yum!

Sharon and I met nicole and mariah (and cora) at akai hana. it was so delicious- I got a spicy scallop roll and a tofu dynamite roll... it was basically heaven.

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making gingerbread

Sharon, annika and I made gingerbread. Annika was so cute 'helping' with everything and talk-talk-talking the entire time. We had so much fun.

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bff

Brin is so patient with zander and loves him so much! When they first saw eachother when we got home is was like they hadn't seen eachother in years with lots of hugs and big kisses. He's one of the few people that love my dogs as much as I do. Love him!

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Firestone Park

While I was home, we went to Firestone park to feed the birds. Usually when we go, we only get chickadees to land on our hands. This time, we got nut hatches and tit mice (yep, it's a kind of bird). It was super freezing cold, but so much fun!

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deep sea diver Brin

If you remember, Brin fell into the lake and I had to save her a couple months ago. Mom got her a submarine outfit for Christmas. Love it!

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crazy ears palmer

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testing

So I got a Droid and want to see if I can blog from it. If I can you'll probably be sick of all the posts soon :-)

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The dogs, howling and being cute :-)

Lexie's baptism was a couple weeks ago. It was so nice seeing everyone and of course, Lexie was adorable. She's so smiley and sweet.

Lexie and Boo (great grandpa)

Lexie and Papaw- She already has the guys wrapped around her little finger!
Look at this sweet face!

Lexie and her mama

Isn't my dad the cutest???

Bill's dad got season tickets for the Jackets and split them up between him and his sisters. We've had so much fun going to games!

this guy is at every game, wearing his lucky dangly blue jackets earring...

There hasn't been nearly enough fights so far at the games we've been at.
Stinger

What the rip am I going to do about Christmas cards this year???
I haven't even THOUGHT about them yet. The choices are: buying a few boxes (eh...), taking a cute picture of the dogs (like the "hope your Christmas doesn't stink" with Brin in a skunk costume, or "have a super Christmas" with Brin in a super girl costume- like I did a few years ago), or crafting them (like last year). I'd really rather not just get a box, but time is ticking. If I could think of another cute saying for a picture with the dogs, I'd like to do that... but my brain hates being creative at the moment. That would be fast, and crafting cards always gets so involved and takes so long. Bleh... Any cute ideas? Is another dog Christmas card going to make me the crazy dog lady???

I decided I needed to learn how to crochet, so I watched a few youtube tutorials and jumped to it... This was my first project:

He's not perfect, however, he taught me all sorts of good stuff. First of all, my ADD may be too strong to crochet something that's turns out the way it's supposed to- my ability to count and keep track of where I am in a pattern/row/increasing/decreasing isn't quite what it should be. The tentacles aren't exactly the same size as a result, this octopus isn't an octopus; it's a septapus. I could only fit 7/8 tentacles on... I was also trying to make him smirk, which didn't work out too well- that's his third mouth. I was also unsure of how to attach the tentacles. The directions said "attach tentacles". I think for my first project, he's not too bad.

Gluten sensitivity...

That's apparently what Bill's stomach problems have been all about... he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis a few years back and has been having stomach problems for a long time. His meds stopped working, so we started trying eliminating certain stuff from his diet, and getting rid of gluten is doing the job so far. I'm certainly glad we've found something that helps him, but it sure makes cooking more difficult as gluten is in every convenience food ever created. It's also hard figuring out about cross-contamination. Even if wheat or any other form of gluten isn't in the ingredients, I still get online to check if it's officially gluten free. The way I cook has been drastically changed. The baking kick I was on has come to an abrupt halt. Sadness.

On a good note, though, this diet does encourage mostly natural foods, which is better for both of us. Here's what we've been basically living on: Salads, chili, veggie soup, rice, chicken, omelets, popcorn and a few other things. There are still a lot of good things we can eat, it's just time consuming checking all of that. We've also both lost some weight, so that's good too!

I'm going to start experimenting with different kinds of flour, hoping I can still make bread, cake, and all the other yummy stuff. Thing that stinks is that these ingredients are hard to find if you don't live close to a Raisin Rack or Trader Joe's... and they're expensive... more sadness.

Anyone else out there gluten free? Any tips?

We had a pumpkin decorating contest at South Lawn... I know, it looks like a three year old did it. I tried my best :-)

We all walked in the Making Strides 5k for Cheryl (my MIL). She was diagnosed with bone cancer that spread from her breast. She's staying strong! Prayers would be appreciated.

Our deck was horrible! It's needed stained since we moved in... Bill power washed it and we stained it a darker color. I think it came out looking pretty darn nice!

... and it's finally done!

We went to The Velvet Ice cream factory a few weekends ago...

We all had ice cream

and Palmer was bff with the sheep

adventures in caramel corn...

Delicious!!!! (if I do say so myself)

Bill and I went fishing yesterday and again today. We were using minnows and catching a ton (I caught way more than he did :-). We were just fishing in the canal behind his mom and dad's house and Bill goes inside to help his mom and dad pack up the car. All of the sudden, I hear a giant SPLASH... Brin fell in. The canal is a good 2 or 3 feet below the edge, so for me to lift an 80 pound dog by her collar/skin on her neck while laying on my stomach in the mud was pretty unlikely. Brin also showed me that she sucks at swimming when under pressure-so I'm trying to hold her head above water. So at this point, I'm screaming for Bill to come help. He comes down from the house and can't stop laughing long enough to help me hoist her up. He finally helps me, we get her up on land (not before she soaks me from head to toe). It was not funny at the time, but is since she's okay. It was an eventful fishing fiasco for sure.
*Walking fail for Brin*

I think these will be added to my bakery menu :-) They came out awesome(and yes, from scratch!)!

I finally put up the fire pit today! Can't wait for smores on a cool fall night :-)

I've decided teaching (and driving 50 min each way) isn't for me, so I'm going to quit and open my own bakery... if only it were that easy. :-)

*Sigh*

We went fishing again today. The weather was perfect and I caught 3.5 fish (the 4th one didn't quite make it into the boat). Did I mention I love fall>?!?

All I really need is a cheap riesling...

The September 2010 Daring Cooks' challenge was hosted by John of Eat4fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John's source for food preservation information was from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.


I chose to make apple butter for my preservation challenge. It came out amazing and was hard to preserve any of it because I wanted to eat it all! I had a lot of fun making it and ended up freezing about half of it. My camera started having a 'lens malfunction' about halfway through the process, so I don't have any pictures of the frozen product.

Here are the apples. To get the full fall experience, I made the husband take me to an orchard to get the apples (see previous post). Not sure why this next pic is sideways... but here they are cooking...

... and here's the almost done apple butter.
So, it turned out delicious. This was my first 'assignment' being a daring cook and had tons of fun making it. Hopefully, I'll have a working camera by next month.