Ham and Potato Soup

I may have done a post on ham and potato soup before. It is what I like to do with my ham leftovers after Christmas. I don't have a recipe for this so wanted to make sure I wrote it down while it was fresh in my mind. By now even the ham and potato soup is almost gone as Michelle and I loved it. Usually I do it in the crock pot but I didn't have time enough for that this time as I wanted it for supper one night so I cooked it in my cast iron pot. I think it was much better this time and will likely give up the crock pot entirely for this recipe.

Leftover ham
Potatoes, peeled and diced
2 tsp. diced garlic
salt and pepper

Put it in the pot with enough water to just cover. Boil until the potatoes are done through, turn the heat down until it is just simmering. Add some butter. I believe I added about a 1/4 cup. Add milk. I really don't know how much milk I added maybe a cup, just enough to turn the soup white. Then thicken the soup with a mixture of water and flour. I usually take a small coffee mug, fill it half and half, then whip it with a fork until all the lumps are out. Slowly pour it into the soup while stirring. Cook a bit longer.

Taste, add more salt and pepper as needed.

Violin Playing Videos

I have now almost reached a year of taking violin lessons. Phil took a few videos while I was practicing today from his phone and I got them uploaded tonight. Merry Christmas everyone. I hope to have better videos next year.

This first one is Rosin, the Beau (Ireland) or Acres of Clams (US)

This one is Ashokan Farewell

The Dust Collectors

We live on a dirt road so everything collects dust. I don't like to dust, very seldom ever have time for it, so it...collects. My kerosene lamp collection sits on the entertainment center in the living room. So far it has been safe there from the cats (though the knick-knacks on the shelf below them...were not); they have not been safe from the dust. So today's job was to dust the entertainment center which meant taking all the lamps down, washing the shades and then washing the bases.
I have to admit though, they are much prettier when they are all shiny though you might not be able to tell from my phone picture (plus it is a dreary raining dark day).

There are seven lamps, a crystal candle holder and one odd oil burner thing up on top, though you can't see the ones in the back and there are actually four more lamps on the shelves below (sorry, someday I will get a new camera).

All of the lamps are usable though the small ones are not exactly major light producing. The larger lamps have often come in handy during power outages though I don't know how much we will need them now that we have a generator but you never know, generators all run out of gas eventually.

Maybe tomorrow I will move on to the dust collectors in the kitchen which happen to be all chickens. I decorated my kitchen with chickens and my sister has never gotten over it. She give me heaps of chicken stuff every year which I have no idea what to do with, consequently there are chicken dust collectors all over the kitchen.

M&M Cookie Day

It is a cookie day for us today. We made the M&M ones. We got lazy and saved the chocolate chip ones for tomorrow. I used to make peanut butter, and oatmeal ones too but since I have to cut back on my sugar and we really don't need all those cookies for three of us this year, I think we will stop at just two kinds. The M&M cookies filled my big cookie jar as it is and I don't know what we will do with the chocolate chip ones if they don't fit in the little jar that I have left (someone will just have to eat more!).

I have next week off. There are actually a couple of trainings that I could go to but since they don't ever have any kind of training that has to do with my job as the membership clerk, I see no reason to go. It feels so nice to have a week off. I always feel like being home is my "normal" and being at work is the "abnormal" for some reason.
My plans are to clean this house some and try to declutter a bit.....but we'll just see. It seems like a week goes by so very fast.

A Wood Burned Gift

I haven't wood burned anything in a really long time but to me it is just like drawing. It is something I never seem to lose the ability to do. So today I wood burned a gift for Phil's mother for Christmas. We didn't want to get her the same jewelry or gift set present that we always get  her and when I saw a little bird feeder in the craft section of the store, I knew I wanted to wood burn it and make it pretty and that would be her gift. I drew the design on it today and sat down to wood burn. It took me about two hours (my hips are so bad, I thought I wasn't going to get back standing straight again afterwards!). I think it turned out rather nice.

And yes, I really hate leaves now :)