Author Archives: glenderella

Burning Down the Kitchen II

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First of all, I apologize if you are a subscriber and you got eleventeen update notices, but I have been categorizing uncategorized posts. I don’t know if WordPress sent out notifies on all of them or not, I hope not, but if you were inundated, I apologize. I am trying to get into the habit of putting them into categories as I write them.

I may have mentioned that the spectacular October grease fire was not my FIRST kitchen fire, just the largest one so far. Small oven fires are really quite common, because I like to broil steaks, and quite often the fat on the steaks catches on fire on the broiler pan, and has to be extinguished. I also bake a lot of sweets, and they boil over and get on the bottom of the oven, and then I forget about them, and the next time I use the oven, they smoke lot and may or may not catch on fire. There was a notation in last year’s Christmas letter about flaming muffin batter, I don’t think I have made those muffins since then, and they were good muffins, but you know, trauma.

My previous memorable fire was when I totally destroyed the toaster oven.

I was on one of my various health kicks, and I was making homemade tortilla chips by cooking cut up tortillas in the toaster oven. (I don’t remember if they were corn or flour.) Let me tell you, if you do that, you need to watch them VERY closely. Because I turned around and those chips were on fire. And after I threw a whole box of baking soda in there, I didn’t think I wanted to eat them. Or to use that toaster oven ever again. The time required to clean it of all the baking soda was not attractive. So we just threw that toaster oven out and it was still kind of a mess to clean up.

I also boil things over quite often. My mom has had the same burner pans on her stove since she got the stove, I believe, but not so in my case. But I am trying to do better, after noting her example. It helps if I remember to clean them up right after I cook something, rather than after I cook something AGAIN and things get really cooked on.

I really would like a gas range and stove top but maybe that isn’t such a good idea with my proclivities.

I don’t have any pictures of the aftermath of the toaster oven fire, so how about a picture of Leo after his summer haircut? His hair has all grown back now and he was rather dandruffy so we gave him a bath the other night. He took it rather well, considering. A video of the procedure is not possible because it requires one person to do the holding and one person to do the washing. And, we don’t have room for a third person in the bathroom.

Still Life with Newt

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Progress has been made on the Newt quilt. Saturday I got it all fused together and started quilting it. I am done with the majority of the quilting, I didn’t want to make it too visible because the quilt already has so much going on. But I do think I need to do a little more in the background/wall. Make a little bit of a pattern back there so it isn’t too flat.

I had to make 5 of those darn newts until I got one I liked. I would get their teeny tiny fiddly eyes fused on, and then I would draw the mouth, and I wouldn’t like it.

#1 too dark of a tone of red.  #2 too glum. #3 too, I don’t know, smug? He looks irritating. #4 Too happy. Too much like Kermit the Frog.

The eventual winner. I think he looks mostly neutral, perhaps a bit perplexed.  Ken also pointed out his head was too round and that was making him look like Kermit, so he got a trimming.

You can still see some quilt marking lines here. I also need to add a tassel onto the end of the tapestry. I wish the Twinkies stood out more from the table, I quilted the heck out of them so they would show more than their surroundings. I would really like to get the fabric paint and add texture to the creme filling but I think I will resist.

Had to have this mostly done this weekend because I am going to be gone on work travel a good part of this week.

Left handed steering and sticking your tongue out

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It is about the end of the week and my brain is full and tired, so this will be a picture-heavy wrap-up of the week.

A few pictures of us with my brother and his family at Dave and Buster’s last week.

D. (the youngest) won this car race game quite handily, but I don’t know if his Grandpa is going to let him drive the tractor with that steering technique. He is left handed, and I am not sure how exactly he is manipulating that steering wheel but apparently it worked. And nice look of distress on T’s face.

S. demonstrating that hanging your tongue out helps you focus in skee ball.

Kenny demonstrates his perfect form at the football game, just like Elway.

It snowed again Thursday morning, after the wind howled all day (gusts up to 77 mph at our house). Suddenly at about 9:45 the wind just shut off. And then it snowed during the night, which was expected, but in many places it snowed quite a bit more than expected. I was not enthusiastic about driving in the snow for a 2nd time in a week. We need more of a break than that.

I leave on work travel again next week, so this weekend will be a frenzy of getting things done, because I always feel I should do that before I go places. If I get half the things done on my “to do” list I will be doing well. I will probably write some posts in advance so I don’t have to post while I am on my trip, I think I still need to post the final installment of the San Francisco trip, and there will be pictures from the quilt show I attended last weekend, and an update on the newt quilt!

The Conclusion of the Winter Park Trip

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You know you have had a good time when a one day trip is blog fodder for 3 days.

Uncle Kenny, D. and S. fooling around with the electronics before dinner.

Uncle Kenny helping D. with a fishing game.

We had a reservation at Smokin’ Moes in Winter Park but we got there a little early and they fit us in early. We had the spicy sausage (which I did not find spicy, but you know me….) and onion rings (which were good) for appetizers. Ken and Wade and I had the ribs, sis-in-law L. and S. had the brisket. D. had chicken strip and and T. had grilled cheese. Maybe it was because I filled up on appetizers and cashews at their house, but I wasn’t wild about the ribs. Ken was though, and says they are just as good warmed up (he got my leftovers, too.) They did have excellent Texas Toast. It is possible to screw that up, so I appreciate it when it is good.

D. had a big rootbeer float.

Ok, see that little white cup there? They give you those for water glasses, and you can take them home. So, sis-in-law L. was dumping out all of the water glasses into one of the big pop cups so they could take them home, and she dumped one that was not a water cup.

It was the kid’s menu crayon cup. Really, don’t they look festive in there? She was quite mortified. I haven’t been that amused since she spilled orange juice on my phone at a character breakfast at Disneyworld and the Mad Hatter came over and yelled at her.

Here is the whole family as Ken and I were getting ready to go, D. hanging upside down off the couch there. I forgot to get a picture of S. wearing the pepper print pants I made her for her birthday – they ended up fitting pretty well. And T. brought her poodle skirt along and I stitched the poodle down (it was an iron on and it was coming back up), so that all worked out. It was great to see them, sounds like they are coming out again over spring break so maybe we will get to see them again (kids want to go to Casa Bonita again, of course.)

It was an interesting drive home on all those twisty roads, and Ken pointed out that it would have been good to clean my headlights off, as they were rather muddy. But we made good time once we made it back onto I-70.

A Crab AND Yellow Birds??!!

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Let me just say that it would be a good policy for the towns of Fraser and Winter Park to give everyone entering town a free wine tasting, and everyone would then leave more of their tourist dollars in town.

Our first stop upon returning to Fraser was the Winter Park Winery. I saw the “Wine Tasting” sign and thought that would be a fine way to spend some time while we were waiting for my brother and his family to finish skiing.

I think they have you taste 7 wines, I don’t know, I kind of lost track. My issue is that I instantly know whether I like a wine or not, so then I just shoot the rest of it down and move onto the next one. So I consumed that wine pretty quickly (not a large quantity of each, but cumulatively…..) I am a sweet wine person (I like some reds, but not “big” reds, and I like reds with lower tannin.) So we bought two bottles of the Riesling (one for Wade and his wive) and one for us, a bottle of their port, and a bottle of “Grateful Red” which isn’t even ready to drink yet but I couldn’t resist. We are supposed to hold off until at least this summer, so I didn’t get to taste it. But it was “Grateful Red” so I had to have it. Good marketing on their part.

I had a hard time taking this picture, MaryAnne thought it should be “Still Life with Wine and Cat.”

While we were rounding the block to park at the winery, I saw two signs – “Art Gallery” and “Thrift Store” which I knew would be our next stops.

They were both in the same building, the historic Fraser mercantile building. The thrift store doesn’t have a website, but the art gallery does. The Elizabeth Kurtak Art Gallery  – they had recently had an open house, and so were sold out of some paintings and prints, but I still found a print I liked (picture from her website since I forgot to take one).

I liked this one as well “Spring Fox,” as it has more complex shapes (I am learning more about what I like in art from my color theory/design class), but she was sold out of that one right now.

Then to the thrift store, I hadn’t really seen anything that caught my eye (other than the two cats in the store, Ken was busy playing with them and hoping I wouldn’t find anything weird) – but then I saw the door that said “Furniture, Man Stuff and Oddities.” Well, you can’t keep me away from oddities, and I think I purchased the item that they were referring to.

Yes, it’s a crab. A crab soap dish.

See, it opens up and you can put your soap in there. Or, you can chase your husband around, clacking it at him. I will not tell you what he said he was going to do to Cyril the Crab if I didn’t stop that. NOT nice.

And Cyril needed someone to keep him company. These birds will look lovely on the wall in the sunroom, if I can find some other bright decorative items to go with them.

We got out of there before I could find anything else I needed.

We headed back into Winter Park and went to nest.Artistic Home, a great store full of original and local arts and crafts. I couldn’t resist an original watercolor by Grand Lake artist Richard Koller. Apparently he is trying to paint one picture a day. I am glad to have this one.

Luckily for our budget, the skiiers were down off the mountain, so we went to see them and left the retail adventure! Quite a good day, I’d say.

Winter Park II With Actual Pictures

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Well, I have returned from Yuma, Colo., and after I saw the weather Monday morning, I was quite glad I headed out there Sunday night rather than waiting until 5:00 a.m. Even heading back to Denver at about 12:30, the sun was shining but there were ground blizzard conditions quite often on the state highway. It would not have been fun in the dark. It was not a lot of fun in the daylight. But I have outgrown the stage of life where everything has to happen in a hurry, and I took it easy and got home OK. And I had a book on tape to listen to (Connie Willis’ Blackout) so that helps considerably.

Once you turn off of I-70 and onto U.S. 40, it is very twisty and has lots of switchbacks, it is only about 26 miles but it takes a while because you need to slow down to 20 mph for the turns.

There were lots of people back-country skiing and snowboarding. There used to be a ski resort area here at Berthoud pass, and now it is all back-country. Which means that instead of a ski lift, you have to hike yourself up the hills. And there is also considerably more avalanche danger. And, according to the sign, danger of being shelled.

One of the peaks visible from the rest area/parking area at the pass. I have no idea what its name is, I tried to look at some of the topological maps and I was quite lost. Good thing I am not a mountain man.

You can turn about every direction and take an amazing picture.

The mountains toward the town of Winter Park.

People hike up this very steep mountain and ski down it. Ay yi yi.

A very nice young snow boarder offered to take our picture. We were hiking on the snow to get to a better angle for taking pictures, and I was wishing I had worn snow boots.

These mountains are north (?) of the towns of Winter Park and Fraser. You can see that we are down in the valley where the towns rest. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. But, a lot of snow. And this year, actually less snow than usual.

On the way through Fraser, I had sighted a winery advertising wine tastings, and when we went around the block to park at the winery, I saw two signs: Thrift Store and Art Gallery. So you know what tomorrow’s entry will be about.

We did not stay at this hotel, but I would be totally open to the possibility:

Winter Park 2012

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A one-day trip to Winter Park, wherein so much happened, I may need three days to write about it.

My brother and his wife and kids were up in Winter Park skiing, so Ken and I drove up to do some sightseeing and then spend time with them/eat dinner with them after they got done. We took off about 1:30, after I got back from the art quilt show (more about that later this week when I have the right camera memory card.) We had to stop once we got to Berthoud Pass and take some of those picture that those of us who are lucky enough to live in Colorado have to post every now and then, just to rub it in…..

Well, I have been prevented from making everyone jealous of the beautiful mountain range by the lackluster internet connection at my hotel. I had an unexpected little trip Sunday night. I knew I had to get up bright and early (like 5 a.m. bright and early) to drive out to Yuma, Colorado for a work event. Well, when the 5:30 newscast was talking about blizzard conditions after 3:00 a.m., Ken and I decided it might be a good idea for me to get on the road and spend the night in Yuma, rather than drive in the morning in snow and 50 mph winds.

So, you are going to have to wait until tomorrow to see the beautiful pictures. I can report we had a lovely time, there are many places to shop I did not have time to go to, and that they should give everyone a free wine tasting when they enter to town to encourage shopping. It certainly worked with me. I bought: wine (of course), a crab soap holder, an interesting yellow wall decoration, a book, a print by a Colorado artist, and an original water color by a Colorado artist. We need to go back sometime in the summer when there is not so much snow…..

So, sorry for the short entry tonight, but I better sign off this rather wimpy wireless and get to sleep! I may have an exciting drive home!

Fun With the Nieces and Nephew

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This is the first time in a while I haven’t had a post written the night before and ready to go – sorry, the kids wore us out! My oldest set of nieces/nephew (my brother’s kids) and my brother Wade and his wife stopped in town on their way to go skiing over the long weekend. So we met at Dave and Buster’s, which is a nicer restaurant attached to a huge arcade/gaming place – fancier than Gigglebee’s or Chuck E. Cheese (the last time I was at a Chuck E. Cheese, I got pinkeye, while on vacation). Wade had some leftover cards with game credits from some work event, so we had dinner and then worked on using them up.

Dave and Buster’s has the excellent appetizer of soft hot pretzel bites – I have been missing hot pretzels because we used to eat at a restaurant in DC at our January meeting that had hot pretzels as an appetizer. Well, we moved hotels and we don’t go to that restaurant any more. But I love hot pretzels so of they are on the menu I am getting them. These came with three different kinds of sauce and rated a thumbs up from us – I personally like as much sauce as possible. I had Mediterranean citrus shrimp for my meal, and they were fine. My main object was to not get too full after having those pretzels as an appetizer. The kids didn’t want anything to do with them, they were happy with fried cheese sticks. Ken had teriyaki steak, which he said was good, my brother had a steak (don’t remember which) and he said it was good, Laurie (sis in law) had a steak which I think she liked, and the oldest niece, S, who is 12, had a steak and also liked it. The younger two had macaroni and cheese. We offered to take the leftover steak from Laurie and S. but they are staying at a condo for skiing so they have a refrigerator, shoot. :  )

It was amazing how much energy they still had after a 12 hour car drive across Nebraska and half of Colorado. Well, I guess they were shut in a car all day and needed to burn some off. We had a lot of fun with all the games.

I took S. her pepper pants and she liked them, telling her mother she was going to wear them over her pants the rest of the night, but then she didn’t after I had her take them off and showed her how to tell back from front. I am going to see them again on Saturday, I think I will take along some thread and embroider a “F” in the inside front, since it is kind of hard to tell w/home made pants. She also thought they would be awesome over her ski pants, but we didn’t know if the cotton material would be good for that, and I haven’t seen any fun rip stop nylon pepper prints.

There is a photo booth there that takes your picture and then “draws” it in a different style. You can see this one of the kids is drawn in the “Leonardo Da Vinci” style. Uh huh.

Ken and I were just as bad at the Jurassic Park shooting dinosaur game as we remembered. I believe I beat about everybody in the car racing game where you all have a different machine and race against each other, which is kind of unbelievable. There was also a trivia game (heavily slanted toward MODERN questions esp in the music category) and a Wheel of Fortune game which was hard because you only got to pick 3 letters and then you had to solve the puzzle.

D. (age 6) got his own picture somehow. His sisters explained “something happened!” and then “T. pinched Dawson!”

Earlier in the night I had said, “These kids are old enough that you could throw all three of them on a plane and send them out here by themselves for a few days,” by the end of the night I was questioning whether we would survive that…..

Well, a good time was had by all and the intrepid skiers headed up into the mountains at about 10:30, still having a 2 hour drive to get to their ski area. My brother is a good night driver so I am sure he got them there ok.

A Little Spring

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Since it is STILL cold and snowy and HAS BEEN for it seems like forever….(sorry, in Denver we are usually spoiled by snow falling, sometimes a lot of it, and then melting, and a few days of 60° before we have snow again. Not so since oh, January?) So I thought I would put up some flower pictures. These are from the summer of 2008. Early July, I believe, because later that summer we got hammered with hail.

Pink morning-glory. The birds like these, so they are scattered around the yard quite widely and volunteer the next year.

Purple morning glory. I am pretending it is 75 degrees and sunny….

Mr. Bee, busy in a sunflower.

Pink hollyhock. Hollyhocks are another one of my favorites.

I always start out gardening with great enthusiasm in the spring and then lose interest as it gets hotter and the weeds get more numerous. Maybe it will be different this year……

My Love of Old Cookbooks – I Can’t Look Away

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I love old cookbooks. Partially because I really enjoy trying new recipes, and looking through recipes made “the old way” calling for a #2 can of peaches, or lard, or what have you. And part of it is the horror. Because some of these recipes, and some of these pictures, are kind of scary. Or at the least, very kitschy.

For example:

That’s right, that chicken is essentially sculpted out of egg salad. No word on what to do if your sculpting skills aren’t up to snuff.

Sometimes the recipes don’t have pictures, but they can be just as frightening.

I guess these recipes are similar to meatloaf which uses oatmeal as the binder, but these are a little scary. Especially the 2nd one.

I don’t know, I like my pizza burgers with only about a half a can of Spam. And I can’t even imagine how you would grate the Spam.


Growing up, we at a fair amount of Jello because my dad liked it and would eat it. Mainly jello with fruit. At our house, you do not put jello with crazy stuff like carrots or celery. Or, god forbid, sour cream or mayonnaise. However, olives were not even a possibility that I had considered.

OK, this doesn’t include vegetables, but (see 3rd sentence of instructions) BUTTER MINTS with sugary/sweet marshmallows and cool whip? Oy.

Again, the fruit, not so weird, although dates or prunes would be unusual, and I don’t care for nuts in my Jello, but I REALLY don’t care for Grape Nuts in my Jello.

Spaghetti and pineapple do not belong in the same recipe together. Ever. I like pasta salad, and I like fruit salad, but….you get my drift.

I’m not sure what this is but the picture fits in well with the other recipes. If you weren’t feeling a little queasy before, perhaps you are now.

I am sure that many of these are beloved family recipes, and that many people would be horror-struck by some of our recipes (Snickers/Apple SALAD, please?), so please don’t take this a being mean spirited, just a raising of the eyebrows at some unusual tastes. And looking through those old cookbooks gives me quite a bit of enjoyment. Hmmm, I haven’t spent any time doing that lately, I may need to dig into the cookbook stash. I could do a post on just my Jello cookbooks ALONE…..