I know, I’m just wowing you with the great post titles lately, huh?

Thank you all for your compliments on my autumnal yarn. I’m really quite happy with it, too! The spinning could have been more technically proficient–it wasn’t near to balanced–but I don’t care. I love it anyway!

Chappy and I are on our own tonight. Mom and Dad are in the city at the Carly Simon concert. They left about 3:15 this afternoon to pick up their friends. They were all driving into New York together, getting supper, and then heading over to the concert–hopefully with plenty of time to spare so that Mom wouldn’t be stressed.

I’ve spent my evening profitably enough, getting ready for Thanksgiving on Thursday. I made a batch of cranberry-applesauce–my favorite. I always liked the jellied stuff from a can for the sake of the texture, but it wasn’t great for flavor. But I don’t like the texture of whole cranberries at all–too chewy, or something–so most alternative recipes just don’t do it for me. But this recipe, I love.

Take a bag of cranberries, put them in a pot with a little orange or cranberry juice–just enough to wet the bottom of the pan so things won’t stick and burn. Bring up to a boil, then cover, turn down the heat, and cook over medium-low heat until all the berries have popped and are soft. Turn out into a fine mesh strainer (or a food mill, if you’re lucky enough to have one) and press all the pulp through the mesh (be sure to scrape the bottom of the strainer to get as much of the pulp as possible). Discard what’s left in the strainer, and return the pot to the stove. Add sugar to taste–usually between 1/4 and 1/2 cup. And then I cheat a little and use a jar of apple sauce, rather than making my own. (Hey, I believe in doing things from scratch, but homemade applesauce tastes pretty much exactly like the stuff from the store, so I prefer to save my apple-peeling and -chopping for more important things.) Stir to blend, taste for sweetness. And that’s it. Chill until ready. It’s got a nice smooth texture, that all-important cranberry zing, and a gorgeous red color. Perfect.

I also made–or tried to make–little mini chocolate bundt cakes (since not everyone loves pumpkin pie–hard though I find that to believe). They baked fine but . . . didn’t want to come out of the pan. So I’m left with 6 bottoms and a pile of crumbs. Sigh. Sometimes, bundt pans just really don’t like me! Still . . . I sampled the crumbs (well, they were just sitting there), and they tasted yummy. On a plate with a little whipped cream or ice cream . . . who’ll really care that they don’t look perfect?

Tomorrow, I’ll make the pumpkin pies, and then all the advance stuff for Thanksgivng dinner will be done. Then we’ll just cross our fingers for the weather. It’s possible we’ll have some snow–and that my sister will get several inches. We agreed that if they get a fair amount of snow, that we’ll just postpone our family Thanksgiving until Friday. A little disappointing, if it happens, but since none of us were planning on going shopping on Friday, anyway, no problem. My only solid plan for the weekend is to go see Pride & Prejudice, which could be any of the days, so . . . flexible! I might be seeing Cindy on Sunday, too, which would be nice–I haven’t seen her since October, and she claims to have a birthday present waiting for me . . .

A couple cute links. Like, this site where you can time the speed it takes to type the alphabet. And how cool is this? A washing machine that doesn’t use water. Just a prototype, but so, so cool! That’s almost as nifty as the Scooba, which I would dearly love to have. Mopping floors and I do not get along. And do you exercise? You do? Are you sure? How about your eyes?

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Another fun little quiz

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

• Tags: Baking, Family, General • Permalink:Tuesday Stuff // 3 Comments »