MOVED!

I moved! I will no longer be posting here at wordpress.com. To leave comments on anything you read here or to see what I’m doing right now, head on over to www.AliceAudrey.com.

Are You Having Problems Leaving Comments?

It’s getting to the point where I cringe every time I see this screen. The vast majority of the time if I see this, it means I’m not going to be able to leave a comment.

I’ve tried everything. I’ve used every part of the form that could conceivably be applied to me. No go. I cleared out my cookies. I made sure my pop ups were set right. Nothing I do seems to make a difference.

Am I the only one having trouble with this? Have you struggled to leave comments? Are you having trouble leaving them with me? If you tried to leave a comment and couldn’t, please email me at AliceAudreyJ at yahoo dot com.

Table Setting: Various Styles

As I mentioned last week, what is placed at each seat will depend on which style of service is chosen. Here is a quick run-down of dinner styles.

20/20 Vision

Jill: I’m so glad we went away for the weekend. Everything is so beautiful! Don’t you think so, Jack?

Jack: I can’t see a thing! Stupid bifocals.

Today’s theme is view
Previously in Jack and Jill

saturday photo scavenger hunt
The rules for Photohunt can be found here.
Be sure to visit the home page.

Grasshopper Pie

From the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book

6 1/2 c marshmallows
1/4 c milk
1/4 c creme de menthe liqueur
2 Tbs. creme de cacao liqueur
2 c whipping cream
Chocolate Wafer Crust
Chocolate Wafer crust

In a large saucepan combine marshmallows and milk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, till marshmallows are melted. Cool mixture, stirring every 5 minutes. Combine creme de menthe and creme de cacao; stirring into marshmallow mixture. Whip 2 cups whipping cream till soft peaks form. Fold marshmallow mixture into whipped cream; turn into chilled chocolate wafer crust. Freeze several hours or overnight till firm. If desired, garnish pie with additional unsweetened whipped cream and chocolate curls. Makes 8 servings.

I was planning on doing this recipe, even if I couldn’t eat it, because I remembered it being very tasty. I couldn’t find the chocolate wafers in the grocery store, though I did find some cookies with cream filling that called themselves wafers. Then I remembered I don’t have any creme de menthe or creme de cacao sitting around either. Maybe I’ll try the rum-raisin instead.

How to Lay Floor Tile Part 2: Mortar

I knew I was going to have trouble making the edges look good. When I laid out the tile ahead of time I could see the edge go from thick on one end to thin on the other though I had started off perfectly even with the end. I was going to have to make little adjustments along the way.

I drew a line on the concrete where I wanted the edge to be. Then I realized the mortar was going to cover it up. Doy. So, I taped a piece of string a few inches above the floor to act as a guide. For the most part this only got in the way, though there were a couple of times I dropped a plumb line from it to figure out which way to go.

I had a cylindrical bucket for the mortar. My intention had been to pour in the powdered mortar and the water, turn it on it’s side, and roll it around like a cement mixer. Didn’t work out that way. The lid kept trying to pop off, and I couldn’t tell the mortar was getting wet. I ended up mixing it with a hand trowel just like in the picture on the side of the package. I don’t know if one of the $30 buckets from Home Depot would have worked better or not, but don’t intend to shell out for one in the future, as mixing my hand worked fine.

I was afraid the mortar would set too fast, so I only put out enough at a time to set one or two rows of tile. Keep in mind these tiles are about a foot long on each side. I’ll have to come back to the “about” part in a minute. Then I filled in the outside edges with broken pieces before moving to the next section.

I probably should have set the mortar out thicker, but so far have seen no problems with the way I did it. With the help of a board, I was able to kneel on the newly set tiles while I worked around the edges. Getting them in exactly the right position wasn’t easy.

The mortar isn’t sticky like adhesive, but it does act like a suction cup on the tiles so they don’t lift off easily once down. With tiles that big, plus leaning over awkwardly so I didn’t swim in fresh mortar, some of the tiles went down poorly. If I shoved them around, which was easier than prying them up, then I got too much mortar piled up on one side which had to be wiped away, and too little on the other so I had to re-do the mortar step. It wasn’t a big deal, just an annoyance.

I used little blue spacers between intact tiles. This became a problem when it turned out the medium-brown tiles are an eighth of an inch smaller than the others. I didn’t realize it, and didn’t compensate the way I would have otherwise until I got to the high-traffic area in front of the door, then ended up putting in spaces that were too big and sometimes gollywampus. The tile I set earlier had already dried, so there was no going back. I simply let it ride.

With a lot of stopping and starting, interruptions by kids and a certain man, and middle-aged-housewife-grunting It took about two hours to do all of the floor except the little bit of around the closet, which I’ll discuss at way-too-much length next week.

How to Lay Floor Tile Part 1

This is the first time I’ve ever laid floor tile.  I was quite nervous about it, and put the job off for about five months.  I like the end results, but maybe this blog should be called how NOT to lay floor tile.Also, because I was the one doing the work and taking the pictures, I didn’t get any nice shots of the actual process.  Something about not wanting to wreck my camera held me back.

Anyway, here’s what I did.

I read a bunch of books.  I was going to list them all here, but have already packed them all away and can’t remember the titles.

Apparently what you are supposed to do is lay down a level, strong sub-floor.  The books go into some detail about this.  I didn’t because the surface I was working with was a level concrete.

 

I decided to use a decorative boarder rather than trust my ability to cut tile just right.  That turned out to be a good decision for other reasons, too.  I’ll say more about that next week.To get the pieces for the decorative boarder I went out to the back stoop and flung around a few tiles.  They broke fairly nicely, but later I found it was possible to get a similar effect by abusing a tile cutter, and the tile cutter didn’t cause chipping.

Like a good cook, I laid out all the things I would need and double checked my list:

*  Tile
*  Mortar
*  Water
*  A bucket to mix the mortar in
*  A trowel to mix and lay the mortar
*  Another to smooth out then make the little ridges in the mortar
*  Little blue thingies to keep the tile separated just right.  (They looked so cute in the store I had to get them.)
*  Grout
*  Sponge
*  Tile cutter

I’m wishing I had gone with the latex.  It’s supposed to make the grout stronger.  Again, I’ll tell you more about that later.

I laid the tile out in a rough pattern first to see how it would look.  In the process I discovered the room is not perfectly square.  I also discovered a decorative boarder doesn’t necessarily take care of the problem.

Afraid it would set me back another 6 months if I thought about it, I went ahead and mixed up the mortar.

 

 

 

Quick and Dirty Gumbo

Enough people asked about the use of Gumbo File’ last Thursday that I decided I better provide a recipe today.  This is my way of doing Gumbo, not the “real” way.  Real gumbo can take a lot of work and fair amount of time.  This won’t taste the same, but it’ll fill the void.

In a medium sized sauce pan toss in the following:

a handful of ham
a hand full of chicken
a little less sausage. – I’ve used bratwurst for this.  Italian sausage also works well. Summer sausage gets a weird sour taste, so I don’t recommend it.
onion
tomato  – could be fresh cut or canned.  Whatever you have laying around
corn nibblets – I use the frozen kind
1 bay leaf
thyme
black pepper
red pepper
maybe some marjoram or basil, depending on my mood.
Shrimp
File’ which I’ll add right before I turn off the heat

Put everything but the file in the pot.  Add enough water to cover it all.  Bring it to a boil.  Let it simmer a few minutes.  With the water still bubbling add the file.  Turn off the heat, but leave the pot on the burner a few minutes.  

bon appétit

What is eaten in one week around the world….

This had an impact on me.  I thought you all might be interested too. 

A Time photo-essay, part of a book by Peter Menzel called Hungry Planet.
 
Take a look at the family size & diet of each country, and the availability & cost of what is eaten in one week.

Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
 Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
 Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

  United States: The Revis family of North Carolina

Food expenditure for one week $341.98

Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
 Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

 Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
 Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

 Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
 Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
 Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
 Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

 Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
 Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

Enough said.

ADD

Last week I learned that my daughter has ADD.  I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.  I’ve been calling her a space cadet since she was in preschool and would give me the wide-eyed look of bliss so characteristic of those who live entirely in their own heads.  I’ve been working around, working with, and compensating for her distractibility all along.  To me it’s no big deal.

Apparently it’s a different matter where the school system is concerned.  They want me to get my doctor to write a letter that they would put in her file so she can be pigeon holed as an ADD kid.  They want this badly.  Five of them, spearheaded by my dd’s primary teacher, held a meeting with me which was designed and intended to pressure me into providing them with a doctor’s note to that effect.

They tell me this would be good for her because with the official classification they can change her curriculum.  They would not answer the question of exactly how they would change it, except to say she would not be taken out of the classroom except for the gifted program she’s already in, and to hint they would reduce her workload.

I’m not so sure she should have her workload reduced.  I do think the teacher needs to change a number of the ways in which she handles things, but not by cutting back on what they expect her to accomplish.

So I’ve got a question I’m hoping you can help me with.  Should I give them the doctor’s note or not?

That was the main thing in my life lately.  What’s up in yours?