Humph!

Well, I am no PW.

This morning I had decided to make a somewhat decadent breakfast--a pear tart using pie dough that I had frozen a couple weeks ago. It's PW's (Pioneer Woman, aka, Ree Drummond) recipe and she claims that if you freeze it in a nice disk shape, you can take it out of the freezer, allow it to rest on your counter top and then roll it out.

Mine did not go that way.

It did not go that way at all.

The dough was hard, even after sitting out for two hours.

When I attempted to roll it, it was more like mushing and pushing and then I had several large chunks of pie crust sitting there.

I sort of pressed them all together...

kinda like putting the pieces of pangea back together again.

Then I tried to roll again.

More breaking apart.

Then I sprinkled on some water, hoping that would make the dough stick together.

It did, a bit.

But it also stuck more mightily to my rolling pin.

Add flour.

In the end, I just sorta pinched all these pieces together and scraped up the crust and slapped it onto my parchment-lined baking tray.

Before attacking rolling my dough, I had sliced up my pears and stirred in some lemon juice, light brown sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. If I hadn't already made the filling, I think I would have given it up as a bad job and tossed the dough into the chicken bucket.

So, then I poured the pear mixture into the middle of my dough. Then I (gently) folded over the edges of the dough...

but the dough cracked and split and all the juice poured all over the pan.

Great.

So I threw it into the oven, set the timer and drowned my sorrows in the shower.

No photos, because my fingers were essentially glue.

People who bake always make it look so easy.

*sigh*





Note: Despite my frustrations with my frozen pie dough,  I do enjoy PW's cookbook--she's not afraid of butter. And the "fresh" dough I made was easier to roll, though I still have to pinch parts together. 

I think I have a mental block when it comes to baking. 

Tippy

A little over four years ago (has it been that long?) we adopted "Tippy". We were looking for a medium-sized dog, but other than that we didn't have any other parameters. Neither HE nor I had ever owned a dog.

When I was a kid we had several.

"Went through" is really a more accurate term. Unfortunately our home closely bordered a road that was not too frequently traveled, but the speed limit was 55. Most of our dogs seemed to think that the road was part of our property and therefore they needed to chase off any large metal intruders. We lost several dogs this way and for some reason in the early years my parents never tried to prevent this by erecting a fence or tying up the dogs while they were outside. We had 5 acres, so I think they wanted the dogs to roam freely on our property and the dogs didn't understand that the road did not fall into the category of our property.

Anyhoo, never owned a dog as an adult. Never had to think about temperament, length of fur, breed characteristics....

And as we moved through the phase of looking for a dog, we didn't spend a whole lot of time looking at those factors either. We spent some time investigating the types of dogs we thought would be better for a family with cats and small children, but we figured if we adopted a puppy, we could train the dog from the start, rather than having to re-train someone else's dog.

We found her on Petfinder. It was love at first sight.

Actually, we fell in love with her and all of her 8 brothers and sisters.

The local Petsmart worked with local shelters and rescues, hosting "meet-n-greet" types of events. The shelter or rescue organization would bring their adoptable animals to the store and folks could adopt them, if you had all of your paperwork in order.

I had already taken a look at these adorable puppies online and hoped that by the time we got to the store, at least one of them would still be available for adoption. I had contacted the rescue and filled out an application ahead of time, thinking that if one of these puppies didn't work out, we would be "pre-approved" for the next time around.

As the kids and I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a woman filling a shopping cart full of puppies (how cute is that?). We quickly jumped out of the car and "oohed and aahed" at those puppies. The kids wanted all of them. We followed the woman into the store, giggling and melting over those 9 cuties.

Once inside the store, the puppies were placed in an enclosure, wherein every person in the store descended upon them.

I stood back and watched my kids.

And watched the puppies.

Okay, okay--I was in there too, petting and playing with the little balls of joy.

But I was also observing.

Some of them were barking and jumping. Others seemed frightened and nervous. Some were chewing on the enclosure.

One of them seemed interested but calm.

That was the dog I wanted. I checked with the woman from the rescue and discovered that "Tippy" (the name her foster mom had given her) was available. Several of her litter-mates had already been spoken for. I filled out the actual adoption form and handed the woman a check for the adoption fee.

Then the kids and I went through the store and bought about $2,000 worth of dog supplies.

We paid for our store purchases, loaded them into the car and then went back inside to get our puppy.

I couldn't believe they were just going to let us take her home! Didn't we have to pass a test or something? It was kinda like taking Erica home from the hospital-- I was a nervous wreck!

Tippy was shivering in my arms as I carried her to the car. The poor thing whined the entire way home. We all talked to her and told her it would be okay--that she was going home and we loved her so much.

We are so fortunate. She has been the best companion we could have hoped for. She's smart, sweet and obedient (well, most of the time). I don't think we can take a whole lot of credit for her amazing personality: I think she was just born that way. 

We discovered that she was part australian shepherd, part lab. She stays close to home (the road and cars are too far away to bother with) and mostly wants to be around her people. She barks whenever someone comes over, but settles down quickly. She protects us and we lavish love and treats upon her.

She was cute as a button when she was a pup:

She got along with the kitties from the start:

She loves a good cuddle:

She adores grandpa (and pretty much everyone else):

She's smarter than me:

She is loyal and takes her job quite seriously:

Beautiful Tippy, we are so blessed to have you in our family.

And we love you so much.

Merry, Merry Christmas

Happy Solstice

Day #20

Gingerbread houses.

Advent Day #19

A couple of years ago I had seen a craft project in a magazine to make a keepsake ornament for your baby's first Christmas. I thought it looked like a cute idea and decided that we could modify it for the kids, seeing as they are definitely not babies.

I purchased four glass ornaments at a Michael's craft store. We made 3/8 inch-wide strips of paper and my daughter shared her fabulous gel pen collection.

Then we got to work.

HE used his ornament as a place to store memories from this past year, leaving room to add more over the next couple years.

I recorded things for which I am thankful,

along with wishes for the future. 

Erica placed her secrets inside her ornament.

And Aidan filled his ornament with paper shapes of various sizes and colors.

After writing our thoughts on the slips of paper, we wrapped the paper around the pen and slowly wound it through the neck of the ornament.

Many of the pieced Aidan used just slipped right into the ornament. The larger ones, he gently bent to fit.

 

 

A fun night of creativity.

Lunar Eclipse

Cool

Mornin'

For full disclosure, 

this photo was taken 

yesterday morning.

But apparently,

I had a lot more to say yesterday 

than just:

Good Morning!

Hope you have a

"wow" 

kind-of day!

Travels

So we spent a week over Thanksgiving visiting family and friends out east.

Maryland and DC to be precise.

It was wonderful to spend time with everyone.

We hiked Patapsco State Park which is a hop, skip and jump from my sister's place.

Various members of our family investigated ruins of the old St. Mary's College, now affectionately known as "Hell House". There's quite a bit of interesting history there.

The kids got along great and played outside quite a lot--carving canoes out of branches, dinking around with a trebuchet, building shelters and getting fine and wet in the creek.

While visiting with HE's sister in McLean Virginia we hiked Scott's Run Nature Preserve. It was beautiful with all of the brown leaves carpeting the forest floor.

Until we weren't quite sure we were actually on any kind of path....

In the end, we made it out alive with a few minutes of daylight left.

We ate incredibly well at my sister and brother-in-laws on Thanksgiving day. And everyone was dutifully stuffed.

Cooper, their adorable dog, was a delight as always.

We visited the new Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. Also known as the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

It held a wide variety of air things.

And space things.

Unfortunately we had tired (and I think somewhat bored) kids at this point so the visit wasn't as informative or enjoyable as I think it could have been.

Still, they know how to ham-it-up for the camera.

This little man had somehow found his way back into our house.

From wherever did he come?

It was a great trip. And good to get home again.