Day 128: January 2, 2010

Quote of the Day:

Ye flowers that drop, forsaken by the spring,

Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing,

Ye trees that fade, when Autumn heats remove,

Say, is not absence death to those who love?

~Alexander Pope

Another day of cooking, but this time I am really, really frustrated with it. All I did from noon until about 5:30 was chop vegetables for the lasagna, because I love vegetable lasagna. But, having never made lasagna before I figured it would be the best kind to start with... veggies and meat. YUM!  Don't those veggies look delicious? They sure do make for a pretty watery lasagna, though, as I found out the hard way.  I'll be making regular, plain old lasagna from now on. If I'm even brave enough to try again, after it taking this darn long.  The recipe I used as a guide even said to add water and V-8 to the lasagna, which I figured would make it watery and left out. So I ended up having two pans of lasagna that I can freeze, but at the price of 9 hours worth of time.  Since I finally got them cooked and finished at nine.  I don't think that it's worth it to do the veggies, but at least now I know for next time.  Like I said, though, if there IS a next time.

Hey, it's that time of year again, when HGTV is taking entries for their Dream Home giveaway.  This year it's in New Mexico... not that fond of that particular state and its grouchy inhabitants (or so we always run into every time we drive through). But I went ahead and put us in for it anyways.  It's a really nice home, VERY well done, and I could probably handle dealing with grouchy people all day if I had someplace that spectacular to come home to at night. And as long as Ron's there, I can be happy anywhere. So bring it on!  If you want to see the house they are giving away this year, you can go to their website and view all the pictures.  It has a spectacular view from every single side of the house! Wow! Just go to http://www.hgtv.com/dream-home/index.html and check it out... You have to admit, they do these homes in style!

Not a lot got done today, unfortunately. I have a living room full of denim fuzz again from washing that blanket the second time. I'll have to vacuum that up tomorrow. The sad thing is, washing it didnt' help to stretch the fleece out any, so if I can't get it to behave by doing the yarn tacking, it's a lost cause.  At least it'll be nice and cozy still, right? With other blankets under it, of course.  I'm still not impressed with it as far as warmth goes.  It was really hot when I had it on my lap cutting the edges to fray, but I guess it must have been the fact that it was bunched up on me. I'm not sure.  But it's a blanket, and it's one we did not have before. So I won't complain.

Tomorrow I will concentrate on cleaning, and then work on my quilt. No more cooking for me tomorrow, I am all cooked out for a while. I can't stand the thought of chopping another vegetable!  Which is fine, because since I'm getting sick anyways, I may as well rest and try to get over it.  Heaven knows that standing all day in the kitchen was not fun by any means of the word.  Long live comfy mattresses and warm blankets! Going to get to bed now so that I can start all over again in the morning.

This is the veggie-only (no-meat) lasagna I got stuck making when I ran out of meat sauce and didn't feel like thawing and browning more meat.

Here's part of what will be going into the freezer in the morning once it is cooled enough to go in. I don't want to put it in there hot, because I have no clue what would happen but am pretty sure it would end badly.