A Little of This and a Little of That

Here I go letting a lot of time pass between blog posts. If I want to keep my two or seven regular readers interested, I best keep writing.

• I went on a road trip with my hubby last week. He had meetings in the state just south of us and I tagged along. Aside from God protecting us on some icy roads on our way down, it was a pretty quiet week.
• I spent Valentine's Day shopping and trying to knock some things off my shopping list. I wasn't entirely successful, but had fun trying.
• I'm thankful for the Internet to fill in the blanks of the things I was shopping for and couldn't find. Now I just have to wait for the UPS or FEDEX truck to come by!
• Have you ever eaten at a Chick-fil-A? LOVE IT! I can pretty much eat chicken for every meal and be happy, so this place is right up my alley. They have the BEST service. I ate lunch at one last Tuesday in a mall. I sat in the food court area and read for a long time. TWICE someone from the Chick-fil-A place came by my table and asked if I wanted a refill on my drink. In a food court. I was impressed.
• Tuesday evening I was trying to figure out where I wanted to eat supper because Hubby had a business dinner. I have never minded eating out alone. I just make sure I have a book with me and I'm good. But on Tuesday, all of a sudden I realized it was Valentine's Day and I would be eating out amongst all sorts of couples. Alone. I felt kind of like a cross between a loser and a dweeb.
• Hubby was sweet and gave me two Valentine cards and even a couple of CDs that I had been talking about!
• Wednesday I picked up some of our favorite treats from a great Dutch bakery. Pastry filled with almond paste. I also bought myself what I thought was a giant heart-shaped sugar cookie, only it wasn't any ordinary sugar cookie. It was a sugar cookie stuffed with that same almond filling. I about went to heaven eating that thing. Yum.
• We visited our son-in-law's sister and her little family. They have a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 month old. So fun and so cute and so sweet. Needless to say I enjoyed my time with them and of course couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy a cute little girl outfit for the baby and some Duplos for the older one.
• The past two Sundays we have been able to hear our former pastor preach. He was a guest preacher at two different churches. It was great to hear him preach, talk with his wife and have lunch with them two Sundays in a row! They are some of our best friends and we don't get to see them terribly often since they live about 150 miles away.

A random tangent here....

• I have been very intrigued with reading the Living Proof Ministry blog -- specifically the posts that are written by Beth Moore's sister, Gay, describing her life as an alcoholic and God's amazing work in her life and how God pulled her out of that life. I find it all so incredible. You can go to this link to find links to all the installments that have been published so far.

Back to the other randomness...

• This shows to be a pretty quiet week. I hope to make some good progress on some projects in my sewing room.

 I have no idea how to wrap this post up in a neat little bow and end it, so I guess will just end it.

Marmalade Muffins (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition through my Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.**  
(believe it or not)

Remember that my girls (daughter and daughter-in-law) and I were working our way through Pioneer Woman's cookbook? (You can click here to see all the other installments.) My last post on that was way back in August! Gulp. The girls and I talked about it over Christmas break and decided that I would carry on the torch alone. They are super, super, super busy with their schooling (They are learning to become a pharmacist and a doctor. I really don't understand why they think they are busy. ha.) (Actually I totally, totally understand.) I asked Hubby if he would bravely try some of the recipes that I had initially passed on to one of the others because I knew he wouldn't like them and he agreed to. I should probably have the pizza delivery guy on speed-dial just in case. I'll do my best to make my way through cooking all the rest of recipes in Ree Drumond's cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks, just don't know how long it will take me.

There were just a couple of recipes left to finish up the breakfast section of The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
This was a muffin recipe. Ree calls them Marmalade Muffins, but there really isn't any marmalade in them. Just orangey yumminess.

The cast of characters:

The first step is to cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg. I should have taken a wider shot to show my 27+ year old hand mixer. I got it for a wedding shower present and have used it for all those years (except for the three years we lived in Singapore).

As I was doing the creaming, I remembered working hard at this step when I was a little girl. I loved to bake even then. I would mix and stir and mix trying to get it all blended, then take the bowl to my mom and ask her if it was good enough and she would take the spoon and somehow magically make it even more smooth.

The ingredients for these muffins are pretty basic. Butter, sugar, egg, flour, baking soda, milk. The really yummy part is the addition of orange zest. All I had on hand were some clementine oranges. I don't know if the zest is the same as a regular orange or not, but these were tasty just the same.

The recipe made 24 mini-muffins. That's a few too many for just two of us, so I made half a recipe and got out one of my mini-muffin pans. But it ended up making.... 24 mini-muffins. I must have different definition of mini than Ree. I guess it's a good thing I didn't make a full recipe!

To finish off the muffins, mix together some brown sugar and orange juice squeezed from the oranges that were zested and pour over the hot muffins and let it soak in. Again, I don't know if it made a difference that I used clementine oranges or not. They seem to be just as orangey as regular ones.

So, the verdict was...

I liked the muffins without the  orangey-syrupy stuff. I thought that made them too sweet and too sticky. The plain muffins were very delicate and I loved the orangey flavor.

I Can't Be Trusted

The toaster oven and I are not friends. Lately it seems as though whenever I put something involving a piece of bread in the toaster oven I burn it. Last week I prepped some pretty awesome looking garlic bread, complete with butter I made flavored with Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese, popped it in the toaster oven, turned on the broil, then next thing I knew it was burnt. Sigh...

Today I was heating up a left-over pasta dish for lunch and thought I would make some toast to go with it. I ended up burning THREE pieces of bread. Evidently toast is a very difficult food to make. .

I guess I just cannot be trusted with a complicated kitchen appliance like a Toaster Oven.

This whole disorder may or may not have something in common with the fact that I almost always burned one side of the kids' grilled cheese sandwiches when they were growing up

Eight on 8/8

I thought I'd entertain my blog readers with Eight Random Thoughts on August 8th. Original, huh?

1. Last Friday I went antique shopping. Well, the majority of the time was spent looking, looking, looking. There are so many things in an antique store that are fun to look at! I saw these glasses a few different places and I know someone in my family (grandma? aunt?) had these, but cannot for the life of me remember who had these:

(My mom can't remember either.)

2. I saw this beautiful 1930s quilt on Friday and thought about it and thought about it. Saturday, Hubby and I went back to buy a gift, and I decided to buy my first antique quilt. I am crazy about this one. I love the block (Snowball) and it is in such good shape. A friend commented that she wonders about the stories behind the fabrics: Whose dress or shirt or child's playsuit was it from? Who was the woman who stitched it together?

3. Yesterday when we went back to the antique stores, we arranged to meet some friends for lunch. We had first met them in the late 90s at a family camp we were both at. Several months ago we realized we only lived a couple of hours apart and it finally worked out to get together. It was a fun time to get caught up and experience a new restaurant (for us).

4. I have been going to a summer Bible study at the country church we have been attending. We have been learning about the Fruit of the Spirit. Good, good stuff. During the video for Week 3, God graciously gave me some clarifications in an area I have struggled with for years. It has to with loving others. I have experienced quite a bit of heartache in the area of relationships that I believed God had brought into my life, only to end in disappointment. God showed me that it wasn't for naught. I was obedient to what He asked me to do. And that is what is ultimately most important. On the drive home that day, I just cried at God's tenderness toward me.

5. Yesterday after church we went out for lunch with a couple from that church! I have to read that again myself, to believe someone actually asked us to join them for lunch. No one, and I mean no one, has reached out to us in this town in the more than a year we have been here. It was a great time talking about our kids and how God has worked in our lives and their lives.

6. I decided that Mondays are good days to do laundry and hang out in my jammies all day. :) It's also a good day for going to the grocery store which means I'll have to change out of my jammies. A conundrum for sure. ;)

7.The Waltons has become my new favorite afternoon television show. I know it's not a new show, but I sure enjoy a TV show that is so different from current shows.

8. In two weeks I am going to spend a couple of days with my college roommate! I am beyond excited to see her! It's been at least 9 years since I've seen her face-to-face. Her husband has meetings in the Twin Cities and I am going to keep her entertained while he's getting a sore back from all that sitting. I can not wait!



I hope you all are having a good 8/8! (What have you been up to?)

Sour Cream Pancakes (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition from Megan AND me for our Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.** 

When Megan (daughter) and Zach (her hubs) were here a few weeks ago Megan and I made Pioneer Woman's Sour Cream Pancakes. For Breakfast. Yes. You read that right. I actually helped make breakfast! It was great fun to work together with Megan. (I miss that girl very much.)

Anyway....

Back to the project. Here is Megan "approving" of the ingredients we assembled. :) (That would be sugar, flour, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, sour cream, and eggs)

We mixed together the dry ingredients with the sour cream. It was very thick at this point.

Next, the wet ingredients were mixed together and then added to the dry ingredients.

Here they are sizzling away on my very old griddle. We melted some butter first to grease the pan and to make it extra yummy, of course.

Oh, and I thought I'd throw in a picture of Megan and Zach's dog, Charley, watching the action outside. I think he just liked to have different things to look at. :) He didn't help with the pancakes, nor did he eat any. He just wandered around the table to see if any one would share. :)

Back to breakfast.... Here's the finished product along with some bacon. We all liked the pancakes. They had a bit of a different texture than "normal" pancakes. Megan says that that the texture was smooth and a little more dense since the recipe didn't contain oil or baking powder like most pancakes. (She's a pancake expert since it was a simple, quick supper for her last year during her first year of marriage and first year of Pharmacy school.)

(Have any of you tried baking bacon in the oven instead of frying it on the stove top? I did for that morning and it was quite simple. And I think it cut down on the lingering bacon smell afterwards.)

French Breakfast Puffs (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition from me for our Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.** 

Saturday afternoon I made some breakfast food. Afternoon is the best time to make breakfast food, in my opinion. Why? Because it's not morning.
These French Breakfast Puffs are really simple to make. You do the basic mix the dry ingredients together and then the wet ingredients, then combine. Easy stuff. My mom taught me this when I was 9 or so. The muffins have a bit of nutmeg in them for some yummy flavor.

I like to use my ice cream/cookie scoop to fill the cups in the muffin pan. So quick and easy!

The muffins are baked until slightly golden brown. I took this picture to show my awesome tool I use for get muffins out of pan. I won it years (decades?) ago at a Tupperware party. If I remember correctly, its intended use is for potting plants. I remember the forked end was supposed to be used to aerate the soil or something like that. I have always used it when I bake muffins. It works great!

The next steps are what make these delectable... The warm muffins are dipped, yes dipped in melted butter and then dredged through cinnamon sugar. Oh my. Yummy!

Ree, The Pioneer Woman, says these freeze well and are just as yummy warmed up in the microwave. I have some in the freezer and will test that out.

Basic Breakfast Potatoes (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition from me for our Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.**

Basic Breakfast Potatoes. There is only one problem with me fixing a breakfast food. I am not a morning person.
 (Which comes as no shock to anyone who has known me for any length of time or who has read this blog for any length of time.)
(By the way, I heard a news story a few weeks ago about what makes someone a morning person or a night person. They said that it's just the physical make up of a person. That it's largely in the genes. Here's the link to the story.)

Let's see, where was I?

Breakfast Potatoes. Oh yeah.

This is a very simple recipe using just a few ingredients. It's a good way to use a left-over baked potato or two. Dice the baked potato and some onion.

Anyone like how I matched the bowl to the cutting board??

Using olive oil and some bacon fat for flavor, saute the onion, add the potatoes and fry it all up in a pan. They key is to let it sit so the potatoes get nice and crispy.

In case you are wondering, I made these for supper along with some scramble eggs with mushroom and broccoli. It was all very yummy!

If you have any leftover they are great to use in breakfast burritos. (I think there is a post coming sometime about Pioneer Woman's recipe for that.)

A Wonderful Bunch of Randomness

I can't decide if I have been busy or if there is nothing going on. My guess is a likely little of both.

We visited my parents a couple of weekends ago. I had great intentions of photographing the highlights so I'd have material for the old blog. But..... somehow I totally forgot. Totally. Did not touch my camera one single time.

We met my parents at our son-in-law's mother's restaurant. (Did you follow that?) Or how about: our daughter's mother-in-law's restaurant? Clearer? Oh, I think you know what I mean.

She has a great little place in a small town in Iowa. She serves really amazing food.

(Insert here pictures of my Quiche Lorraine and Lemon Chess Pie.) (You know, if I would have stopped talking long enough to take a picture.) (Sigh)

Later that night we went to a symphony concert.

All this is riveting news, I know. Try not to fall asleep.

In other news, outside the window I can see most of the ground! WooHoo!! We've had snow on the ground since the beginning of November. It's actually been warmer here and THE SNOW IS MELTING! I walked out to the mailbox yesterday and actually said to myself, "It's a pretty day!" It will take quite a while for that 7 foot drift in the back yard to melt.

Another news-breaking item: Three different times in the last three weeks, the laundry basket has been empty for 2 whole hours each time.

So I guess that means I'm hard up for entertainment.

But then, there is that new dishwasher we bought to watch. It sure is nice and quiet and actually gets the dishes clean!

This week I decided to do something every day. Since the weather is finally getting nicer, I don't mind going out. (No nasty snow on the roads and in the parking lots to schlop through.) This week I decided I would go out for lunch every day. And then to a store. I don't mind going out for lunch by myself. Well, I don't really go out all alone, I take a book. And today the Hubby joined me! Bonus!
After lunch today I wandered into a drug/gift store downtown and saw this:

I think it's the result of an explosion. It was scary. A moment that was definitely not precious. (Get it? Oh, I make myself laugh.)

Okay, I think I will end all this, um, this, er, exciting recap.

You're welcome.

Another Weekend Recap

We actually had a fun and busy weekend. And we (almost) didn't even leave town.

Friday night we enjoyed a nice dinner out. There really aren't very many options of restaurants in this tiny town. But last fall, Hubby was given a tip that we have really enjoyed. There is a golf country club here and for a mere $5, we could "join" for the winter months. They serve really good food. The waitress even knew what we like to drink the last time we were there. (Ice Tea.) It was a very enjoyable way to end the work week and spend time talking with each other. (My favorite!)

Saturday was a busy day of cleaning. Hubby is having a work meeting here at our house today, so I found that a good excuse for cleaning.

Yes, I admit it, sometimes, oh who am I kidding, most of the time I need the motivation of impending company to clean the house. It's either that or getting fed up with stepping on crumbs all the time or having to clear the dust away to be able to put something on the dresser. Okay, I'm not really that bad of a house keeper, but sometimes we all just need a little push, right?

It snowed on Saturday. But then, that's pretty much old news here in the Great White North.

Hubby spent a good part of the day Saturday putting together a book of photos from our daughter's wedding. We sorted through 900 pictures to narrow it down to just over 100. He used this website to make the book. I can't wait to see the finished product! There are a few pictures of my baby-girl-turned-bride that just take my breath away and made me cry. She looks so beautiful.

Sunday was an adventurous day. We got up early so we could go to the previous town we lived in and worship at our old church. We got about 30 miles away and decided to turn back home. The roads were getting worse and it was pretty foggy. We came home for about 45 minutes and headed the other direction to try a church closer to us that we hadn't been to yet. As soon as we headed east on a highway, the road was very icy. Sigh. Turned around again and ended up going to the church that's only a mile and a half from our house.

So, to recap Sunday morning: I woke up at 6am to go to a 10:45 church service a mile and a half from our house. Yes, there was a long nap taken Sunday afternoon.

Today I've sequestered myself in the basement while Hubby is having his Strategic Planning meeting upstairs. It's been a good thing for me because I finished the ironing. (We all know how I feel about ironing...) and I came up with an idea for window treatments in the basement.

Oh, and I wrote a blog post!

AND I discovered re-runs of Dallas on cable! Sue Ellen? Lucy? Jock? Miss Ellie? I do enjoy a 80s soap/drama!

What a productive day.

Iny's Prune Cake With Buttermilk Icing (Pioneer Woman)

Here's another recap of one of Pioneer Woman's recipes from her book The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

This recipe caused great anxiety for me. Well, maybe not so much anxiety as sneakiness. Are those close to the same things? Maybe not.

When Megan and Amanda (daughter and daughter-in-law) and I sat around on New Year's Eve splitting up the recipes in Pioneer Woman's cookbook and came to this one, we all paused. No one said the name of the recipe. We all looked at each other, and I said I would make it and be sneaky about it. You see, none of our guys like prunes.

I bought the prunes more than a week before I made the cake. And hid them in the cupboard. I read through the recipe and laughed at Ree's commentary. Evidently her husband has issues with prunes. She says she has made this cake for him multiple times and never told him what is in it.

Late in the afternoon I started the deed.

Too late in the afternoon, because not 10 minutes into starting, hubby called to say he was coming home. Ahhh!!

He is a good sport, because I asked him to not look at the recipe and not ask what was in the Coffee Cake **cough cough**  and he didn't. What a guy.

The pile of ingredients:

(Yes, I like Tupperware.) (See those 3 eggs sitting there? I forgot I intended to make half of the recipe and went ahead and broke open three eggs, realized my mistake and proceeded to remove 1 1/2 eggs from the bowl. Now I have 1 1/2 eggs in the fridge [yes, in Tupperware] waiting to be used for something.)

 So if you were thinking that Prune Cake meant a cake with big hunks of prunes, nope, you were wrong... you boil them to soften them up so they can be mashed and blend into the cake almost undetected. They help make the cake very moist.

The cake itself has yummy spices in it like cinnamon, nutmeg and ground allspice. (I am amazed that I did not have any ground allspice and had to actually buy it. If you saw all the spices I have in a drawer [in Tupperware, of course], you would be surprised too.)

This is the beginning boiling stage of the Buttermilk Icing. It is supposed to be cooked until it has a light caramel color. And, oh boy, is it GOOD!

Ta Da!! The finished product! The icing melts down into the hot cake and just makes it scrumptious. It kinda reminded me of a spice cake. After he tasted it, Hubby said he liked it and then asked if it had carrots in it or brussel sprouts. (He doesn't like vegetables in cake) The really good news is he didn't gag after I revealed the secret!

(Can you see my new tablecloth in the very upper left corner of the picture? I used a birthday gift card to buy that and I love it!)

The Force Was With Me

When I was a little girl I thought I had magical powers. Powers to make the little blue light on the dashboard of the car to appear and disappear.

Let me explain.

We made a lot of road trips when I was little, and with four kids, my parents tried all sorts of ways to keep us entertained:

Looking for White Horses (and got a dime for every one we spotted that was verified.)(I also learned the definition of verified on a road trip)
The Alphabet Game
Looking Out The Window
Sleeping
Playing with my Etch-A-Sketch
Reading
Learning the difference between Herefords and Angus cattle
Singing great songs like "There's a Hole in the Bucket, Dear Liza"
Magic Light On, Magic Light Off

The last one? Oh , it was magical!

When we would drive after dark, I would notice a blue light on the dashboard going on and off at random times. Somewhere along the line I decided it was a Magic Light.

(Back in the day my parents had a car that was a regular 4-door sedan. Two bench seats. With 6 people in the family we would ride three in front, three in back. Being the youngest, I most often was in the front seat between Mom and Dad. From there I had a great view of the dashboard.)

Somewhere along the line I thought I had the powers to control that light. I'd say, "Magic Light on!" and it would come on. I'd say "Magic Light off!" and it would turn off. My dad's hands would never move from the steering wheel.  Amazing stuff.

Today I saw this video. That was it. I knew The Force Was With Me when I was a little girl controlling that Magic Light.

Groundhog Hodgepodge

Another Wednesday, another Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thanks to Joyce@From This Side of the Pond for another set of questions for this week.

1. Would you rather be seen as a person who did their duty or forged their own path?

Yes. I see too many people who don't "do their duty", who think the responsibility belongs to someone else. Taking responsibility and doing what is expected of you is important. Yet, being brave and doing something out of the ordinary is admirable.
 

2. This week's Wednesday Hodgepodge happens to fall on Groundhog's Day. In keeping with that theme, if you could have a do-over of any one day out of the last seven, which day would it be and why. If you haven't seen the movie Groundhog Day this question will make absolutely no sense but that's okay....you can answer anyway.

I'd like to re-do part of Saturday night. I went to a Christmas party for Hubby's company. (Yes, I know it's not Christmas. The original party had to be canceled due to a Blizzard.) I'd like to be able to build up my hubby more than I did. I didn't say bad things, mind you, I have just thought of some things I could have said that would have built him up more. (I would not like to re-live the awkward conversations and the awful, awful "band" that played "music".)

3. Hot cocoa...yay or nay on the marshmallows?

Oh yes, on the marshmallows. Miniature ones please. Is anyone a fan of Calvin and Hobbes?  I like Calvin's approach to Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows:

Calvin:  The secret to making great hot chocolate is to put the tiny marshmallows in first.
Hobbes:  So they melt faster?
Calvin:  No, so you can fit in forty or fifty of them.  This way the hot chocolate just fills in the cracks.
Hobbes:  I wondered why you eat it with a fork.
Calvin:  Also, I don’t use milk.  I just heat the syrup.

4. Do you wear makeup every day? What are the top two must haves in your daily makeup routine? 
No, I don't wear makeup every day. I have gotten in quite a lazy/terrible habit in the last seven months of living in a town where I don't know any one. My top two makeup must haves? I'd say cover-up for my dark circles (thanks Mom) and my eye lash curler. (I don't want to talk about how old that is.)

5. Is it more important to you in a relationship to be loved or understood?

Uh-huh. I really don't think I could choose one over the other. (I'm not doing very well at these either/or questions today, am I?) I love to be loved. I need to be loved. And being understood is very important to me. I will say that some of my greatest frustrations in relationships come from being misunderstood.

6. Parsley sage rosemary or thyme... your favorite?
I think I would go with rosemary. I love the smell! (Even though I couldn't find any fresh rosemary in my little grocery store...or fresh parsley.) (Small towns...grr...)

7. What do you do when you feel angry? 

Yell. Rant and rave. Cry. Call my hubby and vent. Write a blog post. (Then, delete it.) (Maybe.)

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Random video time! I first saw this video a couple of years ago and just came across it recently. It is just too cute not to share...

What's Been Going On...

Outside my window... Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow.

I am thinking... about having to get a crown on a tooth tomorrow. That will be the most extensive dental work I've ever had done and I am quite nervous about it.

I am thankful for... the fact that ALWAYS God is on His throne and Jesus is sitting at His right hand.

I am wearing... a gray sweater I bought last summer for $8. I love it and have received several compliments on it.

I am going... to get my sewing room in order. I am going to get my sewing room in order. I am going to get my sewing room in order. (This afternoon, I emptied out a box that was in there and threw some things away (!) and put the other things in their proper place.)

I am currently reading...Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon. (I need to mix a thinker book with a fun one.)

I am hoping... we have good weather in a couple weeks when we are planning on heading to see our kids and to see some basketball. (Hubby got tickets as a Christmas gift to see KU [our kids' school] and ISU [our Alma Mater] play each other in basketball.)

Noticing that... snow mobiles out in the field next to our house wakes me up from my Sunday afternoon nap. Hmph.

Pondering these words... Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Seeing all the snow helps to visualize it.
Still. Mind. Boggling.
 
From the kitchen... I've been having fun using some new kitchen toys I got for Christmas and birthday gifts. I think I am going to like the food processor. Next time I won't make Pico de Gallo Mush. I used it to chop some cilantro and it worked really well! (And I did NOT end up with cilantro paste!) I was so proud that I didn't get all lost in the watching the blade go round and round. :)

One of my favorite things... Spending time with my husband. (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that here before a time or two.)

From my picture journal...
I don't think I ever posted a picture of the BEAUTIFUL roses my daughter and son-in-law sent me for my birthday. They lasted a little more than a week and I just loved seeing them and smelling them.

The Weekend

I thought I'd throw a recap of the weekend in here.

It was cold.

But it didn't snow!

The End.

The actual temperature last night was -18F! (I think.) (I could be off by a degree or two, but seriously, when it's that cold does a degree or two really make a difference?)

Hubby has been working hard at getting his shop in order. He built some shelves to put all the boxes of stuff we just can't part with. You know.... the box of baby clothes that were too darn sweet to give away, the box of baby toys we keep to bring out to entertain babies that visit us, the box of childhood memories for both my husband and me, the box that takes me an hour to go through because --- Hello Memories, and well, you know... boxes and stuff....

Never fear, we have gotten rid of lots and lots of stuff. There are so many empty boxed in the garage, it will take a few weeks to get rid of it all.

I considered asking Hubby if he was going to sort through his lumber and throw some scraps away, but then I thought he might ask me to sort through my fabric scraps....so I kept my mouth shut. :)

Yesterday Hubby and I got to go on a date. :) We went to the nearest biggish city (an hour away) and saw a movie (Secretariat), did some shopping, and went out for supper. Despite the cold, we had a great time. I should admit that my hubby spoils me rotten by dropping me off at the door of the stores and restaurants. That makes being in the cold not as awful. He's so sweet!

(Lots of awkward transitions to new subjects...)

Finding satisfaction in a church in our new area continues to be frustrating.

I will never understand the fascination with ice fishing. The lake near us has so many little houses on it. I just don't get it. I should take a picture of it, but that would involve getting out of my car in this terrible cold.

I have so enjoyed being a part of the Facebook world. A few nights ago I was watching my all-time favorite TV channel, HGTV. There was a show originating from Canada. That got me to thinking about the camp in Ontario I went to as a kid. I saw on their website that there was a Facebook page for alumni. (You wondered what HGTV had to do with Facebook, didn't you? You thought I'd never get back around to Facebook, didn't you?) I jumped over to that page and hunted around and believe it or not I actually found some of my old camp friends! I have reconnected with two of them on Facebook. Awesome. Now we just have 36 years to catch up on. Ha. Ha.

Things coming up in the next week: cleaning (woohoo), working on some things in my sewing room, a work (Hubby's) Christmas party that was canceled in December because of the Blizzard of 2010, and then to celebrate my half-century mark, I get to have a crown put on one of my molars. YeeHaw.

And that's the news from here.

PW's Potato Skins (Pioneer Woman)

Next up in Pioneer Woman Cooks: Potato Skins.

Cast of Characters:

(I just had to get my new food processor in the picture. That block of cheese? Shredded in .o9 seconds flat! It was awesome!)

This is definitely a recipe that can be started early and done in stages. I baked the potatoes in the afternoon and let them cool before slicing them in half and digging out most of the insides. 

The finished product:

They were very yummy! What not to like? Crispy potato skins, bacon, melted cheese, onion? Oh, and I substituted plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream. I think I liked that better than I would have the sour cream.

Guacamole (Pioneer Woman)

Okay, finally I am writing my post with the next recipe in our (me, Amanda, and Megan) cooking adventure. What are we doing? The three of us are cooking our way through Pioneer Woman Cooks. And blogging about it.

So far we've made BBQ Jalapeno Poppers and Pico de Gallo.

Tonight I tackled the Guacamole. I was delayed a few days longer than I was planning due to technical difficulties. Namely, I couldn't find a ripe avocado  in the store and had to wait for what I bought to ripen.

The first step to making PW's Guacamole is to make her Pico de Gallo. (See Amanada's post.) I thought I'd make it and give my new food processor a whirl. (Pun intended.) (And can I say? I've been married for 26 years and didn't think I really needed a food processor. I was wrong.)

Before:

After:

(And mine was really, really, really spicy. Really.)

Um? It looks nothing like Amanda's Pico de Gallo:

 I think I got a little too pulse-button-happy. Next time I'll back off on the button. (But it was so fun to watch!)

So, the next thing I needed to tackle was The Avocado. (Insert dramatic music here.) I have never done anything with an avocado before. They intimidate me. (Did anyone see Julie & Julia? Remember how nervous Julie was with the thought of de-boning a duck? That's kinda how I felt about attacking an avocado.)

 

 But look! Look how easily the flesh came out of the skin! ( I was a bit excited at this point.)

I used a fork to mash the avocado. You want to leave a few lumps.

(Yes, I know those are my Christmas dishes. I know it's not Christmas anymore. But, in my defense, they are called WinterBerry and it IS still winter, right?)

Next I added the "Pico de Gallo" (in quotes because it looked more like green salsa.)

 

 The spiciness worked out okay, because I could cool it down a bit with the avocado, but still have a bit of a kick.

Tonight was my first time using an avocado, and it was also my hubby's first time of trying Guacamole.     Great action shot, huh? :) He's such a good sport.

Hubby's verdict? He didn't like it. Sad.

My verdict? I loved, loved it! (Maybe that's a good thing hubby didn't like it...more for me!) (Wait, maybe not good, I'll eat too much of it.)

The Best Birthday Trip Ever.

Didn't you all just love Amanda's inaugural blogpost? I sure did! I am so excited about doing this cooking through Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook with Amanda and Megan!

The next recipe is my turn...

...as soon as I get myself out from under the mountain of laundry from our trip to Chicago. Why did we go to Chicago? Oh, just to celebrate my 50th birthday...!

This is the wonderful view of Lake Michigan we had from our Fancy Schmancy hotel room we stayed in:

Monday morning I got up while my hubby was in the shower and was sitting in front of this stack of presents.... waiting....

Yep, he spoiled me goood! The bottom present is a panini press/griddle, the next one up is a Le Creuset Dutch Oven(!), next is a set of dominoes, and the small one on top is three worship CDs. (Now I have ALL new music in my car, which a great since I didn't change the CDs out for more than 6 months.)

Birthday lunch was at a fun diner. Some college friends introduced us to this place eons ago. It's wait staff are kinda rude/funny. They're supposed to be. (I wonder what someone would think who didn't know that.)

Birthday afternoon I went here to spend some Christmas and babysitting money I had burning a hole in my billfold:

Oh, it was fun to shop there!

The day ended with Birthday Cheesecake. Mmmm...and Yummmm!

Tuesday night we went to see Wicked. (If you haven't heard of it, it's the prequel to The Wizard of Oz.) It was Amazing!!! I was so caught up in the story and the costuming and the singing. It was just the perfect ending to a wonderful trip!

Well, I guess this is the ending... we came home to the driveway drifted shut with snow. My Hero Hubby shoveled me a path to get into the house and then spent an hour using the snow blower to clear the driveway so he could pull the car into the garage.

Sigh. Welcome back to the frozen north. Sigh.