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

Snow has covered the ground for well over a month now, and the deer are really getting hungry. We've had them in the backyard eating at the birdfeeders every night this week. In fact, Wednesday night, when Cindy dropped me off after Book Babes, a deer was actually in the driveway. "Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you to be mindful of the deer." A neighboring farmer gave us a big bag of field corn, so we have been able to leave extra out for them. Usually there are just three or four does, but Friday night, there were eight!

Bob bought a mineral block at Rural King and put it out for them. He said it smelled good, like alfalfa - so good, in fact, that he considered giving it a lick himself. The deer don't seem to be interested in it. As we watched them from our bedroom window in the dark, Bob kept muttering behind me, "Go to mineral block. Go to the mineral block, you big dummies. I paid seven bucks for that mineral block."

The next day he put the corn on top of the mineral block, so they HAD to notice it. I did see a squirrel sitting on it yesterday, but I think he was just using it as a chair.

You might see some deer eating at birdfeeders right now if you go to http://www.snowmancam.com/. This guy up in Gaylord, Michigan, set up a webcam in his backyard so that people could see wildlife. He added the wooden snowman just to make it interesting and apparently it's a big hit, visited by about 2000 people, daily. A couple even flew in from Scotland to have their picture taken with the snowman. I just visited it and saw a deer.

The local newspaper is going to run a series called "Silver Linings," which hopes to find something positive and life-changing about our current economical climate, which is a challenging assignment, as it's hard to find anything positive about so many people suddenly out of work. Lindsey's pastor spoke about our troubled economy at her church this morning, and about how possessions don't make us happy, and that living simply clears the path to God. He suggested that we should start spending less on entertainment, inviting friends and neighbors over for the evening instead of going places and spending money. He also challenged members of his congregation to check their lives for areas of excess and ways to change.

Now, this, for some reason, immediately put me in mind of a show Bob and I were watching last week on PBS. It was about people who dress up ferrets and drive them all over the Midwest trying to win ribbons at ferret shows. One lady had these plastic tubes going up and down the stairs and all around her house, and her ferrets would run around in them. This other man had a real bed made for his ferret, and the sleeping animal was covered up with a little quilt that had ferrets on it. These very well-fed Midwesterners were all kissing and stroking their ferrets at this show and this one woman, she was about sick to her stomach with worry that her ferret wasn't going to win a ribbon.

I turned to Bob and said, "I think this might be one of those examples of American excess and mixed-up priorities, although, I could be wrong."

Oh, I know what you're thinking. This criticism from a woman who puts hats on wooden squirrels, and address signs in front of groundhog holes?? Well, okay, you got me there, although, I prefer to think of my shenanigans as "whimsical." However, the very second you hear about me driving come costumed ferret over to the Buckeye Bash Ferret Show in Columbus, Ohio, well, just come and get me.

Recipe of the Week: The menu at last week's inaugural luncheon was inspired by the favorite foods of President Lincoln. It started with a seafood stew, and was followed by herb roasted pheasant with wild rice, duck breast with cherry chutney, molasses whipped sweet potatoes, winter vegetables, and for dessert, apple cinnamon sponge cake. Bob really liked these whipped sweet potatoes. I thought they were good too, but I guess I'm not wild about the cumin.

Molasses Whipped Sweet Potatoes

3 large sweet potatoes (about 3 pounds)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and bake until fork tender, about 1 hour. Peel the skin off the potatoes while still hot. By hand or with the mixer, smash potatoes until all large chunks are gone. Combine the potatoes, butter, salt, orange juice, brown sugar, cumin, molasses and maple syrup an a large bowl. Continue to mix all together until all lumps are gone. Adjust any of the seasonings to your specific tastes. Can be made the day before.

"You can kidnap me and force me to be your watchdog if you want to. But I'm telling you, I will bark at any sound I hear and it will drive you crazy." Jack Handey

Winter Haiku

Sixteen below,

Blowing snow,

No place to go

If you're the Brad Miller Snowman.

(but at least you have new arms)

That's right, we experienced brutally cold weather last week here in northern Indiana, as I'm sure many of you did in your own various necks of the woods. I was told that, just like the kid in A Christmas Story, little Roxanne made the mistake of licking a metal strip on the front door and had to be freed with some warm water. Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog suffered no such mishaps. She made quick work of her business trips outside. She did discover this week, that she LOVES caramel corn, as I made a batch. When I tried giving her some regular popcorn later, she spat it right back out on the floor!

From the Archives: Various snow creations from the 1990's. Snow Rabbit

Snow Bear

Little Snow Cowboy with pine mustache

Snow Dragon on Diamond Street

Recipe of the Week: I've been intending to make pizza using Granny Ruth's recipe for some time now, but just didn't get around to it until this weekend. You remember Bob's Granny Ruth, from the potato post last summer. She was married to Grandpa Harvey who loved potatoes. They got married in 1929. A few years back, I interviewed Granny for a paper that I wrote about the Great Depression. They lived out in the country and she told me sometimes she would go an entire month without seeing another human being besides Harvey. She would kill and pluck chickens for him to take into town to sell on Saturday, but she couldn't remember how much she got for them. I think she might have sold bread too. Christmas presents for family and friends during those lean years might have been walnuts or some of the better apples they had saved in their cellar. I wrote that paper for an economics class and submitted it online, and a few months later, we suffered a computer catastrophe and lost everything. I didn't have a hard copy, so I'm relying on memory. Granny Ruth was the oldest daughter in the family and she did the baking. She gave me this recipe for Pizza Hut Crust several years ago. It's kind of a strange recipe, and I don't know where she got it. I always meant to ask her about it, but never did. Here it is, as written. I'll make a couple of notes at the end.

Pizza Hut Crust

4 cups warm water

1/4 cup sugar

3 pkg dry yeast

2 teaspoons salt

10 to 12 cups flour

2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon oregano

3 Tablespoons butter, softened

corn meal for dusting pan

Remove 1 1/2 cups of water from the 4 cups measured. Stir in 3 tablespoons of sugar to this 1 1/2 cups of water. Dissolve the yeast in this and let stand for 5 minutes until bubble. When done, add the yeast mixture to the remaining sugar and butter and add the rest of the ingredients except cornmeal and Parmesan cheese. Add the flour mixture and remaining 2 1/2 cups of water alternately, mixing the dough until it is stiff enough to knead. Knead for 10 minutes. Place in plastic bags large enough to allow the dough to triple in size. For a 15 inch pizza, take about 2 cups of the dough. Grease a pan and dust with corn meal. Roll the dough to fit the pan. Brush the crust with oil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Add sauce and desired fillings. Bake at 450 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes.

Notes:

1. Forget about measuring out 4 cups of warm water and then removing 1 1/2 cups. Just measure 1 1/2 cups of warm water and when you're ready for the rest, run another 2 1/2 cups into your measuring cup.

2. If you take 3 tablespoons out of 1/4 cup of sugar, there's not much left, maybe, like a teaspoon. I don't get this, but I play along anyway.

3. I don't put the dough in plastic bags, but allow it to rise in a big greased bowl. I also allow the crusts to rise again in the pans while I'm fixing the fillings. It makes three big pizzas in jelly roll pans, so be ready to share pizza with your neighbors, or somebody.

"If you're a cowboy and you're dragging a guy behind your horse, I bet it would really make you mad if you looked back and the guy was reading a magazine." Jack Handey

After reading some of tonight's new posts, I realize that I'm not the only one who had an uneventful week. Yeah, about all I did was sit around and watch my squirrels collect snow.
The Amazing Barking Dog and I made several trips out to the feeders to keep all of our critters happy. Nothing unusual out there to report, just squirrels and birds. Bob did put out some apples for the deer this afternoon. And speaking of Bob, he just gave me the business because he didn't like the way I opened up a package of cheese. Can you believe that - being taken to task for the way you open up a block of Kraft Cheddar and Monterey Jack? He knows I'm no good at opening things. It's in our contract. He's the cheese package opener and direction reader. I'm the.....umm well, I have other jobs.


We were under a winter storm warning Friday and Saturday, and we remain under a winter storm watch through Tuesday. Looks like there could be more snow on the squirrels.



The Biggest Loser: Year - Deux
Yes, our second annual Biggest Loser weigh-in was last Tuesday. We'll be weighing in every Tuesday for the next 13 weeks. Each participant is to set a goal and if we meet our goals, we'll celebrate by spending the night in Chicago, sometime after Easter, and splurging on something expensive of our choosing. My goal is twenty pounds, which might be too ambitious. I thought my reward might be a pair of those Christian Louboutin shoes, you know, the ones with the red soles? But, the way the economy is looking, my reward might have to be something more practical, like getting my old shoes re-soled, or a big bag of rice.


This Week in Cakes: There was a flurry of cake construction this weekend at our house. Lindsey came up for Ashley's baby shower, which was scheduled for Saturday, but postponed until Sunday because of the weather. Here's the cake I made for the shower. And here's the diaper cake that Becca and Lindsey made for the centerpiece at the shower. It required a lot of diapers and a lot of great big rubber bands and much discussion because those girls, they like symmetry. We had lots of fun, and you can see by the clock on the wall that we didn't get done until 11:00 PM.





And, while Lindsey was busy preparing for the shower.......

Bonnie, the Barbarian napped on Bob's great, great, grandmother's velvet-covered settee.

From the Archives: Here's a picture of my brother, Brian, sister, Lori, and me, in 1975, or maybe 1976 - not sure. I know this is a bad photo, but I like it because she's got a band-aid on her knee, which was typical. She was one tough little critter, who didn't want to come in from playing outside, no matter how cold it was, and who, played every sport in the book, and rode a motorcycle. She celebrated her 37th birthday last week. Happy Birthday, you wild woman, you.

Recipe of the Week: Not a lot of exciting cooking this week, although I did make the Best Meatballs on the Face of the Earth for Ashley's shower. That recipe is in the 2007 file. I haven't made this cake for awhile, but it's a good one - really moist. If making it for somebody, I would top it with chocolate hearts that I made by melting semi-sweet morsels and spreading the mixture out onto waxed paper, then pressing a cookie cutter onto the chocolate after it hardened.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

3/4 cups cour cream

1/4 cup butter

1 & 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter

4 ounces baking chocolate

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Measure all ingredients into a large bowl and beat for 1/2 minute at low speed, scraping the sides of the bowl constantly. Then beat for 3 minutes at highest speed. Pour into greased and floured cake pans. (I just use Baker's Joy) You can use either two 9 inch pans or three 8 inch. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cook on a rack. For the frosting, in a double-broiler, melt butter and chocolate over barely simmering water. Remove from heat and cool. Add powdered sugar, then blend in the sour cream and vanilla and beat until smooth.

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you're criticizing them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes." Jack Handey