Oh Comcast, How I Loathe Thee

What a horrible wasted day!  Comcast was supposed to be here between 1 and 4 to install 2 cablecards for our TiVo.  4:30 arrived and no tech!  So I called, and told the girl that I could wait for a little bit (since I had to work till 5 anyway) and see if he arrived.   She was supposed to have someone call me back to let me know when he was going to be here.  5:15, I called back and they said that I was the next stop and that my newly scheduled appt was from 4-7, and then when I asked about the $20 credit that they advertise, the guy gave it to me.  Apparently you have to ask.  So I waited till I could wait no longer, since I had to drive across town to get Melissa. 6:15 I called them back to find out WTF, and of course after I get a rep on the phone I hear the guy knocking on the door.  That rep said she would give me another $20 credit.  Well, I let the guy in, and ran back to get the phone and tell the rep he was here, and I told the guy just to install the cards, and left him to his work for 2 min.  I assumed he installed them, since he showed them to me.  Then he goes on this tangent about how they have to do some BS, and I told him that I was walking out the door.  So he said he (or someone else) would come back tomorrow to finish it.  Well the idiot didn't even install the cards!  We have to pull the whole TV setup apart to put the box in, and wanted the cards installed, because it will be impossible to get them in once it's put in place.  What a bunch of BS!  I am so mad at them!!!!!!  Now I have to wait around to see if they are going to show tomorrow!

Milk Carton

I stumbled across this cute little milk carton box, and apparently there is a die you can buy to make it.  Well, I figured that I could figure it out, couldn't be that hard!

So here is my pattern. 

You will definitely need a score board for this.

With your paper horizontal, score at 1/2", 2 1/2" and 6".  Turn clockwise, and score at 1", 3 1/2", 6" and  8 1/2".  Make a second set of scores only down to the 1/2" horizontal line at 2 1/4", 4 3/4", 7 1/4" and 9 3/4".

Score the top portion as shown on the horizontal.

Prefold on the score lines.  Cut the bottom 2 1/2" section up to the 6" score and remove the bottom left piece, and assemble.

I am going to try and get a video up and step by step tutorial on how to do this as well.

Anniversary Card

This is the card I was working on the other day.  The secret one!

I stamped the background on red with the heart stamp from Confession:  i {luv} unity in black and silver.  The sentiment is from the January 2010 Kit of the Month Club which I popped up with 3-d Dots.  I then cut out a mask, and stamped the red heart in the middle with a homemade mosaic stamp, and outlined it with my white signo gel pen, and added some Queen and Co. Rhinestones in the corner.  The blue mat underneath is embossed with hearts from the Fiskars Texture plates, and finally I added some diamond stickles to the heart on the sentiment.

Today is our 6th anniversary, and DH's B-day, so we're celebrating in style.  Yesterday we went to the Cheesecake factory, and tonight we're hitting our favorite italian restaurant.  I Love love!

A Delicious Dinner!

I was very pleased with myself last night, and cooked a really good dinner!  After going to the store and picking up a few things this weekend, the refrigerator was very full of things to be taken care of, and since we're trying to eat better for DH, I thought I would cook up something.  I was going loosely after a recipe my brother gave me.

I sauted 5 chicken breasts with about 8 cloves of garlic that I squeezed right over the top.  I added about half a jar of sundried tomatoes and oil, and then some white wine (don't I add wine to everything?).  I didn't have any heavy cream, so I used a can of cream of celery soup.  Since I wanted it to be a little bit richer than that, I added some cheese, mozzarella and a little bit of parmesean.  I made up some whole wheat penne to go with that, and then sauted a bag of spinach with about 5 cloves of garlic and a little bit of anisette.  I know that it sounds like a lot of garlic, but it was strong at all, because I added it at the beginning of cooking.

I will definitely make it again.  It was delicious, and if you are in need of an easy dinner, this is it!

Sourdough Starter Part 2

Well, my original intents on the sourdough starter, poolish method did not go so well.  I threw it out last night.  It did not do what it was supposed to do, and I tired of it quickly.  So I am doing a Desem method sourdough bread instead.  I'm not going to go into the whole method.  You can read about it here.  Tonight starts day 7, so I hope to bake bread within the next two days with this.  It smells pretty good, and its nice and sour.  Now the problem with this is going to be converting it to a liquid starter so that I can give it to my mother too.  So, I picked up 3 books at the library to assist me with my sourdough endeavors.  Any of these 3 would be a great addition to my library (ahem).

I originally went in looking for The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book by Laurel Robertson, which I thought they had, but they didn't.  Instead I got:  Bread A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman, The King Aurthur Flour Baker's Companion, and The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Bernbaum

The first book, Bread, A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes is full of great information, and a good conversion table for convering the stiff starter to a liquid one.  Most of the recipes are for large format baking though.  Easy if you have an 80 quart mixer, but I don't have access to one anymore.  I really liked the King Aurthur Flour book, it has some great recipes in it, and the long lost Panzanella recipe, which technically isnt a baking recipe, but totally cool that they included it.  Not a lot of info about sourdough, but it would be a great general baking book to own.  The last book the Bread Bible I was reluctant to pick up, because the writer is one of those "cookbook writers" and not a real baker or chef.  Luckily she did a lot of research, and it had a lot of good stuff in there, most important the bakers percentage which I had never heard of which is strange because I was a commercial baker.

Anyway, tonight I will be dividing the desem to bake.  From what I read, it should take all day to rise.  Hopefully tomorrow night we will have some bread!

A Sourdough Starter Experiment

So He says He wants me to make Sourdough.  Only problem is we have no starter.  So I'm off to find a recipe!

3/8 cup of Flour
1/4 cup of water

Now I wait 12 - 24 hours....

Giving Thanks, A giveaway...with an update

Since this is a month of giving thanks, I wanted to thank you all who read my blog!  As a special gift I am going to give away a special gift to one lucky commenter who tells me how they're giving thanks this year! 

The rules:
You must leave a comment here on my blog, not on facebook where the blog publishes as well.
You must comment before November 14th at 12:00 pm EST on this post.
I will choose by random using random.org

What you get:
A code for a free 20-page 7x9 photo book*, from Shutterfly a $15.99 value. You just pay for the shipping ($4.99 standard U.S. shipping) and the cost for any additionally pages you choose to add.


This year, I have been updating my facebook status to give thanks to the people in my life!  It is a wonderful way to feel positive all day long!


Edited to add the following:

I suppose that you may be wondering who won?  Me too, because there were no comments at all on this post at all.  Sorry.  :(  No Winners.  All Losers.  I guess that makes me a Loser too??

Our weekend in pictures

Kaitlyn

She's holding her head up now!! Such a cutie pie!

IPPITY!!

Getting in on this while the gettin's good!! If anyone wants the set of stamps let me know! I will have IPK-101 Kissmas & Mistletoe in my hands to get to you! There will be 7 more stamp sets to choose from, with new releases every 3 months! Plus paper!! And Ink!!! And its from Unity, so you know it's good!!!