White Cake

Blessings Darlings!

The car is dead AGAIN.  Died Saturn's Day, as the Chubby Hubby and I were in the next town over to buy cartridges for the printer and fax and an upgrade of Adobe paraplegic Acrobat for his new laptop.  Just suddenly DEAD. Battery would crank, but engine wouldn't catch.  He thinks bad fuel when I filled earlier that day, tho' I only got 4 gallons.

At any rate, the car is at the towing company, which is very close to the repair shop.  The repair place isn't open weekends, so we couldn't really take it directly there.  Spawn took a cab back from work today, and he'll try to get rides and only take cabs when needed to work tomorrow (and may call out Monday, since he isn't scheduled for many hours and the damn cab is $25 plus tip each way!).

I was going to do grocery shopping while we were out, too, so I'm low on a few things.  Like eggs.  Which is sad since I wanted eggs for Mothers Day breakfast.  And I want to make some cupcakes.

I WILL make the cupcakes, but instead of making yellow cake ones I'll be using a White Cake recipe and using all those egg whites we have in the freezer.  We accumulate those because the Spawn uses mostly egg yolks in many of the things he cooks - like the quiches and ,,,, well, something else he cooks that is escaping my memory now.  I have probably 5 egg whites in the freezer, and I'll use them all in the cake recipe tho' it only calls for 4.

Being a Prepper, of course, I have lots of dried eggs in #10 cans and a few smaller cans of dried egg whites around.  But once those are open you  have to use them, so I'd rather not open them unless TSHTF (the shit hits the fan).  I've cooked with them before - when I worked in the shelter in Central Illinois we got a lot of surplus dried eggs.  They were fine, but they are not my first choice in cooking with.

So, Monday I'll be making bialys AND cupcakes.  We have lots of strawberries, so those will go with the cupcakes, sort of using them instead of biscuits for Strawberry Shortcake. 

And depending on the diagnosis on the car, I might be biking to the store this week instead of having the Spawn pick up groceries on his way back from work.  Because I have eggs listed on the menu for dinner on Thursday.  And we'll run out of milk by Wednesday, and my husband is not thrilled with reconstituted dry milk. 

Mind you, if he had to drink it, he would.  If we had to eat dried eggs, we would and we'd enjoy them in omelettes and such.  Which is why all this is a 1st world problem, except for the problem with the Spawn getting to and from work. 

Frondly, Fern

Cool!

Blessings Darlings!

This past week - the first week of  May - temperatures here were around 90 every day and the humidity starting going up, up, up.  So now that a cool front has moved in and temperatures are barely 70, I'm catching up - and trying to get a head of - cooking.

Since I bake most of our breads, that means two or more loaves of bread a week plus some rolls.  After breakfast this morning we were down to 4 rolls and two slices of bread left.  So now I've got two new loaves of bread in the oven.  Bialys will wait for another day.

I also have been working on the alchemy of changing 1.5 cubic feet of frozen bones into stock.  That, too, involves the oven.  Ovens, actually - the 'regular' oven for roasting the bones and then the hay box oven for simmering the soup.  I'm about half way done with batches of stock, and will be continuing that this week.

Because, as you know, summer follows spring.  And I won't want to turn on the oven then.  I wish I could fill the freezer with more baked goods .... but I've got it so filled with sale-priced meat that there's no room.  I'll have SOME more room when the bones are replaced by stock, but loaves of bread a BIG suckers. 

Yeah. First world problems again.  I justify it by saying it's about using everything that come into the house down to the last bit.  But it still comes down to too much stuff coming into the house.

Frondly, Fern

Fern's First World Problems

Blessings Darlings!

I'm not one to whine .... oh, wait.  I totally am one to whine, I just don't usually do it online, I inflict it on my husband and Spawn instead.  Today, OTOH, I'm inflicting it on the world.  That was your warning.  You may want to stop reading now and go on to something more useful.

We have one car for the three of us.  This is not usually a problem.  The Spawn is the only one who works outside the house and as long as he's out I have him do the shopping.  Which is great unless the car acts up.  Yes, the car is acting up.  It hasn't like running in wet weather for about 5 years, we've spent about $1k failing to get the problem fixed.  Having the car live in the garage instead of the driveway has helped, and having me drive the Spawn to and from work so the car can be garaged even on rainy workdays has been a work-around.  Well, it worked up until this last weekend, when I got stranded on the side of the road 3 times.  WITHOUT A BOOK!  THAT was my own fault. 

So, with the Spawn having 3 days off in a row (his workplace is at the end of their fiscal year, and to keep their labor costs more in line with where they should be most hosts are being told to not come in most days) I drove the car to the repair shop 12 miles away.  In the rain. Nervous. And the dang thing drove there fine (lighter rain, maybe?) so I can't even DEMONSTRATE the problem.  Took a cab home.

Meanwhile, the Chubby Hubby has an abscessed tooth.  Pain started Thursday, he thought it was a sinus problem due to record levels of pollen - he's had toothaches that were sinus-caused before.  Saturday morning it was clear that it wasn't sinus, he looked like a chipmunk on one side of his face.  Urgent care gave him antibiotics, we got home before the rain started and the car problems began.  He's feeling better, looks a BIT less swollen, and we know he still needs the tooth dealt with.

He has an appointment early tomorrow for tooth removal, since he lost chunks of tooth and the filling weeks ago .... which certainly let the infection get started there.  But with the car in the shop it will cost a lot to get to the city where the oral surgeon is.  Like $70+ for the round trip.  Cash.  Sigh.

At least these ARE First World Problems for us.  Not because we have insurance to pay for any of this - we don't have dental insurance.  But because we can afford to pay for antibiotics, and tooth removal, and taxi's, and it hit at a good time for us to try to get the car problem really repaired (and get an oil change and the burnt out turn signal bulb replaced while they're at it). 

We're lucky,  An abscess like this, untreated, can and does kill people.  The Spawn could be hitching to and from work every day (or still trying to find a job walking distance from home).  Surrounded by blessings we are, even while handling life's little challenges.

Harvest Time

Blessings, Darlings!

As all y'all who have been reading this for a while know, it's been a long, hard slog the past few years.   Money has been pretty non-existent. Well, non-existent in a first world way, at least.  All clothes except undies and socks come from Goodwill.   The only thing I go to Starbucks for is coffee grounds for the garden.  Haven't bought books at all, one meal out a month at most, if things around the house get repaired it's by us or not at all unless it's the car, etc.  Bills have been paid a bit late on occassion, but always paid in a reasonable amount of time.  Spas? Facials? Nope. Movies? Nope. Vacations? Nope.

Not exactly living the American Dream of the American Lifestyle, but there is NO question that we are living richer than most of the world, right?

It's paying off.  Not that the business is pulling in mega bucks, tho' consulting is doing well.  But, you know we have to move, and move fast.  Landlords/management companies pull credit reports on prospective tenents.  We applied to rent a WONDERFUL house, and the agent renting it immediately told us we were the #1 prospect (and 2 other families applied the same day we did) because of OUR STELLAR CREDIT RATING.  The weeping, the stressing, the juggling needs/wants/desires, everything has worked to make us, if not financially secure, at least look great to potential landlords.

I hope we get our #1 choice in houses.  Once we are settled after we move (in any place we move to!) we get to work to amass savings for later house/land purchase.  And of course, we will keep knocking off the debts the business has.  But at least the hard work has shown SOME results.

Most amazing has been the magical working aspect.  I have NEVER before held back from micromanaging magic.  I have declared what I wanted and worked for it.  This time, since the awful day in December that the landlord's bank slapped foreclosure papers on the front door, I stepped back and did magic aimed "at the highest good of all involved".  One of the results: living 10 months rent free.  Holy cow - I'd NEVER have worked for that.  That monetary aid alone allowed us the opportunity to work on bringing out a new product rather than just doing consulting. 

I did it this way because I knew I was too emotional to see all options, and too pissed at some of the people and institutions involved to focus well.  But it paid off incredibly.  I'm still in awe.

Frondly, Fern