McLaren's cheese

My Kraft recipes finally arrived today, and I found the recipe you spoke of, Beth.  Actually, it sounds pretty good.  But, I know what you mean about spending a lot on a special ingredient.  Many of the Kraft recipes call for things I would never buy, such as grated cheese combinations.  actually, I would be more likely to buy something special and use half of it, leaving the other half to rot.  Sort of nice to use the whole thing for a special treat.  There were a couple of other interesting things in there such as the Kris Kringle cookies.  Sound like something I would love, although David wouldn't eat them  H-m-m-m.  I would end up eating them all myself.  H-m-m-m.  Have to think about that one.

Another adventure

I tried to buy a sweater last Friday, out of a Pennington's catalogue I received in the mail.  The local store didn't know anything about the catalogue, or the sweater, although " it might be in the forty boxes of stock we haven't unpacked yet.  Maybe come back next week".  So David started calling around to other stores and found out that the store on McPhillips had the catalogue and were sure the sweater was in the stock that would be unpacked and on the floor by Tuesday.  We phoned early this morning and were assured that the sweater was there, in the colour I wanted, and they would put away one in my size until the end of business today. So off we went.  Couldn't find the store, although I had the address, and knew the cross street.  Just couldn't find it,---- until we realized we were on Main St, not McPhillips.  Once that was sorted out, and after a couple of crazy U-turns, we finally found our store.  And they had pants on sale as well.  I made my choices and was getting my jacket on  to pay, when a lady pushed out a piled-high grocery cart full of new merchandise and on top were more sweaters--and in different colours!  So I ended up getting a lovely magenta/dark grey sweater instead of the scarlet/grey one I had first seen. And pair of black, "dressier" jeans.  So I have my Christmas outfit for this year.  The difference in customer service between the two stores shocked me.  While I had been in the dressing room, David had talked with the clerk, who knew exactly which store it had been that caused us problems, and volunteered that they were picking up quite  few customers from there recently.

Then it was to the artists' store for watercolour paint, then the bakery, and finally to WalMart for some general health & beauty supplies.  But wait--not only is the parking lot an total maze/confusing construction mess--so is the inside of the store.  They are converting to a "Super Centre", and have been all summer (for some reason this requires a traffic circle to be installed in the middle of the parking lot, as well as blocking off half the of the parking lot for construction trailers and vehicles.  Total chaos!) Anyway, trying to find anything was next to impossible, but we persevered.

All I can say is that I'm grateful that is over and grateful to be home.  With luck I won't have to leave again for awhile.

Blue and yellow fill the outside

Don't know what it is but resembles clear blue sky and yellow bright shining sun! Hope it hangs around for awhile - although it is a bit nippy out regardless. Took the dog to the lake early and observed the seagulls, and ducks floating on the water ducking for food and the shore line was covered with a layer of ice.  Interesting also is that there is still a seadoo machine anchored off shore about 100 ft - has been there all summer. The other anchored boats and crafts have long since been moved onto shore, but this one lonely seadoo sits in the cold. I think it belongs to the marina but they soon better bring it in, or maybe they think it will be used as a snowmachine??
My friend Sue sent an email to remind me of our luncheon visit for Wednesday. I have been looking forward to going, did not forget, and hope the driving will be OK.
Harry and I went to Sturgeon Falls yesterday (1 1/2 hour total to North Bay and then west) He asked on Kijiji if anyone had horseradish and this man called him up to say he could come and dig all he wanted. Then once home he had to clean it all, and then ground it up in a Magic Bullet machine and mixed with vinegar to fill about a dozen pint jars. He was up to about 9 pm last evening finishing it off and since he is the only one who eats it, he did it all by himself. I just turned on the electric floor heaters in the basement - I always wait until absolutely necessary and this year it seems really early - perhaps it shall be a long winter?
Will be listening closely to the USA Presidential election results tomorrow- scary to think what might happe and how it may affect Canada.
Anyway, the week begins and hope you all enjoy. Glad to hear from Cathy, and hope you can soon get that darn blog up and running! Take care

I will get back into the blog one of these days, but until then it will have to be email. We had the wine tasting last weekend. Right up until the last minute we had no idea if people would come. In the end we had about 75 "tasters" There were 8 tables with about 4 or 5 wines at each. I didn't get to taste them all, but I tried some. I found myself enjoying some red wines and I have never thought of myself as a red wine drinker. I also tried some whites that I detested. I does seem rather wasteful to throw wine away, but that was expected of you. Hopefully they didn't realise that I was tossing it because I hated it and not because I was rinsing for my next taste. We had asked for donations from the 3 major stores in town of fruit and cheese trays. We ended up with 1 veggie tray, 2 meat trays and one cheese tray. Kristy, Don & I spent time in the kitchen rearranging everything. We rolled the salami to make it look like more and used most of the ham in roll-ups that we were making into pin-wheels. We had more cheese and grapes so we made our own trays. Most of the food went, except some salami & cheese. (and not much of that was left) Kristy and I were just winging it when we made the pin-wheel appetisers, but people devoured them. It only ran from 7 to 9 pm, so we were cleaned up by about 10:15. We had to get everything out because there was a church meeting there the next morning. I wonder how they felt about the 4 cases of empty wine bottles we left in the kitchen? Yesterday the snow came. White outs on the highway, cars in ditches. I'm afraid it is going to stay now. Of course we aren't ready. We were still sitting at the patio table last weekend. Now we have to clean the snow off it and the chairs to take them to the quonset. And we can't take them to the quonset until we get the pool out. It has to go to the garage to thaw out so we can fold it and put it away. I have a week off work coming up. Maybe I will do some work then. I better, because I think the office party is here on Nov 17th. (by default... I didn't say no before everyone else did). Now we have to go to town to buy yet another bag of dog food. They sure eat a lot. Have a great day

Kraft Foods Whats Cooking...

The latest magazine arrived yesterday and of course is full of delicious looking items focusing on  seasonal goodies! I was interested in the recipe on page 32 using McLarens Imperial Cheese. I buy a container of this favourite Cheese and then ration my portions to make it last because as you know it is a bit expensive. To use a whole container seems extravagant but on the other hand, may be worth it? So maybe I'll switch this year and forget my usual cheese tarts, and instead try these. What do you think?
Still more snow here and for a while I thought we might see it melt away but now I am a bit worried that this may indeed stay around as it dumped again on us last night - can you imagine winter coming the first of Nov! This morning is housework for me as Harry has gone to Sprucedale again as he does most Saturday mornings So I better get at it, eh?? Fresh coffee is brewed so away I go......Take care

Christmas budget

We, too, have been working on our Christmas budget.  It's almost deflating to reach the stage in life when your Christmas budget just needs a little dickering of your monthly budget--not a concerted effort over 6 months.  We have also been trying to see if we can plan a trip to Mahnomen for our anniversary.  Unfortunately, our anniversary falls on a Friday this year and our coupons are no good.  David called to find out what a room would cost without them and it's over $100.  So much for that idea. But when I think about it, we have absolutely no other reason to travel that far.  I have no need to shop, and Giselle's give a better pedicure.  And Heaven knows I have no desire to sit in a car for that long.

I can't promise to be able to post any more pictures, as the camera is still an issue.  I plan to go through the ones I have that you took, Beth.  I have an idea for a hanging using wind turbines as a focus.  I'm not sure how it's going to work out, but David took me out yesterday and bought me special (black) batting to use for it, so I have to pursue it now.

Time hangs heavy on us, so we've been watching more reality shows.  What crap!  But I think we may be in a position to start our Christmas baking.  I haven't planned much but hope we get some shortbread done.  We usually have it done by the beginning of October, and I bought the supplies, so don't have much choice there either.  The other option I have to keep busy and off the streets is housework.  No contest!

Photos again...thanks

Somehow you have achieved it and so glad to see. The quilt is very colourful and looks very nice and cozy on your bed. Not sure about the spaceship as I could not bring it up closer but if you say it stays close to home, then so be it! haha
First real snow came last night - a beautiful white blanket covers the ground this morning and for me is welcoming. I don't know about enduring four or five more months of it though? Fortunately we hauled all the bags of raked leaves down to the dump yesterday so the yard was relatively clear which helps for shoveling later on. Three loads of bags dumped and it took so little time to rip them apart and dump them that I wonder about the hours it took me to rake and bag in the place. So now the weekend is upon us again. There is a big Christmas Show in North Bay - we have gone in years past but it has lost some of its wonder for me now - many same booths and usually articles of little use short of great gift ideas and usually faily expensive. One year I won $500.00 gift certificates on the radio to spend there and that year we did buy lots for gifts. There will be no exchange of gifts with Harry's sister and family this year - first ever. Of course, we have both Mike and Will but other than that, should be OK.When I think of all the years spent gifting and catering it boggles my mind - nice not to worry so much about it now - not completely stress free but much better haha
Well, the morning starts, and the coffee awaits so will wish all a happy weekend. Just hearing on the news about the highways from here up to and around North Bay and many accidents due to black ice - hard to transition from clean roads to winter road conditions. I will have to make an appt to get my winter tires installed soon. Take care