Back on prednisone. Which is making me want to eat everything in sight. Everything. Argh. I am so hungry all the time!

I bought some almond milk. It has more calcium than regular milk and I thought it might be kinder to my digestive system. I just made an iced latte with some espresso and the almond milk, and it was pretty good. I am hoping the caffeine from the coffee supresses the hunger for at least a little while. I still want to eat the blueberry muffins and chocolate chip cookies I made yesterday. And some M&Ms... and a peanut butter cup and some dark chocolate. Oh, and dried cherries and pretzels and chips. I have managed to limit myself to one cookie, a tiny dark chocolate square, a peanut butter cup and a lot of beef jerky. And sunflower seeds. And olives.

I give up. It's a losing battle with prednisone.

I am getting better, though!

Peach pie too! I was lazy and didn't feel like making a lattice top.

It's a pain... cut the strips lay them all down in one direction... lift half back up... weave in strips in the other direction.

So much easier to just cut HOLES in the crust! Plus it's cute. And it doesn't change the taste, so why go to all the trouble of a lattice top?

Okay, fine, I'm lazy. But, it was a delicious pie!

Lemon meringue pie.....



I don't even have to say anything.

Well, except it was DELICIOUS!

Summer drinks

This is a great refreshing summery drink:

Raspberry Rickys - the name just sounds delicious.

First make raspberry syrup:
6 oz fresh raspberries
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1/2 oz. lime juice
1/4 c. water

This will make enough for a few drinks. Combine the ingredients for the syrup in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Cook the syrup until the berries are completely broken down, stirring occasionally. (about 10 minutes) Strain the seeds out for a smooth syrup. Let syrup cool in refrigerator before using.

Raspberry Ricky:
1.5 oz. gin
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 to 1 oz. raspberry syrup
Soda water
Lime (for garnish)

Using a highball glass, pour the gin and lime juice over ice. Gently stir in soda water. Top with a the raspberry syrup and stir gently. (Start with the smaller amount and add to taste.) Garnish with lime.

Lovely and delicious!

Next I will try this with blackberries!

Fun Stuff

I am a member of BzzAgent. (I'm an agent!) BzzAgent allows its members to try a product or service (for free!) - then you share your opinion of the stuff you try. I got two free lipsticks.... how can you go wrong with that?? I just signed up for a new campaign - you will get free books downloaded onto your Kindle or Kindle reader on the iPhone or iPad. Waiting now for the first book, we'll see how this goes. Seems like it will be a good campaign to be a member of!

Gin Cosmos

Sounds horrible, right? But, wow.... they're incredible. You have to use GOOD gin. Okay, it doesn't have to be Hendrick's or Right... but it should NOT be Fleischman's either! Make sure it's at least triple distilled. Why? Because it's better and will help in the hangover department. We make them like this:

1 oz. really good gin (see above comments)
1/2 oz. really good orange liqueur - Patron's Citronge, Cointreau.... NOT Triple Sec (Yuck!)
1 oz. cranberry - you can even use diet... it works and cuts carbs
1/2 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 to 1 oz. water - depending on your taste

Shake with ice in a Boston shaker and strain into a "triangle" glass. (AKA Martini glass)

I don't have a picture. They don't last long enough to take a picture anyway.....

You must have strong will power so you don't drink these into oblivion.

Apple Pie

I made an apple pie on Sunday - it was delicious. That surprised me, because the apples (Granny Smiths) had been in the refigerator for a really long time - a few months at least. But, the pie was awesome and very pretty, too!

Rave reviews from the family....

I haven't posted in so long!

Delicious!

These fudge drops taste like moist decadent brownies - they are delicious!

Check out the recipe on the King Arthur Flour site or their blog.

Time to start baking again

I am taking some time off from work - a short leave of about a month. I plan to do a lot of baking to catch up on all those things I have wanted to try. (I think at the same time, I should start an exercise program to burn off those extra calories I will end up consuming!) Today, I am making angel biscuits, fluffy biscuits made with yeast, and Fudge Drops - a recipe from King Arthur flour. The biscuits are now spending an hour in the freezer, the cookies are about ready to go into the oven (after an hour in the refrigerator.) Here is a picture of the unbaked fudge drops.

I fail at blogging......

Will try to have something soon!

The singing trees

It took a while, and a lot of testing...but we finally found the right combination on the trees.....

eastern milk snake...apparently

We went on our annual "fall walk" about a month ago. Every fall, we hike through a park - for the last couple years we have been walking through Donald Park in Mt Vernon. It has some beautiful trails and a combination of woods and prairie. This year we came across a couple snakes - one was a typical and harmless garter snake. The other, while tiny, was coiling up and trying to strike. It was also shaking the end of it's tail, although it was too small to have rattles, if it was a rattlesnake. It almost looks like a tiger rattlesnake, except they are native to Arizona and Wisconsin is probably a little cold. The park has riding trails, and I didn't want the snake to get stepped on by a horse, so we moved it off the trail. (With a very long stick, even baby rattlers are poisonous!) Click on the picture to see it a little bit larger. It really is a pretty little snake.

Come to find out, it is an eastern milk snake.....

A spooky Halloween

Daylight savings was a little late this year - so it was still light outside when Trick or Treating started. It was dark by the end of the alloted time period - the town of Mt Horeb set the Trick or Treat time from 5-7 PM.

We had about 350 "fun size" candy bars - and when it was all over, only about 15 to 20 pieces left! Then we left the "cauldron" of candy outside, and when I went out to get it about a half hour later - well, that candy was gone too! Someone tricked us!

The whole Halloween scene on the deck was very scary - a lot of the littler kids didn't want to walk up on the deck to get their candy. Ethan and Luke did their usual excellent jobs as grim reapers. This year, we added that big scary guy hanging over the candy cauldron. The weather was warm, and it was a lot of fun. So many people came! It's fun to hear the comments. One mom said her kids "have been waiting 364 days for this!"

We have already started planning for next year!

Holden Beach - October 2008

A wonderful week was just spent at Holden Beach in North Carolina. A week of sun, sand, surf, good company, good food, and (of course) a lot of drinking. The beaches there are never crowded, because you "own" the beach front for the house that you occupy. But, the week that we were there - there was hardly anyone around. There were no neighbors for quite a few houses up or down the beach. It was pretty quiet - my brother Rob and his wife Heather did come for the first weekend with the kids - and it was great to see them. The rest of the group was Mom, Kate and Tim, Mo, Ann and Roy, Matt and Leigh Ann and Gary and I. We had some great breakfasts, lunches of fresh caught shrimp, grilled steaks, bbq pork sandwiches - just too many yummy things to name. The house was beautiful, every bedroom had it's own bath, huge kitchen/dining area and the Atlantic Ocean (with water that was still pretty warm!) right out the back door. The water was warm, although not as warm as it is in August. It still took a little getting used to, but the surf was really high in the afternoons, so there was some great boogie boarding - you didn't even have to kick when the wave came up. Collected lots of shells and some really interesting drift wood. We went through quite a bit of beer, vodka, wine, scotch and gin. Bloody Marys in the morning, beers at the beach, tonics in the afternoon, wine with dinner, and scotch at 8:00!! (It's 8:00 - time for scotch!!) Glenlivet, of course. A fantastic way to end the day at the beach.

What to serve at a wedding reception

These are seasonal beers, so if you are going to have a summer wedding, these would be a couple excellent beers to serve at the reception.

Just a tip for all the wedding planners out there.

exercising soreness

This week I have done some slalom skiing, played soccer (as the goalie), did a little running, step boarding, hula hooped, walked a tight rope, ski jumped, and to top it all off, I did some yoga. My leg muscles are really sore....
Of course I am talking about the Wii Fit. The good news is - I am in the "normal" range for the BMI. The bad news is.....another pound or two and I might not be. But, so far it is really fun and everyone seems to enjoy it. The hard part is finding the time. Just getting home from work, I have to make dinner. After dinner on a full stomach? Not so good. I guess I could get up early and try to do some exercises. I already get up at about 5:15 though....
It will be interesting to see if this really does anything. Even if it doesn't shed pounds, it's still a good way to get the heart pumping and tone. It's just plain fun.

Nintendo ROCKS!

What a crazy week. We heard back from the insurance company about our totalled car. They are giving us diddley squat. Jerks. Nothing for the recent $1200 repair work that was done. Jerks. Then Kevin's Macbook Pro died. Well, the video card went out - so all he sees is a black screen. His warranty expired about 5 or 6 weeks ago. Of course. Fortunately, I purchased the laptop with my American Express card - did you know they offer an extended warranty just by using the card? So, Whew! Kevin's laptop is still covered. American Express rocks too!!

So, why does Nintendo rock? I emailed them about my disappointment in not being able to purchase a Wii Fit. The only ones you can find are from re-sellers at a grossly inflated price. Well, someone called me back. A really nice guy named Zach. He listened to my sad story then offered to sell me one at the MSRP. Which, of course, I snapped up immediatley. Kevin said Nintendo is supposed to have some of the best customer service on the planet. I would have to agree - they rock!

Our poor car...or is it our poor pocketbook?

Last weekend, someone hit Gary's parked car in front of our house. It's totaled. Gary had been driving the car for only four days after putting $1200 worth of repairs into it. We're just sick about it, and hope to get some of that back - but we have to argue with an insurance company, and you know how that is. They are going to look at the car today and give us an amount. Gary is driving the caddie we got from his sister Karen's husband, John. He sold it to us about a year ago for $2 grand, the blue book was something like $5 grand on it. We figured it would be an OK car for the boys to drive, I guess it's a good thing we had it around! The poor woman that hit the car is a cancer patient. She was just feeling good enough to go out after spending the last few weeks getting chemo. She didn't get hurt, but her car was totaled as well. She was reaching for a water bottle and didn't see our car. She hit it pretty hard, it moved an entire car length and got pushed up on the curb. That totally twisted the frame - you can't open the driver's door and the doors on the other side aren't flush any more. We had decided to invest in the repairs because it has been such a great car, it had never been in the shop prior to this. Gary figured if we got the repair work done (new catalytic converter, disc brakes and fixed a leak in the power steering fluid) that the car would last another three or four years.

It's funny, when they gave us the estimate for the repairs, my first
thought was - "if we put that much money into the car, something will happen to it." Crazy.

and done!

The diet didn't last past day 5. Too hard on a long holiday weekend. We had tickets to the American Players Theater on Friday night, so we had a bottle of wine before the show. (Which was great! We saw "Ah, Wilderness!" by Eugene O'Neill ) Anyway....Saturday we went to Galena and ate at one of the local restaurants - which was very good. On Sunday, we cooked out, a "beer can" chicken. Always awesome. As you can see, the diet would have been impossible over the weekend. On Labor Day we intended to eat at Avanti's - an Italian restaurant in Verona. But, it was closed, so we decided to eat at the Bistro in Mount Horeb. Also closed for dinner, although it had been open during the day. Leftover chicken was dinner on Monday.

I did weigh myself yesterday. I unfortunately did not weigh myself the day before I started the diet, but I had done so about a week before. From that time until now, I have lost 7 pounds. Whether it was all on the diet or not, I don't know. My weight fluctuates anyway, so it's hard to tell. Gary and I have simply decided to eat healthier (although we don't really eat too much junk as it is!), have fewer drinks during the week and to continue exercising. I will continue walking during work. We're also trying very hard to find a Wii Fit - which is nearly impossible.

Luke got "Rock Band" for the Xbox. I can't do anything beyond the easy level, but it's still great to play. The boys are really good at it. Most of the time, Luke sings, Kevin is playing guitar and Ethan is the drummer. It's fun to watch them play.