Baking and Celebrating

His Madness came home with these roses from the grocery store and I only just noticed that they look sort of patriotic in that vase. Ha! They're really deep pink and cream but that makes them even more appropriate, considering the diversity of the new administration.  It may appear to be just another pretty bouquet but it's really saying, Whoo Hooo! The Fascist, misogynist dictator is gone!

It's been a very long wait for this change in leadership, so HM decided we needed an extra special dessert. It took him twenty minutes to cut out the letters to decorate his blueberry pie.

An Inaugural Pie, complete with the palindrome date.

Who doesn't appreciate a nerdy math reference? (duh, Republicans)

Next, as if there wasn't already enough carbs in the pie, he decided to bake some French-Style Country bread. You can tell a person has been isolated for too long when they start incorporating different styles of preferments into their obsessive bread baking.  

 It began with this poolish preferment (I Googled both those words to make sure he just wasn't making stuff up). Basically it's a starter, which is a mix of flour, water and yeast that sits around the kitchen for up to sixteen hours constantly needing to be moved out of the way. 

Then, it requires more time to rise, which took place in the largest cast iron pan we have but only took an hour. To be fair, it does taste great so we will be going on lots of long walks until it's gone.

On Friday, January 22nd we observed  National Answer Your Cat's Questions Day. Not exactly a date for celebrating in our house, Spenser needed a pen. 

 While Stewart was simply offended by the very idea of speaking to his staff.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Condolences to Andy and all the Packer fans.

Stay safe and don't forget to wear a mask!

Leaving the Lights On and Staying Festive

Yes, our lights are still spreading holiday cheer into the long nights of winter. In fact, all out decorations are still up thanks in part to the city's schedule for collecting Christmas trees. There are two scheduled pick-up dates but the first one fell on the 7th of January and I was too distracted by Trump's attempted coup to remember to get it out to the curb. That's not the worst thing, it only went up a few days before Christmas. As for the outside lights, they're still on due to the Packer Factor. Some individuals in our neighborhood consider it unlucky to turn off their lights before the Packers are eliminated from the playoffs. HM and I are not into sports but feel the need to comply just to keep from being chided by our neighbors who apparently believe it actually matters!       

I do realize this is a First World Problem that really isn't worth mentioning but we had a real issue with our lights this year. As embarrassing as it is, it's still pretty funny to look up and down the street and see our partially lit, pastel pink and yellow lights among the normal ones. All this silliness started when His Madness discovered most of the old lights weren't working. Since new ones were going to have to be LEDs, he put on a mask and went to a store to buy a "test" string (because not having your house lit up for the holidays is worth the risk of contracting a deadly virus?) After a suitable candidate was determined to be good enough, an order was placed and inevitably it arrived short by quite a few sets. At this point it was well into December and our neighbors houses had been shining brightly since the day after Halloween, so it was time to do the best with what we had. HM put the LEDS on the roof line and the old incandescent lights went around the columns and on the window boxes. The mixture of the two types resulted in the old white lights looking very pink and the new ones appearing yellow, with the added bonus of several unlit gaps. At least we're not letting the team down!

Among the gifts we received from our son Andy and his wife Kristin, were these great homemade hot pepper and Worcestershire sauces. There are lots ways they can be used but my first thought was - Bloody Marys! Spenser seemed doubtful, he most likely thought they should be reserved for brunch and he's probably right but these are strange times and we all have to make allowances. Besides, they also gave us some DVDs and we needed something to munch on while we waited for the pizza to arrive.

  

In preparation for pizza/movie night we searched for some suitable trimmings.

Spenser decided to leave the comfort of Ivy's lap to see if we needed any help or possibly supervision. Most likely, he just wanted in on the action.

After a few dill pickles, cherry tomatoes, chunks of Gouda, celery and olives were added to the skewers it was time to make it an adult beverage! Andy said he had used habanero and jalapeño peppers when making the sauce so we skipped the horseradish. Some shrimp and lemon wedges would've been good too, but these were great anyway. Guess they're not just for breakfast anymore!

I sent Andy this photo of his concoctions. They looked very festive with the Christmas lights.

Then the pizza came and we settled in to watch another Christmas gift, Dr. Strangelove. It's one of HM's faves, a dark comedy from 1964 about an insane Air Force general who orders a nuclear attack on Russia and inadvertently blows up the planet. It probably wasn't the best movie to watch after recent events but it was entertaining and I think we've seen everything on Netflix by now.  

Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone had a good weekend.

Stay safe and wear a mask! 

A Giant Lantern and A Seditious Afternoon

As the holidays fade into a distant memory, now it's finally starting to look like Christmas in my backyard! A mild winter is a lot easier to deal with but makes me worry even more about climate change. It had been snowing all around us for weeks before we ended up with any. Now it's very foggy.






We're still having the occasional card or gift show up so the patio decorations may stay up for awhile longer, plus I have a whole lot of indoor ones to put away first. It's not like anyone cares and when the weather is this nice, 28°F with an occasional ray of sunshine, we wanted to spend some time out there. 

Several years ago, I ordered this ridiculous, lantern-shaped heater online. To be honest, it was an impulse purchase and didn't look THAT big in the catalog. This design was probably meant for a much larger home than our 1929 bungalow and that may be why it's  been in the basement since it arrived.

What may have drawn me to thinking it was a good choice for a patio heater was it's similarity to some Luminara lanterns I already had. They've worked great for years in all kinds of weather. 

Even though this "nice" weather won't last long, it seemed worth hauling it out to be able to spend more time outside. What exactly we were going to do out there wasn't clear but it still works! Don't worry, it was only on the table long enough to see if it was still working and to get familiar with the manual switches. Over the years the remote went missing. 

So now we're all set! Maybe we'll invite a couple of friends over for a socially distanced drink.

Now, it's up to Mother Nature to keep the backyard looking pretty.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

Stay warm and don't forget to wear a mask!

Last Wednesday, while trying to finish up this silly post on staying warm outside, I took a break to see if the ceremonial electoral count was over. Then, like many of us, spent the rest of the afternoon watching in disbelief as Trump's mob easily overran the capital for hours before anyone came to stop them. According to the Washington Post, the FBI received information beforehand that the organizers were online and calling for violence, so they knew there was the potential for them to become dangerous but failed to prepare for it. This is probably not the last we hear from Trump but he should be held accountable for instigating that murderous assault. As should his Republican enablers. In about a week he will be powerless and I'm thankful for that, but how much more damage will he cause between now and then?