Everything

I would swear that I posted something today, but I guess I didn't.

So I guess I'll jump on here and tell you a bunch of random stuff that probably makes no sense and nobody cares about, but isn't that what I always do? ;)

I'm loving THIS SONG right now. I've listened to it over and over and sang along into my hairbrush and danced with my dogs.

Surely I can find a picture to slap up here? Let me go dig...

Okay, here you go:

Isn't this a cool bed for a little kid? Heck, I think it's a cool bed for me! I snagged this picture off of flickr a few days ago because I liked the bed so much. I'd love to get in there and close the doors and take a nap right now! Too fun. You could put a cooler up on the shelf and some snacks in the drawers! Ha-ha-ha! I'm sure your mother might have something to say about that, like those drawers are for your clothes and the shelves for your shoes or something practical like that. Leave it to me to think of putting food and drinks in there. Or if your dogs sleep with you like mine do, you could put Meaty Bones and Snausages in there for them.

Okay, maybe I wouldn't really do that, but I can daydream if I want.

What else?

Hmm...

I have eaten so much crap in the last week, I swear I've gained 10 lbs. I haven't weighed and I'm not going to, but it feels like ten pounds at least. I'm miserable. Ugh. But did I quit eating today? Nope! I had cookies for breakfast, a bologna samich for lunch with THICK-CUT bologna, and several pieces of toffee with my Three O'Clock Coffee. Then I had leftover pizza for dinner!

I think I've rambled enough to call this an entry, don't you? Talk at ya tomorrow.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you...

Y'ALL ARE A BUNCH OF BLOGGIN' SLACKERS!!

Not one person I read daily has updated over the holidays. How dare you have a life outside of entertaining me!

Business As Usual

We may be from the South, but we know what to do when it's a cold and rainy day...

...and getting colder by the hour. You know that makes me happy. Okay, so it's only 58 right now, but it's dropping!

A little of the usual...telling Momma we're ready for lunch when it's only 10:30 AM.

Do I hear the dogfood bag rattling in there? I think I do!

We will stare at you and stand around looking frail and hungry until you feed us!

And when you finally give in and feed us and our bellies are full, we will finally leave you alone and nap...

And stretch out and get really comfortable...

And wiggle my way onto the chair and pillow you're using for a foot rest, my legs sticking out the back, just to be near you and feel the warm fire.

While you crochet the day away and watch dumb TV shows. It's a holiday! We're allowed!

And leave you with a little button love. Aren't they pretty? I really love the purple and the aqua.

Saturday Shopping Trip

I made this Round Granny last night from THIS TUTORIAL. Pretty, isn't it? (The browns are much more brown in real life. They look kind of faded in this picture.) I tried to make it bigger to see if I could use it to cover the round barstool seats, but it didn't work. Hmm...I'll have to work on that. I'm pretty sure I have a pattern booklet that has all round potholders and hotpads. I'll have to dig that out and see if any of those patterns will work.

Stuff I got at Walmart today. Can you believe I bought more Red Heart yarn? Me neither. My nose is itching already. I liked the colors and lost my mind.

I bought the tiny buttons for the smaller birdies I plan to make. I bought the others just because the colors are pretty. Like I said, I lost my mind. They were on the same aisle as the yarn.

Suspiciously, Barnaby insisted I buy a new candy thermometer TODAY. Come to find out, he wants me to make more toffee because he went mad and ate ALL OF IT last night. I'm telling you, that stuff is so good.

I also bought a new lamp to crochet by in the living room. The other one was a piece-o-crap. It bugged me because it was a floor lamp anyway. I always had to move it around when I swept. And I sweep A LOT because of the dog hair.

I hung my flowers on a crocheted chain off a picture in my bedroom. Eli really freaked out when he first noticed them. Since I run several fans in my bedroom all the time, they were swaying a little bit and he was sure they were the KILLER FLOWERS coming to get us. I picked him up and walked him over to show him what they were and that they would not kill us. He still growled at them all night though until I turned the lights out.

That's all the fun and exciting stuff that happened in my life since I posted last. Oh wait...we did have this conversation on the way home:

ME: Would you paint my stool pink when we get home?

BARNABY: Ha-ha-ha!

(Uproarious laughter for the next five miles. We laughed so hard we cried. We're so immature.)

Happy Dance

Lookie what I found at the antique mall today...

It's a crochet thread tablecloth, and it's beautiful! Marked $25, but I haggled and got it for $18. (I'm showing off my flowers again in the background.)

A closer look. The edges are starting to fade and yellow, but I still like it. I haven't washed it yet, but I'm going to. It's just so pretty and delicate-looking. I absolutely love it.

I found these three barstools which I plan to paint and cover the seats of. They were all in the same booth. The green one on the end was $8.95, and the other two were $14.95 each...SCORE!!!

Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy!

One more look? Well, okay....

Flowers & Russian Tea Cakes

I've been making crochet flowers. They're so pretty!

My momma has confiscated the project I was working on. She's going to do some sewing on it because I'm an idiot when it comes to sewing and it would look like a 2nd grader did it.

Russian Tea Cakes

My sister sent me this recipe yesterday. I made them this morning, but I only made half the recipe. It still made 35 cookies. As you can see, i rolled mine into what was supposed to be little crescents, but they just turned out looking like cat turds. I also baked them too long because after I turned off the timer when ti went off, I got distracted and didn't take them out. They would have been much more delicate and delectable if I had taken them out after 10 minutes, but they're still pretty darn good!

From my sister:

I'm sure you've seen cookies like this but this is absolutely the best recipe I've come across for these. They are so yummy you won't be able to quit eating them!

RUSSIAN TEACAKES

1 C. soft butter
1 1/2 C sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 C. finely chopped nuts (food processor or coffee grinder works great for this)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix all of the above ingredients together and roll dough into 1-inch balls.
Place on greased cookie sheet (or use parchment paper on the cookie sheet). Cookies do not spread when they cook so you can place them pretty close together. Bake in a 400-degree F oven about 10-12 min. until set but NOT BROWN. You'll really have to watch these so they don't over-cook.

Take out of the oven, and while still warm, roll the cookies in powdered sugar. (You can either do this in a bowl or shake them in a bag with the powdered sugar in it.) Place on a rack to cool completely.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Checklist

I'll be popping in here regularly today to check off my Day-Before-Thanksgiving List of thing to do...

1. Make Two Pumpkin Pies Done!
2. Make Toffee Done!
3. Make Fudge (Peanut Butter) Done!
4. Brown the hamburger & onions for a dish I'm making in the morning. I think I can boil the noodles too and mix them together. As much as I can do ahead of time, I'm going to. Done!

My candy thermometer broke so I won't be making any chocolate fudge until Christmas. I could do it the old fashioned way with a glass of ice water, but I'm tired now anyway.

We are not having traditional Thanksgiving food this year. We're doing Eye-Talian food.

Other things to do:
1. Work on my crochet project
2. Look at my Candy Necklace blanket and then start another crochet project I have in mind instead of finishing that one. ;)

Shaun is over here helping Barnaby lay some flagstone in the backyard. Shaun is my youngest son (27) that will be leaving for Army bootcamp on January 19th. My other son, Aaron (29), is MIA. He may be working today, but I need to call him and find out where he is. I want my baby boys close around me for the next two months. Sniff-Sniff. I need to go to my doctor and get some Valium or something before I start cracking.

Dammit, how did I get on that subject? STOP IT.

Another Peek

I had hoped to be finished with my project and give you the pattern today, but it's going to take me at least until late tonight to get it finished. Here's a picture of the yarn I'm using and a little sneak peek at the material I found today that matches it. That blue-looking yarn is really more of a teal that matches the teal dots on that material. I don't know why it's showing up so dark in this picture. I have to do the sewing part by hand, which is what is taking me some extra time. (No, I still don't know how to use that silly sewing machine!) And never fear. You don't have to know how to sew to make this project. The sewing and material part is optional.

Okay, that's information lest I give it all away.

I've had the back door standing open all day because the weather is so nice. I walked out onto the back porch a little earlier, and to my horror, several pairs of my underwear (That's knickers to you, Sue! Hee-hee.) were strewn about the backyard! The pink thing you're seeing laying there is a pajama top that was also laying in the backyard. I didn't take a picture of the underwear. You're welcome.

Eli had gotten into the laundry room and raided a pile of dirty laundry, and he and Fletcher were having a good ol' time running around playing tug of war with several pairs of my undies and the pajamas. Silly dogs. Thank goodness nobody was with me to see. I was still embarassed even though it was just me and hurriedly ran around picking everything up.

I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some yarn and a few other things this morning. I had to make sure I had enough to last me through the holiday weekend. I don't want to have to run out and shop on the busiest shopping weekend of the year.

I'm off to make dinner. Talk at ya tomorrow.

I'm Crushed

I can't believe it. I was surfing around looking at blogs I'd never seen before when I saw THIS post. (Scroll down to the pictures.) Can you believe that? What are the odds that on the very same day I thought of this and posted about it, I just happen to see it on another blog?? Weird, I tell you. It's not like I was Googling the crochet birds or something. AND that post was made on my birthday earlier in the month. I swear it was MY idea out of MY little brain! Hmpf. She even named her post, "Birdies Fly Home." It's starting to spook me out now.

But I guess it's not so far fetched for someone else to put BIRDS in a BIRDCAGE, now is it? Okay, then...forget everything I just said up there.

There are lots of interesting things to look at on her blog, by the way. I'll have to spend some time later doing just that. I've seen her commenting on other people's blogs, but I've never followed the link to hers until now.

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Barnaby just walked by and said my new blog looks depressing!

"WHAT?!" I screeched.

"Well, look. There's a lone cabin, a lone chair in a corner, and a lone, dead tree!"

"WHAT?!" I screeched again. "But I like it! It didn't even occur to me that it was depressing."

"Well, it is." And then he just walked away. He destroyed all my work in five seconds worth of words and just walked away.

NOW THAT'S DEPRESSING!

Dirty Bird is Home

I had a burst of inspiration out of the blue a few minutes ago and spied the absolute perfect place for Dirty Bird. Look at him up there! He makes me smile every time I look up there.


I have two other cages up there that are smaller than this one. I'll have to make some baby birdies for those. I have to now!


I'm also working on a super-secret crochet pattern for you guys. I worked on it Saturday and Sunday and finally finished it. I'm making the finished product now, and I also have Bev testing the pattern for me. When it's all done, you're going to want this pattern really badly. And who's going to give it to you? That's right!

Under Construction

I cannot fix my Blog Title to save my soul. We're just going to have to live with it BIG and WHITE. It's broken. Work has gotten on my last nerve today and I don't have the patience to mess with Blogger anymore.

Aren't holiday weeks supposed to be slow and easy? Where is MY slow and easy week? Why is everyone getting on my nerves? GAH! Someone needs to spike my Kool-Aid with vodka and calm me down.

Penuche Recipe

There's more holiday candy-making going on at my house. I'll be making chocolate fudge and probably peanut butter fudge on Wednesday along with my pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. More to come...

I made this Penuche yesterday evening. It turned out great, but I like mine to taste a little "browner." This is usually made with brown sugar, so that's probably the difference I'm tasting.

I used half of the amount of nuts and put them on half of the bottom of the pan this time before pouring the hot candy in. It works better. There were a lot of air bubbles in this that you can see if you look closely. I also used a loaf pan instead of an 8" x 8" pan for this batch. Here's the recipe which I got off of the Internet somewhere. I can't remember where...

Oops! I just realized when i was typing this recipe that I left out the brown sugar yesterday!! No wonder it didn't taste "brown" enough. I can't believe it turned out at all.

Penuche Fudge

1/8 cup butter (1/4 stick, cold)
1 ½ cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
2/3 cup evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed)
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Line a bread loaf pan with foil and butter it.

Heat milk at medium setting until warm; add sugars. Bring to a rolling boil while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Add marshmallows and mix thoroughly until the marshmallows are melted completely. Bring back to a full boil and boil for a FULL five minutes. Do not cheat this boil – err on the side of too long rather than not long enough. The mixture will start to turn brown during the boil. If you get brown flakes in the mixture, turn down the heat a little. Be sure to stir constantly. It will burn easily if you don’t.

Remove from heat. Add vanilla, butter, and nuts, but do not stir. Let it just sit for about 2 minutes. Mix thoroughly and pour into prepared loaf pan. Cool completely at room temperature. Remove foil and candy from the pan. Remove the foil from the candy, cut into squares. Store covered at room temperature.

Your candy should be grainy and sugary when completely cool. That’s how it’s supposed to be instead of smooth and creamy like some fudge recipes.

Thanksgiving Meme

I got this from Glo. Please take it and play along...

1. What are you most thankful for? Most? I don't know about most, but I'm thankful for my relatively easy, happy life, including my family, two sons, my hubby, my dogs (You know I had to mention the dogs!).

2. Where are you spending Thanksgiving? We're having dinner at my sister's house who lives about 3 miles away. Coming are my parents, my sister & her husband and kids and their kids, and my boys and husband, and me! My other sister who lives in San Diego won't be here this year. Sniff-sniff.

3. What's your favorite Thanksgiving food? Candied sweet potatoes! But I really like the dressing and gravy too.

4. What is your favorite Thanksgiving dessert? Pumpkin pie

5. Is Thanksgiving religious for you? No

6. Do you eat more on Thanksgiving Day or the day after? On Thanksgiving Day, of course. Dumb question.

7. What time do you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Usually around 1:00

8. What's your favorite Thanksgiving story? This is not really a story, but I remember when I was young and we'd always spend Thanksgiving at my grandparents' house. All the men would go hunting the day before and shoot a turkey and the womenfolk would clean it and cook it. Sometimes you'd find buckshot in the turkey meat. You had to be careful! Ahhh, the good ol' days.

9. Will you shop on Black Friday? NO WAY IN HELL, but I have gone before with my hubby to drink Starbucks and people-watch at the mall.

10. What do you hope for Next Thanksgiving? That my entire family is here and happy and healthy

My Stars & Garters!

Okay, no garters, but...

I swear I'm not posing Eli in all of my pictures. He shows up in nearly every picture I take somehow. He just loves to jump in front of the camera and get his picture taken.

These are the Grandma Twinkle Stars I made this morning. It only took two hours to make all seven of them with bathroom breaks and getting coffee, etc. You can find the pattern and tutorial HERE, and there's also one for Christmas Trees that are made similarly. I would suggest using the alternate Row 3 instructions. I did, but I still had to steam-iron mine under a towel to keep the corners from curling.

I was trying to get a close-up so you could see the silver and gold sparkes in the thread, but it didn't work. Just close your eyes and imagine it.

They are quick and fun to make. You can see them made in Lucy's typical colors on her blog post from thursday.

That's all I've done today. No, wait. I did a couple of loads of laundry too. But I'm still in my pajamas! I guess I could at least go brush my hair and teeth and put on some regular clothes.

NAH!

Vee-Oh-Lah!

My sister and I always say it that way instead of Voila (vwa-lah) because we think it's funny. Maybe you don't, but we don't care, do we, Sister?

Anyways, where was I? Oh, yeah. VEE-OH-LA!!!....

A covered stool!

What the hell is that thang??

I've seen several different varieties of these on the innernets. Some are granny squares like this one, some are four granny squares, some are stripes, etc. I'll be trying all of those and maybe more.

I wasn't sure how to attach the cover to the seat, so I just improvised and made four ties out of one piece of blue and one piece of red yarn held together and sewed it through the corners underneath to make it tight, and then I tied a tiny bow. I think it looks great. And you can remove it and wash it pretty easily that way too.

I bought some padding to add between the seat and the cover, but I decided that was overkill and decided not to do it. Maybe I'll try it once and see.

Time to start the weekend! Bye.

Some Friday Recipes

We had this for dinner last night (Barnaby also had a hotdog), and it was absolutely fantastic. It would be a great appetizer or party food. I saw the recipe in an advertisement for the Marzetti Ranch-Veggie Dip in a magazine and cut it out. Barnaby just emailed me from work. Here's all it said:

"That bruschetta last night was fantastic!"

I guess that says it all...

Ranch-Vegetable Bruschetta

½ cup Marzetti Ranch Veggie Dip*
1 loaf french bread, sliced diagonally
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
1-2 cucumbers, peeled & diced
5-6 Roma tomatoes, seeded & diced
¼ cup red or green onion, optional
Dried dill

Placed diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and onion into a medium bowl. Add salt & pepper and a couple of Tbsp olive oil. Set aside.

Arrange bread slices on a cookie sheet. Brush each slice with olive oil. Sprinkle with a little salt. Toast bread under your oven broiler until lightly browned. Cool completely.

Spread each slice with ranch veggie dip. Spoon veggie mixture on top of each slice. Sprinkle lightly with dill. Serve immediately.

*I found the Marzetti Ranch Veggie Dip refrigerated in the produce section of my grocery store. I’m sure you could use another brand if you can’t find it.

This next recipe was made on the local morning news show today. I've made other things using the braided ring made with crescent rolls, but never anything with a hot chicken salad inside. It sounds delicious. I'll be making it this weekend so no picture yet.

Chicken-Cranberry Wreath

2 pkgs crescent roll dough
1/2 cup mayo
2 Tbsp honey Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp course black pepper
2 cups cooked chopped chicken (or turkey)
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
3 Tbsp snipped fresh parsley
1/2 cup Craisins 4 oz. grated Mozzarella cheese (use Swiss if using turkey)
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 egg white

Combine all ingredients except the crescent rolls and egg white in a bowl and set aside.

Separate crescent roll dough into triangles. With wide ends facing toward the center, arrange 8 triangles in a circle on a round baking stone or a pizza baking sheet. Corners of wide ends should touch. It will look like a flower. Take remaining 8 triangles and match wide end to wide ends with points facing the center of the baking stone or baking sheet.

Scoop mixture onto the wide ends of the dough making a circle. Weave dough, outside piece, inside piece, alternating all the way around to make a wreath. Brush egg white over wreath.

Bake at 350 20-25 minutes or until browned. Serve.

Blog Title

I'm still working on my header, ya'll. I want to use a different font and different words on what's under it. I'll have to make a jpg and insert it into the html, I think, but I have no idea what I'm talking about really...trial and error. I know it can be done because other people that use Blogger have blog headers with different fonts that what is available through the dashboard.

Can anyone tell me how to do it easily? I'd need the background color (the tan) to match exactly or make it transparent. All I have is the Paint Program to work with.

And just in case I get a yes, can somebody do it for me? Did I take it too far?

Yawn

It's the ass crack of dawn. What am I doing up? I have a lot of work today so I'm not sure I'll be back today, but I'll try!

The new template will take some getting use to, huh? I wanted something completely different than what I had. I tried out several different ones before settling on this. Hope you like it. I don't change my template very often so you'll be looking at it a loooooong time!

Have a good one.

Find of the Year

We went to several garage sales last Saturday morning and look at the great find...

For keeping my crochet yarn and stuff in while I crochet. PLUS...

All this stuff was inside it! Some embroidery thread and supplies, two packages of sewing needles, a fabric hook holder containing one H hook, a fabric thing that hangs across the arm of your chair for your remote, phone, etc., a plastic rod for crocheting broomstick lace, and a pair of Singer scissors! And you'll never guess how much for all that...$2.00!!

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My Kentucky Butter Cake after I poked holes in it and spooned on the glaze. See my chopstick sitting on the edge of the pan there? Chopsticks make the BEST cake hole pokers. After it finished cooling, I removed it from the pan...

And then we had some after supper, and I may have had a tiny piece for breakfast this morning. It's to die for. Can you see where the glaze ran down into the cake. The bites of cake with that glaze in them make my eyeballs roll back in my head.

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I'm off to finish my coffee and then do some work. Have a lovely day!

Geez, sorry about the purple below. It's really hard to read!

A Teaser at the End

I know, I know. I've gone all OCD with the birdies!


Here's the latest one. I'm getting much better (and faster) at making them. The wings definitely look much better. I'm still working on perfecting the beak. I'm going to make more, but I'm going to try and make them smaller.

I'm supposed to be resting my shoulder. I guess I'll stop for the day and maybe bake something.

********************

I was interrupted while making this entry and forgot I was doing it. In the meantime, I swept the floors and put together a Kentucky Butter Cake and got it in the oven. This cake is one of my favorites and I've featured it here before. If you make it, definitely make 1 1/2 times the amount of glaze. You'll be glad you did. I also add 1/2 tsp butter flavoring into the cake batter along with the 2 tsp vanilla extract.

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Not sure what else I'll accomplish today. We'll probably have leftover roast that I made this past weekend for dinner, so I don't have to cook anything. I'll need someone to tie my hands behind my back to keep me from crocheting. There's a project I'm DYING to finish and show you, but it won't be today. I absolutely have to rest my shoulder. (Teaser: That's the interruption I had earlier. Barnaby was delivering a piece of furniture I had asked him to find for me so that I could finish this project.)

Bye, Friends.

Dirty Bird needed a buddy. So...

I gave birth to Bratty Bird this morning. He was born with tiny eyeballs, poor thing. We may have to take him to the eye surgeon and see if he can do something. I really love his longer legs though.

Now they are BFFs

Me thinks they may need some girlie friends soon.

A Lovely Little Ditty

Check it:

Owl City - Fireflies

Manly Things

My husband's pride & joy...his poker room. He built the poker table, the chip display case sitting on the table, and the chip display case hanging on the wall.


The hanging chip display case has poker chips from different casinos in Las Vegas. There may be chips from other places too, but I'm not sure. I guess I could go look, but I don't wanna. You can see me in the reflection taking the picture. I didn't even notice that when I took it. I'm wearing my pajama top, but I don't think you can see enough detail to matter.

These last two pictures are slightly blurry, but again, I'm too lazy to go take better ones. This display case has different sets of chips that he bought, a place for the Dealer Chip and two decks of cards...

And two drawers with chip slots.

A cold morning just as promised by the Weatherman. I'm going to go start a fire and crochet a little. I may end up just reading my book because my shoulder hurt all freakin' night...BAD. It had to be from making Dirty Bird because I didn't crochet but one row on the Candy Necklace. I think it's bursitis because I looked it up on the innernets and it hurts exactly where the bursa is.

A bursa is a tiny fluid-filled sac that functions as a gliding surface to reduce friction between tissues of the body. The plural of bursa is bursae. There are 160 bursae in the body. The major bursae are located adjacent to the tendons near the large joints, such as the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. Bursitis is inflammation of a bursa. When injury or inflammation of a bursa around the shoulder joint occurs, shoulder bursitis is present.

I'm nothing if not informative today. And maybe a little boring too.

You can get the fluid removed at the doctor's office with a needle & syringe and also get cortisone shots into the area for relief. As painful as that sounds, it sounds pretty good right now. I keep saying that it feels like if you stuck a needle directly in there it would relieve some of the pain. I know that sounds weird, and I couldn't explain that feeling if I tried. Does anybody know what I mean by that? Maybe it's built-up pressure from too much fluid? I don't know. I have no idea what I'm talking about either. I'm just rambling.

Or maybe not. Maybe I used to be a doctor in another life and some of that residual knowledge is coming through. Okay, now I REALLY sound weird and don't know what I'm talking about. I've been reading a lot of New Age books lately about spiritual stuff. Can you tell?

I'd better go start that fire now before I get freaky on you. Bye.

Dirty Birdie

My Red Lucy Birdie! He's so goofie, I love him.

We're calling him Dirty Bird. I have no idea why.

It took me four hours to make him. I really hate sewing, but I was determined to make him. I want to make more. I'm sure if I do I'll get quicker at it. At least I hope so. I added my own flair...do you see it? It's the hairy pink tail feathers.

I've named this the Candy Necklace Blanket because that's what it reminds me of. I didn't get much done on it this weekend, but I did go to Michaels for more yarn and got it for $2 per skein. That's a good deal on Vanna's Baby, which is normally $2.99.

It's time for a glass of milk, Buttermilk Candy, bed, and a few chapters of my book. It's way past my normal time to retire to my happy place. The dogs have been following me around wondering what the deal is. They are such creatures of habit and notice any change in the normal routine around here.

Talk at ya on Monday. I've been promised a cold front by the weatherman...cold enough for a fire in the morning with my coffee and crochet hook! I'm SO looking forward to that. Nightie-night.

Buttermilk Fudge

Here's the first recipe I'm trying out of the cookbooks I got at JoAnn's for $1.

Buttermilk Fudge

Melted 2 cups of sugar, 1 stick of butter, 1 cup of buttermilk, and 1 tsp baking soda. It has just come to a boil and needs to cook until it turns a dark golden brown and reaches softball stage.

It's reached softball stage, I've added the 1 tsp vanilla, and now it has to sit and cool down to 200 degrees. See how shiney it is?

After it cooled to the appropriate temperature, I beat it with the electric mixer until it thickened and lost its gloss. (I didn't get a picture of that step.)

Here it is after I poured it into the prepared pan and pressed the pecans into half of it. It has to cool completely before removing it from the pan and cutting into squares.

Sorry about how dark the picture turned out, but here it is all ready. There are two layers in the plastic container and another six pieces off to the side. Two thumbs up! YUM!

Buttermilk Fudge

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup butter (1 stick)
More butter for the pan and foil (see below)
1 Tbsp white corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Line foil in an 8” x 8” pan leaving approximately 5 inches of overhang on each side for lifting fudge out after it cools. Butter the foil and set aside.

Butter sides of a LARGE, heavy saucepan. Use a larger pan than you think you’ll need because when the syrup boils, it will rise A LOT in the pan. Combine first 5 ingredients in pan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Attach a candy thermometer to pan, making sure it does not touch the bottom of the pan.

Increase heat to medium and bring mixture to a boil. Do not stir while syrup is boiling. Continue to cook until syrup reaches softball stage (approximately 238 degrees). Test by dropping about ½ tsp of syrup in a glass of ice water. Syrup should easily form a ball in the water but flatten when held in your hand.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Leave the candy thermometer in the pan and let the syrup sit until it cools to approximately 200 degrees. Remove thermometer and beat with an electric mixture until mixture thickens and is no longer glossy. (This took mine about 2-3 minutes.) Stir in nuts if using. (I waited and pressed them into the top of half of the fudge after it was in the buttered pan so we could have ½ with nuts and ½ without.)

Pour mixture into the foiled and buttered 8” x 8” pan. Allow to cool completely. Lift fudge from pan using the foil handles. Cut into squares. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

This recipe said it makes 4 dozen pieces of fudge, but that’s totally ridiculous. I got 25 normal-size pieces and 5 smaller pieces.