Here’s the right way to do those cookies.
Prototype
Meh. Not as good as I’d hoped.
Those dumb cookies are done, and they are not what I had hoped.
Sometime in elementary school we did an ‘art’ project where we took half a heart, cut off a strip around the edge, glued that down; cut another strip, glued that down on the opposite side; back and forth etc. It looked something like this:
I wondered if you made red-and-white pinwheel cookie dough (but more an oval shape than a wheel shape), cut it on a severe diagonal, flipped it and reassembled, would the cut cookies look like those hearts?
Would it?
Dang. That cut is lopsided. Rats.
Avert your eyes! Cookie guts! (This dough was too warm. Should have let it chill longer.)
Anyway, the lopsided heart-shaped dough log chilled for days, then I did the ol’ slice-n-bake on ‘seasoned’ -not dirty – ‘seasoned’ cookie sheets.
Changes should be made, but I’m too tired to revamp these.
After baking, the pointy part wasn’t very pointy, so they kind of look like mutant mittens.
Next year, cookies. Next year.
Better Butter… wait, I already used that title.
A couple of weeks ago, the ‘lid’ to my ‘new’ butter system slipped out of my hand and chipped. Surprise, surprise. What did I expect from buttery glass?
I spent a good long time thinking about how to replace it. At various stores, I looked at containers for holding pencils, toothbrushes, sewing goods, fishing tackle – nothing was right. But then ShopKo had this Snapware thing in the lunchbox section.
Perfect. It’s unbreakable, secures my butter with four, count ’em – four locks, and the best part? When I’m running low on butter, there’s room for another stick to get cozy and start a-softening for next time.
I think I might spend too much time thinking about butter.
Remind me to eat this tomorrow.
I had to go to WalMart to pick up 4 things: Litter, tv, taco shells, tomatoes. Litter, tv (for the toddler room – theirs died), taco shells, tomatoes. Litter, tv, taco shells, tomatoes. Litter, tv, taco shells, tomatoes. Ooo! Get a Heath bar, too, to put in ice cream like a Blizzard!
I came home with litter, a tv, taco shells, and tomatoes.
Dang it. So I figured ‘how hard could it be to make toffee’? A quick google search said you just boil sugar and butter together with a pinch of salt! Well, it’s harder than you’d think. This was my first attempt:
This pan is too shallow. I didn’t stir it as it melted so they never incorporated and I burned it. Nice.
The second attempt was better, but I was impatient. I didn’t get it hot enough so it’s more hard caramel than toffee, and it doesn’t have enough chocolate on it. In my opinion, the toffee should be thinner than the chocolate.
I spread the chocolate after it melted a bit,
then put it in the fridge to harden. By this time I was mad because it was well after 7, so I wasn’t going to get to eat this.
Chop, chop, chop. Stir, stir, stir. (See banner photo.) I put too much ‘toffee’ in for the little bit of ice cream I had in the pint, so I put in some of the ice cream we were supposed to take to Sam and Rachel’s on Thanksgiving. Sorry, guys.
So, I guess I’ll have ice cream for breakfast to test it. If only Little Lauren could see me now -I’m living the dream!
Thanksgiving cocktail
I am going to wow your taste buds! …Or maybe not. What do I know about how you like drinks to taste? Not much, that’s for sure. Well, read this anyway. At least it will fill a little time.
When I was a kid, we didn’t have pop very often. When we did, it was in 2-liter bottles (with the foam sleeves), and usually some kind of special occasion. Also, we did not have CranApple very often – usually just at Thanksgiving. The Hofmans are not big cranberry sauce or jelly people, but having the juice hits all the right flavor notes.
Anyway, drunk with the opportunity to have both these delicious drinks in the house at the same time, I invented…. (I didn’t have a name for it so I’m trying to come up with one now)…. CranApple Pepsi! Or CrAP… wait! That’s a bad word. Let’s rework this. PepCranAp! Gee – that’s not much better. I see why the people at Ocean Spray left the ‘n’ in. Ok, let’s just call it a Hyper Turkey. It consists of Pepsi with a splash of CranApple in it, and it is delicious.
(I bought the powder to see if it works just as well. It does not.)
The most amazing shower EVER
Today didn’t start well. I waited and waited for the shower to get hot, wondering, “What if the water heater was broken? That would be bad.”
Well, that was the reality. I had a very eco-friendly fast-splash instead of a shower, went to warn Lloyd then went to the basement to see what was wrong. The fire was out, but it restarted with no problem. (Lloyd took a cold shower.)
After work I started to do laundry. The water was cold. The pilot light was out again. We tried restarting it but it wouldn’t stay lit. Dang it! This means calling someone to come in my messy house and fix things. Double dang it. Lloyd called our neighbor to ask him to come over when he could. I began making plans for my Emergency Shower. (I couldn’t do another fast-splash.)
Hooray for Making Do! It’s my favorite! My mind raced with various possibilities, and I settled on creating a Cooler Shower to use in The Gross Basement. Yay!!
The materials:
Cooler with drain spigot: Check.
Tubing that we have around for….. what do we have that around for? Check.
Plumbing tape: Check.
Boiling water. Check.
Regular water: Check
Insert tube in drain spigot.
Wrap lots and lots and lots and lots of plumbing tape around the end. Pull back through to check seal. Dang it. That wasn’t enough tape. Use more!!
Done. Coil up the extra tubing inside so the water won’t leak out when you fill it. Go boil some water.
I knew that the water needed to be high enough that it would pour out, so I made a precarious set-up in the basement. (We have a ‘shower’ that was installed over a floor drain from when Lloyd’s brothers worked here in the summers.) Yes, it looks filthy, but that’s just because it is.
It also gave me the chance to use my Shower Flip Flops!
(They have showers at some campgrounds, and I knew that if I ever wanted to use one I’d need footwear. I remembered that long ago we had a luau for a co-worker and I bought dozens of foam flip-flops to use as name tags. I still have a bunch.) I have blurred my feet to spare your eyes.
Anyway, I was happy as a clam. I had about 4 gallons of near-boiling water mixed with 2 or 3 gallons of regular water. It lasted so long (7 minutes?) I actually got bored. Bored with joy! Best shower ever!
The cats were very confused, and Lloyd declined to try my system. He said he would prefer to take a cold shower in the morning. I’m not hurt. *sniff*