I'm not dead yet! I'm feeling better.

If you don't recognize the title, it may because you aren't hearing the British accent.

If you still don't recognize it, I am so sorry. That's just sad. Depending on how you look at it, either I had a mispent youth, or you are deprived. Go rent Monty Python's Meaning of Life Holy Grail and see what I am talking about. (A friend pointed out the wrong title. However both Meaning of Life and Holy Grail are brilliant).

I have decided I am fighting some sort of bug, but I don't know what kind. My only symptom seems to be narcolepsy.

I did better yesterday, I only took a 4 hour nap. For the record, I almost never nap. I take maybe 6 naps a year, and I have used half of those already.

I have got the best husband in the world, he fed and entertained the kids for the 3rd night in a row.

Prickly

When I read Four Square's post about this and then this post, I didn't get it.

I haven't felt "touched out" since I was nursing.

I did yesterday.

And this morning.

So I had no caffeine today.

Then I got a migraine.

When I stopped flinching at every heart beat, I drank some strong tea and got rid of 95% of my headache.

I still don't know what's wrong. I just don't feel well.

Thankfully, I have a wonderful husband and he did everything the past 2 evenings while I was in bed.

Ya'll, I was in bed 25 hours out of 48. That is not like me.

And now, I think I am going to go back to bed.

An even easier bread

I was talking with a dear friend and she mentioned that she wanted to make a chicken recipe that she had seen but they don't really drink beer. So in order to make this chicken, they would have to buy a 6 pack and then have 5 beers sitting around for however long.

The recipe they were wanting to try is Beer Can Chicken. This is a chicken that you season with whatever (I use Tony Chachere’s) and then stand the chicken up with the beer can open in the cavity. Yummmmmm.

So I offered to give her a beer but then later remembered one of my favorite quick breads and so gave her 2 beers plus a recipe.

Southern Living came out with this a few years ago and it is such a simple recipe with a flavorful bread. I have made it half whole wheat / half all-purpose but it doesn't always turn out. Sometimes it is too dense that way (I think you have to add baking powder or baking soda to make it with the whole wheat).

So if you are wanting to make beer can chicken and want a way to use up the extra beer, this is a great recipe.

Sweet beer bread

3 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 (12-ounce) beer*
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Stir together first 3 ingredients; pour into a lightly greased 9- x 5-inch loaf pan.

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Pour melted butter over top. Bake 10 more minutes.

*Non-alcoholic or light beer may be substituted.

Cheddar-Chive Beer Bread: Add 3/4 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives to dry ingredients. Proceed as directed.

I will say that different beers give different flavors. My favorite beer to make this is Shiner Bock, but it is also my favorite to drink. But I made it with a different beer (Killian's Red or Sam Adams I think) and the bread had a sharper taste. So if you don't like it, the beer that you used could be the problem.

Even a flaky blond can bake bread

And now, so can the daughter of a flaky blond.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.

Let me back up a bit. Daisy is doing bread pudding for youth fair and she has to make the bread for the bread pudding.

Lucky for her, she has a weird mom who has experimented with bread-making before. I knew just the recipe to try for french bread.

Wednesday was a cold nasty day outside so having a warm kitchen filled with the smells of bread baking sounded wonderful.

If you have one of those wonderful Kitchenaid mixers with the doughhook then this is almost as easy as a bread machine recipe. If you don't have one, well the bread will be almost negative calories from the kneading.

So first you want to proof the yeast. I buy the jars of yeast and then keep it in the freezer. My jar said it expired in 2005 but when I proofed it, I could tell they were still alive.

So you take 1 1/2 cups of warm water that is at about 105-115 F and add to it 1 packet active dry yeast with 1 teaspoon sugar. The yeast love their warm bath and eat the sugar and grow. Let it sit about 5 minutes so that it gets foamy.

Then pour it into the mixer bowl along with 2 cups of all purpose flour. Let that mix a bit, and then add another 2 cups of flour plus the 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt.

Don't do what Daisy did. The measuring cup does not want to be in the mixing bowl. The mixer will break the measuring cup (thank goodness it was plastic or it would be a broken mixer.) Flour went e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e!!!!

Now here is where it gets tricky.

You might need to add more flour or you might be perfect. If the bowl is almost completely clean and the dough is in a wad climbing up the hook and then falling back down, then you have enough flour. You don't want a dusting of flour left in the bowl, but you also don't want it to have tar baby consistency. Let it knead for a few minutes. What gives bread its wonderful texture is thee gluten and air bubbles. The yeast produces bubbles (remember proofing it?) and the bubbles would escape the bread except the gluten acts like a chewing gum and holds the bubbles in. Also like chewing gum, you can't pop a piece in your mouth and expect great bubbles immediately. You have to chew the gum and stretch it for a minute or so before you can blow a bubble. Gluten needs to be worked too.

Take your ball of dough and place it in a bowl twice as big as it seems to need. You can oil the bowl first, place the dough in and turn it over (so that the dough has got a light coating of oil) OR you can put the dough in the bowl, spray some Pam on it, turn it and spray again. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warmish place for 1 1/2 hours when it should be about doubled.

Preheat the oven to 475- 500 degrees.

Grab the lump of dough and knead it, and stretch it and roll it into a loaf
that is about 21 inches by 3 inches. Place it diagonally on a cookie sheet that has been lightly greased (I don't know that greasing it is necessary).

Let it rise for another 30 minutes and then take a sharp knife or razor and cut diagonal slashes on the bread (think of the french bread you buy at the store, they just cut the surface of the bread before it bakes to make it look like that.)

Bake for about 30 minutes. If you want a chewy crust, place a small baking dish with water in the oven to keep the moisture level up.

The bread will be a lovely golden brown and will sound hollow when done. Let it cool at least somewhat before cutting.

That's all there is to it. Next time, I promise to get some pictures and post them.

Redeemed -- almost

This morning the kidlets were singing Little Rabbit Frou-Frou and added some verses.

If you don't know Little Rabbit Frou-Frou, I am sorry but you had a deprived childhood.

I'll sing it for you, but my voice isn't the best. The hand motions are the best part.

Little rabbit Frou-Frou (make bunny ears with your fingers and hop them around)
hoppin' through the forest (still bunny ears)
pickin' up the field mice (make a scooping motion)
and boppin' them on the head (bop on fist on top of the other)
Along came the good fairy and she said (sorry no motions here)
Little rabbit Frou-Frou (wagging finger like you are fussing at someone)
I don't wanna see you (still wagging finger, good fairy is hacked)
pickin' up the field mice (again with the scooping motion)
and boppin' them on the head (again with the fist bopping)
I'll give you 3 more chances and then I'll turn you into a goose (hold up 3 fingers, then wave your hand around like you have a wand)

Then it repeats until Little Rabbit Frou-Frou is turned into a goose, because he is more incorrigable than my children.


This morning after singing it, my children tacked on some more verses.


Little goose Frou-Frou (make walking fingers and waddle them around)
waddlin' through the forest (still waddling)
pickin' up the field mice (make a scooping motion)
and kissin' them on the head (kiss on fist)
Along came the good fairy and she said (sorry no motions here)
Little rabbit Frou-Frou (still wagging finger, 'cause she couldn't think of a new motion)
I'm so glad to see you (still wagging finger)
pickin' up the field mice (again with the scooping motion)
and kissin' them on the head (again with the fist kissing)
I'll give you 3 more chances and then I'll turn you back into a rabbit (hold up 3 fingers, then wave your hand around like you have a wand)

So this ended much like the other, except that when Little Rabbit Frou-Frou was turned back into a rabbit, he got rude. He said "geese drool and rabbits rule" which made the Good Fairy mad because apparently her family is full of geese. So the rabbit was turned back into a goose.

I kid you not, this is what they came up with.

I am just glad that God is more forgiving than the Good Fairy.

Sometimes you feel like you are doing something right

Motherhood can be rough. Some days you feel like a washrag that has been wrung out too tightly. Other days you feel like you are being pecked to death by chickens.

But sometimes, just sometimes, you hear about something your child has done and this indescribable wave of joy, pride, love, and gratitude washes over you. It's not a feeling of "I am an amazing parent" but a feeling of "thank you God for this wonderful little person that I have the privlege of watching them grow into the Godly person that you have designed them to be."

We had a playdate today with a little girl, I'll call her Rose, who is a year younger than Daisy. Both of my kids are very outgoing and so there wasn't any of that awkwardness that sometimes happens with kids who don't play together often. Rose's mom and I got busy talking and before we knew it, we had been there 3 1/2 hours at McDonalds.

As we were leaving, Daisy told me about some difficulties that Rose's family were having (dad lost his job in Nov) and both kids were pretty concerned.

Later I got an email from Rose's mom. She said that Rose told her about the conversation she and Daisy had about the job. She was glad that Rose was able to talk to Daisy about it, they didn't even realize that Rose was worried about it.

There are not too many feelings quite like finding out your child has blessed someone.

Because I need more chaos . . .

One of the benefits of participating in 4-H is that the kids also get to do the county youth fair. [ insert big fake grin here ]

Our youth fair is in Febuary and right now it looks like our quiet weekend will be Valentines day. Between a family wedding, tae kwon do competition, pre-teen camp and youth fair, the shortest month will be completely full.

For youth fair Junior will be making applesauce bread. I tried to get him to do a different one, like banana bread. Junior was adamant. Since I wouldn't let him do chocolate cake with frosting, he was going to do applesauce bread.

I know, now you are wondering why no chocolate cake.

I have never made a chocolate cake without a box mix of some kind being involved.

Shameful, I know.

The youth fair rules won't let you use any kind of mix, so a chocolate cake would be a bit difficult for us.

Daisy is going to be showing rabbits and making a bread pudding. The bread pudding is turning into a challenge of its own.

I tried to get Daisy to make rice pudding. I can eat rice pudding.

Nope. She was bound and determined to make bread pudding.

Fine.

So we enter her recipe, only to find out the fun news.

Remember the rule about mixes?

Well, that same rule also applies to pre-made products. So to make bread pudding, Daisy will have to make the bread.

From scratch.

She is delighted that she gets to bake bread. I do have a simple recipe for her to throw together, its just . . . .

It would have been so much easier with rice pudding.

Lazy Sunday

I fell off the workout wagon.

I do have a good excuse though, some kind of stomach bug bit me.

So I didn't work out Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or today. The first 3 days, I really wasn't up to it. Today I was lazy.

I will get back to working out on monday.

I really will.

--------------------------------------

On the plus side, I was able to work on my 9/9/9 challenge.

2 books down.

In the "Books I Already Own" category, I read Deborah Bedford's book Blessing.
It was a good book, not anything deep, but I also had a stomach bug. I didn't want to have to think.

And then I also read Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. I love that book. (I also love the movies, both of them but that's beside the point.) Not only do you get to step into another world, but also another century. I am a bit bugged though that it is a fictionalized account so I may have to read the memoirs of Anna Leonowens. Although some scholars are saying she might have not been completely truthful (who is?). So I guess this goes in the General Fiction category.

So 2 down, 79 to go.

Die hard fan

Grateful for Grace has asked a question on her blog, which product are you a die hard fan of. Which products do you insist on having a certain brand, no other will do.

So I suppose I ought to confess.

I have a thing for hot tea.

I like a wide variety of hot tea for different moods, time of day, etc. Celestial Seasonings Peppermint tea makes me smile to smell it; their Tension Tamer tea is wonderfully soothing; I love the floral notes to a jasmine tea; gunpowder tea is just fun and flavorful; I have some wonderful green tea brought from China that tastes fresh picked. . . . and on and on.

But the tea that I drink every day, my absolute favorite is English Breakfast.

Not any English Breakfast, but Twinnings English Breakfast.

If I don't have any of it for breakfast, I will just have coffee.

So I am not completely loyal as in I buy no other tea; but for for my morning tea, no other will do.

Oh and I am completely with Grateful of Grace on the Luzianne thing. Their ice tea is way better, although I prefer it with caffeine.

I know I used to have a brain. . .

Because of this post by Jamie, I realized that apparently I read nothing last year other than twaddle, fluff and drivel. Or if I did read anything of importance, I forgot it.

Once upon a time, I did read good stuff. For fun. Like Tale of Two Cities, Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility, Hamlet and Jane Eyre (2 times for school and also again on my own). I even read Vanity Fair -- the longest book ever except for the Bible, at 1008 pages. And that was before the movie was made.

Most of them I read because I assumed that if I heard of them and they were old . . . they had to be good. Most of them were. The only book that I absolutely hated, loathed and despised was Lord of the Flies.

So then at Jamie's blog I read about the 9/9/9 challenge, which sounds great until you realize that it is 81 books. But I am going to try anyway.

It's got to be better than last year, where I don't remember anything I read.

Even if I only read 1/2 of them.

So anyway, the idea is to read 9 books in 9 different categories during 2009.

I don't have my list completely ironed out yet (because who knows what whims will strike between now and then) but here is what I am thinking:

General fiction


• to be honest, I am not going to try to guess anything that will go here. This one will be the easiest to fill though

Non-fiction


• Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv


• Bringing up Boys, Richard Dobson


• again, I don't know what all will go here

Classics I want to reread:


• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte -- I haven't read it in at least 15 years


• Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen


• Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen


• Persuasion, Jane Austen


• Little Women, Louisa May Alcott


• A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens


• Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson


• The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne - one of the few American Lit that I liked


• The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

Classics I may have missed: I don't remember these, but I may have read them. I tend to read all the books of a particular author I like.


• Villette, Charlotte Bronte


• Shirley, Charlotte Bronte


• Mansfield Park, Jane Austen


• Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen


• Emma, Jane Austen


• The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas


• The Man in the Iron Mask, Alexandre Dumas


• Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson


• The Wizard of Oz, Frank L Baum

Classics I know I missed:


• Swiss Family Robinson, Johann Wyss


• The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper


• King Soloman's Mines, H. Rider Haggard


• The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo


• The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe


• The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane


• Ivanhoe, Walter, Sir Scott


• Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens


• David Copperfield, Charles Dickens --I started either this or Oliver T and never finished. Might as well add it to the list.

Books to read aloud to the kids:


• Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll


• Junglebook, Rudyard Kipling


• Kim, Rudyard Kipling


• some of the Marguerite Henry books like Sea Star, & Misty of Chincoteague


• Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan


• A Door in the Wall, Marguerite De Angeli


• Robin Hood, Howard Pyle


• The Moffats, Eleanor Estes


• The Burgess Animal Book for Children, Thornton Burgess

Biography


• The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom --I will be rereading it, but it's been over 15 years


• To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander, Georg von Trapp


• Maria, by Maria von Trapp (and maybe some of the others by her)


• Any suggestions?

Christian / Theology


• The Shack, Will Young


• Fox's Book of Martyrs, John Foxe


• Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis


• The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis


• Rumors of Another World, Philip Yancy

Books I own but haven't read yet:


• Poisonwood Bible


• Blessing, Deborah Bedford


• others in random places around, that I have been meaning to read

Anyone else up for the challange?

A new phone and other stuff

It is finally time for an upgrade on my phone, which should excite everyone because I won't be muttering "I hate my phone, I hate my phone. . . " anymore. I wouldn't take another Motorola if you paid me.

I will not get started on a rant about my former phone.

So I picked up a new phone yesterday.

And I love it.

Except one thing

It won't sync with my computer.

Which is something I would really like to be able to do, sync the calendar on my phone with my computer. Plus I like having a backup list of phone numbers since my last phone would randomly delete numbers (did I mention I hate my old phone?).

So I am trying to decide between keeping my lovely new red phone that is missing one thing that I have really, really been wanting or exchanging it with a phone that should be able to sync with outlook.

Workout report
For my one skip day, I chose Sunday because I was on day 2 of this lovely headache and that day I felt like I had been run over by a truck. I did do the other days, maybe somewhat half-heartedly but I did them.

As for my headache, I ate too many flour products, which gave me a headache. Then by the time I had gotten the flour out of my system, I had/have knots in my shoulders. Last night I actually went to bed "at a decent hour" which if you know me, says alot. Today the headache is mostly gone, just the lingering effects.

Sad to say though
I was going to make Chicken and Dumplings -- almost worth a migrane -- but I would like to wait until this headache is gone. It is one of those meals that takes some effort but makes alot and is so good. It's my family's favorite.

Maybe next week.

For now we are practicing dishes for youth fair. Lucky me, both kids are making stuff with flour so I can't eat any of it!

At the very least, I have to be very careful on how much I eat.

An actual conversation

Today I slept late because a headache kept me from sleeping well last night. At the best of times, I am not a morning person. When I still have the remains of a headache, I am even worse.

So I am sitting there, minding my own business when Hubby says: "They still sell your coffee pot so we can buy another one."

me "You mean the french press that broke?"

Hubs "No the Corningware that you use."

me "but I don't want another one."

Hubs "why?"

me "I don't need 2 coffee makers." (I do have 2 coffee makers,the percolator and one of those with the thermal carafes that takes up about 6 feet of counter space. Its in a closet.)

Hubs "but we can still buy one, so that means we can get parts"

me "huh?"

Hubs "I got curious if we could get parts. Its a good little coffee maker with only 2 parts to go out, the heating element and the cord, so I got curious if we could get parts. They did sell one that sits on the stove top but that one has a recall because it would overheat and shatter."

me "oh."

Yep, that's me. Witty conversationalist.