This recipe came from my good friend, Bettina. She makes this stuff all the time, and well, it's delicious. Nothing fancy, just delicious.
Easy Toffee Bars
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
1 pkg saltine crackers (I've used ritz in a pinch and they are even better!)
1 cup salted butter
1 cup brown sugar
12 oz chocolate chips (I used a half bag of white choc. chips and nutella today, since I didn't have choc. chips)
Spread tinfoil on a cookie sheet. Layer crackers side by side on cookie sheet.
Melt butter over low heat and then add brown sugar. Bring to full boil, stirring constantly until mixture is thick and resembles caramel (approx. 1-2 minutes).
Immediately remove from heat and pour over saltines. Spread to cover all crackers.
Bake at 400 for 4-5 mins (It gets all bubbly)
Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips. Wait a few minutes and then spread evenly over crackers.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Peel off tinfoil and break into pieces.
Show us your good luck charm.
Every year after the all of the fruit from the trees has been devoured they, the ants, move indoors. To my kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom sink - they must be thirsty?
I always place Grant's Kills Ants around, but they don't care. No matter how clean the house, I would either wake up to or come home to find a nasty thick black line of ants munching something overlooked on the floor, like a piece of kibble the cat dropped, then have to get the can of Ant Spray out, then have to clean the dead ants and ant spray off of floor so the cats wouldn't get sick from the poison.
I saw a documentary not too long ago about these ants in the jungle and how the villagers looked forward to them coming every year because they'd take away some material that attracted some other bigger badder something or something like that.
I know there isn't ANY food in my bedroom so I wondered what the ants were eating and was about to get the spray out and do some damage and then I recalled that documentary and realized they are probably eating dead spiders and bugs hidden in the dust bunnies under my bed and dusty corners of my closet and all-what-not, so this year I decided to let them have at it and clean the house for me this time around.
That was about 3 days ago and now all of the ants are all almost gone, I've only seen a few so far today.
But the other night there was a grain of rice on the counter and you should have seen this group of little ants all working together to move it. It was a pretty damn freaky sight, I was afraid they'd grow and mutate in the night and carry me away so I took the rice grain away from them. Letting them eat is one thing, but feeding them is another - I can't have them get too strong...
I guess the countdown is on. Donna has a quote on her whiteboard that says "I'm gonna be ready for Halloween this year" or something like that. It's a direct quote from me. I said that sometime in, oh, April? Looks like it's almost time.
I just got this in my email:
We kept the snake locked up in an aquarium last night. I just wasn't comfortable with just letting him go. Just letting him go meant he was in my yard somewhere. I like snakes much better when I know exactly where they are, like the zoo. I was afraid if I let him go, he'd sneak up on me or eat one of my chipmunks.
This morning, Steve picked him up and put him in a smaller cage. He took him to work and released him by the water. Yes, he drove over an hour with only a thin sheet of plastic between him and the snake. What if it had gotten loose in the car? He's brave. That's why I love him. Now the snake is over an hour from my backyard. That makes me happy.
Get a free Ph.D. in Horribleness to print from the link at the bottom of the starsprinkles.net page.
Am I the only one who's annoyed that Obama and McCain won't just announce their VP candidates already? I heard this morning that Obama hasn't even made up his own mind yet, but I don't believe it for a second. I think they've both known for a long time who they're going to take, and that the potential VP has known it for weeks too. The one entertaining part of this whole thing, though, that they're both playing the media like a harp.
I wonder if any of these guys who are swearing up & down that they're not in the running and wouldn't say yes even if they were asked will miraculously turn up as the VP candidate. "What, me? Oh, I'm flattered! How could I say no?" Liars.
I don't know enough about the lesser-known players within the Democratic Party to talk much about them. But I can't imagine Obama would pick Hillary as his running mate. And if he did, I couldn't imagine that Hillary would say yes. She played second fiddle to Bill for 8 years; I think at this point she wants it all or nothing at all. I've heard some scuttlebutt that she might try to plan a coup at the DNC next week; that would be hilarious. Hilarious for me because I'm a Republican.
On the Republican side, I think Condoleezza Rice would be an ideal choice. She's a good conservative and would appeal to those voters who are/were into Obama and Clinton based strictly on the fact that they're black/female. Rice is both (obviously, LOL), although she is tied to the current administration pretty tightly so that strategy could backfire. No matter, she says she's done with politics after this. Romney is another name that keeps coming up, but I don't see it happening. For one thing, it was widely reported during the primaries that he & McCain don't get along, and how do you have a VP that you don't even like? Romney would provide economic creds, though, and he might appeal to the religious right (even though he's a Mormon...from what I know of Mormonism, they're socially pretty conservative). But still, I'd be surprised if Romney was it.
So speaking realistically, I like Tim Pawlenty and it seems as though he might be McCain's guy. I've seen him interviewed a couple of times now and he has never done that "I'm not in the running" song and dance. When Sean Hannity talked to him a few weeks ago, he just flat-out refused to discuss the VP race. So while that isn't being too coy, I respect it a whole heck of a lot more than the out & out lying. Pawlenty is a little more to the center than I am on some issues, but he's pro-life and supports education and economic growth. On the state website, he's listed as an Evangelical Christian. I have never heard him talk about his faith so I have no reason to disbelieve this, but then again I don't know how devout he is. But that label would help him appeal to the religious right who seems to be anti-McCain.
Either way, I voted for Pawlenty twice as governor of Minnesota and I'd vote for him again as VP.
What is the one word that perfectly describes your day today?
submitted by [this is connie]
Is "Beachtaculous" a word? We're going to the coast for a few days, for J to take a break from work and for me to chase little shorebirds across the sand.
Actually I'll just be looking at some tidal flats and salt marshes to figure out a method of researching birds out there without getting eaten by the salt monster that lives at the beach. Or something like that.
I'll be online, though. Pictures soon!
When we redid the kitchen, we put in a tract lighting system. It is pretty cool, well, fiery hot actually - it has seven 50 watt halogen bulbs that you can aim at various work centers in the kitchen. So the stove, sink, fridge and coffee pot all get special attention - like they are in the big show. That's fine until one of them burns out. I'd say we've been through roughly 15 bulbs since last August. 15 at 3 per pack and $14 per pack works out to $70. Another two packs and we will surpass the price of the tract system. I assume that the company that manufactures the fixture ALSO owns stock in the company that makes the bulbs. (If you own a Wii, this is exactly the same synergistic relationship that Nintento has with Eveready.)
I'm still surprised, as I probably should not be at this point, with the number of bulbs we go through and the timing of them burning out. If the light pointing at the sink burns out, I replace it and within a day, the light pointing at the coffee pot goes out. If the light in the living room ceiling fan burns out, I replace it and then the one next to it goes out. Now it doesn't happen all the time - I'm not walking from room to room with my ladder and waiting. It only seems like that. I've switched to the new compact florescent bulbs where possible and they promise 11 years between changes. Ahh - 11 years. I can be blogging or something during all that free time that I'll have - but wait! I put two into the fixture in the living room and within a week, one of them was out. Dang - maybe it was a dud. At closer look, however, I found out it was the fixture itself that had failed. The bulbs will now out live the fixtures.
I had a few strings of those Christmas tree white lights on the bushes in the front yard. Originally, it was a Christmas decoration but then I left them on all year and they looked pretty nice, that is until they started going out. I could have gone through each and every bulb to see which one it was but instead I opted to just throw another complete strand overtop of those. Long story short, when the last one went out I pulled out about 300 feet of old wires from the bushes and I have yet to replace them.
My newest enemy is the photocell switch that is supposed to turn the outside lights on at dusk and off four hours later. I came home for lunch and all the outside lights were on. I can usually tell this because I can hear the electrical meter spinning out of control. I checked the switch and it looks fine - I mean, it looks like a switch, it just doesn't work anymore. I'd turn off the power going to the outside outlet but unfortunately due a twist of fate I used the same outside outlet for the pond pump so I'm going to have to get a new switch.
I think my next investment is a pair of coveralls that says "Maintenance" on the back.
