Benet's Biscuits

Megan has been obsessively reading The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas, and one of the main characters, Benet, is described the following way:

"A rather scary-looking guy, but one who loves to knit, bake and clean. His nose has been broken so many times, it's been flattened. If he were an animal he'd be a big bear. His hair is brown and sticks out on his head like spikes. You wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, but you would want to eat his biscuits."

The recipe for those biscuits is in the back of the book, and Megan talked me into baking them this morning. I have to say, they were really good. Here's the recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons bee's wing (baking powder)
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Mix dry ingredients together in bowl. Cut in butter until fine and crumbly. Make a well in these ingredients and pour in milk. Knead with your fingers only until blended - do not overwork or biscuits will be hard and flat. Roll to one knuckle thick and cut in rounds. Place on greased pan, and bake until golden brown (12-15 minutes). Best eaten hot with butter and honey.

This week

This week was another whirlwind. Highlights? The fair on Thursday and Dad Creamer's birthday party tonight. As you can see above, George got some great pictures at the fair. We had a really good time, too. Mmmmmm, funnel cakes and turkey legs.

Happy Birthday Dad C.! Hope you had a great time!

Last night...what a dinner!

Last night we went to the mall and had our favorite dinner: Auntie Anne's pretzel dogs. Oh my are they good. If you've never had one, they are definitely worth the 2/$5.50 price (at least here they're that price). George and I are hooked.

Happy Halloween! A week and a day in review

My goodness what a busy week! Here's a recap, because I can't possibly tell you all that we did. Between projects and Halloween activities, our house was rockin!

The first activity was our project to finish putting together Danny's new "little boy's room." We acquired his furniture from Target and his bed from Sams. George and I spent a week putting everything together, and we put the finishing touches on it last weekend. Harley felt immediately at home on his bed.


My bed! Grrrrrrrrr!

Last Sunday, we went for ice cream and pumpkin hunting. George got some great pics, didn't he? Megan and Danny both chose "Ghosts and Goblins" as their flavor.

This last week was spirit week at the kids' school. Friday was "Book Character Day," on which the kids could dress as their favorite book character. As you can see below, Megan was Nancy Drew and Danny was his namesake from Danny the Champion of the World. They were so cute.

Saturday, we had a small party and the kids got to trick-or-treat with a group this time. Danny was the cutest cowboy ever, Megan was a sixties Diva, and Zachary (or "Cushie" as Megan's friend Perry called him) was a Whoopie Cushion. They had a wonderful time!

Finally, today's project and the end of a long week. We bought new lighting fixtures for the dining room, and my handy man installed them. They look great, and I am so happy with them.

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!!!! We sure did. Going to bed now, as I am so tired I can barely type.

Finally, some cooler weather...

Just to let you know that we haven't fallen off the face of the planet, I am going to give a general update. Zachary has been driving our van regularly for the last few days, and I will have to say he's doing pretty well. Megan recently became hooked on Dr. Who (yes we screen for the scary and inappropriate ones), and put this picture on her wall. I hope it doesn't detract from her studies!

Danny is getting some new furniture in his room, so George and I have been cleaning out (me) and putting together (George) various parts of Danny's room. We, however, have both hurt ourselves over the last couple of weeks, so we are a sad-looking couple at the end of the day. Between my limping and his back-holding, I don't know which of us looks worse. I know Danny will appreciate all of the hard work we're doing for him (not!).

Last Friday, we went to the fall festival at Megan and Danny's school, and they had a great time. Megan and Zachary's friend, Clarence, spent the entire fall festival in the cake walk line, and she finally won on the next to last round. That was an expensive cake, let me tell you! Zachary volunteered at the snow cone machine for me, and other than exploding flavor syrup and an intricately dyed right hand, he had few mishaps. Danny decided that friends are more important than his mom (aka "chopped liver") and spent the whole time trying to convince me to leave him with his friends for the rest of the evening. Sure, that's going to happen.

I can't possibly tell everything that we've done because the list would be endless. It seems like October exploded with engagements, illnesses, and general plans. I hope November is a little more calm.