Closing out 2011 with my family

I always say I'm going to be able to blog more, and fully believe it when I think "I'll have lots of time to blog about my trip," but that's far from the case. Right now I have the time because I'm finally uploading my pics from the trip thus far and we have to be quiet and calm because my baby nephew is awake and needed him some pb sammich.

It's been a crazy beautiful week of chillaxin' with my family - got in on Wednesday night, breakfast date with almost the whole NC Kota crew Thursday, Wake Forest v. Yale basketball game, helping my moxie little nieces start their cupcake business, wario playing until the wee hours, grocery shopping, and tonight - the all out best part - a New Year's Eve party with sparkling grape juice, pizza rolls, cheese slices, new nail polish and 6 of the best people I could ever hope to be with to ring in the new year. The only thing missing is my awesome husband. Love you Steve!!

Here's a quick photo montage of the trip -

Go Deacs!

Jordan was cracking Paulie up like crazy!

Yummy, Aunt Penny! Thanks for the orange!

The birth of KD's Cupcakes of Lewisville, NC

This is what the boys did while we 'cupcaked'

By far some of the best frosting I ever ate - Raspberry Buttercream

Decorating!

Hershey's Chocolate cupcake with Raspberry Buttercream, KD's Cupcakes

My moxie gals - Payton and Lydia

Big brother Jordan loves the cupcake business!

The girls made me this. So. stinkin. cute.

dark purple with gold OPI crackle. Perfect nails to bring in the new year!

The littlest bartender with the biggest smile. LOL! (It's juice)

Silly girl Lydia

Jordan getting sick of waiting for the motorcycle guy to jump

They grow up so fast...

I hope you're having as much fun as I am! Happy 2012 to you and yours!
-p.

Sweettarts are too small for the blender.

Sometimes you just have to slow down and think things through. That's just something I can't grasp...especially while creating the latest and greatest concoction in the kitchen.

I've been packing, organizing and getting everything ready for the big move to our new place next weekend.  Steve has done most of the work so far, but I have a feeling that this weekend I'm going to be buried in my "treasures".  While going through my things, I've come across so many recipes in the totes full of paper.  Yes, I did say FULL TOTES  - of recipes, old bank statements, address books, birthday cards, vet bills, you name it. Definitely time to purge.

One of the most interesting recipes I came across was for a Sweettart milkshake. Yummm! So today on my way home from work I had some time to kill before I could pick up the pizza. Friday is always pizza day in the Kerr house, but today we celebrated 11-11-11 by ordering out instead of making our own. But I digress... I stopped at the store and got the ingredients to make the milkshake.

Hours after dinner and one tote of papers more shredded and thrown out, I decide we need a treat break. Steve, he doesn't really need a break, he's been playing video games for hours. The new Skyrim came out yesterday and apparently this game is like football is for the "football widows". Three hundred hours of play. Yep, I'm a widow.

So I go in the kitchen and get everything in the blender and viola! A delicious Friday night treat. Really, you must try it if you have the chance. It is just delightful.

A few words of wisdom - if you take the time to smoosh the sweettarts with your meat tenderizer or rolling pin before you put them in the blender, you'll have a much better outcome. Believe me...or Steve. His words were "Wow! I just got a really in-your-face sip," as his eyes opened wide and he looked like he was about to choke. Yeah...chunks of sweettarts ... eeeks!

I guess the lesson learned is that I should learn to enjoy the creating process as much as relishing the end result. Then maybe I wouldn't have to worry about my husband choking while drinking a milkshake. Geesh!

Lovin' in the oven this Sunday Funday!

So today we've spent the day packing and just milling around the house...and EATING. My goodness - too much. But at least it's been good stuff. Now, I said "good stuff", I did not say "good for me" stuff, which goes against the pact I made with my pal Cris on Tuesday. Yep - the "healthy lifestyle" lasted until Sunday.  


Well, Steve made us some heavenly stromboli for tonight's dinner, idea courtesy of Guy Fieri. Woohoo! I don't have any pics of that, but I saw these delish treats - Candy Overload Cookies - on Crazy for Crust and we're anxiously awaiting the first ones out of the oven!  Thanks for sharing!

www.crazyforcrust.com

Hope y'all have a great week!

blogger barbie.

I can be Barbie ... I never even heard of such a thing until one of my co-workers was making the costume for her daughter.

I want to be a blogger, but I never make the time to write. I always think it has to be more substantial. It doesn't. It isn't going to be big news. I'm not writing for the NY Times. I'm writing for you. I'm going to tell you about what I'm thinking and doing and hopefully you'll follow along on my journeys.

Today I wanted to write. Once I got home, cooked a disgusting box dinner (that I threw out it was so bad) and handed out some candy I'm ready for jammies and my book. I don't feel like writing anymore.

I love Halloween. Seriously LOVE. At my apartment I got 4 trick-or-treaters today. Aunt Joyce said that once she got over 350. That's a lot of candy and WAY more exciting than just 4. But minnie, the monkey, a bee, and some superhero in yellow (now that I think of it, maybe he was the transformer) made my night. Thanks to the little toddlers for coming to get some teddy grahams.

Well, off to read my book and hope that some more kids stop by so I can get rid of these damn blow pops.

ps - just checked the site and there's no blogger barbie. figures.

And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist...

I don't think of myself as a patriotic person, quite the opposite actually...not that I'm against our country or am the next rising anarchist or anything. I am proud of my friends and family members who served our country, but I honestly am embarrassed of our country. Which brings me to this post.  

Today I was driving home and, again, a song brought tears to my eyes ... and it perplexed me. First of all, that doesn't happen much - at least not when I'm taking my meds regularly. hahaha. The song was "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" by Toby Keith. Like I said - I'm not a patriotic person. I'm not like my mom who sings the National Anthem loud and proud at sporting events with her hand over her heart like we did in first grade. That type of vigilant conformity embarrasses me. I don't even own a flag. Again, not because I'm an anarchist or anything,but just because I've never thought to get one. And really, where would I hang it? My porch on the West Side? My back patio here in the OP?  Ha. Ha. But hearing this 'patriotic' song brought tears to my eyes. Why?

Maybe because I have such great love for people who are risking their lives overseas in places that I can't even imagine for reasons that we will never understand. Maybe because I can remember the day that the Twin Towers fell and how I worried about my friend Miss Jamie who worked downtown. Maybe because I think of my friend Mr. G who flew fighter planes in Korea and how proud it makes me to know him.

"And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell, When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell." It could be that the mention of an eagle always makes me think of Pa, which makes me tear up and sometimes even bawl like a blubbering idiot. I don't think so - more like "free me from this freakin' song".

Or it could be the other people I know who have sacrificed a part of themselves like their hearing, their sleep, their body parts and their sanity for our country and it seems that it is all in vain. They fought so hard and did their duty so we could all be ungrateful, spoiled brats who will "put a boot in your ass, it's the American way". Yeah, that makes me proud. U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A! Whatev.

One good thing, it reminded me that the 4th of July is coming. I think I'll deck out my bike in stars and stripes and ride it around Buffalo. Maybe to the fireworks at the Naval Park. Fireworks are my favorite thing in the whole world. No more tears. Fireworks. YAY - FIREWORKS!


Are you patriotic? Why? How? What do you think made you that way?

And oh what a week it was!

Well, two really important things happened this week. First, I made an apple pie from scratch and it was delicious. All of my life I have used the frozen pie crusts - you just thaw and unroll. Until now. Everyone said it was so easy, but I knew my crust would never compare to either of my grandmothers. They both made the most delicious crust. I remember Grandma K's peedouk (have no idea how to say that polish word, but it was a savory pie made out of buckwheat) pies at Easter, and Grandma G's, well, everything. She was the best cook. Everything she made was scrumptious. She had the Midas Touch in baking. Well, I digress. Second thing that happened this week -  I resigned from my job. Totally not a good idea since now we are a ZERO income family, but much better for my mental health.  So anyway, the more exciting of the two is definitely the pie, so read on to find out how I, Mrs. Penny K, finally got the "apples" to make her own pie.

The looming pile of apples waiting to be cleaned, cored, and sliced....

Well, I figure that first I'd need a good recipe.  My friend Melinda makes really great pies and told me (about a year and a half ago) to just do a google search for "no-fail pie crust". That scared me right into submission. If the great baking gods had to come up with pages and pages of "no-fail" recipes, there was no way I'd be able to do it.  So for over a year now I've been saying "One of these days I'm going to make a whole pie from scratch, that's my goal".  I went with my mom, got a bag of apples, cinnamon, flour, and the lard.  Yes, lard.  Steve thinks it's hilarious sitting there in our fridge.  Anyway, that is apparently the key to making grandma-type pie crust.  I did my research and found a very in depth article titled Heaven In A Pie Pan: The Perfect Crust on crusts and using the different fats. I looked up a the Perfect Pie Crust recipe from one of my favorite Food Network Stars, Ina Garten, and substituted the lard for the shortening.  What did I get? A big ball of pie crust...shaped like an alien.

My alien head pie crust, ready to take a
long, cold nap in the fridge

I put him in the fridge overnight.  I had to.  It was late and by the time I got the pie finished it would be really late...and I had work in the morning.  So, he took a long, cold nap.

The next day I came home from work so excited to finish up my pie.  I grabbed my pile of apples and got to gettin'! It actually didn't take as long as I thought to get them cleaned, cored, and sliced for the pie. My favorite prep chef, Steve aka "the husband" helped and we got the job done pretty quickly.


I used the apple pie recipe from my New Betty Crocker Cookbook and whipped those apples into some delicious sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.

2/3 c sugar, 1/4 c flour, 1/2 teas. cinnamon,
1/2 teas. nutmeg, dash of salt, 8 cups of apples

Next was the crazy task of rolling out the dough. It was much harder than I would've thought. Heck, the alien had all night to get hard in the fridge and it took a while to soften him up.  But I didn't want it too soft because I know that "cold" is the key to good pie crust. Well, that...and lard.  

I rolled it out and found out in the process that my gigantic pie pan needs 12" crusts.  Not 9" like other pie pans.  So roll, and roll...and roll, I did. Steve was laughing a bit at me and we were getting all silly about the huge pie crust. I used the tips I've seen all the Food Network stars use and rolled it onto the rolling pin to lay it into the pan. It really works like a charm! I also sprinkled a bit of cornmeal at the bottom of the crust before I put the apples in. When I first started baking pies the bottom would always be soggy. I find that the cornmeal really helps in keeping that moisture in...and you never taste it.

ready to go in the oven!

My friend Ang had told me that she always puts a little cut-out apple on the top of her pie, so then people know what kind it is. Well, I thought that was a great idea and tasked Steve with that job. He is the artist after all. Of course, it wouldn't be a conventional apple with my lovely computer-geek/artist husband...

After the egg wash, a sprinkle of sugar, and an hour of baking I was so proud to pull this baby out of the oven. You have no idea how nervous I was over this pie. This was like my passage into Donna-Reed-hood. I needed this to work. I wanted it to taste good. I actually prayed that it wouldn't taste like Tops or Jubilee pies. Now the wait.  It was killing me. I had a little dough left over and baked it so that I would have a preview, but because it was so small it got a little too done and I couldn't tell if my crust was going to be good. And finally, the timer goes off!

My Perfect Pie!

Again, it's late. The pie is done, but you're supposed to let it cool for like 4 HOURS. Yes, 4 HOURS, so I go to bed and dream of delicious, flaky, buttery pie crust full of cinnamony apples for breakfast. We are now on day two of pie making and I haven't even gotten to taste it yet. /fail. But I pack my lunch and take in a piece of pie for my lunch (or breakfast at my desk if I have the time). well, it was


FREAKIN' SCRUMDIDILIUMPTIOUS!

So, my dear readers...don't be afraid. Now I know why people say "easy as pie". It is pretty simple, you just need a good recipe and summon your inner gramma!

Standing in the light of your halo

Today my dear friend is being buried, under the same sky, but many miles away. I am so sad to not be with her beautiful family, to not be able to hug her gorgeous children, that have already, in their short lives, been through so much. I am glad that she is no longer suffering, as over a year of cancer treatments only wreaks havoc on the body, mind and soul.  But I still can't get past how I will never hear her laugh again or see her wonderful smile. She was truly a blessing for me and although younger, taught me a great deal about life. She was such a strong woman - never complained or sought sympathies, never had a negative word to say, but always talked about how she would fight it. And she fought right to the very end. 


Flo, you will be missed dearly and remembered in my heart forever. I will always smile when I see Ralph Lauren anything, laugh when I see the Smurfs, think about "stupid dogs" stealing underwear, wonder who John Cena is, and forever cry when I see fireworks "because they are so beautiful."  


Je t'aime, mon ami. Mon coeur est lourd. Je vous manquerai.

Ben, Flo and me in their backyard while she was an exchange student here in 1995.