A word of advice about ham

Just in case someone ever sends you a ham as a gift, and you don't plan to eat it right away, freeze it. If there is no indication whatsoever as to how to store the ham, don't assume that it is preserved and can sit in your pantry until you're ready to cook it. Just freeze it. When you unwrap your ham and the wrapping is slippery and there's a sweet, tangy smell, don't even mess with it. Wrap it right back up and chuck it in the garbage. And then quickly think of something else to feed your guests for New Year's Eve.

I made a pretty good batch of banana bread. Can I serve banana bread for dinner?

Let's get cooking!

Heidi called me today with with a brilliant idea. Let's start a blog about cooking. First thoughts? I don't cook enough to possibly have anything to contribute to a cooking blog. Sometimes I read cooking blogs to figure out what to make for dinner. Mostly, I don't really like cooking. What I do love is crafting. If it can be made out of fabric, yarn, paper, wood, clay or even trash then I'm totally into it. So let's start a blog about cooking and crafting. I like it. Heidi likes it. Let's see if Kelly and Valerie and Mom like it. This will be fun! This is something that can bring all four of us sisters and our mom together even though we all live in different parts of the country.

We'll post something every week that somehow relates to a topic that we will take turns choosing. Heidi will choose first. I hope she doesn't choose something really complicated like, souffle. What is a souffle? Doesn't it have eggs in it? My house will stink for days if I have to try a souffle. I'll have to go and read someone else's blog if she chooses that.

So we'll start on Jan 1, 2012. Heidi, you get to post the topic on Sunday morning. Then we'll all have the week to get cooking or crafting. Take lots of pictures and post them. Write about what you did. Even if it's a miserable failure. No, especially if it's a miserable failure, it will make me feel so much better.

My spoons and scissors are ready to go!

(I made that spoon. Carved it out of wood and burned the bowl part with a chunk of coal. Yes, I did.)