Super Bowl Main Course

We are having a small gathering on Sunday for the Super Bowl.  We've invited my husband's brothers and their families.  While I enjoy watching football and of course the commercials, my favorite part of the day is the food.  I like preparing appetizers and I like eating them!!

This year is no different however I thought I would add a main course - something hearty and but not fussy.  Even though I like to cook, I don't want to spend all day in the kitchen.  Much to my daughter's delight, our main course will be her Aunt Geri's recipe for White Bean and Chicken Chili.  When I asked her for the recipe, she sent me this link  http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/white-bean-chicken-chili  Here's a picture from the link.  Doesn't it look yummy?!

 I haven't decided on the appetizers yet but you can bet I'll blog about them when I do!

"Food is for eating, and good food is to be enjoyed...  I think food is, actually, very beautiful in itself."  -Delia Smith

Knitting Project Update

I wanted to give an update on my new knitting project.  It has been quite an adventure.  For those of you who are regular visitors to my blog, you'll remember that my son's girlfriend bought me some beautiful yarn for Christmas and I chose Don Waalen's Rock Piles, Roses and Bees cowl pattern to make with it.  You can order the pattern through All About Yarn allaboutyarn.biz  or you can find it on Ravelry  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#query=rock%20piles%2C%20roses%20and%20bees

The pattern calls for slipping stitches and then knitting stitches.  After many rows of slipping and knitting, I realized I was slipping the stitches all wrong.  I didn't know that when slipping stitches you should always slip purl-wise unless the pattern indicates otherwise!  Once I corrected that problem, the pattern really started to take shape.

In the above picture, you can probably see my second problem.  In order to finish the cowl, I needed a second skein of yarn.  I was in a hurry when I went to the yarn shop to get the second skein - it was the same color (cherry), made by the same manufacturer (Malabrigo) BUT it was the wrong weight.  I bought worsted and I needed DK.  So........my lunchtime project at work has been backing out the incorrect yarn.

My evening project has been working in the new yarn and creating a beautiful cowl that I can't wait to wear!

The worsted weight yarn won't be going to waste.....I plan on making a winter hat in a twisted cable pattern.  Probably another project I'll be blogging about!

"I'm a yarnaholic. That means I have more yarn stashed away than any one person could possibly use in three or four lifetimes. There's something inspiring about yarn that makes me feel I could never have enough." - Debbie Macomber

A Few Winter Blues Cures

My family has about reached the limit of how fond they are of this winter weather.  Since we can't afford to jet off to the Bahamas on a moments notice, we came up with a few ideas to beat the winter blues.  We thought we'd share our ideas.

1.  Take a walk through the Como Conservatory indoor gardens.  Here is a link to their website:  www.comozooconservatory.org 

2.  Visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  Check out their new indoor orchid tree.  There is free admission every day in January.  Here is the link to their website:  www.arboretum.umn.edu

3.  Check out the new boats at the Minneapolis Boat Show at the Convention Center from January 30 to February 2.  Here is the link to the website for more details:  www.minneapolisboatshow.com

3.  Now that the Minnesota Orchestra is back to work (after being on strike for a very long time), take in a performance of this award winning group of musicians.  If you go to their web page, you can find a calendar with all performance dates:  www.minnesotaorchestra.org

4.  Take a group of kids to Sky Zone or Zero Gravity and join in the fun jumping on the indoor trampolines.  It is quite an aerobic work out!  www.zerogravitymn.com   or    www.skyzone.com

5.  Go for lunch at Psycho Suzi's and order a tropical drink from their specialty drink menu.  http://psychosuzis.com

6.  Pack your swim suit and head to the Waterpark of America.  www.waterparkofamerica.com

7.  Have a picnic in your livingroom.  Spread a blanket out on the floor and eat all of your favorite summer picnic foods.  I almost thing grilled food tastes better in the winter!

8.  Have a spa day at home.  Do a facial.  Paint your toes and fingernails.  Deep condition your hair.

9.  Declare a pajama day.  Invite friends over for a movie marathon - or a Downton Abbey marathon!

10.  Game night - adults and children.

11.  Rent snowshoes or cross country skis and take a trek through your local park.

12.  Have a campout in your living room.  Set up a real or pretend tent.  Declare it a "no screen night".  Play games, tell stories, go on a treasure hunt.....

13.  Volunteer - read books to children at the library, serve meals to the homeless, visit your local nursing home, bake a meal for a busy family......

14.  Sign up for a cooking or gardening class.

15.  Have a craft day.  Invite friends over and have them bring their unfinished projects to work on and an appetizer to share.

16.  Go for walk at night, taking in the sights and sounds (or lack there of) a cold winter night.

So these are just a small sampling of our ideas.  We'll be trying out a few this weekend!

"People don't notice if it's winter or summer when they're happy."  -Anton Chekhov

Tie Blankets By Hannah:)

This blog post has been written by my 11 year old daughter, Hannah.  This is the craft she did today while having a day off of school.  Seemed appropriate since the reason she was off today was because of the cold!

First you have to go to a fabric store. I went to JoAnn fabrics but you can go anywhere that sells fabric. You want to get 2 yards of a patterned fleece and 2 yards of a solid color fleece. Next you lay out your fleece by having the patterned one on top and the solid one on the bottom. After that you want to cut into the corner about 3 or 4 inches and make a square. Do that to all four corners. Now you are ready to start cutting. You want to cut about the same length of the square you made. The strips should be about an inch wide.

The strips should look like this.

After you have finished cutting one side you need to tie it so nothing gets messed up. How you want to do this is tie it normally but then on the second knot make sure the non-patterned side is facing up. This is to make sure you can see the solid color.

After you have tied one side you go to the other sides and cut and tie. After you have finished that you are done and you can enjoy your warm blanket.

"Cold, cozy nights, warm blankets, and hot chocolate." -Unknown

Fun Lollipops

My daughter went to a dance competition yesterday and bought these great suckers.

They are locally made without high fructose corn syrup.  They last an hour an half - per my daughter - and taste great!  Each sucker is individually wrapped......

and the stick is imprinted with the sucker name/flavor.

The lollipops are about 1 1/2" across and about an inch high.  They look as they they were made in a mini-muffin tin.  Lolligobs have a great website and will ship the suckers to your home.  Here is a link to their website:  www.lolligobs.com  My daughter bought 4 flavors and loved every one of them.  These would make great Valentine treats, Easter favors or May basket goodies.  Who doesn't like a lollipop!

"Rainbow drops - suck them and you can spit in six different colors."  -Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 

Back to Blogging

Thank you to everyone who sent emails or called my mom to see if everything was OK with my family and me.  I haven’t blogged for a couple of days.  The cause may make some of you think that I am quite the baby.  My lack of a daily blog was because I was in too much pain from the beginnings of a root canal.  I say beginnings because they were unable to complete the entire root canal in one visit.  My tooth was just too inflamed so I have to go back in two weeks to have it finished. 

I know that root canals aren’t uncommon and about everyone I’ve talked to has either had one or knows someone who has had one.  I, unlike most people though, have an incredible fear and phobia of going to the dentist. 

As a child, I had a great dentist and I had a fabulous orthodontist.  I have always taken good care of my teeth – I have just been unlucky with the make-up of my teeth.  I took a lot of antibiotics as a child so my teeth are a bit gray.  My teeth are also a bit brittle so I have stress fractures in all of them from having braces.  As a child, I had to have 9 teeth pulled before getting braces and have had my share of fillings.  Although I had a great childhood dentist, these types of mouth trauma left unpleasant memories.

As an adult, when I moved Minneapolis, MN, I had to go leave my childhood dentist behind and start going to a dentist associated with my dental insurance.  I went to a huge practice where I never saw the same dentist.   I felt like I no choice and this was the practice I had to visit because I couldn’t afford to go somewhere else and risk having to pay for the visit from my meager salary.  This was fine for routine care but when my husband I had children and our children started making regular visits to the dentist, and when I needed more extensive dental care, I found that this was definitely not the dentist practice for us.

While starting my search for a new dentist, coincidently the Minneapolis/St. Paul magazine came out with their list of best physicians and dentists in the metro area.  I looked over the list, found a few that sounded promising and called our insurance company to see if any of my choices were covered under our plan.  One of them was so I made an appointment for all of us.  I have been very pleased ever since!  This fantastic dental practice is Valley Dental and particularly Dr. Evenson.

Now this isn’t to say that my dental woes were gone.  They still had to pry my hands off of the armrests after my teeth cleaning.  After having to this a few times however, they came up with a way to help me relax.  They give me headphones so I can listen to the TV or music.  They do something special when they take x-rays of my teeth because I have bones growing under my tongue which make tradition x-rays extremely painful. They use a special water scraper instead of the traditional metal one……I get goose bumps just thinking about the metal one scraping my teeth. 

Dr. Evenson and his staff have also been fantastic with my children.  My children have had cleanings; teeth extractions (for braces); a chipped tooth from a baseball shaped back to normal; one cavity filled (between three children – one cavity is quite an accomplishment); wisdom teeth pulled and a gum correction.  Each time, they explained what they were going to do and they tried to make each child feel comfortable.  Dr. Evenson’s manner is calm and quiet.  He is so gentle.  I feel that we’re all in good hands under his care.

My recent tooth trouble was no different, however I found out how deep my dental phobia really is.  On Thursday morning, I called my dentist’s office from work and explained that I was in excruciating pain.  They said that someone could see me at 4pm that day.  I started to cry.  When the scheduler asked for my name and looked up my information on her computer, she quickly asked if I could hold.  She came back on the phone after a short time and said that Dr. Evenson would see me as soon as I could get there.  Evidently, in my information, it says that I am only to see Dr. Evenson.

As soon as I got to Dr. Evenson’s office, they took me in right away.  Within about 15 minutes, I had a diagnosis.  As soon as he told me I had to go to a root canal specialist, I started to cry.  He and his hygienist felt really bad and he assured me that the doctor who would be seeing me would be wonderful.  They made the appointment for me and made sure I had the directions on how to get there. 

The staff at the root canal specialist’s office was great.  They saw how scared I was and tried to help keep me calm.  They gave me a blanket, which they completely swaddled around me.   They never treated me as the lunatic I felt like I looked.  Here I was, an adult woman, practically having a nervous breakdown over a relatively common dental procedure! 

Dr. Anderson was marvelous and he felt bad that he couldn’t finish the procedure all in one visit.  The tooth was just too inflamed and they had given me as much numbing medicine as they could.  So I will need to go back on February 6 for last of the procedure and then I will need to back to Dr. Evenson get a crown.

So for now, the toothache pain has somewhat subsided but that part of my mouth is really sore and I am having trouble eating.  (I wanted to lose some weight but this isn’t really how I wanted to do it!)  My mom has emailed me some fabulous recipes for soft food and I’ve given myself the OK to have as many mochas as I want!

I spent all day Friday in bed watching Netflix but today I have returned to the living world.  I’ve been to the grocery store and I am writing this from a window seat at Caribou Coffee. 

Shortly, I plan to stop by my favorite knitting store, All About Yarn, to catch up with the store owner, Roxanne, and to get help on a project I’m working on.   I’m going to grill steak kabobs for my family tonight and have promised my daughter that I would play a few rounds of CLUE with her.  Life goes on. 

"Some tortures are physical, and some are mental, but the one that is both is dental."  -Ogden Nash

Safety First

Tonight's blog is a bit of a public service announcement.  This was posted on a few of my friends and relatives Facebook pages and I think it is worthy of passing it along.  Please watch this video about how to safely dispose of batteries.
themotherlist.com/fire-safety-video-must-watch
I'm usually pretty skeptical of these types of videos but even my husband thought this was worth watching.  Be safe everyone!

"Precaution is better than a cure."  -Edward Coke

Great Small Town Co-Op

I have a personal and professional (my blog) Facebook pages.  I usually check in on my profiles once a day - before I go to bed.  It's fun to check in with friends and family and supporters.  I especially like keeping up to date with what my cousins are doing.  I almost feel closer to them now than I did when I lived at home.

Besides personal connections, I like to check in with my favorite business and websites to see what is new.  Most of them I've mentioned in this blog.  There is one though, that I haven't yet mentioned that definitely deserves a "shout out".  That's The Granary Food Co-Op in Ortonville, MN.  Ortonville is my hometown so I could be partial to this co-op because it's familiar and one of the key people involved in it is one of my mom's dear friends.  That is not the case however.  I am partial to this co-op because it is one of the best co-ops I've ever been in.  I hope the people of Ortonville recognize what a gem they have!

The Granary has bulk spices, syrups, soaps and cleaning products.  All safe and healthy.  They have a great organic selection of eggs, soups, cheese, meat, personal care products and much, much more.  Their Facebook post today showcased the bread they will have for sale every Monday.  Here is a picture and a description from their Facebook page:

"The Granary is SO excited to announce a new product we will be featuring in our store - starting today! The Abbey of the Hills (formerly Blue Cloud Abbey) is now making Organic Whole Wheat Bread, and Organic White Bread. We will have this local bread in store every Monday! 

This is the original recipe the monks created and used for years and years - and now is made using all natural, organic ingredients. Our Board or Directors, General Manager, and staff of Volunteers can all tell you, from personal experience -- this bread is amazing!! Stop in today"

This makes me wish I lived closer.  I would be at the Granary every Monday morning!  If you get a chance and you're either visiting Ortonville or just passing through, stop at the Granary and see what goodies you can find.  It's now going to be a "must visit" when I'm home visiting my parents!

"Save the planet.  Buy organic."  -Nancy Philips

Great Nail Polish

I'm not usually one to paint my fingernails.  In the summer, my toes are always painted but because I'm pretty rough on my hands, fingernail polish tends to easily chip off.  BUT, while looking for a birthday gift for one of my daughter's friends, we came across this nail polish that we thought we'd give a try.

It's called Color Show by Maybelline and costs under $3 a bottle.  We purchased ours at Target.  It looks a bit like confetti in a bottle.  I thought I'd try the pink one which is called Pretty in Polka.

Here is what it looks like on my nails.

I'm finding that it doesn't chip very easy and if it does chip, it's hard to see the because of all of the polka dots.  I've had lots of comments and compliments on my nails covered in this polish.  I can't wait to try the other colors!

"Nails are the period at the end of the sentence.  They complete the look."  -Prabal Gurung

A Nice Dinner

Tonight I felt like putting together a really nice meal.  It was only going to be my husband, oldest son, and me so I went to my favorite local small grocery, Bob's Produce.  I got some beautiful tenderloin steaks for the grill;

bakery fresh bread;

a salad with romaine lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes;

fresh green beans;

baked potatoes and a French Silk Pie.

I also bought these beautiful roses for $.99 a piece.

Bob's Produce is a wonderful place to get supplies for a special meal.  It's also a great place to get a lunch to go or get it to eat in the store's little eating area.  I like to get my meat there because it's fresh and they have a wide variety of beef, pork and seafood.  Here is a link to their website for more details:   www.bobsproduce.com  I think it's time for a second piece of pie!

"The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook."  -Julia Child

New Knitting Project

My house is an absolute disaster and there are piles and piles of laundry to do.  BUT......I have a new knitting project I can't wait to get started.  My oldest son's girlfriend gave me a skein of the most beautiful yarn (my son actually picked the color - he knows his mom well).

It is a really soft yarn called Madelinetosh and it is worsted weight.

I found a pattern that will be just perfect.  It will show off the color of the yarn.  It is a pattern created by my favorite knitting designer, Don Waalen.  It is called Rock Piles, Roses and Bees.

It is a little more complicated pattern then I am used to and I have to count rows.  But I'm up to the challenge!

"It's pure potential.  Every ball or skein of yarn holds something inside it, and the great mystery of what that might be can be almost spiritual."  -Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

A Thank You Gift

I have been at my new full-time job for a little over three months.  I have learned so much and couldn't have survived all of the ups and downs if it wasn't for a very special co-worker.  She has been so patient with my never ending questions.  She's always asking how I'm doing.....she never wants me to feel overwhelmed.  She supports my ideas and compliments my work.  She is an amazing woman and she is one of my supervisors.

She has had to spend a lot of extra time at work because of projects and training new employees and a million fires to put out and meetings and on and on and on..........  She has a husband and two little boys who are very dear to her and she has had to spend a lot of time away from them.  I wanted to put together a gift to thank her for being so incredible and I wanted it to be something she could do while spending time with her family.

So......I called my mom for ideas.  She gave me some great suggestions and between the two of us, here is what we came up with - a breakfast theme:

hot chocolate - an adult version & a child version,

pancake mixes,

syrup,

and some fun napkins.

I put it all together in a bag with a fun ribbon and I will attach a note.

I hope she likes it!

"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues."  -Cicero

An Awesome Closet

Every woman should be so lucky to be married to someone who can fix or build anything.  My husband can fix anything and he's very creative when it comes to building things around our house and on our property up north.  We usually tell him what we will be using something for, and he'll come up with multiple designs to accommodate our needs and he makes it look good in the process.  He works on CAD (computer aided drafting) for his regular job and has a version of it at home.  He's very technical in his designs!

His most recent design was to help our 17 year old get his closet organized.  He made three designs.  When I told him the first design was wonderful, he came up with two more designs.  As he laid them on the table, he said, "you can never say yes to the first design.  You must see all of the possibilities before you say yes".  Well said because we ended up choosing the second design!

Here is the final product.

Now our son has room to hang his shirts and sweatshirts and a spot for hanging longer clothes like his heavy winter jackets.  There are shelves for an underwear and sock bins, jeans, shorts t-shirts and sweat/pajama pants.  The space below the shelves is open to accommodate shoes and his dirt bike boots.  There are big shelves up on top for extra blankets, his suitcase, extra hunting gear and whatever else a 17 year old boy needs.  There are pocket doors on the front that shuts it all off to the rest of the room.  Our son, and I, LOVE IT!

"For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned."  -Unknown

Movie to Inspire Cooking

One of my favorite, more recent movies, is Julie and Julia.  For those of you who haven't seen it or heard about it, here is the synopsis from the back of the movie case:  "A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life in Julie and Julia, the true stories of how Julia Child's life and cookbook inspired fledgling writer Julie Powell to whip up 524 recipes i 365 days and introduce a new generation to the magic of French cooking."  My favorite thing about this movie is the unbridled joy Julia Child has for everything in her life.  She seems like she was just a delightful woman.

I've watched it about a hundred times and this weekend, I watched it with my 11 year old daughter.  She has been bitten by the baking bug and every weekend is in the kitchen mixing up some wonderful treats.  I thought she could appreciate the all of the baking and cooking done by Julia Child and Julie Powell.  She also liked that Julia Child fell in love with Paris, as did my daughter!

I was so inspired by the movie this time, that after we watched it, I ordered Julia Child's first cookbooks :  The Art of French Cooking 1 & 2.  They came from Amazon today!

I've sitting on my couch in front of the fireplace all evening browsing through them.  I can't wait to try Porc Sylvie (Pork Stuffed with Cheese), Mousse A L'Orange (Orange Mousse - a frozen dessert), Clafouti (Cherry Flan), Crepes, and Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence (Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce) - just to name a few.  I have some willing taste testers as longs as things don't get too weird.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

"Julia taught me what it takes to find your way in the world.  It's not what I thought it was.  I thought it was all about - I don't know, confidence or will or luck.  Those are all some good things to have, no question.  But there's something else, something that these things grow out of.  It's joy."  -Julie Powell

Praying for Friends

I've spent a lot of time at home the last couple of days both under the weather myself and with a sick little girl.  So I've done a lot of reading, a lot of movie watching and a lot of reflecting.  In both the movies I watched and the books I read, the main theme was friendship, particularly friendship between adult women.  This caused me to do a little reflecting on my life and the women in my life who I am privileged to call my friends.

I really care about my close friends but I'm not always very good at sharing with them how grateful I am for each of them.  I had a very special friend who passed away a few years ago and I waited until she was very sick with cancer before I told her how much she meant to me.  I made her a prayer shawl and wrote her a note telling her all of the special places where I had knit the shawl.....on Madeline Island overlooking the sunset and sunrise over Lake Superior, in our 40 acre woods by a roaring campfire, sitting on the couch in my parents' house, and many other memorable places.

After lots of thought, I decided that I would make prayer shawls for my few very dear friends and I was not going to wait until some dire circumstance came along to do.  Shouldn't we be praying for our friends every day and not just when times are tough?

The book I used to make my friend Winnie's shawl is called The Prayer Shawl Companion by Janet Bristow & Victoria A. Cole-Galo.

This is the shawl pattern I used.

Here are some other patterns that I may use.

I especially like the pocket prayer shawls because that would be something a friend could keep with them all of the time, tucked in a purse or jacket pocket.  So it looks like I will be doing some knitting and some praying over the next couple of weeks!

"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant."  -Socrates

Books

I'm feeling a bit under the weather tonight so my blog will be "short and sweet".  I just wanted to share this link to a website that will be helping me out in my quest to read 47 books this year!

www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/books-to-read-before-they-hit-theaters-this-year

I've already read Divergent and am picking up The Hundred Foot Journey at the library tomorrow!

"Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book."  -Jane Smiley

A Part of Your Community

I feel really blessed that both my husband and I have great jobs with wonderful benefits and salaries that help us manage our busy family.  When I got laid off last August, I had visions of not being able to provide healthy meals for my growing children.  Many nights I laid awake worrying about about our finances.  My husband and I have always been good at money management so we had an emergency fund that could keep us going for quite a while - barring any unforeseen catastrophe like needing a new transmission in one of our vehicles, a serious accident or illness in us or one of our children, a broken major appliance, and on and on.

I was really lucky to find a job in a matter of a couple of months and get us back on track.  I returned to sleeping at night and on to worrying about other things like figuring out the Northstar/Light Rail train schedule and whether or not to make my co-workers treats for Christmas.  Now, as I wake to face the day, I thank God for all of my blessings and have added special prayers for those who are worrying as I did about providing for their family.

It is with this not so distant memory of being so scared about the future that I am planning on having a date with my husband tomorrow evening.  What?!  Yes, a date but one that will benefit Southern Anoka Community Assistance - a non-profit food shelf and community assistance program.  They provide an emergency food program, clothing and household needs, Christmas toys and dinner distribution, school supplies distribution, and referrals to other aid agencies.  The benefit is called "Hops for Hunger".  Here is a link to the website for all of the details:  finnegans.org/event/hops-for-hunger-ii/

If you are unable to attend this event, please think of other ways you can support your community.  Bring outgrown boots and snowpants to your local elementary school.  Start a food shelf and necessity room at your local high school - Coon Rapids High School and Fridley High School have great supply rooms for in-need teenagers.  Invite an elderly neighbor over for a dinner a week -  I'm sure they'd enjoy the company more than the food.  Set up anonymous grocery drops for a neighbor who is out of work.  Enlist the help of your children.....pass on the idea that there is no shame in needing help but there is great shame in not helping out!

"Research has shown that people who volunteer often live longer."  -Allen Klein 

Decorated Rolodex

With my job, I have a lot of contact with clients outside of my company.  Trying to keep all of that contact information has gotten to be a little overwhelming so I decided to organize all of them in a Rolodex.

 I like to have a little color and/or sparkle to things on my desk to keep it from looking "boring" so of course I had to make some changes to my new Rolodex.  I dug around in my craft supplies for colored and patterned paper.  I also found some embellished felt flower stickers that I thought would be a great accent.

I took out the letter dividers and added double sided tape to the front side, being careful to maintain a straight line of tape under the letters.

Next I pressed a piece of paper onto the double sided tape, matching the straight tape edge underneath the letters.

I trimmed all of the edges and carefully cut out the tabs at the bottom.

On this first card, I added the flower embellishments.  This is the "front" of the Rolodex.

For each of the other letter cards, I repeated the process to add the colored/patterned paper, making each letter card different.

A "modified" Rolodex like this one, paired with a Rolodex Business Card Punch,

would make a great gift for someone who needs to keep their contact information close at hand - either at home or at the office.  I can't wait to start filling mine up!

"Organize, don't agonize."  -Nancy Pelosi