Category: The Blog

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Feeding My Addiction

If you’ve been reading here long, you know that I love coffee.  I’ve had all kinds of coffee pots over the years.  I’ve tried cheap ones.  I’ve tried expensive ones (to me, any coffee pot that costs over $100 is expensive).  I’ve bought green coffee beans and had them roasted to order.  I jumped up and down when Caribou Coffee opened, only to become…disillusioned.

Over time, my taste has changed.  I used to love Gevalia, for example.  I bought Kenya by the box.  Then I got sick of it and I can’t stand how it tastes now, even from other companies.  There’s a honey-cured bean (with some of the coffee fruit still on the bean) that we adored from Costa Rica, but we haven’t been able to order it for over a year.  Nothing else compares.  Even my old standby – Mahogany from Caribou – loses its taste if that’s all I drink.  It helps if I trade in other coffees, like Living After Midnight from Classic Rock, a local roastery, but…

Now I’m having problems with my coffee pot.

I’m hard on pots, I know that.  I make 2-4 pots a day.  By “pot” I don’t mean a full pot.  I make just enough at once to fill my favorite white mug, which takes about 4 cups of water on the measuring line.  I use a ridiculous amount of beans to get it as strong as I like, even with the 1-4 cup/Bold setting on this pot.  Yet it still doesn’t have that TASTE I want.

It’s hard to describe.  It’s like when you steal the first 1/2 cup or so out of the pot, when it’s really really strong and rich.  That’s what I like.  I’ve been making my coffee stronger and stronger over time, and cutting back on how much I make as a result, but this pot just isn’t making the coffee as strong as I like, even when I only make 1 cup at a time.  Plus it’s ridiculously expensive to waste so many beans.

Then this pot started leaking.  And it’s less than 6 months old!  I thought a KitchenAid would last longer than that.

Anyway, I’ve been eying an espresso machine as a result.  I wanted that rich strong taste that I crave, even if I get a much smaller cup at once.  (If I drank my white mug full of espresso I think I’d have a heart attack.)

We went to Everything Kitchen to try out some different pots (they were nice enough to demo them for me, which makes shopping so much easier).  I tasted espresso both from a Nepresso Pixie and a gorgeous stainless steel Saeco, fully automated.  I admit, I loved that Saeco.  The coffee was incredible.

So was the sticker price at over $1200.  Gulp!!!

Needless to say, I didn’t spend that much.  But I did spend more than I’ve ever spent on a coffee pot before and bought the Pixie.  I was reluctant because I don’t want to chain myself to a pod-only system, but since I’m fairly tired of the beans I typically buy, it’s a risk I was willing to take.  Plus my other pot still works — it just leaks.  When I need to change things up, I can always make a traditional pot of coffee.

So here’s my cute little lime-green Pixie.  (My colors are black or red, but this was a demo model and I got a really good price on it.)  My only complaint so far:  I ran out of the sample pods way too quickly!  I was desperate enough that I drank the decaf ones today until my order arrived.

I’m not addicted or anything….

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Crocheting Fool

I need to get my act together and start working on some Christmas gifts.  This year, I think I’m going to crochet a few things.

Just a few.  Ok, ok, who am I kidding.

You see, the problem is that if I make something for myself… I have to make 3 more just like it for the monsters.  So I made myself a pair of fingerless gloves… and 3 more pairs over the weekend.  I also completed a scarf and started another.  You know, for GIFTS!

Then I started working on a matching headband (without the big flower – I’ve never made one of those before), but I had to rip it out.  I messed up really bad.  I restarted it last night, and so far I’m okay.  I don’t *think* I’ve messed it up yet.  The first time I make something from a new-to-me pattern is always risky.  I’m a terrible pattern reader.  I usually end up taking it to my mom and have her decipher the directions for me, but I want to make something for her this year, so I can’t have her help me!

Here’s a terrible picture of my gloves, made with LionBrand yarn.  It’s a little itchy (a wool blend) but so incredibly warm!

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The Hair-Smelling Zombies

I had a WHOPPER of a dream last night.

It wasn’t exactly a nightmare, but I woke up with an elevated heartrate and had a hard time getting back to sleep.  You know how sometimes you have a really GOOD dream and you want to slip back into that dream world but it’s too late?  You’re too awake?  Well it was the opposite of that last night.  I woke up, heart pounding, but started to slip right back into the dream.  So I got up, hit the bathroom, got a drink, crawled back into bed…

And had to fight the hair-smelling zombies again.

Let me ‘splain.

I was in a group of people that I did not know, standing in line.  Some guy was talking but I don’t remember what he looked like, only that he was in control and he was changing the people (US) in the room.  We were becoming zombies.  He lectured about how this was good and right and scientifically miraculous, blah blah blah but what it really came down to….

He didn’t like the way human hair smelled.

Yeah, what a freak!  Anyway, he’s giving all of us medicine that eliminates body hair, everywhere, and the side effect unfortunately is that we turn into zombies.

Evidently I’m okay with this.  (?)  I’m his favorite.  Even as the other people begin to react violently — more like zombies! — I’m completely normal and calm.  Until the zombies start smelling me.

Because I still have my hair.

I can’t figure out why the medicine isn’t affecting me, and all I can think about is what HE will do when he realizes that his favorite hasn’t lost her foul-smelling human hair.  I’m really getting anxious about this.  He’s willing to turn people into zombies just to get rid of their hair.  So what’s he going to do if his science fails on me?

At the same time, the other zombies keep smelling my hair and getting increasingly aggressive.  One in particular keeps bumping me and getting in my face.  Oddly, he’s shorter than me (NO ONE IS SHORTER THAN ME, especially grown men, but whatever) and very stocky, like a wrestler.  In the dream, I wondered if he was a friend of That Man’s family that I met one time about a hundred years ago.  It was hard to tell because he had no hair, no eyebrows, etc. and he was so stinking short!  I couldn’t get over it.

Anyway, he keeps bumping me, growling at me about my hair, and I’m so nervous.  I’m afraid he’s making too much noise and HE will notice that I still have all my hair.  I’m trying to stay quiet, but the bald short zombie starts poking me.  He’s hitting me in the back, that bump at the base of my neck where it meets my shoulders.  What is that thing called?  (In the dream, it was a mandela, I have no idea if that’s really what it’s called or not.)  It hurts, but there’s no blood or guts or anything, and I’m trying to stay quiet.

I still have my hair.

Whew, I know that doesn’t sound scary at all, but it was really disturbing.  And then the dream kept trying to suck me back.  That really worried me.  I so did not want to go back and find out what hair-smelling zombies would do to me.

Oh, did I mention that I got my hair colored today?  :mrgreen:  I joked with Apryll that I was having an axiety attack about what she’d do to my hair and came up with hair-smelling zombies the night before.  But what really made me burst out laughing was when I sat down in the chair (before she knew about the dream)…

And she smelled my hair.

*dies*  I always wear Moroccan Oil which smells divine.  Maybe that’s what the zombies were after!

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Save An Ent Winner

Thank you for all your lovely comments this past month to help me celebrate Tecun’s release!  I gathered all the comments from all the guest posts this past month, put them in a spreadsheet, and then used random.org to pick comment #136.

Betty Hamilton for her comment at Books N Kisses.

Betty, drop me a note at joelysueburkhart AT gmail DOT com and we’ll work out which eReader you’d like.  If I don’t hear from you in 3 days, I’ll pick a new winner.

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Freshly Ground Wheat Success

I’ve been interested in grinding my own whole wheat fresh (especially for bread) for months now.  I wasn’t willing to invest in a NutriMill that *only* grinds wheat — because I just wasn’t sure how likely I’d actually stick with it.  I mean, I adore adore adore homemade bread.  Dangerously adore.

I could eat the whole loaf right out of the pan. No joke.

But after reading about all the nutrients in freshly ground wheat I was determined to try.  That’s one of the reasons I settled on investing in a VitaMix.  With the dry blade, I’m supposed to be able to grind any grain.

Yet after several disappointing attempts (tortillas that were more like frisbees, a brick loaf) I’d kind of given up.  It didn’t taste all that great.  I wasn’t able to get the flour fine enough.  I was sick of wasting all those ingredients!

My SIL gave me a recipe months ago that she swore would make the best whole wheat bread.  She’d taken a class through her church (which I plan to take too, next class!!) and learned all the tricks to getting whole wheat to rise.

Then of course I lost the recipe.

I finally found it last week and set out to try again.  I dragged out the dry blade container and my wheat berries.  This time, I refused to be afraid of burning the VitaMix up.  I’ve watched youtube videos of people grinding for minutes on high without any issue.  So I ground my wheat up really good, going longer than I ever had before.  (Deep down, I think I was afraid of making flour paste or something.)  One small batch was maybe a little too coarse but the rest was fine.

And the bread.  *dies*  It’s soooo good.  Lots of honey make it sweet.  The grains are incredible.  I used coconut oil too, along with an egg to help make it smooth.  It’s not only the best whole wheat bread I’ve ever made…it’s the best BREAD.  Period.  And so healthy!  (Sorry, I don’t have permission to share the recipe online or I would!)

Of course I overate the first loaf (Middle loved it so much she also ate 3 pieces the first day), but I’ve still got half of the second loaf in the fridge.

With that victory, I ground more flour over the weekend and used up all the ripe bananas to make a batch of banana bread and 2 dozen banana chocolate chip muffins for the kids’ lunches.  There’s only 2 left… so I think they went over okay.

Of course it’s a little tricky to count all these whole grains on WW.  I can do the math, sure, but it’s crazy to see the number of points.  Honey is more points than artificial sweetener.  I didn’t want to cut the coconut oil out — but it is pointy.  However I know it’s healthy all the way.  Could I find “cheaper” (less points) diet bread at the store?  Sure.  But I’m not eating that crap with all the preservatives and fillers when I can have freshly ground wheat at my fingertips.

I just have to figure out how to only eat one small piece…

Do you have a favorite whole wheat recipe that I can add to my list?

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Save An Ent Artwork

I loaded the artwork to the original giveaway post, but I don’t know if people are going back to look.  Don’t forget, too, that I’m adding ongoing blog posts to that entry.  I’ll accumulate all comments from all guest blogs listed in that entry if you want more chances to win.

Reviews or ratings anywhere online can get you another entry – just post the link in comments so I can find it.

Aren’t these cute?  My thanks to S. J. Collins for creating such fun Ents!

 

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Back to School Tradition

This is one tradition I can definitely do without.

Every single year, there’s ONE item that is a pain in the backside to procure.  I end up hitting several different stores to find this item.  It’s different every year, so I can’t “prepare” by stocking up on the missing item months in advance.  Did that the year I couldn’t find Expo markers and there were buckets of them everywhere the following year.  Naturally.

What peeves me off is that the school supply list is never a huge shock.  I mean, every year, I have to buy generally the same basic things, plus one or two extras (like this year, Princess needed a flash drive).  So why is it always a very basic thing that’s impossible to find?  Why do I have to roam the entire store looking for the items on the list?  I mean, would it be so difficult to have everything I need in one or two aisles?

Seems to make sense to me.  But whatever.

This year, it was paper folders with brads.  Yep, you know, those 20 cent folders in rainbow colors.  How hard is that?

They had plastic ones (no brads).  Paper ones (no brads).  Decorated ones with holes (no brads).

I went to Wal-Mart.  Target.  Struck out.  Luckily my GROCERY STORE had them.  Yes, my grocery store.  How sad is that?

Don’t even get me started on how much it cost to send three girls back to school.

($118, not including any shoes, clothes, or even backpacks.  This was ONLY supplies.)

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My MN Week

I can’t believe my week is almost over already.  I’ve been in the home office this past week, training for two days and then visiting all my coworkers, going to meetings (instead of just the voice on the phone), and generally having a blast.

Tuesday night, I got to meet my friend’s son for the first time and see her little girl I hadn’t seen since she was a baby.  Last night my area had a happy hour after work.  The book that shall not be named (50S) was a hot topic, and all the guys had to quiz me about it after the ladies were gone.  Then I hooked up with Barbara Longley for some incredible Thai food and great biz talk.

But tonight…  Ah.  The BEST time.  I meet up with my dear friend Wanda (you’ve seen me dedicate several books to her!) for a long, leisurely dinner.  I ate a delicious, healthy salad with wild rice, cranberries, almonds, and chicken.  A weird (to my MO sensibilities) mix, but it was so yummy.  Then we decided to take a walk.

We walked.  And walked.  And talked books.  And walked.  She thinks we probably walked a good three miles!

A year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to make it that far.

There are some people that it doesn’t matter how long it’s been since you’ve seen them, you can talk and laugh just like you saw them yesterday.  That’s how it is with Wanda.  I’m so blessed to have you as my friend!  Plus I got some great activity points for my team’s challenge.  :mrgreen:

Now I’m back at the hotel packing up and nearly in tears because I’ll miss everyone so much.

The funniest comment this week when a friend/coworker saw me for the first time:  “DUDE, you’ve lost half yourself!”  Ha, not quite, but I nearly will by the time I hit goal!