Rebecca Homecca

We are back home from our Thanksgiving travels. Which means the cat is glued to my side and following me everywhere I go.

We had a lot of fun being able to see everyone, although the time always seems too short.

There were lots of babies to pinch. There is a lot of activity now that everyone has little ones running around!

Now I am exhausted, as usual, from staying up to late and trying to fit as much fun as possible into a long weekend.

We were welcomed home by 10 deer in our back yard. We had our first visit from a buck. He was limping, so I think he must have been shot, but I looked through the binoculars and did not see any wounds. We also had a couple of does having a fist hoof fight. I thought that was strange. I did not know they fought. As soon as this one doe came up to the group, this other one ran over there to tell her to hit the road. Then there was some shoving and hair pulling until the unwanted doe took off.

I think I heard the one say “And don’t come around here again!”

The Pies for Thanksgiving are done!

Thank you SaraLee for the pumpkin pies.
Remember, if you have to turn on the oven, it’s homemade.

The others are Crumbly Apple Pie. I love this pie. It’s like apple crisp and pie all in one.

I use pre-made crust but you can use whatever recipe you like if you are an over-achiever.

The filling
7 Med Apples Sliced Thin (I like Granny Smiths for Pie)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Put it all in a BIG bowl and mix it all up until the apples are covered with the sugar etc. I find using my hands works best.

Put the filling in the pie crust.

Topping
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
34 flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup butter (take it out of the fridge while you are doing the apples. It doesn’t have to be room temp, but straight out of the fridge is a little to cold)

Mix the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the dry mix. Use a fork or knife to cut the butter in.

Cover the apples with the topping. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 35 minutes. The topping will be lightly brown and the apples will be bubbly. If your crust gets too brown cover it with foil 1/2 way through (Cover just the crust, not the whole pie).

And always put your pies on a cookie sheet in the oven in case you boil over!

Since we’ve been vacating at home, we have not left much. We ran out a couple of times for lunch, but close by.

But Today was “Town Day”.

We went in to town because I had to get my hair “done”. Hubs got a hair cut too, while we were there. Since we were in town, we ran all of our town errands.

Since we are going to be gone all weekend we did not have to get groceries, but I did pick up some traveling snacks. (Just because it’s only an hour away does not mean you shouldn’t have snacks on hand.)

The History Channel has been playing The States all afternoon. I’ve watched 3 or 4 of them. You lose track.

It is really interesting. They not only go over things each state is known for, but also some lesser known but interesting facts.

Since it is our goal to eventually visit all 50 states, I like hearing about what each state has to offer. I also enjoy hearing facts about places we’ve already visited.

Because I am a huge nerd.

We have rules regarding our state visits. If we have already been there individually, it doesn’t count. We have to go together.

Also, you can not just drive through. This rule brought upon the realization that we have never actually visited Indiana, despite the fact that it is just South of us. We have been through Indiana about a million times on our way to other places, but never stopped according to the rules.

For it to fit the rules, we have visit a large city, see something they are known for, or take in one of their natural offerings (hiking, biking, kayaking, camping, etc).

We haven’t crossed off too many yet. Our most recent states were Iowa and Missouri. People thought I was crazy when I said I was going to Iowa for my anniversary. When they asked why, I just told them “because we haven’t crossed it off yet!”

Here are my knitting friends on Thursday’s Girls Nite. K is knitting a bag (giant pink thing on her lap-to be felted & shrunk). There was also a mitten lesson. That’s my BFF Em with the striped socks.
I worked on my bookmarks, because I don’t knit. Mostly I’m just there for the snacks and the conversation. I made a boat load of bookmarks. Here’s some examples. You can’t tell here, but they come in plastic sleeves.

Here are some that are cut out but still need a hole, ribbon, and sleeve.

Finally Friday! I don’t have to go back to work until Dec 2. I feel more relaxed already.

The battery went dead on my camera otherwise you would have pictures from knit nite. I guess it have to be tomorrow, so there’s something for you to look forward to.

Our mirror came in for the bathroom so hubs is hanging that right now. As soon as we stop using the linen closet as the tool crib, I can move in for real.

It’s getting a little cold and dreary down in the basement bathroom.

I’ll still have to go down to feed the cat, but at least I don’t have watch him do his business while doing my eyeliner.

He’s going to be sorely disappointed when there is no longer an audience for meal time though. For whatever reason he loves to eat while you watch. I’m hoping at the very least it might slow down the intake a little.

Not that he has weight problem.

We got a lot of small things accomplished tonight.

We got plastic put up on some of the windows. It would have been more but I bought the wrong size plastic. Who knew it was so complex?

Then hubs installed the towel bars and robe hook in the bathroom. We would have had a mirror up too, except they were out of the one we wanted.

Sigh…I was *this* close to being able to get all the way ready in one bathroom.

Patience Grasshopper…

I put up a vent cover in the basement to try and conserve energy. It was slightly more complicated due to the fact that there is no ceiling around it, but I got it up. Just don’t look at it sideways or we might be in trouble.

Then I hemmed my new pants (that I have had FOREVER so there newness is only relative to the fact that they have not been worn). Three inches they had to come up. THREE. And that is hemmed to wear with heels. Flats are not even a remote possibility.

Anyhoo, they go great with my new sweater set, so I will be all kinds of sassy tomorrow.

Then I worked on some art stuff for a while. I also assembled supplies so that I could have a project for knit-night on Thursday.

Since I don’t, you know, actually knit, I have to find something that I can work on in the coffee shop. Because I will not miss out on crafty fun night with my gal pals.

This week I am going to make some bookmarks. My coffee shop crafting seems to always involve scissors. I sell my bookmarks for a dollar (such a deal!) and make a great gift to give with a book.

I’m just sayin…

I also just got done making a grocery list, so that caps off my activity for the night. I’m in charge of Pie for thanksgiving so I had to get ingredients for that. I make 2 cheater pumpkins. I buy pre-made frozen ones. Far as anyone can tell they taste the same and you can’t make them for what the sell them for. I also make 2 apple with crunchy topping. YUM!

Buzz Buzz! Busy Bees!

We had lunch with some friends who moved out of state (job of course). They were in town because they still have not sold their house (yikes!) and are attempting to rent it. I can’t imagine living in an apartment somewhere, and paying a mortgage on a house I don’t live in. But these are our times. They put the house up around the same time we did, so I feel even more grateful for having found a buyer!

They are a fun couple and one of the few remaining who also don’t have kids. They were our go to friends for impromptu plans (as were we for them).

There was a lot of “Hey somebody gave us free passes to the baseball game tonight. Want to go?” and that sort of thing.

So many of our friends have moved away, it gets quite sad when I think about it. We are kind of home-bodies so it’s not like we are out making new ones! So I was glad when they called to meet for lunch. It gives us a chance to catch up on what’s going on with each other and have a few laughs.

I just finished a new art project. It is different than what I normally do. I found the instructions on the internet and thought it sounded like fun. There are some things I would do differently if I did it again, but all in all I think it turned out.

Step one is to make a collage on a canvas. You could probably use foam core or matboard also. I did not really have a theme in mind. I just looked for things I thought were interesting.  There is a piece of test paper that my art teacher did, a piece from a print exercise we did, a picture from our latest vacation, the invitation from my art show, and other random things. You glue them on with Mod Podge and put a couple of coats on top.

Next you have to create your reverse stencils. I chose birds and found a simple shape to trace. Then you cut it out of sticker or label paper.

2 dozen birds

The instruction example was umbrellas and she had them in a circular pattern. I played with several different patters and finally decided to just have them all (except one) flying in the same direction.

only used 21

After they are all stuck down, you paint over them. I used red and black printing ink, but acrylic or craft paint would work too.

partially done

It was hard to cover up some of the images in the collage. Especially the girls face. I tried to place the birds in such a way to have certain things come through, but you have to cover up some of it. But the exciting part is seeing what shows through!

After it’s all painted, you peel up the stickers and see what you have. Here a few of the birds up close

This would be a project you could easily do with kids. You could pick an easy shape like hearts or stars. You might be able to find pre-cut stickers in a nice shape at the craft store. Then they could go through old magazines and newspapers looking for interesting images. You could even pick a theme. I bet they would enjoy seeing what come through when you peel the stickers off (which I did while  still wet, so expect messy fingers!)

It was a lot of fun experimenting with different media and stepping out from my normal routine.

1 pkg ground turkey (about 1 lb). Yes turkey. Even if you think you don’t like ground turkey, you should try it. I prefer the mild taste and texture vs. ground beef. It’s what makes me think I like chili now. And once it’s in the chili hot tub, it just tastes like chili, not like turkey. But if you insist you can use ground beef. Or skip the meat if that’s your thing.

1 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic, one chopped, one smashed

1 big can of tomatoes

about a cup of chicken broth

two handfuls of frozen corn -This is my super secret special ingredient. Putting corn in my chili was the best thing ever. The little sweet bites with the spicy chili, so good. LOVE IT. Once you have corn in your chili you will not want to go back to corn free chili. It’s true.

Any other random veggies you think might be good

2 cans of beans. I like to mix 1 dark and 1 light. Just because it’s fun. No fancy cooking reason.

Paprika (3/4 – 1 full tbs) to taste

Chili Powder (2-3 tbs) to taste DON’T FORGET TO CHECK THE CUPBOARD!

Garlic Powder (1/2 tbs or more) to taste

Salt if you think you need it.

If you like it hotter, you can add whatever you like to make it hotter. I do not like it hotter. I like it spicy.

Olive oil for cooking

Heat some olive oil and the smashed garlic in a skillet. Season the turkey with salt and pepper then brown the turkey in the garlic olive oil. Well, cook the turkey. It doesn’t really “brown”.

Meanwhile, in a huge pot or dutch oven heat some more olive oil and add the onion and chopped garlic. Cook until transluscent being careful to not burn the garlic.

Add the chicken broth to the big pot and stir up any brown bits.

Then add the tomatoes, corn and seasoning. Then add the beans. DO NOT RINSE or DRAIN THE BEANS! The starchy liquid makes your chili nice and thick.

Once the turkey is done throw that in too.

It’s best if you can simmer like this for half of forever, but if you can’t a half hour or so will do. Taste every 10 minutes and add seasoning if you think it needs it.

Also can be made in the crock pot. Just put everything in there after the step about the chicken broth. Cook on Low til you are ready to eat it.

I often divide it up into smaller containers and put it in the freezer. Or you can put some in a big tupperware and share it with a friend. It makes a TON.

There is no such thing as a small batch of chili.