Turkey day is tomorrow, do I have the flu?

I am feeling a bit off today, like I might be getting sick or something. I am trying hard to kick it by eating well, drinking tons of water and resting. Hopefully I am not getting the flu or something.

N is thinking the fact that I ate subway might have something to do with it. I guess eating lunch meat while pregnant is not recommended because of nitrates and listeria… The thing I don’t get is how my niece turned out fine after her mother ate nothing but subway while pregnant. Well, I am not going to worry too much about it, it is done so now I am moving on.

I am looking forward to a chill Thanksgiving tomorrow. The menu is planned, we have everything we need already and N has the whole day off so we are just going to bust out the Christmas cards and have a low key day. Woot. Hopefully I’ll be able to spend the day out of bed but we’ll see.

Oh, I found a video today about an amazing midwife who is working to change the system. She is 81. Oh, how I wish there was a free standing birth clinic in my area.

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Yay Amigo!

Remember when I mentioned that our only car (the poor amigo) was getting a new soft top? Well, the soft top arrived yesterday and N got it installed today. Hurray for keeping the cold air out of the moving vehicle!

This is a huge deal for us considering it has been about 4 years since we started talking about getting a new top for the thing. It is amazing what a difference it makes to. The car is actually not uncomfortable to ride in anymore. Before the wind would whistle through the car blowing dust, leaves and other debris in to your face. Also, people riding in the back were not protected from the rain or snow.

They day we dropped my mom and brother off at the airport after the road trip this was how the ride went:

Also, N had coworkers who would gawk and comment about the torn top, in general it was an eye sore and a pain but being our only car we dealt with it until recently! Here are some before and after photos for comparison:

We are so pleased to have the new top on the Amigo, it looks so much better!

Now I am off to take a bath, I have a killer hair headache that I can’t take motrin for thanks to Tater Tot so I am going to soak the pain away.

My reader has been acting up and I am just going through manually clicking through my blog roll now, if I haven’t commented on your blog lately don’t be mad… I am getting there, I promise!

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Good morning all, got a flood? We do!

Look what we had the pleasure of waking up to in the basement of our rental… It rained most of the night and thank goodness our neighbors warned us about the leaky basement as we were moving it. Apparently our basement has some major leaking issues and today we get to witness them first hand.

Here is a video I tried to make of the madness. You can hear the water squishing in the carpet when someone walks over 9 or 10 foot wide drenched area. The cats and dog are quite concerned about the wetness as are we.

The water is coming from under the storage rack we have in the corner, it is flowing across the floor and right under the wooden bar/ wall and is under the tile behind the bar. No water is going down the drain yet…

The landlords never mentioned it to us but thankfully the next door neighbor did so we have nothing that can really be damaged down there. All the stuff in the flood path is in plastic bins so I am thankful about that but I just can’t believe this is an on-going issue with the house that is yet to be fixed.

Will there be standing water in the basement by tomorrow morning? Should we turn fans on down there to dry it all up or what?

We are just glad none of our stuff is destroyed. We are worried about toxic mold growing in the walls as a result of this insane flooding issue.

So how is the weather in your neck of the woods? Got rain or floods?

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Making ladyfingers from scratch

Earlier in the week N wanted to make up a batch of ladyfingers. The goal was to make homemade Tiramisu, one of his favorite desserts but you need ladyfingers to make it. We searched high and low for ladyfingers in the stores last weekend, nobody sells them.

Being the baker that I am I suggest that we just make them, “they can’t be THAT hard” I said. So N gave them a whirl and ran in to some major egg white consistency issues. The whole beat until soft peaks form part was just not happening for him so he added more sugar, then more flour and also a touch of baking soda…

Well the mixture did not seem to look like what was described and we knew it was super messed up but just for fun we saw it through. Instead of piping lady fingers he just spread the mixture on to a baking sheet and popped it in to see how it would turn out.

The consensus was that the concoction didn’t taste like ladyfingers, though the spongy texture was close… Recipe failed, okay we knew that.

After looking over his recipe (from an old antique cook book) I was amazed at how vague and nondescript the directions were. Plus there wasn’t a real “stabilizer” ingredient in the recipe so how would the eggs do what they were supposed to?

After doing some research I offered to make his lady fingers for him on Friday. He promised not to be butt hurt about it and said it would help so I did it using this recipe and I think they turned out good (N will have to be the true judge to this though).

Here is what I learned:

1. Egg temperature is important! In the recipe N used and also in this one and this one there is no mention of egg temperature unlike the recipe I used. Apparently egg temperature is important and using eggs straight from the refrigerator is not helpful in achieving the desired consistency. I think this was one of the reasons why his egg whites never got stiff.
2. Egg temperature can be achieved quickly. Just soak your eggs in some warm water for several minutes and they’ll warm up. You don’t have to leave them on the counter to come to temperature all day, yay and duh.
3. Warm eggs are harder to separate. When I make lady fingers again I’ll be separating the yolk from the whites before allowing them to get to room temperature. Separating them warm is way harder and messier!
4. Don’t over mix when it says fold in. The foamy egg whites are fluffy and full of air. When you combine them with the yolk/ flour mixture it says fold in for a reason. Keeping the airy texture is important to keeping the ladyfingers spongy. Don’t over mix it.
5. When thorough detailed instructions are provided it is best to follow them exactly. I know duh right? Seriously though, just because you are combining ingredients doesn’t mean you can use your mixer etc. I (and many others) have the tendency to get ahead with recipes and overlook key bits of information. With lady fingers this is not good.

Here is how the process unfolded in my kitchen in photos:

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Black friday here we come!

I am surprisingly very excited about turkey day and “Black Friday”. Don’t worry I have no intention of actually shopping in stores the day after Thanksgiving, that would be pure madness! I am using a great online sale website that is designed specifically for just Black Friday.

In past years we have had a blast drinking wine after our yummy turkey dinner and wearing our PJ’s while scouring the web and buying all of our holiday gifts online. Personally I am able to shop around for the best prices online and I feel like I get the best deals that way.

We have a few big ticket items we are shopping around for. N really wants a 42 inch LCD TV and we have been looking at them for months. I am not totally pleased with the “holiday specials” on these though. It seems the retailers aren’t really discounting them at all and well we don’t have $1000 to spend on a TV right now.

N also wants a few big hardware store gifts, you know “man-ish gifts”. A lawnmower (preferably an electric one, not gas) and a wet dry shop vac. I am working hard over on gather.com »”>gather.com to earn a home depot gift card for these things. Anything to save money and have a cheaper holiday is fine by me!

This is going to be our last holiday season as a twosome. It is crazy to think about. Next year we’ll have a child, we will have stared a family of our own… Everything is about to change and we are excited!

Do you have any big ticket items you are shopping around for this holiday? Any big items you would love to get?

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