Really good new recipes

I cooked up a storm today. Most of it was old standbys (except for the peaches that I put into the blueberry pie - it's for tomorrow so I can't say if I liked it yet).

I made a batch of Caramelized Onion Dip from a combination of several recipes based on what I had in the house. When the Fam got home from Older Daughter's horse show (I stayed home with a pinched nerve in my back...she won many many ribbons! Pics to follow), where was I? Oh, when the Fam got home from the horse show I had them taste the dip. It was gone in 5 minutes. Company's coming tomorrow so I'll make a double batch in the morning.

Caramelized Onion Dip
Finely chop a Vidalia onion (I used my Pampered Chef chopper).
Caramelize in a bit of oil, cooking for about 20 minutes.
Cool and mix with:
1/2 c mayonnaise
1/2 c sour cream (I actually preferred less mayo and more sc)
1/4 t salt (about 8 turns of the salt grinder)
1/4 t white pepper (about 8 turns - and I used black pepper. Nobody died)
(several recipes I found call for 1/4 to 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce but I couldn't find it in the depths of my scary refrigerator so I skipped it)

Mix. Chill. Dip. Yum.


The second recipe, which will be making appearances at future church suppers, is Snickerdoodle Blondies, created by Julia and found at her site, Dozen Flours. That link ought to take you there. She has a variation for Pumpkin Pie Snickerdoodle Blondies that I can't wait to try, plus she links to a dozen or so bloggers who have made and/or altered her recipe. I browned the edges a little more than I would have liked and was afraid they would be dry - but they were perfect.

An auspicious occasion

Happy 500th Birthday to John Calvin!

Spring...where ARE you??!

We seem to have gone directly to summer without passing 'GO' or collecting $200. After two nights of misery we put the AC in our bedroom yesterday - always a scary endeavor trying to hang on to a 130 lb AC unit while hanging 95% of it out the 2nd floor window balancing only on a 4" windowsill. And the window is in a corner so realistically only one person can fit in to do it. Supposedly there's a cold front coming in so we might see some springtime weather yet. I hope so - i have trees to plant but it's been too hot to dig.

Hoping to trek down to IKEA this week or next to finally get our new sofa...the current one is totally falling apart - I'm tempted to get rid of it on trash day just to get The Husband in gear :-)

Upcoming we have a Scranton Yankees game on Saturday, Youth Sunday on (you guessed it!) Sunday, younger daughter's spring concert on Monday. Yep - a typical relaxing weekend.

Soaping

I finally got around to ordering lye so I can make more soap. I can't find it locally anymore - the brand that Ace and True Value carried is no longer 100% NaOH and Lowe's stopped carrying Roebic brand last year. The Husband is not terribly thrilled that I have 12 lbs of lye sitting around now. Too bad.

Today it's Honey Oatmeal soap. Here's the recipe so I can actually reproduce it if it turns out well:

1/2 0z beeswax, grated
16 oz lard
4 oz olive oil
2 oz coconut oil
1 oz cocoa butter
7 oz water
3.1 oz lye
At trace add 2 t honey and 4 oz finely "blended" oatmeal

Lifevest

This is the contraption that The Husband has to wear in lieu of sitting in the hospital:
Lifevest

Avoiding

Have I procrastinated long enough about tomorrow's SS lesson? It's so bad that I'm resorting to making a blog post to avoid researching demons and angels. Lots of angels in the OT, but demons generally don't show up until the Gospels. Even Satan in the OT is relegated to two brief passages outside of the book of Job. In Genesis it is merely the "serpent" that is mentioned.

Maybe I should go back to playing Bookworm...

Beyond Exhaustion

The Husband went to the ER on Feb. 3rd with a bad arrhythmia. Here it is the 22nd and he's been in 1 ER, two ICU's and 3 different rooms in 2 hospitals in 2 states. This past Wednesday he had a cath procedure done that inserted a pulmonary valve enclosed in a stent into his heart. It went very well and he's doing great so far. We're expecting another EP Study to be done early next week and then - hopefully - home at last.

Here are a few pics - I didn't take very many.
The view from the CCU at Columbia Presbyterian:




The model of ICU bed...sport?? really???



The Patient himself, who will probably kill me for adding this pic:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Northeast   Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak.
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The Midland
Boston
The South
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Recovery mode

We're getting over various colds and viruses (virii?). The Christmas Tree finally made it out the door last weekend (and only out the door...literally) and we moved furniture around so the new tv, which doesn't fit in the old cabinet, could be at a normal height instead of on top of the tv cabinet where it hurt your neck to watch. We must have about 12 miles of wires back there - many of which have been rabbit-chewed and thus need replacing. It took 4 of us to move the former entertainment center to the other side of the fireplace where it will house the kids' computer and other homeless computer peripherals. We still don't know what to do with the stereo, but it will probably involve doubling the amount of wire that we already have...

The Husband will be installed as an elder in church this weekend and we're celebrating The Boy's 12th birthday tomorrow (his day was yesterday but we had choir so he requested Saturday to be family-only day). Sunday afternoon we'll be watching the Puppy Bowl (which is ridiculously cute) before the Superbowl (go Steelers). We're not a football family but it's an excuse to have junk food for dinner).

LOST

It makes my nose bleed...

Don't read this if you haven't watched the current episode.
I'm so glad that ABC moved it back to Wednesdays - last season I occasionally skipped out of choir practice early so I wouldn't miss the beginning (sorry Jill). And two of my favorite bloggers follow it, too - Shannon and Nancy Today, so our noses can bleed together this season.

Ms. Hawking is Daniel's mom! Charles Widmore was an Other! Was he banished? Charlotte (the anthropologist) has to be there because of the Heiroglyphics in the Donkey Wheel chamber and the Four-Toed statue, right? Charlotte/Miles/ Daniel and Locke are on the Island -- in 1954! Is the H-bomb presently buried in The Swan Station? Ben pledged to kill Penny and Penny is currently headed to LA where Ben is. Locke returned to the US where he died as Jeremy Bentham...what's with that? Locke told Richard Alpert to come see him on the day of his birth! Head hurts...must...stop...reading...the Fuselage. If you don't watch it you NEED to! If only to share my pain. But you HAVE to start from the beginning. Past episodes can be viewed here and here (second link, go to Free Episodes---Lost. You have to install a plugin that I can't get to work in Firefox with Vista).

CPSC Overkill



On February 10, in response to last year's spate of toy recalls, a new law will take effect which requires product testing for any item intended for use by children 12 and under (toys, clothing, hair accessories, cloth diapers, cd's, books - ANY ITEM!). While at first blush it sounds good, it will devastate the home-crafting industry and many other small-scale sellers of children's products, who will be unable to afford the $4000 per item price tag for the testing (and who were not involved in the recalls of Chinese-made lead-contaminated toys).

Please click on the above image for more info and consider contacting your congress person/ senator (links to those are in the above article). Thanks!


Rearranging the blog furniture

I'll be playing with the look for awhile...'cause you know that with Christmas a week from today I don't have nearly enough to do.

Snow day today and we've had the 4 neighbor kids for the day as well. They've watched movies and made cinnamon ornaments and played out in the snow, but were getting a little bored. So I pulled out an early Christmas present - the Electronic version of Monopoly. What is it about Monopoly that causes children to LOVE it and adults to DREAD it?? I decided that either the electronic or the Wii version was the only way they could get me to play it with them.

We probably have 6 inches of snow and it's expected to go on for the next 6 hours or so. Naturally The Husband is getting ready to go out and get milk :-)

Free Hidden Expedition: Titanic

We love Big Fish Games - especially the Hidden Object games (and my neurologist encouraged it so I felt less guilty about joining the Game Club)

Go here and download Hidden Expedition:Titanic. After you have done so, click "Buy Now" and enter the code:
HOLIDAYTITANIC

Nothing much new here

Same old busy-ness. Starting to get a little frantic about Christmas - so many projects happening. Every year I *swear* that I'll start earlier the following year....yeah.

We just got home from "A Night in Bethlehem" at our church. The fellowship hall was set up with 5 or 6 tents and there was a family activity to do at each one - weaving, baking, jewelry making and a few others. Oh, and there were shepherds there who took each family to the stable to see baby Jesus. It was a new Advent activity for our church - definitely fun! And The Husband had a LOT of fun as we were leaving. It was snowing and he was able to do doughnuts in the parking lot. And his wife didn't yell at him (much).

Last weekend was busy with 3 church services on Sunday - the Sr Choir sang at both morning services (and The Boy played handbells with one other boy to accompany the choir - they did a great job) and in the afternoon we had an Advent Communion service at which I sang in a quartet. This Sunday we only have to be at one morning service but there is another afternoon service - a Love Feast service of Remembrance and Hope at which the choir is singing. And the Youth Group is leaving first thing in the morning to go to Moravian Open Door in NYC to deliver the Christmas Tree that they funded and to help decorate.

I found a semi-local candle and soap supply shop so I took a drive down this week to get some new fragrance oils for Christmas soap. I made a batch of Honey Oatmeal soap yesterday and cured it in the oven in the mold that I finally got around to making. It's an interesting process (oven prrocessing) and I'm gradually learning what I want from the molds. The next one will be hinged.

It's 10:28pm and I finally hear The Husband coming up the stairs to work on tomorrow's sunday school lesson with me (Essentials of Christianity). And now he's asking Younger Daughter to clean up the red wine that he spilled on the stairs...

Happy Thanksgiving

Go check out the "turkey" cakes at Cakewrecks

Storm cleanup

Last weekend the whole family gathered at my in-law's house to clean up storm damage. We spent 8 hours cleaning up fallen limbs and cutting up trees. Much of the brush was burned in the bonfire. Younger daughter took many of these photos:

Here's The Husband looking rather scary...although probably not as scary as when he went over to Older Daughter's halloween party wearing his black leather trenchcoat and one of her friends commented "hey, your dad even dressed up!" when he had come home from work that way....




We took Wilma with us and left the noisy Shelties at home. By 5pm she was pooped!

Family Tomato canning day

The Boy took some pictures a few weeks ago when we canned a half-bushel of tomatoes (that's 7 quarts of stewed tomatoes and 1 quart of juice).


Unfortunately I don't actually have 3 hands...



This bowl of fruit came from the next-door neighbor's trees (and vines), plus another box full of peaches. We got two pears from our pear tree this summer but they weren't in terribly nice shape for eating. Maybe next year - that will be the 3rd summer for most of the trees (apple, pear, peach). I finally got a cherry tree in this fall so I expect that will take a few years before much happens.