Happy New Year, Karen and all!

Good Morning, yeah we had a storm here in Central Mass. Too much snow to shovel so the bil with the snowplow on his truck came by and plowed us out.
Can’t shovel anyway backs too messed up

having a tough time , the display on my Macbook keeps going dark and i have too tilt it at an awkward angle to get it to work

Damn I am a scatterbrain

Happy New Year !

Geez! It’s too quiet in here. I’ll BBL

will be louder next time – happy new years all!

Happy New Year, everyone!! KarenM, we had a big lake effect snowstorm a couple of weeks ago (NW Indiana), but two straight days of near-50 temps and lots of rain have washed all but a tiny bit of it away. Today looks to be clear, a little cooler. Fortunately my homeowner’s association fee covers snow removal, so I gave my snowblower to my daughter & family when I moved here.

Billybugs, that sounds like the inverter could be going bad. Not an inexpensive repair, either. Depending on the age of your Macbook you might get a new one more cheaply. I’ve bought at least 3 Mac laptops on eBay with great success.

Expecting a warm day here 50 or above, yesterday the temp got up to 53 Yahoo!
I’m a warm weather fan, so for me summer is still a long way off!

Yeah, long way off here, too. If we magically have an early spring I can get the bicycle out in late March. That seems like forever right now.

RE the inverter, it’s not an easy repair but you can order the part and do it yourself if you’re brave.

No snow left here. Rain washed it all away. Christmas was white for some, but just an inch. Warm but turning cold.

Have a Happy New Year!!!

That doesn’t sound good, I’ve already had it redone about a year ago cost $750
You can get a new one for about 1000.
I’m looking at a newer one, made from aluminum cost about what this one did new
This one actually flexes I can click on a link by squeezing the right corner,this thing is really freaking out

And where may that be?

Here in CNY we have just a bit of snow, very unusual for us. I’ve been sweeping the snow off the sidewalk, no need to shovel.

I still remember how heavy that lake-effect snow was when I lived in southwestern New York state… yikes!

I experienced that while in college in Oswego. Magnificent to see, wonderfully beautiful but a challenge to clean up.

Louisville. Kentucky Derby City.

Oh….and Happy Twenty Eleven everyone.

No snow. It was in the 70s and 80s here. Happy New Year.
Goodnight.

Not good at all. You might also check the Apple online store for refurbished Macs. They come with a full warranty. I bought my current MacBook on eBay and discovered only last week that it was originally a refurb. It was pristine when I got it on eBay and still had some Applecare left. I just put in a new battery and that’s how I discovered it was a refurb. No complaints, the battery had 715 cycles (normal is half that) and was gradually not holding a charge as long.

/techie

Thank god 2010 is over, and here’s hoping this will be a much happier New Year.

Out here west of Chicago, we had 13″ of snow on the ground day before yesterday; today, the only remnants are where it had been piled down at the end of the driveways in our neighborhood. Our yards are completely snow-free. When we went out to get Chinese for our New Year’s dinner last night, it was 56 degrees! This morning, it’s 27. Gotta love northern Illinois weather.

Across the road along the river, the geese are having a high old time from the sounds of things. The finches and snowbirds are visiting the feeders–as are those damned squirrels, even though they have their OWN food which we supply, damnit! But no, they’d rather dismantle the woodpeckers’ suet feeder and demolish the finch feeder. Don’t even get me started on squirrels.

But the neat thing is a friend called a week ago and said she saw eight bald eagles sitting in a single tree just upriver from us. This time of year, the eagles come down from Wisconsin and other places to spend time with us, and it’s always a treat to see the sun glinting off their white heads and tails as they soar above the river.

And they make the Canada geese freak out, too, which isn’t a bad thing. There are an estimated 60,000 geese now living year round here in the Fox River Valley, and they are major pests. I was going through back issues of our weekly newspaper the other day, and back in 1966 seeing geese anywhere around here was so unusual that there was a front page story complete with a photo of six (count ‘em!) geese that had stopped on their migration south. There are now so many of them packed along the riverbank that they stain the ice yellow with their droppings. Which is why I cheer every time I see a coyote or fox or hawk or eagle. Go get ‘em, boys, say I!

Time for another cup of coffee and then out to fill the feeders. And I’ve got to paint the replacement window feeder my son the craftsman made for his mother for Christmas. The old one is badly deteriorated. The new one, of nicely finished red oak, is almost too pretty to paint, but I’m very big on white window feeders.

g’mornin!
thanx Karen M for mentioning librivox.org
it’s a word that brings great joy here, ‘specially for a new year!!
:)

oh, no snow here, cool, clear, the light dusting leftover from yesterday morn

Thanks! Now I know who to talk to when I need help. I love this thing, but it has it’s glitches I sometime call it Hal If you pick it up and try to move it it acts like the click button is stuck down and everything turns yellow or movement of the curser past or over alink will cause it to go to that link

yup Mac is sick

Nice country out that way. Had a service buddy who lived there

Good morning all & happy new year.

Yawn.

70′s and 80′s sounds like a dream right now.

Right around freezing here. Foot of snow that feel several days ago gradually melting.

Gotta love northern Illinois weather.

Gee, we’re havin’ a heat wave here in South Bend…it’s 35 now. I suspect we had the same snow you did (although not sure Northern Illinois gets lake effect) and the same rain yesterday that washed it away. Even the long icicles that were hanging from the roof (and making a frozen puddle on my front stoop) are gone now. Only light snow forecast for the coming week, and highs in the low 30s.

Other than wanting the grandkids to come up and go tubing, I’d be happy to see no more snow this winter. Fat chance.

Hey, eCAHN, how was the goose?

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit

Good morning all and Happy New Year!

Currently 47 degrees here with bright sun shine. As Margaret said, mid 70′s again today. I do adore living in central Texas.

Thanks for hosting the PUAC KarenM.

That definitely sounds like a hardware problem, unfortunately. You might take it to someone (do you have an Apple store?) and pay whatever it costs for a diagnosis and THEN decide about repair/replace. It could actually be the motherboard failing, not the inverter. Or it could be something as minor as pinched wire or loose connector.

Sorry I’m so late… we got home pretty late last night and I overslept. Again!

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Mornin’ demi! Happy New Year. I am feeling like being a lazy bum today. New Year’s open house at the neighbors later, but I’m still in my jammies!

Well it’s about time you showed up. *hands on hips*

LOL. G’morning, KarenM!

Thanks for the info. I’ll make do for now. Prolly get a new one in the spring.

The goose was absolutely delicious. It cooked in much less time than all the recipes said. So I pulled it out of the oven around 5:30 (2-1/2 hours when they recommended over 4) and kept it in the roaster pan. When it came time to carve, it was perfectly done and we stuck the serving plate back in the warm oven for a bit.

Morning Demi. Long time no ah…see

Some say goose is greasy. How was it? I’ve never tried it

Hey Hey Mol. It is a good day for jammies. I sleep nekkid and have no jammies, but I have my morning sweats and sweater on. I went and bought that second The Girl Who…book yesterday and started in on it, so, you know what I’ll be doing, again. What a facsinating character that Salandar is. Even just going to IKEA and selecting furniture is interesting. Amazing.

Where I live,sweats and sweaters are my “jammies” lol

Hi ya, bb. Have backed away from commenting very much. Usually just earl morning swim and a hit here and there. Except for Mac having a bug, how are ya?

It’s like duck, only moreso. A LOT of fat under the skin (gotta look up what to do with rendered goose fat!!!) but the meat itself is very lean. All dark meat and very tasty. You prick the skin all over while roasting & a lot of the fat runs out & bastes the skin which turns out crispy.

They only other one I’d cooked was over 30 years ago and this one turned out exactly the way I remember.

Today I have to slice up the leftovers & clean up. So it’s a lot of work in the sense of prep & cleanup, but well worth the effort for once/year or every other year.

A successful experiment.

Happy New Year!

The second in the series is much less layered than the first one. I had rented the first movie on DVD and it focused on only one story line from the book, and I was really glad I’d read the book before I saw it. I frantically read the second so I’d have it under my belt before seeing the movie (showed at a cinema on campus as a double feature with the first) but it wasn’t as necessary. The third movie is supposed to be out sometime soon, so I hurried to read that — it is the best one IMHO — so I’m ready for the movie.

Sure is too bad Larssen had a heart attack and died so young.

He lives and speaks! Happy New Year to you too and thank you for all you do for the Lake. You’re a good man.

I know… I thought I’d close my eyes for just a few minutes more and then more than an hour slipped by.

Doing well here on the east coast. I’ve have been commenting much lately either I’ve been too busy working.
Saw True Grit last night, it was quite good. The young lady that played the role of Maddie was incredible. I didn’t like the Duke version but this one was good
Oh ya some folks came to the theater dressed as if they should have been in the movie. Folks in period costume kinda weird!

**Holds out plate**

I made bean soup yesterday and baked corn muffins to go with it and it was yum. A neighbor gave me the ham bone from a spiral sliced ham she served when she had her staff for a holiday party. I will give her a good share of the soup.

Happy New Year, twolf and thanks for all your extraordinary work.

Sounds delicious!

twolf1, I want to try your corned beef. I love corned beef but have never thought of making it myself. All I gotta do is round up some of the spices.

P.S. I *lurved* how you handled the climate denier troll yesterday!!

I love listening at librivox!

Peace and Love, Pups, Happy New Year,

On topic, about 85% of the yard is free of any snow after last week’s rain and warm temps. I am hoping for some heavy snow to keep the ground frost to a minimum. Visiting friends and family briefly later this afternoon.

I’ll have to try it some time.It sounds good and in fact I’m getting kinda hungry
This post almost always ends up being about food. LOL

A real loss. I read that Columbia Pictures is making remakes. Too bad. American remakes of foreign films aren’t usually very faithful, in my experience.

I also made roast potatoes, 3 kinds with skin on (sweet potatoes, red-skinned, yukon golds) with parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme. Yummy & also pretty. Wild rice stuffing with apples & hazelnuts. A little port wine in the gravy. One of the guests brought brussel sprouts and another brought a plain salad, just greens, which was perfect with such a heavy meal. Plenty of leftovers, so expect a heaping plate!

What troll? See, I’m following T’s advice and am even ignoring the memory. Ha.

Speaking of books (yeah, OT, but maybe forgivable early New Years morning??) I just read “Room” by Emma Donoghue, and literally could almost not put it down. I heartily recommend it. A bit disturbing, but brilliantly conceived and very well written.

I finally pulled myself out of bed at 8:30. Guests left around 2a. Had a couple of slices of goose for breakfast immediately on entering the kitchen, which is a mess. But then I have all day to clean up.

The two I’ve seen are in Swedish with subtitles and the actors are the same in both — assume they will be also in the third. I really thought they were well done.

I’m almost embarrassed to say what I served for dinner last night. My husband was working a job, loading up some server for a hospital and in the morning, when I asked him if he thought he’d be around to take us out, he really couldn’t tell me. So, I went to the grocery store and bought a container with fried chicken and some smashed potatoes. It’s a good thing I didn’t go to town preparing anything special, because he didn’t come to bed until around 3:30 am. Oh brother.

A lot of my favorite things on that menu, eCAHN!! And the herbs in the potatoes bring Simon & Garfunkel to mind. We used to rock our firstborn to that song every night. (Erm…he’s now almost 45!)

Do you have recipes to share? You might put up a diary for Food Sunday!

Which thread did the first one follow? I’m assuming that it was looking for Harriet. I’d like to watch the Swedish versions.

LOL. twolf1 dispatched him/her artfully!

I discovered a good variation on mashed potatoes. Just add thawed chopped spinach at the end. Colorful & you have both your comfort food & your healthy vegie in the same dish. Almost no additional prep time.

Very artfully, I thought too.

I can’t believe (well can believe) the short-sightedness and ignorance displayed by some of them. On another site one was complaining that, “libruals,” were the only ones always wanting government to tell private business what they could or couldn’t do. I did reply with a question as to whether or not he/she was going to voluntarily go for their next medical treatment to the new unregulated clinic in her/his neighborhood.

I am positive the point failed to sink in.

It really isn’t hard to make, just a lot of waiting really. The next 2 experiments will be increasing the brining time, and/or adding a couple extra steps to turn it into pastrami.

Now i’m hungry.

yikes! what a lot of snow! we had a lot of snow last year… Rivaled Buffalo. Hope we have much less this year.

Good grief! Back to using my phone again! I really have to save up some $$$ for some new memory!

Yes, it was the looking for Harriet story line. It did help straighten out some of the characters for me, all of the Nazi stuff, some of Salander’s history. There was so much going on in the first book, and it took me part of the book just to figure out all of the Swedish surnames, street names, etc. Almost needed to make a chart of who the characters are and their relationship to the other characters.

Definitely rent the Swedish DVDs and don’t bother waiting for the American versions. I actually watched the first one using my TiVo to download it from Amazon.

Mostly I’m cooking things for the first time, so I don’t consider myself an expert on the recipes, which require being made multiple times before I can write intelligently about them.

What a great idea. I’m going to do that next time. And, yes, next time I’ll do from scratch. Home made anything is always much tastier, but I was just being a little poopy because of the work schedule. The 30th was our anniversary and we didn’t do anything special for that either. Not his fault, but, dang dang dang. I think I’m going to pass on going with him to his mom’s. I think I’d prefer to take my son to the movies.

I have a wonderful recipe for sausage, bean and pasta soup that calls for stirring in spinach at the end. You can leave it out if you’re serving it to someone who dislikes spinach, and can just stir it in before reheating a small amount. Adds color and nutrition to what is a very good, quick soup.

Mmmmmm, roasted goose!

Mmmmm…..corned beef hash & eggs.

A little local restaurant near my sister’s place in California serves the best corned beef hash I’ve ever had — it has mushrooms in it!

What a great dinner!

Trolls just bore me nowadays. I’m with Margaret. A big “yawn”.

Margaret had the money comment — recently, maybe not yesterday:

(paraphrasing a bit) Climate is to weather what the 20-teens is to tomorrow. I am gonna borrow that.

Home made anything is always much tastier

You got that right. Since I’ve been doing so much more cooking, I can hardly bear to eat the dreck that you can buy already prepped. But I admit to recidivism from time-to-time. Nothing like junk food as an occasional indulgence.

Sorry about your hubbie’s busy schedule. Going to the bother of cooking also requires appreciative eaters.

I love putting spinach in my soup near the end.

I wonder if Peg’s ears are burning. :)

I don’t know why some peeps don’t like spinach. I’ve liked it all my life. And in the soup you describe, it is mostly for color, as the flavors of the other ingredients are strong.

Try this one:

Italian Sausage and Pasta Soup

What’s a girl to do? I can’t really complain. Cha ching, overtime. But, I do feel a little guilty sending him to his mom’s alone. On the other hand, I don’t want to spend the first day of this year being miserable.

I periodically do a bit of the South Beach Diet, and one breakfast item I like is poached eggs on spinach that’s been sauteed lightly in a bit of olive oil.

OOPS I see “Come Saturday Morning” is up, and it’s COOKING! Nice segue…

How does he feel about his mom; does he mind going without you? If not, spend your day without the aggravation.

I still haven’t read any of “The Girl with the…” books. The films are on NetFlix InstantView, but I prefer to read them first.

Have a great first day folks,I gotta go.

Just stepped outside it’s about 45 and climbing fast the warm sun is shining down and the air smells great.

Bye

I have quite a bit in the freezer, from the garden last fall. That and basil freeze very well if you are not looking to make a presentable salad with it. Almost $3 for 2.5 oz for fresh basil would put it out of the budget otherwise.

Your goose sounds great. I have wild duck breasts waiting for when I have the urge to serve them up.

I made a small batch of pesto yesterday with frozen basil and garlic scapes from the my garden. Used a handful of walnuts instead of pine nuts. I noticed that the pine nuts in the local markets were imported from China.

That soup recipe sounds delicious, msmolly! …unfortunately, I take soup into work with me for some of my coworkers and they all just love my vegetarian vegetable soup. I think it’s all the root vegetables that I add to it, when I have them.

I might try that one, though, for myself.

Mornin’, Karen, pups

Happy New Year!

I was actually up at the turn. First time in years. It was really early when the fireworks and idiots firing semi-auto handguns started. Freaked the tigers out and put them off their feed. So I started listening to Rush CDs and stayed up with the brood.

Soup. May just make a pot of Senate Restaurant Bean Soup this weekend.

Have a great day, billybugs!

It’s supposed to be 52 here tomorrow.

Oh, I guess he doesn’t really mind, exactly. He prefers my company. He’s not very close to his family. He’s closer to my mom and sisters, actually, even though he’s only known them for 8 years. It was different when his dad was alive. His dad was a doll and they were close. The women in his family are real know it alls and the kind who tell everyone what to do. Annoying as hell.

Good morning, SouthernDragon… Happy New Year!

Okay, my laptop seems to be working again.

Ruhroh!

re troll. Yeah, that was good.

My daughter loves garlic scapes. My produce people sometimes have them, but not this time of the year.

Made mine yesterday and it was yummy. By the way, I don’t put all of those things in cheesecloth. It is easy to fish out the 1/2 lemon and the spent stems of the thyme and parsley, and I like to have the carrots for color.

And use 1-1/2 lb package of beans (mine said 20 oz) and not 1/2 lb. I think that is a typo in the recipe. 8 oz of beans isn’t much.

And you have to soak them several hours or overnight.

Maybe we should have a thread some morning that is all about poached eggs and the many, many ways that you can serve them?

I just love poached eggs!

I’m thinkin’ a new laptop might oughta be on your wish list for the new year.

The first two are out in paperback, the third I had to buy the hardback.

Better not go, then.

Yeah, I agree. Upthread billybugs and I chatted about his laptop woes. I have had EXTREMELY good luck buying laptops on eBay. Just make sure the seller has close to 100% positive feedback.

Laptop’s out of battery so I’m gonna go shower and get dressed!

Demi… here’s my soup recipe, if you’d like to try it.

Better for me, anyway. The funny thing is, they are all progessives, but, like I said, they think they know more than anyone and I’ve already read most of what they’re talking about here. So, it’s not only annoying, but boring too.

This one mostly works fine, it just needs some additional memory. If I save up some money for that it’ll be fine. It’s an old HP Pavilion, but works great. I kept buying the warranty on the hardware until this year, and every year, they had to fix something on it. Pretty good deal.

And last time I priced pine nuts they were VERY expensive.

Oh, thanks. I didn’t know you had your own site. Cool.

Paul just ordered a new MacBook or something like that. He said he’s going to the dark side.

I’ve been busy here and haven’t updated it lately. I really need to add some more posts… about food and such. Maybe knitting, too.

Thanks for the correction. I copied the recipe to Wordpad so that’s easy to correct. I use a Chinese mesh strainer to get stuff out of soups, etc. I do the overnight soak method.

We got about a foot of snow Thursday into Friday the a few more inches yesterday into last night. The present temp is 2 above with the wind chill of -18. There are drifts that are waist deep in some areas of the yard/driveway. Got the tractor plugged in and the battery charger also going and am not sure if we will blow snow today or just wait til tomorrow when the wind goes down. The only problem then is the air temp will be -10 tomorrow morning.

The cows are staying in the barn and only venture outside to go to the bale feeder and then its right back to the barn. The chickens are hold up in the coop. We are southeast of Fargo about 65 miles and are lucky the worst of last nights stuff went west of us.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

“Once you go Mac, you never go back!”

I’ve had Macs since they came out in 1986 (and an Apple IIe before that). Guess you could call me a Mac “bigot.”

Now I really AM gonna get off this thing.

This is where I buy most of my produce.

Memory should be cheap nowadays. I remember the days when it was like something on a commodity market. Price fluctuated day to day.

Have a wonderful day, Molly. Hugs.

When you fish out the lemon at the end, give it a good squeeze and the last of its juice goes into the soup.

I use less onion and more garlic, too, mainly because 4 onions seems like too many (and too many to chop). I think I used 2 or 3 garlic cloves.

(((demi)))

I think it’s time for me to go put up some chili. Laterz.

I usually double whatever garlic a recipe calls for. With onions it depends on what I’m making. Bean soup doesn’t need a lot of onion imo.

Teh kittehs don’t mind the garlic breath? :)

Most nuts are these days, but I recall reading something unsavory health-wise with the Chinese pine nuts, don’t have a link.

A cup and a half of pesto only uses about two oz of nuts. I am having baked potato with pesto for part of dinner this evening.

Paul offered to buy some for me, but I’d rather take it to the folks who understand my really old laptop.

Black-eyed peas cooked with a big hambone, corn bread made with plenty of bacon grease and cabbage cooked down with more bacon grease for today. Then start in on somme goose gumbo–made duck gumbo before so why not.

That meal is for good luck in the New Year!

Off to clean up all the paper stuff the tigers have pushed on to the floor in the computer room. Sheesh, worse than kids.

It’s a new year and the struggle continues.

Never. Give. Up.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things

Namasté

Nah, keeps ‘em outta my food, too.

That’s what I’ve heard. My laptop is a bit heavy these days for traveling, especially since I always have to take some food with me. I’d like to get one of those small NetBooks for traveling. But first, I’m saving my money so my grandson can take a trip with the marching band to Europe.

Worst winter of my life was in the 7th & 8th grades… at Ellsworth AFB, near Rapid City, in SD. Really, really bleak!

They are expensive, but the fat in them is really, really good for you.

I have some friends who like them and know I have a freezer full. 400 square ft of garden devoted to garlic production provided 24 lbs scapes plus about 80 lbs of garlic after it was cured (hung to dry for storage).

I do greens instead of cabbage.

You’re welcome, oldnslow! It’s pretty much a fun thing to do this every week.

Next week… I’m thinking we’ll post about poached eggs, since so many of us here are fans of poaching eggs.

Thank you to everyone who dropped by PUAC today… we’re beginning to have a crowd of regulars.

Of course, newcomers are always welcome, too.

Morning threads are too early …

The sun has finally come out. We had about eight days of rain, followed by a couple of days of clouds, followed by about two feet of snow and temps of -16 F last night and predicted for tonight. Good thing I live in the desert. I think we are up to three year’s worth of annual precipitation in 2010.

In the last two weeks, I’ve been able to get out of my town of 1500 people and go to the big city of Bozeman (population 40,000) just a few times. The problem is almost always the wind. When it picks up it blows the snow across the interstate and makes it impossible to see. We also don’t have much in the way of snow removal except on the passes. Black ice is a problem at night, so I never drive after dark to and from Bozeman which is one hour away.

This past Monday and Tuesday were heavenly. In the high 30′s. So I went to see “True Grit”. Fun. But now it’s back to 13 degrees from minus 9. The wind is really howling right now at about 25 miles an hour and that may drift us.
I made a killer lobster corn chowder last night using 3 lobster tails and using the shells to make a wonderful lobster stock. And delicious without the lobster. It is a Bon Appetit recipe from 2002 (on epicurious.com) that I tweaked a bit with an Ina Garten one. It makes enough for 8 people so it was actually economical for a New Year’s Eve get together.
On Christmas Eve I served a pea soup from this month’s Bon Appetit. Big hit and really easy. Uses frozen peas and romaine lettuce.
Serving Soups are the only thing keeping me sane these days.

I know… there is something so satisfying about making a soup that your friends praise!

Yeah, today’s was a bit early for me, too. I was late, but I didn’t get to bed until nearly 2:00 a.m. Six hours of sleep just isn’t enough.

Happy New Year all; Karen, thanks for the thread. I showed up early then went back to bed; had another good sleep. I am still mildly under the weather, and sleep seems like a real gift. Cheers. I thought yesterday that there is a way I am ready for 2010 to be over; it has been oddly stressful in several ways, I guess. Onward thru the fog “as they say”. I will never understand who “they” is. ;)

The neighbors came with their snow blower and did Little Momma’s snow clearing before I got to town for my care-giving stretch, so that was “a plus” as LM would say.

I had no trouble driving, no snow problems, and I had allotted extra time for that, so I stopped and took some photos of the landscape in the snow. I saw a bald eagle, flew right over the road, first time I have seen one in my locale!! Also chased a big red-tailed hawk with my camera, but the hawk was camera shy, so no photos of that. Last time I passed that place, I saw a nice peregrine falcon.

It is so cold, and I am worried about frozen pipes at home, worried about that in the night. :( I hope worries for naught. I’m sure I will hear about it later today if pipes are frozen, was supposed to be zero last night.