Christmas

Fig chicken and Sweet Potatoes

recipe

Peppermint miniatures

Fimo dough replicas of the starlight mints and peppermint nougats.

Mushroom Ravioli

Santa Baby Cookies

Mittens

These mittens do not have a thumb. [pattern]

Vinegar

Everyone praises the wonders of vinegar, but is it really that good? Vinegar's many reported uses include cleaning, disinfecting, killing odor, and melting ice on your windshield.  Distilled vinegar isn't actually distilled. What the name means is that the vinegar came from the fermentation of distilled alcohol. The resulting vinegar typically has a pH of around 2.6 and consists of 5-8% acetic acid.  Before the introduction of detergents in the 1950's, we did all of our cleaning with soap. Unfortunately, soap leaves a residue and so every cleaning task involved washing and rinsing.  However, if the rinse water was acidic it did a better job of getting rid of the soapy residue and left the surface "squeaky clean".  The most common acid available in the home is vinegar, thus, it became normal practice to add vinegar to the rinse water. This Vinegar clears away the soap residue making floors and counters feel cleaner.  It is also common to add vinegar to dishwashers and laundry machines. Acetic acid can kill odors like cigarette smoke and sweat. Be careful, however.  When vinegar is used with an alkaline detergent as a "disinfectant" in a washing machine, it is neutralized.  Your detergent is also neutralized making it less effective at removing soil.  When run in an empty washing machine with hot water, it can reduce soap scum and mineral deposits. Vinegar can help melt ice, but it is not an effective deicer. In reality, all you have to do to make ice melt faster is lower the freezing point of water by adding particles to it. Sugar, salt or vinegar will all do the trick.

Hello Kitty

Cake for Virginia

Dragonfly

This guy was warming himself on the bench next to the fire pit at work.  It got down to 45* last night.

Ramen Upgraded

Barbeque sauce pork tenderloin and sautéed shitaki and crimini mushrooms make this beef Ramen very special.

Taco Tuesday

Apple Pear Tart

[Recipe]

Globes

Mediterranean Chicken Salad

Sauteed chicken and zucchini with baba ganoush feta cheese and tomatoes.

Memorial day

Memorial day is usually celebrated with grilling in the park. I don't know what the difference has been this year, but all the parks are full of people. July 4th was downright miserable with the heat and humidity. Maybe people felt cheated, and tried to make it up? We managed to find an unoccupied spot, deep in the valley, but our presence alerted other people to the hidden area. The bugs weren't too bad, only got bit twice.

How Hot Is It?

That poor little squirrel is trying to cool off in the shade. He's fine, really.

Cleveland

Haaaa. If you can't read it, it says "Financial Mistake". Ah, Cleveland.

Dice Tray

I made this delightful dice tray at Origins Gaming Convention this year.  The corners have snaps riveted in, so it can lay flat for storage. Two traditional Celtic knots grace the corners and an E is emblazon in the center.

Marshmallows

Our grocery store is selling dried marshmallow bits. The display this week, the Lucky Charms were removed and replaced with Unicorn fruit loops. Sugar. Sugar. Sugar.

Coconut Cake

Thank you Mimi for throwing me an excellent pool side party. I got lots of great gifts and everyone had a nice time.

Pine Car Derby

I cut these for my co-workers little girls. They are in Girl Scouts, and I wanted to help. The girls painted them and applied stickers. The sedan even won first place!!

Flag Iris

Blue and yellow.

Chicken and fried rice

Fried Rice
3 cups cooked rice
2 Tbs butter
1 small shallot, chopped
1 cup frozen peas and carrots, thawed
2-3 Tablespoons soy sauce (more or less to taste)
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat a large skillet to medium heat. Place butter in the bottom. Add onion and peas and carrots and fry until tender. Slide the onion, peas and carrots to the side, and pour the eggs in. soft scramble eggs. Add the rice to the veggie and egg mixture. Pour the soy sauce on top. Stir and fry the rice and veggie mixture until heated through and combined.

Hotel Room

We charged these people an extra $200 for destroying our hotel room.  There was confetti everywhere, they broke a cupboard, there was a red sticky substance on every surface including the carpet (later discovered it was Pixi Stix powder), and they used the sheets as napkins.

Happy Easter

Meatballs

Meatballs
1 Lb 90% lean or better hamburger
1 Lb pork or veal
1/2 sleeve Saltines
3 cloves garlic
one half of 1 medium onion, minced
1 egg
up to 3/4 C. milk

Sauce
the other half of the onion
olive oil
mushrooms
crushed tomatoes
basil
more garlic
can of spaghetti sauce

Hot Mits for Cast Iron

I felt it was time to give the kitchen the gift of new handle covers for the cast iron pans.