Lake County Treasures

Our quick trip back to Lake County led to some unexpected treasures that had to come back to Muskingum County.

Cooking (and other things) with a Kindle Fire

I have had my Kindle Fire for ten (crazy) days and I am in love. Due to a national holiday, I haven't used it as often as I probably will for the next ten days/weeks/years. Just the same, I feel like I have used it enough to give a humble review.

As the title states, the Fire does a wonderful job of doing things in areas where my beloved iPhone is weak. Reading ebooks is no longer an eye-straining, finger-wearing-out adventure. When reading a fiction book, the Kindle simply melts into my hand after a short bit and I forget I am even using an ereader. The built-in dictionary helped me figure out in a flash the history behind the German opera house where my current novel takes place. Since I bought my Kindle directly from Amazon, it came preloaded with my books already on "my" cloud, ready for me to pull them down and read away. Amazing!

I am simply crazy over one of the preloaded apps called Pulse. It allows you to create your own "newspaper" by adding news websites that you visit often. I have a page for local news, another for baseball news, and another for homeschool blogs. I hope to add more pages in the coming days. I cannot tell you how quick and easy it now is to get the latest news on the very items that interest me the most.

I have been surprised at the one area where the Kindle Fire has excelled: cooking assistance. I hosted Thanksgiving this year and was able to utilize the Kindle Fire while prepping for four days of house guests. The seven-inch screen was perfect for calling up recipe websites. I would carry the Kindle in one hand and walk around the kitchen, gathering ingredients and equipment with the other. I would then rest the Kindle on the island and follow the recipe. My low-tech, frugal gallon ziplock bag kept it safe from splatters and the empty paper towel tube held it at the proper angle. I set the screen lock for an hour and cooked/baked away. I hope to do even more cooking with my Kindle with the help of Evernote.

I am also impressed with the audio aspect of the Kindle Fire. I am uncertain why, but streaming Pandora uses a lot less battery than on my iPhone. I am able to stream it all night long and only have the battery level go down by the slightest amount. It is making me contemplate getting MLB at Bat 2012 for Indians broadcasts next season. I think it would save a lot of wear and tear on my iPhone. (I'm on my third iPhone 4 in seven months. Maybe I should write a review of AppleCare next.) Purchasing and downloading a mp3 album was almost too easy on Thursday morning. Amazon "knew" I had a $3 rebate/credit and the album was instantly on my cloud storage. Wow!

I am not a big movie/TV fan but I have enjoyed the limited time I have used the video option on the Kindle Fire. I have flawlessly streamed a Amazon Instant Video documentary and cartoon, a live TV newscast (something I could have never done on my iPhone without Flash), and an archived television show from the network's website. I was impressed with how simple it was to do each of these things. The screen seemed amply big and colorful.

I have been pleased that some of my favorite Apple apps are also available in the Amazon app store. It is very nice to see Words with Friends, COZI, and Grocery IQ on the big screen. The last one doesn't sync to my iPhone account, something I'm hoping will happen in an update.

I would have to say that the Kindle Fire's weaknesses are all things I was aware of before I bought it. In a nutshell, it isn't an iPad. I knew it wouldn't have cameras or a GPS. The app store is also slim pickings, at this point. I am still learning how to type quickly and navigate without a home button. Wi-fi only hasn't bothered me. I have not missed 3G service, nor the bill for it. None of these weaknesses would make me want to pay $300 more for an iPad.

In closing, I think the Kindle Fire is the perfect companion for this frugal, iPhone-owning bookworm!


(Disclaimer: Thanks to a wellness rewards program offered by our health insurance company, my Kindle Fire was essentially free. I am usually not an early adopter but I wanted to use the gift cards on something that would last. I had friends laugh when I told them I was comtemplating an ereader or a fuzzy logic rice cooker. I have thought it over and had I not gotten the gift cards, the Kindle Fire would probably be on the top of my Christmas wish list.)

Raggedy Sighting!

Check out Disney World's Facebook page for a special Raggedy Sighting! http://m.facebook.com/apps/disneyparksmemories/?_rdr

Meatless Monday: Countdown to Halloween Edition

Tonight for dinner I made Winter Squash in Caramel Sauce from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian App/Cookbook along with Pearled Barley in the rice cooker. It took longer to make - both in the prep work and the final braising step - but it was well worth it. It was very tasty and filling. The app won't let me copy the recipe here on my blog so you will have to hop over to my twitter account @Raggedysue to find it. I'm sorry for the extra step. (Thank you to Mark for taking and doctoring up the photo.)

There is a new theme!

Countdown to Halloween: Day 10

!!!!!!!READ IS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Countdown to Halloween: Day 9

Reading is supper fun!!!!!!!!.

Countdown to Halloween: Day 8

Reading is fun!!!!!!!

Countdown to Halloween: Day 7

A great find at a thrift store!

Countdown to Halloween: Day 6

Straight from New Mexico!

Countdown to Halloween: Day 5

Googly-Eyed Ann is in the house!

Countdown to Halloween: Day 4

Four Friends!

Countdown to Halloween: Day 3

Sensing a Theme? :-)

Countdown to Halloween: Day 2

Day Two; Two GIANT Raggedys!

Countdown to Halloween: Day 1

This is Day One of our Countdown to Halloween! My eight-year old son is going to be putting up the posts himself this year!

Golden Puff Donuts

This is the recipe we used in Homeschool this past week to celebrate reading "Homer Price." Thanks to our church friend, Dottie for the recipe!
Mix together:
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
Add:
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons nutmeg
5 cups flour

Drop by the tablespoon into hot oil (375*) Cook for 3 minutes on each side. Sometimes they will turn in their own. Let cool on paper towels. Then sprinkle with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar.

Enjoy!

Happy 96th Birthday, Raggedy Ann!

On this day in 1915, Johnny Gruelle was awarded a patent for his rag doll named Ann.
Andy and I celebrated Ann's birthday tonight by getting out a bunch of "blue dresses" from my collection. (Most were manufactured by Playskool or Applause and a few were homemade.) We sang Happy Birthday, ate pretend cake and lemonade, played with two sets of dress-up dolls (including the lovely magnetic set, given to me by Traci for my last birthday), listened to an audiobook of a Patricia Hall Raggedy story, and then played a silly game on the basement stairs. (Our last house didn't have "safe stairs" to play on so my late Mom used to play silly games with Andy and dolls on her stairs. Andy has many fond memories of those games and the Raggedys were more than willing participants.) Our celebration ended in a giant pile-on.
We hope you enjoy these pictures from our celebration.



Silly Stairs Game


Where's Andy?


- "What else do I know besides Raggedys and recipes!?!"

Raggedy Smiles

It has been a LONG week around here with dear friends near and far having many problems. So it was the perfect time to get some Raggedy smiles from both my collection and my son, Andy. We hope they are "smilemakers" for you, too!



We took our annual end-of-summer "big city" back-to-school shopping trip this week with a whole car full of smiles! (Now that we Homeschool it was pretty much window shopping - but still lots of fun.)



Aunt P. sent us two rescued sweeties from out West. We named them Barbara Ann and Ana.



"Raggedy School" is back in session. We decided to do school pictures. This one is my favorite.



There's a tradition in Raggedy School of random pile-ons. Here's one that happened Sunday.



- "What else do I know besides Raggedys and recipes!?!"

I Couldn't Wait a Day to Share!

I found out this morning that King Arthur Flour has recently revamped their website. The most exciting update - for me - is it is now mobile-formatted. This means no more awkward pinching and zooming while I use my phone to make one of their delicious recipes. I love their recipes because they include the ingredients' weight. This means a lot less (or if you're really good, no) dirty measuring cups and spoons. Just place your mixing bowl or bread machine pan on the scale and "dump" away.
Whether you access their website from a PC, laptop, or smartphone, I invite you to click here and NOT find something tasty: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/RecipeHome

(Novice baker? That's not an excuse with KAF. Check out their step-by-step, filled with photos blog and instructional videos.)



- "What else do I know besides Raggedys and recipes!?!"

Week 2: Plan B

One week into my new plan to blog on Sunday nights and I've already hit a roadblock. Last night I got about two hours of sleep thanks to a solo trip to the Doggy ER in the Big City about 75 minutes away. (The big guy is fine - he just had a giant case of missing his boy who was off visiting grandparents.) So I'm going to cheat a little bit tonight and list links to recipes I made this past winter and spring when I wasn't blogging.

In no particular order - thanks to my sleep-deprived brain:

*Pizza Restaurant Style Bread Sticks - Yup, you can guess the story behind this recipe. My boys wanted to spend big bucks on these at a chain restaurant. I said, "Mama can make those for a fraction of the cost." They are sooooo easy to make (as long as you don't add way to much oil to the pan like I did the first time.) I have yet to do steps 9 and 10 with no complaints from my gang.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/soft-bread-sticks-recipe

*Oven Chili - With our new church, Mark is able to have dinner with us on Saturday nights after a seven year hiatus - yay!! This is a super easy, super tasty dish for a Saturday supper after a fun day. I've made it with pork stew meat for something different.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/oven-baked-chili-recipe

*Fried Apples and Onions - After reading all of "Little House in the Woods," Andy and I finished up our homeschool year with "Farmer Boy." Mrs. Wilder said she wrote so much about her husband's childhood meals to show the wealth of his family compared to hers. Well, it worked! Andy and I would be ravenous after reading a chapter of "Farmer Boy" even though it was only our second subject of the morning. I wanted to save homemade donuts for when we read "Homer Price" this fall so Andy and I made Almanzo's self-proclaimed favorite dish instead. I felt a little guilty using my Pampered Chef Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer (http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/catalog/product.jsp?productId=229&categoryCode=CE) but it sure did make this dish easy. I used bacon drippings and flip-flopped the cooking times, as suggested in the first comment.

http://www.food.com/recipe/fried-apples-n-onions-185675

*Cola Cake - I passed on this at a Cracker Barrel while on our summer vacation and a dear friend let me know I missed out on something great. I bought three slices at our local Cracker Barrel (at $3.39 a slice plus a scoop of ice cream - yikes!) and she was indeed correct. I found the recipe on Coke's official website and made it for a church function that same week for I think $3.39 for the entire cake. I waited about an hour for the cake to cool before topping with the frosting.

http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/pdf/RECIPE_colacake.pdf

I think I could add recipes all night but the Indians game just started. (I'm a BIG baseball fan. Alas, Raggedys, Recipes, AND Baseball just doesn't have the same ring!) I hope you enjoy these dishes as much as we did.


- "What else do I know besides Raggedys and recipes!?!"

"Let it begin! Let it begin!"

With the help of my boys, I FINALLY started work on the Raggedy Room in our new house last Saturday. For over six months, it was just "Boxlandia" in our spare bedroom. For several reasons, I needed/wanted the furniture rearranged from the way the movers had placed it in early January. My guys were great sports and helped me empty out ALL the boxes into the hallway and neighboring bedrooms. We then placed the furniture in the room in the proper places. We were also able to unpack most of the Raggedys on Saturday, too. It was simply wonderful to see ALL those smiling faces after over half a year's absence. For sanity's sake, we did not organize the Raggedys onto the shelves. We will do this later, when we also have time for a "Raggedy census." With Andy's help, I was able to unpack my Raggedy books last Sunday afternoon and most of my knickknacks Wednesday evening. (Thanks, Andy!) The new room arrangement allows for maximum wall space but I still will not have enough room for all my pictures and wall hangings. I am planning on a "rotating collection," similar to a museum.
I've posted some of work-in-progress pictures for now and will add others of the completed room once the pictures are hung and the last of the knickknacks are placed.









- "What else do I know besides Raggedys and recipes!?!"

Big Things

It has been awhile since I blogged. Big things have been going on in our family - new home, new town, and a new congregation. We also started homeschooling our son. These are all good, big things for our family. But, they have gotten in the way of blogging.
With these changes have come a new kitchen and a new Raggedy Room. The Raggedys have yet to be unpacked. But many tasty things have come out our deluxe kitchen. I look forward to posting about the unpacking and new dishes soon.
(The dear Ann - nicknamed Caroline - came from a recent trip to an old favorite antique mall. She's three feet tall and was a STEAL! Thanks to my boys for spotting her.)


- "What else do I know, besides Raggedys and recipes?!"