Frozen

An arctic cold front has swept itself down into Texas. With temperatures in the teens, all the warm blooded Texans huddle in front of their fireplace. Honestly, the cold doesn't bother me much. Unless of course my pool freezes over. Or my fingers have frostbite sypmtoms after I clean out the filter of my frozen pool. Or I think about my friend Renee whose heater is out, and who can see her own foggy breath.

Real Texan

What do all Real Texan women own? A good pair of cowboy boots of course. By that definition I am now a real Texan!


The boots that called my name, are the Vintage Corral Multi color Butterfly inlay boots. They are so purretty! The only thing is, being a first time cowboy boot owner, I am not 100% confident in my boot fitting skills. At the store, I was wearing slightly thicker socks, and the size 8 fit perfectly. But when I changed my socks, I started doubting my decision. My online research has confirmed that the heel should slip. But no more than 1/2". How am I supposed to know how much a 1/2" slip is, on the inside of my boot? Also, some sites said the boots should fit snug, because they'll stretch. Others said to buy them a 1/2 size bigger, because they wouldn't stretch. Hmm.



So now the dilemma is whether I should make the 30 minute drive (each way), so I can try on the size 7.5, and maybe not even exchange the boots. But then again, these are a big purchase, which I'll wear for many years to come. I guess I should bite the bullet, get off the couch, and make the hour trek again, just to be sure.....

ETA: I did get off the couch, and made the hour trek. I'm so glad I did. The 7.5 fits snug, and comfortable. Now they can stretch a bit, and mold perfectly to my feet.

Victor

I'm sure God made mice with as much love, as he did dogs or cats. However, they're not loved like dogs or cats. Why not? Well, I would say some of it has to do with the disease factor. Who wants little critters to eat the food, they will eat later? But that can't be the whole reason. Why would mice make grown up women scream? Will they come after us? No. Will they bite us, and turn us rabbid? No. Maybe it's just the surprise factor. The only time you'll actually SEE as mouse, is when it's scared, an running for cover. Personally mice don't scare me. But I still don't like them. That disease thing... Plus, I don't like them making nests in my furniture, chewing on my food, or making dozens of babies under my bed.

Once in a while a mice gets lost, and ends up in our house. Or did they purposely make the pilgrimage? Don't they know they might become martyrs? Our execution of choice, is a type of guillotine, also known as a Victor mouse trap. The design is simple. The mouse is enticed with some yummy smelling substance, like peanut butter. He comes to check out this delectable treat his "owners" have set out for him. And BAM, lights out. At least it's a quick and humane execution. Even so, I didn't know how to set the trap, and had to resort to the all-knowing youtube for guidance. 6 seconds later I was a pro. The enticing has begun. Two peanut butter laden traps stand proudly by the entrance of his home. and hopefully by tomorrow I'll have the gross duty of removing a dismembered mouse from one them.

Okay... so after trying to find a video that shows a mouse actually getting killed by one of these, I'm officially out of LaLa land. Turns out, lights are not out as soon as the trap hits. The mouse just gets stuck, suffers for a few hours, and then dies. It's ALMOST enough to make me take down the traps.
Death by cat is definitely more humane! Get me back to LaLa land!!

Watch with care... murder in progress

Tornado

I feel like I was picked up by a tornado 10 days ago, and just got spit out, and hit the ground. There was no down time. We wizzed by Christmas, Family dinners, New Years, and a baptism. But now there is peace. Time to reflect on the blessings of friends and family. Our home saw 44 visitors in the past three days. Some came multiple times.

The continuous party at our house started with New Years Eve. In the past, we've always put the kids to bed early, to have time for an adult party. We would have an elaborate raclette meal. However, since the kids are getting older, and more kids were coming over, we let them stay up later. I still wanted to have an extraordinary/fancy dinner, so we opted for Cheese fondue. 8 lbs, and 2 bottles of wine later our bellies were full of scrumptiousness. I have to admit, it couldn't compare to the relaxing adult dinner party.

We barely allowed enough time for the cheese to settle, before the furniture was moved back, and the dance party started. Some awesome 80s music will liven up any party! Breakdancing, the worm, and plain crazy dancing set the stage. Besides the "normal" dancing, we also busted out the Wii Dance Dance revolution. Even though only 1 person can be on the dance mat at a time, that didn't stop everybody else to practice their moves on the sidelines.

The bonfire was a complete flop. The snow had created horrible mud, plus the wood was soaked. The branches we also not packed enough, so the only thing that really burned were gallons upon gallons of gasoline. Everyone came back inside, with just 30 seconds to spare before midnight. As soonas toasts were done, the wii came back on, and we danced and played the night away.

After dragging ourselves out of bed the next morning, we were a bit dismayed at the state of our house. We had partied hard! Mud everywhere! But we couldn't rest, because party part 2 was coming in just a few short hours. William Allred brought another bundle of teenage boys. 40 cans of chili, mountains of cheese, corn chips, and hot chocolate were divoured. Our back door was opened and closed about 500 times (no kidding). Blood was shed, and romances born. Somewhere in this madness our remote control went missing. The wii provided yet another group of people with laughter, frustration, and embarrasment. What a great way to ring in the new year!

Oliebollen

New Years eve brings more Dutch traditions. I think I've mentioned before that New Years Eve is a big deal in Holland. Everybody celebrates it in a big way. Parties, Fireworks, and also clubbing all night are common place. I've tried to carry on these tradition, except maybe the clubbing part. This house has been very condusive to great parties. Living out in the country means we can build huge bonfires, set off fireworks, and make as much noise as we want. What a blessing.

Tonights party planning and prep is in full swing. Oliebollen are a traditional Dutch New Year's eve treat. They are kind of like a scone with raisins and apples. They can also be made without the raisins, but I prefer to have them included. Last night I put the raisins in water to soak. As soon as I got up this morning, I started chopping apples, warming milk, sifting flour. But it's not all idealic. I didn't add enought liquid to the flour right from the start, so the dough got too thick, which made the additional milk spill right out of the side of my mixer. I sure hope people will eat my oliebollen a lot more than previous years, because it seems I am usually the only one.

Hosting a party also brings the obligation (in my mind) to clean my whole house. Luckily I've got 3 good helpers these days!

If you plan on doing any substantial amount of baking, you should really invest in a good food scale. One that can measure both pounds and grams. Most Dutch recipes use gram measurement, which are much more acurate than cups/volume measurements.

Oliebollen Recipe (makes about 48)

1 kg all purpose flour (1000 grams)

1 liter milk (1000 ml)

4 granny smith apples

250 gram White raisins

250 gram regular Raisins

2 tsp Salt

24 gram Instant Yeast

2 tsp Sugar

4 Eggs

Vegetable oil and 1 cup shortening for frying

The night before you plan to make oliebollen, wash the raisins. Then let them soak in water overnight.

It's important that all of your recipes are at room temperature.

• Peel and chop apples into small pieces
• Drain the raisins, and blot them dry with a paper towel.
• Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl (I use the mixing bowl of my Bosch)
• In a seperate bowl, slightly whisk the eggs, so the yolk and eggwhite are mixed together.
• If you don't have instant yeast, combine yeast, sugar, and 1/2 cup of lukewarm milk, and let it sit for about 10 minutes (this will activate the yeast)
• Warm up the milk until lukewarm.
• Make sure your eggs are room temperature
• Add Yeast, eggs, and half of the milk to your flour. Mix well, until all lumps are gone
• Slowly add remaining milk. Mix until well blended.
• Carefully fold in raisins and apples.
• Cover the dough with a damp rag, in a warm environment (I heat up my oven to 100, and let it rise in there). Until double in size -- about 2 hours

About 15 minutes before you are ready to start frying, you can heat up your vegetable oil. The oil needs to be about 350 degrees Fahrenheit (or 180 Celcius). The way to know if it's hot enough, is to drop a piece of bread into it. It's ready when it turns brown quickly. If it's too hot, the outside will get brown too fast, and the inside won't cook. If it's not hot enough, the oliebol will soak up way too much oil.

Use an ice cream scoop (or 2 regular spoons) and drop balls of dough into the oil. Make sure you don't put too many in at the same time, because they need room to "swim". Fry them until brown and done on one side, then flip. If it's ready to be flipped, it should be very easy to flip, and sometimes it flips itself. After they're done, place on a paper towel, to blot off extra fat. Serve warm, covered with powdered sugar.

Julia Child

Julia Child has entered my life. Kelly got the cookbook: "Mastering the art of French cooking" for Christmas. Yesterday we watched the movie "Julia and Julie". What an inspiring movie!

I see similarities between Julie and I, in that I also like to try out new recipes. Quite often, I will hear of a recipe, and look it up online. Or I'll find an exotic ingredient, and then try to find a recipe that calls for that ingredient. The most recent examples include Taai taai, Dutch babies, and French baguettes. Also eggplant, sausage, and ginger root recipes. Sometimes there's total disaster. Other times I tweak the recipe over and over until I finally get it right. Rarely does it turn out right on the first try.

So now the 2 volume set of "Mastering the art of French cooking" is in the mail. I exchanged a Christmas sweater and $20 for those books. I can't wait to get them, and start cooking and baking from them.

Vacation from Vacation

We just keep plowing through the festivities. Our poor house hasn't seen more than a blur of us. We're always off to more exciting places. Living in Texas has the distinct benefit of being a central hub for family. Each year at least one of Joe's siblings comes for the holidays. This year we had 4 out of the 6 kids here: Josh, Ruth, Mark, and Joe. Mark and Kelly made the 1900 mile trek in just 2 days. Now that's commitment! Of course the Benacs 9 children come and go throughout the year, and this time it was the New Yorkers that joined us (Annie and Mary). Of course the Texan variety was also there (Allreds, Morphis, and Billy Jr).

This promises to be a busy week as well. Today we had a Wii face-off at our house. Tonight Josh made delicious Gumbo. In the morning the girls are going to the wonderful world of Sam Moon's to spend our Christmas gift card. Tomorrow night there's a party at the Taylors. Wednesday is Winter's birthday, so of course we'll have a birthday party for her. Thursday is New Years, when we will host our fabulously famous New Years Eve bash. Friday the Allreds are coming over for airsoft wars. Finally, and most importantly, Winter will be baptized on Saturday! Wfew.. I'll need a vacation when this vacation is over!!!!