Who is Orange Sink?

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Rice Lake, WI, United States
My home town is Rice Lake, a small town in northern Wisconsin. I own Red House Wool Studio~ an in-home wool and rug hooking business. I enjoy collecting and decorating with antiques and primitives. Orange Sink Blog is a journal of my interests and ramblings about life. Cathy Greschner

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Sunday, December 26, 2010

The Mashed Potatoes

Our Christmas Day went off without a hitch.  Not counting the mashed potatoes.  I had the brainy idea this year to have both a turkey breast and a ham for dinner.  I have one oven in the kitchen.  And I didn't want to fire-up old Betsy the wood cookstove for fear of guests leaving because the house was 85 degrees!  So I decided to run the ham down to my Moms and use her oven. 
Dave's job was to peel the potatoes for the mashed potatoes.  He did a fine job and put them on the stove in some water.  I went about preparing the green bean casserole etc.  My sister-in- law Kathy and I walked over to Mom's to retrieve the ham.  Everything was done and ready to put on the table and I lifted the lid on the potatoes expecting them to be ready to mash.  Nope, no steam except for the steam coming out of my head.  Potatoes were stone cold and would need at least another half hour to cook and get mashed before dinner would be ready.  Everyone settled back down for a little more egg nog to await the cooking and mashing of the potatoes. 
I guess I thought it was the job of the one who peeled the potatoes to make sure they got boiled as well.   What do you folks think? 

Our dinner was fabulous and the mashed potatoes seemed extra yummy this year.  Go figure.

Dave and I have become very resourceful over the years in making and coming up with gifts that cost little yet are made and given with the recipients needs in mind.  Bundles of kindling wood for the fireplace are carefully hand cut and tied with bright red cord for friends who actually use their fireplaces. Dave gets the nice dry pine from crating from a friends business that  would other wise be destined for the land fill. 


I hooked these coasters for Lisa.  The moon and star motif were simple stencils that I traced onto the background linen.  I decided to pad them with a little quilt batting and quilt the backs.  They turned out nice and have a little cushioning for hot mugs of cocoa!  

More to come......in the meantime I hope you are basking in the after Holiday glow and don't have to return too many of those gifts!

Cathy G 

12 comments:

  1. No Holiday dinner is complete without a little tiny glitch! I don't know how many times Zip has done something similar. I guess men just don't KNOW!
    Hope the eggnog filled the gap!
    Your gifts are very thoughtful! I love things that are 'usable' since we are already overloaded with decorative!
    Glad you had a wonderful day.

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  2. I love gifts that are thought out and useful.
    I know those potatoes were extra good, they always are when you have to wait.
    Merry Christmas to you

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  3. I knew what was going to happen with the potatoes as soon as I started reading!! You just have to spell things out completely for guys sometimes!!
    Love your hooked coasters. Glad you had a great day!

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  4. Lol, yup I could have guessed that plot twist. Too funny, but I am guessing you weren't laughing like we are reading it. If it makes Dave feel better, auntie needs detailed directions also. But any excuse for more egg nog can't be totally bad.
    Your gift ideas are wonderful. We got a lot of edible gifts this year. I love that because we don't bake like we used to.

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  5. Oh Cathy - Same here - I must be married to the same man - I could just hear my husband saying (and he has) "Well you told me to peel the potatoes and put them in water but you didn't tell me to turn them on!" But better be careful what you wishful - ONE TIME he decided to turn something on (i asked him to put the lasagne in the oven) and he did and put it on broil! Detailed HANDWRITTEN instructions is what you need and just hope they can read your writing!

    So happy you had a Merry Christmas your gifts sounded wonderful - love the mug cozies

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  6. Love the gift ideas and wouldn't be a holiday with out so kind of problem with dinner now would it.
    Glad it was a good one.
    cathy

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  7. Glad you had a lovely Christmas and nothing is ever perfect but becomes a story later on! Just starting to snow here as we are getting that Nor'easter which just blew through NY city. We had a green Christmas which is very unusual, and rain coming tomorrow on top of the snow..yuck!

    Love the gift ideas!

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  8. Yep, men need details. tell them exactly, or it doesn't get done. I'm sure the time waiting gave you all more time to gather and relax. And of course they tasted extra great this year. They were meant too! Your gifts were very sweet, and thoughtful...

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  9. Belated birthday and Christmas wishes to you, Cathy. Christmas dinner sounds absolutely delicious. What's in store for New Year's Eve?

    Sarah

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  10. Men definitely need detail instructions otherwise they tend to do an incomplete job. But on the other hand, some time the directions are wrong.

    My son in law was cooking the turkey dinner this Christmas and we were invited over, and the supper was to be ready at 6:30 pm. Knowing my son in law's timing, I added on an extra half hour and figured that the turkey would be ready around 7:00 o'clock.

    He was using the revised edition of The Joy of Cooking and he followed the direction on how long to cook the turkey per pounds but timing was way off and we sat down to the most delicious turkey supper at exactly 9:00 pm. Luckily we had a lot of wine and I took along a big bottle of my Gewurzt and a good time was had by all.

    You were with family and that was time well spent. Hugs, JB

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  11. Cathy ~
    Are you laughing yet?
    What thoughtful gifts. I love the coasters.
    Hugs :)
    Lauren

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  12. OH my forgive me but I had to laugh just a little at the mash potatoe story because I can just see that happening too. You would think the one that peeled them would of cooked them but hey I am just a friend looking at it from my way of thinking. hahaha
    Glad you had such a nice day. Made me hungry actually reading this post.
    Hope you have a very Happy New Year and I am looking forward to getting to know you even better this new year
    Love
    Maggie

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