to the blogs of friends and others that I like to read.
• Coming soon... Oscar and Stewie products!
...me by email ljcfyimailATgmailDOTcom
Friday, April 25, 2008
I almost forgot to report back on the Friendship Bread. I really didn't know what to expect, but we baked it and it was DELICIOUS! Turns out it is a sweet bread... kind of like a coffee cake.
I took the starters to work to give out and everyone was suspicous until they tasted the bread. Joel and Shruti each got one. I had one for Tina or Aprille but another coworker tasted the bread and got it before they did.
That's okay, because contrary to what I previously stated... I kept one bag of starter for myself. So in ten days I will have more to give Tina and Aprille. It's that good. Soon we will all have gurgling bubbling bags slowly taking over our kitchens.
When I was in high school, someone gave me a zip lock baggie of oozing friendship bread starter. The idea is you let the goo age for 10 days, add ingredients and then you bake it into a loaf of bread. The friendship part comes in when you separate a portion of that aged starter into other bags and give it to friends to make their own bread. And so on. And so forth.
I was obsessed with it. I kept making it. And it kept growing more. Soon we ran out of family members to give the bubbling bags of starter to, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them out. Throw out friendship?! There were gurgling, burping zip lock bags all over our kitchen and my mom finally had to throw them out bringing an end to my manaical bread production streak.
When I came home last week, this was on our kitchen counter. Ack! A coworker bequeathed Aaron with a gooey bag of friendship bread starter. We have begun the process of Day 1 - mush bag, Day 2 - mush bag, Day 3 - mush bag... etc.
This time I am giving away all the starter. I cannot allow our house to become a friendship bread breeding ground.
Tina, Shruti, Aprille and Joel. Prepare yourselves. In a few days you've got some friendship coming your way.
I watched the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown today with Tina and Lauren (who is quite the flag waver). Even my friend Tom showed up with his kids in the chilly afternoon. We were there to see this...
This evening we had a Holiday
Cookies and Cocktails party. I pulled fresh baked chocolate chip, white
chocolate chip and macadamia nut, peanut butter kiss and molasses
cookies out of the oven all night.
I was pretty happy to wear my
new apron during the party. Party pictures are on My
Gallery.
We braved the cold today and went to the tree farm to cut down
our Christmas Tree.
Oscar was a big help.
Afterwards we had stuffed shells and my signature holiday
dessert, peppermint brownie sundaes. We also visited my neighborhood
Christmas light spectacular. One house... a gazillion lights and
ornaments. Check out the pictures on My
Gallery.
Since we just can't get enough of pumpkins, today was our 9th Annual
Pumpkin Carving Party. Oscar went along dressed as Spider Pug. Sing
that to the tune of the Simpson's movie song "Spider Pig".
The weather held together long enough for us to select victims
and get them back to my house for carving. Afterwards we feasted on
pumpkin pie.
Our jack o' lanterns. There are more pictures of the party in My Gallery.
Today we met up with Shruti who was here for a conference. We toured the USS Constitution. Old Ironsides is actually where Aaron is working these two weeks for Naval Reserves duty. Apparently he is getting his picture taken a lot.
This year Nancy and Brian went to TIFF also and we were able to meet up for breakfast. There is a breakfast spot across from the Elgin Theatre called Eggspectation that was perfect. I kept calling it Eggceptional or Eggcitement.
I have been excitedly sitting on this news for weeks. My
friend Sarah has opened a yarn shop! She and her mom bought the Village
Yarn Shop and moved it from Midtown to East Rochester. It is now called
The Village Yarn
and Fiber Shop!
Aaron and I helped out a couple nights before the
store opened... inventorying the enormous amount of yarn and stocking
shelves. It was all fun and I am so proud of them! It is the cutest,
coziest knitters haven. The Sit & Knitters have a new home!
We stopped by on their opening day to pet the yarn and buy a
few skeins. It really is fabulous and if you are a Rochester knitter,
you gotta go check it out!
The George
Eastman House is going to have an Ansel
Adams exhibit this month. To kick it off they had a black and
white party where attendees were encourage to wear black and white and
bring their black and white pets.
Oscar is more tan-ish so we stuffed him in a black t-shirt and
took him. He had a good time sniffing all the black and white critters.
Yesterday... Tina, Shruti and I volunteered for the United
Way Day of Caring. We spent the day weeding and painting at
the St. Johns Home.
It was nice to be outside and I think the garden area will be really
nice for the elders.
Being there made me think I should take Oscar and Stewie in as
therapy pets.
They would have to go through training but I think they would brighten
some elder's days.
Saturday was my friend Doug's birthday and we went to his bowling birthday party. Check out his awesome cupcake birthday cake.
I have not been bowling in years... as you can see from that fabulous split I produced. I won't be joining the pro tour anytime soon. (but if I did I would need this bowling ball and bag!)
