http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bagnewsnotes/~3/PsKJ89Ojof0/whats-that-spell-waseda-whats-that-spell.html

So, a few days ago I posted about a big chinese dinner my Mom and I are doing together for the extended family, and got great advice. Well, the menu's been updated with the addition of wonton soup, so I thought I'd post my method of doing it.

( Wonton Soup )

This was my first time attempting a real meal in a crock. I'd used one earlier this year, throwing some chicken and broth and whatever I had in it just to try it out, and it kept turning off in the middle of the cooking process, and I returned the crock and never got a new one. Sad. However, my new roomie has a giant oval crock so last night at midnight I decided to have a roast extravaganza.

( recipe and pics )

Curry says: "Moooooom, no pictures please!"

( More this way... )

Until last Sunday, Flyer was a happy, healthy, silly Flat-Coat. Then she had the first of a series of Grand Mal seizures. Her condition declined rapidly over the week. We were hoping an infection of some sort was the cause, but the lab results came back today. There was no infection to treat. We let her go to the Bridge this afternoon.

She was always willing to go anywhere and do anything. She enjoyed conformation, obedience, rally, and flyball. She enjoyed agility as well, but her human wasn't up to the challenge and she never showed. After my stroke, she happily ran flyball for other people until I was able to stand long enough to do it myself. She learned to accomodate my new weird manner of walking once I was able to attempt classes again and earned her RN last spring. She was almost ready to go into Rally Advanced. We will miss her more than words can express.

CH U-CD Crossraguel Exuberant Flyer CD RN ONYX
March 13, 1999 - November 13, 2009

. . .Marvin is content.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bagnewsnotes/~3/01LWFd5FLJk/the-ed-show----1-cool-equipment.html

^-- What's up with o_O pupils? Her eyes were normal 20mins ago.
( 2 more... )

Usually Friday the 13th is a Good luck day for me. I've never had a problem with it before.

That ended today.

I rushed through my morning work so my desk would be clean before I left for work; I ended up working a little later than I'd planned, so I didn't get home until noon. That was okay, still had plenty of time...

NOT. I pulled into the driveway and noticed the back gate was open. Uh oh, I thought, Sam has escaped. No. He was inside sleeping on the bed, having allowed someone to KICK IN our back door and take our 32-inch flat screen television. Fortunately, apparently nothing else has been taken (including this laptop, which would have caused me Great Tearing Of Hair, since a) not paid for yet, and b) MY NANO IS ON IT!!!) However, only the television was taken, so there is that; we still have an old console TV in the back room which can be hooked up when I get home (cable, so no worries about the lack of HD), and I have to hope, pray, and trust that since the Tivo was apparently untouched (praise the Lord!), it will be recording my shows while I'm gone. I hope.

The TV was only three years old. We got it for our Christmas present the year before we had the house remodeled. *sigh*

I had to race around calling the police and TRYING to get hold of my insurance agent; fortunately the officer arrived to make a police report very quickly(and he was very nice), but I could only leave a message for my agent before Barb had to take me to catch my plane to Orlando.

So now I'm in the airport. I knew there would be a fee for a third bag, and I figured I'd suck it up, because, hey, I needed three bags coming home last time. I didn't realize said fee was FIFTY BUCKS. Yikes. So much for having any money to spend while I'm there. Fortunately, the ship basically gathers all your on-board charges and then charges at disembarkation, at which time my paycheck will be there so I'm not worried about that, and Mom usually picks up the tab for most everything else, and I'll have to be a leech this time out, because I'm so, so broke. Insurance will cover the broken back door and the TV, of course, minus deductible, but DAMN. Now I HAVE to stop putting it on the "eventually" list and get those security doors for the front and, apparently, the back as well.

I'll admit I know that Sam is a friendly, completely non-aggressive dog who would, of course, let anyone at all ransack our house, but I'd always depended on the simple presence of a dog to keep people out of our back yard. Bad idea.

(Seeing Jonathan in the bright daylight of the airport terminal tells me how dirty he gets sitting around the house... and my, I have greasy fingers.)

I didn't have a chance to eat before coming to the airport, as I planned, and I stopped being hungry anyway, after getting home and seeing everything; so I got here and was forced to pay for greasy airport food (speaking of greasy fingers).

Plus, while in the first week of NaNo I made impressive strides, this week I've done diddly squat, and my current word count is only 24,668. I also didn't finish my Writer's Group (or even start it, really) -- bad timing, having the deadline come in the middle of NaNo -- AND they just announced that the flight is completely full, and are asking for people to give up their seat. Why will airlines overbook like this? Sadly, I also didn't remember to check in online last night, so I'm in Group C, position 19 (and those who have flown Southwest know what THAT means).

So now I have to leave Barb to handle the insurance (I left a message for my agent and her the policy information), and I realized when I was standing in line at Security that in the midst of all the wackiness, I FORGOT MY iPOD at home. No music for me this trip (I have a few things on the computer here, but most of my music is on the external drive, at home). And thanks to the idiots who ruined liberty for all, my hands are all dry from being washed and my lotion is all in my checked baggage.

Whine, whine, whine.

At least the wi-fi at Sky Harbor is free.

( Picture of television )

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bagnewsnotes/~3/7OVrf8k2OAE/100-of-your-weekly-dose-of-terrorism-panic.html

so, i wandered over to the book store and spent too many hours in the cookbooks section
(not news)
and looked at many many slow cooker books......
(not news)
ended up buying "Not  Your Mother's Slow Cooker Book"  at least in part because it had clear directions for translating a stovetop or oven recipe to slow cooker use.
it also had an overnight Oatmeal recipe

i have seen this before, but never tried it. so i did.   i put this on last night, and between my trusty crock pot, and my "coffee pot" (tea, thank you) i woke up with breakfast already made......

4 cups water
1 cup steel cut oats (not quick cook, not rolled oats)
pinch salt if desired

cook on low 8-9 hours or overnight

i used Mc Canns, the kind you can buy in a can? (yes you can get it in a box too) and doubled the recipe because i only have a BIG crock pot.
i ate it, hubby ate it.. hubby likes it better than regular oatmeal!

no breakfast to cook while trying to run out the door!

note:
in my case, a large oval crock pot and 8 cups water to 2 cups oatmeal, i came down to find that it was VERY liquid, underneath a tougher chewy crust layer.  stirring solved most of that and within a half hour it was pretty consistently thick and creamy
hubby liked the chewy top part the  best though

the book has a similar recipe that calls for putting in tons and tons of dried fruit (yummmmmmm) and ladling any leftover into a pan to set up in the fridge, this to be served cold as a sort of chewy meal bar

So when my daughter went off to college I gave her my older crockpot. That still left me with the larger one, but one of the things I hate is that crockpots only come with one crock. I use mine a lot. So I went looking on the internet for a second crock. And I found www.google.com/products/catalog I'm really thrilled.  I'm going to go on and keep my other one because it is oval, and this is round, and sometimes the shape makes a difference on how much stuff you can put in, but I now essentially have 4 crockpots.  Yay!