20131030 The Carving of the Pumpkin (...and the running of the deer?)

Katie and I decided to go symmetrical this year.

With a drill!!

20131013 Something Yeasty This Way Comes....

Katie and I have a new hobby...

Beer

20131010 Walnuts

Brought a walnut to work today; had the inevitable multitude of conversations about what it is, can you eat it, why do you have to pick them up, you whine too much about picking up 16 wheelbarrow loads, you must be lying, you should sell them, make me an offer, etc.

One question was new, though. "What's a walnut tree look like?"
Fair enough. Here ya go, Mike. This one's beside the garage:

This one by the mailbox

This one in the side yard, next to a maple

This one's kinda between the side yard walnut and the mailbox walnut

This one's in the far back corner next to the shed

And my personal favorite, the one that drops walnuts into the pool:

They make lovely rollers for shoes

And cover every inch

And I have a pile of walnuts in the back by an old woodpile:

And a pile under the "shed" walnut tree:

And a pile on the far corner of the back lot

And, there are still plenty to fall:

20131003 The Girls opening presents

20131003 The birthday cheesecake

4 recipes combined to make this marbled raspberry chocolate delight.


I started with a comingled recipe for crust using graham crackers, vanilla wafers and chocolate wafers

After the crust was put down and baked,

I added a schmear of chocolate

The batter is a Martha Stewart recipe using 32 oz cream cheese

I made raspberry puree, sieve out the seeds, mix batter in, same with some ganache and batter

Put half the batter in the pan, pipe in chocolate

and marble with toothpick

Add remaining batter

Pipe on raspberry and marble. Bake in water bath half way up pan

and when it comes out, cool very very slowly