We all know the story of the little boy who cried wolf. In the Pacific Northwest our version is called "The News Said It Was Going to Snow" Ever year at the sight of the first snowflake we are told to brace ourselves for ARCTIC BLAST (insert year here). More times than not, no snow. Maybe a light dusting if you live up north. My friends Sandy and John could give any local reporter a run for their money with their coverage of Snowmeggadon 2012 in Browns Point. (I wish I was kidding)
Now since these ARCTIC BLAST don't usual show up when they do it puts all of Western Washington into a complete tail spin. No one can drive in the snow so no one goes anywhere. This half of the state literally shuts down. Tacoma Schools closed schools for Wednesday before a flake was even seen.
Well this year they were right on (who would have thunk it). I must say it took a little longer to arrive than expected but it came in spades and we woke up to 7 inches of wonderful snow.
Rumor has it more is on the way.
Since we had been hunkered down for the past couple of days already I was feeling a little cabin fevery. My mom and dad just live a few blocks away so I drug Ben with me and we went for a walk in the snow. It felt great to tromp through the snow and breathe in the fresh cold air.
In an attempt to document our adventure I brought along the camera. When I told Ben to say "cheese" he replied, "what's the point?" Snow and a 13 year old boy, ya gotta love 'em.
Hope you are all nice and toasty wherever you are.
I'm hoping these Tackle Clutter Tuesdays will help me keep on track and accountable, so here goes...
I decided to tackle one of the "hot spots" in my kitchen.
While I do love my little kitchen, the cabinet selection was clearly built by a someone who was more worried about the bottom line than efficiency. Case in point ~ blind cabinets. Seriously who thinks these are a good idea?
Anyhoo, this cabinet is such a catch all and gets messy quickly. With the help of my trusty assistant (because I'm seriously too old to be crawling into a cabinet) we cleared it all out.
The tupper situation has always been a thorn, so we played the "you need a lid to stay" game and went from this to this.
After a little purging and rearranging, I was able to fit everything back.
What a difference and truth be told it took 15 minutes. Next up the coat closet...
I just love the feeling of getting stuff done. Kind of makes me feel like this
My friend once told me that the last 20% of a project takes 80% of the time. I completely agree and so would the numerous 80% completed projects that inhabit most of my closet space. So in the spirit of a new year and fresh starts and all that gobbledygook I decided to tackle something that has been bugging me. So at 10 o'clock on Friday I tackled my dining room chairs.
I scored these babies at a garage sale. They are SUPER sturdy and just what I was looking for. However, the red, orange and yellow fabric I was not loving. The clear plastic on top of that was also a nice and very practical touch, but I just got the point and I was over it. I knew I wanted to recover them so when I spied some nice chenille on clearance at JoAnn's I snagged it up.
It was 4 bucks a yard. Recovering a chair cushion could not be easier: unscrew seat, lay on top of new fabric, staple fabric, rescrew seat. That is is exactly what I did. I'm thinking it took probably 2 hours for the whole project, but I get sidetracked easily.
The new fabric is so subtle and much "quieter" than the old fabric.
So with the start of the new year I told myself I would blog more. However, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to say. I spent some time reading old posts and it was interesting to see what kind of things I blogged about. It was mostly about family, a little cooking and trying conquer the clutter.
So I'm giving myself the weekend to collect my thoughts and map some sort of plan. In reading the old posts I realized how much fun it was to put my little life out there. I've "met" some really neat folks through blogging and I hope the connections will continue throughout 2012.
The is a recipe for a Hungarian Kifiles (KEE-flees). We have them every year and only at Christmas. My grandma used to them very tiny, but my mom and I haven't been able to master that so ours tend to be more of a "two biter". They are light, flaky and not overly sweet. We make them with both prune or apricot lukvar, but I like the prune the best. These are the kind of cookies that will cause folks to hover in the kitchen and risk a burned mouth to eat them hot out of the oven. Consider yourself warned :0)
Hungarian Kifiles
2 C Butter
4 C Flour
4 Egg Yokes
1 C Sour Cream
Prune or Apricot Lukvar (located in the store with pie fillings)
Combine ingredients, divide into 5 balls of dough and chill overnight. (If you are not going to make the cookies up the next day, put the dough in the fridge as it will turn gray if left in the fridge too long)
Roll the dough out thinly and then cut into squares (the more even the squares, the easier to roll them)
Put a small dollop of filling and roll up like a crescent roll.
Brush with egg white and bake 20 minutes at 350.
As soon as they come out of the oven dust with powdered sugar and let cool. Once cooled, sprinkle again.
I'm linking up to the Favorite Appetizer Linky Party at Life in Grace.
Saturday night we hosted our annual Holiday Bash and these little babies are a MUST have.
So simple, but they are like super yummy.
Folks raise an eyebrow at first, but once they taste them they're hooked.
Enjoy
Bacon on a Date
1 lb bacon (slice each stip into thirds)
1/2 lb smoked almonds
2 lb of Sun Dates (one tub at costco)
Pit the dates and insert 2 almonds
Wrap with bacon (you may need to secure with toothpick)
Bake at 375 for 20 minutes ~ serve immediately or at room temp
