Grandma's Visit

Grandma's train was due to drop her off here at 2:13am last Thursday morning, and I was planning on picking her up. As you can imagine, I do not usually get up at that hour, so I didn't sleep very well, worrying about missing the alarm. My apartment is not exactly "visitor ready" at any given time, so I also stayed up a little later than usual trying to fix it up at least a little. When I finally did get to bed, I awakened to the distinct smell of something burning around 1am. After some investigation, it turned out to be my dirty clothes hamper next to the heating register. It has burned a hole clear through it (I about burned my hand clear off finding this out). So, after saving the apartment from burning down I went back to bed only to get up again an hour later. The temperature here is well below zero most nights in the winter, so after starting the car and while waiting for it to warm up, I went online to see if the train was on time.
It wasn't. They expected it to arrive two hours later, at 4:15am. Me being the considerate wife that I am, I decided to just sleep on the couch for the next few hours so that my husband wouldn't be bothered (after going BACK out in the cold to turn the car off).

It wasn't long enough before 4am came, and I went back out to start the car, and back inside to keep from hypothermia. I then made it to the train station (which, I might add, is in the middle of where ALL the registered sex offenders live) relatively on time at 4:20. 4:45 rolled around, and still no train so I decided to call Grandma's cell phone on the off chance that it was early and she was inside the train depot waiting for me while I was outside of the train depot waiting for her. No luck. The train was still not there yet. In the whole 30 seconds that I was on the phone with Grandma, Josh (the husband) apparently called three times with no answer, and by the time I got off the phone with Grandma and called him back, he was dressed and ready to come find me. Oops, I guess I could have left a note or something.

Well, the train came just before 5am and some dummy in the train put all of his baggage in front of the train door (which opens to the inside) and it took everyone quite awhile to find him, move the bags, and get the door open. When Grandma finally emerged from the train she went to get her checked baggage. Now, it doesn't take much, but BOTH of her two checked bags were BIGGER THAN HER, and probably weighed MORE THAN ME!! Do you want to guess who had to lugg them things into the back of the car? I could only fit one in the whole trunk, and it isn't real easy to get one of them things into the back seat of my 2-door car either!! I thought I was going to die. But we made it home, and I did get the bags back out of the car and into the apartment, and we both hit the sack.

My body does NOT let me sleep in, so I was up again a few short hours later. I made breakfast, and then Grandma and I spent the majority of the day making and frosting sugar cookies. It was really fun, and even worth the night before. Here are a few pics of the cookie making.

Divinity

The last time that I made divinity (a few years ago) I brought some to my in-laws’ house and, as I recall, my father-in-law really liked it. This year the in-laws will be coming to our little apartment for Christmas, so I thought I would make him some divinity. I know, it is not the easiest Christmas candy to make, but my mother and I made it almost every year while I was still living at home. I found a good recipe, read the reviews and all the hints, and set out on my first divinity adventure all on my own.

I dragged the dehumidifier out into the middle of the kitchen, turned on the celling fan (after dusting it thoroughly), set EVERYTHING out that I would need, and had all the bases covered. I even had both my phones close so that I could call mom at any sign of trouble (I did call her about 8 times). So, things were going well. The egg whites weren’t too difficult, except that my mixer bowl is broken, so I just used the largest glass mixing bowl that I had and then used a spatula to get the edges that the mixer couldn’t reach. I should also mention that the bowl is a little unstable on the mixer’s base.

I don’t have a candy thermometer, but we never used one back home, so I thought I could handle the hard ball test (I called my mom every time I dropped any into the water). When it FINALLY passed the test I started to pour it into the bowl with the egg whites. The mixer was on, I had one hand on the pan pouring, one hand with a spatula making sure that the mixer wasn’t missing anything, and I was balancing the bowl on the mixer with my tummy (yes, it’s big enough). Half way through that procedure, I realized that my largest glass bowl is too small, so I tossed aside the pan (half full of HOT sugar), grabbed my big blue (plastic) popcorn bowl, and attempted to quickly get everything into that. After I got all of both mixtures into the big blue bowl, it occurred to me that I just finished pouring a 270 degree sugar mixture into a PLASTIC popcorn bowl. Plastic doesn’t give off any toxic fumes when it is melting, does it?!

At this point, you are supposed to beat until the divinity “holds its shape”. I mixed and mixed and mixed, and the mixer started smelling a little hot, so I tried to plop a little down on the wax paper. The divinity was still flat like a pancake, so I called mom (about the 10th time by now) but she forgot her phone and was down at the church. So I called the church. I am not sure who answered, but I told them I needed my mom cause I was having a cooking emergency! In the mean time, mom went back home for the phone, and called. She said to keep beating, so I did. It didn’t get much thicker, but I trusted my mom, so I kept beating. That is, until that “hot” smell turned into smoke- that is when I decided it was done.

I am all about not waisting anything, so I still plopped all of it out on wax paper. It looks like I have a bunch of ranch dressing poured out in little one serving patches all over my counter. Maybe I should add some carrots and broccoli; it would at least look purposeful that way.

They do taste good!