Pie Portions

In my mind, I imagine "finishing off" some food is to take the small portion that has been left to linger, lonely and neglected on the serving plate. This is the picture that I envisioned when I heard Jubal say, "Well, I guess I'm forced to finish off the pie." as he opened up the container of Mom's pumpkin pie left over from yesterday. What I saw in reality was Jubal heaping the last quarter of the dessert onto a paper plate bent under its weight. Then came the whipped cream, piled as high as the pie. Today I learned that measuring pie portions is all about perspective.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Nutcrackers

The Maine State Ballet hosts a shortened, behind the scenes version of The Nutcracker each year and last year, while attending that, Atira and I made plans to see the full version together for her 13th birthday. We initially asked Jim if he wanted to come with us. When he asked, "What is this Cracker Barrel ballet all about anyway?", Atira and I agreed that it would NOT be worth buying him a ticket. Well, wouldn't you know, almost as soon as the tickets were purchased, Atira came down with a terrible chest cold. We hoped that it would clear up before the evening of our event but it was not to be. December 5th found her sick and exhausted enough to be falling asleep in kitchen chairs.





I spent the day trying to find someone to fill Atira's empty seat to no avail. With only a half hour left before I needed to depart for Portland, Jim arrived home from work earlier than he thought and agreed to come with me as long as I took him out to eat afterward. He was able to appreciate the hard work put into the production but he was thinking, "I can't believe that I'm actually sitting here at a ballet. This will definitely be a once in a lifetime experience for me." Over his sizzling steak, later in the evening he voiced the thought that even those of us that enjoy ballet might ask: "So, how did ballet come about anyway? Who's the guy that said, 'Let's put on these tight pants and tutus and dance around on our toes.'".

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Those Who Can't Bake, Judge

Last week at church, after discovering that there were no women among the pie contest judges for tonight's WWBC Harvest Dinner, I lobbied Ed Davis for a spot on the panel. It would only be fair, after all, to have each gender represented. Either my sweet charm or logical arguments won out ( I leave it to the reader to decide) and a place among the judges was offered to me by Naomi on Sunday afternoon. I took my place among the other two elite pie tasters. Maybe elite is the wrong word. The other judges were Jim and Don.

We were careful not to overindulge in the wonderful array of homemade soups beforehand, saving room to sample each of the seventeen pie entries. There was a wondrous variety. Pumpkin, apple, chocolate, lemon, pecan, and blueberry to name a few. Some scrumptious, some good, all better than mine but one was a cut above the rest.






First place belonged to young Eban Keach, who does not normally sport a unibrow but the most recent photo I have of our blue-ribbon chef is from GNC moustache night. Eban thought he signed up for a pie-EATING contest last week when the sign-up sheet was passed around. You can imagine the disappointment of a ten year old boy after discovering that he had to MAKE a pie instead of EAT one. Setting that aside, he decided to make an attempt, and look what happened. There's a moral in there somewhere. Congratulations, Eban!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Yes, It'a Recipe

Spicy Mexican Fudge
3 cups milk chocolate morsels
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat the chocolate and the condensed milk over medium low heat until the chocolate is melted, stirring constantly.
Add the vanilla, cinnamon, and pepper. Combine thoroughly and immediately pour the fudge into an 8x8 pan. Allow it at least four hours to set in the fridge.





Regular readers of my blog have just double checked the blog title to verify that they are at the right place. Yes. I have posted a recipe that was mixed by my hand and emerged from my kitchen unscorched and tasty. It was VERY easy. Try it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A New Look

This evening, I had a friend's young daughter at my house and she asked if she could give me a beautiful hairstyle and make-up like a princess. She couldn't wait for me to show Tell and Atira and just KNEW they would love my new look. The look on Tell's face was priceless. I was very proud of him for keeping his horror to himself, however, and simply giving a hesitant "yeah" accompanied by a thumbs up when Kingsley asked, "Don't you just love it?" The budding young stylist is not yet available for weddings and proms but she could possibly carve out a niche for herself during this Halloween season.












- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Car Parts

What do a large industrial truck tire and a 15 amp tail light fuse have in common? Irregardless of size, when not functioning properly, both of those car parts impede the ability of a vehicle to be freely driven along Route 1 here in Maine.

Thankfully, our vehicle has only been suffering from the small malfunctioning part. I was very proud of myself today for identifying and fixing the problem. Alas, my mechanical victory was short-lived when the fuse blew again, only moments after replacing it. It must be an electrical short somewhere, which means the remedy is now above my pay grade.

I will take the inconvenience of daytime only driving, however, over driving with a missing wheel.

On our school commute north Friday, Nolan and I watched a larger industrial truck tire come bouncing across the wide portion of Route 1 just after the Dairy Queen, about 40 feet in front of us. It seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. I turned to look at Nolan and his puzzled expression matched mine. With incredulity, one of us, I'm not even sure which, asked the other, "Did you see that?" Glancing into my side mirror allowed me to see the origin of the tire, a large truck headed South. The truck still maintained control but the sparks were flying!
Yeah. I'll take the absence of taillights, thanks.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday Traffic

Today's activities began with Nolan's second round of driving time. His instructor, Driver Ed (seriously), is very impressed with how well Nolan is doing. Jim met them going down our driveway and apparently, Nolan had two hands on the wheel and a big smile on his face.





The biggest influx of foot traffic today was brought in by way of Tell's Birthday party. Unfortunately I had the Salvador lens on my Hipstamatic app and didn't get any normal photos of Tell's many attempts at blowing out his candles before he laughingly put his head in his hand and accepted the help of friends.






Kingsley's arrival ended the afternoon and a date with the Fishers concluded this people-filled day.





The traffic of 21 people made for a good Saturday.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone