Good Morning! I got up waay early for a number of reasons.
The first, and most important, we’re on the mend!
The second reason is today is CANDY Day! Today is the day Hubby and I spend the day together in the kitchen making unbelievable goodies.
He will be making An Almond Roca Mistake. Two years ago, he took it off the heat one minute too soon, and make this buttery not so hard as to break teeth brickle.
I will be making chocolate chip cookies, and Opera fudge (white fudge). It’s called Opera fudge because ladies at the opera in their white gloves couldn’t eat chocolate. I’m putting cherry flavored crasins in it.
We’ll also be doing regular chocolate fudge, divinity, and peanut butter fudge. I may do some dips too.
I love making candy, and cookies, I don’t really eat any. It smells so good, I get full just smelling.
I wish you could all drop by and have a taste!
Later and have a goooood day.
First reply!
You had me right up to the craisins. That’s where you lost me. Craisins are God’s great practical joke on humanity. “Hey…some of them actually LIKE those things! JC, get a load of this!”
Had a great weekend. Went to visit my mom in the mountains of west-central PA, saw some friends, enjoyed karaoke and my mom’s Italian filling, and got to spend time with Bailee, the most spoiled doggy not owned by an idle heiress in the world. I tried to get the Italian filling recipe, but was confirmed in my suspicion that, at this point, she’s going on instinct. All I can say is: bread crumbs, eggs as a binder, lots of romano cheese, and garlic (or garlic powder). Proportions to taste is the best I can do.
Got a fair bit of progress done on the Charlotte’s Web shawl I’m knitting for my mom, too. I tend to knit this thing in spurts. I’m nowhere near done, but I got another six rows finished.
An interesting weekend, though not as relaxing as I’d have liked. Of course, the Bus Kid was home, bringing along some emotional baggage over difficult times with the BF, but she’s dealing with that.
Following Thursday, we (meaning the wife) decided that this would be the weekend we made 9 dozen tamales. About 12 lbs of pork shoulder, some leftover turkey, the assorted other pieces (corn meal masa and leaves), several hours of labor including a half dozen friends, and voila - it’s tamales.
Damn good ones too, drop by, I can spare some if you supply the beer.
Today it’s back to the grind in a big way.
Mmmm, tamales!!
Need to have olives to be perfect, though. Where do I stop by to check?
First, YAY!!! The picus are gettin’ all better! Great news. The candy and cookies and stuff sound sooo yummy. I’ve never attempted candy making cause, well, it looks like a lot of trouble and I’m basically lazy. I have, however, been attempting to be on my best behavior because I want ACBG to bake a cheesecake for a little gathering at the swampcave this Friday. That’s almost as much work as making the dang thing myself, let me tell ya! He makes wunnerful cheesecakes.
Second, jayjay all your butchiness with the ripping out and replacing of door locks is hereby negated by the shawl knitting. 
Unless, that is, the shawl is being knitted out of chainmail. That’d be some real butch knittin’ then.
Thanksgiving was good. Real good. The gathering of the misfits on Thanksgiving Day turned out great. My dressing, gravy and collard greens were a hit. I had a good time visiting with family also over the weekend. Mom’s birthday is December 13th, so I hardly ever see her on her birthday. Thus, I either have to give her an early bday present or bring it at Christmas. When I got there on Friday, I asked her over some righteously good pecan pie and coffee if there was anything special she wanted for her bday. See, she has recently remodeled her house, so I figured on pumping her for hints concerning bday and Christmas about stuff she’d want to decorate with. She mentioned she wanted some new Christmas wreaths to go on her brand new doors. So, off we went to purchase Christmas wreaths. She’d see something she liked and say it’s too much. I’d say, do you like it? She’d say, it costs too much. I’d say, do you like it? Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I know this song and dance because I do it too. It’s nice but it costs too much. Finally it was me saying, Look, you like it. I know you do. We’re getting it. It costs too much. We’re getting it anyway, ok? Well, if you say so. After much of this, three wreaths were purchased. So, we get to check out and Mom picks up one of the wreaths and says I’m paying for this one because I don’t want you spending that much money. Which prompts a big ol’ MOOOOOOOOOOOOM! from me. I got her to hand over the wreath so I could pay for it. SHEESH! All the way home I got the you shouldn’t spend all that money. You should’ve let me pay for some of it. See, in addition to the wreaths (which are silk and can be used over and over) I bought poinsettias to go on my dad’s and brother’s graves. I cleared that with my sister before I bought 'em cause Og knows I didn’t need to get her riled up over that. See, it was ok that I bought 'em but if it had been one of my older brothers that wanted to buy 'em, it wouldn’t have been ok. I am the go between broker for sis and the older brothers. I consider this a little piece of the why I’m gay puzzle and a big piece of the why I need perscription sleep aids sometimes puzzle.
Anyways, the weekend was good. We ate lots and lots of food. Everybody got along. We drew names for Christmas. I got the BIL’s name yet again. Most years I have his name for some reason. This is good cause he always wants a gift card from Home Depot. He’s easy to get stuff for. I requested a gift card from either Home Depot or Lowe’s. I’m easy too. In a lot of ways. My sister and I drank two bottles of champagne Saturday night at her house. Good thing she lives next to Mom and their driveways connect is all I gotta say. Oh, and I woke up yesterday with this dead weight on my legs. Turns out it was FatCat the feline from hell who decided I was worthy enough to sleep on for some reason. I also felt something really warm on my side. Turns out that was Groucho the other cat (he has a Groucho Marx moustache) who also deigned me worthy to sleep on or beside. I shoulda closed that bedroom door all the way.
So, how was everybody elsels Thanksgiving? Or just plain ol’ Thursday for that matter.
Oh. I feel the need to say that I have two more presents to buy and that’s it.
It’s pretty windy and chilly here, I’m wearing my slippers as I type this. I just made hot chocolate the unconventional way a bit ago. Six pieces of Dove dark, taken out of their wrappers and put into a ziploc baggy and sealed. Bashing them with a hammer until they are in smallish pieces (yeah I coulda chopped them, but I didn’t want to risk losing more chocolate via transfer off the cutting board that way) and putting the flakes into milk. I warmed the milk and stirred it until it was all melted. It’s quite good, but it needed a teeny bit of sugar to counter the bitterness. I thought the milk would do that, but not quite. Don’t get me wrong, I eat the stuff with relish, I just wanted sweet hot chocolate. The kitten is back to hibernating, and Hazel is on the couch, tucked into a quilt.
Morning everybody.
I had a good T-day and weekend. **KeithT **was here from Tuesday through Saturday early afternoon. We went home to my parents’ Wednesday afternoon and made his family’s pumpkin cheesecake (search Epicurious for the recipe). We did that at home because Mom has a springform pan and I don’t. T-day itself went well. Nine people total and no family “incidents” so that counts as a good day.
After that KeithT and I just hung out and enjoyed our weekend. Now I have to survive a month until he comes back after Christmas. 
But then he’s here for a week. And I’m going there in January. Yay for SW’s $49 flights to Chicago!
And KeithT and I are giving each other a trip to NYC for Christmas so I don’t have to worry about presents for him. He’s never been there so that’ll be fun. Other than that, I do a lot of fudge and candy for gifts so that makes it easy. Food is good for giving and for sampling while making it!
Oh my. That sounds DEEEEElicious. I may have to go out and buy some dark chocolate today. 
It reminds me of really old fashioned style cocoa, the kind made with melted baker’s chocolate, milk, sugar etc. Just be sure not to put any pieces that are too big in, and stir every little bit to help it melt while not scalding. I used the microwave for this, btw. You can also do it over the stove top on low heat if you’re vigilant with stirring. Looks like a soup/stew night to me if this wind keeps up. 
I hope those folks up further north of here are doing well. Seems like we’ve got an artic wind here, but no precipitation. Just looked up the weather, 35 degrees F, feels like 26 degrees F. Brrr! (That’s pretty cold for this part of Kansas at this time of year!) Keep warm everyone, and drink plenty of fluids so you don’t get dehydrated.
Hmm, I missed the 30% snow/rain prediction for today. It’s a good day for a nice book and some more cocoa methinks.
Belated Happy Thanksgiving to all that celebrate it!
I haven’t been around much lately. Been working too hard but THIS WEEK i am on holiday And it’s my birthday on Friday so it’s a doubly good week.
I didn’t do much at all over the weekend. Mostly slept off all that work. But i am up and bouncing about today and have already started to clean my flat. Once that’s done i think i might do a little Christmas shopping. Although there’s the annual debate of whether to buy stuff here in London and schlep it up to Scotland or wait until the 23rd December when i’m there and buy it all fast. I’m good at finding gifts fast but i kinda want to just chill out over it this year…on the other hand heavy presents would restrict how much clothing i can take on the flight North…hmmmm.
Is it too late or costly to ship them up to your family’s home, or would curiosity get the better of them?
We made the traditional trek to Simba’s for Thanksgiving. Jambalaya, gumbo, hush puppies, greens, plus the regular stuff. Mmmmmmmm.
Before we ate, we made the traditional Thanksgiving swim. The pool is lovely, about 82 degrees. On the way back to the condo, I picked a grapefruit and a lemon and a tangerine. Whether or not they’re edible, I do not know. It was just the act of picking fruit in late November that enchanted me.
Good job, picunurse!
picunurse :smack:
Morning, everyone. Do you think you could pass me some of that hot chocolate through the screen?
Warmer here after being -10 to -5 most of the weekend. It’s raining and gloomy. I must hie off to work and laze around for eight hours. First, though, comes the morning tea ritual. Today I have graham crackers to dip, which makes it extra good.
I bought the Toronto Life: Best Food issue. It has a whole lot of wonderful bakeries and grocers and delis listed. I’m going to go croissant-sampling later this week. Maybe get some Lebanese baklava, too. Oooh, so buttery and flaky. Yum.
Aaaaaaaauuugghhh! That was me. I just remembered I was supposed to do it. The only problem is that I’m so busy this morning I haven’t even had time to open my coffee. Yes, I totally suck. Sorry 'bout that.
So, thanks, picu, and I’m glad you’re feeling better!
Back to work. sigh
Holy Cow! I hope no Dopers were affected badly by this.
Hands Lissla Lissar some fresh cocoa. Have a good day, hope you don’t get any nasty weather too.
Good morning, everyone!
It is wet and windy here today. I made cheddar cheese beer soup yesterday for dinner–yum.
Today I go work out and buy new garland for the fireplace. This is the first year I haven’t bought fresh. I usually buy it from my church, but I am boycotting church at present and totally forgot about the fund raiser (which is over, btw). So, I need nice looking fake greenery for my mantlepiece.
Also need to do a reckoning of presents–to see how many I still need to get.
FYI-about 2 weeks ago, I posted that I had bought patches for my 7 year olds jeans–and promptly lost the package of patches.
Praise be! I found the patches!
Now I can’t find the jeans.
I don’t want to go to class today. Help, anyone?
Also, the dorm thermostat is up reeeeally high. I’m sweating, quite literally, in my room, and I have the heater turned off and the window open all the way, which has been the case since last night. I got home, stripped down naked, and sweated. All night.