Snow, Lunar eclipse, Jimmy Stewart and Quiche...

More snow!! I was so hoping we were done with all that. But no, here comes another 4 -8 inches. Oh joy. Well, better now than mid March?? But that can happen too. Being in New England, one must be prepared for the unexpected in regards to the weather.

The moon was absolutely huge last week. So beautiful.I did see part of the lunar eclipse the other night. Just a big orangy dark moon.

What was it Jimmy Stewart said about the moon in 'It's a Wonderful Life'? Something about: 'You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.' I loved that movie. I love Jimmy Stewart. He was fabulous in Mr. Deeds goes to Washington. I watched a remake of 'Harvey' last night, but it just wasn't the same without him. Leslie Neilson and Swoozie Kurtz did ok, but honestly, the lady who played Elwoods' sister in the originally was the best. There was something just honestly funny about the first one.

Speaking of old movies, I am trying to buy a copy of 'June Bride' with Robert Montgomery and Bette Davis. I loved that one! Set in Indiana (my home state), editors of a magazine, who are on again/off again lovers, go to do a photo shoot of a wedding in January I think, in an old victorian house. I would have loved to see that house in color. It was so quaint. I loved the scene about the apple cider. I hope they bring it out on DVD. Here's hoping...

Leap year. One extra day before spring. Not sure I like that...

I made Ham and Cheese Quiche this morning. I 'fell' out of bed at 5:30am, which is like unheard of for me. But for some strange reason, I have been waking about 5am or shortly before. My husband gets up about that time, and usually I sleep through and never hear him. So after 3 days of this, I decided to just get up. I hate to get up before the sun, but as I climbed into the shower, I could see an orange horizen where the sun was trying to rise. I actually like dawn, just never get to see it. :0)
Below is the recipe for the quiche. It really is good, and easy to make with Pillsbury pie crust. I have a good crust recipe, very flaky, but hate to make piecrust. It falls apart on me, it's so flaky. Bakes up nice though. The main thing is not to over handle it. Kind of like biscuits. Same idea.

Recipe for

HAM AND CHEESE QUICHE

1 pie crust
1 TB or so softened butter
5 eggs
1 1/4 C. Lite cream or 1/2 and 1/2
2 TB minced onion
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 C Ham, chopped
2 C Cheddar cheese, chopped

Preheat oven to 425F.
Prepare crust in 10 inch glass pie plate. Spread butter on bottom and up sides of pie crust.
Chill in freezer for 10 min.
In medium bowl, beat 5 eggs, then beat in cream, then add spices, onion, ham and cheese.
Pour into crust, making sure everything is evenly spread about.
Bake @ 425F for 15 MINUTES.
Then, lower temp to 325F for 35 - 45 min, or till knife comes out clean in center of pan.
Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Farms, flowers and moving...

We are finally preapproved. Now we can really search for a home. No more renting! Whoo hoo!
This time of year, the housing market is slow. New stuff is trickling on slowly. Hopefully March will likely bring more.

My wish list: In an ideal world, if I could afford it, I would love a farm. I envy those who are lucky enough to have an acreage in the country. I grew up on farms. The first one, in the midwest, was 40 acres. The second one was a 100 acre farm in NB, Canada. Another place we owned had 17. (I tell my parents it's all their fault. I was raised on a farm, and now nothing less will do. :0)) I don't expect that much, especially here with land being so expensive, but 1 - 5 would certainly be nice.

Me, when I was 12, with Crickett. Wow, was I really that slim?! Those were the good old days...

One acre would allow me to get a horse again. I haven't owned horses in over 10 years. I figure it's now or never, because I'm in my 40's already and plus it would be a great source of exercise. (yes the horse does most of it, but really, if you aren't in good shape, you will be SO sore!)
I would love a bit of pasture or hay field, even next door, so that in haying season, the deeply satisfying scent of newmown hay would waft through my house. It brings back such great memories of peaceful moments in our old barn.
I had always wanted a big old rambling farmhouse with good bones that I could make my own. Now that I'm older, I'm thinking a bit smaller, and better insulated. Oil prices are skyrocketing as I type this.
Oh, mustn't forget the garage. A nice two car garage for my husband. And a barn for me. A little potting shed would be a bonus, but we could always build one if we have to.
Anyway, that is my dream. I'll be lucky to get an acre here. Much less a barn. Oh well. At least we can actually buy something now. I can't wait. I am excited about planting gardens, both veggie and flower gardens. Maybe some fruit trees, shrubs, etc. I'm going to take my flowers that I brought here with me to our new place - they will finally have a permanent home. I love flowers. I love to buy them, plant them, dig them up and plant them again. I want one of each please. :0)
Must be that 'midwest farm girl' thing. It never leaves you.

Huge white fluffy flakes...

Snowing again. Big fat fluffy flakes. The pretty kind. They are actually about the size of a silver dollar. Some are 2 or 3 connected together. The temps must be right around freezing. The weather front is supposed to last another day, rain and snow. I have nowhere pressing to go, so I think I will just snuggle in (in front of the computer, of course!) and enjoy. :0)

PS: Oh! Big news item. We got preapproved today! Yay! Now we are official serious home buyers. Now, if the interest rate would just go down again, and home prices drop 50%, we'd be all set...sigh.

Hebron High School...

Wow. Seeing my old school's homepage and that hawk logo sure brought back alot of memories.

We had such a great basketball team back then. We even went to state semi finals. Lost out to a big city team - maybe Indianapolis? We would have won the prize for team spirit though. We had tons of it!
We would decorate the school hallways with posters and streamers, etc. before a big game.
There was a wooden 'keg' that was passed around like a trophy, to whichever school won the game. If your team won, it would be painted in your school colors, and you could keep the keg until the another school won. It was an immense source of pride to our school, and was kept in our schools' display case, painted in our red and white colors with the hawk on front. I believe we had it much of the time.

I played in the pep band, so I got in free to all the home games. The away games that I couldn't get to I listened to on WLS Chicago radio station. I never forgot those call letters, even though I moved from the area in 1979. Funny how you can remember such details from back then, and then can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday. lol.
Oh the joys of being over 40.

I yelled myself hoarse at those games. We had great cheerleaders, a great pep band, and a great team of guys. Overtime was almost overwhelming, it was so wrapped in emotion. Of course, in the Midwest, basketball is big stuff.

When we moved to NB, Canada in 1979, basketball wasn't nearly as big back then. They had just built a centrally located high school a couple of years before to consolidate all the nearby towns which had their own elementary and middle schools. Now, these small towns had been highly competitive with each other for many many years, and suddenly in grade 10, they were all supposed to be on the same team. It has taken years to develop team spirit for Carleton North High School. 25 years later, basketball is much a much bigger sport there now. My nephew, my 2 nieces, and my grandson all play. I wish I could attend them, but 9 hours each way is a long way to go for a game. :0)

I still don't think there is the hoopla that we had back then. Our entire school lives revolved around basketball. I don't think that was a bad thing. Kids need something to focus on besides school work. It made going to school more fun, and created more cohesiveness amongst the students. It didn't matter what grade you were in, if you loved basketball, you had something in common. And that's very important in school.

"Those were the days, my friend...I thought they'd never end..."

Homemade Bread...

There is just something so homey and satisfying about the smell of freshly baked bread. I have a loaf in my oven just about ready to come out. It smells so good! And I'm not even a bread person, really.

I have made homemade bread for probably 20 - 25 years. Shortly after I was married, my girlfriend's mom gave me her recipe for both brown and white bread. It was a 6 loaf recipe, which at that time I made by hand. There were no bread makers back then that I recall. I would bake it and then freeze all but one loaf. I usually alternated - brown one week, white the next. I still do.

Now I just use the bread recipes that came with my bread machine. They are for a 2 lb. loaf.

Here's my:

WHITE BREAD RECIPE:

1 2/3 cup of milk
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 TB butter, softened
4 C. bread flour
1 1/2 TB sugar
2 tsps. active dry yeast.

This is my process:
First, add hot water to your bread pan to warm it while you heat the milk.
Take a 2 cup glass measuring cup and add the milk. Cut 2 TB butter into milk, and microwave mixture for 2 minutes. (If very hot, let cool slight.) (Set time back to 1 min 45 sec if you have a real hot microwave)
Remove hot water from bread pan.
Add milk and butter mix.
Measure in salt.
Add 4 cups bread flour,
then sugar,
then yeast on top.

Put pan in breadmaker and use the 'dough' setting. Mine is for about 1 1/2 hours.
At the beginning of cycle, keep an eye on the dough while mixing to make sure it is all getting mixed in. I use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides if needed. Add more flour if necessary, 1 TB at a time, letting each one mix in before adding another. Dough should be soft, but not too sticky.
(If your pan in banging around, you likely have too much flour, so add a couple tsps of warm water while in your first mixing cycle. Make sure you have enough minutes left to work in whatever you add. Worst case scenario, you can always remove the dough after the first mixing cycle is over, and knead it on your counter to make it correct.)

After the 'dough cycle' is over, grease a couple of regular bread pans with Crisco shortening. (I use one long loaf pan).
I knead the dough for a few seconds on the counter in a bit of flour and divide into two loaves. Add to bread pans, cover with dish towel and set in warm place. (I set mine on the stove. Not turned on, but it seems to work.)
After dough has doubled or so, preheat oven to 375F. Bake for 28 minutes.
You might have to adjust the time depending on how hot your stove is. A minutes either way isn't going to hurt it. The loaf should be a nice golden brown color, and should sound hollow when you tap gently on top of the loaf.
Turn out the loaf on the dish towel you used to cover it with. It should leave the pans with no difficulty if you greased them first. If it sticks alot, your loaf may not be cooked long enough. Bake for another 2 or 3 minutes. Once in awhile, mine will stick because I missed an area.
After removing from pans, I take a stick of butter from the fridge and rub the end of the butter stick over the tops of the loaves, just until shiny. This softens the crust a bit. Let cool completely before storing.
Any questions, just email me. Hope your bread turns out great!