Homegrown Thoughts
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - What are the chances? |
| Posted in Just For Fun |
It's been a pretty long time since my last post. I won't go into details now, but I'm very glad to be back, I assure you.
I feel the need to blog about something that happened a few minutes ago. The phone rang and I answered it, "Hello?" The lady on the other end says, "Jodi?" And I say, "Yes?" And she says in a teasing way, "How come you didn't call me?" I'm at a total loss here so I say nothing and she continues, "About Charlie? I would have thought you'd call to tell me." At this point I'm trying to think of anybody I know with the name Charlie and I'm coming up blank. So I say, "Who is this?", hoping for another clue. She pauses and says, "Is this National Car Rental?" I tell her that it's not. She laughs and says, "I was calling Jodi at National Car Rental, I must have the wrong number." And I said, "But my name is Jodi!" She replied, "I know! And you sound just like her, too!" Then we both start laughing, say bye and hang up.
Of course now I'm kicking myself for not asking what DID happen with Charlie?!? Now I'll never know...
Isn't that crazy? I can see that it might happen once in awhile if your name is Mary or Amy or Bob. But Jodi??? If I were a gambler, I'd be buying a lottery ticket today.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008 - Raspberry Buckle (with photos) |
| Posted in Home Arts |
As promised, here is the recipe I used to make my Raspberry Buckle. For those who aren’t familiar with the term ‘buckle’, think coffee cake with fruit. I’m happy to report that it did turn out nicely. I find red raspberries a bit too tart for me to LOVE them and I’m wondering if I could soak them in sugar like strawberries. Most people probably wouldn’t have this opinion, though. I just happen to have a huge sweet tooth. The cake as a whole is very good. :-)
This is perfect to have with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!
The original recipe is from Martha Stewart. I made minor adjustments like using an 11 x 7 baking dish, using frozen berries (from my back yard), and adding about a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Here is the original recipe so you can follow it exactly or make changes like I did.
Raspberry Buckle
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for baking dish
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 containers (1/2 pint each) raspberries (2 3/4 cups)
- Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)
- Whipped cream (optional)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2-quart oval or square baking dish. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition to combine. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder; with mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture until incorporated.
- Spread batter in baking dish. Scatter raspberries on top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean and top is golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes; dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired. With a large spoon, scoop out onto serving plates; serve with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.
Technorati Tags: recipe, buckle, fruit, baking, dessert |
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Monday, July 21, 2008 - My Week in Photos |
| Posted in General |
THIS is not good:
Gazebo damage
In fact, it’s quite sad…
Poor Gazebo!
Added insult to injury:
What is this??
Yeah, so that was quite a storm we had last night. Fortunately we had already decided this was the last year we’d be using this gazebo as it was getting worn out. Between the damage from another big storm and this new stuff from last night, the thing is pretty much pathetic. Now I have to hold out for the new deck and hopefully some kind of shade-giving roof being built next summer.
Hopefully THIS will be good:
Raspberry Buckle just put in the oven
My first attempt at using some of the raspberries I picked from our yard. It smells awesome. If it tastes good, I’ll post the recipe. :-)
THIS child is growing up way too fast:
My baby!!!
If that cake looks a little…flat…it is. B doesn’t like cake, so he got birthday brownies instead. He also insisted on decorating it himself because, “Explaining how I want it will be too hard, it’ll be easier if I just do it myself.” Talk about having your own words thrown back at you! A little control freak in training. Here is his creation, which he said was not really how he pictured it in his head but is good enough (whew, not as much of a perfectionist as mom…yet!):
Birthday Brownies
Notice the “10″ in candles. TEN! This was a traumatic birthday for Mom here. 9…ok, halfway to 18 but barely an adult. But TEN. That’s halfway to the age I was when I got married. I’m not halfway done with him yet! Somebody slow this life stuff down a little, would ya? It’s all going way too fast for me.
By the way, if anybody wants to wish B a happy birthday, please visit his blog and leave him a comment. He loves comments!
THIS animal is way too fat!!
No, my head isn’t tiny - the rest of me is just huge!
That’s it for this week’s photo gallery. I’m still nursing my pinched nerve so typing a lot is not fun. I’m glad I had some pics to share instead!
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Monday, July 7, 2008 - Random thoughts on the weekend |
| Posted in General |
So…holiday weekend. Due to a pinched nerve in my shoulder I couldn’t go to our local parade, so my husband took the boys on his own. He didn’t even want to go, so it was very nice of him to take them - they were really looking forward to it. I think we’ve almost gotten through all the candy now, but not quite. My older son took his camera and took some pictures, so hopefully he’ll get those up on his blog soon. He’s way overdue for an update on it. I see a blog writing assignment in his near future if he doesn’t do it on his own.
I believe this is our 4th, uh, 4th in this house. We just discovered Friday night that we can see the town’s fireworks display almost perfectly from half a block up the street. Over the years, we have tried to see them through trees, from across the street, driven around looking for a parking spot to get closer (unsuccessfully)… and the whole time we could have just walked half a block over. At least we know now! Maybe next year I’ll even remember to take my camera with me. I was hurting too much to walk back to the house for it, so I just went without.
In other news, we are over-run with ants. We usually get a small invasion each spring, then we set out some Terro and by the next day all is well again. Not this year. I suspect it has something to do with all the rain/flooding/humidity/what-have-you. Whatever it is, they are coming in the front and the back and who knows where else. I haven’t been able to find the point of entry. It’s getting kind of frustrating, especially when I can’t spend a lot of time being upright now without a lot of pain ensuing. (It’s getting better, but it’s going to take some time. Trying really hard not to whine about it!) I also have to be very careful about putting poison out with all the pets we have. Soooo…yeah. Ants. Go away.
I’m happy to report that we sold our treadmill which we got a lot of use out of but that we just didn’t use anymore. A family from our homeschool group bought it for what they considered a bargain price and we got it out of our garage and are sending the money to Selena’s family in Tanzania, where it will stretch even farther. So that worked out well. Oh, and I got a teacher’s guidebook I needed out of the deal, too. :-)
I had a couple more things I wanted to chat about but this is getting pretty long. I guess I’ll save the Bible study stuff for the next post so I can focus on it a bit more. I’m going through a Kay Arthur book now (”How to Study the Bible”, I think is the title) and need to decide what will be next after that. Need help on that! So that will be next time.
P.S. - Note that I have added a Twitter box to my sidebar. I tried to resist the Twitter pull, I really did. Alas, it was too strong for me and I have succumbed. So if anybody wants to ‘follow’ me on Twitter, there ya go. If not, I shall tweet into the void.
Technorati Tags: holiday, parade, fireworks, ants, Compassion |
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