More food fun

Julianne has become the little...presence...whispering in my ear lately.  She spied the floral focaccia last week and showed it to me.  She also stumbled across "Leopard" bread and had me take a look.  I think she's liking how this works out for her so far.

The inspiration comes from this blog.

I didn't follow the recipe and methods exactly-I couldn't figure out why I'd refrigerate dough for an hour for the first rise so I did what I always do and kept it on the counter.  The chocolate paste was too dry so I kept adding milk until I liked the consistency.  Would it have handled easier/better following her method?  Maybe, but I'll likely never know.😉

 

I'm having a lot of fun trying these new ideas.  How about you?  Has the pandemic pushed you toward anything new and interesting?

Playing with my food

Julianne showed me a picture this morning on Pinterest that piqued my interest...focaccia decorated with vegetable "flowers".  It was so pretty and, hey, I'm a bread baker so it didn't seem too out of reach.  

I suggested the girls and I could do it together since we're still under our stay home order and it would be a break in the regular routine.

I mixed up the dough and started cutting up some veggies we had on hand.  Allison went foraging outside and returned with chives, parsley, chickweed, and dandelion leaves.  Julianne put together a pot of cabbage soup to make the bread into a lunch.

We worked together to lay out our design on a cutting board while the dough was rising.  It made the final placement pretty straightforward.  I brushed the dough with garlic-infused olive oil and we transferred our garden from cutting board to dough.  We oohed and aahed over our creation (a necessary step!), then snapped some pics.

Here it is before baking:

After baking:

We had a lot of fun and a delicious lunch in the end. #Winning!

The view out my kitchen window...

We have been enjoying seeing several bluebirds lately.  We have a bluebird house in our yard but a sparrow has taken it over and refuses to allow the bluebirds admission. Imagine that.

We have this problem more years than not...this year it's a sparrow but the wrens have been culprits in the past as well.  As have the cowbirds.  Sigh.

Clarence decided today to build and place a couple more bluebird houses.  Here's hoping they will beat the other birds to them.

As different as life is these days, I hope you and yours have a beautiful Easter celebration, however you are having to adapt it this year.

Bibimbap...Quarantine Cooking

Cooking can become drudgery sometimes...these people actually expect to eat.every.day.  Add trying to stay out of the grocery store and cooking these days can be more challenging than usual.  

The upside of being ordered to stay home is that we have no commitments to plan around and so, some days, I put a little extra effort into my dinner preparations.  Today was bibimbap, a dish the girls and I had for the first time as part of a field trip when we did to go along with When My Name Was Keoko.  We were treated to a variety of Korean foods that day, which were all good, but bibimbap was our favorite.

I think bibimbap was created to use up bits of leftovers-but I always seem to have to start from scratch when I make it.

When we order it out, there's always pickled daikon in the bowl, which is a component we all really enjoy.  But, in this time of shop-at-home, I decided to pickle some regular radishes to stand in for the daikon.

This is how they looked a few minutes after pouring the pickling liquid over them. By dinner time they were no longer distinctly red and white; they looked bright pink throughout. 

Since it's been a while since I've pickled daikon, I had a hard time remembering the exact recipe I'd used before.  Allison helped me find it and Clarence suggested I blog the recipe so it'd be easier to find it next time.  I adapted this recipe.  Here is how I did it:

Pickled Radishes

1 1/4 pound radishes, cleaned, trimmed & thinly sliced

2 c. white vinegar

2 c. sugar

3/4 c. water

1 t. canning salt 

Bring vinegar, sugar, water, and salt to a boil.  Pour over sliced radishes in jar.  Cap and let cool to room temperature, then chill, preferably 24 hours before serving.

I had a little pickling liquid left over so I think I could use a couple pounds of radishes next time.  And I didn't plan ahead and make the pickles yesterday, so they only had a few hours to chill before dinner.

Still, we were happy with the flavor in our bibimbap tonight so I will likely be making these again as regular radishes are generally easier to find than daikon. 

The past week's efforts

Allison is calling this my "Table of Accomplishment".😀 It's a table set up in our living room in order to allow the jars to stand undisturbed without taking up the whole kitchen.

I bought a bushel of peaches, a bushel of tomatoes, and a big box of jalapenos at a Mennonite store.  Then I spent three days "putting up" all of it and feared I'd actually run out of rings to fasten down the lids of my jars.

I made tomato-peach salsa, regular salsa, crushed tomatoes, candied jalapenos, peach jam with regular pectin and, for the first time, peach jam using Pomona's pectin.  I've heard of Pomona's for years but never picked any up to try until this year.  Making the Pomona's immediately after making the traditional jam was astonishingly eye-opening.  The same amount of peaches went into each recipe but the sugar was 2 cups for the Pomona's and 7 1/2 cups for the traditional!  

I made rolls the day of this picture and decided they might as well go on the table to cool because, really, it IS satisfying to look at all of it in one spot.  The rolls are the first installment on the 300 promised for a friend's daughter's wedding in October.  I didn't want to freeze them for too long but since I get about 4 dozen out of a batch of dough, I had to get started to fit in 6-7 batches before the big day.

The rolls are in the freezer and the jarred goodies are all put away...so yesterday I canned some pickled red onions.  I've never tried them before so we'll see what we think in a couple weeks.  Canning is both immediate and delayed gratification.

Decoupage-it might be an illness

Pinterest can be a dangerous thing.  In the best way, of course.

After seeing some decoupaged crates on Pinterest, I knew I had finally found something to replace the dilapidated baskets we use to hold firewood. 

A couple years ago, I had purchased some pretty napkins at Ikea but never used them for the project I had in mind at the time.  (And I hate printed napkins for mealtime.  They're pretty as can be but all that ink makes them useless for cleaning food off my face.)  I was excited to try them on crates.

But first, maybe I should try a smaller project?

I found an ugly, dark, cheap tray at a rummage sale.  I painted it white and separated the layers of my first napkin...

I ended up peeling the torn napkin off the tray and throwing it away.  Next I tried scrapbook paper and wallpaper border.  It isn't perfect, but I'm happy enough with it.

I scouted around on Pinterest for decoupage advice and found a few tips that gave me hope.

Then I went to Joann Fabrics last Saturday and found crates half-off.  Deep breath.  Maybe I could make the napkins work?  Half-off makes it a pretty small waste of money if it didn't work.  And they'd still be functional, even if I couldn't pretty them up, right?  So, I brought two home.

I finished putting the napkins on tonight.  More coats of ModPodge and they'll truly be finished but I'm pretty delighted with how they look.

I pulled out a jar destined for recycling and a small napkin printed with chevrons today...and considered.  Yep, I'm pretty sure decoupage is a disease.

It's been a long time...

 

(My niece, Victoria, nagged me about sweetly mentioned to me how long it had been since I last posted on my blog.  I guess the prodding must have worked.)

This is one of today's blessings.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit I didn't pick a single one of them.

We have a neighbor who has a couple of apple trees growing by the ditch of his field.  He always graciously allows us to pick however many we want and I make him a pie to thank him.

 

We try to pick them a little green (because they get mealy fast) peel, slice, and stick them in the freezer to use all winter.  Allison often ends up doing the bulk of the prep and also uses most of them when she makes little canning jar pies for Clarence for every gift-giving occasion.  It's a sweet tradition I know he hopes won't end anytime soon.

If you look closely, you'll see spots on some apples and apples that are oddly shaped.  I guess they aren't very pretty, are they?  

 

What I see when I look at them is free, organically grown apples, generously shared with us by a kindhearted neighbor we barely know, that will be a tasty addition to many things in the months ahead.  I am very thankful for these ugly (but I think beautiful) apples...and the man who thinks we're a little strange to want his ditch apples but shares them with us anyhow.

Lemon Curd

Earl and Kathy invited the girls to spend the night at their house Friday night.  Not only that, Kathy offered to bring them back home today, leaving my car available for me and saving me the long drive to pick them back up.

I was very appreciative and decided to whip up some lemon curd as a token of my thanks.  As I looked up the recipe, I was reminded that a friend of mine requested the recipe recently and I decided I could perhaps post something on my blog at long last as well.  Win-win.

 

The recipe I use couldn't be easier-throw the ingredients into a pan, stir over low heat until thick. Voila, lemon curd.  

 

I first made it for our FIAR group almost 10 years ago, when we read "The Secret Garden".  I discovered it in a recipe for Lemon Curd Tartlets from "The Secret Garden Cookbook-Recipes Inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden" by Amy Cotler.  I've made it several times through the years, seldom bothering with the tart shells (although it's delicious that way), mostly just whipping up a batch or three of the curd itself.

 

Lemon Curd

1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup sugar
zest of one lemon
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick) chilled and cut into 4 pieces

 

Whisk together the egg, egg yolk, sugar, lemon zest, and juice in a small saucepan.  Add the cold pieces of butter and place over low heat.  Cook about 10 minutes, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula to prevent sticking, until the mixture just coats the back of a spoon.  Do not boil!  Immediately remove from the heat and scrape into a small bowl.  Press plastic wrap over the curd to prevent a skin from forming.  Place in the refrigerator.

I've also made lime curd, subbing lime zest and juice for the lemon, which is wonderful, too.  

 

We like the curd on lemon poppyseed scones, Allison likes it on toast or crackers, and one of the best ways to enjoy it is on a spoon.  What would you put it on? 

Unity Punch

Last Sunday, when I walked into the sanctuary at church, there were some unusual things on a small table up front.  A pitcher of yellow liquid, a pitcher of blue liquid, and a jar with a bit of water in it.  During the sermon, the pastor took each of the pitchers and poured them into the jar, filling it to the top as an illustration to go with what he was saying in the sermon.

Allison was inspired.

Allison was reminded of seeing people pour colored sand into a container at weddings in lieu of using a unity candle.  Being someone who doesn't like the idea of  keeping a lot of sentimental doodads, she doesn't someday want a jar of colored sand that she has to keep, just because it was a symbolic thing at her wedding.

Her solution?

Put punch components up front at the wedding.  Bride and groom each pour into a punch bowl, then the guests drink the punch at the reception.

We laughed so hard when she shared the idea with us at lunch.  We'll see if she follows through with it someday-though she isn't dating anyone so a wedding seems far off at the moment. Or, maybe, it will soon be a "thing" and you'll notice it all over Pinterest.  If so, you'll know who thought of it first. ;-)

Chair sleeping

Ever have those nights when you can't get comfy enough to sleep?  Or you get to sleep, only to wake a couple hours later needing to find a new position because the one that was comfy when you fell asleep is now causing you pain?  That was me, several months ago.  My solution was to get a recliner for the living room in hopes that I could sleep, or at least nap, in it when I wasn't sleeping well in my bed and keep from disturbing Clarence's sleep as well.

We went shopping for the perfect sleeping chair.  I liked the first one I tried the best-until I went back to try it again a couple weeks later, at the end of a shopping trip, and found it was only easy to use when I wasn't fatigued.  Back to square one.

Clarence suggested I needed to reconsider the motorized chairs I had already shunned.  While I was in town one day, I stopped back by the local furniture store to take another look.  When I mentioned that I was now considering an electric chair, my salesman was quick to chuckle and tell me that they call them "power recliners" as it sounds much better.

During the several weeks it took for the chair to arrive, a friend sent me the pattern for a neck pillow, advising me that it was absolutely necessary if I didn't want to be sore from sleeping in a recliner.  My chair arrived just before Christmas but I still hadn't gotten around to making my neck pillow.

Yesterday, I ended up taking a nap in my chair.  I'm happy to report that it's a very comfortable chair for sleeping but when bedtime rolled around, I had a lot of soreness in my back and arms.  I thought about my neck pillow, already cut out, just not sewn together.  

Today, I finally got it out and sewed it.  Before sewing the opening closed, I kicked back on it in my bed to see if it felt too soft or too firm.  As I contemplated the amount of stuffing, I ended up with a pleasant 45 minute nap.  If only I had tried it in my chair, I could have had a "power" nap.  ;-)

If you're interested in making one, I used the pattern/instructions found here.

Bargain tulips

It's been a long time.  There have been several reasons I haven't been around but who wants to hear tales of health, or busyness, or that I've hardly taken a single picture in months (therefore, I can't blog, right?).

I went grocery shopping yesterday.  (It's shaping up to be an exciting post already, isn't it?) I do most of my shopping at our local Kroger which has undergone a major remodel over the past several months.  After all the dust and clutter, it's finally been done for a couple weeks.  

The remodeled store is really nice but I don't think they left a single thing in the same place so I spend a lot of time going back and forth, between forgotten items suddenly remembered (I stink at having a good list) and the totally new layout of the store.

Yesterday, I decided to walk back to the produce area to look for something and my path happened to go through the floral area.  Kathy always finds great deals on flowers but I never see anything like she finds.  Until yesterday.

I was sure the $1.00 price tag was a mistake until I realized that there were several of them, all marked down to $1.

Between the deer, chipmunks, and whatever other critters live around our property, most of the tulips we've planted are long gone so I'm going to enjoy having tulips again, inside where the animals can't steal share the enjoyment.  

As the snow keeps falling today, I'm going to pretend that spring is almost here.  I have the tulips to prove it!

Commencement!

Last Sunday was Allison's commencement ceremony.  She shared the day with two longtime friends, which made it extra nice.

I stressed about the details ahead of time, mostly the question of what I might be leaving out of my planning.  We used the program from Julianne's graduation as our starting point but I had niggling worries about what I was forgetting to do that I didn't even know I was supposed to be doing.  

The worries were for naught as everything came together beautifully and the kids were happy with it, which was really all that mattered, right?

Each of the graduates agreed to do a special musical piece.  Julianne played for Allison as she sang "He Leadeth Me".  Molly played guitar and sang, Josh played a cajon (that drum box you can see behind Allison) while his brother played guitar and a friend sang.  With only three graduates, it was nice to be able to see each of them share their talents.

The big moment!

Each of the grads had a customized cap.  Allison made hers-she used a pink paisley with a little glitter in the design...perfect!  Molly enhanced her cap with "Now I'm like this cylinder-we're both graduated" and a drawing of a cylinder.  Josh had Star Wars fabric on his cap, which totally surprised me because I don't think he knew the girls were doing anything unusual with theirs.  I loved their creativity and individuality.

This is the FIAR friends group shot.  Our group dwindled down to these three families the past few years and it's amazing to me to think about how long these kids have been friends.  I'm so glad Molly made sure they were invited.

We were delighted that so many people we care about were able to share in the day.  Their presence was so appreciated as we marked this milestone in Allison's life.

Traditions

For several years when the girls were younger, we had a Fat Tuesday tradition.

I had tried purchasing Paczkis at the grocery store but no one here was all that impressed.  Maybe if we lived near a Polish bakery it would have been different but, as an alternative, I tried my hand at making fried cakes like my mom had made a few times when I was growing up.  They were a big hit and a tradition was born (because, you know, it only takes one time to start a tradition).  One year, as I fried doughnuts in the kitchen, Clarence and the girls ate them in the dining room pretty continuously.  I had no idea how many the girls had consumed until Allison ended up sick in the night from too many doughnuts.

Our schedule changed and we ended up forgoing our tradition for several years because we were at co-op every Tuesday.  Since that is no longer the case, I decided to revive the tradition this year...but I only made a half batch this time!

I tried baking a couple in the oven, and a couple more in the mini-doughnut maker I have, hoping to find a lower fat cooking method that was satisfactory.  Both produced very dry doughnuts so it was back to frying in oil. 

I decided to see if I could cook them on our woodstove in Clarence's cast iron wok and it was surprisingly successful.

My friend who insists we are homesteaders will see this as more proof that she's right.  The woodstove, cooking on it, and using cast iron-all hallmarks of homesteaders, apparently.

 

Shaken in some cinnamon sugar, they were a tasty dessert tonight.  I'd call it a homesteading success, if I were actually a homesteader.

Bathroom remodel

Clarence has been plugging away at remodeling our bathroom for a while now and it is finally pretty much done.  We still need trim around the door but that has to wait for spring, because I'm the painter around here and I don't want to stain and polyurethane the trim until I can do it outside.  I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to get it done before the weather turned cold...

This is our rotating shower curtain rod.  You know those curved rods they have in many hotel rooms?  This is like that, except that it rotates into the tub when not in use, so the room isn't dwarfed by the shower curtain sticking out into the room.  With our narrow room, this is important to us.

Our Ikea cabinets, sink and faucet.  I don't completely love the sink/faucet combo, but only because it's impossible to wash your hands without water splashing out of the sink.  Otherwise, it's fantastic as we get a full top drawer under the sink, not a partial one with a cut-out for the plumbing.

This is the light fixture that I probably paid too much for, especially when Clarence had to build that box out from the wall in order to mount it.  But, it's really pretty in person and he is so good to me to figure out a way to make it work.

After changing our fixtures from chrome, we switched out the ugly, old, brown register for this brushed stainless one.  I think it's kind of funky and fun.

Another big change is the wall-mount toilet.  I loved the idea of being able to mop around and under more easily and we like the insulated tank in the wall-no more condensation puddles under the toilet in the summer!

I pinned a woven-top curtain on Pinterest a while back, planning to use the idea for the bathroom curtain.  I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the best way to accomplish the look I wanted and finally had to overcome my fear of doing it wrong in order to just.do.it.already.  I'm happy with the final outcome and, like many things I procrastinate about due to fear of failure, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

I don't think our paint color is quite accurate in any of these pictures-it's blue with a touch of green in it.  It's a color I chose at Home Depot, in an attempt to match one of the stripes in the shower curtain.

We never had a vent fan in our old bathroom.  I hated having to clean the mildew off the ceiling above the shower, so I'm thrilled to have a (nice and quiet) fan now.  I also love the timer Clarence put it on, so no fears of all our heat being sucked outside because someone forgot to turn the fan off.  Another impulse purchase was a ground-fault outlet with an automatic night light.  We always had a night light plugged in anyhow, so this eliminates the need for that.

Clarence put a lot of work into this project and I am so happy with the outcome.  Thanks for taking a look!

(Many specific products are on my "Bathroom Ideas" Pinterest board if you want to find links to any of these items.)

The start of canning season

Our garden is finally picking up speed.  Each year, the trees in our yard shade the garden just a bit more which, in turn, slows down the harvest a bit more.  We have generous friends who have shared their beans, dill, cucumbers, and tomatoes with us long before we've gotten a taste of our own so we've been able to enjoy garden fresh treats while waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.

August finally brought us beans from our garden so, with my friend's dill, I was able to make dilly beans.

In fact, my friend shared so much dill with me that I made a couple batches of dilled carrots as well (though not with homegrown carrots-those prepared carrots from the store are a huge time saver).  Our dill will be ready any day now.  Now that I don't need it.

Recently, Julianne took some meat down to the freezer for me and found the door not quite closed.  Thankfully, I only lost the contents of the door.  Almost everything else was still frozen hard-except some of my berry supply.  My blueberries and raspberries still had blocks of frozen berries but they also had some liquid in the bags that isn't normally there.  After I had already dumped a couple bags of strawberries, it dawned on me that I could thaw them the rest of the way and make something, rather than pitching them all.  As a result of that decision, I tried a new recipe for Bumbleberry jam-blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry-perfect!

 I also tried making blueberry syrup, which are the larger jars in back.  The jam is good enough that it might be an addition to my annual "to-can" list

The first of our cucumbers were ready a few days ago.  I didn't think there were enough to do much with, other than eating them fresh.  I weighed them, though, and had exactly enough for a batch of bread and butter pickles.

Honestly, we aren't big pickle eaters here, though you wouldn't know it by looking at what I've canned so far.  The girls love the bread and butter pickles and we use the dill ones here and there.  I like having them on hand for relish trays I may take somewhere and I have some friends who are thrilled to take care of the excess dilly beans in particular. 

Since making all this stuff, I've canned 21 quarts of green beans and am finishing up a dozen more as I type.  And I was worried we weren't going to get many beans this year.

Our tomatoes are just getting started. Hopefully, they will produce well enough to yield a lot of tomato sauce and salsa this year.  It's been a couple years since we've had a really plentiful crop of tomatoes so I'm hoping this year will be abundant.  Michigan peaches are due soon and I have a peach-tomato salsa recipe we all enjoy so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the peaches and tomatoes will be ready at the same time.

Ah, the joys of gardening.  Every year is different and every year I'm so thankful for the growing number of jars filled with organically grown vegetables on my shelves as the plants start producing in quantity.

 

Victoria and Mark's wedding

My niece, Victoria, got married last night.  I probably haven't mentioned it here (and this might be the only place I haven't mentioned it) but I set her up with Mark.

Mark has been a quizmaster at the girls' Bible quizzes for several years so we've gotten to know him a bit over that time.  Last year he came in to the office where I was helping with stats and was moaning that he couldn't find a good woman to date.  Since the lady I help in the office happens to attend my brother's church, I suggested that Mark visit their church some Sunday and have Dawn introduce him to my beautiful niece.

It took him a few weeks to get there but, once he did, they seemed to hit it off right away.  (Whew!)

And the rest, as they say, is history.

It was a lovely wedding.  The pastor they used was a family friend of Mark's and she made it personal and special.  The reception hall was gorgeous, which was no surprise with both Kathy and Victoria's talents for making things beautiful.  (I'm sure you'll see a lot more detail on Kathy's blog sometime soon-when she's had a little time to recover!)  My niece, Kayla, who abandoned our family for NYC to go to culinary school, came home for a couple weeks and made the fantastic chocolate-with-raspberry-filling wedding cake.  I'd recommend her!

I made the same thing for Mark and Vicky that I made for Lauren and Brian when they got married.  Not original, but I think it's such a fun memento that I wanted to do it again.  Plus, Victoria's choice of dates allowed me to use the cool "9" I found back when we thought Lauren was having a 9/9/12 wedding.

 We loved seeing family members that we don't see often enough, as well as chatting with some of our friends from quizzing who attend Earl and Kathy's church.  It was a fun evening and we were so glad we got to be there to celebrate their wedding day with them.

Did I happen to mention that I set them up? ;-)

Celebrating the 22nd anniversary of my 29th birthday

I gave up keeping track of my age years ago-make that decades ago.  Life got too busy once I was an adult to automatically remember my age and stopping to do the math simply seemed too time consuming.  (Yes, I truly am that lazy.)

This past year has been different, because I hit a milestone last year.  As of yesterday, however, I'm going back to choosing a number and sticking with it.  I'll admit that it's probably time for me to upgrade the number a bit-after all, no one would ever mistake me for 29 anymore-but now that I'm 50-something I likely won't remember my exact age for another 9 years.

I had a most enjoyable day.  My mom stopped by for a visit, bearing gifts, as did my best friend and her mom.  My friend, Cinda, knows me so well and always manages to find or make something I'll just love.  This year was no different.

 I think she bought this at a Relay for Life fundraiser, though she is certainly crafty enough to do this herself.

I especially love the interesting edges of the floral bowl-it's just beautiful.

Dinner out with Clarence and the girls, chocolate orange cake, and gifts rounded out my day.  I went to bed last night feeling spoiled and content.

This getting another year older isn't all that bad after all.

Anniversary party

Clarence and I are invited to a 25th anniversary party tomorrow.

I've never met this couple but Clarence has worked with the husband for over 30 years, so he really wants to attend.  Me, not as much-though I'm much more outgoing than I was when I was younger, I still have a very hard time going to an event where I will know no one.

I started with the questions early on, like what to wear and, most stressful, what gift to give these (to me) virtual strangers.  Since their last name is Logan, we decided on a gift card to Logan's Roadhouse (we hope it's a good place-we've never eaten there) but I saw a cute idea online and decided to do my own adaptation of it to go along with the gift card.

Although you can't really tell in the picture, I used a silver paint pen for the lettering (all 25th anniversary style).  Julianne was a huge help to me as I planned how I'd do it, with choosing fonts, and cutting the letters out on her Silhouette for me to trace around.

It was a challenging project at times, but it was fun and I'm happy with the way it turned out...as long as you don't look at that pesky black paint too closely.

What would you give as a 25th anniversary gift to people you don't know well?

Fun eggs

I recently stumbled across something on Amazon that I hadn't seen before...egg molds.  I don't quite remember how I happened upon them, but they were so inexpensive and fun that I had to order some.

They took 2 1/2 weeks to arrive from Hong Kong.  As an aside, I had to drive to my post office to pick them up so I could sign for them, since I wasn't home when the carrier tried to deliver them.  Apparently, if something comes from another country, you have to sign for the delivery.  Who knew?  I laughed that the gas to pick them up probably cost more than the purchase price.

 

I tried them out right away, even though the reviewers on Amazon warned me that these molds need extra-large eggs to fill the mold well.  The result of not heeding their advice was that my stars came out looking more like a flower than a star.  I'm ok with that, though.  I'm a floral kind of girl, after all.

I boiled six large eggs to try them out.  You have to use hot eggs and let them cool in the mold.  I ran cold water over my just boiled eggs and didn't peel them until I was ready for them.  They all stayed hot enough to mold well.  I did have a couple lose some of their shape by the next day-maybe I hadn't let them cool long enough in the mold?

As I packed a salad tonight for Clarence's lunch tomorrow, I put the last heart-shaped egg on top as a surprise.  I still have a "star" egg in the fridge, but thought he might not appreciate a girly egg on his salad when he's eating with the guys.

Gordon

It's a sad day at our house today.

Last night our dear friend, the girls' adopted grandpa, went peacefully home to Jesus.  We rejoice for Gordon, but weep for all of us who will miss his presence in our lives.

Less than four weeks ago, we found out he had an aggressive lung cancer.  We will especially treasure these recent days when he lived out his faith and assured all of us that whatever God wanted for him was fine with him.

The only picture I seem to have of Gordon is this silly one:

(You can read about this picture here.)

I am so thankful for the years of friendship we've had with Gordon and his family.  Gordon was always good natured when I teased him (which was often) and I especially appreciated his sweet words of encouragement to the girls through the years.  He was a loving, and well-loved, man and we will all miss him, but take comfort in the assurance that we will see him again someday.