Making Hawaiian Corned Beef Hash Patties With KC

Whenever, we go to visit my daughter and her family, my granddaughter, KC always asks for the Hawaiian style corned beef hash patties.

Since KC went to Cooking Camp this summer, she really wanted to help me make this dish. It was my mother who used to make this for us when we were little. This was before frying things was discovered to be so unhealthy.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 large potatoes

1 can corned beef

1 medium sized onion

3 eggs (beaten)

flour

corn flake crumbs (I've used bread crumbs when I was desperate.)

Instructions:

Boil potatoes until tender and mash.

Saute diced onions in butter until tender. 

Combine mashed potatoes and sauteed onions with 1 can of corned beef.

Form patties about 3 inches in diameter.

Coat each patty with flour.

Dip the floured patties in the beaten eggs.

Coat them with the corn flake crumbs. 

Fry the patties until golden brown.

Just for fun I looked up Hawaiian Corned Beef Hash Patties and found this recipe.

Interesting....

They add the egg to the mashed potatoes, round onions, green onions and corned beef and then coat the patties only in flour.

I'm going to have to try this for KC someday. For one thing, it sounds easier. And I can have KC cut the onions using her goggles again.

A 10 Year Old's Solution to Cutting Onions

KC went to Cooking Camp this summer and really enjoyed learning some basic cooking techniques. In fact, every time I started cooking something she wanted to help.

Like her mother and uncle, KC belongs to a swim team and her strokes are truly as graceful as her mother's were.

You can imagine how funny I thought it was to see her solution to cutting onions which were stinging her eyes.

Yup. She used her swim goggles to protect her eyes and, by golly! They did work. 

Spam Letter From Spain

I received this letter, addressed to me in July. I was surprised that someone from Spain would be contacting me. Who do I know in Spain? Well... nobody.

The letter was from a Margaret Lucas. She was informing me that she is a manager for a Vault at a Financial & Security Institute in Spain. Apparently there's 16.7 million dollars waiting that no one has claimed. That person has MY surname. Seriously? Puhleeeeaase!

Whatever the case, after a long explanation, Ms. Lucas is promising me 40% of the money, with 50% for her and her husband and 10% for any charity I choose.

Ms. Lucas admonishes me to be discreet and not mention this to anyone and contact her immediately.

Do people actually fall for this?

It looks like the mail actually did come from Spain. There's a Spanish stamp and cancellation mark. 

I googled Scam Letters From Spain online and found that lots and lots of people had gotten these letters. It must have cost them a lot to send so many around the world. Have you ever gotten one of these? How did they get my name and address anyway? In Spain?

Kettle Popcorn

While in Illinois, my son-in-law introduced me to some kettle popcorn he'd bought from Costco. It was a huge bag! And we fell in love with it. I even bought two of those huge bags to bring back with me to Hawaii. It was crazy. I know.

I texted my sister-in-law about it and she said she'd seen it at Walmart in Hawaii. Granted there wasn't much in the bag and it was not cheap. Maybe it's my imagination, but I could swear the huge bag in Illinois for about $6.00 had four times as much as the one at Walmart in Hawaii for $3.57.

Whatever the case, I returned the two bags I'd bought in Illinois the day after I bought it.

A few weeks later I was at another store and saw a whole display of the Popcorn Indiana brand.

They had popcorn with sea salt, popcorn with cheddar cheese, movie popcorn...

...popcorn drizzled with chocolate, and peanut butter popcorn BUT no kettle popcorn.

How weird is this? Why no regular kettle popcorn?

Ah well... since I'm diabetic, it's not really good for me so eventually... I lost interest in looking for it.

We're now enjoying popcorn that Art has popped himself and then dusted with Old Bay seasoning.

Rabbits and Squirrels and Chipmunks, Oh My!

Art and I lived on the mainland for over 35 years. Whenever people from Hawaii visited us, they would be mesmerized by the squirrels that were making a nuisance of themselves on our chestnut and oak trees. They were also amazed at the number of bunnies that were hoping around everywhere, eating our grass and anything else we planted.

When we went back this summer, Tiffany laughed to see us taking photos of the squirrels.

Granddaughter KC must have wondered why we considered squirrels worthy of a photo.

And of course, there were those bunnies all over the place. Ever since the West Nile disease wiped out a lot of the large predatory birds, the bunny population has exploded.

And the cute chipmunks? They actually undermine the sidewalks and home foundation with their little tunnels.

We ran into skunks too, but thank goodness it was from a distance. They used to live under our deck along with the opposums and I don't know what else.

Now that we're in Hawaii, we don't see these animals, which is why we had fun watching them in Illinois. What do we have in Hawaii? Hmmm...Just birds, I think. Oh... I forgot. There are mongoose, mice, feral chickens and feral cats. That's about it in my neighborhood.

Miracle for Mom

We just took mom to the Kaiser optometrist because her ophthalmologist said that her eyes had stabilized since her retinal occlusion in spring of 2015.

In February of 2015 mom's sister, Grace suddenly passed away. Mom sat with Auntie Grace in the ER and was in shock. It was a terrible time. Mom has high blood pressure and the shock of losing her beloved sister caused a hemorrhage in her left eye. We didn't know.

Mom told us several times that her optometrist had told her a few months back that she was developing cataracts so it would have to be addressed eventually. However she could see where it was now affecting her vision. She kept telling us not to worry about it.

It wasn't until the day when she said she could only see the bottom of the TV that we became alarmed. That did NOT sound like cataracts. Art pulled her lid up and saw a film over half her left eye. I called Kaiser right away and was told to bring her in immediately. The doctor gave mom a shot right into her eye which stopped the damage and unsettled my stomach to watch.

She needed several of those monthly shots for a while until the danger was over. The doctor sadly told us that the damage caused by the retinal occlusion was permanent and she'd never get her eyesight back on her left eye except for the sliver at the bottom.

While we were on the mainland, my brother took her to the ophthalmologist who said she could now get new glasses since her vision had stabilized enough.

The optometrist today did tests on her and I could see that her peripheral vision seemed to be better! How is that possible? Mom said she could see everything now except for some black floaters. When we got home Art covered her right eye and we tested her ourselves. Good gracious! She really did regain her eye sight!!! Not only that but the optometrist said her prescription had hardly changed since before the occlusion and she didn't need new glasses.

We are in total amazement! It's a miracle. Auntie Grace must be smiling down at her.

Play Date Schedules

While visiting our daughter and her family in Illinois, we marveled at the list of activities our granddaughter KC had written for her play dates. My daughter, Tiffany is very organized and I'm seeing her influence with KC.

Tiffany is making sure KC doesn't end up just playing with video games. The blue print on the left is the Sun Art project KC did with her friend. You would place objects on the paper and then place it in the sun. You can also see the backpack tags in the middle that she and her friend had made.

Times have sure changed. When I was little my brother and I ran around the neighborhood with friends without a care. Our parents never worried about us or what we were up to.

Yes, times have changed.

Graffiti or Graphic Art

While in Chicago, my son-in-law, Art and granddaughter KC went for a bike ride to a beach near Northwestern University.

You can see the Chicago skyline from the beach. I then noticed those flat concrete blocks that had been painted with what I thought was graffiti at first. But it was more than that.

KC just admired the view over the lake.

When I first moved to Illinois, I kept calling Lake Michigan the ocean.

It's just so huge and there are waves almost like Hawaii!

The beach here was covered with these broken slabs of concrete blocks.

It was obvious that the messages painted on the concrete slabs were done by university students. They were philosophical, funny, political, and very interesting.

There were also a number of marriage proposals. I hope they were accepted.

This one must have been done recently and made me smile. I would love to have stayed longer to read all the messages but it was time to go home.

The Evolution of Classic Comics

OK, I confess I never actually read Les Miserables or War and Peace. The darn books had too many pages for me.

Instead, yes... I read Classic Comics when I was a kid. In fact, I read quite a few classics in comic form.

Don't tell mom. She says she read those actual books when she was in the 4th grade.

Well, when we were on the mainland, my granddaughter told me she was enjoying graphic novels. I had no idea what a graphic novel could be.

One day, KC came home with a graphic novel that my daughter had bought her because it was on sale.

I recognized the dialogue in the speech bubbles as being pretty much taken directly from the Jane Austen novel. These books are more detailed than Classic Comics, but pretty much the same. I just think it's hilarious that they're giving it a fancier name. Heaven forbid that you should call it comics.

U.S. Mint Birth Set

While in Washington, D.C. we spent a morning at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

You can go there and take a tour to see paper money being printed.

Unfortunately, we didn't think to order tickets to take the tour, but we saw some displays and enjoyed walking around the gift shop.

It was a long, long walk to get there from our hotel.

There were a lot of money related souvenirs that you could buy. I believe KC and Art bought some interesting 3D postcards with a photo of $100.

Since our grandson is going to be born this year, we thought this 2017 Birth Set for $19.99 would be a fun memento. The coins were minted this year. Unfortunately, the gift shop had sold out, but we were able to order it from the U.S. Mint website. We looked into getting a 2015 Birth Set, but none were available for two year old JD. They have 2013, 2014, and 2016, but not 2015. I wonder why.

My Granddog's Birthday

Just for fun...

My son sent this photo to us. It was our granddog, Mungo's birthday!

Well... not exactly his birthday. It was the day they adopted him from an animal shelter 8 years ago when they lived in New Mexico.

He must have been severely mistreated and traumatized by a man before he was brought to the shelter because he is fearful of men, especially men wearing glasses and hats.

He is incredibly gentle and tolerant of our 2 year old grandson who often bumps into him.

He will also very trustingly come to me to brush or pet him and will never bark at me. And I'm not really a dog lover.

Poor Art loves dogs, but darn, Mungo growls every time Art enters their apartment.

Mungo is well trained. Notice how he's not lunging at the sandwich until they take the photo.

Granted if there's a squirrel in the room, all bets are off!

Finding the Perfect Patch

A wonderful friend gave me a hoodie several months ago. Her son had gone to Stanford University and she had this great hoodie that I thought my kids could wear. Living in Hawaii, she had no use for such a warm jacket.

Unfortunately, my children were not interested in wearing a hoodie that had Stanford University embroidered on the front.  They'd both attended Midwestern universities and were loyal to their own schools.

I decided to very carefully remove the embroidered Stanford logo. It took me a couple of hours to do it while watching TV. Ummmm... If you ever consider doing this... don't. When I got the embroidered threads off, there were tons of holes. Sigh...

Now I needed to find a patch to cover it, but there wasn't anything just the right size or shape that I wanted to put on the hoodie. I looked at every store in Hawaii that I thought might have an embroidered patch. Nothing.

While in Illinois, my daughter and granddaughter went to Hobby Lobby and found a whole display of patches for me. I couldn't believe it!

And here it is!

Unfortunately, it turned out to be too short for Art.

So alas! Looks like it will be mine.

Or I could pass it down to my granddaughter some day. She loves pandas.

Zenni Glasses

My daughter often introduces me to new products she's tried and loved. This summer Tiffany told me about a website called Zenni that sells very reasonably priced prescription glasses. She said her single vision glasses cost her just $39.

I was really dubious, but I decided to try it out. I'd just changed the lens only on my Costco bifocal glasses for $146.59 so I already had my pupillary distance on the paper they'd given me.

The Zenni site has you input your photo so you can try out glasses online. Actually that was rather a lot of fun.

They also give you instructions on how to measure your pupillary distance if you don't have that measurement.

I was glad I already had that information from the Costco receipt because they measured my eyes for me.

Well, the glasses were cheap, but then I added Transition and anti-reflective coating and the price did jump to $88.85. This was only a single vision lens for distance. But that was all, plus a bit for shipping.

I thought that was pretty darn reasonable since it included the frame.

I couldn't wait for it to arrive.

It didn't take long. It arrived in a little over a week and I thought the quality was quite decent. I compared the lens to the Costco glasses I'd bought the week before and they appeared similar.

My sister-in-law said she preferred sunglasses because the Costco Transition lens didn't darken enough.

I used the Costco glasses today and she was right. It doesn't darken a whole lot and I was still getting a glare. Nothing horrible, but it wasn't perfect.

I thought I'd try an experiment.

I took both glasses outside and put them on white paper.

The Costco glasses are on top. The Zennis are at the bottom.

The Zenni glasses did get darker.

Very interesting...

I'm trying to persuade Art to get new glasses, but he says he doesn't need one.

Hmmm... Granted, since my far vision is actually pretty good, my friends did ask me why I needed another pair.

Ummmmm.....

Fun With Backpacks

One of the most important things our granddaughter, KC had to do to prepare for the first day of school was getting her backpack appropriately decorated.

Since her backpack is covered with polka dots, you can't see all the buttons that she's pinned on. Apparently each button has meaning for her, not to mention all the things dangling from it. She's got a collection of dangles and buttons that she interchanges.

I know I never did that. For one thing, I don't even remember carrying a backpack... or did we? All we did to get ready for school was to have something new to wear. What do you remember?

Emptying the Dishwasher Craziness

Living with mom does have its moments. Sometimes, there's miscommunication, sometimes worry, sometimes hilarity, sometimes frustration, but always love and caring.

There are many things mom does that we just can't change. So we keep quiet.

She feels she has to trim the trees in the oddest way you can imagine. Poor Art, who loves bonsai and learned the proper way to trim trees when he was a Tree Keeper in Illinois often winces when he sees her handiwork.

Mom also feels she has to do laundry whenever the sun is shining so she can hang her clothes. This is whether there's a full load to wash or not.

Now, about the dishwasher. Whenever we run the dishwasher at night, she would start putting away the dishes at 4:30 in the morning before she has her breakfast. It would almost always wake me up since we don't close our bedroom door upstairs in case she needs to call us. For some reason, the clanking of the dishes are extra loud at 4:30 in the morning. Sometimes, I might have forgotten to run the dishwasher and she'd put the dirty dishes away. Whatever the case, we let it go because we thought it was something she just had to do.

Art and I came up with the solution on the left and then this summer our daughter gave us this fancy thing we could attach to the dishwasher which would indicate whether the dishes were clean or not.

One morning, I forgot to indicate I'd run the dishwasher so mom didn't put the dishes away. When she walked into the kitchen, she apologized for not putting them away. I gently told her it would really be nice if she let us put the dishes away.

"Really?" she said. "I'm so glad. Now I can eat my breakfast before it gets cold."

After she left, Art laughed and said, "Ummm.... Did she ever consider putting the dishes away after she had her breakfast?"

Whatever the case, we're all happy now because I for one am getting more sleep.

Baga and Gaga

When our granddaughter, KC was 2 years old she started calling me Gobi and Art was Papa. To improve her language, we'd point to me and clearly enunciate "Grandma" and then point to Art and say, "Grandpa."

When we returned to Illinois from Hawaii, our daughter, Tiffany had KC hold a big sign that said, "Welcome back, Gobi and Papa!"

I got to like being called Gobi.

That's when KC suddenly started calling me Grandma.

I actually told her it was OK to call me Gobi.

But no, from that moment on I was Grandma. Tiffany still laughs about that.

My son-in-law is Korean American so his parents are Harmoni and Haraboji.

There's no problem identifying us.

When we were in Maryland, our little grandson, JD called Art Baga and I was Gaga.

We thought it was hilarious and didn't correct him. This time we figured we could keep the names, and our daughter-in-law, Sarah's parents could be Grandpa and Grandma.

It wasn't to be. A couple of months later, JD started calling us Grandpa and Grandma.

Sigh... Now each set of grandparents don't have their own identification.

A friend of mine has her grandchildren call her Nana.

I looked up cute grandparent names. You can find anything online these days, and came up with these.

Mawmaw and Pawpaw, Geema and Geepa, Nana and Papa, Baba and Gigi (Ukranian), Bibi and Babu (Swahili), Meme and Pepaw (supposed to be popular in the southern US), Grams and Gramps, Grammie and Grampy, etc.

What names have you heard?

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and National Arboretum

When we returned to Maryland, Keola and Sarah said they would take us to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens which is actually in Washington, D.C. It was a bit of a drive, but they know how I love to take photos of waterlilies and lotus blooms.

Good grief! It was huge! I have never, never seen so many lotus in one place before!

There were many varieties of lotus and some of the plants were gigantic! The waterlilies appeared to be past their prime, but the lotus more than made up for it.

After viewing the lotus they took us to the U.S. National Arboretum.

Keola and Sarah also know how Art loves bonsai so they knew the Bonsai Museum would really interest him.

Needless to say, we saw a LOT of bonsai and a lot of beautiful rocks.

I don't know if all this interested 10 year old KC very much but it sure made it a nice day for Art and me.

Smithsonian's National Zoo

Since we hadn't been to the National Zoo in such a long time, we thought it would be a good day to take our granddaughter, KC since the weather was hot but not the 100 degree temperatures we had last year. KC wanted to see the pandas.

We took the metro and discovered it may have been cheaper to just drive there since there was parking available. Ah well... We got some exercise so that's OK.

We enjoyed seeing Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Bei Bei. They pretty much spent all their time eating bamboo.

I loved seeing the swallowtail butterflies who were fluttering about the zoo.

KC had fun seeing the zebra, cheetah and cute alpacas.

We stopped at the souvenir shop and got this panda ear headband that KC was drawn too. She wore it for the rest of our stay on the East coast.

It was a lovely stay in our country's capital, but it was time to head back to Maryland.

Free Birthday Starbucks Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino

I was surprised when Starbucks sent me an email to say that I could have a free drink or treat using my Starbucks cellphone app on my birthday. I wondered what size they would give me because those drinks are not cheap.

It was a hard decision but the Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino sounded really wonderful on a hot day. Yes, I know. It's loaded with calories and sugar, but gosh... it was my birthday.

I asked the barista what size I was allowed to get and he said, "Anything at all."
"Really?" That was a surprise.
"You can have any size drink, any flavor you like," he laughingly told me. He was just the nicest guy!

So I did. I got the Venti!

Oh my! It was a LOT!

And I enjoyed every single sip.

I'm looking forward to my next birthday. Ummm... wait... never mind.

National African American Museum

We had heard that it was extremely difficult to get tickets for entry to the National African American Museum in Washington, D.C. Our daughter, Tiffany had heard that a few tickets were available online very early in the morning. She got up at 6:30 AM, turned on the computer and started applying for tickets. She struck gold! We got tickets for 2:30 PM. We could hardly believe it!

We always wondered about the design of the museum. The shape of the building and brown filigree was unusual. I got this information from the Smithsonian Museum website.

"From one perspective, the building's architecture follows classical Greco-Roman form in its use of a base and shaft, topped by a capital or corona. For our Museum, the corona is inspired by the three-tiered crowns used in Yoruban art from West Africa. Moreover, the building's main entrance is a welcoming porch, which has architectural roots in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora, especially the American South and Caribbean.  Finally, by wrapping the entire building in an ornamental bronze-colored metal lattice, Adjaye pays homage to the intricate ironwork crafted by enslaved African Americans in Louisiana, South Carolina, and elsewhere."

Inside were displays about great African American leaders, scientists, athletes, movie stars, TV personalities, musicians, politicians, etc.

The history of slavery is cruel and painful.

There was also memorabilia and historical artifacts of the African Americans who served in the military.

There were lots and lots of athletes, but more people should remember the genius of the inventors and other scientists.

Yes, there was a display for Oprah which made us smile.

I recognized Michelle's dress in the display about President Obama.

This part also made you shake your head.

Thomas Jefferson helped to create the Declaration of Independence and did oppose slavery. And yet he kept slaves himself.

The lowest floor was centered on the horrors of slavery and parents were advised not to take young children there.

You could see people moving through the rooms silently, some tearfully...confronted again with cruelty and evil.

This drawing caught my eye and gave me a feeling of hope.

At the end of the tour, everyone stopped at the Contemplative Court where a giant waterfall in the center of the room refreshed and soothed you before leaving the museum.