My pops went to the track recently with his Mustang. Mostly stock except for a cold air intake and twin turbos. The big secret is that it’s running a custom tune (software) that he and his new business partner crafted.
They won every race that day.
Archive for category Family
Dad at the drag races
Jan 29
Secret Santa Name Picker
Nov 18
Our family decided a few years ago to only do single gifts for the adults members of the family. We usually selected names whenever the largest group of us got together and, if someone was not present, would select for them and pass along their selection later.
This generally worked, but when we added the conditions that you wouldn’t select your spouse or significant other (what a dumb term) or that you wouldn’t have the same name two years running, things got a bit complicated.
I think I was the person most guilty of screwing this up.
This year there haven’t been any opportunities to get together and get this sorted out so I decided to come up with a solution. I wanted to write a small program to do the selection, exclusion, and emailing but I really don’t have the time right now. I stumbled on web-based solution that is free, no need to register, and has all the functionality we require.
I’m certain that use of the service entails some advertising related emails to follow, but that was a necessary evil at this point. If you find yourself in need of a Secret Santa Name Chooser give it a try.
Fundraiser!
Sep 23
It’s time for fundraising at school again. This year Brady is also tasked with selling to earn his share of the funds for 6th Grade Camp. He has a long time to do it, but he has to sell 200+ candy bars or pay the difference in cash to be able to attend.
If you would like to support the Camp fundraiser, let me know the number of bars you would like to purchase. They are $1 each with 50% going towards funding his stay at camp. Apparently, we’re automatically on the hook for at least $100 so our focus is there for now.
That being said, there is also a fundraiser for the school PTA. This difference here is that it funds general purchases at the school that all the kids can participate in. This may be a better alternative for those of you who wish to help out but to whom shipping a candy bar would be counter-productive.
When you visit the Fundraising Website you are able to select and purchase items that will be shipped directly to your door and Brady still gets credit for the sales.
Either way, if you want to help, we appreciate it. Hope everyone is having a good week.
Last night I was hanging out on the couch watching a show while Jen snoozed on the other end. Brady wanders by, grabs my toes and says,
“Dad, I really like your egg sandwiches.”
“Thanks,” I replied.
“And my teacher didn’t ask me to say that, either,” Brady said.
“Are you saying that she didn’t approach you and say ‘Go tell your father thank you for making a good egg sandwich.’ I don’t see see why she wouldn’t have.” (he’s pretty good with sarcasm)
“Well I thought maybe you would think she told us to say something nice, but she didn’t. I just really like how you do it so the cheese is melty and the egg is kind of salty,” he explained.
“I am glad you like it, thank you,” I said.
“Sure,” he finished. Then, “tickle, tickle” as he grabbed my foot again and trotted out of the room.
Totally priceless and great, but at the same time, it leaves me scratching my head. What the hell was that all about?
Time for Blackberries
Aug 29
I was getting a bit stir crazy yesterday and was looking for some sort of outlet so that I wouldn’t have a full-blown freak out. I called a friend at my old work and had her go check the blackberries outside the gate and see if they were ready.
This was probably the first week they were ready to pick around here. At least at this particular spot.
Like the picture shows, about a third of each cluster is ripe for picking. I’m not sure the truth of it, but I believe that picking some allows the others to ripen faster. We only picked for half an hour or so, I decided pretty quickly that I wanted to make something with them tonight they were so good.
Brady was out there helping as well. He has a slightly different philosophy about picking berries than I do. He seems to operate on a “pick three, eat one” mentality. I can definitely relate. They were delicious.
I ended up leaving a small amount for Traci, a girl I used to work with, but we still managed a pretty decent haul for just 30 minutes.
I am not much of a baker. Cookies and such are no problem, but things like pies and pastries are far outside of my experience. I dug out a recipe for a Blackberry Cobbler (any berry would be fine I’m sure), that seemed pretty wacky but sounded amazing so I went for it.
I cleaned and dried the blackberries in the same way I described in the Blueberries post from last week.
Here is the recipe I used:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter or margarine, divided
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour*
- 1/3 cup milk, room temperature
- 2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons sugar
Directions:
- In a 10-in. round or oval baking dish, melt 1/2 cup butter; set aside.
- In a saucepan, heat sugar and water until sugar melts; set aside.
- Place flour in a mixing bowl; cut in remaining butter until fine crumbs form. Add milk, stirring with a fork until dough leaves sides of bowl.
- Roll out to an 11-in. x 9-in. rectangle 1/4 in. thick. Spread berries over dough; sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll up, jelly-roll style. Cut into 1/4-in. thick slices.
- Carefully lay slices in baking dish over butter. Pour sugar syrup around slices (syrup will be absorbed).
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Sprinkle sugar over top and bake 15 minutes more. Serve warm or cold.
*If self-rising flour is not available, use 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2-1/4 teaspoons baking powder.
I didn’t make very many changes, but there were some.
- I didn’t use the 1/2 cup of butter for the bottom of the pan. I used about 5T and it seemed like plenty to me.
- My dough rolling skills were total crap and it wound up shaped more like Utah than Colorado.
- I only used 1T of sugar for the top
- I baked it on a convection cycle at 325 instead of conventional at 350. Same timeframe.
This is what it looked like before baking:
I was quite nervous at this point. This looked nothing like I had seen anyone bake before. The resulting cobbler was stunning, see for yourself:
I cannot say enough about how fantastic it tasted. I think it was, by far, the best thing I have ever baked. The bonus was that it cost probably less than $2 to make. I love that I took it from cane to plate in about four hours and that it was delicious to boot.
Speaking of taking it to the plate:
I froze the rest of the berries for use later. I will definitely be going for more here soon. I made freezer jam last year and it did not last anywhere near long enough. I think we munched it all before December was even over.