the chocolate covered strawberry pie / updates

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view from above

One of the unexpected ways that 2016 started was when I crashed my 12-year-old Toyota Corolla. Nobody was hurt, thankfully, but my car didn’t make it through. It was one of those things that shouldn’t make you feel sad, because after all, its just a car. But it was paid for, and it got me from point A to point B without much fuss and reasonable gas mileage. Plus, I was totally unprepared for the change. I was used to my car. It has quirks and dents, but we understood each other. It met my needs and I sort of met its needs. And we said goodbye so impersonally in the junkyard where I cleaned out 8ish years of notes, burned CDs, checkbooks from closed bank accounts, pens, and gum wrappers. I even discovered a photo of the previous owners in the glove compartment. It was John and Sherri, circa 1996, with lots of teased hair and unfortunate mustaches and awkward fitting denim. A treasure.

Anyway. So began the treacherous journey of car shopping. We knew that our cars were nearing the end of their lives, and we had discussed the possibility of one day buying something else, but it was definitely not on our radar. New cars are luxury items. For the fancy and well-established adult. And most days, I definitely don’t feel fancy, and I certainly don’t feel like a well-established adult. More like an pseudo adult barely keeping up with life.

To make a long story short, we decided to get a Subaru Forester. And oh man. I definitely feel fancy now. Did you know that cars now have seat warmers? And back up cameras? and CD players that work?? Not to mention fancy blue tooth and a million different other little things that make me feel like I’m driving a space ship, at least compared to my old ride. I know you’re only here for the food, but I cannot recommend the Forester enough. It feels so safe, I have great visibility when I’m driving, it’s big enough to haul stuff in without feeling like I’m driving a tank. And its supposed to be good in all types of weather and terrain, which is great because driving in JXN MS is like going off road, every day.

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harry potter party / pumpkin pasties / nerd alert

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My freehand attempt at the Hogwarts Crest, which just so happens to still be in the dining room.

The recent passing of Alan Rickman, may he rest in peace, reminded me that I never blogged about the Harry Potter party we had back in November. It was a small affair, with maybe a dozen like-minded Potter-nerd friends, as many free decorations as I could print off of the Internet, with Pumpkin Pasties, Butterbeer, and a cheese plate with fixin’s (because cheese plates are my favorite and require no cooking or baking). It was one of those fun parties where at the last second before guests arrived I was able to snap some pictures of what we assembled, then promptly lost my phone and forgot to capture any photos of actual humans. We each took a 100+ question sorting quiz (find it here), watched some of the movies, did Harry Potter trivia (to compete for Head Boy or Head Girl of course) and played Quidditch Pong. It was a marvelous time! Also, a fair warning: If you have no interest in Harry Potter, but you are interested in Pumpkin Pasties, skip the middle and read to the end. They were delicious for breakfast the next day. What I’ve included below is some pictures of the sparse decorations we had, a link to an authentic butterbeer recipe, and my recipe for pumpkin pasties.

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spinach and bacon pie

baked.

baked.

So sometimes feeding yourself consists of putting enough fuel in your body so that moving is still an option on the table. This generally means that there will be lots of coffee, and meal time is quick and to the point. Sometimes that means you eat frozen pizza twice in one week. Last week was kind of like that, we rotated between salad with grilled chicken one night then frozen pizza the next. And repeat.

Sunday was finally a day when I had enough energy/time to get in the kitchen and actually make some things happen that required more attention than dump and stir. And what happened was a spinach pie with a bacon lattice top.

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