Day 4: French (May Creativity Challenge)

Bon jour!

Today's challenge is FRENCH.  We use French in a lot of things.  French toast.  French fries.  French onion soup.  French braid.  French kiss.  French manicure.

I didn't get as much time to focus on this challenge today because I decided (last minute) to have a yard sale.  A few neighbors were already having one so I thought I would take advantage of the traffic that I assumed would come my way.

It was an interesting morning.  I had decided to skip the showering and "beautifying" of myself this morning to get a good start on being ready for the "mad rush" that seems to occur an hour before you are ever ready to open.  I got up at 5:15 and was filling up the driveway by 5:30.  I was feeling pretty good about how things were shaping up.  It was about 6:30 when I was satisfied with my preparations, but decided it wasn't safe to go clean up now since people are usually out for 7:00 yard sales and could drop by any minute.

7:00 am:  No people.  Not much traffic either.

8:00 am:  One person.  A whopping $1.25 (after they talked me down).

And so it went throughout the morning.  I vowed to shut it down at 10:00 if it stayed with way.

9:15ish:  A lady wants 2 of my bulky items as well as a few other things.  I give her a total and she says, "I have to go to the bank.  It's just up the road.  I will be right back to pay you."  She leaves.

10:00 am:  Things are still slow.  The lady isn't back for her things yet.  I notice that my Free tote is missing.  Not just the free stuff IN it, but the whole tote.  This yard sale is costing me more than I am making.  <sigh>

Later:  A lady comes by and wants to purchase one of the bulky items that the lady who went to the bank has on hold.  I decide to sell it to her because we all know that those "I'll be back" promises are rarely ever kept.

Later yet:  The lady makes it back from the bank.  She apparently forgot where I was so she was wondering town to find me.  I wondered if she would notice that an item was missing.  She didn't say anything.  Paid me for what was there and loaded it into her car.  While at her car, she tells me that she has the tote that the free stuff was in and wondered if it was free as well or if I had intended to keep it.  I asked for it back (oh . . . yes, I did) and felt relieved that the yard sale wasn't a complete flop.

I'm now vowing that we will close this yard sale by noon, so I begin packing up.

A lady stops.  I stop packing.  Another lady stops.  The first lady gathers a few items and realizes she needs more money from her car.  The second lady returns to her car but stops to talk to the first lady.  The first lady comes back to pay and realizes that in the distraction of that conversation, she left her keys in her car . . . and locked the door.  She calls AAA for assistance.  I bring out a chair for her to hang out with me in my garage.  AAA's faithful contract company comes to her aid.  I pack it up by 12:45.

Now . . . for my French challenge.  I didn't do much, but I did a little web surfing to learn a few things. I got inspiration at least.

First, I looked up Scrambled Tea in French.  Here it is.  My son helped me create this using Photoshop for the iPad.

Scrambled Tea looks so pretty in French.  Don't you think?  

I decided to learn how the French drink their tea.  I came up with very little on the subject.  It appears that coffee is more popular than tea, but tea is gaining popularity.  The tea shops are called salon de thé.    While it seems that the French drink the same kinds of teas that we do, when I looked up French tea, I found a few recipes.  For all I know, they could be about as French as French Fries, but we can have fun and try them out anyway.

The first one I found is on About.com and is called Cinnamon Tea.  

A blog called Southern Plate has a recipe that sounds really good.  I didn't have all of the ingredients and couldn't get to the store today so I'm sharing it here but I will be trying it quite soon.  It's called French Mint Tea.  I added it to my Tea Board on Pinterest.

What is your favorite French inspired thing?  Share it with me in the comments below.

Tomorrow the challenge is "Sincere".  I "Sincere"ly hope you'll stop by again then.  

Until then . . .

bonne nuit 

(good night).

Apple Crisp Should Be Easy

Apple Crisp is one of my favorite fall treats because it is so simple to make.  At least, it is usually simple to make.  Today I found it more difficult than normal.

I have a handy, dandy "Apple Peeler Corer Slicer" that makes peeling and slicing apples a breeze.  Sometimes my boys will help just to use the fun tool.  I love this thing.

Today I got my handy kitchen tool out from the top of the pantry and put it together.  I got the apple on nice and snug and as I was ready to twirl away until I noticed something.

The part that peels is missing.  :(

I looked in the box.  Not there.  I searched my junk drawers (yes, unfortunately, there is more than one).  Not there either.  You see the part in the picture that looks like a red duck bill?  There is supposed to be a round metal piece attached.  The round part at the end cores and slices.  It's awesome when it works.  Today, instead, I had to do the work.  I had to use a regular vegetable peeler and peel the apples the old fashioned way.  Then I had to slice it with a knife - the old fashioned way.  I decided, at this point, that just ONE Apple Crisp is enough for today.

I really like my Apple Crisp recipe.  It was my mom's recipe so it is the Apple Crisp I grew up eating.  I am not sure where she got the recipe.  Maybe after reading this she will tell me.  :)

What I love about this recipe is how simple it is.  Just sugar, flour, cinnamon, butter and apples.  Hard to mess up.  Right?

Wrong.

I needed 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon.  I grabbed my measuring spoon, measured for the first teaspoon of cinnamon, put it in the bowl and reached for the smaller teaspoon for the 1/2.  Guess what?  The smaller one was 1 WHOLE teaspoon.

Good grief.  What did I use then?

I used a whole TABLESPOON!  I decided that the 1/2 teaspoon might be overkill at this point so I put the measuring spoon away, sighed a bit, and finished making my mixture - extra cinnamon and all.

Here it is - all baked.  I have to say . . . it's still pretty good.  I will try to pay better attention next time though.  I also think I'll go online and see if I can get parts for my not so handy (at the moment) peeler machine.  After all, I have to redeem myself by making a proper Apple Crisp next time.  :)

After all of that, I needed a cup of tea.  The other day I enjoyed my last cup of Apple Cider Herbal Tea from Davidson's Tea.  I always find Herbal Teas a little weak for me so next time I will try 2 tea bags instead of one (when I find more).  I bet it would have been really good with my Apple Crisp.  Maybe next time.  For now, Lipton's Bavarian Wild Berry suits just fine.

This isn't the worst baking mistake I've made but it was today's mistake.  So, I'm curious.  What kind of baking mistakes have you made?  You can share it by leaving a comment below - or you can just comment about my mistake if you want.

Thanks for laughing with me today.  

My New Space

In my last blog, I told you about my need for a workspace.  Remember that great idea that I promised I would reveal today?  Here it is . . . .

My Idea 

At my hubby's farm there is this barn (well, actually an old chicken coop) that is now used for storage.    

I thought it would be really great if I could use a section of the building for my stuff and create a workspace as well.  This would give me shelter from the weather and the stuff would be out of my way and I have plenty of space to work.  That's my philosophy anyway.

Popping the Question

On Saturday I had been out to yard sales and was able to snatch up an old bed with an old bed spring, a porta-crib, and an old cot kind of thing with springs (see a theme?).  There was no way these were going in my house or garage, so I called my man and asked if I could put these babies in that building.  We had already stored the old windows and doors from our cabin in here so I figured these could fit beside them.  He agreed, but not without a sigh (remember - he isn't a fan of my junk).

While he is helping me get this stuff in there, I asked him about using some space here for storage and possibly a workshop instead of trying to find a shed for the backyard.  He agreed.  No sigh.  No hesitation.  Just a "sure".  I almost floated to the car.  I was so excited!

Preparations

Now that I have the permission, I have to start the preparation.  This place was moved out of about 30 years ago.  Some of the original feeders and such are still in the building.

  

The ceiling above is simply the 3rd level's tongue and groove wood floor.  There is still sawdust on that floor which seems to seep down through the cracks (even though I can't see them) and get caught on little cobwebs that you wouldn't see if it weren't for the sawdust.  Did you ever see what cobwebs mixed with sawdust looks like when it's hanging from the ceiling?  They were everywhere.  At night it could probably look creepy. That's why I'll stick with going there in the daylight.

Ok.  Moving on.  I chose the back section of the 2nd floor.  It was in need of a good scrub. On Wednesday, I took a broom and swept the ceiling, walls, windows and floor.  I was thinking I wanted to use the entire back section, but there was a rather large hornet flying around the center window.  I decided I would leave him alone and so I cleaned from the left side of that center window and around the corner to the big feed box on the left side.  Well, actually, I cleaned up to the edge of the window that is against that box.  You see, flying around THAT window was a yellow jacket.  I guess you could say I allowed the stinging insects to determine my space.  I definitely wasn't going to invade theirs.  I didn't see any type of nest anywhere so I think they were just hanging out for the afternoon and I'm hoping they are gone when I return.  In the meantime, I think I have enough space to start.    

Here's more of the space.  One of the reasons I chose the second floor is because it has more natural light than the third floor, however, I don't remember it being as bright as the photo below makes it appear.  I think I used my flash that time.  Still, there is more natural light on this floor and natural light is always nice.

These are the stairs and doorway leading to my workspace.  Let me tell you something about me.  I'm a bit of a girly girl.  I very rarely wear sneakers - or flats.  I have two pair of flats and they are flip flops.  The rest of my shoes have at least a 2 inch heel.  I usually have NO problem at all going anywhere in any of my shoes.  Let me tell you something about these steps.  You have to remember that this place was built a very long time ago and it was built for farmers.  Farmers fear nothing (at least that is the case with mine).  Being that I am not, nor ever was, a farm girl, I have a few fears.  Steps with no railing make me nervous.  If you add flip flops or heels to the equation, I am more than a little nervous.  Maybe when I was younger, but now I think I will just get used to wearing sneakers more often.  I'm just glad it isn't a ladder.  

So that is my space.  Soon I will be moving things into the space and hope to start creating again.  I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Next week I hope to show you what I've been doing to a couple of patio chairs.

P.S. - In future posts, my goal is to share the tea I'm enjoying.  I have a mug by me all of the time and thought it would be fun to share it with you.  Today I just steeped the last I had of Pomegranate Delight by Twinings.  It is probably one of my favorite fruit infused teas to date so I should probably purchase another box.  It even smells delicious.  What is your beverage of choice at the moment?

Thanks for visiting with me.

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