My nephew is an inventor. Quite a brilliant one. His inventions have revolutionized the film industry and won awards in Hollywood. He is Banjo Man’s nephew, so unfortunately I don’t share any of his Genetic Inventor Code.
I’ve spent the last two weeks–on and off–trying to come up with a way to hang quilted curtains snug against the window frames and save tons of money on our propane bill. These energy-saving curtains were for my office, the coldest room in the house. The idea was to cover the windows properly and therefore be able to turn on the electric baseboard heat once in a while. You know, on those really cold winter days like today. When the wind is blowing.
And yes, I do own approximately two dozen pairs of vintage drapes in assorted fabrics and colors, but drapes would cover the baseboards and catch on fire (Banjo Man is constantly warning me of this). Blinds break and aren’t that insulating. So I dug out some old upholstery material and stitched up some quilted covers.
Note: if you are measuring and cutting large amounts of fabric, do not listen to the Band Chick music lessons on the computer. You may start singing and cut the fabric in the wrong place and have to sew things back together in order to cover your windows.
I devised a complicated system of magnets, rods and hot glue. It didn’t work. I revised it a number of times. I even took pictures, in case this clever strategy worked well enough to blog about.
In the end I was left with a huge mess of dried glue chunks, sore fingers, cold windows, dirty magnets and a strong desire to move to Florida. This afternoon I gave up and settled for a typical rod, which hangs weirdly and needs another nail. And I still have the other side to sew.
Yuk.
I took a break and fled to the kitchen, where a happier project/invention/creation awaited after I fried pork chops.
Orange-cinnamon liqueur. Two weeks ago I asked Banjo Man to save his orange peels (he religiously wolfs down two oranges a day) and I made a batch of candied orange peels out of them.
If you have any idea what I can do with candied orange peels, feel free to let me know. I didn’t think that far ahead.
The orange peels kept a-comin’ so I had another bright idea: cover them with vodka. After conducting exhaustive internet research, I learned the basic idea is to drown the peels in vodka, refrigerate for a month (be sure to shake the jar each day) and then do something with simple syrup and cheesecloth (I’ll have to find that website again in February).
Once again, any and all advice will be appreciated.
Many moons ago Dancing Mandolin Player and I made raspberry and cherry liqueurs. I think we used vodka. Maybe. Sometimes the past is a bit blurry, but I do remember how pretty the jars looked and how very good they tasted. Did we add sugar? Did we strain it? Did we drink it?
Of course we did. I think I remember that part.
is there any more pie? 