Monday, December 15, 2008

Sweeeet

Know what made my day even more than watching a couple size tens being hurled at W?
This!
It's a crochet hook organizer, made for me by my IGF Kate, and it completely rocks!
Look how I used to store my stuff:

And now:

My hooks are so happy with their new home! I heart it.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Stuff

  • Car update: waiting on estimate for a new engine. Yep, just a little minor repair. eyeroll. Dealing with being a one car family for now.
  • Scored a 19 pound turkey for $7.00, so tonight we are having Thanksgiving Part II. Since I can't drive anywhere, I will spend the day cooking and working on some crochet projects. Beth, if you're reading, I will be making your pears by special request from everyone.
  • Need to get to the library. I'm reading a John Grisham book that we had at the house, not expecting a whole lot. It kind of stresses me out not to have another book waiting. Weird?
  • Speaking of books, The Motel Life was so good. Sad, but wonderful. Why are most of the really good ones such heartbreakers? Maybe it's just that when it's good you really get into it and feel it more.
  • Watched Heros last night, thinking the entire time, "why am I still watching this?" The first season was so good, but I've definitely lost that lovin' feeling for the show.
  • Shopping for a wii for Christmas, a combined family gift this year. Hope it's not too hard to find. It's going to be a "small" Christmas, but I don't mind. I find those are the best actually.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Our Thanksgiving Was...

...exciting. We left a little bit late on our trip over the pass for dinner with the family. I had to meet up with the person that found my cell phone in the grocery store parking lot the night before. Got it back no problem, filled up the tank, hit the road with brand new tires installed Wednesday night. Everything's groovy, right? Nope. About halfway through the trip, on top of the summit, the oil light comes on, the car starts making an awful noise and shaking. Luckily, we were near an off-ramp and there is a gas station there. We limped it in, checked out the car, and eventually called a tow truck. Again, we were lucky that it was sunny and warm, the station was open, and the staff were very helpful. The tow truck driver was way cool and got us back to town pretty quickly. Then we took a taxi back to the house. This all set us back about $450. Great. That's on top of the $700 for the tires.

After we got back home, I called our friends that were having a big turkey and no company and we spent the holiday together. So great of them to include us, helped turn our crappy day around. The food was fantastic, I'm still full this morning!





Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Finally!

Friendship Bread Day 10/10 - Baking Day!

This is the recipe/instruction sheet that I will copy and pass out to my friends with their bags of starter. You can copy and paste it into your own document. If you've been following along, and today is your "day 10", then proceed with the baking instructions below. The bread is so worth the wait! I think I'll do an apple/cinnamon variation with vanilla pudding mix, a couple of grated apples, and some walnuts. For a really decadent version, try chocolate pudding mix, white chocolate chips, and chopped macadamia nuts. I will be giving the starter baggies to the kids' teachers tomorrow, just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. It's nice to give a couple of slices of the baked bread with the starter so they know what to expect. Enjoy!

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Amish Friendship Bread

Copy these instructions before you start for when you are ready to pass the starter on to others. Do not use metal spoons or metal bowls for mixing. Do not refrigerate. As bag fills with gas from fermentation let the gas out, this is normal. Enter the dates below and cross out the days so you don’t loose track. Don’t panic if you go beyond a day or two simply pick up where you left off.

Day 1: Date: ____/____ Do nothing. This is the day you get the starter batter.
Day 2, 3, 4, 5: Mush the bag each day.
Day 6: Date: ____/____ add: 1 C flour, 1 C Sugar, 1 C milk.
Day 7, 8, 9: Mush the bag each day.
Day 10: Date: ____/____

Preheat oven to 325.

Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl and add 1½ C flour, 1½ C Sugar, 1½ Milk. Mix well with a wooden or plastic spoon.

Label four (4) 1 gallon zip top bags with “Day 1” and tomorrow’s date. Measure out 1 C of the batter each of the bags.

To the remaining starter batter in your bowl, add 3 eggs, 1 cup oil, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup milk, 2 cups flour, 1 ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, 2 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp salt, 1 5.1 oz box of instant vanilla pudding, and 1 1/2 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Grease 2 large loaf pans and mix up an additional ½ C sugar ½ tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with this mixture. Save some for the top of the bread. Pour the batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top. Bake at 325 for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool and remove from the pan.

Keep one of the 4 gallon bags of batter for yourself and pass the other three to your friends, with a copy of these instructions.

VARIATIONS:
Banana - Omit cinnamon. Substitute banana cream pudding for vanilla. Add 2 mashed bananas.
Chocolate - Omit cinnamon and vanilla pudding from the basic recipe and add 1 - (5.1 oz) box of instant chocolate pudding, 3 tsp. cocoa and 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Bake for 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours.
Apple Raisin - add one cup of raisins and one small diced apple.
Lemon-Poppy Seed – Substitute lemon pudding mix for vanilla. Substitute 2-tsp. Lemon extract for vanilla. Omit cinnamon. Add 1/4 cup poppy seed.
Cranberry – Add 1 cup of dried cranberries and 1 tsp orange zest.

This batter is very versatile and can be used to make muffins or bundt cakes, just adjust the baking time accordingly.

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Monday, November 24, 2008

Monday Again?

Friendship Bread Day 9/10: Release any accumulated air from baggie and squish to mix several times today. Tomorrow is baking day!

Made a mini album for Evan yesterday, all about yakin'. Seeing his face light up when he looked through it reminds me why I scrapbook.


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The title letters on the cover were cut by the ever talented lpmkate. I love them! Evan did his own journaling:

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Sunday

Friendship Bread Day 8/10: Release any accumulated air from baggie and squish to mix several times today. Should be getting nice and bubbly.


Scrapping on a budget: Just did another reduce, reuse, recycle ATC card swap. Love the concept of this, especially these days when le budget is nil. I cut up cereal boxes for the base of the cards - I happen to have several dozen for sale in my etsy shop all ready to go. Shameless plug I know. Anyway, then I used the edges from our dot matrix printer paper for the background, stamped the tree on newspaper, and voila! The woodgrain dymo tape is killer, and it goes with the whole theme. Thanks Linda for sending it to me! So, these little guys cost next to nothing to make.





Can't wait to get the rest of the set, especially Kate's celeb trash collage card, I freaking love those.

Off to work on my recipe cards, and maybe some "real" scrapping too. Later!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Saturday

Friendship Bread Day 7/10: Release any accumulated air from baggie and squish to mix several times today.

Cannot believe Thanksgiving is next week. I would love to make a turkey like this,

but I am not cooking. We are going to spend the day with the family in Roseville, a little road trip so let's hope the weather stays nice. We'll miss you Shad, Sharon, Dani, and Logan! Remember when you guys were out here and we had Thanksgiving at your place? So fun. Although your turkey was not nearly as sexy as this one.

 

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