Happy Advent!

After being taken out last week with horrible colds, we're finally feeling better. We made a very brief trek to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving with the families. (Thank you, families, for putting up with our whirlwind tour.) We were back in Ohio by Friday night. Brian spent a lot of the weekend doing some final prep work for class - he'll be done in 2 weeks or so. And, we put up the Christmas tree.   TA DA:

We also have some news to share that everyone may or may not have heard....

Brian is going to get his Masters in Library Science to become a law librarian. He was just accepted last week into the University of Illinois, which has the #1 library program in the country. He'll be starting one way or another in January, either on campus or online. (If on campus, only for a semester.) We'll have more details soon, when we get a handle on funding and all that jazz.

We'll keep you posted!

Woosh.

There went the weekend. 

A fun time was had by all at our Friday evening festivities. Our friend, Andromeda stayed overnight, and we vegged out all day Saturday. Keesha came over in the evening and we watched a couple movies. Very low key. Brian ended up making the spinach balls on Saturday, because we forgot about the overnight time required in the recipe. They turned out deliciously, and we had a couple requests for the recipe. Good thing I took the picture before they went in the oven. Once they were out, they were gobbled up before I thought to snap a pic.

Bloggity Blog Blog.

This week had no shortage of things to do. Tuesday we did our civic duty and voted. (Note Brian's sticker below.) We proceeded to the Inn to celebrate our friend Beth's election to Village Council. It was a double celebration, since it was also our friend Sue's birthday. 

Wednesday was a late work day - we had our Gift of Education reception. Always a nice event, but still tiring, so it was an early night for me once I got home. Brian picked up friend Chad from the car rental place, so I didn't see Brian much at all.

Thursday was dinner at El Campo with Chad & Jess, since they are both home from their travels. Although, Jess is only home briefly.

Friday - Happy Veterans Day! In addition to thinking about all our military friends and family, we're celebrating the birth of Jess this evening. Lots of cleaning, so we have a presentable place if anyone needs to crash here. And, Brian's making Aunt Judy's famous spinach balls!! 

A parting shot of Brisco, because I'm trying to use the camera more often.

Baker FAIL.

I got home from work and wanted to make something. I couldn't decide what though, so we had a nice dinner. Brian wasn't feeling well, and went to sleep, but I still had the nagging feeling of wanting to make something. After scouring the cupboard, and noting the 2 brown bananas on the counter, I decided on the obvious choice of banana bread. Brian would be pleasantly surprised in the morning, and I would have accomplished something.


Unfortunately, there are too many banana bread recipes. I know the gist, but I wanted to be informed. The cupboards were scoured and now so were the internets. Here's what I went with, a variation from here:

Spiced Rum Banana Bread

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature (I was impatient and melted it.)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup bananas, smashed
• 1/4 cup applesauce (Didn't have, used oil.)
• 1/4 cup spiced rum (Didn't have spiced, used dark rum)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla (I added another 1/2 tsp.)
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (make up for the missing rum spice?)
• 1/2 a nutmeg (make up for the missing rum spice?)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter and flour a bundt pan and set aside.

In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a mixer, cream together butter and both sugars until smooth. Mix in eggs one at a time until incorporated. Take bowl off mixer and stir in the bananas, applesauce, rum, and vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients into the wet being careful not too over mix.

Scrape batter into a prepared bundt pan and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a large plate. 

There's also a glaze, but I'm getting tired. I don't want to dirty anything else; I've got it all crammed in the dishwasher and it's clean at the moment. 

Hmm...I just checked on the bread, and it's not looking so good. Looks too liquidy. Smells good though. Maybe shouldn't have melted that butter and substituted for the applesauce. (For the record, I have successfully made banana bread before, but I'm a little concerned.) Give it 10 more minutes.

Hahahahahaha. Janet FAIL. To top it off, a mosquito just flew in that molten mess and is stuck!! If anyone else tries the recipe, let me know how it's supposed to taste!! (That means you, Mary and Jeff!!) 

What we did today:

Made 3 batches of homemade chex mix!! 

And, we watched Dr. Who, did laundry and Brian prepped for class. Productive, yet relaxing  day all around.

Deletion

I was going to finally just delete the blog today, but I couldn't bring myself to click the button. It was kind of fun to read through all our past stories. So here's the opposite of deletion - an update for all your curious minds. (By all, I mean our one reader.)  


Brian is really enjoying teaching the undergrad students, but he's definitely done in December. His students love him though. One of them actually came up to him this week, and asked what he was teaching next semester, because he had saved 3 credits for Brian. Isn't that nice?!? Although Brian will miss the teaching, I don't think he'll miss the intense prep work. There have been a number of early, early mornings when Brian is finishing up the class for that day. Without fail, whenever he gets up early - they don't even make it through three quarters of the material, and I get an email saying how he could have slept for 2 more hours.


As far as what we've been up to; not much. Brian went with a friend to the heartbreaking WI-OSU game last weekend. At least the fans didn't taunt him. I'm now a straight-up brunette, because I was bored with my dishwater blonde color. We met some Tibetan monks that were visiting ONU, and had lunch with them. That was pretty cool. Our friend Randy visited not long ago, so we had a nice little mini-reunion. Our friends Keesha and Andromeda came up from Columbus that weekend too. We definitely need to get to Columbus more often for visits with everyone there though!