Exciting time: Ron came ouf of surgery, glass class in Oct!

Ron came thru surgery with flying colors, he's back in his room....just waiting for the nurses to settle him in, then we can see him.

Andrea Guarino Slemmons is coming to Omaha, we have been trying to ger her here since spring of 2007! She has been booked, then had surgery on her hands........then booked again, changed the dates, etc........................we are so thrilled! So glad she is coming to our area!!!

If you want to take her class, contact me, we have had a cancellation for the Saturday/Sunday class, oh and for the Thursday/Friday class, too. Check out her website, her beads are gorgeous!!!

Boo Bag preparation

I love to do the Boo Bags at Halloween. This year Wal-Mart had items for the back to school college kids in orange, purple and lime green. It lends itself to Halloween. I couldn't wait for the bowls to go on sale. I got some liquid paint writers and went to town.

I'll put the Wilton Pretzel Melt mold in the bowl along with the candy melts, a plastic bottle and a bag of pretzels.











I like to toss in kitchen towels and some gummi candies especially made for Halloween.














The boo bags are a tradition in the little Midwestern town where my daughter lives. The bag is left on your door with a cute little poem along with a picture of 2 ghosts. You copy the poem and the ghost picture x2. You hang the ghost picture that came with your boo bag in your window so the neighbors know you have been boo'd. You then take your two pictures, assemble 2 boo bags and drop them off at a neighbors house when they aren't home. If done early enough in Oct. you can see it spread throughout town.

Both ears are aching

I'm not able to sleep, the ears ache and I am so hot!!!!!! I just have to get thru 2 more days at work, Lord give me strength.

Awake, headachy and tired, but awake

I woke to find the housekeeper standing in the doorway of the bedroom looking at me..........she was surprised! I heard her say, "Oh, there's a body in there!"..........haha, think I gave her quite the start. She was supposed to come yesterday but was sick herself, on antibiotics, she slept all day herself. So she thought she'd make the day up by coming today. HAHA..............I got up to make some hot tea, made a pot of coffee for her, she visited for a little bit, then decided she was going to go home and sleep herself.

I decided to read work email and check PW's site. I found this great link from PW's blog:

Cake Wrecks

I've added it to the side bar here, I'm going to keep an eye on that site. My mom used to make and decorate wedding cakes when I was a kid, I think she would get a kick out of that site.

Off to bed, I ache and hurt, the headache is a real pain with this bug!!!

The flu bug...............

It's got hold of me, I'm home ill today, just woke up after sleeping since early yesterday evening until now.

I so don't have time for this!!!

Hello..............

I didn't do my Recipe friday, I forgot! Halloween is coming, Karen and I have been sharing links back and forth. Nigella is a good sight, it has some cute recipes!

Makes 8

Ingredients

• 300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 175ml/6 fl oz buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 teaspoons good-quality strawberry jam mixed with some red food colouring to make it as bloody looking as possible

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line a cupcake tray.

2. Sift the flour into a medium bowl, then add a pinch of salt and the caster sugar. In a jug, combine the vegetable oil, egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Add to the dry mixture and stir to only just combine. It will be thick and puffy. Place 1/2 tablespoonful of the mixture in each muffin hole and make an indent in the centre. Fill each indent with a heaped tablespoon of the strawberry jam.

3. Cover the jam with the remaining cupcake batter. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.

Brain buttercream

• 250grams butter softened (2 sticks, 2 Tablespoons)
  
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Red and Brown or Black food colouring

Beat butter in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy, beat in sifted icing sugar and milk in two batches until fluffy. Add in a couple of drops of red and brown or black food colouring until a grey pink shade is reached. My black powder has a very green tinge so I used red and brown and a small amount of black at the end. Gels are better as you don’t need very much and I find that it’s easier to accidentally use more liquid colour.

To decorate

1. Fit a piping bag with a plain 8mm nozzle and fill bag with brain shaded buttercream.

2. Visually divide the cupcake in two to represent each hemisphere of the brain and pipe squiggly lines on top. You can’t really go wrong as the brain matter squiggles go in all sorts of directions. Fill in any gaps with a dot of butter cream.

Recipe Friday Sept. 11, 2009: Apple Bacon Cheddar Bread

I got this magazine:



And made this bread:




Apple Bacon Cheddar Bread:

6 strips thick bacon, diced
2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
vegetable oil
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs ( I used large)
1 granny smith apple peeled and shredded (I put it in a mini food processor)
1/2 c unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 c. buttermilk
1 1/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350 F, coat an 8 1/2x4 1/2 loaf pan with nonstick spray, or grease.

2. Saute bacon in a skillet ove medium high heat until crisp. Use a slotted spoon to transfer cooked bacon to a paper towel to drain. Reserve drippings.

3. Whisk together flour, salt and baking soda in a large bowl, make a well in the center, set aside.

4. Add enough oil to the reserved drip[ings to make 1/2 c. Combine with sugar and eggs in a large bowl, vigorously whisk until mixture is light colored. Add shredded apple, applesauce and buttermillk, stirring to combine.

5. Pour buttermilk-apple mixture into well of dry ingredients stir only until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in 1 c. cheddar cheese and the bacon. Pour batter into the prepared loaf dish.

6. Bake 50 min. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 c. cheddar on top of loaf, continue baking until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. About 10 min. (took mine 5 min.) Let bread rest on counter for 10 min. in pan, they take loaf out of pan and cool. This loaf can be frozen up to 1 month. Before serving thaw at room temperature.

Aren't Friends Great?

I arrived at work today at 6am. I've got a load to do and am feeling a little behind. Around 9am the phone rang, my friend Rhonda called from Bellevue visit about a bracelet pattern we are doing in ChainMaille at our bead meeting Thursday night. I'd sent her a youtube instructional. She called to tell me she had a beautiful bracelet done from watching that video. We chatted a minute. She then asked me if I got a present.

??? No, I didn't. She told me to check with the front desk girl, she was sure there was something there for me. The desk gal told her I hadn't come in yet.........hehe. I was way early. I called down to Donna, sure enough she confirmed there was a package that was square and pretty heavy! If she didn't know me so well she'd swear it was a 'brick' of some illegal substance.........yeah, she's pretty cute!

Rhonda left me some fudge! Oh, was it good! I shared it with all my constituents....could hardly help it. They can hear unwrapping a mile away! And they can smell fudge at 100 miles!

It was so good, she shared the recipe and I'm sharing it here. I love that she used fat free swwetened condensed milk...........whew! I was really concerned about all that fat! HAHA

Irresistible Turtle Fudge

makes: 9x13 pan

Ingredients:
40 caramels
3 cups milk chocolate chips
1 (7oz) jar marshmallow creme
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk (we used fat free)
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb chopped pecans, chopped (I used 1 10oz bag)

Unwrap the caramels and cut each into 6 equal pieces. Set aside.

In large saucepan, combine chocolate chips, marshmallow creme and sweetened condensed milk. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly, until melted. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and pecans. Fold in caramels. Pour into a greased 9x13" pan. Cool in refrigerator; cut into squares. Go ahead..............indulge!
__________________________

Lazy Sunday

Headed off to get an onion so I can make Pioneer Woman's onion blue cheese sauce again tonight for our T-bones, found them on sale for $4.88/lb. Can't wait to try it again!

Also going to find a mailer that will fit a magazine I got for Karen...........

Love the photos of my grandgirl in her skirt and the tennis shoes I sent her. Absolutely adorable!! Got the shoes from The Children's place in the mall. They can be found online, too. I love the green, but she wanted pink!!! I think the green would go so well with her tinkerbell green!!

OMG: THE BEST RIB EYE STEAK!!!

Got this from PW's cooking area on her website:

Grilled Ribeye Steak with Onion-Blue Cheese Sauce

2 ribeye steaks
2 tablespoons butter
Salt
Pepper
4 tablespoons butter
1 very large yellow onion
3/4 to 1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

Salt and pepper both sides of the steaks. Grill in 2 tablespoons butter until medium rare.

Saute onions in 4 tablespoons butter over high heat. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, or until dark and caramelized. Reduce heat to simmer and pour in cream. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until reduced by half. Stir in blue cheese until melted. Serve steaks on generous portion of sauce. Faint.

Steve and I agree, it is better than just plain mushrooms. This really kicks it up a notch! YUMMY!!!

Recipe Friday Sept. 4, 2009 Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the cookies I sent to Isaac yesterday.

Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 4-½ cups Flour
• 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 2 cups Butter, Softened
• 1-½ cup Brown Sugar, Packed
• ½ cups Sugar
• 2 packages Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix (3.4 Oz. Boxes)
• 4 whole Eggs (large)
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 4 cups Semisweet Chocolate Chips
• 2 cups Chopped Walnuts Or Pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together flour and baking soda.

2. Cream together butter, brown and white sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat in the boxes of instant vanilla pudding mix. Add eggs and vanilla.

3. Gradually add flour and mix thoroughly.

4. Mix in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookies sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Store in an airtight container. Yield: 6-7 doz. I got 112 cookies. But I made them small, I used a teaspoon of dough for each cookie.

Surgery

My hairdresser is going to have surgery. I wanted to do something nice for her, so I thought of a few ideas. I called her sister Jen to see what she would suggest, she was absolutely no help at all! (WINK WINK JEN!)

Karen posted about a movie night gift she did for her neighbor Stacey. I thought it was a great idea, but I could not find the container. I went on a search for something similar, but found nothing.

Wal-Mart had these big red bowls, then I found some red and white bowls, got some paint markers and went to town. I gave it to her at my appointment tonight along with a gift certificate to get some popcorn.