Regrets?

I recently heard a saying... on TV... . I have thought about it a lot over the last few days...

I’d rather regret the things I’ve done,

than the things I haven’t done.

Do you have any regrets...

I thought about what I might have done in the past that I would regret... and you know, I can't think of anything that I have done, that I regret... If you have a "things happen for a reason" attitude.. you usually don't have many regrets.

But do I regret things I haven't done... well, that one is a little more thought provoking. How about you?

Crater Cake

What do you do with your rotting bananas? As I have explained before (and now I am thinking I have an obsession with rotting bananas) I have compiled a couple of absolute family favorite recipes to use up those "toooo brown" bananas in the house. Our families' absolute favorite recipe is for these banana muffins that I have made for 18 years. I tried a million banana muffin and banana bread recipes and when I found this one.... I stopped looking. These were perfection.

The second treasured recipe for using up bananas is called Crater Cake.

Not much to look at, really. Many years ago, a dear old friend brought along this cake for a potluck. When we all went nuts over it, she said.. "well, geesh, you gave me the recipe book that it had the recipe!" How funny was that... and that was the start of our Crater Cake obsession.

I think the reason for the name is that once you take this cake out of the over, it sort of sinks down a bit in irregular patterns... and the inside is moist and filled with chocolate and cinnamon... The picture above shows the furthest cake has been out of the oven for 30 minutes and the closest once is still quite puffy.. as it just came out of the oven.

Crater Cake

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs beaten

3 ripe Bananas

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

3 cups flour

1 cup sour cream

1.5 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup Brown sugar

Cream together butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs and beat until smooth. Add vanilla and mashed bananas. Mix until smooth. Mix together flour, baking powder and soda. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture alternating with the sour cream. Ending with dry ingredients, (Chantal, that means you add some flour, then half the sour cream, then more flour, then the other half of the sour cream and then end with the rest of the flour-you wanted specific instructions)

Pour half the batter in your 9 x 13 pan (Chantal, you can use your lasagna pan). Combine the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle half of this mixture over the batter. Top that with half of the chocolate chips. Then spoon the rest of the cake batter using a big spoon, putting dollops of batter evenly over the chocolate chips. Then spread the batter smooth, sprinkle with the rest of the cinnamon/sugar mixture and then sprinkle with chocolate chips. I never measure the chocolate chips.. I put on what I think looks like enough.

Bake in a 350 oven for 45 to 50 minutes. (my oven takes 50 minutes). Let cool for at least an hour. (good luck with that, its a painful wait) It gets lumpy and shallow sink holes...

Greenwood Closing 2010

What a weekend. As always, the Greenwood Ladies Closing was a great event. I have blogged this event a couple of times over the past few years... here is 2007 when our theme was Countries and here is 2008 when our theme was Holidays.

This year our theme was the RED CARPET which was the Oscars. Debbie and I were organizers this year which involved creating posters, correspondence with teams, buying the prizes and organizing the draws for a couple of months before this weekend. The weekend itself was pretty hectic as organizers but pretty fun just the same. Our entire club works very hard to put on a great event each year. Our regular Ladies League of 7 teams (28 ladies) prepare all winter for this event. Each team is responsible for

a different aspect of the weekend... Decorating, making up gift baskets to sell tickets on, selling 50/50 tickets. There is a Meet and Greet on Friday night with finger foods that we for and put together.

Another lunch for the Sunday curlers that needs to be organized. The dinner is organized by another couple of teams....

Our league may be small but we are a great group of ladies who are all truly friends. We work well together and we take pride in this bonspiel every year. I would recommend that if you like to curl and like to party.. you should mark the date on your calendar for next year... April 8, 2011... and our theme for next year will be the 1970's .......

This year though, our bonspiel had 18 teams and just about every team dressed up in some sort of costume for our Saturday night

Dinner.

Our dinner and dance has become the Highlight

of the weekend with the actually curling coming in second!

Some pictures of the night

The reporters for the evening. They stood by the door and greeted every one of the teams and it was hilarious to actually arrive at the dinner... with red carpet and reporters.... Mary got some fabulous pictures..

Some of the VIP's (as they called themselves) were hilarious.

They were seat fillers for the Oscars, you know those "special" guests who make the audience look lively!

We had our "home viewers" arrive with their pajamas on, their popcorn and their TV for watching the Oscars at home!

A brand new team from New Glasgow, really came prepared to party with their flapper dresses and they brought their own reporter as well.

As you can probably guess, our team arrived as Marilyn's and what a blast we had. Thanks to Lola and Cheryl, great friends of our team, who traveled to the city to get our wigs and accessories, who also created our "dresses" from a bed sheet.... Lola and Cheryl came as "our" paparazzi! (Lola also kept us looking "good" all evening.) I seemed to have a problem keeping my red lipstick in tack. Could be that I kissed just about every thing I saw, from the door prize gift bags to our sexy waiters for the evening!

We had such great costumes, but I think the fact that there were 5 of us all the same, gave us the nerve and a "grander" entrance as well!

There were a few Marilyns

Some royalty arrived, as well, along with her own body guards!

... and even more bodyguards.... with glamorous movie stars...

The work crew was there and they were all named "Bubba!". They announced they were there to hammer anything we needed hammered! They were deadly with the hammers they had! I believe I kissed a few of those hammers... More Lipstick Lola!!!!

Speaking of hammers.... our two lovely bartenders.. Bonnie and Phylis who helped with the "hammer" situation for the evening!

And of course.. we did SOME curling over the weekend.... everyone was guaranteed 3 games but we curled 5 and some curled 6... depending on what game you lost, and how many you won after that!

A great time.. for sure. If you are at all interested in the sport of Curling, please make sure you come to our club in the fall. Not only is it great exercise, but the people are so wonderful. You will truly enjoy your Tuesday night Ladies Curling!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Greenwood Ladies Curling Closing Bonspiel.... need I say more. I will... just not today!

Good Easter Hunting

So this was the year... the first Easter in 21 years that we wouldn't have a hunt. I had been threatening a "no more hunting" Easter for the last 7 years. You know.... the kids were too old for this stuff.. and frankly... so was I. But then... well, when Michelle got her drivers licence, we figured .... how fun would it be to have a "driving" Road Rally Easter Hunt... and then, well, GPS technology came into being.. and we had to have one or two, or was it three of those kinds of hunts... with cars, and on foot... and then Sean came for Easter for the first time.. and we had to have a hunt with Sean, and then last year.. well, it was the last Easter that Stephanie was going to be home for a while... soooo ............... this Easter... no hunting.

Michelle told me that she didn't want any chocolate.... she works in Chocolate and sweetness every day.. and Scott felt the same (sort of). They didn't want little foolish gifts either. Easter Morning together as a family was all they wanted. So.. I was game for this.

But then something fun happened. Sort of a transition.... we had company for Easter. My sister in law, Kim and her youngest Caleigh spent the weekend with us. Last year, during March Break, Caleigh helped me come up with the clues for the Hunt we had last year. How could I let this Easter go by without planning a hunt for her. Michelle and Scott, who are new to the "planning stage" as well as Kim, who is new to our kind of "Easter Hunt" all assisted in this special morning.

A pair of bunny ears, and one lonely little note was all that met Caleigh on Easter Morning. She had to wait until everyone had gotten up and was sitting contently on the couch with coffees in hand before she could open the note.

The note explained that she had to solve the clues to find the eggs. In each egg was a puzzle piece, a clue to the next egg's location. Also, with the egg, was a gift.. for someone else. Clues included "wear clothes go to get toasty warm"....

Yup. the dryer. Lame, I know.. but its not as easy as one would think to come up with clues!

In the dryer, hides a gift for Michelle... a Birdfeeder, just so you know.

After 6 eggs, 6 gifts and 6 puzzle pieces.... Caliegh had to put together the puzzle which had a X marking the spot as to where the last treasure (her Easter Gift) might be!

Hum... outside, me thinks... and off she goes, with slippers, bunny ears and pajamas on, she head out to where X marks the spot!

Can you see the treasure?

A fun little basket of goodies which included some sweets, socks, and a beautiful spinner ring (not exactly like this one but it explains what it is)

It was so fun to plan a Easter Hunt for someone who has never had one, and even better still, to have Michelle and Kim to help me plan it.

It was our first Easter without Stephanie at home with us but with skype, it was fun to spend an evening chatting with her and visiting with her new cat Atticus... Also it was our first Easter with Lucy. She even got a little treat from the Easter Bunny.

As always, Easter is a lot about the food, and this year, Scott made the ham and I made the potato and veggie. Scott tried his mom's recipe and I must say, it was tender, sweet and not salty.... I loved it! Thanks Scottie

yum....

Build it and they will come!

Build it..and they will come....

This is a famous quote from one of my favorite movies~Field of Dreams~

There is some truth to this quote actually. Last year when Michelle and Scott acquired two little kittens, we gave up our cat scratching post that we had for about 20 years constructed of a 4x4 and a small pic of plywood on top... some old carpet... it served all our cats for the past 20 years. We were down to one cat and Pika hardly paid the thing any attention... so why not give it to a needier family.

Since then, we have gained two more cats.. and they seem to "need" something to flex those nastily long claws on. (don't faint at that statement, Sandra) I have hounded Terry for a couple of months that we need to build a cat scratching post of them... something simple...

Terry got totally into searching the web for some designs and finally a couple of weeks ago, he decided on a pattern, ordered it from a company in Australia that sent it via email! He searched the garage for scraps and one Saturday morning, as I cleaned the house, he build the basis for a carpeted heaven!

It just so happened that a couple of weeks ago, my friend Debbie

got hardwood floor in and all her carpet was removed from the downstairs. She had a nice size piece to donate to our cause and we acquired another chunk from a place in Middleton.

From the minute the stand came in from the garage for the carpet installation, we couldn't keep the cats off of it.

Cutting carpet to fit, folding over corners and edges, using blades and staple guns was no deterent for the cats. It went together pretty quickly and finding a place to put such a big piece of cat furniture is the biggest challenge.

Pika loved the peekaboo hole, and Paralax wouldn't even leave during the staple gunning. Imagine!

Now that its all built, and tucked away in a new spot, they have all taken turns on it and these pictures we snapped are rarities... they don't usually all sit on it at the same time. The norm is Tonks... she perches on it all the time...