Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Fly on the Wall: Ten Seconds of Fame

Welcome to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 14 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house. At the end of my post you’ll find links to this month’s other participants’ posts.


Fly on the Wall |  www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


I was watching HGTV and they had a show on that takes place in my home state of Massachusetts, on the island of Nantucket, where I got engaged. I tweeted about it and HGTV put my tweet up on the show. When I saw it, I grabbed my cell phone but by the time I got it on, tapped the camera, pointed it at the TV and clicked, all I got was this:

My tweet on HGTV | www.BakingInATornado.com

So my 15 minutes (OK, 10 seconds) of fame is unprovable. Perfect.


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics



Speaking of my 15 seconds of fame, I had a piece published in the Huffington Post last month. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, Arianna Huffington tagged me in a tweet about my article.

Because it seems that whatever can go wrong WILL go wrong (for me, anyway), I went to answer her and I broke twitter. Yup, no matter what I did, this was what I got:


I broke twitter | www.BakingInATornado.com


Fortunately when twitter finally came back up, I hadn’t been banned for life, and this was still in my feed.

Arianna Huffington tweet  | www.BakingInATornado.com

Since you don’t need your cell phone to take a screen shot, I actually have proof this time!




Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

A more dubious run-in with fame:
I run a few writing challenges for bloggers and one of them is called Use Your Words. Bloggers send in random words which are assigned to another blogger to use in a post. In January I had a hard time using "Grumpy Cat", one of my assigned words, in a post. In February I coincidentally got "grumpy" and again struggled, stating I was never using "grumpy" or "grumpy cat" in a post against my will again.
That night I popped over to my twitter account and guess who had followed me . . .

Grumpy Cat twitter follow | www.BakingInATornado.com

 . . . yup, Grumpy Cat. Maybe his ears were ringing with all the talking I'd been doing about him.
As if that wasn't funny enough, guess who followed me the next day . . . 

Grumpy Cats twitter follow | www.BakingInATornado.com

. . . Grumpy CatS. Is this maybe the account of the other 8 lives?


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


As you can see, I've had some fun people follow me on twitter, I've had some interesting people follow me too. Sometimes I'm surprised and other times, like this one, I think "what took you so long?":

Twitter followers | www.BakingInATornado.com | #SocialMedia

Apparently these companies roll in packs (Yay) because the very next week I was followed by Cambria and then by La Crema.

And since you don't always drink straight from the bottle, it seemed fitting that the next day Luxury Glassware followed me.



Crockpot Mushroom Beef | www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #crockpot

Crockpot Mushroom Beef


I was watching the Grammys a few weeks ago. Hubs was in the office working on our taxes but would walk by now and then. He stopped when he saw Tom Jones, who is in his 70s, singing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" with Jessie J, who is in her 20s.
Hubs: Is that his wife?
Me: No, they're not related, they're just singing a duet together.
Hubs went back to what he was doing. A few minutes later he was walking by again and the song was just about to end.
Hubs: Is that his daughter?
Me: Nope, still not related. 


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


For Valentine's Day I planned a special dinner. Hubs bought the flowers and champagne.
Dinner was served, all went really well and later I brought out dessert, my Creme de Menthe Shamrock Cake.
Hubs: Ummm, I don't want to criticize, but I think you have the wrong holiday.
Me: But I needed to work out this recipe and get a picture for a March blog post. You know you already had your Valentine's Day desserts back in January.
Hubs: And people wonder why I never know what day it is.


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics



College Boy walked into the kitchen just as I, standing at the slider, raised the binoculars to my eyes, screeched and jumped backwards.
College Boy: You OK, Mom?
Me: Yes, I just wanted to get a closer look at this hawk out back. It scared me to see him looking right at me.

Hawk in the back yard | www.BakingInATornado | #birds #nature


College Boy: Oh, I thought maybe you saw your own reflection in the glass.
Smart-ass kid.

Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


I’m going to come clean and admit a complete parenting fail.
I had a splitting headache in the middle of the afternoon and went to my room, shut the shades and climbed into bed.
College Boy: Are you OK?
Me: No.
College Boy: Did you take aspirin?
Me: Yes, just now.
College Boy: Do you need anything?
Me: Yes, sing me “Soft Kitty”.
And he had no idea what I was talking about. NO IDEA! Where did I go wrong?


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics



I never claimed to be a genius, especially in the kitchen. And it’s well known that I’m quite familiar with a number of swear words.
Using pretty much all of those words is what I was doing at dinner time one night when I realized that earlier, when I’d turned on the oven light to check on dinner, instead of turning the light back off, I’d left the light on but turned the oven off and walked away for an hour.
Seems my family are not good sports either. Not one of them would agree to eat raw chicken . . .


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


We still have a home phone. Sometimes my mom calls, and it’s the number I give out to anyone I don’t want having my cell phone number.
The other night it rang at dinner time, as it often does.
College Boy: Why do we keep this thing? No one uses them any more, we rarely even use it.
Me: We have to keep it or we’ll be putting thousands of people out of work. We’re the only ones the telemarketers have left to call.


Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:





Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

Crockpot Mushroom Beef
                                                                             ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
¾ cup frozen chopped onion
2 cans condensed GOLDEN mushroom soup
1 packet dry onion soup mix
1 cup water
1/3 cup cooking sherry
½ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2# stir fry beef (very lean, very thinly sliced)
 
8 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 green onions, cleaned and chopped
12 ounces frozen peas
4 ounces cream cheese
½ cup sour cream
 
16 oz wide noodles
¼ cup parsley
 
Directions:
*In a crockpot, mix together the chopped onion, condensed soup, dry soup mix, water, sherry, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add in the stir fry beef. Turn the crockpot on to low and cook for 4 hours.
*Mix in the mushrooms and green onions and cook one more hour.
*Mix in the peas, cream cheese and sour cream. Cook ½ hour, stir well and cook another half an hour.
*Cook the wide noodles according to package directions. Serve the beef over the noodles. Sprinkle with parsley.


40 comments:

  1. Yes, charities and telemarketers are who mostly call my house phone. And yes, I keep it. You just never know...That Mushroom Beef sounds good!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We have a house phone, too. I keep it for the kids when I'm away from the house. ;)
    This was just TOOOOO funny for words!
    Your poor confused husband!! LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, he had enough problems before I started making desserts all in the wrong months. {{sigh}}.

      Delete
  3. We have the same luck I would have done the same thing. As a matter of fact, most of my pictures come out like that! This looks delicious and something I will definitely be making very, very soon!

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    Replies
    1. I'm so upset. I really wanted a shot of that. I even went to the HGTV website where you can leave a question and asked if there was any way to capture it but they never answered me.

      Delete
  4. We have a house phone. Otherwise my daughter would drain my cell phone. Plus, you know, bill collectors, telemarketers and such.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I don't give my cell number to companies to try to keep them just calling the house phone. Hubs gave my cell number to a company the other day as a back up to the home phone and I was NOT happy.

      Delete
  5. Love the picture of the hawk--so beautiful. Birds of prey always remind me of my sister. So glad you posted a crock pot recipe---I've been using mine a lot lately. Today I have a creamy chicken, cheese and tater tot casserole cooking in mine, No calories in that, right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I knew that Eagles reminded you of your sister, I hope I didn't bring up any sad memories.
      I want to hear about how your casserole comes out in your crockpot, specifically whether the tater tots get all mushy.

      Delete
    2. Thank you----no, seeing the eagles now is comforting to me. I'll never get over losing her; Im just learning to live with a hole in my heart. As for the casserole---it was very tasty but I used frozen hash browns instead, which was a big mistake----they thawed in the crockpot and yes, got all mushy. Next time I will use WHOLE hash browns and defrost them first! The casserole looked like a big glop of goo, but it sure did taste good, ha-ha.

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    3. I'd rather have it taste good and look gooey than look good and taste bad. Just tell everyone to close their eyes while eating!

      Delete
  6. Hmmm . . . maybe I could get rid of my land line. The telemarketers have already made the switch (don't ask me how) to my cell phone anyway.
    My Husby is so excited when I make dessert that he doesn't even notice a 'theme'.
    P.S. You're still way ahead of me with your picture-taking reflexes. I would have gotten the next program...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL, the next program. . . I think I came close. Should have grabbed my camera instead of my cell, I may have gotten the pic.

      Delete
  7. I'm not gonna comment on (y)our stalker. I'm trying to get him to forget about me.
    I adore your male counterparts. They're continuously making me laugh.
    I hope you've righted your parenting fail.
    We have a home phone. It never gets used.
    Loved this post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope, didn't right it. For some reason College Boy is not interested in learning Soft Kitty. Hmmmph.

      Delete
  8. Gorgeous hawk! I love "soft kitty" and what day is it again? LOL
    Congrats on the tweets and HP

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we love having these hawks live right out back. They are such beautiful and majestic birds.

      Delete
  9. I find it's always disconcerting when nature looks at me.... judging, thinking "This is your fault". *shudder*

    We are all still laughing at the Grumpy Cat. Too perfect!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that one "Use Your Words" post has sent me down this long and winding road. . . with a Grumpy Cat (or two) as a companion.

      Delete
  10. I think your week sounds pretty awesome. Except for the headache/Soft Kitty part. My 11 year old can sing that!! What is wrong with you, woman!! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great post. I love seeing your updates, and was super pumped FOR you when Grumpy cat followed you. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL, that Grumpy Cat isn't following me, he's stalking me!!!

      Delete
  12. Woohoo on the HGTV tweet (I believe you), Huff Post & Grumpy Cat! Fun stuff!! I'm excited for this chocolate mint recipe for St. Patty's Day! Who cares what day it is when you're eating amazing food?! ha ha!

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    Replies
    1. Exactly. We enjoyed the hell out of that cake, shamrock or not!

      Delete
  13. I knew you'd be famous, Karen!
    Grumpy Cat follows you. You have arrived!
    Love the man's questions about the Grammys. (The pairings of artists are always fun to see.)
    We have a landline for my talks with Grams :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. None of my children have home phones. I don't have one anymore either, but I keep a Magic Jack around that I rarely use – that's the number I give to telemarketers ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A few telemarketers are starting to find my cell number but for the most part I'm happy that they just call the home phone,

      Delete
  15. oh poor hubby confusing him with desserts now he's confused wtaching the grammys, LOL... Your sons crack me up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah those boys keep me laughing. . . or crying. . . but mostly laughing.

      Delete
  16. Another Fly post just I know and love your family ;-)
    I originally just came her to steal a certain picture of a certain non-cheerful furry animal, but of course I ended up reading everything from raw chicken to Tom Jones' wife, I mean daughter, and more.
    No garage opener or car incident though. I will pick up this subject instead, keep your eyes open for it!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I have totally turned off the oven and walked away before too. We call that pizza night. ;)
    The hawk was beautiful! You get such gorgeous wildlife in your yard. <3
    No soft kitty?! Oh my!
    Shamrock cake for Valentine's Day is just plain awesome. It is tough to be the spouse of a food blogger, eh? ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HA, I'm going to do that on purpose the next time I feel like pizza. Oh, I can SO make this work for me.

      Delete
  18. I stopped having telemarketers calling after the word was out -- I'm not nice. I usually answer the phone with a nasty comment -- whatever pops into my head at the time and then we all laugh hysterically. If they actually TALK to me, I ask them to hold on a sec and then put the phone down and go do whatever. They get pretty mad after about 5 minutes and hang up. Yes, of course, I have forgotten to put the oven on - doesn't everybody?

    I live on my cell phone during the day but at 6 p.m. it gets turned off. When the kids were home, no one is allowed to use them at dinner or family time. Still maintain that position but it is only hubby and me. Last night we had guests for dinner and the entire evening they were texting and doing whatever -- just too rude. I will be sure my grandkids do not do that - at least when this grand mom is around.

    Like having the house phone -- and, no radiation to worry about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We don't do cell phones during dinner either. I couldn't even imagine sitting at dinner as a guest in someone else's home and pulling out my cell. No way.

      Delete

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