We went to yet another doctor appointment yesterday. This time, it was a trip to Suzanne’s foot surgeon, for her post-surgery exam. After the doctor unwrapped her hoof for the first time, he practically gushed over how well it was healing after only 4 days of it being elevated and wrapped in ice. Indeed, even Suzanne was proud of how pretty and svelte her healing hoof was looking. She’s almost walking like a professional walker now, too.
For our trek to see the hoof doc, I wore my bow-ties-being-tied Shirt o’ the Day. Face Mask o’ the Day literally speaks for itself. I also donned my forks-covered Tie o’ the Day—as a nod to the fact that I’ve been busy polishing the silverware for the impending Thanksgiving feast. And the cherry on top of my outfit is the “woman parts” pin in my hat which simply says, “Grow a pair!” Yup. Isn’t that speshul?!🍴🍽🍗
Gustav Klimt-inspired Bow Tie o’ the Day and I drove Suzanne to yet another doctor appointment. This time, Suzanne was having a procedure done on some nerves to alleviate pain in her back and neck. Let me be clear: It’s not that we like going to doctors and have tried to make a hobby of it. And it’s not that our ancient bodies are falling apart right before your eyes. Nah, we are relatively healthy, “seasoned” gals who have good insurance, and—thanks to my mountain o’ medical bills this year—we have met our yearly out-of-pocket insurance deductibles. Therefore, it now behooves us to take care of all the bigly and little medical issues we need to address—at no extra cost to us—before the end of the year. Come January 1st, the medical insurance deductibles start over. The first day of the new insurance year is always a wistful day when your medically mortal body is almost as old as pyramid-entombed mummies, like ours are.💀☠️
[Yesterday, I re-posted a photo of Mom slicing her cheese bread. I told about the importance of cheese bread at our family holiday meals. Today, here’s a second re-post of the recipe.]
Five red Bow Ties o’ the Day are proud to provide a recipe we think you’ll find tasty. It’s cheesy and bready. Who could find fault with that?
Actually, I really can’t call this a “recipe.” Mom’s recipes ranged from easy-peasy to intricate and near-impossible. This is a simple one. Three ingredients are all you need. You’ll also need an oven.
1 loaf of French bread. 1 stick or 1/2 stick of butter. And one jar of Kraft Old English Spread.
Lay a sheet of foil across a cookie sheet. You do not want to have to clean baked-on cheese off your cookie sheet. Use the foil.
Hand-mix the cheese spread and butter together until it’s creamy. Mom generally uses the whole stick of butter, although I’ve seen her use just half a stick. I always use just the half.
With a bread knife, skin ALL the crust off the French bread. Ditch the crust.
Cover the bottom of the skinned loaf with the cheese/butter spread, then place it on the foil-covered cookie sheet. Continue to cover the sides and top of the loaf with the cheese/butter spread. Spread the spread as evenly as you can. Since the size of French bread loaves vary, you might or might not use the entire amount of spread. Plus, you’ll definitely want to experiment with how thick you like your cheese spread layer to be. If you want a thin layer of the cheese/butter mixture on the entire loaf, you’ll probably have enough to cover two loaves.
Bake for 10-ish minutes, at 350 degrees. Ovens vary, you know. Experiment with how crusty—if at all—you like the top of your cheese bread to be. The more you experiment with the variables, the more cheese bread you’ll “have to” eat.🤤
I recommend you slice the cheese bread (an electric knife works best) while it’s still hot. And put it on the table hot. But it’s still yummy when it has cooled off.
As any good cook knows, even with an easy recipe the taste is in the details. Mom’s excellent cooking was the result of tweaking good recipes to make them better, as well as her knack for timing. Still, she cooked primarily by sight, smell, and taste. Measuring ingredients wasn’t much of a concern to her. She guesstimated a lot. That’s what makes it difficult to pin down her actual recipes.
If someone wanted a recipe, she’d give them one. She’d also invite them to come to the house to watch her make what they were asking about. Her complicated candy-type creations are especially almost impossible to re-create, even if you watched her make it and tried to write everything down. She was always changing the way she did it or adding a new twist or a different ingredient. And, of course, exact measurements were not always Mom’s way.
Oh. About the potato chips and Diet Coke in the photo. Those food staples are for you to snack on while you make the cheese bread. Substitute a bottle of wine for the Diet Coke, if you are so inclined. Chocolate is also allowed.
[This is a re-post from 2019, offered for your re-enjoyment. I’ve had a request for Mom’s cheese bread recipe again. I will re-post her recipe in the next TIE O’ THE DAY installment.]
Entwined hearts Bow Tie o’ the Day is perfect for Mom. I have been told she’s having an extremely tough time missing Dad recently. Even though he’s gone, their love lives. It’s a time/space continuum thing.
This photo was taken almost 20 years ago. I think Mom is in the kitchen at the Palomar. Most likely, this was a Thanksgiving bash. Check out Mom’s attack face. She is darn well gonna conquer those two loaves of cheese bread. And note the oven burns on the back of Mom’s hand. You’ve heard of rug burn. Well, this is cheese bread burn. She burned her hands on the oven coils every time she made cheese bread. Every time, I tell you. Mom never met an oven glove she’d use. She was strictly a dishtowel gal.
In our house, the electric knife was used for cutting only two things: carving turkey and slicing cheese bread. It was basically used only on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. And then the gadget was immediately put back in its little 70’s original box, and into the kitchen cupboard where Mom and Dad kept the checkbook. The knife laid in its skinny box all alone for 362 days a year. Poor thing. I should have put a bow tie in with it for company.
Mom’s cheese bread is a sacred food. Many of you have had the privilege of tasting Mom’s confections over the years, and you know she was an excellent all-around cook. But Mom’s cheese bread was something she made almost exclusively for family holiday dinners. It was a rare gem. And it was the key food item of those dinners. Dinner did not happen without the cheese bread. Kinds of salads changed. Different versions of potatoes joined the basic mashed potatoes. You’d think the turkey would be the star of these feasts, but it was always about the cheese bread.
And it was war. The most desired slices of cheese bread are the ends, where the cheese-to-bread ratio is the highest. If you managed to score one of the ends, it was only because you managed to steal one before someone else stole it.
At some point after dinner, there was what I’ll refer to as The Tri-Annual Battle Over the Tinfoil On Which the Cheese bread Was Cooked. The tinfoil cheese was like the cherry on top. It was like the prize in the cereal box. The foil was covered in baked-on, cheese bread drippings. Dad usually won that war. And then he would sit at the head of the table, picking carmelized blobs of cheese off the tinfoil—obnoxiously, so we couldn’t help but watch it happen. And we drooled through the torture of witnessing him gorge himself on the results of our defeat.
I have made this cheese bread for parties and dinners and potlucks in three states in this U.S. of A., and I can attest to its lusciousness. A couple of enemies became my friends because of this cheese bread. Its power knows no bounds. 🧀 🥖
Yes, I’m wearing the same Bow Tie o’ the Day and full garb as yesterday, because the photo of me really is from yesterday. Suzanne had to have out-patient foot surgery. While we were at the surgical center, I noticed this sign. I said to myself and Suzanne, “Whew! For a couple of reasons, that sign is of no concern to us. Thank goodness!”
Suzanne’s foot surgery went well, as far as we can tell for now. In this second photo—which is from today—you can see Suzanne “sleep-cuperating” on the love seat with Skitter’s aid. (There’s a tiny sliver of the love seat left for me at Skitter’s side.) As part of the surgery, Suzanne had to have a screw put in her hoof. Now, whenever Suzanne fusses at me about something, I can defend myself by replying, “Suzanne, you don’t even know what you’re talking about. Before you say one more thing to me, you better check on your foot—because I think you have a screw loose.” 😜 That will save me exactly once.
Today’s Bow Tie o’ the Day is a soft flannel piece. I wear it today as part of my 3-flannel wardrobe—flannel bow tie, flannel shirt, and flannel Face Mask o’ the Day. This is my first 3-flannel day of the Fall season. It’s chillin’ up out there, folks. Brrrrrr.
I had a bow tie dream last night. (It is not uncommon for me to dream of neckwear, as I’m sure you have probably already surmised.) I dreamed that I had a bow tie tattooed onto my forehead. I pay serious attention to my dreams, and so I thought I would try out the idea on this morning’s selfie. It looks like me, don’t ya think?
I didn’t go “black tie.” This is the wardrobe I settled on for a long-awaited, much-needed evening in the City of Salt. I doubled-down on paisley with a baby-blue paisley shirt and a paisley wood Bow Tie o’ the Night Out. My floral jacket clashed sweetly with my paisley. Note the polka dot necktie lapel pin on it. And I topped off my outfit with a friendly Face Mask o’ the Evening. I wore my Suzanne-made black cape to the theater instead of a coat, but I forgot to snap a picture of it. (That’s not like me. Sorry.)
We went to a reading by the NYC writer, David Sedaris at the Eccles Theater. He’s a smartly funny guy, and both Suzanne and I are smitten with his humor. This was our second time seeing him read his stories. If he comes back to SLC, we’ll be in the audience again. He doesn’t tell jokes, he tells stories dotted throughout with humor that makes you laugh all the laughs of the rainbow—from chuckle to giggle to snort-laugh. His observational stories about his experiences during the pandemic were masterfully clever and on-target. It was a joyous night out. Until this morning.
Suzanne and I were out of the house a grand total of three hours last night, and my body seemed to handle the goings-on without any problem. However, when I woke up this morning, I almost immediately fell asleep again and didn’t wake up until after noon. I then got up to potty Skitter. I then pottied me. And then I fell asleep again, for another two hours. I am currently watching Judge Judy AND writing this post, and I feel my eyelids getting very heavy. Got stamina? Jeez, I apparently don’t have much. I’ll sleep on it. 😴 🛌
Yes, I did get my head hairs shaved this morning. It was time for a trim. We’re going out for some artsy entertainment tonight, and I haven’t dressed up in soooo long that I’ve almost forgotten exactly how to select fancy evening attire. I’m debating betwixt a slew o’ jackets. I’m looking through capes and earrings and shoes. I doubt I will wear this ocean-y lighthouse Tie o’ the Day this evening, although I’m enjoying wearing it around the house. I’m thinking I might even go “black tie” for the event, which—for me—usually means a bow tie with at least a subtle hint of black and/or white somewhere on it. It doesn’t actually have to be clearly black or white. I’m fastidious about what I wear, but not too literal about the rules o’ anybody else’s froufrou, high-society fashion. 🎩
FYI I purposely didn’t tell y’all where we’re going tonight, but I’ll definitely let y’all know in a post tomorrow. Sometimes I like to keep you guessing. Practice your patience, please. [That FYI was purely for my sister, BT, who will read this post two minutes after I post it, and then immediately text me to ask where we’re going for the evening. Hold your horses, BT. You can be patient, too. 😘]
We have chosen to stay home for the bigly holiday feast next week. Suzanne is exhausted because she has been working her butt off at her office recently—working late even more than is her usual OCD work habit. And even though I am recovering well, I am in no shape to share a dinner table with any of the various bad germs that will surely accompany some of my friends and family at this time of year. I’m in no mood for any germs, no matter how much I love and appreciate the people o’ my life. TV dinner Thanksgiving Tie o’ the Day has given me an easy-peasy idea for next week’s holiday dinner: maybe I should keep it extremely simple, and just microwave a couple of frozen turkey dinners from the grocery store freezer. It would be an effortless, quiet change o’ pace. Of course, no matter what I finally plan to serve for our two-person Thanksgiving feast, I will most assuredly be making Mom’s traditional cheese bread in the traditional way. It is not advisable to cut corners on THE cheese bread, and it would not be a true T-giving without it. In fact, I should probably make two identical loaves of it, so we each have our own personal loaf. I wouldn’t want any knock-down, drag-out mayhem to occur over who got more of the precious cheese bread on a holiday which is meant to celebrate both gratitude and—apparently—gluttony. 🦃🧀🥖😜
I donned my pajamas and a slightly over-sized, polka dot Bow Tie o’ the Day for a recent Zoom appointment with my crazy-head doctor. She wanted to check on how my bipolar noggin was dealing with my surgery adventure. I have been a patient of hers for years, and I would recommend her to anyone who needs guidance in dealing with their bipolar brain. It is an added bonus that she is the spittin’ image of a sock monkey in the great outdoors. 🐵🏔🤡
