Even though I claimed to have nothing to post last week, I really felt in the end that I had produced a mildly amusing post. However, dear friends, the bottom fell right out of our readership last week, the counters showing only one third the number of frequent peekers that we normally get. So, I guess I just don't know what to tell you. Well, here's a picture of a brave little doe who visited our backyard on Saturday afternoon. What do you think of that??? Or maybe.........

....you might find this picture appealing. It's Bob demonstrating for Julia, the neck stretcher he got from the chiropractor. (remember that episode of Andy Griffith when Barney used one of these in order to meet the height requirements for deputies in North Carolina?) Bob practically insisted that I take this, in an effort to boost our numbers. I swear to you that he did. I bet if you listen really carefully, you can almost hear Julia laughing

in the dining room.

Maybe a yummy recipe will help. I have a new cookbook put out by Marian Getz, a pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck for many years. She's very high on this Vienna crust. It is good, and I will use it again, but I think most of the time I'll stick with my tried and true Opie's No Fail Pie Crust recipe. I like that little bit of vinegar in the dough. The Buttermilk pie was delicious. Very caramely and rich. Hope you like it. And I'm glad you stopped by to read the blog.

Vienna Pastry Pie Crust

1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed

1 package ( 8 oz) cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups flour

In a food processor or mixer, combine all ingredient; process until a dough ball form. Shape the dough into 2 flat 8 inch round disks and refrigerate for one hour.

Buttermilk Pie

1 & 1/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 cup buttermilk

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

8 large egg yolks

Vienna Pastry Pie Crust, unbaked

Combine all ingredients and pour into prepared but unbaked pie shell. Bake for 15 minutes at 325 degrees. Lower temperature to 300 degrees and bake an additional 40 minutes or until set. Allow to cool. Dust with powdered sugar and serve at room temperature.

I didn't post anything last week - partly because I've been pretty wrapped up in the high school English teaching gig, but mostly because I just didn't have anything. Wait, I don't have anything this week either, but I'm not going to let that stop me this time. My very wonderful sister-in-law, Dena, sent me these canned apples. Remember, I told you they were hard to come by? Well, she purchased these in South Carolina, for Pete's sake. Then she drove them down to Florida and then back home to Illinois and put them in the mail to me. Now I can make more apple dumplings. Thanks, Dena. Bob's been traveling quite a bit this month, and we spent the last couple of weekends watching football with friends - Go Colts - Go Brett . That is all.



Musings about Facebook: Now, first of all, I really do love Facebook. It has allowed me to reconnect with people from my past and it lets me keep track of my friends, and see lots of great pictures I would never otherwise have the opportunity to see. Why, just last Friday night, in a thirty minute period of time, I was able to chat with Addie in Texas, my niece in Illinois, and Todd, the president of the Apple Festival Committee, who lives just down the road.

But, one thing I don't like about Facebook is that it is constantly reminding me how old I am in those little adds in the sidebar. Things like: "Help for overweight 53 year-old women in Indiana." How does Facebook know how much I weigh? And: "President Obama wants 53 year-old women to go back to college." He does?? And: "53 year-old women can win gas in Illinois." Hmmm. It would take me a lot of gas to drive over to Illinois and try to win some gas. The only worse thing than being constantly reminded that I'm 53 (for just another two months) is that out there in cyberspace, my age is 62. Seriously, on all those people-search websites, my age is listed as 62. What the heck? Where did they get that, and how does one go about setting the record straight, I would like to know????




The other bad thing about Facebook is that Farmville is taking up too much of my time!!!! It all started when my niece, Baleigh, begged me to send her some farm gifts to help her with her farm. She said I didn't have to really play the game to do this for her. She was wrong. Before I knew it, I had goats, and trees, and all kinds of neighbors, and I have to fertilize their crops and feed their chickens and I have to plan my day around the time my Farmville crops will be ready for harvesting because if you ignore them, THEY TURN BROWN AND DIE. And that's embarrassing. I've got so many cats, I can't keep track of them all, and I would like to know how many more red tulips I have to plant before they give me one of those cool "tulip master" signs. It's just all too much for somebody who's 62.

Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog is waiting for more snow. She just loves to help me feed all the critters in the back yard and to bark at the deer who come for corn. Maddie doesn't have a lot going on.

Recipe of the Week: I've had this recipe in my recipe box since 1992 and never tried it, so I thought perhaps it was time. It came from Winifred Winch in Wetmore, Michigan and it was published in Reminisce magazine. Winnie said, "It's perfect for parties, because it can be prepared early in the day and baked later on when the guests arrive.

Potato/Spinach Casserole

6 to 8 large potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed

1 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons chopped chives or green onions

1/4 cup butter

1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except cheese. Spoon into a greased 2-quart casserole. Bake, uncovered at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Top with cheese and bake 5 minutes longer.

Happy New Year to all. I know this photo has nothing to do with 2010, but I just wanted to post a couple more holiday pictures, as last week's post was getting a tad picture-heavy. I love these Christmas trees that I got on clearance from the West End catalog, but we have a dickens of a time keeping them standing. Must find a better way to anchor them for next year. Hey, maybe that could be one of my New Year's resolutions. This last Christmas pic is of our 2009 Christmas card. It's the third (and probably, final) year that I have drawn a winter scene and then had Kinkos print Christmas cards from the drawing. I called the series, "Bird and Berries," as all three featured a red cardinal and some little red berries. So, here it is for you all - to wish you Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Kickin' Kwanzaa, and Happy New Decade.

Bob and I sat here like a couple of big loser lumps on New Year's Eve. That can be another resolution for next year: "Find something to do on NYE so we aren't sitting here like a couple of big loser lumps." On New Year's Day, though, we loaded up and drove down to meet the Smith's who were celebrating the holidays with their children inside Buckeye Cabin, a cozy abode that sleeps twelve and is located on a hill in the woods near Hocking Hills, Ohio. It was cold and snowy outside, but warm and merry inside. The holiday get-together also appeared to be some kind of Smith family cook-off. (Since we're in the woods, insert Dueling Banjos song from Deliverence here). We were fed lunch at 3:00 and dinner at 7:00 and there were tasty snacks in between all prepared by various Smiths. Here are a couple of pictures from the afternoon. We left the Buckeye Cabin about 8:30 and drove to Indy, where we planned to spend the night with Brent & Lindsey and then help them install a new dishwasher on Saturday. But, Lindsey, who had been under the weather, called to say she was feeling terrible and didn't want us to risk getting sick, so we opted to stay at the Hilton, instead. The next day, we did go over and put in the dishwasher. Brent took Lindsey to a doctor who diagnosed her flu as "possibly the H1N1 - no work until Wednesday, at the earliest - go to the hospital if you experience shortness of breath."

Here she is on the couch. Even her favorite sweet tea from McAlister's Deli didn't seem to perk her up. Also, Brent presented Bonnie the Barbarian with her Christmas bone in hopes of keeping her occupied during the dishwasher installation. Mostly, she carried the bone around, making little frantic whiny noises, while looking for somewhere to bury it. Lindsey's sick bed seemed like the ideal spot. She reminded me of the dog in the Traveler's Insurance commercial. You know "Trouble, trouble, trouble trouble..."Here she is with her precious bone.

Finally now, to those New Year's Resolutions. Let's see, we've got two now: 1. Find better way to keep trees up and 2. Find something to do so we're not Loser-Lumps on New Year's Eve. That's a good start. If you check Lindsey's blog, you'll see that she has posted several lists of goals and accomplishments, starting in 2002 and building. Many of them are lofty and ambitious and some of them she has already checked off her lists. (Although, I don't believe I saw "Survive H1N1 in 2010 on any of those lists) She's very brave and she inspires me to be brave and try new things too. So here goes my big resolution. 3. Get something published this year.