A Blog about life and living through my life experience and perspective. I am a writer, singer/songwriter childhood savant musician...Trying to find my niche and stake my place in society...
My Temp-tations Are Still Lovely And Fun To Bake In
It started with the text… “let’s grill”. “Ok what do you want me to pickup?” I asked. “Chicken thighs and marinate them in Italian dressing .” So, that, is exactly what I did. I have the chicken marinating in the Italian dressing in ziplocks in my fridge.
I decided to add a really flavorful homemade, Pesto Mac&Cheese Florentine. Made with cream cheese, Pesto, thawed frozen spinach and Freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I added a nice bread crumb topping to top of my casserole. The last 6 min. I sprinkled some French’s French Fried Onions for that little extra pop of flavor.
Baking @350 degrees for 20 min.
I sprinkled the French Fried Onion on top and back into the oven for 6 min.
My finished casserole!
I also made a easy version of Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I bought a plain yellow cake mix. I reserved the juice from the 20 oz. can of sliced pineapple. The reserved juice was just about 1 cup. I used the juice in my cake mix batter in place of the water called for in the cake.
My 13×9 in. *Temp-tations Prepared with cooking spray. I melted 1/4 cup of butter in the pan in the oven. I sprinkled 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar evenly over the melted butter in my prepared pan. I arranged all of the pineapple slices and maraschino cherries. Pressed down gently on the fruit, added the cake batter in top. Baked for 42min.
I only have a green salad to make and my part of making dinner will be complete. It’s a gorgeous day here in Phoenix so I’m hoping to get my power walk in before the final phase of dinner prep needs to happen!
Face To Face I Wanna Pull You Near
My original in every way. I am proud of all of these creations today! Where of where is my money making niche?
Not Much To Do But Enjoy The View And The Weather In Phoenix
Here are some of the ways we decorated in honor of Lunar New Year.
Usually, this tree is in full bloom for Chinese New Year…first time I can ever recall it not being since we’ve lived here!
This is what happens when the Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day collide… View from my backyard today. This is where I am sitting as I write this post today. It is just a bit chilly with the wind here in Ahwatukee today. We just hot back from a really nice Dim Sum lunch.
Drinking some delicious infused water on my patio…
The most beat up and comfortable patio swing is my perch as I sit and listen to the birds and my windchimes. So peaceful and relaxing. Yesterday, I spent a lot of my afternoon cleaning and sweeping my patio… today, I just get to enjoy it. We spent a great deal of time yesterday running Zoe around in regard to the Sadie’s dance. Geez kids need to be taken all over and their friends need to be picked up.
I feel like an unpaid Uber driver… After we dropped her off, we had Vietnamese food for dinner. It’s been an Asian Food weekend! Except for the Girl Scout cookies we bought just outside our grocery store…
Later, when it gets dark, we have Sky Lanterns to launch.
Amelia will probably really enjoy launching a few Wish lanterns. She has never done them with us. She soaks up all the different cultural things we try to experience. She is an awesomely adventurous eater as well. She is an amazing kid!
House
I leave you with a song and slideshow video from last year…
I hope you have been having an awesome weekend as well!
I want to make money doing this. I want it so much! When do I get to be good enough to do this lol? I’m so humbled by my real job… the glamorous tasks of a career homemaker… the cat litter box is always calling to me. Plenty to clean, plenty of cooking to do, bills to pay, people to care for and drive to and fro… this, is my escape and my dream. Never give up!
Chinese New Year is tomorrow. Goodbye you funky monkey! Let’s usher in the rooster!
I made my own version of Ree Drummond’s Icecream Cake. This is a semi-homemade dessert using a frozen pound cake cut into three layers. You can look up Ree Drummond’s Icecream Cake recipe if you want the entire recipe. I modified my ingredients slightly. You can cup up chocolate bars, cookies or peanut butter cups. I used chopped m&m’s and Almond Joys in between my layers. I used two different flavors of icecream. My choices were Oreo Blast and Cherry Vanilla. We each had a small slice for dessert this evening and it was delicious! A huge hit with the kids. I can see sprinkles on top of this rather than the m&m’s for a birthday cake celebration. After assembling and smoothing the icecream cake you pour the hard shell chocolate syrup on top. Before it hardens you can add sprinkles, chopped candy, cookie crumbs or even chopped nuts.
Have a great evening. I just wanted to share this easy but tasty treat with you!
As I sit here and ponder, gathering my thoughts about recent events, tears are flowing down my cheeks. I’m looking back at this past weekend and I’m wondering what happened to humanity? What is going on with people? People so engulfed with rage and anger that they bully those with a different
opinion. I made the mistake of posting a positive comment after the swearing in ceremony. I posted it on ABC live streaming while the parade was in progress. My post was about having hope for the future now that everything is said and done. My comment was pretty generic and I pointed out hope and being hopeful for the future…
Here, is my post…
Loved the speech! It was so inspiring and gave me hope for the first time in a long time. I’m so looking forward to feeling a great impact of positive changes!
From that I heard so much hate! I was told I was disgusting, had an ash brain..
Here a just a few of the mean spirited things people said in reply to my post.
*He is your hope???? Well……good luck!!!
*Yes, positive change for wealthy white people.
*Yea? Kindergarten vocabulary inspires you?
*Hey how old are u? You must’ve love to hear the empty promises make by the politicians eh or maybe you’re just as disgusting as him!!!
This last post directed solely at me really made me angry and sad…I couldn’t just let it go. This woman totally lost it on me… I had to call her out.
Here, is her post to me, a total stranger…
*Tyna J. Metzner you must have an ash brain that you feel so sorry for yourself! You are pathetic! You have no vision at all that you see a sociopath adversely or maybe you have a problem like your
President!
I replied with this…
Babesilo Silo throwing hatred at complete strangers for having an opinion contrary to yours? Your such a BIG woman… do you feel better at my expense? I’m a complete stranger who had an opinion. Why is it that you feel compelled and justified to impose your hatred on me? Go get therapy, unloading on strangers on social media makes you a bully and, a sore loser…
The anger in this country is amazing! If you did or didn’t vote for this president, he is what he is now, President Trump.
This was my Mom’s crystal ball. I haven’t yet been able to get this to work for me lol. It would seem that a lot of people seem to think they know already what is in store for the future of this country. I’m glad their crystal ball works better than mine… None of us know for sure how the next four years will go! So many have decided already to be angry and combative. It is as if Satan is running amuck in the hearts of humankind. I have never encountered so much hostility toward what really? What was the hope of gain for Ashley Judd and Madonna spewing vile nonsense about things that didn’t even make sense. Women’s periods and taxes on tampons? To further degrade and adversely objectify women? Trump hasn’t been in office long enough to be blamed for the tax on tampons lol!!! To use your celebrity to spew and promote hatred on humankind seems beyond belief irresponsible! I want to be clear that neither of these women speak for me!
I feel like Satan has grabbed hold of the minds mouths and hearts of people. I’m not particularly religious either. I’m not a political person. I’m not interested in all of the issues. I pay attention to only a few. You won’t find me arguing politics and I won’t impose my political views on you. I am not particularly controversial, opinionated or confrontational. It takes an awful lot to rile me to the point of speaking out and getting in your face. When I do, I rarely feel better having done so. The anger is all around us, the racial and political divide has never felt greater in my lifetime. I just want to be in my own cacoon and avoid the angst. Especially when I feel univested in the cause! I wish all the haters would just spin around on a different planet and leave the rest of us alone to try to enjoy our lives. The social unrest needs to be quiet now and just live!
Calgon, take me away!
I wonder what my relatives would think if they were here to experience all of this? Not a great time in the history of mankind. I’m embarrassed for all us… Lets rise above the hatred and start speaking love!
I've been a stay at home Mom for many years...Have earned a PhD in life experience. My oldest is 30 and my youngest is 13. On a quest to see all that I can be now. I am a musician, singer/ songwriter. In the process of trying to become marketable. Would love to make money doing what I love! I love to do many domestic things also. Nothing I do seems to be profitable. Guess I am at a point in life that I would like to be compensated . My whole life I have given freely. Now, show me my money making niche. Still in the process of figuring that out. View all posts by tynajoymetzner
This story continues to crack me up! This just happened this morning! This is something I would so do as I myself, am blind as a bat!
Phoenix, AZ January 23, 2017
*Only in the desert LOL!!Howard misplaced his glasses. Couldn’t find them-He called to tell me that in rush hour traffic this morning, a dog was caught in traffic on the median. He was trying to pull up close to open the car door and coax it into the car. Just as he went to open the door, the car behind him put on his bright lights…Howard suddenly realized the dog he was trying to coax into the car was a coyote! Holy cow, I can’t stop laughing! Oh boy, only in the desert… OMG!!!
Just like the commercial of the blind as a bat middle aged woman trying to let a raccoon into the house while calling, ” Here kitty kitty!”
Silly I know but yesterday I sat down at these horribly out of tune keys… I decided even though it sounds pretty bad and the sustain pedals are broken, I would try to play it. It gave me so much joy to play this old, out of tune family monstrosity or heirloom, depending on how you look at it. This is my childhood piano that I grew up with. If I was ever fortunate enough to be able to afford a grand piano, I would still keep this piano for sentimental reasons. Mom had pictures of me trying to play this piano when I was about 18 months old. I would hold on to the piano bench and reach my hand up to play it.
Playing an actual piano is so much fun. It feels different than my keyboard and it plays differently than the keyboard. A piano actually responds better and has more inferences and sound resonation. Discernible hammer action unlike my keyboard. Like the fool that I can be I decided that it was different enough to post on SoundCloud. Out of tune and needing more work done than it’s worth, I still play it from time to time. Many memories and a lot of time lagged on this creaky old piano bench. Just for grins I posted a few tunes crafted from this old beast on my SoundCloud channel. Hey, it’s not as if anyone ever really listens to me play anyway… I have the freedom to make the biggest fool out of myself if I want. It’s not as if I could tank my career lol. I have complete and total freedom to try new and maybe even stupid things with my channels! What are you going to do, laugh at me lol? You couldn’t laugh more than I laugh at myself. I see the eye rolls- my family gives me plenty of those when it comes to my musical artistic expressions. I know I must be the butt of many jokes. Not the first and it won’t be the last time since I make it a habit to throw myself out there in social media. I’m almost fearless although I second guess myself a lot on my creative endeavors and execution. I have days where I love my channels when I review them. I also have days when I listen to the same works and, I’m embarrassed. I’m critical and I’m pretty honest with myself I think. My bank account reflects my lack of real ability and talent. For some reason though, I never give up! I never say that’s it, I’m done. I just keep getting up and striving for the next opportunity.
For what it’s worth, my SoundCloud uploads from yesterday.
Dreaming On Stars-
Childhood Savant Covers I Played-
I Have A Wish To Fulfill-
There ya go… if nothing else, I believe that I have tenacity. Tenacious Tyna…
Much better than what the kids called me in grammar school, Tyna Vagina… lol imagine growing up with that one! Like I said, I’m pretty used to being laughed at and, being the butt of a joke.
