The Push Is On

First, let me explain something. Because the time here is now 1:51 a.m., technically it is Saturday, December 5th, but anytime I refer to a day as "yesterday" in this post, I mean that as Thursday, December 3rd. Why? Because until I go to sleep and then wake up, it is not the day the calendar may say it is. Just my theory, my own way of time-keeping ya know.

Now, on to better things. Ha! That's a joke too cause it's been a kind of dry spell here with respect to good topics to talk/write about. But be that as it may, here goes.

Yesterday, after the power was restored, the internet also back up and running fine and dandy, Kate (the 17-year-old, soon to be turning 18 in another week) and I got crackin' and did some major cleaning in this old house!

I may have mentioned a bit about our stint as two "Merry Maids" -just slaving away in my last post but truthfully, I don't remember if I mentioned it or not.
But anyway, because the adults (and near-adults too) who live in this house tend to be of the pack-ratty variety, we had a whole lot of stuff that got tossed out during our cleaning binge.

One item I came across kind of puzzled me at first. It was a flat piece of a kind of pliable plastic with a backing on it that you could peel off and a sticky side was revealed. The top side was a pinkish shade and bumpy, and these bumps were in various sizes too. What the heck was this thing anyway? (If I'd have been thinking yesterday -instead of being so intent on getting anything I saw no earthly purpose for tossed into the trash can -I would have taken a picture of it, just so I could write about this weird looking thing and write about it. But I didn't so you'll have to try to picture this in your mind's eye if you can.

Finally, I asked Kate if she knew what it was and she said it was something you could cut the various sizes of these "bumps," peel the backing and tick it on your face or neck (arms or legs too I suppose) and it was supposed to look like scabs to make a more realistic Halloween-type costume for you that way.

Wonderful! Just what everyone would want to see, what anyone would surely need, huh? Something to put on your face to make it look like you needed a good acne treatment or some other kind of medical care, huh?

Considering that Kate didn't do any trick or treating this year -not even for the church youth group's party -and Maya dressed as a princess, Kurtis as Elmo, why was this item something someone in this house felt was a necessity anyway?

See what I mean about stuff appearing here and there being no earthly purpose for it?

But anyway, because we did get the downstairs of this old barn a good once-over and while it looks pretty decent now, I really should take the time to take some photos of it look all spiffy, ya know.

Kate and Mandy got the tree put up on Monday and then the trimming of it, Kate got a lot of that done on Tuesday. Yesterday, she put the finishing touches on it and it looks pretty neat.

Normally, we put the tree up in the living room -in front of the bow window or in the corner of the room by that window but this year -because we really have an over-abundance of furniture in the living room -thanks to Bill's great bidding skills at auctions and his bringing home a "new" (to us, anyway) living room suite about two months ago, we have a full size sofa, a love seat, matching chair plus two recliners -along with a bookcase, file cabinet, my desk with my computer and -can't forget this -the Hammond Organ which had belonged to my Dad's baby sister and who passed away a year ago this past April!

All of that -plus Kurt's pac'n'play, which is his bed until Mandy gets the kids' bedroom all completed and set up with beds, dressers and such -and even though the living room is pretty large (22x14 foot), there's no room to spare, that's for sure!

So, the decision was made then to put the tree up in the corner of the dining room, adjacent to the living room and it looks nice there. Kind of gives the room a bit of warmth I think.

Our friend, Joe -also referred to around here as "Precious" (a joke nickname he gave himself) came by on Sunday with a gift for the family. A simply gorgeous wreath he had made of fresh evergreens and the most beautiful trim with a big beautiful red bow on it! He's very creative and does a fantastic job when he makes some wreaths for the holiday season to give to some of his family and this year, he made this one for us. A gift we all really admire and very much appreciate. And yes, I will take some pics of it to share too -just as soon as we figure out how we are going to hang it on the front door and get it up in place there!

I was so busy with the cleaning yesterday, then the cooking of supper followed of course, by a nap after eating too that I didn't have any time to spend working on my current tablecloth project. Today, I did get a good bit of work done on it only to find out I didn't have enough floss on hand to finish this item! Boy, what a bummer that was. I was thinking either Mandy or I was going to have to make a trip to State College or Dubois -a 40-mile drive one-way -just to get one little skein of embroidery floss until an idea came to me.

My neighbor and good friend, Shirley, who lives a couple houses up the street from me and who also is pretty heavy into the embroidery stuff, might be worth while to call her and see if in her stash of floss she might possibly have a skein of the color I was needing. So I called her and she said she would look in her floss container. About a half-hour later, she called me back to say she had that color -not quite a full skein -but I could have it! Saved! Yes indeedy, Shirley saved the day for me in that respect! All I need to do is stop by her house and pick it up! Isn't it great when you have friends who help you out of a bind and really make your day nice and bright and merry, too?

And finally, because I had mentioned in an earlier post this week too a Swedish dish that my family and I really like and it had appealed to one of my blogger buddies, I'm including the recipe here in this post, for Swedish Panakaka -a baked custard-type item! So, for Sandi at Holding Patterns, this recipe is for you, my friend! (And for anyone else who'd like to give it a whirl too!) My recipe says you are to bake this at 350 for an hour and then, jack the temp up to 400 and bake it at that temp for 20 minutes longer. However, my friend Shirley -the one who came to my aid with the floss -says she bakes hers at 325 degrees for at least an hour -or until a knife or toothpick inserted in it comes out clean. Hers comes out very nice and even in color whereas mine always puffs way up while baking and the top gets very brown then too. Either way I suppose is right or okay though. So here's that recipe now folks!

SWEDISH PANAKAKA

a recipe given to my Mom (Hazel Eld Hill) from Elizabeth (Erickson) Werner, an old resident of the West Clymer area of Grassflat.


2 quarts milk
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cup flour
2 junket tablets
1 teaspoon salt
5 eggs

Dissolve junket in 1 tablespoon of warm water.

Heat milk to lukewarm.

Beat eggs, flour, salt and sugar. Add junket to milk and mix all together.

Pour in greased pan and let stand till “set”. (I am not totally sure of what the term “Set” here means, but I usually just let this sit until the mixture seems to just settle a little bit.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
Then, continue baking for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. –Bake until knife inserted comes out clean.

(I usually use a 13 x 9 glass baking dish when I make this but Mary Ann Erickson Eyerly often bakes this for church dinners and uses a deep bowl type casserole dish for her panakaka. –Either way, it is delicious! )

My family likes to eat Panakaka in various ways –hot, fresh out of the oven for a supper meal or cold , sliced and topped with fruit (hot or cold, fruit toppings are great on this). Also, we often take the slices of leftover Panakaka and brown it in butter and pour syrup on top of it then. It is truly a multi-purpose meal –use it for the main dish for a light supper, or for leftover-type suppers or breakfast or just a “between-meals” snack too!

ENJOY!

And, God Jul too!