Well, it was one busy week what with subbing, and covering for the body toning class and going to a literacy workshop, and trying to recruit Salvation Army Bell Ringers. And on Tuesday night, I was throwing utensils and towels and pots and pans back into the kitchen drawers and cabinets at break-neck speed, so I could make pies on Wednesday night. Somehow, we were able to put the kitchen back together well enough to host a Thanksgiving dinner - although I have to confess that the pumpkin pies I donated for the church Thanksgiving dinner were from the grocery store. I know. People would be shocked and disappointed. I was teaching that day and I asked Bob to wear a disguise and just leave them in the church narthex and run, but I don't know if he did that or not. Here's Bob carving the bird which he declared to be"very juicy."

Nick took this picture as well as the one below. Please note that Stormy is wearing a dress recommended by the dress club, although she had it shortened.

These next photos I "lifted" from Lindsey's blog and I'm sure she won't mind because I was a little too busy to be taking pictures and they're such great shots of the kids: Brent and Lindsey (with unfinished wall behind them) and.....

...Candace and Rob....

And tired pups, Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog, and Bonnie the Barbarian
.

We were up at 3:15 the next morning for Black Friday shopping. Yes. Stormy, Lindsey, and I rounded up the sale fliers, although I swear we must have made two piles of fliers - the "take withs "and the "leave at homes," and I picked up the leave at home pile because we never seemed to have what we were looking for. Plus, it was windy and our Macy's ten-dollar coupon blew right out of the car and Lindsey had to chase it in the parking lot. Our motto for the morning was "Aggressive but Friendly," and I'm thinking maybe next year we'll have that motto printed on the back of some matching sweatshirts. Wouldn't that be fun? But no antlers, we draw the line at antlers. We saw some women wearing antlers at JoAnn's Fabrics, but they looked angry. I think if you've got antlers on your head, you'd better look like you're having a good time or it isn't going to work and you're just going to look stupid. I didn't last very long that day and had to come home and take a nap. In fact, I haven't been worth a hoot this whole weekend.

Recipe of the Week: Some recipes are just classic and this is one of them. You can't go wrong with a lemon bar. They're quick, easy, and you most always have the ingredients on hand. The flaky, shortbread-like crust nicely compliments the lemon filling. Everybody loves lemon bars!!

Lemon Bars

2 sticks of butter

2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

4 beaten eggs

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

sifted powdered sugar

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Blend butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Pat into ungreased 9 X 13 pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. For filling blend together eggs, sugar, lemon juice and peel. Pour over first layer and bake at 325 for 20 minutes. Loosen around edges, cut into bars and sift confectioner's sugar over the top while warm.

Finally, a picture of Bob reading the newspaper at the new table and waiting for me to say it's okay to eat the lemon bars.

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there in Blog Land. It's going to be a busy week around here. There's still much to be done in the new addition. Bob is on vacation and working to make it usable for our guests on Thanksgiving. Stormy and Nick (future grandparents of twin-Smithlings) will be joining us from Wilkes Barre and Brent and Lindsey will be coming up from Indy. I'm teaching second grade Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I'm also subbing for a body toning class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Book Babes meet in Fort Wayne tomorrow night, and I've got pies to bake for church - plus our own personal pies. Oh, and I'm trying to schedule Salvation Army Bell Ringers. Oh, and there's Black Friday, of course. Enough already. We are thankful that we're busy. As you can see, the dogs are dressed for the occasion. Bonnie is, as you might predict, the savage.










The dining room table arrived late Friday afternoon. I'm displaying some lovely pumpkin and squash salt and pepper shakers that Cathy sent back from California with Bob. I know you can't see them, but trust me, they're great. Thanks Cathy. I love them. This tablecloth that Stormy gave me barely covers the ends, but it will work for our dinner this week. I'm thankful to have it too.










Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog wants you to know there's another new CPA in town. On Wednesday, Rachel found out that she had passed her final exam. Congrats to you Rachel with a five woof salute from Maddie and the CPA song. (chorus sung to the tune of YMCA)





Now Rachel is A CPA
It's fun to be A CPA.
She can count all your stuff,
She can take you to lunch,
Just give her the numbers
You want her to crunch.
'Cause Rachel is A CPA,
Yes, she truly is A CPA.
Hmm, hmm, hmm,
and so on and so forth.

Kelly's Korner - Show Us Your Life Friday

Show Us Your Pets

These are the dogs and granddogs that we love both in the flesh (or fur, rather) and their cartoon versions, which often show up on this blog:

Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog -sporting her construction paper rhubarb crown in honor of our rhubarb celebration. Not sure she really liked it.










And, looking happier without a hat























Granddog Bonnie the Barbarian, cute as a bug, but a real hooligan, trust me.













And, granddog, Little Roxanne - little dog with a big personality who likes to run the show. Here she is sitting pretty on the back:






And as they appear in cartoon form - the bulldog, Slobbery Stella, belongs to my niece.


Celebrating Easter.....

.........and not celebrating the Fourth of July.

Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog, is dispensing woofs tonight in honor of some very exciting news items:


First of all, when Nick and Stormy were in Paris they were informed by their son and daughter-in-law that they were going to become grandparents, which is exciting in itself, BUT, on Friday, they were told that they will be the grandparents of twins. And let the record show that this is a natural phenomenon, created without the assistance of medical technology. Until they arrive these fetuses ( or is it feti? I am now, officially, an English teacher and should know this.) fetuses. These fetuses ( scheduled to arrive around Nick's birthday in May) will henceforth be referred to on this blog as "the Smithlings." Congratulations, Emmet, Emily, Nick, Stormy, and the whole Smith clan.


And, other big news.......

Last week I told you that Rob and Candace went to Hawaii for a vacation, but what I didn't say is that Rob was wearing an engagement ring around his neck when he left. And, we hear that he proposed to Candace on the last night of their stay, on Waikiki Beach at sunset. Congratulations kiddos. We couldn't be more pleased.






Maddie is going to have more to woof about very soon, because Lindsey will finish her MBA in just a few weeks and our dear Landon Kutscher has only two more chemotherapy treatments left and just about 30 days to go before he gets a baby brother or sister. Woof!



I did a little subbing last week and started scheduling Salvation Army bell ringers for Noble County. If you want to ring, give me a ring. Ha-ha. It's been a rough week in the kitchen and that's all I'm saying about that at this writing. My poor Bob. Here are some remodeling pictures:





Shot of the front of the house - new woodland green siding and clay colored garage.






This picture shows the new addition


And finally, something Bob has entitled" Kitchen Chaos 2.

Recipe of the Week? Of course, there's no recipe. All I've had to eat today is three slices of sourdough bread with butter and a pack of Sarburst leftover from Halloween. There's no stinkin' recipe. But, I'll leave you this week with my favorite quote of all time:

"Aunt Lou, you make everything fun."

Baleigh Bohannon Koester
I'm puddling up.

I'm not feeling very bloggy this week. I conked out last night watching the Cowboys and Eagles and didn't get anything posted. So, here's a mini-blog: I worked at the park department for Sally last week. Bob took the week off to work on the dining room. We decided to have our old kitchen cabinets refinished and will put on new counter tops. He started putting down the flooring and I'm almost done with the plaster. Here's a picture of Rob and Candace at the Detroit airport on Saturday getting ready to board a plane for Hawaii. Aloha Kiddos.

It's hard to whip anything up in my kitchen these days, so I have no exciting recipes to post for you. I did help the Gamma Xi girls make their cheeseballs yesterday at the middle school. We had five assembly lines going and I believe we made 3,300 of those tasty spheres in just over three hours. Um-mm. I was a weigher, which I think is the most interesting job because you try to get faster and better at it as you go along - gauging the weight of the cheese and trying to hit it right on the mark when you plunk it down on the scale. Here's a photo from workday. I'm not in it, because I always shy away from the paparazzi when wearing a hairnet. Also, I would love to share this cheeseball recipe with you all, but I cannot because it is top secret and I will have to take it with me to the grave.

Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog, exaggerates about Halloween night. It was not all that painful for her. In fact, I just stayed outside and greeted the trick or treaters. I set up a card table and served hot mulled cider from a crockpot to the adults, which I thought was a great idea and wondered why I'd never done it before. Next year, I'm expanding. Maddie watched most of the action from the front door. She joined me later, when little Roxanne came by wearing a white fur hooded pink coat that said "glamorous to the bone" on it. A two-year- old, chubby-cheeked, pink fairy was so taken with Roxanne that she didn't want to leave and kept shaking her Milky Way bar at her mother yelling "Go, you go!"

Midway in the process of plastering the dining room. This afternoon we painted our garage door and both front exterior doors, and flower boxes to match the new siding. Now all the blue is gone. We put up the shutters yesterday, so the outside is done. I'll post a picture next week of the finished exterior. This week, the focus is on finishing the walls and putting down the hardwood floor. I'm also in love with my chandelier.

Recipe of the Week: The old Ramada Inn in Effingham used to have a great restaurant. Back in the 70's it had an American history theme going on, and when we went there for lunch I always ordered The War Between the States salad. (which was a chef's salad with some delicious croutons). The Keller's owned the inn and Thelma Keller was well-known for her cooking. One of her most famous desserts was a deep dish apple dumpling. The recipe was printed in several women's magazines years ago. Thelma put out a couple of cookbooks, and I have one, so I decided I'd make the dumplings. The only problem was that the recipe calls for canned apples, and I couldn't find them, so I just sliced up some Granny Smith's and worked from there. I'm going to give you Thelma's actual recipe and maybe you can find canned apples, I don't know.

Deep Dish Apple Dumpling

2 twenty ounce cans of sliced apples, drained (save juice)

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

6 teaspoons red hots candy

butter

Mix apples and other ingredients. Roll out egg-sized ball of pastry (Opie's No-Fail, of course) into a ten inch circle; line deep dish, let hang over sides. In bottom of each, put a small pat of butter and 1 teaspoon red hots. Put in apples, dividing equally into the 6 deep dishes, fold dough over top, place on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Sauce

1 cup apple juice

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup red hots

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons cold water

Heat to dissolve the candy and sugar in apple juice. Then, bring to a boil. Mix the cornstarch and cold water and add to the mixture, continuing to cook until clear. Serve hot over apple dumplings. (Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an extra treat).