A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

My husband is an awesome cook. We were discussing this with a couple that came over last night for dinner. He went on to explain that his mother was a very good cook. At Christmas she would spend all of one day baking 4-5 different kinds of cookies, along with other confections. He watched her and learned throughout the years. He said it was also kind of a "learn or starve" method as his mother worked full-time and he had no sisters that normally would take on the dinner making tasks during his elementary and high school years. Many times when we entertain he likes to try new or different recipes. Last night it was a lemon cheesecake. Not having a love of cooking I told him "why do you want to complicate things? Just make a cake from a box mix. Everyone likes cake don't they??" A picture is worth a thousand words so here it is.

Michael's Lemon Cheesecake with real whipped crème topping

Since the title of this post is "a picture is worth a thousand words" I am adding a lovely picture of my "soon to have a daughter daughter-in-law, Hannah. I include this because I thought it turned out so nice of her; her smile, her dress and the fact that her 3-yr-old son took it with my fairly expensive camera that he can hardly hold much less push the right button. Maybe he will be a future photo journalist, portraits a specialty! Way to go, Aiden!



Hannah

12 Ways to Stay Warm

Michael as a kid back in Wisconsin. We all smiled over the weather back then

I am on a roll with my blog posts. Trying to make them more interesting and fun to do as well. In honor of the frigid weather I thought I would post my 12 Top Ways To Stay Warm list. Here they are however not in any order:

1. Wash dishes by hand. I still do, however I use the dishwasher somewhat as well. Great way to get  warm though.
2. Iron, which combined with sewing is a great way to lead to cleaning out the sewing pile which also adds to energy, which adds to warmth, which leads to;
3. Cleaning house: vacuum, dust, add #1
4. Exercise to our lovely Jane Fonda cd's or whomever gets you moving 
5. hug someone; anyone!
6. Take a last minute vacation to a warmer climate.
7. Join a gym and hibernate in the Jacuzzi.
8. Shovel snow except that leads to getting cold and going inside which leads to warmth
9. Snuggle with your dog, cat, significant other (see #5),
10. Make a pot of tea. This would require you to have some in order to meet the rules of staying warm. Stay away from the caffeine though. It opens our corpuscles which makes us cold.
11. Have a glass of wine (being in front of a fireplace preferably with a fire going would be good)
12. Give up, climb under the covers and take a nap or read a good book. Maybe the one "Staying Warm in Winter in the North Central United States" could be a good first step.

This is my list. Feel free to add more if you so desire, especially if it keeps you warm. Also if you have time while trying to stay warm wish the guy in the pic a happy 65th. His birthday is tomorrow!