New house, same decorations. For the most part.

12/14/2011 Nichole 5 Comments

I thought I’d shared a holiday-decorating tour every year since 2007, but I can’t find any posts except the 2007 tour and the 2008 tour. Maybe I’m losing my marbles. Or maybe the grinchternet stole my Christmas pictures. Regardless of what happened to 2009 and 2010 (black hole? alien abduction? government conspiracy?), I am most pleased to invite you inside for a look at this year’s decor. I showed you the tree a few weeks ago. Today, let’s start with a closer look at a few of the ornaments.

My husband’s aunt sent the kids a package last year. In it were a few gourds, some paint and a “sample” that she’d painted herself. This dude was Poppy’s finished product.

On the other side of the tree is one of my favorite ornaments: Space Ghost. He shoots peppermint-flavored laser beams of holiday joy and also peace on Earth.

I mentioned awhile back that I was having a hard time with our mantel, because it isn’t your traditional mantel. It’s three mantels that span the fireplace wall. I love it, but it also vexes me a little bit.

Yep, that’s a faux-fire in the fireplace. It was left by the previous owners. I will probably get rid of it at some point, but for now the kids really like it. To the left of the fireplace is a basket filled with holiday books and a few snowmen to help prop them up. The stockings are from Pottery Barn; I laughed out loud when I pulled the enormous “Mom & Dad” one out of the box.

This is our first Christmas in our house, but I’ve mostly resisted the urge to buy new holiday decorations. I’m holding out for the after-Christmas clearance sales. This green guy is a new addition, though:

He’s a planter and a music box. How could I resist?

We also decorated a little bit in the basement this year. Because we have a basement! And a small artificial tree! It seemed meant to be.

I’m linking this up with The Nesting Place’s tour of homes, which is a good place to check out other people’s Christmas decor. I am very ~~nosy about~~ interesting in the way other people deck out their homes, so I’ll be browsing through lots of posts over the next few days.

Screen time

The Detroit Lions are in the hunt

12/14/2011 Guest User

Butterscotch Sundae’s favorite Michigan-specific sports analyst is back with an updated look at the Detroit Lions! -N

In the past two years, I’ve written a few posts about everyone’s favorite team: the Detroit Lions. The first – “The Detroit Lions are improving, and Perry Mason can prove it” — was in the middle of the 2010 season, when the Lions had just two wins. In it, I said that fans shouldn’t be discouraged by the lack of wins because the statistics painted a picture of a team on the rise. The second – “Perry Mason’s final analysis of the Lions’ season” — was at the end of the 2010 season, when the Lions finished strong with four more wins, one of which was against the soon-to-be world champion Green Bay Packers. In that post, I again summarized the statistics and went so far as to predict that the Lions were on a track that would put them in the 2011 playoffs. The third and most recent post – “The status of the Detroit Lions after the draft” – was, as the title suggests, after the 2011 draft, in which the Lions drafted Nick Fairley, Titus Young and Mikel Leshoure in the first three rounds. After such a strong draft, I guaranteed that the Lions would make the 2011 playoffs.

So, how are they doing? Before we look at the record, let’s look at the stats comparing this squad to the squads from the last three seasons. Note that I’ve pro-rated the 2011 statistics to date to 16 games for an apples-to-apples comparison:

Of the eight above statistical categories, which I’ve identified in past posts as the key stats to winning football games, the 2008 squad was better than its opponents at zero of them. And that led to zero victories. The 2009 squad was better than its opponents at exactly one category, which led to two wins. The 2010 squad was better than its opponents in four categories, and it had 6 wins. Your 2011 Detroit Lions are on pace to win seven — 7! — of the eight statistical keys to winning football games. The one stat category they aren’t leading is rushing yards, which isn’t surprising given that they’ve played the majority of the season without the two running backs they expected to carry the load, both of whom were lost to season-ending injuries.

The statistical domination has translated to wins. As of today, the Lions have eight wins and three games left to play. That is as many wins as the 2008, 2009 and 2010 teams combined — and they still have games to play. And what about that playoff prediction-turned-guarantee? The Detroit Lions are currently the sixth seed in the NFC, and they own tie-breakers against the two NFC teams chasing them. With just three games left to play, the Detroit Lions hold in their paws the key to their first playoff appearance since the 1999 season.

The Roar has been Restored.

recipes

How to make the season’s saddest cookie

12/13/2011 Nichole 1 Comment

Cookiemaker — Church windows cookies are fun to make, regardless of the outcome.

One would think that Church Window Cookies would be very, very difficult to mess up. There are only five ingredients in it, after all, and pretty much the only thing you have to do is melt and stir.

And yet.

Let me tell you a few good ways to do it wrong.

First, make sure you don’t buy the right amount of ingredients. Next, pay no attention to that fact. Proceed with the recipe as written, using too much butter for the amount of everything else in the recipe. This will ensure that your cookies do not have the right consistency.

Second, get distracted while the butter and chocolate is melting. It’s best if you can walk away and not notice that the chocolate and butter are burning slightly in the pot. This will ensure that your chocolate is a little gritty and that the pot is just that much tougher to clean.

Third, forget to add the vanilla. Easy to do, as there are a whopping five ingredients to this cookie.

Fortunately, it’s hard for chocolate and marshmallows to taste bad. They can be ugly easily enough, as we have shown today. But they are almost always edible.

Church Window Cookies
1/2 cup butter
16-ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16-ounce package colored miniature marshmallows
2 cups flaked coconut

Melt the butter and chocolate chips in a heavy saucepan over medium heat; mix until smooth and creamy. Remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla and the marshmallows. Scatter about half of the coconut onto a large baking sheet. Form the chocolate mixture into two logs on top of the coconut. Use the remaining coconut to coat the logs. Refrigerate until the logs are firm, about 1 hour. Cut logs into 3/4-inch slices.