Another fun catalog...

Well since we are writing about fun catalogs, check out this ONE.
Be sure to turn your sound up!

And it emerged fully-formed from the Internet!

The wonders of the internet never fail to amaze me.

Perhaps our next family gathering should encourage dress in the style of this website: http://www.pantalaine.com/. We already have the mittens!

Some friends of ours just welcomed a new baby. Don't you think this would be the perfect baby gift?

Best Cake Ever

I made this cake for Bryan for Valentine's Day. It is amazing. I would have taken pictures, but we ate it.

http://www.grist.org/advice/daughter/2009/02/12/index.html

Instead of cocoa powder on top, I just used more frosting, and sprinkled some flaked coconut on top. It is always appropriate to show one's love with chocolate.

Model PRC-12

Jeff and I bought a new percolator on January 27th. A Cuisinart Classic Percolator with "Traditional Stainless Steel Styling", a "Convenient Stay-Cool Base" and "Adapts from 4 cups to 12 cups". I am familiar with percolators since I had a nice percolator in college and we used it throughout the first decade or so of our marriage.

This Percolator, from it's "Stay-Cool" base to it's "Dripless Tapered Spout to its "Lock-Down Safe Cover" is a bunch of junk

No matter what I do, the resulting coffee tastes like warm water. Yes, I have referred to the enclosed Instruction Manual. As recommended, I now buy course grind coffee and increased the amount of coffee I use as outlined in the nice little chart on page 5 of the booklet.

I make 8 cups of coffee in the morning. (Sometimes Jeff and I drink it all, sometimes we don't.) With my drip pot, I used 1/3 cup coffee for the 8 cup mark. With this dumb percolator I started with 8 Tablespoons of ground coffee ( Mild Brew Strength) and have now increased the the recommended "Strong Brew Strength" of 16 T. for 8 cups of coffee. Who would think a coffee pot could take a whole cup of ground coffee and after perking, it would result in colored hot water? With the price of coffee, I might as well drive the 10 miles to South Main Street and buy ready made coffee at the drive-through Jitters stand.

I became so desperate this morning that I emptied the whole pot of just perked coffee into a large pyrex measuring cup and then slowly poured it back through the course ground coffee in the 'dishwasher safe coffee basket". Only slight improvement plus it was messy.

I just emailed Cuisinart. Anxious to hear what they say.

Oh, I should mention; this Cuisinart Percolator cost us $59.99 plus 5% tax.

Cheesy Question

Since the subject is cheese I have a question. What would you all do with some nice caraway gouda? Any ideas?

Hooray for Cheese!

Bryan came across this website this morning. If you had any questions about which delicious Wisconsin cheese to pair with your favorite alcoholic beverage, this site will give you some guidelines: cheesecupid.com
Enjoy!