Hawaiian Pineapple Cookies

I've been reminded periodically that I've left my readers hanging about something for a while.  I mentioned in this post that life has taken me in different directions and I haven't gotten around to explaining what that meant.

Once we got done moving, life started settling down for us.  Between the peace of not having to look for housing anymore and having some of our financial worries settled, my stress level was much lower.  Stress is paralyzing.  I spent so much time in front of my computer in the past because I was so stressed I couldn't function.

On top of that, our old house was very compartmentalized.  If I was in the kitchen, I couldn't see what the kids were up to in the living room.  So in order to keep up with what my very busy toddler was up to, it was really easy to justify sitting in the living room with him all day.  With my laptop sitting right next to my chair, it was even easier to play with my computer for hours at a time.

In this house, I have a clear shot from the kitchen into the living room.  So most of the time now, I will go online for a little while in the morning when I wake up.  I might check in again around lunchtime.  But for the most part, if the computer is on at all, it's in the kitchen with me.  I watch a lot of movies or TV series on Netflix when I'm in the kitchen so I stay focused on staying in that room.  I don't have the stress I had before, so I have more motivation to keep the house clean and organized.

Which also means I've done a TON more baking and enjoying my time in the kitchen creating things.

One day, I REALLY wanted cookies.  But I didn't want the same old chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies I usually make.  Several years ago, my mom put together a cookbook of all her favorite recipes.  I decided to peruse through it and see what new recipes I could try.

These Hawaiian Pineapple Cookies have quickly become one of my very favorites.


The recipe is originally from a cookbook called A Pinch of Salt Lake by Amy Bowman.

Hawaiian Pineapple Cookies

1/2 Cup Shortening
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Drained Crushed Pineapple* (save juice)
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts (macadamia, pecans, almonds, etc), optional

Frosting:
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
2 Tbsp Butter, softened
1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 or 3 Tbsp Reserved Pineapple Juice (or more)

Topping:
3/4 Cup Flaked Toasted Coconut

*I only had pineapple chunks on hand, so I threw them in a blender for a few seconds, then squeezed the pineapple through a sieve to drain the juice.

 A quick note on toasting the coconut.  It's really easy, but needs to be done cautiously.  Bake the coconut on a cookie sheet for 7 to 12 minutes.  Stir it every 2 to 3 minutes to make sure all the coconut is toasted evenly.  If you're like me, you'll want to toast a LOT more than you'll need for the cookies.  I can't stay out of the stuff!

 Put all the cookie ingredients together in a large bowl and mix well.  Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets.

While they are baking, make the frosting.  Put all the frosting ingredients in a small bowl.

Mix until fluffy.  

Frost the cookies.  If the frosting is too thick, you can heat in the microwave for 20-30 seconds and then stir.  Then, dip the cookies in the toasted coconut.

Try not to eat the entire batch in one sitting.  It's really tempting, I know.

Birthdays

The idea of my birthday has been a pretty sore subject for many years.

Even though my ex wasn't exactly a stellar husband, he was really good about making me feel important on my birthday.  By comparison, my sweet Surfer Pirate is an excellent husband all the time, but not so great at gift-giving occasions.

But more on that later.

The string of crummy birthdays started in 2008.  I had been divorced for a few months.  I was dating one local guy, and involved with several different men online.  Three of those guys actually asked if they could come to Montana and take me out for my birthday, but Mr Local had already secured the date a month in advance.  Which made me feel really special because he was dating several other girls.  I continued to feel special until the night of my birthday...  when he showed up more than two hours late.  He took me to a buffet restaurant, where he spent the meal staring at the cute, size-2 waitress.  I debated leaving and walking home.  After dinner, he drove me straight home, dropped me off in the street and left.  Classy.

*For the record, the next week was MUCH better.  The next day, I traded in my evil Dodge Stratus for my pickup truck, and met Surfer Pirate just a few days later.

2009 - I had a miscarriage two weeks earlier.  I was very worried about my dad's failing health.  And to add to the fun, I was laid off from my job along with 13 other people.  Yes, that's right.  Laid off from a job I loved ON MY BIRTHDAY.  I cried the rest of the day except when we went out to eat (as previously planned) and I stressed about how we would pay for it since I no longer had a job.

2010 - We were dead broke, I was still unemployed, and I have no idea what we did because it was all so depressing.

2011 - We had a 2 month old baby.  My dad had died the day before, and Surfer Pirate was dealing with some major personal issues.  We went out to eat, and then the next day (maybe 2 days later?) the kids and I were on a plane to Seattle to be there to support my mom and attend the funeral.

Last year, we were so broke that we could only afford one thing.  A nice dinner, a nice cake, or a gift.  I chose a DQ ice cream cake because... well, who wouldn't??

So this year, I was STUNNED when I realized that we had enough money that I could actually have a REAL birthday!  Woo hoo!!

In comes Surfer Pirate.  Like I said.  Gifts?  Not exactly his thing.  He always worries about buying the wrong thing.  He tries to insist that I just buy what I really want, but I refuse.  I like for him to pick something out for me.  I try to give him as many good ideas as I can so he knows he's getting something I like.  But this year, I only wanted one thing.

This ankle bracelet:

I love it.  Delicate and pretty with little tiny angel wings on it.  It makes me think of my sister - my personal guardian angel.  I made sure Surfer Pirate knew that this was all I wanted and that he had all the information he needed to so he could buy it.

He didn't get his paycheck until the day before my birthday, so I knew I wouldn't get my ankle bracelet in time for my birthday, but at least it would be on its way.

The day came, and I reminded him again that he needed to order my present.  He made the final attempt to get me to just do the shopping for myself.  I gave in.  He was right.  I ordered it.  It is supposed to arrive the end of next week.

I thought a lot about what I wanted to do with my birthday.  Pirate Munchkin was pushing HARD for supper at DQ (can you tell our DQ closes during the winter and it's a big deal that they open in mid to late February??)  I really didn't want greasy fast food for my birthday.  But what did I want?  And then it hit me - t-bones.  I wanted a juicy, flavorful t-bone for my birthday.  Which meant I had to cook it myself.  I've gotten REALLY good at cooking steak and I no longer trust anyone else to do it.  Plus, I had Yukon Gold potatoes - which make THE BEST mashed potatoes.  And I wanted another ice cream cake.

So that's what we had this year.  Steak with mashed potatoes and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard Ice Cream Cake (doesn't that sound amazing?  It soooo is!)  Plus, I got a surprise package in the mail from another loved one with some fun jewelry in it.  I told Surfer Pirate that I felt spoiled this year, and he said I deserve to be spoiled all the time.

I needed that.


*I should mention that my mom spoils me every year.  She has been the light through all these rough birthdays.  Her latest thing is she gets me Amazon gift cards and I have lots of fun figuring out how I can get the most things off my Amazon Wish List.  This year, she ordered my gift card early, so I had all my gifts here at least a week before my birthday had even arrived!

Where Ever They May Go

Picture from this website.  Another sad story of loss.

Many, many years ago, I found myself wondering about miscarriages and what happens to those little babies.  I have always believed that from the very creation of that tiny little embryo, there is a spirit attached to that microscopic little body.

When that little body dies before it can be born - especially in the early weeks of pregnancy, where does that spirit go?

I never dreamed back then that it would be such a personal subject for me one day.


When I lost my first little forget-me-not, I felt like my world had ended.  After far too many years of infertility, I was finally pregnant with a child that was truly, completely and utterly mine!  It was not my first baby, of course.  My sweet Pirate Munchkin was the product of adoption - something very close to my heart.  But an actual biological child that I would have the chance to grow and nurture with my own body and who would look like me?  That was different!  And to lose it at just 7 weeks was devastating!

I felt so very alone at first.  I knew almost nothing about how many, many people around me had been through the very same thing.

As I poured out my heart to my mother (who had also had a miscarriage, but it was under difficult circumstances and she didn't feel the painful loss with hers that I was feeling), we talked about how I didn't know where my baby was.

That's when she told me about my grandmothers.

My maternal grandmother - her mother - had lost a baby.  She felt afterwards that the spirit of that child was waiting in Heaven for her.  It would not be coming to earth with a body.  That confirmed what I had always figured.

However, my father's mother had a different experience.  She lost a baby before my father was born.  She felt that the spirit attached to that pregnancy was my father.  She believed that he had been called back to the pre-earth world for reasons I won't get into here.  When she got pregnant again, he was ready to be born.


I lost my first pregnancy in February of 2009.  My third pregnancy was lost in January 2012, shortly after Pirate Baby's first birthday.  These first two months of the year always make me edgy now.  Both of my babies are represented by forget-me-not charms that I wear around my neck and almost never take off.

The one on the left is the first - the blue stone represents the month of September, when it was due.  The purple stone for February - when I lost it.  On the right, August due date (green) and January loss (red).


As the time has passed with each of my losses, I have had the opportunity to ponder what I feel whispering  to me from the other side of the separation of earth and the spirit world.

My first loss still breaks my heart every time I think of it.  There is a song that my sweet husband loves, and the rare times he plays it around me, I sob as if I'm right back there in the cold winter months of 2009.  I cry ugly tears and feel like my heart is being ripped right out of my chest.  I cling to that one little flowered pendant through the whole song.  I clearly feel that little spirit at my sister's side in Heaven.  She watches over it for me until I my time comes to join them.  I think it's a boy.

The second one is different.

I didn't feel the same sense of loss with that one.  At first, I believed it was because I had my precious little boy to hold and snuggle when I was upset.  I had to take care of him, and his little smile helped me get through the tough days.  So I wondered right from the start, was this one going to be like my paternal grandmother's experience?  Like my father, was that little spirit called back for reasons I didn't know?  Would I still see that child in this life?

My mother and I discussed the idea of getting another charm for that lost baby.  We decided to do it.  When it arrived, it felt like it belonged with the other one.

As time has gone by however, I don't know if it is necessary.

I have felt for quite some time that there is a little spirit who is very anxious to be born.  I feel it sort of hovering around me, impatiently.  What I DON'T feel is a second spirit by my sister's side.  And I DON'T feel a sense of paralyzing grief when I think of that loss.

One day recently, I was talking with my mother (can you tell she's my best friend?) about being good people so we can be with our loved ones in Heaven.

It just slipped out of my mouth.

While I had felt it for some time, I hadn't really acknowledged it to anyone else.

I said, "I want to be with my sister and my baby."

Baby.

Singular.


Were there reasons here in this life why that might not have been the best time for me to be pregnant?  Absolutely!  2012 was a time of EXTREME stress for our family.  Financial issues that came to a rather dramatic end, combined with a very stressful and difficult move.  It had occurred to me in the middle of moving that I was up to my due date.  If that pregnancy had continued, I would have been right at the end of it as we were trying to move our entire household.  Being the time of year it was (harvest season), I had to do almost the entire move by myself.  If I had been pregnant at the time, that would have been impossible.  If I had gone early with that one like I did with Pirate Baby, I would have had TWO babies to take with me as I went back and forth, back and forth with load after load of boxes and furniture.

Clearly, the Lord knew better than I did.

And maybe, like my grandmother felt about my father, that child needed to stay a little longer for reasons in the spirit world.  I will probably never know until my turn comes to join my loved ones in Heaven.

So for now, I wait.

I wait for that little spirit who has been so insistent to join our family here on Earth.

I wait to see what will happen.  Will I leave the 2nd charm on my necklace?  Or when I hold my next child in my arms, will I feel the time has come to remove it?

Not Always a Good Thing

While long hair can be a really good thing, it's not a look that works on everyone.

Just for fun, let's discuss some celebrities that definitely should NOT have long hair, shall we?



Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Here's how he normally looks.  

Here he is with long hair, from the movie Conan the Barbarian from 1982.  

I figured since I listed Jason Momoa in the more recent Conan movie in my last blog, I should include this one for contrast.  So, so, so, so wrong!  Not only does Arnie look HORRIBLE with long hair, they didn't even get the look right!  Conan is supposed to have long BLACK hair, not blonde.  The 1982 version of the movie was horribly written and acted with a blonde Conan.  Everyone involved with that movie should be forced to sit and watch it non-stop for a month as punishment.

George Clooney.

George Clooney is constantly being listed as one of the sexiest men alive.  He's got a rugged handsomeness that lots of women find appealing.  Age has been good to him.  If anything, he gets better looking as time goes by.

George Clooney with long hair.

AAAAAAAAAGH!!  Burn it!  Burn it!

Tom Hanks.

Award winning actor.  Known for being a kind, sensitive kind of guy.

Tom Hanks as a young man with long hair.  

Words cannot express the horror...

Tom Hanks as an old man with long hair.

The horror continues...

Nicolas Cage.

Nicolas Cage gets a lot of flack these days.  I realize he makes lots of goofy faces and has no problem with taking on all kinds of movie roles.  I still like him, and I think he's kind of cute.

He sported long hair for the movie Con Air back in 1997.  It's not horrible, but definitely not the best look for him.

I'm not sure what movie role this might be from, or what on earth made him go for the long hair in this picture, but he even looks confused about the whole thing.

Now a word on John Travolta.

He made a name for himself in the show Welcome Back, Kotter back in the mid 70's.  

This is what he looked like back then.

I was never a big fan of that look.

But as time passed, I realized he was getting better looking as he aged.

Yum.

I can't say he's continued on that trend over the last decade or so.  He definitely hit his peak at one point and then started going back downhill.  Along the way, we've been treated to some "lovely" long-haired looks.

From the movie Michael back in 1996.

Blech.

In 1994, Pulp Fiction was a REALLY popular film.  His hair in that movie was greasy and long and just plain gross.

Here it is down.

Even pulling it back in a ponytail didn't help.

Double blech.

So there ya go.  Long hair is not always a good thing.

Now... does anyone know where I can get some eye bleach?



*As in my last blog entry, the pictures here all came from a Google Image Search.  Sorry I didn't take the time to list all the actual sources.

And the Winner, By a Hair...

I was probably in junior high school when I realized I had a thing for guys with long hair.

One of my earliest memories of that is from this:

I'd known about Menudo for years.  When your mom is a Spanish teacher, you learn about things like that.  But they didn't really become mainstream in the English speaking part of America until I was in junior high.  That's when they started being featured in the teen magazines.  I think I might have even had this poster at one point.

Anyway, see the guy on the left with the white shirt?  That's Sergio.  I was very much in love with him.

And my obsession with long hair on guys had begun.


For the record.  Sergio grew up.  And he kept the long hair.

Oh my.


Surfer Pirate has expressed an interest in growing his hair out again.  I'll get back to that subject in a little bit, but that got me thinking about a funny story from my high school days involving another guy with long hair.


I was a freshman.  He was a junior.  I had seen him in the halls from time to time and just thought he was adorable.  His hair came to his shoulders.  He was really cute when it was down and loose, but when it was pulled back in a ponytail?  Be still my heart!!

Turned out he was one of my mom's students and apparently a really nice guy as well.

He was in one of those tough situations where his parents split custody for half of the year.  He would go to school in Montana for part of the year, and then he would finish up the year back east somewhere - I had heard in a fancy prep school somewhere.

Unfortunately for me, I was usually pretty shy around really cute guys until I got to meet them.  And when you're too shy to even say "Hi", it's kind of hard to introduce yourself.  I'd been trying to get the nerve to speak to Mr Ponytail when he was suddenly gone.  Custody change.  I was disappointed, but at least I hadn't started something just to have it taken away.  I figured I would see him again in the fall and I could try then.

One bright, sunny, summer day, I was at a park near my house for a music festival that was happening there.  My house wasn't too far away, and I decided I would walk home for some lunch and then go back in the afternoon.  As I was leaving the park, Mr Ponytail walked past me with a friend.  I was STUNNED!  I was so shocked to see him that I couldn't even think!  If I had been able to think, I might have said to myself, "Now's your chance, crazy girl!  SAY SOMETHING TO HIM."  Instead, my whole brain shut down.  Once he was past the trees and could no longer see me, I collapsed to my knees.

Later, I really regretted that I didn't say anything to him at that moment.  I never saw him again.  I assume he must have decided that he didn't want to switch schools halfway through his senior year and was just there for the summer.

I can't say I knew him, so I can't say it was a huge loss to me that I never got to know him.

But he had some amazing hair!


My love affair with long-haired guys continues to this day.  Oddly enough, I've only ever dated one guy that had actual long hair, and that was very short lived.  (I don't count guys with the mullets that were oh-so-popular when I was in high school.  That was only long in the back.  Just not the same.)

The ponytail has never lost its appeal to me either.


Here are some fun object lessons to show you what I mean:


Let's start with Antonio Banderas.

With long hair

Pulled back in a ponytail for the movie Desperado

Val Kilmer.

Semi-long hair of his own

Two different long hair looks from the movie The Saint (where he changes his look a dozen times or so)

The always amazing Johnny Depp.

His beautiful natural hair

Wearing a messy ponytail in the movie Chocolat

And just for fun, here's the back of the ponytail

Braided, also from the movie Chocolat

Emile Hirsch

From the movie Lords of Dogtown

(This movie is really close to Surfer Pirate's heart.  It's about surfers/skateboarders in California.  He has a family tie to the actual real-life kids the movie is based on.)

Chris Momoa.

If you don't know who he is, he was in the movie Conan the Barbarian.  He's also married to Lisa Bonet.  She's a lucky, lucky girl.

A ponytail AND a great suit??  Does life get any better??

Chris Hemsworth.

His beautiful, blonde locks.

Pulled back in a ponytail.

(If you want to see something REALLY adorable, Google images of him with his baby.  Nothing sweeter than a big, burly guy snuggling a teeny, tiny baby!)

And of course, as Thor.

This list definitely wouldn't be complete without the guy I consider to be the REAL Thor, Clay Matthews from the Green Bay Packers.

Ponytail

Hey look!  It's Clay Matthews with his hair down AND pulled back, in the same picture!!
This is from his Fathead commercial.  If you haven't seen it yet, look it up on Youtube.  It's really funny.

FYI, it's REALLY hard to find a good picture of him with his hair down when it's not all messy from a football game.

So, back to Surfer Pirate.

What do you think of when someone says California Surfer?  Sun bleached blonde hair.  Dark tan.  Strong and muscular.

That was Surfer Pirate.  

At least before he moved to Montana and then became a farmer in North Dakota.  

He's still really strong, but the muscles aren't quite as defined because the kind of work out here uses totally different muscles than swimming and surfing.  Plus, I feed him really well.  ...take that as you will.

The tan is pretty much non-existent.  He doesn't see the sun nearly as much as he did back then.

The blonde hair is quite dark these days from a lack of constant days in the sun.

The long hair he used to have was gone long before I met him.  

He misses it.

He has gone back and forth with wanting to grow it out for as long as I've known him.  He made a pretty good attempt at it when we were still in Montana.  It had even gotten long enough that I French braided it - just to see if I could.

How lucky are you??  That's an actual picture of the back of his head!

He was going to leave it long when we moved here, but he wasn't sure how conservative people were.  He wanted to make a good first impression on the nice people of Northern Middle of Nowhere, ND.  

I cried when he cut it.

I was pregnant with Pirate Baby, so I was hormonal, but I genuinely loved how long his hair was getting.

He's been trying to grow it out again lately.  It's in that really scruffy stage when it's not long, but not short either.  Sometimes when he takes his hat off, his hair reminds me of Christopher Walken in the movie Joe Dirt.

I guess his hair was longer than I thought it was in that movie, but you get my point.

He told me a few days ago that he needs to get it cut because he doesn't like how it's looking lately.  I'm hoping he's going to have it cut in a way that will work with him growing it out, and not just have it cut off again.

I want my man to have long hair.

* I had too many pictures on this blog entry to list all my sources.  I hope no one takes offense.  All of the celebrity pictures in this entry are from Google Image Search except for the screen shots from Chocolat, The Saint, and Avengers.  The screen shots were done on my laptop off the dvd's.  The picture of the back of my husband's head was taken by me, of course.

Worth A Try

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately.  Life has taken me in a different direction these days and I haven't been sitting down at my computer nearly as much.  But that is a story for a different day.

Meanwhile:

Once upon a time, I was a 14 year old girl.  (I know, shocking, right?!)  I was a Freshman in high school, and I had the undying heart of a True Romantic.  I was obsessed with the Victorian age and would spend hours and hours watching classic movies on cable.  As often done in high school English classes, we read Romeo and Juliet, which just further fueled my addiction to classic love stories.

So when our English teacher announced that we were to write a book report on a book of our choice, I of course decided to read a classic love story.

I chose Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

Pictures of book covers in this post both from Amazon.  A great place to pick up a good book for a bargain price!  ...wow.  That sounded like an advertisement.  Maybe Amazon should pay me.

Piece of cake, right?  A True Romantic like I was could never find anything but a complete love for such a classic story!

How wrong I was!!

By the time I had muddled midway through the book, the deadline for our reports was MUCH too close.  There was no way I could possibly get through it all in time!  Not only was the reading a huge challenge, but I'd actually come to hate Cathy and Heathcliff with the passion of 1000 burning suns!  I was disgusted with all the characters and just wanted the stupid book over with already!!

So, I decided to watch the movie again.

1939 Laurence Olivier version.  Classic.

I read the last chapter of the book.

Then I wrote the report.

To my surprise, I got an A on it!

But I did decide that I was done with Emily Bronte and had no interest in her sister's writing either.

A few years ago, I was in my favorite used bookstore and came across a cheap copy of the book.  I decided maybe I should give it another chance sometime, so I bought it.

I still haven't attempted reading it again, but I'll get to it eventually.

In the process of this last move, we decided to go back to using satellite (quite honestly, so we could get the football package.  GO FALCONS!!)  As is often the case when you sign up for new cable or satellite service, they like to give you lots of extra channels in the hopes that you'll decide you can't live without them and will pay the crazy extra charge for them.  During the last few weeks of our free movie channels, I took advantage of our large DVR space and started recording any and all movies that looked interesting to me - while we still had them.

One of the movies that I recorded was the 2011 version of Jane Eyre.

I figured as much as I love classic movies, I MUST HAVE watched a version of this one at some time or other.

One night, I sat down to watch it.

Apparently I never had seen any versions of it.  But, ohmygoodness!  What a great story!  No wonder I've heard so many different people talk about how much they love it!

That settled it.

I needed to read the book.

The following week, when I was in town to run some errands, I stopped by the library and picked up a copy.  

I finished it early yesterday morning.  I decided to take it to bed with me the night before, figuring if I woke up early, I could lay in bed and read.  I literally cried through the last 2 chapters!  So sweet!  

Okay, so the Bronte sisters aren't all bad.

Maybe it's time to give Wuthering Heights another try.