Walpapering the van

Or, Contact papering the Woodie!

So we have 2 Voyager's. The newer one ("99" is mine "88" is DH's) So the 88 is a "woodie" meaning it has wood panels on the sides. Well the trim around those panels had gotten rather ratty looking so DH took the better part of 2 days and removed the panels, cleaned them very well and covered them with wood grained contact paper before putting them back on.

So, I suppose you could say that our van has been freshly wallpapered!

And this is not the 1st time he has done this. But the last time he did not take off the panels before adding the contact paper so it didn't last long at all. Although I don't know exactly how long you can expect this to last.

He calls the van his Woodie. He doesn't like calling it a van. I think he just likes to say he drives a Woodie. Oh well.

I would like to add that the Woodie only cost us $500 and we have had it for at least 4 years now... one of the benefits of marrying a mechanic!

Here's a photo of the newly wallpapered Woodie.

Book: Blue Ribbon Crochet

This is a wonderful book and I would recommend it to anyone w/a divers taste if what they like to crochet. Wide range of projects. You can find it at Amazon . I have scanned the cover and chapter pictures page, click on them for a larger view if you like.

This is not a book to learn by, many of the patterns are rather advanced but well written and easy to follow.

chapters include:
*Judges' Choice Afghans - 9 designs
*First Place Fashions - 9 designs (sweaters, purses, earrings, shawls and more)
*Heirloom Masterpieces - 9 designs (doilies, curtains, coverlet/bedspreads and more)
*Best-In-Show babies - 8 designs (blankets, clothing, bibs and more)
*Award-Winning Dolls & Toys - 5 designs (puzzle, stuffed dolls, animals and cloths for them)
*Home Accessories Showcase - 9 designs (pillows, afghans, rugs, place mats and more)

Crocheting to skydive

So guy at work is all excited and wants to go sky diving. I did it about 8 years ago (2 times) and wouldn't mind doing it again but realistically with a family of 5 there are other things I can spend my $$ on than jumping out of a plane.

Well this guy also wants to pay me to make him a crochet ripple afghan. I told him that I got a deal for him... he pays for me to sky dive and I make him an afghan. He was all for it. So we will just have to see how the follow through goes with this one! So often with these sort of things they tend to loose steam before they are realized. But i told him that if he really wants to do it he knows I wont back out cuz I have already done it.

I guess this is what happens when your interests are truly all over the place... you end up trading crochet for skydiving. I suppose it just goes to prove that I'm quite the diverse person.

I wrote a poem about the last time I went skydiving and you can read it on my poetry blog.

5,000 feet

I do love me a good zombie movie!

Ah, last night was movie night (if you couldn't tell) and I also rented Zombie Land. That was a really good zomibe movie IMO. Don't worry, no spoilers here.

But seriously, it's a zombie movie and I bet you can already guess what happens.

What makes a good zombie movie?
special effects - keep them "old school" no need to get all technical and fancy, get a good makeup artist and you must have LOTS of rotting flesh and blood. Not to mention the occasional broken bone sticking out for effect.

humor - seriously, they are zombies and it's been done before. Lets not pretend to be all serious about the whole thing. The more gruesome the effects are and the better and cheesy the humor is the better the movie is. Sure, there are some good serious zombie movies out there. But at this point in the history of zombie movies, humor is where it's at.

And I expect some good zombie action in my zombie movies.

I loved this movie. Had all the right stuff for a great humorous zombie flick. The zombies were faster and more energetic than your average zombie but it was a nice touch.

I can't pass up a zombie flick when I see one, no matter how bad or good they look like they will be.

Another AWESOME zombie movie that is funny is Shaun of the Dead! A must see IMO.

Why is there always a donut?

So I just got done watching 2012 (not half bad, a bit over the top, but pretty good) And of course they have a scene where everything is getting ripped apart and a big donut goes rolling down the street.

Just makes me wonder why movies with disasters or creatures ripping up the land seem to work in the rolling, larger than life, donuts.

Maybe I watch to many of these movies. But it's become quite a matter of .... "Oh look, there's another donut rolling down the street"

Anyone else notice the extensive use of giant rolling donuts in movies? Or is it just me and my weird taste in movies that brings me to the ones that use giant rolling donuts?

I do enjoy disaster movies, zombie movies, sci fi and weird humor.

Beer Bread

This is is quick and easy bread to whip up. I often make it to go along with my Lemon-Herb-Chipotle Roasted Chicken. Also great with chilies and other dishes. My kids love this bread!

* Exported from MasterCook *

Beer Bread

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 10 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Breads Cooking With Beer

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3 cups self-rising flour -- *see Note
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter -- melted
1 can beer -- warm
4 tablespoons butter -- melted

Preheat oven to 375

mix all ingredients except the last 4 tablespoons butter in a bowl and
pour into a greased/buttered bread pan.

Bake 45 minutes

Take it out and pour the 4 Tbs melted butter over the top

Return to oven and bake another 10 minutes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 238 Calories; 10g Fat (37.7%
calories from fat); 4g Protein; 32g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 25mg
Cholesterol; 572mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 2 Fat; 0 Other
Carbohydrates.

NOTES : 1 C self-rising flour = 1 C all purpose flour +1 tsp
baking powder + 1 tsp salt

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0

Lemon-Herb-Chipotle Roasted Chicken

This is a family favorite. This chicken is nice and juicy thought with a rich flavor. The chipotle rub gives it a wonderful flavor and the chicken is not to spicy. All my kids eat this up!

Left overs make a great chicken noodle soup. Make the soup with the skin for added spice, remove the skin for a milder soup. As of course I always make home made egg noodles for my soups!

This is also excellent with Beer Bread.

The original recipe called for 2 smaller fryer chickens but for simplicity of only working with one bird I use a large roaster. In my post about Smoking a turkey you can see what I mean about spreading the seasoning under the skin.

For left over chili pure, freeze in ice cube trays and then transfer to a zipper freezer bag for storage for future use.

This recipe can be found in the Chevy's fresh mex cook book. I really like this book!


* Exported from MasterCook *

Lemon-herb-chipotle Roasted Chicken

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Mexican

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
5 pounds whole chicken
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
6 sprigs rosemary
6 sprigs oregano
1 whole lemon -- cut in half
4 large garlic cloves -- cut in half
2 tablespoons chipotle chile canned in adobo -- *see Note


Preheat the oven to 350. Remove the giblets from the body cavity, and trim
away the excess fat. Rinse chicken inside and out under cold running water
and pat dry.

Combine the olive oil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

Spread the seasoned olive oil under the breast skin. Place garlic clove
halves under the breast skin on each side and down into the legs if
possible. Strip the leaves of the remaining sprigs of rosemary and oregano
and mince; distribute evenly under the breast skin.

coat the cavity generously with the remanding seasoned olive oil. Strip
the leaves off 3 sprigs rosemary and 3 sprigs oregano and mince; place
inside the cavity. Place 2 each of the remaining sprigs of rosemary and
oregano (leaves still attached) in the cavity. Squeeze the lemons into the
cavity and stuff the halves into the cavity.

Sprinkle pepper and salt over the entire chicken. Truss the chicken drum
sticks, closing the cavity. Or with a wooden skewer, pinch the skin
together over the cavity and pierce through the skin and work your way up
the body "sewing" the skin together. Rub outside of chicken with the
chipotle puree.

Place the chicken on a roasting rack in a roasting pan and roast until the
thigh juices run clear when the skin is pierced with a knife, about 2
hours, basting with pan juices every 30 minutes, or until the thigh meat
registers 165 on an instant read thermometer.

Carve and serve.

Source:
"Chevys & Rio Bravo Fresh Mex Cook Book"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 748 Calories; 58g Fat (69.6%
calories from fat); 49g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 235mg
Cholesterol; 2082mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 6 1/2 Lean
Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 7 1/2 Fat.

NOTES : Puree the contents of a entire can of chipotle chile in
adobo sauce. Or you can make your own.



Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Zebra's new sweater

So, Robert (my middle child) came to me and asked me if I would make zebra a sweater because he was cold. I asked him what color zebra's sweater needed to be and he said he zebra wants a gray one.

So I whipped up this little sweater for zebra and I think he's quite happy ;)

Lacy Vine Scarf

Lacy Vine Scarf

So, I found this stitch pattern for a lacy vine stripe I cast on thinking this would make a really pretty scarf. But it appears that most of the decreases and increases were slanting wrong for my taste. they did not create the same look on both sides so I had to do some tweaking. and after all was said I really like the new look of it. I like my stuff to look the same on both sides when they are supposed to look the same.

I have made this available as a PDF file.

3-12-10

I finished the scarf and blocked it. My Dad was over and watched it being blocked. He agrees, blocking knit lace is like magic! He was really surprised at how large it was after being blocked compared to it's size when simply finished knitting.