Whats Going On With Nana?: This Week at Nana's

WEATHER UPDATE:

Cold mornings and warm days.

No more drinking a cup of hot tea on the porch in the mornings. That will not happen for months. I'm sure that the weather has most of the states in winter mode with the exception of California and Hawaii. I have a friend who works for Blue Skies, a travel agency, and he has been posting pictures of himself in Hawaii. Right now, a sandy beach with warm tropical breezes sounds wonderful.

Levi, to the left, grey t-shirt, tan pants, on a group tour in Hawaii.

OUTDOORS UPDATE:

The front and back yard area received a good raking and clean up. Four bags of leaves were put up from the front yard and three from the back yard. I think the front yard looked much better covered in leaves.

Eve's Tomato Plant

INDOORS PLANTS UPDATE:

Green Chile Still Producing.

My little plants are growing right on their mark and looking good. The waiting is the hardest part. Im still resisting the urge to over water them. I mist them in the morning and late after noon and that is it, no matter how dry they look, I must resist the impulse to water them. LOL. Each day, I move the plants to a window area to get some good sunlight. I take them out of the window area at night as it is too cold for them to be near the window. Today, I planted seeds to grow two more tomato plants and an egg plant. I parked the planters near the pepper plants in the living room.

Watch lettuce grow by time lapse. Very cool.

PET UPDATE:

The big fish tank looks the same, cloudy. I guess, I will need to empty out half the water and re-add fresh water back in to see if that clears it up. Pacu fish love Amazon murky water and Im sure Mr. Tubbs has no problem with cloudy water. However, Goldie and Mr. Poopers probably do not care for it. In case anyone is wondering, Mr. Tubbs cant have anything in the tank because he injures himself on the coral and he eats it. I had a star fish in there and he ate that along with the other fish. He has only two fish friends. For some reason he has not eaten Goldie. Mr. Tubbs is a vegetarian. I feed him fruit, nuts and greens along with fish pellets. His favorite is prunes. He loves prunes and dates.

Housekeeping Made Easy:

Banana Peel: Polish Leather Shoes
Use the inside of a banana peel to give shoes a professional and natural shine that will last for quite some time.

Easy Sewing:

Mending Holes in Jeans - Click here.

How to mend rips with this technique that hardly shows. Click Here.

I've been putting that 25 pound bag of flour to good use. Saturday evening, after a busy day, I baked up some birthday cake flavored cupcakes.

Birthday Cake Flavored Cupcakes

This recipe makes the best birthday cake or cupcakes. I love the combination of almond and vanilla extract flavors added to give it that special birthday cake flavor.

* I cut this recipe in half because I only wanted about 12 cupcakes. The recipe below will make two round cakes or 24 cupcakes.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup milk at room temperature
6 large egg whites at room temperature
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans.
Make sure milk and eggs are room temperature.
Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into medium bowl and whisk until blended.
Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter, cut into cubes and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes.
Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute.
Pour batter evenly between prepared bake ware.
Bake for 27 to 30 minutes.
Allow cake or cupcakes to cool to room temperature before frosting it with your favorite frosting.

I like to use this old time recipe for vanilla frosting to top cakes and cupcakes. Normally, instead of 1/4 Crisco, I use half Crisco and butter to equal 1/4 cup.

Vanilla Frosting

1/4 cup Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup milk

In a bowl mix Crisco, salt, vanilla and about 1/3 of the sugar. Add milk and remaining sugar alternately; mix until smooth and creamy. Add more sugar to thicken or milk to thin frosting if needed for good spreading consistency.

(Frosts two 8- or 9-inch layers or a 13 x 9-inch cake)

PC Technical Advice

I repair computers/monitors and I dabble in writing code C+, and website designing, Java Script, HTML, etc. I'm NOT an expert at all. However, when it comes to computers I will try to figure out most operating systems and their works. My best computer advice is to keep things simple on your PC. Don't overload your PC with programs that you seldom or never use. Never, ever download something without researching the program because of virus and non compatible software issues . Keep your PC protected and clean from malware daily.

Free Up Disk Space
Do you have a computer that is running low on space because you’re store a lot of pictures, videos, or other large files? Once your computer gets low on hard drive space, normal processes begin to slow down and your computer will run painfully slow. you can first try to free up some space on your computer that may be taken up by useless temporary files, old system files or installed service packs. If its time to free up some disk space. Click here.

I think this is an amusing instructional. There probably are people out there who just have an embarrassing Internet trail of themselves and wish they had never posted anything online. Other then getting a court order, this is a good link for a good start of eliminating your Internet presence.