Rambling

It's almost 8pm and the sky is not quite dark yet.
I've been going shopping and out for lunch with the Salvation Army on Mondays. It has been a lot of fun and very nice to be with people. On Monday they told me I can't go with them anymore because I have a car.
I think when I was in the hospital and lost all the memories for more than a month...I think it opened up a space in my brain and now I can remember some things I had forgotten. For example today I remembered playing on the living room rug at 618. I was playing with my brother Bobby's lead soldiers. He was there too. My Mom was in the kitchen by the window ironing. She had on a blue dress. I had on a blue dress too. My brother had on dress pants and a short sleeve shirt. I was holding one of the lead soldiers to get it warm so it would soften up and I could bend the legs to make it sit down. My brother was stacking and counting some coins. Well sort of coins, they were the color of terracotta pots. The front door was open and the sun was shining in. HaHa, I wonder where this memory was hiding.
Easter is coming. I have stocked up on eggs because my grandchildren like to color them. I think we are all going to the Zoo on Holy Saturday to take part in the bunny hop, and have breakfast with the bunny. I'm looking forward to going but never know if the plans fall through. Well I can still go cause I have a nice strong car now that loves the highways. I even got a new Easter bonnet LOL.
The rabbits were hungry this winter and ate most of my little pine trees.
In an email from my brother today he said they ate a couple of his too. He's already thinking of getting out in his gardens. I need to visit him more often this year. I almost dropped in on my sister yesterday but decided against it.
If I can dig yet this year, I'm going to plant roses on the South side. I think climbing roses, maybe seven sisters. Thinking to put butterfly bushes in front of them and then annuals in front of them. We'll see, I have big garden dreams.
Enough rambling I have to go try to eat something for supper. Mashed potatoes and corn sounds good.

My Favorite Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
Butter, for greasing the cake pans
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring the cake pans
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 large eggs
1½ cups canola oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 packed cups peeled and grated carrots (about 1 lb.)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Frosting
1 cup cream cheese, softened (8 ounces)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk or water, if needed
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions:
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 325°F. Heavily butter and flour 2 round 9-inch cake pans, tapping out the excess flour. Set the cake pans aside.

Place the flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Place the eggs, oil, and vanilla in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Add the carrots and nuts and stir to combine.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the edges have pulled away from the side of the pans, 55 to 65 minutes.

Place the cake pans on wire racks and let the layers cool completely, about 1 hour.

While the cakes are cooling, make the frosting. Place the cream cheese and butter in a medium-size bowl and beat with an electric mixer until very smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. With the mixer running on medium speed, slowly add 3 ½ cups of the confectioners' sugar and beat until it is fully incorporated and smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat unit just combined. If the frosting is too soft, slowly add the remaining ½ cup of confectioners' sugar and beat to combine. If the frosting is too stiff, add the 1 tablespoon of milk or water.

Run a knife around the edge of each cake layer to loosen it from the pan. Invert the cake layers to unmold them. Place one cake layer on a plate. Spread some of the frosting on top. Place the second layer on top of the frosting and frost the side and top of the cake. Press the 2 cups of nuts onto the side of the cake.

The cake can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 week.

A house that lacks, seemingly, mistress and master,
With doors that none but the wind ever closes,
Its floor all littered with glass and with plaster;
It stands in a garden of old-fashioned roses.

I pass by that way in the gloaming with Mary;
'I wonder,' I say, 'who the owner of those is.'
'Oh, no one you know,' she answers me airy,
'But one we must ask if we want any roses.'

So we must join hands in the dew coming coldly
There in the hush of the wood that reposes,
And turn and go up to the open door boldly,
And knock to the echoes as beggars for roses.

'Pray, are you within there, Mistress Who-were-you?'
'Tis Mary that speaks and our errand discloses.
'Pray, are you within there? Bestir you, bestir you!
'Tis summer again; there's two come for roses.

'A word with you, that of the singer recalling--
Old Herrick: a saying that every maid knows is
A flower unplucked is but left to the falling,
And nothing is gained by not gathering roses.'

We do not loosen our hands' intertwining
(Not caring so very much what she supposes),
There when she comes on us mistily shining
And grants us by silence the boon of her roses. 


   Asking for Roses by Robert Frost




Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his Christmas Pie
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said what a good boy am I.
Here's my new Plum P.T. Cruiser