the Recipe...

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

Ok folks if this link worked (which it may not) the recipe is here. If it did not work...I got the article and recipe from my daughter's site chemystery.livejournal.com It is from MOTHER EARTH NEWS and the article is called Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day.

I also noted that the smell of baking bread brings a lot of lurkers out of the woodwork! ;) Welcome guys, and do come back.

Bread in only five minutes!!!!

My Daughter called me one day and said she was baking bread...ok...Only costs 50 cents a loaf to make. Ok...

She sent me the recipe and I tried it. OHMIGAWD!!! YUMMY!!!

Only I used a package of yeast that I had sitting around in a drawer and it did not rise. So I added more water, flour and NEW yeast to the old batch...Are you all old enough to remember the I LOVE LUCY episode where she is making bread and she puts it into the oven and it opens the oven door and floods the kitchen with bread dough? Yeah, that was my bowl of dough! I had to scrape it off the counter and put it into TWO more bowls to get it all in the fridge where it was sposed to stay until I was ready to bake it.

I waited until the next day when I had time, and then pulled out enough to make one loaf! It was so good that even Bob came over on a Wednesday to have a piece! He ended up taking a loaf home, we ate a loaf, and I finished baking the rest so I can start with new dough today.

It makes the best sandwiches! I put a few slices of deli roast beef and meunster cheese and horeradish on it and it was as good as any deli sandwich you could have...could have used some sprouts though.


Aren't I getting to be miss susie homemaker?

Your Life Path Number is 5

Your purpose in life is to life freely and collect experiences. You love life - new adventures, new people, new ideas. You are very curious, and you crave novelty in all forms. You tend to make friends easily, and you enjoy the company of all types of people. In love, you are fun and even a bit intoxicating. But you won't stick around for long. You are impulsive and spontaneous - which sometimes leads you to do things you regret. Sometimes you can be overindulgent with food, sex, or drugs. You have many talents, so many that you are often scattered and unfocused.

What Is Your Life Path Number?

This is not anything like me. I found this over on Rainy Day Thoughts, and liked it, so I did it too, only I think I am more a seven like she is. I do NOT make friends easily. I am not intoxicating, I do not have Many talents, (a few though)I am very traditional...not at all free thinking...

This one fits my daughter or my sister more than me.

Enough is enough!

For over three years now I have had DISH network and LOVED it! It has only gone down twice in that time, and both times it has been during an absolute white-out blizzard!. Can't fault them for that.

HOWEVER....In December, Dish Network and the Fisher Company fell out of negotiations to renew their contract with KOMO TV and ABC. Thus all during Christmas, I had NBC, And CBS, and everyone else but ABC! Did not bother me that much, as I was sick the whole time, and did not care what was on, because I slept through it anyway.

Yesterday I tried once again to contact a real LIVE person at DISH and got put on hold for ever so long. I also emailed and thus far, not even the courtesy of an automated "We got your email but..." response.

I am switching over to DIRECT TV on Monday. I hate to do it because I really have no problems with the DISH Network, but it does not appear that they really are trying hard to resolve this impasse! The recorded message that they have on Channel 4 is even over a month old, so I doubt that they have even got any updates to tell us about.

This morning, I tried once again to contact them to no avail. They are messing with my life!!!! I can't watch the VIEW!!! a whole month with no Goldie, or Joy, or Elizabeth or Babs or even Sherry (I don't care for her anyway) But I miss the HOT TOPICS!

Come on DISH! I'm Old, I'm Cranky, deal with me....

OmnipotentBenevolentEmpress

CRAP!!!!!! IT DID IT AGAIN!!!!! ARRRRGH!!!!!!!

What in the **** is happening? This is the THIRD time I have written this post and lost it!

DUH!!

Well 99% of my last post did not get published. It was a really long post too. But for all of you who already commented, Thank You. It was not intended to be a dig for best wishes. Actually most of the post was about my daughter. I will try to recreate it tomorrow, My eyes are full of clorine and I need a shower, so I will do that in the morning....

Another Year older and deeper in Debt...

Yep, I turned 63 last Sunday, and So did Bill at Prairie point

So STOP ALREADY!!!

This is a house that slid down a hill and plopped right in the middle of Hiway 20! Blocking that route!



We are now officially cut off from the rest of the US!! All of the cross Mountain passes are closed due to landslides, or avalanches, and I-5 is closed at Chehalis due to flooding. US 101 which is the hiway that runs around the Olympic Natl park, and on down to California is closed in many spots due to either flooding or landslides. Between Portland and Seattle, there are 10,000 semi's daily that are stopped and can not get through with their loads. All of the alternate routes are closed due to flooding. It may be 5 days before the water goes down and they survey the road beds to make sure they are safe again.



THis is our famous Snoqualmie Falls, which is technically larger than Niagra Falls, and it is so full and flooding that you can not see the river below!




This is what we looked like last week. there was over 6 feet of snow in the higher hills and in the mountain passes just last week! THen it warmed up and started raining on top of all of this, which made for really full creeks and rivers. It is Historic flooding!

This is what happens when you pave Mother Nature and thumb your nose at her and build on a slope that once had trees on it to stabilize the mud and rocks. People just are stunned that their brand new McMansions are sliding down hill and crashing onto the road below. DUH!!! Maybe this weather will make all those Californians that ran up here and bought up all our cheap land, go back where they came from.

You won't believe this, but the city of Seattle had made a ruling to go green with their snow removal, and not use salt, as it would impact the salmon streams. So the people that moved up here are screaming mad that their roads were full of snow and ice and they were not happy. DEAL WITH IT FOLKS! I was snowed in for over two weeks. Did you hear me scream? NO! I knew it would eventually melt, and I was all prepared for it!

The north Cascades hiway 20, Stevens Pass hiway 2, Snoqualmie Pass I-90, White Pass hiway 410 Cayuse Pass hiway 12 and I-5 South to Portland are all closed for at least 3 more days. The sun is sposed to come out later this afternoon, but the rain is still falling in the mountains and the rivers will not all crest until later tomorrow.

Sun would be really nice about now...

birds of Winter

Having spent most of the entire month of December in bed sicker than a dog, I had a chance to watch the tiny little birds at the suet feeder, and the platform feeder that was heavy with snow for almost 3 weeks.

The Ruby Crowned Kinglet is one that for several years I had been trying to identify, and it was not until last summer that I saw him stick his ruby feather up through the olive colored ones. He hides it well. He is sooo tiny. Even smaller than the Black-capped chickadees!

Today, as I was drinking my morning coffee, the feeders were rather busy. Spotted doves, two kinds of chickadees, house finches, kinglets, Downy woodpeckers and Hairy Woodpeckers, and the tiny little nuthatches. It was a busy place. Even Jupiter, the nasty bird-killer from next door, was slowly sneaking up on his own personal hors'dourves tray! Sadie chased him off, and off flew the rest of the crowd.

Yesterday, I was watching them all and suddenly they all just dissappeared. A Cooper's Hawk dropped down out of the canopy of the alders and tried so very hard to have his lunch at my expense. He lost!

I am ever so slowly getting my self back together. My cough is still there, but getting better, and I can actually breathe. I spent New Years Eve unconcious! Tylenol 3 with Codeine sure makes you sleep. But then I am a cheap drunk anyway, you just whisper "narcotics" and I am OUT like a light. I could never get addicted to illegal drugs, I miss too much of life. I am still waiting for Christmas! My kids came over on each weekend, Donna right after Christmas, and Tim on New years. I will Cook my Christmas Prime RIb dinner when they can all be here. Tim works most weekends, (overtime) trying to meet a deadline on re-painting a NOAH research ship. He Loves his job!

Today I have a pot-luck and Board Meeting for The Coupeville Festival, so I am going to try and not cough in public! I'm not contagious any more, but try telling that to people!

Hope you all had a good Holiday season!

white christmas!

Sherry took these pictures and gave them to me, because she knew I was so sick in bed, I have had Brochitis, and just slept for two weeks. I even cancelled dinner for Christmas. I didi not want the kids driving that far in this stuff.

I had over 12" in my yard, Which is extremely RARE for us here in Puget Sound. WE did get cold too. down into the teens F. Then up to the high 20's during the day. BRRRRRR we did not lose power though. That is a good thing.

I have not been out of the house in ages and I am getting real cabin fever!! Bob was completely snowed in, so I went and got himf for Christmas Eve and we just sat quietly enjoying the silence of the night,. I like to spend Christmas Eve in a quiet manner. A rare one indeed around here.

It started raining today, so most of the snow is now slush and ice on the roads.

Tim's first christmas out of prison, and he was snowed in too! Ah well, I cancelled the prime rib dinner and said I would have it when everybody was feeling well.

right now I could not stand to smell it cooking! and I make suce a great one too.

Time for more drugs. I am alive and posting...

OK! OK!!!

Alright already!!! I'll POST!!

I have been duly chastised for not posting in so long. The point is I have a LOT to say, but don't quite know how to put it on paper. Have you ever had bees buzzing around in your head looking for a way out? That is how I feel. I have not had a good month, both mentally and physically, and just did not want to let the world in on it. I have tried to write. I sit down at the computer, and my mind goes totally BLANK!

 

I promise I will get better, I am alive, I am still in a tremendous amount of pain, but I do live! I will post. In fact today I ventured out in the 8" of snow that we got this week, and drove into town, snapping pictures all the way. I will edit them tomorrow and post then.

 

In the mean-time. I am here, I have not quit blogging. I WONT quit unless I loose power. I just may not blog every day. I wont be a quitter like some people I know! Wink wink...

Hope you are all well and ready for the holidays...stay warm!

Dear Santa....

I am the Photographer for the fill in show...Dear Santa...here are a few candids from it.

Dear Santa....

I am the Photographer for the fill in show...Dear Santa...here are a few candids from it.

Flying saucers!

Every Fall, our weather does some very strange things, one of them being the weather patterns over Mt. Rainier. Back in the 50's someone saw this cloud formation and thought it was a flying saucer over the Mountain. From this came the reports that Washington State was being invaded. It slowly went away, and now it only pops up again when the clouds form. These are called Ventricular clouds, and are formed by the warm air meeting the cold air, and swirling...similar to tornadic action, but not nearly as powerful.

Yesterday, the clouds appeared again, and in the most vivid of colors. KOMO TV had several pictures on their website, and I stole this one!

I just LOVE the flying saucer clouds...oooooo, let's get another rumopr started!!

CRAP!!

I have been cat-sitting DOttie's cats for a week while she flew to St. Louis for Thanksgiving. Today was the day I was to take them back home.

Her baby, Tyler is a LOVER but he is a PEST! I spent all night last night shoving him off of my head where he kept wanting to sit and drool on my pillow. Nothing worse than cat drool on your pillow!! YUCK!!

So finally I gave up around 830 and got up. As soon as my feet hit the floor, he disappeared! now Tippy her Siamese, was right there, so I got her into her carrier just fine, but no Tyler. (Tippicanoe and Tyler too!!) ((Seriously!!)) Tyler was still no where to be found.

I had appointments lined up all day, and had to get going. I put Tippy in the car, and went back to see if I could find Tyler. Nope, no where, not under the bed, not in the garage, not under the tree, nowhere! I bribed him with food, NOTHING. So I headed back out to the car, and realized that I had forgotten SADIE, so I went to go back in, and I had locked my keys IN the house.

I trudged in my birkenstocks around the back in the wet grass, to get in the back door, on the way around, I stepped right in Fresh Doggie-doo. ARRRGH!! I am wiping my shoe on wet grass, to get it all off, and my foot comes out of my shoe, and being unsteady on my feet anyway, I lost balance and planted my shoeless foot right back in the smelly shit! CRAP!! As I was trying to walk with my toes pointed up, I dragged my cuff into it also!! DOUBLE CRAP. So I get on the back porch and am balancing on one foot to get my shoe off, my sock off, and peel my pants off so I would not track itinto the house. Right there in the back yard I stand almost NEKKID!! and COLD!

I got in, changed clothes, got the keys went back to the car, and FORGOT TO GET SADIE!!
Back into the house, got the dog, got the list, got the camera and headed off to do my list of chores...

As soon as I got home last night and flopped on my bed to distribute my meds into the weekly slots, up right in the middle of it all jumps Tyler. He was all friendly and ready to say he was sorry. SO I called his Mommie and told her that I found him and would bring him in tonight on the way to swimming. SHEESH!!

Ethel...1993-2008

Ethel died this evening. We had been holding a death watch on her all night and all day. She was stretched out in front of the wood stove, on the rug where she loved to lie, and we just left her there until we knew she qwas gone. I had made up my mind that fear or not, I was going to take her into the Vet today, but they were closed.



I knew she was going to go this weekend. She crawled up on my pillow this morning and could not even purr, her voice was so weak. I cried, and just let her lay next to me. She got up and went and lay in front of her breakfast dish, and did not eat, and that is when I knew for sure.

Ethel was almost 16 years old. I got her when she was only a week old, and her eyes were just open. The W.A.I.F. (Whidbey animal improvement foundation) called my sister and asked if she wanted to foster a kitten, and she said no, but her sister would. So they called me. I went down and they told me that it was TWO kittens...that their mother was feral and had an older litter also, but that she was killed by a car, and one of the older siblings (7 months or so) brought the two kittens to a nearby house where SHE was getting food out the back door. THe kittens were found on the deck, and the woman brought them to WAIF. I bottle fed the two babies every 4 hours, and kept them in my bathroom with only a board (actually the leaf from my table) blocking them in. When they were about two weeks old Ethel started yowling like mad. LOUD and insistent. SO I went in and she was stretched out as tall as she could get trying to get over the board. SHe sounded like Ethel Merman...such a big voice for such a little kitten. Thus her name. Her sister was called Shirley. (????) I dunno, It just came to me. Shirley would let Ethel suck on her belly fur and she did too. It was so funny to watch the two of them.

One day I went in, and they were gone. I could not find them anywhere!! I paniced. I looked under the bed, and there was a tiny hole ripped in the gauze liner of my boxsprings, and the two of them were in there. I got them out, put a bigger board in the bathroom and they stayed there maybe two minutes before they were back in my bed.

As they grew, it became apparent that they were forming a very simbiotic relationship, and were not sociallizing well with people. At 6 weeks, I took Shirley back to be adopted, and I kept Ethel. SHe got along fine withe Rudy and Mariah my Dog. She grew fat and sassy, and ruled the house. EXCEPT when a stranger came into the house, then she was back in my box springs.



She had an evil look about her, as her eyes were very golden and in that black face, they almost looked like an old owl. She had a very LOUD purr, along with her very loud voice. When she was about 6 months old, she got outside, and was freaked, that she stayed under the back porch for two weeks. I finally got her back inside and she NEVER went out again.

I was transfered to Fallon, Nevada when she was 6, so I put her in a big carrier and Rudy in the other one along with Chitters, and put them in the back of my covered truck bed. I stopped in Shasta, California at a rest stop and a guy walked by and wanted to know what kind of animals I had back there. When I told him cats, he said WILD ONES??? I Laughed, and said she is NOW. She HATED the carrier, and would literally FREAK when I got it out. Once I got to Fallon, I let them out of their carriers and she found the nearest closet and stayed there until my bed got here, and then up inside it she went. The same was true 3 years later when I got transfered back home. I swore then that I would never scare her again. She was a LOVE!! She especially liked my and liked me to rub her belly. She would straddle my arm and place her belly on my hand so all I had to do was move my fingers.

She even got to the point of crawling under my covers when I was asleep and doing the same thing, so all I had to do was move my fingers in my half sleepy state. She was always beside me. In the chair, in the bed, on the couch, and she would tell me when it was getting too cold out and would lay in front of the woodstove and yowl at me until I built a fire for her. THen out full she would stretch, and lay there until the fire died. She was also the first to find a sunbeam. Winter or Summer, she knew where the cracks in the curtains were and would lay until the sun had moved, then on to the next spot she would go.

I will miss her very much, but she is in peace now, and is no longer cold, and I am sure that there is a nice warm hand and arm that she can straddle when she wants her belly scratched. There just has to be someone up there waiting for a cat...

YAWN!

GADS!! I just have absolutely NO energy! I slept most of Sunday, got up late on Monday, went swimming, did my 45 lengths of the pool, and was pooped before the aquarobics started. I did 1/2 an hour of them and then came home, took a shower and CRASHED!! I woke up around 2 AM and turnwed off the TV, let the dog out and the cat in, and closed off the front room and the kitchen, locked the doors, checked my email, turned off the computer and crashed again! Yesterday, I had a dentist appt, got a new crown and a new filling. (MONEY!!) went to the Playhouse and took the few pictures that I had not taken for DEAR SANTA, and came home, fixed what was left of the package of thighs that I had thawing on the counter and went to bed.

Dotties cats are cupboard walkers! Mine are not. And Tyler jumped up and got the thighs off the counter ripped open the wrapper and stole a thigh. I rescued 3 of them though. Little SHIT!! He is such a sweet cat though.

The above picture is of my baby...Schroeder, who is 18 months old. He is so afraid of anything new, that everytime I pull out the camera to get a picture of him he runs! The other day he just sat there, so I took the picture just as he said "I'm so bored with this, opened his mouth, yawned and ran. so you get a great picture of his throat. He is so BIG and the vet thinks he is part Maine Coon. His Momma was a slut, so no telling what he really is. He is starting to get little tufts on his ears and on his TOES!! And he is a really mama's boy.

I had better go get the pies made, so I can get to bed early tonight. We are going to Donna's for dinner tomorrow, so I dont have to cook!! YAY!!!!

You all have a great THANKSGIVING, and for all you Canadians up there, You get to smell our turkeys cooking like we do during YOURS!!! ;) I wonder why we don't have them on the same day? Huh!

and another picture from the show...

I have not been anywhere to take pictures other than the Playhouse, so you will just have to deal with these...

I am in the process of finishing the Lobby Poster for Peter Pan, and then the wall for DEAR SANTA, THEN i CAN RELAX (oops caps on) at least for a few days...I have to bring pies to DOnna's house for Thursday, so I will those on Tuesday, and stick them in the fridge. I am also cat sitting Dotties two fur babies, so the house is kinda on edge right now until they all adjust to each other again.

I have a huge fire going in the stove, and the animals are all jockeying for the best position in front of it. Ethel has won so far. She is the oldest and the Bitch of the crew, so they all catered to her needs. I just don't know how she hangs on, she cant weigh more than 2 pounds! She sleeps a lot, but she still cuddles with me, and purrs, and eats, and meows loudly when she wants something.
I wish I could make her better but I can't. She is happy, and does not appear to be in pain, so I will just let her be for awhile.

Gotta go throw another log on the fire...

Catching up

Just another picture from the play...Tiger Lily and the Henny Penny tribe...from PETER PAN

I have finally transcribed my 19 pages of notes from the Coupeville Festival Retreat and I used Office 2007. WOW!! I LOVE it!! so many easy things to do to make your pages look good. I have to have these printed for our meeting again in Dec. This is also the meeting that we award our 30,000 dollars of Grants to those individuals and organizations that applied and we thought were worthy. We had a lot of people apply for these grants, and it was very hard to say no to some of them, but then again, there were some that we all looked at and all did a thumbs down. There are rules to follow, and those that do not follow the guidelines, get denied. They are right there on the front of the application, and they STILL get it wrong.

I am learning a lot with this organization. Next time you go to a town festival, or a craft sale, or a city bazzaar, stop and think about what all goes on BEHIND the scenes by VOLUNTEERS in order to make it happen. Amazing what all you DONT hear about!

I am just about caught up with my book work, The Play has three more weeks to run, then it will be all torn down and the next one will go forward. Three months of hard work by a very few people, and once again, they are all VOLUNTEERS.

I am working harder volunteering than I did before I retired!! amazing isnt it?

My canning is all finished.
I cleaned my house.
I did all the laundry.
Bob raked all the leaves.
I finished the retreat notes.

I still have to finish the Lobby poster for PP.
take and do the Bio's photos and pages for the Christmas play.
Get the Meeting Minutes for the CFA finished.

I am still swimming, in fact I just bought three new suits in a size smaller than before! (swimming 6 hours a week does a number on a suit! they only last about 3 months, and then they fade and the elasticity fails.)

Little Miss Sadie-Bug is in the Doghouse!!! She was given a ham bone outside last evening, and last night or rather this morning, she pooped right in the middle of the hall way! Yep...I sure did...It was dark. She got yelled at, pitched outside, while I hobbled to get some toilet paper to get it off my foot, and then up off the floor. I was NOT happy! The last time she did this was last Christmas, when I gave her the boes and excess fat off the prime rib roast. I think I will not do that again. DAMN DOG!!! >:(

I have my oldest cat, Ethel, getting rid to leave this world. She is 16 and has lost almost all of her weight! She is losing hair like mad too, black fur everywhere! She has kidney failure, and will soon just die. I should take her in to have her put down, but she freaks really bad when I haul out the carrier, so I dont want her last minutes being fearful. She still purrs, and eats, and sleeps, and cuddles, but she now weighs only about 2 or 3 pounds...So sad. I will tell her story when she goes.

We ared having a very warm November. Flooding and rain, and wind, but so far, no frost. It got close the other night, but not yet. FOg though.

Well, I need to get busy and finish a few more things. Just wanted to post so you would not think I was gone forever. I'm not. I'm here. Just was really busy!

States I have been in.

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

The end is near!

Whew!! Last dress rehearsal tonight and we open Friday for a 4 week run! My eyes are so glazed from all the detail work on the background of the pictures. I bought the whole Photoshop suite when I got my computer, and it is really really NEAT!! I had elements before, and that was good, but this has sooo much more, and I like the interface between Vista, windows picture viewer and Photoshop. You click on a picture and then click on open and VOLIA! the picture you want to edit is right there!! COOL!

I have all the portraits for the lobby wall, and Most of their Bios also, but I have to get it up tonight, so some will go up without Bios, and then they will whine and wonder why they did not have a bio on the wall, write one out and expect me to just reach into my back pocket and pull out the formatted, bio, all printed in powerpoint in the proper font and colors. Not gonna happen. I have been asking for Bios for 3 months. And as many pictures as I have taken there are still several kids that were not there in time so their portrait was not taken. This cast was just WAAAAAAY too big, with hardly any parental help.

The show will open on time, and it will all work out, but this one has been a rough birth. I had the lights all set, and then they changed the set, so now the lights dont look right. They will have to do though. As I was not given any more time to get them done. It will work! Some how the magic always comes together.

I will only be taking pictures and doing the lobby wall poster for the next show, so that will not be bad. And then Nothing until June, when we Produce NUNSENSE. That one only has five ladies in it, so it will be a snap. WHEW!

Now on to other things....