I may need an intervention...

OK, second scarf finished. I was up bright and early this morning to go buy more yarn. I ended up buying 4 more skeins, in different colors.
I also couldn't resist picking up another book. I don't know if I'll actually be able to tackle a project of this size just yet, but what the hell, I'll give it the old college try!

It's official...

...I'm obsessed! This is what I've been doing since the last post:
I wish this picture wasn't so blurry, so you could see how pretty and lacey this scarf is. I'm SO pissed at myself now for making the last scarf twice as long as it was supposed to be, cuz now I ran out of yarn in the middle of this one. Since this is really still a practice piece, I went so far as to use the left over pieces I had cut for fringe for the other scarf, and tied them together to go a little further with this one. But, now I'm completely out. Ugh!! I wish our Walmart was still open 24 hours, cuz I'd be there right now instead of typing this.

Well, you'll know where I'll be first thing in the morning. Oops, it's actually about 1:45 AM, so I should say where I'll be in a few hours. Yeah, I'm a loser....

Look what I did today...

OMG! I can't believe I was able to do this in one day. Now, if you're a real crocheter, please don't enlarge the photo, or I'm certain you'll find a ton of mistakes. But from far away, it doesn't look that bad, does it?

I may have mentioned in the past that I wanted to learn how to knit and crochet. (Strangely enough, I knew how to do both as a kid, but as an adult, I just couldn't get the hang of it again.) I bought myself a little "kit" last weekend that came with a bunch of needles and a book. I decided to tackle the book last night when I couldn't sleep. I started one of the projects, which was a cell phone bag, but I just couldn't get it. The project is done on an afghan needle (which came with the kit) but I just couldn't seem to get it to work. The whole thing kept curling up on me. After the second time I pulled it apart, I was done. But then, this morning, after some refreshing iced coffee, I thought, what the hell, let's try something else.

This scarf didn't seem too hard, although I did get it about a foot long, when I realized I somehow did something to make it wider at some point, so I had to pull literally half of it apart, and start over. But, once I got the rhythm of it going, it went pretty fast. So fast, in fact, that I ended up making it literally twice the length that the pattern called for! The pattern called for a 34" scarf with 1' of fringe on each end. I ended up making a 68" scarf, so I only made the fringe about 7" on each end.

I just can't believe I made it. Now, the real question is, who's gonna use it? You ALL know I would NEVER wear a scarf. Hell, most of the time, I don't even wear a coat! My sister is the queen of the scarves, so maybe she'll want it. If she doesn't, I know my sweet mother-in-law will wear it. Well, she'll wear in next winter. Hey, I just remembered that I tried making a scarf a while back, which I DID give to my mother-in-law. Wait, didn't I do a post about it? Let me check...

Holy crap! I just spent an hour going back through old posts. What the hell is wrong with me!!? If I did post about my last attempt at crocheting, I can't find it. Why the hell I just wasted an hour looking for it is beyond me! Sheesh, I could have spent that hour crocheting!!

I didn't know Mother Nature read my blog...

After my whining last night, I just heard the weather guy say there's a possibility of rain mixed with snow overnight. Woo hoo!!

Cheesy Potatoes

I just cracked myself up while preparing to write this post. Cheesy Potatoes is one of the recipes that we've been enjoying in our family for about 25+ years. I'm fairly certain all of you have eaten them, if not made them yourselves. My Bestest Friend makes them, but calls them Party Potatoes, so I'm sure there are probably other names for them, as well.

What made me laugh was that I looked in my recipe box to see if I actually had the recipe written down somewhere so I could give you the real deal. I tend to modify most recipes I make to better suit my taste, as I'm sure most people do.

Anyway, I came across a copy of a recipe from Ore Ida for something called Country Potatoes. I included it below. I'm pretty sure this is the "real" recipe, however, when you read my recipe below it, you'll see it's been significantly adjusted to add a substantial amount of fatty yumminess. Trust me, my version is awesome. And, truthfully, now that I'm thinking about it, it's probably not really any more fattening than the original recipe because the original calls for the addition of a full stick of melted butter. A full stick! I don't put any melted butter in mine, but I use more sour cream and cheese, so who knows. Maybe it's a wash? You probably could even use reduced-fat sour cream and/or cheese if you're really interested in saving some fat.

This is a great recipe to make with your kids (or even for kids to make by themselves) because outside of the onion, there's no chopping involved. And, you can easily substitute frozen chopped onions, so it's really a dump and mix recipe.

Country Potatoes

2lb bag Southern-style hash browns (the kind that are cubed)
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
½ cup chopped onion
1 stick melted butter
1 ½ cups cornflake crumbs
4 TBS melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Mix hash browns, sour cream, cheese, soup, onions and melted butter together. Put in a 9x13 casserole. Mix crumbs and remaining butter, and sprinkle over the top. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Cheesy Potatoes

16 oz container sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or cream of chicken)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese*
1 small or ½ large onion, finely diced
salt and pepper, to taste
2lb bag frozen Southern-style hash browns
1 ½ cups cornflakes
4 TBS melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Mix sour cream, soup, cheese, onion, salt and pepper until well blended. Add hash browns and mix well. Spread evenly into 9x13 baking dish. Toss cornflakes with melted butter, then spread evenly over potato mixture. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until cornflakes are golden and edges of casserole are bubbling.

*I don’t usually do the cornflakes anymore, only because I don’t typically have cornflakes in the house. Now, what I usually do is reserve some of the cheese, about ½ cup, and then sprinkling that over the potatoes instead of the cornflakes. The cornflakes, however, are very yummy, and I use them whenever I actually have them in the house. Truthfully, I used Special K once, cuz I didn’t have any cornflakes, and nobody was any the wiser. ;-)

Way to go, CPS!

Reading this made me physically sick.

Email of the Day

An oldie, but a goodie....

The teacher told her students they were going to do a fun experiment today. She gave them LifeSavers to taste. They had to tell her the flavors. The children began to identify the flavors by their color:

Red......................Cherry
Yellow..................Lemon
Green ...................Lime
Orange ................Orange

Finally the teacher gave them all HONEY lifesavers.

None of the children could identify the taste.

The teacher said, 'I will give you all a clue. It's what your
mother may sometimes call your father.'

One little girl looked up in horror, spit her lifesaver out and
yelled, 'Oh my God! They're ass-holes!

The teacher had to leave the room!