Welcome to our Fly on the Wall group post. Today 12 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house,and then check out the other houses too! Links to all of the crazy bloggers are at the bottom of this post.

April finds me whirling around like a Dervish. I usually thrive on multi-tasking, but you may have noticed that my personality has suffered a bit. In other words, do NOT come in my kitchen! Or talk to me. Or expect me to feed you. Several deadlines are all looming, and I’ve actually had to resort to putting a priority list down on paper instead of juggling things around in my head. You’ve been pretty good about staying on the ceiling, out of my way, but the other occupants of this house haven’t been as helpful.

And how those occupants have multiplied!

We had decided NO MORE DOGS after we lost our German Shorthair last fall. We had Otis, our yellow lab, and that was enough; he seemed happy to be an “only child.” Oh, occasionally a box of puppies at the feed store would tempt me, and The Man and Lord Voldemort were lobbying for a dog that was trained to hunt for antlers that the deer, elk, and moose shed every year. I made myself walk away from the box-o’-pups, and a shed-hunting dog was out of our budget completely, so we had no plans for another dog.

You hear it coming, don’t you?

My husband booted up a hunting site he chats in, and there was a 2 year old black lab, a trained shed dog, free to a good home. Her owners had to move to an apartment, and she was miserable there. I can’t say I was consulted; by the time I realized what was going on, The Man was already on the phone, saying “We’ll take her”, but I was wholeheartedly in favor. So Daisy joined the family, and she has stolen all of our hearts. Otis loves having her to play with, and even the cats like her. Of course, she went into heat right after we got her, so there has been a lot of yelling, screaming, and shooting of BB guns going on to ward off the neighbor dogs. And Miss Daisy went right to the vet to avoid eight or ten more little family members!

Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks

I also brought home some chicks on my last run to town. I got out of the car holding a white cardboard box that look very much like a pastry box. If The Man could hear better, he would have known immediately what was in the box. Six chicks can make an awful lot of noise! But he can’t hear well (don’t get me started) and for a brief moment he looked excited and hopeful, thinking I’d brought him home a treat. The guilty look on my face must have given me away, because the first thing he said was: “that had better not be chicks”. Oops.

We needed them (the old girls are about to go to freezer boot camp) but we weren’t ready. He spent the next hour fixing up the brooder box while I scurried around trying to keep them warm enough. A heating pad under the box and one over the top, and they were just fine. Now they’re all cozy in their home for the next six weeks. This means the pressure is on my husband, because he is the one who will have to dispatch Laverne, Shirley, Thelma, Louise, Lucy, Ethel, Betty, Wilma, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, Sophia, Kendra, and Holly. I will be gone that day – guaranteed!

And I’ve learned my lesson…I won’t be naming these young ladies!

Starched doilies, drying.

My Homemaker’s Club Spring Tea is coming up next week, and I am making nut cups for 80 women. The theme this year is “Elegance and Old Lace” so I bought lace and tried starching circles of it to go around the little cups. I was fussing over them, weaving a little ribbon through the lace (not sure I liked the way they looked) and The Man was hovering over my shoulder giving me a headache guidance. Finally I cut, colored and starched little doilies out of a tablecloth I had, and asked him what he thought. Helpfully, he said “if you put the doily on the cup, and the drawstring, you can call it a nutsack.

Yeah, that would go over real well. He’s a charmer.

I had to laugh later, though, when I heard him singing from the other room. It was the Mr. Rogers tune, and he was crooning: “I’m a beautiful guy in the neighborhood.” Really? I started snickering and he assured me ““You got the whole package, Lor. Cute, funny, playful.” I could add to that list. I could! But I’ll take the high road…this time.

Eeeuw.

When I try a recipe and it fails, I don’t usually post pictures for everyone to see. But a monumental fail calls for documentation, so here’s my attempt at an “heirloom” Easter recipe. It was supposed to be a beautiful Kulich, but the recipe had me pouring oil over the dough and trying to work it in with my hands. It was a fairly expensive recipe to make, so I didn’t give up…just kept trying to “fix” it. Huh. The only word for this big, sloppy mess is FAIL. We did get a good laugh out of it though. You can find this (and my ham fail) in my April Yummy Northwest column. There are some good recipes on there, too!

Dough, basting itself in oozing oil.

Do you have one of these? I do. The Man gave it to me for Christmas a few years back. I usually try to be polite and appreciative; it’s the thought that counts, right? But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t! I looked at him slack-jawed and waited for an explanation. He said, and I quote: “I thought you’d like it. It’s for our diet.”

I can see every woman’s eyes roll back in their head right now. If there are any men reading this, they’re probably looking around, shaking their heads, going “Whaaaa?” Just for the record, never, NEVER give your wife a gift with a cord on it unless she specifically tells you that’s what she wants. And even then, get something personal to go along with it. And never ever EVER give her something that has the words “Fat Reducing” on it. Trust me!

But I digress.

I used this machine exactly twice. I mean, I cook with butter and cream for heaven’s sake. I really don’t think that squeezing a few drops of fat out of a piece of meat is going to make a huge impact on my diet. And it’s just another hard-to-clean appliance. The darn thing was taking up shelf space in my fruit room, so after brainstorming with The Man, we came up with some other uses for it. Here are a few:

Mean Green Chicken Shit Scraping Machine. (Boot scraper)

The Queen Preen Crimping Machine (for those of us lost in the 80’s)

The House Isn’t Clean but Come in Machine (Door stop)

Reach the Latrine Step-Up Machine (for youngsters)

I even tried a recipe in it, doing my best to thwart the healthy vibes it was emitting. It isn’t a thing of beauty, but it’s easy and tasty. It would have been really good with a dollop of whipped cream on top, but I didn’t think of it at the time. The other possibility would be marshmallow cream (or a leftover Peep?) on the inside of the cake. I used a few marshmallows, and they added sweetness but disappeared as the cakes grilled.

In case your mind works anything like mine, don’t even consider dipping it in an egg mixture. It doesn’t come out like French toast…it turns into a soggy mess. You’re welcome!

You know I rarely make a single batch of anything. When I make a cake, I make extra and freeze a layer or two. It comes in very handy when you have to produce a dessert quickly (trifle) or want to take something special to a friend (petits fours) or get a sudden craving for Grilled Pineapple Cakewiches.

Marshmallows!

Done! And see? Not much mess.

Oh, c’mon. Try one!

Love my Easter hat! And do you know what the best part of it is?

The cute little tail!

Happy Easter!
Lorinda

Okay, buzz off and visit these fun blogs!

Baking In a Tornado
Just a Little Nutty
The Sadder But Wiser Girl
Follow Me Home
Spatulas on Parade
Stacy Sews and Schools
The Momisodes
Someone Else’s Genius
Juicebox Confession
Impoverished Vegan
Go Mama O