Photo of the Day 12/8/06

The rarely seen Mekoh, resting on the boyfriend's boot.

Photo of the Day 12/7/06

My entries for the local paper's "Best Baker in the County" contest--Peanut Butter Cupcakes, Tousled Turtles, and Peanut Butter Pie. When I dropped off my entries (15-min before deadline as I was told to drop off late since the pie is quite perishable), there were a lot of blue-haired ladies in Buicks dropping off their tried-and-true favorite desserts. Gulp. Guess I had a lot of competition (and obviously didn't win or I would have heard). Ah well, something to cross of the list of things I've always wanted to do and hadn't yet--enter a baking contest!

Photo of the Day 12/6/06

A fresh pan of "Chocolate Pecan Caramels". They don't look so appetizing in the pan, but once cut they were gorgeous. And delicious, to say the least. The recipe called for boiling the ingredients up to 248 degrees, the firm ball stage, but the temp on my batch kept hovering around 238. That is a fine temperature for fudge. Every time I'd turn the heat up, the mixture would start to scorch, so I just gave up and poured the caramel into the pan. I'm glad I did. It came out velvety soft - just firm enough to not be runny, but soft enough to need not chew. Perfection! I brought a few plates of this to work today as my birthday treat.

Tomorrow the local paper is holding a "Best Baker in the County" contest. I've never entered any type of baking contest before. I am taking 1/2 day vacation and entering:

Peanut Butter Pie,

Peanut Butter Cupcakes, and

The Caramels above.

However, I want to think of a catchier name than "Chocolate Pecan Caramels". It seems most people see the word "caramel" and back away claiming some sort of dental work issue. I don't want that to happen, because these really aren't like caramels. They're actually slightly softer than fudge. So I was thinking something like "Tousled Turtles" or just plain "Better Than Turtles". Guess I'd better decide soon!

Photo of the Day 12/5/06

Colossal peanut butter cupcakes.

The local newspaper is having a baking contest later this week. I was only going to enter one category - pies- but decided to try a couple of new recipes to see if they'd be worthy. Well this one most certainly IS. The batter has peanut butter and a little bit of cinnamon. The frosting has peanut butter, powdered suger, honey, and milk. I decided they needed a little touch of chocolate, so I added splotches of milk chocolate frosting. Mmmmm...I brought these to work today.

Photo of the Day 12/4/06

(sniffle)

You're going to work? Can't we have another snow day?

Another Photo of the Day 12/1/06

A snow day? I'm all for that!

Now come back to bed, Mommy!

Photos of the Day 12/1/06

Just after 4am.

I got lucky, and the drifts weren't too bad next to the car. I thank the shed for blocking the snow.

Daylight! Shoveled out and cleaned off.
Driving through town on Sunday. The local trucks have to plow toward the center with this much snow.

We got 19 inches, the most snowfall from the storm. The photos just don't do it justice. It was just wild. Most everything closed for the day (I think WalMart and the grocery store were open). Six of our 8 county snow plows were stuck and stranded by 8am. That's how much snow, and how windy it was. The interstate and the county highways were closed, too. The banks opened later in the day--which is good for those who get a live paycheck and have items clearing (not me I have direct deposit), but it was unwise in that it put people out on the road to get there--getting in the way of the plows.

I vaguely remember the blizzard of '79 and somewhere there are polaroids of me @ 4 years old bundled up like an eskimo out playing in it. Anyway, I am very thankful that all we had was the snow. A LOT of people lost power due to the snow starting out as serious ice in their neck of the woods. Heck, days later some people still don't have power, and it's been in the single digits overnight. I can't imagine having to somehow uproot my 3 cats and find some place to stay that has heat. So all in all, we were very lucky!

Photo of the Day 11/30/06

A terrible photo of a beautiful rose. My hunny said I was sounding blue and needed a rose. I really like the little Chritmas greens that are with it. Although it appears, after seeing this photo, that I've arranged them poorly.

Photo of the Day 11/29/06

There's a new duck in town. Or at least I've never seen it. A white duck has appeared in the "flock". (Is that what you call a group of ducks?) This is the lake on the outskirts of the town I work in. It is always full of ducks. Spoiled rotten ducks. Everyone feeds them (although the food probably isn't the best for them), and they know the drill. As soon as cars pull up, they go to the driver's side window, and they want you to take their orders.

And a swan! I've never seen a swan among the geese. There are typically geese at the lake, but usually only a dozen or so. At this point there seems to be hundreds here on a break from flying south. They'd better get a move-on, a storm is supposed to be coming!

Photo of the Day 11/28/06

"Mommy, all this wrapping is making me sleeeeeeepy."

Yes, I've already wrapped presents a put them under the tree. This year I started shopping for the boyfriend early. It's much easier on the budget--had I waited until November's end, there wouldn't be enough "spare" cash. I went ahead and wrapped everything, one-to get something under the tree, it looked bare, and two-because my place is so small, it seemed like at every turn he was a foot away from finding one of his gifts.

Photo of the Day 11/27/06

Meet Bruiser.

I was just falling off to sleep for a Saturday evening nap (because my Saturdays are all eventful like that) when there was a knock on my door. My neighbor was standing on the stairs holding this adorable little puppy, asking me to watch it for a bit while he went to the store. Within 1 minute of waking up, I was standing in my doorway, holding a puppy and wondering what I'd just agreed to. Me? and a dog? The two just don't really mix. I puppysat for about an hour and a half. He wouldn't let me out of his sight, but I did not want him on my carpeting. So I sat on the floor with him until he fell asleep, then I crept away to do chores and take this pic. He was an adorable little dude--a long haired chihuaha (did I just butcher that spelling?), but I still don't want a dog.

Photo of the Day 11/24/06

It's the day after Thanksiving! I'm ready to wrap and decorate!

Photo of the Day 11/22/06

This is why they tell you on the instructions for pre-made pizza crusts, to place the adorned pizza on the MIDDLE rack of the oven (not the bottom, where I placed this one). I did, as you can see, cut out a small piece to see if the pizza was remotely palatable...it wasn't. Determined not to waste the money spent on the toppings, I scraped them off into a bowl and at pizza topping for a few days!