Making Whoopie

Whoopie Pies for cryin' outloud, get your minds out of the gutter!


The Spousal Unit commented last night that I never bought anything containing chocolate any more and the fact is the kids don't really eat that junk food stuff these days. I mean the last few boxes of Little Debbies or Hostess Snacks I bought went uneaten. I know, shocker that. So today I decided I wanted to make some good old Amish Whoopie Pies. Well truthfully I bought this book:

Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Shar

Which reminded me that I had this cookbook, my all time favorite by the way:

Cooking from Quilt Country : Hearty Recipes from Amish and Mennoni



So I combined both recipes and then screwed up the filling. I made a deal with my friend Pam, "these cookies were supposed to be a surprise but do you think you can make the filling because I've already wasted three cups of milk trying to do the one in the Quilt Country cookbook". She reminded me that all my surprise gifts ended up having a string attached(like the bag I made her but she had to do her own lining--) but thankfully the awesomeness that is the Whoopie Pie made up for my lack of skilz.

This recipe is similar to the one I used:

Cooks.com - Recipe - Chocolate Whoopie Pies

My filling though is a basic vanilla buttercream frosting--thanks again PAM!

I have just noticed that I have yet to blog on this season's Project Runway, my favorite was auf'd last week. I loved Kellie--hope I got her name right. I thought she was creative and was a solid designer. I'm enjoying this season when I remember to watch it. The whole Olympic thing has thrown off all regularly scheduled tv viewing, like I keep forgetting The Closer on Monday nights. What is wrong with me?

The spousal unit and I started watching Season 1 of Weeds. I see that I must subscribe to Showtime because we are digging this show. I've also heard good things about Californication too.

I'm trying to get some order back in my life since the kids are back in school but I seem to be failing but hopefully I'll get it all figured out soon.

Right Now

I am dreaming of starting this: Jane Atkinson



I'm wanting to finish 13th Colony Bay. Really. Really. Seriously. I want to finish this.



I want to work on Sonne Spotte--it's SO beautiful.



I have to finish 6 or 7 ornaments for a swap I'm in. I know what I want to stitch, but I'm not feeling the Christmas spirit at the moment.



I want to get over myself and sew the lining in the fat bottom bags. I hate it when I procrastinate.



I am so ashamed that I watched two straight days of America's Next Top Model on MTV this weekend. I absolutely positively did not want to leave the house at all, for anything. Ok, I didn't want to leave the couch for any reason, not just the house. It's such a great show. I am waiting patiently, sorta, for the new season of Project Runway to start. Come on Nov. 14th!



I want to start my Dresden Plate quilt, knit or crochet a few scarves, finish those fatbottom bags, make some Granny squares, and cross stitch all these amazing projects. There is not enough time in the day. I have overwhelmed myself with projects so instead I do nothing but watch two straight days of America's Next Top Model.

I did work a little bit on Samsarah's Always Be a Wildflower. Considering how much TV I watched you would think I would have that sucker finished but no, I only played at stitching. Made progress but not a lot.

Is it crazy that I'm not really a knitter but I'm wanting, seriously, if I don't get the whole interchangeable set of these I'll just die. I'm not a knitter, I only play at it right now, but these
needles are just beautiful! I think I could become a real knitter with these. Just gorgeous. I've been dreaming about them ever since I got the new Knit Picks catalog in the mail.

Anna-I made those Rachael Ray's Devilish Chili Dogs Recipe Recipezaar today for lunch.
YUM-O! Very good. Thanks for the link.

Tonight's dinner, chicken and noodles. I'm thinking I might make some Moosewood Lentil Soup from the original Moosewood cookbook one day this week. It's still ridiculously hot down here but I'm craving the comfort foods these days and few things are as comforting as that Lentil Soup.

And it's really hard to quilt when the dog ate the plug off the iron. Ironing is kind of important to quilting and if you decide oh well I just embroider some tea towels using one of Aunt Martha's Iron on transfers instead....DOH! The key word would be "Iron" on or maybe the key phrase is "the dog ate the plug off the iron"...hmmmm.....When does America's Next Top Model come on again.....at least that doesn't require ironing.

Deep, Dark Secrets

Confession time, I have this problem. It's embarassing. I'm so ashamed, but here ya go:

I'm addicted to Rock of Love

I can't help it. It's a weakness. I would love to blame it on me being this total 80s girl stuck back in the era of glam hair bands--well I am but that's not the point. I was never, ever a huge Poison fan. Never had a crush on Bret Micheals, I'm a Motley Crue, Nikki Sixx kind of girl, but I can't stop watching Rock of Love. I can't stop. It's crazy. This whole show is crazy.

I think the next series Rock of Love star should be Tommy Lee. He's crazy, the women contestants are obviously all a little nuts, except for Jess. She's actually kept her cool, and even though I don't know her, I feel she's been true to herself. Do you see, I've got a serious problem? Can you tell I am totally in love with the crazy?

Other than that, I have discovered that I prefer 16 month olds to 16 yr olds and 19 month olds to 19 year olds. I feel that keeping toxic poisons out of reach of small toddler hands was much easier than trying to keep one's teens from being toxic. I knew that as the boys got older, their needs would change, what they needed from me would change but this last week I've felt like one of those parents that doesn't have a clue about what's going on in her kids lives and in all honesty, we do talk, I do have a clue but when several things hit you at once, whew, I'm glad to kiss the past week goodbye, bygones and time for fresh starts with a strengthed parent/teen relationship--I hope unless of course they are playing me which is possible, but I think we all are on the same page.

With any luck pictures in a day or two of some fat bottomed bags, one is going to be a gift and I'm still avoiding the sewing in of the lining because I'm a big fatbottomed baby. Maybe I'll suck it up and do it tonight.

Random Thoughts

Life is quiet for the moment. Days spent driving kids back and forth to where ever, not much else.

Stitching time has been hit or miss the last few days. I've been obsessed with Sonne Spotte but feel 13th Colony Bay calling me. My plan had been to have that completed by July 4th. I'm no where near having it finished. Fortunately I'm not one of those people that bases the quality of their stitching life by how many things I finish. If that were the case I'd be pretty miserable.

Don't get me wrong. I love finishing things, I love them framed, I love them hanging on the wall, but that's not what it's all about for me. It's just being able to sit down, needle in hand, and chill. That is IT for me.

Today I started thinking about what is happiness. It's one of those simple yet complex questions.

The vision that popped in my mind was my Mamaw's cinnamon toast and hot chocolate. Then I started thinking about her popcorn popped in an old iron skillet sprinkled with Lawry's seasoning salt and an icy cold Coke. My Mamaw thought she was a genius the first time she sprinkled Lawry's on the popcorn. Then I thought about the swing in her yard, twilight and fireflies. I thought about how she smelled. I guess happiness to me is my Mamaw and everything she was to me. I also think of her as summer. She lived across the road from us so I saw her everyday but she was, is summer, to me. Sitting on the carport talking, watching Johnny Carson until it was time to go to bed. Reading a book sitting in her swing, writing in my diary. I found that old diary the other day, I mostly wrote, "Boring" or "Didn't do anything today". But I did write in it every boring day of the summer between 7th and 8th grade.

Over the last week or so I've read a few books:

Twelve Sharp-Janet Evanovich
On Writing-Stephen King(third time I've read this)
Plum Lovin'-Janet Evanovich
How I Write-Janet Evanovich
Grave Surprise-Charlaine Harris-I really loved this book. Compelling main character. It's the second book in this new series, I need to track down the first one.

I've listened to:

The Beach House-James Patterson
To the Nines-Janet Evanovich

I'm currently reading:

Eat, Pray, Love-Elizabeth Gilbert

Currently in the walkman-Shrink Rap-Robert B. Parker

Anyone see Coming to America-Victoria Beckham the other night? I liked it. She's a lot more entertaining than some of our American celebrities. I thought it was a hoot. But there's no accounting for taste huh?