I have a snack for you with your coffee this morning! I have a hard time following any recipe directly, so instead I usually gather up at least 3 versions of something and then wing it, or in the world of cooking, I 'tweak' the recipe. I've tried to make myself follow recipes exactly but I just can't do it. I always see something I think I could do different, better, or substitute. It tends to work out most of the time though, and we end up with some delicious new versions.

S'More Bars

5 c cocoa krispie cereal
1 plastic wrapped package of graham crackers (3 usually come in a box - use 1 pkg.)
6 T butter
Scant 1/3 c brown sugar
1 package mini marshmallows
1 c mini chocolate chips

Prepare a 9X13" pan by spraying it with Pam style spray or butter by hand. Crush the graham crackers in a food processor or by hand with a rolling pin or P. Chef food chopper until coarsely crushed in pieces. Mix the cereal, graham crackers 1 c mini marshmallows and 1 c mini chocolate chips in a large bowl.

Melt the butter in the microwave with the brown sugar. Stir. Add the rest of the bag of marshmallows and microwave about 1-2 minutes until the marshmallows puff up and double in size over the bowl. Stir this mixture into the cereal. Press into the prepared pan. Let cool completely before cutting.

Labels: cooking, Happy Housewife

Today while I was in the kitchen I heard the cat scratching to be let out of the basement, as I had closed the door behind me. I let Sam out and went back to making the homemade soup I was working on. Suddenly I heard more scratching and pawing at the door so I walked over to let our other cat out too, but when I opened the door there was no cat there. Nothing at all on the stairs or down at the stair landing. I closed the door and turned around and saw my cat Sam sitting patiently under the table watching out the patio doors.

I guess I must have let the invisible cat out of the basement though because he didn't scratch anymore! :)

Labels: ghosts

For the past month or two we've seen nor heard anything from our resident ghostie. No big deal either way to us, as things happen sporadically but not often and certainly nothing frightening. But the last 3 days have had a few incidents and I thought I'd best blog about them before I forget, because believe it or not, you do tend to shrug them off and forget.

The night before last Coffeehusband and I had gone to bed at the same time but I fell asleep while he was watching tv in bed. We were keeping our ears open for our daughter to come home from a birthday party but I was too tired to stay up. When I woke at 1:20 am or so, I realized my husband had fallen asleep with the tv on so I reached over and turned it off, and only then noticed the time. I didn't recall my daughter poking her head in the door to say she was home so I got up to check on her. As I pulled back the covers I heard the cupboard doors in the kitchen below closing shut, one after the other. They weren't being slammed, but they were making the thud thud thud thud that they do when you swing them shut quickly. I heard about six of them and then I was to my doorway. As I entered the hall I realized how quiet the house was. Not one sound. No cupboards slamming, no... well, anything. Silence. I walked to BabyGirls room but I couldn't see her up in her loft bed so I walked down the stairs to check for her car parked outside. It was, as I expected, so I went back upstairs.

As I got to the landing I decided to double check BabyGirls room so I walked in, saw her in bed and went back to my bedroom. As I walked into the room I heard the cupboard doors in the kitchen being slammed again. Over and over, but not immediately following each other. Two, then a second pause and one more, then a three second pause and then 2 more in a row... no pattern to it. At that point I decided to go to the kitchen and see if I could catch any of the cupboards open. As I walked back out onto the landing I realized our cats weren't there either, which meant the cats were each sleeping with the kids in the loft beds so even if cats could somehow open and close kitchen cupboards, it wasn't them. One cat was shut in Coffeegirls room and our other cat sleeping with my son.

I went to the kitchen only to see... nothing. Silence. I got a glass of water, drank it down and went back to bed. Odd because he's never slammed cupboards before, only left all of them open once when we returned home from going out one evening.

The second thing, I fear I've already forgotten as I know there were three, but I can't remember the second. See? Things happen, you go 'hmmmm' and then you forget all about them. Thus is the life with a ghost.

The third thing however was just last night. My husband was showering when I went upstairs to get ready for bed. He had just stepped out of the shower and was drying off when I was about 8 feet away, behind a door. I heard him say something to me but I couldn't make out what he said. It was something that had an "in" sound (as in skin, shin, wind, sin, etc) and then and "i" sound as in "die, fry, dry" so I was trying to figure out what he said and thought perhaps he said something like "My skin is dry" (since he had just gotten out of the shower and was drying off perhaps he noticed a dry patch or something).

Wrong.

When I walked over to him and asked him what it was he said he looked up with surprise and said, "I didn't say anything."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"You haven't said anything to me? Like, 45 seconds ago?"

"Nope. I've just been drying off."


So... now I'm wondering just what was said to me and I wish I had been paying more attention. Coffeehusband and I remarked however, that this is the first time I've heard him speak. And it was a 'him' by all means. Clear as day - but I wasn't expecting to hear anyone talk so I wasn't paying attention until it was too late.

Labels: ghosts