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 Next Bead Shoppe update: - November 16 - few new things up!
 
November 25, 2009
Football anyone?
I not only decided to NOT do a whole turkey this year because I just wasn't into it but we decided to do something new (for us) with it and smoke it instead of roasting it. It came out.......very interesting. But in a good way. lol It came out very very moist and yummy without being *too* smoky tasting but the skin....well. The skin is like a piece of leather stretched over a dead thing. It's like a Slim Jim that you just can't break down with your teeth. It's like you could peel it off and use it as a purse. There really is no other way to describe it. It's got a lovely mahogany color but is basically inedible due to extreme chewiness. Not that I wouldn't do it again. I don't usually eat the skin anyway. :)
This method does take a bit of time to do - hence why we cooked the day before. It was out in the smoker for 5 hours and wasn't quite done yet but it started to drizzle out so I had to put it in the oven for another hour (at 300 degrees) to finish it off. For an 8lb. breast that's a chunk of time. Not sure I can see anyone doing a whole turkey like this *ON* Thanksgiving day and, you know, eating before 6pm. lol
November 24, 2009
Have we all lost our minds yet over Thanksgiving and the coming holidays? I can already smell the DESPERATION and STRESS in the air. (Though, admittedly, the smell might be coming from just me. lol) I haven't even managed to go food shopping yet for Thanksgiving and, YES, THERE ARE GUESTS COMING OVER FOR DINNER. I'm waiting for the hubby to get from work and we're going to tackle that one together tonight. So tomorrow I just have to finish up a couple bead orders, do some epic type cleaning downstairs**, and pre-cook what I can and I'll be good to go for Thursday. (Friday will be for collapsing in a heap and/or serious napping since I don't do the 'shopping' thing.)
**Project Epic Cleaning Upstairs (which is my main floor) has already been completed. Sunday night around 9pm I was on my hands and knees cleaning the kitchen floor/cabinet baseboards with a scrubby and some Murphy's Oil for GOD ONLY KNOWS WHY. The freaking Swiffer mop is good enough the rest of the year but something about the holidays makes me feel like I've got to kick it up a notch and all of a sudden I'm elbow deep in scrubbing down the bathroom wastebasket with hot soapy water and/or cleaning the inside of the VACUUM CLEANER WITH A TOOTHBRUSH. (True story. Ask the hubby.)
November 17, 2009
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME.
I posted that whole thing about my yarn storage and how I'm not getting any more yarn ever (or at least until the end of the year) and what do you think I got in the mail yesterday? MANNA FROM HEAVEN. I got some beautiful yarn gifted to me, total surprise, by the totally lovely Lori of Lori Anderson Designs. How sweet is that? She designed these super-cute penguin earrings from my penguin beads and they are going to be featured in BeadStyle magazine sometimes next year. (She gave them SCARVES. Made of YARN. YARN. How could I not love THAT?) You should check out her web site because she always has the most fabulous sparkly things posted.
November 16, 2009
Yikes, I'm behind on posting lately! Tis the season I guess. (The season where everybody loses their FREAKING MIND. lol) So I guess I'll just do a big-mega post today to make up for it. Any rate, it will get the hubby to stop asking when I'm going to update again even if none of y'all care when if I do. :)
First up - I put up a few new things in the Bead Shoppe. Just a wee update it is, a couple new fairies and earring pairs. I'm plugging away on orders still so I haven't had a lot of brain space to do up new stuff. This month is flying by. I can NOT believe it's almost Thanksgiving. I mean REALLY NOW? REALLY????????? *sigh* I'm trying to make a better effort at cooking, again, because we kinda of got, errr, bad with that in October. Not that it was all take out, all the time (we usually don't do that more than twice a week but even that's too much, I think). But it was just a lot of thrown together suppers and frozen pizzas/chicken. Blech. I hate doing that too much because it's so awful for you and there is no need for it if I just plan my days out a little better so I have time to actually, you know, COOK. Part of the problem is that the hubby goes to bed at 8pm on the days he works and I like to make beads until 7pm. I'M SURE YOU CAN SEE THE PROBLEM WITH THE MATH HERE. That's my most comfortable time for working, for whatever reason. I like listening to the Jay Thomas show on Sirius radio and he's on during that time period and I'm so not a morning person it's not even funny. So, while I do work earlier in the day when I have to, I feel like I'm constantly fighting with my 'head' to do it vs. being uber-comfortable later in the day. I told him he should get a new job. lol (I WAS KIDDING.) Anyhoo, I made the most fabulous meatloaf the other day. What? Meatloaf? Fabulous? Poor meatloaf - it gets no love but I love it, provided it's done right and not over-cooked and under-seasoned until a hockey puck would be more palatable. The recipe came from the PW's new cookbook:
It's kind of an odd cookbook as far as cookbooks go because it's actually a cookbook/family scrapbook type thing but I like quirky. Quirky and I are good buddies, right? And some of the recipes in there are already part of my regular repertoire, like the Marlboro Man sandwich, which she had already posted on her web site ages ago. So back to the meatloaf...I used her recipe with my own addtions, of course, because that's how I cook. Off the top of my head, I think I added a few more spices and used less eggs. (It called for 4 and I have never ever used more than 1-2 eggs for that much meat. The thought of 4 eggs scared me a little. lol) But it was wrapped in bacon (!!!!) and sauced up just the same and it was delicious. How could it not be? Wrap anything in bacon and it will taste like heaven, right? lol And I used really really really good bacon too that we got from a smokehouse that does nothing but smoked meats. Best_bacon_ever and totally worth every bit of the $6 a pound it costs. Supermarket bacon tastes like salty sawdust in comparison. Next up, I think I want to tackle the chicken fried steak. I've made that before from an old recipe I have from a long-gone co-worker but I think I like PW's way better. Though really now - how can you go wrong with something that has been battered and fried? If you can't get into that, then you're not a real American. lol
I didn't mention it here at the time but I totally lost my freaking mind last month over my whole yarn stash, yes, YARN STASH. It was HORRIBLE. All of a sudden, every day there would be a new small moth in the living room to kill and every day I knew it was coming from SOMEWHERE within my yarn but that whole scenario (moth infested yarn) was so horrific to me and stressful, on top of everything else that is going on around here, that I ignored it. YES IGNORED IT. I thought maybe they would stop coming. Hey, it could happen. In some bizarro world where pigs fly and full-fat ice cream has no calories. Ahem. I finally I couldn't ignore it any more so after a MONTH of this going on, I begged the hubby to deal with it, while I stayed in another room so I didn't have to see it for myself. And, it turns out, it wasn't that bad. They were coming from a baggie of leftover yarn balls that was in a small organizer I have on the side of the couch and not from the cabinet nearby where I had a good portion of my yarn stashed. (An old VIDEO cabinet. Remember those? VCR tapes???) So that was a relief. But it made it clear to me that my hap hazard way of storing it all was pretty bad and pretty susceptible to moths. I'm usually pretty good about keeping my hobby stuff organized. I've got everything in plastic bins, etc. in one 'craft' closet downstairs as far as my fabric stash and cross stitch stash goes. But, for whatever reason, my yarn has just been piling up wherever I feel like it. I had some in that video cabinet, piled up on the two shelves of my nightstands, a few skeins in a basket on a shaker shelf in my bedroom, etc. It was just, like, everywhere. lol (And actually - I just remembered I still have two skeins in a basket on the hutch in my dining room. HAHAHa! I totally forgot about that one.) I happened to come across some plastic bins at Target on clearance so I grabbed those, sorted everything by dyer/company and threw a whole bunch of cedar blocks around it. Which makes it really easy to take a pictur, being in one place, so here:
That is my yarn stash. Or, uhhh, most of it. WHAT? YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS IT? Ooo ho ho, if you thought it was, you don't know knitters very well. I did my best is what I'm trying to say. There are 7-8 skeins (IN BAGS) in a container on the side of the wingback in my bedroom. All economy stuff, nothing special. And there is a teeny bit of kitchen cotton downstairs (ALSO IN A BAG) in my craft closet. No more than 10 skeins there, I would say. *cough* And I, um, put a few half used up skeins (solid colors I use for small projects) back into the video cabinet. OKAY SO I TOTALLY FREAKING FAILED AT GETTING IT ALL IN ONE SPOT. But I *tried* and there is NO DOUBT it's way better than it used to be. Everything now is contained, bagged, and stuff with cedar blocks. So basically I still have way more than I need but at least it's locked down (hopefully) from wool-eating pests. And the BULK of it is now in those two containers so, in my mind, I still have room for more yarn because I can still close them, no no no, I mean I can totally see I have enough now and won't be buying any more......after I get that skein of striping yarn I just bought from Knitterly Things. Once I get *that*, I'm done. For at least this year. Definitely this year. Definitely. :)
November 4, 2009
Anybody else watch V last night?
I wasn't going to because ABC has
a habit of getting me hooked on a show and then dumping it before the
season is done. I've been burned too many times to trust them any more.
He's a very bad boyfriend, that one. lol
But, damn it, the freaking commercials got to me so I decided I would watch it.
Unfortunately, I didn't remember I had come to this conclusion until 8:06pm, so I missed the first 6 minutes. Heheheh.
My verdict:
I
liked it but didn't love it. It seemed like a total rip-off in
theme/feeling of The 4400 and, what do you know, I saw an article this
morning where I learned the main guy behind the show was also behind
The 4400. Ya think? He even brought over good old dependable 'Tom' the actor with him, seemingly playing the same type of person.
(Though it's nice to see him get some work. I always liked him on The
4400. They should do some guest spot/crossovers with his old female
partner and Billy Campbell/Jordan to have it come full circle. lol) I
heard some rumblings that the main lizard lady was miscast but I didn't
see that. She seemed lizardy to me with that quiet stare! lol (Though I
can totally see Michelle Forbes rocking this role out. Too old now & too close to her True Blood role, I guess, which is a shame.)
I'll
watch the last 3 episodes they have on this month before it goes on
hiatus (til March????) but I'm 99% sure there is no way in hell
something so science-fiction-y is going to survive on ABC. No way, no
how. Invasion couldn't do it (I miss you Will Fichtner *sniff*) and
this show won't do it either. So don't get too invested in it. Trust me
- you'll only be disappointed.* points to Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Invasion, Once and Again, My So-Called Life, OH I'VE BEEN BURNED ALRIGHT.)
If you like what you see, please clicky-clicky the links to vote for the site. MUCHO APPRECIATED!!
 
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