Snow For Sale... Cheap!

Sno Cone Picture via "Make Five"

Snow cones anyone? They are just about the only good thing I associate with that stuff. We were hit hard on Thursday and have lots of snow to spread around. We believe in sharing so the snow is going very cheap. Actually, you can have it for free if you bring a shovel and want to load the back of your pickup truck for weight. It’s all yours baby. Clean, white, pristine, heavy and FREE; just what you need!!!

The Witch’s Island can look cold and lonely in the dead of winter. It’s still beautiful, just different. It’s really a special place where you can find beach combers on the coldest of days looking for that washed up treasure. I haven’t found any recently but would like to share some photos and hope you enjoy your day around a warm fireplace with a good book which is what I plan on doing This afternoon.

You really don’t want to step too close to this edge.

This crow was surprised to find somebody out walking around.

The walkway might just need some work this spring.

It was cold enough that Hubby decided that he wouldn’t go swimming after all.

This is not actually the surface of Mars.

There was some light on the horizon.

Oh, the book I’m reading is “The Girl Who Played With Fire” by Stieg Larsson, the second one of his trilogy. Hubby bought me the set for Christmas and they are just as good as everyone is saying. My fireplace will be warm and toasty and hubby will bring me a glass of red wine. Life is wonderful in the Witch’s cold island paradise.

You can get yours from Amazon.ca.

Pie, Anyone? My First New Recipe of the New Year.

Well, here’s it is, the start of the second week of the new year and I’m following through on one of my resolutions. I made my first blueberry pie last weekend and it turned out great. It was easy too, in part because I had my pie crust already made. Back in October when I was doing a bunch of baking I made up a whole batch at once and then froze the extra in disk shapes, enough for one pie each. They are so handy and convenient to have on hand.
Here’s the recipe I used. It is my adaptation of one I found in the summer 2006 edition of Homemakers magazine.

Blue Berry Pie

Ingredients
5 cups blueberries
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
2tbsp orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp butter
2 pie crust doughs

Directions
Roll out dough into 2 rounds, ¼ inch thick and press 1 into the bottom of your pie plate. Toss the berries with the rest of the ingredients and pour into the pie shell.
Dot with the butter and then top with the 2nd piece of dough. Trim the edges and then crimp them together. Cut some steam vents in the top.
Bake in the lower third of a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbly, about a further 40 minutes. You’re done!

My first ever blueberry pie!

This is the easiest pie ever to put together and even better, blueberries are supposed to be great for your health! Look at that beauty, you know you want some. With the snow falling down around us today it helps to think about late summer when these August Blues were harvested. Oh August, that’s vacation time right? Sorry, memory lapse, I was thinking vacation already, sigh.

Yesterday we took down the Christmas tree. It’s always a sad thing to see it going away again, the living room looks so bare. We also put away all the decorations pertaining to Santa Claus. Snowmen get to stay because, well, um, they just do. That’s my rule and I’m sticking to it.

Here are some of the guys who will be hanging around for awhile. Try not to think about that pie while you’re looking at the snowmen. I bet you want some pie.

Warm Winter Wishes

This is the wall hanging I bought in the Big City last fall.

This is one of my all-time favourite decorations.

What do you suppose snow actually smells like?

My brother gave me this skating snowman for Christmas this year.

Over The River

This guy usually carries a Merry Christmas banner but it has been put away for now.

I don’t necessarily agree with this sentiment.

I love this little snowman lamp!

This guy will play Jingle Bells when you press his belly.

This guy is on the back of the front door.

This was a fun craft to make!

This star is made from dogwood branches.

He should be saying Let It snow Like Crazy SOMEWHERE ELSE!

Husbands, too.

This is one of this year’s Christmas presents from Hubby.

This guy is actually a candle holder.

Okay, thanks for looking. Here’s your piece!

It was as tasty as it looks.

Welcome to 2011!

This is the first time my Christmas amarylis has produced 5 blooms!

Granny New Years has come again in a small and quiet way. What you don’t remember "Granny"? Check her out in last year’s post here.

Granny New Year Present

A new puzzle book, thanks Granny!

Hubby had a visit from Granny, too. Well, sort of. He finally bought himself a new table saw with the extra cash he received in December. It will replace the $50 Black and Decker saw he has been using for the last 25(!) years. The poor old thing (the saw, not Hubby) fell off the tool trailer one evening during the gazebo build this summer and broke the table top. The stubborn old bugger (Hubby, not the saw) would still be using it if not for that. The saw got great reviews and the price actually went down $1oo from the time he first started drooling on it in the store. Granny works in mysterious ways!

A life-time warranty and great reviews, oh yeah!

Hubby’s new saw over by the stack of the gazebo’s cedar deck boards.

We had a fantastic year with lots of fun, laughter, great food, good weather, late night fire pit parties and just a deep down happy feeling in my stomach. LIFE IS GOOD!! I really don’t see how things can get any better but I’m going to give it a huge try. So I looked back over some of the goals I wanted to accomplish for 2010 and it seems like I have met the challenge head one.

I wanted to have more “No Spend Days” and I managed to keep from spending anything on 106 days for an average of about 2 per week. The same went for “No Drive Days” and while we had a bunch we didn’t record the number anywhere. It’s a little tricky anyway because I car pool and pay on Friday so really I’m not driving.

The meal planning was a great habit to pick up and we still do this daily because when we don’t it really screws things up. We end up running into the store to buy something on the way home from work. So there are lots of positive reasons to continue with this goal.

We bought a new BBQ for all our outdoor cooking needs. I love it; it’s much better looking than the old hunk of junk. Hubby is still getting used to the smaller BTU’s and slower cooking times but he gets the food cooked.

Losing weight has become an up and down cycle with me. I want to lose 10 pounds and will continue on this goal. My new job involves a lot of sitting on my ass and I’m not used to this. I plan on requesting a new work table so I can stand more during the day. I need to spend less time at the computer at home, too.

So now we are at the nitty-gritty of this year’s new resolutions. I honestly don’t have many.

I will continue with the old goals because they work.

I want to set up a daily savings plan with a charitable organization. I have a few I’m checking out.

I want to take up running; VERY, VERY slowly at first till maybe I have enough stamina to run a small 5 km race. We have a company challenge coming up and I would love to be able to participate without me looking like a complete running moron.

I want to have more dinner parties with friends.

I want to cook a new meal or baked item every month and share it with you all.

I want to save more money in my Goofy account so one day we can visit Disney World and go first class all the way.

I want to watch more football games so when the Super Bowl rolls around I’ll have a team to cheer for because honestly the Oakland Raiders just aren’t going to the Big Game again this year.

Happy News Years everyone, may the best be awaiting you in 2011.

A Waste of My Waist(line).

What's a girl to do? With the new year just around the corner now, I'm starting to think of resolutions and how I could improve my life and health. A diet is my perrennial favourite. I mean who doesn't think that they could stand to lose a few pounds? But just look at the picture below. Between the presents Hubby brings home from his customers, goodies I make myself and lots of Christmas gifts we have a ton of temptation sitting down in the pantry cupboard. Very tasty temptation. too! People know all our favourite treats and weaknesses and send us only the best. So it's not like I'm just going to chuck it all out or something but while it's in the house I'm going to be feeling its pull just like a high-calorie black hole in the middle of the house. It's not just me, either. Hubby apparently had half a bowl of Bridge Mixture with his morning coffee before I even got out of bed!

How do I resist eating all these goodies?

So today we packed it all up into a box and tucked it away in the farthest reaches of the pantry underneath the bottom shelf and in amongst the garbage bags. We did reserve three of the nicest boxes of chocolates to pass out to the friends who are coming over tomorrow evening. Hopefully this won't ruin their diets! I haven't even thought until now about all the Christmas cookies I baked and the Yule Log, what about my Yule Log?

I'm clearly going to have to come up with a different resolution this year. I mean was it any more successful last year? Maybe I'll just give up eating tripe and eggplant instead. Yeah, I think I can stick with that one!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I'm hoping you are surrounded with family and friends and having a wonderful day.

Gingerbread Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

The Gingerbread Girl and some of her suiters!

As you can tell from the pictures my Christmas baking has started of course, and just look at how happy this gingerbread girl is in amongst all her cute male suitors. She’s probably going to need to remind them to take off their muddy boots before coming in the house! So far I’ve completed all the gingerbread and some of the shortbread cookies and even a pan or two of Rice Krispie Treats. Hopefully I manage to find the time to get more baking done. Let me see, there’s the orange-oatmeal cookies, the lemon flavoured sugar cookies, maybe a Yule log still yet to get made. Maybe I’ll save all the calories and just stop now!

These cookies are some of my all-time favourites.

The Turkey Drive challenge was a huge success. The Turkey scoreboard was completely full. Our original goal had been 25 birds and then it was increased to 50 and then 100 turkeys but we exceeded even that. By Friday morning we had collected enough money to provide 160 turkeys setting the bar very high for anyone else. I was so proud and still have a tear in my eye for all the kind and generous co-workers who really pulled together to make this huge donation happen. The stakes have been raised for next year and I know we will exceed them because that’s just the type of team spirit we all have. We may even have to have two Turkey scoreboards!

Just a few of the donated turkeys on the front doorstep.

We may need a bigger scoreboard next year.

I have included a few pictures of our Christmas decoration as we have been busy getting ready for the Holidays. I have lots more to get done before the big day which is closing in rapidly. Just remember, only 10 more sleeps everyone!!

The Christmas tree was almost finished.

This owl guards one of the crystal snowflakes.

CBC Turkey Drive

I’m still glowing with all the positive feedback from you, my readers, to last week’s post. So this week I’m going to tell you about another way to help others in your community.

Here on The Witch’s Island the local CBC station runs its “Turkey Drive” every year to help the food bank provide a turkey dinner for every family in need. We have been contributing to the drive for the last few years usually by dropping off a bird at one of their collection points. This year I’m doing something a little different.

I’ve been making the suggestion at work for a couple of years now that we should donate as a group and challenge other companies to do the same. They finally decided that they would go with the idea and set a first goal of 25 turkeys. Instead of bringing in an actual turkey it was determined that a donation of $25 would be enough to buy one. By the time I got upstairs to buy mine there had already been 8 people in ahead of me!

My turkey!

The girls in Human Resources did a great job in organizing the collection. They made up a “Turkey Scoreboard” to keep track of the number bought. Everyone who contributed got to select and sign a paper turkey on the board. By lunchtime they had revised their original goal of 25 to a total of 50 turkeys and by the end of my shift the turkeys were almost to the edge of the board. 75 turkeys donated in one day!

Turkey scoreboard.

This was, in no small part, the result of some good natured competition between the different departments in the plant. E-mails flowed back and forth between the departments and HR all day with challenges offered and met. It was a lot of fun!

The scoreboard with the revised goal.

At the same time as we were doing the turkey challenge we were also holding a bake sale and a Christmas ornament sale with all proceeds going to the same cause.

We also held a sale of Christmas ornaments.

The CBC will be in our city this Friday as part of their Turkey Drive and that is when my company will be presenting our contribution. With almost another week to collect donations who knows how much there will be. Anybody out want to try to beat us?