Cheesecake-o-rama
October 12, 2009 at 8:04 pm | In baking, food, knitting | Leave a CommentThings are the same here – work, cook, sleep, etc, etc.
The butternut squash soup from the Sheepish Little Blog (Knitscape) has been THE SOUP for a few weeks now – sad to see they are giving it up.
Pumpkin Cheesecake and Banana Cheesecake were some of the cheesecake experiments here – both were a bit mushy, but good. Both were based on the “Mary’s outstanding chocolate cheesecake” without the chocolate. For the pumpkin I added 1 cup of fresh pumpkin and 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice and used half brown sugar instead of all white sugar. The banana one had one ripe banana that was pulverized in the blender with the sugar. I also put a little cinnamon in the topping (a la bananas foster)
Both pairs of slippers have been felted and sent to their new owners. Spring Green Ice Queen is finished…
Little Monkey is growing up…
A picture is worth a thousand words
September 27, 2009 at 6:56 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentDeja vu?
night blooming cereus x 4
petting a corn snake
super-cute x 3
super-cute x 2
dancing with Dad
misbehaving with Mom
an almost finished green ice queen
How can it be September already?
September 7, 2009 at 6:38 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentPsaw! Boom! It is September! Why didn’t time move that fast when I was a kid?
Bloo-ya socks: 1 done, 1 to go
Cookie A sock: at gusset increases on first one
Bug’s kroy socks: DONE
Pink Ice (Ice queen): DONE
Elizabeth scarf: FINALLY DONE
Spring Ice (Ice Queen): about 30% done
Pinkie clogs: need felting
Grape clogs: need felting
We went to the Dinosaurs Alive Exhibit at Cincinnati’s Union Terminal. I was expected more realism, but it was good for little Bug as it was (not scary). However, she did not like the extreme angle of the omnimax theater seats.
Little Bug ran her first race, a 1 mile with Dad!
We went to the Wilson County Fair and saw lots of crafts and the pig races… very fun!
One of the two quilt displays…
basket display
one of the ‘winners’ behind glass…
canned items….
pig, duck, goat, and pot-bellied pig racing – all were baby animals except the ducks – too cute!
our little princess who is so grown up…
Pound cake and socks (mostly) with no pictures :(
July 30, 2009 at 7:53 pm | In baking, food, knitting | Leave a CommentWell, that title describes what I’ve been doing with my “free” time lately.
I’ve been working on finding a good pound cake recipe since the horrible disaster a few weeks ago. I tried the Pound cake recipe (with fresh blackberries) from the next to latest Martha Stewart Living – it was HORRIBLE! too salty! I should have known adding 1 tablespoon of salt was too much, but I reasoned that it was ‘course’ salt AND it was for 2 loaves…. ICK!
Last night was a better trial – Cream cheese pound cake from Bakerella. I made one blackberry and one chocolate chip. The pans overflowed in the oven badly, but the cake turned out ok. Not the dense pound-like texture, but good cake.
I also tried making Blueberry Boy Bait from Smitten Kitchen except with Ranier cherries. It was ok, but didn’t look like the pictures. I had to use dark brown sugar and I don’t think I beat the sugar and butter long enough.
As for crafting…
I am done with the lace scarf. It needs blocking and pictures. I am working on the Cookie A socks and a ‘vanilla’ 3×2rib sock (both at the gusset increases). There will be pictures next post…. 
Hamburgers from scratch
July 13, 2009 at 6:32 pm | In baking, crochet, family, food, knitting | Leave a CommentThe Bug and I helped Uncle G make hamburgers from scratch (grind meat, bake buns, make ketchup, relish, and mustard) as inspired by an article in Gourmet magazine. They were very good, especially those that were more coursely ground.
I’ve also made a few dishcloths…
This last one didn’t handle the ‘up-sizing’ as well as the other blocks.
I’ve also made progress on the lace scarf (a la Meghan-Jasmin’s Lace Throwdown)…no pix just yet.
The blackberries are going full-ahead, so we also made blackberry crisp using this recipe from Alton Brown. I made a double batch in a 9×13 pan and just used all the ‘crumble’ part. We used gingersnaps for the cookies. It was yummy!
Banana split chess bars
July 6, 2009 at 8:46 pm | In baking | Leave a CommentWe’ve had a lot of experimenting with recipes going on around here…
I modified a chess bar recipe to use up some bananas and cherries that we had lying around.
The original recipe came from the net: http://www.beaumontinn.com/recipe_chessbar.htm
Beaumont Inn’s Famous Chess Bars - modified
1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 Egg
1 Stick of Butter
1 banana (mashed)
20-30 cherries pitted
8 oz. Cream Cheese
2 eggs
1 pound of confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
Mix egg into cake mix. Melt butter, add to egg mixture. Add mashed banana. Stir until becomes a ball. Pat into greased 12×15 flat pan. Distribute cherries on top of this layer. Put cream cheese in mixer bowl. Beat until smooth. Add 2 eggs and confectioner sugar. Mix until smooth. Pour on top of cherries and cake and bake 30-35 minutes or until light golden brown in color. Bake at 350 degrees.
Cool completely before cutting.
Rating: delicious!
Vacation – part 2
July 2, 2009 at 7:48 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentLate on Thursday evening DH arrived… to join our group, so Friday took us to the Oconaluftee Indian Village. This is a re-creation village showing native American activities and homes representing different times, back to the 1700s. We saw pottery, weaving, basketmaking, flintknapping (sp?), and traditional dancing. You wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at us, our family has some Cherokee ancestors, so it was both interesting and a little sad to visit.
I wish we had the time (and energy) to visit the museum and Qualla Crafts, but alas there wasn’t enough of either.
There was a time for the little ones to take a crafting class
On Saturday we headed to rafting (at Raft with Kids) with my sister’s family (little Z and little C included). Little Bug was very scared and wanted to go back, but the guides were so GREAT with her. She eventually calmed down and we all had a great time (sorry no pics – camera isn’t waterproof). A final dinner at Butts on the Creek (good, but a bit expensive) and another round of golf (demanded by little Z) rounded out our vacation…
Final verdict: I am exhausted!!!!
Vacation
June 29, 2009 at 8:55 pm | In family, travel | Leave a CommentWe survived vacation in North Carolina and returned safely on Sunday. The first evening (Sunday) was spent unpacking and getting settled. We used Monday to go to the store and then took the kids to do some ‘gem mining’ and putt-putt golf just to get them out of the house and moving around.
On Tuesday we headed to Cherokee, NC. We stopped in the visitor center there, which is a great location on the water and is staffed with very friendly, helpful people.
We went gem mining again and found the Oconaluftee Islands Park to have our picnic …
the Fun Factory to appease both small and big kids (but when can you appease a teenager? – tell me…!)
On Wednesday, we went horseback riding and then visited the water park area in Cherokee (near the Cherokee Coney and Cream Ice Cream Shop – mmMMMmmm!) The horseback riding was very traumatic and Bug screamed and screamed, so they took us back while the others continued on…
Thursday took us to Asheville. Everyone went to visit the antique car museum/sculpture garden, but then we split up. Bug and I went to the North Carolina Arboretum to see the bonsai and quilt gardens. Everyone else went to the Biltmore. I’d been there and never care to go back. They now agree with me (told you so!)
Enough for now…
Summer, finally…
June 12, 2009 at 9:11 pm | In baking, food, gardening, knitting | Leave a CommentMy last class for the summer was today – whew! It has been a whirlwind of classes… only grades left to assign and calculate.
We’ve gotten some green beans out of the garden and the squash are doing some serious blooming. The blackberries are formed their nice little green orbs. The CSA boxes are started to have more variety than just lettuces – I get tired of lettuce easily and have been looking forward to the changes.
CSA box: week 5 contained carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, eggs, sirloin steak, red romaine (or swiss chard?), radishes, butter lettuce, peas
We used everything but a bit of the butter lettuce which is still in the fridge. I made cabbage au gratin (new recipe) from the UK extension office using 1/2 head of cabbage and some green onions added in – this one is a keeper! We steamed the cauliflower and the peas. DH loved the peas. I gave away the radishes and we froze the steaks. I made a spinach provolone frittata (new recipe) from the Mixing Bowl site using several eggs. It was rated good by me, but not by DH. I also used some of the eggs to make a chocolate cheesecake for a friend’s birthday.
CSA box: week 6 contained peaches, radishes, green onions, white onion, basil, mint, dill, swiss chard (or red romaine?), eggs, chicken breast, peas, red potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash
I made a skillet fried chicken breast to use up the chicken (rating = ok). We steamed the peas (again a hit according to DH) tonight. I used the last carrot from the last box, along with the big onion, the basil, and our own oregano to make pasta prima vera tonight.
I have been working slowly on the sock from the Cookie A book. It is a nice, but complex pattern (Bex), but I modified it by going toe up and may leave the large diamond areas to just adorn the cuff/leg area.
Cooking and the veggie box… with a little baking
May 30, 2009 at 6:21 pm | In baking | Leave a CommentThere has been lots of cooking going on around here lately. Mostly, it has been inspired by the Community-supported-agriculture (CSA) box that we get every Wednesday. I consider it a personal challenge to use everything. Ours (Avalon Acres) has a box with a meat share – which is what we get.
Box 1:
strawberries, radishes, several types of lettuce, spinach, green onions, pork chops, eggs
spinach alfredo pizza made with the spinach from box 1:
Box 2
bok choy, lettuce, ‘cheddar cheese’ cauliflower, radishes, strawberries, ‘purple’ green onions, hamburger, eggs
Box 3
radishes, spring greens, lettuce, strawberries, lettuce, broccoli, a whole chicken (which we brined and smoked), eggs
Box 4:
white radishes, red potatoes, lettuce, garlic sprouty-things, green onions, broccoli (a bit of purple broccoli), ham steaks, eggs
Ham Fried Rice made with ham and green onions from the box:
The challenges so far have been to use the radishes (we gave them away) and the eggs (I’ve been making lots of cheesecakes and giving them away).
Besides the cheesecakes – yes, that is plural and the count for this month is 4, we made “crash bandicoot‘ cupcakes for a newly seven year old boy. Unfortunately, they turned out a bit more like cute little bears (the antithesis of what 7 year old boys like).
<Picture is linked to source>
Miss Bug’s contribution looks amazingly like a katamari, which is what we gave him last year for his B-day…
ha ha h ah ah ahhha ha ha ha!
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