As much as I love winter, even I get tired of the grey. So this weeks scavenger hunt is for colors.

pink
purple
green
blue
red
yellow

Today’s word is: peanut butter

This has absolutely no redeeming nutritional value. And I don’t think I care in the slightest. The original receipe called for peanuts, but I never have peanuts on hand. Plus, I really like walnuts. They also called for semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I only have bittersweet chips. Plus, I like bittersweet chocolate. It also wanted me to melt the caramel candies with water, but I’m too lazy for that, so I used caramel sauce (not caramel “flavored” sauce!)

Crust
16 Oreos
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
7 oz marshmallow creme
4 ounces neufchatel cheese, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon caramel topping
6 ounces caramel topping
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

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Dogwood Cornus florida

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Instead, we spent several hours on Sunday with our niece, Maggie.

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In May, it will have been two years since I broke my ankle. I have to say, that was one of the lousiest six week periods of my life: I broke my ankle, Michael’s Grandmother died, and Grandmom broke her femur. On the other hand, Jules and Lily were born during that period, so perhaps it wasn’t all horrible.

Last year, I adjusted my walking goal to try to get 8000 steps a day, and often didn’t make that. This year, I decided that I’d get back to aiming for a minimum of 10k steps five days a week, and try for more than that. Which I’ve been doing.

This past week, Michael and I started walking around the stadium area in the evenings, but I noticed that when going down hills, the bones in my ankle were occasionally grinding. So we rearranged our route to walk down the stairs and up the hill.

Last night as we were walking around town, I realized that the reason my ankle was grinding was because I was walking on the outside of my foot. Then I realized the reason I was walking on the outside of my foot was because walking normally was uncomfortable. Painful even.

Apparently my ankle isn’t 100% even now, so I’ll be cutting back on the steep hills, try to pay more attention to how I’m walking, and get off my damned feet at the end of the day.

Bah humbug.

Driving home, we just barely noticed a man on a scooter who had toppled trying to navigate the horrible sidewalks and hills on University Avenue. It was dark, the intersection was a steep hill, and his scooter was blue, so I saw the reflector in my headlights more than anything else.

We stopped, Michael ran to make sure he wasn’t hurt, and I grabbed a flashlight from the trunk. The man was trying to sit up, his cart tipped sideways, and the contents of the basket on the front of his scooter strewn around his cart.

After getting him into a sitting position, we started picking up the scattered papers and various grocery items–his bananas and yogurt didn’t seem too much the worse for wear.

While we were picking things up, a taxi pulled partway into the intersection. The driver said something that I couldn’t hear, so I ran over.

The driver, a man probably in his fifties, leaned out his window.

“Am I clear to get past?”
“Yeah. You’re fine.”

After we got all his belongings picked up, Michael started to try and help the man stand, by standing in front and pulling him up by his arms, but the man cried out in pain and I stopped Michael, reminding him of the proper way to help someone up, which I had learned for Grandmom. The two of us together smoothly got him standing, though he was unsteady and I was nervous about letting go of him.

In the meantime, a young couple had stopped, the guy saying he had a truck and we could put the scooter into the bed of the truck so the man could be driven home.

The older gentleman insisted he was fine, so the young man and Michael start trying to get the scooter straightened up and pointing in the right direction.

While they were getting sorted out where the man was going, another young couple stopped, asking what they could do to help. The three guys got the gentleman back on his scooter (he still wasn’t very steady) and up on the road (no sense in trying to get back on the treacherous sidewalk), while I stood in the road with my flashlight to stop traffic.

After a moment, the older gentleman puttered off. Michael and I walked back to the car, and I put the flashlight back in the trunk, taking a deep breath as I closed the trunk. The couple who had pulled off near us, pulled out behind the gentleman, and followed him down the road, keeping cars from zooming up behind him and/or passing him.

Anyone who tells you that young people these days are irresponsible and don’t care about others?

You tell ’em from me they’re full of shit.

It’s now spring, even if around here it already feels like summer. Today’s word is: blossom

Made vanilla pudding yesterday, and I have to say that for me, this recipe was a failure. Flavor was good, but it was WAAAAY to thick.

Here’s the base recipe I ended up with, after making substitutions for what was in the fridge.

Vanilla Pudding
2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup 1% low-fat milk
6 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons butter, unsalted
1/2 vanilla bean
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I used a hand mixer instead of a food processor to incorporate air throughout the process, but it was still too think for me to enjoy it.

I wonder if leaving out the egg yolks entirely would help…

Unbelievable how may flowers are blooming on March 18th.

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I managed to get off a couple non-Jules pictures on Saturday. But I have to admit it was difficult.

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