Crispy Rice Cereal Marshmallow Treats

We are all familiar with the Treats and how easy they are to make. When I visited Sis last, she bought some pre-packaged Name-Brand Crispy Rice Cereal Treats and we inhaled the box within a day or two.

After returning home, making a batch and eating the WHOLE THING in two days I thought it would be easy to cut down the recipe. It is. Eating them still warm from the microwave is also GOOD. Here is my recipe cut-down to about 4 servings. When and how much you eat is up to you!

Since I’ve been watching Rachael Ray cook – who measures? This isn’t rocket science, folks! No pictures as my camera is safe and sound at Sis’s house – right in the dining room at the front edge of the bench where I left it last…

- 5 marshmallows

- somewhere around 1 Tablespoon Butter (the butter company is so nice to put these markings on the wrapper)

Put in microwave safe container (I used the 3 cup Glad microwave safe plastic tub because it was clean. It turned out to give me plenty of room to stir in the cereal). Nuke about 30 seconds and watch the marshmallows GROW! Remove from microwave, stir to mix up the butter/marshmallow mixture and add:

- Little over 1 cup of rice cereal – use more if too “wet” or less next time if not sticky enough. I used too much cereal, and I liked it better as it wasn’t as teeth-achingly sweet as the normal recipe.

Stir thoroughly and press into the bottom of the dish. Eat while warm if you can’t wait.

S/S Ariadne – Postcard

Another postcard on ebay – soon – see the next post for an explanation…

When I was writing the description for this postcard I remembered during cruises I’ve been on we were told of a ship being assigned to other uses – a floating hotel for the Olympics in Australia, reassigned to either Atlantic or Pacific routes, or even sold. So I was interested in the history of the S/S Ariadne out of Miami shown on this postcard. Google provided a very interesting website, http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/ChandrisBonVivant.html and the author had done research on the vessel and detailed the long and useful life of the ship before it was scrapped in 1997.

I really enjoyed the website as he had postcards and images of the ship in many of it’s reincarnations, including the one that I have listed on ebay right now and shown above.

The quotes in the following are from the simplonpc.co.uk website linked above. I was wary about mentioning the website by name in ebay, but can do anything I want here!

S/S Ariadne- 7-day “Cruising Holiday”

Sailing from Miami every Saturday to Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands

Eastern Steamship Corp, Gen’l Agents

Pier 3 – Miami Florida

I realized from cruises I had taken that ships have a long and varied life, with face-lifts, redesign, and passing from corporation to corporation. The Steam Ship Ariadne began as the Patricia.

“Patricia was built in England in 1951 for Swedish Lloyd for use on the London (Tilbury)-Gothenburg services, plus winter Caribbean cruising from New York. However, she proved to be too large for the route, and was sold to Hamburg America Line in 1957. Refitted as a luxury cruise ship, she was renamed Ariadne, and used around the world. In 1961, Ariadne was sold to Eastern Steamship Line, who retained her name Ariadne and used her on Caribbean cruises.”

The next incarnation of the ship began: “In 1972, Ariadne was sold to Chandris Line as part of an exchange-sale agreement which saw the Atlantis passed to Eastern. She was chartered out as Freeport II from 1973-74. When returned to Chandris in 1974, she was renamed Bon Vivant and placed on Mediterranean cruising.”

“In 1978, she was renamed Ariane, though destined not to serve under this name according to Bill Miller’s The Chandris Liners. After a lengthy lay-up, she went to the Far East to work out of Singapore.”

“Ambrose Greenway however, in A Century of North Sea Passenger Steamers, suggests that Ariane ran short cruises out of Piraeus during the summer of 1979… She was renamed Empress Katerina in 1989, then Empress 65 in 1997, but was scrapped that year.”

During the time she was the Ariadne out of Miami the funnel was changed from the one you see in this postcard to a more “modern” and streamlined version in later images.

Since you’ve read this far, I’ll finish with a short story. I enjoy travel, and have been able to go many places because Sis is a great bargain shopper. This means we often have rooms in the lower sections of the ship (which is an advantage – really!) We had saved and were able to go to one of our favorite destinations, Alaska. Before the cruise we toured the interior portions of Alaska and heard there had been a fire aboard our ship!!! Oh, no!!! Fortunately the crew successfully fought the fire before it spread very far, and the damage was limited to some of the crew quarters. Since this was the beginning of the season the ship was not full and crew were moved into the guest rooms and those guests were bumped up several levels into the NICE staterooms! Our little, cramped room was occupied by crew and WE got the large stateroom with a REAL bed (no cot-sized bunk!), seating area, large closets, a dressing area, and a BATHTUB. This was life in the lap of luxury…Our windows looked out between the life boats, but we figured it was convenient if we were called to use them.

I’m BACK – Postcards – Sunset and Lily Pond

Spent a bit of time listing like crazy on ebay – they had this marvelous “sale” and listing fees were reduced for a few days down to ONE cent for auctions starting less than $1. Postcard city! I was able to work practically non-stop and get over 300 ready for auction. Unfortunately so did other people and the buyers had many choices at marvelous prices. The sales were not nearly as good as I was expecting.

Next step is getting the right postcard to the right buyer. Not the most fun chore. I had not been careful enough with organization when listing the cards so it took much longer for this part of the job. Next to the last task is the trip to the Post Office and finally spreadsheet upkeep. It was a definite learning experience.

In the midst of all this the cat developed some eye problems and a trip to the vet for eyedrops (all better now) and then human medical care for the cat’s person. I knew better, but in trying to help the vet tech my own cat bit me. I thought he just nipped me but the vet tech said, “Uh, I think he got you – you’re bleeding on the table.” Sure enough, two nice puncture wounds on my finger. Glad my tetanus was up to date…

Sis had a big bunch of postcards for me to list on ebay and I’ve had fun sorting through them and selecting the next batches for ebay. I thought I would share some of my favorites with you:

“A Charming Lilly Pool in the Heart of Florida”

Makes me want to pull out the old picnic basket and garden hat… And it is ebay item 150235763365 if you want to take a closer look. See my other postcards by clicking on “See seller’s other items” or pause to look at the scrolling items within the brown frame.

My favorite cards all have a theme – water! And I can hardly resist water with reflections – in the card above you can see bits of the sky and clouds..

And in the sunset below, the colors of the sky

“Evening Shadows in Florida” Lovely title! and the picture above is the one I posted on ebay. I also enjoy learning Photoshop Elements and will “play with” images to see what they may have looked like new and without fading, like this one below:

Now I like the photoshop version better – it really brought back the reds and blues and other colors faded over time and removed the dinginess.

Since I want the customer to receive cards that look as much like the image they see on the screen as possible, I save the photoshop play for my own fun.

Thanks for checking back to see what is new at Dustbunnys.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

A new stamp with the post office commemorates Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

I bought some for the post card shipping and have been enjoying using them. Reminds me of long ago…

I don’t know if it is part of the curriculum of Florida, but in the 8th grade we read “The Yearling” and it was followed up with a field trip to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home at Cross Creek near Gainesville, Fla. I found the pictures I took with my trusty Instamatic camera, ran them through the scanner with color correction and show you a few below.

It is amazing; the peace, comfort, and nourishment she received from her home in rural Florida. She wasn’t dependent upon working the land for her living as her neighbors were and was able to enjoy the world around her instead of a daily toil to earn her way.

My mother drove our big yellow station wagon and had a car-load of classmates. We stopped at a local restaurant to eat – Ms. Rawlings was supposed to have eaten there, but it was closed.

I am so glad her home is preserved as a Florida State Park. Check out the website, and you can even download the brochure. The interpretive rangers are dressed in 1930’s style clothing! She liked to entertain guests on her front porch – the better to catch any available breathe of a breeze.

A few of my classmates. Some of you may recognize the clothing style of the late 60’s. Guess what – I can name the young women! Not too bad after 40 years. We had a small high school and I was in the same class with some of them from 1st to 12th grades, a few I knew from kindergarden – and have the pictures to prove it (for another day)!

Dustbunny