My past few tries at bread baking have been reasonably successful and I can't begin to tell you the joy this brings me.  I think there is nothing that I enjoy more than homemade bread fresh out of the oven.  My mom is a wizz with yeast, but for years my attempts have all failed.  Every holiday her yeast rolls are the staple food and there would be hell to pay with my grandfather and my cousin if those yummy serving sized babies didn't make their way to the table.  This past Christmas I made her walk me through every minute detail of the process and in the end the rolls were my creation.  I came home to bake bread for my big holiday dinner with Bonnie and it wasn't as good as having my mother's watchful eye, but it was edible and delightful all the same.  I haven't made any attempts since then, though since Friday I've been having a monster craving from being in a Foley's Bakery shop.  (mm...foley's...)  So, tonight as Bonnie left for work I started in on some whole wheat bread.  I just took it out of the oven and sliced that steaming first bit off, slathered it in Cabot Creamery butter and savored every little bite. 

I'm contemplating driving to the hospital to share the bready goodness with my girlfriend.  It would be the thoghtful thing to do, but alas it's nearly bedtime on a school night and the temperature has dropped quite a bit since this afternoon.  Perhaps I could store it in the freezer til I see her on Wednesday?  Oh the moral dilemmas I have...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Who was your first celebrity crush?
Submitted by Glory.

 

I still stand by that I was the first person to love Leonardo DiCaprio.  I loved him when he was short and greasy and wearing flannel on Growing Pains.  Damn he was a hot 12 year old...

Though, I must say, I'm almost ashamed to admit it today.  I have mixed feelings about his worldly popularity.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

It's easier to list my cleaning products than to think of 5 things you don't know about me.  Thanks for the idea, Jaime!

Aveeno

Nighttime face wash.  I brush my teeth, I wash my hands, I take out my contacts and I get a steaming hot washcloth all lathered up with this stuff. 

St ives

Morning (in the shower) face wash.  I joke about the biggest problem with this being sure to not rinse the exfoliating "rocks" into your eyes.  And more than once I've rubbed them out of my nostrils midday.  But my face feels softer and generally cleaner.  I use the blemish control version.  I have used the standard version, but it doesn't keep my breakouts as low as the salicylic acid version.  Ahhh salicylic acid....

Conditioner

This is my conditioner.  I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect shampoo, so I can't share that with you.  I love the lavender smell of this.  I love that it's organic.  I love that it's relatively inexpensive ($5-6?). 

What I need in a shampoo: something that won't leave my scalp dry, itchy or flaky.  Something that won't leave my hair greasy, stringy, or flat.  Something that won't strip out any "color enhancing" I might or might not do.  Preferrably something natural and/or organic.  Jaime, shall I try yours?  I do have a $25 coupon to the new whole foods....

Castile

Bonnie totally got my hooked on the "all in one" almond castile soap.  I use it for body wash, but apparently I could use it to wash my hair, my dishes, perhaps even my car??  My biggest challenge is to keep from drinking it- it smells so delicious!  For a short time I was finishing up a bottle of Body Shop Satsuma citrus body wash and if Bonnie was using the almond stuff at the same time it was like we were making some sort of fancy dessert in the shower.  Yum.

Lotion

I'm just such a sucker for Aveeno.  When I get out of the shower I lather myself all up in this stuff.  I like how it's not greasy, it rubs in easily.  It doesn't have a grandma smell and it doesnt' leave me feeling sticky.  Again, quite affordable.

Mascara

When I'm all done getting clean I top myself off with a little 'brown black' thickening, lenghtening mascara.  I feel naked without it.  It's my only every day makeup staple (I think I get the love for mascara from my mom- it's her only staple as well)  Though when I'm feeling fancy I do get out my liner wind up 'pencil' and my liquid/gel shadow.

Toothpaste

I know the sold out, but I still love Tom's.  My mom used it the other day when she was here, and apparently it's an acquired taste.  I don't remember because I prefer it now.  *knock on wood* 27 years and cavity free....

Chapstick

When I first discoverd this back in college I described it as "eating Girl Scouts..."  Um...that was inaccurate- more like eating Girl Scout COOKIES.  I'm a hardcore chapstick addict.  I'll try other products here and there, but I always come back to the 'girls in green' for my lip mosturizing satisfaction. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Our family friend, Nancy, has been battling breast cancer.  She has worked for my dad at his various businesses for 16 years and has loved me almost like the granddaughter she never had.  She's the sweetest woman with the shiniest, most positive outlook.  I think it's her crassness that I love the most about her though.  It was about 5 years ago that she was first diagnosed.  She had a single massectomy (which we all joked about for the last 5 years because she is a seriously busty little old lady- but now only uni-ly busty) and went through a few bouts of chemo, but came out easily on top.  Maybe a little more than a year ago she was having all this pain in her shoulder and back.  It was her chiropractor who, after months of failed adjustments, finally said 'wait- this might be your cancer.' 

Sure enough, it was in her lungs, in her spine, it seemed like- you name it, it had spread there.  She's been out of work for months, receiving radiation and chemo and fading away to half her size.  A few weeks before Thanksgiving she went to the hospital after days unable to get out of bed or eat or drink.  They hooked her up to an IV and this woman who has never doubted winning this batter was convinced she was dying.  The doctors put her on steroids and it activated her appetite.  When I saw her at Thanksgiving she was up and around and all about the house.  Steroids are a beautiful thing apparently.  She came back to work bit by bit the next week and was going along well, but my dad said she got a cold the week before last and it really knocked her out.  They had taken her off the steroids just before that and my dad was convinced that the steroids were just a cover.  Covering the deterioration that was really going on inside her.  He told her to stay home and Monday she went to have some more tests and scans done.  Her results came back on Thursday and my dad didn't hear from her and he convinced himself that the news was bad- that this would be Nancy's last Christmas.

Well, the tests did come back, but the news is actually amazing.  Somehow, the cancer is nowhere to be found.  Her lungs looked cloudy, but it turned out that was from her cold.  I'm going to go see her today and I think it's going to be all I can do to not burst into tears.  This, my friends, is the real Christmas Miracle.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Happy Halloween, Punkin!

Happy Halloween, all!  I have had a total of about 10 trick-or-treaters so far.  All less than 3 feet tall and quite scrumtious.

Now, for a scary story...

My parents came down on Sunday to celebrate my birthday with me.  I had told my dad all I wanted for my birthday was for him to come with his chainsaw to take care of some wayward limbs that were threatening to fall on my car this winter (I'm very gun shy of my tree since I had two separate limb falling incidents over the summer- there's no telling what it would do with the weight of the snow!)  Somehow they safely made it in the ridiculous nor'easter of a windstorm that was this past weekend in New England.  So, he did as I requested- took them off, trimmed them down and my mom and I hauled off the scraps to their van and to my wood pile while he installed my new outside lights (okay, so there were TWO things I wanted for my birthday...)  We finished all of that, he put the chainsaw away and we came inside to eat lunch.

We were sitting in the living room chatting while the lasagna finished baking and all of a sudden there was the loudest bang in the whole name of bangs.  Pictures came flying off the wall and we sat there stunned, staring at each other.  I thought it sounded like thunder, but the pictures fell, so maybe it was an earthquake?  My dad got up and looked out the window to see that one of my giant pine trees had fall INTO MY HOUSE!! 

We raced outside to see:

this...

...and this...

...and this!

Why do my trees keep falling??? 

Luckily this story has a happy ending.  Because not only did the tree hit my house without remotely hurting a thing, my dad was here with his chainsaw to immediately take care of it...AND this week is yard waste pick-up!!!  So, I've got a huge pile of pine limbs sitting out by the road waiting patiently for the removal mice to take it all away.  If it had to happen, it couldn't have happened more perfectly, in my opinion.

The end.

(Notice, how as soon as he cut off the stump the groun immediately slapped back down into place?  Earth is crazy stuff!)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend