How to make a winter day better

I went out to the garage early this morning to feed Mama Kitty.  While I was there, I opened the freezer and got a package of the strawberries I picked last June.  As soon as I got in the house, I put the baggie of fruit in the microwave and hit the defrost button; you want them to be a little bit frozen when you eat them with your cereal.  I put Cliff's cupful back in the fridge and ate mine as soon as I could.  I had already decided we'll have potato soup and corn bread for dinner.  I don't use a recipe for soup, but I wanted to see if the recipe for potato soup in this book had a trick or two I could add to mine; the only thing I decided to add was four crisp-fried pieces of bacon to crumble over the soup when it's done. 

My oven doesn't work, but I've found out I can halve my cornbread recipe, warm up the electric skillet to 350°, and let it serve as an oven.  I have a pan that holds enough batter for a half-recipe.  I probably will get another stove eventually, but until then I find other ways to cope.

My son's oldest daughter... my oldest granddaughter... called last week and asked if she could come and watch me make noodles, her favorite food.  She called me years ago and got my recipe; at the time, I remember telling her she really needed to watch me make it before she tried it, but in all these years, she has never been here when I was making it.  She makes noodles often, but then she tells me, "They doesn't taste like yours."

So Saturday she came, bringing most of the ingredients for two of my recipes.  Her plan was to double the noodle recipe; she even brought chicken thighs for the noodles.  Then she would take it home, and she and her mother could eat noodles for a couple days.  I had assumed I'd be making the noodles and putting them on a cookie sheet raw, so she would cook them at home.  I do sometimes double recipes, but if anything I cook is going to go wrong, it usually is when I double a recipe, so it might not be the best way.  She agreed on that. 

Around this time, she mentioned the chicken she'd bought and I realized I'd be the one boiling the noodles.  No problem.

She had told her brother and his fiance she'd be here and to come over and visit with us while we cooked.  Also, her mom and her guy were coming.  By the time those noodles were done it was dinnertime, and some other people happened by.  This was starting to feel like the time Jesus took a little boy's lunch and fed 5,000 people!

Poor Amber got one small serving of her noodles.  Had I known I was having a party, there would have been more to eat.  I did make some mashed potatoes, because in our tradition, we put noodles on our mashed potatoes.  Cliff and I had some leftover Taco Soup, and we shared that.  Oh yes, and my granddaughter had also wanted to watch me make Oreo Dessert, because as simple as it is, there is one step that can be difficult.  That's the first thing I made, so there was dessert for everybody!!!  All except Amber, who doesn't like chocolate.

She wanted a selfie of us when everybody left, so here it is.  My curly hair isn't curly in winter because I go outside at least twice a day with my hat on; the curls only come back when I wash my hair.

This isn't my best look, but I have no shame. Cliff says it looks like my face and my neck are one.