What's cooking in the Kremlin, Katie?

Oh, I am so sad this morning! The TV program I like to watch, a first run show, is already doing its season finale on Friday! How did that happen? The show is called "The Starter Wife", and while I realize it has a good deal of trash mixed in, I have been able to glean a few morsels, making it tolerable. I have special glasses to wear when watching it.............Anyway, the 'star' of the show is played by Debra Messing of "Will and Grace" fame, hence there is a gay man playing one of her best friends. Maybe that's the only kind of person she can play off of! (Is that a good sentence?) The other main character is an older woman named Joan. These two have helped "Molly" as she struggles after being dumped by her successful producer husband, a real jerk, who moved on after she'd served his purpose; Molly is dedicated to being a good mom to their child no matter what; she became a published writer, first by accident and then on purpose. Guess which part of this story is something with which I can identify? Even after it is off the air for however long a period, it is still available on the Internet!

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Why am I telling you this? Oh yes, my friend, Suzanne, was making a new recipe called "Sweet and Sour Pork" requiring a trip to the grocery store. I offered my warning: beware of recipes requiring strange ingredients! On a recent episode, Molly took her friend grocery shopping in an attempt to re-ground the friend who'd gotten so caught up in their wealth that she forgot how to buy food and cook. As they walked through the store, Molly put stuff in her friend's cart, telling her how to make certain dishes, and it sounded so simple. Like, Orange Chicken and some dish made with potatoes and tilapia. Wait, I need to get a pen and paper for this! This program is what I thought about when Suzanne mentioned her new recipe, and I figured she is a brave woman!

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Last night Joanne and I were looking at the moon over the river, and I remarked to her about how beautiful were the twinkling lights in Mandarin. This a.m. the fog is so dense that I don't even believe Mandarin is over there, plus someone took all our palm trees from the basin!!....wait, the basin is gone too!!!! Certainly the fog will burn off before long and the vista return to normal, as the temps are expected to reach 80 degrees above zero. My sister, Kerry, wrote me early today reporting that it was 8 above in Oshkosh so she thought she might dig in her closet for a light sweater "in case there is a chill in the air"..............very funny, very funny! I can scarcely wait to get my turn in the cold. So glad I won't be selling my condo and moving north. Someone said I should divide my time between the two states: summer in WI and winters here. Summer is only two or three weeks at best in Manitowoc so it's hardly worth packing up!

Here is the scenery in Manitowoc yesterday morning, closing the entire city. The only one I heard about making it to work was Linda, the church lady. Is she dedicated or what? The area has gotten over 13" of snow already this year and it's early in the season. Mom, want to reconsider coming down here with me???

Thanks for being such good commenters!!!!! By the way, the title of this posting is a line taken from the movie "The Way We Were" and I often think about it when cooking is mentioned......This movie used to be my all time favorite in the whole world. It's been replaced............