Molly Loves Paris

Collecting Quotes

2010-11-23T10:17:00.000-08:00

So I've been collecting quotes,

and I thought I would post them here for others to see.

There are no Bible verses here,

I didn't want to mix the words of man with the words of God

"How blessed and amazing are God's gifts, dear friends. Life with immortality, splendor with righteousness, truth with confidence, faith with assurance, self-control with holiness." — Clement of Rome

"Pass no rash condemnation on other people's words or actions. " — Thomas Kempis

"So live that your memories will be part of your happiness. " — Unattributed

"We need to attend diligently to the state of our soul, and to deal fervently and effectively with God about it." — John Owen

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. " — Abraham Lincoln

"Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting, and of all relationships." — Jodie Foster

"Evil is nourished and grows by concealment. " — Virgil

"Many things have fallen only to rise higher." — Seneca

"Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid." — Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky

"To love for the sake of being loved is human. But to love for the sake of loving is angelic." — Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine

"Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already. " — Marcus Aurelius

"A human being must have occupation if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world." — Dorothy L. Sayers

"When I find myself fading, I close my eyes and realize my friends are my energy." — unknown

"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you." — Maori Proverb

"Good timber does not grow with ease - the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees." — J. Willard Marriott

"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves, without any insistence that they satisfy you. " — Wayne Dyer

"There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. " — Benjamin Franklin

"I am more and more convinced that our happiness depends more on how we meet the events in our lives, than on those events themselves." — Alexander Humboldt

"Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics - it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality." — John W. Gardner

"If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect." — Benjamin Franklin

"We have lost the art of living; and in the most important science of all, the science of daily life, the science of behavior, we are complete ignoramuses. We have psychology instead. " — D.H. Lawrence

"Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you." — H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination." — Nelson Mandela

"A little grit in the eye destroyeth the sight of the very heavens, and a little malice or envy a world of joys. One wry principle in the mind is of infinite consequence. " — Thoams Traherne

"Nothing recommends a man to the female mind more than courage. " — Unattributed

"Self-respect is the fruit of discipline - the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself." — Rabbi Abraham Heschel

"A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs." — Mark Twain

"Patience with others is Love. Patience with self is Hope. Patience with God is Faith." — Adel Bestavros

"We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience. " — George Washington

"Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress." — Lloyd Alexander

"Our trials, our sorrows, and our griefs develop us." — Orison Swett Marden

"The strength of a man consists in finding out the way God is going, and going that way. " — Henry Ward Beecher

"An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for love is measured by fullness, not by reception." — Harold Loukes

"Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings. " — Victor Hugo

"You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give. " — Eleanor Roosevelt

"The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss. " — Thomas Kempis

"Prayer is talking with God and telling Him you love Him, conversing with God about all the things that are important in life, both large and small, and being assured that He is listening. " — C. Neil Strait

Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the life of the affections as leaves are to the life of a tree. If they are wholly restrained, love will die at the roots. " — Nathaniel Hawthorne

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places." — Ernest Hemingway

"Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. " — Henry James

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out." — Art Linkletter

"Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy." — Cynthia Nelms

"Accept fate, and move on. Don't yield to the seductive pull of self-pity. Acting like a victim threatens your future. " — Unattributed

"To be conservative at twenty is heartless, and to be a liberal at sixty is plain idiocy." — Sir Winston Churchill

As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man. " — Thomas Kempis

"Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image " ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Adversity is the touchstone of friendship." — French Proverb

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Even if you're on the right track you'll get run over if you just sit there." — Will Rogers

"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step." — C. S. Lewis

"When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them. " — Plato

"The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." — Clive Staples Lewis

"I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism. " — Charles Schwab

"The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past." — Robertson Davies

"That's the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they've been all along." — Madeleine L'Engle

"Failing doesn't make you a failure. Giving up, accepting your failure, refusing to try again does." — Richard Exely

"There are more serious problems in life than financial ones, and I've had a lot of those. I've been broke before, and will be again. Heartbroke. That's serious. Lose a few bucks. That's not." — Willie Nelson

"Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult." — Charlotte Whitton

"Love doesn't sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread: remade all the time, made new. " — Og Mandino

The Most Amazing Things

2010-11-13T09:42:00.000-08:00

Colossians 1:15-17

He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation.

For by Him all things were created:

things in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible,

whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;

all things were created by Him and for Him.

He is before all things,

and in Him all things hold together.

When I was a child I would sometimes sit in church and ponder the incredible fact that God always was. I could easily handle “always would be”, but “always was” is pretty much unfathomable. “Always was” is like eternity having come to an end, because as humans we always think of beginnings. As in Genesis, which begins “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Comprehending no beginning is impossible. If you get back to the beginning, you find it isn’t there. God simply always has existed. He was never created. Now this fact is very logical, because if He was created then some being created Him, and that is who is God, and then we are back to where we started.

So the fact that God always has existed is a very very reasonable concept, humanly speaking. And not only is it reasonable, but it seems necessary for our very existence, because matter did not create itself. That would be impossible. This is why I find atheists to be such a silly group of people. They never discuss where everything came from. They simply seem to think that it was just there all along, with nothing responsible for its existence. Not only was it simply always there as far as they are concerned, but it just happens to be an incredibly complex thing. The tiniest particle of matter is in itself incredibly complex.

But back to the “most amazing things of all”. It is simply the fact that we exist at all, which is tied inseparably to the fact that God has always existed and was not created by another being. I think you need to try and really set your mind to these ideas to be able to fully get in touch with the incomprehensibleness of them. One factor that limits our ability to comprehend always being is the fact that we are human and are confined by time and space. We make the assumption that everything is confined this way. But God is outside of time and space. We cannot think of God in our human terms, He simply does not fit the mold.

Another really difficult concept is what is at the end of the universe. If we were to send out a space probe that could go on and on and on, would it come to the end of things? And if so, what’s on the other side? In mathematics infinity is a concept that is dealt with at great length. There’s a lot of discussion about it in general, but nothing about its reality.

With each amazing thing about God that I write down I think of another amazing thing about Him. How amazing He is is a very large subject. So for now I will end here. Theology is truly and endlessly fascinating subject. In heaven we will only know more, but we will never know all.

Isaiah 66:1

Thus says the LORD,

"Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool

Where then is a house you could build for Me?

And where is a place that I may rest?

So Much Has Happened!

2010-01-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

Ecclesiastes 3:11-13

He has made everything appropriate in its time

He has also set eternity in [our] heart[s],

yet so that [we] will not find out the work

which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

I know that there is nothing better for [us] than to rejoice

and to do good in [our] lifetime;

moreover, that every[one] who eats and drinks

sees good in all his labor--it is the gift of God.

Well I've gone through a lot of difficult times in the last year. I'm probably not out of the woods yet, but I think that it is time to start acting like I'm a pretty normal.

Yesterday Annie ended up babysitting both Emily and Caleb. At about 10 o'clock Christian called and asked if I could give him a ride to school. They had late opening and he needed to transport his basketball shoes and his basketball. When I got down stairs to leave to get him I discovered that the temperature in the house was at least 80 degrees and the thermostat was not functioning at all. After dropping Christian off at school I hurried home, not wanting the house to get much hotter. I called Riley and he said to turn it off at the fuse box, which I did.

Having taken care of the heat, I headed for Annie's. She wanted to be able to get out for a walk, and of course she couldn't do that with only Caleb's stroller. I packed up some food that I thought Emily would like, put her stroller into the back of the car, and headed out. The kids were glad to see me, and that's always nice. I suggested to Annie that we feed them. I made Thai romen soup with vegies and an egg for Emily, and Annie made a grilled cheese sandwich for Caleb. I fed the soup to both kids and myself. I should have fed some to Annie too, as in the hubbub she forgot to eat. I think she was thinking we'd go to County Cork for lunch.

Well we finally got the kids ready to head out. First we stopped at Sophie's, a lovely boutique on Fremont. They are having a big sale - 35% off everything. I bought a pair of socks. Next we started to go to County Cork, as Annie was hungry, but they didn't open until 3 on Wednesdays. So we headed for Starbucks, where we had an eventful time. Emily kept me very busy. She seems to be struggling a bit with life. I think she misses coming to her Nana's every day and getting just one on one attention. She gets a bit naughty, and then she snuggles up and is very still. At first she said she wanted to be a naughty girl, but later she changed her mind.

After she spilled her hot chocolate all over the floor and I got it cleaned up, we headed for Whole Foods so I could get come new vitamins. Annie and Caleb did there own thing, and eventually they headed out without us, so that Annie could get him to fall asleep. They headed for my house, and then Emily and I headed towards Annie's house, as my car was there. By the time I got there Emily was asleep. She only woke up momentarily as I lifted her into her car seat. She sure weighs more than she did when I stopped babysitting her in May.

When I got home I discovered that Riley was there. He had come home to fix the furnace. Fait accomplis! He's such a clever man. But that aside, I had him get Emily out of her seat and carry her upstairs and put her into the guest bed. All went well, but when Annie showed up a couple minutes later with sleeping Caleb and I told her to put him into the crib in the guest bedroom, he let out a big howl as he was laid down. That was certainly enough to wake Emily. Caleb could not be coaxed into taking a nap. He knew he was a Nana's house and that there were so many things he wanted to do. Emily, on the other hand, stayed laying on the bed while I laid there with her. She snuggled up and said to me "I love you so much". That was so nice to hear. She also said she didn't want to be a naughty girl.

It wasn't long before we got up. Caleb heard us up and came upstairs to be with us, with Annie hot on his tail of course. We all went into the sitting room, where lots of toys are kept. That's Annie's favorite place to be when watching children. When they were settled in, I left to go down and see what Riley was up to. He told me all about the thermostat and what he did. I then remembered that Annie was probably hungry, so I got out leftover curry and rice, fried the rice and headed the curry. Just as I had it plated up Annie and the kids came down, as Emily wanted to be where I was. We all sat at the table. Annie was so glad to have a highchair to put Caleb into, as she had to use his stroller at her house. Eventually we ended up in the living room, and soon Stephane and Parker arrived to pick up Emily. They stayed around for a while, and we finally gave Stephane one of his Christmas presents - duck comfit. He seemed to like it very much. Now we have just one more present for Stephane, and one more for Parker, and one more for Caleb, and ... one more for Heidi. We do stretch Christmas out a bit.

Soon after Stephane and Parker and reluctant Emily left (about 5:30), then Sarah arrived to get Caleb. She also stayed around for a while, and Riley showed her his silly videos and she almost fell off the couch for laughing. But she eventually needed to leave, as Zac was due to arrive home at a decent hour this evening. So Annie, Sarah, and Caleb all bundled up and headed out. I had had a lovely day with everyone, but it was good to have some quiet also. Riley gave me a foot rub while we watched and episode of "House Hunters International", about a couple with children and grandchildren buying a house in the countryside in Portugal. I have to say that that was the first time I watched an episode and thought I could like to live there. They got and absolutely fabulous family home in the countryside about 30 minutes outside of Lisbon for about $465,000. Six bedrooms, two or three terraces, a library, a swimming pool, etc... I think at least I want to visit Portugal.

Then we went out for dinner, eating at Pasta Pastini. That's not the real name, but that's what we call it and we can never remember the real name. We got to sit in a booth (our favorite seating), and we had a wonderfully chatty waitress, and we played gin rummy and for the first time ever Riley absolutely creamed me, and we each loved our food. Riley said he now has a new favorite dish. I thought I don't remember him having an old favorite, so I asked what it was. He then said he didn't have one. I had brushetta classica, which I love. Toasted Italian bread with an eggplant spread and an Italian tomato salsa with balsamic vinegar. Yum!

Back home we watched Jeopardy, then turned off the tv and dinked for a while. I worked on my Dad's sweater and read an old knitting book I love. Then we headed upstairs to get into bed and do a crossword puzzle. Then I read my Bible for a while and went to sleep. It was a lovely normal day, and I never felt tired or anything.

"There are two ways to live your life -

one is as though nothing is a miracle,

the other is as though everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein

Daring Baker Challenge - Bakewell Tarts - I'm late, but I wasn't

2009-06-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

Psalm 16:11

You will make known to me the path of life; 

In Your presence is fullness of joy; 

In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

At first I thought that I couldn't posssibly make Daring Baker project this month because of going through chemo. But after my first treatment I did pretty well, except for the first Sunday after treatment. So I planned it out that I would get help. I invited my #2 daughter to come over on Thursday after I had the chemo to do the project with me. She brought along my grand-daughter Emily because she's now the one babysitting her. She also brought my grandson Christian. He was hoping we would play a game of cards. He doesn't yet realize that my energy is limited. He wants to beat me at 10 to 1 or rummy.

So slowly but surely we got working on the tarts. The first thing of course was to make the pate sucre. Emily was keen to help in all things, and she was keen to play with all her toys that she'd been missing because of not being at my house every day. It was fun to see her get to excited about her books and her dolls. She loaded all her dolls into the antique doll carriage that we had given her for Christmas. And then she got out all her books. And then she got into her great big toy basket trunk and looked through everything. When Riley got home in the evening he said to me "Either you lost it, or Emily's been here."

I told Christian that he could take the pictures, as I didn't feel like I had the energy to keep Emily under control and take pictures. Well it seemed to be going okay, though he's not all that good at taking pictures, but what I discovered later was that he was a rather naughty boy because he changed the lens. Now this is no cheap camera, and I was really quite upset with him for doing that. In part that also explained why he was having trouble getting the pictures to shoot. He had the big zoom lens on. I'm still hoping there's no damage to the camera. Christian has a problem thinking that he's as old as he is big. Being 5'8" at the age of twelve is confusing.

Christian on his 12th birthay

Making the pastry dough was very easy, but slow going with Emily involved.

She was upset that I didn't let her sepparate the eggs.

But she really has absolutely not tallent in that area and I did it myself, all the while trying to prevent Emily from opening up all the butters on the table. She didn't understand that some were for later.

So when the pastry dough was wrapped up and in the refrigerator, I started in on the frangipane. But when I got out the almonds Annie spied a bug in the bag. So into the garbage with the nuts, and I went off to the store for almonds. But not long after I returned Heidi showed up to collect her children, so it was decided that we would continue the next day.

So this was the morning that I had my hair wacked off. A very distressing event, but necessary. But anyway, after the hair cut I picked up Annie and Emily so we could finish the tarts. We got the frangipane made, now that I had new nuts. We tasted it, and it was yummy, even to my dulled taste buds. To Annie it was heavenly, and she was glad to know about it.

Then we got out the pastry dough, and rolled it out. I let Emily "help" me roll. She going to be a good party roller one day.

Then while I hunted around for something to cut the circles of dough out with, Annie and Emily discovered a little bag of very unusual candy on the counter, and they were into that until all the candy was gone. So I took a picture of the lovely jam that Lauren (my sister-in-law) had sent down to me earlier in the week.

Annie and Emily finishing off a little bag of candy

Emily wanted to help cut the discs out,

And Annie was keen to put the dough into the molds once she saw the tool I was using to do it with. So I gave her some instuctions and off she went.

And she was also keen to help put the strawberry-rhubarb jam into the molds.

We then heated the oven to 400 degrees, added the frangipane on top of the jam, and put the tarts into the oven for 15 minutes. They turned out perfect, if I say so myself. Now everyone who ate these thought they were fantastic, but I must confess I couldn't really tell what they tasted like. Almost everything tastes terrible in my mouth.

I gave Annie and Emily six tarts and I kept the other six. I was going to take a picture of the insides on one, but they were gone before I got around to it. I still have stuff left to make more, and I think I will get onto that as soon as possible.

But anyway, when all was said and done, on Saturday I suddenly hit the wall at about 1 o'clock, and all I wanted to to was nap, and that's just what I did. All day and into the evening. I completely forgot to post the Daring Baker project. I couldn't believe it. There I had finished the project on time under difficult circumstances and what do I do, I forget to post it.

"Slump? I ain't in no slump... I just ain't hitting." Yogi Berra

You could think I'd dropped off the face of the earth

2009-06-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

"There is an appointed time for everything.

And there is a time for every event under heaven-- "

Ecclesiastes 3:1

But I didn't. Most of my blogging of late is done on anther blog called Molly's Trouble. That's because I've been diagnosed with a rather odd form of breast cancer, but according to several sources I will eventually be just fine. Christmas is the soonest however.

This blog has been used for my Daring Baker, Daring Cooks, Tuesday with Dorie, and Family events. For the time being I do not think I will have much energy for any of those things. And when I found out that cancer cells feed on sugar, there was no way I was going to make something sugary, no matter how good I thought it was.

I'm really doing pretty good, as you can see on my other blog. But then that's today. I start chemo in a week, and I imagine it will really be downhill for a while. But I preparing for the best. I hope to have enough energy to go for walks from time to time, and I really hoping to eat as well as possible, even if it feels like being force fed. We shall see.

But if I have things to blog about that appropriate to this blog, I will surely do them. There's actually things to be put on this blog that are in past time, but that I really must get on here. Before I was diagnosed with cancer I was sooooooo tired, and little was getting done besides what had to be done. But I did manage to make two big cakes and a big batch of cupcakes for my Dad's 90th birthday, and put on a dinner also for his birthday. And I had dinner parties that have not been blogged about.

The hardest change is that I don't have Emily any more. She's rather hard to take care of, but still a joy at the same time. When she sees me now for a while, she cries such cries when she has to go. It really tugs at my heart. She's very aware that things have changed. Trying to tell her that I'm sick is rather hard. Wait till she sees me with no hair.

"It ain't over till it's over."

Yogi Berra

The Daring Cooks first ever challenge - Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi

2009-05-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

1 Peter 5:7

"casting all your anxiety on Him,

because He cares for you."

I joined the Daring Bakers because it looked like so much fun and I love to bake. But I joined the Daring Cooks because I really needed to be challenged to be more adventurous when it comes to cooking. The first challenge is right in line for that - I've never made gnocchi before, and I've only eaten it once. It was at a well known restaurant, and I didn't think it was all that good.

Well I have to say that this gnocchi was much better than the one at the restaurant. It was so delicate and pleasant. AND ..... it was actually quite easy and I'm definitely going to make it again - as an entree. I had meant to make it for dinner last night, but I had had such a stressful day with Emily that I forgot all about it, and I was quite happy so settle into watching a baseball game. But by the end of the game I was doing much better and at that point I remembered the gnocchi and I talked my husband into being willing to eat gnocchi at 9 o'clock.

Not only was he willing to eat the gnocchi, he was willing to help straighten up the kitchen for me, so it would be easier to cook there. He is really a terrific husband. So after it was cleared up I set up everything I needed for making the gnocchi. I didn't have large eggs, only extra large. My Parmigiano-Reggiano was of a course shred, so I needed to try and get it smaller in the food processor. When I weighed out what I had it was an ounce, so I went with it, particularly because my eggs were bigger than called for. My mixture seemed like maybe it was too wet, so I added three tablespoons of flour. This was to compensate for the big eggs.

It still seemed a bit wet, but then I made the test gnocchi and it came out really nice. So at that I did up a batch of gnocchi.

And at that my mind began thinking our what I could add to the gnocchi to make it a finished dish. I had made 4 quiches on Mother's Day, and I still had vegies left-over from that. I decided that I would fry up a bit of zucchini in a little butter and olive oil with a light sprinkle of garlic salt and some pepper. I also added to sea salt, and when I opened the container I picked the wrong side, and almost ruined the zucs, but luckily i shook lightly. Then when the zucs looked nicely cooked I added six grape tomatoes cut in half and sauteed them just a teeny bit. Then I scooped out the gnocchi from the boiling water after about 4 minutes and put the vegies on top.

I love all the possibilities for this dish, and I think that it's the perfect entree. The gnocchi were really light, even with my addition of flour. Riley really liked the zucchini and I really liked the grape tomatoes with the gnocchi.

One thing that I found very interesting is that the recipe is almost exactly the mixture that I put into my Christmas lasagne. That really gave me some ideas. For an herb in the Christmas lasagne I put in sweet basil. So what if I boiled up my mixture into gnocchi before putting it into the lasagne?

This recipe was brought to us by the Zuni Cafe, and the recipe can be found in The Zuni Café Cookbook.

"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step."

C. S. Lewis

Teaching your children to cook - and then they teach you how to cook

2009-05-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

"Train up a child in the way he should go,

Even when he is old he will not depart from it."

Proverbs 22:6

Today I had my first public article printed. It was just a volunteer project - in other words, I wasn't paid. But it was still kind of exciting to see what that feels like - having something you wrote printed up. The article was on "Teaching Your Children to Cook", and it is on the Daring Kitchen site, and can be found here, or here, or lastly here, on one of my blogs.

And in a funny little twist of irony, it was today that one of my daughters taught me how to cook something. It all started when Riley and I were at Winco and he spotted tomatillos. It seems his mouth began to salivate at the thought of Sarah's chicken tacos. Next thing I knew he was on the phone to Sarah, who incidentally was going to be spending the evening at our house, because her husband was going to a wrestling banquet. Wrestlers seem to have lots of banquets.

We then proceded to gather up all the food items we would need for the tacos, as well as gathering up the things needed for the birthday dinner for my Dad tomorrow. He's actually 90 today, but Sunday was a better day for the dinner.

"You can observe a lot by watching." Yogi Berra

Dinner with my sister Nancy and her friend Russ

2009-04-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand,

that he may lift you up in due time.

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

1 Peter 5:6-7

The really unique thing about this dinner is that there were only 6 of us at the table. I really like a dinner party that size, but it rarely occurs.

quest:
Nancy and Russ
Peter and Debbie
Molly and Riley

menu:
green salad with spring onion vinaigrette
French bread
meatballs in spicy tomato sauce
egg noodles
pear tart

I managed to keep the menu simple, though it was not an easy menu. Making the meatballs takes time, as does the pear tart, but if I say so myself, everything turned out very nicely.

We had never met Russ before. He came up from California with Nancy to attend my dad's 90th birthday party. He particularly wanted to see my Lacanche stove. I'm not sure, but it seemed that he was tremendously underwhelmed by it. But he did like the dinner, especially the pear tart. Actually, everyone liked the pear tart. I had modified the recipe a tiny bit, adding 1/4 tsp orange essence to the cream cheese mixture.

I had hoped I would get to work on the birthday cakes for my dad after they left, but I was way too tired, and I just went to bed. Actually, I probably fell asleep while watching baseball, and then went to bed.

"Flattery is all right so long as you don't inhale."

Adlai Stevenson

Daring Baker's Cheesecake

2009-04-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

"Are not five sparrows sold for two cents?

Yet not one of them is forgotten before God."

Luke 12:6

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes.

She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I can't believe I almost missed this post. I was so busy today catching up on past posting, mainly Easter, that I didn't post this. The irony is that I made the cheesecake for Easter dinner, and I was avoiding putting a picture of the cheesecake on the post, because I thought the post date was Thursday.

I don't like cheesecake, but a lot of other people do, so Easter was just perfect for this dessert. Since I never think much about cheesecake I wasn't sure what to do with it. But I remembered the strawberry mirror cake that the Daring Bakers made before I joined. I thought that topping looked pretty impressive, so I decided to give it a go.

I also decided that I'd make two smaller cakes, one plain and one strawberry. The hitch in that plan was that I couldn't find two small pans the same size in my baking pan arsenal. But I found two that are pretty close in size. One is a typical German springform pan, and the other is a tall loose bottom pan from England that I bought in Hong Kong years ago. I wrapped both pans in double foil, though I had read somewhere that even that doesn't prevent the crust from getting soggy.

My filling was just as the recipe said - no added anything. I selected a bigger pan that the two pans could fit into, but unfortunately I forgot to take into account the dimension of the foil, so they were in there quite snuggly, which proved to be not a good thing, as one of the cakes was done before the other, and it was darned hard to get it out of the hot water. Live and learn.

The one in the front is my English pan, and it did not get a soggy crust. The one in the back in the springform pan did get a slightly soggy crust. I have no idea why. You can see the evidence of this in the picture below.

On Easter I found the recipe for the top of the mirror cake, and made it up and placed in on my bigger cheesecake. I think that I let the mixture get just a bit colder than I should have, and the gelatin was a bit too set when I put it on. But no harm, everyone liked it any way. My daughter who really likes cheesecake said that it was the best on she'd ever tasted.

"Remember you humanity and forget the rest"

Albert Einstein

Dinner with the Mellis

2009-04-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly

beyond all that we ask or think,

according to the power that works within us,

to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus

to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

Ephesians 3:20-21

It's always so nice to get together with old friends, especially ones as cool as the Mellis. We were not of us quite sure, but we think the last time we got together was in 2001, and we visited them in Germany in 1999. This day was chosen for the dinner because it was the only one when all our children could come. Sarah and Zac were in Tennessee until last night, when we picked them up at the airport at midnight. I'm surprised at how well everything went, considering how little sleep Riley and I got last night. For myself, I got 5 1/2 hours sleep. It was something like that for Riley.

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen:

not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

C. S. Lewis

Easter Sunday - a family dinner

2009-04-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

"He is not here, but He has risen

Remember how He spoke to you

while He was still in Galilee,

saying that the Son of Man

must be delivered into the hands of sinful men,

and be crucified, and the third day rise again."

Luke 24:6-7

Yesterday I was feeling just a sick as ever, thinking that I was never going to get well. But today I really felt pretty good, which is great, as I needed to hit the ground running at 7:00 AM. We decided to go to the first service at church, and it was scheduled for 8:15, instead of the usual 9:15.

Yesterday I had managed to make two cheese cakes and a batch of meringues for an Eton Mess. But that was about all. Well actually we had cleared off the table and counter in the back room. That in itself was a good accomplishment, as it seems that every surface needs to be covered with stuff in this house.

And I also got the salad dressing made, because I was cleaning in the kitchen and I saw that my gallon of rice vinegar was down to about a half cup.

So I got up this morning, washed my hair, started the French bread, got the cheesecakes into the downstairs refrigerator, and then dear sweet Riley said he'd iron my dress while I dried my hair. Everything went quite well, really, and we were only about 5 minutes late for church.

Guest List:
Heidi and Stephane

Christina, Emily, and Parker
Ken and Marilyn
Annie and Corey
Gramma and Grampa
Bill and Jill

Menu:

French bread
green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and pears
with an orange vinaigrette dressing

baked ham
scalloped potatoes
asparagus

gateau au fromage classique

strawberry glazed cheesecake
orange flan
Eton Mess
coffee and tea

After church Riley and I stopped at the grocery store for some half and half and an orange for the flan. When I had made the meringues I had six egg yolks that needed to be made into something, so I chose Orange Flan. Somehow, in between everything I worked on setting the table, cleaning up the toys, and keeping the kitchen mess in order.

We got home, ate a little breakfast, and then we started right in on all the things that needed doing. I started right in on the flan, then I moved on to putting a strawberry jelly on top of one of the cheesecakes. By one o'clock I started the ham. By the time it was in I began to worry about the scalloped potatoes. I had thought that Annie wanted to do it, but I called her and somehow she thought I was going to do it. So I realized I had better get going fast on the potatoes. That was a lot of peeling and cutting. But I finally got it into the oven about 20 minutes late.

So I had the ham in the gas oven, the potatoes in the Miele, the meringues were in the warming cupboard just chilling, and the electric oven was heating up for the bread. I got out all the things for the salad, and just about then Ken and Marilyn showed up. Marilyn volenteered to help with the salad. She also offered to put the bread in the oven, slashing the bread in her own unique little way.

Soon everyone else arrived. My Mom brought me a lovely bouquet of flowers from her garden. Emily arrived in a beautiful dress that had a Central European look about it. And Heidi arrived with eggs for the hunt. Things were fast winding down as people began to settle in. I don't know what they all did, but I did see Riley handing out classes of Scotch. Unfortunately Riley was really tired. I think I should have insisted that he eat a proper lunch.

We all sat down to salad and bread at about 3:30 - not bad really.
Everyone loved the bread. It could have been the new flour that I used - Stone-Buhr Unbleached White Bread Flour. Everyone went right through the bread. The pears were great in the salad. I used some little yellow ones. Parker gave thumbs up to the bread, but he didn't want any salad, and neither did Emily.

By the time we finished the salad course, the main course seemed quite ready. We cleared off the salad plates, and I quickly heated up the asparagus, and got it all on the table, the ham, and scalloped potatoes and asparagus.

The ham was purchased at Costco, and it was labeled Martha Stewart, and the scalloped potato recipe was a modification of on in Martha Stewart's book Entertaining. This was a coincidence, but in fact we found a video on the internet of Martha preparing both the ham and the potatoes. I did not use as much cream as she called for.

I think that it was all just the perfect amount of food. This needs to happen to Thanksgiving. Maybe for Thanksgiving what we need is to have more than one day for eating the food. But that's another talk. People cleared off the table when we were done, and I went into the kitchen to make Eton Mess with the little kids. We had a lot of fun.

Emily broke up the meringue for a while, and then Parker took over and finished the job. We then moved on to assembling the whole think is a big bowl, with Emily on whipped cream, Parker on strawberries, and me on the meringue.

They were pretty proud of the work.

For dessert we also had cheesecakes and orange flan. The flan was a really big hit.

And to end it all we had an Easter egg hunt. Actually, only Emily and Parker participated, as my children have decided that they don't like doing an Easter egg hunt. This was the first time in 35 years that I did not make Easter baskets for my girls. A bit sad that. But anyway, Christian had great fun hiding the eggs. He too felt that he was too old to hunt for eggs.

Emily and Parker each had very different views of what the hunt was all about. For Parker it was all about the chocolate, and for Emily it was all about the Eggs. So she gave him her chocolate, and he gave her his empty eggs.

"I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia.

Let them walk to school like I did."

Yogi Berra

Daring Baker Challenge - Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna

2009-03-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

"Behold, God is my helper;

The Lord is the sustainer of my soul."

Psalm 54:4

I was so looking forward to this challenge. I love to make lasagna, and I was up for a new recipe. I even bought the cook book that the recipe came from. But unfortunately I came down with pneumonia last week, and the doctor even told me to go to emergency on Friday evening with a temperature of 104. So I do no have the energy to tackle lasagna this weekend. And besides, I can't smell anything. I can only taste salt, sweet, sour, and bitter. Yesterday I put chopped fresh jalapeno in my chicken soup and I didn't even notice it. I had originally planned to do it for my husbands birthday dinner earlier this month. But he had purchased a big standing rib roast for me to cook, so what was I to do. I feel like a real flake of a daring baker, and I really hope they don't take me off the list.

But since I can't talk about my db event, I will talk about my lasagna for last Christmas. It was the snowiest Christmas any of us had ever seen, and our car was of no use to us. If you wanted to go anywhere you walked, unless you got someone with chains to give you a ride. I talked some about all this snow business on a blog in December, but I never got it finished. Everything was so hectic. But because I wasn't able to get to my Italian market to pick up fresh made pasta sheets for the lasagna we were compelled to make our own. Luckily my daughter Annie is an expert at this, and in our usual fashion we all dug in to get the lasagna make.

I was lucky to find all the ingredients needed for my sauce in the freezer, including a secret ingredient, which has become somewhat of a tradition.

And to my great amazement, there it was, Christmas Eve Lasagna, even though I didn't think I could do it. And we even had dinner on time (well, almost on time - 8:15).

And the nicest complement the lasagna got from my oldest daughter's French boyfriend, who said it was the best lasagna he'd ever eaten, and he had two pieces.

We all enjoyed the lasagna very much, and had a lovely Christmas eve dinner.

And then we follow dinner with our traditional buche de Noel:

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

And I know there are many many wonderful daring bakers out there who actually managed to do this month's challenge

"If I knew I was going to live this long,

I'd have taken better care of myself."

Mickey Mantle

Riley's Birthday

2009-03-11T23:48:00.000-07:00

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,

it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

I was baffled for weeks about what to do for Riley's birthday. It was on Wednesday - the day our group meets. I liked the idea of including the group, but I didn't like the idea of excluding the family. Then I came up with the idea of having a family birthday dinner for Riley on the Sunday before his birthday. I can't remember the details, but that fell flat. So there I was, still wondering what I was going to do.

I often asked Riley what he would like to do, and he was not forth-coming with any good ideas. Well actually, he had gotten the idea that he wanted onion rings. That sounded terrible to me, due to the fact that I've been slightly nauseated ever since I got a bad cold in November. Fried food is not appealing. Then the morning of his birthday I made everyone pancakes, we took Christian to school, and then we went through the Starbucks drive-thru, where we talked with Caroline, who works there. In chatting with Caroline, who realized it was us and came to the window, she mentioned that her best friend from childhood - Jenny - had died on Monday. I immediately felt that it was a bad idea not to have the group. But Riley had already e-mailed everyone earlier in the morning that we weren't having the group because of his birthday.

Well I took Riley to work, all the while thinking of what to do. After dropping of Riley, Emily and I went to Goodwill, and while there I decided that I would just contact everyone to have them come, not telling Riley of course. So then I went back to Starbucks and told Caroline, who said they would be coming. Then I went home and found the phone numbers of both Jake and Merideth on Riley's computer, and I called both of them, needing to leave a message both times.

Then I needed to get a big cake made, and I needed to think of how to get Riley to dinner in such a way as to be able to get home by 7:30, not too late, but soon after out guests arrived. Heidi and her group - Christian, Emily, Stephane, and Parker - would be there, as well as Annie and Corey. The cake I made was from the Rose's cookbook, and was a cake Riley had requested. I made half the recipe, as the whole recipe called for putting the batter into 3 10 inch cake pans. I used the 6 1/2 inch pans, and each layer was perfect, coming just to the top of the pan when cooked. But the frosting was an absolute pain. I think that an ingredient was omitted. I just couldn't get it to turn into frosting, until I finally added about 1/4 cup heavy cream. I was then supposed to stir in the chopped pecans into the frosting before spredding onto the cake. That was a really big pain, and I had to affix the frosting to the cake using my fingers, because it just wouldn't spread. The cake was really tall and narrow, and looked rather silly. But what could I do.

I finally came up with the idea of picking him up after work and telling him we were going to go to a restaurant we'd never been to before. At first I'd thought of taking him to a restaurant that needed reservations, but in these hard economic times, reservations are not the thing. I decided that Italian was the best idea, and I soon came up with the idea of going to "3 Doors Down" in the Hawthorne district. It came well recommended.

I was just a tad late picking him up, as Corey was not really willing to help me. She was really miffed at the idea of having to entertain young married couples. But Riley was all ready to go when I got there, and he was delighted with the idea of a surprise new restaurant. As I headed up Hawthorne he was quite perplexed, as I'd told him that it was a slightly posh restaurant that he'd never been to. By the time we got to about 32nd he guessed "3 Doors Down", but I didn't tell him he was right until I parked the car. I really was quite the restaurant, especially for Hawthorne. We both ordered a seafood pasta dish, with a shared caesar salad before. I ordered a glass of wine, and Riley ordered a martini. By the time we were finishing our dinner it was getting very close to when we should leave, but I was doing my very best to not let Riley know I was in a hurry to get home. When the waitress asked if we would like dessert, I told Riley that we had a specially dessert at home. But upon seeing the dessert menu, Riley decided that he wanted to have some coffee. At that I knew we were going to be late getting home, but I remained as absolutely cool as possible, so as not to give a hint as to what was happening. Though I did help him a little with drinking his coffee.

Luckily, after leaving the restaurant, he did not suggest we go to Powells. We headed straight home. But as we arrived at our block he did notice that there was an unusual amount of cars parked outside our house. I told him that someone else must be having a party. But of course, as soon as he walked up onto the porch, he noticed all the people in the house. To my delight every one was there, and the table was all set up for dessert. It turned out that Corey, in an effort to not be social, had decided to get things ready.

We sang happy birthday.

Then we had cake.

We all watched

as Riley opened presents. I gave him a very nice garden fork.

""Think! How the hell are you gonna think and hit at the same time?"

Yogi Berra

TWD - Chocolate Armagnac Cake

2009-03-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

Then one of the young men said,

"Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite

who is a skillful musician,

a mighty man of valor, a warrior,

one prudent in speech, and a handsome man;

and the LORD is with him."

1 Samuel 16:18

Tuesday with Dorie: Chocolate Armagnac Cake - page 279

of Baking: From My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Yesterday I thought for once I'd get a head start on my TWD project, and get it done on Monday. Well I forgot that I was going to the Symphony. Riley called and asked if I would come down town and pick him up so that he could take a nap, as he worries about falling asleep and snoring at the symphony. This cut right into my progress - actually it stopped it all together. We first went for coffee, as I didn't want coffee too late because I am capable of being awake until 2 AM if I have late coffee.

We saw the Portland Symphony conducted by Itzhak Perlman. The first piece was Bach's Violin Concerto in A Minor. It was of course played by Perlman on his Stradivarius, and I thought it was wonderful. But to my great shock, I realized after the piece was over that someone had been playing a harpsicord, and I had never heard it. In part I can attribute this to my attention to the violin, but also it was because I am partially deaf, and that was sad to me.

But back to the cake. Trying to get it made with Emily in tow was darned hard. She was determined she was going to crack the eggs, not understanding that I needed to separate them. I had to do it the cheffy way, using my fingers to strain the whites out. This was because she cracked an egg before I could stop her. So then I put her onto the task of stirring the warm chocolate. That went much better.

I was glad that I already had the prunes steeped and the nuts ground, but this recipe sure uses more than it's fair share of bowls. I finally got the eggs properly whipped, the chocolate melted, and began to combine everything. It all went together very nicely, and now I'm waiting for it to come out the oven - 1 minute to go. .... It didn't seem quite done, so I gave it another three minutes. The first time was for 21 minutes. This is because I made less than the whole cake. I halved it, sort of. I had missed the three eggs bit, so in the end I halved all but the eggs, using two, since I couldn't decide how to cut three in half, and so I omitted the water with the chocolate. We'll see. ... In those last three minutes the top of the cake cracked. I don't know what that means.

So now I'm going into the kitchen to ice the cake and take some pictures. Be back soon.

The icing was "a piece of cake". I don't think mine would have turned into a glaze, and I used a knife to spread. We soon all had a piece with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. It was very tasty, and I couldn't really detect the prunes. Did I chop them too small? The cake was very light, but then I halved the recipe, but still used 2 eggs (omitting the water). That's to say that I think the extra egg white made the cake lighter. I'd like to try the whole cake next time. Since I had just made a flourless cake for the Daring Baker project, I didn't need too much more cake at this time.

I forgot to mention: even though I made only half the cake, I made all the icing. It was a good fit.

next day: The cake is even better the next day - really. Emily and I had tea and cake after lunch, and the first thing she said after having a little piece of cake was "More!"

Albert Einstein, who fancied himself as a violinist, was rehearsing a Haydn string quartet. When he failed for the fourth time to get his entry in the second movement, the cellist looked up and said, "The problem with you, Albert, is that you simply can't count."

Daring Bakers - For the Love of Chocolate

2009-02-28T22:22:00.000-08:00

"Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another,

because love covers a multitude of sins."

1 Peter 4:8

Today, shortly after taking an apple pie out of the oven, I remembered that it was the day for posting my Daring Bakers project - which I hadn't yet done. It was about 5 o'clock. We have the grandchildren for the weekend, and I wasn't sure I had the energy. But at about 7 o'clock Riley encouraged me to get it made, so up I got and went to the kitchen. Emily had fallen asleep, which greatly aided my progress.

I used to have a very similar recipe, but I've looked for it for years without success. So I am glad to have found something at least similar. I could only locate an 8 ounce bar so chocolate, so I decided that I would do 3/5ths of the recipe. My baking pans are in a room of the basement that has a broken light, so with flash light in hand the best I could come up with was a 7" loose bottom pan. I put the chopped chocolate into a glass dish, topped it with the butter, and put it into the microwave for 60 seconds. It worked perfectly.

The picture on the left is before going into the oven, and the one on the right is after baking in the oven for 20 minutes.

Then, after watching an episode of The Lawrenceville Stories with Riley and Christian, while Emily still slept, though now on my lap, I set the "boys" off to the store for some good vanilla ice cream. While they were gone, Emily (who finally woke up) and I went into the kitchen to get the cake onto a cake plate.

The guys soon returned with Hagen Daz vanilla, and we served up the cake, and at this point I vaguely remembered that I was supposed to have berries or something with the cake. Peaches was all I could come up with, but then I really like peaches with chocolate cake, and I don't really like strawberries as much with it.

We all enjoyed the cake. It had a very light feel to it, as if you hadn't ingested that many calories, and that's a good thing. I might like to add some vanilla or brandy next time.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten

everything he learned in school."

Albert Einstein

Tuesday with Dorie and a Birthday with Corey -Devil's Food White-Out Cake

2009-02-17T15:53:00.000-08:00

"Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Resist the devil,

and he will flee from you."

James 4:7

I had a lot of trouble getting logged on and staying logged on, so this post is a little late. But for once I was ahead of the game, as I made the dessert for the day for daughter #3's birthday in September. Mine's a four layer cake, as I didn't have the heart to crumble up a whole cake layer - and also, I wanted the cake to look as grand as possible.

She had two or three parties that day. In the afternoon she had tea in the garden with her sisters and a friend. It was a lovely afternoon for a tea.

I'm not sure where all the food for the tea came from, but one item was l'opera from Sarah's birthday two day earlier.

There were lots of presents, and many goodies to eat.

Before tea was done, I was on to making the cake. And soon after the the girls cleared off the tea, they were decorating for the party.

It was to be a Hawaiian themed party, and all of Corey's co-workers were invited to the evening party.

It was a great scurry for me to get the cake made in time for everyone to have some, but I made it.

We had the cake on the upper deck, as there was more room.

Corey blew out the candles and I cut the cake.

Everyone really enjoyed the cake.

Peter especially enjoyed his piece, to Corey's delight. (Corey really likes Peter)

"The devil's most devilish when respectable."

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Valentine's Weekend with Riley

2009-02-16T23:11:00.000-08:00

Man's steps are ordained by the LORD, 

How then can man understand his way?

Proverbs 20:24

>
I babysit the kids most days, and usually when I get a day off I only find out about it the night before. But this time it was arranged for me well in advance. It was assumed by many that Riley and I would go away for this three day weekend. It was a three day weekend because of Presidents Day, which Riley had off because he works for the city.

Well we thought and thought about where we might go. The first idea was to take the train somewhere. Well it turns out that living in Oregon makes it quite difficult to go somewhere on the train. It's a long ways to anywhere, or the train simply doesn't go there any way. And then when you get there you have to pay for a hotel, which is most likely rather hard to get to anyway.

So next we thought about going to Sunriver, a most pleasant place if you're in a good place to stay. Well it turns out that any place we liked was rather expensive - as in about $225-250 per night, and deals only for four nights. The only reasonable options were little condos or darkish little houses. Why travel 170 miles to stay in an unpleasant place?

So in the end we decided that we'd really just like to be in our own house, acting like we're on vacation. The bed is the best, and all our things are here, and best of all, at the end of the last day there's no driving for 3 1/2 hours to get home. Now the long drive is okay in the summer, when the sun stays up late and shines all day. But in the winter you drive home in the dark, and possibly the rain or snow. So home it was.

Now unfortunately the start of this weekend was Friday the 13th, and it was true to its reputation. I won't go into it, but we had a fairly major family crisis and it was good that we were going to be staying around. This did give me lots of angst, but I know that God is in charge, and He loves us and has our best interest at the center of what happens to us. So with some prayer and deep breathing, we got on with things. Everyone in the family stepped in to aid in the crisis.

I did have trouble sleeping on Friday night, but by mid morning I was finally relaxing very nicely. I sat up in bed and red all kinds of interesting things that are next to my side of the bed, like CÔTÉ PARIS. Then Riley brought me a beautiful bouquet of pink and white tulips. We decided we would go out for breakfast, and took our time thinking of where we would go.

Well I'm Back!

2009-02-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand,

that He may lift you up in due time.

Cast all your anxiety on Him

because he cares for you.

1 Peter 5:6-7

I don't know why I haven't post of late. I've even done my Tuesday With Dorie, and then not posted it. Maybe the Christmas Season was a bit much, and I just wanted to idle. One thing that has occupied me was my oldest daughter Heidi challenging me to the Geo Challenge on Facebook. I'd beat her, then she'd beat me. And I know her computer is faster than mine. But finally she had the definitive win, though in fact, it was her boyfriend Stephane who played on her site and beat me so that I hadn't a chance.

Then Heidi came along and challenged me to Who Has The Biggest Brain. Now here again I am a bit struggling. But there's something in me doesn't want to be beat. But I can only go so fast. I'm very good at some of the tests - like counting the blocks or putting the numbers in order or math or memorizing objects, but I'm not so good at the puzzle one or the flipping cards. I'm on average pretty good at most of it, but I excel in analyzing. That does make sense, as I was a programmer/analyst for many years, and I was quite good at it. I do like to analyze and get things in order. I even organize books at Powells when I find them out of order.

But now I need to get on with life, get things done, pay attention to other things. Ha! Watch, I'll be right back at trying to beat Heidi. Right now in Portland I think I'm 19th best for the week and Heidi is 17th best. Now that could change at any time, as others play. We're both Cyborgs. But really, on average, I'm just a Space Ace.
Okay - so I just don't want to be a stupid old lady.

Today the children have gone to Klamath Falls with their dad to visit their grandmother known as Lola. That's Filipino for Nana. I'm Nana, ..... Just in .... Tom is keeping them in Kalamath for another day. I sure hope I can manage to stop worrying about them. Tom wants Emily to have more time with her grandmother, who she hasn't seen very often. Of course "Who's fault is this!" He could have behaved himself, stayed married to the wife he did love, and have a normal life ,,, but oh no!

"We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm."

Winston Churchill

TWD - French Pear Tart - Yes!

2009-01-06T16:16:00.000-08:00

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life,

to mind your own business

and to work with your hands,

just as we told you,

so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders

and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

Well now I'm trying to get life back to normal, and that includes Tuesday with Dorie. Now that doesn't mean that it won't sometimes mean Thursday with Dorie, but that's normal, isn't it.

Today it's Pear Tart. I love pear tarts, and this one looks absolutely terrific. I'm also looking to make a Russian roast chicken, stuffed with a dressing of bread crumbs and raisins. But of coarse everything is on the slate, but not done yet.

I'll be back.

Well after Heidi picked up Emily and Christian, I sat about just a bit. But by six I was in the kitchen getting the dressing made for the roasted chicken. By six thirty I had the bird in the oven. The recipe for the chicken was Russian, so I decided to make a Russian peas and carrot dish. I didn't follow the complicated recipe, and I left out the chives, ham, and dill, but it tasted really good. The recipe called for julienning the carrots and then cooking them for 40 minutes. No way. You'd just get horrid mushy carrots. So here's how I did it.

Russian Peas and Carrots

8 oz carrots, in 2 inch long julienned strips
1 1/2 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons sugar
water to barely cover the carrots
a pinch of salt

6 oz frozen peas in a microwavable dish
some water in the dish, not to cover

1 tbl flour
salt and pepper to taste

Put the carrots into a frying pan with a lid.
Add the next 4 ingredients and cover and cook on medium heat until the carrots are just au dent.
Meanwhile, put the peas in the microwave and heat about 2 minutes.
Strain the liquid off the carrots into a small saucepan.
Strain the liquid from the peas into a small dish to reserve and put the peas in with the carrots.
Heat the carrot liquid and stir in the flour, adding enough of the peas liquid to make a nice sauce.
Pour the sauce over the vegies, and keep warm until time to serve. Covering the pan will probably suffice.

Russian Roast Chicken Dressing

2 cups bread crumbs
2/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup half and half
2 tbls butter, melted
2 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp nutmeg
salt to taste

Mix the crumbs and the half and half and let sit about 10 minutes.
Stir in everything else, and stuff into the bird without smashing the dressing.
When the bird is done, remove the dressing to a serving dish.

So once dinner was under control, I made the pear tart. When I opened up my can of pear halves, I found out the the company was quite loose in their definition of "halves". They looked more like quarters. Upon further inspection I saw that they called them "pear slices". So with that being my pears, I decided to apply the pears to the tart in thin slices, which is how I do it with my pear tart recipe.

I made Dorie's sweet pie dough recipe, but I divided it in half, and used a half for the tart, as I'm partial to a thin crust. To make the dough I put the flour, sugar, and salt in the food processor and gave it a whirl. Then I cut up the butter and add it and whirled it until it looked like cornmeal. Then I added the egg yolk and mixed it until well mixed in, but all was still powdery looking. Then I dump it all out into a large bowl, and using my hand I smushed it until it all came together. I then weighed the dough, divided it into two parts, and wrapped each part into plastic wrap, forming tidy discs. These were placed in the refrigerator while I made the almond cream.

And to make the cream I put the nuts, flour and cornflour into the food processor and ground up the nuts. Then in a mixing bowl (the one I used for the dough) I put the butter and sugar and mixed until it started to look a bit fluffy. Then I added the egg and brandy (instead of rum), and mixed well. Then I stirred in the nut mixture. It was all nice and smooth. Then I dredged a disc of dough in flour rolled out the crust and put it into a tart dish, smoothed on the almond cream, and then cut and placed the pears on top. I then baked it for about 45 minutes (I think). I thought it turned out great, but now I'm going to go and have a piece of it to see if it really did turn out all right.

Well everyone thought that this was a terrific pear tart. I believe "Wow!" was the most common expression used. My husband had two pieces. Oh, and I forgot to mention - this weeks recipe was chosen by none other than Dorie Greenspan herself. In looking at the pictures of the TWDers pear tarts I find that the all look fabulous and they are all really pleased with this recipe. It always amazes me how one recipe can turn out looking so many different ways.

"I never said most of the things I said." Yogi Berra

An English New Year's Day family dinner with Family

2009-01-01T13:20:00.000-08:00

"The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them;

he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God

—he and his whole family." Acts 16:34

Our New Years Eve event had gone rather oddly the night before. Hard to explain. It wasn't until round eleven that we actually began to play games. We have a long standing tradition of playing games on New Year's Eve. We did have fun, but then it ended abruptly when Sarah and Zac said they needed to get home before mid-night. Then the rest of us just settled into whatever. I was on the computer, minding my own business, when it got really noisy outside. I simply wondered what all the noise was about, and it didn't occur to me until well after the noise stopped that it was the noise of mid-night. All the rest of us were the same - we just simply missed it.

But the next day, New Year's Day, I would need to be a bit more together than I had been the night before. I think being snowed in was starting to get to me. But now there was no snow at the moment. I know this, because Ken and Marilyn came to dinner, and there is absolutely NOTHING that could entice Ken Yeaton to drive in the snow. Not even the least bit of it.

One thing that I really like to have done before guests arrive is to have the table set. I had been trying all day to count the number of guests, and I was quite certain that it was 12, and the table was set accordingly. It looked really lovely. I can't remember who did it, but I think possible it was Corey. But I'm not sure. But to my great surprise, when we all went to sit down for dinner there simply were not enough places for everyone. It took me about a minute to catch on to this conundrum. To my great shock there was 15 of us counting Caleb. I absolutely don't know how I got it so wrong. I'm usually very good at counting.

The guest list: Riley, Molly, Sarah, Zac, Ken, Marilyn, Grandma, Grandpa, Caleb, Christian, Emily, Annie, Nancy, Clarice, Corey

But what I did have right was how much food to feed the group. I had purchased a great big pot roast at Costco, and I simply cooked the whole thing. It seemed the just the right thing for a proper English feast. I also made two desserts. The grateful pudding was made to fit the large pudding steamer, and I believe I made the apple pie in the 12 inch pie plate.

Pot Roast with gravy
roasted veggies
French bread
peas
Yorkshire pudding

Grateful Pudding with Lemon Sauce
Apple Pie

Emily was determined that we should have flowers on the table. For some reason Emily is excessively fond of flowers, which I think is wonderful. The other day she and I were at Trader Joes, and she was thrilled to discover the flower department, and she immediately grabbed up a bunch of daffodils and a bunch of red roses to place into the basket she was pushing around. I soon realized that the flowers would not survive if I were to manage to remove them from her grasp, so we went home with two lovely bunches of flowers.

Well dinner was actually ready in a timely fashion. I'm sure it was served later that I had originally estimated, but I think was actually sat down to eat at around 6:30 - which is a very early time for me to have a dinner ready. It didn't take like to sort out the seating. I think that Riley and I sat together at one end of the table, and Christian and Emily sat together at the other end of the table. It is our fantasy to one day have a table that can easily seat maybe 16 people. But so far the one we've found that would fill the bill costs about $4,500 - a bit much for now. Not to mention that maybe the dinning room isn't big enough - 14x17.

It was a lovely meal enjoyed by all - except maybe Corey, who can't eat beef. It doesn't seem to agree with her. My Dad especially appreciated the apple pie. I made a second smaller one just for him to take home. It was unbaked, so that was it would be perfect when he got around to eating it. Later, when he cooked it, he called me up to thank me again. He does love apple pie. I had made grateful pudding a couple weeks earlier, but the girls were upset that there wasn't enough. So that's why I made it on New Year's Day.

After dinner some Christmas presents were opened. This was in part because Sarah and Zac weren't around for Christmas. But I'm so bad about wrapping presents, that only Caleb got some presents.

“Continuous effort

- not strength or intelligence

- is the key to unlocking our potential”

Winston Churchill

A Christmas not like any other

2008-12-22T18:24:00.000-08:00

"BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD

AND SHALL BEAR A SON,

AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,"

which translated means, "GOD WITH US."

Matthew 1:23

The Sunday after we got the Christmas tree it was snowing when we got up. But it didn't look too serious, so we all bundled up and headed for church. However, by the time we got to church it was blizzarding. There actually was a fair amount of people at church, but in the middle of the service they announced that the next two services were cancelled. After church we stopped by Heidi's house to drop off something, and Emily was all dressed up to go out into the snow. She was just about the cutest thing ever. You could tell that she had been dreaming about the day that she could finally get to experience snow. She put her arms out and twirled around and around saying "it's snowing, it's snowing!" Now I think this is pretty amazing for a two year old. They all headed out to walk the half mile to the store and Starbucks.

We had a lovely rest of the day, and it was announced that school was canceled for the next day. We spent the rest of the week not knowing what was going to happen next. I think that they held school two days. Sometimes Riley went to work, sometimes he didn't. But one thing was certain, the snow wasn't going away. And somewhere in there we realized that our car wasn't going anywhere. That might seem amusing for a day or so, but that wasn't going to be the case.

On Saturday we had a wedding to go to, and we weren't going to miss it. Luckily Sarah and Zac had chains on their four wheel drive Subaru, and they said that we could borrow it as long as they could take time to go to Fred Meyers. Sure, why not. Well I found out what could be wrong with that. I'm at home patiently, then impatiently waiting for everyone to come home. Riley is with them, and I knew he hadn't showered or shaved yet. I got myself all dressed for the wedding, but it was 5:00 and no one was home and the wedding was at 5:30. Finally they all showed up at 5:15, and I told Riley he better get right into the shower. It wasn't until we were finally in the car on the way to the wedding that I found out what took so long. Riley said they left FM's with what seemed like enough time, but when they got to the car they discovered that it was not only frozen on the outside, it was all frozen up on the inside. It took them quite a while to get the car goable. Riley said he went through 3 credit cards - he used them as ice scrapers.

So we got to the wedding only 10 minutes late, just as things started. It was a lovely wedding, and after the wedding we got directions to the reception. It was in North Portland. Not what I would have expected, but Riley seemed to think he knew how to get there. Well it one thing to get somewhere in the middle of an ordinary day, but quite another to find it in the dark and in blizzard. The car steamed up continually. Luckily we had brought with us a large package of paper napkins. And the windshield wipers kept freezing up, so that Riley had to get out of the car to get the ice off. I had to keep rolling my window down to try and read the street signs, which isn't easy with snow blowing in your face. Riley's window was frozen and wouldn't open. We were all over the place trying to find that reception. Finally we spotted three cars all turning down the same street. Now given that there were very few cars on the road, that seemed like a good indicator that something of note was happening in that direction. By this time we had been on the road for almost an hour trying to find the reception. Well sure enough they were going where we were going. There it was. It turned out that the directions were wrong. We were told to turn right on a street we should have turned left on. But it seemed that most of the people were already there. I think that the reason so many of them weren't late was because this was a wedding of two Multnomah Bible College students and most of the guests were the same. They all knew from previous wedding where to find the place.

All during the reception it just kept on snowing. We sat at a table with the pastor who married the couple and he told us that church was cancelled the next day. Also at our table was someone we knew who had taken the bus to the wedding, and had gotten a ride to the reception, but was in need of a ride home. So we volunteered to give her a ride. Just getting out of there was a struggle, but eventually we all got home safely.

Sarah and Zac and Caleb spent the night, but they went home the next day because they needed to get ready to fly to Tennessee. We were of course stuck, and I came down with a cold. The next day Riley took Sarah and Zac to the airport, but there was a feeling that they might not actually fly out, as almost no one was getting out at the airport. Heidi dropped the children off. I thought she was a bit nuts to try and make it to work, as she works in Milwaukee, not Portland. Riley took Sarah and Zac's car to work. At about the same time in the afternoon both Riley's work - the city of Portland, and Heidi's work let them off, as the snow was really coming down. Before Riley reached home, Sarah called to tell him that they needed a ride, as their plane wasn't flying out. That was good news/bad news. I was delighted that they would be around for Christmas, but it was distressing that we wouldn't be able to use their car, as ours certainly wasn't going anywhere. Riley had tried to get chains, but they cost over $600.

The next day Riley went to work, but Heidi didn't. So that meant I was free, I just needed a ride. Sarah and Zac showed up late morning, and Sarah and Caleb stayed at our house so that Zac could give Corey and Annie and I a ride to NW Portland. We went to Powells, then we went out for Sushi, after which I went to Sur la Table and bought a metal pizza peel for Riley, and then we trudged through the snow to the downtown area. We went to Starbucks for coffee - and a chance to sit down. Somehow it was decided that Riley would come and meet me, and Corey and Annie would go off on their own somewhere.

It was getting dark by the time I met up with Riley, but we managed to get some Christmas shopping done. This was good, but I have to say I was getting very tired, and it seemed like a rather daunting thought getting home on the bus. But we caught the bus rather quickly, and we got a seat together. It was a rather long ride, twice as long as normal, but everything went okay. The hard part was the walk from where the bus let us off to home. Well I had managed to get Christmas shopping done, but I was really tired, and the next day was Christmas Eve, when we always have our big formal Christmas meal. I could tell that neither my parents nor our friends Ken and Marilyn would be able to make it. But Sarah and Zac and Caleb would be there, which meant that my entire direct family would be there - 11 of us. The problem was going to be that I didn't have the needed ingredients for lasagne and salad.

Sarah and Zac agreed to show up shortly after noon, so that they could get me to the store for the food. Well they called at 2:00 to say that they were on their way. But maybe 15 minutes later they called to say that they were stuck on the freeway behind a jack-knifed semi. Eventually the police were organized to back the cars off the freeway, but when Zac rolled down his window to talk with the policeman, it got stuck. They eventually got the window up, but by then they got a call from the airport saying that their luggage was finally back at the airport, so they went to get it. They finally arrived at our house at about 5:00. Needless to say I was in a bit of a panic. I did have the sauce ready. we decided that Annie would make the pasta from scratch. While waiting for Sarah and Zac I had sent Annie and Christian off to the store for the mozerella and ricotta. Unfortunately it had begun to rain icey type rain, not long after they left. They arrived back home very cold and went shortly before Sarah and Zac arrived.

But after Sarah and I got back from the store every one helped out, and absolutely everything came together for a lovely Christmas Eve dinner at about 8:10. I could hardly believe it. We all had a lovely time. After dinner Sarah and Zac wanted everyone to open the presents from them, so we all gathered in the living room for a lovely round of present opening. The only down side was that when all was done I was really running out of energy. I did manage to get

Saint Lucia's Day and a Christmas tree

2008-12-13T11:39:00.000-08:00

"In him was life,

and that life was the light of men."

John 1:4

At our house we love to celebrate Christmas in as many ways as possible. Our #2 daughter especially likes St. Lucia's Day. She's the daughter who looks Scandinavian. It seems that she decided to start making her St. Lucia Buns shortly before midnight the day before. So we all got a slow start on St. Lucia's Day, and around 11 o'clock she had her buns finished. The were very delightful. The recipe for them can be found here.

Not long after thuroughly enjoying the buns, we all decided that it was now or never for getting a tree at a tree farm. The weather has seemed so threatening, but at that moment it looked pretty good.

"If you don't know where you are going,

you might wind up someplace else."

Yogi Berra

TWD - Dorie's Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

2008-12-11T16:21:00.000-08:00

"The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?

The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?"

Psalm 27:1

As usual, the TWD is Thursday with Dorie for me. I had the cookie dough made on Tuesday, then with friends we made the cookies on Wednesday, and now on Thursday I can finally post the cookies. Life is just too hectic to get things done in a timely fashion.

The dough was very easy to make, and very easy to roll out, cut and cook. I made the dough exactly as called for, but I think that I would like to add some flavoring, like nutmeg, or orange, or almond, .... I was not the one to actually roll out the dough, but those who did had no trouble at all, and I don't think that all of them had actually rolled out cookie dough before.

We all had fun making cookies. Here is Jake, who made the alien pizza, rolling out a pretty odd shape of dough. It seems he's at something like the alien again.

Merrideth and Abigail were the main rollers, but surely everyone got involved.

These two - Merideth and Jake

- are getting married on Dec. 20, 2008

And we also made my Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies. We cooked the cut out cookies in the meile, and the chocolate chip cookies in the Lacanche electric oven.

Then when the cookies were mostly done, we ate cookies and drank milk.

“I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early.”

Yogi Berra

Out With The Old, In With The New

2008-12-06T07:44:00.000-08:00

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creature;

the old things passed away;

behold, new things have come."

2 Corinthians 5:17

We've had the same couch in the living room for about 28 1/2 years. We had spent a great deal of time picking it out, going all over the city to all the furniture stores that seemed like good ones, sitting in their couches. Finally we decided on one at Ethan Allen. We knew the number and the cost, and we went to order it only to be told that it was discontinued. That was so disheartening. But as we stood in the show room chatting with the saleswoman about the situation and a different clerk overheard our conversation and came to tell us that there was, in fact, one left. It was in the back of the store "hanging on the wall". We had expected to pay $1200 for the couch, but this one on the wall was going for $388. Never mind that the cover was not really to our liking - we took it. But not long after getting the couch Riley took a job in Hong Kong. We did ship lots of our furniture, but for a reason I can't remember we did not take the couch. We left the remainder of our belongings with my brother and his girlfriend. In my estimation they did not treat the couch properly, but it did survive. Not long after our return from Hong Kong we had the couch and two other chairs recovered in matching material. The chairs eventually became unsatisfactory, and were given away. But the couch remained with us with that blue tattersol cover until about 2004, when we had it recovered in a French material. In hind sight, the material was not the best choice. The color was just a bit wrong. But the whole thing was almost a complete disaster because the upholsterer threw away the original cushions and replaced them with hideous foam cushions. We were horrified!!! The couch had been delivered late on a Saturday evening, so at that point we did know who to contact. But first thing on Sunday morning we called the furniture store that had orchestrated the recovering. They immediately called the upholsterer, who said that the cushions were out back by the dumpster!! They told him to bring them immediately to the store. We collected them soon after. It was such a relief and joy to get them back.

But the couch still did seem to be suffering a bit from age. The dog had chewed up one of the filials on the back, and the woodwork was looking aged, and the dear cushions were getting flat. So we decided to find a new couch. In our usual fashion this took months of serious looking. But finally one day we walked into a well known furniture store that we hadn't gone to before because it was deep in suburbia. But we quickly realized that it was probably the right store. But even then it took more than one visit to finally hone in on a couch. Unfortunately they didn't have the one that we liked in the show room, only a similar one. But that one was very nice to sit in. Then it took hours and hours of looking on line to choose the covering we wanted. But finally in September we took the plunge and ordered a rather expensive couch sight unseen. I had even begun to forget that we had ordered a couch. But early this week they called to say that the couch was finished and had been sent. Well it is due to arrive today at about 2:00.

But here's the really ironic thing about all this. Yesterday, when Riley sat down on our dearly beloved old couch there was a very distinctive crack. An oak piece of wood that is a support under the couch split. How amazing that the old couch would break less than 24 hours before the knew couch arrived. What a sign that it was time to get rid of the old couch. But actually, we're not getting rid of it. It has been given to daughter number 3, who had already set it up to give the couch in her room to someone else. Now that did bother me a bit, as that is my couch. It had been in the dentist's office when I was a child a very very long time ago. It really is a most amazing couch, and I hadn't intended to get rid of it. Riley says I can still keep it. He's sooo sweet. But then again, the dentist was terrible. He had a slow drill and didn't use Novocaine.

Not only is it good that the new sofa is coming today especially since the old one broke, but we are having 12 people for dinner this evening. My only angst about all this is that I don't want anyone to spill on my new couch!!!!!!! How do I keep everyone off the couch? Maybe it will be delivered with a protective covering and I'll just leave it on. Well actually it's Scotch guarded.

So now for the dinner party. The Doncasters are coming, as are all of my children except Corey, who's middle name is Doncaster. Something about her collegues taking a retro Christmas picture of themselves at seven. Unfortunately the Doncasters have to leave by seven because their grand-daughter, who is maybe 5 months old, has to be put to bed by 7:30. So they are all arriving around 4:30, and we will eat at 5:30.

menu:

Spicey Meatballs with noodles
green salad with vinaigrette
French bread
grateful pudding with lemon sauce
Russian apple cake with whipped cream

That shouldn't be too hard, but we will see. I'm slow getting started today, and the living room is a mess, with the old couch upside down and the cushions everywhere because Riley is gluing it back together. I'm not totally sure where this couch is going this afternoon. Maybe in the middle of Corey's room temporarily.

Well we all had a lovely time. They were a little late, and I was even later. It's amazing how much work goes into making dinner. I didn't make the Russian apple cake with whipped cream. Instead I made a tarte tatin with golden delicious apples. Bothe desserts were very nice indeed. Actually the whole dinner was very nice. The one mishap was that i forgot to serve a German chocolate cake that Sarah had brought over. It was in the back room, and it was a matter of "out of sight, out of mind." It is soooo hard to be perfect!

"A person who never made a mistake

never tried anything new."

Albert Einstein

Thanksgiving Day

2008-11-27T17:52:00.000-08:00

"He will be a wild donkey of a man;

his hand will be against everyone

and everyone's hand against him,

and he will live in hostility toward his brothers."

Genesis 16:12

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,

let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,

for our "God is a consuming fire."

Hebrews 12:28-29

The Day Before Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T16:22:00.000-08:00

This is probably one of my favorite days of the year. I get to do all kinds of cooking on a grand scale. There's all kinds of foods to be prepared - the yams and sweet potatoes steamed - the carrots julienned and steamed - the cranberry sauce - just making sure that all the necessary food items are in the house - the grateful putting in its steamer - the lemon sauce - and pies pies pies.

Yesterday we were working along on the cleaning projects, when I got the bright idea to wash the curtains on the landing, in the front hall and in the living room. I figured that they would come out of the dryer all nice and ready to be hung - NOT! Because of my cold I didn't hear the dryer buzz and when Corey wanted to use the dryer there there they were - a mass of wrinkles. Well despite how behind I felt about things, I then had to spend 3 plus hours ironing those curtains. But somehow, as I was ironing, I felt that the Lord was telling me that if I just relaxed and relied on Him then everything would turn out alright. So that's what I'm doing. And at this point on Wednesday afternoon I've gotten many things accomplished because Emily has been asleep for 2 hours. Never mind that it took me an hour to get her to sleep. I've even gone up to make sure she is still alive. She is. It is such a pleasure to be able to cook many things in a tidy kitchen on a sunny afternoon all by myself!

By 4:30 Emily woke up, and she was soon in a pleasant mood. She also likes it when we are all by ourselves. It was getting a bit dark by then. I got her a juice baba, turned on Toot and Puddle, and she climbed up into the Danish chair to watch the show. When Heidi showed up at 5:30 Emily did not want to go home. I felt bad. I knew that she would love to hang out and cook with me, but I also knew that eventually she'd be into everything. Maybe next year she can help me with Thanksgiving dinner - when she's three and potty trained and can talk in understandable sentences.

Immediately after Emily and Heidi left, Ken and Marilyn showed up all ready to help. It was at least a half hour later that Riley showed up, and somewhere in there Annie showed up. Things began to get rather lively.

Thanksgiving is coming!

2008-11-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

Matthew 25:34-40

And I have the world's worst cold!!! I've had lots of colds in my day, but this one is at the top of the bad list. I went through 3 boxes of Klenex in less than 2 days. I knew I was getting this cold on Wednesday. We were to have our church group over, but Riley managed to cancel at the last minute. Then on Thursday he asked Heidi not to bring the kids until 10. He was hoping I could manage to get in some sleep, as I hardly slept at all in the night. Not a chance. Heidi wasn't too happy with me, but anyone else with a regular job would have called in sick with this cold. By about 11 I knew that I couldn't handle Emily, so I called Riley, who came home as soon as he could. He such a wonderful husband!!!!!

Then on Friday I could see that Christian also had a cold, so I told him he could stay home. I explained to him that I had an ulterior motive, that I needed help with Emily. He was cool with that. He was such a good boy. And I'm sure I would not have been able to handle Emily. She looks like such a sweet little thing - not! When she's not the center of attention she can be horrid. She can get into trouble faster than any kid I've ever known. Her little mind is going all the time, thinking about mischief she can get into. I e-mail Christian's teacher to let her know that I was keeping him home, and she e-mailed me back and said that she had noticed that he had a cold and she felt concerned. There were five other kids out that day. She told me what the work assignment was for the day, and he did it. Emily's worst feat of the day was taking off all of her clothes, diaper included, hopping into the bath tub, which is filled with her clothes and towels, then squatting down and peeing. I was soo mad at her. She avoided me for the rest of the day.

Last night, as I made it up to bed at about 10:30 or so, Riley, who was already in bed, asked if I would like him to go to the store and get me some NyQuil. That was exactly what I needed. He promptly got dressed and headed out to the store. He also came back with some carmex for my nose, which was oh so soothing. The NyQuil did the trick, and I slept all night and hardly had to dab at my nose at all. Now it's Saturday. I'm in bed, and Riley's outside raking leaves - one of his favorite tasks. And when he's done with that he gets to hose down the side walk, which I'm convinced is his ultimativo favorite task. If I don't keep an eye on him he will hose down the neighbor's sidewalks. It's okay as long as he doesn't wear himself out, as I've got lots of things that need doing before Thanksgiving, and I surely can't do it all myself. My cold has gotten to the stage where I have a huge red nose and I'm stuffed up, but at least my nose is finally not setting records for how fast it can run.

But now I've stayed in bed most of the morning, accomplishing little. My dear husband has brought me a cup of coffee, a cup of hot water, two satsumas, a piece of raisin toast and a crumpet with butter and honey. So now it's time to get going and get ready for Thanksgiving.

The main thing is that we have to get cleaned up, and we have to buy the missing food items. The sitting room, the library, and the back rooms surfaces all need cleaning. Oh, and the bath rooms and front hall and dining room, and living room and kitchen. Now since the queen of England is not coming, only one of her loyal subjects, I need not make things perfect.

guest list:

Riley and Molly
Annie and Corey
Heidi and Christian and Emily
Ken and Marilyn
Mom and Dad
Blake and Linda
with Blakey, George, Clair, Courtney, and Charles
and finally - Aunt Charlotte

That's 12 adults (of a sort) and 7 children, and with luck the children will all enjoy themselves in the back room. Annie wishes that she was one of the children, and maybe that's a good idea. She could be a monitor (I just won't tell her).

As usual it is planned that we shall have two turkeys, one barbecued and one stuffed and roasted. This seems crazy, and you know it just might be, be we seem to have done this for quite a while. But anyway, the two turkeys seem to dictate two different sets of accompaniments. The barbecued turkey has no stuffing and produces no gravy, hence the sweet yellow rice and sweet spicy carrots.

Thanksgiving Menu:

carrots and celery sticks for appetizers - I don't think such a big meal should have much more

Roast turkey
apple and sausage stuffing
mashed potatoes
candied yams and sweet potatoes
peas
turkey gravy

Barbecued turkey
sweet yellow rice
sweet peppery julienned carrots

French bread
cranberry sauce

Desserts:

pumpkin pie
rum pumpkin pie
pecan pie
pumpkin pecan pie

chocolate pecan pie
eggnog pie
Chemeketan pie (a fairly well kept family secret)
grateful pudding with lemon sauce
whipped cream to go on everything

Lots of people like to call Thanksgiving turkey day. I like to think of it as pie day. The other foods really are better as left-overs.

Well now it's Sunday morning and I'm still sick, but I only have to blow my nose about once every half hour. And it doesn't run uncontrollably, which is so nice. Riley got up early this morning and washed the kitchen floor. He looked exhausted when he was finished, and after a while reading the sports page, he crawled back into bed. So how are we to ever get things together for Thanksgiving?

There's a lesson to be learned here. I've had this lesson many times before, and don't seem to have learned it. The lesson is: don't procrastinate, because you have no idea what might happen in the end when you think you are going to get something done. Get things done at the first opportunity.

"You don't have to see the whole staircase,

just take the first step." Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Even if you're on the right track

- you'll get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers

TWD - Kugelhopf and Chicken Pot Pies

2008-11-11T18:05:00.000-08:00

"Love and faithfulness meet together;

righteousness and peace kiss each other."

Psalm 85:10

This weeks TWD (Tuesday with Dorie) project is kugelhopf, which is a pastry I've always liked, so I was delighted to see it come up. I got the kugelhopf started this morning. Emily helped of course, though she was a bit on the wild side this morning. First I set her on the task of putting the raisins into a dish, which she did. But then she spotted the dried cherries - her favorite - and she threw those in also. Then I put her in charge of buttering the cake mold. She buttered both the inside and the outside of the pan. Then she put raisins down the hole.

The dough went together all right, but after three hours it hadn't risen a smidge. So then I turned the warming cupboard on to 80 degrees and stuck the bowl in. It's been in there for 5 hours now, as we all went out on day out - Riley, Annie, Corey and I. So right now I'm going to go see what disaster has befallen the dough.

So in the meantime, while waiting for the kugelhopf to rise, I made chicken pot pies - something I've never made before.

Chicken Pot Pies

1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 14 ounce can of chicken stock
3 cups of homemade chicken stock that has been reduced and defatted

3 cups of diced left-over chicken
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced small
3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced rather small
6 white mushrooms, sliced up rather thin
1/2 cup frozen peas
French herb mix, about 1 teaspoon
salt and pepper
puff pastry, cut into squares big enough to top the chosen baking dishes
1 egg + 1 tsp water for egg wash

The other day I made roast chicken for dinner. I had stuffed it with chopped carrots and onion. The vegies didn't cook, but after dinner, I pulled all the left-over meat off the chicken, then I put the carcus and vegies into a pot and added a bunch of water, not enough to quite cover the chicken. I put on the lid and cooked for a while. Then I took off the lid and smushed down the chicken into the water, and cooked the whole lot for a while more. When it all looked quite cooked, with the bones all falling apart, I put the whole thing through a strainer - the cone shaped kind. I put the strained liquid back into the pot and cooked it a while longer to reduce it. Then I put it into a bowl and then into the refrigerator. When it was all cooled down the chicken fat was nice and solid on the top, and I scooped it off - saving it, as it was lovely rendered chicken fat. It was this remainder that I used in the pot pies - it was probably about 3 cups, but I didn't measure it.

So for the filling for the pies I got a large saucier, melted the stick of butter and added the onions. I cooked those for a while, until the onions seemed tender, and then I added the flour, and cooked that for about 2 minutes. Then I quickly whisked in the chicken broths, stirring vigorously to make sure there were no lumps. I then added the carrots. With hind sight, I think that I would have put the carrots in a bowl with a bit of water, cover them with plastic wrap, and cooked them for a couple minutes in the microwave, as it took them a while before they were cooked. So when the carrots seemed well on their way to being cooked, I added the potatoes. These I then cooked for about 10 minutes. then I added the chicken, mushrooms and peas and simmer the whole thing for about 5 minutes.

I had preheated my gas oven to 400 degrees. The filling that I made would probably fill 8 pies, but I only made 4. I used 10 oz. soufflé dishes. These are big enough for a dinner for a man. I did not eat all of mine, and I think maybe a 6 oz dish would have been enough. But anyway, I filled the dishes. Got my puff pastry squares cut to size and brushed then with egg wash, and press them down onto the dishes. Then I baked them for 20 minutes.

We all liked the pies very much. As I said, I didn't finish mine, but I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator and I plan on having it for lunch tomorrow. We all thought that it might be nice to try and make pasties out of the remaining filling.

It seems to have risen. I know that there were extra futsy things to do with the recipe, but I just put the dough into the well buttered pan and put it into the warming cupboard to rise. Then, when I thought it had been in there long enough, I heated up the oven to 375 and stuck it in. I looked at a lot of recipes for guglehopf on the internet and they didn't seem as complicated as Dorie's, though I'm sure hers will get wonderfully perfect results.

So right now mine is in the oven, and we shall see what we shall see.

Well I took it out of the oven after 20 minutes. It sure looked done to me. I even stuck it with a tooth pick. I promptly turned it over onto a wrack to cool, hoping that it would fall out on its own, which it did eventually. When it seemed cool enough to dust, I put it on a plate. It was light to handle, and that seemed light a good sign. We then all had a piece after it was dusted and photographed.

verdict: I really liked it. Then only thing I would change is that I would mix up the dough in the evening, turn it out into the prepared pan, and let it sit and rise over-night, ready to be baked in the morning. I thought that is was just sweet enough, though I think that I added an extra tablespoon or two of sugar. I think I could be great soaked with a simple syrup with rum or brandy. And one could add some different things to it, like nuts or chocolate. I'll definitely make it again.

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."

Albert Einstein

Emily's New Dress

2008-11-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."

Proverbs 31:30

It seems that Emily is getting quite used to having her picture taken. I hope this isn't a bad thing. Heidi bought her a new dress, one we both liked a lot, and she asked me to takes some pictures of her in it.

She also got a "new" sweater. I got it at Goodwill for 2.99, and I think it matched the dress very nicely.

Emily was then done with her picture shoot on the stool, and wanted to interact with her favorite doll, the one she is the most devoted to.

She laid her down for a nap on the stairs, but changed her mind, and took her upstairs to put her to bed in the crib. And then she went over to the table to turn on the music box (referred to as "sica box" by Emily), so that the baby would go to sleep.

So while "baby" slept I took Emily to get her ready for her nap. But she wanted to wear her jammies, which were down stairs, so we retrieved "baby", and went down stairs for a while.

Emily then went down for a nap, and had a nice long nap, but unfortunately she woke up very unhappy. I let her fuss for a while and then I suggested that we go into the kitchen and make cookies, and she perked right up.

"Style is a simple way of saying complicated things."

Jean Cocteau

TWD - Rugelach - and how many recipes are there anyway?

2008-11-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

"Be completely humble and gentle;

be patient, bearing with one another in love."

Ephesians 4:2

I've always wanted to make these cookies, so this should work out today. I have all that I need, as long as I can fudge just a wee bit.

But, for another issue. Will there be any recipes left to choose from when it's my turn to choose? I'm number 157, and I added up all of the recipes (not counting the basics) and there are 213 and 47 have been done. So that means there will be something left when I get there, but not all people will have a chance, unless they start all over again. I figure that I will be up on February 22, 2011. And by that time about 25 percent of the recipes will still be up for choosing. As I looked through all of the recipes there were hardly any that I wouldn't want to make. That would include the cheesecakes, but that's about it, and they're half gone already. Here's how it stands at the moment.

Recipes in Baking: from my home to yours

Muffins - 11 [2]
Biscuits - 5 [1]
Scones - 6 [1]
Morning cakes - 5 [1]
tea breads - 4
yeast breakfast breads - 6 [3]
drop cookies - 12 [4]
bar cookies - 19 [3]
tea cookies - 28 [4]
bundt cakes - 7
simple cakes - 14 [3]
pound cakes - 6 [2]
cheesecakes - 4 [2]
fancy cakes - 18 [5]
apples pies and tarts - 9 [1]
fall pies - 5 [1]
cream pies and tarts - 15 [3]
fruit pies and tarts - 9 [3]
puddings - 16 [5]
cobblers, crisps etc - 7 [2]
ice creams - 7 [1]
basics - 27

Okay, so I watched the news instead of making rugelach, but tomorrow - that's WWD, I'm making those luscious looking cookies. I've always wanted to make them.

I got the dough for the rugelach made on Tuesday, but then I watched the election results, and that was it for me.

But on Wednesday Emily and I made up the rugelach. Emily really did well.

She put flour all over the dough,

then used the French rolling pin

to roll out the dough on a piece of waxed paper.

Then, after I spread on the warmed up low sugar apricot jam,

Emily applied the chopped pecans and chopped dried cherries.

Then, after Christian mixed together some sugar and cinnamon for her,

she tapped it onto the pastry.

Then I cut the dough into 16 wedges

and then Papa helped her roll up the little rugelaches.

She really put her all into it.

Christian got the egg wash mixed up for us,

and then Emily took great care in applying it to the cookies.

While Emily was working on applying the egg-washer her mother arrived.

That would be daughter #1, Heidi - nee Kyoko.

She was in a bit of a hurry, so Emily never got to have one of them at that time.

After they left I made two more batches - I had doubled the recipe. The second batch was like the first, except that I added a little bit of ginger jam to the apricot jam. And then the third batch used my home-made strawberry jam, pecans, and mimi-chocolate chips.

Vertict: These were a pleasant enough cookie, but not really my favorite.

For all the work I would rather make snickerdoodles or molasses crinkles.

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing

- after they've tried everything else.” Winston Churchill

Halloween

2008-11-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

"What is written in the Law?"
[Jesus] replied. "How do you read it?"
He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
Luke 10:26-28

Halloween is a big deal at our house. I've enjoyed the holiday ever since I can remember it. When I was 7 my mother gave my two brothers (ages 6 and not quite 5) and I each a brown paper bag and sent us out. I don't even think she dressed us up in costumes. We were out tricker-treating for quite a long time. My brother Bill even had to go back home to get a new bag, because he had filled the first one. The next year we moved to a different house in the neighborhood and I met someone who would be my best friend for the next 7 years and we always tricker-treated together. Our neighborhood (which is the same one I live in today, and I can see Jan's house from my current house) was absolutely chock-a-block with kids - hundreds of them. My Mom would feed us soup for supper and I'd be working at getting my brothers (I have six brothers) into costumes - usually something like mummies or wounded soldiers. Then at 6 o'clock we would rush out to trick-or-treat. My Mom usually counted about 300 kids coming to our house. She would hand out sticks of gum, while our next-door-neighbors handed out 10 cent candy bars - which was absolutely unheard of at that time. Then we would all return home sometime between 8:30 and 9 o'clock, take off our costumes, and have a donut and apple cider in front of the fire. And then we each would get a mixing bowl, stake out an area on the living room rug, dump out our candy and sort it, and wrangle any trades that might suit us. And of course, one always counted the important candies to make sure no one took any of them.

The year I was 10 I did all of the above, and the next day, a holiday, my mother took me down town and she had the hairdresser cut my hair WAY TOO SHORT, and bought me a bag of some candy I liked. But the next day I did not feel well and found it difficult to stand up straight, and I was kept home. By the afternoon my mother realized that I had not eaten any candy, not the halloween candy, nor the one she had bought me. So at about 4 o'clock she rushed me to the doctor, and he said it was my appendix, and I was rushed to the hospital. They put me into a wheel chair, took my blood, got me into hospital clothes, and soon I was wheeled into surgery, where they told me to count backwards from 100. I got to 90. They kept me in the hospital for a week, where I was fed terrible food, and was supervised by grumpy nuns, who had no sympathy for how terrible the food was, or how boring it all was. But the best thing was that I got letters from the kids in my class, including one from the boy I liked who told me about the arithmetic we were learning, and said he'd teach me when I got back - I think it was long devision. He and I were the best at math in the class, but we were also the slowest readers. He looked like a 10 year old version of Tom Seleck. And also, I was glad that my hair was going to have a chance to grow out before the kids at school saw it. This was in the days when you wore a hat to church, and my hair was so short you could hardly see it under my hat.

But anyway, halloween was hectic all day long. I start out the day by getting up at 6:30 and finishing Harry Potter et le Prisonnaire d'Azkaban. Then I decided that I really needed to take a shower, so I pounded on the bathroom door to urge Riley to not take too long. But at that Corey heard me and said that she needed to get into the shower. But upon investigation it seemed that she had almost two hours before she needed to go to work, so I explained that I would really like to take a shower, because when it's just Emily and me I'm out of luck in the shower department. I promised to give her a ride to work. So quick like a bunny I took a shower, dried my hair, got dressed and rushed down stairs to collect Emily and Christian, so I could take Christian to school. Then I hurried back, fed Emily breakfast, then got ready to take Corey to work. Somewhere in all of that I called Sarah and asked her if she would like to have coffee with Emily and me, as I had decided to go to Fabric Depot to get a piece of black see through material. She called back to say that she and Caleb would love to have coffee with us. We had a lovely time at coffee, and both children behaved themselves very well, and we left Starbucks shortly after 12 and headed for Winco, where we again all had a lovely time. Sarah had the stroller and I had a cart with Emily in it, and Emily held on to the stroller. She and Caleb are really quite fond of one another.

We got back home at about 1:30. I fed Emily a big lunch, she was rather ravenous, which was nice for a change as it can be very hard to get her to eat sometimes. She's especially fond of the applesauce I made. Then she very willingly went down for a nap, and I think I did too. Though somewhere in there I got the bread started and the table set. And Emily's costume mended. It's all a blur to me. Tom was to pick the children up for trick or treating at 5, but of course he never showed.

Ken and Marilyn showed up shortly before six, and Marilyn helped me finish cleaning up the kitchen. Somewhere in all of that I made two almond carrot cakes, but i can't quite remember when. Then by six children began arriving. I love to go see the children at the door, so that slowed me down in whatever I was doing, but finally dinner was all ready.

Halloween Dinner Menu:

fried crab cakes
fried salmon cakes
green salad with a special green vinaigrette (I used green onion and basil leaves to make it green)
barbecued filet minion - Ken bought them and Riley cooked them and they was awesome
baked potatoes and sour cream
fried mushrooms
red wine from Woodenville
Asti Spumante
French bread
almond carrot cake

It was a really awesome dinner. Sitting there with the table all elegant looking with candles and all made for a great decoration for the tricker-treaters. And answering the door was a breeze, and we all got to see all the children and their costumes. My absolute favorite on is pictured below. When I answered the door and saw her I said, "I love you costume, who are you?!" She answered, "I can see Russia from my house." Not only was she dressed up like Sarah Palin, she really really looked like Sarah Palin, and acted like her too. Her friends are (1) and American tourist, (2) Jo the plumber, and (3) an iPod.

Before we were finished eating, Sarah and Caleb showed up. We all continued to sit at the table until it seemed that the kids was really slowing down. We then headed for Heidi's house. When we got there Heidi and Christian and Emily were out tricker-treating. Someone called to find out just where they were and it turned out that Heidi was heading back, because she was feeling very very sick. Christian and Emily were with Kristin Wallace and her soon to be son Kyle. It was reported that Emily was getting tired. We knew that someone would have to be carrying her, so we headed out to meet up with them. Sure enough, Kristin was carrying her. They had just been to a house with a huge blow-up of Homer Simpson and Emily was quite scared. As soon as I got near her she wanted me to hold her, and she told me all about the monster.

“History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead”

Voltaire

Daring Bakers - Pizza!

2008-10-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Who has blessed us in the heavenly realms

with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Ephesians 1:3

This months Daring Baker project is pizza, brought to us by Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums and Sheri of What Did I Eat. The recipe is “Pizza Napoletana” from Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice.” I've read this book, but I can't find it in my collection, which would indicate to me that either I lost it, or aI got it from the library because it was a bit expensive. It's a puzzle to me.

Well at this point I have my pizza doughs in the refrigerator just waiting their turn in the oven. Tonight we are maybe having some young couples over and we are all going to toss pizzas. And if no one shows up, Riley and I will toss them ourselves. Actually I think that our grandson Christian will also toss a pizza, as he loves pizza.

I've decided to make Jamie Oliver's tomato sauce for the sauce of my pizzas.

Jamie's Tomato Sauce

olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and torn
3 x 400g tins of good-quality, whole plum tomatoes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place a large non-stick frying pan on the heat and pour in 4 generous glugs of olive oil. Add the garlic, shake the pan around a bit and, once the garlic begins to colour lightly, add the basil and the tomatoes. Using the back of a wooden spoon, mush and squash the tomatoes as much as you can.

Season the sauce with salt and pepper. As soon as it comes to the boil, remove the pan from the heat. Strain the sauce through a coarse sieve into a bowl, using your wooden spoon to push any larger bits of tomato through. Discard the basil and garlic that will be left in the sieve, but make sure you scrape any of the tomatoey goodness off the back of the sieve into the bowl.

Pour the sauce back into the pan, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes to concentrate the flavours. It will be ready when it’s the perfect consistency for spreading on your pizza.

Store the sauce in a clean jar in the fridge – it’ll keep for a week or so. Also great to freeze in batches or even in an ice cube tray, so you can defrost exactly the amount you need. But to be honest, it’s so quick to make, you might as well make it on the day you need it.

The sauce turned out great. Because I have just been making the applesauce, I had my food mill handy and I used that instead of a strainer, and I think it was even better. The sauce took longer to reduce than five minutes though. I say maybe 20 to 30 minutes. I really liked the flavor.

By seven o'clock we were ready. The pizza balls had been sitting out for about 2 hours, and the pizza stone had been in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Our guests arrived at about 7:10. It was only one young couple - Jake and Merideth - but they were just the right number of people for the evening. We promptly set about tossing pizza.

Riley got his all tossed and round in no time. He claims it's because he watch the pizza thrower at the Old Towne Pizza for quite a while the other day. Whatever it was, he did a great job.

Merideth was next. She wanted a heart shaped pizza, and that's just what she got. I was struggling with the whole tossing thing, even dropping it on the floor once - I picked it up really fast, so that didn't count.

And Jake was just having a good time throwing pizza dough.

He finally settled on an alien shaped pizza, and adorned it accordingly.

All in all the pizzas were a big hit, and the tasted quite good. I'm keen to try on with anchovies, just like at Ken's Artisan Pizza, my favorite pizza restaurant. It was really very easy to do, except for the tossing, but then, I can get Riley to do that. I showed Merideth how to make the dough, and sent her home with two balls of dough, and a jar of the sauce.

“Be who you are and say what you feel

because those who mind don't matter

and those who matter don't mind.”

Dr Seuss

TWD - Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes - can I make it!?

2008-10-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

"The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts

and the hearts of your descendants,

so that you may love Him with all your heart

and with all your soul, and live."

Deuteronomy 30:6

This week TWD is chocolate chocolate cupcakes, page 215 of Dorie Greenspans book Baking:from my house to yours. As usual, I'm behind. And then to add to that I looked around to see what the TWDers were doing, and they were all so impressive, what with their halloween decorations and all. So now I'm wondering - what will I do?

Well I showed daughter #3 the cupcakes and she said that she had the kind of decorations that I needed, but that they were at the house of daughters #1 and #2. So we went for a walk and passed by their house and got the stuff. And now we have made the cakes, but I think that we will have to decorate them tomorrow.

So here it is, Wednesday. I had told Corey that we would frost the cupcakes this morning, and she could take some to work. And that's just what we did. The frosting went together like a breeze. And went on easily also.

Then Corey was my main helper. Actually, I had to do so much chasing after Emily, and changing her pants, that pretty much she frosted and decorated the cupcakes.

And here is the finished product.

But because Corey helped with frosting the cupcakes, she was a bit late for work. So when I saw her bolt out the door, I went to the door and asked if she would like a ride. She was glad to get a ride, so I dashed back into the house to get Emily, my purse, and my keys. The first two items went fine, but my keys were no where to be found. I looked everywhere, but to no avail, so I told Corey she better walk to work. I felt really bad about it, but I could do nothing. After she was gone I searched and searched. I was beginning to be desperate. I remembered that I had set my keys down somewhere, not putting them in my purse as I should have, but I knew that it was someplace on the first floor and I certainly wasn't finding them. So then I thought that maybe Emily had found them and done something with them, but what? ....... Maybe she put them into a purse. After a bit of searching I found in the front hall and empty purse of mine, and low and behold, there were my keys.

But then I felt really bad about making Corey late, after trying really to get her to work on time. So I took nine of the cup cakes that we'd made and put them in a lovely Whitman's Sampler tin, and Emily and I took them over to Corey's work. Not only was Corey delighted, but so was her assistant manager, who gave me a hug, and thanked me several times. I hope she liked the cupcakes as much as she appreciated them.

"Not everything that counts can be counted,

and not everything that can be counted counts."

Albert Einstein

How to make and can Applesauce

2008-10-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

"Keep me as the apple of your eye;

hide me in the shadow of your wings."

Psalm 17:8

I've been making applesauce each year for I don't know how long. Where I live there are plenty of apples every fall. Just about any kind you could want. I always mix apples for my applesauce because they each have their own quality. Now some apples I never use, like red or yellow delicious, or Rome apples. It's not that I have anything against them, they just seem more like eating apples than cooking apples. I have an absolute passion for a good yellow delicious with cheese, and they make a nice tart tatin also. But anyway, I always include either gravenstiens, or newtons, or granny smiths. The rest that I include are usually very red, because those add sweetness and color.

Obviously one doesn't need a real recipe for making applesauce, and it's all about taste. But for what it's worth here's the ratio I used.

25 pounds of apples, about 5 pounds each of 5 different kinds, some green, some red

2-3 cups of white sugar, you can use brown sugar if you like
1 tablespoon cinnamon, whatever kind you have
5 cups of good natural apple cider

equipment needed:

good paring knife
a large bowl, I use a McCoy bowl

two large pots with lids and a heavy bottom, like a brazier or a rondeau - if you use a pot with a thin bottom you will likely burn some apples

a large slotted spoon, or just a large spoon
a food mill

a smaller sturdy bowl for setting the food mill over, I use a smaller McCoy with a spout and a handle

a large roasting oven - they've been making the same thing for decades, mine holds 20 quarts and I can use it just like any oven.

20 pint size jars, preferably wide mouth, with matching rings and lids

clean tea towels for wiping off the rings and lids and jar rims, and for setting the jars on
a large ladle for scooping the hot applesauce into the jars
a large pot with water to put on the stove with the lids and rings in it to sterilize them
a canning funnel

a canning pot, filled with water

a jar lifter - essential for getting the jars out of the boiling water

twongs or a magnetic stick for getting the lids and rings out of the boiling water

Now you must admit that's an awful lot of things, just to can up some applesauce. But that's the way it is.

Day One:

The first thing to do is get the apples all cooked up.
Fill the sink with cold water and put in a load of apples.

Taking the paring knife and the apples one at a time, quarter the apple, and for each quarter remove the stemy bits and the seeds, and cut it in half the long ways. So what you have is that each apple is cut into eight wedges. When you've got that batch cut and trimmed, put into a big pot, add a cup of apple cider, put on the lid and cook on medium to low heat until the apples are all nice a mushy. While the first batch is cooking, cut and trim the next patch. If the first batch is done cooking (check every so often) before you are ready to cook the second batch, just turn the heat off and leave for a bit.

Then, when you have the second batch cooking, start to process the first cooked batch in the food mill. Place the food mill over the smaller McCoy bowl, then fill the mill with mooshed apples and grind away, putting the applesauce into the roasting oven when the bowl fills. When you are done mooshing the whole batch, clean the food mill so it's ready for the next batch.

Notice the different colors of sauce from the different apples?

Continue like this until all the apples are cooked. Then add the sugar and the cinnamon. Give the mixture a good stir to get everything intermingled, and turn on the roasting oven. Cook at about 300 degrees, until all the applesauce is nice and hot, and the sugar is clearly melted. Taste it and see how you like it. You can add more sugar or more cinnamon if you like. But remember, these things can be added later when you are serving the applesauce, as long as you heat it up a bit to melt the sugar.

At this point I turn off the roaster, put on the lid, and leave over night. This is because I am a bit weary and need a break. The applesauce will be just fine like this. Just don't leave it for days.

Next Day:

Heat the applesauce back up to a nice heat, but be careful not to over cook and scorch the applesauce. At the same time, put all the jars and rings into the dishwasher and run it. Then, when the sauce is nice and hot, and the jars are washed, prepare to put the sauce in jars and can it.

First, it's good to tie some twine onto the jar holder handles in the canner. This is so you can lift it out of the water without a major disaster. Get the canner about 2/3rds full of water and place on the stove and bring to a boil.

Put the jar lids and rings in a large pot (large enough to hold the rings and lids), cover with water and heat up on the stove to sterilize. Leave them in the water and just pull out as needed, so they stay sterilized.

Then set a folded in half tea towel near the roaster, place the jars on the tea towel. Get the funnel and set on to a jar. Using the big ladle, scoop applesauce into the jar. Now hopefully your applesauce is nice and hot, so don't hold on to the jar, as it will heat right up. When the applesauce is to a 1/2 to a 1/4 inch from the top, remove the funnel and carefully place it on the next empty jar. The reason for carefulness is so that you don't get applesauce on the rim of the jar. This is why the wide mouth jars, they're easier to avoid hitting the rim (as well as easier for kids to scoop out applesauce later). Then take the clean tea towel, dip the tip of the edge into the very hot water, then touch the wet edge to a dry spot to make sure it's not dripping, and then use this hot wet edge to wipe around the edge of the filled jar to make sure that there is nothing on it. Then remove a lid from the water, carefully dry it off, and place on the filled jar. Next, remove a ring from the water, carefully dry it off, and screw onto the jar, and make sure it's on tight. This is tricky, as the jar is hot. Move onto the next jar, until all the jars are filled, or all the applesauce is canned up.

Then, when the water in the big canning pot is very very hot, and you have at least seven jars done, put the jars into the canner, lower them into the water. Make sure that the "not too long"

pieces of twine tied to the handles on the jar holding rack are sticking out of the pot. If there is not enough water to cover the jars, add water to about 1 inch above the jars. Bring to a boil, cover, and boil the jars for 12 to 15 minutes. The point is to get everything in the jars very very hot. When the time is up, using the twine, firmly grabbed onto, lift up the jars. Using the jar holder, remove the jars to a tea towel. Leave them there until they are cool.

Now the final thing is to be sure that the jars are sealed. The lids will make a click sound when they shrink into place. This can take a while, as it happens as the jars cool a bit. But the ultimate test to see that the lids have sunk down is to you tap your finger on the top of the jar. It should make a dull thud sound, and there is no movement of the lid.

There you have it - a whole years supply of applesauce.

My husband wants me to tell you that the applesauce warm on ice cream is very delicious. We also just eat it, or put it on toast, or pancakes, or French toast, or waffles, or crepes, or yogurt, or pork chops, or sausages, or ..... bon appétit.

p.s. At the rate my family is eating up the applesauce I think maybe it's maybe 9 months supply of applesauce, and I actually ended up canning 60 pounds of apples.

"Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness."

Jane Austen

Ta-Dah! TWD on time Pumpkin Muffins

2008-10-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

"When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand,

how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"

"Twelve," they replied." Mark 8:19

Well I managed to do my baking on time this week. Luckily I had just about everything I needed, and what I didn't I improvised. And of course as you can see I made mini loaves instead of muffins - that way one can have some, and it's any amount they want.

And of course, as usual, I had my little helper. She was thrilled to participate. "Baby do it!"

Todays recipe is Pumpkin Muffins from page 13 of Baking. I just put the batter into mini-loaf tins instead of muffin tins. They cooked up very nicely in the same amount of time. I let Emily grease the pans, and when she was done she hurried over to "help" assemble the dry ingredients. She started by wanting to put in the baking powder. She was a rather exuberant, but I think it went all right - after I removed a little of her baking powder from the bowl.

She then chose to add the nutmeg, a task I felt that she couldn't mess up.

I had been mixing the wet ingredients, adding a bit of brandy for spunk, and when Em was done I mixed the two, and spooned the batter into the mini-loaf pans. It was a perfect fit.

Not having any pumpkin seeds, I found a small amount of cashews, chopped them, and sprinkled them on top. Then to zip that up a bit, I sprinkled on some demerara sugar.

After taking them out of the oven and setting them to cool, we went our for a few hours. We had some when we got back, and the first thing Emily said, after spotting the raison and taking a bite, was "delicious!" That's quite a big word for some one who is just two. But then, the other day I asked her what she was doing, and she said "thinking."

The pumpkin muffin loaves are delicious. And I'm thinking making muffins in the mini-loaf pans is a great idea, if I say so myself.

“I wish to do something Great and Wonderful,

but I must start by doing the little things

like they were Great and Wonderful”

~ Albert Einstein

Concert no, Hospital yes

2008-10-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

Psalm 139:14-16

I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  

Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

Your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in Your book

before one of them came to be.

So there we were, being sensible and eating at home before going down town to the symphony. I had simply heated up a left-over macaroni casserole, and we were watching the news while we ate. But all of a sudden I got a very strange and unfamiliar sensation in my upper chest and neck. And suddenly felt VERY uncomfortable and tense and a bit like I might get sick. I quickly stopped eating and tried to relax, but the feelings didn't subside, and I began to feel hot and sweaty. I began to feel a bit panicked. I remembered that my sister had sent me an e-mail about female heart attacks, noting especially the fact that woman and men do not have the same sensations. So I grabbed my computer and quickly looked up the symptoms for a heart attack in women. The list had six things, and I was feeling 4 of them. The site then went on to say that if you have several of these symptoms you should call 911 immediately.

Well I really wanted to go to the symphony! It was to be Grieg's Piano concerto in A minor, played by Valentina Lisitsa from the Ukraine. Have I mentioned that I love rousing piano concertos? I like them so much that I coerced Riley into taking me to the symphony on his 50th birthday to hear Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 23 But I began to imagine me having some kind of an attack right there at the symphony and ruining it for everyone there. So we called 911. And then Riley rushed off to get an aspirin for me.

From the sounds I could hear from the street they arrived in an ambulance and a fire truck, having arrived in something less than 4 minutes, seven of them, all looking young and fit and intelligent and pleasant. This was reassuring, but actually I was rather terrified. Riley had quickly moved the furniture about somewhat in the living room to make room, which was a good thing. They immediately set to work, questioning me and setting things up. They suick a plastic tube in my right arm, and stuck electrode things all about, hooking them to a machine. Others brought up a gurney and placed it on the outside stair landing - there are two flights of stairs to the house. They then took me through the garden to the driveway and out to the street. I didn't see the fire truck, but I know that i was put into the ambulance with simply the only woman in the group. She was very nice and did her best to calm me - of course that was so she could get a good EKG reading.

So, after not too fast ride to the hospital, I'm unloaded and taken into Emergency by the back way - thank goodness. I was not long in my space when Riley arrives - poor guy, he must have been very worried. They removed some of my clothes and made me put on the inescapable hospital gown, and then they quickly began attaching those little electrode things to me. And countless people asked me what happened.

Then after talking to ever so many very nice people, I was wheeled off to x-ray, to have my chest x-rayed from two different angles. Well after all their questioning and talking, it was decided that because there did appear to be a bit of a glitch in one of the EKGs, and something looked odd on one of the x-rays, I would be kept over-night, and the next day I was to have a stress test. They seemed quite determined that that was what was going to happen. So after a little while I sent Riley home, as he looked quite tired.

But just before he left he gave me a kiss, and for the fun of it he looked up at the monitor to see how the kiss affected my heart rate. It went up a beat of two. And then, as he headed for the door he paused to give me a foot rub. To his amazement, my heart rate went down 8 beats in a very short amount of time. It's so nice that he now knows that a foot rub does definitely have a good effect on me, positively affecting my state of well being.

So after he left, more people came to question me, but eventually I was taken to the third floor, but not after they got the rest of my clothes off. I hopped out of bed to remove my corduroys, and at that they decided that I did not need to be taken to my room on a gurney. So they went and got a wheelchair.

In the room they took me to was a very sick looking person. She had the front half of the room by the door, and I was in the part you couldn't really see into. This was okay with me. I got into bed and settled into knitting, as I wasn't sleepy even though it was late. So I sat there knitting for maybe a half hour when two nurses came in and apologized for having to disturb me, but that the doctor was concerned about my chest x-ray and wanted to have me moved to a private room. I was given a mask to wear during my transport, and they said that anyone on the hospital staff who came in to see me had to put on a gown and gloves and mask. So off I went to my own private room. This was much more to my liking, but what did they imagine was wrong with me?! Nobody was saying.

"You should always go to other people's funerals;

otherwise, they won't come to yours."

Yogi Berra

Wednesday with Dorie - Lenox Almond Biscotti

2008-10-15T22:23:00.000-07:00

The word of the LORD came to me:

"What do you see, Jeremiah?"

"I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied.

The LORD said to me,

"You have seen correctly,

for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled."

Jeremiah 1:11-12

As usual, I am behind. I meant to make the biscotti yesterday - the proper TWD day, but something came up, and I did not have the time. So today I was determined. Wednesday is also the day for the "Life Group" meeting at our house, so that meant that I would have eaters, and that's always a good thing.

I started out the day trying to straighten up the sitting room on the second floor. I had discovered that when I had asked Annie and Christian to clean the room up, all they had done was shove all the obviously offending objects into the already full closet. And then, after I got that stuff out of the closet I discovered that at some point a great deal of my sewing stuff had been shoved into that closet unbeknownst to me. Things I had really been wondering what happened to them, like the material for the curtains in the back room. And then finally, I discovered boxes of stuff that should have gone to Goodwill, not to the closet.

Well that made for a bit of a mess in the room, but I feel as if I've got a good start on that problem. But I left it in a bit of a mess, though one can now walk into the closet - YES!

It was about 4:30 when I finally got started on the biscotti, as I needed to get the kitchen all cleaned up. Well actually, I got it almost all cleaned up, I tend to lose interest in such endeavors. I got out the cookbook, and the needed ingredients, and as soon as I started the mixer to cream the butter and sugar, Emily heard the noise and came running, saying "Baby try!" She grabbed a chair, shoved it to the mixer area, and climbed up.

I let her push down the creamed butter and sugar, before adding the eggs. I also let her add the eggs, which I placed in a very small bowl for her to us to pour in the eggs, one at a time. She was very conscientious and nothing went astray. We then added the dry ingredients, and she was fine to let me guide her hand as she spooned them in.

We got the dry ingredients all mixed in and I took out the bowl and set it lower, so that Emily could add the nuts. I told her to stir in the nuts.

She carefully sized up the situation and then began to turn the bowl with her left hand as she held the rubber scraper steady with her right hand.

Then Emily got the pan ready to put the dough onto it. She greased the pan a bit so that the parchment would stick.

She did her best to get the dough worked into shape, but she did not like getting her hands so messy. She could hardly wait to get her hands washed.

Final analysis: These were really nice cookies, and I can't wait to make more of them - different flavors just for the fun of it.

"Reality is merely an illusion,

albeit a very persistent one."

Albert Einstein