Timing and a long weekend

It happened again.

We got peaches from Grandma Italy a couple days ago for canning. I was hoping they wouldn't become too ripe, so we could can them over the long weekend.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me!

But yesterday, we could tell was the very last day we could stretch it out. And because we seem to have this problem every year, we started to can peaches last night at 10 pm.

Prepping the peaches

I do love the time spent with Lee, listening to music and working assembly line-style.

Removing skins

But it sure does make for a tired Winter and a tired Lee in the morning!

Summer in a bottle!

At least we have 20 quarts of canned peaches now--yum!

Plus, that leaves our weekend a little more open to pick raspberries and try this recipe for peach raspberry jam that Grandma Italy gave me, go to Swiss Days in Midway, perhaps check out the sheepdog competition, and maybe even have some friends over for a BBQ.

I'll be back next week with a series of posts called How to Host Your Own Cheese Party, plus a recap of our 9th annual party.

We hope you have a nice, relaxing weekend!

Cheesy Weekend

We had a lovely time at our Cheese and Italian Soda Party this last weekend.

This year was probably the least stressed we've been as we planned, prepared and ran the party--I think we have finally worked out most of the kinks and it's running itself!

My handsome husband, dressed to the nines and being bartender

Later this week, I'll share some tips on how to throw your own Cheese and Italian Soda Party!

Happy Weekend!

Lee finally got back his corvette from the shop yesterday. I must say it was kind of fun riding home from work with the T-top open.

Maybe we'll go for another ride this weekend. I just need to get a head scarf before we go--my hair was a disaster after that ride home!

Putting the T-top back on

We're also throwing our annual Cheese and Italian Soda Party this weekend, so we'll be busy.

What are your plans for the weekend?

PBS Favorites Remixed

Have you seen these PBS personalities remixed and auto-tuned?

I first saw the remixed Mr. Rogers, then Bob Ross. Both are awesome--take a look if you get a moment.

PBS posted one today featuring Julia Child in honor of her 100th birthday.



Great fun! Happy Birthday, Julia!

Creative Girls Night Out: Part 2: Hair hair hair!

For Part 2 of our recent Creative Girls Night Out, I asked Gem to teach us a few hair tricks of styling and maintenance since she has truly fabulous hair.

Plus, she's my most stylish friend--she can pull off just about anything. (See, she's wearing this mint green textured top with these turquoise pants and her hair is perfect. This is how she dressed to can chicken! She's so fancy and stylish.)

Getting set up

Cousin K, Mrs. Giggling G's cousin, also helped out with a few tips of her own, since she is a hairdresser by trade.

Mrs. Tron (l) and Cousin K

Gem started by telling us about hair care and maintenance. I learned that I shouldn't be washing my hair every day, because it is too harsh on the hair and scalp.

But what if I start looking like a grease ball?!? What then?

Gem showed me this: dry shampoo.

Catwalk Dry Shampoo

This is a nicer, more expensive dry shampoo, but there are good ones out there that are less expensive. It's basically a fine powder that absorbs excess oil. You apply (or spray) the shampoo into your hair and brush it through. I ended up buying some later, Suave Professional Dry Shampoo, for about $4.00 and I love it. Plus, it smells good, so I kind of feel like I did wash my hair!

Gem then started showing us simple hairstyles we could do on our own. I was her first model. She ended up doing three braids for texture first...

Getting my hair 3-way braided

...then twisting the braids into a bun.

First bun in the middle

Twist the other braids around the middle bun

I can totally do that!

Then, Smiling C was the next model. Gem started her out with the same three braids...

Smiling C getting her hair braided

...but then making individual buns at the nape of her neck. The texture of her curly hair made it look amazing. She looked whimsical!

Three braided buns--lovely!

Gem started another style with two braids originating from the left side of Smiling C's head, then ending them in little buns at the right side of her head, near the nape of the neck.

This one is my favorite!

Gorgeous!

Both Cousin K and Gem also showed us the virtues of braiding your bangs.

I think it looks so feminine and pretty!

Mrs. Tron and her pretty 'do!

Mrs. Giggling G and I had a couple of different styles done on our hair when everyone was practicing.

Twisted!

Waterfall braid

It kind of felt like we were doing each other's hair at a sleep over. It was great fun.

Thanks to both Gem and Cousin K--I feel like I have hair skills now!

Creative Girls Night Out: Part 1 - Canning Chicken

Mrs. Giggling G came up to me after one of the Creative Girls Night Out nights and said, "Winter, I don't know how to make anything crafty or cook anything fancy, but I do know how to can chicken. Do you think anyone would be interested?"

You can can chicken?!? [cue "can-can" music]

Apparently, she uses this already-cooked chicken in everything--salads, soups, casseroles--everything, because it's already thawed and cooked. All she has to do is pull it from the shelf and shred it up--easy!  I didn't know if anyone else would be interested, but I was interested. So we set it up!

Mrs. Giggling G teaching us

We actually set it up as a two-part Creative Girls Night Out. The first part, we'd learn about canning chicken. The second part while we were waiting for the chicken to process (it takes 2-3 hours), we'd learn hair tips, maintenance and style (more on that in another post).

We met at her home on a Saturday morning, bright and early, and had breakfast first and played with Mrs. GGs daughter before we started.

Doting over Mrs. GGs daughter

 Mrs. Tron brought this French Toast Casserole. All that caramelized goodness...yum!

French Toast Casserole!

Now on to the chicken!

Mrs. Giggling G and I purchased all the supplies the night before: pint-sized canning jars and lids and chicken breasts (boneless and skinless). We also needed a pressure cooker and salt, but Mrs. Giggling G had those items already. Everyone pitched in a few bucks so we each could take 2 to 3 jars home.

Sterilized jar lids

We each cut up a couple chicken breasts and stuffed them into our jars. It turned out to be a pound of chicken for each jar. Mrs. GG buys the chicken when it's $0.99 a pound and cans a ton of it at once.

Mrs. Tron doing her thing

Chop chop!

Gem and Smiling C

Then you add salt. We added about 1 teaspoon of salt for each jar. I think I'll add less next time I do it though, because it was saltier than I preferred when I used it in enchiladas later that week.

Adding salt

You can also add a little bit of water if you want to the jars. I did one with water and one without and I didn't see too much of a difference in the end.

Jars stuffed with chicken

Then we screwed the lids on and loaded them into the pressure cooker.

Into the cooker

It took about an hour and a half to process the chicken (to get the pressure up and cooked for the recommended time). But then it took almost another hour for the pressure to come down enough to open the lid. Pressure cookers scare me, but this one was pretty easy to use.

And voila! Our chicken!

Canned chicken looks weird, but it's so easy!

I think the chicken looks a little weird in the jars, but it was extremely easy to use. I used my three jars in one week! I drained the broth and shredded the chicken and I had my enchiladas in the oven within 15 minutes.

Very nice! Thanks, Mrs. Giggling G for hosting and teaching us!

Mrs. Giggling G extolling the virtues of canned chicken

Part 2 will be coming soon!

08/08/08

Today is the fourth anniversary of when Lee and I got engaged.

The number 8 is a super lucky number in the Chinese culture, so 08/08/08 was a super lucky day.

Last evening when we were talking about our engagement anniversary, we agreed that we are both lucky ducks to have found one another. And every day, I count my lucky stars for Lee and how awesome he is and that he was daring enough to use a pickup line on me about argyle socks!

Happy Engagement Anniversary to us!

Google Doodles: Olympics

Google does this thing called the Google Doodle; they "dress up" their Google logo on the www.google.com landing page to celebrate special days and the lives of famous and influential people. 

They have had a series of them honoring the Olympics the last few days. Here are my favorites so far:

• Fencing: I like it because one of the fencers is using the l for an epee.

• Pole Vaulting: Lee's uncle was a pole vaulting champion in high school and college, and I think it's just amazing how much strength, speed, timing and coordination it takes. Plus, it looks like the Google logo is trying to peak in and watch the event because it wasn't able to get a ticket.

• Synchronized Swimming: I tread water poorly, so I am always impressed with these ladies. Plus, their makeup is always flawless.  

Today's doodle features a hurdler who you can control! You use your left and right arrows to make the guy run and the space bar to make him jump. And you get a medal when he crosses the finish line! Give it a try. I am definitely getting better.

I hear that tomorrow, there will be doodle with a basketball player you can control too.

Hope you are enjoying the Olympics!

Home Sweet Home

Lars has been indoors for about a year since his accident last summer.

Lars, broken up, and the note

He's been healing up.

But he wasn't himself--you wouldn't be if you were still covered in Plaster of Paris.

After his first "remont" session

In fact, we have been considering checking him into a place for some true recovery.

So we did.

There's this place in our neighborhood called Quail Lane Rehabilitation--it helps with all sorts of ailments...for garden gnomes specifically.

Lars finally came back to us. His counselor brought him home. Her name is The Tall One.

The Tall One and Lars

She's also an artist, so she does all that art therapy stuff to help broken gnomes back to health. We heard she was good, but we didn't know she was this good.

I opened up Lars from his protective wrapping paper.

And there he was.

All better.

And also better.

Let me remind you, this was Lars before the accident.

Lars and happier days

He's cute. A pipe smoker. Red boots. Nothing too fancy.

But this is what he looks like now.

Ta-da!

Whoa!

Lars is fancy pants now! And look how happy he looks!

We went out into the garden to take pictures and so Lars could get accustomed to his home again. The Tall One showed us what she did.

First of all, she put a permanent bandage on his hat as she wasn't sure his hat would actually fully heal, since it is just a hat.

It's a bandage for his hat!

He was looking more grounded also--his base was fixed and repainted. He now has a name plate too.

Lars' nameplate...in case he forgets his name

Along with the physical healing, The Tall One also helped with a few issues he's been having emotionally and socially.

Before his accident, Lars had been feeling alienated from us since he was spending so much time in the garden, mostly smoking who knows what in his pipe.

Lars smoking in the garden

The Tall One is a miracle worker because Lars no longer smokes! He is into blowing bubbles!

Lars loves blowing bubbles from his bubble pipe now!

And now that he doesn't smoke his pipe (we're not smokers and have not been terribly pleased about his habit), he started feeling closer to us. He wanted to show he was part of the Redds again, so he got himself a watch with the help from The Tall One. It's even red!

He's a Redd now...he's got a watch...a red one!

We are SO proud of him!

We were told that he also wanted a reminder of us, so he had this done to his base.

Lee + Winter

The most amazing thing is that once Lars started to be healthy, both physically and emotionally, he began to be concerned about the welfare of those around him.

For one, he was worried about Lee, especially how often he loses his wedding ring (you can read more about his ring here, here and here), so he requested help from The Tall One to make a special place where Lee could always find his ring.

Lee's ring, halfway buried and saved for the future, behind Lars' right boot

Wow! That Lars and The Tall One are so thoughtful and wonderful.

I couldn't believe how good Lars looked.

You could tell that he was feeling so good...his eyes had a sparkle (they're now green!) when he finally was placed back in his spot in the garden.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Thank you, The Tall One. You are truly a miracle worker!

The Tall One and Lars

Welcome home, Lars. It's good to have you back.