Today, very early, at approximately 2:00 a.m., Daylight Savings began. Yes, despite the fact that I lost an hour, I have gained daylight. Nearly 6 p.m. now, I am happy to report an abundance of it.
Springing forward.
Category Archives: 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons
Day 13 Day 17
17 days ago: Received nice, large supermarket bouquet of flowers from Dave and Tara. Placed in my largest vase. No photo.
At 7 days, I used a large tea tumbler to keep the brightest and the best of what was left. I didn’t get a picture of it at that time. Throughout the next 6 days or so, I would remove the deadest of the dead (those darn Gerbera Daisies are always the first to go).
Day 13: However, the 13th morning of the bouquet, I threw out a sink-full more and filled Gavin’s favorite juice glass. Pictured here: the bouquet just before the change from the tumbler to the juice glass and again just after.
Today was day 17 of the bouquet. I place the final incarnation of it, the last few healthy blooms and pieces, in an old Homer – Laughlin China creamer.
My point? There is really no reason whatsoever not to have fresh flowers in the house at all times. They are readily available, reasonable and long-lasting. Plus-they satisfy the urge to garden during the cold months.
Loving the flowers!…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Butter, bread, toilet paper, ground beef, fresh bouquet…
U-P-D-A-T-E: Day 22 – tossed. I am leaving town and they’d be totally dead by the time I return and they were just…done. 22 days, though, people!
Life Scenes
1. Averi looking like her Nonna in her Nonna’s reading glasses.
2. Guini enjoying her hot chocolate like Nonna enjoys her coffee.
3. The cross Stormie brought me from Honduras – on one of my new placemats from Target clearance…got 6 for 98-cents each!
Spring is in my heart.
Cookie Love
House of Love.
I got to see all my loves who were not in Honduras on Valentine’s Day. What a bunch of smile-bringers!
I may smack Martha Stewart in the chops.
I was innocently standing in line at WalMart, flipping through Martha’s latest magazine, when I saw the cutest cookies ever. They were sugar cookie hearts glazed in all the colors of traditional conversation candy hearts. I read the caption beside the photo that said you could just put red food color on a wet paper towel and use stampers to print the messages.
They were so simple – supposedly. So lovely. I decided I would do it – all the colors, all the conversation-heart sayings. All for the ones I love. I baked the cookies-on-sticks recipe, which truly works for bouquets and is amazingly delicious. I have shared it here, before.
The glaze is just water and powdered sugar and the tiniest bit of food color. The first batch was so runny that the glaze just poured out all over the place – very little left on the cookie. So, I thickened some of the glaze up and piped an outline on each of the cookies. Soupy at first, it starts hardening in exactly 4.21 seconds. Which-I did not realize until I had squished some blue glaze onto each of the cookies I was going to make blue, thinking I could spread it evenly in a minute. I could not. The blue were blotchy. The red was too red. It took until I got to the pink to finally get the consistency right and have the “flooding” technique down. You go around and around the cookie, flooding it with the glaze.
I decided not to do all the colors of the conversation heart candies. I couldn’t bear it, after all.
I did try the stamping technique and it worked OK and may have been better if I had spent more than $1 for the alphabet stamp set at Michael’s. I didn’t measure, however, nor try to space evenly-so mine did NOT look like Martha’s.
In the future, I shall employ my normal cookie decorating techniques.
For the love.
What makes us do these things? Bake and decorate and try new things? Because we love. We love cookies. And we love each other. Sometimes we even love Martha.
Did you get sweets from your sweet?…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Love.
pictured: Hunter and Gavin upside-down; Guini in her pink pj’s; Averi decked out in red and pink; Gemma-a girl and her popcorn; outlined and filled cookies; stamped cookies; a little bouquet for my family.
Dandelion
OK, so Pantone has named Mimosa the 2009 color of the year (I have mentioned it here and here), but Mimosa doesn’t grow here. Dandelions do, though.
So perhaps my color of the year will be “dandelion.” And that is happy, too, even though sometimes they have made me crazy. If it weren’t for the HOA, wouldn’t we let them have their way?
pictured: mimosa, left; dandelion, right
Happy Birthday, Desiree!
Desiree is the mom and wife behind one of the cutest and sweetest families we know: Alfonso + Desiree + their two cutie-pie kids (Saray and Elijah, who is sort of promised to Averi!)=The wonderful Lopez family.
She is interested in learning to do cakes and cake decorating. I am a novice, but I have a little experience, so we set out to do a pink and brown polka-dotted cake for her birthday. I baked a 10″ x 5″ chocolate cake with strawberry filling for the bottom tier and an 8″ x 4 3/4″ pumpkin spice with cream cheese filling for the top tier and then Desiree and I made several batches of fondant a couple of days ahead of assembling and decorating the cakes.
It was my first time to do chocolate fondant and we are so-much-the-wiser on that now, but it is actually pretty doggone delicious! Looks like a giant tootsie roll, kinda. :) Tastes like one, too. I won’t tell you how 5 pounds of the chocolate candy-icing was nearly thrown across the room by my usually-sweet-and-level husband, whose muscles we needed to roll out the huge stuff. No, I mustn’t reveal. But Desiree was such an adventurer! I gave her the tools (bags, tips, etc) and she went to it! She did a great job!
Suffice it to say: Happy Birthday, Desiree. Happy day and days of the whole year! I pray this will be a year of favor for you – in your marriage, your ministry, your daily walk wth Jesus and in all your friendships and relationships. May you blessed in all things, and blessed to be a blessing!
I have you in my heart…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Less powdered sugar, 1 full cup cocoa! Yum.
pictured: Desree and 3 batches of the fondant; Desiree decorating; Saray using up the scraps and bits to make her own pretty ymmies; Desiree and the final outcome
Green Trend
How much of what is now called “green” really is?
Dave was thinking of writing a blog about how appalled he was by the number of those little plastic food-sample cups we go through in American food stores every weekend as grocers try to entice us into buying $15.99-a-pound cheese or $28-a-pound deli herbed-roast-beef . Though it sounds noble and Dave seems almost “green,” it was really just based on the fact that he and I alone had approximately 17 empty little containers in our cart after a half hour in Target.
That is probably more of an indictment against us than against the state of plastic-sample-cup use across America.
We did find a nice cheese in our price-range with a coupon…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Skip lunch before Target next time.
Holiday Fare – Top Ten Tips
This came in emails from several friends last week and I must wholeheartedly concur with this very good advice for eating and diet during the holidays. I was told a member-in-good-standing with Weight Watchers wrote it (?). I truly suscribe to this thinking! Here are the top ten tips to get you through the holiday buffet:
10. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet
table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots,
leave immediately. Go next door, where they’re serving rum balls.
9. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. It’s rare. You
cannot find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares
that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It’s not as if you’re going to
turn into an eggnog-a-holic or something. It’s a treat. Enjoy it.
Have one for me. Have two. It’s later than you think. It’s Christmas!
8. If something comes with gravy, use it. That’s the whole point of
gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of
your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.
7. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they’re made with skim milk or
whole milk. If it’s skim, pass. Why bother? It’s like buying a sports
car with an automatic transmission.
6. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control
your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat
other people’s food for free. Lots of it. Hello?
5. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New
Year’s. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do.
This is the time for long naps, which you’ll need after circling the
buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of
eggnog.
4. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like
frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position
yourself near them and don’t budge. Have as many as you can before
becoming the center of attention. They’re like a beautiful pair of
shoes. If you leave them behind, you’re never going to see them again.
3. Same for pies. Apple, Pumpkin, Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if
you don’t like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have
three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?
2. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it’s loaded with the
mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost.
I mean, have some standards.
And the #1 and final tip: If you don’t feel terrible when you leave the party
or get up from the table, you haven’t been paying attention. Re-read
tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.
Remember this motto to live by:
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention
of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand,
champagne in the other, body thoroughly used up,
totally worn out and screaming
“WOO HOO what a ride!”author unknown
‘Nuff said.
images: google!
Half Baked
It was Christmas baking day! It was a mad flurry of flour and sugar, creamery butter and sprinkles.
We had sent 63+ e-mails back and forth over the past two weeks (this may or may not be an exaggeration) in anticipation of Baking Day. This is why I now know that approximately half of our concoctions are actually not baked at all. It is amazing how many of the things we like are dipped in melted chocolate or blended and rolled into balls or cooked on a stove top before adding a certain snap, crackle and pop ingredient to a non-bake cookie.
Better-than-Girl-Scout “Thin-mints”/chocolate-dipped pretzels/peanut-butter balls/caramel cookies (can you possibly go wrong with a cookie that encases a Rolo and is topped with bits of Heath Bar??)/caramel popcorn balls/cookies-on-sticks/butter cookies/raspberry ribbons/decorated sugar cookies/peanut brittle (we always and ever have to throw the first unsuccessful batch out-what is up with that??)/Strawberries (which actually aren’t at all – not even in flavor)/royal icing/butter-cream icing/peanut blossoms-with-kisses-instead/almond bark/chocolate chips of every persuasion/peppermint/vanilla/almond/mini-cheesecakes/brownie assortments – all these and more threaten to throw us all into sugar shock.
Sadly, it was a balmy 108-degrees outside Saturday (another possible exaggeration), so we were shedding layers and had the doors and windows opened wide, drinking ice water like the dog days of summer.
In the end, even though my grandfather was a baker extraordinaire and owned a bakery for many years, and even though my other grandpa’s last name was “Baker,” I don’t think I am one and I believe only 1 1/2 of my girls actually are bakers. Maybe next year, we’ll let the 1 1/2 of them have a pre-baking day to really bake and we’ll have a non-baking Baking Day to eat their stuff and roll our tidbits in chocolate and that will be better.
Ended the day with the guys and kiddos joining us for the biggest pot of chicken and dumplings I have ever made in my life, because you know, we needed more flour and eggs. ;>[
Cup of coffee and some cookies, anyone?…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Get more Rubbermaid-pronto!
PICTURED (all thumbnails, click to enlarge): Top row ~ raspberry ribbons and other cookies; second row ~ some of the cookies in front of the homemade ornanament “memory” tree, the kids and Grandpa decorating cookies; third row ~ Gemma, Averi and Hunter with the biggest Santa in my collection; fourth row ~ Gav with Santa, niece, Elise with Averi and Stormie konks out after a long day of baking and fun.
A Thankful Tree, the Flu, a Light Snow and a “Blogoversary”
Thanksgiving.
Can I just say the sooner the leftovers are gone, the better (except for Stormie’s pumpkin pies)? But all delish.
We did a “thankful” tree on Thanksgiving, everyone filling out little “leaves” and hanging them with things for which we are grateful written.
Thumbnails (click for larger image):
The Flu.
In the middle of the night following Thanksgiving, I got hit with a full-on, horrid stomach flu, complete with fever, chills, and wrenching. I won’t say more. If it hadn’t been for the entire Kelley family having contracted and suffered through it just before Thanksgiving (Gavin does go to public school now – germ breeding grounds!), I’d have been thinking food poisoning. But no, just a very untimely stomach bug! So I spent Friday, while my husband and daughters were all shopping madly, in bed – when I wasn’t running to the bathroom. Truly a “Black Friday” for me!
I wish the google image above really did reflect my 3 a.m. view Friday morning!
Snow at Last.
At about 11 o’clock last night, we looked outside to see the most beautiful snow. My nephew Zach from Montana, living with us while he completes a ministerial internship here, had just asked 2 days ago, “Yeah-so when do you guys get snow here?” I am not a huge fan, but since it has so politely remained largely at bay this year so far, it was a welcome sight. This morning the grass is almost covered and every branch has a puffy white coating and it is lovely and makes you want to watch Christmas movies and wrap presents.
This is the snow-on-the-branches view out the back door this morning at 7:15 a.m., just after the bunny rabbit, who’d been looking in at me, hopped away.
Blogoversary.
Teena from Toronto left me a “Happy Blogoversary” message this morning and I realized that, yes, it is indeed my “blogoversary.” How did she know that?
Two years ago today, I started blogging. The kids found and bequeathed the image that adorns my blog banner to get me started. They all said she looks just like me, and I am happy they understand the inner me, for surely that is what they see.
To blog was both exhilerating and trepidatious for me. I was so afraid to hit the “post” button back in those days, fearful of what my words would reveal of me, but also needing a place to tell some truth and speak some words I was struggling to communicate, especially to my children. I was so cautious and agonized over how much to say, carefully wondering how much I could really tell truthfully, lest my truth hurt some one else. You can read my very first blog here. (from 11.29.06)
Now I blather on with both spiritual epiphanies as they come (they are for me, anyway) and the torrid, word-filled minutia of my life (like telling you about my stomach flu, for crying out loud!!). This is my 398th post and I have 30 drafts in the folder waiting for me to finish off and publish – there is no end in sight, people! And I always wonder about when I am gone – if my offspring should really ever begin to read this stuff, investigating it as they look for meaning and understanding of their past and their own lives – how really weird will they think I was?
It all remains to be seen…from the ever-graphomaniacal Jeanie
NOTE TO FAMILY: To all the Rhoadeses in every direction-hope Thanksgiving was warm and wonderful for you. To the whole Moslander bunch, far and wide, always think of you and miss you on these days. 1991 was our last everyone-together Thanksgiving, and that does not seem right!