"The Incident"

Once upon a time there was a case of Diet Cherry Coke. A twelve pack of soda pop in a convenient refrigerator package. Chosen as one of many sodas to occupy the humble home of Joseph and Rebecca Williams. Like most Diet Cherry Cokes this particular package yearned to be happily consumed. Alas, with the great variety of choices given to the residents of this home, it was not one of the first to be opened. In fact, Diet Cherry Coke never received the opportunity to fulfill it's destiny. Because of "The Incident."

It was a cold December day, late afternoon, when Amanda (a resident of said household) was overcome with a feeling of thirst. Trekking out into the frozen tundra toward the garage where all soda pops are kept cool and refreshing. Upon opening the refrigerator Amanda was greeted not with joy, but sorrow.

Sometime in the previous day Diet Cherry Coke must have been overwhelmed with the chill in the air. Many of it's passengers suddenly burst from the aluminum containers out of the cardboard box (which had yet to be opened by the residents) and escaped to all areas of the refrigerator. Unfortunately, none survived. Cans were found split at the seams and frozen shards of soda laced the walls. Diet Cherry Coke never had a chance.

Two shelves below where the original package was stored. How do they get there?

The Diet Cherry Coke, never opened by human hands. However, notice all of it's friends had been.

We find one victim on the door of the fridge.


A wider look at the door, which shows the shards of soda on the wall.

PS. During the writing of this blog, the cold December air claimed another life.
All sodas will now be stored indoors for the winter time.

christmas cooking

Yay! Another post within a week, I'm doing better!

So yesterday I spent some time in Lakeville making holiday treats that my family has every year. Ok, admittedly I didn't do to much baking. I did keep the young child busy though, important work. Mom, Laura, Becca, and Becca's friends Lindsey and Katie were the cooks. We all also received copies of old family recipes, score! Here is what was made, if I can remember it all: caramels (x2), fudge, peanut butter balls, peanut brittle (x2), white chocolate covered pretzels (x2), chocolate covered peanut butter Ritz. A few of the items had to be remade because of mistakes made on the first batch.

Katie's son Julian - CUTE!

So when I said I didn't do to much baking, it wasn't a lie, I had my hands on two dishes. The first attempt at peanut brittle was a disaster. Because not a lot of people were interested in peanut brittle, Mom thought of using this microwave recipe she got when she bought her first microwave. Why wouldn't it work? It's 24 years old and was created for microwaves with much less power. Did you know that in 1984 they actually had classes to show you how to use a microwave, we've come a long way. Anyways, I tried out the recipe. Microwave a bunch of sugars and peanuts for 10 minutes, easy enough right? Well, maybe that was too much time, the sugar burnt and was smoking up a storm. You can only imagine the smell that permeated from the glass bowl. We decided this recipe wasn't much of a keeper and to go back to the classic which has proved itself time and again. Laura made the second batch (I added the salt at the end!) which turned out as expected, delicious.

Oopsie! Burnt peanut brittle

Becca was working hard on the caramels all day. Her first batch wasn't as much of a disaster as my treat. It cooked well, set in the pan perfectly, and went out on the deck to cool. The problem came when it was time to cut up the pieces. Apparently the caramel was cooked too much as well, making it still edible, but not the chewy goodness we all know and love. So another batch was made, keeping the first because it was still good food. The second attempt on this was perfect.

Caramels cooling outside

Peanut butter balls, before and after dipping

I think a lot of people had their hands on the making of the peanut butter balls. Laura mixed up the ingredients, Mom and Lindsey rolled them, and Becca and Katie dipped them in chocolate. Yup, that's everyone but me. At least I tasted them, I was the inspector! And they are yummy, peanut butter balls are one of my all time favorite holiday treats. So easy to make, it looked like.

Mom had made some fudge earlier in the week, but Katie also wanted to try her hand at this dish. I'm sorry I don't have much to say on this one. At this time I was either taking photos or watching her son Julian (cutie!). I didn't even get to taste them as they were the last item to get cut up and dished out. Although from the looks of the pan of chocolaty goodness, I'm sure they were just as amazing as usual.

Fudge, during process and spreading to cool

Becca had to make one dish that isn't on our list of usual suspects, the chocolate covered peanut butter Ritz. I guess this is one of Joe's (her husband) favorites so they were mainly for him. Another one that appeared pretty simple although I had no part in. Take Ritz crackers, spread peanut butter in the middle, and dip into chocolate.

Ritz treats, peanut brittle, and peanut butter balls cooling out on the deck

Finally, Katie and I (yes, I helped!) made white chocolate dipped pretzels. The first batch on these weren't so much a mistake in cooking, as a trial in chocolate shopping. Katie bought the expensive chocolate dip not knowing that we typically use the cheapo almond bark. When we dipped the pretzels in the expensive dip it wasn't covering them like we are used to, the color was a little yellowish, and the chocolate wasn't hardening. After careful examination of the samples it was decided to use some almond bark Mom had. These were, again, just as expected and delicious.

A lot of fun was had and a lot of sugar consumed by all. I think the main thing we learned was to just stick to the classic recipes, trial definitely equaled error this day.

did you miss me?

What have I been up to you ask? Well I guess a lot since I haven’t posted in a really long time. Sorry about the delay, I’m very much a procrastinator, something I need to work on (but never get around to). Ha Ha!

Anyway, life has been grand for me. I ended up working at the portrait studio for only a few weeks. They kept making mistakes with my scheduling and the other employees were constantly complaining about management (complaints that were proven daily). It just didn’t end up being worth my time. Not only that, but I quit over a week ago now, had been working there for three maybe four weeks and have yet to be paid for ANY of the time I spent there. I’m better off.

I still love my catering assistant job. The people that I work with are great, each with their own little quirks. We are doing Secret Santa this year and I’m trying to figure out what to get for my person. I’m not giving away any hints here though (she might be reading!).

Thanksgiving flew by, I participated in two this year. Neither of them were actually ON Thanksgiving. The first was with my immediate family (yeah, 10 people!). We are a growing bunch and with that came lots of food since everyone brought something. It was delish! My favorite treat around the holidays is lefsa and I definitely came out with plenty of that.

MMMMMM..... Lefsa!!

My second Thanksgiving was in Arkansas at my uncle’s house. Here we had not one turkey, but two turkey’s, a ham, and two tofurkey’s. It was a feast fit for a king! I was a little hesitant on the tofurkey, having tried a vegan dish before and not liking it. Although I have to say I liked it. It didn’t taste quite like turkey, but I can’t really pinpoint what it was.

Can you spot all the different meats?


My cousins who live in Arkansas have a Wii and so the entire weekend was filled with playing video games. I set up a bowling tournament that even the grandparents participated in. In fact, grandpa got the high score of the whole tournament, however, the six year old won.

Grandpa getting into the game.

Well that brings us up to date. I really am going to try harder to post more often. If you want I wouldn’t mind being reminded of this, and if you want to be a REALLY big help you can tell me what to post about. :)