Its about that time of year again!

I like these cold, gray winter days.  Days like these let you savor a bad mood.  ~Bill Watterson


I love the Winter time, and i love everything about it! I like the Holiday season. Dressing up in warm sweaters, hats and gloves. Seeing the decorations on all the houses in my neighborhood. Baking for my friends and family. But most of all I like to be with my loved ones during that time.

Great Blue Berry Muffin Recipe!

Recipe by: Chef John V., A Good Cooking Recipe! Serving size: about 12 regular size muffins Preparation time: about 1 hour and 15 minutes Amount/Measure/Ingredient: 3 cups flour 3 cups blueberries fresh; picked over, washed and dried 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/4 cup butter, unsalted 1/4 cup Crisco 1 1/2cups sugar 4 eggs 2 tablespoons baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 3/4 cup cold milk 1/4 cup butter melted about 12 teaspoons sugar to top the muffins Preparation: Preheat oven to 375° F. Butter and flour the muffin tins, line with paper cups. Cream the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well. Don't forget to scrape the bottom of the mixing bowl. Toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of the flour. Add the vanilla, then add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk then fold in the melted butter. Add the floured blueberries and any remaining flour and fold in. Scoop into the muffin tins so that tops are mounded and sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon of sugar. Bake at 375° for 25 or 30 minutes in the center of the oven. Cool for 5 or 10 minutes and remove from the tins. For richer and more delicious muffins, brush with melted butter when they come out of the oven.

Birthday Weekend!

Evan, Isaac, & Drew are 2!!!

We decided to celebrate the boys' birthday over several days this year and to make it a birthday weekend extravaganza (i.e., Casey and I are poor party planners) and just let them go wild! On Saturday we went shopping and let them walk into a store. In case you didn't get the significance of that, I said WALK. No strollers, no shopping carts, and no wagon. We let them pick out a couple Thomas trains before they had to clean up after themselves. I caught Isaac running into himself in a full length mirror and he said "hello" and them kissed himself! After the shopping we ate dinner at a restaurant where the boys enjoyed people watching, coloring, and playing with stickers. Drew also appointed himself the official greeter and said hello and bye to everyone who could hear him...which was everyone!

On Sunday we took the boys to Jungle Playland to burn off some serious energy. There are ball pits, slides, and bouncers at Jungle Playland and we did them all. WE ALL did them all. After chasing the boys around, taking them down the FASTEST tube slide ever (you should see the tube burn on Casey's elbows), a minor split lip on Evan, and ball pit jumping Casey and I were sweaty and tired! The boys loved it though so I think we will be going back.

Here are Evan and Isaac climbing in the little kid area.

Kentucky Traditions

This past weekend was ”The Run for The Roses”   – The Kentucky Derby in Louisville, KY where my son lives.  I spent the almost 12 years in that beautiful state and really learned a great deal from the wonderful women I met there. 

Office potlucks were common and I was always amazed at the creativity of their recipes.  BUT, they were not apologetic about the fat and butter in their dishes – they clearly thought we Californians were too “worried” about healthy living.

At Derby time, it was not hard to find someone having a Derby party.  Because of tradition, it was mandatory that the party include these three things – mint juleps, burgoo and some kind of barbeque.  I’ve always wanted to attempt to make burgoo but haven’t seen a recipe that looked like it had the ingredients of the one I was familiar with.   (And I really dislike mint…so THAT mint drink tradition was never followed in my house!  Ha!)

One of my fondest memories is from when we visited Berea, KY and ate at Boone Tavern.  They are famous for their traditional southern cooking and a dish they call “Spoonbread”.  I recently tested a Le Creuset 2.4l Round French Oven for Cooking.com and was very happy with the recipe.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS 3 cups milk 1 1/4 cups cornmeal 3 eggs 2 tablespoons butter 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS Stir meal into rapidly boiling milk (use WHITE cornmeal for true southern bread). Cook until very thick, stirring constantly, to prevent scorching. Remove from fire and allow to cool. The mixture will be cold and very stiff. Add well beaten egg, salt, baking powder, and melted butter. Beat with electric beater for 15 minutes. If hand beating is used, break the hardened cooked meal into the beaten eggs in small amounts until all is well mixed. Then beat thoroughly for 10 minutes using a wooden spoon. Pour into well greased casserole. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve from casserole by spoonfuls.

This is a great accompaniment for any meal but I especially liked it with the bowl of chili I’d prepared that night.

Now…if anyone has a great burgoo recipe they’d like to share…

Get Call of Duty:Black Ops for Free!

As many of us gamers know, Best Buy started their used game trade in system back in August. With the holidays just around the corner I’m sure most of us are short on cash, leaving us with no money for this years most anticipated title, Call of Duty: Black Ops. Well I’m here to tell you that Best Buy has answered all of our prayers, sort of. Best Buy is offering a promotion where you can get Black Ops for virtually no money.

All you have to do is:

1. Trade in any two (2) games from the list at Best Buy. (List)

2. Receive $60 Best Buy Gift Card

3. Purchase Call oF Duty: Black Ops with $60 Gift Card

4. Enjoy!

Adambabble

Having enjoyed the company of the Merry Men a couple of sundays ago I allowed my arm to be twisted again by Mr.Wait and enlisted for some of the miles of the epic Langlee-Kielder jaunt he was planning. Despite not feeling up to the whole 30 something miles involved I probably would've had a go if I'd been able to give over the neccessary time. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Did the surf forecast for the afternoon have anything to do with wimping out of the full whack? Merely a rumour....

An early start was order of the day and I hurriedly guzzled some porridge and coffee to get to Langlee for 7am. Alot of rain during the night had woken me up a few times but consequent thoughts of  mudbath conditions underfoot were replaced by a new environmental concern as the Cheviots loomed into view whilst I drove over toward Wooler. The higher tops were all ghostly white with snow! Karl took my text: "Have you got your snowshoes?" to be a joke since the Wooler contingent of the running party didn't see the conditions until they got up the valley. No white stuff lying at lower altitude or clogging the roads though, so our group was promptly assembled, trussed up with hydration packs and appropriate gear and ready for the off. The 'Famous Five' taking on the long haul up Cheviot, along the Pennine Way to Byrness then on to Kielder via the Forest Drive were: Karl Wait, Bruce Crombie, David Egan, Alison Wright and Sue Mitchell. I was to play a mutineering Timmy The Dog, only staying faithful to the gang until just past Cheviot summit before haring off on my own tangent to do a loop I had in mind.

Despite the rough weather conditions overnight we were blessed with a still day and, as we ascended Cheviot, the dawn put on a bit of a show for us with the sun cresting Hedgehope to our left and lighting up the snow crusted terrain. Beautiful...

Langlee to Kielder Castle jaunt

Its very daunting to run 32.5 miles and just as daunting to try and blog about it! but I will try and get across the highs and lows!

2:30 am and that’s it I can’t sleep any more, not sure if its nerves or excitement! so I get up for 2 hours and go back to bed and wake up 30 minutes before pick up time. I receive a text  from Adam Fletcher to say “make sure you bring your snow shoes” I put it down to a wind up, but sure enough as we wind our way up the valley to the start point Hedgehope and Cheviot are weighed down by a good covering of snow!

Adam was to join us for a few miles and as we ascended Cheviot the snow gradually got deeper and my toes gradually got more numb! the run along the top was clouded in mist until we dropped down a few hundred feet the the stone slabs were very icy and most of us slipped over a few times. After the Slippy stones came the energy zapping mud holes which sucked your feet under and would hardly let you go, but spirits were high and we kept making good ground.

I was still very wary of the 12 miles in Kielder forest as it would be hard on the feet and very boring running with only trees to look at, but tried not to think of it too much.

As it was a LIVE firing day on the ranges (which were only about half a mile way at times) it made for an interesting background noise with a helicopter gunship firing rounds from a few hundred feet above just at the point we could see the girls driving past on the way to the 20 mile refreshment point, but the skoda was no match for these action man wannabe’s, and they soon got away ( bugga).

They must have only got a few more hundred yards before the road was closed due to roadworks and they phoned to say they were going to struggle to get to the checkpoint , which would have been a disaster as the human dustmin Crombie needed filling with coke and chocolate before the next stage.

We got to the meeting point to find no girls so rang them to be told they were driving around desperately trying to find a route through the war zone to get to the A68 to Bryness. We ran south down the main road for around half a mile to eventually see them blazing to our rescue.

4 Chocolate bars, 2 cups of coffee and two sandwiches later and a change of footwear we set off into Redesdale Forest on outr way to Kielder, a really struggled to get going again and it wasn’t till mile 25 before I got back into the swing of things again and i ran the ton of chocolate off. Bruce took off at this point wanting to stretch his legs, and we never seem him again till the end. Myself, David and Sue soon settled into a run and then walk a little routine with Alison always pushing us on from just behind.

At the 6.5 mile mark a familiar figure came over the horizon! my wife had ran out with Leanda to meet us,but leanda decided to run with her hubby and that left Cindy to run with us back to the car, and run she did! none of us by this stage could keep up with her. and the next 3.5 miles felt like 6 miles back to the castle and on the last 50 yards even managed my by now trade mark sprint ( wel slightly faster jog).

What a relief to get there and finally put this route to bed after dreaming it up for the last 3 months.

Thanks to Alison, Sue, David and Bruce for a great day and to Adam for the company on the snowy bit of the route and of course the girls for their great support!