Sometimes, Yeast Doesn't Make Dough Raise

Sometimes, yeast just doesn't work right. It's like all the oomph has fizzled out. It's gone flat. Literally. I'm sure you can infer that I attempted to make something today which called for yeast. The working kind. Not the kind I used. Yeah. So, without further preamble, I must say, simply, that I am thankful for:

1. Yeast. Live yeast, that is. And then I can be thankful for light apple fritters, instead of heavy ones.
2. The delicious anticipation that comes when one is looking forward to sampling something which promises to be good. I mean, if it smells good, it should taste good, too. Right? Preparing your taste buds with a sense of expectancy just adds a happy little promise to an otherwise typical fall day.
3. Heavy, rich cream. And clotted cream, too.
   

And Three More On Four!

My three items that fill me with gratitude today are quite unrelated, except for the fact that they are all good things. And have nothing to do with Martha Stewart.

1. While I am not grateful for sleepless nights filled with sleepless kids, barking dogs, and a husband waltzing home (okay, forcibly dragging his feet and practically falling over) at 1 a.m. (because sometimes in the IT industry, IT doesn't do what it's supposed to all on its own - save time, work effectively, be self-sufficient - and IT people have to put in a few extra hours. And then a couple more.), it's nice to take the opportunity to catch a few winks (or a couple of hours) of much-needed slumber while kids are at school, dogs are outside, and hubby is a work. Especially when said hubby has seen the house and knows it desperately needs some - or much - TLC and says, "You should go back to bed once we're all gone and sleep. All day, if you want to."
2. My little elephant. When my no-frills rice cooker went to the big electronic elephant graveyard in the sky, I though I'd replace it with a western-designed product. And if my family enjoyed hot, soggyy rice fresh from the steamer that turned brittle within a few hours, the Walmart special would have been fine. But that is not why I use a rice cooker! Who likes a mouthful of mushy rice? Or crunching down when expecting something tender? Not me, obviously. I am very fond of my culinary side-kick.
   
3. Pandora Radio. Kudos to Tim Westergren. Why simply work (that's what I pretend I'm doing when checking my email, paying bills, reading the latest headlines, perusing Facebook, improving my mind and warding off Alzheimer's playing Mahjong and Sudoku, etc.) on the computer when you can also listen to what you wish the radio would play?
   

Now, for Day Three....

I am lucky! I just saved Emi's precious webkinz dog, Fudge, from certain destruction at the jaws of the black dog. Fudge feels a little icky and a tag is partially chewed off, but the seams and stuffing are intact. I say I am lucky because had Fudge turned into a pile of ripped synthetic fur and slobbery white stuffing, I would have had to deal with the fall-out this afternoon - intense weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. But providentially, I happened to turn my head at a fortuitous moment. So that makes the first 2 things on my gratitude list very clear to me:

1. That I saved Frudge from Cocoa - hence, myself, from the theatrics of a melodramatic 10-year-old.
   
2. That we have a nice, fenced backyard where Cocoa will happily play for hours on this bright, sunny day, so I can have a few hours where I don't have to panic if I leave a closet door open or have failed to do a proper sweep of errant toys, papers, books, leather objects, etc.. (I love that dog. I do. But she can be a handful - no, armful!)

And here's the set-up for the third thing that makes me grateful today: before school Emi was busily filling a shopping bag with boxed and canned foods to take to school for a food drive. I asked Annie if she wanted to take some cans, too. And then I wondered if she knew what a food drive was. I explained that sometimes people need help to get food to eat, perhaps because they've been sick or have been laid-off from work and can't find new employment. Annie interrupted and said, "That's what happened to Curious George."

"What?" I said. "Curious George got laid off?"

Annie responded with a sigh, "Yeah, Curious George got laid off from his job." (Who Knew! I should have suspected something, though, when I saw the Man-With-The-Yellow-Hat at a Halloween party with no monkey in tow.) Needless to say, Annie was quite happy to take food to school in the hopes of helping someone like poor Curious George.

No, the third item on my list today is neither Curious George nor Annie's cute quips (although those always warm my heart.) What I am thankful for is:

3. A pantry stocked with food, enough and to spare.

On the 2nd Day of Gratitude.....

I'm cheating a little bit here. I'm setting my 2nd day of gratitude to music and it's actually November 3rd. Let's just say that after driving to doctor's appointments, making a quick pit stop at Hen House (yes, that is the actual name of a grocery store. Not quite as inventive as Piggly Wiggly, but obviously, that name was already taken....), rushing home to eat dinner within a 20-minute window, racing to meet Ryan and going to a birthday party, then returning home and getting the girls to bed, I didn't feel like sitting at the computer. But the reason why I'm not entirely cheating is that i shared my three things verbally last night. And I have witnesses! So, the three things for which I felt much gratitude yesterday were:

1. Cake. Sunshine Cake, to be exact
2. Ice-cream (cookie dough)
3. My friend Jennifer's birthday.
   

Attitude of Gratitude 2009

It's that time of year when simple gratitude is too often overwhelmed by turkey and pumpkin pie, first snowfalls and striped scarves, whispers and giggles, excitement and dread over the days of celebration of twirling our way. This is the perfect set-up for the Thanksgiving Challenge. The gist of the challenge is to each day list three things for which one is grateful throughout the month of November. And each entry should be original - for example, one can be thankful for chocolate for 30 days, but it can only be listed once. The friend who issued this challenge has forewarned of possible side effects:

Please note that challenge participation may result in any or all of the following:
- you will be surprised at all the Lord has done for you
- angels will attend
- you will feel help and comfort
- you may find yourself singing as the days go by
- your doubts will fly

So on this first day of November, I would like to share three things I am thankful for:

1. Jen's Attitude of Gratitude Challenge. To paraphrase one of my daughters, it will help me think what it is I need to remember to be grateful for.
2. The delicious smell of Fall - you know, when the autumn air is perfumed with a scent that is rich and crisp and golden?
3. Two tiny apple seeds deposited lovingly in a carved-out Halloween pumpkin. (So the pumpkin can grow into a tree that has apples!)
   

Do You Ever Get Tired Of The Universe?

Do you ever contemplate the unknown? When you look at the night sky and see countless stars twinkling above you, do you ponder the infinite universe? Do you ever wonder if somewhere, there's another being sitting on a grassy orb, breathing life-sustaining oxygen and wondering if you exist?

Thanks to Emi, these aren't merely questions we ruminate over on occasion. It's accepted as reality in our home that aliens do exist. In fact, they walk and talk among us. They are probably benevolent, but sometimes, given certain, er, evidence (like barbies thrown at at an older sister's head, or a secret stash of M&Ms that is suddenly not so secret and not so stashed and dabs of yellow and red and orange smearing supposedly innocent fingers (M&Ms, contrary to their jingle can, in fact, melt in your hand!), we do wonder if there might be a tiny, but not insignificant, malicious streak carried by these life forms that parade around as little sisters. (We do, after all, have laboratory proof that Annie's genetic make-up is not quite the same as the rest of us that live in the brown brick house.)

So the whole alien thing is frequently referred to (sometimes subtly, other times, not so much) when we are gathered around the kitchen table or curled up on the sofa or playing in the backyard or when we are driving in the car...., which is why it came as no surprise when, a few weeks ago, the girls and I were gazing at puffy white trails traversing a bright blue sky. Ever-curious Annie asked what they were. She disregarded my short explanation of airforce jets, instead deciding it must have been aliens. And would you, my friend, like to know why aliens raced across the sky that particular day? As Annie so blithely asserted, "Oh, they're probably tired of our universe."

It Tastes Like....Arkansas?

Guess whose mouth these words popped out of:

Dinner last night was comprised of rolls still steaming from the oven {Rhodes, of course, because when I put something in the oven, I feel like I'm actually baking (as opposed to just pulling an item out of the freezer and letting it rise for a few hours and stopping short of sliding said item in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.) And that makes me feel like I've done something I'm supposed to do for my family (which is feeding them a well-planned meal. And I did plan well - I remembered to take the rolls out of the freezer in time to eat with the meal for which they were intended!)}. And I made soup.

Really, this soup I actually made. From scratch! With chicken broth (which was not from scratch. Bullion cubes. I don't boil chicken bones. I don't even buy chicken with bones - it's boneless, skinless breasts for me!), chopped onion, diced garlic, a bit of salt and pepper, a dash of nutmeg, some milk, and fresh cauliflower. Oh, and cheese. The soup wasn't too difficult and I really needed to do something with that head of cauliflower that had been rolling around the produce drawer (nice imagery, huh.)

Apparently, when Ryan called on his way home from work and asked what we were eating for dinner (he used to ask me what I was cooking for dinner, then he realized that perhaps he was being a bit presumptuous, assuming I was making something different everyday. So one day he amended his question to asking what we were eating), I told him I was making a broccoli soup. And I guess one of my girls overheard me, because after Ryan arrived home and established that it was cauliflower, not broccoli soup, and we began eating, this child swallowed a spoonful and announced, "Yeah - it tastes like Colorado to me!"