Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

To answer the anticipated question; one I answered several times yesterday in town....no, I am not taking Ellen trick-or-treating. No, I did not even get or make her a costume. I seriously doubt she'd get anything out of going around begging for candy, except more sugary things that she doesn't need anyway. And I also doubt my ability to get her to dress up in anything odd looking anyway. She is proving to be picky about choosing what clothes she wears already. I can't recall as I ever had the urge to go trick-or-treating when I was a kid. In gradeschool I remember dressing up because we had some stupid Halloween parade we had to do every year, from K through 6th grade I believe. But I was too naive back then to realize how dumb that was. Once in Jr High (back in my day there was no such thing as "middle school")I went over and spent the night with a friend and we dressed up and went trick-or-treating. But that was it. It was fun, and I remember that nig...

Last night I carved Ellen's pumpkin. She was more fascinated with what came out of it, rather than with the face I made in it. She keeps looking at the pumpkin and asking about what came out of it. I guess she had the idea it was hollow or something. Today we went to town, Ellen and I, and as usual we went to the bank. We came out loaded down. She got her usual bag of popcorn, then a nice bank lady gave her a little bag of candy, and on the way out we got ourselves two of their free calendars. I have joined NaBloPoMo for next month. I actually didn't join this month, which is a shame, because unless there is a problem tomorrow I will have succeeded at blogging every day. There is no theme for November blogging, so I am thinking of what to blog about. Last year I saved up mail order catalogs for a week. This time I think I will try for the whole month and see what I get. Ha! This morning before we went to town, we had to round up a cow from the dry herd up the road. Th...

(I borrowed this concept from the Domestic Bliss blog, who borrowed it from Roots and Rings...I just modified it a bit, but want to give credit where credit is due.) Thirteen for Thursday 1. What are you going to be for Halloween? I'm going to be answering the door, if anyone comes at all. Usually we have only one family come and they are relatives. 2. Have you ever been on television? Ummm...yes, inadvertently. Once in my former life in Portland, when I worked with the sheriff's department I had to go to a courtroom to get paperwork. It just so happened that they were having this big arraignment on some major newsworthy criminal, the courtroom was jammed with the news media. A co-worker and I both went together (we were too chicken to go by ourselves and get the pprwrk-haha) and ended up on the evening news on one channel. 3. Do you have a toilet paper preference? The flap should hang down over the top. I prefer 2-ply, white. 4. When you’re pregnant, will you find out the sex ...

Only 10 minutes to think of something trenchant to post for today. Tonight I will be going to church, so I won't have time to blog. Oops. Well, for one thing. I don't think I like this new template, too much green, but I don't have time to change it now and I dunno what I'd like. I tried most all of the one offered and didn't like them much. Perhaps I'll just go back to what I've had the past year and a half. But I got bored with that. I guess I could get fancy with it, but since I am on dial-up those fancy ones take TOO long to come up. Oh, well. I made Irish Soda bread today. It's pretty good. I like bread. I wish I didn't like bread, but I do. It smells so good when it's baking. Until tomorrow.

What does one do with icky apples? A week or so ago I bought one of those bags of apples that were on sale at our local grocery store. They were on sale for a reason. Even Ellen wouldn't eat them. They are called "Paula Red," have very white flesh, and are terribly mushy and tasteless. Normally I go for the "Fuji" every time, but these, as I said, were at a bargain price. I must remember when I see a bargain at this store that they are the ones that put outdated food items (prepackaged stuff, like granola bars, International Food Coffees...etc) and even medications in their bargain bins for sale. Anyway. I took the icky apples, peeled and sliced them, mixed a bit of sugar and cinnamon with them, put them in a pan, topped them with a mix of oatmeal, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon and butter and popped 'em in the oven. They were quite palatable after they emerged. Apple Crisp is such a very "autumn" thing to do, don't you think?

Not that this is anything new really. I made up quite a bit of butter about three years ago, before Ellen was born. But this time I actually put it on the table to use. Mostly I'd used the butter I made previously for cooking and baking. At this time of year though the butterfat content of the milk tends to go up, since they aren't eating as much green grass, so I have quite a bit more cream to work with instead of putting it in coffee or cooking with it. Hubby really liked the butter this time, so much so that I made another batch. He took some down for his mom and sister to try. He said when his Grandad used to have a cow, they'd get "cow butter" from them. But that it tasted "cow-y." He said this didn't taste cow-y. I said, "well, it's just sweet cream butter." I don't let the cream clabber first. Blech! Besides, when it is sweet, you can just put the "buttermilk" right into the milk jug and never know the...

At least if you have lived in this area before this might be big news for you. HA. Someone bought the Windyville store, and she plans on opening it again. Yesterday she had a big yard sale there. She bought the big white house kitty-corner from the store and has lived there about a year. There are some who remain skeptical about the whole deal, but we all wish her the best with her venture. They, she and her family, have come to our church once or twice and seem to be nice people, though I haven't met them. She is shooting for a grand opening in December. Other news: We had our monthly singing at church this evening. Every last Sunday of the month we do that. It was very nice. Afterwards there are treats in the back that everyone has contributed. It's great to get together and have fun like that, on an informal basis. Not that we are a formal church in any sense of the word. There's a father and son team there that play in a popular local band called " Potter...