This and That

I've been feeling a little bored again lately.
And boring.
I think it's the empty nest. As much as I love having a house that stays clean and the luxury of not HAVING to be busy if I choose not to be, I miss my peeps.

In a couple of months we will have a full house again. Mum is coming for four months, starting in the middle of April. Then Annie arrives for a month, Charlie for probably three weeks of leave, and Edwin will also be here for a week. So for at least a month I can cook and entertain to my heart's content. I will hug Charlie to death, put Edwin to work (he's such a handy soul), make smoothies for Annie, and try to fatten Mum up. Then, by the time Mum leaves in August, I will appreciate my empty house once again. Variety is definitely the spice of my life.
So here are a couple of things I've been doing to relieve the boredom this week.

I know I promised a fascinating idea for Valentines Day, but it was a bit of a bust. I found this website, where you can upload photos, set them to music, and make your own video. It seemed like a fantastic idea. You can make a 30 second video for free, so I made one and tried to embed it here, but I couldn't get the embedding to work. However, the process seems sound, and you can make full-length videos for only $3, so I may try it out again at a later date.

Yesterday, Jeff and I went to the Yard, Garden and Patio Show at the Convention Center in Portland. A friend gave me tickets, so it was a bargain. Only $6 for parking. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours wandering the aisles, wondering at times what some of the booths had to do with the subject of the show. Socks? Really? Trivets? Dip mixes? I suppose you can do almost anything on a patio that you can do inside the house, but some of the connections were tenuous at best.
I found some lovely glass necklaces (see preceding thought) and Jeff was happy to let me get one for Valentines Day. Yeah, like he had any choice, right? But he is always gracious about my purchases, he says it's my reward for sticking with him all these years. And this lovely, um, thing, for holding flowers. Maybe my arrangements will finally look like ikebana. Right.

If you want to see some truly beautiful ikebana arrangements, go here. And yes, my daffodils are blooming. Spring is almost here.

Friday night, I got together with a few friends and we canned chicken. It's a surprisingly easy process, although I am quite fearful of pressure cookers. Go see Kellene's instructions if you want to give it a try. I love this woman more and more.
Six little jars of chicken breasts.

Today, I tried cjane's recipe for a crock-pot chocolate cake. It's very similar to my favourite recipe, it just uses a little more liquid. I've never tried baking a cake in a crock pot, but it worked wonderfully. I used a Triple Chocolate Fudge mix and added dark Dove promises. I think the Promises were a little too bitter after being cooked, so I will use milk chocolate next time.
Here's the recipe:

1 box of cake mix
1 c sour cream
1 c chocolate chips (or other chocolate treats)
4 eggs
1 small chocolate instant pudding mix
1/2 c oil
1 c water

Mix by hand.

Spray crock pot with non-stick spray, put batter in the pot.

Cover, cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or high for 3 to 4 hours.

Eat hot with vanilla ice cream.

We took it over to Jon and Jenny's place.
Jeff loved his.
Thomy said, "I don't like chocolate cake."
Sigh.