New Project July 11, 2009

This is my newest crafty endeavor

Yes that is a bib. No I’m no pregnant. This is a start of several for a few friends and family members who are expecting or just had little ones. What do you guys think? Should I fill in the frosting on the cupcake? How bout the wrapper? This will get snaps and then its ready to go. I have a couple more ideas- smart@$$ed as well that I will share as I get them done. I would really love some feedback on this one.

Slower than molasses in the winter time July 10, 2009

Thats about howfast things have been moving around here lately. It seems that when you have no money coming in that nothing else seems to happen either. I guess thats life tho- something most people have to face at one point or another. So all I have to share with you guys today is this recipe. Which technically belongs over on myother blog but who really cares, right?

So this is my quick and cheap version of Alfredo sauce. And for the record, its also easy and delicious.

5 tbsp flour

4 tbsp butter

1 3/4 cups chicken stock

1 ¼ cups milk

Dash of thyme

3 cloves minced garlic

¼ cup powdered parmesan cheese

2 tbsp dried minced onion

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

Dash of pepper

½ tsp salt

Dash of nutmeg

Melt butter in saucepan. Slowly add flour and whisk as you add. Add garlic. Cook for a few minutes on low heat. Slowly add milk and chicken stock whisking to an even consistency. Add spices and parmesan cheese and bring slowly to a simmer over medium heat whisking often to prevent separation. Lower heat and cook till thickened and remove from heat.

The best thing to do is to serve this over homemade noodles with a little rosemary chicken and a nice veggie side. You can use it to wow your husband, wife, mother, father, boyfriend, girlfriend, or nosey neighbor. The wow factor drops drasticly if you don’t make the noodles yourself but you could do that in a pinch.  Buon Appetito!

 

Things that are bad gardening form July 7, 2009

First let me say that I was a bad girl and didn’t post yesterday, but in my defense I spent the whole day trying to make my internet work because it was misbehaving. Today? works just fine of course. So it was probably a problem on T-Mobile’s end of things rather than mine.

So that said lets get down to business. Today I want to talk about things that are just plain bad form when it comes to gardening or rather bad form for me. *grins* Planting something and then promptly pulling it all out as a weed? bad form. Planting something and then forgetting that you did so that you’re very surprised when something starts growing where there “should” be only weeds and dirt? bad form. Planting something and forgetting what plant it is to the point where you have to go online to find pictures to clarify just exactly what it is? bad for. And finally for the grand prize winner of no brainer bonehead garden mistakes- taking a weedeater to your beautiful kiwi vine that was all but killed last summer but miraculously came back this year stronger than ever and chopping off the largest section of vine? Really bad form. So which ones did I do? All of the above obviously. The plants that got weeded were pepper plants in my first full size garden when I was in High School. The mystery plant that was growing where nothing should be is Miner’s lettuce and I’ve already missed out on it this year- I’ll have to wait till next year or grow some more here in a few more weeks for a fall harvest. The plant that is unknown is endive *phew!* The kiwi will survive, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I keep setting myself back on getting fruit from that plant. Fingers crossed for next year or the year after that.

Now just so you know I’m not the worst gardener in the world, I picked my first two zucchini today, have several baby tomatoes, a couple of baby bell peppers and some Lazarus trees to boot. Lazarus trees you say, What the heck is that? Well they are trees that were dead but now they’re alive again and going strong. Trees that came from J4’s back yard that went through our heat spell without water because I was at the family reunion. One of the three got dug up and replaced already which I’m now regretting because the other two are putting on leaves like crazy despite our warm temps here.

So I’m not a total failure and I have more wins than losses here in the Casa de Sisk. But if you’ve ever gardened then you know there are lots of ways to make a fool out of yourself without even half trying aren’t there? What are some of your gardening mishaps? (she says as if anyone is out there even listening

Michelin Man costume? July 5, 2009

This is my SIL in her Renaissance Festival costume. See Dana? Its like the Michelin Man’s arms. But she looks so pretty anyway- even way outside her comfort zone in all those bright colors. If anyone is in the Kansas City area you should definitely check out the KC Ren Fest starting Labor Day weekend. If you watch you can see my SIL’s and my youngest BIL dressed like this.

Don’t ask why he was strangling J12. J13 is the only twin participating in the ren fest but J12 helped out with the parade because they were short on gypsy boys.

Happy Independence Day July 4, 2009

I just wanted to drop by real fast to say Happy Independence Day.

Routine July 3, 2009

Well I was mistaken about the Nablopomo theme for this month. Last month was heroes but this month is routine. Which really works better for me anyway because the only thing I could think of when trying to right about heroes was that song by Enrique Iglesias and then I’d have “I can be your hero baby” running over and over in my head.

To start the month off right I’ll let you in on my routine.

Every morning except weekends I get up when my husband does. I wander into the bathroom to put in my contacts and then its off to the living room to do my workout. If I get it out of the way early I am more likely to do it. Wii Fit is my activity of choice as its a weigh-in and workout all in one altho sometimes I’m not too fond of the machine. When my workout is done I usually veg on the couch to check email and my favorite blogs. That done I shower, eat lunch, and then my routine is pretty uncertain till around 4 when I start to think about dinner. Pretty boring, huh?

I am a talented individual (or why I shouldn’t be allowed to us a weedeater) July 2, 2009

So today I was weedeating our front yard. Trying to do my part to maintain the house and specifically my garden which is a pain for my husband to mow around. I was doing great. And then I started working around the trellis that my brother and I built. All of a sudden my weedeater stopped short with a sickening jolt and as I looked down I saw that it had tried to tangle with the chicken wire and lost. (or is it won? It did get tangled after all) So I sheepishly called Jarell and said something along the lines of I got the weedeater stuck on the chicken wire. I have to give him credit- he didn’t laugh or get mad he just told me where to find some wire cutters if I needed them. I asked him if this had ever happened to him and he said it happened all the time. I felt better until he clarified that when it happened to him it was just tall weeds and never fencing. Oh well, thats life. It did give me something to talk about at least and as you can see I took advantage of my cell phone’s camera to bring you the picture.

I decided to sign up for Nablopomo and soon I’ll find a little linky widgety thing for my blog. I figure if I want readers I should at least have something for them to read, right? Right. So be prepared to have lots of ….. fascinating reading this month. The theme is heroes if I choose to follow it. Today my husband is my hero for saving me from the evil chicken wire. Wait a second, I did that all by myself! Well he’s still my hero anyway!

Ta for now folks!