Category: quest for the best

Moscato who?

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Date night, italian, Marriage, quest for the best

bella bolle

My husband and I have different tastes in a lot of things, and wine is no exception. Years ago, someone gave us a bottle of Moscato D’Asti by Nivole, which (surprise!) we both loved. Every so often we bought a bottle, for a birthday or anniversary or some such occasion.

Then suddenly we couldn’t find it anywhere anymore. Everywhere we went, we looked for and even asked for it, and everyone was familiar with it, but no one actually stocked it anymore.  Which totally sucked.

So, we finally gave up. One day when we were food shopping, I saw a pretty bottle of wine that happened to be a moscato d’asti. It was a different brand, but it met our wine-buying criteria:

1. Pretty bottle

2. Cheap

I’m talking $7. We decided to live dangerously and buy it. It took a couple of weeks to finally open it. If either Bill or I had to be up by 4:30am the next day, neither of us was very interested in sharing a bottle of wine the night before.

The planets finally aligned on Christmas day. We both had the following day off from work so we cracked open the wine. There was only one negative: what a bitch that cork was to remove! Other than that, however, we both loved the wine. I am saving the bottle so we don’t forget what kind it was.

We definitely plan to get this one again. You know, unless this brand goes MIA next.

Twins!

by Karen, posted in family, Midlife Crisis, quest for the best, relationships

My husband and I bought a new couch this month to replace the one we had that was older than our firstborn. How old do you think it was? (Hint: the firstborn son is turning 21 this year).

Of course, we have purchased some new furniture over the years, but our decorating style has been largely yard sale finds and hand-me-downs from relatives, most of whom are long gone.  The TV sits on a cabinet  that used to house a TV set (remember those?). My husband gutted it and refinished the wood and it’s been in every house we’ve ever owned. I love it.

The coffee table has recently been handed over to our son. It also was hand finished by my husband and is beautiful (Son! Use coasters!). We have a small side table that was my grandmother’s and has a sort of usual design that is perfect for holding books. It used to be perfect for holding videos (remember those? That’s how long we’ve had that table).

The point is this: we value our furniture and keep it for a long time. When we got the new couch and replace the old one, we kept the two mismatched floor lamps that flanked it. One was from a yard sale and one we bought at Target, I think. After living with the new set up for a couple of weeks my husband said, “Let’s get two floor lamps that match for once. Can we do that?”

We could. We did. It’s…restful to have some matching furniture.

P.S. Surprise! One lamp went to our son, and the other one went to our daughter.

Oh, fudge!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, education, friends, Karen's Kitchen, local fun, quest for the best
Lemon Kreme and Dark Chocolate Fudge

I took a fudge making class through Wells Adult Education last night at the high school. There were about 8 of us present and we had mostly all tried to make fudge with varying amounts of success. We were a mixed group: a few men, mostly woman, all determined to (finally) learn how to make good fudge.

We were sure it involved a candy thermometer.

We were wrong.

It involves exactly 5 minutes of continuous stirring with a wooden utensil with a flat edge. I own every kitchen utensil known to womankind for baking but guess what? When my flimsy wooden scraper broke a few years ago, I didn’t replace it.

Guess what I ran out to the kitchen store to buy yesterday?

The secret to great homemade fudge!

It happens that I actually do own a candy thermometer already, which (alas) shall continue to remain in its original packaging.

Anyone else have any secrets (or secret recipes) for great fudge?

Have it your way

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, Marriage, quest for the best, Someone's gotta say it

I was recently reminded that going to the gym on an empty stomach is (for me) never a good idea. In a subconscious effort to undo any potential good my time at the gym may have afforded me, I headed over to Burger King for the special.
                                         Two Breakfast Sandwiches for $3

This is a special that their rival (McD’s) runs often as well. Here’s the difference: When I went to McD’s with my husband and tried to get one of the breakfast sandwiches without cheese, they said (wait for it….), “No.”. They explained to me how they would have to charge me full price for both sandwiches if I asked them to leave the cheese off one of them.

Really? Really?

Fast forward to today at Burger King. I ordered my 2 sandwiches, asking for the cheese to be left off one of them, and guess what? That’s what they did! And they didn’t charge me extra! And they never batted an eye!

BK: 1, McD’s: 0

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*NOTE: I complained on the McD’s website after that and I got a very nice free meal (and a grudging apology, but I let that slide) of 2 breakfast sandwiches for $3.00, one of which was without cheese, to make up for it.

🙂

Expand your horizons

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, friends, local fun, movies, quest for the best, tweens

Looking for something fun to do with your kids this weekend? How about a movie and a cupcake? That’s what my daughter and I did today and we had a great afternoon.

What to see? That was tricky. There is a dearth of family movies to choose from at the moment.

Do you like movies about nature? Do you like movies about animals? Do you like National Geographic-type programs?  

I don’t, actually. Not much. I usually avoid them at all costs.

Big Miracle is a such a movie, but because it was the only option (and because we missed Glow Bowling) I decided to take my daughter to see it anyway. I brought my knitting, so the afternoon wouldn’t be a total loss. Well, the surprise is this: the movie was great. I loved it, and so did she. It’s a love story, but on many different levels. There was, of course, the usual man-woman relationship love, but also:

  1. The whale parents’ love for their child
  2. A grandfather’s love for his grandson
  3. Everyone’s (eventual) love for the whales

I liked it so much that I was motivated to write this, to persuade you to go see it.

After that, I was in such a good mood that we went to get a cupcake from Somethin’ Sweet. Jen mentioned that she was working on a new cupcake: Peach Cobbler. Hello? It was totally a day for breaking out of my rut, because I almost always will choose a cupcake that has chocolate of some sort  in it, but this time I went with the Peach.

It was a good decision. 🙂

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So, see a movie that you wouldn’t normally see. Eat a cupcake that isn’t chocolate. Better yet, share both with your tween!

Expensive (disposable?) electronics

by Karen, posted in quest for the best, Work from Home, writing
The two most recent offenders

I had a Compaq Presario Desktop computer for more than 15 years, and it never stopped working. Well, except for that one time, when it caught a virus, but it recovered and never failed me again. Its only shortcoming? It was (a phenomenon with which so many of us who are aging are intimately familiar) getting slow, or slower, to be more precise (you know, in comparison to the younger–I mean newer–models).

In our household we’ve had 4 laptops (all different brands) live and die in under 4 years. What’s up with that?? Two of them have been repaired (for a few hundred dollars total) but the trust is now gone, you know what I mean? Like when your car doesn’t start for the first time…it’s hard to rely on it fully after that. You’re always on edge, waiting for it to let you down again.

Do any of you writers and bloggers out there have a computer (either a desktop or a laptop) that: 

  1. has everything you need on it to do everything you want to do
  2. didn’t cost you your first-born child
  3. is reliable and
  4. that you love? or at least like most of the time?

If yes, then please, for the love of God, tell me the name of it!

Homemade eggrolls with friends

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, friends, Marriage, quest for the best, relationships

Last spring (we finally agreed that it was in the spring; I thought it was in the summer) my husband and I got together with another couple of friends to make authentic homemade egg rolls. Our friends make them every 3 or 4 months at home, but were gracious enough to drive an hour and a half (in each direction) to come to our house and remind us how to make them too.

They arrived with some supplies in tow. This time we were better prepared with a borrowed Fry Daddy; last time we shared theirs. They also brought their Tupperware mixing bowl that is the size of a kiddie pool. It was almost big enough. I kicked myself one more time for selling my identical bowl at a yard sale years ago. Other nice to have equipment was the food processor that we bought last year for this occasion.

We took a field trip together to Hannaford’s for the produce: carrots, cabbage, onions (they were out of scallions) and the cellophane (I think) noodles. They brought the wrappers with them. Let me tell you that shredding all those vegetables, not to mention frying the egg rolls, makes one hell of a mess. Our friends cleaned up everything, including all the oil spatter from tandem frying in the Fry Daddy’s. It wasn’t pretty.

We made three varieties: chicken, shrimp, and an experiment: pork. My husband wondered what would happen if he mixed Ah-So Sauce with ground pork and stuffed them into the egg rolls. They turned out great! Next time we’ll drain them of some of the extra fluid prior to cooking because they turned out a little darker than the other egg rolls, but that did not affect the taste. 🙂

Here’s a slideshow of the fun:

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We can’t wait till spring so we can make them again! 🙂

National Cupcake Day

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, family, friends, Holidays, local fun, quest for the best

I just got this in under the wire…I can’t believe that I didn’t know it was National Cupcake Day today! I must be pretty darned distracted to miss this. I’m not even in any position right now to bake or obtain a cupcake to consume, so I must celebrate vicariously through Thoughts of Cupcakes Past.

Look what Jen is serving up at her bakery, Somethin’ Sweet in Sanford~sweet snowman cupcakes! They are just the cutest things ever! Of course, all of the cupcakes and treats here are amazing, so I hope you were able to get over there to buy some cupcakes to celebrate today.

If  you missed the boat (or had to work) like me, consider tomorrow a “Do-Over”!  At your earliest possible convenience, buy or bake yourself (and your family, and your friends….) some cupcakes to celebrate the day. After all, cupcakes make any day just that much nicer.

Consider placing an order for lovely baked goods for Christmas while you are there. Jen will be open on Christmas Eve (morning only, 9AM-12N) for pick-ups and last minute impulse (the best k ind of) buys.

Enjoy!

Christmas Music and other minutiae

by Karen, posted in family, friends, Holidays, quest for the best, relationships

Since I’m feeling all Christmas-y at the moment, and since (more importantly) I have a huge leg up on my Christmas shopping (and wrapping) this year, I decided to write a little more about Christmas.  Here are some random thoughts:

  1. When I was wrapping up the gifts I’d bought so far this year, I had the presence of mind (for once) to get out the Christmas CD’s and play a little mood music. My favorite is the one that my son made for my husband for his birthday last year, “Alternative Christmas Songs“. Best. Christmas. CD. EVER. Consider breaking out your own Christmas music this year…you know, before Christmas is over.
  2. Nothing beats a cup of mulled cider while you’re wrapping, unless it’s a cup of hot chocolate with tons of whipped cream crammed into the cup. If it’s evening and you’re done driving for the day, consider putting a shot of Amaretto in your hot chocolate…yay!
  3. What to buy? For me, this year is (essentially) a Gift Card Christmas. Yep; I gave the issue of gifting enormous thought and then decided that most people want either a) money or b) the equivalent thereof. How do I know this? Scientific research. Everyone that I asked said they wanted either money or a gift card to (fill in the blank). Be honest. That’s what you really want too, right?
  4. FOR YOUR KIDS:  Apart from the gift card strategy, which I am applying to (almost) all of the people for whom I am shopping, I have a sort of a formula that I use for buying for my two kids. After all: gift cards under the tree, even if it’s several hundred dollars worth (note to husband: It’s not! It’s not!) doesn’t look very impressive or generate much excitement on Christmas morn. Here’s my basic formula for the kids: a book, a new set of pajama’s, a new outfit, a game (for Wii, Nintendo 3DS, or whatever they have). 
  5. I like to have one joint gift for the kids to open on Christmas Eve, sort of a family gift, like tickets to an event, or a game that everyone (hopefully) will like. 🙂

Also this year: I am trying to just use what I have already for gift bags and wrapping paper. I have a roll of pink Santa paper that I bought to wrap my daughter’s presents and blue Santa paper to (you guessed it!) wrap my son’s years ago. Using this eliminates the need for name tags.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a garage?…NO! It’s a barn!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, chicks, quest for the best, raising chickens

This is the little structure that could. It started out life as a garage, a two-car garage to be specific. It lived its quiet, two-car garage life for 15 years. Then we bought the house that it was cohabitating with, and then…everything changed.

It started slowly…First, Bill didn’t want to sacrifice the entire garage, and also didn’t want to sacrifice more of the yard for a barn, so a compromise is reached over time, after much perusing of chicken coop plans and barn layouts and reference books and internet research.

Next, he got his ideas down on paper and reworked it all until he was satisfied with the logistics of it. Then he found someone that was willing and able to work with him to make the plan become a reality. And finally, the biggest miracle of it all, is the person actually showed up and did the work he had agreed to do when he agreed to do it!

Mindboggling in the construction world, isn’t it?

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The cupola was added after much back-and-forthing about whether the weathervane should be a chicken (which we have) or a llama (which we wish we had but don’t have now). We even took a poll right here on kwrites to get your input. We settled on the llama, because llamas are talented guarders of chickens.

Most recently, the barn door was added to the front of the garage and the transformation is (I think!) complete. Well, for now.

Where I saw a garage,  Bill saw a barn…and now it is a barn.

Cool, huh? 🙂