Busy Prepositions

Well, I'm not a preposition, but I was busy as can be today.  It all started before I even got out of bed.  

I hadn't decided if I really want that peanut butter fudge enough to go into town to get more peanut butter, but as I was laying there in bed scrolling through my Time Hop app a bit before the cat came yowling for her breakfast, I found some old photos of the Christmas spreads we used to have when all of the cousins were still in this area.  

Oooh, there was so much food!  And right in the middle of the table was a bowl.  At first, I couldn't figure out what was in that bowl...then I remembered!  It was the punch my Aunt Martha always used to make for holidays.  And weddings, and baby showers, and pretty much any occasion that called for punch. 

It's real simple, just Sprite, Ginger Ale, and lime sherbet, and I decided that I wanted to make that punch and by golly, I was going to do just that. So, I got out of bed, got dressed, and taking my morning coffee with me, headed into the madhouse that is Walmart three days before Christmas.   

I escaped mostly unscathed, but I was slightly scathed by this. 

Yep, I got one.  I'll probably wait until after Christmas to make it, though.  Cody and Brennan aren't really in to such things.  They still haven't made the ones I bought them two years ago.  Seriously, I saw them still on the shelf in their pantry when I was there for Thanksgiving.  I mean, it's not something we did when Cody was little.  It's not something I did when I was little, either for that matter, so it's not like it's one of our old family traditions or anything. 

Slightly less scathing was this:  

Since I cleaned off that bit of cabinet, I wanted an outlet expander thingy, so I could plug in multiple appliances at once. Yes, I know it's upside down, but that's how the original outlet was, and I didn't feel like fooling with turning it over.   Maybe after Christmas.   And yes, it's got two USB ports, too.  Not sure why I'll need them in the kitchen, but they are there in case I do.  

It's kind of sad the things I get excited about these days...

Anyway, I got another jar of peanut butter and the ingredients for the punch, but was unable to find any sort of punch bowl.  I even stopped by the Dollar General on the way home, but they didn't have one either.  I guess that's my own fault for waiting until the last minute.  

Or remembering at the last minute, I should say.  I'll have to figure something out.    

Once all of that was taken care of, I dived into the day's baking.  I had a moment of panic when I realized I was out of cream of tartar, and I was not going to go back into town.  I thought we'd just have to do without the snickerdoodles, but after a quick google search, I discovered that you can substitute baking powder for the cream of tartar and baking soda combo.  The corn starch makes the snicks a little puffier than normal, and they don't have quite the distinctive snickerdoodle crackle on top, but nevertheless we shall have them after all. 

Then I made the chocolate chip cookies, which are pretty simple,  

but by the time I was done, I was a bit tired, so I took a break to watch The Christmas Miracle Of Jonathan Toomey. 

Honestly, I don't know why this movie isn't more popular, because it's wonderful.  Maybe now that it's available on several free streaming services, people will discover it and fall in love with it just like I have. 

Next up on the agenda was that peanut butter fudge.  

It was easy to make, and only 4 ingredients, much easier than that old cooked fudge I used to make, and it tasted pretty good, too. I think I'll go with this recipe from here on out, though I may reduce the cooking time a bit.  The recipe said to microwave it for 2 minutes, stir, then microwave for two more minutes, but that seemed a bit long to me.  By the time it was done, it was smelling just a bit...not quite burned, but almost.  It tasted ok, though.  

The last thing I tackled today was the chocolate cherry kisses, which don't have chocolate kisses on them. 

You're supposed to put a Hershey's kiss in the middle of each cookie, but I had the bright idea that maybe I could use my cookie stamps with these.  It didn't work out, because this dough is way too soft for that.  Oh, well, we'll just have cherry shortbread and honestly, I may make them like this from here on out.  Most of us had picked the kiss off and eaten it separately anyway.  

Somehow in the midst of all of that, I managed to squeeze in my next chemistry lesson.  Chemistry made me cry in high school.  This isn't much better.  I have to keep reminding myself I'm doing this for fun...

So, now I'm off to bed so I can get up tomorrow and hit the ground running.  But before I go, I wanted to show you my celery and garlic. Some of my garlics are really growing.   

Others are struggling a bit.  They may pick up before spring, but even if they don't, I should have enough, and if I save a few cloves to re-plant every year, I'll have self perpetuating garlic.  And I may get some of the big white bulbs to plant along with these.  Which are small and reddish brown.  I don't know what type of garlic that is, but it's what Walmart had when I needed garlic for my pesto. 

And here is the celery.  

It's bushy, but still short.  Again, I'll just have to see what it does in the spring.  

That's it for today.  I'm heading to bed.  

Good night.