Flamingo Fluff

Based on the title of this post, I know you are expecting a joke about my weight. Well instead, I am going to help you become fluffy too! This is a recipe my mama found somewhere, probably in a magazine or newspaper. It has become a tradition in our family. For many years, it was simply known as Pink Stuff. Several years ago, with the "birth" of the Flamingo Sisters, we decided to rename it Flamingo Fluff. No matter what name it goes by, this stuff is GOOD! You can use sugar-free jello, fat free sour cream & cottage cheese and substitute low fat Cool Whip if it makes you feel better about it. Either way, it will still be good. It is pretty enough to be on your holiday table and light and cool enough to be served at a summertime get together.

Flamingo Fluff

1 large can crushed pineapple
1 large or 2 small packages strawberry jello
1 cup cottage cheese
1 8 oz sour cream
1 12 oz Cool Whip
1/2 cup chopped pecans (walnuts may be substituted)
1/2 cup flaked coconut

Put the pineapple in a saucepan. Stir in the jello. Warm until the jello has dissolved.
Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Add remaining ingredients. Stir gently. Chill.

It works beautifully in a mold, I use the old Tupperware standard. However, it is just as lovely in a trifle bowl or a beautiful piece of milk glass, which I have plenty of if someone wants to buy some. (Tee Hee...I joke that my milk glass breeds in captivity.)

Prayers For A Fellow Flamingo

Candy Rae, one of our fellow Flamingos from Alabama, needs our prayers tonight. Please send comforting and healing vibes to her and her family.

Flamingos Spotted in Pittsburgh

On Monday, the 25th of February three fluffy pink flamingos were spotted at the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania airport flapping their wings and trying to take off from the airport parking deck.

Even if there is absolutely nothing else good that can be said about the Flamingo Sisters, we do know how to have a good time and we have no problem taking our good time with us no matter where we go. GP the DS has been having a rough time of it lately, so LNC and I, (QH) greeted her upon her arrival at the Pittsburgh airport, with brand new fluffy feather boas and a honkin' big fluorescent pink sign. We outshone all those other fancy limo drivers with their tiny little white signs with names like Smith or Jones on them. At one point I had a flamingo feather stuck in the space between my front teeth, but after a while, that thing started to taste funny! Some people were scared of us while others laughed right along with us. We had one man at baggage claim so enthralled that he almost left his expensive laptop sitting on top of a garbage can.

We discovered a long time ago, that not only is laughter the best medicine, it is also CHEAP! So put your wallets away, grab a few friends and stir up some laughter today.

Flying Flamingos

So maybe not flying...A little more like sliding, slipping and bumping along. "My tail bone's sore!" she says as she rubs her derriere. This isn't exactly a quote you expect to come out of a flamingo's mouth.

My two sisters spent last week with me in snowy Ohio. It was probably the snowiest week we have had this entire winter. Having grown up near Atlanta, my sisters have never seen the amount of snow they experienced while here.

The first morning they were here, we trudged through the early snowfall to find appropriate footwear for 9 inches of snow. One of my sister's brought out this cute little pair of red leather Timberland work boots. They were really cute! But I, being the smart A$$ that I am, pulled out my ruler and showed her the difference between the height of those boots and the nine inches of snow we were expecting to arrive. Needless to say, she was more than happy to hunt for new boots. In their defense, it's not like you can just walk into a store down there and find 10 inch fur-lined serviceable snow boots.

I have lived in Ohio for almost 25 years, so I am well-booted and quite experienced in the snow. Even so, with every new snowfall, I am like a child on Christmas morning. It is, quite simply put, beautiful.

Back to the sore rear...

In our infinite wisdom, we decided to buy a toboggan at an indoor garage sale. Not the kind you wear on your head (toboggin), but the wooden kind that flies down a snow-covered hill at speeds that can't be measured by common speed-clocking equipment and WILL NOT BE STEERED. Yep, that's us...three middle-aged women, giggling and stomping through the snow-covered woods, as we drag a vintage toboggan up the slippery snow-covered hill.

OK, in my defense, I didn't grow up in the snow either. Sleds, I know...Toboggans...not so much. To be totally honest, that toboggan was just plain cute. It beckoned us from across the cracked linoleum, reminding us of all the sled rides we missed as children. It was made of multi-stained strips of bent wood, with a vintage Flexible Flyer logo wearing off of it and it would hold all three of us at one time. We were all sucked into the light. Looking back, we were a little like Ralphie from A Christmas Story. Our eyes lit up when we saw that toboggan, just like Ralphie's lit up when he saw his Red Ryder B.B. Gun. No one was there to tell me I'd shoot my eye out! How did I know you couldn't steer that thing, not even by pulling on the rope or leaning as hard as you could to the side. That sucker was going wherever it wanted to go, and we were going with it.

One of the sisters, whom I will not name (but it wasn't me, QH and it wasn't LNC) is apparently afraid of heights. How could I not know this? She has been my sister for 50 years and I didn't know she is afraid of heights. She whimpered a little when she looked behind her as we were climbing up the hill...Something about it looking higher from up there than it did from the bottom. In retrospect, I can't believe we got her on that thing at all.

We loaded ourselves onto that vintage toboggan, me at the helm (SUCKERS) and quickly learned we would need a push to get us started. We were just lucky I guess, because there were three precious little boys there who were more than happy to push three middle-aged women down a slippery hill.

With my one gloved hand (I lost one of my gloves some time during that day, probably while I was dragging that 6 foot toboggan out to the car) I held onto the toboggan, hoping that by pulling on the rope, I could at least tempt it to fly in the direction in which I wanted it to go. Nope, not a chance. At least with a ding-dang donkey you can dangle a carrot!

We flew, we laughed and we were only a couple of inches from a brush pile when my boot heels finally dug deep enough into the snow to stop us. I guess I forgot to tell them that we should use our heels for brakes. I did however, tell them about baling out if it looked like we were going to run into a tree. I guess a large brush pile didn't look enough like a tree for either one of them to think it was necessary to bale. I got the scared one back on the toboggan one more time. However, on the second run she caught a glimpse of the giant pool of water under the brush pile, so from that moment on, she was a spectator.

Jacque on the other hand, was a wild woman. She yanked one of those plastic Wal-Mart sleds out of the hands of those adorable little boys and flew down that hill on her belly like Superman! OK, she didn't really yank it, they offered it to her, likely because they didn't want to have to explain to the police, the two dead gray-haired women at the bottom of the hill with a toboggan piled on top of them.

It was a great time, filled with giggles and grunts, squeals of delight and screams of sheer terror. Eventually my bare hand got cold and my pants got wet. We are still trying to figure out if they were wet from the snow or from the fear of killing my two sisters. The hill seemed to get higher each time we had to climb it, so eventually we packed it in and headed home to dinner.

I am thrilled to have shared this little part of my world with my sisters who were 56 and 61 when they had their very first sled ride in the snow...OK, ours was technically a toboggan, but remember, Jacque did steal the little kid's sled!

MUSH!