THE NEW HOMESTEAD

Here is a picture of the new homestead. We will be adding more as time rolls on. We are going to move in slowly since we have not sold our house as of yet. But this give us a chance to build shelves. Next weekend they will be having open houses at our old house so we will be building shelves for food storage at the new house. The first big project is Andrea's bedroom and bathroom down stairs. All are welcome. Come visit us.

This picture should be after the pictures below. But we decided to put a leaf in to make the furniture look bigger and take up room. Oh-well we tried. We have lots of wall space for pictures and other things.

When we were looking at this house we were excited because the eating area was quite big. Karen asked me last night if Moms furniture dwarfed the area last night when we put it in. I had to say "no" The furniture was dwarfed. Look how much room we have. This is great. This the biggest dining area we have ever had.

This mothers new bed room furniture. It is beautiful cherry wood. She loves. Of course she did not remember what she bought so she was pleasently suprised when it arrived. Both her rooms will look great once she start to add art work and personal touches.

This is mothers sitting room. The couch is a loveseat hidabed. Boy is it heavy. It took all of Erics and my strength to get it in the house. We had to take the door off the room and the legs off the couch also. Thinking it would lessen the weight we took all the cushions and the mattress off. It really didn't help much. We told Mom that if we ever sold the house the couch stays with it. You wouldn't think something so small would cause so much trouble. But at the end the couch is extremly comfortable.

TOFFEE BLONDIES

Piper told me her favorite goodie were these toffee blondies. So I tried these the other night. She of course was right, they are very, very good.

Here is the Recipe. I hope you don't mind if I share it, Piper?

8 T. Butter melted

1C. light brown sugar

2 lg eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 salt

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 c. toffee candy bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. line bottom and sides of a 8 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving a 2 inch overhang on two sides. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla and salt. With mixer on low speed add flour and beat just until combined. Fold in toffee bits by hand.

Using a rubber spatula, spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven; cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Using foil overhang, lift cake from pan. Peel off foil and discard With a serrated knife, cut into 16 squares ( 4 rows by 4 rows).

YUMMY YUMMY!!!!!

I made the best bagels last night. I used Sir Lancelot flour from King Arthurs Flour products. It is a very high gluten flour. I used the recipe on the back of flour bag and they turned out chewy and delicous. The last time I made bagels the recipe took 2 days. This recipe took 3 hours. It was sooooo much easier and sooooo much tastier.