January nesting

50 degrees

8 degrees

It's a strange January.  50 degrees one day and 8 degrees the next.  Rain one day and snow the next. I guess this is El Nino in the Midwest.

Enjoying road trip to Dunkin' Donuts in the Jeep

And you know what snow means???  A trip to Dunkin'' Donuts!  We started this tradition a couple of years ago.  A new snowfall gives you "permission" to eat donuts.  What can I say?  We try to make the best out of winter.

Breakfast with Foghorn Leghorn

Preparing a meal

We started the new year with our friend Stan visiting us for several days.  Stan joined us for a  great New Year's Eve party with our friends Brian and Stacy.

We cooked meals together, watched a lot of football, and Stan and Mike completed a few chores around the house.







I may have a slight case of cabin fever as I continue to fight this crud(cold? pneumonia? sinus infection?).  I decided to tackle a few projects that have been waiting for me.

 I added rug binding to a latch hook my mom made for me.

Cutting mesh to 1 inch wide

Folding mesh over and using iron on rug binding to secure

Finished latch hook rug ready for hanging

I also pulled out a needlepoint project that I'm sure I haven't touched for at least 20 years.  I've been working on it at night while watching television. Somehow that makes me feel productive and less of a couch potato!

Side view

I asked Mike to make me a wooden box for the mantle.  I saw this idea on the Thrifty Decor Chick blog, and I thought it would be fun.

Mike used leftover pieces of red cedar from our screen porch to build a 37 inch long box.

I found these silver balls on sale at Pier One, and they add some great texture to the mantle.

Box on mantle

And I've been in a cooking frenzy this week.  Chili, barbeque pork chops in the crock pot and banana bread to name a few.  And this morning we had steel cut oats in the crock pot, a recipe from the Nita Dances blog.  Yum!  Here's the easy recipe if you want to try it.

Crock Pot Steel Cut Oatmeal
3.5 cups of water
1/2 cup milk
1 cup steel cut oats
Put in small crock pot (at least 6 cup) overnight on low heat.
In the morning stir the oats and serve.
We added brown sugar, cinnamon, dried cranberries and pecans.

I've also been enjoying reading more this month.  I finished the book "Trident" by Jason Redman.  He was a Navy Seal in Afghanistan and Iraq, this is his story.  I would highly recommend this book for an inside glimpse of a true American hero.

Winter sunsets are amazing!

So, here we are. Half way through January.  And a few projects await. I'm getting ready to start sewing some valences for my mom.  I purchased the fabric this week, and it's been pre-washed and is ready to go.  And then there's a book in progress and my 20 year old needlework project.  Hopefully that will get me through this longest month of winter...

Have a great week!
Diane

Diane's excellent cooking adventures

Because we celebrated Thanksgiving with family earlier in November, we decided to have a low-key Thanksgiving evening meal with our friends Chuck and Melanie.  And we all agreed in advance that we would venture away from the typical menu and create our own "alternative meal".

By now I should know better than trying out new recipes when entertaining friends, but I admit I'm not always smart about these things...

So I tried a couple of new recipes on Thanksgiving morning...

BAD pumpkin cake.  

The first recipe for pumpkin cake was an abject disaster.  I thought it sounded like an interesting alternative to pumpkin pie, but while I was making it I recognized it did not include any leavening agents like baking soda or baking powder.

 Of course, did I stop and look up alternative recipes to see if this was an oversight?  NO, I just forged ahead using the recipe verbatim.  Yes, stupid comes to mind...I even commented to Mike that the batter seemed awfully heavy.



Baking seemed to be the problem.  50 minutes, then 60 minutes then 70 minutes in the oven.  Still RAW INSIDE!  Being energy conscious, I finally decided to turn off the oven and consider this a loss.
After cooling this lump of pumpkin cake, I broke it up and threw it in the yard for the birds, rabbits and squirrels.  And yes, I'm still a bit worried I will look in the back yard and see dead carcasses...

After several hours elapsed and Mike badgering me to try again, I found another pumpkin cake recipe that included major amounts of leavening agents:  2 teaspoons of baking powder AND 1 teaspoon of baking soda.  So I trekked to WalMart to buy more pumpkin around 3pm on Thanksgiving day.  I must have been the most dejected looking shopper in the aisles.   And hey, what's another couple of hours baking anyway?  I guess it was worth it when the new pumpkin cake turned out amazingly good.

Cranberries "popping"

The rest of our "alternative" meal of spicy jerk turkey in the crock pot, garlicky grilled asparagus and baked Au gratin potatoes turned out great!

And of course we had to include the one traditional dish of cranberries...

Yummy cinnamon rolls

And then there were the cinnamon rolls.  This new recipe was from one of my favorite blogs, Iowa Girl Eats, and it uses frozen bread dough as the base.

And these cinnamon rolls were fantastic on Black Friday morning.

So, hey I was 50-50 on the new recipes...








And then we enjoyed a lovely weekend with family in Southern Indiana...

Nephew Dane going up for a rebound. Love those yellow shoes. (photo by Mike)

Mom, Angie, Eric and Dane

Beautiful sunset

And I am so thankful for family and friends...

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Diane