Amish Friendship Bread

I have heard of these breads before, you get a starter and follow directions. There isn't a way to make the bread unless you have the starter...

One of my neighbors offered me a starter and I was happy to take it so I started with this on my way to some delicious Amish Friendhip bread...and 4 starters that I would need to pass on...

Laura was baking her first loaves the same night she gave me the starter...the next day I learned she had soupy glop instead of a loaf of bread. It would take 10 days before I would know if the starter she gave me was doomed or if I would yield the yummy bread she told me she had previously sampled.

So, I mashed the bag for a few days, I added ingredients and then mashed the bag (as it grew into a large overinflated bubble) a few more days and it was time to make the bread. I hadn't read ahead other than to know I was not supposed to use metal so I stopped and got a couple of glass pans to bake it in...after all since it had been gloppy bread for Laura I didn't want to take any chances in breaking the Amish traditions.

Laura called as I was measuring out the starters...3 to pass on and one for me to use in the next round. I was optimistic...then it happened....I had to pick up the phone and call Laura...I was caused to doubt the authenticity of the Amish Friendship bread when it called for instant pudding!?! Really? The Amish used instant pudding?

On that call about the pudding I heard that Laura and her coworkers were calling it, "Amish lose-your-friendships bread"...

Not to worry, mine turned out beautifully and it was DELICIOUS!! Three starters went to pre-school and I have another I am mashing daily in the kitchen...

Photos 62 (oops - been waiting awhile) and 68

Snapshot Sunday

A visit to see the Xian Terra Cotta Warriors (no photos of the real exhibit allowed)...





















On to the art museum (on loan from the Louvre) and an aerial view of arranged trash...coke cans,beach chairs,fans and even a urinal...

Back at home and unearthing their own Warriors...

Photos 65 - 67 Day 81

Shopping for clothes with two girls

What a long day it is when you shop for clothes with two girls who know exactly what they want - and what they don't want. School pictures coming up for J, Easter, summer...We shopped and tried on...there was happiness, there were tears. There was silliness in the dressing room (muscle man TV show rehearsals), ranting in the car (after someone had a meltdown in the shoe department) and dining.

We walked into the first store and I picked a dress for S. She didn't care for it. She picked out several to try on, I picked a couple for her as well (including the first one). In the end she tried 14 dresses and decided the best, most beautiful one was the one I picked to begin with.

We tried on swimwear. J had tried a few three weeks ago and didn't want the one I said was best for her. No hard feelings - not her colors. We looked and looked...finally found another to try on tonight (one that S HAD to have, she LOVED it...more tears). J tried on 4 suits and happily got the one I picked out a few weeks ago that she didn't like the colors of. S tried on the one she HAD to have, and another that I picked out that I thought she would like. S decided on the one I picked out not the one that was so important.

No shoes - but more tears when I insisted pink sparkly wouldn't look best with b&w dress. We have that fun for another weekend. Can't wait.

Photo 64 - Day 80

When Irish eyes are smiling...

Smiling may be a wee bit of an exaggeration...

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

May you drink your fill of ale and find your pot of gold!!

Photo 62 - Day 76

Snapshot Sunday

J had a free donut ticket so we went to get a Krispy Kreme fresh out of the oven.

Difficult to see through the window, but glaze is dumped onto the hot donuts - yum.

S finally finished cleaning her room!!

S at his checkup telling the vet tech how Fella behaves.

Photos 59-61 Day 74

Crock Pot recipes

One dinner that both my kids pretty reliably like is Roast Beef and Mashed Potatoes. I got this recipe from an e-group that I belong to and people were raving so I decided it was time to give it a try.

Coke Roast

Into your crockpot gently throw:

1 3-4 pound beef roast

1 packet of dry onion soup mix

Several generous squirts of ketchup

1 can of Coke (not diet, not Vanilla Coke, the regular kind - not Pepsi)

Cover, turn on high, go away and come back in 6-8 hours.The meat is so tender it will fall off your fork. It is very flavorful. No,it doesn't taste like Coke. No, it doesn't taste like ketchup but there is a nice, light tomato taste. It's very, very tasty.

(For the picture I had poured the coke around the roast to show the ketchup, but I later turned the roast over as the ketchup was going nowhere. Next time I will just pour the coke allover the top of the roast.)

Our conclusion...it turned out very well - We made baked potato instead of mashed. The roast we had was a little too big for us so we will have the excess roast and the saved 'au jus' (which is very tasty) for french dip sandwiches another time. My other conclusion...my kids don't necessarily need to be distracted with building a perfect baked potato at dinnertime...

Photo 58- Day 74

Wii is Fit!

I love my Wii Fit… I love the interaction of the little Mii with the physical challenges. I like trying to get a little better each time. The different groupings of exercises…balance, aerobics, yoga, strength allow variety.

I love using the Free Step in the aerobics section in the morning while I am watching the morning news and then sometimes at night watching TV. The Free step is appealing because I can do it watching TV and it honestly passes with me barely noticing,

But… I have fallen into a rut…I need a Wii fit buddy with whom to have challenges. Are you using your Wii Fit? I could use some challengers to keep me pushing myself more. Perhaps it is just more fun to think there is someone I have to beat – lol. J likes it as well, but somehow trying to compete with a 7 yr old…well, let’s just say, I am competitive but I am not stupid.

I finally have gotten past level 7 on the marble game, but level 8 has a b’jillion marbles rolling around…I think it is called Table Tilt in the balance section. I can also do 1000 steps in 10 minutes on the Free Step.

I don’t know my hula numbers and my guess is any two people will have different things they like or excel at. That’s why I need a challenge buddy…to push me out of my comfort range and doing some new things.

I think I got 100 (that is a percentage score, not a count) on the jackknife strength exercise…I think anyone would, as I certainly know that is not something I excel at…

It would be more fun, though, to have a Wii Fit buddy…someone for exchanging challenges and comparing high scores.

I know I have at least two followers with a Wii…have you a Wii Fit? What is your high hula-hoop score? Table Tilt? I have finally reached the same level on Table Tilt that my 18 year old nephew had in his first attempt at Christmastime…and I had to try several time over a couple of weeks to get there...

Photo 57 - Day 71 Not high quality photography today, to be sure,but it is hard to take pictures while doing the challenges so you don't lose the images!

UFOS – an ADD offshoot…

What can make a person who is so positively obsessive/compulsive about finishing books or jigsaw puzzles that she will put off going to bed for HOURS not apply the same tendencies to quilt tops? I think I am suffering by UFOS (UnFinished Object Syndrome) I am pretty sure it is a form of ADD, I just can’t figure out what will cure it. Quilts get started and then new quilts get started leaving me with more than a few “in progress” quilts - or as we like to call them unfinished objects (UFOs).

So here I sit, surrounded by quilt tops in various stages of doneness. Why would I want to start start new things with other things on my design wall? It’s the UFOS.

Now if this syndrome wasn’t enough, it is complicated by fabricoholism…an unnatural attraction to, and need for, fabric…of course, not just any fabric - it has to be quilt shop quality, most often from my favorite LQS (local quilt shop)! The colors, the patterns, the lines of coordinating prints…the prints that weren’t planned as coordinates but work perfectly together. And you can’t just get the fabric, you need to go home and get started to see how it will be looking…add a brand new WIP (work in progress) to the UFOs…

Near as I can figure, the issue here is that I lack the capability of truly finishing a project. I can finish the top of a quilt but since I don’t have a Gammill, Handiquilter or anything similar, I can’t finish the entire project. SO…that means to break my habit of being satisfied to not finish a top, I should buy an expensive solution. YES! Throw money at it! That resolves a problem! Now I’m just waiting for someone to throw money at me so I’ll have it to throw back into the quilting economy.

Here is a picture of my design wall…next quilting photo needs to show something that is a top done! Or Back from the quilter and Binding on! Unless, of course, that doesn’t happen before shop hop as that is prime fabric collecting time from multiple shops!! Then I can add PIGS to my WIPS and UFOs. A PIG? Project in grocery sack!

Yep – UFOS is definitely related to ADD…

Photo 56 - Day 70

The Power of Jade

I bought a beautiful pink jade pendant on one of my trips to China. J found it recently and asked if she could wear it . While we were out and about that day, I mentioned that some people consider Jade to be lucky. She was thrilled to have a lucky pendant around her neck.

Somewhere during the day ‘lucky’ morphed into ‘all seeing, all knowing, all powerful’. J was asking it questions, getting advice, seeking favors. If she banged her arm she asked it to make her arm stop hurting-and it did. When we visited the cats at the shelter she asked it to help her get used to the smell-and she did.

She wore it to school yesterday and told her closest friends of its power. It wouldn’t work for some of them, which J just shrugged off with “well, it works for me!”. I hope it holds its power for a couple of weeks when the standardized testing comes up at school. I am going to ask it to help J read the directions and the questions on the test before she goes ahead and answers them.

Photo 55 - Day 70

Fella

We lost our cat McKinley a couple of weeks ago. He had stopped eating and drinking, taking to hiding-totally unlike his personality. So...I had to admit that at 17 1/2, a 15yr diabetes insipidus patient and a 26 month oral cancer victim, his time had come. I had had him for 15 years.

The girls were trying to make 17 ½ yr old Hannah their snuggly kitty...she was not fond of the role.

So...since J and I are busy redoing her bedroom we decided on something special for S too – we decided S could get a cat of her very own. My girls have never had a young cat. My cats were both 10 ½ when J arrived and 13 + when S came along so this would be a pet that could truly belong to the girls.

We looked at several places at cats, S wasn’t told we would be getting one because I wanted to browse without a shopping mentality. We were very obviously leaning toward the tuxedo cats (black and white). Sunday the shelter we visited had only one B&W but several orange…We decided on a fuzzy laid back guy named Artie a beautiful boy with eyes that match his fur. He has a tail so large and fluffy J has wondered if he wasn’t part skunk – I am hoping not, but they are polecats, right? :-)

Here is a picture of S holding the fuzzy guy. Always the diva she is wearing a red polka-dotted cami (seen at her waistline) an orange shirt with a sunflower, a black polka-dotted skirt, a purple fuzzy main ponytail holder, an orange lesser pony tail holder and pink flip flops with white daisies. She picked out her own outfit and did her own hair – or could you have guessed that?

About his name…I told S that we didn’t have to keep the name Artie, we could pick what we wanted (he had been a stray so the name had only been attached to him for a few weeks). She picked Tyler because there were 2 Tylers in her class. I told her that didn’t seem like a good name as we were friends with a Tyler. She picked another classmate's name. I told S that she could think about it a bit and that name would be fine, but she could also pick something that didn’t belong to a person like our friend L had Pepper and Winkie, so she could choose something like Jellybean if she wanted.

In an inspired burst, S said “His name is going to be Fella” An enthusiastic second, “I like it!!” from J. So, Fella it is!

I have been told by a few people that Fella looks like a big cat. He doesn’t seem big. S can easily pick him up by herself and he weighs in at 10 pounds. Just for comparison here is a pic of the girls with another orange boy they looked at. Jax came from New Orleans. Prior to Gustav the shelters there were relocating animals in anticipation of needing their space for disaster pets – those misplaced in storm panics/storm damaged homes and fences…I love that cooperation and assistance can happen across the shelters…I remember from my early volunteer days how easy it is to say that there isn’t room to help…I digress… Easy to see once I looked at S and Jax, S and Fella don’t read ‘big cat’ to me.

Life with Fella has reminded me why I prefer dogs. It is that ‘cats live at multiple levels' thing - dogs generally stay on the floor but cats jump wherever they want. Fella can easily be located if you listen for crashes, he got sooty in the fireplace overnight and he must have cleared three surfaces RUNNING to where I was pouring food this morning. But the girls adore him and love that he can be carried or held whenever they want.

On Saturday the vet will get to meet Fella and we’ll see what he/she says about that tail.





Photo 52 - 54 Day 69

One is a lonely number

Here we have a cat lying in a bed all by herself. Most people looking at this picture would see a cat lying on a quilt. I see a cat missing from the bed…We lost our 17 ½ year old friend McKinley a couple of weeks ago.

Fifteen plus years ago I went to the shelter looking for a friend for Hannah and found a cat named Travis. He had been diagnosed with insipidus diabetes and required shots three times a week…he also required a ton of cat litter…He purred so loudly when I picked him up I thought he loved me (it was a nervous thing he did - who knew). I knew I could manage giving him shots (totally had no idea the amount of litter he would use) and I took him home.

His first night I saw him sitting so regally in a chair that I knew that dumb Travis name would have to go...I would name him after a president and I chose McKinley...his name always fit.

Hannah and McKinley had been with each other for 15 years. Those first couple of days without him she would sit at the top of the stairs and watch me leave in the morning looking like “and what am I supposed to do all day?”

I have a couple of 'ok' pictures of him but I have one in mind that does him justice and when I find it again it will make the blog.

Photo 51 - Day 69

Serenade

J picked what the picture should be and then proceeded to dictate copy to me. I can't say I remember it, so rather than say it wrong, I'll have to use my own copy. J decided the other night at bedtime to play some bedtime music for the dogs.

She got this guitar for Christmas and I had hoped that we could ditch the plastic one you see in the foreground...you also see it is still here. J has a true musician's soul and informed me that one instrument did not replace the other. I do remember that part of her dictation "and the reason the blue guitar is there too, is because she couldn't decide which one she would use."

It might not show real well here, but there are multiple papers taped to the dogs' crate. Some are pictures she drew and some are poems.

Photo 50 - Day 62

Snow Day...of sorts

It's not the Northern snow, certainly nothing that would cause a snow day where I grew up in Michigan, but for Georgia girls, it was SNOW!!!

We had plans for this afternoon but this evening there was still enough to have a snowball fight and make a mini snowman - dried leaves for the hair and a carrot for the nose (it is facing the girls), I gave S some broccoli to stick in for eyes but " J didn't like the broccoli eyes, mom, so I ate one".

It was very wet, very slushy and wasn't going to last very long at all - not even all that pretty to look at once it landed on the waterlogged ground but it was a fun break from the routine.

Photo 49 - Day 60

Snapshot Saturday

The girls went to the racecar workshop at Lowe's...

...where there we ran into J's BFF, (and S's not-so-secret crush), F

Visiting Cats at a local shelter