Another loaf of cinnamon raisin bread

Here's the loaf of cinnamon raisin bread I made again, last night, in the new bread machine. I don't know why the raisins aren't getting evenly distributed even though I'm pristinely folowing the directions! I even hand kneaded the heavy dough a bit while it was in the machine and still wound up with way too many raisins at the bottom of the loaf. 

This new snowfall is certainly bringing even more birds to our feeding station. This morning we had 8 pairs of cardinals. That's 3 more pairs than we've ever seen at one time. I think the word has gotten out! The red bellied woodpecker was also here as well as all our regulars. I'm probably going to give them several feedings again today. It must be so hard on these little guys to maintain body temperature in this crazy weather; and I'm hoping all the extra rations and suet are helping a bit.

After feeding our domestic and wild critters, we enjoyed the cinnamon raisin toast for breakfast. After breakfast I perused a sour dough bread machine cookbook that I got through inter library loan and decided it was worth buying. I found a copy for around four dollars on ebay. That was ten dollars less than the cheapest one on Amazon.com. It does pay to shop around.

We're still working on our leftovers, so tonight I think I'll make some potatoes au gratin to go with the leftover meatloaf. The rest of the afternoon will be spent going through more seed catalogs and watching the winter Olympics and a few more outings with Bodhi before dinner.

Jim's healing is going slowly, but he is making progress. He's completely off the pain killers now and is sleeping well in the recliner now that he can move the recliner back a bit more. He's getting up and around more but I'm acting a bit like a tough  staff sergeant when he attempts to do too much. 

Alkaline green glaze test

Here's an non barium, alkaline copper green test tile from my last firing, on Phoenix, a light stoneware from Highwater, . I designed it for cone 8- 10 but this was in a section that had cone 12 starting. The expansion is pretty high which accounts for the crazing, which probably was increased due to it overfiring.

I love the color, so I'll be interested in seeing what this will do at Cone 10. I was hoping that it would be more of a turquoise; but when you have to add enough silica for cone 10, it tends to shift the alkaline to a more acidic environment which makes you lose that brighter, turquoise color.  I need to try lowering the expansion without losing the color - more testing to come!

It was an eventful morning with the sound of fire trucks coming down the road, only to realize they were at a neighbors house across the road. Unfortunately, it looks like the house was gutted. No one was home. If they were, the house might have been saved. The information I got from a friend is that it looks like it was a chimney fire; and it was only when the roof seemed to be on fire that another neighbor noticed it and called 911. I can't imagine having to deal with the devastation of coming home to fine your home and everything gone - too sad to even contemplate.

Our long driveway is covered with a new layer of snow, so we're going to stay put for a few days until these snows stop, which should be Thursday or Friday. In the mean time I'm pretending it's spring and ordering seeds, starting some seeds of cold tolerant vegetables, cooking and enjoying the Olympic events.

Dinner is already prepped, other than making a salad later, so I think I'll get another loaf of cinnamon raisin bread started. Somewhere in this huge pile of papers is the bread machine manual and recipes!                                  




 

My new copper blue glaze on a Loafers Glory test tile

Since I don't have any studio news at the moment, I thought I'd at least put some ceramic information on the blog once in a while. Here's a Cone 10 reduction copper barium test from my last soda/salt firing. The clay is Loafers Glory, a white, porcelainous type stoneware from Highwater.

I was looking for a buttery surface and this looks very promising. I'll probably use this  on small bud and ikebana vases with a white or shino liner. I got the idea of the copper and rutile percentages from an old Ruth Gowdy McKinley glaze.

Here's the formula is anyone is interested in trying it (of course be mindful that this is not a glaze for pots used for food. Barium carbonate and copper carb are toxic, so make sure you use safe studio practices when mixing, applying, etc.

June's Cone 10, Buttery BaO Copper blue #9785V2

38 Neph Sy
32 Barium Carb
17.3 OM #4 Ball clay
12.7 Silica
Add: 3% Copper carb, 6% rutile  

After lunch I started going through some of my old seeds and got a few cold weather veggies started (Cauliflower, Broccoli Raab, Cabbage, Parsley, etc.). After going through several seeds catalogs, I realize that I probably won't need to buy many more seeds, since I have plenty of just about everything.

I've got leftover turkey meatloaf for dinner, so I might use some of that kitchen time to start another loaf of cinnamon raisin bread to bake overnight if I can figure out that setting on the new bread machine!

Fettucine Alfredo ala Perry

Here's the fettuccine with Alfredo sauce, and sauteed ham, onion and mushrooms that I made for dinner.  It's one of our favorites. This is my serving. Jim's was twice as much! :-) This is definitely a heart attack special, which I don't make often; but Jim opened a nice bottle of wine to counteract all that cholesterol. We're firm believers in the French paradox. :-)

It was  a cold but gorgeous day, sunny day. Bodhi got lots of walks and Bonnie kitty spent half the day outside.  I was able to get down the snow covered driveway and into town to pick up the mail after lunch; neither store got any bird seed deliveries so I'm going to have to watch my last bag so I don't run out before I can get out again in a few days.

We're expecting another 2-4 inches of snow tonight and more snow every day for the next 3-4 days, so we'll just snuggle in for the duration with hot chocolate and lots of good leftovers, and time to continue with my spring seed buying. There are too many selections in too many catalogs and it's taking me a long time to make my choices.

Cold, but happy birds.

The local bird population at our feeding spot  has increased since I tripled their feedings. I've had my National Audobon Society bird book out, trying to identify some of them. We finally figured out that the pretty black, rust and white bird is a Rufous-sided Towhee. Who knew!

The birds have had a big breakfast and so did we. Now we're all curling up in our safe places till the next meal. Jim is napping and I'm catching up with computer work before I start searching for my turkey meatloaf recipe.

With another inch of snow overnight, cold temperatures, and slippery roads, I figured that this is a good night for a comfort meal of turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and watching some of the winter Olympics events.

Yesterday I was able to get to the village and pick up a few necessary groceries. I was hoping to get another large bag of bird feed but everyone was out. Fortunately I have a back up bag which should last till I can get to town again. It was nice to see that our neighbors are also giving extra rations to the the birds during this cold, snowy spell.

My other chore of the day is to continue going through these garden catalogs and get the rest of my spring seeds ordered.

Latest no knead sourdough

It snowed all day yesterday. Fortunately it was never very heavy so we only wound up with about 3 or 4 inches. It was a good day to bake a loaf of my no knead sourdough and drink hot chocolate for lunch.

The neurosurgeon has to perform emergency surgery, so Jim's appointment was canceled, which is just as well with this weather. Jim's doing much  better. In fact, he's now able to lower his recliner chair a bit more. I'm amazed that he's been able to sleep as well as he has while almost, sitting up!

It's going to take another 4 -5 weeks of healing; but at this point I think he's leaning to not even going to the neuro surgeon. The surgeon saw the MRI's and wasn't in a great rush to see him, so we're assuming that he probably agrees with our doctor and the radiologist that since the fractured vertebrae are not compressed, 8 weeks of rest should heal the fractures without invasive surgery.

 So much is on hold right now, including studio time. Hopefully by next week I'll get through the piles of mail and seed catalogs and order the rest of my spring seeds.

Cinnamon raisin bread

Here's the cinnamon raisin bread from my new bread machine. It rises a bit more on the left, so I'll have to manually re-arrange the dough at the first rise next time; but pretty is as pretty does and the bread was great!

Today was a running around, doing chores day - post office, drive to Burnesville for my osteo treatment, then a shopping stop for groceries and  to pick up another prescription for  this sinusitis that's been plaguing me for almost 2 months.. I may be allergic to Bonnie Kitty; but I sure hope that isn't the case!

By the time I got home, unloaded and put away another huge load of groceries, walked Bodhi, fed kitty as well as giving the birds as second feeding, it was time to get dinner started. Fortunately tonight's dinner was leftover gumbo and hot fudge sundaes (a mini one for me!). Now I'll finish emails, take care of my Facebook farm, go through a couple of the newly arrived seed catalogues, watch some TV at the same time, give Bodhi and Bonnie some play time and finish the evening with yoga and meditation.

I was so happy that the bad weather held off till I got home. We've snuggled in with a full fridge and freezer, so let the snow and sleet come if it wants!

Experimenting with a new cookbook

I just came in from feeding the birds. Right now it's sleeting on top fo the couple of inches of snows that we got overnight. It's fierce out there! It's going to be a dismal  day with this sleet  followed by freezing rain, turning to ice. I'll be happy to stay warm and cozy in front of the fireplace the rest of the day, working on my laptop or in the warm kitchen, cooking..

Last night I decided to make one of the pasta recipes from my new cookbook ""Great Women Chefs". It was a rigatoni with sausage, mushrooms, peas and onion and a sauce made from tomatoes, 1/2 and 1/2, ricotta and parmesan. It was tasty but a little bland even though I added some pepperonici. If I make it again I'll use a small ziti, because I think the rigatoni is a bit heavy for such a light sauce, and I'll also add a bit of garlic and cut back on the amount of pasta so there's a hair more sauce.

After breakfast I have to spend a lot of time cleaning up my Verizon software. Overnight, they  mixed up all my emails and put everything in my "deleted" folder. What a mess! So now I have to go through hundreds of emails and determine which ones are truly deleted and not part of current or saved emails. Aren't computers fun!

Another no knead bread

Here's a no knead bread from a couple of days ago. I've been doing a longer rise (15 hr proofing, plus 2 more hours for the second rise). This is Jim's favorite so far, so it's the one I bake regularly. Hopefully I'll find some more good recipes in my new Bread Machine cookbook. It has 300 recipes so there have to be some treasures in there!

Today is my shopping day. I'll wait till this afternoon to make sure the roads aren't icy since I have a 25 minute drive to get to a large grocery store.

We've got a few days of bad weather coming in two days, so I'm going to do some stocking up on some groceries and other things. Jim suggested I should just bring home some take out Chinese food - good idea! After a big shopping day, by the time I get home, put away groceries, feed kitty, etc. I don't think I'd feel like cooking.

I didn't make the cinnamon raisin bread last night  because the bread machine recipe I have calls for powdered milk, which I don't have and neither does out small, in town, grocery store.. That's one more thing to add to my already very long,  grocery list.

Brioche

Here's the brioche I made in my new, Kojirushi bread machine. With Jim recuperating and my being housebound for the next several weeks, I'm using this time to expand my bread making repertoire. I think I'll make a cinnamon raisin bread after dinner. Yesterday I got my bread machine cookbook. It has 300 recipes. That will keep me busy for a while!

I've also used this time to get all my sourdough starters re-vitalized. For a while there I thought I'd have to buy a couple of new starters because I hadn't used two of them for a few months; but after a day or two I was able to revive them. Now I just have to remember to keep feeding them  regularly!

It's a rainy, slush, dreary day out there. If I didn't have studio plants to water or a dog to walk, I'd be spending all day indoors with the fireplace on. Kitty Bonnie stuck her nose out the door and decided this was not a day to play outdoors. Smart kitty!

This has been a good day for some paper work.. I completed my first seed order of the season and still have a lot more catalogs to go through. I was happy to find annual artichoke seeds that will fruit the same season. It's too cold here to winter them over (I've tried before and it hasn't worked). This year I piled a  lot of straw around the plant; but I'm not holding my breath. Next month I'll start the annual seeds and hopefully we'll get a crop of artichokes this summer.  Italian style, stuffed artichokes are one of my favorite dishes.

Mexican margarita madness night

It was a gorgeous, sunny, but cool day and I really enjoyed taking Bodhi out for his many outing and he enjoyed it as much as me - leaping and bounding through the snow, like a puppy. Bonnie kitty wasn't eager to tackle that snow; but maybe tomorrow he strong desire for some outdoor play will over ride her "snow discomfort."

With Jim facing another 5-6 weeks of healing, I'm trying to make things as comfortable for him as possible and give him some small pleasures, like cooking  things he loves. I was going to make a chicken, andouille sausage gumbo tonight but had everything but the green peppers, so I used the chicken to make my Mexican stir fry with tomatoes, onion, garlic, chili peppers and herbs, along with cheese topped refried beans and margaritas.

Since I can't get in the studio I'm using this time to get caught up with feeding my sourdough starters and hopefully, soon, I'll be able to tackle more of this paperwork. This morning I made him a huge breakfast of bacon, sunny side up eggs, bacon and sourdough pancakes. A 100 year old starter I thought had died, was able to get resuscitated after a couple of days of frequent feeding and that's what I used in this morning's pancakes. Usually I can't get him to eat any other pancake but buckwheat but he actually enjoyed these, so they will be on the menu in the future. It's a mild starters than my North West one, which is pretty much like the classic San Francisco sour dough starter.

Our  road is still snow covered, so I'm hoping that in a day or two I'll be able to get out and do some more grocery shopping. We don't have so much snow that would make it impossible to drive through - I hope! Fortunately, I usually have a pretty full larder and freezer and can always keep us well fed if we're snowbound.

Another pizza night

Jim likes pepperoni  and I finally discovered that the whole pepperoni has much better flavor and texture than the variety you buy already cut. I'm not a fan of it but I found I could tolerate the higher quality of the whole pepperoni.
                                                    
We got the results of Jim's MRI this morning. He has 3 vertebrae fractures as well as  a broken sacrum. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he may be able to avoid surgery. The report was sent to the neuro surgeon today and hopefully he'll agree with the radiologist and our doctor that since there was no compression of the vertebrae that another 4 weeks or so of rest should heal these fractures without surgery. We're hoping he won't have to be driven to Asheville to see the neuro surgeon since driving even to the local hospital was pretty uncomfortable and Asheville is well over an hour's drive each way.

The past few days have been busy going to the doctor, then  the hospital, doing a big grocery shopping to prepare for the storm that is now upon us,cooking  and all the other household chores and animal care that need tending. I'm exhausted but determined to make things as comfortable as possible tor Him and cook him  a lot of his favorite things to make this healing process a a bit more tolerable.His spirits are very good considering how badly he was hurt in that fall on the ice.

My newZojirushi bread machine arrived today, so tonight I'll spend some time watcing the instruction dvd and reading the instruction booklet.. Since I have a batch of no knead bread proofing, for baking  in the morning,  I might wait another day before trying the machine. 

                                                           

Pizza night and Cauliflower Potato Tomato Curry recipe

Tonight's dinner was a veggie pizza, margaritas and butterscotch pudding. I was out of mushrooms but  used some thinly sliced shallots, bell peppers and fresh tomatoes. 

Jim has been on a pudding kick lately. I think it's a big comfort food while he's trying to heal.

I also have a no knead bread batched which will proof for 19 hours and get baked tomorrow. This was one of those very busy days and now I'm settling in, catching up with email, and watching some tennis and giving Bonnie kitty some mom play  time.

Here's a requested Cauliflower Potato Curry I made last night. I haven't forgotten about getting the mushroom gougere recipe up and will get to post that soon. Lately there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything!

Cauliflower, Potato, Tomato Curry

1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
3 T oil (I use olive oil)1 lb potatoes peeled, cut in 1" piece and par boiled till just tender (don't overcook)
1 head of cauliflower (about a 1 lb size) washed, cored and cut into small pieces.
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped or put through a garlic press
1/2 tsp each of tumeric, cumin and coriander powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt
1- 11/2 cups water (start with a cup and add 1/4 cup more at a time if curry gets too dry during cooking).
1 large tomato cut in chunks or if you don't have a tomato.juice of a small lemon or lime.(I used a small tomato and a bit of lemon juice).

Heat oil in a large, saute pan on medium  heat. Add the mustard seeds and as soon as they begin popping, lower the heat a bit and add the garlic, stirring it till it turns a light golden color (don't burn it). Then add the cooked potatoes and raw cauliflower and toss and cook a minute or so. Then add tomato if using, all the spices and salt, stirring often for about 5 minutes. Then add the water and when it start to simmer, you can turn the heat down a bit, cover it and cook it for 15 minutes. Check after 15 minutes to see if the veggies are tender and add a bit more water if needed and cook another 5 minutes, stirring to make sure potatoes don't stick. If you didn't add a tomato, then sprinkle the lemon or lime juice over the veggies, toss and serve.

*It goes great with dal and rice. You can find a lot of dal recipes on the Internet.

Busy, rainy day

Today was a big cooking day. My new Indian vegetarian cookbook had a recipe for a cauliflower and potato curry which sounded good. It went well with the basmati brown rice, our favorite  dal and Naan bread.   The recipe I wanted to try, called for the bread machine, so I retrieved it from the  basement only to find that the machine was kaput, so I wound up figuring out how to make it work with the kitchen aid. The timing was totally off on the recipe and I burned the first batch not even cooking it the full time. Next time I'll try one of the Naan recipes from one of my own, trusted Indian cookbooks.
While the bread was rising, I got on line and did some bread machine research and wound up ordering one that has two mixing arms which is heavier duty than the now "late" bread machine. This new one is supposed to be very quiet which will be a welcome change over my old one. I was also surprised to hear that many of these bread machines only last 3 years, which I hope isn't true. It should last longer in this house since our favorite, every day bread is Jim Lahey's no knead bread.
Jim's football game just went into over time and I'm watching the Australian Open tennis as long as my eyes will stay open.

Banana bread

Here's the banana bread I made yesterday , on a wonderful Ron Slagle plate. It will go nicely with boiled eggs this morning. Eggs are one of Jim's favorite foods and boiled eggs come a close second to - Eggs Benedict, his favorite egg dish.

Now that I've got this laptop with Windows 7 working well enough, I've decided to leave it as it is and not fool around with dual boot drives. My old desktop has XP so I can use that for programs that just won't work on here. Hopefully, those software companies will soon have versions that will work with Windows 7 or at least have new drivers that will make those programs compatible.

The studio has been calling lately and I think I should be able to scratch that itch and get in there next week - maybe even this weekend. Jim is doing well enough in his healing process that I won't feel guilty leaving him for a few hours of studio time. Yesterday he drove to town on his own and although his back was tight and sore, he was able to do it. His spirits are better now that he can see some progress in the healing. He even feels well enough to go out to dinner at the Mexican restaurant with friends tonight. I'm definitely ready for a night out, Mexican food and a margarita!

More no knead bread

Yesterday I baked another loaf of the no knead bread, this time, an oval loaf  in my new, cast iron, oval pot.. It was still too big to fit in the toaster, so I'll have to stretch it a bit more next time. I let it proof 15 hours, then a 2 hour rise before baking and it had a beautiful crumb. I used half bread and half unbleached, all purpose flour - both King Arthur. There wasn't much difference between that and using all bread flour. The bread was just a hair heavier. Next loaf I'll use all all purpose flour. I also read that a tiny addition of vitamin c will help the bread rise more, so I'll try that as well. Bread making seems to be a good substitute for not being able to get in studio time right now and Jim is very happy that I'm using my free time in the kitchen. He loves this bread!

It's raining again and cooler than it's been. I got into the studio earlier to water plants and put some things away; but making pots will have to wait a bit longer.

Jim still needs me to do his chores,, so there isn't much free time or energy for more physical activity. He felt well enough the past two days to take Bodhi out for a walk once or twice. This morning he wants to try to drive to town to pick up the mail. It's only 3 miles each way so he should be OK. I gave him a good rub down with arnica which seems to help his injured back.

Last night we had wine for the first time since his accident. To make up for that time with no wine, he pulled out a really lovely bottle of Lytton Springs Zinfandel. We  threw caution to the wind and instead of having our usual 5 and 10 oz, we finished the bottle, without any guilt!

Today I'm going to make some banana nut bread. Jim's appetite seems to be returning, so tonight I'll make his favorite  pork chops au poivre with a cream, sherry reduction and oven roasted garlic rosemary potatoes and probably green beans. I think I still have a couple of packages from last seasons garden in the freezer.

Shopping day

I baked bread yesterday and this time I used bread flour. It made a very light loaf, which Jim loved. Next time I'll try half bread flour and half all purpose. I did let it proof a couple of hours longer than usual but I think it was the flour that made it so light. Personally, I prefer it with a bit more body.

Since it was such a lovely day I drove us to Spruce Pine to do some shopping and have lunch at the China Buffet.. Jim fared pretty well, on this, his first time in the car since his fall. He had one or two uncomfortable moments and by the time we got home his back was pretty tight. I massaged some arnica into those muscles and he's now resting. This healing is going to take a while!

I did most of the grocery shopping, loading and unloading myself and now I'm enjoying just sitting, doing some computer work, and watching the Australian Open tennis.It was a tiring day for both of us.

Neither of us is wanting a big dinner, after a big lunch, so I think I'll just heat up the pea soup for me and make Jim a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich which sounded good to him. 

Another spring like day

It's almost springlike weather out there. If I weren'r busy with cooking, nursing an injured husband and caring for animals and plants, I'd be in the garden pulling some weeds and doing other cleanup . I  just might steal afew minutes out there this afternoon. It's very  tempting on this warmish, sunny day.


I've got my no knead bread rising and will be making a curried pea soup to go with it. I'm going to try to change the baking schedule and try a cold oven baking. Others have reported that it works very well. I imagine the bread might rise more putting it in a cold oven.

Another project I'm working on is getting old audio tapes converted to MP3 files with the use of my new ION Tape 2PC machine. So far, it doesn't seem to be doing a great job. I'm getting funny repeats. I can live with it on lecture tapes for my own use, but it is definitely extremely undesirable on music tapes. I'm going to write the company and see if there's a fix for this glitch.

Touching base

Not much to blog about right now. Jim is doing a bit better. He actually got out of bed by himself this morning, so progress is being made. He's eating more and looks perkier; but he's still in pain and his mobility is very limited because of the pain in his back.

I'm making comfort food for him. Tonight's dinner was linguine with bolognese sauce, one of his favorite comfort meals. He's going to try to stop some of the pain pills and just let me continue with the topical applications of arnica, etc.

He must be feeling a bit better because he's getting excited watching this Arizona, Louisiana football game!

Well, that's it for today. Oh, side note - I finally got the iTunes computer glitch fixed. Microsoft finally sent me information to get into the registry and remove all the iTunes entries. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that removing those didn't mess up something else! LOL

Spring like weather

Today was a beautiful, spring like day. In between my nursemaid role, computer woes and meal prep,  I managed to get a bit of time outdoors pulling a few weeds and doing a tiny bit of garden cleanup.

Right now there's no time for the studio. Taking care of Jim through his healing process, animal and plant care and household chores is all there's time and energy for right now.

Jim's big ouch!

I've been playing doctor and nurse since Jim took a bad fall on the icy driveway last night - landing hard on his back, followed by his head. :-(  He is not a happy camper right now and hurting a lot, so this is going to be a short blog update.

Fortunately I had rescue remedy, arnica and other things on hand to try to ease his discomfort. Judging by how he was last night after the fall (dizzy, nauseous), we think he may have gotten a mild concussion; but like so many other men, I can't get him to go to a doctor! :-(

My computer woes continue even after a Windows 7 re-install over the old one. I'll try one more time tomorrow and then be back on the phone or emailing Microsoft. :-(

Mushroom gougere

Here's the curried mushroom and gruyere gougere I made for dinner last night. We'll have the leftovers tomorrow. Pasta is on tonight's menu - stuffed shells with a simple marinara sauce.

It was definitely a hot chocolate lunch today! The snow has now stopped and the sun is shining -  a lovely day at the moment. I took Bodhi, our Jack Russel for a walk. The poor little guy is having some tummy problems and wanted to eat grass during our walk; but not much was to be found amongst the snow. :-(

I finally got my important files backed up and did more computer cleanup. Later I'll try to get Windows 7 re-installed over the current one. I'm a bit reluctant to do it; but Microsoft assured me that it's possible, so I'm going to bite the bullet as soon as I go over the instructions.

Mushroom gougere tonight

We woke up to another 5 degree F morning - just two more days before this cold spell breaks! My sister in law in New Smyrna Florida had  snow two days ago - crazy weather due to the somewhat rare occurrence of the river of air that usually runs east to west, protecting us from all that arctice air, going into a zig zag pattern creating some unusually cold weather on the east coast and unusually warm areas elsewhwere.

The Christmas tree is completely down and put away for another year. The nice thing about an artificial tree is that you can enjoy it for such a long period of time and not have to deal with allergies from the chemicals or mold as well as potential  fire dangers from real trees.

My computer back up finallyworked; but I found it's not an easy task trying to get a view of what backed up. Since the backup started yesterday I removed a lot more video and picture files so I'll probably re-do the backup which took all day yesterday and continued overnight.

I 'll check  my Windows 7 The Definitive guide book, to see if there's another way to open those back up files. This computer problem is definitely never ending! I have to make sure all the files I want are in the backup folder before I re-install WIndows 7. The way these computer problems are going pottery may have to wait till my next lifetime! :-(

I'll keep working on this and stop around 3:30 to start on dinner. I'm  making a curried  mushroom gougere. It's one of those vegetarian meals that Jim will eat and actually enjoy!

Tree coming down today

Finally got enough files deleted or moved and hopefully this latest computer back up attempt will work. Other attempts have failed so I don't have a clue as to how long it should take, nor what files it's backing up.

Today is the "take down Christmas tree day" (Jim's job with a bit of help from me). I had studio and basement plants to water and lights to change as well as the unending computer work.. The studio water was frozen this morning but all was fine by early afternoon. We're really looking forward to Wednesdays weather - sunny and temperatures in the  high 40's . It's going to feel like spring after these low 20's days and 5 degree night time temperatures.

If this backup works, my next job will be to reinstall Windows 7 over the current one and then make a new partition and install Windows XP  on that partition. That job will probably be on tomorrows agenda,  since I suspect this backup is going to take hours.

Well, time to feed my furry critters and then us. It's cornbread and beans for us tonight - good, cold weather, comfort food. 

French onion soup in my 80's shino glazed bowl

Here's a picture of the French Onion soup in one of my shino glazed bowls from the early 80's.

This was the coldest morning yet - 5 degrees F this morning. Our high of the day was around 22F; but this weather is supposed to break Monday and go up to the 40's by Monday afternoon.

Yesterday we got the carpets out of the studio and our dining room is now back to normal. Jim dismantled his under the tree village today and will take down the tree tomorrow. I've been  on the computer all day. I'm still deleting duplicate photos - thousands of them! This is taking forever; but I need to get it done.

Microsoft called me yesterday about some of the problems and I found that Windows 7 allows you to partition your computer so I'll be able to install Windows Xp in a new drive and have Windows 7 in another. So I'll be able to have a dual boot system and use XP with my old software. I asked him to email me detailed instructions on how to do this; but it will have to wait until I get the cleanup finished and back those documents up on the stand alone hard drive.

Jim's watching football and I'm still working on this computer. I've made a  lot of headway the past two days. There's still more to do but I am seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. I'm looking forward to closing it down at 8 o'clock and watching the Brit coms  and giving  kitty Bonnie some play time, followed by Poirot which we'll watch in bed at 10pm. Other than meal prep and animal care, and a short stint on my Farmville distraction, I've been cleaning up these computer files all day. I'm beginning to wonder if there's life after computer woes!

Another BRRR day

It's a cold, dreary day and we're expecting a bit of snow later this afternoon. We're just nesting in our now dry house and recharging our batteries after the flooding clean up.

The doctor put me on a generic Cipro and this particular antibiotic is causing some interesting symptoms like nausea, headache and affecting sleep. There are worse symptoms from this stuff, and hopefully I won't deal with them; but I need to get this sinus infection under control so I can get back into my studio. I have 9 more days on this medication and hope my body can deal with it for that time.

In the meantime, I'll use my time to cook and keep working on this massive computer problem. There are thousands of files to go through and file or delete. I'm hoping today I'll free enough of the stand alone hard drive to do a back up.

Jim and I did some shopping yesterday so I'd have enough groceries to avoid driving to Spruce Pine for the next several days. This weather isn't going to break till Monday, so we'll cozy up to the fireplace and enjoy some nice vegetarian meals for a few days. Tonight it's fettucine alfredo with additions of sauteed mushrooms and onions.

BRRRRRR!

The sun is shining in the midst of some very slight snow flurries. If I didn't have to go out to pick up my prescriptions for this sinus problem I'd sit tight with some hot chocolate.

We got lucky, if you can get lucky after two burst water piipes flooding the house; but the good news is that the plumber could access those pipes and replace them with pvc, without tearing down walls in the bathroom. He was able to break through a closet wall to access the rest of the pipes. The tense moment was when the water was turned back on. If there were other breaks below the access points, we would have had to remove the siding on the house to access them. Things are drying out nicely and we have the dehumidifier on in the basement to help things along.

When the area rugs dry out we'll have to get all the dining room furniture back in place. Needless to say there hasn't been any time for much of anything other than cooking,  animal care, the continued computer cleanup and dealing with this current mess.

Well, that's it for today. Time to get back to computer cleanup for another hour or so.

Jerry Brown 9th generation Alabama potter

Here's a link to very nice video of Jerry Brown, a 9th generation pottery from Alabama. Enjoy!

 http://www.folkstreams.net/pub/FilmPage.php?title=30

Yesterday was a most interesting day around here. After being out 5 hrs with a doctors appointment and food shopping, we came home to find part of our house and whole basement flooded due to a burst water pipe upstairs. I won't go into the gory details of cleanup; but will just say that it could have been a lot worse.
The wet wall paper in the dining room and  powder room seems to have dried and looks OK. The wet area rugs are now drying out in my studio and front porch. Dear friends Jim and Laura came over and helped with cleanup and the plumber arrived and did some temporary work to at least give us some water on the first floor. He'll be back today to replace the broken copper pipe and replace it with plastic.
When we were done with getting most of the water mopped up,  Jim opened a big bottle of a 2003 Merlot which the four of us finished with some cheese, fruit and cookies. That was dinner last night instead of the shrimp I was going to make. Fortunately we had a big lunch while we were out and we were too tired to eat much anyway.
Our friend Jim checked out the crawl space behind the upstairs bathrooms and thinks the break will be able to be fixed without tearing out a wall. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it will turn out that way.

Hot chocolate and soup night

It was 8 degrees F when I got up and it's warmed up to about 12; but kitty still wants out. The sun is shining so we're letting her out for a bit; but I'll check on her every 15 minutes. I can't believe she'll be happy out there for too long!

This is a day for hot chocolate and soup. My first thought was to make a potato soup to go with the sourdough I baked yesterday; but I'm now thinking that maybe I'll do a French onion instead. I have a lot of leftover gruyere and I think the French onion would be a bit heartier than the potato.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time crusing the Internet in search for a particular sauce I once have in India, on a breakfast masala dosa. I still haven't found that recipe but I did find some others and spent a lot of time writing them out on index cards. We've eaten a lot of red meat this holiday season and we're both ready for some vegetarian or lighter meat and fish, and Indian food is delicious as well as full of vegetarian choices since 70% of the worlds vegetarians live in India!

I dreamed about being back in the studio last night, so hopefully I can get this computer problem solved this week and get my hands back in clay. I'm definitely ready mentally, if not physically. This sinusitis is not responding to the doctor's suggestions so maybe when I have my appointment tomorrow we can explore some antibiotics; because I'm getting real tired of having one eye half closed and feeling like I have cotton up my nostrils!

Well, time to do more file cleanup and tranferring. Tomorrow I'll be back on the phone with Dell.

No knead sour dough bread

Here's the sourdough, no knead bread I made this morning. Other than overcooking it somewhat, it came out well. I substituted  6 oz of whole wheat flour  for 6 oz of the 3 cups of white bread flour that I usually use in the recipe and used some sour dough starter instead of yeast. We shared a test slice and it's really good; but we'll save the rest for tomorrow night's soup supper.

Jim says it's bread with a Mohawk! When I plopped the dough into the preheated iron pot, it didn't land evenly. One side was squished up against the pot. It rounded itself out, but came out with these peaks which were ripe for charring.. I'll have to work at aiming more to the center, since this very wet dough can't be moved until it's done; or at least I've never tried it for fear of making a mess of it!

Jim bundled up and finished getting the outdoor Christmas lights down and put away; but he promised to leave the tree up for a few more days. The house always looks so bare when we take down the tree and other holiday decorations.

I'm using this winter, post holidays,  time to  other things like cooking and organizing all sorts of things. It was so cold this morning that I went searching for my hand knit New Zealand, wool sweaters and found 3 boxes of sweaters in the upstairs closet, some of which I had totally forgotten I still  had. It was like Christmas all over. Tonight I'll try to find places for them in our bedroom closet; but for now I'm be doing more computer file cleanup for a couple of hours before I start on dinner.

For breakfast I made a South India scrambled eggs recipe which was quite good. Here's the recipe if you want to try it:

4 large eggs, a fine chopped  onion, garlic paste which is 2 parts fresh  minced garlic and 1 part fresh minced ginger ground into a paste (I used my mortar and pestle), 1 to 2 serrano chiles (I used 1 1/4), a small , diced tomato and salt to taste. I combined two recipes and  it worked very well. One onion was plenty for that amount of eggs. One of the recipes called for two onions which I think would be way too much.

Directions:

Put about a T or so of clarified butter in a 9  or 10" skillet. When hot, add the onion and cook stirring till it become translucent. Then add the minced serrano chiles, and cook, stirring often, till the onions start to brown lightly  (don't allow them to burn).. Once browned a bit, add the tsp of garlic paste and diced tomato.  Stir well and cook about a minute to warm the tomato pieces, then lower heat to low or low/medium, add the eggs and stir/cook till they reach your preferred consistency. If you don't like too much heat, then just use one minced serrano chile. Both of the recipes I found had 2 chiles but even though I like a lot of heat, I think that might be too much. One and a quarters serrano chiles was perfect for our taste. You can serve with toast or one of the Indian breads like Naan, Chapati or dosa, etc.

Bon Appetit!

Happy New Year! Sydney Australia fireworks finale

 Here's a link to the fabulous finale of the Sydney, Australia fireworks display for those of you who like us older foks have a hard time staying up till midnight; or for those who just enjoy great fireworks displays!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbMLEImKiDE

I'd like to wish you all a most glorious New Year, filled with hope, peace, joy, and abundance in all things!

Jim and I are enjoying our typical, stay at home New Years Eve. We just finished our dinner  (well at least I finished mine, he's still eating).

He's enjoying the Oklahoma Stanford game and I'm going to finish moving my music files out of Itunes and otherItunes files, rename the folders, move them to a different area,  then uninstall the program and do a clean re-install. Windows 7 refuses to recognize the fact that I removed the check box on the the compatibility change I made earlier; and since 3 attempts to reinstall the software in repair mode hasn't worked, I'm resorting to the longer, pain the rump process.

We woke up to a thin, but pretty light dusting of fresh snow followed by rain, so it's been a good day for cooking and computer work. At our ages we probably won't stay up till midnight, so I'll set off my Farmvillle fireworksm and end the year with a long prayer of gratitude, and a meditation.

Women potters of Ghana

Here's a link to a series of photos on video, of the women potters of W. Ghana.

Women potters of Ghana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyeUNaWWpgw

It looks like we have one more day of decent weather before snow and sleet arrive so we'll be heading out to do some last minute shopping later and have our big meal of the day out.

We're New Year's Eve stay at homes and I usually make a nice dinner. Jim loves Caesar salad so I'll make that with the rack of lamb. He's also requested my potaoes au gratin with mushrooms, so that will be on the menu as well.

At some point today I want to see if I can get this new tape conversion machine working and then get the converted MP3's on to disks which I'll be buying today. There is still a lot of computer filing to deal with but I needed a day or two of rest from that chore.

No knead whole wheat, raisin pecan sourdough

Here's one of the two loaves of whole wheat, raisin, pecan sourdough bread I baked this afternoon.
I think I'll make it with yeast instead of the sourdough next time, which I think might suit the sweetness of the raisins and nuts.

The day is almost gone and wasn't the day we had originally planned. We were going to celebrate my belated birthday dinner tonight, but our dear friend Jim woke up this morning with a high fever, and other flu symptoms, so the birthday dinner will have to wait till we're all healthy and the weather is good enough for an evening trek to Asheville.

Our power went out again last night but fortunately it was on this morning. To be on the safe side, we topped off our 500 gallon propane tank today. Seems a lot of people had the same idea. They said that their 3 trucks delivered 6,000 gallons of propane today. Our generator is powered by propane, as well as my kiln and my studio studio heat. We also have a propane fireplace in the living room, so it's a good idea to keep that tank close to full  this time of year.

My day was spent cooking and sorting through a lot of old audio tapes. My new ION Tape 2pc machine finally arrived and I uncrated it and got it plugged in; but that's as far as I got. Tomorrow I'll read the book and get the software installed. If all works well I'll be able to convert all these old audio tapes into MP3 files and then burn them to CD's.

I also did some web searches for more recipes and wound up ordering the new "Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes" cookbook. My current recipes are very good; but I want to expand my repertoire into some more healthier, whole grained breads once in a while.

Making bread today and tomorrow

After breakfast,and  animal and plant care,  I decided to take a nice, soaking, jaccuzzi, thinking that since Bonnie kitty was outside, she couldn't get into trouble while I filled the tub. Well, woman plans and God laughs. A bully neighborhood cat was threatening her and she wanted back in. By this time the tub had about 3 inches of water in it. Curiosity got the best of her and she jumped, straight away, into the tub! I wish I had a camera to catch the horrified look on her face when she realized what she had gotten herself into. It only took two tries for her to jump out of that tub, shaking her legs as she ran back into the laundry room.Even Jim who is rarely amused by her, was laughing so hard at the sight of this kitty looking like she was doing the makarena.  I wonder if she's learned her lesson on that one!

I spent a lot of time today, searching out some bread and pasta recipes. After all the meat this week, my body is craving some simple pasta, and soon - probably Wednesday since we're eating out tomorrow and I doubt if they'll have pasta at the  Grove Park grill.

After dinner, I mixed up a double batch of a sour dough, whole wheat, pecan and raisin bread.. It will proof till around noon tomorrow and should be ready to bake around 2 or 3 o'clock. A couple of other no knead recipes I found, look good as well - a spelt, and a whole wheat sour dough with millet, quinoa, sesame and other seeds,etc.  But those will have to wait until I can get to a store that carrie vital wheat gluten and some of the other ingredients in those recipes.

Another Under the Tree Village scene

Here's another section of  Jim's under the tree village decor.

It's a cold, but beautiful morning. Bonnie Lass, our kitty is having a grand time outside and repeated attempts to lure her back in have failed miserably.

We had a big breakast and will just have some almonds for lunch. Friends are coming over late afternoon for pate, cheese, fruit, wine and chocolate cookies.

After I make some phone calls I'll get back to this computer work for a few hours. I won't bore you with the gory details of computer woes another further!

Seed catalogues have been arriving this past week. I'll peruse them after the holidays and get my seeds ordered,  plant some perennials under the basement grow lights and plan the garden layout for  this spring. We're still eating potatoes from last season's planting; but they're already starting to sprout, so I'm going to have to think about eating more potatoes - think it's time to think about making potato pancakes.

More under the tree decor

Here's another section of Jim's under the tree village/farm scene. I've been posting them in left to right order. Tomorrow I'll post the last section. 

We're enjoying a lazy, after Christmas morning. Yesterday was a busy cooking day. Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignion is a time consuming recipe but we decided it was worth  it. The best part is that we have leftovers for tomorrow. If you want to try the recipe, and don't have her cookbook, the recipe is on line.

Tonight we'll have the leftover pumpkin soup and ham. The rest of the day I'll be dealing with this computer. My backup failed yesterday so I may need to remove some files from the stand alone hard drive before I try it again.

Merry Christmas Everyone

 Here's a pictures of one of the fireplaces at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, taken when were there celebrating a good friends birthday a couple of weeks ago. I should take a photo of our fireplace, which looks a lot like this one, and post it some time this week.

Yesterday I baked Babka, which is a Polish, sweet bread. We'll have that for our Polish breakfast along with with kielbasa and hard boiled eggs with horse radish. In the past we also had ham, but our appetites aren't as big as they used to be, so we had ham for dinner last night instead.

Right now I'm listening to a Josh Grobin Christmas album while sipping my morning tea. The tree and staircase are lit and I'm thoroughly immersed in the feeling of Christmas. Bonnie and Bodhi have fresh food and water and Jim is walking Bodhi in the rain, which is slowly melting our beautiful mantle of snow. The temperatures is above freezing, so we avoided the freezing rain and this will be good for anyone traveling locally today. .Life is very, very good.

On this special day, and every day, we are so grateful for the love we share, our beautiful family including the furry members, good friends and enough abundance that makes sharing and giving an easy choice. Merry Christmas everyone!

Another under the tree village scene

 
Here's another section of our under the tree village scene. I found this cute Craft Gallery building a few years ago, which seemed a good addition to our collection. It's one of the contemporary pieces which goes well with our antique/vintage pieces.Some of those antique pieces were from my mothers childhood. We have a lot of  bisque farm animals  and other figures which Jim puts on the windowsills, making our living room a childs Christmas playground!

It's been a busy day with cooking, computer time(the computer woes continue and seem to be getting worse), and animal care. For dinner I made a delicious pumpkin soup with oven baked brown sugar, butter and cinnamon croutons,  ham, yams and green beans. Jim pulled a lovely cabernet out of his wine cellar to top off the meal. For dessert we had some chocolate which always goes great with wine.

There were emails to answer, phone emails from our son who needed Mom's cooking advice on how to make a port wine reduction. His whole family is sick with a 24 hour virus  and he was the only one healthy enough to tackle kitchen duties.He's always cooked a bit but since Gordon Ramsey became one of his clients, I've noticed his repertoire is increasing and getting more sophisticated. He finds cooking relaxing (wish Jim would have found joy in cooking. He just enjoys eating well and maintaining a decent wine cellar; but his cooking endeavors don't extend beyond making toast and hard boiled eggs.).

As soon as I post this blog update, we'll  watch Stings Christmas special on PBS, and if we're still awake after that, we'll watch  "A Christmas Carol". (our favorite is the Alistair Sims version.) We have our own videotape so we don't have to rely on local programming. We usually watch it on Christmas eve, which has become part of our family's tradition; but we may not be able to stay awake for it tonight.

Hope you all are enjoying a wonderful, festive, and healthy and prosperous, holiday season, surrounded by those you love and who love you!

More under the tree goodies

Here's a picture of another section of Jim's under the tree village.

Looks like a beautiful day ahead - sunny with temperatures going up to 50 this afternoon. Jim is out walking Bodhi, and carefully treading over the icing driveway and Bonnie who must have been a Himalayan snow leopard in her last lifetime is out leaping and diving into the snow. She loves it! And who would of thought! Since cats notoriously hate rain, I thought snow would have been greeted with the same disdain!

Well, time for me to leave my computer chores for a while. My farmville farm is tidied for the morning - harvested all my crops, made a lot of money but nowhere to spend it. :-) It's time to head to the kitchen and make pate (one of Jim's favorite things in the whole world)!

More under the tree decor

 Here's another section of Jim's fun, under the tree decor. Most of these figures are from my childhood; but in recent years, we've managed to add a few more contemporary and antique pieces.. In our early married years, one of my treasured boxes of antique figures and decorations  from my mothers childhood were stolen from our apartment storage area; and I've yet been able to replace most  of those childhood treasures.

Around 5pm we heard the rumble of the snow plow beginning it's job of digging us out from all this snow. Now that we're free, we'll get out later to pick up the mail and do some grocery shopping. It's been fun hibernating in the midst of this lovely snow, especially after our power was restored !

Yesterday I did my studio plant watering, studio leaf cleanup and spent some time going through some test tiles and making followup notes. The rest of the day was spent cleaning up computer files and some paperwork. After dinner I deleted another 1+  megabytes of duplicate photos and that job and other computer file work will continue for days, in between holiday cooking and other chores.

Right now I have to follow up on some grand children's Christmas presents that I ordered from Amazon, that have yet to arrive at our son's Oregon house, which is where the family has gone to celebrate Christmas.

Under the Christmas tree

Here's a picture of one section of our under the tree decor that Jim lovingly and beautifully sets up every year.

We got our power back yesterday afternoon, so I  was able to make a roast chicken dinner since I was no longer concerned about being miserly with our propane supply. After breakfast I'll turn the propane heater back up in my studio, get the plants watered and get then get back in there again after lunch to do some sweeping and a few other paper work chores.

WhenI bring all those plants indoors for the winter, they go through a period of adjustment where they drop a lot of their leaves. So I need to give them a good shaking and sweep up all those leaves.

Windows 7 from hell problems on this new laptop continue to consume my time. I won't bore you with all the grisly details, other than to say that when I finish getting all these files back in to proper directories and back on to the stand alone hard drive, I'm serious considering formatting this laptop and reinstalling Windows XP or Vista so I can use all my old software and have this video card working properly.

I hope I remember this horrible experience when it comes time to buy a new computer and reason wins out and I wave goodbye to Dell and Microsoft and become another Apple Macintosh convert!

More snow on the way

Lots of beautiful snow and more to come!

Our power is still off; but once again - thank God for our generator!

It's my 70th birthday today and plans for company and  dinner out have been waylaid because of this winter storm. So, Jim and I are cuddling near our propane fireplace, enjoying some of our taped movies, hot chocolate this afternoon with extra marshmallows for Jim  and a dinner of the rest of the turkey noodle soup and butterscotch pudding again for dessert. Jim opened a great zinfandel to make up for the leftover dinner.

More snow is expected tonight; but hopefully not much more to add to the already 9-12 inches we've already had.

Our dog and cat are a bit thrown off with this deep snow. Poor Bonnie, our kitty, tried her best to walk on it but decided after a minute or so of sinking and not being able to keep her tummy dry, thought better of this, her first journey in the snow, and reluctantly came back into the safety of her normal digs in our bathroom wing.

We're now going to watch "Love Actually" while enjoying the last of this lovely wine.

First winter storm of the season

We're in the middle of our first winter snow storm (have about 6-7" so far), so this is going to be short. Our power went out  a while ago and we're operating off our big generator at the moment. We had planned to go out for dinner with house guests, but this weather kept company away, and got us to cancel our dinner reservation. Instead, I retrieved some turkey soup from the freezer and made some butterscotch pudding for dessert.

Now we're going to settle down and watch one of our Netflix Earth documentaries, since the movie we were watching went bye bye when we lost our cable connection.

Charlie Odum in Mashiko, Japan

Here's a video of Charlie Odium in Mashiko. Check out his unique wheel placement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHba8ammscI
Yesterday I actually got away from this laptop for a while. I set up my new stereo in the studio, did some studio clean up and did some more Christmas decorating. Jim cut me some pine branches and holly and I made a few table top arrangements. I used the bottom of Linda McFarlings casserole for the dining room table, and another wonderful wood fired shino bowl for the kitchen table arrangement. The house is looking very festive and appropriate for the season.

Since I was busy with other things I didn't get as much paper work done as intended, so I'll focus on that today;but first I need to see if there's a way to transfer some of my Ipod music on to this laptop, since I lost a lot of the music when Vista gave me the blue screen of death and I had to format my drive and lost so much data, including music files.

Each new thing I try to install seems to require fixes. At first the computer didn't recognize the Ipod; but after much reading and then finally changing my input plug, I was able to get it to at least recognize the Ipod. So, this morning I'll see if there's any way to transfer some of that music. Otherwise I'll have to get what I can off the old desktop and on to a flash drive, transfer it to this laptop and then reload the Ipod, which then erases everything on the Ipod in the process. I wish these Ipods had delete buttons so you could just delete and add new files without first, having to remove all the data currently on the Ipod.

Who woodah thought Gingerbread entry

Here's another remarkable gingerbread entry.

It's a cool, clear morning -  nice winter day. If I didn't have all this paper work to go through I'd be thinking about a nice walk in the woods later.

Jim's sister, husband and one of our nieces is coming on Friday, so I need to get guest rooms ready and  this living room back to looking like a living room rather than a second office! I have computer software boxes, disks, assorted recipe books, and magazines that I need to sort through, read, put away or throw out. It will take at least half a day to go through this stuff. I've given up on trying to transfer more files until after Christmas. I got enough important files and some programs installed that I can afford to wait to finish this project.

Since Jim and I don't exchange presents - just treat ourselves to what we want. I bought  a new cd player for the studio. It plays MP3's as well as regular CD's, is an Am/Fm radio,  and  also has a dock my Ipod . I have to get that unpacked later and make sure all parts are working. If they are, I'll be looking for a home for the stand alone MP3 player and Ipod dock that are taking up studio space. Hopefully after Christmas I'll be able to get into the studio if this cold and sinusitis have cleared.

Gingerbread castle

 Here's another of those fun gingerbread entries from the Grove Park Inn's yearly gingerbread contest.

There hasn't been much to blog about. Yesterday Jim and I drove to Johnson City, TN to do some shopping and have dinner out. Today I'm just sitting next to the fireplace, working on the computer and drinking a lot of liquids and popping a lot of vitamins to try to get rid of this cold and sinusitis.

I bought the Norton 2010 anti virus software yesterday and I'll get that on my computers today. That's my big activity of the day other than making some rice for the leftover gumbo.

Another gingerbread house

 Here's another gingerbread entry to enjoy.

At the moment I'm dealing with a bad cold on top of the sinusitis of the past couple of weeks. I'm definitely doing my part in keeping the Kleenex corporation in the black and getting pretty good at being a reclining,couch potato.

Other than working on getting this laptop working, which is proving to be a bit of a challenge with incompatible, older software, I'm just popping vitamins and drinking lots of liquid

It took 2 days but I think I got the majority of music CD's I can't live without, on to the laptop. There are a lot more to go when I feel up to the task of going through them all.

Fortunately we have leftover Chinese food for dinner because I am definitely not in the mood or shape to stand around the kitchen for any prolonged cooking adventures  I did manage to get my studio and house plants watered this morning and now I'm going to try to take a nap.

First I need to see if kitty is ready to come in.

Gingerbread Log House

Here's a cut little gingerbread log house - one of the entries in the gingerbread contest at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC.

Computer hell continues, but I did manage to take time away from it, before I went to bed last night to mix up a batch of no knead bread which I baked right after lunch. It  will go nicely with the mushroom bisque we're having for dinner.

I'm still dealing with the laptop keyboard problem which takes what I type  and puts the letters in different words, and paragraphs. I'm not getting the problem when I use the wireless keyboard, only the laptop keyboard. It's definitely a puzzlement!

The rest of my day is being spent on the computer. I think I have the majority of files transferred but am having problems with some music files not opening in iTunes, but opening fine in Windows Media player. I may just have to  get all my cd's out and manually re-install them. That will be another days project! And I still have to either get new drivers for some of my software, or new software.
 
Microsoft isn't publishing Front Page any more and the old version probably won't work on Windows 7, so I need to do some homework on some easy to use, reasonably priced Web page software.

Gingerbread chuck wagon

Here's another clever, gingerbread contest entry.

Yesterday was a computer day from hell. I was on the phone with at 4 or 5 (lost count) Dell techs in India  for almost 4 hours, then waited till bedtime for a call or email for a code to install the pic tuneup I purchased over 10 days ago. Never did hear from them.

They billed me and never gave me the code, instructions, etc. Each tech after getting 10 minutes of information about my system, etc, said, they weren't the one to help and directed me to the next one. I was on the computer merry go round  from  hell until I got the last tech and even he couldn't help with all the issues. Seems Micrsoft has again put out a Windows program before the software and hardware people had a chance to upgrade drivers, etc.

On my own I manged to get some upgrades from the Microsoft site, so now I at least have my wireless mouse and keyboard working and don't have to sit with the laptop on my lap all day!

Today I'll continue the file transfers and search some of my other software sites to see if there are any upgrades for Windows 7. I'm hoping today will turn out to be as nice as yesterday so I can take an afternoon break and go for a walk with Bodhi.

Tonight I'll make the pasta dish I planned for yesterday. Since it was still on the phone with Dell at 6 o'clock, Jim drove down to the local seafood restaurant in town and brought us back a couple of fried clam dinners. Today has got to be better - one can only  hope!

I WILL get back into the studio soon - hopefully before Christmas!!                                     

Another gingerbread entry

It's another computer day. The new drivers didn't arrive yesterday but Jim is  heading to the post office later and if it isn't here today I'll definitely be calling Dell. I was way too busy to call yesterday but I must call today about their 6 month old software that isn't working with Windows 7.

This morning I dug out an old wireless mouse and was very happy to find  that  it works with Windows 7.

I just put Bonnie out for a bit. It's a beautiful day and there's no sign of the bully tom cat. She was crying to go out and I didn't have the heart to make her stay in on such a beautiful day. I hope this isn't a mistake after yesterdays journey. She's good about coming when called, so I'll check on her every 15 minutes or so.

Other than making dinner (mixed salad and orichette pasta with broccoli, pignoli nuts and an olive oil, garlic, anchovy sauce),. I'll be on the computer all day . We haven't had pasta for a while and this dish  is one way I can get Jim to eat broccoli.

Grove Park Inn Gingerbread contest youth winner

As promised, here's the gingerbread winner in the youth category. I think this was my favorite. I love the ingenuity of using shredded wheat for the thatched roof - rather brilliant, I thought.

It's been a bit of an eventful day. Bonnie kitty was terrorized by a neighbors Tom cat and got herself cornered on a steep slope filled with wild roses.  Jim and I spent over a half an hour, in the freezing rain, trying to locate her by her moanful cries. We managed to chase away the bully and Jim got the neighbor to lock up the offender so we'd have a chance to coax her out of there. We were cold, wet and bleeding from those rose thorns and finally retreated to the house, hoping she would soon follow.

A very cold, wet, Bonnie kitty finally showed up a bit later, after much coaxing and calling. I rubbed her dry, gave her treats and she's been sleeping ever since. I started on the dal and raita for our Indian curry dinner and now I'm going to have a well earned glass of wine. I may never let her out again. The physical and emotional strain is too much for these old bodies!

This years Gingerbread contest winner

Yesterday was a lovely, grown up play day - drove to Asheville with dear friends and brunch at the Grove Park Inn. The guys had full seconds plates as well as dessert. Where in the world do they put all that food! I couldn't  even finish one plate and  leave  room for dessert, so Bodhi had some of my leftover sausage when we got home. Afterwards we walked around the  beautifully decorated Inn looking at the Christmas dnecor and the Gingerbread contest entries. Here's the picture of the winner. I'll post a few others in the next couple of days.

Evidently this contest is a big deal - with entries from all over the country. I think  my favorite  was the youth winner, which I'll try to post tomorrow.

This cold day is going to be spent back on the laptop sorting files and attempting to fix glitches.  Hopefully the disk with the new drivers will arrive today and will work to correct some of these problems as well as some of the Dell software which came with the laptop which is not compatible with Windows 7. Otherwise I'm going to have to get  back on the phone with Dell about replacing those disks with ones that are compatible.

I ordered this huge book on Windows 7 and am hoping I'll be able to glean enough information that I can understand, to make good use of this new operating system. Ah, the joys of computers. Jim manages to live a full and happy life without these things, why can't I. HMMMMM!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Here's a trip down memory lane - me proud as a peacock with this big bowl. It was taken at Davenport California, in the early 80's at a Karen Karnes workshop.

 Wow, it was 20F degrees this morning. Winter has arrived!

Still dealing with Windows 7 woes. There was a real screwy glitce, some of the letters skip bakc h "Example, when I typ" See what I means??? If I don't t pe super slow, the letters go backwards, sometimes, several words back. What a mess! Any computer experts out there with a possible fix????

Needless to say, this is a short message today! LOL We're doing brunch with friends and I'll have the rest of the day to see about fixing some of these glitches, getting my files transferred, etc.

Christmas tree is up

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Here's our Christmas tree. I decorate the tree and Jim does the village under the tree.

Been playing with the computer and cooking today. I made a cauliflower, tomato and garbanzo beans curry and dal. I used store bought, frozen, Naan; but it wasn't very good. Next time I'm make my own or use Chapatis.

I'm still trying to get my wireless mouse and keyboard to work with the new Windows 7, but they tell me I need need a different driver for it  work. Dell is sending me a disk, which should be here either tomorrow or Monday.               
                         
It's probably  going to take a week or so to get this new Windows 7 working. I lost a lot of files when I used DOS to transfer files to the stand alone hard drive. When I tried to get them yesterday they said there were problems on the stand alone drive and it needed to fix them, but fixing them, seems to erased some of my most recent files. Have I mentioned again that I'm still in my "I hate computers" mode.

Windows 7 is also not compatible with some of my 6 month old software that came with the laptop, so I'm going to have to get on the phone again with Dell after I check the rest of that new software. If 6 month old software isn't working, I'm not holding up much hope for my older programs. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't have any information on a lot of program compatibility for their new system - typical! :-(

VIdeo on historical Stangl & Fulper Pottery

Interesting video on the historic Stangl & Fulper pottery in New Jersey.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9-QZb2qSBI

 I'm up to my ears in computer woes this rainy morning. Got the Windows 7 installed, but some drivers need updating, but the web address for doing that only gave me options to update drivers for Windows xp or Vista. AARGH. Then I tried to re-install the McAfee antivirus, only to find out that  it's not compatible with Win 7 and there's no fix available. So I closed down the laptop and headed back upstairs to my office and am working on my old desktop. After breakfast I'll be on the phone with Dell once more. Ah, the joys of computer ownership!

Today will be spent getting all my files back on to the laptop and loading some software to see if any of it will work. I have a feeling I'm going to be buying a lot of new software.Windows 7 is so new that they don't even have information on their web site about the compatibility of many popular software programs, like my Word Perfect. So I guess I'll just install it and see what happens.

We didn't have the turkey soup last night so we'll have it tonight. Jim decided he'd rather munch on pate, fruit and cheese after our big lunch. Well, time to get to my morning mail and harvest my Farmville crops so I can get back to working on the laptop. I think I'll also do some checking on line to see if there are any good reviews on some free antivirus software that I can install on the laptop until Dell sends me a McAfee disk that will work with Windows 7.

Wedgewood plate with potter throwing

Here's a fun Wedgewood plate that I have hanging in my studio. I found it on Ebay a few years ago and had never seen one like it before.

I'm still waiting for the Dell tech to call to help my install Windows 7 on my laptop. Jim and I need to get out a bit later to do some shopping, so if this guy hasn't called before we leave, I'll have to call him again when we get back. We'll have a big lunch out and just have a light dinner of the turkey carcass soup. 

These computer woes and dealing with my office paper piles has consumed all my time lately; but the pile has gotten smaller and the trash bucket has been emptied several times already with more to go. Now I have to finish filing all these sorted food and glaze recipes and other assorted pieces of information. I'll pick up a bunch of folders when we're out and that will help me clear most of this stuff off the desk and into appropriate file cabinets.