Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone has a fantastic New Years celebration and enjoys kicking 2008 in its pants as you say goodbye...but don't forget to add that extra "leap second" to your New Year's countdown :).

http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE4BR1DC20081229

Home from the Holidays

We're back in Iowa after a week in South Dakota with the families. We had a great time and got lots of fantastic presents. We lucked out and got two nice days to travel too, so I can't complain. Rob is back at work today and I'm off til Jan 12th when the new semester starts. We are looking forward to a quiet relaxing week at home (well aside from the whole Rob working and me cleaning and organizing thing :). Happy New Year!

Christmas photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157611788030209/

Happy Holidays!

Happy Solstice Day! Today is the shortest day of the year...which means that starting tomorrow, the days get longer!

Tomorrow is the start of the eight days of Hanukkah. Christmas eve and Christmas day fall in the middle of the week and Kwanza the day after that. So whatever your faith, stay warm and enjoy all of the spirit of the season from Solstice to Epiphany (Jan 6th and the official last day of the 12 days of Christmas).

Here it's very windy and cold...I'm talking highs below zero. We're trying to decide when to make the long drive to South Dakota. Ground blizzard conditions are holding us up...but if we don't make it out of here today, we'll be heading out early tomorrow. So see you all after Christmas!

The Big Bang Theory

What Penny gave to Sheldon for Christmas:

The Haring Family Pfeffernuesse Recipe

Every year I make Pfeffernuesse for my family for Christmas. My grandma taught me how to make these cookies when I was in junior high, and I've been making them ever since. They are a little unusual and some people don't like them, but most people I've met who try them end up liking them.

Pfeffernuesse means Pepper Nuts in German (because they have pepper in them and are the size and shape of nuts....some say that the nuts part comes from actual nuts, but there aren't any of those in our recipe). Pepper Nuts are a holiday cookie from Europe and there are many different variations. What follows below is how my family makes them:

WARNING: This dough is very sticky, if you don't have a good mixer, expect to do some hard stirring.

Pfeffernuesse
(this is a half batch—makes about 8 dozen cookies)

¾ c shortening
½ c brewed coffee
½ c honey
1 ½ c brown sugar
½ t pepper
¾ t liquid anise flavoring
¼ t cloves

Stir together ingredients in a 1-2 quart pot and bring to a boil. Watch carefully as it will foam up when it starts boiling. Set hot liquid aside and let cool until it will not cook/curdle eggs (usually takes a couple of hours).

Poor the liquid mixture into a large mixer bowl. With mixer set at low, add the following ingredients:

1 large egg and 1 egg white (or two smaller eggs—the full batch calls for 3 large eggs)
1 ½ t soda
1 ½ t baking powder
4 ½ c flour

Mix until all of the flour is incorporated and place dough in the fridge overnight.

Roll cold dough into walnut sized (about 1”) balls and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes (my oven runs a little hot and takes only 8 minutes so check them early the first time you make them—they will start to turn golden brown around the edges). Return the bowl of dough to the refrigerator while the cookies are baking to keep the dough from getting too sticky to work with.

Once the cookies have cooled completely, you can make the frosting.

Frosting

1 c sugar
½ c water

Boil the water and sugar mixture “to a thread.” (Thread stage is around 230 degrees F—and is achieved when the syrup turns into a thread when dropped into cold water. Be careful about blindly using a candy thermometer for this step though as the cheap ones are often inaccurate. I usually boil the syrup until a thread comes off the spoon when you try to pour a drop off of it--it just takes some practice.)

1 egg white

Pour the sugar syrup over one egg white that has been beaten to a froth (I usually do this while the sugar is boiling, but the first time you make the frosting you may want to froth the egg before starting the sugar and water). Mix the sugar syrup and egg white on high until the frosting turns to an opaque white or ivory color. Beating the mixture until it turns opaque and cools off a bit, helps the frosting come to the right consistency and gives you a little leeway if you didn’t boil the sugar syrup quite long enough.

Put all of the cookies into the largest bowl you own (if this bowl isn’t all that big, you may have to split the batch in half) and pour the frosting over the cookies. Stir gently until all of the cookies are covered and place them onto wax paper to dry. If the frosting is cooked perfectly, it will only take an hour or two for it to dry (this rarely happens :)). It usually takes an afternoon or overnight to dry. Once the cookies are dry, place them in an air tight container and separate any cookie layers with wax paper.

Feeling the Yule...or trying to

Well, the grades are in, the Christmas cards are out, most of the presents are bought (just a few stragglers), and I'm starting in on some baking. I feel like I'm doing pretty well...we have to be all ready by the 20th though (so don't feel too bad if you're not as far along).

The weather here has been very odd. It was 50 degrees here on Saturday....on Sunday morning the temperature dropped 20 degrees in an hour and we were in the single digits by Sunday night. We are still in the single digits and it's snowing hard here...which makes it feel VERY festive. But I'm freezing my butt off.

Tomorrow night Rob and I are going to our very first Blenders Christmas Concert. Supposedly tomorrow is going to be one of the nicest days of the week weather wise...so I'm very much looking forward to going downtown and seeing all of the decorations on the way and enjoying some quality acapella Christmas tunes.

So with all of the crazy hub-bub and obligations of the holiday, be sure to take some time to enjoy the magic of the season. Wil Wheaton wrote a lovely article about just this sentiment: http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/wil-wheaton/its-christmas-time-theres-no-n/

Happy Holidays!

Lindt Truffles totally do look like the Death Star!

Odd Look-a-Like

From two of my favorite movies: Lord of the Rings and the Goonies.


TotallyLooksLike.com

Last December...

So I was looking through some photos and found my folder from LAST December....I'm feeling less cranky about the weather we've been having when I look back and remember the particularly nasty ice storm that we had about this time last year. Ahhhh...memories (here's hoping they stay that way).

P.S. $1.43 for Gas

Gas in West Des Moines is selling for $1.43 a gallon. I filled up yesterday for 16 bucks.

Winter....and the end of the semester

The winter came on kind of suddenly over Thanksgiving and it won't go away. I know it's the time of the year that we're supposed to get rain and ice and snow.....but can't it just wait until I'm done with the semester. I love snow...when I don't have to go anywhere. It's beautiful, but I hate driving in it. We had a little storm over night last night that left the side roads very slippery today....it could have been much worse, but if it had been much worse we could have all stayed home and drank hot chocolate (or made snowmen...whatever floats your snowday boat).

Ultimately I'm glad they didn't cancel classes today. One of my sections had their finals time slot today and had to have their final projects in by 1pm. If the college had cancelled class...they would have gotten until Monday (the make up day). So now I have the rest of the week to grade them instead of having to cram them into one or two days. This semester has been a blur...but it has felt like a blur of illness and grading...not a particularly fun blur. I hope that the spring semester goes a little more smoothly.

I'm glad that I'll be done with school on Friday (*crosses her fingers for good weather on Friday*)...because I have all sorts of holiday junk to take care of (like christmas presents and letters and baking). Don't get me wrong, I like doing most of this stuff...but it gets a bit stressful at times. So good luck with all of your end of the semester/holiday/end of the year demands!

Merry Thanksgiving!

Well, we all know that Thanksgiving is the holiday that ushers in the Christmas season...which means that Thanksgiving sometimes gets ignored a bit. This year that happened even more so...partly because I got the stomach flu the day before Thanksgiving. We moved our Thanksgiving dinner to the Sunday after Thanksgiving...in which we promptly received 4 inches of snow and blustery conditions...so it just feels like Christmas--I started dragging out the holiday decorations and managed to get the stockings up and the mantle decorated. We had a great Thanksgiving meal; Rob's pie was excellent! I look forward to the leftovers. I do not, however, look forward to this next week of school. I have papers to grade and gradebook numbers to crunch...but in two weeks the semester is over...so I suppose there is a little pinpoint of light at the end...way...way...down there. So to all of you: Happy Belated Thanksgiving! And a Happy Holiday Season!

Thanksgiving Quiz

In past years I have given this Thanskgiving Quiz to my students in the class period before our Thanksgiving break. Give it a try! (Answers will be posted in the comments.)

1. What year did the Pilgrims have their feast?
a. 1642
b. 1621
c. 1711
d. 1777

2. Originally a goat’s horn, the Horn of Plenty (or Cornucopia), which symbolizes abundance, originated in which country?
a. Switzerland
b. Ireland
c. Greece
d. Norway

3. The first pilgrim feast lasted for three days, what didn’t they eat?
a. clams
b. venison
c. pumpkin pie
d. wild fowl

4. Were the local Native Americans really invited to the first pilgrim feast?
a. Yes
b. No

5. Which President declared Thanksgiving a national holiday?
a. Thomas Jefferson
b. George Washington
c. Abraham Lincoln
d. Franklin Roosevelt

6. Which President moved Thanksgiving a week earlier to try to lengthen the holiday buying period but was forced by public outcry to return it to its original Thursday?
a. Thomas Jefferson
b. Calvin Coolidge
c. Dwight Eisenhower
d. Franklin Roosevelt

7. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been held for about how many years?
a. 40
b. 60
c. 80
d. 100

8. The pilgrims didn’t call their feast a Thanksgiving, what did they consider a Thanksgiving to be?
a. a festival
b. a religious holiday
c. a harvest gathering
d. a type of song

9. Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada on which day?
a. 1st Monday of November
b. 4th Thursday of November
c. 4th Thursday of October
d. 2nd Monday of October

10. How did the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade end?
a. the appearance of Santa Clause
b. a performance by the Rockettes
c. releasing of the giant balloons
d. a speech by the mayor of New York City

I have been REMISS!

This fall feels like a blur....I feel like the whole fall has been filled with me either having a cold or grading papers....but there is a light at the end of the tunnel....and it's multicolored and blinking in a chasing fashion. I am so glad that Christmas falls when it does....just as we're spiraling into the depths of cold and everything is brown and dead looking. So just to put you in the mood:



And don't forget what Christmas is all about:

13 things that make me happy

1. Trees. I freaking love trees.
2. 70 degree days.
3. New CDs.
4. Voting for a presidential candidate that I actually liked instead of voting for the lesser of two evils.
5. Polka-dotted sneakers.
6. Playing board games with my friends and family.
7. Ice for my drinks. :)
8. Good chocolate.
9. Reynolds Non-Stick Foil (this has made it on to other lists of mine also, it’s the best stuff ever, really, and I’m not even getting money from them to say so).
10. Christmas Music. I know it’s still early, but I love Christmas music….on the day after Halloween I ripped my entire collection on to my computer…anyone up for an a capella Christmas mix? How about a cd of nothing but different versions of White Christmas…..I could soooo hook you up.
11. Stewart’s Orange ‘n Cream Soda.
12. Half-priced seasonal merchandise. There is nothing I like better than scrounging the seasonal sections when they go on clearance.
13. New episodes of my favorite tv shows (Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, House, and Bones).

Jambo and the Settlers of Catan Expansion

Before we went to the family reunion in MN, we bought the Settlers of Catan Expansion so that we could play with 5 or 6 players...and while we were at the game store, I couldn't help but pick up another game...so we bought Jambo which is one of a series of two-player games by Kosmos. We have Lost Cities from this series and like it quite a bit, so we thought Jambo would be a safe bet.

We have played with the Settlers Expansion twice now. The first time we played at the family reunion, we neglected to include the special build phase which helps players keep under the 7 resource limit (and speed up the building). The game seemed to drag on forever. When we played with the expansion the second time with Rob's college friends, we made sure to include the build phase and the game played like normal--and was fun. So if ya get the expansion--don't forget the special build phase :). One thing to keep in mind though, If you have the old version of Settlers of Catan the expansion that you can get now has slightly different art on the tiles and the water tiles now link together like puzzle pieces, so things are a bit mis-matchy. You may be able to get the expansion with the old art online--I haven't checked.

We played Jambo for the first time this weekend. It is a fairly straightforward game. The goal: get the most gold. You draw and play cards to buy and sell wares. Like Lost Cities, it's easy to learn and fun to play, but still incorporates enough strategy to keep you interested in the game. I give this one a thumbs up and look forward to playing it more. Here's a picture from our first game. I beat Rob by 3 gold. :)

Rock the Vote...for your favorite peanuts character

http://www.peanutsrocksthevote.com/

Happy Halloween!

13 things that bug me

1) folks who don’t use their blinkers when driving
2) getting information second hand that pertains to you
3) waking up at 4am for any reason really
4) things that are supposed to be fun that turn into stress fests
5) Christmas decorations out in stores in September
6) laundry in piles that look like they could attack you
7) the volume going up during commercials
8) reruns—we’re less than a month into the new seasons, why are we on reruns already?
9) students who don’t read instructions
10) people who believe that people are not generally good…and people who aren’t generally good
11) campaign ads
12)never being able to fit the ice cube trays in the freezer…I want ice in my drinks dang it
13) folks who stay out of the turning lane or fail to merge when a lane is closing so that they can speed ahead of everyone else taking their turn and force their way in to the line

$1.99 Gas!

Gas has now dropped below the 2 dollar mark in the Des Moines Metro. It's pretty incredible how quickly the prices have fallen--I'm a little worried about a price rebound.

Weekend of Gaming

IMG_2226
Originally uploaded by sarahjanesetnes

This weekend Rob and I made the slow trek across Iowa to visit some awesome friends of his from college. We got together because his friend Sarah is moving to England in January and his friend Beth is moving to Arkansas next week. Casey is also graduating and will hopefully be headed somewhere interesting :)...Rob and I aren't going anywhere...not that we know of anyhow :).

So after an interesting lunch at a local chinese restaurant in Carroll, IA that looked like a fancy pancake house (very odd juxtaposition) and four plus hours in the car, we finally made it to Sibley. We hung out and played games and ate good food and had a grand old time!

It was great to see everyone! I wish you all the best of luck with the next chapters in your life.

More Time Warpiness

Feeling like Fall

It's 50 degrees here and windy and rainy....I forgot to grab my coat on the way out the door, fortunately I didn't have to walk too far to get inside today. When I got home, I decided it was time to try out my new tea pot. My shiney new purple teapot. This teapot called me by name when we were in the store..."Sarah," it said, "Sarah, you know you want to take me home. I am shiney and purple and heat up water for a variety of hot beverages." And that was that, I took my shiney purple teapot home. Today I used it to make a cup of hot chocolate--the first of the year. It is delicious and the teapot whistled right on cue. It's the small things in life I tell ya.

Fall Family Reunion

011 cropped
Originally uploaded by sarahjanesetnes

This weekend Rob and I spent 14 hours in the car to attend the 18th Annual Setnes family gathering in Elbow Lake, MN. We traveled as far as Bloomington and rode the rest of the trip with Kris and Marie (which made an impossibly long trip much more possible :). The weekend was filled with relaxing and chatting and playing a couple games....oh and eating. We always do lots of eating. We started this gathering over Thanksgiving in 1990, but after a couple of snowy drives, the decision was made to move it back to October--but we still have our Thanksgiving dinner. It was great to see everyone and I look forward to gathering again next fall (even though it will be for Kayla's wedding and won't include turkey and stuffing...at least I don't think it will).

For more photos:

Fall Family Reunion Photos on Flickr

Time Warp

Last night Bones was interupted by the Baseball playoffs, so we decided to leave the Discovery Channel on before Mythbusters and caught the new tv show called Time Warp. It is a pretty simple premise--they shoot interesting things with super high speed cameras. Last night they videoed the following: breaking bricks/boards, juggling chainsaws, dogs catching frisbees, mentos and diet coke fountains, and Blendtec Blenders. It was far more fascinating than I expected. The following is the slow motion video of a Blendtec Blender (famous for the "Will it Blend?" videos) blending a hefty handful of bic lighters. The blender kept blending and was relatively unscathed. I was impressed--I'm starting to think that blender is worth 300 bucks :).

Breakfasts....

Today I was thinking about what I used to eat for breakfast in college: a large soda that was a mixture of Hi-C fruit punch and Mellow Yellow (my wake-up juice of choice) and a large chocolate-chocolate chip muffin. If I didn't eat at the cafe I would have a Pepsi and a raw brown sugar and cinnamon pop tart...and a multivitamin...cuz that makes all the difference.

Thinking about this has helped me relate more to my students. :)

What do you remember eating for breakfast in college?

Mordacious Moving?

Well, my livejournal blog now includes advertisements and, since I don't pay for a subscription, has very limited format opportunites....so I'm testing out using blogger as a new home. I already have a blogger blog and like it very much. So testing...testing...anyone out there?