Tag: food

Baking Day 2006

Mom and I once again locked ourselves in her kitchen all day and baked our little hearts out. Yup, it’s our annual Baking Day! (OK, if you’re picturing us locked into the kitchen with shackles and a taskmaster cracking a whip, it wasn’t quite like that…)

In 2004 and 2005 I reported on those Baking Days. We’ve stuck with most of the usual lot for baked goods. Though we did try one former classic once again – Oatmeal Carmelitas. Think chocolate chip cookie bars with gooey caramel and pecans. Indeed, they came out so gooey that we’re just going to bring them along in their original pan rather than get them out to set with the other cookies.

The list of things we made were as follows:

  • Ice Box Cookies (Butterscotch cookies – a family favorite, great with coffee apparently)

  • Oatmeal Carmelitas

  • Caramel Pecan Dreams (AKA floor sweeping cake – this time with REAL floor sweepings!)

  • Lindy Cookies (mom’s classic oatmeal chocolate chip cookies)

  • Cheesecake Cupcakes (a double batch)

  • Peanut Blossoms (AKA nipple cookies)

  • Candy Buckeyes (using a slightly different recipe and Ghirardelli chocolate chips)

  • Market Day Sugar Cookies (which we haven’t baked yet – we’ll decorate & bake those and the ice box cookies tomorrow)

We’ve tasted most of these and they are YUMMY! Mom and I rock mightily. 🙂 Tomorrow, as I mentioned in the list, mom will be baking the ice box cookies (we made a double batch – that’s 12 cups of flour!!!) and when I get home from work, we’ll decorate and bake some of the sugar cookies. (The elementary school is doing a monthly fundraiser called Market Day where you can buy a number of prepared food items. I decided to try their holiday sugar cookies. And they had cool decorations which I also got.)

Tomorrow evening, we’re off to the Shorts (Aunt Becky et al) for the extended family Christmas. And Saturday evening is the Andersons. It’ll be sad going to the family gatherings without Amy & Rachel, but in a selfish way, it means we don’t have to share them with anyone when they do come. Hee hee! (Well, Aunt Becky is invited to New Year’s Eve – as is Deanna – so they’ll get to share in A&R a little.)

Heading for Home Again…

In an hour or so, we’ll be departing Amy & Rachel’s place for the Twin Cities Airport. Our flight is at 7:10pm CST and we should be back in Dayton just after 10pm EST. Then I’ll get to see my kitties again. Yay! (I hope they remember me!)

We had another lazy morning and I did my best to stay in bed until 9am. Dad once again put his cullinary talents at work and made us all Egg McMikey sandwiches. Yay dad! Then we sat around and read and slooched until lunchtime. We took a walk in Loring Park and even walked over I-94 to see the Sculpture Park from above. Then we walked through the Greenway to get to Nicollett Mall. Lunch was at Brit’s Pub. Yum! I had the steak & ale pie with chips and cole slaw. It was wonderful, but then again, so was everything that we ordered. Oh yeah, I’d also gotten an amaretto sour and managed to not spill it this time (unlike my last time at Brit’s).

Dad was out of reading material, so we also stopped at Barnes & Noble on the Mall. I looked around and got a few Christmas gift ideas to ask folks for. When we all joined up again, dad had gotten the reading material he needed and we headed over to the Tarzhay Mahal (the big Target downtown) for a few essentials.

We’re now back at the apartment and all packed for the trip home. Thus far, flight times are looking OK. Here’s hoping they stay that way! I wanna see my kitties soon! 🙂

This trip has been a blast and has been one of the nicest Thanksgivings ever. Thanks once again to Amy & Rachel for hosting us. I love you both lots!

Mary Poppins & Indian Fud

There’s a cathedral and basilica nearby and one of ’em has a 7:30am alarm chime they like to play on Sundays. Needless to say, we all woke up around 7:30 and then “slooched” for awhile after. “Slooch” is a term Amy & Rachel use to describe the whole being in bed & awake & snoozing time that’s just so enjoyable on the weekend. Dad made us all Egg McMikey sandwiches. And around noon, we finally headed out to Nicollett Mall and Macy’s (formerly Marshall Field’s).

On the 8th floor of the former Mashall Field’s, they like to do an animated holiday display each season. This year’s animated theme was the novel Mary Poppins (with music from the New York musical based upon the Disney movie). When we went 3 years ago (or so) to see Charlie & the Chocolate Factory there, we’d gone on the Friday after Thanksgiving and waited in line for a LONG time. Today, being further from the holiday, there was NO line. It was quite pleasant. The figurines were cute and the scenes they picked were fun.

On our way back to the apartment, we stopped at New Delhi for Indian Fud. They have a lunch buffet and I promised all that I’d pick up the bill if we went for Indian this weekend. They had a few dishes I’d not had before – egg masala and goat curry. They were good, but the bones (and hoof?) in the goat put me off of finishing it. We all enjoyed our lunch and waddled back to the apartment.

At this point, we all started reading and eventually folks dropped off. We napped for awhile and then spend the rest of the evening just relaxing and drinking wine (or cream soda in my case). We girls played Euchre and mom & I won both games. Go us! We had nachoes with guacamole & salsa for “supper” and finished it off with pie – both apple & pumpkin. I put ice cream *and* whipped cream on my apple pie. Yum!

This has been a fabulous weekend and I’m so happy we were able to join the girls for this time. Thank you Amy & Rachel for being great hosts. Tomorrow we’ll have a bit more time together and then finally we fly back home. I’ll miss being with the girls, but it will be nice to see my kitties again!

Little Miss Sunshine

Today was our first time outside since we arrived on Wednesday. Heh. (OK, so Amy & dad went out yesterday…) We got ready early in order to join Lynn & Doug at Keys Restaurant by 9:30. We walked into the joint at 9:29am. We rock. 🙂

I overindulged at breakfast having 2 eggs (over easy), hashbrowns, and toast AND 2 slices of French toast. More than one person can eat, which is why I let other people share my food. There was quite a bit of sharing going on – we’re the sharing family. And it was nice to have one more meal with Lynn & Doug before they returned home.

Once we’d said our farewells to Rachel’s folks (back at the apartment), we sat around & discussed our day’s plans. It was agreed that we’d go see Little Miss Sunshine at the Riverview theater at 7:10pm. And before that, go to the wine bar across the street from the theater. So what to do until then? Why, go shopping of course!

We started out at the Half Price Bookstore. I found Spy Muppet’s License to Croak on CD-ROM for $6, so I bought it. Rachel & mom also bought some stuff while we were there. Then we headed off to Pier One so the girls could use a gift certificate on cushions for one of their chairs. They found just what they were looking for, so they bought ’em. Then a trip to the new Trader Joe’s near them. I bought some Truffles for us and for Aunt Becky & the others who have been checking in on my kitties. Plus some cashews – unsalted & low salt. We also got some sushi, salsa, guacamole & tortilla chips for a light meal. Back home, we partook of these goodies. Yum!

We learned some interesting things while having our snack. First, sushi & nachoes are a good snack. 🙂 Second, putting wasabi & soy sauce on turkey still tastes of turkey. However, guacamole on turkey is an improvement upon the turkey. And third, cleaning up from sushi & nachoes is very fast (I did the dishes – heh!)

When it was 5pm, we moved on to the Riverview Wine Bar. They have several “flites” (samplers) that they offer for $9. Dad got the K’Syrah Shiraz flite, mom got a Riesling flite, and Rachel tried out the Chardonnay flite. Each flite has 4 wines with 2 oz samples of each. Amy tried a Victory HopDevil beer. I had water. We also got the cheese sampler – a goat cheese, a bleu cheese of some sort, an Italian cheese that resembled Swiss in appearance but not taste, and a zola (IIRC). I liked ’em all but the bleu cheese. Oh, and I made the mistake of seeing the specials board – they had creme brulee. Eep! So of course I had to get that. It was very yummy!

The Riverview theater is a second run theater with $3 evening movies (and $2 matinees). They also have reasonably priced popcorn (mom ordered us 2 GIANT Cokes and a large popcorn and it was $9). The movie playing was Little Miss Sunshine, which was riotously funny. Amy considered it good exercise, all that laughing. I agree. I’m loathe to say much about the plot because I went in knowing next to nothing and enjoyed it all the more because of that. If you want to laugh a lot and you don’t mind foul language from time to time, I heartily recommend this movie.

Tomorrow, we’ll probably have more grand adventures. But I shall leave you all with the lovely photo of mom in her make-up from yesterday’s session. Oh yeah, and I’m in it too. Mom is the lovely woman on the left. I’m the silly woman on the right. Heh. Enjoy!


Mom & Me. Yup, that’s make up on my face! Hee!

(PS, I can’t imagine getting any sleep tonight – I had some of the caffeine-laden Coca Cola with the movie. Whoops!)

Mary Kay Day

Before I get started, here’s a joke that’s on the girls’ fridge:

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: None. There is nothing wrong with the lightbulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That lightbulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

Hee hee!

Anyhoo, the weekend in progressing nicely. Last night, Becky & Michelle arrived for warm-ups & dessert. The pies were very good – I had pumpkin with real whipped cream (sorry elsaf) and apple pie with ice cream. Yummy! We then played a game of Scene It with me, Becky & Michelle beating the teams of Amy, mom & dad, and Rachel and her folks. Go us! Rachel’s folks headed back to their hotel while we ladies played Apples to Apples. Rachel won that game.

We slept in a bit today, but eventually everyone showered and dad made us all Egg McMikey sandwiches. Doug & Lynn arrived and we had turkey sandwiches and cheeseball for lunch. Mmmm, turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce on ’em are good!

Once the dishes were cleand up, we started setting up for a Mary Kay party. In addition to being an Episcopal priest, Lynn is a Mary Kay Consultant. Becky & Michelle again arrived and Amy gave us all hand pampering to start the session. Then Amy & dad headed downtown for coffee and other essentials. Doug braved the crowds at the Mall of America to see the World’s Largest Gingerbread House.

Folks who know me know that I am not a make-up wearer. I do very low maintenance work on my face & skin. But hey, this was going to be fun, so I partook of the session. (Michelle is another non-make-up person, but the night before we’d agreed to both go through with it.) The facial was quite nice and we discovered that foundation helps tone down my rosacea. We even put on blush (heh – me, putting on blush!), eye makeup, and lip stuff (lip liner, lipstick, and lip gloss – sheesh!) My least favorite makeup is still lip-stuff. I even let dad take a photo of me and I might post it tomorrow.

I decided to get a few things including the stuff from our hand pampering session and a foundation/moisturizer which I might use on days when my photo will be taken (to tone down my red cheeks). I think Lynn did some good business with our small group. Go us! She even gave us her sales pitch for the Mary Kay world, which, nice though it is, means you have to talk to people, so most of us declined completely. 🙂

We had a blast during the party and I’ll need to remove my makeup before bed. Heh. Something I haven’t had to do since I was in the school play.

Supper was leftovers from our Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was just as good as the day before – yummy stuff! We even polished off a few of the dishes – go us! Still some turkey and some mashed potatoes left, but most of the rest of the food is gone.

Lynn & Doug once again returned to their hotel with promise to meet at Key’s for breakfast in the morning. Becky & Michelle stayed for drinks & games. I had an amaretto sour (no suprise) but gin & tonics and Cosmopolitans were also present. We wound up playing Trivial Pursuit, Genus IV because Amy & Michelle like to play it, but Rachel & Becky do not. So mom & I entered the game to make 4 (which is more fun than two) while Becky knitted and Rachel cross-stitched. Dad read for a bit before retiring early.

Mom quickly lept to the lead, but was unable to sustain it as Amy & Michelle caught up. I lost with only 3 pieces when Michelle won the game. Go Michelle!

Tomorrow promises to be another fun day with the parental units & the girls. Go us!

Thanksgiving 2006

This holiday weekend has been only the second time that both families have been together (the other being Amy & Rachel’s wedding). Last night, Rachel made vegetarian lasagna which we had when Lynn & Doug arrived (having driven into town). The dinner was excellent and accompanied by salad, roasted squash, and rustic Italian bread (from their Co-Op). Good eats!

But the REAL banquet was saved for today. Amy got up early and started on the chestnut stuffing (chopping & browning the bread) and then the turkey (which had been soaking in brine in the fridge for nearly 12 hours). As the morning progressed, I made the sweet potato souffle (having made the cheeseball last night), Rachel worked on the rolls, Lynn made the green bean casserole (using green & wax beans from her garden), Doug made the mashed ‘tatoes (having made cranberries the day before), and Rachel made the apple pie. Mom and dad carved the turkey (which turned out beautifully). And then we feasted at 2pm.


The feast, lovingly prepared by all.

Once we got the kitchen cleaned up again, we all crashed, some napping, others watching Love, Actually on cable. I napped a little, and now I’m typing this up.

We still have pies. Amy & Rachel’s friends Becky & Michelle will be arriving around 7:30pm for games, leftovers, and DESSERT. Mom baked her pumpkin pies yesterday and as I mentioned just now, Rachel baked an apple pie.


Mom’s pumpkin pies.


Rachel’s apple pie (with snowflake cut-outs).

Oh, and just cuz I can, gratuitous cat photo:


Früvous helped out by staying out of the way.

We said thanks before we had our feast. Today in particular, I am thankful that we were able to gather for this. Thank you, Amy & Rachel for making all of this possible. 🙂

To Market to Market to buy a Fat Pig…

Yesterday, due to WOEA Day (a union day off – we get that rather than Columbus day), we had the day off. So, the parental units and I headed doon south to the 2nd Street Market in Dayton for a look around. Mom & dad had heard of the place – in fact, a friend of ours works there. Sure enough, when we arrived, he was there selling his spices, bulk foods, and cheeses (the Spice Rack). We asked him for advice on which place to go for lunch, but he recommended them all. 🙂 He did advise going to check out the bread lady nearby, so we sampled here wares and I bought a loaf of Tuscan crusty bread. (Having some toast from that right now – yummy!)

We wound up all ordering from the Diva’s Gourmet. I got a Fresh Mozarella Sandwich which was very tasty. We looked around the market and then returned to the Spice Rack where I bought several types of rice and some vanilla beans. It’s a very nice indoor market and I hope we’ll be able to visit again. (They’re open the week between Christmas & New Years, so we might take Amy & Rachel there when they’re visiting.)

Our next destination was even further south – Trader Joe’s. I really enjoy shopping at Trader Joe’s and wish it were closer. I got quite a few things from there, including more bread and more rice (hmmm, Carbohydrate Girl, I guess). I got several cheeses (I’ve tried the cheddar already and it’s good) and some sushi (had the shrimp sushi this evening). Fun store and not as expensive as you’d think.

We’d brought a cooler with ice for the perishables during the long journey home, so we figured we could shop in Books & Co. while we were there. As soon as I entered, I saw the display for The End, the last book in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. At 30% off, I had to get it. Yay, only 7 books to go til I hit the 1200 mark in my inventory! 🙂

After we finished in the bookstore, we headed home where I vegged by playing my addiction (aka City of Heroes). Supper was cheddar cheese, toast (from Tuscan crusty bread) – some with margarine, some with marg & preserves (peach & hot pepper). Good eats. 🙂

Today, I traveled south on my own. It had been a month since I last ventured for Indian Fud and Doctor Who Magazine. So I went to the Bookery (DWM, Dreamwatch, Astonishing X-Men, and vol 4 of The Devil’s Panties were waiting in my folder). Then to Jeet India for Indian Fud. Yummy food – including a paneer dish – I love paneer! (Paneer is Indian cheese.)

I shopped some after lunch, but only found something to buy in Waldenbooks. They had some paperbacks in a buy 2 get a 3rd free sale. They had Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, which I was interested in getting. So of course, I looked at the other choices in the selection. I also got Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley and An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. Anansi wound up being the freebie. 🙂 So now I’m just 4 books away from 1200 in my collection! 🙂

Well, hopefully I’ll spend some time reading tomorrow rather than just playing City of Heroes. 🙂

News Flash: Geeks love Panera Bread!

We left the hotel at 9:30 this morning and arrived in Findlay around 11am. Just in time for an early lunch at Panera Bread! Nevermind the fact that I had perused the ‘net this morning looking for Paneras along the route. Or the fact that I changed my route just to arrive here midway through the trip.

But we are here, having a nice lunch of the Strawberry Poppyseed Chicken Salad & soup. Plus a bottle of Jones Cream Soda (with kitty cats on the wrapper) and a chocolate cookie for me. judiang insisted that we get my laptop out cuz there’s free Wi-Fi at this Panera. (It wasn’t until I was searching last night that I discovered some Paneras don’t have wi-fi! The horror!)

Anyhoo, it’s almost time to eat my cookie (before Judi eats it instead). We’ll be back at the lake in another hour or hour & a half.

Boom! Boom! BOOM!

Yay! Let’s hear it for fireworks! We watched the 3rd of July fireworks from the penthouse balcony of judiang‘s apartment building. We took chairs up around 7pm and then wound up sitting there from 7:30pm on. Judi, elsaf and I snapped a lot of photographs of the view. Judi then went down to find her battery operated radio so that we could listen to the Grant Park Orchestra as they performed for the fireworks. She was gone so long, I began to suspect she’d run off to Jewel to buy batteries.

I was right. Heh.

So we watched the fireworks, then returned to her apartment. (Rather than walking with a Sea of People as we used to do after sitting in Grant Park, we walked in a creek (pronounced “crick”) of people to the elevator.) Then it was time for supper. The Strawberry, Chicken, and Poppyseed Salad from Panera, which we’d picked up on our way back from the movie theater. Judi also grilled a couple of hot dogs since we’d suffered from the wonderful scent of folks grilling out while we were waiting on the fireworks. Since no one should eat hot dogs alone, I had one as well. Yummy.

OK, onto the stuff we did earlier today. First off, I should say that I slept very well last night. We had Special K again for breakfast and then puttered around some. We decided to hit a multitude of stops on our way to see An Inconvenient Truth – the train station to fill up our cards, the bank for cash, Target for iPod accessories, and finally to P.J. Clarke’s for lunch. I had a nice order of fish & chips – yum. The waiter, oddly enough, recognized the college on my t-shirt. I was wearing one of my myriad College of Wooster shirts. Turns out he used to live in Wooster, OH. Heh. Small world. My greedy self suggested that we stop back at P.J.’s for dessert. And my lovely friends agreed.

We went to the AMC next to watch the movie. I thought it was very well done. I think Al Gore is doing a great service with his disemination on the current climate crisis. Here’s hoping he can make a difference!

As per my suggestion, we did stop back at P.J.’s for chocolate chip cookie sundaes. And boy were those cookies huge! They were very tasty and to thank my friends for endulging my sweet-tooth, I bought the sundaes.

My greedy self also thought of another great idea. Why not stop at Panera Bread on the way back and get something for supper? Well, if you read the second paragraph, you saw that my dear friends agreed to that suggestion as well. So now I’m happily sated. ‘Twas a great day to be in Chicago with Elsa and Judi!

Lazing @ the Lake

This has been a fun (albeit warm) weekend @ my folks cottage. We’ve been having a great time and eating lots of great food. So, ditto what Elsa and Judi said. (Heh heh.)

WRT (with respect to) the things we’ve been viewing: my easy-to-please nature & ability to turn off my brain while watching stuff means that I really enjoyed last night’s Doctor Who and the X-Men movie. 🙂

Also, I post for your culinary enjoyment, a photo of last night’s German Meal. (Supper by elsaf, photo by dad. Oh, and dad supplied the photos for my Lake icon and judiang‘s new Lake icon.)

German Meal - yum!

I couldn’t top that meal, but I did grill some mean steaks & veggies tonight. And Elsa bought us a sugar cream pie for dessert. Yum!