Revelations on Jane

I was in the British Library Gift Shop yesterday (Mr. Fine and I are in London) and was looking at the Jane Austen section...notably the pack of postcards with Jane Austen quotations.  One such postcard made me stop and think:

Know your own happiness.

[from Sense and Sensibility...Mrs. Dashwood (Volume 1, Chapter 19)]

After pondering the quotation for a moment, I sat down on my favorite book bench in the lobby and thought some more.

Photo Credit

Sometimes I wonder if I am consciously (or subconsciously) striving for what makes others happy.  For example, I do this to build my resume, I go to this because so and so is doing it, etc.  I do these things because other people seem happy after doing this or achieving this and therefore, happiness should follow for me, should I embark on that same journey.  Yet, I typically find I need to keep embarking for that happiness when they've already disembarked that ship and gone onto something else (most likely the cruise ship down the way).

Happiness isn't the same for all of us.  [Some of you may be thinking duh, Mrs. Fine]

I need to be better at acknowledging what makes me happy, being happy in that happy, and disregarding the other journeys which make others happy (but which may not make me happy).

Huh.  I need to know my own happiness and be comfortable in it.

Well, I'm happy right now.  Mr. Fine and I have been coming to London for summers for about 10 years and lived here for over a year once.  I am happy in London.  I like my London life.  I like the pubs we go to with friends (we're lucky that our friends like to come to London for summers too) and the Ploughman's dinners I can eat (last night's was delicious!).  I like the walks we take to get home instead of piling into a car.

I'm also very happy with my fish and chips and grocery delivery:

I could likely think about this some more (and likely will) but not today.  I'm off to my favorite shops and to lunch with Mr. Fine.  Thanks for listening!  No more philosophizing today.... ;)

I Bake!

Warning: this post is long and filled with excitement, a *few* photos, and a pinch of sarcasm

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

Um.  Yeah.  As you know, I procrastinated on this month's challenge.  Why?  Well, for starters, the first part of the recipe called for 6 eggs -- for the cake only.  Then, I had to hit up the wholesale store just to afford the 1600 mL of whipping cream required for homemade ice cream.  Do I have an ice cream maker?  No.  Was I really looking forward to "cool completely before transferring to a freezer friendly container till firm around the edges.  Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer.  Do this 3-4 times and then set completely"?  In a word.  No.

And so, late on the evening of the 21st, I began making a Swiss cake...with the support of Mr. Fine holding the brush that we brushed the oil into the pan with.  A brush that we'd received as a gift one fine Christmas and never used.  Brush now used.

We got as far as mixing the eggs (6 of them, remember) and a cup of caster sugar when Mr. Fine said, "this is not thickening.  I don't suppose you thought about the fact that you used all of our egg beaters and are not using actual eggs?"  Um.  In a word?  No.  Again.  And so after much Internet research, it was deemed that we now had a fine mess of egg beaters and sugar good for approximately 60 sugar cookies and not much else.  10:53 p.m.  Egg mixture into fridge and Fines off to the couch for a movie.

The battle began again in earnest just after noon on the 22nd.  I made the two ice creams: vanilla and chocolate, beginning a regimen of freezing the edges and stirring.  By 9:00 p.m. the vanilla was setting permanently and the chocolate remained very liquid.

The afternoon also saw 6 real eggs and sugar being whipped into a thick, fluffy goodness:

This fluffy goodness was not without a very hot phillips mixette (note that Mrs. Fine does not have a mix master) and an astonished pair of Fines finding that eggs and sugar could increase in size with a *mere* 20 minutes of mixing on high.

After adding cocoa and flour and baking for 12 minutes, I had 2 totally awesome spongy cakes that could have been swapped with Little Debbies:

The white paper you see in the photo is parchment/baking paper circa 1997 that my Mom gave me when kiting up one summer for the next college year.  Yes, I still have the same box of parchment paper from 1997.  Why?  Because I certainly did not know how to cook anything remotely close to needing parchment paper.  2010?  Came in handy.  Thanks Mom.

Again I whipped up some more of the whipping cream (with vanilla and sugar, of course) (and only thought a *few* times about my waistline after eating this cake -- remember 1600 mL of whipping cream).  I rolled the cooled cakes with filling and chilled them in the freezer over night.

The feeling in the kitchen was much more positive and the Fines went to bed on the 22nd feeling more secure in their Swiss roll ice cream cake making abilities.  Only time would tell, my fine friends!

Now, if you've made it this far through my roll down cake memory lane, I'm sure you're wondering whether the cake turned out.  Did it?  Well, you'll have to wait at least another 7 hours in the kitchen, because, wait for it, I still had to make fudge sauce and 'assemble' the cake.

And so, just after noon (about the only time I could force myself to spend that much time in the kitchen each day) on the 23rd, I sliced the Swiss rolls:

and placed them delicately (whipping cream tends to fall out of cakes when there's so bloody much of it) into a bowl for freezing.  For an hour.

During this hour, the ice cream was thawing, lending itself to prime eating potential.  Yum.

When it was (what I thought to be) the time to put the vanilla ice cream over the rolls, I found that a) the cake had not stiffened enough to have ice cream spread over it and b) the vanilla ice cream had half melted.  Super.

So Mr. Fine and I removed 1/2 of our freezer goods, realigned 2 ice cream containers and 1 bowl of cake slices (apparently called a 'bombe' by bakers), and slammed the freezer door closed, with hearts pounding and fingers crossed that the door would indeed stay closed.  Success.

Many hours later, I tried (again) to spread vanilla ice cream onto the cake.  This time I had success and proceeded over the next 7 hours to layer my vanilla ice cream, fudge, and chocolate ice cream.  Off to bed with hopes of a completed cake in the freezer the next morning.

Luckily, this is what I woke up to on the morning of the 24th:

And this is what we ate with as our lunch...and gave to our neighbors, as our guilt over the whipping cream was just too much to allow us to *enjoy* the entire cake ourselves:

A snippet of comments heard throughout the devouring of cake:

"I feel kinda sick now."

"If Mrs. Fine has been bested, that's impressive." [after "I don't think I can eat anymore."]

"My lips feel oily -- that milk fat is good chap."
"This cake is goooood."


A daunting challenge, but one that was a lot of fun -- isn't that what we always say about harrowing events as we look back upon them?  Having said that, I shall likely never again indulge in making a Swiss roll ice cream cake.  I feel totally avenged that I conquered the recipe, but will most likely head to the closest DQ should the mood for ice cream cake arise anytime soon.

If you're in the mood to try your own cake, you can find the recipe here.

And with that, I'm off to enjoy another slice and then to the gym, that's for sure!

My first Blog Hop

Making friends is hard!  Once you get out of elementary school and the lure of lunch trading is gone, making friends seems to depend on what you wear and what you do...evidenced perhaps by Glee's portrayal of high school.

I've been noticing that bloggers gain a lot of followers from blog hops and this is because some blog hops have rules...follow this person, this person, and this person.  I've never liked making me people like me -- I've been more of the mutual friendship, something in common kind of friendships.

And that's why I'm so tickled that Design It Chic has created a blog hop with no rules.  Visit and follow the people you want!! 

So welcome, linkers from Design It Chic. :-)  Feel free to follow and I'll be sure to check out your blog and comment.  :-)

Have a great day!!

Kitchen kitch

I surprised Mr. Fine this morning by saying that blueberry muffins would our breakfast today.  Note that I didn't say I had already made blueberry muffins and was bringing them out for breakfast.  Bless Mr. Fine who wholeheartedly jumped in on the muffins and we made them together.

They were fantastic!!  Of course, it didn't hurt that we used 1/2 milk and 1/2 cream (left over from the wholesale store).  I've been experimenting with Mr. Fine's fancy pants camera so here is my blog-worthy photo:

Note the 'muffin bump' over the edge that's similar to shop muffins!



When hunting for the muffin recipe, we got a giggle out of this recipe that we found in our cupboard:

Yes!  That's a recipe for spaghetti...and no, it was not ours.  It belonged to Mr. Fine's roommate in college.  If you have time to click on the photo, you'll notice that green peppers and onions are "nice options."  We're still not sure how we ended up with it or better still, why we still have it after a decade!  I believe our recipes need some cleaning!

Happy Friday,

Those Pesky Errands

Radio silence has ended and I have returned home!  Returned home, you ask?  I thought you just got home?  Yes, it seems that I ventured off to the land of limited Internet -- gasp, the horror, I know!

A few days ago, Mr. Fine and I headed off to another state for a few errands (you know all those errands people have in other states!). The plan was to drive through the night, do some hiking half way, complete the errands, and drive back through the night.  That was before Mrs. Fine fell asleep in the passenger seat and couldn't take over her half of the driving on the way there...there goes that plan.  So, the 1 day trip turned into 2 days, which then (surprise) turned into 3 days.  You see, I had a coupon for the outlet mall and just *had* to see if they had anything that I wanted...which of course -- they did!  Turns out we were still at the outlet at 8:59 pm and had only hit up 4 stores. 

Errands have since been completed and I have some fine hiking photos to prove that the many, many hours in the car were worth it:

Given the great fun I had at the outlet mall, I feel it's only fair to also display my fantabulous new Pumas, as well:

I also got this interesting wrapp-esque top at Banana Republic that I've yet to figure to out completely...but it looked fabulous on the mannequin so I couldn't pass it up!!


Now, I'm off to complete my Daring Bakers challenge for July...which I've put off and off!!  Stay tuned on July 27 for the unveiling of the masterpiece that we have to complete...and masterpiece I hope it will be (fingers crossed).  Let's just say that I needed to get to a wholesale store to buy enough whipping cream to compete the recipe in a price bracket that didn't bankrupt me!

Happy Wednesday, my friends!

Definately classy

I've arrived home and am pleased to return to my routines.  Mr. Fine and I set off for some errands yesterday - one of which was returning some cheese that had prematurely molded before even the 'sell date.'

After speaking to the customer service person at the grocery store (who happily took the moldy mess off our hands), we ventured back to the cheese aisle to get a different chunk of cheese.

"Do you think we should pick up some other items while we're here?" Mr. Fine asked me.

And here began the accumulation of multiple grocery items not previously on the errands list.  When our arms became full, we looked for a cart to hold our new found goodies.

The cart available?  The child sized fun carts...of course, ideally situated next to the wine aisle.

What good shopper wouldn't stock up on quality wine while in the wine aisle?

And so it was:

a childless couple with the child cart and lots of wine.

Definitely classy...it's so good to be home! ;)

I Cook!

In my ongoing quest for betterment, I've joined The Daring Kitchen.  It's a blast!

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

I challenged myself to making a mixed almond/cashew nut butter and then used it in a recipe for Chicken with Curried Tomato Almond Sauce.  Yummy!

Upside:  Turns out I can do this 'cooking thing'

Downside: Mr. Fine says that I make better Indian food than him and am responsible for it from now on.  Ooch.


Here's how it all went down:

Ingredients lined up and ready to go (watermelon for dessert)

Without a food processor, the coffee grinder provided a sweet alternative!

Cookin' up the onions, garam masala, and such

Success!

Served with some naan from the store, the meal was delicious and definitely a keeper for my Mr. Fine's recipe book. ;) 

Enjoy the kitchen!

Different - ugh

This week I'm across the state doing some school stuff...which means I am in a hotel for several nights, working out in a new place, and eating out A LOT.

I have decided that I like routine and that I am a creature of habit.

I've made a few observations since checking in that tell me this:

1. I did not particularly like that the water pressure in the shower was different from my water pressure at home. It wasn't worse. It wasn't better. It just wasn't the same.

2. Although I am glad that the hotel thought to provide me with an in-room coffee maker, the layer of dust on it makes me less inclined to use it. I like my coffee maker with zero dust.

3. My hotel lets us work out for free at a neighboring athletic club. Gorgeous machines. Like it. All the sweaty white towels that people were cleaning the machines with after wiping their brow? Gross. For an entire workout, all I could keep thinking was, "where are the sani-wipes? Why aren't people cleaning the machines. Oh my, what did I just touch and what part of my body did I just wipe with the resulting germified hand?" I guess I affirmed that germs gross me out, too.

4. I appreciated very much that the hotel had set up free workout access. But the gorgeous machines? They were different. The poundage on the machines at my local rec center were different -- how can driving across the state change how many pounds I can lift?

I'm a creature of habit. It's affirmed.

HOWEVER: It seems that my mocha routine of celebratory drink can come from anywhere. That does not seem so habitual. Tonight's double mocha came in this awesome glass and was quickly devoured...as you can see in the photo below:

And with those enlightening revelations I've found dans l'hotel, I shall leave you so that I can enjoy hotel television with my remote that I've placed in the plastic ice tub bag...germs = gross, after all!

Ok, these mice will do

I've never been a mice person.  In fact, I'm the person who calls in the teacher from next door to empty the mouse trap when a mouse is caught in the classroom.  Or the person who cowers as the neighbor pulls a mouse from the trap in the garage.

Granted the critters below are hamsters.  But I don't really do those either.  I had a hamster as a child...and found it feet up during dinner one day.  We had peas during that meal.  Can't really eat peas anymore without thinking of that hamster.  Ahh, memories -- beautiful things.




Thing is, I can't resist the hamsters in this new KIA commercial.  Maybe because I know they are digital pixels or perhaps it's just the flashy song, or even the booty dancing the lady hamsters do.  Either way, I think I'll picture the next critter I shriek about as a hip hop KIA-ster.  Maybe then, I'll get that much farther into the garage before shrieking across the yard for the neighbor.

Enjoy the KIA clip -- I laughed this morning - a lot - when I saw this on the tele.

The me of my dreams

I had the oddest dream last night.

I was with friends outside of a hotel - big city -- you know the dream.  We were unloading our luggage from a limousine (first sign of a 'dream' right there).  We were passing our luggage to each other and setting it on the sidewalk.  Next thing I know, luggage has been stolen!  Obviously, I took over (it was my dream after all), gave people directions to run, but no luck.  Oh, the feelings of dread I experienced in this dream...I actually think it was enough to wake me up...clearly I couldn't handle the horror of someone up and taking my prized mini skirts and handbags from right there off the sidewalk...although I think they were packed in camping backpacks.  Perhaps this was a nightmare, after all.  Who puts handbags in a camping pack?

But to the point: all of this makes me wonder...I actually did have luggage stolen when I went to Mexico in high school.  I didn't get that worked up over it, then, in reality.  So why did I freak in my dream?  Was it because I'm more attached to my stuff, now, as an adult?  Or because it was a dream?  Hmm...perhaps some personal reflection is required.

Oh.  And in this dream?  Yeah, I was Sandra Bullock (clearly, a dream...why was I, Sandra Bullock, unpacking my own luggage?)

And in real life:


My finished coffee cozy that I talked about here:

And finally,

You know Mr. Fine is fine (enter sassy voice here) when this happens:

Mrs. Fine: I think I'm going to use these colors for my next coffee cozy because they are so pretty.

Mr. Fine: Yes, they are s-e-w pretty.

-------

Yep, he's fine!

Have a great weekend, all!

I've been tagged!

I checked Mrs. Fine's email last night and guess what?  I've been tagged!

And not in that "ugh, untag this facebook photo of me because I look terrible and I DO NOT want all of my high school friends (whom I haven't seen in 15 years) to see me like this," kinda way. 

Nope!  I've been tagged in a blog award kinda way!  Sarah of Confessions of an Untenured Teacher tagged me with:

The conditions of the award are these:

1) Thank the person who gave me the award
2) Sum up my blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience in/with five words
3) Choose ten other blogs I consider to have substance and pass along the award

And so....

1) Thank you, thank you, thank you Sarah!  I'm glad that you're following along on my quest for a personal life and finding that it has a bit of substance in it! ;)

2) My blog ... personal, community, writing, fulfillment, humor

Of course, as a teacher, I know that all directions are subject to interpretation as long as you can justify.  And with that, I provide you with my blog's bio poem - my justification being that each line has 5 or fewer words!

Bio Poem Fine

3) Here are 10 other blogs that I enjoy and read that have substance:

Keepin' It In Perspective

Latte Mama

From the Other Side of the Fence

Single Mom in the South

FoodLuv

This is our story

Ur Baking Me Crazy

Antsy Pants

It's a Wonderful Life

a belle, a bean, and a chicago dog


Have a great day, my friends -- it's almost the weekend!!!

Turning of the day

Do you ever ask yourself where the day has gone when you realize it's 5:59 and you've basically done nothing all day?

During the school year, I often tell myself that I'll get to my loooong to do list when Saturday arrives.  Just get me to the weekend and I promise that I'll do the tasks I need to do.  But then, when the openness of a Saturday arrives, I find myself (more times than not) that I'm watching Lifetime Movie after Lifetime movie (should I admit that to the world?).  It seems that when I perceive the day to be flexible and I get to choose when during the day to slot my tasks, the whole day goes to the dogs.

As for yesterday, I blame the heat wave.  I did a load of laundry during the morning but it was too hot to get it off the line later in the afternoon so it sat there simmering in the sunshine.  Being cooped up inside meant I just *had* to sit at my computer all day reading blogs and shopping on Amazon, and then *had* to venture into the living room where I *had* to watch Oprah.

Finally at 6:00 p.m. I gave myself a kick in the pants and got to it.  Who ever said that morning was the best part of the day or that the early bird catches the worm?  Give me a caramel macchiato and I'm good to go for many an hour during the latter part of the day.

I started sewing a coffee cozy, went to dinner with Mr. Fine at a new Indian restaurant downtown, and saw this along the way:

I love when random people do quirky things that just make your day.  This was on the sidewalk downtown!  I'm not sure what he is saying for the trees, but it's mighty fine that he's become the spokesperson for the trees.

A nice end to the day!  How was your day?

Crazy, Stop Calling!

You might remember the crazy that I encountered yesterday at Wal-Mart.  Venturing back to the normal of stores, we hit a reputable nursery today for those perennials we've been on the lookout for.

Imagine my surprise when I am just standing around with Mr. Fine looking at Boxwoods when a man and his young daughter cruise up behind us.  I hear, "he-lllll-ooooo" shouted into the distance.  Now, this "he-lllll-ooooo" could have meant one of two things:

1) he was calling out for employees because he needed help
or
2) he was crazy

Me?  I went with 1).

I replied, "I think there were two employees and they headed over there [pointing]."

And this is what I got in response: "I don't care."

ok.

Should have gone with 2).  Clearly.  Now, taking the higher road, I didn't respond and went about my boxwood business.  But hindsight (10 minutes later and always 20-20) told me that I should have responded, "I'm sorry for trying to help" and THEN went about my boxwood business.

Dear Crazy,

Stop calling.  I've had enough.  I used to be able to shop in peace.  Now you come everywhere to meet me.  I understand that you want us to be friends.  But I can't right now.  

Sincerely,

Mrs. Fine

Heard these ones?

Prior to making homemade hashbrowns and a big breakfast (I may just be the next Top Chef the way I'm rollin' it in the kitchen lately), Mr. Fine and I made our way to our neighborhood Wal-Mart.  He was on a last-ditch mission (we tend to believe in the 'I'll save money somewhere else and Live Better' Mantra and frequent Wal-Mart in only the most desperate of situations) for a few perennials for a new flowerbed he's concocting in the backyard.  Me?  I tagged along to grab supplies for the coffee cozies that I have on my list to make.  Yes, I am indeed embarking on the sewing aspect of a personal life as well.  A few too many projects, you wonder.  Likely.  Mr. Fine tells me that I have a 90% complex.  Start EVERYTHING and finish 90%.  Time will only tell, my dear readers.  Time will only tell.

Any hoo, imagine my surprise when the Wal-Mart fabric department had been condensed to pre-cut fat quarters and sewing machines.  What?  Wal-Mart patrons don't sew any more?  Well, perhaps they never did...which is why the fabric was always dusty and why I always had to tell the lady how to cut the fabric I wanted and sometimes hold the scissors with her.

None of this really matters.  What really matters is the conversation that we overhead as the checkout lady was checking us out.  Was the conversation with us?  No.  Was it happening while our actual items were being scanned?  Yes.

Check-out Employee:  Well, you should stay in your basement when it's this hot.


Leaning on Bag Carousel Employee: I don't have a basement.  I live in a trailer.


Check-out Employee: You live in a trailer?  I didn't know that.  I knew that XXXX was trailer park.  But I didn't know that you were trailer park.


And yet, Miss Leaning on Bag Carousel Employee took no offense.  Huh.  Guess it's okay to go around calling each other trailer park these days.  Good to know.

Perhaps this is why we try to limit our Wal-Mart visits to once per decade.


When we returned home, Mr. Fine and I watched our backyard pond fish hungrily devour the food we gave them.  One fish, who rarely makes an appearance came to the surface.  Now, this fish, we typically call her a shark because she looks as though she could become a meal.  As we watched her eat today, we wondered if she was the fish who had graciously gone through labor over the winter to give us 10 new babies in the pond.  10.  Such a high number, we said.  Perhaps it was because Wal-Mart had provided us with a new knowledge of appropriate lingo, but we suddenly turned to one another and began talking about our Pond Whore.  Huh.  What has the world come to?

In other news, I did in fact make a 2nd helping of the Strawberry Crumble, doubled the topping, and am high on crumble and crystal light as I write this post.

Have a great day!

Do you remember?

Mr. Fine and I have developed a nice little habit of watching television during lunch.  Although there is much quality television to stimulate the mind at mid-day (cough), we typically opt for recorded tv. Thank you U-Verse... you are my second Mr. Fine.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High circa 1982 was today's entertainment...for only 30 minutes.  That's what we told ourselves at the outset.  Meh.  We watched the whole movie and then said, "it's already 4:01?" when the credits rolled.

Here are the items of the 80s I'd forgotten about:

• leg warmers
• buttons for jean jackets
• Pat Benatar (although I don't even think I remembered her in the 80s...I was just a 'pre-teen' then)
• locker mirrors
• checkered skater shoes
• sweaters with belts
• collars up...(wait, don't we still do that?  J Crew?)

Am I old if I've reached the point where I say the music of the 80s and 90s was better?  Or better yet, if the clothes the 'cool kids' are wearing these days seem surprisingly similar to the vintage in my totes in the basement?

Either way, I laughed the hardest when a character said this:

"I woke up in a great mood; I don't know what the hell happened."

And if nothing else, I got a fantastic line to get me through a rough day.  With the fireworks around here today, I can only think of burning school houses...now that's a memory from the 80s!

Thanks for stopping by,

The grass is on fire!

Given that I have a few weeks off from school, I'm trying to be very persistent in my personal life quest.  I've even found myself folding some laundry on occasion! Mr. Fine and I invited our neighbors over for dinner, drinks, and a fire last night.  We were still cooking when Mrs. Neighbor arrived and she enthusiastically jumped into making the garlic sauce for our homemade veggie and potato hash browns.  Apparently, that is okay in dinner party protocol, so I'm told.  Mr. Neighbor hopped the fence (literally) about 20 minutes after that...and of course when all food stuffs were made! ;)

We enjoyed  a leisurely meal complete with drinks and a strawberry crumble for desert...that I made...I've found that questing for a personal life has left  me in the kitchen a lot.   Hmm.  I used a fabulous recipe for the crumble from The Second Lunch - a fab (can you tell the crumble was a fab hit?) blog that details different recipes.  Next time (and let me tell you that there will be a next time...perhaps even this week.  1/3 cup of butter every few days in dessert can't be a bad thing, can it?), I will double the crumble mixture, as I looovvee the crumble part of strawberry crumble.

Lest you are having heart palpitations because we've had 1/3 cup butter AND ice cream.  Nope.  Mrs. Fine is all over it. We enjoyed strawberry crumble with FROZEN YOGURT.  All is right in the world.

At some point, we moved to the fire pit (Mr. Fine has permanently installed one in our backyard, just off the pat-i-ho) and enjoyed a fire reminiscent of high school days.  The only hiccup?  At some point upon lighting, the large grass that we used as fire starters flopped onto the actual lawn...which we realized this morning had started on fire and left a rather large portion of grass as ashes.  That'll grow back, no? ;)

Have a great weekend, friends!