I've seem to have taken an accidental hiatus. That's what happens when you do things like making frogs waltz.
And spending time at a friend's house with even more friends with hot chocolate and knitting (my scarf is about 10 inches long people!) and rice krispies with lovely chocolate chips in them watching others play games while dinner is cooking. And such a delicious dinner it was too. To my surprise I found I prefer eggplant raviolis over chicken raviolis!
Or get stuck waiting in lines like this at Wal-Mart. For 30 minutes! <---This is just not right. Reason #19 I dislike Wal-Mart is because inevitably I end up waiting in lines like that one while I glare at all of the CLOSED check-out lines. Thirty-five check out lines---and only a maximum of ten are ever open.
Usually I avoid Wal-Mart like the plague. But in this case I had one specific thing I needed that I can only find at Wal-Mart. Okay, well I probably could find it online somehwere but I'm not paying 5 or 6 dollars to ship a 10 dollar item. Wondering what it is? It's a hot shot. Probably that's not what it's called but basically what it is is a very small appliance that has a top well that holds about 8 oz of water. You put the water in, push a button and in 1 minute you have 8 oz of boiling water. Sans cold spots or burning hot crockery due to microwaving. You put your cup (or bowl) under the well push another button and it spouts out. It's wonderful quick when you are making something like tea and have yet to find the perfect, small, musically whistling beautiful teapot.
I had great success with my crockpot today meaning that I did NOT burn anything!!! Using the leftover ham (and bone) I made the other day I brazenly stole a dinner idea from Blue Yonder. Except I didn't have split peas and used pinto beans. Oh, and I didn't make sweet potato pie because well...I just don't like sweet potatoes. Though the one pictured at Blue Yonder is almost enough to make me give it another try. Almost. I also didn't manage to take an appealing picture of the soup--I tried and it mostly looked like cat yak.
Yeah, I'm a failure! But lookie...
These turned out well if a trifle pale on top for my tastes. But Peter Reinhart from the Bread Baker's Apprentice says internal temperature of 180 degrees and 180 degrees these puppies were.
I <3 Peter Reinhart.
