Congratulations, Dana! She’s from my hometown, London, Ontario and she guessed 88 earrings, which was the closest to the actual number, which was 95. I own 95 pairs of earrings and it should have been more but I didn’t get my ears pierced until I was forty. I did give up a few pairs when I made that earring heart (see Nov. 17th, 2010 posting). Anyway, congratulations, Dana. Damon will be in touch to send your $100 gift card. Thanks, everybody, for playing (twice!) This was fun. Let’s do it again! 🙂

We just heard from our contest winner, Dana, who is a Senior Research Scientist with a Ph.D. in Chemistry. “I am so excited to win the earring contest,” she said.  “I think Jenny just has a few more earrings than I have.  When I was younger I used to watch The Jenny Jones Show with my mom when I was off school on summer breaks and holidays.  We love her blog and check it every day and love her funny stories and great recipes. Thank you very much for the gift card.” Here is Dana’s photo from a family vacation this past summer at Disneyland. It’s nice that she took time to send in her photo and congrats again, Dana, (my homie) from London, Ontario, Canada!

I was invited to appear on the View this month but declined. I felt a bit uneasy because it’s February and feel-good stories like Jenny’s Heroes aren’t sensational enough for sweeps. They said they just wanted to see what I’m up to but I doubt that, so I declined. Last year, I was also asked to host Jack LaLanne’s infomercial but I’ve been turning down infomercials for years. But wait a minute – he was almost a hundred years old! Were they looking for someone to appeal to his demographic? Did Betty White turn them down? Olivia De Havilland not available?

Then last week, someone called about hosting an infomercial for something called Lifestyle Lift.  Here’s a picture from their website:

Why are they calling me? This is a facelift! Do you suppose I was going to be the new “before” & “after?” What’s next? “Now, here’s Jenny Jones to tell you about the new Ortho-Med Shower Chair!” Should I stock up if Depends go on sale? Maybe my car isn’t the only thing that needs some work but I won’t let this get me down. I still have my teeth.

We have to start over. Here’s what happened: Yesterday, I said everybody was over and to enter your new guesses in the new “Everybody’s Over” posting.  But I couldn’t  figure out why every guess was so low. Then I realized this morning that after my alert, some people added their new guesses to the original “Parsley Earring” posting which caused some confusion about which guesses were over. Are you with me? Does anybody have an abacus? This has become the great earring debacle of 2011! So we have to start over. Right now. Back to square one. You know the drill – Guess how many earrings I have, enter it in THIS POSTING ONLY, and we’ll announce the winner Tuesday morning. In case you haven’t figured it out, the total is under 100. Whew!  I need a nap.

**ENTER YOUR GUESS IN THIS POSTING ONLY FOR IT TO COUNT** Let’s do this! 🙂

How many earrings can one person own? Not as many as everybody thinks! I can’t give away my money – everybody’s over! Based on the numbers that have come in, I suspect you’re all planning an earring intervention… “Jenny, we’re here because we care about you. Now slowly step away from those earrings. They are sucking the life out of your ears, and your brain could be next!” Bottom line: we’re starting over. The contest is extended until noon tomorrow Pacific Standard Time. So you have less than 20 hours to guess how many pairs of earrings I own. Enter your new guess in this posting, just below. The good news is… it just got a lot easier. Good luck!

To guess how many earrings I own, go to the January 31st posting and put in your best guess. The winner will be revealed Friday morning!

I’ve saved every earring since 1983
Can you guess what the total might be?
I have gold-dipped parsley, even my birthstone
Suppose you can guess how many I own?

Oh earrings of mine, I can’t let you go
Especially the ones that sparkle and glow
Some are loud, some long enough to trip on
One was so huge it had to be a clip on.

I’m ready to send you a Visa gift card
To win a hundred simoleons, it’s not very hard
Pick the right number, hit “submit” to send
You’ll know if you won by work week’s end.

Without going over, come closest to how many
One guess per person. Yours truly, Jenny. 🙂

Wow! The chemo-caps that Kathy (aka Mrs. News) is crocheting are beautiful! She has made over 200 caps to donate to cancer patients going through chemo. What a wonderful gift this must be to those receiving treatment, not just the cap itself, but the message of support that comes with it, knowing that a stranger took the time to send love to someone in need. Kathy is living proof that everyone can make a difference.

We have a new video!  It’s French Toast made with melted dark chocolate but before you judge, let me remind you that dark chocolate has many anti-aging health benefits. It’s full of antioxidants like polyphenols, the same ones found in red wine and green tea; and flavonoids, the ones found in blueberries, which can lower blood pressure and cholesterol. So I have not abandoned my standards of nutrition – this is a healthy recipe using whole wheat bread and no butter at all. We made the video yesterday with Damon working the camera, lights, and audio and when we were done, he sampled the French toast and wound up eating the whole thing. We then made a second version with Denis standing by to taste it. He ate the whole thing. It’s hard to describe how delicious this is but Damon said, “It’s yummy and chocolate-y… it’s like eating dessert.” Denis said, “Make more.”

I’m starting to think that some of the things I eat are not exactly normal. I grew up with eastern european parents who made things like “Galaretka,” which is basically jellied pig’s feet. It was a mixture of meat & things that sat in a wobbly gelatenous mass in a pot and my dad loved it! Polish food includes things like pork knuckles in beer sauce with sauerkraut and carp in aspic with raisins. (need a moment?) We ate things like, “Śledzie,” aka pickled herring, beetroot soup, lots of kielbasa and pickled anything. They like to pickle things in Poland –  there’s even pickle soup! I still love some Polish dishes like Gołąbki and Pierogi, both of which I make myself. My parents cooked with sticks of butter and no meal was complete without sour cream but I make things my own way now. I still crave the things I ate growing up but to me, sardines and boiled potatoes are comfort foods. With a background like that, I was bound to forge my own unique food trail and the things I eat seem normal to me, but maybe they’re not.  For example, here are some of my favorite treats:

~Sauerkraut straight out of the jar

~Canned sardines, straight out of the can

~Pickled beets

~Picked herring with onions

~Peanut butter sandwich on rye bread

~A wedge of raw cabbage eaten like an apple

~Cold boiled potatoes with mayonnaise

~I could still eat some galaretka but only after a beaker of czysta wodka, no ice.

If anybody has a more freakish favorite snack, maybe I can add it to my repertoire. There’s nothing you people out there are eating that can scare me.  Bring it.

It’s been a long week and I needed something relaxing to do so I decided to make pie.  What was I thinking? I could have chosen something easier like creating an algorhythm for computational approximations of seismic reflection and velocity analysis but noooooo…I chose to make a lemon meringue pie. So last night after dinner, I started by assembling all the equipment needed:

-Pie pan – check!

-Food processor for the crust – check!

-Zester for the lemons – check!

-Juicer for the lemons – check!

-Sauce pan for the filling – check!

-Kitchenaid for the meringue – check!

-Whisk attachment for the meringue – check!

-Rolling pin, pie weights, bowls, measuring cups & spoons – check!

First, I had to make the crust and let it cool completely. It took over two hours to cool. Then I cooked the filling, topped it with meringue, and baked the whole thing again. By now, three hours had gone by. I removed it from the oven and of course, it had to cool completely before eating. I kept busy by washing the massive amount of dishes left behind, waiting for the pie to cool. I was dying for a slice but it was still hot. I took a bath… still hot. Did my nails… still hot. I tested some batteries, organized spices, sharpened some pencils… still hot. Finally I was exhausted and went to bed, feeling cheated, with no midnight snack. Denis was still up at 2 am and put it in the fridge. I only agreed to let him put it away if he promised not to eat any. (my kitchen, my rules) So today, we finally got to taste my lemon meringue pie. It was super good – the tart lemon filling balanced with the cool meringue – awesome!

*Note to lemon meringue pie-makers:

–Don’t make it at night.

–Don’t cut it until it’s completely cooled or you’ll be calling it a lemon meringue molten cake.

–Do it.  There’s nothing like homemade pie… except good sex. No, I think the pie is better. Okay, pie, then sex.