A bit about love

Just in time for Valentine’s day, I wanted to do a post on love.  Not Cupid love.  Not Hollywood formulaic romance.  I’m talking love that leads to deep, committed relationships.  I’m talking about the love I have for my slow cooker.  I don’t really know how it feels about me, but it does have a warm glow about it when I’m around.  Without slow cookers, we wouldn’t eat a home cooked meal during busy season.  There would be no succulent pot or pork roast, no savory stews or spicy chili waiting on us when we got home.  I have certain needs (like not spending the few hours I have a home during the week in the kitchen) and my slow cooker, it knows how to meet them.  And I think every woman can attest to this, watching that someone special cook, well, it’s downright sexy.  That’s right.  My slow cooker is sexy.  Now I have to wrap this up.  I’m making the blender jealous.

Weekend Update

1.  Saturday morning, we subjected Vi to Christmas pictures in order to secure the cutest picture possible for Christmas cards.  I think we found one.

2.  Saturday afternoon, Vi and Tux helped me rake leaves.

 3.  A few years ago, Shawn and I took a cooking class at the New Orleans School of Cooking.  Today, I finally put one of the recipes to use.  Spice enough to put hair on your chest--whether you want it to or not :).  

4.  In a bit foresight (which is in a bit of short supply these days--I blame the lack of sleep), I remembered that Thanksgiving is coming and I would need some hostess gifts.  A bit of math later, I realized I had enough time to pull together some Amish Friendship Bread.  So I started the starter.  

Oddly productive

 

 

Step 1-Take baby and husband apple shopping (ok, really just an excuse to post cute pics of baby, oh, and husband too.)

Step 2- Equal parts Mutsu, Fuji, and Winesaps

Step 3

Step 4

A little sugar, a little spice

Step 5

Step 6  12 half pints (yes i recycled the last pic--part of my ongoing efforts to go green and to actually get a blog post up).

Good help is hard to find.

After a fair bit of denial about the situation, I have come to realize my dear microwave is fading fast.  I've been loathe to admit it, what with good help being so hard to find, but after 11 years the key pad is pretty much junk.  It started with the 2 5 8 0 column which begin to be spotty in its cooperation with entering numbers.  That came and went for about 4 months before deciding to work since not working didn't stop me from punching around on it. Then it was the 1 4 7 column which kicked out about 3 months ago.  The 1 recently came back to work but then the start button died today.  I'll work with a lot of things but when the start button goes, it doesn't much matter what else works.  We've been making do with the one touch buttons.  As far as the microwave knows we've suddenly gone on an all potato diet.  Shawn went out today to purchase a replacement.  Apparently food and houses aren't the only things that have been supersized since  2000. Doesn't anyone live in small spaces?  To get one that is big enough to fit the bottle sterlizer in we have to puchase a monestrosity that is 5 inches bigger than our current model.  5 inches in my kitchen is a fair hunk of counter real estate.  I'll live with fewer watts and a few minutes longer in the cooking phase ( I'm not trying to power a time traveling Dolorean with it, for goodness sake) but it looks like my options are 1)big enough to cook a Thanksgiving turkey or 2)barely big enough to cook a microwave meal.  Dang it, I don't like either of those.

Weekend Update

1.  Last week, we came to a disturbing realization that we were out of jelly.  So while Shawn watched Vi, I dusted off the supplies and got to work.  Voila!

 8 cups of plum jelly.  Of course 8 cups of jelly won't last very long, so I'm planning a batch of strawberry jam as soon as I get a chance.

2.  I finished picking the green beans this weekend and got another 4 1/2 pints put away, bringing me to 10 pints thus far.  

3.  I'm just a few good stitching days away from being to the back stitching on the cross-stitch, which is good since Vi's stocking came in and needs to be started. 

Fall tastiness

I was looking for the santa fe rice and beans recipe I use this weekend (my printer is out of ink --for like 4 months) and accidently (I swear) stumbled on this recipe for Luscious Pumpkin layer cake from the Kraft food website.

1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix 

1 can  (15 oz.) pumpkin, divided 

1/2 cup Milk 

1/3 cup  Oil 

4 Eggs 

1-1/2 tsp.  Pumpkin pie spice, divided 

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened 

1 cup  Powdered sugar 

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed 

1/4 cup  Caramel ice cream topping 

1/4 cup chopped PLANTERS Pecans 

HEAT oven to 350°F. 

BEAT cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. spice in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into 2 

greased and floured 9-inch round pans. 

BAKE 28 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to 

wire racks; cool completely. 

BEAT cream cheese in medium bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. 

Gently stir in COOL WHIP. Cut each cake layer horizontally in half with serrated knife; stack on serving plate, spreading cream cheese filling between layers. (Do not frost top layer.) Drizzle with caramel topping just before serving; top with nuts. Refrigerate leftovers. 

I substituted whip cream for Cool Whip because I find Cool Whip crosses my unnatural food threshold.

Weekend Update

1.  Craft on diaper bag.  I don't know how a beginner project can give someone such fits.  I mean I'm a reasonably intelligent individual, and I'm using internet and book resources to make sure I'm interpreting these directions correctly.  It isn't a matter of errata.  It's a matter of semantics.  When you use the phrase turning chain, I assume that means the work should be turned even if you don't spell that out.  Yet my stitch markers keep moving rather than staying in the corners which would imply I'm crocheting on a slant.  If the baby hadn't come early, I might feel more kindly about the amount of experimentation that is having to take place here.

2.  Catch up on house chores after working through last weekend.  I was behind, but now have the laundry done, house cleaned, and pantry stocked.

3. Make more bread.  Honey Wheat, my new favorite. 

4. Garden.  Pick and process green beans for 5 pints.  Pick zucchini weighing 3 lbs.  (It was hiding).  Discovered that my zucchini plants have beetle borers and will likely be dead within the week.  This happens to me every year and only to zucchini and squash plants.  Try eco-spray anyway.  Dig up garlic.  Got 14 inchelium reds and 25 chilian silvers.  I will not use the chilian silvers again.  The growing circumstances were ideal and those "bulbs" are barely the size of nickels.  The flavor is good but they just aren't big enough.

5.  Finish second panel on the sweater.  Until my needles come in from WEBS, I'm in a holding pattern on this one.Thankfully, I seem to be able to manage a beginner sweater pattern.  Apparently, stockinette I can do.

Cinnamon rolls

Saturday, I was struck with an urge that hasn't been seen in nigh nearly 10 years.  Make sweet rolls.  So I assembled my stuff and tried it out recipe in the breadmaker.  I couldn't help but reminisce to Shawn about how tasty these sweet rolls were and how many people raved about them.  I even dug around and came up with a way to improve upon the simple confectioners sugar icing with a cream cheese icing.  My mouth was watering in anticipation.  I rolled up the cinnamon and sugar into a jelly roll shape and cut the loaf into roll sections.  After the rolls finished rising, I popped them into the oven and proceeded to burn them to a crisp.  Not slightly over done but nearly blackened them.  It was heartbreaking.  I may have shed a tear as I pried them out of the pans into the garbage can.  In fact, I'm welling up a bit as I type.  Oh Baking, you are a cruel taskmaster.

Bananarama

I don't know how we got on the subject of banana pudding but for some reason, Sunday afternoon, Shawn and I were musing about different restaurants that had banana pudding and which one had the best.  Shawn asked if I had a recipe for the old fashioned banana pudding.  I whipped out my trusty Better Home and Garden's cookbook which may not has the best but reliably has good basic recipes and found no banana pudding recipe.  Perplexed momentarily at the lack of banana pudding, I recovered and reached for my standard Southern Living.  And behold banana pudding in all it's homemade custard finest.  I even managed a pretty decent meringue.It was really good but really rich.  Even though there was only 1 and 1/3 cups of sugar, just a tiny portion went a long way on the sweet tooth.  We're nowhere near having finished it all.

Weekend Update

1.  After the pancake success, I wanted to try another dish described to me by a co-worker.  Hash-a bit of everything that suits your fancy.  I made mine by frying up a potato cubed with some onion and pepper.  Then I added 4 eggs and 1 egg white to the skillet.  Topped it all off with cheese and some salsa and it was a little taste Santa Fe in Tennessee.

2.  I also decided to give another one of my whole grain bread recipes a go.  I picked Cinnamon Pecan Wheat and Rye Bread from Whole Grain Breads by Machine or Hand.  

I picked by machine (bread maker).  I doubled the amount of cinnamon called for and even though the bread is very good, you can't really taste the cinnamon.

3.  We had terrible storms predicted for Saturday.  So I cranked it out early to get the garden plowed, the green and lima beans planted, and the onions I started from seed planted.  And it didn't rain.  Not a drop.  

4.  Sunday was Chest and Back.  I really must have been applying myself because as I was attempting the decline push up from my knees, I went down and failed to go back up.  Instead I kind of smushed my nose into the rug.  I had to do something because the angle was seriously messing with my back except I couldn't make my arms work.  I ended up flopping/wriggling over to get my knees off the bench I was using.  For a minute I was afraid I was going to have to call Shawn to roll me over.  That wouldn't have been at all embarrassing.