Year: 2014

And That, My Children, Is Why We Can’t Go to Space Anymore

/ Shane / Leave a comment

I’m happy to announce that my story “And That, My Children, Is Why We Can’t Go to Space Anymore” is available today at Every Day Fiction!

I really love this story, and I think you will too. It’s very short (despite the title length), but it still manages to explain everything from the truth about the moon landing, to the reason NASA’s budget has been slashed in recent years, to whether or not God keeps kosher.

Give it a read and let me know what you think, either here, or join in the discussion on their site (I promise to obsessively check both comment sections).

Even Quote Monday can’t cheer up librarians

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Evie had a library $0.60 fine for a late book. She handed the dollar to the librarian, and he made her change, handing it back in a closed fist, palm down. Evie, seeing it coming at her and not pausing to think, gave him a fist bump.

“Oh, no hon, he’s got your change,” I said. Evie, realizing her mistake, flushed to her ears. I could see she was embarrassed, but I could not help laughing. I said to the librarian, “I assume you give a fist bump to anyone who pays off their library fine?”

The friendly-as-usual (read: always grumpy) librarian said completely straight-faced: “No.”

Evie: “Did they have movies when you were a kid?”
::Sara and I laughing::
Me: “Yes.”
Evie: “Where they talkies?”

Peach Dutch Baby

/ Shane / 3 Comments

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

Speaking of traditions, we have one around here called Pancake Sunday. As such, we are in constant search of new pancake recipes.

The Journey:

I mean, first off, peaches. Yummy, in-season, late summer peaches; I’m not quite as sure about October peaches. Unless you trust your peach-dealer implicitly, you might want to put this one in your back pocket for a bit (sorry I didn’t get this one out in a more timely fashion!)

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A dutch baby is like making one big, enormous pancake. It’s German in origin, stemming from a corruption of deutsch. You pour everything in a cast-iron skillet and bake it like a cake (now that’s what I call a pancake!). Plus you get to say you’re eating a “dutch baby”, which the kids think is pretty hilarious.

peach skillet

Honestly, the only downside to pancake day is that you have to make all of the pancakes. Standing over a hot stove for an hour, flipping pancake after pancake…a dutch baby, though, just set it and forget it. WAY easier (though there are a lot fewer leftovers).

dutch baby

The Verdict:

This recipe is amazing. I have been intrigued by the idea of dutch babies for a long time, but I’ve tried a few recipes with “meh” results. This one, though…this one is solid gold. Delicious, juicy, golden peach-gold.

peaches

The Recipe:

Recipe from FiveHeartHome.

  • 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon, divided
  • 2 cups peeled, sliced peaches (about 3 peaches)
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Powdered sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. In a medium bowl, blend 2 tablespoons sugar with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Stir in peach slices and toss until evenly coated.
  3. Place butter in a 9 to 10-inch glass pie plate or ovenproof skillet. Place dish in oven for a couple of minutes until butter is melted. Use a potholder to remove dish from oven and swirl to evenly coat bottom with melted butter.
  4. Spread peach slices over butter in an even layer and return to oven to bake for 10 minutes.
  5. While peaches are baking, pour eggs, milk, flour, salt, vanilla, and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a blender. Blend on medium speed for 1 minute. Once peaches have baked, remove dish from oven with a potholder and slowly pour batter over peaches.
  6. Bake for 20 minutes or until pancake is golden brown and puffy. Allow to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack (it will significantly deflate) before dusting with powdered sugar, slicing, and serving warm.

The Yearly Tradition

/ Shane / 1 Comment

That’s right folks, it’s applesauce time again.

a boy and his apple

I love our yearly tradition of making applesauce. I love it before and after making the applesauce. During…well, the loving it part lasts for 364 days of the year, so I can’t complain.

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Everyone enjoys the apple picking part, at least. There’s usually a tractor ride, finding the different varieties, apple eating, and sometimes some kind of crazy contraption for picking the higher-up apples.

picking apples

I was saying to Sara that, when our kids are graduating from high school, the one consistent set of pictures we will have to display is the kids cranking the strainer every year.

Making Applesauce

Last year, we made 43 quarts and 13 pints of applesauce. The mind boggles. Since we still have some left from last year, we didn’t need to go quite so hog wild this year. We made 14 quarts and about 3 more quarts we will make into apple butter. We’re also going to try and make some apple cider vinegar this year as well.

ApplesauceNothing says fall to me like making applesauce. Here’s to a carrying on traditions!

 

Whiffing on a big milestone

/ Shane / Leave a comment

I had been keeping my eye on the fact that I was coming up on my 2,000th post here on the blog. You know how they say to keep your eye on the ball? Okay, so, this is actually my 2,004th post on the blog. Whoops.

In any case, 2000 is a pretty big number considering how short lived most blogs are. On the other hand, it sure feels like I’ve written more than 2000 of these things (you have, you idiot, 2000 and FOUR of them!) WordPress doesn’t appear to have a way to count the total amount of words I’ve published, but if we pick a nice conservative number of 200 words per post (I suspect I’m well above that…I do tend to go on), we’re talking about a minimum of 400,000 words (again, I think that’s low, but that’s not even counting stories I’ve written in that time, papers at work, etc.)

And yet my wife still says she can’t get a word in edgewise.

So here’s to another 2,000 opportunities for me to go on, and on, and on, and on…

 

…and on…

 

…and on…

 

 

…and on…