Happy New Year 2010

Oh dear, I just noticed it's been a whole year since last post. Will promise to do better. Most often, my NY resolutions are to give up something, but this will be an exception.

It was a great new year food fest again this year...including 2 cakes. I'm posting the penuche frosting recipe. I know this would be delish packed about an inch think and containing about 1/2 cut of walnuts. Wait until it cools, and eat it like fudge...but it was nice on that cake too. Well, here goes.

1 cup packed light brown sugar (I used half dark and half light)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1. Place the brown sugar and butter in a medium size heavy saucepan over medium heat. Simmer, stirring constantly, until well combined, 2 minutes. Carefully pour in the milk, stirring, and bring the mixture to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and cool slightly.
2. Place the confectioners' sugar in a large mixing bowl. Pour the hot brown sugar mixture over the confectioners' sugar. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the frosting is smooth and creamy, 2-3 minutes.
3. Use immediately to frost cake. If it hardens while spreading, place the pan back over low heat and stir until it softens.

Makes 3 cups

Enjoy.

Happy inauguration day

Here at last. Here at last. Thank God Almighty; it's here at last! The end of an error. Jim and I will be watching at home. I'm planning a nice lunch for after the ceremony. Then pretty much watching the parade and festivities all day.

New bedroom furniture

We've been building Ikea wardrobes since Saturday. It's beautiful, and we have a whole wall of storage. Now we only need to paint and get some nightstands, some lamps, a new headboard, drapes...yikes. Sounds like a project. We're still configuring the wardrobe space and need to get some drawers in addition to the shelves. But so far, we're pleased.

Dead laptop update

I just started working on this today and found a password recovery service that's free...but you don't get an answer for 72 hours. If you want it sooner, it's $29. So I'm gonna wait and see what I can do with it. Also checked at the Dell site, and it appears that there is a warranty in effect. I might check with Dell about a system recovery disk. Well, I'm not fast, but I work cheap.

Please post here

Carol, I think I gave you permissions to make new posts...not just comments. When you go in to create a new post, there is an icon right above where you're typing...the third one from the right will allow you to browse to picture files to add pix. I thought this would be a fun way to chronicle the exciting, the boring, the goofy, the inane in our everyday lives. Post as often as you can...pix, stories, recipes...anything you want.

Happy New Year

After a nice week in Orlando together, we're back at our real jobs. I'm crazy busy, and Jim is planning a business trip to Dallas toward the end of the month. I'm loving my new coffee maker...Keurig single cup brewer. Jim has a medium blend in the morning, and I like my coffee strong. So we each enjoy waking up to coffee exactly as we like it. I hope Carol will post some new baby pix. Bailey is adorable...just 3 days old.