Life's Laundry

I can make an 8 o'clock appointment but my BEST days start with coffee and email, in that order. I can remember when I didn't have time for coffee or paper OR email. In fact email didn't even happen at my house until 1992. The monitor set on the desk in the kitchen and I rarely turned it on. Our dial-up connection to AOL left much to be desired. Logging on consisted of long periods of clicks and beeps, I usually just gave up on connecting to the World Wide Web.  It wasn't until the mid 90's and a faster computer that I realized there was something to the Internet that might interest me. I was slow to warm up, mostly using email and occasionally venturing out to find a recipe or looking something up that I'd read about. Those middle years were for kids and homework and laundry. Loads and loads of laundry or dishes to load and unload. There never seemed to be a stopping point. I was always one load away from being finished until the next day when I would be two loads behind! If you are still in your pj's this morning, on your second load of wash... you know just what I mean, don't you? 

Elvis' Pound Cake

Catch your eye, me too! Saveur Magazine is celebrating their 150th issue with 150 hard to find recipes from around the world. As I scrolled down the ingredient list, I just knew I'd like this recipe from Jane and Michael Stern's 1987 cookbook Elvis World! We've never lost that attraction to the King, we loved his voice and his movies, we loved that he loved his Mama and we really loved the fact that this poor Mississippi boy could afford anything he wanted to eat... but he liked peanut butter, banana sandwiches on white bread!  Simple and delicious, this is a keeper!

via

Elvis Presley's Pound Cake Serves 10
from Elvis World Jane and Michael Stern
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
3 cups cake flour, sifted, plus more for pans
3 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
¾ tsp. kosher salt
7 eggs
1 cup heavy cream

Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour two 9"x 5"x 2" loaf pans; set aside. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a bowl on medium-high speed of a hand mixer until pale and fluffy, about 6 minutes. Add eggs one at time, beating well after each, until smooth. Add flour and cream alternately, beginning and ending with flour, beating until smooth. Increase speed to high; beat batter until smooth and light, about 5 minutes. Divide batter between prepared pans, and smooth tops with a rubber spatula; bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a couple crumbs adhering to it, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Let cool 30 minutes, and then unmold onto a cooling rack; let cool completely before slicing and serving. 

Dreaming of Sloths

I have a site I go to when I have "one of those dreams." The Curious Dreamer has a dictionary of dreams that helps me understand the tangled mess off thoughts that spin around in my head at night! Sunday night's was a doozie! Maybe it was the fluffy rolls I had at dinner, or the popcorn that followed when Boardwalk was on at 8PM... whatever, my dream about being attacked by a sloth was just too weird!  I was  walking along when I noticed a sloth was trying to get into the crawl space of a house. In uncharacteristic manner the slow-as-molasses sloth sees me and at the speed of sound jumps on my back, at that point my dream turned to nightmare. I proceeded to pinch his toes, the meanest thing I could think of in my deep sleep! Didn't make a bit of difference, that furry black spider-armed monster just kept squeezing tighter. Finally my pinching got to him and he jumped off. When he did, he said something to me that I can't remember. Probably words of wisdom that I'll need to live the rest of my life, or not! So, this is what the Dream Dictionary says about sloth dreams....

Slowness or steadiness. A sense of being relaxed or unhurried. Judging someone of being lazy. Dreaming of this animal can represent: Having too much of one of these qualities, or that you could benefit by being less this way. Not having enough of one of these qualities, or that you could benefit by being more like this. Someone or something in your real life with whom you associate one of these qualities (an event, situation, threat, etc.)

Makes sense, I had a lazy Sunday... and paid for it with a sloth dream! What the weirdest dream you've had lately?