Riding in the Car with an "Older" Adult Parent and Calling All Cooks' Orange Juicy Muffins

  My apologies for not being in the blogosphere!!  For some reason, this time of the year is so so busy with school.  Speaking of school, we just recently experienced the time-honored "Spring Break".  I decided I would invite my Dad to go out to lunch one day.  Of course, he wanted to drive.  Now let me preface this with he is almost 80, and you know where I am going with this.  Lately, when I have ridden with him, I get nervous.  My stomach feels like it did when Food Police was learning to drive.  Food Police had a lead foot, followed other cars too closely, ran up on people at the red light and slammed on her brakes, passed cars in an intersection, and never knew where she was going.  I have nightmares still to this very day about being in the car with her.  When I had to ride with her, I would break out into a cold sweat.  I would get in the coffin ( I mean car) and immediately put my seat belt on extra tight, brace my legs, and put a death grip onto the door handle to open it quickly so I could easily throw myself out of the car to avoid death.  I am not joking.  It was horrid to ride with her.  We finally got her a private driving instructor named Mr. Whatley who would pick her up at the house and take her driving for an hour.  I stood in the driveway and waved happily good bye to them thanking the Good Lord that I was not in that car.  I will never forget when I took her to get her Driver's license.  They began her test by asking her to tap her brakes.  She threw down on the gas pedal making the car sound like it was in the Daytona 500.  I just looked down and shook my head.  She ended up passing her test though, and today I must say she is a pretty good driver even though she recently hit a post at a gas station but we won't mention that.

Fast forward to today.  Daddy picks me up, and I immediately belted myself into the coffin (Whoops I did it again!), and we were off!!  We decided we would go to Greenbrier Restaurant.  Now if you are not familiar with Greenbrier, you must have a little history.  It serves wonderful BBQ, fried catfish, and hush puppies.  It has been around forever, and
Daddy had always enjoyed going there.  There are two restaurants that share the Greenbrier name.  They are located within a mile of each other.  There is the old one which moved to a new building, and there is the new one that went to the old one's building.  Are you following this?  Good grief!!  So we are talking about all this, and suddenly Daddy slammed on his brakes in the middle of the road about sending me through the windshield.  We are not at a stop light or sign just stopped in the middle of the road.  I said in a raised tone "Why are you stopping?"  He answered "I thought that car was going to pull out in front of me!"  I thought "Oh no now!"  He did this about 2 more times.  Food Police never did this.  I told him in a very calm tone that this was not good to do because we could be rear-ended, and that the people are not going to pull out in front of him.  We settle back in, and then the Horror of Horrors began.  We exited the Interstate, and he asked "Which way do I go?"  I said "Well, do you want to go to the new Greenbrier or the old Greenbrier?"  I think that confused him because the next thing I know we are heading down the onramp to get back on the Interstate.  I said "Where are you going?"  He said "Oh I should have turned right!"  I told him that was OK, and that we could get back on the Interstate, take the next exit, turn around, and try it again.  He uttered the proverbial words "No that is too far, and I am hungry!"  We are talking maybe 3 miles People.  He hit the brakes, and proceeded to throw the car into reverse and  back it up the onramp.  I think I might have fainted for a moment because the next thing I know, we are on the original road headed DOWN THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!  I have come to my senses, and not so very calmly screech "What are you doing?"  He turned and looked at me and said "Oh don't worry!  There is no one coming, and I will just turn left, and we will be there!"  Well when he turns left, he is now again ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!  I have about lost my breakfast at this point!  I am sweating and red in the face thinking I am about to have a stroke.  I think should I call someone like the police or 911.  What is going on?  I take a deep breath and tell him to cross the median.  He seemed to agree with this decision and put the car up on the little raised median.  I am breathing easier but then he stomped the brakes and uttered "Oh no!!  I am not going to scrape my undercarriage!"  I thought who gives a rip about the undercarriage.  I am trying to save my undercarriage.  He stopped, and y'all I am not even joking, started to BACK UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD.  I have lost it at this point.  I looked up from my head-down position and saw a Harley-Davidson motorcycle going the right way coming directly at us.  I began to say my prayers, and thankfully the Good Lord helped us because the motorcycle man saw us.  All Daddy could say was "Why is that fool staring at us?"  I could not answer because I had lost my capacity to speak.  Maybe I had had a stroke.  I was able to think though.  I thought to myself "Do you think maybe he is staring at us because he sees two fools who are backing up on the wrong side of the road?"   Deliver me from this evil!!!  Finally some how some way, we get going the right way on the right side of the road and arrive at the Old New Greenbrier or whatever the heck it is!  Husband Fred has joined us, and we pulled up beside him.  He looked at me in a weird manner.  I know I looked like something from a Zombie movie - the Walking Dead.  I did the sign of the cross on my chest and mouthed "I will explain later!"  He nodded, and I knew he understood.  I don't even remember lunch or the ride home.  It must have been uneventful.  When I got home, I had a migraine (Wonder why??) and laid down for the rest of the day with a cold cloth to my head in a dark room with the blinds pulled.  I have now experienced a Teen driver and a Senior driver in my life.  I believe I prefer the Teen driver.  I will keep you posted.

Now on to the recipe.  I am still cooking out of the Calling all Cooks cookbook.  The Game chose Orange Juicy Muffins, and they are so good.  So let's get cooking.

You will need Bisquick, eggs, oranges, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. 

The honey is there because the recipe recommends serving honey with the muffins.

 Mix all the ingredients together minus the spices, and place in muffin cups.

Mix 2 of the tablespoons of sugar and spices together, and sprinkle each muffin with a 1/2 tsp of this mixture, and bake.

Enjoy!!!  Food Police did a Food Police calculation on these and determined them to be healthy at about 100 calories per muffin.  So I ate two!  They are oh so good.

I was at Food Police's house when I was baking these, and she wanted me to show you her Easter Tablescape.  I thought she did a fantastic job!!  Yay for Food Police.

Here is the recipe............

Orange Juicy Muffins

Calling All Cooks

2 C Bisquick

2 Tbs sugar

1 egg

1 tsp grated orange peel

2/3 C orange juice (I used the fresh squeezed from the orange I zested)

Another 2 Tbs sugar for the topping

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Place muffin cups into muffin tin.  Mix Bisquick, 2 tbs sugar, egg, orange peel and juice; beat vigorously 30 seconds.  Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full.  Mix 2 tbs sugar and spices together and sprinkle each muffin with about 1/2 tsp of the sugar mixture.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Serve with honey.  Makes 12 muffins.

Now go enjoy the day!!!!!!!!!!