WOLVES PROGRESSING

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Months ago, well for my birthday, Elsie gave me the KnitPicks Roxy the Fox and her Cubs kit.  I made up one of the fox pups, which was adorable.  Caleb was really impressed but thought I should make a WOLF, not a FOX.  He did not buy into a wolf being red and white for some reason…

Anyway, he talked me into knitting him a wolf.  When Eldon heard that I was going to knit a wolf for Caleb, he asked for one, too, so I said I would accommodate.    Since May I have been working a few rows every so often, but nearly every time I see Caleb he asks if I have finished his wolf.  I told him I might have it done by Christmas.

Well, yesterday when I was at his house he asked again about the wolf and I asked him if he thought I should take it to Elsie’s house to knit on.  You can imagine how happy that made him.

This morning I was watch Caleb and Leah while Alissa and Eldon went to kindergarten open house.  I brought out the wolf to see what I could do on it.  My thought was that Caleb and Leah would be easy to deal with so I could get out the pattern and work it without making very many errors.

It turns out that they were lambs, though Leah did the same climb-the-stairs routine today that she did yesterday and when I brought her downstairs the second time she started to cry.  Thinking I could calm her by giving her water, I took her to the kitchen.  She was very happy to have a drink.  We then went into family room where Caleb was watching a care bears show and sat down in the rocker.  Leah was watching for a couple of minutes then snuggled in comfortably in my lap. I was so pleased she felt comfortable sitting in my lap.  Very shortly I felt as if I had dead weight in my lap.  When I asked Caleb if Leah was asleep, he leaned forward in his little blue rocker and said, “Yep!”  I took her upstairs and deposited her carefully in her crib without waking her.  I guess I will now assume that Leah trips upstairs means she wants to nap.

While with Caleb I finished knitting the second wolf body and when I came home I started the first wolf head.  The head did not turn out well at all–the fox has two colors which helps keep the pattern straight.  With all gray for the wolf,  not!  I may use black with the gray for the second head.

In between the children this morning and working on the wolves tonight I had a long day…starting with helping Peter at the computer at the Senior Center….though that turned out not to be successful as there were printer problems, and since I am not an administrator there I could not add the proper printer drivers.  Peter suggested I do the printing at home.

Swimming went well and I managed to swim one-third mile plus water-biked two more laps.

Price Chopper for some Chobani Greek yogurt and a salad, then to Credit Union then to BirdSeed Quilts–no, that is not the name, but I did buy a beautiful quilt for the Graco bed for when James comes to visit next week. I did not think a full sized quilt or blanket would work very well there!

The wheat had sprouted well so I made some sprouted wheat bread (which turned out pretty yummy) plus got some “raw sprouted wheat bread” [which we saw on YouTube a couple nights ago] mixed up and put into the dehydrator along with three trays of blueberries,  If it is any good we will eat that bread with peanut butter for breakfast…

Peanut Butter Chocolate No Bake Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate No Bake Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate No Bake Cookies

Tonight I decided to make some no bake cookies.  When I was a child my mother made these cookies, calling them Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies.  Since I am making them for the Seminary students who meet in our home at 6 AM on weekdays, I am thinking these cookies are sort of like cereal…aren’t they?!

These are the ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract if you remember
Large pinch kosher salt  if you remember
This is how I made them:
Place a longish length of waxed paper on a clean counter.  I had just washed the counter so it was somewhat damp.  The paper stuck to it beautifully.  If you don’t have a counter handy, you can put the waxed paper, or parchment paper, on a cookie sheet.
Put the oatmeal in a large bowl.  Plop in the peanut butter on top of the oatmeal.
Using a medium-sized saucepan, bring the sugar, milk, butter and cocoa to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  When the sugar mixture begins a full rolling boil, let boil for 1 minute by the clock. Remove from the heat.Immediately pour the hot sugar mixture over the oatmeal and peanut butter as well as the vanilla and salt if you remembered.  Stir well with a long handled wooden spoon until well-combined.

Using a portion scoop, scoop out the mixture and place it onto the waxed paper on the counter or baking sheet.  Let sit at room temperature until cooled and hardened. This takes about 30 minutes. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Because I used a two-tablespoon portion scoop, this batch made about 24 cookies, but it is hard to know since someone came by and helped himself before I counted…!  These are not his first choice in cookie.  He feels peanut butter belongs on bread with jam. Period.  Funny that he was able to choke down one or more of these!

 

The Bunny Cars

Pinterest is a delightful place to go and spent lots of time! A few weeks ago I came upon a picture of a bunny car made with Twinkies. I just had to give it a try when I went to visit our grandchildren.

This is what we made:
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The bunnies are Peeps, of course.  The steering wheels are mini pretzels dipped in melted white chocolate then sprinkled with tiny colorful sprinkles.  The tires are mini Oreos.  Lots of fun.  The children could eat them in an instant.

We made the Twinkies.  Another day we will talk about that process.

Pancakes with Only Two Ingredients!

Recently there have been multiple recipes for 2-ingredient whatevers.  I am a sucker for them.  Most of them are truly nasty BUT these pancakes are a different story.  I made one batch for my husband with some trepidation.  He came back to the kitchen with plate in hand and asked for more!  Thank goodness I had more ingredients!
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A Success, Even Without Winning

In October I heard that there was to be a “bet on yourself” contest in November.  The premise was that you would pay a certain amount of money and bet that you could lose 4 percent of your body weight in 28 days.  I did not bet very much because I did not have very much that I could afford to lose. I planned to accomplish the goal so I would not be losing the money.On the starting day I went to the fitness center and was weighed on some very fancy scales that measured all kinds of things.  It turned out that I needed to lose 12.07 pounds in the four weeks. I was off and running.
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