I will also be setting myself up a much better spot next time with better lighting. I have some good folding tables that will be perfect for projects and I'm thinking the office will suit me better next time, also, I'll be more closed off from the rest of the house that I can put the girls to bed, shut the door and have some music and sew away all night if I want to. Ya, that sounds better.
The Life Of A Stay At Home Mother & Wife...All While Running A Business...And Possibly Starting Others.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Apron #2, Finally Finished! Phew!
Yummy Homemade Pizza And...What?
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Rain Rain Go Away, But Leave A Pot Of Soup!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
I Need, I Want, I Whine A Bit About it..
I am in a funk. I've been in a funk for a while now. I can't seem to get my head out of my ass and get back into the groove. I don't know what's up with me these days. Even my husband noticed I've just been slackin' hard. I have been spending lots of time out in the garden though. Mainly the front. I completly cleared one large bed of all weeds, runaway strawberries, and sadly lilies.
Long sigh...the lilies. Hundreds of them, they're everywhere! I love lilies and have tried to keep them but of all the hundreds, only about 15 or 20 of them produce blossoms. The rest just stay green so I sadly pulled them all out, I'll be doing that all over.My peonies are doing good, still need to get the special cages.
Mozz and tomato pizza with fresh basil for dinner? Ding!
Time to rant and rave a bit? Yes. What the hell is docelatte cheese? Nobody anywhere knows what it is and one girl handed me a block of cheese made with coffee grounds and said, "here, this is coffee cheese." Coffee cheese? What world was I in? So anyways, that's probably why they tell you it's ok to exchange that with gorgonzola cheese. What country do I need to travel to to get this?
Risotto. My luck and love with risotto are still going in different directions. I love risotto and my luck with it sucks. I've managed to ruin every pot that I have ever made. So I am going at it again with a different recipe out of a completly different book. Should I be worried? Ugh.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Rhubarb Schmubarb
After getting to know my neighbor, a nice little old yet very strong willed and blunt lady, Nancy, I learned a few things. The plant was special to her and the previous owner, and had enjoyed a close friendship over this one plant. How could I ever bring myself to take it out? Last year, we were clearing a lot from the backyard, enough to fill my husbands trailer to the max. She politely came running over to see what we were doing and was concerned about the plant.
The relief she expressed when she learned that we were keeping it. She was happy to see that we were trying to take back the yard from it's year's of neglect. She tells me stories about what the gardens used to be like. Anyways ladies, it's well on it's way. These pictures are about 8 days after it exploded with green.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Beauty In The Belly Of The Beast
Friday, March 25, 2011
Fresh Caught King Salmon
We food savored some and kept some in fridge for tonights dinner. Again, we will be having someone over for dinner so I am kinda goin' all out for it. I'm thinking about getting out the fine china and silver because, well, why not? Mark will grill the fish again, something that he has mastered and I love him even more for that. I will be making waldorf salad, fresh bread, and a bit of potato, I'm thinking creamy mashed. I may even open a bottle of wine and get out the crystal. Why not? I also have banana bread in the oven and am wondering what I am going to do for dessert.
This past week has been rough. Between my husband being gone fishing, and being sick I haven't really done much at all. I mustered some good energy to do our tradition of shopping, eating out, eating ice cream and baking cookies while Mark was gone. Two days of that will make ya tired! Other than that, I've done some small things but this cold and cough has really held on and every morning when I wake up I feel like my head is going to explode.
Just yesturday, I finally managed to clean the entire house for the first time in a week and it took me 4 hours. All except Mias room, which she made the biggest mess ever and it's gonna take me like an hour to do that so I've saved that for last. It felt good to have a clean house again.
Also, yesturday and the day before were awesome spring days. We spent most of the day out in the yard, not necessarily doing yard work, but simply enjoying it. Mia and I layed in the grass and ran around bare foot and it was awesome! My daffodils are blooming and things are really starting to come up so next time we go outside, we will be rolling our sleeves up and gettin' dirty. Honestly I can't wait!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Super Moon And Irish...Taco's? Yes!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
My first batch stuck to the pan something aweful and didn't look so hot when they were done. But all in all, I was ok with the recipe. They were really good when they hot but once they cooled, they got kind of hard on the outside. They also didn't come out as thick as I wanted them. I do think that I will be looking into different recipes for these and keep trying til' I get one that I'm truly happy with.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Grim Days With Fresh Breads
This is going to be my most "grim" blog yet, and there won't be another. I've been watching whats been happening in Japan and looking at the cold hard facts about radiation and it's behavior. People - we have a serious problem here! Nobody seems to care. As my husband said this morning, everybody is in denial and most people are actually putting their trust in the media and the government.
I heard one scientist claim that radiation won't leave Japan. Really? My husband watched a weather report where the weather man was stopped, told something in his ear piece and completly changed everything he was saying...they don't want the general population knowing that winds will bring this radiation around the entire world within' time. It entered our region on Monday.
It's going to enter our food supply, and it's going to enter our water supply. This is completly inevitable. After the accident at Chernobyl, Ottawa Canada measured radiation and found they had 6 times the normal limit, and it only took a few weeks at most to trickle it's way around the globe. I am not being overly cautious. I have a friend with a Masters degree in this exact area of expertise. This is what she does for a living, constantly measuring chemicals and such that are either in the envirornment naturally or not, and measuring their effect on the water supply. We may not see the direct effect today, tomorrow, or even next year. In about 5 years, there is going to be a huge boom of cancers.
So in the end, be smart, be safe. Make miso. Be cautious. Don't trust what the media tells you, or some stupid Yahoo article that took someone 15 minutes to write, THEY ARE NOT GOING TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH. PERIOD!
Of course they want everyone to calm down, think that it's all ok. They need people to continue buying things, to keep shopping, and to keep paying taxes. Now I could continue to go on for a very long time getting into the media and government and the cold, hard, nasty things they keep from us, but really, that's a whole different blog with a whole different agenda, and honestly, I don't have time. Now, how about some food? Miso anybody?
Amen!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
When Life Throws You Lemons - You Make A Birthday Cake!
In my family, I believe everyone deserves a homemade birthday cake. My father-in-law likes lemon cake and it's his birthday, so here goes to a new adventure involving lots of lemon. Lemon cake with lemon frosting.
Shaving for my zest to go in batter. I finally found a good use for this little grater, a kitchen item I find annoying with it's shape and size. I'll use it once a year now.
Why buy buttermilk when you can make your own....ironically with lemon juice.
My dry mix including the lemon zest.
Ready for oven. I alternatly added the buttermilk and flour mixture to the 2 eggs and 3 egg yolks, beginning and ending with the flour mix. As I understand, this recipe can easily be over mixed, so there was no room for error.
Getting ready to candy the lemon slices.
Making syrup to brush baked cakes with. Also, this is when I candied the lemons. This process took 25 minutes.
After poking like 100 holes in the cakes, I brushed them with the syrup that I just made with lemon slices. Cakes were still hot here, so they cooled while soaking up the bitterly sweet syrup. A lemon lovers heaven!
Making real lemon frosting. This was honestly challenging. Not only did I have to pick a bowl to sacrifice just in case it cracked, I had to constantly mix and hold my mini temp reader until this mixture of egg whites, water, sugar, and a pinch of salt came to 150 degrees - on top of - not in - a pan of boiling water. Although I haven't cut into the cake yet, I feel maybe I have unleashed a deadly secret about this frosting. I did the exact same thing with German Chocolate Cake frosting - I took it off the heat to early and in turn ended up with seperated frosting. So I used the syrup to drench the cake with, made another batch the right way and the cake alone was to die for. I did the same thing here, we'll see what reaction I get from people when they eat this. Who knew there was frosting made by forming stiff peaks.
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