this wonderful place.  My husband, bless his soul, tries to monitor my Dirt Cheap shopping trips.  But he knows, when I take the truck, it is Dirt Cheap Day and it's just in his best interest to be home to unload all my goodies.

The downside to all these wonderful bargains, is those gosh awful stickers they put on everything, and Lord help me the tape, I am talking about wide sticky tape.  You can not get this stuff off.  I wonder how in the world do they make a profit with the amount of this tape they use. 

Well, my secret is this amazing stuff called Goof Off, Girls it will melt away those awful stickers and the left over residue from all that tape.  I used to use peanut butter, but Lord it could take days for it to work.  This stuff, just put some on a paper towel, if it is a thick sticker just hold it on there for a minute, then take the clean part of your paper towel and clean it up.

The best part is this stuff is cheap.  It only takes a little and if you are lucky enough to have my other favorite store, The Dollar Tree, in your area,  you can get a small bottle, for " of course a dollar.

Tonight I cleaned the yucky stuff off my $4.00 tea maker ( retails for $39.95) and my new jewelry box, $6.00 ( Target retail $39.99) and they look wonderful.  This Old Southern Women is going to bed happy

The Beast, Stainless Steel Fridge

Like all southern women, our kitchen is our pride and joy, and although we will not admit it our worst nightmare,  cook, clean , cook clean. 

I like millions of others just had to have those beautiful stainless appliances.  They are like diamonds, in the store they sparkle shine, just beautiful.  We think oh my! my kitchen will look those in the magazines and of course those TV shows on kitchen makeovers.

Then they are delivered and such joy, how beautiful they look in our kitchens.  All our friends are impressed. 

THEN the spots,  it looked like a stainless dalmation fridge.

Why are they not shining like a diamond anymore.  Oh gosh cleaning is all time, every day , or with me every night.  I paid too much for this,  My husband told me not to buy stainless, sure can't let him be right, now can we?

I searched and searched, we all know google knows all.  I bought and tried all of it. Finally I settled on just plain old fashion lemon oil.   Wowee, shinny and pretty.  Then the build up, and lord help me I live in the country , dust is not my friend.   Well all that lemon oil and dust that just sneaks in like the worst burglar we could ever have, my beautiful stainless fridge looks like my stainless steel grill on the deck ( and that is another whole blog on that thing)
 
So with a little help from a glass of good red wine, I took the plunge.  Searched my cabinets on what is safe for stainless steel.  Awhile back I found this wonderful stuff from the Dollar Tree,  Yes we southern women love a deal.  $1.00 a bottle. It worked wonders on my other demon the stainless grill, but this is my pride and joy, do I dare put this on my dream fridge.  Well, I had another glass of merlot, and just sprayed the entire fridge down with it. Wiped it off with my one of my hubby's old tshirts, we won't let him know about that, think it was his favorite. 

Amazing, it cleaned all the build up off, even the water spots.  I used just a very  little of my old stand by lemon oil to make it super shiny again.

And my goodness, it looks that the diamond in the store again! 

By the way, the stuff is Awesome, no it is , but that is the name of it.  Or sometimes it's labeled LA's Totally Awesome.  I first tried it on my old fridge which was just old fashion white, it made it sparkle.  I bought mine at the Dollar Tree for just a dollar a bottle.

Stay tuned for more old southern women hints.

As much as yall understand we clean cook, clean cook.  I started this to help all of us to post things that make our life easier,  

Tonight I am getting ready for the carpet cleaner,  ( love my husband but he does not understand,He hired them to be here in the morning, ( Lord help me I told him months ago the carpets need cleaning)

I told him honey,  you just don't hire them to come out and clean your carpets,  He was what, why are you moving the furniture, duh the carpet cleaner is coming in the morning,  Gotta love a County Boy.

Well the all time cleaning secret I discovered tonight , is

I have alot of hand carved furniture,  The little dust demons drive me crazy,  who in the world has time to take a brush and clean all this.  Thank the good lord above, I looked in my cabinet and found this that I must have bought , cause it was it my cleaning closet,   An Answer to all of our prayers its Swiffer Dust & Shine Furniture Spray.  Honest to God this is the best, I sprayed it in the corners and poof the dust disolved.

And yes I wish they where paying me to say this, but no honestly they are not,

Just a super easy cleaning tip for all my friends.