Seasonal Saturday

It was nice to have a free day today. Nothing on the agenda except finishing up basketball photos. Got that done by noon.

Then we pretty much hung around the house. Hubby made homemade chicken noodle soup. I finished the last of my Christmas treat making for next weekend's cookie exchange. Got our Christmas cards ordered and all the address labels printed out.

Managed to squeeze in a Hallmark movie before we went out to eat at Avocado's Mexican restaurant. Now it's just past 7 so I'm thinking I could squeeze in 2 more maybe before lights out. Don't want to set too lofty of a goal on a free day.

But I'm also pretty competitive. Ha.

Hope you enjoyed some seasonal fun today, too!

Bake OFF

If you don't know what this is a picture of than good for you, your day may have been better than mine. 

Hubby and I were just trying to do the nice thing for his parents. At least once a week we make a supper for them. That is, Jim makes it and I often times add the sweet stuff. 

So today he's whipping up some cajun chicken noodle soup (Jim's own yummy concoction) and I chimed in that I could bake a small batch of cookies. So I turn on the oven to 350 and get the dough on the pan and into the oven. Since I am a bit of a perfectionist and need both sides of the cookies to bake evenly, I always set the timer for halfway through or so I can turn the pan around. While doing that with the first ones in there today, I noticed the temp was below 350 so I turned the dial to 375. I kept checking it every 2 minutes and realized the oven was losing heat, not going back up. 

Needless to say, it took a long time to bake that first pan. They were good, though. I put in the second pan and it never had a chance. Took that out and rather than looking closely at the oven, I Googled the problem. 

Turns out an oven often loses heat if the heating element isn't working. I take a look and what do you know, our "bake element" is looking crispy and burned like it was "baked" and it shouldn't be. Thank goodness for Google.

Well also because even though I'm accused of saving EVERYTHING, I couldn't find the owner's manual for that 20-year-old stove. Found the serial number inside the broiler drawer thingy and was able to find it online, figure out the replacement part, and order it. (According to the video tutorial, it should be an easy installation job, too.)

After that, I took the cookie dough off the second pan, put it in a container, and will take it out to bake in approximately two days. If Amazon prime delivers on time.

Maybe I should have changed the shipping label to Betty Crocker!

Goodbye, January

I've never been so happy to start February. There was much rejoicing today when the temperature edged above zero. That and the weatherman saying the low was "only getting down to 10 tonight." Yup, we're a strange lot in Wisconsin.

In fact, the line for a car wash this afternoon was wrapped around the building. It's going to be a little nutty the next two days as we approach "mild" temps above the freezing mark. No jackets required. That's for sure.

That said, it's still winter sports season.

Tonight we enjoyed a double-header at Assumption, who played host to Prentice – which I guess is pretty stinkin' far north. Since both boys and girls played AND it was Catholic Schools Week (even though they only had classes one day) they held a Hoops and Soups fundraiser. The school district booked me to shoot it awhile back.

What's so exciting about watching hoops and eating soup? Mainly the halftime entertainment. We had the Little Royals aka the Little Dribblers. They did some different moves and tricks to music. So adorable.

I didn't even go through pictures. I just picked a random one and oh, my, goodness. So adorable! These kids are just little cuties! And pretty good ball handlers, too.

So that will be part of my fun this weekend – sorting through those. Plus taking some senior pictures tomorrow (basketball only) and making treats for a Super Bowl party. Somewhere in there I will get in one of those car wash lines. Who cares if it's supposed to rain Sunday? Black Betty wants to shed that salt and ice guck.

Me, too! Hello, February. Let's be friends.

Chicken Soup for the Skol

The weather forecast for tomorrow calls for a high of 54 and low of 31 with an 80% chance of rain and 100% chance of chicken noodle soup!

It's the time of year where we just don't know what Mother Nature has in store as we head out the door. Today, for example, the weather dudes had suggested a 70% of rain. Well that was done by 7 a.m. and the day turned out sunny and rather nice, I'd say.

Still, it was a nice surprise to come home to a cool-weather favorite: hubby's homemade chicken noodle soup – or as I like to call it, Chicken Soup for the SKOL!

Hey, you gotta cut me some slack here. We have the only, yes only, undefeated team in the NFL. Gotta show my Horns a little bit! In fact, I have the word SKOL written on my white board at work this week and some co-workers – obviously non-Viking fans and non-Scandihoovian – wondered what the Norwegian or Swedish word meant, or if it was related to chewing tobacco, which I believe is actually Skoal.

In answer, naturally, I started singing the Vikings fight song that fans sing after every score.

Skol Vikings, let's win this game,
Skol Vikings, honor your name,
Go get that first down,
Then get a touchdown.
Rock 'em . . . Sock 'em
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Go Vikings, run up the score,
You'll hear us yell for more. . .
V-I-K-I-N-G-S
Skol, Vikings, let's go!

My musical talents were not appreciated. And apparently it didn't completely clarify the meaning of SKOL. Perhaps my dancing with the singing is a bit distracting.

It's just a Nordic word for a toast of celebration, like "Cheers!" or "To Good Health!" or "Purple Pride!"

Since I don't have any lager in a stein, I'll just lift up my soup bowl for a toast. And since he made a huge stock pot and there are only two of us, I may be skol-ing every day until they play again... and they have a bye this week!

I don't mind. It tastes yummy and it's good for the skol, er soul.