Packages on snowy days

We awoke this morning to this.


Which is why I was really surprised when later, I came home to this.


Do you have any idea what THIS is? No? Well, not to worry. Im going to show you.


But first. Whats this? It appears to be a picture of some sort of chocolate brownie/cake a la mode.


Close up to that. Hmmmmm....is the sender trying to tell me something? I wonder if this is her way of getting back at me for telling her how I made warm, gooey chocolate brownies the other day.


Okay, so back to the package. This is a very big deal. The whole family is watching.


And the reveal. Can you tell what it is yet?


Here. You can see it much better now.


And this is not even what I ordered. Its a goodie that she threw in. A personalized goodie, I might add. A very good goodie. Can you see what it says? Can you? It totally has the name of my blog on it. OMG. That is so frickin awesome. I am gonna let it hang right here. In my kitchen. So that I can see it every single day. Every single day, I say.


You know who this is from, right? I know you know. You have to know. If you dont know....well, then....you are clearly not reading my blog often enough.


Its from Sugarcreekstuff. The one and only. Artist extraordinaire. Creator of all things gorgeous and great. She has a fabulous shop over at Etsy. Go on. Check it out. Ill wait.

Back now? Did you see all the great stuff she has? See? I told you.

Can you tell I(okay, we) am(are) excited?


Can you tell I love llamas?


Of course, now they must be introduced. All the llamas need to be friends. I have to say that she was a little stand offish at first.


But she warmed up after a bit. See how they are laughing together?


And these guys? They are very friendly. They made our new llamas feel right at home.


And this one? She likes to hang out in the kitchen. So, naturally, she had to offer up some snacks. Who doesnt love m and m's? (Besides, that ONE person. You know who you are.)


So, just in case you couldnt tell. I am in love with llamas. And I am in love with my new pillow from sugarcreekstuff.

Hey Michelle?

Thank you.

Sigh

My last quart of applesauce.

What will I ever do now?

Busy Bees

This past week I was at my great friend Danni's house. It had been a while since I was there. So, it was only right that I visit.

As always, we had a fantastic time.

We played in the snow.


We did laundry.


We painted our nails.(doesnt everyone do this right in the aisle at the store?)


We went to the car wash.


We made sourdough carrot cake.


We ate lunch on fancy place mats.(courtesy of our one and only, sugarcreekstuff)


We did the dishes.


We fed the chickens.


And we went to the feed store.

We really were quite efficient.

something to say

Clearly he has a lot to say. And he has to be dressed just right to do it.

Hidden Treasures

I was digging around for some gloves this morning and found these stashed in a pocket. You can just tell by looking at this pocketful of treasures that fun was had.


Later in the day, as I set about to make dinner, I reached into the cabinet to get my stock pot so I could boil my homemade ravioli. Clearly, G knew what he was doing when he put his new BFF, Abby Cadabby in there.


Same cabinet, different kitchen tool. Wouldnt you know? The one place that I didnt look for that missing receipt and small wooden strawberry was in my salad spinner. G strikes again!


The day began winding down. I had received word from my friends at the library that I had a few books waiting for me. I made a run up there and was very excited to find these. Just a little light reading.

I heart eggs

A few weeks ago I posted that my egg share had in fact been canceled. Sigh. This still sads me. I love my fresh eggs. Once you have them it is hard to go back to those watery, yellowy, store bought eggs. I am still in search of a new source for fresh eggs that I will be able to get on a regular basis.

However, there was a big smile on my face when I saw Mim this week and she handed me this.


And in it were these. 3 dozen of these! 3! 3 dozen I say! I was totally excited to hear that news and to see all 36 of them peeking up at me.



I had to take one out and hold it. Everybody does this, right? Holds their eggs and tells them how pretty they are and how much they love them. Cmon. I know Im not the only one.


Even tho they werent my eggs from the beginning. I mean, they didnt come from my chickens. I dont have any chickens....yet. I still could not resist weighing each and every one of those amazing eggs.


Among those 36 eggs, I discovered that the the majority were coming in at 1 5/8 ounces. (Or 1.625 ounces for those that prefer the decimal system.) There were a few that were 1 1/4 ounces and a few that were 1 3/4 ounces. Heres the littlest and the biggest.


But thats not all. Since we were finally able to see each other it was the perfect opportunity to exchange gifts from the holiday season. It delighted me to open my gift bag to see some chai tea(chocolate, no less), some yummy tea bags, and a very pretty bookmark. I love to read, and there are times when I actually have a few books going at once...so this is a perfect thing for me.


And then there was this.


Yep, you guessed it. A cutting board. A bamboo cutting board to be exact. I cant wait to try it out.

Okay, well, I kinda tried it out.


Thanks for the eggs, Mim. And the great gifts! As you can see, I love them all!

Roasting Peppers

I have done this before, but only in the oven and on the grill. Now that I have a gas cooktop I decided to give it a go.

Start with a freshly washed pepper, no stickers attached, please.


Lay it right on your burner. I had it set on low to medium. Leave it on one side till it gets black and charred like this. Then you just turn it with a pair of tongs till all the sides of your pepper have been charred. This takes about 5 -7 mins or so. You may hear some hissing and popping as your pepper begins to heat up. This is totally okay. I havent had one blow up on me yet!


Once you have charred the whole thing remove it from the burner and place it into a bowl covered with saran wrap. This keeps the moisture in and allows you to get the skin off much easier. I left mine in there about 3-4 minutes. (Its in there really. I promise.)


It will look like this when it comes out of the bowl. The charred skin may already be starting to peel off.


Then you want to cut around the stem to remove the stem section and as many of the seeds as you can. Next use your knife and cut thru the top skin layer. This lets you begin to remove all the charred skin. The goal is to get off as much of the charred skin as possible. Its okay if there is some left on. (If you look closely at the picture you can see the steam coming off the pepper...neato)


Here is what it will look like after you have removed the charred skin. This is the outside of the pepper.


Here is the inside. If there were any seeds left you will want to remove them now.


Easy Peasy. Now you have a roasted pepper. Ready to be cut up in whatever fashion you like.

Time management

You all know K, right? My girl. My oldest. My serious one, with a hint of sarcasm.

She loves ice cream.


She loves to smile.


She loves to read.


Every once in a while she loves to dress up. Altho, this particular time she was required to as she was on her way to a band concert.


She loves hangin out with her friend, Miss Danni.


And, shes very organized. (I LOVE that) In fact, it makes my heart just pit a pat- pit a pat.


Okay, so Im sure you also remember her prized possession she received for Christmas.


Its the love of her life, the apple of her eye. Not only does it text and play music, allow you to make your own ring tones, keep you in touch with the important people in your life, etc. Much to my surprise, just this morning, I also found out that it does something quite interesting.

See that little bell with a time next to it on the bottom left hand corner?


Apparently you can set alarms on this here phone. Why would you need to to do that you ask? Well, to alert you to things. Important things. Like when you need to set the table or when to brush your teeth. Why, you could even set it to wake you up from a nap if you wanted to. (Did I mention that I have the same phone as K?) I mean, not that I EVER take naps...but if I did, well I could set the little alarm to wake me in time to get things done before everyone got home for the day. I wouldnt want them to think I was laying around....relaxing.

This particular alarm tho...it has a very specific and time sensitive nature. You see, K has to be ready and in bed for the night by 9pm. Lights out at 930pm. As good as she is at time management sometimes things happen, ya know? She gets into doing something, she gets distracted.....all kinds of things can happen when youre 12 and a half.

Hence the reason for the alarm. The conversation that took place this morning, that I spoke of earlier, went something like this. Hey, K? Yes, mama. Whats this little bell thing on your screen? Its an alarm, she says. Well, why do you need that? To remind me to do something, she says. Yeah, I get that, but remind you of what? I mean, its set for 845 at night. What could you need to do then? I GOTTA eat dessert, mama. Ive missed it a few nights because I didnt leave myself enough time to get everything done. And I decided that wasnt a very good idea, to miss dessert. So, I set my alarm.

Oh. Well, that makes perfect sense. Carry on then.