Why my back door is very dirty.........

I realized my back door was dirty from Lizzie jumping up at it, and I figured she was putting her paws on it. I just didn't realize exactly how she was doing this.....until now.

What a Year!

Wow! It has certainly been quite a year for me. I have no new pictures to post right now, but I have been so busy lately I haven't had time to post anything here. I have a couple of projects in progress. I started working on a blanket. The blanket is moving along quite nicely now that I have figured out the pattern. That was a bit difficult at first! I had to start over 4 times before I finally got it right! Then I decided for a side project to make a wash cloth. It didn't seem like it was that difficult, but for some reason I can't seem to follow the pattern! Every few rows I end up with more or less stitches than I'm supposed to have. I will end up with the pattern being off to where the last few stitches that should be knitted or purled aren't the right number, but yet I have the right number on the needle! I went back to working on the blanket after about the 4th time of that happening. I got tired of ripping out stitches. I don't know if I'll finish it or do something else with it. To make matters worse, it's not even that difficult a pattern!

Since this is probably my last post for the year due to how busy I am, have a Merry Christmas everyone and be safe!

What to do with cherries........

You eat 'em of course! Seriously, I found this recipe online and just had to try it out. Well, Russ very often becomes my tester. Any time I am up to see him I like to experiment with a new (sometimes old) recipe. I will have to dig up that recipe for lemon bars. Even Uncle Emery liked them! Grandma told me that Emery didn't like lemon desserts, but he decided to try a piece and thought it was pretty tasty! Russ loved them too. In that case, it was a recipe my mom had made for years! This time I thought I would try a recipe that I found about a year ago. My mom had picked a couple baskets of cherries off the tree in Russ's yard, and I decided to make a cherry clafouti out of them.

Well the funny thing about cherries is that before you can use them, you have to pit them. Since Russ didn't have a working cherry pitter, here's how we had to do them:


We made a mess of ourselves and had a blast! Somehow I managed to get cherry juice up my nose! Note to self: wear an old shirt when doing this. I had spots all over my tank top. Fortunately they all came out.

We had a nice bowlful of cherries afterward even if Russ did eat a few while pitting. :)

Too bad I don't have a photo of the finished result, but Russ and I really enjoyed this dessert. It was super simple to make. All you need is a pan and a blender!

Great find!!!!

It's looking like Sundays are my blog days since I don't have time to do much through the week. Well, the other day I went to Food Lion to grab a few items. It's only a mile from my house and has the best prices out of the nearby grocery stores, so I shop there frequently. Remember when I posted about method products? The only store that carried them then was Target. Now Target carries a wide variety of their products--laundry soap, fabric softeners, and air fresheners in addition to a whole line of household cleaners. It seems that as Target has expanded their selection, Food Lion has started carrying some of the products. This is really great for me since I shop Food Lion more often than Target on account of distance. (Target is 10 -15 minutes from my house while Food Lion is only 2 minutes from my house.) The Food Lion by my house only carries the Lavender cleaner right now, but another Food Lion 10 minutes away carries the dish soap. I think it's only a matter of time before they all carry a little of everything. :)

Juicing!

Ok, I admit it: I joined the ranks of juicers. I have been looking at getting a juicer for quite a while now. I had bought a book a while back called 100 Health Boosting Drinks. It has a lot of great recipes in it. Not all of them require a juicer either. Well, it kind of got shelved for a while, but yesterday I decided I was going to go buy a juicer. Off I went to Kohl's because I knew they had a nice one for around $100. It was actually $130 and not in stock, so I went to Macy's. (The Macy's here used to be Hecht's and still carries all the stuff that Hecht's used to have for about the same prices as Hecht's.) It was my lucky day because Macy's was having a sale! (Maybe a Leap Year sale? hmmm....) Anyway, the exact same juicer was $100 at Macy's. Yea for me!!!! I had to buy it now if I was going to get it.

The nice thing about the juicer is that all the components that touch your juice are dishwasher safe. That makes for super easy cleanup. I put all those components in the dishwasher last night so it could be used in the morning. I had some oranges that were not going to last much longer as well as some carrots. Some of the recipes in this book are pretty basic ideas of how to combine fruits and vegetables for great taste. The premise of the book is that certain foods when combined with other specific foods will boost your health. For example, if you combine carrots with oranges it will boost your energy, but when combined with endive and celery is good for your eyesight. Now, I don't know if I buy into the "combine specific foods to lose weight, boost health" or any of that stuff theory, but what I do know is that more fruits and vegetables in your diet is good for you. It has been proven that certain fruits or vegetables or herbs do help aid in digestion or boost immunity. For instance, peppermint and catnip have been proven to help soothe an upset stomach. I am all about finding ways to improve my health, and sometimes I just can't eat 8 servings of vegetables in a day, but I can drink part of them. I do know that more vegetables in my diet will make me feel better and help me lose weight and then keep it off. Even more importantly I will waste less money and food with a juicer. I couldn't possibly eat that whole bag of oranges or use that whole bag of carrots before it went bad. I am after all only one person, but this morning I was able to use TWO of those oranges and ONE of those carrots. I could easily do the same thing tomorrow or later in the day if I want a sweet snack. Enough of my soap box now. If you want the book, you can find it in any bookstore or on www.amazon.com. I actually bought mine at Barnes & Noble one day. It offers recipes for juices, smoothies, coolers, and soups. (I am seriously thinking about going to the store and getting some sweet potatoes to try that one.)

Gingerbread Muffins

Ok, well, my sink isn't clean right now, but that's only because I haven't finished cleaning everything up from these scrumptious gingerbread muffins! (Don't worry, I will clean it up. The dishwasher was just full right now.) Anyway, I found this really neat Bed & Breakfast recipe site. http://www.bbonline.com/recipe/index.html These muffins taste just like gingerbread. I cut the recipe in half because I didn't want that many muffins.

Gingerbread Muffins
(compliments of Bed & Breakfast of Summerville located in Summerville, SC)

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup raisins

In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Dissolve the soda in a cup with the buttermilk. In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the spices and add the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Stir in the pecans and raisins. Store the batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until done. For unchilled batter, reduce cooking time to 15 mins. Batter may be stored for several weeks in the refrigerator. Makes about 6 dozen muffins.

NOTES: I didn't have the pecans or the raisins, and I substituted margarine for shortening. I am not quite sure if the amount of batter I have will make 3 dozen muffins. I don't really think so. I think I'll be lucky if I get 2 dozen out of it. I haven't finished baking them out. I thought I would save the batter for later. The other thing about these instructions is that the recipe calls for molasses, but doesn't exactly tell you where to put it in, so I just put it in at the end. These are really yummy when warm.

Website Review!

Ok, I have found this really wonderful website. I will tell you all now, that I definitely have CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)! I have not always suffered from this problem (or maybe I have and the times it wasn't afflicting me were just relapses of normal life). At any rate, I am tired of CHAOS and must find the cure, so here is a really neat website that talks about how to conquer this. From this website you can find another website set up by sisters who are convinced that disorganization is genetic. (Sound familiar, Cynetta? How many times have we had that conversation? LOL) I'm loving this site, and I am off to clean my sink!

Mittens!

 
 
 

Ok, so I'm a little behind on blogging. Here are a few pictures of some mittens that I made for Noah for Christmas. Cynetta said she likes them and that Noah has worn them a little bit. She only puts them on him for church or other outings where he won't be playing outside in the snow.

I made them on two regular size 8 needles from Red Heart Soft yarn. The pattern can be found here. It's actually quite a simple pattern and doesn't take much time to knit up!

In Memory Of.......

Helen Daly. Better known as Grandma. May 25, 1922 - December 6, 2007. I will miss you, Grandma.

 

The Lizzie Girl!

Ok, here's a pic of the crazy Lizzie. She's a hyper 4 year old. It was difficult to take a picture of her because she doesn't sit still very well.