This has been spring cleaning week.  When I was gone in early May, Dirk managed to keep things roughly under control, and when he was gone in early April and late May I did a couple of projects and reined in the disaster after… but we haven’t both been home and paid attention to the necessities of home maintenance and upkeep much at all.  Although ( Read more... )

Happy Christmas-Week to all ( Read more... )

The bathroom remodel is going well, and I've been loving having the 4-day weekend home. It's rare that the benefit of another pair of hands outweighs the hassle of fitting 3 people into the bathroom, so I've been helping, but also doing all sorts of non-renovation work.

Thanksgiving dinner: (turkey roulade with shitake-hazelnut stuffing, delicata ( Read more... )

Last weekend, I cooked and cooked, and spent the whole weekend busy, and didn't do a whole lot else but cook, yet managed to use up not very much of our CSA and garden bounty. I made enchiladas using summer squash and greens, with fresh-made green-tomato salsa verde; and canned 3 quarts left over.  I made bok choy kimchee and roasted about a ( Read more... )

So, it's been a lazy weekend.  I was reading Harry Potter.

Then I was doing this cooking thing, to make pumpkin ravioli. First you cook the pumpkin and mash it up.  Then, you need to strain it so that it isn't all juicy and goopy and ruins your ravioli.

Oh wait, I made pumpkin juice!!!  I thought JK Rowling made that up!!

Oh wait.  Yuck.  That ( Read more... )

Last night, I made a big jug of fresh egg-nog for a party. We drank a lot of it (and a lot of other things), but there was some left over ( Read more... )

Back when I was wee, my mama used to make big batches of hot chocolate mix to get our family through the winter. It was something like this, based on powdered milk and Nestle Quik, with Cremora and powdered sugar for extra richness. Knowing my overworked, thrifty, and somewhat picky mom like I do, there are only a few reasons I can think of for ( Read more... )

I learned that our house is 11 meters above sea level.  This was definitely worth looking up, so that I could then use this lovely Norwegian scientific egg timer.

Yes, you should click on the egg timer.

I love potatoes. My friends love potatoes.
S. was once laughed at for ordering a diner lunch that consisted of two potato dishes plus the soup of the day (potato).
A. considers any restaurant at which S. could've ordered that lunch to be a decent place.
She and I were talking some weeks ago about how she loveslovesloves potatoes, and came up ( Read more... )

Christmas gifts this year seem to involve a lot of sugar. I'm very proud of this set though. I admit I stole the idea from the interwebs, but my result looks worse than some but better than others, (in my opinion).  Par for the course, really.


( Read more... )