Long Distance Baking - Session One

My sweet yoga sister, Gay, and I have been friends since we took Yoga Teacher Training together in 2010. She came up to visit me the first summer I lived here in Northern Idaho. We often text each other for hours on end as we watch Star Trek: The Next Generation together on Saturday night. We talk about what's happening on the episode we're watching, or discuss theology, relationships, cooking, whatever. I know, we lead exciting lives, don't we?

Recently, we decided to bake the same brownie recipe on the same day at the same time, texting as we went. We chose Valerie Bertinelli's "Classic Gooey Brownies".

First step was melting the chocolate and butter together.
I chose the double boiler method. Gay chose to use the microwave.

Next, we had to whisk the wet ingredients together until they were "fluffy".
















Hmmm, Gay's looks "fluffier" than mine.

Gay used dark chocolate chips, per the recipe, but I decided to chop up some dark chocolate blocks that I already had in the pantry. Messy job, but then I get to eat as I clean up :-)

Mine was ready to go into the oven. I noticed my batter was much wetter than Valerie's was on her show. Perhaps it was the homemade butter? It seemed to have a higher water content than the store-bought kind. But boy, is it yummy and fun to make.

Gay was still working on hers, so after I put my brownies in the oven, I cleaned up my huge mess (leaving only the ingredients for the frosting out).

"Hi, Gay! What's taking you so long?"


Finally, I got a photo of Gay with her brownies in the oven.

"Hello, my beautiful friend!" Her brownies were about 15 minutes behind mine. They were supposed to bake for 30 minutes. They were supposed to "crack" and set in the middle.

Boy, did mine crack! It's an earthquake! They were still raw in the middle after 30 minutes, so I put them back in. Tick tock, tick tock.




Meanwhile, Gay was waiting for hers to crack...














Finally, after another 15 minutes, mine were done in the middle and I could take them out.

And Gay's were done at the same time, in the allotted 30 minutes.




She took hers out of the pan to cool. She decided not to frost hers. Oooh, I'm going to tell Valerie!!!!

I frosted mine (hiding that wild crack).

Hello, sweet yoga sister!





And now, for the taste test (my favorite part).

First, Bruce...

Umm, I think he liked them.

My turn!



Hmmm, they were good, but they didn't knock my socks off.

Gay? What do you think?

She agreed with Bruce. They are Good!!!

I decided to give them another try later while I watched TV. I liked them better than before. Yeah, OK, I'll eat the rest :-)

Stay tuned for the next Long Distance Baking Session. We have three Brownie recipes lined up!

For those of you wanting to try this recipe, you can find it here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/valerie-bertinelli/classic-gooey-brownies.html

Ready To Get Our Hands Dirty

As the ground slowly thaws and the snow melts, our thoughts turn to warmer days and lush, growing plants in our garden. Our mouths are watering, thinking about the bounty of veggies and fruits from years past.

"They look professionally grown!"

We are troubleshooting issues we had last year regarding low-grade crops and slow/no growth. We're going to better augment the soil, rotate some crops, stagger growth cycles better and reduce the number of crops per bed (in some cases). Oh, and we are really, really going to try and be better at thinning (our least favorite gardening chore).

Presenting our 2016 Garden Plan:

Last year, we planted sunflowers against the inside of the fence on the garden perimeter, but they didn't bloom until very late in the season. This year, we're going to try decorative corn.

We hope to get more apples from our Haralred tree, and maybe some Honeycrisp this year, too. Last year, a mighty wind came through in late spring and blew all of our blossoms away :-(

We're going to bring our pumpkin and decorative squash plants back to their original bed. Last year's bed move did not work. We're hoping to recreate 2014's bumper crop:

It was a little difficult to harvest and maneuver around the bed,
but it was beautiful and prolific.

We look forward to rising early (Teddy will help us there), getting out into the garden in the morning sun and sowing, weeding, watering, and eventually, harvesting our bounty!

Dreaming of Stuffed Buttercup Squash

Carrot Creatures

Crunchy Homemade Pickles

We're going to (hopefully) grow tons of Roma tomatoes so I can make gallons of marinara and enchilada sauce.

It was heavenly this winter to be able to pull out homemade sauce
from the freezer and make lasagna, eggplant parmigiano and enchiladas.

Our plan is ready. Now we wait. Every garden year is different. What will this one bring?

A Typical Day

People often ask me what a typical day is up here in the INW. While I don't really have a "typical" day, here's an idea of how life goes...

We started off today with a nice long walk. The snow is really starting to melt off, so no more slipping and sliding on ice.



Our neighbor dogs, Colt and Remy, ran out to say "Hey" to Teddy.



















Down the road a ways, we heard alarms sounding in a neighbor's house that is up for sale. No one seemed to be around and no smoke was pouring out. Bruce called the realtor and left a message to let him know. Teddy didn't understand why we were just standing around.

Um, I have things to sniff. Let's get going.

On the road again...



We walked past one of the other houses we looked at in this neighborhood before we bought our cabin. Nice enough inside, but not really our style...



On the way home, the hound in Teddy really came alive. Nose to the ground, he dragged Bruce back and forth and round and round.

When we got home, we found Sera and Shadow waiting for us.

"Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard..."

"Thanks for the walk, Dad!"

Next, I headed upstairs to listen to Lecture 7 for the Hillsdale College online course I'm taking on C. S. Lewis.

 OK, lecture is over. Time for the quiz!



What? Dang it. I missed one.

























Meanwhile, Bruce was feeding wild turkeys in the backyard. He recently counted over thirty girls and a dozen boys.





Gee, I wonder why there are so many turkeys?

On to my latest sewing project - a Christmas card holder. I hope to have it done by December :-) And this means that I expect Christmas cards from all of you!



I already finished blanket stitching the letters on the "Christmas" panel...

















I apparently invented a new stitch. I showed my work to my mentor, Peggy, and she said the border isn't supposed to show on a blanket stitch. I misunderstood her instructions. However, she liked it! She said it looked really good and made the letters have a three dimensional quality.

So I present to you...the Yami stitch!

Now I'm going to start work on the letters in the "Merry" panel. Once that's done, Peggy and I will sew on the backing with the batting and then add the top. There is an end in sight...

Add in exercise, housework, yard work, driving into town to grocery shop and get the mail, or an occasional trip to Coeur d'Alene or Sandpoint, and you have an idea as to how we pass the time around here.

Oops, time to make supper. Until next time!

It's A Boy!

Two weeks ago today, as we were driving home from Coeur d'Alene, Bruce asked if I wanted to stop in at the Kootenai Humane Society to look at dogs. I said yes.

The very first dog we saw was this guy...



His name was Marco. He had been in a kill shelter in Barstow, CA, and our no-kill shelter had flown him up here when his time had run out. He had been picked up as a stray down there. He's about five years old and, as far as we can guess, a black lab/hound mix. He had been in our shelter for two weeks. He was skittish and shy, but very, very sweet. Bruce and I both fell in love at first sight. How could we not? Look at that face!

We renamed him Teddy. Teddy Bear. Theodore B. Wheeler.

He was pretty nervous when we first got him home. We had no idea how he would react to the cats.

What are these small furry creatures
with needles for toes?

He gave the cats plenty of space and respect, and after they were convinced he was no threat, the cats gave him the paws up. Sera made friends with him right away, and now accompanies him on his walks.

Teddy enjoys a massage every morning...

and every night.

He has long talks with Dad.

And the toys. The toys! So many toys!

He's learning to sit, stay, lie down and come. He's a smart boy and is catching on very fast. We have a routine, he has everything he could possibly need (and more!) and we're head over heels in love with him.

Stay tuned for more Teddy adventures!

Are you ready for some football????