Just for fun

31 January 2005

Life is just a bowl of JELLO

The last week or two have been pretty difficult around here. Sickness did its spin around the house, so far with only Nathanael escaping. We had the thought that if we could teach him to do the cooking, cleaning, phoning, paperwork and all the other things that need to be done, that we’d be all set! But we decided to let him be a kid for a while.

Even today I’m trying to do some work in short bursts, because I’m having trouble sitting up for too long a period of time. Hannah seems to be more or less better, and Shari is getting there.

We’ve been very busy with ministry related things, and also have had some challenges with the children – I’ll leave it at that rather than taking 12 pages to explain! But I will tell you about one of the more dramatic yet less serious mini-disasters from the last few days.

On Friday, Shari and I were both not feeling well. We ended up having a busy day anyway, and by the evening we were both very tired. I decided I was going to get Hannah to bed early so that we could all get to bed early. I thought I would motivate Hannah to get ready quickly by making a simple JELLO recipe with her. She likes to cook.

Everything was going great. We were right on schedule, until we got to the Tupperware JELLO mold. I had forgotten that this particular recipe used Coca-Cola. Did I get all the fizz out of the Coke before I put it in a sealed Tupperware JELLO mold, you ask? Well…er…in my weakened condition it wasn’t until the next day that I actually made the connection.

I wouldn’t say it was an explosion. Basically, the bottom fell out of the JELLO mold. Yes, it would be an exaggeration to say that purple JELLO was everywhere. But it was under the sink, on the kitchen floor, on the hall carpet, on my pants, sweater, socks and shirt, on the stove and fridge, in the fridge, on the counter, on food cannisters, on cupboards, and under appliances.

So my late evening was spent scrubbing out clothes (thank you, Shout), mopping several times (it’s still a little sticky down there), scrubbing various things in the kitchen, and cleaning our carpet (pour club soda on the stains – it works wonders. This is a Queen of Clean tip.) Needless to say, this was not an early night for us!

On another note, the next day we finally made the JELLO. It turned out very well, after we learned not to seal it in a JELLO mold. If you want to try it, check out the recipe I’ve included in the extended text…

28 January 2005

How many states have you been to in the USA?

Jim Computers and internet, Just for fun 0

Just for fun, we thought we’d try this cute little map that shows what states we’ve visited in the USA. Sad to say, we’re having trouble actually remembering all the states we’ve been to, so if you notice a place that we’ve missed, let us know! Check out the links under the map if you’d like to put this map on your site.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

So how many states in the USA have you visited? We were in ten of them this fall alone – wow.

13 January 2005

Coke’s new twist

Jim Food, Just for fun, News and current issues 0

Two things that are popular in Mexico -> Coca-cola, and limes. Yes, you guessed it, Coke will soon be putting the two together. Yes, they already have diet Coke with lime, but this is the non-diet version. Not being a fan of diet pop I have not tried the diet version. I wonder if it will be popular in Mexico. What do you think? Would you like to try it? Sounds good to me. We liked that Sprite Ice that they had a while ago. Can anyone still buy it? We haven’t seen it around here for some time.

Be sure to take our website poll, and why not check out Coke’s Mexico website? It has some cool screensavers…if you can find them! 😉

29 September 2004

Canada from the highway

Jim Just for fun 0

You get an interesting perspective seeing central Canada from the highway. We started across the prairies – some of the warmest areas of the country, and the driest. Big skies, golden grain, acres of sunflowers. Then you enter Manitoba. All of a sudden, it was moist. Good for the skin, and good for the bugs. They get bigger and badder. But the land is green, and trees line the highway.

Then you enter Ontario, and everything slows down. The speed limit was 110km/hr across the prairies, 100km/hr through MB, and 90km/hr (if your lucky) in northern ON. And it also cools down, although it was still about 21C (70F) in Thunder Bay. The roads become windy, and it’s now lakes, rocks and trees. Check out our photo gallery for a picture or two of our stop by the massive lake, Superior.

But we’ve really spent our first days in Ontario baffled by the traffic practices. Now you have to understand, we’ve both lived in Ontario, so you’d think the traffic laws would be second nature. But first, we stop at a stop light, and it’s red with a green arrow. Not a turning arrow, as you commonly see in many parts of the country, but an arrow directing us to go forward during the red light. Which light do we obey?!

And since it’s still the season for construction, we’ve passed quite a few workers on the road, in town and out. You know how they have some poor girl or guy who holds a sign with “slow” on one side and “stop” on the other? Well, about 75% of the time, they hold up the “stop” sign and tell us to go. They hold up the “stop” sign and tell us to go. Do they do this in other provinces? Is this an intelligence test? Is it a trick question? Anyway, we obeyed the person and not the sign. If we hadn’t, we’d still be somewhere close to the MB/ON border at our first construction zone. 😯

7 September 2004

Roast Beef Recipe

Jim Food, Just for fun 0

We had some roast beef the other day. We probably don’t cook it enough, it can be an easy and inexpensive meal if you do it right. Anyway, we tried a variation on a common recipe – if you haven’t had roast beef for a while either, why not try it?

We used a slow cooker, but you should be able to use waterless cookware or a roaster. First we seared the meat in the waterless cookware, then placed it in the crockpot.

We then mixed up the following ingredients: 1 can low fat mushroom soup, 1 can Coke, 1/2 envelope of onion soup mix, and some salt and pepper. Wisk all that together, pour it on top of the roast, and let it cook.

If you’re using a slow cooker, add some potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms during the last hour of cooking. If you’re using waterless cookware, put them in a few minutes into cooking (assuming the roast takes about 45 minutes). Then take it all out and eat it.

There you go!

31 March 2004