The Hobbit Hole VI - And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...

[ecurbh]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...

• First thread: New Zealander builds Hobbit hole
• Second thread: The New Hobbit Hole
• Third thread: The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads! (Congratulations, we filled it up!)
• Fourth Thread: The Hobbit Hole IV - The Road Goes Ever On...
• Fifth Thread: The Hobbit Hole V - Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

[msdrby]

:-)

My potato-bacon chowder turned out very well. Had to have seconds! It always make a hugh pot, and is better on the second day. Beware! This is not a low fat recipe, but can be modified.

Potato-Bacon Chowder

8 strips bacon, cut up
1 cup chopped onion
2 to 4 cups peeled and cubed potatoes
1 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
dash pepper
10 3/4 oz can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup dairy sour cream
1 3/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Cook bacon until crisp in a 3 quart saucepan. Add onion; saute 3
minutes. Pour off drippings. Add potatoes, water, salt, and pepper;
bring to a boil. Cover; simmer 10-15 minutes until potatoes are
tender. Gradually stir in soup, sour cream, milk and parsley.
Bring to serving temperature over low heat, stirring occasionally.
Do not boil.

My personal variation:
This is the basic recipe I use, only I don't follow the portions, only the ingredients. As for the amount of water for potatoes, I use enough to cover the potatoes while they boil (abt 20 minutes if using a lot of potatoes like I do). Plus, today, I did not cube the potatoes, and I think I like it that way better than cubing them. More texture. Bacon... oh heck, I just use the whole package! I cook the bacon in the microwave until it is almost burned to a crisp, and crumble it to pieces. Then pouring 1/2 the bacon pieces and the grease into the soup, and saving the rest for serving on the table. I add the sour cream last (and usually use 2 cups, not 1). If the soup is too hot, the sour cream will curdle, so I let the soup cool and thicken a bit before adding the sour cream. I also usually chop up some more onion and grate some cheese for serving.

[msdrby]

Sounds like a great time was had by all. Good pics too!

[Overtaxed]

Hehehe....Dook lost.

[Fedora]

Thanks! I've gotta try that :)

[Fedora]

Well, to my surprise, I discovered that the McDonald's in my area is now serving Shamrock Shakes!--they still exist!!! I'm drinking one now :)

[msdrby]

cool, wonder if I can get one. As if I need one... LOL!

[msdrby]

PE and elf-boy are outside making soem more puddle jompuers for his class. I could run down there and tell him I need a shamrock shake, NOW. hehe.

[msdrby]

um, yeah, I can type... sometimes.

[Fedora]

How do you make puddle jumpers?

[JenB]

Call me overcommitted... I've decided to add two weight-lifting sessions into my workout weeks. I'm not going at this haphazardly - my mom could probably get a job as a personal trainer if she wanted to, she knows this stuff and she's helping me. Did the first one today and hopefully the second, Tuesday or Thursday.

Heh, and tried on all my spring dresses to see what now fits, and what's too big... nice experience.

[Fedora]

Cool! What lifts did you do?

[JenB]

Uh, one for each major body part. Squats for quads, leg curls for hamstrings, leg lifts for calves, chest press, shoulder press, pull downs, hammer curls, and a chest press variant for triceps.

Oh, yeah, and crunches. Yuk. Wish I didn't have abs.

[Fedora]

Pretty good! I can see your favorite is going to be crunches :) Since you enjoy that so much, I'll give you my basic ab routine if you want to try it:

--Lying knee lifts
--Lying leg lifts
--Leg-overs (legs held together vertical over head, lower once to each side w/o touching ground)
--Crunches
--Twisting crunches, left (right knee bent in crunch position, left leg straight, left arm held behind head in crunch position with right arm resting on chest, sit up with left arm reaching towards right knee)
--Twisting crunches, right
--Russian twists (hold legs just off ground, head just off ground, clasp hands at stomach and twist arms to each side w/o head or legs touching ground)
--V-ups (crunches combined with knee raises w/o head or legs touching ground)

Try a small number of reps/sets to start with :)

[JenB]

Ouch, ouch, ouch. I hate abs. Just reading that list makes me hurt.

We're working on just generally improving my strength all over, plus, um, making the curves look better. Once I've got some power in my muscles I'll be ready to try something that nuts. I think it'll be good. Eventually. Well... we'll see.

[Fedora]

LOL! I was just giving you something to distract you from the crunches :) But yeah, you might want to save some of that for later. Try the knee lifts, though--they'll complement the crunches well. Crunches get your upper abs more, knee lifts and similar exercises get the lower.

About to eat supper here; back later. Been reading Doomsday Book this afternoon, BTW.

[JenB]

Yeah? How's Doomsday going?

I'll give the knee lifts a try, then.

[Fedora]

Yeah? How's Doomsday going?

Good! I'm over half done :) Didn't get as much done as I wanted last weak 'cause I didn't feel like reading much with the flu, but it's going faster now. I was glad to see Dunworthy finally told Gilchrist off. Still trying to figure out what happened with the drop--starting to think it opened both ways. . .

[JenB]

Hehe... wait and see, wait and see...

[Fedora]

Hehe... wait and see, wait and see...

First the Straight Stair, and then the Winding Stair. . .

[JenB]

And then she'll get you...