A NEW COMPUTER

Our laptops and my camera were stolen just before Christmas. Oh the horror of buying a new computer, recovering lost data (some of which is gone forever) and getting a new laptop up and running. We have spent untold hours on the process and our computer geek, Brian, has spent hours on the phone with the foreigners at Dell tech support. Those guys read from their scripts looking for key words that Brian feeds them, hoping for an "aha" moment. At least two routers and two wireless cards later, I am up and running more or less. Windows Vista does strange stuff and I am having trouble with emails, but I am once again on line. Perhaps there is a message in this....it's more fun to paint and bake and whatever happened to my Rolodex?

Speaking of Christmas, Jesse and Dana and baby Gavin visited us in Florida. Gavin is so squishy cute and he celebrated the New Year by drinking milk and spitting up.

SO WHAT DOES THE PHOTO ABOVE HAVE TO DO WITH COMPUTERS AND BABIES YOU ARE ASKING? Not a thing. But this week, I had a wonderful opportunity to join a small group of very talented photographers and painters as they worked with a live model. I have much to learn but hope to join them again and develop my creative side. I did pen and ink sketches and took some photos for my collages.

DAS BOOT OR SUSAN BAKES A BOOT

This Tuesday, the bakers at Tuesdays with Dorie baked some sort of caramel pecan bars & shared their photos and comments with happy TWD bloggers across the universe. I, on the other hand, got the boot.

Having failed to timely post per the rules, I am flying solo now. The good news is that I can post on Wednesdays and paint on Tuesdays if I choose. And that is exactly what I did. Rick is happy that he got sugar cookies this week (his favorite) rather than the TWD treat of the week. So all is well that ends well.



Except the dog ate my cheese: my favorite little round of goat cheese, Cana de Cabra, from Cheese Importers in Longmont. I hid the bag under the car seat when I stopped to buy fresh bread at the Harvest Bakery. The little squirt managed to pull it out and ate it wrapper and all, leaving nary a clue except his cheese breath. He did not share his find with Dugus, who remained in the back of the car and sulked about having a doggie guest for the day. Bad dog Luca, but you sure are cute. Bad dog Dugus for nipping Luca earlier in the day - you guys need to quit those food fights. Here's Luca below.

WORLD PEACE COOKIES & CREME BRULEE

It's fun to play with fire

Daughter-in-law Michelle takes on the cookie challenge
Michelle cuts the chocolate logs into disks.

Is this on my diet?


Valentine's Day presents an opportunity to catch up on my baking. I decide to use this occasion to bake some recipes that were selected by the bakers at Tuesdays with Dorie. World Peace Cookies are a January 2009 selection, but Creme Brulee was a recipe chosen back in 2008. Rick returns from the garage with a blow torch and a fire extinguisher and I proceed to make creme brulee without fear of burning down the house. Rick is on a blueberry kick (muffins, pancakes) so he votes for blueberries in the custard rather than rasberry sauce. The recipe is simple and the gang enjoys the pyrotechnics. I only used a light dusting of sugar on top of the cooked custard which resulted in a carmelized topping that was rather minimal. Next time, I will put a very thick layer of sugar on top and call in the fire department for back up.


Check out the recipe for World Peace Cookies
The guys are fascinated by fire