What a busy group! The new year is finally kicking in, after the holiday blues. Liz, I can't recommend your skin peel method for general use. Try oatmeal next time. ;-) Susan, in this cold weather your new rugs make my toes curl with pleasure at the thought of another layer of insulation under your feet! Michelle, that sloppy joe recipe sounds intense. My mom also had to make up a recipe, because we would see these things in school at lunch (we always took our lunch, but we saw the pizza and stuff that seemed wonderful at the time.) I think she made spaghetti sauce and poured a little over a pan of crumbled hamburger. And I think she used store-bought hamburger buns. We were kids, we loved it. I don't know now. I wonder what would happen if I fixed that for my son?
This morning I revived an old recipe that I first encountered 30 years ago at a friend's home in Virginia. I was passing through on my way from NYC and bound to drive across the entire U.S., and I picked up an old friend at her son's home for the ride We were both from Bellingham, Washington, and I lived with her when I was in college. Her son had spent several years working for the Corps of Engineers overseas in South Africa. One morning they made something called "Dutch Babies," a sort of frying pan sized popover. I reduced the recipe so I could make one individual one: Pre-heat oven to 425. Melt 2 Tablespoon butter in a cast iron skillet, then in a separate bowl fork beat 1 egg and blend in 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup milk. Pour the batter into the skillet and put the pan in the oven for up to 20 minutes. No sugar, leavening, and there is salt in the butter. It takes on a grotesque and wonderful shape, which you put on your plate and pour syrup over. The original recipe for a full size skillet is 3 or 4 eggs (with the multiples of the rest, and yes, that is a LOT of butter, but you need it and some stays in the pan).
I'm going to take a "before" photo of my sun room as soon as I can find my little camera in the mess in my office, and then this afternoon I'm going to take an "after" photo. Let's hope there is some progress in between!
It's bright and sunny and the dogs are in the yard sleeping in the sun. Time to clear up that room where they've been sleeping, repair any rips in the towels, wash and put it all away. I think the worst of the cold is past. I put a pottery saucer (the kind that goes under a big potted plant) out on the ground near the bird feeders and put fresh warm water in it. The creek, the bird bath, all of the other water is frozen solid and I can't get the ice out of the bird bath without cracking the concrete.