Yippee! I finally get to start the daily! I know Kara is probably lurking around here so

Yesterday was a day of great accomplishment. So what if I was loading sliced turkeys into the school fridge at 10 PM - everything is ready. I'm staying right out of the veggie and dessert part of this prep. Claire and I were thinking about we grandmothers doing the work when the whole idea was the PTA's. So many parents both have to work these days - sad. I actually have no grandbabies around here but am surrogate to at least seven kids.

Donna didn't show yesterday but will be here this afternoon. We need to have a talk but I think I'll leave it until after my knee operation! I intend to work around her this afternoon and get some decorating started.

I am thinking about Christmas and also my knee operation. Lots to do for the latter but I think Christmas is pretty well in hand. It'll be busy with company, a trip or two to Ottawa and a friend coming for NY's but will be fun.

What's on your mind today?

Ahhh, you beat me to it, Ruth!

I'm listening to the weather reports, we're due for freezing rain, sleet, and snow throughout the day. I'm waiting to see what happens before I have to head out. So far, there's school as usual, but Cindy is going to take them this morning. I didn't get home until after 8 last night, so at least I won't have to feel guilty about not going in until later today.

What's everyone up to today?

Be safe, Cottage. I just checked the weather radar and see bad stuff in Southern NY State that looks like it's slopping over into PA.

Ruth, Yes, "slop" is right. I used to love winter, before I had to drive in this stuff. It put a whole new perspective on it.

Morning all

The sloppy stuff is also heading for my corner of Vermont. I assume I will have to reschedule my end of day appointments. I've got my first PT appointment this morning. I have high hopes for this one - I really want to get on a regular exercise program and hope they can help me with that. It's frustrating to work out a few days only to need a few days off because of pain

Other than that lots of cooking to do. I'm helping out with a food demo tomorrow at our Co-op and have a post Christmas Bird Count potluck Saturday night. Time to get creative.

Have a good day everyone!

What the heck is a Christmas Bird Count potluck, Cyndi??? Hope your PT appointment goes well!

Ruth, have a thoughtful rest of your day! I usually have so much going on in my head that I have to "download" onto a sheet of paper or I start to lose it all!

Linda, stay safe today!

Busy day as usual here. I tried the eggplant "french toast" this morning and it was outstanding! I should have put some cinnamon in the egg when I soaked the eggplant but I wasn't sure if the eggplant would taste good sweet. I ended up sprinkling some on before drizzling a bit of sugar-free syrup over top. Kadyn and Avery ate them up! Between the three of us, we just about finished a whole eggplant!

Tomorrow is going to be quite a day. It's my last day of Phase 1 AND the day we're doing our cookie baking for the season. Tempation much? I was going to hold off the cookie baking, but we always tag team tree (or air conditioner ) decoration with cookie baking and I can't break tradition. Isn't it amazing how entrenched we are in tradition? I just CAN'T not do it!

I've got to sweep the floor before I read Harry Potter to the kids. I'll check back in later!

Kara

Kara- The Christmas Bird Count is an annual event where crazy people (like me) spend every daylight hour and some evening hours driving/walking around counting every bird they see in a specific area and then reporting them to the local organizer. In the evening we gather at someone's house to total our counts and eat a nice hot meal together. It's more fun than it sounds if you're into that sort of thing

The eggplant french toast sounds yummy. Now I have to check out that recipe.

Off to my day!

Good Morning Everyone-
Ruth Good luck with your to do list. It's such a nice thing you do being a surrogate grandma to all thse kids. I'm sure their parents appreciate the help.
Cottage and Cyndi Stay warm an be careful out there.
Kara My mom has always said that our traditions are the things that bind us to our family. I love traditions but I'm going to have to come up with a few that aren't food related.
Me The smoke detector decided 3:00 am was the perfect time to notify me it needed a new battery. It just kept making this pathetic beep sound. I get up early anyway but that was kind of ridiculous. Off to make breakfast. I had the worst time eating yesterday. I wasn't hungry all day. Wow never thought I'd say that.
Have a great day everyone.

Dawn, I agree that 3:00 a.m. is too early. Avery just started sleeping through the night this month (she's a year and a half now) and I am so glad to be able to doze past that hour!

Cyndi, are you allowed to count the same bird twice? How do you know? Does the person who gets the most birds win? Do you have any quail farms nearby??? Zoos??? I'm kidding. Have fun!

Kara

Forgot to add the kids' Christmas greeting:

Good Morning Everyone...no time for personals today as usual...rush, rush, rush!

Hope everyone gets everything on their "to-do" list accomplished today (mine is a killer!) and hope all of you in the frozen north can get where you need to go and stay warm! It is foggy, humid, misty and warm here...it's supposed to get cold again by the weekend. I have been having to run the air condition in my classroom...with 25 computers running in there and 25 hot little bodies in the room, it gets soooo stuffy..especially after recess when they all smell like little wet puppies! Thank gawd for scented candles.

The scale moved down 2 lbs today...so today it is my friend...it's a stupid friend, but a friend.

I'm off to the tasks..

Thinking Thinking Thinking ah yes...! wait, first Ahhh, there! now the brain cells are a firin!

Ruthxxx--- yep you sure got a lot of thinnin' going on! You and Claire are the Delta's Angels for sure... tis hard anymore with 2 working parents to get in volunteer work and more..I bet your efforts are appreciated!

Cottage- watchin the weather report.. you guys look like yer gonna get some slop! Stay safe.. nothin to feel guilty about... why, you could even hae enough time to whip about another batch of biscotti!

Femme: Wet puppy smell sounds like another busy day in Nawlin's !

Stay safe and toasty warm CindyM..

ThinbyJune: my smoke alarm does double duty as my oven timer... kinda lets ya know my level of culinary skills

Kara: You are the EGGPLANT EXPERT!!! I love eggplant, but darn I cant seem to do it right..(see comment above) its always limp and bitter..eggplant frenchtoast sounds delish --is there a recipe posted? You sound like such a great mom! Such warm memories Avery and Kayden will have!

Pacergal: Hope PrincessPacer had a wonderful Birthday!!!
KimStar- your ring is STUNNINK!!!!!!!! Kim Dublin is just charming! The Irish people delightful! I love going there!

The bunnyslipper brigade has to git back to work! Nothing planned afterwards except more unpacking... Chick Parm on the menu tonight....
Have a Supah day allllllllllllllll!

Kara, here's a good recipe for your little ones for gingerbread that's really easy to work with -

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 sm. box butterscotch instant pudding
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ginger
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Beat butter, sugar, dry pudding mix and egg in large bowl til well blended. Combine remaining ingredients and gradually add to pudding mixture, beating well after each addition; cover and refrigerate about an hour or until dough is firm. Preheat oven to 350*. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to a 1/4" thickness. Cut into gingerbread shapes and place on greased cookie sheets. Bake 10 - 12 minutes.

Your Christmas card is really cute, those kids are just adorable!

I found the eggplant french toast recipe buried in the Phase 1 breakfasts. It was super easy, though...

1 eggplant, sliced (I peeled it first)
1 carton of Eggbeaters (I used the smaller one, like the size of a little milk -pint? quart?)
next time I'll add cinnamon to the egg and probably a dash of salt

Soak the eggplant slices in the Eggbeaters (I soaked them for about ten minutes and then just left them in there as I cooked.)
I cooked them by spraying a pan with Pam and then placing three rounds in and covering the pan with a lid. I figured it would soften them a bit. It did. I flipped them when the bottoms were browning and left the lid on for the second side. They were floppy, but I prefer my eggplant that way.

I've gotten really bitter eggplant before, but lately they've been really good, so I don't know if it matters what season you get them in or if I've just been lucky.

Good luck! Hope it turns out for you!

Cat, I hope your party preparations go well. Wish I could lend a hand, but I don't think we'd arrive in time!

Kara

Thanks, Linda! We actually decided to do a gingerbread house instead of men because the BX is out of cookie cutters. Completely out. Not a single cookie cutter in the entire store! And Koreans aren't so much known for their cookies, so there are none to be found downtown either! But thanks for the recipe. We'll try it next year when we get our stuff out of storage.

Kara