Turkey try-outs November 16, 2009

I found this turkey in the bottom of my freezer! It took almost a week to thaw out, but Phil and I cooked it today. I got it all ready, and Phil popped it into the oven at noon. It really turned out well and I have enough leftover turkey for 5 meals plus quite a few sandwiches! I think I better get another one to cook for when Walker comes home. They are .27 per lb at Safeway this week!

Guess who got caught sampling the turkey? I was so laid back on this one, I took it out of the oven, and let it sit on the counter for an hour while I made baked potatoes and acorn squash and it was still HOT when I cut into it later! Our whole menu was: Turkey, Baked potatoes, gravy, acorn squash, home made applesauce, and Trader Joe's Tuscan pane bread. Yummy yummy!

This is Phil's (first) plate of food. He had the table all set and a fire in the fireplace when I got home! So cozy and good smelling!

Our weather is getting wild. They are predicting 50 - 60 mph winds over the next few days so I decided I should get out my oil lamps. I love these lamps. Very useful. I am always amazed when I see myself in the reflection too! Lets just say I did it on purpose.

I know its a little early for this, but I ran across this little book and put it out with my Thanksgiving things. I bought the book at a thrift store last year, and put my own photos in it. I love how it turned out, and there are so many wonderful times I might have forgotten were just last December...

Phil and Walker and I loading our tall tall tree into the red pickup...our beautiful snowy house (it snowed so many times last winter we actually lost track!)...

Phil and Walker dragging out the tree... Phil and I enjoying an evening at home...

There are more photos too, of Tori and I at the Teddy Bear Tea Party, Alan and Sara and Tori on Alan's birthday and Christmas celebration, and lots more snow photos!

Our cozy kitty under the tree, sleeping with the gifts...The blanchard bunch at our house for a holiday party -- it took several tries to get us all together!

I'm feeling all happy and cozy tonight!

Hillsdale College wins first game in playoffs!!!

Today was our all day crop at Rubbermaids. Claudia and I had plans to sit together and she got there first. She had this darling item waiting at my "spot"... in this photo filled with some things I made later.
This is what the basket looks like - it is SO CUTE! It was a thank you for taking the photos at Tony's wedding for her. I told her it was so much fun I didn't need a gift - but THANK YOU! Very nice.

And a close up with the handle and clasp. I love it.

Here are some of the cards I made for the Orting Soldier's Home. They have 180 guests there and we made an individual card for each of them.

I had quite a few ideas and I wanted to try them all. These vintage images I took out of a book from my library. Cute paper from Sharin Memories and I have three snowflake punches that made very adorable accents.

These are the ones Claudia made, using an idea from the card-making class we attended last week.

My shortbread cookies and jalapeno cheese pie were enjoyed. We had so many goodies and so much food! With 15 ladies all meeting in one place and everyone bringing food, you know it was a banquet! One of the ladies made a crockpot of Italian Beef that we ate served on rolls with sauteed garlic and green peppers for dinner. Very good! The time flew by.

In the meantime, Phil and Walker talked on the phone several times. Hillsdale College Chargers were in Mankuta Minnesota in the first game of the playoffs. Walker didn't go to the game, but learned he could go on the internet and watch the game from his computer! He tried to get Phil set up to watch too, but Phil couldn't access it. Anyway, the Chargers won their first game! There will be another next weekend.

Sharpies and jalapenos...November 13, 2009

A new page in my doodle journal... I worked on this while working at my third job! This was really fun and I found a pen that works especially well, a fine-tipped sharpy. That black areas filled in beautifully, like with a paintbrush.

Another angle - I can't resist these artsy angles.

My kitty loves to sit in this spot on the living room carpet. I think she believes she is invisible there.

Tonight I'm getting ready for an all day crop with the Rubbermaids. I made a plate of shortbread cookies and a "jalapeno cheese pie" to take and share. I also packed a carload of stuff to use: 2 boxes of paper, a box of ribbon, a box of ink, brushes, tools, an open bag with all my tools (punches, glues, tape, this and thats), a box of acrylic stamps, all my Christmas paper and stamps. I'm looking forward to spending the day sitting next to Claudia and working on art projects.

Recipe:

Jalapeno cheese pie

prepare a pie plate or quiche dish by spraying with oil.

open a little can of chopped green chilis (from Mex aisle); spread in bottom of pan.

grate about 2 cups of cheese - I used Monterey Jack;

whisk together 3 eggs and salt and pepper. pour over cheese.

bake 400 degrees for 20 min. (check after 15).

It tastes like a chile relleno. cute in my white ceramic quiche dish.

Go to bed!

Thank you... Thank you... Thank you...

Today I had lunch with Vicki and she surprised me with this lovely card...

AND this amazing chocolate gift! Do you notice it says it has CHILIES??? Its a very dark chocolate with chilies and nibs! Very tasty -- and to my young readers - a grown up taste! What a lovely treat. I will share a little with Phil as I am sure he's never tried it before. Its still definately chocolate - with a lovely BITE at the end! Thanks Vicki!
These are the little thank-you's I made for the Rubbermaids ladies for my birthday gift. They were very easy...

When you open them up, this is what is inside. Claudia gave me the tea things stamps for my birthday, and if you can't tell from the photo, the tea cup is stuck on with thick mounting tape so it stands out just a bit.I don't know why the background looks white, its blue like the edges. Must be the flash.

I made 15 of these to give out at our November meeting.

I went to school with AJ today too, to his Greek class, and they made Tiropetakia - cheese triangles. I sat with the boys and what a buttery mess they made! Yikes. But the final product looked pretty good and tasted great. They got bored after the first two and started making them gigantic and in different shapes other than triangles - that's boys for you! I think I may make a batch for Thanksgiving.

GREEK TIREPETAKIA

Recipe:

2 c. cottage cheese

2 c. crumbled feta cheese

3 eggs

dash white pepper

1 lb phyllo dough sheets

1 lb melted butter

1/4 c. diced green onion

1 lb minced garlic.

Combine cheeses, eggs, onion, garlic and pepper. Blend thoroughly.

Cut phyllo sheets into three equal sections.

Take one strip at a time, brush with melted butter. fold in half lengthwise. put a tsp of the filling at the end of the strip, and start folding like you fold a flag - ending up with a many layered triangle.

Place on greased cookie sheet - brush a little more butter on top.

Make about a thousand more. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until golden. serve warm.

Unbaked triangles can be frozen. To bake, pull out frozen triangle - do not thaw - and bake as above.

I also stopped to see Alan and pick up 100 lb of beef from him. Its all wrapped and frozen and labelled very nicely. I made a list of everything before I put it into the freezer, in shopping bags organized by category - ground beef, steaks, roasts, etc. My freezer is about full.

The day started out rainy but ended up clear and nice. A very pretty day.

Veteran's Day; around home on 11-11-09

Look what is still blooming at my house! Little hardy fuschias. These are very tiny, the whole shrub is less than 1 ft tall. The deer were keeping them eaten earlier but they must have something more interesting to eat now. I love the little rain droplets on them.

Phil and I went for a nice walk around the neighborhood today. Its nice and sunny out and not that cold. I feel like I keep taking the same old pictures of my house, but I must like the way it looks coming up the driveway!

We saw these on our walk. Aren't they great? They look kind of slimy don't they. I can just imagine these in an old Disney cartoon with little elves dancing around.
These guys are pushing their way up through our driveway gravel! I don't think anything eats mushrooms. They just go through their life cycle in a week or two and leave a black stain where they used to be growing.

I can hear my sweetie is building a fire now and I have several projects in mind to work on this afternoon. I thought I had to work a few hours today, but turned out I don't so it really is a holiday. We were going to go to a movie in Shelton, but it didn't work out so we went to an antique store and Wal Mart. The freeway was closed coming home and we had to take a long alternate route but luckily we were in no hurry and still had our movie chocolate so we were content.

I also cleaned out my freezer in preparation for some beef we bought with Alan. If I didn't recognize a bag of frosted whatever, I tossed it into the garbage! I am feeling much more organized and I plan to keep a list of what is in there to aid in meal planning. I found a turkey! I think I'll cook it this weekend if I can get it thawed out.

Ancestors, Art and junque...

This is a photo of my great-grandfather, on my mother's side. This is her grandfather, who she never knew. At Tony's wedding, my dad mentioned that he had this photo and thought Alan looks a little like him. Maybe - Put your hand on one-half of his face, and look at each half separately - both halves look pretty different. I know Alan has his grandfather's personality - (my mom's dad). My grandpa was everyone's best friend - loved to talk and do things for people. loved to party and drink and cook and be generous host. Alan is much more handsome, but genes do account for a lot!

I finished a page in my black and white journal in honor of Tony and Sam's wedding.

Here is a close up -

- and a closer close-up.

This is one of the cards I made last week. Easy, the trees are cut-outs from scrapbook paper.

This was super easy and cute in a dramatic way.

I loved the buttons on this one. This is a little bulky for mailing unless it is in a package.

Here's the junque part -- I bought this darling mermaid glass bottle. Its hard to see but the lid is a crown. I haven't decided exactly what to do with it, but it was so unique I couldn't pass it up for $2.00.

My Pop gave me these two books. I think they are beautiful.

I spoke to Walker today. He is doing extremely well especially in Latin! He is looking forward to reading a Latin book this summer.

The Hillsdale Chargers are going into the playoffs this weekend! This means continued work for Walker too - the longer football season lasts, the more hours he gets filming.

Stormy weather makes me crafty

While we watched tv last night, I worked on cards. I made this slightly fuzzy looking one for a certain almost two year old! The tag booklet is for my Rubbermaid friend who has a November birthday. Each tag has a pull-out that you can put something into - one will be for her gift (cash from the group) and the others will have decorated paper that the other ladies will sign their birthday greetings on. I can only give it away because I have these photos of it now.

Today I went to my favorite scrapbooking store and the owner said - oh, look outside! and we saw this really bright WIDE rainbow. Too bad about the power lines but there was no way to avoid them. It was extremely windy too. Another crazy weather day. Our friends had a limb (or the top of a tree) crash through their roof, actually through the attic and sheetrock today!

I signed up for another class at the scrapbook store. It's a book to record events every day in December. I can't wait.

I've been selling some books on Amazon too. That is pretty fun. I get so excited to see that I have sold a book. I haven't gotten any actual money yet, but it should start drifting into my bank account soon.