Backtracking to Summer 2009 ~ HAWAII-A-WEEN

This was a fun event

even though we somehow missed the dress-up as a Zombie pre-instructions for attending.

Maybe this summer we can vamp it up

before we head out to Voo-Doo Doughnuts.

There were a handful of vendors....

The Face Painting gals seemed to be doing more business than anyone....you can see why by checking out this inspiring ghoul...

Unfortunately, we didn't make it to this, even with the temptation of Jake the Alligator Man.

Goth Dogs.... for real.

These ladies had some fun clothes that were featured in the fashion show.

Rock and Rolling in the Parking lot of Voo-Doo Doughnuts

Dead Elvis showed up to 'perform' ....

A group of the pin-up girlie's before the fashion show.

How cute do they look?

Ghoul pin-ups

As far as the car show part of this, there were maybe five. So, don't go thinking you're going to a car show. I was disappointed that the Coffin Cruisers didn't have older hearses. As it turned out there were more vintage cars parked outside the gated area.

the end ~

Bacon Cinnamon Rolls

This is a very easy recipe.

So easy, you can't really call it a recipe - but it's good, so why quibble with words, hum?

 We do like bacon....

consider it one of the basic food groups.

You need to fry up about ten pieces of bacon - less if that's all you have on hand. 

All I could find not currently frozen was about 7 pieces.

Don't cook it crisp, it will be in the oven shortly and finish up there.

Open up a can of the big refrigerator Cinnamon Rolls - 5 to a package size.

Unroll the dough and place a couple of slices of bacon on each one and re-roll (that's a word, isn't it?)

Place them in a 9 inch cake or pie pan.

I like to add more cinnamon and other spice or get lazy and just grab the 'pumpkin pie spice'...the scent of these baking in the oven will wake up your family even on the weekend.

It takes about 18 minutes at 375 deg. according to the package directions, which is what I did here.

Of course you need to add the frosting while they are fresh out of the oven so it melts in like, well like melting icing...

Be forwarned this only makes 5 bacon cinnamon rolls and one usually is not enough ....

besides they warm up great for dessert later with ICE CREAM.

Snow Day

We had a surprise snow day here on December the 29th.

I was with my mother and had to get her back to her apartment and was caught in the first part that was bad enough that Brian called and offered to come pick me up...

but I was brave or crazy and pushed on through and made it to my house.

We ended up with a couple of inches of snow here, which doesn't sound like much,

but it was really wet and made the roads more like skating rinks. In less than two miles from my house to Brian's, he saw about ten accidents, some multiple

and others just cars that had slid off the road.

The next day, when these photos were taken, it was warming up enough that by

afternoon most of the snow was already gone...

except for a few melting snowmen.

Everyone on TV the radio seemed to have a snow story to share

with some people stuck in traffic for four hours and more to go less than 20 or 30 miles.

It made me feel lucky to only have had my 30/40 minutes or so to go about five miles and only a very short time of that on the freeway- which was locked up until late into the evening.

I forgot to post this on Christmas and decided it was too good of a
rockin' wheel shot not to share.
hope your holidays were good ~

The Countdown to Holidaze

listen? ...

do you hear that?

the holidays are sneaking up on us

faster than a cat being called out of the room

on yet another secret mission.
( I do think they all wear pagers, we just can't see them )

the only snowmen in sight today are on the tree

no angels this time,
but the house crow seems quite content to watch over the tree ...

Ho, ho, ho .... hope you're nearly ready for the big day ~

Tardy Packard Update

To get at the split hoses, and replace them, this had to come off ...twice.

One more time ...

Always the critic, Joey questioned the whole bother of it all.

We got the car running...for a few blocks. Then limped back after taking off the air cleaner, hitting it with starting fluid multiple times. It would die. More false starts.

finally made it back into the drive way...

Checked the Internet for answers and found that getting a 'new' fuel pump for a 1956 Packard is pretty much impossible, but one kind soul told us to try a Ford model. Well, after ordering and waiting for that, we (using the term loosely here) put the new fuel pump into the Packard.

That worked ....kind of. We managed to drive it all the way down to my house where it now rests. Now we seem to have more problems, possibly have to pull off the gas tank or something less invasive ( I hope).

There is no time line on when this might happen, because the main mechanic AKA Mr. B is off recuperating from surgery that repaired a few things for himself.

Grandpa's 1956 Packard

This is a photo of my Grandfather Burt Nation. He was chief of police for Hermiston, Oregon from 1945 - 1948.

He bought a new beautiful blue and white 1956 Packard Clipper in Yakima, Washington. It's been in the family since then and when my father died, I purchased it from my mother. This lovely classic car has spent he majority of it's life living in garages. It had a few wicked encounters with other cars while my uncle owned it, but still... it mostly sat in his garage and was completely embarrased that it was used to store clothes inside of it. When my uncle died and my father, Bill, the youngest of the Nation children bought it from my aunt, he had the seats reupholstered. Other than that, not much has been updated or changed or even keep in very good repair.

This is the actual mileage...

41,906 miles

Things will change now...

I picked up the car last week from my previous house in Walla Walla to bring it back home to Oregon.

It's hilly in much of West Linn and I live on a street that should be a one-way, because if you meet another car, one of you will have to back up or find a driveway to duck into. So we had to find a flat large parking lot to get the car off the trailer.

As it turned out, getting the car off was the least of the problems. After driving it from one end of this lot to the other, mass quantities of liquid began pouring from under the car....that greenish color that makes you go...Oh, No!...or something more colorful...

After several trips to the auto supply store, added liquids, refreshed carb parts and too many failed attempts at driving it ... some quite frightening involving a steep hill and backing up in busy traffic...

we called AAA.

So, now it rests in Brian's garage and yesterday, I learned how to take off the heater core.

Clipper Valve Cover in a lovely shade of green...



We only have the best of help.

This is Mr. Joey. Although, he had to be chased away because of the danger of draining liquids, he is available for leaving personalize cat prints and clouds of hair on all surfaces.

Heater core. Not the most fun thing to remove. There were screws holding it in place, in places that were impossible to reach...so, we ended up cutting through one of the hoses to get this monster free.

The hose we cut is the (now) short one the right- on the left side of the photo. When the heater core was out, we could see there was a lovely gash in the part of this hose that was behind the core where the fluid was leaking. How you are suppose to actually replace this hose without removing the heater is a mystery.

These aren't my hands ... nor are they small.

The ancient hose clamps were fun to deal with...small hands and a good vice grips seemed to be the ticket, so this was one of the places where I was able to help and I have the grease stains on my fingers to prove it.

Our furry helper relaxed and we ran off to Milwaukie to Harbor Freight tools for new hose clamps, a cute new vice grip (there is no such thing as too many of these) and then onto Auto Supply for new hose to replace the poor old damaged lines.

This will be an ongoing project....but that's all in the fun of owning a great old classic car and this one has more history than most.

A Clafoutis in a Pear Tree

I have this lovely old pear tree in the corner of my yard. I've only lived in this house for just a year and didn't really notice the tree last summer until the pears started to show...and fall and fall and fall.

Well, they still fall, but I managed to get out and pick a couple sacks full yesterday. One sack I left on the porch of a neighbor, the other became a clafoutis.

and what is a clafoutis? it's a simple dessert, very custard like with no crust...

most times the pears are sliced and placed neatly in a pattern ...I chopped mine into bite sized chunks, because the pears were quite firm. Plus, there was no way these funny shaped orbs would have ever looked even with all the carving away that was needed.



This is the final results... sprinkled with powdered sugar, drizzled with maple syrup...
it was delicious.

~ * ~ * ~
Pear Clafoutis

• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon maple extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3-4 large pears, peeled, cored, sliced or chopped
• powdered sugar
• Maple Syrup
  

1. Preheat oven to 325 deg. F. Butter and flour a 9-inch pie plate.

2. Beat eggs, sugar, salt to blend in a medium bowl. Mix in flour. Add milk, butter, vanilla & maple extracts and spices. Mix until smooth.

3. If you sliced your pears, arrange them on the bottom of the pie plate, if you cut them into chunks ... let the pieces fall where they may. Pour the custard over the pears.

4. Bake the clafoutis until it is set in the center and the top is golden, around 55 minutes.

5. After removing from the oven, let it set a few minutes to firm up and then sprinkle powdered sugar over it and serve with maple syrup drizzled over.

This would also be good with a soft whipped cream, dusted with fresh ground nutmeg. Other fruits can be used, I've also made this with plums and I need to try it with cherries, too.