Name three things - 2016

[micknsnicks2mom]

 
i've already got the wood stove going, and will keep it going until we go to bed tonight. today i'll bake some oatmeal peanut butter cookies, cool them completely, then frost them with the extra carob-cream cheese buttercream. i'll wash the dishes, then scoop the litter boxes. i'll see if i've got enough trash to run out to the trash can outside.

more than likely i'll take a nap at some point today, and/or go to bed early.

i'd like to read a bit, but will wait and see. i'll probably continue working on my current jigsaw puzzle, and might very well watch some tv.

well, i decided to make oatmeal peanut butter sandwich cookies, the filling being the carob-cream cheese buttercream. i thought the cookie to frosting ratio would taste better......and it did! i still have enough of the buttercream to make about 10 more of these sandwich cookies, and have oatmeal peanut butter cookie dough balls in the freezer too!

so today i'll bake another batch of oatmeal peanut butter cookies, then make them into sandwich cookies. i'll wash the dishes, scoop the litter boxes, and take out the trash. i'll also dice some carrots and celery, hard boil and dice up some eggs -- prep for making some potato salad tomorrow. i'll move a bag of sliced turkey from the freezer to the fridge to thaw.

 

[Winchester]

Pam, I presume you used a double boiler? Wonder if things got overheated?

Thought you might like this easy delicious fudge recipe. I know you like salt with sweet things.

SALTY FUDGE - No Baking Required

Standard paper cups
14oz can low-fat condensed milk
t. vanilla extract
1-1/3rd scant cups of bittersweet chocolate chips
Cup of Nutella spread
3 tablespoons of marge or butter - sliced
FINE sea salt

Grease 8x8 baking pan. Line the pan with parchment or wax paper leaving a 2 inch overlap.

In double boiler, STIR all ingredients, except salt. Heat, stirring, until everything has melted. DO NOT use a wisk.

Spread mixture in pan, smoothing the top. Sprinkle ENTIRE SURFACE with sea salt. Don't overdo the salt, but it should be clearly visible.

Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours. Freeze for 15 minutes, if needed, when ready to serve. Cut fudge into 24 small pieces & place in paper cups.

Thanks for the recipe, Primula! That sounds good! 

 I do, I love the combination of sweet and salty. Thank you! (I always sprinkle sea salt over my brittle so that each piece has both sweet and salty.)

No double boiler, just a heavy saucepan and a wooden spoon. You were to beat the heck out of the mixture while it was at a rolling boil for five minutes. And I did that. Everything was fine....until I added the chocolate. And then everything just stopped. The entire mixture just stopped. I kept beating the whole time, but you could see that it wasn't going to work. I talked to a GF on Sunday and she said, too, that "One never makes candy on a humid day! Never, ever, ever!" OK then! 

 She even waived her finger at me. 

 Just like that. 

 Oh well.

I had thought about going into work today, even though I did put in for a vacation day. I forgot that we had made an appt to take The Beast to the vet this morning, so I'm staying home.

• Breakfast for the kids, am going to scoop boxes shortly.
• The Beast's vet appt this morning (It's basically for the vet to see how she's doing on Prozac. We switched her over to our vet instead of where she had been going and our vet was kind enough to put her on Prozac without seeing her. But it's time for her general check-up.)
• A bit of vacuuming in the living room and kitchen, nothing major
• Change bed sheets today (I didn't get it done over the weekend because of Christmas on Sunday and the kids came yesterday).
• We may do a bit of shopping this afternoon  

And I think that will be it.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

 
well, i decided to make oatmeal peanut butter sandwich cookies, the filling being the carob-cream cheese buttercream. i thought the cookie to frosting ratio would taste better......and it did! i still have enough of the buttercream to make about 10 more of these sandwich cookies, and have oatmeal peanut butter cookie dough balls in the freezer too!

so today i'll bake another batch of oatmeal peanut butter cookies, then make them into sandwich cookies. i'll wash the dishes, scoop the litter boxes, and take out the trash. i'll also dice some carrots and celery, hard boil and dice up some eggs -- prep for making some potato salad tomorrow. i'll move a bag of sliced turkey from the freezer to the fridge to thaw.

i forgot to move the cookie dough balls to the fridge last night, too tired so went to bed early. but i've moved them to the fridge this morning, so will bake the cookies tomorrow.

 

[Winchester]

Back to work this morning....I was kind of ready to come back, to be honest. It's nice to have all those days off work, but I got to thinking about what I might be missing and how many plans were thrown my desk for review, and well, it's OK to be back in my little cube. (I think that, as much as I'd like to retire sometimes, deep down inside, I'm not all that ready yet.)

• Breakfast for the furkids, 2.5 miles on the treadmill, made the bed, grabbed my shower, and here I am!
• I'm not sure if Dear Richard's coming in over lunch to go over to the farmers' market. He's off work this week and he had talked about the "need" for a hot sausage sandwich for lunch.
• Trash night, clean the litter boxes
• 3 loads of laundry are sorted on the hallway floor (I don't know if Rick will get them done or not.)

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

i'm up early this morning! in a few minutes i'll make the cats their breakfasts, get the wood stove going, then bake the sheet of oatmeal peanut butter cookies and get the bread machine going on producing a loaf of bread. i'll make some cream of wheat and 2 or 3 fried eggs for my breakfast.

later this morning, i'll peel, dice, and boil the potatoes for the potato salad. once they're done, i'll drain 'em, then add 'em to the carrots/celery/sweet zucchini relish/diced hard boiled eggs that i prepped yesterday, and add a good dollop of yellow mustard and the mayo. i moved the zipper bag of sliced turkey to the fridge to thaw before bed last night.  then i'll wash the dishes, and scoop the litter boxes.

at some point this afternoon, after the cookies have completely cooled, i'll make them into sandwich cookies using the last of the carob-cream cheese buttercream.

 

[Primula]

Pam, how did your Boxing Day (12/26) festivities & cuisine turn out? You sure did have some good things planned.

 

[Winchester]

Thank you for asking....we had a great time! As soon as our grandson came in the door, the very first thing he said was, "Hey, Grandma, did you get the Nintendo?" 

 And he was quite disappointed when I said that we couldn't find one (at a true price. Most of what we found on Amazon and eBay was for 4 times the actual amount from people buying a slew of them and then inflating the price). So we shall wait until they become more widely available, if they ever do.

Everybody loved dinner. The grands have always been rather snoopy eaters; everything has to be just so for them to eat. No food touching another food on their plates, etc. That has stopped for the most part and our grandson has turned into quite the carnivore; he loved the crown roast. Our granddaughter loved the mashed potatoes and the baked corn. They took some leftovers home. They both helped me with clean-up before we sat down to open gifts. And then we had our desserts.

We opened gifts and the grands loved what we gave them.

Rick's mother did make it down to the house; Rick parked out back, so she was able to enter through the arbor and the deck. It was fine, but she was really pooped til he got her back home. The swelling has really gone down in her legs with the compression stockings and her face looks much better.

And, if truth be told, I was pooped til everybody left. I finished cleaning up the kitchen, threw a load of tablecloth and napkins in the washer and dryer, got it all folded and went to bed with my iPad for a while. Didn't take long til I was snoring away.

I have to add that the very first gift I opened was strictly from my granddaughter. During the summer, she had found a small candy dish (never opened, never used) at a yard sale with holly leaves and she thought it matched our Winterberry dishes enough that she wanted to buy it for me and my DIL said that she used her own money! She was tickled that I loved it so much and I was thrilled that she thought of me! She's a sweetie. I just thought that was so neat.

We all had a wonderful time!

(And my granddaughter and I have already planned our next baking session; this time it will be pizza. I may start buying her a special baking-themed gift now for Christmas, just for her, just from me. And, in order to be fair, Rick said he will start doing that with our grandson, too.)

 

[Primula]

Good to hear all your hard work paid off. You make your own pizza too? I've posted before that I will not work with yeast - so intimidating.

 

[Winchester]

Yeast is not intimidating, I swear. You should try instant yeast. There is no taking the temperature of the liquids, you don't have to worry that your liquids are too hot or too cold when you're working with instant yeast. Tepid is probably best, instead of refrigerator cold, but honestly, it's a lot easier working with instant yeast than with active dry yeast. You don't have the hassles and it's a lot harder to kill it. 

I've been working with just instant yeast now for a good seven years now, I think. I keep my yeast in the fridge. I buy a pound of SAF instant yeast at the end of the year, put it into my container and throw it in the fridge for the year. I take out what I need and, most of the time, I've pretty much gone through the pound by the next year's end. It will last that long (longer if you store it in the freezer instead of the fridge).

Yes, I've made my own pizza dough for years and years now. We prefer it over any store-bought or delivery pizza. We also do individual pizzas on the grill during the summer and they're so good. I also make our own stromboli and our own calzones. Yum. It's probably not the true Italian food that you'd get at an authentic pizza place, but we like it. 

 

[Primula]

I've worked with instant yeast too. All horrible failures. Not once in my life has the dough ever risen even a centimeter.

Boy, sure would love one of your calzones.

 

[Winchester]

Oh. I'm sorry you have so much trouble with your yeast. One of my GFs has a serious issue with yeast, too; she refuses to try to work with it anymore because she keeps killing it and then she feels badly because she's killed living organisms.

 So she's given up. 

I haven't made calzones in a while and now I'm hungry for one. We ham and cheese, sausage and cheese, mushroom and broccoli, and whatever strikes our fancy. Then I make a sauce to dip the calzones into. They're really good. And filling. My calzones are huge. I usually make four at a time and then put leftovers in the freezer.

• Breakfast for the kids, 3.5 miles on the treadmill, made the bed, grabbed my shower (Rick emptied the dishwasher and will scoop boxes). He was going to bring me into work this morning because the roads are horrible. Snow and sleet to change over to rain sometime late this morning. I said I'd just drive in, so I started the car while my Keurig was warming up and he went outside and cleaned it off for me....I hate cleaning my car off. I made it in with no trouble, but the roads are not good. In town, nothing has been plowed yet and our parking lot is still unplowed, too.) 
• We have to run some errands tonight, although some of them can wait until tomorrow. We're going over to my sister's to take care of their kibble-krunchers and I'll need to clean out their litter boxes. Rick is bowling early, so I'm going to leave work an hour early in order to get everything done before he has to leave to bowl.
• A bit of vacuuming and Swiffering tonight after Rick leaves. Nothing major. Some general straightening-up and I may start putting some of the Christmas presents away while I'm puttering about.

And then I'm going to take the iPad and go to bed.

 

[AbbysMom]

- walk
- pay bills
- go to a wake

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

i got the oatmeal peanut butter cookies baked yesterday, but didn't push myself to make them into sandwich cookies -- i did that today. i also sliced the loaf of bread machine bread that i made yesterday. i washed the dishes, scooped the litter boxes, took out the trash. i got the wood stove going around mid morning, and have kept it going.

i've definitely turned the corner on that cold i had. really just 3 days of the icky part, and now i'm feeling much better.

oh, and i did a little work on my budget today. just some 'fine tuning' of a couple items on my 'master budget', and entering/deducting the actual amount of an amazon subscribe and save order.

 

[Winchester]

 
i got the oatmeal peanut butter cookies baked yesterday, but didn't push myself to make them into sandwich cookies -- i did that today. i also sliced the loaf of bread machine bread that i made yesterday. i washed the dishes, scooped the litter boxes, took out the trash. i got the wood stove going around mid morning, and have kept it going.

i've definitely turned the corner on that cold i had. really just 3 days of the icky part, and now i'm feeling much better.

oh, and i did a little work on my budget today. just some 'fine tuning' of a couple items on my 'master budget', and entering/deducting the actual amount of an amazon subscribe and save order.

Yum to your cookies! I'm glad the cold is better. 

Rick and I are both off today; he's been off work all day, the lucky snot. I took a vacation day today. We're off Monday, too, for the holiday, so another four-day weekend. It doesn't take long to get spoiled with those longer weekends. 

• Breakfast for the furkids, 4 miles on the treadmill (Rick scooped the boxes and started the dishwasher as he forgot to run it last night; he starts it right before he comes to bed)
• We are doing some shopping today; I have a list of things like softener salt, light bulbs, etc. Some personal care items. I also need a new ruler for baking (I took mine with me when Sarah and I made sticky buns the other week and forgot to bring it home). Preferably 15 to 17 inches long. I have no idea where to buy one. Staples? A stationery store? Target? Lowes? 
  
   I don't want a yard stick, just a longer ruler. that's relatively flat.  
• My sister and BIL are out of town, so I'm doing cat-sitting duty for Harley and the rest of the kibble-krunchers. We go twice a day to scoop, to feed, and to cuddle. 
  
   And then when I come home, Molli gets into a snit because she smells a different cat on my sweater....and she is not amused.

Rick has been doing some fine-tuning to our budget, too. The credit card bill came in with most of the money from my Christmas shopping. I'll give Rick the money today for deposit and then we can write that check out (we use the credit card for shopping to get the points, but we have a deal that any balance must be paid immediately to avoid any interest and he's a real stickler about it). I need to fill out my new W4 for work; I brought it home to compare it to the one from this year.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

 
Yum to your cookies! I'm glad the cold is better.  

Rick and I are both off today; he's been off work all day, the lucky snot. I took a vacation day today. We're off Monday, too, for the holiday, so another four-day weekend. It doesn't take long to get spoiled with those longer weekends. 

• Breakfast for the furkids, 4 miles on the treadmill (Rick scooped the boxes and started the dishwasher as he forgot to run it last night; he starts it right before he comes to bed)
• We are doing some shopping today; I have a list of things like softener salt, light bulbs, etc. Some personal care items. I also need a new ruler for baking (I took mine with me when Sarah and I made sticky buns the other week and forgot to bring it home). Preferably 15 to 17 inches long. I have no idea where to buy one. Staples? A stationery store? Target? Lowes? 
  
   I don't want a yard stick, just a longer ruler. that's relatively flat.  
• My sister and BIL are out of town, so I'm doing cat-sitting duty for Harley and the rest of the kibble-krunchers. We go twice a day to scoop, to feed, and to cuddle. 
  
   And then when I come home, Molli gets into a snit because she smells a different cat on my sweater....and she is not amused.

Rick has been doing some fine-tuning to our budget, too. The credit card bill came in with most of the money from my Christmas shopping. I'll give Rick the money today for deposit and then we can write that check out (we use the credit card for shopping to get the points, but we have a deal that any balance must be paid immediately to avoid any interest and he's a real stickler about it). I need to fill out my new W4 for work; I brought it home to compare it to the one from this year.

thank you!

pretty much the same here! i get cash back rewards with my credit card, enough to cover the yearly card fee 2 or 3 times over. and i always pay off the full balance before interest would set in.

i've got not much going on here today -- on purpose. i've gotten everything done that i needed to this week, so today is going to be a nice quiet day here for my cats and myself. i'll get the wood stove going soon enough, wash the dishes, scoop the litter boxes. i might get a start on my shopping list for january. after that, i plan on watching some tv, and later on i'll read for a while and work on my current jigsaw puzzle.

 

[LTS3]

Laundry is done. Well, more like 99% done. I have stuff hanging up to air dry that need to be put away later. I cleaned off my desk and put important stuff away in my file bin. I was feeling ambitious so I tackled my hallway / utility closet. I got rid of a lot of extra plastic bags, a broken rice cooker, fishing poles with chewed up or missing toys, and miscellanous things. I have a box of stuff to post on FreeCycle and a bag of cardboard tubes to donate to the SPCA shelter (small furries love tubes). The storage drawer in the closet got reorganized so I can find stuff more easily.

 

[Primula]

pretty much the same here! i get cash back rewards with my credit card, enough to cover the yearly card fee 2 or 3 times over. and i always pay off the full balance before interest would set in.

Why pay a card fee for a credit card?

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

Why pay a card fee for a credit card?

there are several reasons why it would be to a persons benefit to pay an annual card fee for a credit card. for me, my cash back rewards offset my annual card fee 2 or 3 times over. i might at some point consider applying for a no fee credit card (i get offers from various credit card companies on a very regular basis), but don't feel it's the right time to explore that yet. i also have excellent credit with my credit card company, and very good credit in general.

well, the dishes didn't get washed today (aren't many of them anyway). i got involved with two packages that were delivered today, opening them and properly storing the items.

 

[Primula]

• 
  [1] Walked to supermarket this morning & took FastTrak bus home. Explained to the bakery man why I don't come every Friday now. He was very interested in the story of husband filing for divorce & then dropping it. Hence the reason I don't cook any longer so don't need groceries every week. Funny how people can be so interested in one's little dramas.
  
  [2] My favorite chocolate was 50% off at Stop & Shop so I bought all the bars they had.
  
  [3] Did not see my favorite guy at the market so could not wish him HNY.
  

 

[Winchester]

• Normal breakfast stuff, 3.5 miles on the treadmill, emptied dishwasher
• Vacuum and dust about the house (I like to have the house fairly clean for the New Year)
• Threw the first load of laundry in the washer (so I don't have to do any tomorrow, my normal wash day)
• Throw together a loaf of batter bread
• Take care of my sister's fur-clan
• Might go to the grocery store (I forgot to get mushrooms yesterday)