No More Rain, Please!

It has been raining on and off, mostly on since Thursday night. I am sure we needed rain but it is enough. The sun is sort of peeking out but it will soon be dark!





P#1 and I started on her Halloween Costume. It will be a lot of work. She picked the costume on the top left.

In between I need to work on little P's! She is going to be the purple and green mermaid.

Paul Newman dies at 83

He dies at his home in Connecticut on Friday due to cancer. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26913988/?GT1=43001

What is your favorite Paul Newman film?
"The Hustler"
"Hud"
"Cool Hand Luke"
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

"Winning"
"The Sting"
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"
"The Verdict"
"Slap Shot"
"The Color of Money"

"Towering Inferno"
"Mr. & Mrs. Bridge"
"The Hudsucker Proxy"
"Nobody's Fool"
"Road to Perdition"

"Rally Round the Flag, Boys"
"Empire Falls"
"Cars"
"Harper"
"Exodus"
"The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean"
"Absence of Malice"
"Hombre"

"The Long, Hot Summer"

"Young Philadelphians"

"The Secret War of Harry Frigg"

"Sweet Bird of Youth"

"From The Terrace"

"Paris Blues"

"Harry and Son"

These are but a few. I think the first movie I saw Paul Newman in was "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". AND "The Sting" AND "Slap Shot". I was the kid that watched movies on Saturdays. So I have seen a lot of his work. I just resaw "Empire Falls" the other day on HBO. Paul was great in that. Plus Josh Lucas played him as a young man in a scene.

Freaky Friday

I haven't found anything good for this theme in awhile. Bit today i found this.

I call it Stupid Motorists

Drivers recently hit by their own cars: A woman parking her car in Athens, Ga., in July, opened the door to tell another driver that she was not leaving her space when she fell out and was run over. [WSB Radio (Atlanta)-AP, 7-12-08]

A man in his 60s was pushing his car out of a ditch in July in Montreal, Quebec, when it started to roll, and when he jumped in to hit the brakes, the car jerked, ejected him and ran over him. [Montreal Gazette, 8-1-08]

A 24-year-old man, fleeing police in a stolen U-Haul truck in April in Royal Palm Beach, Fla., leaped from the vehicle but failed to clear the door, sending him out head-first, where he was crushed to death. [KOCO-TV (Oklahoma City), 7-24-08]

Love Thursday

APPLES - I love 'em!

Tomorrow, if the weather is nice, P#2 and I are going apple picking with the homeschool group from our library. I know I am going to be baking something on Saturday. Then I got an email from Pillsbury with this recipe.

Easy Apple Foldovers with Apple Glaze

INGREDIENTS:

Filling
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 medium apples, peeled, finely chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Crust
1 box (15 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Glaze
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 to 3 teaspoons apple cider or apple juice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix walnuts, brown sugar and butter with pastry blender or fork until crumbly. In medium bowl, stir together apples, flour and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon; set aside.
2. Unroll crusts on work surface. Cut each crust into quarters. Place about 1/4 cup apple mixture on one half of each pie crust wedge. Sprinkle with walnut mixture. Fold untopped half over filled half (foldovers will be full). Press edges with fork to seal. Prick top with fork. Place on ungreased large cookie sheet.
3. Bake 22 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in small bowl, stir together glaze ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over foldovers. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Bake 18 to 22 minutes.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 46th birthday! I am on that downslide to 50! haha
My mom is taking me out for lunch. But I don't know where we are going. I guess I better think of something!
I know that I want to run to the kitchen store and look for some glass containers to put drinks in. The King saw a report on TV last night about plastics. How much of the chemicals actually leach out into the drinks they hold? Almost every drink you buy comes in plastic. I refill water bottles for him to have at the building. But I think that is not good to do. It's a catch 22.

Banana-Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I forgot to take a photo before we cut into it!

I got this recipe somewhere on the internet and changed it a little. Next time I make it I will use another pan and not start the layers with the streusel mix.

Banana-Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Streusel Mix:

2/3 c Pecans; chopped 1/4 c Sugar 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 c Shortening

1 c Sugar

2 Eggs, at room temperature

3-4 bananas, very ripe

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 c Sour cream OR greek yogurt OR plain yogurt

1 ½ c white wheat flour mixed with some white flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

Combine 1/4 c sugar and cinnamon, then add pecans; mix, and set aside. Combine shortening and sugar; cream until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs (one at a time), bananas, and vanilla; stir in sour cream. Batter will look funky. That’s ok. Combine remaining dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture, and stir just enough to blend. Sprinkle half of reserved cinnamon mixture into bottom of a well-greased 10inch Bundt pan; spoon half of batter into pan. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon mixture over batter; spoon remaining batter into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool cake 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Loosen edges of cake, if necessary. Invert cake on serving plate; serve warm or cold.

Travel Thursday

Here are some photos from our trip to Cleveland. We went to Lake Erie one day. It was a beautiful site to see. You sit on the sandy area (is it a beach?) and look out on the water, watching the waves gently rolling in. The breezes felt wonderful. I liked watching the kids playing in the water. We had ice cream from the stand that was up the hill. I had banana. Oh, it was sooo good!

Pecan Pie Bars/Snickerdoodles

This morning I was checking my emails and I got my monthly email from Eagle Brand. This recipe was in it. It looks tasty! I think I will try it this weekend.



Pecan Pie Bars
Add these moist and flavorful pecan pie bars to your cookie collection.
Servings: Makes about 3 dozen barsServing Size: 1/36 of a recipeNutrition: See Below
Prep Time: 15 minutesCook Time: 15+25 minutesTotal Time: 0

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 (14-ounce) can EAGLE BRAND Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar; cut in butter until crumbly.
Press mixture on bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan. Bake 10 to 15 minutes.
In small bowl, combine pecans, EAGLE BRAND®, eggs and lemon juice; pour over crust. Bake 25 minutes or until filling is set. Cool. Cut into bars. Store leftovers covered at room temperature.

This afternoon P#2 and I are going to make Snickerdoodles. I wonder where in the heck it got that name! These are my favorite cookie!

Snickerdoodles

½ cup butter
½ cup shortening
1½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
½ teaspoon salt

Coating: 4 Tablespoon sugar
4 Tablespoon cinnamon

Cream butter, shortening and sugar together. Add eggs and beat well. Sift flour. Add baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Sift again. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture. Chill dough for at least 1 hour. Roll into balls the size of small walnuts. Roll in coating. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 400F for 8-10 minutes.
Yield: Approx. 5 dozen

Travel Thursday

On August 13th, while we were visiting my sister, we went to the Cleveland Zoo. It is a nice zoo. They have a great selection of animals. Most we got really good looks at! The one thing I appreciated was no stinky cat cages like at Philadelphia! Here are some shots of the day!

I will post more of the animals another day! The Cleveland Zoo is a good place to get some exercise! We walked and walked and walked. We went on a really nice day. It was warm but not hot!