A Tale of Twisters and Monsters

What a strange two days! I took Friday afternoon off to head up to Hodag Country to meet my sister Nell. Not a local? Rhinelander is the home of the Hodag pictured above.

This mythical, mischievous creature was first “discovered” in Rhinelander in the late 19th century but may have been roaming the Northwoods for eons before that. I can't confirm or deny! Today, the Hodag has become the official symbol of Rhinelander – it’s even the mascot for the local high school and can be seen pretty much anywhere visitors go in Rhinelander.

That is not the reason we were going to Rhinelander. We swear. But it you can believe it, for me, meeting up with one on my sisters up there is twice as close (less than 2 hours) to driving 4 hours to see them in our Up North back home towns.

So when she said she was going to a conference Friday and Saturday and could use the company, I said sure!

In our routes up and over yesterday we were both more like the Storm Chased versus the Storm Chasers. We knew tornadoes and crazy stuff were predicted. In fact, on my route up I-39 they had already dismissed schools early for safety. We both had sunny skies and stayed ahead of it thankfully!

Me arriving to town: "Hey, sis, I found the Hodag!"

40 minutes later... clouds and high winds before we find a place to eat!

As we scarfed down our delicious Friday night burgers at a place called Bucketheads Sports Bar & Grill, we heard no less than three tornado warnings on the multiple TVs! We're like, should we take shelter? And... wait is that what county we're in? 

Who knew being a tourist in Hodag Country could be so dangerous?

We did make it back to the hotel fine and she beat me in two games of Five Crowns before we realized the twisters did destructively touch down between Rhinelander and Wisconsin Rapids. Uff da.

And this morning we woke up to 30 degrees and a "real feel" of 21 degrees. So Wisconsin had sunny and golfing Thursday, twister Friday, and winter Saturday.

*Checks calendar*

Oh right, it's spring.

Got home about 6 p.m. tonight and am grateful for at least a little sister time. And super grateful for our safe travels.

Prayers to all dealing with tornado/wind damage and flooding right now. Consider any way we all can support them!

Oh and keep an eye out for those sneaky little monsters among us!

Midwest Nice Manners

We have a new coworker on our team who comes from Ohio. Which I think is technically Midwest. But she's consistently surprised – nicely surprised – by our ingrained Midwest Nice manners!

Yesterday, for example, I showed up to work with a Tupperware (duh, I'm a church lady!) container full of my Mini (as in average sized) Monster Cookies because, well, I had plenty to spare. Then coworker Mel "my middle name is Pinterest" walks in with cookies she baked and decorated for Valentine's Day (above). Impressive! Then coworker Darc walks in with cherry turnovers – "Sorry, not homemade," she said in that Midwest apologetic voice we all use.

Miss Ohio asked if she missed the memo on treat day. "Nope. It's just, uhm, Tuesday."

At the end of the day, I took my 5 or 6 leftover cookies home. (Don't worry, hubby was not neglected all day. There's yet another Tupperware container full. Always makes a huge batch.) And Mel had a few left that people were enjoying at work today. When there was one cookie left, I heard one obviously Midwest Nice guy say, "No one's gonna take that last cookie. We will fight over NOT taking that last cookie."

So true. Because when I got home tonight...

There's that last cookie in my container, too! Bwaahaa. I ate it. UNAPOLOGETICALLY! Thanks, honey!

Some days Midwest Nice cannot stand up to my Mini Monster Cookies!

How to Saturday

How do YOU Saturday? Apparently I've been doing it wrong. Because my Saturday looked nothing like Sylvester's. Not that I wouldn't have minded. Just had things to do, places to go, people to see.

My morning multi-tasking involved dusting and vacuuming while treats were baking in the oven. First I made a Hornet's Nest Cake for the church picnic tomorrow. Then I baked those Monster Cookies I mixed up last night. I tried not to taste test. But ohhhhh, soooo good!

Had just enough time to clean up my baking mess since Martha Stewart's TV crew weren't around to do it. Then I was off to senior photo shoot #3 of the season. Today was the son of my friend and former Renaissance co-worker Jodi. Her son Ryan goes to Nekoosa so we did some of my normal settings on my "senor picture route" and a few football ones, too.

On the photo above, I am actually laying on my stomach at the edge of a bridge and hanging over as much as I can to get this shot with some water in the background. I am either dedicated or stupid. Either way, no one was hurt and no one got wet. Oh, and my camera equipment is intact!

I have to give Ryan some credit for sticking it out since it was about 90 degrees at the time. Yikes.

Had just enough time to go home and change into racing gear. Well, fan gear. And head up to Marshfield. We picked up Jim's dad on the way. When we got there and it was 87 degrees – matching Colin's race car number – I thought that was a good omen.

And it was. Colin qualified with fast time! He started around 8th place for the 75-lap feature and worked his way up to finish 3rd. It was a close race and fun to watch.

We didn't stick around for the fireworks after the races. The sky was hazy due to wildfires in Canada or in the West or both. Plus, it was late for us old folks! If I did a better job of Saturday-ing, maybe I wouldn't be so tired!

Kitty, help me out on this one.

On the Bright Side...

Nothing tastes as sweet as a Vikings victory after a monstrous baking project gone wrong.

It certainly added a much-needed bright spot to the day after I managed to screw up a perfectly good Monster Cookie recipe that I have always had success with before. Looking back on the day, I know it was entirely my fault... but I'll still blame the bird flu.

Now you just gotta know, right?

Went to 8 o'clock church and then shopping "quickly" at Wal-Mart to pick up ingredients for the cookies. Wanted to get them baked today so we can ship a package to our German son Lukas this week for his birthday next week.

Well, I got a bit distracted at the store. They have been moving everything around – and I mean everything – so it is hard enough to find what you need, let alone write a list in order from the back of the store to the front like I usually do. Then throw in visits with at least 3 people and I am there 90 minutes.

Now the thing with the bird flu is that the outbreak this summer led to an egg shortage, higher prices and lower quality eggs (in my experience). The recipe calls for a whole dozens eggs. I told you it is monstrous. The ones labeled "large" looked so small, I move up to extra-large, or "jumbo," they called them. They didn't look that jumbo. They looked more normal to me.

But they were jumbo.

Mixing up the full Monster Cookie recipe requires my two largest bowls – one for dry ingredients, one for wet – which are then combined in my Nesco pan because it is the biggest container I own. It's a lot of work, which explains my major frustration when it didn't go as planned.

Those darn normal-in-my-opinion eggs made my dough a bit soupy. Sort of. Just not firm. So when I baked the first batch, they came out flat and resembling pancakes rather than cookies. I added what oatmeal I had left to the dough but the next pan only showed mild improvements.

Hubby, bless his heart, said he'd run to Wal-Mart to get more as soon as we finished watching the Packers lose. So that plan worked at least. Ha.

The extra dose of oats did, too. And 16 dozen later, I had enough cookies to satisfy all of Bavaria. But since they still didn't measure up to my perfectionism, our boy will get a few dozen and the others will go toward my family cookie exchange. Not that they are getting all rejects. They taste great. They just don't pass my appearance standards.

I was pretty crabby and down about it, though, so the Vikings' win – which unfortunately was not aired on TV here – was perfect timing. Not just for the monstrous melt-down but because the Packers and Vikings play each other next week! We get the lone first-place spot for one week. I think I will enjoy that.

Might just celebrate by putting some of these ugly, crumbly soft cookies in some ice cream. SKOL!

Cookie Monsters

The heat wave is just far enough in our past for us to shut the air-conditioning off... and for me to turn the oven on!

I know. I am not right in the head. It's for a good cause, though.

At least I thought.

I figured, since I was going up north to Clutterville this weekend I would make the guys a treat to enjoy while I was gone. I think they were racing to see who could say it first: "Just the fact that you're going away is a treat!"

Funny. Ha, ha. Fine. Since I already had the ingredients out to make Monster Cookies, I figured I'd still make them.

And take them with me!

No, I'll be nice. I'm sure they were joking – in that "ha, ha, you think I'm joking" way. But I know that even though they won't MISS me necessarily, they will THINK of me when they enjoy those yummy, yummy cookies filled with peanut butter and oatmeal and chocolate chips and vanilla chips and M&M's...

And yes, I will bring some with me for the hard workers at Mom's. Including me.

Gotta go now, though. Oven's beeping and I better finish these before my temper – I mean, outdoor temperature – rises!

Good Goofs

Not to tarnish my perfect Betty Crocker reputation, but sometimes I goof.

Oh, I'm not talking about cooking. I don't know enough about it to try anything hard enough to screw up.

Baking, on the other hand, is a joy for me. I love mixing things up and creating my own "new" recipes. Then sharing the good stuff -- and hopefully bringing some joy to others. Or at least spreading out the calories.

Sometimes I goof, though. And I have learned that there are people in this world -- two under this roof -- who will eat those goofs. And like 'em!

Tonight was a stretch, though.

I got this urge in my apron to make those tasty Monster Cookies again that went over so well at Christmas. You know, the recipe that made 17.4 dozen and I thought those would last until Easter? Not sure where they all went but I wanted to make some more. This time, though, I halfed the recipe so I could stir it up in one big bowl and get them baked in a timely fashion.

I got the ingredients but in the back of my mind did not think I needed a huge container of oatmeal since I was cutting the recipe in half. I didn't even bother looking at the container to see how many cups were in there. When I was almost done mixing up the cookies and it was time to add 9 cups of oatmeal, that is when I realized I was going to be short. Not just a little short where it wouldn't matter. But 2 1/2 cups short.... Where I hoped it wouldn't matter.

Turns out, it mattered.

The recipe has no flour so the oatmeal is the "glue" that sticks the ingredients together and adds some bulk. After my first pan turned out to be liquidated Monsters, I did the logical thing I usually do to avoid the 8-mile round trip to Wal-Mart. I ask my neighbors.

I am so lucky that whether I need a cup of sugar or 2 cups of oatmeal that someone comes through! Tonight, Cindy across the street had enough on hand to salvage my goof. (Thank you!)

The rest of the cookies were still a bit "off" from the perfect first attempt back in November, but they are edible. Good enough for my guys at home -- not like they don't deserve the good stuff, too -- and probably good enough for my guys at work -- who also deserve better but take what I give!

So what did I learn from this?

One, some recipes are meant to be followed. Two, read the labels so you can follow it. Three, I'm human. And Four, thank goodness my life in the kitchen is a cross between Disney World and Sesame Street -- where I can be Goofy and the Cookie Monster!

Happy eating!

Happy Hunting

Thank you, deer hunters, for waiting until after 7 a.m. this year to fire your first shots near our house. I should say, not necessarily close to our house but within ear-shot.

At first I thought hubby's snoring woke me up, but then I heard 2 more shots and was reminded it's opening day of gun-deer hunting in Wisconsin.

Hubby doesn't hunt so we felt it best to stay inside in our nice warm bed -- considering the temps didn't get out of the 20s until mid-morning. B-r-r-r. Glad I wasn't in a tree stand anywhere. I do appreciate the hunters that are out there thinning the herd, though, so I don't have to do it with my car!

Since I had good reason to stay indoors, I turned into Martha Stewart on Red Bull.

Got the last of my Christmas cookies baked and my plates set up, bagged and labeled for my family cookie exchange next weekend. It's all set to go. In advance of a Packer-Viking party tomorrow, I made a pan of The Best Cranberry Bars Ever and the frosting recipe that goes with those, plus some dip, plus a yummy mandarin orange jello salad. (I'm thinking I'm more prepared for tomorrow's game then perhaps some of the players!)

After my Martha stint, I did do some "hunting."

Went over to my Scrap Sister Jenny's house and hunted through her Cricut cartridges to see which ones I should put on my Christmas list. This is definitely a case of putting the cart before the horse -- or in this instance, the cart-ridge before the Cricut. I am just assuming (and you know where that gets us) that I will snag one of these on Black Friday. There's no turning back now.

While I was gone, hubby put on his "Martha" hat, too, and we had homemade beef soup for supper. Yum! He's the best!

Tonight Carter and I kicked it old school and watched a movie on the VCR. I can't tell you when I last operated one of those! I see how I have enjoyed skipping through the previews without having to labor through "fastforward." But something put us in the mood to watch Monsters Inc. and we only have that on VHS. Glad we watched it. Those Pixar movies rock!

Now it's bedtime and I told Carter he better brush his teeth or a monster will jump out of his closet! For some reason all I got was an eye-roll.

I swear he used to think I was funny ... back in the days before DVD players were invented, I bet.

Don't fight Monday

We saw a television commercial Sunday that made me laugh out loud.

It took me awhile to figure out what was going on. The commercial opens with shots of people waking from their beds in the early morning dark before sunrise. They leave their homes carrying things like mattresses and satellite dishes and join a group of people all headed in the same direction. They eventually gather atop a hill and use their "weapons" to unsuccessfully battle the rising sun.

When their efforts to hold back the morning fail, they grudgingly head back to their homes to get ready for work. The spot ends with a voice saying, "Don't fight Monday," and tells us to go to Monster to find a job worth waking up for.

I guess the concept for the commercial was based on research that showed Sunday night was the worst night of sleep for most people as they worried about the beginning of the workweek the next day. I don't doubt that at all. This is often true for me -- even when I'm not thinking about work! Last night, for example, I set the alarm so I could get up early and exercise. Wouldn't you know it, I was worried about getting up early and got a terrible night's sleep.

I'm proud to say that I did get up and exercised. Carter was a big lump to get going, though. He sits up in bed and the first words out of his mouth indicated the commercial's message got through. He says, "Mom, you can't fight Mondays."

Oh son, you gotta whole lotta Monday alarms to get through. I'm guessing I still have about 1,500 myself. Wow. Maybe next time I will hit the snooze!