Fall is absolutely my favorite season. I don’t celebrate fall by decorating my house. You won’t see Halloween decorations or my house festooned with mums. But I do love the look of the season and the changing colors all around. One of our favorite activities in the fall is to take drives to see the foliage around our area. This past weekend we took Highway 79 beginning in St. Charles County, Missouri north. Over the years, we have traveled this route for short trips just a few towns up the road and even driven all the way to Iowa for an overnight trip. More often than not, we typically will end our trip in Louisiana or Hannibal. 
This trip takes us through small towns. This trip we noticed that many of these towns are losing out to the troubled economy with empty storefronts and closed signs. 
However, the small town of Clarksville is still vibrant with a variety of artists and furniture makers offering up their wares in quaint shops. There is also a lovely little riverfront park that overlooks the Mississippi River.
I don’t know what is more annoying – and they both have been happening since September – political calls since August asking who I’m going to vote for in November or Christmas decorations before October 1st.
At my house we still have a regular land line. I know, I know, we must be old geezers. The phone line comes included with our cable/internet package and we get free long distance so I can call my brother who doesn’t own a personal cell phone. Wait, who is the old geezer here? Good, my brother is worse than me. Okay – so now on with my main complaint. My phone rings at least twice a day with someone wanting to know, “if the presidential election were held today, yada, yada. And I feel bad, but I tell every one of them the same thing, “I will not talk politics with you.” Then I politely say goodbye and hang-up. My stance is that I do not even tell my husband who I am voting for so I sure as heck will not be talking to some yahoo at some call center. Most of these callers are very pleasant and accept my refusal easily, but the other day someone hung up on me before I even finished my calm response. Here is the thing – I will find out what I want about the candidates, bond issues, propositions, etc., and I will make my decision and place it on election day – but your phone call is not going to change my decision and, in fact, your call might tick me off enough that I will abstain from voting if you were my choice. Don’t hang up on me, yahoo. So Political Action Committees take my number off your list unless you simply don’t care about getting a vote from me, especially three months before the actual election. At least wait until the leaves start to change, thank you very much.
Warning: These cookies are full of sugary goodness and very addictive.
When I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it. This recipe calls for Chocolate Pudding but it said you could change the flavor with different flavored pudding mix, so I decided to try Vanilla. I already have a different recipe that my family has used forever for Chocolate No Bake cookies with cocoa and peanut butter that has been a favorite of my family while I was growing up and now that I have a family of my own, they enjoy them as well.
The only problem with both of these cookies, the one listed below and the original chocolate recipe I use, is that they are so rich that you cannot eat more than a couple without getting a kind of sick feeling in your stomach – however – it doesn’t seem to matter because they are so good you just keep going back for more despite the discomfort - the enjoyment to your taste buds is worth it.
Easy No Bake Cookies from Allrecipes.com
- 2 cups white sugar
- 3/4 cup butter
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 3 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Mix together the sugar, butter or margarine and the milk in a large pot and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes.
- Turn off heat and add in the dry pudding mix, oats and vanilla. Mix well and let stand for 5 minutes.
- Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-no-bake-cookies/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=vanilla%20no%20bake%20cookies&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page
Easy No Bake Cookies from Allrecipes.com 