Monday, November 1, 2010

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Monday Morning Staff Meeting. As always, we're going to begin with the food. This morning I am serving an old time favorite, pineapple upside down cake.

Photobucket

The Other Mother made this cake yesterday. We try to discourage her love of sweets because she does have elevated blood sugar, a.k.a. mild diabetes. But she will not be deterred. Our son, the nursing in training, tells us that the elderly slowly lose all their taste buds and the last to go is the taste buds for sweet things. Since this happens so slowly the person is hardly aware of the changes. This explains her hankering for sweets.

Pineapple upside down cake was very popular back in the day. I'm thinking it was one of those creations devised in Betty Crocker's kitchen, or perhaps one of those recipe contest winners. It's good, but not exactly a favorite around here. Our tastes run more along the lines of praline bread pudding with Cream Anglaise sauce or lemon-basil sorbet.

How about you? When's the last time you had pineapple upside down cake?

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The image of the Coffee Shop Farmer caused quite a stir around here. It is a mystery, but I promise that it will be solved in the future. Just across the road is Josie's Antiques and I promise to stop in at her place on my next trip out to DeKalb. She'll certainly know what's going on over there.

My best guess is that the farmer is being paid to store the units by the franchise or the owner of the coffee shops. You would not believe the stuff that's stored in some of these barns. Mostly vintage cars that restorers and collectors would battle over.

BV stated that she wants one of those coffee shops to go with the ghost town that she's wanting to buy.

The most unbelievable thing I've seen was featured on the TV show, American Pickers. Those guys found a man who had all kinds of buildings on his property, including an old general store that was filled with merchandise from the era that he had collected. But that wasn't as amazing as what was in his front yard - an entire White Castle restaurant! The entire building!! He said the White Castle was scheduled to be demolished and so he bought it and had it tranported to his house. Unbelievable.

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About the project. I know that I promised to show you a cool fall project. I'm still trying to pull it together but when the camera suffered a setback the fall leaves dried up into crispy critters. Let's just give you a hint and say that I need to go collect some still pliable and colorful leaves. I'll be back with photos and directions some time this week.

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I appreciate everyone who commented with their geographical location as a reason why they couldn't attend the Fall Festival. It's fun to see where everyone is from. I also have readers (and penpals) in Germany and Australia.

I've got some free stuff for the winner and the package will include one of my little wallets, a coffee cozy and a luggage tag.

Here's the line up:

Jackson, N.J.
Alberta, Canada
Maine
Macon, Georgia
Texas
Forreston, Illinois
Moses Lake, Washington
Elsie, Michigan
Scranton, Arkansas
San Antonio, Texas
Two in undisclosed locations in California
Lake Tahoe
Charleston, West Virginia
Sutter, Illinois
Florida
Alabama
Pennsylvania
Long Beach, California
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Conroe, Texas
Raleigh, North Carolina

It was fun to see where everyone was from. And without further ado, the winner is:

TESS in San Antonio, Texas.

Congratulations Tess. Please e-mail me with your address and I'll get the package off to you.

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If you're a quilter, or simply a person who loves fabric you might want to check out the blog of fabric designer Joanna Figueroa. I just love the soft colors that she plays with. Her blog is called Fresh Figs. If you look on her sidebar you'll find some free patterns to download, including an apron!

FRESH FIGS

Today's entry includes photos of her booth at the Houston Quilt Market.

Quilt Market

I'd be in big trouble at the quilt market. Luckily for me it's only open to shop owners and people in the trade.

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Today is the first day that my button, advertising my shop, is running on someone else's blog. This is a test for me, my first foray into advertising. We'll see how it goes.

And for now.... I'm back into the sewing room sweatshop, creating new stuff.

Talk to you tomorrow. Thanks for visiting with me today. I'm now turning the meeting over to you. Feel free to discuss whatever is on your mind.


12 comments:

chocolatechic said...

Morning everyone.

I heart pineapple upside down cake.

Not much going on this week.

I can not share, but my heart is so broken right now.

Vee said...

Our tastes run a bit more like your family's tastes so pineapple upside down cake is not served here. The last time I saw it up close was 20 or more years ago. I do not believe that I've tasted it since high school. It is a pretty cake, though.

Very interesting about the taste buds... That makes diabetes all that much more of a challenge. Ugh.

Yes, you've got some loose ends to tie up, but I'm patient. Don't laugh. I can be patient if I have to be.

Someone else has your button and not moi? I want it. Where do I get it? Can only the really big blogs have one?

Anonymous said...

Pineapple upside down cake ... now there's a walk down memory lane. My mother made them. My sister makes them in a cast iron skillet. I've made them too -- not too often. It's a nice, quick dessert but really sweet. HH

MelissaD said...

I love to bake but this week I made more seasonal goodies - pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, pumpkin spice cake and sugar cookies. Ugh - my doctor tells me my blood sugar is higher than it should be too - such a hard issue to battle!
My husband loves American Pickers - it just makes me want to clean up all those piles of stuff the people they visit seem to have all over their property!

Terri said...

That was fun to see where everyone else is from... bad grammar, I know. Anyway I'm one of the undisclosed in CA - from Orangevale, an area in Sacramento County. We love it here. More open areas, some horsey properties. There are some raising llamas, too. Fun to see.
Haven't even seen a Pineapple Upside Down Cake since I lived with my parents. Hubby doesn't eat pineapple, and the kids got his eating foibles. I loved it way back when, and now am diabetic. Isn't that life?
Whatever is the trouble at the Chocolatechic's house, I'll pray for you, if you pray for my 37 year old daughter who was just diagnosed with breast cancer. (She's a beautiful person inside and out. Generous with money and time... volunteers at Food Bank, the 3 schools and visits at nursing homes, helps raise money for good causes.) Has 4 school agers and a very dedicated and loving hubby. - Certainly worth a few prayers.
<3 Terri

Lisa D. said...

dsjIt's been a long time since I made pineapple upside down cake. We all love fresh pineapple so much that I figure why encourage the kids to eat it in cake if they like it just plain. I don't think I'll have any this morning as I've over indulged in the Halloween candies this weekend. I've done a good job of really cutting out the extra sugar, but the Halloween chocolates were just too tempting and my stomach is not very happy with me at the moment.
People keep some strange stuff in their yards. My husband's cousin and his wife moved just across the pasture from us a few years ago, and the man who had previously owned the place worked at the local dump. He had hoarding issues and brought home anything he thought might be valuable or useable. There were piles and piles and piles and piles of stuff in the yard. Every building was stuffed full. As they've sorted through all the junk there's been the odd useable item, some scrap metal they could sell, but most of it went back to the dump. And lots of scrap wood that made a great bonfire. It's cured most of us of the wanting to hold on to our junk!

Steph said...

I use Pioneer Woman's recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake in an Iron Skillet. It is so good!!

Julie H said...

I must have missed the post where you asked for where we are from. I'm in Central California :)

I don't think I've EVER had pineapple upside down cake, can you believe that??

We watched a whole marathon of American Pickers a couple weekends ago. I think I saw that one but it might have been when I was fading out and falling asleep.

Tess said...

YIPPIE, I WON!!!! Thank you so much Suzanne. I have sent you an email with my address.

Thanks again.

Tess

dlynthomas said...

Pineapple upside down cake was my grandma's favorite. I use to make them for her before I moved out of state. She passed away in 2007 and every time I see a pineapple upside down cake I think of her.

Anonymous said...

I truly love pineapple upside down cake. I place several pecan halves among the pineapple slices. Seems the best part to me. The last one I made my husband and I demolished before it was cool.

American Pickers is interesting but disturbing to see all the hoarders and think of the horror they will some day leave for someone else to clean up.

Marilyn from Norfolk Va

Anonymous said...

I love your posts. I live in S IN. Have not had Pineapple Upside down cake for a long time either. Linda