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    Bah Humbug

    I’m not exactly sure why but I’m having a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. It could be that our Minnesota winter has yet to arrive. We’ve had temps well above freezing and even a thunder storm on Monday. Super strange.

    Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

    Last night and this morning we finally had a little bit of snow…very little. When I stepped outside this morning my first thought was “great…now it’s too cold to snow.”  If your not from around this neck of the woods that last statement doesn’t make a bit of sense. Too cold to snow!! Why yes, yes that is a thing that happens. I was right…the flurries didn’t start until it actually warmed up a little bit and didn’t last anytime at all. I’m pretty sure we will not be having a white Christmas.

    Since I’m feeling all Bah Humbug I thought it was a good time to share some postcards I made ages ago for a swap. I wish I had taken better or more high quality scans of these so long ago before passing them along.

    Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

    Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

    Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

    Bah Humbug | Halle's Hobbies

    These were really fun. Perhaps this will get my snarky muse into gear as long as my regular one is either pouting under the Christmas tree or hibernating.

    **** Merry Christmas ****

    in case I don’t get another post up before then!!

  • Around home - Blog - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: lefse edition

    Today for T stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a bit of my Norwegian heritage.

    t tuesday: lefse edition | Halles Hobbies

    LEFSE

    Lefse is made from potatoes, evaporated milk, butter, flour and a touch of sugar and salt.

    It’s a two day process. The first day you boil the potatoes and add everything but the flour. The potatoes then have to sit overnight to cool. I make my mashed potatoes as if I’m going to to be making lefse…that way if there are leftovers and I’m so inclined they are ready to go.

    I use my Kitchen Aid mixer to stir in the flour. That mixer was our very first major purchase as a married couple even though we really couldn’t afford it at the time.  I told Mr. G that I was going to need one to be as good of cook as my mom.  I use it all the time!  We’ve definitely gotten our money’s worth out of that machine.

    t tuesday: lefse edition | Halles Hobbies

    The trick to good lefse is rolling them very thin without using a ton of flour.  Its a balancing act between having the potatoes to wet and sticky and having a dry flavorless lefse.

    t tuesday: lefse edition | Halles Hobbies

    The thin lefse is rolled onto the turning stick (to the right in the photo) then placed on the grill. I got this grill at an auction almost 20 years ago for $7 and it was brand new still in the box! They retail for well over $100.

    The lefse is cooked on each side for 1-2 minutes.

    There is nothing low cal, low carb about this treat. I like just butter on mine before rolling and inhaling eating. Many use butter and sugar, some cinnamon sugar. It’s really a personal preference and usually a family traditional way to serve them.

    Big J drove me to deliver some to a few special Norwegians around here yesterday afternoon. It’s always nice to see those smiling faces when I hand over this decadent treat. Makes the work totally worth it!

    We’ve got freezing drizzle coming down today so I’m likely sticking close to home.

    What are you doing today?

  • Around home - Art - Blog

    T Tuesday: organized edition

    Don’t let that title fool you…I’m not yet organized but am working towards making it a habit.

    IMG_0715

    I’ve seen a lot of talk about bullet journaling lately and am intrigued. Rita @ SoulComfort’s Corner keeps an awesome bullet type journal…so organized. I do like some of the concepts and having it all stay in one place…permanently. In the past I’ve always kept my list on random paper that would get misplaced or recycled before completing the tasks.  I’m only about 10 days into this so far. I did skip this past weekend as we were planning on a very lazy laid back one.

    Mini-me loves to organize. She’s got a lot of her dad in her with that one. But she also has a lot of me. She organizes when the mood strikes…otherwise it generally looks like a tornado swept thru her room. I was the same way at her age…at least with the messy room part.

    organized

    She was inspired to organize our paint drawer. She even weeded out the dried up containers…now there is room for everything! Thanks sweetie!

    Last week for T stands for Tuesday, I posted the beginning of an art journal page that used a scrap of junked up paper.

    t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

    Here’s the completed page….

    junked up journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    I loved these words and am trying my best to heed them.

    junked up journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    This also struck me as funny as I was photographing the page.

    junked up journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    See my name along the edge? I must have used this page to try out my typewriter as well.

    I’m going to try and catch up on things here at home today. I had some training yesterday for my job. And with the lazy laid back we just had, I’m definitely behind around here.

    What are you doing today??