No Riding, but a Tasty Recipe

Haven’t posted in a while mostly because I’m not riding. I’m counting down the days till my next appointment with the neurologist – 27 days in case you were wondering.

My motorcycle isn’t sitting still because my son has been riding it the last couple of weeks. Today was one of the harder days not being able to throw a leg over and ride to work because the weather was perfect with very little wind. If my hubby hadn’t taken his cycle to work I would have been very tempted to just do it.

Okay, I’m done whining … at least for today 🙂  Instead I’m going to share a recipe I kind of made up! It was very tasty.

Pam’s Potatoes

Pam’s Potatoes

2 lbs. Potatoes (I used organic red) – cut up

1 cup White Vinegar

1 tbsp Sea Salt (iodized)

3 tbsp butter

Ground black pepper

1 tsp.  Thyme

Place cut potatoes, vinegar, and salt in pot; add water to cover potatoes. Bring to boil and cook until tender. Drain the potatoes, then pat dry on a clean towel.

Heat butter in a large frying pan, add potatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and thyme. Stir potatoes until golden brown.

It is a very flavorful and easy side to make! Let me know if you tried the recipe.

P.S. If you can Help Me Kick My Sister’s Ovarian Cancer I would appreciate any gift large or small! xoxo

Oh for the Love of Pinterest!

I’ll admit to having a slight addiction to Pinterest [that may be true if we took the word “slight” out]. All the fashion, food, crafts, and ideas are at times irresistible and at other times make me wish I was more of a Martha Stewart. Do you pin?

I recently came across a couple of blogs that are dedicated to Pinterest fails! Yes. You read that right, they center around trying what they’ve found on Pinterest and posting the results. Here are a couple of my faves!

Water Marble Nail Tutorial (here’s a link to many how-to marble nail pins on Pinterest.) Check out the how-to pin verses I really tried it pin!

Image from HeyNiceNails.com

Image from EpicPinterestFail.com

Anyone try the “Water Marble Nail” tutorial? Did it work? Love to know. Pictures would be even better!

This next one had me laughing because I’m pretty sure I would have the same results!

Chocolate Covered Pretzels – Pin verses Experience 

Image from PinterestFail.com

Follow the link to the blog to read how the author created her reproduction and what she is going to do next time!

Okay, you get the drift that there are many ideas that fail miserably, but I’m here to tell about a few successes I’ve had with Pinterest. I need to preface it with I didn’t document these with photos. My bad – I need to remember to pick-up [and learn how to use] the camera before embarking on these discoveries! So here goes sans any personal photos.

I have a favorite blush brush that I’ve had for several years [the ends had chunks of yuck] and I was getting ready to throw it out the second I found a suitable replacement … until PINTEREST!!  Out of all the tutorials on how to clean make-up brushes I chose this one on Mixed Method. I followed Kimberly’s directions and it worked beautifully! I now have a clean blush brush. Success!

My second success I want to share is from a pin that led me to the blog Tales + Tips > a real-life housewife post that explained how to clean small stainless steel appliances. Check out Kim’s before and after pictures of her stainless steel toaster. In my case it was a toaster oven that hubby and I have had for a few years. It was covered with brownish spots on the stainless steel as well as on the glass door. I followed her directions, used a bit of elbow grease, and the results are amazing. Success #2!

How about you? Do you pin? Have you tried anything you’ve found? Success or failure? Do share!

Anyone know of a Pinterest support group?

From my home to your’s Merry Christmas!

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season with family and friends! In the words of Timothy Cratchit, “God bless us, every one!”

Merry Christmas!

Landfill Harmonic

“Landfill Harmonic is an upcoming feature-length documentary about a remarkable musical orchestra in Paraguay, where young musicians play instruments made from trash. For more information about the film, please visit facebook.com/landfillharmonicmovie.”

Fall Food Challenge!

A recent tweet from @JuJu21 (meet her here)  got me thinking about cool weather food! She had declared oatmeal season officially open and I chimed in with chili, and her response was soup too! And then I thought I’d throw out a challenge to see what Fall food you like too. If you blog, blog about it and let me know I’ll link to your post. If you want to submit a recipe via the comments, please do! I love trying new recipes. Here’s mine! A long family favorite tradition.

Apple Pancake
You’ll need a seasoned 10 1/2″ cast iron frying pan and preheat the oven 400 F.
Ingredients
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup flour
4 to 6 apples

Peel and cut apples. Saute in butter using the cast iron frying pan. Set aside.

Beat eggs; add remaining ingredients. Beat until smooth. Pour mixture over sauteed apples. Bake 15 minutes. Sprinkle sugar/cinnamon mix over top and dot with butter. Bake 5 minutes more.

Old Fashion Apple Pancakes

Enjoy! And share your favorite too!

Switching Motorcycles

This past weekend was filled with lots of activity. I made this little guy.

Froggy

He has quite the personality for a crocheted frog!

The best part of the weekend is when hubby pulled the bikes out of the garage on Sunday for what maybe the last ride of the season! We headed out the back roads, found some twisties, and stop for a couple of Turkey Reuben sandwiches. It was glorious. On our way home we stopped at the grocery store to pick-up a few things and that’s when it happened. Hubby and I switched motorcycles!

It is the first time I rode his bike. It was suggested by Lori aka Beemergirl when we met (check out her profile here) that I try riding his motorcycle. I never much thought about trading, but hubby suggested it on the way out of the store. We took the long way home with me in the lead. What an experience! It’s the same bike as mine only a couple of years younger, but did it handled a bit different than mine.

Let’s just say I turned a corner and was up to 80+ mph in a short distance. And then immediately slowed to the speed limit. >wink< Would I ride it again. You betcha!

What did you do this past weekend?

Planning for my Winter Projects

The weather these last few days has been chilly and windy. No denying that winter is on its way to Minnesota. Ours days are getting shorter with the sun setting just a little past 6:30 p.m. And my motorcycle is beginning to collect dust sitting in the garage. I’m still hoping for another ride or two before I have to let it go for the season. Sounds like we may see 60 degrees here this weekend.

So begins the planning process to decide what homemade projects I’d like to make. Here are a few that I have on my Etsy shop.

These are some infinity scarves I made from t-shirts.

These are an easy way to add a pop of color to a plain tee or shirt. A friend of mine wears the clip-on flower in her hair rather than on the scarf. I’m not very good with the camera so I named the colors what I think would best describe it.

This next project I crocheted this past summer one piece at a time. I didn’t really have a pattern, just saw a picture on a blog and tried to duplicate the motif. I made mine in black, grey, and white but thought it needed a pop of color so I added one red flower.

Flower Star Afghan

Here’s a tote bag in navy blue, teal, and white. The pattern gives an illusion of Subway tiles. This is another one I made without a pattern.

Subway Tile Bag

Now off to Pinterest looking for my next project. Any suggestions? Do share! One idea I have is to crochet a neck cowl to wear motorcycling in cool weather. Something I can wear to keep the wind from coming in around my collar on my riding jacket. I’m thinking PINK!

Do share if you have any ideas for me!

When I’m not riding, I make things!

Thought I’d share a collage of some things that I’ve made. Last year the combination of not riding and expecting a grandson inspired me to create a few things!

I’ve made a hat for my grandson, crocheted a pair of Chucks for him too, several t-shirt infinity scarves in countless colors, crocheted various winter scarves, crocheted reusable Swifter covers, several pairs of fingerless gloves, an octopus, and a Barcelona soccer jersey (also for my grandson to match his dad’s).  Many of items have been given away, sold, or posted on Etsy.com.

What do you do when you’re not riding?