[gma22]

Good morning gals! It is chilly this morning but we are supposed to go through another warm up so who knows? Man, I missed a sale yesterday. Kohls had all kinds of things buy one get one free then today I saw nothing so guess it was a one dayer. Bummer!

As for the cheese ball, it says 10-15 servings and Jean, what I bought comes already crumbled in a round plastic container. Maggie, I assumed because the recipe said one, it meant one container of the Treasure Cave bleu cheese. I found it at Walmart's so it is probably a lot of places. It didn't indicate serving size just # of servings. As for me, if I was making it again, I think I would add half of the blue cheese and half the olives and taste it then add more if it needed. Like I said, I thought it tasted pretty salty but I did taste a bit of the made version yesterday to see how it set up and it set up very nicely and was pretty yummy actually.

Susan: Hope you and Stan have a fabo Thanksgiving and you are able to get out before the rain hits you hard. Hope his new leg works well for him.

Jean: I know you have to be counting the minutes until the bell rings! Boy that is some warm tushy for $600! You need a car in this day and age, but they sure are more trouble then they are worth sometimes especially with all the new fangled sensors and such on them.

Maggie: We look forward to your visit! It will be lovely to meet you finally.

I have another chocolate pie to make today for tomorrow, floors to mop downstairs and the knitting. My pie for the guys at Jack's work came out beautiful. Jack said it looked like it was bought at Perkins! High praise! This is a seriously excellent cream pie base that you can make and add anything to it. You can make chocolate, coconut, banana, etc just by adding the flavor ingredients. Jack likes whipped cream rather than meringue so I put cool whip on top and then shave chocolate over it.

GRRRRRR! I was only a few rows from having the left front of the sweater done and my count was off. I ended up having to frog the whole thing. I started it over and now am about half way so I hope to finish it and get started on the other side. I really want to make the bags the and shrug too so I have to knit everday all the time! So, with that being said, I need to get out of here and finish chores and such. You all have a wonderful day!

Faye

[Maggie]

Good evening folks

FAYE Thanks for the answer about the blue cheese. I have a recipe that uses half the amount of blue cheese than cream cheese but uses relish instead of olives. I am glad to get yours with the olives since I do love olives and am anxious to make it this year. YUM chocolate pie! A definite red light food for me. I made an "impossible pumpkin pie" today and it turned out great for it's 2 points a piece Will got the turkey breast done in the Webber and since I had made the rolls we had nice sandwiches this evening. Like having left overs first!

Here is my roll recipe:
This is my most favorite roll recipe because I can make the dough in my bread machine and the rolls are large and only 2 points each. I have one of those Mini bread machines that makes a one pound loaf or lets me use 3 cups of flour if I plan to make rolls or a loaf to cook in my oven. I can cook these in my convection toaster oven. Works for me.

DINNER ROLLS MAKES 16 ~ 2 POINTS each
1 Cup water
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar (I use 1/8 C. Splenda® for baking)
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp bread machine yeast

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients in bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
Select Dough/Manual cycle. Do not use delay cycles
Remove dough from pan, using lightly floured hands. Cover and let rest 10 minutes on lightly floured surface.
Grease cookie sheet. Divide dough into 16 equal pieces.
Shape each piece into a ball and place 2 inches apart or closer if you wish. Place in a warm place for 30—40 minutes or until double.
Heat oven to 375°. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Brush tops with melted butter.

Hope this recipe helps those who are looking for a really good roll recipe that isn't high in points.

I got half the dinner done today and have the easy stuff left to do tomorrow. I do plan to keep close to my program. on all of you also.

Hope everybody that comes here has a wonderful and

[Jean]

Good Evening, Flowers! I had a haircut after school so was late getting home. We ate supper, I took a quick nap in front of the TV, and then made my layered lettuce salad for tomorrow. I love the salad and only make it when I am taking it somewhere else. I hate all of the time it takes to chop, chop, chop! The kids were wild at school today. One of the teachers has his peer help class prepare a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the ESL, special ed., custodians, and administration. The Asians bring Asian food, Mexicans bring Mexican food, etc. I got my piece of pie and egg roll early and hid them with my lunch in the teachers' lounge. Last year they ran out of food for the last shift so I didn't even bother to go down. I guess they had lots left over this year.

"Gma" -- I will have to check our WM for the bleu cheese. Our store doesn't carry the same items that we have found in the Sioux City store. Half the time they don't carry the same brand or size two times in a row and that makes me crabby for sure! That is too bad about your sweater count being off. Now would anyone, but you, notice?

Maggie -- Thanks for sharing the roll recipe. I gave my bread machine to Beth because Will wanted to try it out. I may have to get it back! Bread is my downfall and especially fresh bread. YUM! How did you make the Will Power Dust? That's cool!

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! I am heading off to bed!

Jean -- Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving from Iowa!

[gma22]

Just a quick note to wish everyone a wonderful

I will check back in tomorrow morning. Gotta run and get a shower so I can finish up the packing of the goodies to take to dd's house.

Faye

[Maggie]

I certainly hope everyone is haveing a nice day this Thanksgiving day. We have had our "big" meal at noon and I have now to do the dishes. I am resting.

JEAN I love a good salad also and those layered ones are so eye catching and always taste good too. I found the "dust" in with the smilies ~ they are always adding something new, bless their hearts.

FAYE have a safe trip and a wonderful time.

I'll type at you later . . . Don't eat too much now, ya hear?

[Jean]

Good Evening and Happy Thanksgiving evening, Flowers! Christmas is just around the corner and will be here before we know it. *groan* We had a nice day -- it was a warm 61 degrees outside this afternoon. That is rare for Iowa this time of year -- not sure if we set a record or not. I have a "to do" list for tomorrow and Saturday, so hope I can say I crossed some off come Sunday. We are working at Santa's Castle Saturday night. We are working early this year and they are expecting a big crowd since the weather is warm and it is a holiday weekend.

"Gma" -- Hope your day was an enjoyable one! See you tomorrow!

Maggie -- I can't get into the Smilies for some reason. I sent Suzanne an email, but never heard back from her.

Not much else is newsy. Hope you all have a fantastic Friday!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning everyone! Hope your Black Friday shopping day is turning out well. I want to get some stuff at Michael's for knitting but I am just staying home. I think Jack and I are going to go to the movies today and see "Deck the Halls." It looks pretty cute.

We had a lovely time yesterday and Thomas is such fun. We played a lot of board games and he keeps on surprising us. We were playing Pictionary Junior and the category was animals sounds and the word was bark. He made a tree and a hole in the tree and though his mom shouted out the answer, we discovered he was trying to finish bark on a tree! He thought I would guess that easier! He also played piano for us and boy is he good! He has been taking lessons about 4 months now, can already play two handed and played us every song in his book, including Good King Wenceslass (sp.) We had a great dinner at Cracker Barrel, only waited about half an hour and the food came to our table in only about 5 minutes. It was just an all around good time.

I have started the last piece for his Beatles sweater, but put it aside because I had to clarify a direction. I decided to start on my dil's handbag and almost have it done now. It is turning out great and very pretty. I will be anxious to felt it and sew it together. My dd looked at the pattern book and loved them so I am definitely going to fit one in for her too. They are a breeze to do and put together. I am really enjoying knitting again and you can't eat and knit without putting it down!

You all have a wonderful day!

Faye

[Jean]

Good Morning, Flowers! It started out to be a cloudy day but now the sun is peeking through the clouds. Bob is off doing hog chores for his farmer friend and I am having a lazy morning. I have a load of laundry going and caught up on my newspapers that I haven't taken time to read this week. I do need to get busy! I want to wrap some Christmas gifts and taken inventory as to what I have and what I need to get. There are a multitude of dust/fur hunks that need attention also. I think "Mom" is shedding her winter coat because it has been so warm here.

"Gma" -- I'm so glad you had a nice Thanksgiving with your family. I am anxious for Ian and Maddy to play games, but I'm not so sure how Kolby and Zowie will fit into the picture. Where did you get the pattern for the handbag? I wasn't sure if you can get them off the internet or have to send $$ in order to get them. I do know there used to be lots of books with patterns and I'm sure Michael's still probably carries them. I hated buying a whole book if there was only one pattern that I wanted. We used to make copies when I worked at a fabric/craft department.

Hope you all have a grand day. I am off to vacuum and wrap!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[Maggie]

It has been a good Friday around here. Will's Friday morning person that he counsels showed up and it gave me a good chance to get this place ship shape. They sit in chairs outside which makes it nice. I even put some ingredients in my little (foot print is the size of a piece of typing paper) bread machine to make dough for Foccacia. I have the garlic and fresh herbs sauteed in olive oil ready to go on the top after the final rise. We like this bread for panini sandwiches plus since I control what goes into it I can control the points. Have any of you watched the movies about Joan of Ark ~ we have two ~ One is called The Messanger" and the other is Joan of Ark. They are the same story but much different in the presentations. Both are good. Right now I am listening to Ann Murry sing to me on my computer as I type.

JEAN OOPS ~ sorry I thought you had that "smiley" problem straightened out. Isn't it fun to go through old magazines and papers. A nice hot cup of coffee and get with it. I have to pretty much read somethng and then dispose of it quickly because of the space. I don't have any magazines after I have read them. I cut the recipes out and then toss them as soon as I can. Hope Bob gets rid of that caugh soon.

FAYE Your knitting is really coming along girlfriend. People love to receive things that are made by others. Hand made things are the #1 gift in my estimation. I still have a few little glass things to finish up for some folks around here then I will be making some whirley things for outside. How is your husband feeling now? That swelling stuff he goes through must really be a big nuisance to put it mildly.

GAIL Hope your Thanksgiving was good with you and your family. Things going OK with you ~ still like the retired life. I sure do!

SUSAN & GLORIA Howdy to the two of you also. Hope your holiday was a good one.

Type at ya'll later ~ when I get a chance

[gma22]

Good Saturday morning everybody. I hope your day is going well. I am waiting for the UPS customer service to open so I can call and yell. Well, maybe not yell, but big gripe! I was supposed to get T's monogrammed turtleneck yesterday and they never delivered it. On top of that, I called them at 9:30 PM my time and she assured me they were behind because of the holiday but it would be delivered so I sat up until midnight and no package. I am madder than a wet hen. For one thing, we lock our back gate and keep it locked unless we are expecting a package. "This ain't Mayberry!" Also, I was practically knitting in my sleep waiting for them to show up here because some ditz said they would deliver. Now I don't know if they are going to show up today, since they don't deliver on Saturday's or not until Monday. I imagine I will get a run around again this morning when I call. I lodged an email complaint saying that people expect packages on time and pay for the service and if they don't deliver it is worthless, especially getting close to Christmas time. I get nervous the closer I get to Christmas if I am expecting a package that has to be wrapped then shipped some place else. I am cutting corners and have a few of my son and dil's baby gifts for Christmas shipped directly to them to cut out the middle man so to speak so they will get them on time. They're getting as bad as the post office and they charge a whole lot more!

We had a good time going to see "Deck the Halls" yesterday. Very, very funny movie. The movie theater was packed though. Lot of elderly and people bringing their kids. It was fun.

Jean: I have a bazillion sources for free patterns, one of the best is kntting pattern central, but I bought one of those little booklets at Michael's. It was worth the few $$ I spent as I am making 3 of the handbags out of it. I sure hope this one comes out ok. It is a weird shape right now, sort of like a huge elf hat! I have part of one of the handle pieces and one whole piece to do then they can be felted and dried then put together. I have never felted before so I am anxious to try it.

Maggie: Sounds like yummy bread. I like to make the dough in the machine then do the raising out. I make a garlic bread that way, putting minced garlic in the dough ingrediants. You can cut down a lot by using ff or powdered milk, I use egg beaters instead of eggs, and margarine instead of butter etc for regular egg bread. I like my french bread recipe too.

Hope Gloria, Gail, Susan, you all had wonderful holidays!

I will talk later. I am going to see if I can get UPS on the phone!

Faye

[Maggie]

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

And a beautiful cool day in the neighborhood it is. Will has gone driving horses and it sure is quiet around here. Ragg Mopp is outside and here I am. It seems that that Black Friday thing is more for you folks "out east" than here. Not much talk of it here anyway. Maybe I am just now aware since I am not a "shopper" per say.

FAYE UPS is arrogant. Ever since they went on strike they haven't caught up. You know that they knew that the volume of packages always picks up this time of the year so it was their responsibility to cover it. Either hire temp drivers or pay some overtime ~ but get the stuff delivered. Lots of places of business have switched to Fed-Ex and they do deliver. Don't you just love how we can lighten up our recipes. I love using those beaters and powdered milk and Splenda. When I am out of beaters I just use a couple whites for an egg or when my recipe calls for a half an egg I just use the white. And you know, the dough really can't tell the difference and makes up a nice loaf.

Have a great weekend folks. Do something remarkable.

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! The sunshine has disappeared and the rain clouds are moving in. It's still relatively warm outside . . strange weather for sure. I've spent most of the day doing odds 'n ends of things on my "to do" list. I don't think I will ever be without my list! We had some friends from out of town call this morning and wanted to meet for coffee, so we spent a couple hours catching up on each other's news. We are working at Santa's Castle tonight so need to watch the time and change clothes. I even found my "Ho Ho Ho" sweater without any trouble!

Maggie -- Your bread sounds delicious! I haven't seen the Joan of Ark movies; we aren't much on movie going. I think we got burned out when we were dating. A long time ago I printed the smilies so I have the 'formulas' for making the regular ones. It is the holiday ones that I don't have and when I try to click on "more" it doesn't go anywhere, then says "there is an error on page such and such." I have no clue what the problem is and have never heard back from 3FC when I emailed them and asked for suggestions. I recycle magazines to the hospital and to MIL when she is here in the summer months. I am NOT a shopper either! I spent Black Friday working in a closet!

"Gma" -- I hope the turtleneck arrived today. I would be upset too although I'm sure it probably won't do you any good to vent. Just hope you get it in time for Christmas! Be sure to post a picture of the handbag for us. I love bread and could eat it morning, noon, and night without anything else on the menu! Bread is part of my weight problem!

Hope all of you Flowers are having a nice weekend! Have a super Sunday tomorrow!

Jean -- in Iowa!

[gma22]

Good Sunday morning ladies! It is nice and balmy here even this morning! We got up into the 70's yesterday and will remain in the upper 60's until Thursday than a nose dive to low 40's for the high! I go out in the morning wearing sweaters and turtlenecks and end up sweating by afternoon.

No turtleneck! I called yesterday morning and they said my item would be delivered yesterday. I had contacted Land's End and got a response back saying she had contacted UPS and they said it wasn't a guaranteed two day delivery and they had a lot of holiday packages! Well big surprise on that, it is the holidays! Anyway, the Land's End lady apologized but there is nothing they can do about it. Then I checked my tracking yesterday afternoon and they had rescheduled the delivery until Monday! I hate them! I am angry not because of the two day thing so much as I paid standard delivery with Land's End not expedited, but the fact that I stayed up until midnight on Friday after they said they would deliver for sure then, on Saturday we stayed home waiting for the delivery and now it isn't coming until Monday. I do not like leaving that gate unlocked more than I have to.

Here is my first foray into the world of knitted felting. Only problem is the yarn I use is known to more expert knitters to felt very fast and I didn't know this. I followed the directions given by the manufacturer because it was one of their books. My handbag came out pretty small and my dil may not like it, but I tried stretching it as much as I could, but it didn't help. I still have to sew up the handles better and get a toggle for the fastener and I may put a snap in too since it isn't very deep. It is a nice small bag to use once in awhile though. My next one for my dd I will know not to felt more than about 4-5 minutes instead of 15. Still working on that sweater for Thomas, but I have lots of time to finish it. I am trying to get stuff done that I have to ship off to my son and dil done first so I can get things out in the next week or so.

Maggie: I think people would be amazed if they only tried how you can trim fat, sugar and such out of food and make it taste good. Sometimes you haveto have fat to make dough come out right or some such, but most of the time even that can be cut down upon. I know how much I can cut out for Jack because I have done it. Problem is, most people dont' want to put the work into it. For example, I make a swiss steak in the crockpot with a sirloin cut (lower fat) tomato sauce, and a packet of the brown gravy mix. You can get lower sodium in these mixes now too! I brown the meat in Pam then transfer to crockpot with the tomato sauce/gravy mixture and just cook it then thicken it a bit for gravy. Jack loves it and he hates swiss steak. I also do this using the ff canned beef broth and a gravy mix and he has more of an Amish baked steak with gravy. I buy cans and cans of beef and chicken broth either ff or 99% depending on what I can get and lower sodium. You can make tons of stuff this way. Jack has always loved gravy and this is one way he can have gravy without fat drippings. I make him a little sausage gravy once in awhile using lowfat Tennessee Pride rolled sausage, ff milk and about a 1tbl of olive oil because their isn't rendering from the sausage. Now this is a treat not an everyday thing, but I still cut calories from it. You don't haveto completely change your foods, just change the way they are fixed. I think people give up easily because they radically change how they eat thinking they can no longer have anything worth eating and that's just not so. I thought when Jack had his heart attack that I would have a horrible time keeping him on the American Heart association program, but it hasn't been hard at all.

Jean: Hope you had fun at the "north pole" yesterday. What responsibilities has Santa assigned you while you are there? Oh, have you ever found Kolby his rocking horse?

Well, morning chores are calling me. I better get to them!

Faye

[Jean]

Good Evening, Flowers! It is raining in my corner of the world tonight and almost to the freezing mark on the thermometer. I may be skating/sliding to school tomorrow. Jason and family came over this afternoon and we visited Santa's Castle tonight. We went right when it opened, but I have a feeling there won't be many visitors tonight because of the weather. Ian practiced what he was going to say to Santa and then gave him a completely different item that he never mentioned to us! Zowie sat on Santa's lap for about 30 seconds . . . long enough for Grandpa to take a picture. She has a skinned up nose and looked pretty worried . . . she turned her head away from him as if he would go away if she couldn't see him.

"Gma" -- I think your purse turned out great! When you talk about felting does that mean you are lining it with felt as you knit or is the yarn some kind of felt? I am confused! Bob and I worked the main desk last night at Santa's Castle. We take the money and take a count of adults and a separate count for children. We have a notebook for people to sign in; the chamber likes to know where people come from. We also answer questions if we can. There is another volunteer who will take polaroid pictures of Santa and child if the parents forgot their camera, and a toy shop where you can buy 'cheap' plastic stuff or nicer Santa's Castle ornaments and sweatshirts. An older gentleman has a room set up with his model trains. The designer hid 20 little beanie baby mice throughout and the kids are supposed to see if they can find them all. At the end of the tour there is a contest to name the mouse. They leave the castle set up all year around and are working to catalog all of the displays. They pick and choose different ones to display each year and redesign the layout. Each year they try to find someone who has a collection of something to display. This year it is dolls made by a local lady. I can find all kinds of horses on line . . . the first one I wanted is painted all one ugly color, my next choice has "fur" for the mane and tail, and the last choice has a sound box for an extra $75! I did find a site that has free shipping but the horse is several inches smaller and weighs less than the exact same horse on another site. I emailed a question to them, but of course, have had no reply as of yet. Free shipping would be nice!

Well, I have a kitchen to put back together so guess I'd better keep moving. Have a marvelous Monday tomorrow!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning everybody! It is really warm here this morning so I am sitting around in a summer nightgown. I have a lot I need to accomplish today, but want to make a real mark on T's sweater since yesterday. I had the worst time getting the sleeves started. I didn't know it when I picked the pattern, but the sleeves were not made separate (I didn't look at the pattern well enough) and you had to pick up stitches along the side of the front, over the shoulder than down the other side. After starting it about 5 times and ripping out, I finally got the hang of it and now have a partial sleeve! I dread having to do it with the other side though.

Jean: Felting is this big thing right now. I guess knitter used to do it with felting needles, but you can now use the machine. You knit something in a yarn that is 100% wool (but not the new washable wool) then you "wash" it for a period of minutes in your washer in hot water. It shrinks and becomes heavy felt. This handbag is almost like a rug it is so dense now. While it's wet you pull it into shape and size and then let it dry. What my problem was I followed the pattern book on how long and I let it stay in too long and it shrunk too much so now the handbag is more for a teenager. I am going to make another one after Christmas and a winter hat and send them to my 2 nieces and nephew. My brother's kids are 11,11, and 13. I am going to make my dil another one and only leave it in about 5 minutes or less. On my knitting forum one of the ladies told me that this particular yarn felts really fast. She wasn't kidding.

I talked to our dil last night and she said she isn't having morning sickness just a feeling of food caught in her throat all the time. She went to the doctor and she hasn't gained any weight, but she was measured and is 2.5 inches bigger so the little one is growing. She got to hear the heartbeat again too. This is her mom's first grandchild, both her sisters are unmarried, my dd's first nephew or niece and T's first cousin and her dad's first grandchild as well. We were talking about Christmas and I told her I was shipping the baby's Christmas present straight to them (I bought him a vibrating bouncy seat) and she was saying everyone was buying stuff and she was afraid they wouldn't have anything to get at the shower! Boy, that would be awful, to have absolutely everything, wouldn't it? She had a huge bridal shower so I am sure her baby shower will be the same. I know that my dd bought her a sling and some kind of towel and a sterling silver rattle from Thomas. He is really excited about the baby. I got the baby a bouncy seat and made the sweater, hat, blanket combo then am getting this sign language for mom and baby that she wants.

I am all excited as I am going to my very first red hat luncheon on Saturday. I am looking forward to it. It is a Christmas exchange and I wish I had time to knit something like pot holders, etc or something, but gonna have to just buy something. They are also having an auction to raise money for the chapter with a few fun things and some door prizes so it will be fun.

Well, need to get going and start some work. Why does housecleaning keep coming back needing to be redone?

Faye