Personally Speaking

The Baby Shower Hostess With the Mostess

Katherine
That would be yours truly if you haven’t figured it out yet. And I am really actually enjoying it, for what it is worth. I know a lot of women get roped into hosting a baby shower and they just hate it. They see it as this major burden that they need to take care of. The sooner they get it done the better. But I am actually trying to take my time and enjoy the whole process. And so far I have done just that. Enjoyed myself.

A Helping Hand

When I was pregnant with our first child I was a little bit of mess. I know, me? But yes, I will admit that I wasn’t a hundred percent comfortable with my coming role and while that changed about a second after our son was born it was something that followed me throughout the pregnancy. My husband was great, as was hist sister who stood by me and provided me with some moral support. And while I never realized it before, after we spent so much time together we really were more than SiL to one another, we were more like sisters. And so now it is my chance to pay her back in a small way at least. As you can imagine, she is much better suited to carry her child. I haven’t heard a peep from her that it has been anything but heaven, and well, while I admire her for that I really didn’t have a lot of demands placed on me. So when the option came to be the baby shower hostess I jumped at the chance. I actually would have fought for the opportunity to do the shower for my sister-in-law because it is something that:
  • I can do
  • I want to do
  • I will do the best I can
True, there is a lot to do when you have a baby shower but, seriously, it is just a glorified party and I can handle that. I have hosted so many parties and the like since I moved out for college. This is not going to be a problem. And I think that most people get nervous because they just don’t have that same amount of experience that I have. Which is why I am so confident that I will be able to make it a success.

Showers Require Invites

As of right now we are pretty heavy into getting things put together. But it hasn’t been that hard since we’re not going to make it a themed shower. I usually don’t like those, and guess what, neither does the expectant mother. While we aren’t going to be going for a specific theme, (we had thrown the Lion King theme around, since we both loved it as kids) we decided to go for something that was close but not as specific. We’re going to be doing a little prince or gentleman themed baby shower and they are practically the same. You can do pretty much whatever you want when it comes to invitations and decorations since you don’t need to really do anyone thing. When it comes to the invitations, we decided that it needs to be sweet, and since we will be hosting a boy baby shower we can really get into the blues an such. I will be using gray with a light blue accent for most of the decorations and I already got the paper plates and other odds and ends. But we need guests. And to get guests you need to send them invites. So I am sitting here right now waste deep in paper. Invitations to be exact. I intend to get them addressed and sent out the door by the weekend, but that means that I need to stay focused and get busy. And for all of my strengths, addressing envelopes must really not be one of them. I wish there was an easier way. But I don’t want to print them, and the thought of feeding a hundred plus envelopes through my printer is not my idea of fun. That means that once I click post I will go back to work filling them out, in calligraphy I may add, and after my hand has long cramped I will finish the last one. Granted this is something that could have been left to others. Though neither my mother or my husband would have fought one another for the chance to address the envelopes they would have helped had I asked them. The only reason I have left them out is because my hand writing is the nicest and neither of them know calligraphy (I started learning a modern script on YouTube). And there was something about the idea of sending out beautiful hand written invites appealing. I understand that most people will spend a moment looking at that – maybe think that it is nice – but in the end chuck it in the trash. Huh, now that has put a further damper on my enthusiasm. Well, the only way that they will get out the door is if I finish them, and the invitations won’t address themselves, so, back at it! P.S. I will be sure to share some photos of how the day went. It is in six weeks so I have plenty of time to get the rest of the odds and ends together for the celebration. It isn’t super in advance, but I told the guests to RSVP no later than a week before the baby shower and I think that is fare. I once got an invitation to a party and they wanted me to RSVP a month before the day. When I went (yes I was good, I sent back my RSVP in plenty of time) half of the guest never even bothered with reply. The hostess of that shower was really upset. I can’t really blame her though.
Personally Speaking

This Ones for You Dear

Katherine
So here I am writing a quick follow up to yesterday’s piece about my love of fruit cake. My husband made it sound like we were a family of drunks. I personally didn’t get that. But I am probably biased. Probably. But I thought that I would clear up any misconceptions about the real fruitcake and make it clear that it isn’t like you think. Fruitcake used to be made with rare ingridients like citrus fruit. We don’t think those are rare anymore so the fact that these flavors are featured makes it pretty ho-hum.

A Fruity History

Fruitcake used to be a sign of wealth, since fruit, especially warm-climate fruits were hard to come by in the winter. By putting many exotic flavors, like orange and lemon, into the cake, you were showing off that you could afford these rare ingredients. The best way of getting these fruits was candied and dried, so that is what is used in fruitcake even today. To further show off, liquours were added to the cake after baking.

Today

Fast forward a few years and having a cake that has citrus fruit in it is no longer a big deal, those are flavors we can get all the time. What’s worse, in an attempt to recreate the taste of earlier fruitcakes, many fruitcakes purchased now have rum or other liquor flavoring added, which is a different thing than actually pouring the liquid on a cake that doesn’t have that flavoring. We also now have access to flavorings that were much more rare during the heyday of fruitcake, flavors like chocolate and vanilla.

Homemade Tastes Best

If you were to make a traditional style fruitcake at home, and do it the old way it would be much better than what you can buy at the store. But even then, you’ve now been spoiled by an availability of much fresher citrus, and many more diverse flavors than you would have had available even 100 years ago. That makes the fruitcake much less of a treat. So most people don’t go through the trouble to make it, since it is a very involved process. Instead people buy the fruitcakes, which are even worse, for reasons mentioned above. The purchased fruitcakes are what many people’s first introduction to fruitcake is, and it just doesn’t satisfy as much as most modern desserts to many modern pallets.

Recipes

Here are a few recipes that will help you get your fill. Or you can always order from Assumption Abbey and get monk made fruit cake from Ava, Missouri.
Personally Speaking

On The Subject of Fruit Cake

Katherine
Personally speaking I love fruit cake. And after today’s epiphany, well, I just can’t wait until my aunt gives us another for the holidays. I mean, most people hate them, but we love them. And I think that the reason is simple, most people don’t get to experience them the right way. And there is a right way to experience them. I think most people only get the commercial cakes, the ones that taste like dirt and are as hard as a rock. I understand why people would think that they are nasty. I don’t like the store bought varient either. A fruit cake is not meant to be eaten dry. It is meant to be soaked in liquor, over a period of weeks in a process called ripening (example). This yields a moist cake, sweet with fruit and full of liquor. Everyone is happy. But some time in our history (at least American history) I think we got on some kind of moral high horse and decided that booze was bad, and we would have nice holiday celebrations without getting drunk. Naturally this goes for the cake too.
Personally Speaking

KO!

Katherine
We had been dealing with moths off and on for a month. I thought I had checked everything but obviously not. I mean, the spare bed room is not that big, nor did I think that there would be a food source for them. Well, I was wrong. We finally found their hold out it was a small fruit cake in a decorative tin. I can only imagine that it got swept up and stored without me even noticing it. I will admit that I had been in a real hurry this year so that just goes to show me to stop and take more time. I am sure that I will be able to laugh about this someday, many, many, many years in the future. I’m still finding some residual webs but I think that we have succeeded in clearing them out.
Cooking, Personally Speaking

Learn From the Failures

Katherine
The thing I’ve found about baking is that it’s not like cooking. You can’t go off-piste with baking unless you really know what you’re doing, you have to treat it almost like a chemistry experiment and read the whole thing through first, get all your ingredients together, make sure you have enough of everything before you start. You also need to have the right equipment – cookies are a bit more forgiving than cakes because they don’t need to be baked in a tin, but you still need to use standard measuring spoons and cups and measure exactly – no heaping teaspoons, no half-filled cups. If the recipe specifies just “flour”, then I would use all-purpose. For most simple recipes there’s no reason not to use all purpose flour. Only use a specialty flour if it’s specified in the recipe, eg self raising, which has raising agents incorporated, or “strong” bread flour which has extra protein to make stretchy bread dough. Don’t soften butter in the microwave. What you want is soft, but not melted butter. I leave butter out on the counter overnight to soften to room temperature rather than microwaving. Make sure you follow the recipes to the absolute letter. But only if it is in a cookbook I know and trust. Online, anything goes, there are so many horribly-written recipes on the internet. I’d invest in an actual (vetted/tested) cookbook with basic cookie recipes like Betty Crocker or Pillsbury and go from there. Top of the list is Smitten Kitchen – I have never had a baking failure with any of her recipes. I just made her brownie roll-out cookies today with my kids and they were super easy – if you have some holiday themed cookie cutters they would be lovely with a bit of powdered sugar on them. If you’re the sort who can’t ever get the ingredients assembled ahead of time, pick some recipes that use melted butter.
Personally Speaking

A Summer Time Treat

Katherine
I think that there are certain foods that are best eaten at a certain time of the year. I love casseroles and I think that they taste the best in the fall and winter. But there is one special casserole that I make every 4th of July and on family picnics.

My Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole

There is just something about a chicken bacon ranch casserole that just fits. My family will agree with me. And so you have a chance to test it with your family I am going to share the recipe with you so you can give it a try.

A Few Ingredients

This makes 8 servings
  • 4 lbs. of boneless skinless chicken breast
  • 8 oz. freshly shredded cheddar cheese
  • 8 oz. cream cheese
    • It helps to pull the cream cheese out of the refrigerator ahead of time so that it can soften.
  • 12 slices of thick cut bacon
  • 1.5 lbs of fresh mushrooms
  • ½ packet of ranch seasoning (4 tsp)
  • Fresh cracked pepper is a requirement, don’t skip this part

A Couple of Directions to Follow

  1. Start by baking the bacon.
    • Line a pan with aluminum foil and place the bacon on it.
    • Cook for 18-20 minutes at 400 degrees.
    • Cooking times may vary depending upon the thickness of the bacon.
    • The foil lined pan makes cleanup easy and very easy to save your grease, which is great for cooking.
  2. Chop up the chicken into bite sized pieces.
    • Add bacon grease (or olive oil, butter, whatever) to a pan on medium and toss the chicken in.
    • Season with the ranch packet.
    • You want to make sure to cook the chicken mostly all the way through.
  3. While the chicken is cooking wash and slice up your mushrooms.
  4. When the chicken is finished remove it from the pan and cook the mushrooms.
    • Season these if you want with a little salt and pepper.
    • Cook them until they get to the consistency that you prefer.
  5. Add the finished ingredients to a large greased (makes cleanup easy) casserole dish.
  6. When the bacon is finished chop it up into bite sized pieces and add all of the ingredients to the casserole dish, including the cheese, and mix thoroughly.
    • Important: top with fresh cracked black pepper!!
  7. Set your oven to 350 degrees and cover the dish with aluminum foil. Cook for 30 minutes covered and then 10-15 minutes uncovered.
  8. Let the casserole sit for about 15 minutes before serving it.

Note

My mother makes this (I actually found the recipe) and she has made some changes to the base. I don’t like them but my husband will gobble both up without thinking twice so I will share her changes with you as well:

Ingredients and Directions

  • 1/2 Cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
  • 1/2 packet of Ranch Dip Seasoning (just used the half that I didn’t put with the chicken)
  • Mix together and pour over mixture before baking
Personally Speaking

Another Round

Katherine

We have been going through this trouble with moths, and it is really seriously driving me crazy. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Live with them.

We were originally told that they were waxworms. But my father confirmed that they were most certainly not. And I think that the people who told us that, were either having a laugh at our expense, or they just didn't know what they are talking about, both options are possible.

But I am still struggling to figure out where they are coming from. It turns out that they are not coming out of the comforters we had in storage, though they do have a nest in the room somewhere.

So far we have been using pheromone traps to attract all the males and sends them to a sticky death so they cant fertilise the eggs.

London, OH

Come to Ohio

Katherine
“Common sense normal thinking Americans, they should stand up and tell the extremes left/right to either contribute be constructive or go away, I mean think about this, this is the U.S.A and we are putting kids and young people who are contributors in jeopardy this is not the America that we all love”
I am happy that our state governor just so happens to be John Kasich.
Personally Speaking

Wax Moths

Katherine
So it looks like we had/have (I am still not sure if they are all gone) wax moths. At least that is what my husband was told at work. I honestly don’t see it. We had mothballs in the boxes so it should have kept them out. Which is why we’re getting the wax moth suggestions but looking them up, it seems like as their name suggests, it has to do with wax (bees’ wax) and yet I am still not certain. We actually do have hives on the property, my father keeps bees and he has some of his hives here. But when I told him about them, he was surprised and a little alarmed since he hasn’t had problems with them. I did read that they will colonize things like basements and such. Maybe I should try the paradichlorobenzene crystals that he suggested. Actually they are pretty interesting creatures.
Cooking

Things I’ve Learned

Katherine
When I was a little girl my mother showed me much of what I use today in my kitchen. One of my first lessons was there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. One day I was in school and I offered to bring cookies the next day. My mother was excited and was already to help me mix up a batch. But I told her that “I” had offered and I wanted to make them. She was happy that I was willing to take the responsibility on myself and so she offered no further help. I had made cookies plenty of times with her so I was positive in my eight year-old sort of way that I would get it right. Well, wouldn’t you know, it turned out to be harder than I had thought? Instead of cute little cookies I ended up with melted pancakes. My mother explained that the next time I should refrigerate my dough. It makes your cookies keep their shape better while baking, so they won’t turn into pancakes. An hour should be long enough. The flattening happens when the butter is too warm, so it spreads the dough out before it can be cooked.