Monday, December 23, 2019

Christmas is coming

This has been a good Christmas season. I guess they all are, in fact, if I take time to look around. Here's a little of what has been going on for the last month or so besides building a porch on the back of our house and starting a new job.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Miss Landers, Ward, and I went to see the Eric Byrd Trio play various arrangements of the music from the Charlie Brown Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, but beforehand didn't want to go. I was quite comfortable where I was on the couch with Annie on my lap. It's a good thing that I make it a point to schedule things outside of the house or I don't think I would ever leave. The music inspired me to get a Charlie Brown door mat and it makes me smile every time I see it.
Charlie Brown and the gang are greeting our visitors.

The week after that, I had a cookie party with my work friends. I have been to cookie exchanges around this time of year, but the soul purpose of this gathering was not to exchange cookies, it was to eat cookies. Each of ten of us picked a different recipe from the Delish Insane Sweets cookbook and tried it.  We had some meatballs in a slow cooker and some milk for a little protein to balance the fat and sweet from the cookies, but basically we just ate cookies for supper. We gave reports on what we thought of the recipes, but mostly we ate various delicious cookies to our hearts content. I can't wait until we try something like this again.

The week after that, I went with my book club to a one man performance of A Christmas Carol. It is a tradition in this area and remarkable to watch as this one man makes you forget that you are watching only one person play all of the parts. However, there was a glitch. The theater lost electricity twice during the second half. We heard an interesting question and answer period under the emergency lights while they were trying to fix things, but eventually we had to leave for safety reasons. Good thing I already knew how the story ended.



And back to cookies, I've been baking some the last couple of days to take to various events. And there's been a glitch with that, also. I inherited my mother's stand mixer and have happily used it several times. However, after last night's batch of chocolate chip cookies, the beaters were stuck in the mixer. It's down to the point that we are taking the mixer apart to see what we can see. So far, no luck. They're still stuck. Good thing I still have the hand mixer that my mother gave me 35 years ago and a strong stirring arm.
The beaters are stuck.

I count my blessings that a broken mixer is the biggest problem I have today. I hope the same for you.

Until next time...

10 comments:

  1. Sorry about your mixer! Hopefully the cookies came out well. I had a food mishap last week. I made the favorite family jello salad for our family Christmas. As I poured the hot water on the jello on what I thought was a heat-proof glass bowl, it cracked, and I had red liquid jello everywhere. Took a lot of scrubbing to get rid of it (my kitchen is white and I didn't want it to turn pink) but I managed to clean it up. Yes, I finally made the jello successfully.

    Sounds like you have done many fun and festive things. Merry Christmas to you and all the blog buddies! :)

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    1. The cookies are turning out okay, but I'd like to get the beaters out so I can wash them. Hopefully today, we'll spend some more time on the task and have some success.

      I have had a cracked bowl that way, but never with red jello in it. Yikes! Red jello stains and if you we able to get it all out of your white kitchen, I'm impressed.

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  2. I have been cooking like a maniac and have not gotten my stand mixer out yet. No idea why since it makes everything so much easier. Color me stupid?

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    1. I was so happy to get this mixer because it does make many things easier. However, we'll see if it can be fixed.

      I'm sure you were thinking that you wanted to develop your arm muscles more and that's why you didn't get out your mixer. :)

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    2. Anne, I also have inherited my mom's stand mixer and I also am not a fan. My kitchen is small and it takes up a lot of space, so I leave it in a closet most of the time. It doesn't properly knead dough with the bread hooks, which is what I would find to be most helpful. I bet the newer models are nicer and more efficient, but I've managed without one thus far in my life and can't bring myself to spend the money to buy one.

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    3. Storage is definitely a problem. I don't have a good place for storage, either. My last kitchen was more friendly that way.

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  3. It sounds like you've been out and about, participating in many fun activities leading up to Christmas! Sorry about the mixer beaters being stuck! Hopefully, you can get them unstuck!

    I wish you and yours a very happy Christmas and a happy New Year, too.

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    1. I'm not one who goes out very much, so this has been a busy time for me, but enjoyable. I finally got the beaters unstuck this afternoon. The problem now is that I have lost one of the screws that I need to put the mixer back together. I should be able to find it with a little more thorough looking.

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  4. Sounds like you had a great Christmas season this year.

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