Fruitcake Friday

Okay, so I'll bring dessert for Christmas Dinner! Be afraid, be very afraid... The Friday after Thanksgiving is typically Fruitcake Friday in the years when I decide to bake this delicious and much-maligned treat that is so wonderful to savor with a nice, restoring cup of tea, sometimes laced with a wee drop... I have always loved fruitcake and have made it since I was a teenager. This year I decided to go back to basics and make the first recipe I ever tried, in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. This is the dark fruitcake recipe. Here's a wee piccie of my treasures. They are ready to be wrapped in whiskey soaked cloth and put away in the wine cellar to mellow out for Christmas :0) It's hard to wait, but they are oh, so much better with the aging. And dinna fash, I willna be carting any to anyone unless there is a specific request. Don't you all shout out at once, now!!!

Other than that, I took some pictures of the pups, wanted to be sure to get a phto of Kip before he leaves. Which isn't until Monday, but you never know how things are going to go, and I was upstairs with the camera to capture the fruitcake, and took the opportunity:

I don't know what it is about the Yorkies (or maybe it's my camera) but I can't seem to get a good picture of them. Just so you know that this isn't just Toby in disguise, here is Toby:

And of course, we couldn't leave it with just Keilei's bum in the picture, so here's my girl:

Other than the obvious, I messed around in the bathroom some more. I put in the caulking and took out two more tiles and found another hole in the wall. I may end up having to have a new tub wall unit put in. I have a call in to Les to see what he thinks. He is in Montana for the holiday, helping his dad build his house out there, somewhere by Whitefish, I believe. So I will cover the tiles and we'll just have to be careful when we shower.

I also made a butternut squash soup for my Anam Cara gathering tomorrow. We'll hope the driving will be less eventful than the last time. Steffie is driving us out to Marjorie's so we should be fine. We had some rain last night and this morning, but tomorrow is supposed to be dry. It cleared up this afternoon and the sun shone and Janet and I took the doggies for a walk in the daytime for a change. It was nice to let Keilei and Toby run in the park a bit. I couldn't take Kip off his lead, since he is in a strange neighborhood and I couldn't risk him getting away. But he has one of those expando-leashes so he had a 15 foot range. I don't think he suffered too much.

This is it for now. Gotta go soak those fruitcakes! Hugs, The Auld Girl

Thanksgiving - How It's Done!

Okay, so I know there are those who thought !sacrilege! when I mentioned going to the Casino for Thanksgiving Dinner. But look at the artist's rendition of the new hotel wing, isn't it beautiful? (Okay, so I lost the picture of the casino. If you want to see it, go to http://www.northernquest.com/.) It will be open in early 2010. In the meantime, there is the Casino, restaurant, and convention center facility that is open and running. It's all located about 20 minutes away on the West Plains, close to where I used to work in Airway Heights, at Zak Designs. So close that we called the Casino Buffet the "Zak Cafeteria" as so many of the employees would go there for lunch on a regular basis. In any event, as I mentioned previously, the food is always fresh, and tasty and not loaded with sodium, as I find is the case with so many buffets. So away we went, and I started with a green salad and shrimp with cocktail sauce and some of the Asian broccoli that was listed as "broccolini" - and it was all good. After we had our starters, I went for the turkey and dressing with cranberry sauce, carmelized onions with steamed greens, and roasted winter squash. I finished it up with mincemeat pie for dessert. I enjoyed some Chardonnay with my meal while Janet had Burgundy (she favored the prime rib for her dinner). Janet's mom went traditional with the turkey dinner, too. We listened to music being played on the baby grand piano and took in all the people having a wonderful time ~ not cooking ~ on this lovely start to The Festive Season.

After our dinner, Janet wanted to walk around and look at the Casino a bit, so we did and we noticed there were lots of penny and nickel machines. So we decided to throw a few bucks away. We started with a dollar in a penny machine, and didn't get very far with that at all. So we wandered around some more, and thought we might chance another dollar or two and I found I was out of cash. While looking for the ATM machine, Janet said she'd spot me 20 dollars and I said okay, we can drive through a bank on the way home and I'll replenish my wallet. Well, we didn't have to do that. I saw the "Wheel Of Fortune" game and since I spend a few evenings with Vanna and Pat while I'm having dinner, I decided to play. Now, you know, these new video games have rules all their own, and I have absolutely no idea how you are supposed to figure them out. But this was a nickel game, so I felt okay in throwing away the money. Well, before I knew it, the machine was making lots of noise and giving me more "credits." Having no Real Idea what was going on, I just kept pushing buttons and getting more credits. Then a screen popped up and Pat and Vanna were Talking To Me!!! And I got to Play Wheel Of Fortune just like one of those lucky schmucks on TV. And somehow I Won even more credits. So I kept pushing buttons and winning credits until Janet was out of her money, and it was time to go. When I pushed the button to "cash out," I got a slip of paper that said I WON $613!!! Now, my friends and neighbors, THAT is how you have a great Thanksgiving Dinner!

But not so fast, I'm afraid. Earlier that same day, before going out to the Casino, I started on A Project. Seems some of the tiles around my bathtub/shower have been getting a little loose and I decided it was time to re-caulk them. So I started with scrubbing down the tiles really well and then decided to take out the caulk between the tub and the bottom of the tiles and "do the job right" by replacing that caulk too. In doing this, one of the tiles under the faucet seemed really loose, so I popped it off and it _was_ loose, and the wall in back of it was pretty much saturated. And there is a hole in the wall... So then, I thought, well, better look at those other tiles that seem loose, and I did, and I popped a few more off, and now my tub looks like this picture. More's the pity. As it turns out, Mel was just getting to the Casino with a group of friends as we were finishing our meal, and I told her about my findings on the bathroom tile project and she told me just cover it with plastic and call Les, and no showers until it gets fixed right. Nice that she has that confidence in me, right? But nicer still that she didn't think I could really do it myself. I mean, I probably can get the caulking done on the tiles that aren't saturated, but fixing the hole, that may be more than what I can reasonably do and still consider myself a good steward of this house. But, nice that the money was provided for the fix-it-up, no? Okay, enough for now, gotta get the pups for a walk while there's still a bit of twilight. Once again, Happy Turkey Day!

The Little Princess

So I completely blew it a couple of posts down when I showed the wee blankie I made for the wee "Peanut" and completely forgot to say that the wee "Peanut" turned out to be Mckayla Ann Bertsch who made her entrance on Thursday, October 29 and is just adorable, witness the accompanying picture. She was about 10 days past her official due date and I am told that accounts for her full head of hair and long finger nails. I know there is a sweet little picture of her somewhere, but it is not just to hand, so you get to see one of her first pictures, in the bassinette in hospital. Anyhow, I just can't wait to meet her in person and welcome her to the wonderful and wacky family, and tell her tales of her great-grandmama who is surely smiling down on her from Heaven. Mea culpa for forgetting her, may I never do it again!

How to Maximize A Day Off

Well, the first thing is to decide that you're NOT cooking Thanksgiving Turkey and you are going Out To Dinner instead. Sacrilege, you say? Well, not really. As it turns out, my Diana left yesterday to go to her mother's in Portland, Oregon. Lorraine, my other roommate, had already accepted an invitation out. Alyona is in Russia with her family, and her husband Les will be in Montana helping his dad build his new home. So it was Janet, her mom, Gale next door and me. While I _would_ have cooked the turkey and shared the side dishes with Janet, we all decided to take the easy way out and let someone else do the cooking! We are going to The Casino, which has a Wonderful Buffet under normal circumstances, and a Fabulous Buffet on the Holidays, so there we will be. And how wonderful to be able to sit back and tuck in to a fresh cooked meal and not have to clean the house, silver and crystal! I have the turkey, and would have cooked it, and split the side dishes and desserts with Janet, but we figured - why? We each have a turkey we can cook at our leisure and enjoy the leftovers, but on Thursday, we can all take it easy.





So, Today, Sunday I decided to Just Stay Home and take care of business. This started with hash brown potatoes and a ham & cheese omelet and a pot of good tea laced with Lapsang Souchong and the Sunday Paper. Then I set the oven to clean itself after a cursory wipe-down.



I should say that we woke to snow this morning, about an inch in my garden, of wet, white stuff. I immediately became concerned as to the flow of the day, as I had fully intended getting out and raking leaves and clearing out some of the back garden. Luckily by mid-day it had warmed up and changed to rain, thus melting the snow and allowing me to fulfill my goals later in the day.

Next I ventured to the basement, put a load of towels in the wash, and set a fire in the wood cookstove and proceeded to make a couple batches of soap. I am finally back in the mood, after having struggled with making soap as a business. Also, I am almost out of soap for myself - never a good thing. Anyhow, made three batches, and I think they are all coming out. Will check them tomorrow night and see how they fared.

While I had the wood stove going, I decided to maximize the use of the oven and roast the one Hubbard Squash I harvested this year, so put it in the oven. Here's a piccie of the squash, and by the way, the towels drying on the rack, thus saving some electricity:




After all that, and after a bite of lunch, I went out to clean up doggie doodies (well, since it is almost still dark when I leave in the morning, and full dark when I get home, it is hard to clear up on a daily basis) and then I proceeded to rake leaves. Lorraine came out to help and I set her to pruning the one apple tree. I decided to start pruning the pussy willow bush and the snowball bush and got most of the back yard leaves raked and onto compost piles. I still have the side yards to rake, but can do that this coming four day weekend, as the weather will cooperate, or so say the weather people, and I will hold them to it!
After all that, I walked the doggies, and by the way, I have a visitor. My friend from church has left me her Yorkie for the week. Her daughter's husband is Dean of the Law School at Gonzaga and they have all gone to Hawaii for some invitational basketball game the team is playing in. Sue has never left wee Kip before, in his seven years, so she was relieved when I offered to shelter himfor the week. He is a dear boy and my two are very accommodating of him. So the four of us are quite a picture on our walk Two very inquisitive Yorkies and Keilei just humming along. Well, this is it for now. No more pictures. Will try to get one of Kip before he leaves.
Happy Thanksgiving and Blessings on you and yours.

Working On Saturday

As it turns out, I've worked two Saturdays now. After my previous post, with a bit of a whine about being on the go for work from 7 am to 6 pm, you might think I'd not like this a bit. But it actually is a good feeling to be there to support Kathi, our Head Nurse and Team Leader of the H1N1 Vaccination Teams. Kathi thought she was retired from nursing and hospital administration, until we caught up with her. We needed someone to manage the teams of nurses and clericals who would go out to the schools in the 5 northern counties of Idaho that encompass our health district, and give the vaccinatons to the students who comprise one of the largest target groups of the H1N1 vaccination effort. Of course, school kids are the little incubators who get and spread any flu virus to their peers, their teachers, their parents, and thence to the population at large. So they were a major focus of our vaccination effort. Anyhow, I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Kathi, who managed several hospitals in the Los Angeles area before "retiring" to Northern Idaho, or so she thought, as I said, until we got her! So after Saturday's clinic, the teams presented a "comfort basket" for Kathi comprising all sorts of niceties that would take her mind off work: chocolate, teas, candles, bath goodies, quilting books, fabric, etc. Here's a picture of those who were still here at the end, along with Kathi and the basket.

With Kathi's direction, the clinic on Saturday worked very smoothly and was the best yet! So working on Saturday was a good thing :-)

Slugging Along

So you know, I work 8-5 with an hour lunch when I can get it and I leave the house at 7 AM and get back just before 6 PM, what with the 50 minute commute each way. So not bad, but I had to keep up with the evening dog walkies. I used to walk them in the morning before work, but that was when I was in at 8:30 am and had a 3 mile commute. So feeling rather sorry for myself with getting home at 6 PM and then looking at mail, changing clothes and walking doggers, and then at about 7 PM starting supper and feeding doggers, and getting on with my evening. Not feeling like I have a lot of quality time to do fun things, since I find myself falling asleep during Antiques Roadshow on PBS which airs from 8-9 pm here in Spokane. Don't mean to sound pathetic, but facts are facts.

So I realized when I did my latest "update" epistle that I hadn't been quite the slug, as I had completed a baby afghan for my new grand-niece or -nephew who was due on/about October 19. My nephew, Philip, and his wife, Krista, chose not to know the sex of the Blessed Event (nicknamed "Peanut" during gestation) until it was born. I started out trying to knit the afghan, but after several rows of that, decided I didn't like the look and went to the weaving loom. So in the early days of my new employment, and whilst attending to certain aspects of harvest that Would Not Be Delayed, I managed to finish the afghan and send it off to The Bay Area before Peanut actually arrived. This is a major accomplishment for me, and for those who know me, who realize that I actually LOVE to stretch any celebration before, on, or after the actual date, and therefore, am not so very meticulous as to getting out Birthday, Christmas, Graduation, or other Celebratory Greetings on or about the actual date. Here's a piccie of the afghan:

And, oh, my goodness, it is photographed on the actually unused Guest Bed in the actually Available Guest Bedroom! Not that I am soliciting guests, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there are actually Two single beds available in that Guest Bedroom, and depending on the situation of any Potential Guests, they could enjoy the double bed in my "master room" ~ such as it is. Well, you know, some of my friends live in the warm climates, and to experience Winter, even if we don't have as much Snow as we did last year, could be a novelty, of sorts.

And, actually, when I think of it, the first or second weekend after I started working, my "summer apples" came ripe, and I took the weekend to pick them, and then process them into applesauce and some apple pie filling. I didn't know until last year that you could freeze applesauce, and when I learned that, my world changed. I have two apple trees, and so this is very good news. Canning things takes a lot more work than freezing, so it is preferable for me to freeze my produce. Someday I may get a pressure canner, but in the meantime, freezing works just fine. So I did a bunch of applesauce, as I have a recipe for applesauce cake which I just love, and I made it last year with applesauce that someone gave me and it was awesome! I can feel my hips thanking me for the extra pounds now!

The other thing I've done within the food realm is freeze some summer squash and zucchini that fellow gardeners have given me. As I may have noted in earlier missives, I had absolutely no luck with my squash crop this year, having planted zucchini, patty-pan squash, spaghetti squash and Hubbard squash and yielding only one Hubbard squash, in spite of many blossoms on all plants, many, many bees in the garden, and plenty of sunshine. Go figure. So I have begged squash from any and every quarter, and came up with zucchini, summer squash, and butternut squash, all of which have been processed and frozen :0) and I look forward to next year!

So even though I've been working full time, I've found some time to get some of the harvest into the food storage plans.

So I guess, all in all, I haven't been quite the slug I thought I was. And that's a good thing, Thanks Be To God.

You Know I Got The Job (back in August 2009)

Well, I was offered The Job on Monday, August 10, asked to come in and sign human resources paperwork on Tuesday, and start work on Wednesday. Oh No! You can't really mean that!!! I've just started seriously working on my homekeeping projects and I need at least a week! But, in I went on Tuesday, dinked around with HR for a couple hours, and then got a reprieve to go home - to take care of much-needed business. Mainly, going to the library and getting a book on tape to occupy my 50 minute each way commute. AND to prepare food for lunches so I wouldn't be caught with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day.

So, you know, I've seen people do all these wonderful cooking tutorials on their blogs, with step-by-step instructions on how to make their new favorite dish. Well, this is what I did: Made a large batch of granola to eat in the car for breakfast on the way to work, along with a mug of tea. And I cooked some salmon that was in the freezer to put with a salad, as well as chicken breasts and turkey meatballs. Didn't do the step-by-step, but to the left, you can see the finished products. L-R, chicken breast, granola, salmon and turkey meatballs on the bottom. And you can see where I just had to sample the meatballs. They are pretty good, and I say so myself. In the last three months, I have dispatched all but one package of 3 meatballs. I am saving those for a special occasion. Anyhow, someone (George Patton?) said that an army marches on its stomach, and if that is true, I try to keep myself with plenty of eating options throughout the day. At least a good lunch, even if I eat it at my desk. I find this is especially important since I carpool and at least half of the time, I don't have a car to ziggy on out to the closest fast food joint (well, of course, I _could_ walk to the local liquor store, which is less than a quarter mile away, but I don't think that is really considered a lunch anymore, since sometime in the 80s or so, the 3-martini lunch fell into disfavor, more's the pity...because don't olives count for some kind of protein???). But then, there _is_ what Dorothy Parker said about the martini (which wouldn't probably be good for a 3-martini lunch, if you were expected back at work that same day...): and remember, I'm just quoting one of the great wits of the 20th century: "Oh God, I love the Martini, but only have one at the most; with two, I'm under the table, and three, I'm under my host!" Lucky woman, I say, but then, you can see where that wouldn't fit into the normal, staid, 2009 work schedule. But it's a fun idea, anyhow, don't you think?

So all in all, it is a good thing that I spent my last afternoon of freedom cooking lunches for myself, and I continue to do so on a regular basis. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!?! Especially when it involves keeping my tummy happy!

Carry On! The Auld Girl