With Pictures, and it's Not A Downer...
This one's not gonna be weepy; I Promise.
Well, we're Iced In. I put my car inside and got out the diesel pickup for the weekend, and I'm glad I did. It was already getting slick when I left work Friday afternoon, and I wasn't real crazy about the idea of threading-the-needle to get into the driveway beside Clay's car. The truck did okay on the ice (with that crate of motor mounts in the back) but it wouldn't quite make the climb into the driveway; partly because it's uphill, and partly because I was trying to jump the curb with the left front wheel to leave lots of room between it & Clay's SHO. I parked it in the street (I really wouldn't want my SHO sittin' in the street, especially if some ay-hole could come around that corner and slide into it) and strung an extension cord to it. So far, thankfully, it's started up on the first try every time we've been outside -- this time when we cleared 'em both off, we covered up the windshields with banner plastic...
Much like the last time we were snowed-in, I made sure I had some knitting stuff. This time, I bought a small ball of purple just because I was standin' there in the yarn department and thought, "Hmmm, I haven't done anything with purple yet, so how'bout this..." I think it's Caron, but I don't remember for sure and I can't find the label right now; it's soft & fuzzy and it's got a lot of fluff to it so I can knit with the bigger needles (I think they're 11's) and it comes out fluffy & thick. I'm really happy with this "Knitting Pretty" book that Clay got me for my birthday; it just seemed a lot easier to read & follow than that other book that I bought last year. Idiot's Guide's and Dummies Books are the best for computer stuff like Quark XPress, but I just didn't have much luck with knitting from one. Now, you might notice (as I just did) that some of the reviews are not-so-stellar; but I, personally, am happy with it. I have officially mastered the skill that I just could not acquire from that other book -- I can Purl now. Here's what's hangin' off my big blue needles right this minute:
In further moments of domesticity, I also took a shot at homemade bread yesterday. It's been several years since that Tupperware Party (Hello Google!) where we watched our Tupperware Consultant (Hello Tonja!!) make cinnamon rolls with the big-monster bowl and the do-anything bread recipe; but I still sorta remember how it went, and I had an actual printed copy of a recipe, so it wasn't a total shot in the dark. I followed the not-so-well-edited instructions as best I could; mixed it all up in the big bowl and put the lid on -- supposedly, when it rises to the point that it pops the lid off, it's ready to bake. The "pop" took less than twenty minutes, and it smelled lovely. That's about the extent of my bread-making experience, I know it smelled good, but I wasn't sure about how it looked or how to tell if I'd screwed it up.
I'd kinda figured on making a cookie-sheet-full of plain rolls and then fixin' up some cinnamon rolls to bake next. When I grabbed for a ball of dough to put on the cookie sheet, it stuck to me like crazy and was sticky and stringy as hell; maybe I messed up somewhere... I thought we'd managed to shoot a little video with the phone, but it didn't turn out. I had Clay get my mom back on the phone (because I couldn't get it off my hands) and she said it did the same thing when she tried it, so I went ahead and put six of 'em in the oven to see what would happen. After their twenty minutes at three-fifty was up, they didn't look anything like the ones sis-in-law makes every Christmas, but they smelled nice. They smelled nice and they were okay with butter while they were still warm, but something just wasn't right. I did up a round pan of cinnamon rolls too, with much the same result -- they smelled lovely, but one of 'em had bailed out of the pan to make a run for it across the oven rack. Even covered up with icing (also from the same recipe), they were a bit disappointing.
I had one last bit of dough left in the bowl and I'm too hard-headed to just toss it out, so I tried one last trick. I slopped a considerable amount of Butter Flavored Crisco onto the cookie sheet and rubbed a lot of it onto my hands too. I spread out the dough into an oval about 3/4-inch thick and then I opened the fridge. I found a little bit of spaghetti sauce and some pepperoni, but the only cheese I could find was swiss. I poured a little bit of sauce onto the buttery dough, then tore up a couple slices of swiss cheese and arranged them amongst the pepperoni slices and sprinkled a little bit of crushed red pepper on there too. I folded the oval over, pinched the edges together and stuck it in the oven for twenty minutes, then five more, and five more, and it came out pretty good. We had the pizza-ish-thing for dinner, and even though I had a hard time finishing mine because the red pepper turned out a little too hot, it was the best thing that happened with that disappointing dough. It turned out pretty good, and I'm sure it'll be better if I have more cheese next time I try it.
Today, Clay's been tossing the rolls out in the front yard and watching birds come after 'em. See? It wasn't a total waste of time & groceries.
More later...
_\,,/
Well, we're Iced In. I put my car inside and got out the diesel pickup for the weekend, and I'm glad I did. It was already getting slick when I left work Friday afternoon, and I wasn't real crazy about the idea of threading-the-needle to get into the driveway beside Clay's car. The truck did okay on the ice (with that crate of motor mounts in the back) but it wouldn't quite make the climb into the driveway; partly because it's uphill, and partly because I was trying to jump the curb with the left front wheel to leave lots of room between it & Clay's SHO. I parked it in the street (I really wouldn't want my SHO sittin' in the street, especially if some ay-hole could come around that corner and slide into it) and strung an extension cord to it. So far, thankfully, it's started up on the first try every time we've been outside -- this time when we cleared 'em both off, we covered up the windshields with banner plastic...
Rock 102.3 FM is long gone, but their leftover banners live on. Rock, Roll, Recycle.
Much like the last time we were snowed-in, I made sure I had some knitting stuff. This time, I bought a small ball of purple just because I was standin' there in the yarn department and thought, "Hmmm, I haven't done anything with purple yet, so how'bout this..." I think it's Caron, but I don't remember for sure and I can't find the label right now; it's soft & fuzzy and it's got a lot of fluff to it so I can knit with the bigger needles (I think they're 11's) and it comes out fluffy & thick. I'm really happy with this "Knitting Pretty" book that Clay got me for my birthday; it just seemed a lot easier to read & follow than that other book that I bought last year. Idiot's Guide's and Dummies Books are the best for computer stuff like Quark XPress, but I just didn't have much luck with knitting from one. Now, you might notice (as I just did) that some of the reviews are not-so-stellar; but I, personally, am happy with it. I have officially mastered the skill that I just could not acquire from that other book -- I can Purl now. Here's what's hangin' off my big blue needles right this minute:
It looks blue in the flash, but it's purple...
In further moments of domesticity, I also took a shot at homemade bread yesterday. It's been several years since that Tupperware Party (Hello Google!) where we watched our Tupperware Consultant (Hello Tonja!!) make cinnamon rolls with the big-monster bowl and the do-anything bread recipe; but I still sorta remember how it went, and I had an actual printed copy of a recipe, so it wasn't a total shot in the dark. I followed the not-so-well-edited instructions as best I could; mixed it all up in the big bowl and put the lid on -- supposedly, when it rises to the point that it pops the lid off, it's ready to bake. The "pop" took less than twenty minutes, and it smelled lovely. That's about the extent of my bread-making experience, I know it smelled good, but I wasn't sure about how it looked or how to tell if I'd screwed it up.
I'd kinda figured on making a cookie-sheet-full of plain rolls and then fixin' up some cinnamon rolls to bake next. When I grabbed for a ball of dough to put on the cookie sheet, it stuck to me like crazy and was sticky and stringy as hell; maybe I messed up somewhere... I thought we'd managed to shoot a little video with the phone, but it didn't turn out. I had Clay get my mom back on the phone (because I couldn't get it off my hands) and she said it did the same thing when she tried it, so I went ahead and put six of 'em in the oven to see what would happen. After their twenty minutes at three-fifty was up, they didn't look anything like the ones sis-in-law makes every Christmas, but they smelled nice. They smelled nice and they were okay with butter while they were still warm, but something just wasn't right. I did up a round pan of cinnamon rolls too, with much the same result -- they smelled lovely, but one of 'em had bailed out of the pan to make a run for it across the oven rack. Even covered up with icing (also from the same recipe), they were a bit disappointing.
I had one last bit of dough left in the bowl and I'm too hard-headed to just toss it out, so I tried one last trick. I slopped a considerable amount of Butter Flavored Crisco onto the cookie sheet and rubbed a lot of it onto my hands too. I spread out the dough into an oval about 3/4-inch thick and then I opened the fridge. I found a little bit of spaghetti sauce and some pepperoni, but the only cheese I could find was swiss. I poured a little bit of sauce onto the buttery dough, then tore up a couple slices of swiss cheese and arranged them amongst the pepperoni slices and sprinkled a little bit of crushed red pepper on there too. I folded the oval over, pinched the edges together and stuck it in the oven for twenty minutes, then five more, and five more, and it came out pretty good. We had the pizza-ish-thing for dinner, and even though I had a hard time finishing mine because the red pepper turned out a little too hot, it was the best thing that happened with that disappointing dough. It turned out pretty good, and I'm sure it'll be better if I have more cheese next time I try it.
Today, Clay's been tossing the rolls out in the front yard and watching birds come after 'em. See? It wasn't a total waste of time & groceries.
More later...
_\,,/
posted by Debbie at 11:26 AM
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