Bits Of Dust

Archive for the ‘General Schtuff’ Category

I was busy most of the day doing some woodworking in the garage. Yes, I know this is a food blog, but when I am not eating, or playing with any of my techno gadgets, the place I like to be is in the garage making stuff.

Today’s project, was a new window seat for our oldest son’s room. It’s a nice 4ft long window seat, that sits about 18 inches off the ground, and will allow him to sit in the window and watch the world go by, or read a good book, or something like that.

Tomorrow’s project? Garlic mashed potatoes and something. Yeah. I haven’t decided what we’re eating tomorrow, but one thing is for sure. We are having garlic mashed potatoes because I am craving them.

Pictures of the window seat, coming soon.

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Sorry, no food news tonight.

We took the kids to the city pool today, our first trip this summer. I am more out of shape than I thought I was. I am exhausted.

After the pool, we came home and collapsed for a couple hours. We then made tracks to Peebles to pick something up for my father in law. Then we stopped and looked at some old cars at a car show they were having.

By the time we got home I was too tired to cook anything really exciting so I made breakfast burritos and called it a night. I wanted to make crepes, but I would have had to wait an hour for the batter, and that just wasn’t going to work tonight.

I’ll post the Father’s Day menu tomorrow. I hope to get some pics too.

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While most of us were celebrating April Fool’s Day, someone else was dealing with one of the worst things someone should ever have to deal with. I don’t know Lisa, from Clusterfook, personally, but she is a friend of my sister’s and I found out what is going on with her through my sister’s blog.

Lisa has had her share of problems in the past, and as a two-time survivor of ovarian cancer she is a hero and role model to anyone who happens to know her. I can’t begin to imagine the feeling of finding out that you have cancer, let alone that you have it for the second time. Well, now she has to face another unimaginable reality. She has cancer for the third time, and this time it has spread.

In the comments of her post she mentioned that she would love to take her daughters to DisneyWorld, so a group of her friends has organized a raffle. If you donate any amount to help her fulfill her dream of taking her daughters to DisneyWorld, you could win one of 12 prizes, which are listed at Miss Ann Thrope’s site.

You can make a donation (and enter the raffle) at the link for Miss Ann Thrope’s site, or you can click this handy PayPal donation link and just get the easy part over with now.

The prize list includes a whole bunch of stuff, but the biggest prize of all is knowing that you helped fulfill a mother’s wish to take a vacation to see Mickey and his friends, and spend some quality time with her daughters.

Don’t waste another minute. Make that donation for Lisa, pray for her and her family, then take a moment out of your day to thank God for the things you have in your life.

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You might think, after looking the image above, that we had ham for dinner this evening. You would be mistaken. All three of our kids are not feeling well, so we let them pick the menu for this evenings celebration.

We ended up steaming some crab legs, making chili dogs, and setting out a bowl of potato chips. A great time was had by all.

I hope you had a happy Easter with your family!

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Nothing to exciting around here the last few days. I finally got back “in the mood” to cook so last night I made some breaded pork chops, some paprika potatoes that I saw on Mom’s Best Recipes, and baby sweet peas.

For the pork chop breading I just through together some freshly grated parmesan reggiano, garlic powder and homemade breadcrumbs (which are out of this world on their own) and fried them up. Like I said, nothing to fancy, but getting back into the swing of things.

Tonight I made some grilled chicken quesadilla’s. I cheated though. I used store bought flour tortillas instead of the homemade ones I found on My Wooden Spoon last month.

I really need to take a day and make all the stuff I like to have on hand. You know, homemade pasta, homemade flour tortillas, etc.

So, what’s for dinner tomorrow night? Any ideas?

I intended to make a lot of food today, but it didn’t work out that way.

Rather than go through all the trouble, we just had hot dogs, baked beans, chips, dip, and lots and lots of fun.

The kids had a blast and we’re all exhausted. It doesn’t get any better than that.

So what did you do for the Super Bowl? I bet you ate chili didn’t you?

Our dog Flash has been limping for the last week or two, so we took him to the vet today. It turns out he has cancer. We have another appointment on Tuesday to find out how bad it is, and what we can do for him.

I know to many of you he is just a dog, but he’s a part of our family and I would appreciate some prayers if you’re so inclined.

About a week ago, I was cooking dinner and the stuff I was making in the oven was taking forever to finish, almost like the oven wasn’t hot enough. Then, two days ago, my wife was making some carrot muffins which were supposed to cook for 35 minutes or so, and 20 minutes into the baking, we could smell them burning. Sure enough, when we took them out, they were burnt.

Then she was making some fresh biscuits which also burnt when they were supposed to be about halfway done baking. Last night, we had baked salmon, and instead of 8-12 minutes to cook it took about 20-22 minutes for the filets to finish cooking.

I have never had a stove with a bad thermostat but it sounds like that may be our problem. My question is, are those easy to replace or do we have to buy a whole new stove? Is it worth it to have a repair guy come out here to the sticks, or can I do it myself. I just don’t know.

We needed some groceries tonight so we stopped by the local Piggly Wiggly. A lot of people laugh when I tell them we have a grocery store called the Piggly Wiggly, so I thought I would show you some proof.

There you have it. A real, honest to goodness, Piggly Wiggly.

Until this week, when my tooth began to really bother me, my favorite snack of all time was popcorn. It doesn’t matter if it comes from a microwavable bag, a popcorn maker, or if you pop it yourself on the stove, I love the stuff. I can hardly wait for the dentist to fix this tooth next week so I can resume eating my favorite snack.

When I was younger we had a popcorn maker that was awesome. I don’t know what ever happened to it, but I haven’t seen it in years. The other day when we were at the store, I saw one of those old fashioned trolly popcorn makers. I would love to have one of those.