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Archive for Around the House

How we stay connected……….

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Renee Spindle

As most of you know my husband, aka Travel Man, is away from home quite a bit for his job. He is usually on a plane going somewhere, or traveling home.

Is it hard for us to stay connected and feel close to one another you may ask, why of course it is. But we try not to dwell on that fact. We are fortunate in this electronics age that we have many tools we can use to stay connected, communicate frequently, and try not to feel disconnected with the miles between us.

Our favorite form of travel communication is being able to Skype with each other. Skype is a great way to have a video phone call with your family members near and far. We have even had the opportunity to have a “group” Skype call, thanks to my brother. We got on a group Skype call for my Mom’s birthday, and sang to her. She was left speechless. I love to Skype with my grandson, even though he lives close by just to be able to chat with him via video. it’s always fun. We also Skype with distant relatives, and it’s such a great way to stay in touch.

Travel Man likes to be able to Skype every night or every other night depending on which time zone he is in. It’s always great to be able to see him on Skype, and for him to be able to get a glimpse of home while he’s on the road. For myself, once I’m able to see him I can tell how he’s really doing on the road. All of you wives out there know what I mean. If he’s looking really tired, and telling you things are fine you know he’s having a rough work week. If any of the kids are home they take the opportunity to say hi to their “Tom Dad”, and chat with him for a few minutes. That always helps Travel Man keep the connection with the kids, more than the kids realize. (Until they read this blog post of course.)

And of course we utilize email and text messages. I can Skype from my iPhone. Travel Man can Skype from his Vizio tablet. We are fairly well-connected, but I always like hearing his voice up close and personal on the phone. The good, old fashioned, phone conversations sometime can be fewer and further between than usual or than we would like them to be. But it’s always the best way for us to try to catch up with each other at the end of the day. And I do have to say that all of the various forms of communication are wonderful for both of us, but nothing beats going to the airport to pick up Travel Man. Then of course we come home for a great meal of homemade spaghetti.

If you have a road warrior in your life what’s your favorite way to stay connected?

No comments Posted in Around the House, Family, Travel Man, Travels

Fluffy Lemon Cheesecake – No Baking Required

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Renee Spindle

As I promised you all earlier in the week I wanted to share my cheese cake recipe that I made for my daughter’s birthday bonanza last weekend. Hilary had originally requested a lemon cake with cream cheese frosting. But being the persuasive mother that I am I asked her if she would rather have lemon cheesecake, and she said Yes!

Oh and by the way, I also had two graham cracker crust staring at me from my pantry just calling out to be used. See what I mean about be persuasive.

So the ingredient list looks like this:

1 graham cracker crust – store-bought or from scratch, whichever you prefer.
1 (8oz.) package of cream cheese, softened
½ cup sugar
1 (8oz.) container of Cool whip, thawed
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp lemon zest

Blend the cream cheese, sugar, and lemon juice together until smooth. Fold in the Cool Whip and about 1½ tbsp of the lemon zest, save a smidge for a garnishment. Pour the mixture into the graham cracker crust, and sprinkle the remaining lemon zest on top. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. This is a very light and yummy cheese cake.

A few variations of this recipe- some food for thought so to speak:

You could use lime juice and lime zest.
Leave out the citrus flavorings all together and garnish with fresh fruit – strawberries or kiwi.
Use no flavorings in the cheesecake, and top with a thin layer of sour cream.
This is a great recipe for making individual mini cheese cakes – my niece loves to make these. You can purchase the mini graham cracker crust at your local grocery store.

This a fabulous summertime recipe since there is no oven time required. With spring and then summer just around the corner hang onto this recipe for the warm weather to come.

Happy Friday everyone. Enjoy! P.S. Photo credits to Elaine Zee. Thanks Elaine!

No comments Posted in Around the House, Family, Food, Recipes

I Found my Pizza Dough Recipe

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Hello pizza fans. After our recent birthday party bash I though I would share my pizza dough recipe with all of you. My family loves pizzas, and they especially love it when it’s cooked on the charcoal grill with the Kettle Pizza attachment. If you click-through to this link for the Kettle Pizza attachment you should see a video done by my Travel Man.

After some trial and error the last few weeks I think I have found a recipe for pizza dough that is great. I have been working to find a pizza dough recipe that I can make in my bread maker. Then I will be able to make the pizza dough and freeze it ahead of time. This will give me a pizza dough inventory at a moments notice. The challenge was to find a recipe that had good texture and would freeze well.

So the recipe that I really found that I like goes like this: and remember this is intended for a bread maker.

3/4 c water about 110 degrees
1 tbsp veg. oil
1 tsp lemon juice
2-1/4 c bread flour
1 tbsp dry milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dry yeast

Place the ingredients into your bread maker in the order listed above. Liquids first, then all of the dry ingredients except the yeast make a small little well in the dry ingredients, and add the yeast in this spot. Start your bread maker on the “dough” setting and let it go. My bread maker takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Once the dough was finished I sliced it in half, rubbed with some olive oil and placed into sandwich baggies, and then in the freezer. One batch of this dough makes enough crust for two medium-sized pizzas, thin crust of course! We were cooking our pizza on the stone in the grill so if they were a little misshapen when we rolled them out it was no big deal.

I’m really happy with this recipe. I liked the texture of the dough when it came out of the bread maker. If you have a bread maker and a craving for pizza try this out and enjoy!

No comments Posted in Around the House, Family, Food, Recipes

My Baby Girl is 25

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Renee Spindle

My daughter, Hilary, turned 25 this weekend, and when it’s the birth day of one of your children you somehow always get in reflection mode. I justed wanted to share a little bit about Hilary and her birthday weekend. We had a wonderful grilled pizza dinner Saturday night and a fluffy lemon cheesecake for dessert (recipe on that one later). Plus, Travel Man made it home for one night to celebrate with us. Yay!!

Sunday was Hil’s actual birthday, not the fake one from the celebration the night before, that’s what Evan would call it. So when we got up on Sunday morning we decided to go to Disneyland for a few hours and have some lunch. It was a gorgeous Southern California day. Sunny and about 90 degrees by the time we got to Anaheim.

So, we’re standing in line for the Toy Story Mania ride and Hil’s, Auntie Laura calls to wish her a Happy Birthday. After that, and mind you we are still in line for the ride, we start reminiscing a little more about the day Hil was born. I told Hilary that when we got the hospital bill for her, we were charged for a circumcision (!), and of courses I had to call the hospital and tell them we had a girl. I so clearly remember the billing office person telling me, “Oh my gosh the doctor has her marked down as a boy!”. I still laugh to this day when I tell that story. Hil was cracking up when I told her this one today!! Also I remember Hil’s big sister Naomi and her Aunt Jan sneaking me some homemade Chinese food into the hospital soon after Hil was born, Naomi thought it was so cool to be sneaking the yumminess into me.

When I was on the phone with my sister this afternoon she reminded me about coming into the hospital to see me after Hil was born, and she says to me ,”Yo Adrienne, I can’t believe you done dis!!!”. Such good memories, such a great family. We are so lucky.

No comments Posted in Around the House, Family

A Tooth Fairy Pillow Update

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Evan got to use his tooth fairy pillow for the first time last night. I got a phone call at about 9pm, “Grandma, my Mom just pulled out my tooth”, and I reply, “That’s so cool. You get to use your new pillow tonight!”. Evan says, “Ya, it was really bleeding a lot.” I was so excited for him, and the fact that he called to let me know.

Here’s a cute picture of Evan’s new smile. He tells me, “Grandma, you should see how much of my tongue sticks out now!” Such a ham, such a boy.

The new and improved smile.

When I saw him today I asked him how much money the tooth fairy left him. He said, “One dollar and seven cents.” I asked my daughter about that later this evening, and she said the tooth fairy left him a dollar, and there was seven cents laying in his bed, so he told his Mom it was all from the tooth fairy. Oh to be six years old again!