Cartoon Maddie brings up a good point. Why doesn't Billy Crystal host the Oscar's anymore? Oh, it's not that we have anything against Hugh Jackman. He did an okay job, it's just that we really like Billy Crystal and always looked forward to his annual "Oscar, Oscar" opening number. In honor of Oscar night, I gave Bob the assignment of choosing his top ten favorite Best Picture winners. I was surprised to see that Forrest Gump has surpassed Patton on his list, and also surprised that he didn't mention In the Heat of the Night, since that picture was filmed in his home town of Sparta, and he got to watch some of the filming, plus his friend, Dog Frailey's dad's backhoe appears in the movie. Here's his top list:

10. The Bridge Over the River Kwai

9. Lawrence of Arabia

8. Platoon

7. Crash

6. Schindler's List

5. Casablanca

4. Gone With the Wind

3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

2. Patton

1. Forrest Gump

Here's my list:

10. Rebecca

9. Crash

8. The Sound of Music

7. The Best Years of Our Lives

6. Gone With the Wind

5. The Sting

4. Forrest Gump

3. Driving Miss Daisy

2. Schindler's List

1. Casablanca

What's the Good Word? The good word this week is carcass. Carcass can mean The human body, living or dead: scornful or humorous usage, as in "Bob did not drag his sorry carcass home from Wisconsin until midnight Saturday night." (Oops, forget you read that) It can also mean: The dead body of an animal - as in "Let's boil that turkey carcass and make some soup." or - "Bonnie the Barbarian has been dragging small pieces of an animal carcass into Brent and Lindsey's house." She's finding little bones and organs in their sandbox and bringing them right inside. Brent and Lindsey suspect this must be the handiwork of neighbor kitties, Einstein, Bob Buttons and Crazy Cat. Bonnie has also been bringing in chunks of dried pooh as well.

From the Archives: Since we're talking about the Oscars, how about a photo of Oscar winner, Clint Eastwood, taken in 1982 at Pebble Beach. He was very cordial, even though he was really struggling on this hole.

Recipe of the Week: These are really yummy, so good that I've made them two Sunday afternoons in a row. Hope you enjoy them too.

Melt in Your Mouth Yeast Rolls

1 package of yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup warm milk

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup butter (no margarine) softened

5 to 5 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in warm water and 1 tablespoon sugar. Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Scald the milk and remove from the stove. Add milk, eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and softened butter to the yeast mixture. Add flour to form a stiff dough. Turn out and knead until smooth and elastic (4 to 5 minutes). Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled. Divide into thirds and roll each third into a 12-inch circle. Brush with melted butter, then cut the circle into 8 wedges and roll up, starting with wide end and place pointed side down 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise until double. Bake at 375 degrees 9 to 10 minutes or until just slightly brown on the edges. Makes 24 rolls.

Cartoon Maddie, The Amazing Barking Dog, a new addition to this blog, is giving out her famous five-woof salute this week, on account of Valentine's Day, and for Ashley and Andrew, in honor of the birth of their beautiful daughter, Audrey, born last Wednesday morning - 9 pounds, 2 ounces. Congratulations!

What's the Good Word? The good word this week is "spiffy." The President recently announced, that "Air Force One is one spiffy ride." I like this word. I also like to say "all spiffed-up," but I do not believe spiffed is actually a word - although spiffiness is. So, I might say I was all puffed up with my spiffiness. Webster's says spiffy means: Fine looking - smart.

This squirrel lives in Miami and is said to be the world's best dressed squirrel. I realize we're treading on crazy ferret territory here, but you do have to admit, she looks good. Spiffy, in fact. I'd say she's all puffed up with her squirrely spiffiness.

At my creme brulee/baklava class last Tuesday night, I learned that apparently people have a fear of phyllo, which I didn't know. I always suspected they were afraid of pie crusts, and at the pie baking class last fall, I posed that very question, but they all said "no, they were not afraid of pie crusts."

"Hmmm, okay, good," I said. But in my head I was thinking "Then why ain't you makin' pies and why are you here?"

So, Tuesday, I find out they ARE afraid of phyllo, and they appreciated being able to overcome this hurdle. You can manhandle the phyllo, well, a little, and you have some time before it starts drying out. You can just fold over the sheet if it doesn't exactly fit in your pan, and don't worry about any little tears. Remember, slathering on enough butter can fix anything. You do need to keep the sheets covered with a moist kitchen towel most of the time, when you're working with it. Anyway, baklava is the recipe of the week. This is not my baklava, as I forgot to take a picture of it, but I do want you to see how it should be cut.

Baklava

4 cups walnuts, finely chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pound phyllo dough

1 cup butter, melted

1 - 12 ounce jar honey

Grease a 9 X 13 inch baking dish. In large bowl, combine nuts, sugar and cinnamon. Cut phyllo into 9 X 13 inch rectangles. (They have changed the packaging, and it's very close to this size now, anyway) In baking dish, place 1 sheet of phyllo and brush with butter. Repeat to make 5 more layers. Sprinkle with one cup of the nut mixture.

Place one sheet of phyllo over the nut mixture and brush with butter. Repeat to make at least 6 layers, overlapping any small strips of phyllo to make rectangles. Repeat the process. Place remaining phyllo on top of last cup of nut mixture. With a sharp knife, cut just halfway through the layers in triangle patterns to make 24 servings. Bake in 300 degree oven for 1 hour and 25 minutes or until top is golden brown.

In small saucepan, over medium heat, heat honey until just hot, but not boiling. Remove baklava from the oven and spoon honey over the top. Cool. Cover at room temperature.

From the Archives: Cherubs take a bubble bath -1990

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." Winnie the Pooh

As you can see, Hickory Hill Hans was unaffected by the flashing cameras, paparazzi buzz, and general groundhog hub-bub of last week. So, we have no idea what the heck is going to happen. The deer continue to come every night for corn, but most of the snow has melted and hopefully they'll be able to find some acorns here and there.

I heard an old song on the Sirius Seventies on Seven channel last week. I'm sure you know it, it's the Pina Colada Song by Mr. Rupert Holmes. There are a couple of things that bother me about this song. Number 1: It's about these two people who are bored with each other so the guy decides to answer a personal ad in the newspaper from somebody who "likes pina coladas and getting caught in the rain." So he meets up with this person "at a bar called O'Malley's" and it's his "old lady." And guess what? They laugh about it. I'm pretty sure I would not be laughing, and that I would be upset because "Wait a minute, Bob, you did NOT KNOW that I was the person who placed the ad, and what do you mean, thinking you can escape????

Number 2 bothersome thing: The lyrics "Do you like making love at midnight in the dunes on the Cape?" Dunes? Dunes can only mean one thing - sand. And, sand can lead to chafing. It's like that famous scene in From Here to Eternity where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr are lying on the beach, and it does look romantic alright, but, what about the chafing, and look out for the waves!

So, no, Mr. Rupert Holmes, unless you're carrying a stack of big thirsty beach towels, I don't think it's a great idea to make love in the dunes on the Cape, or in any other chafing material.........

or on top of cow patties.........

or any place that's infested with deer flies.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I was tagged by Megan last week to list six things that make me happy. I'm going to exclude family, friends, and good health from the list

Six Things that Make Me Happy

1. Mail - of any kind

2. Feeding tasty food to people and critters
3. Books and music (I know - 2 things)

4. Holidays - all of them - even Bastille Day

5. The smell of playdough

6. Brown paper packages tied up with strings

NBC news ran a story last week about rapidly increasing sales of Spam. Yes, during these tough economic times, people are turning, yet again to "Crazy, Tasty" Spam to sustain their families, and the people at Hormel are making Spam seven days a week. I did a PowerPoint presentation on the marketing of Spam for a mass communications class. It has a very rich history. Here's Bob posing with Spam and Spam products. Are you shocked that we have this much Spam in our pantry? You shouldn't be.

If you're running low, go to the store.

Carry some money, to help you buy more.

The tab is there, to open the can.

The can is there to hold in the Spam.

Now once you start in, you can't put it down.

Don't leave it sitting, or it'll turn brown.

The key is going, to open the tin

The tin is there to keep the Spam in.

Weird Al Yankovic

Recipe of the Week:

Pig Newtons

1 (12-ounce) can Spam

1 can Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut Spam in half, then in 1/4 inch slices. Unroll dough, separate into two long rectangles, and pat remaining perforations closed. Center Spam slices end to end down the length of each rectangles. (there may be slices leftover) Fold sides of dough up over Spam and weal with fingers. Slice the dough into sections about the size of Fig Newtons and place seamside down on a cookie sheet. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

"Love is friendship set on fire." anonymous

What was that about the United States Postal Service cutting delivery service one day a week? I wouldn't get mail on Saturdays anymore, or maybe not on Tuesdays, you say?? Surely this must be one of the early warning signs of a society in decline.

The week of the Ham: Last Sunday, after church, Bob and I stopped at Kroger's and picked up a few things. Kretschmar Hams were on sale, so we bought one that was marked down from thirty-seven to twenty-two dollars, with Kroger card, of course. When we got home, Bob cut it in half and used the Food Saver to seal up one half and put it in the freezer. I decided it might be fun to see how many meals we could get from eleven dollars worth of tasty Kretschmar Ham, so on Monday night, we had ham slices with au gratin potatoes and broccoli. Tuesday night I served up this ham and noodle casserole. Wednesday night, we took a break from ham. Then, Thursday, we had a ham and potato casserole, and finally on Sunday evening, a delicious ham and cheesey potato soup. That's four meals from half a ham, plus, Rob ate a couple of ham sandwiches, and believe it or not, there's still a couple of slices leftover, and a baggie with some ham snacks for Maddie, The Amazing Barking Dog, and little Roxanne, when she comes to visit us. That other half is going to have to stay in the freezer for some time, because I'm mighty sick of ham and don't really want to see another one until Easter.

My friend, Cheryl, alerted me to this turkey sighting at the snowmancam last week. I also saw snowmobilers, deer, and squirrels. I hope you're remembering to check it periodically.

Last week, on her blog, my niece Megan had a very clever number thing going on, so I'm copying her and here are just a few of my numbers for the week:

8 Number of squirrels eating on the deck at one time, while

5 squirrels ate at the feeders in the back and

4 more nervously darted back and forth in the woods, waiting for an opportunity to advance and......

20 Number of years that Rob has been on the planet. Happy Birthday Rob!

From the Archives: How about a picture of Rob, when he posed as the mascot for our March of Dimes Walkathon team in 1990, as The Healthy Baby. Rob weighed nine pounds and eight ounces at birth, so he was, indeed healthy.

To celebrate his birthday, we took Rob and Candace out to eat on Saturday night at Baker Street, a fairly new restaurant in Fort Wayne. Lindsey and Brent had made plans to eat at St. Elmo's in Indy that night with Rachel and Justin, but Rachel was sick, so, they decided to come on up and surprise Rob by joining us. (hope you're better, Rachel) We had 9:00 PM reservations, but did not get seated until 9:40. (Isn't that why you MAKE reservations, so you don't have to wait 40 minutes to be seated?) I thought the food was good, but the service - not so good. Lindsey is starting a new restaurant blog, so she'll be commenting on our experience there, I believe. Anyway, they did have, what I thought to be, some very nice pretzel-like bread with mustard-butter. Here's Rob and poor Candace, who had to be at work at 5:30 AM on both Saturday and Sunday

Lindsey and Brent sample the Creme Brulee trio. By the way, I'll be teaching a class on Creme Brulee and Baklava on February 10th, at the Park Department, if you are interested.

Recipe of the Week: I thought that the tastiest ham dish from this very long week of ham consumption, was Sunday's soup, so here is the recipe:

Renee's Homemade Ham, Cheese, and Potato Soup

3 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup onion, chopped fine

1 garlic clove, chopped fine

4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

4 cups milk

12 oz. Velveeta cheese, grated

2 cups ham, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon red pepper

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 cup each, cooked broccoli and cauliflower (optional)

Bring water, salt and potatoes to boil. Cook until soft. Meanwhile, cook onion and garlic in butter for 3 minutes in Dutch oven. Drain potatoes and sit aside.

Gradually add flour to onion and stir well. Pour milk in, one cup at a time. Cook over medium heat until hot. Lower heat and add remaining ingredients. Stir until cheese is melted. Let soup simmer 10 to 20 minutes before serving. A meal in itself!

"If I had a mine shaft, I don't think I would just abandon it. There's got to be a better way!" Jack Handey