Mother Goose Popcorn

Here's Carson making a "scary face" with the Halloween (Mother Goose) Popcorn

Mother Goose Popcorn (from Donna Tobler)
This seems easier than caramel corn and you can change the color depending on the season...

Pop 4 bags of microwave popcorn and dump into a clean brown paper bag (I get a few at Safeway and put one inside the other for strength)

Stir together in a pan on the stove:

2 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 C white sugar
1 T butter
2/3 C milk

Bring to a soft boil and boil for 2 minutes. Then add:

1 t vanilla
food coloring (paste type gives the deepest color)

Pour this over the popcorn in the bag; stir to mix; dump out on 2 cookie sheets (I line with foil)
This makes a lot and is virtually fat free (but not totally non caloric)

Sadie's Birthday

Sadie is Twelve!

Recently Read (or skimmed or listened to)

Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot

Another "brain" book...things to do to keep your brain yound (if it's old like mine!

Killer Summer
This is where my childhood love of Nancy Drew has taken me for light "escape" reading....actually listening...as this helps pass the time while I do boring things like dental insurance.

Book of the Dead

Ditto above...but Patricia Cornwall's early books about forensic pathologist, Kay Scarpetta were really good (although grisley)...kind of like CSI but without the visuals. Her more recent books and the direction her characters have gone are not so great.

The Maze of Bones

I thought this series by Rick Riordan who did The Young Olympians series might be good for Lindi or Sadie...it's OK but his writing is nowhere as good as Branden Mull's Fablehaven books.

What Einstein Told His Cook

Fascinating to browse through...the science of cooking!

The Second Opinion

Palmer is another author that passes the time while I do boring stuff.(do you get an idea of how mundane my life is)..he's a Dr...and all of his books have medical settings...this one was pretty interesting because the main character was a woman doctor who had Aperger's syndrome...a condition that the author's 18 year old son has...

Pride and Prejudice

So, this month is the 20th anniversary of our Book Club and this was the first book we read...we met at Marilyn Hulme's...I don't think I read this for that meeting as I had read it in high school, and I'm embarrassed to admit, English major that I am, I'm really not a big Austin fan...as you can see from my escape reading I'm usually into more plot driven books that I skim through rapidly, just hitting the high points...

But I determined this time to really read the book..(I love the movies...the costumes, the scenery, they're beautiful)...and I did, sort of...I listened to it on Audible...and actually enjoyed it quite a bit...she is very caustic and witty...but it's 13 hours to listen to (and the reader was excellent)...and the last 5 or 6 hours I set my IPhone on double speed and listened to it REALLY FAST! I did buy the Annotated Pride and Prejudice...it's fascinating reading the background of a lot of the things from that era. And I bought the BBC miniseries and the recent movie and checked out of the library the movie Becoming Jane....so while I'll never read Austin for pleasure...I have come to admire her and see why she's considered so great.


Final Theory:A Novel

Alpert's exciting debut takes the premise that Albert Einstein succeeded in discovering a unified field theory, but hid the result, fearing it could lead to weapons far more powerful than the atom bomb. In the present day, several contenders—the U.S. government, a savage mercenary bent on revenge, various scientists—all scramble to uncover the theory.
Good....another better book involving Einstein...Three Days to Never by Tim Smith.

Into the Wilderness

An EPIC historical novel that takes place in the America of 1792 and involves James Fenemore Cooper's characters (Hawkeye and son) from Last of the Mohicans.
The book is almost 900 pages (I listened to it...30 hours worth)...it was very good (although the 29 year old Englishwoman heroine seems very "modern" to me) BUT at the end Donati leaves you with a cliffhanger! Elizabeth is pregnant with twins and they aren't born by the end of the book....you have to go on to the next book in the series! I may, but not right away.

Dragonfly in Amber
While I was into historical epics, I checked out the CDs for book two of Gabaldon's Outlander series (she's just published book 7 of the series)...I read Outlander a number of years ago...sort of a time travel/historical novel book...the modern day(well, 1945) heroine steps through a cleft in some rocks in the Scottish highlands and is transported to 1743 Scotland and is involved (both romantically and historically) with a Scots warrior Jamie Fraser...she returns to the present 3 years later pregnant with her daughter...she's got some "splaining" to do! Be advised...tastefully PG13.

Wii, Wii, Wii, all the way home!

Here are some recent games....












EA Sports Active
It incorporates the Wii balance board from Wii Fit if you already have that program. I've been doing the Bob Green 30 day challenge.














Wario Shakeup
Fun to play with the grandkids....













WII Sports Resort
Archery, swordfighting....the jr. jedi set love this! And it has the new motion plus controller....I might develop "tennis elbow" (or sword fighting elbow!)

Cool Old People (related to you)

Grandpa Earle....Earle Holmes Dean

(Grandpa Roger's father, my grandfather, Gma Dorothy's husband, Aunt Thelma's brother.)

I love this picture...probably taken about 1930 (1930 US Census..he gives occupation as salesman for bread company)
He worked for Wonder Bread who sponsored The Lone Ranger radio program...all their drivers dressed like this. He had a bread delivery route that went from Oakland out to Oakley...he'd stop at little stores all along the way to deliver Wonder Bread...sometimes Gpa Roger(about 8 yrs old at the time) would go with him. They'd be gone two or three days.

Here he is about 1920...cool haircut, huh...kind of reminds me of Lyle Lovett.
Notice the two missing fingers....he lost those in some sort of accident in a machine shop where he worked as a teenager...it was somewhat tragic since his mother, Clara Browning Dean, had visions of him as a concert pianist from the age of 5. She had great ambitions for him and although he still played the piano after the accident (our piano is Gpa Dean's piano)...he certainly could not continue on to being a professional musician...it's interesting that in the 1920 census, while he was still single and living at home, he listed his profession as "musician". On his WWI draft registration he lists his occupation as truck driver. But in his mind he was a musician....later he became an insurance agent.

"Spooning" with Gma Dorothy! 1921

With Gma Dorothy and Gpa Roger, who's about 9, and Thelma, married to "Uncle Bill"(Wilbert) Crane with their daughter, Pat...about 1932.

He's about 5 years old here(and doesn't look very happy)...the family is now living in Denver, Colorado. His father, Jesse Lyons Dean worked for International Harvester as a salesman and traveled, taking orders and delivering parts to farmers and ranchers from Denver down to Pueblo, Colorado, and across into Clayton, New Mexico. Earle was born in Pueblo, his sister, Thelma in Clayton, New Mexico.

See where Karl got his curly hair!

Here he is (with his hair well combed down) about age 8 with sister Thelma and (from left to right) his great grandmother, Cecelia Knapp Sherwood, grandmother, Isabella Sherwood Browning, and mother, Clara Browning Dean.

Another while living in Colorado, with sister, Thelma.

I love these pictures of them as children....I see little traces of many of you kids and grandkids.

Another favorite picture...he and Gma Dorothy came with us on our annual trip to Blue Creek up the Klamath River. This was about 1958. He was really happy with his catch that day!

While I'm at it...Kathy Barber's Pie Crust

All Ready Pie Crust is a great invention...and Marie Callendar's is even better (but only for one crust pies)....but if you want to really do a "from scratch" pie...this is the best crust I've found...thanks to my pie baking friend...Kathy Barber!

Pie Crust
(this makes two crusts...top and bottom...for a large 10" pie, or 3 or 4 8" crusts)

Cut together:
1 C Crisco
2 C flour
1/2 t salt

Mix:
1/4 C cold water
1 egg
1 T white vinegar

Add to flour mixture, blend with a fork and gather into a ball. Don't handle too much. Cover your bread board with a flour sack type "tea towel", flour board and roll out "lightly" as Gma Dorothy used to say, pinching the edges as you roll so you don't get cracks.

Mom's Apple Pie

What do you do when you have lots of apples?
You make lots of apple pies! Or at least the beginnings of them...Aunt Val calls them "embryo" apple pies....below is the recipe for two pies....then I quadruple the amounts, line and fill 8 pie pans, freeze, then take out of the pan and over wrap with more foil. When you want pie just make or buy crust and bake. A frozen pie bakes at 425 for about 15 minutes, then about 45-60 minutes more at 350. Poke the apples to test when done.



Two Apple Pies

Cook on the stove in a covered pot for 5 minutes:

8 C peeled and sliced apples (green apples; I use the golden delicious off our tree, but granny smith, gravenstein, summer rose are all good)
3/4 C water
2 T lemon juice

Drain, reserving liquid.
Mix 1/2 C sugar, 2 T cornstarch, 1/4 t salt, 1/2 t nutmeg, 1/2 t cinnamon. Mix with liquid and cook until thick. Pour over apples and gently combine. Fills two pies.