Sitting here and playing

Here I sit, wondering if I should make cookies first or breakfast bars; all this after I finished getting the laundry done. 

Also in a quandary. A friend of mine is on a vacation of sorts to the eastern part of the state. He received a post on Facebook from a man that we both know saying his fiancé is knowingly spreading his HIV in sexual exploits while he is gone. The fiancé says they are vicious rumors and completely untrue, but my friend says it would not be out of character for him to be doing, but cannot exactly trust the source.

The person who told my friend says he completely trusts his “source.” I am not so trustful. I sent him the following note (name of fiancé is starred out)”

“While I don’t know the truth, it would seem strange to me how your “source” would know this to be true unless he experienced it first hand as in having unprotected sex with ******* and never having been told by ******* he was HIV+. Outside of that, how would they in fact know? Where did they get that information? Second hand? Third hand? Also, how recent is the information?  That is the problem with information second or third hand, you are much further from the source and as I learned in the game of “rumor” in grade school, the story gets changed as it moves from person to person.”

So we shall see. I hate rumors, because they are truths wrapped up in lies and packaged in deceit. 

It is done, and I am pensive

Well, the office is mostly done, at least as far as the budget will allow. All the painting is done, the valence installed, and photos hung. The books are in the bookcases, and the Ikea chairs are assembled and put in place.

Still do to:
1. Install the hardwood floor.  After we buy it that is, and we do not have the $400 it would take to do that free right now.

2. Paint and install the trim. Another $100.

So the $500 or so it will take to finish we are putting to getting out of debt. So the subfloor is just fine for now, I may see about the cost of an area rug to go over it in the short term.

The fall rains have started, so there has not been one day that was not overcast in the past two weeks or so. Tried to go to Mt. St. Helens with my friend John but the fog was so thick it was like someone had hung a sheet in front of us. The plus side-I spent the day with an attractive friend whom I really like as a person who was seeing it all for the first time.

I downgraded the main Mac from Lion to Snow Leopard. I just didn’t care for Lion on the desktop, although the laptop will remain with Lion for now. It makes much more sense on the laptop for some reason.

Floors and laundry are done today, now on to making some pecan rolls!!!!

And it continues

Well, I finally got enough canisters from Goodwill (thrift store) to get all my stuff put in them! So it is the regular stuff like granulated sugar, brown sugar, unbleached flour, stone wheat flour and the like, plus other things liked dried pastas, dried fruits, parmesan cheese (grated) and the like!

They are all ceremic with rubber seals and are cobalt blue, green, and deep black in color-they look so cool on the shelving. I made labels for them that give the contents and an image of the contents on them. I like them! Photos of course!

Last night I made my special homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza for dinner. I made the entire thing from scratch including the dough (the only way to make it!), so the entire process took two hours to make, but it is sooooooo gooooood. I will post the dough and pizza recepies shortly.

I also made my well known breakfast bars--the perfect thing to substitute for the morning cereal for the husband-on-the-go. Here is that recepie:

Troy’s Special Breakfast Bars

                                                                             

Number of servings:  10-20 bars.

INGREDIENTS

3 cups Quick Cooking Oatmeal 1 ½ cups Whole Wheat Flour 1 cup packed Brown Sugar ¾ cup Raisins ¾ cup Dried Cranberries ¾ cup Chopped Dried Apricots ½ tsp Salt ¾ cup Chopped Walnuts ¾ cup Wheat Germ ¾ tsp Cinnamon ¾ cup Canola oil 4 tsp Vanilla ¾ cup Honey 2 Eggs

        

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Line a 10 X 13” pan with aluminum foil or parchement paper. Spray with a vegetable oil spray or non-stick spray.
3. In a large bowl mix Oats, Flour, Brown Sugar, Fruits, Salt, Walnuts, Wheat Germ, and Cinnamon until well blended.
4. In a smaller bowl, mix oil, honey, eggs and vanilla. Blend very well.
5. Pour Egg/Oil mix into Oat mix and mix thoroughly-you may need to mix with your hands to get it mixed thoroughly, making sure the liquid is evenly mixed.
6. Press evenly into the prepared pan.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
8. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack until cold.
9. Turn onto a cutting board and slice. It will make 20 smaller bars or 10 larger ones.
10. Keep in a sealed container-they will last 7-10 days if not longer.

Tonight I am making black pepper chicken and brown rice for dinner tonight-the mix is from Coscto because it is the day before I turn another year older, and after my 5.33 mile walk today, I am not much in a cooking mood.

The house though, is spotless I must say. Dusted the hell out of the living room, and cleaned the hardwood floors-steamed them spotless!

Kitchen reorg

Well, we bought a new 6’ x 3’ black kitchen rack from Target and I got it assembled and stocked yesterday-took all day to get it assembled then stocked with what I wanted to get on it..

Now it is to do a cabinet reshuffle and create room in the cabinet I had planned on making the room in!

Got the RAM installed-it was so easy to do.

A friend of mine has re-established contact with me--it was a complicated friendship that ended badly, so I am nervous and scared to re-establish regular contact with him, but I am going to give it a shot as I miss what we once had.  So I am going to meet with him next week.

This weekend we have no plans other than spending time together, and I like that idea!

Waiting for UPS

I am waiting for UPS to deliver the RAM upgrades for both my iMac and Macbook Pro machines that should max them out. The UPS site said they were out for delivery now, I am very excited about this!


We are going out to the Eagle tonight after dinner with Carol (John's mom). I am going to whip up a simple coffee cake for dessert I think-it is quick and light.

The room is on hold due to funding until October. Have to have some work done by a contractor and the floor needs to be put in still, but other than that it is done!

The Construction Belt

Well, I moved out all the furniture, ripped out the carpeting and carpet pads, pulled up the staples out of the floor, patched the walls, took out the baseboard heater and capped the wiring, and cleaned up 30 years worth of dust! The office/guest room is ready for painting now!

Also went to IKEA and picked out the furniture additions-a sofa/bed and coffee table. The room is now complete furniture wise.  We also picked out how we will furnish the master bedroom too once the funds are available.

Now today getting laundry done early and ironing done, we have Bridget and Janine coming out tomorrow afternoon and I want an easy Monday.

Getting ready for construction

Yesterday I was in an apron all day long. I made wonderful Banana Nut Muffins (using Spelenda) and Ginger Tender Cookies (using regular sugar), and finished the laundry and the ironing.

I had prepared a wonderful Farmer Breakfast casserole for dinner, shreading potatoes myself rather than using packaged hash browns, a beautiful egg mixture, shreadded cheese, and beautiful mushroom topping. I then put in the fridge to put in the oven later, and never heard the pan fall and spill the contents all over the fridge all the way from the top shelf to the bottom and everything in between! What a mess to clean up!

The contractors came out and repaired the window in the guest room/office. They found NO MOLD in the walls which was a godsend. So tomorrow I will hang up the apron and put on the contstruction belt, time to empty the room and rip out the carpet and pad!

Remembering Times Past

I was looking through old diary entries from when I was married to Brian. It reminded me all over again why I am divorcing him. I read several entries out to John and he was amazed at just how badly I was treated by Brian. He then pulled me into his arms and I once again fell asleep on his chest.

I am going to put a plug out there for Spenda Sugar Blend. It is a blend of 50% sugar and 50% Splenda. You use it like you would regular sugar, only you use 1/2 the amount (if the recepie calls for 1 cup sugar, you use 1/2 cup of the Spenda Sugar Blend).  I have been baking now for three weeks, made cookies, muffins, quick breads, regular bread, and bars--and in no case is there any discernable difference between the Splenda Sugar Blend and regular sugar.

The cool thing is this: you will consume only 1/2 the amount of sugar than you would otherwise do. There is also a Brown Sugar Blend as well that I will give a try.

Now, how about a recepie?

Apple and Cranberry Buckle

Number of servings:  6

INGREDIENTS

Cake Topping 5 ½ tablespoons Unsalted Butter, divided 6 Tablespoons packed Splenda Brown Sugar Blend. 1 ½ cups whole Cranberries 2 teaspoons Cinnamon 1 Golden Delicious Apple, chopped into ½ inch pieces 5 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, cold and chopped into pieces 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons Spenda Sugar Blend, divided 1 pint vanilla Ice Cream (optional) 1 cup Flour 1 teaspoon Baking Powder 1 Large AA Egg, beated 1 teaspoon Vanilla 1/3 cup Evaporated Milk

INSTRUCTIONS

Place rack in oven to the centre position.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Butter a 2 quart baking dish or a 9” square baking pan.

Cake Mix

Melt 1 ½ tablespoons Butter in a heavy skillet on Medium-High heat.

Add Cranberries and stir until they pop open. This should only take 30-60 seconds. Don’t overcook or they will turn into mush.

Remove pan from heat and add Apples and the 2 tablespoons Sugar Blend. Stir until dissolved, then set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine Flour, Baking Powder and Salt.  Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream remaining Butter and Sugar Blend until smooth.

Beat in Egg and Vanilla. Mix well.

Add in ½ the Flour mixture and mix well.

Add Milk and remaining Flour Mixture.

Fold Cranberry mixture into the batter.

Spread into the baking dish.

Topping

Put Brown Sugar Blend, Flour, Cinnamon, and Butter into a Food Processor. Pulse until mix is pea sized.

Scatter topping on top of cake and bake 40-45 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

Remove and cool 10 minutes. Serve with Ice Cream, if desired.

A day in the life

I have a pretty set schedule that I follow to ensure that I get everything done here:

Monday: Laundry, Ironing, Deep clean Bath and Hall, surface clean rest of house.

Tuesday: Blog, Deep clean bedroom and office/guest, surface clean rest of house.

Wednesday: Deep clean Living and Dining rooms, surface clean rest of house.

Thursday: Deep clean Kitchen, Baking Day, surface clean rest of house.

Friday: Weekly shopping, Yardwork, surface clean rest of house.

John and I take the weekends off to do things together. This past weekend was filled with clothes shopping for me, Borders shopping for us, cleaning the roof and cleaning out the gutters from moss and pine needles.

Some days

Got up to make John's lunch today after 3 hours of sleep. We always go to bed at a decent enough hour, but like last night stay up talking until 1 a.m. and the alarm goes off at 530 a.m. every day! I adore the communication, I love the fact I can hear his voice through his chest as I am laying on it, but man, it takes me longer to get going on such shortened sleep!

After doing a house cleaning, I walked to Fred Meyer to get some Comet and some butter. Being new the neighborhood, I got lost on the way turning a 1.4 mile walk into a 3.1 mile one.  Unfortunately, most streets in Vancouver are not through streets, so the grid pattern I was so used to in Portland really can make walking and driving here a headache. So my plans on making cookies were thrown out the window as by the time I got home, I had to start making dinner.  I made Chicken and Wild Rice with corn for dinner-something basic.

We snuggled on the couch last night, my head on his chest, my legs and hips on his lap. I was so content I was nearly asleep listening to him talk and being held so tightly and lovingly.  I really appreciate nights like that and the time we spend just talking.

I am holding my own on the scale at 160 lbs, just five more pounds to lose, and that will come when I start walking again on intentional walks (unlike today), which I can do now that we are settled and moved in.