Catch Up Day

Oops - I've been - hmmm, how can I say this? ---Lazy?? And of course, busy doing mostly nothing! Laying about reading, watching tivo, looking thru the catalogs that come everyday! We were up in Portland for 3 days last week babysitting Miss P off and on. She was an adorable pirate for Halloween and apparently got into the 'dress-up' mode because she had on quite the outfit the next day!!! Wings, hat, sunglasses and sock monkey apron! Cute as a button - 'nuff said!


I worked on the dreaded pink quilt yesterday. I think I calmed it down by adding alternate squares of pink - it doesn't look nearly as RABID to me - but I don't think I'm ever going to like it! Good thing I'm giving it away and it's going all the way to NY! But I just get the feeling that this one is going to haunt me! It will probably end up in a collection as an example of my work - ICK! Hmm, could I label it with someone else's name???


Today I'm making soup. As you know - I'm not really a cook-type person. Yes, I make dinner when forced to! LOL! DH is a much better cook than I am - and I'm always telling him that - hoping he will continue to cook for me! I DO have 5 or 10 really good dishes that I make. We both love soup and bought 2 new soup cookbooks for our first Oregon Winter. We hear there is alot of rain - more about weather later! SO-O-O, the cookbook I was looking thru had a "meaty minestrone" recipe that sounded good. It suggested that you make your own beef stock - doesn't that sound innocent!!! Well, this will be a WHOLE lot more expensive than Swanson's Beef Broth! 4 1/2 lbs of beef bones [$12] - who knew! 5 spices that I really didn't use before so left them in NE - [$20 - really!!! who knew that cloves were $12 a bottle!!! Weren't they cheap enough that you could cover an orange with them to make a Christmas decoration???] 1 lb of stew meat [$4] and assorted veggies - the stuff cooks for 3-4 hours. You take out the bones, strain it keep the liquid and then THROW AWAY the rest!!! Really??? I'm only at 2 hours of simmering now - then the soup takes another 2 hours of cooking. Boy, that cookbook that starts with Campbell's soups is looking a whole lot better about now!!! LOL! I'll let you know if we deem it worthy of all this! BUT I am ridiculously proud of the fact that I'm making my own stock! Who knew I could do this??


If we have started 'winter' here, things are looking up! It seems to be less grey than it was over the summer - a higher ceiling, maybe?? The skies are just spectacular and there is blue sky sometime during the day. Being retired - I can usually take advantage the break in the weather.


At water aerobics here - we are in a wonderful pool with 25 foot window walls. Excellent to keep an eye on the weather during class! We were there a little over an hour yesterday - here's what we saw: grey overcast skies; hmmm, it's clearing; awesome bright white towering clouds going by; flocks of seagulls soaring around; grey overcast skies; pouring rain mixed with a little sleet(!); oops - clearing again, rain stops. And I thought the weather changed fast in NE!

Time to go stir the stock!

Winter has set in

My DH does most of the cooking around here - I admit it - I'm spoiled. He works from home and quite frankly, he's the better cook. A wizard with a grill, etc. Well, winter seems to be my cooking season. I do the soups, the lasagna and the heavier meals we crave in the winter. The high this weekend was 20 something... so we hunkered down and I cooked both days. Soup yesterday with biscuits and lasagna today.

Meanwhile I worked on my quilting group's presents. It's all hush hush for another week - but I've put alot of time into this year's. We'll see if they like it! BUT I'm afraid I may be avoiding finishing my secret pal's gift. It wasn't totally planned out - I like to do my own thing! - I can't avoid it for long - we exchange gifts the 17th.

Finally bought my mom's present yesterday - a talking clock. She has borrowed one and it doesn't have the booklet with it - and she wants her own. My mom is legally blind now and it has narrowed down her life so much. It's hard to shop for her ... so we talked. For the remainder of my present to her I'm writing a check to one of her favorite charities. - she has 5 she supports. We'll see which one she picks.