We had the most lovely snowfall yesterday.
Finally, enough snow that the neighborhood kids want to be out sledding and playing!
We even had enough snow that a friend's car got stuck in it. Another girlfriend and I pushed the car out of the snow drift. That's right! Two women pushed a car out of a snow drift!
Afterward I was feeling pretty mighty! I kept thinking to myself...that's right, who's strong? Uh huh! And who's mighty! Yep, that would be me!! The incident may have gone to my head a little, but I enjoyed feeling strong for a moment!
My confidence continued on this upswing as I went outside later to shovel the snow from the driveway. Oh yes, mighty woman shoveled the snow from the driveway, patio and the sidewalk. Woop woop!
And since it was such a lovely day, and I was feeling mighty and all, I tromped through the snow to take a few photos. I realized a few days ago that I haven't taken many photos lately. Yesterday was a perfect day for it!
The snow covered doorknob the Husband found in an antique shop for the garden door.
Snow covered weeds that still cling to a fence.
Moss and snow.
Snow covered, dried blossoms.
Ice coated branches.
Not only was I feeling mighty, I felt like quite the winter explorer too. Oh yeah!
Who would have thought, after pushing a car out of the snow, the strenuous shoveling of the driveway, and tromping through a winter wonderland that a simple walk down the driveway to the mailbox would do this mighty woman in?
I was nearly at the end of our slightly downward slanting drive when my foot hit a patch of ice and WHAM!
Mighty woman hit the dirt...cement actually.
Today I awoke with a sore wrist. A very banged up and extremely painful elbow, that might need an x ray. UGH! A very grateful tailbone as I landed instead on, shall we say, my left cheek. And one mightily bruised ego!!
I was just walking out to get the mail!!
Clearly, mighty woman's got nothin' on gravity!
At least I got some mighty good photos.
Christine
We invited extended family over to play Wii on Saturday.
The Family really enjoys playing the Wii. We all have a good time and we laugh and laugh.
I especially enjoy playing Mario Kart!
I like my Mario Kart racing character to be Daisy.
When Daisy wins a race on Mario Kart she says, "I'm the best!" She says it in a very sing song kind of way. I love it!
Daisy gets to say that a lot when I play Mario Kart.
The Family doesn't want to play Mario Kart with me very often anymore.
I think they're tired of hearing Daisy say, "I'm the best!" And they might be slightly offended by my need to do a victory dance every time Daisy says, "I'm the best!"
So, to appease everyone, and as a peace offering (bribe) I made caramel corn for our snack.
My friend Amy gave me this recipe.
It's so good!
I love when friends share their good recipes!
Speaking of friends sharing good recipes, my friend Jean sent me a book full of wonderful bread recipes to encourage my goal of becoming a good bread baker. Friends who encourage and share their recipes are a wonderful thing! I can't wait to make bread. I'm going to try one of the recipes this week!
Anyway...Caramel corn!
Air pop 1/2 to 1 cup corn kernels, depending on how much caramel coating you want. I like a lighter coating of caramel on my popcorn. I pop about 1 cup of kernels.
Spray a large roasting pan with Pam and add popcorn.
In a sauce pan combine 1cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter, and 1/2 cup light corn syrup.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Once the mixture begins to boil, stop stirring and allow to boil for 4 minutes.
1 minute.
3 minutes!
4 Minutes!!
Remove pan from heat and add in 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.
And stir until well combined. Pour mixture over popped corn.
Doesn't that look good?
Stir again.
Place roasting pan in 250˚ oven for 45 minutes, stirring caramel corn every 15 minutes to coat all of the popcorn.
Serve!
Now everyone will be so grateful for the wonderful snack that they will gladly play Mario Kart with you even though you do a victory dance after each race you win!
If you can get them to keep their hands out of the caramel corn long enough to hold the Wiimote (Wii remote) that is!!
Christine
P.S. Still working on the 1000 piece puzzle. Will it ever end???
I had begun to think we would escape the Minnesota winter without any significantly cold weather.
Silly me!
The cold has arrived! This morning it was 12˚ below zero before adding in the nostril freezing, eye watering, mind numbing windchill. It's awful!
There is beauty to be found in this cold weather though, if you're willing to look for it.
Actually, I didn't have to look very hard. It was blocking my view when I opened the shades this morning. Several windows were frosted over!
I had to take some photos!
Stunning!
Fantastic!
Beautiful!
But that's enough. Now the cold may go away!!
Christine
When Miss Emma Bean was in preschool...
Oh my word, she was such a little cutie pie! You do realize that I begin my blogs with, when one of the girls was little, just so I can show you pictures of them when they were little right? Just checking!
Anyway, when Miss Emma Bean was in preschool she brought home instructions for making edible peanut butter playdough.
I was not thrilled with the idea of making a dough that the girls were supposed to play with and then eat. Yuck! The girls thought it sounded great and really wanted to try it though.
I finally gave in. We made the peanut butter playdough. It was a combination of peanut butter, honey and powdered sugar.
I need not have worried. No one spent much time playing with the dough! It was so yummy! We pretty much went right to the eating of the dough.
I never made it again!
Oh boy it had a lot of sugar in it. Not a good everyday treat!
However, I never got rid of the instructions for making the peanut butter playdough. Thank goodness!
A few years later my good friend Amy shared some of the peanut butter balls her Mother-in-law makes with me.
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| Me and Amy |
They were incredible!
I had never had a peanut butter ball before! I don't know how that was possible, but I had never.
I begged Amy for the recipe.
The first time I made them I discovered, already in the process of making them of course, that I didn't have all of the ingredients. I seem to run into this problem a lot. You'd think I would learn to check that I have everything I need. Not so much. But I did have all of the ingredients for the peanut butter playdough! Good thing I still had that recipe!
That's right, I substituted the edible peanut butter playdough recipe for Amy's Mother-in-law's peanut butter ball recipe! That's how I've made my peanut butter balls ever since!
And they are so good!
I had intended to share the recipe with you before Christmas, but with all that was going on, I forgot. And the fact that I intended to share made me think I had shared. I had to look back through my blog posts to see whether or not I had blogged the recipe. I have mild anxiety that I will blog about something I've already blogged about and you will think I've lost my marbles! Then with all my anxiety about whether or not I had blogged about the peanut butter ball recipe or not, I had a dream that my cupboards were full of peanut butter balls! Ugh!
Now that I've shared that, you may have good reason to think I've lost my marbles!
That's okay. The peanut butter ball recipe is still good!
In a large bowl mix together 3 cups powdered sugar, 2 cups creamy peanut butter, 3/4 cups honey, and 3 cups Rice Krispies.
Once ingredients are combined, roll into 1 inch balls and place on a jellyroll pan.
Chill for 3 hours.
In double boiler, melt together 6 ounces chocolate chips, 8 ounces Hershey's chocolate bar, and 3 tablespoons of paraffin.
I will admit that I thought adding paraffin to my chocolate was strange. I have made my peanut butter balls with and without the paraffin. Both ways were fine!
Dip peanut butter rolls into chocolate to coat. Set dipped peanut butter balls on a waxed paper lined jellyroll pan.
Once all of the peanut butter balls are coated with chocolate, place in refrigerator until cool. Once cool, store peanut butter balls in an airtight container in the fridge.
YUM YUM YUM!!! They're are so good!
This recipe makes about 80 peanut butter balls. I suggest you share them! That's my disclaimer. I can't be held responsible if you eat them all yourself!
Christine
P.S. Only 800 puzzle pieces to go! Yay!!
I shared with you on January 6th, in my blog post More Goal Than Resolution, that I intend to become a bread baker in 2012. I also mentioned that learning to bake bread is one of two goals I have for this year.
The second goal is all about promises!
When the girls were little, they often wanted their Dad, the Husband, and me to make promises to them.
They wanted us to promise it would always be okay to play dress up.
Absolutely! An easy promise.
They wanted us to promise that we would always love them.
With our whole hearts! That promise had been made before they were born.
Promises like these were easy to make. Others, not so much!
The girls wanted the Husband and I to promise we would never die and leave them.
Wow! That was a promise we so wanted to make. It was also a promise we knew we could not make. We knew we could not promise the girls the number of our days. It simply is not fully in our control.
Frankly, there were times we couldn't even promise them what the afternoon would hold.
Sometimes we would be out running errands on the weekend and the girls would ask if they could play with the neighbors when we got home. We learned very quickly that it was a mistake to yes because if when we got home, playing with friends didn't work out, they would be upset and say, "But you said we could! You promised." There was no amount of explaining that could resolve for them that we had said they could do what they were not getting to do!
Promises can be a very tricky thing! There is so much in life that we cannot control, that promises can be broken even though we do not intend to break them. We need to be very careful when we make a promise, and there are some promises we simply cannot make.
Everyone of us wants to be able to count on a promise!
Everyone of us wants someone who will make promises to us and keep them!
This Christmas, before anyone opened any other gift, my parents had each of us choose a small scroll of paper tied with ribbon from a basket. On each scroll of paper was written a promise. They weren't promises from my parents. They were far better, which my parents knew. They were promises from God. Promises found in the Bible.
In turn we read out loud the promises.
Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears off all faces.
Psalm 103:17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
The promises on those little scrolls of paper, promises that came directly from God's word, were precious reminders that God who loves us, the Almighty, the Alpha and the Omega, is the only one we can count on with certainty to make promises and keep them.
God's promises are hope!
God's promises are comfort!
God's promises are for all who believe!
So this is my second goal for 2012; to seek out God's promises in scripture, to write them on my heart, to hold on to them, for they will sustain me!
Christine
The other day Miss Sofi Bug suggested we put together a 1,000 piece puzzle.
It's been a really long time since we last put a puzzle together.
I jumped on the idea eagerly thinking that working on a puzzle together would create a perfect opportunity for 1,000 little conversations, that would of course lead to 1,000 giggles and laughs, and certainly 1,000 precious memories of bonding with our teenager. It's just plain painful to say that word...teenager...I shudder!
The first evening we pulled out the puzzle, Miss Sofi Bug, the Husband, and I sat around a little card table, working together to find all of the edge pieces. It was delightful.
Miss Emma Bean was busy. She wasn't there to help. That was okay. A 1,000 piece puzzle? There would be plenty of time for her to join in the fun! Yay!
Or not so much!
Miss Sofi Bug lost interest in the puzzle after that first evening.
Miss Emma Bean never acquired an interest in working on the puzzle.
The Husband only helped that first night because he was being a good sport.
They all ditched me!
It would be fine except, I can't stop!
Instead of 1,000 little conversations with my family, I hear 1,000 puzzle pieces calling my name, telling me to keep working!
Instead of 1,000 giggles and laughs, I have 1,000 reasons not to go to bed at a sensible hour!
Instead of precious memories of bonding with my family, I see only visions of a finished puzzle!
I now have 1,000 reason why laundry isn't getting done and the house isn't getting cleaned!
Now I remember why it's been so long since we've worked on a puzzle! UGH!
Christine
My Great Grandpa took my Dad when he was young.
My Dad took me when I was young.
And now my Dad and I, with the Husband and my Mom in tow, have taken my girls for a Tendermaid.
Ah Tendermaid!
One tiny little building in Austin Minnesota, that seats only 14 people, where the most delicious burgers have been served for over 70 years.
Not just any ol' burger mind you. A loose meat burger!
A loose meat burger is something like a sloppy Joe without the sauce.
There are several specialty burgers to choose from or one may pick their own toppings!
We opted for our own choice of toppings!
I like my burger pretty simple. A little ketchup, mustard and onion. Perfect!
Every Tendermaid burger is served with a spoon.
So that every bit of burger may be scooped up and devoured!
No loose meat gets left behind! Not on my watch anyway!!
It was so fun to share the tradition of Tendermaid burgers with my girls!
Tendermaid's loose meat burgers get a unanimous thumbs up!
Christine
