The Scroll #165. Valentines Ideas, Temps and Thankfulness

​ ​ Good Morning Sweetness! What's happening in your world? I'm sitting here at a TV tray in my bedroom listening to the rain pelt down and hoping that my coffee will kick in before I start watching my 1 1/2 year old grand baby for the day. I do notice that when I keep him, I sleep better and longer and deeper. Exhaustion does that to you, I suppose. Always look at the bright side. Anyway, let's move on with the food, shall we? You know that Valentines Day is coming up right away, right? And no matter what you think of it as a holiday, if you have a special someone in your life, you'll be expected to come up with something special. It could be a card, some flowers or a box of chocolates. I'm going to suggest that you do a special meal. Here are some ideas... How about a special dinner and make some extra where you can do something fun and extra with the leftovers! In this spaghetti dinner recipe, I review how to put the whole recipe together and then how to make a frozen baked spaghetti with the leftovers. You can find the entire thing over on YouTube as well if you need video with the written instructions. 2. What about a special breakfast (and again, if you make enough, you'll have leftovers that keep for about a week in the fridge and you can keep enjoying it for several days). This gravy recipe was given to me by someone very special and it goes straight to the heart of every man in my life. 3. Sheet pan chicken and veggies is a delicious way to enjoy dinner together. Pair it with this potato cheese soup, yum! 4. Finally, if you are in the Winston Salem, Greensboro and High Point area, you could always go out to dinner. Here are some we recommend from the Dorks with Sporks podcast: New Szechuan in Winston Salem, Dirty Fries in Winston Salem, Amazing Thailand in King, ByGood Coffee in Winston Salem, Mojiotos Latin Soul in Winston Salem. _________________________ HOT COOKING TIP OF THE WEEK How many times have I talked about using a thermometer in this portion of the newsletter? I'm always saying that this is how you cook a perfect piece of meat with no guessing and no slicing into the meat with a knife letting all of the precious juices out. That said, I don't know if I have ever talked about using an oven thermometer. We all have a thermometer in our oven that regulates the temperatures based on what you set it at with the controls BUT how accurate is your oven? Do you know? Many of us don't know. Many of us have inaccurate ovens. Many of us have ovens with hot spots and cold spots. Do you know where your cold and hot spots are? You can easily and cheaply solve this problem by investing in an oven thermometer. It clips or attaches via magnet to the rack in the oven and will keep your oven temp honest. If you find that you set the oven on 350 and the independent thermometer only reads 325, then you need to adjust your setting up by 25 degrees. This will make the difference in your baking, roasting and other oven functions. You can find a decent oven thermometer at your local Williams Sonoma, on Amazon or your local cooking store. They are not expensive and it is totally worth the small investment. Give it a go and send me an email and let me know what you found! (just click reply to this newsletter and it will go straight to my inbox). _______________________ THREE LITTLE THINGS I'm trying hard to be more thankful in my day to day life and I"m finding that as I am more aware of the small things, gratefulness for the larger things falls in place. I'm stating these here in hopes that you'll be reminded of the things that you are thankful for too. Although I am not fond of a cold winter rainy day, I am grateful for it. I understand that the earth renews itself in the rain and that spring's beautiful bounty is just under the surface out there in the overcast gloom. I might have to put on my yellow rain boots today, but eventually, the rain will yield lovely spring flowers and I'll be so glad for that. Thankful to be able to volunteer some time in service to the animal rescues that I love. It's a shame that we put so many lovely animals to death every year in this country. If everyone would spay and neuter their pets, it wouldn't be like this. So grateful that when my car broke down and some vital piece in the engine seized that I wasn't in some highly dangerous and vulnerable situation. Instead, I was able to coast to the side of the road, call AAA and be on my way in less than an hour. Thank you Jesus. ____________________ A FINAL WORD I know that I promised to reinstate Sunday afternoon cooking together on the YouTube channel this winter. I want to explain what has happened. Just as we were supposed to get that started, part of my family came down with Covid exposing both me and my daughter who helps with the YouTube channel. Then, as everyone came out of quarantine for that, other family members came down with Covid exposing us again and requiring a quarantine. So, everything has been pushed back and I'm just not sure when it will happen now. Just please be patient with me, just like you we have to follow the rules of today and do the best we can. You are precious and dear to me and I couldn't possibly appreciate you more. I love to hear from you so please feel free to drop me line by clicking "reply" to this email. It comes directly to my inbox and no one sees it but me. That's it for this week. Until next Friday in your inbox, God willing and the creeks don't rise. ​ Love you, Wendi Jo ​ ​ ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile | PO Box 82 , Danbury, NC 27016