Bread, Jalapeños, and Sweet Tea

I've been in the mood to cook. Not just cook because we are supposed to eat, but try new recipes and cook things that I really want to eat. Wednesday morning the Squirms "helped" me make Apple Pie Bread. R had given me a bread machine several years ago, but ALM had inspired me to dig it out from the back of the cabinet and get the house smelling delicious again. Squirms helped me count the cups of flour we used and she was very interested to watch the machine mixing and kneading. Good news: the bread was edible and Squirms asked for seconds.

It did overflow.

I just like the red tea towel and blue kettle in this picture.

Dried apples, raisins, and walnuts.

Thursday night I wanted to celebrate R having a three day weekend by making him cornbread with jalapeños, and collards cooked in hot sauce. My favorite cornbread recipe (http://cornerofcentralflorida.blogspot.com/2013/01/food-pictures-and-issues-and-cornbread.html) is supposed to have jalapeños but I don't like spicy food so I've never used them. But, Thursday night I thought, hey, why not use them just once? 

After I cleaned, chopped, and added the jalapeños to the mixture, the mixture was ready to pour over the cooking bacon and go into the oven. I told R, funny, my hands are kind of stinging. Several minutes later I asked R to bring me a bowl of milk for my hands and where I had apparently touched my nose. I attempted to eat dinner while pretending that my hands weren't red, splotchy, swelling, and burning. Then we called my hero MMD and asked her to HELP! HELP! please let us know if we should try a google-internet-remedy or if she had any other ideas. MMD asked for photos and used the term allergic reaction. 

R went to Walgreens for benadryl and hydrocortisone cream. By the time he returned Squirms was pretty upset with me for not helping her put on her new gardening gloves and I could no longer bend my fingers because the swelling had increased. Thankfully, MMD's wise cure provided relief, and because of my inability to touch anything (and because I took a couple of benadryl) I got to lay on the couch and watch basketball while R cautiously sanitized the kitchen and any other surface I might have touched. 

So, basically, I created a fun dinner for R....but then he had to take care of me, get both kids ready for bed, run an errand, and clean the house. 


Tonight I made sweet tea.

Refreshing.