My favorite kitchen tool

Don;t bother trying to steal the numbers, it's already been spent 😉

It may seem crazy but hear me out. When it comes to cleaning an old gift card/ credit card is my favorite tool. Scraping off dried on food, cleaning out the sink (and around the edges), and getting large food spills corralled nothing beats a card. I’ve saved more soap because my sponges weren’t getting mucky on the first pot for it to be a noticeable drop in usage.

Pumpkin Seed Saving

I made granola! Sort of. My version probably isn’t that healthy but it is pretty darn good mixed with my morning yogurt. You could also add more nuts and make it like a snack mix for the holidays as well. I kinda sorta adapted it from a recipe,  mostly just to look at proportions, this is a very flexible base that you substitute and make it pretty much any way you desire.

2 cups oats (I used regular rolled oats)
1/4 cup sunflower seed kernels (they were slightly salted)
2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup walnuts
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup vegetable oil, or flax or sesame or whatever
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup Water
1 cup dried fruit; (I used cherries, cranberries, blueberries, and strawberries mix)

Preheat to 300’F.

If you’re going to add dried fruit, you may want to reconstitute it in a bowl of hot water, let it set until you’re done baking. Take all your dry ingredients and mix them together until fairly uniform. In a separate small bowl mix all your wet ingredients together as if you were beating an egg, you want it to be homogeneous. Pour the wet into the dry mixing as you go.

Pour a tablespoon or so of your oil into the baking pan, use some paper towel to get an evenly coated grease into corners and edges especially. I guess you could be fancy and use parchment paper instead but I’m not.

Dump the mix and spread it out in your baking dish. Pop it in the oven and stir it every 20 minutes or so. I only cooked mine for 45 minutes but my oven is very wonky and the base recipe says an hour. Essentially you want crispy crunch, not mush like it was pre-baking. Let it cool down enough so that you can handle the dish with a bare hand and mix in the fruit, at this point you want it get down to room temperature before you freeze, refrigerate, or otherwise store.

Hubby says it could’ve used more honey, but I think I probably should’ve just added the sugar I had previously omitted.

Pops’ Ruined Pillowcase Cape

What do you do with an inexplicably ruined pillowcase? You could use it for a scrappy quilt, a pillowcase is about as large as a fat quarter. Or you could make a delicate hostess apron for the upcoming holiday season. Really there’s only ever one choice: superhero cape.

Short Story: A Beginning

I’ve been working on a short story for a few days weeks now, I just keep going back and tweaking things until I get them just right. I’m to the point that I need more input or at least some opinions on the direction it’s going. If you’ve got the time and inclination, read on. It’s really not that long, I’m just a perfectionist and I’m none too pleased with it.

Her emerald eyes flashed with a twinge of yellow as she viewed the golden reflection of the sunrise. The scope was new; appropriated from the last human she had seen during her trek across the sallow lands. The sun was rising quickly, signaling her need for cover and sleep. The night vision goggles bounced raggedly against her chest as she ran down into a drainage ditch. Shimmying under a wrecked car would have to do for today. Yesterday she managed to sleep in an actual house, well, more like a hovel or hut. Then again, she couldn’t complain, it was the first time in over a month that a safe house had an actual bed. A leaky oil pan dripped carelessly onto her raven hair, at least the stain wouldn’t be seen, she stared at the split ends she used to agonize over last year and wondered if she would ever care about such banalities again.

Sleep comes quickly when you run all night.

An aluminum can let out a muddy peal, her usual trap sprung, supine and full of vinegar she spied through that beautiful new scope. The lens on her previous gear had cracked 9 days ago and it seemed to put her more on edge than she would like to admit. Stroking the gun gently she whispered under her breath, “Come on Julietta, show me something worthy of a bullet.”

It was a rule. Guns have gorgeous femme fatale names. Or maybe it was just what she could remember of her past life. A housecat slinked under the car; she could clearly count ribs and it made her meager ration from last night churn. It was 3 or 4 in the afternoon from where the sun broiled in the sky, hard to tell when you’re not sure which month it is. The tabby settled into the crook of her arm, thankfully this was a well-versed cat and not a feral monster. With that loving sentiment fresh in her mind, she slept soundly.

The dream was always the same, the world she once knew, the people tame, content and complacent. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition and no one expected the attack. We may have read all the romanticized novels expounding on what a post-apocalyptic world would be like but none of them could come close to demonstrating the true depravity that humans would demonstrate for survival. Simple activities were the things she missed most. She sat cross-legged under the tree her husband and children stretched comfortably on a blanket. July and Xavier were watching the clouds stream by, lazily spying chickens, stars, and candy shapes, their giggles echoed as if they originated from a well. Distorted with sound of jets breaching the sound barrier, the big booms startled them all from their reveries. Then came the fire. The sky was ablaze with prematurely exploded surface to air missiles, we couldn’t fathom what was happening at the time but all the same we whisked the children away to the car and what we hoped was the safety of our home.

The rest of it is really just crap, I can’t seem to solidify it into anything that might actually be viable, but we’ll see. I’m not terribly great at world-building so any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read it and please let me know what you thought of my story (whether it’s positive or negative).

This probably goes without saying but don’t use my work for your own or misrepresent its origin in any way. Thank you!

My husband is awesome

If you don’t play LOTRO or Guild Wars you probably won’t understand this and he probably will be upset that I’m blogging it. We had an epic conversation. I’ve edited out little bits to make it flow better but otherwise it’s intact.

Celeste
any ideas for ask an asuran?

Benj
pets.. i wanna know about pets and minis
are there going to be some new and unique pets for rangers?
and will there be more minis in GW2

Celeste
hrm, there’s not a lot of info on that
we can make assumptions and discuss
good idea

Benj
Will the menagerie make a comeback in GW2?
will it be more personalized this time around?
and most importantly.. can I ride a flamingo or warthog this time?

Celeste
no mounts confirmed

Benj
im not asking for a mount..

Celeste
they’ve said we won’t be driving anything either
riding it would make a mount

Benj
I’m asking for an emote that lets me ride my pet in town

Celeste
LOL doubtful.

Benj
an asuran on a cute piglet would be awesome
instead of their golums
next week talk about the awesomeness of owning your own area for your kinship in GW1 and why the hell we dont have housing

Celeste
LOL
no housing at release
*at release!*

Benj
cause i want a pen in the back of my house to corral my pets
not a friggin zoo

Celeste
LOL

Benj
i mean it takes FOREVER to get to where you want to go for a pet
i mean REALLY
cant i just keep my flamingos penned up?
and wouldnt it be cool if you had a crocodile tamed and when you came home it had eaten your flamingos cause you were silly enough to pen them together?

Celeste
LOL they’d never do that
too many combinations

Benj
i mean COMEON!
its The SIMS GW Edition

Benj
we get keeps for our kinship.. pets to tame.. costumes and masks for holidays and special events.. how much harder is it to make a house with a wardrobe and rideable pets?!

Celeste
I changed kinship to guild and i’m tweeting that.

Benj
oops
i prolly shouldve tweeted that
silly lotro/gw mashup

Celeste
lol

Benj
also.. related to LOTRO
what does it take to stroll down middle earth in the rain and get a friggin umbrella!?

Celeste
LMFAO

Benj
my armor will polly rust at that rate

Celeste
unless you’re a medium or light class

Benj
should make swords, axes, and maces become damaged over time in the rain.. haveta repair more often during the rainy season
i doubt GW will have mounts
charrs ride scorpions..
i dont think charr and horses would even get along
asurans ride golums that are already slowish
yous have to put a golum on a horse and thats just redundant
and might kill the horse

Celeste
ok, golem or gollum?

(The following message could not be delivered to all recipients: ok, golem or gollum?) OutLoud: NOOOOOOOOOO!

Benj
and I imagine the plant people have something against herbivores…..

And then he had to get back to work, but I thought it was worth recording how awesome and weird my husband is.

You can’t make this crap up

Who searched for “blonde in bed” and clicked through to my site? Seriously?! (INTERROBANG’D) I just don’t know who could have used that as a search string and then decided to go to a craft/gaming blog. Just– eh, whatever raises the masts I guess.

Maybe I’m just pervy, but I can’t think of a different reason to search with those specific terms.

A Different Direction

If you’ve read my blog, you’ve got a decent idea of the sort of content I provide for this blog: a variety of gaming, crafts, and personal stuff. Now that there’s been some changes in my life I want to repurpose this blog to be more of a chronicle of house remodeling, homesteading, and life “notations”. Having two kids has been a big change for me, but hopefully not as radically later on as it will be for the few months. Life is moving along, and I’m having to go with the flow or get lost in the currents.

Have a great Saturday y’all!

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