Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

There is an old saying about the best laid intentions which this year has intersected with Murphy"s Law!

So as I wish you the very Merriest Christmas and the very best and much happiness in the coming New Year....let me recap my lack of postings.

My beloved husband has had an unprecedented year of accidents and injury and ill health.  As some of you may know he is a gun smith and he repairs and restores as well as modifies legal firearms.  He does not sell guns.  He and a friend were hoisting a lathe out of his shop and a 300+ pound motor bolted to the top of it broke it's bolts and fell on him crushing his collar bone.

After he healed and we were getting back to normal he suffered a heart attack and had open heart surgery for a quadruple bi-pass.  He spent one month and two days in the hospital and is now at home undergoing out patient cardiac rehab.

While he was still in the hospital I had an MRI and discovered I have a cracked right hip!  Currently I am being extremely careful and hoping to get by until he is recovered fully before I have to undergo any corrective action.  But don't really know how it will all work out.  I have great faith in OUR Lord Jesus and am leaving it in his hands knowing it will all work out.

So again Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year to you all and time will tell if I am able to return to my blogging.  We are great for what has transpired and in fact he has gone to his shop now and is playing catch up.  I will see a specialist this Wednesday and see what will come.

My warmest regards to you all.

My New Year's Resolutions!

Yes, I have been missing for a good long while my friends.  So thank you to all of you who have stayed around.

My New Years Resolutions are only two.  The first is to return to my once normal life and resume doing everything I did before I was debilitated by pain,  The second is to get on a program, probably of my own to loose more weight because that cannot but help my situation.

I may have told about a terrible fall I took a year ago the Day after Labor Day.  It was one of those "kick myself, how could I have been so stupid kind of falls!"

As I often do because our house is built into the side of a big hill,  I carried 2 large 30 gal. full trash bags down the full flight of stairs into the family room to the garage door.  Next I went down 3 more concrete steps into the garage floor and proceeded to open the doors and head out to the trash and recycle bins!  Upon heaving my big bags into the proper receptacles I saw one bag had leaked and left a trail across the blacktop of the driveway!

Generally I clean up my messes so I found the paper towels I keep there for just such occasions.  I wiped from the trash bins to the garage and all of the way back to the door to reenter the house. All cleaned up!  I turned to go up the steps into the house and "SLAM BAM THANK YOU MAME!"

I hit like a ton of bricks.

I had turned all of the way around and was now facing out of the garage doors instead of into the house and my legs were behind me instead of in front in a discombobulated and rumpled heap on the steps.  I just sat there.  Stunned and not knowing if I could get up.  After a bit I did slowly try to maneuver myself around and got up! 

Long story short I never got better.  I neglected to consider the soles of my shoes when cleaning up and that is where I went wrong.  As one not to run to the doctor very often I didn't go for maybe 6 months realizing I was not recovering.

Eventually it was discovered I have a major birth defect I had not known of and this fall merged the whole thing become painfully awful!

Recently my Dr. Ross Whitacre found a medication helping me a lot!  Like 80% improvement so I am ready to get back after the business of life!

So watch for me in the next weeks!  I am rejoining the living!

Playing Catch Up: Easter, A Fond Farewell, First Smoke, & Biga

This Christmas I got a double 9"' x 13" size cake pan with a cover that holds a large 3-4 layer cake batter!

Playing catch up will start with a back story today.  We have three wonderful sons and I am humbled to be their Mother.  Our middle son Mike and his family have lived in the same subdivision as we do since our granddaughters were in grade school.  So we have been blessed to be with them as they have grown into beautiful young women.  Our son has taken a new position and his family will be moving to Georgia.  So Easter and the following days have been bitter sweet.

Our youngest son Joel and his wife invited us all to their home in Santa Claus, In. the Sat. before Easter and our oldest son Chris and hid family came from north of Indianapolis.  That is where I took the enormous cake pictured above!  It was my carrot cake recipe and I topped it with cream cheese frosting.  It also makes up in three large layers.

Yes, I still color Easter Eggs, I probably always will.

Easter Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt for our 7 year old twin grandsons.  Of course I made Easter Baskets for all the kids too.  They all are candy lovers!  We had a traditional meal with ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, and both an Angel Food cake and the remainder of the Carrot cake.  I was over the top and didn't take pictures.  Not that I have found anyway!

Mike's Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I sent a care package with Mike when he went  this last round of some of his favorites:  Chocolate chip cookies and French Dip sandwiches.

After slow roasting a rump roast I wrap in foil and chill.  When cold I slice extra thin for French Dip sandwiches.

He has already ordered Vegetable soup and more cookies for the next trip!  I am happy to make it for them!

Sour cream and vanilla white yeast bread.

Our dog Molly got out of our fence during this time and our neighbors were nice enough to catch and return her one morning before the school bus even had come.  I baked them a loaf of white bread to thank them!

Smoked boneless pork loin roast.

Look at that smoke ring.  Delicious!

The next weekend Brian fired up the smoker and we smoked a boneless pork loin roast and 2 sticks of venison sausage.  We had eaten one and smoked the remaining 2 sausages and they are delicious!  The nice thing about the pork loin is that it will make us 3 different meals.  The first was sliced on Sunday.  Then Tuesday we had as a stir-fry with vegetables.  Next I sliced it very thinly and layered with BBQ sauce yesterday and will heat up tonight for an easy supper.

This is the beginning stage of the Biga.

Today I stirred up a Biga to start Cibatta (Italian Slipper Bread) tomorrow.  It needs to be started then to sit for 24 hours before making the finished loaves.  This is a new recipe I am trying because it makes 4 loaves and I will have 2 to send home with a friend of my husband's Saturday who is coming to help with a repair project.  With a little luck I will remember to take pictures and post the bread and the recipe tomorrow.  I also have set out all of the ingredients for my husband's favorite Oatmeal raisin and walnut cookies and plan to at least get them stirred up yet today.  I will bake them in the morning first thing.  Then in the late morning start the bread,  having given the Biga 24 hours to ripen into a sour deliciousness!