Jeep Clean-Up

My Jeep has not started in....months. It hasn't run in....years. It makes me very sad.

It sits. And rusts.

And sits.

The problem is electrical. Though I don't know exactly what is going on with it, I suspect there is a bad ground somewhere. (And right now, no battery...see below)

Something that is only going to be found with careful, patient searching.

The engine compartment is filthy. Mud, dirt, dust, leaking fluids, rust, etc.

So I'm thinking the best way to start this is to go through piece by piece and clean this thing up.

It's turning into restoration-level cleaning. Everything is dirty, so everything is going to be cleaned.

And it makes me happy. The potential.

There is some hope for my car.

As filthy as it may be now.

We had a warm enough day here to get some cleaning done on it. Now, it's been too cold to think about doing this...

 Some steel wool was a good start on this....

It was quite filthy. Rusty. Dirty.











You couldn't even read the warnings on it! Oh no! (Don't get your brake fluid dirty, is basically what it says)

Unless you want to clog the line and no longer have breaks.

But I'd have to have a moving car to worry too much about that, wouldn't I?

Progress.

You can see here (above) the corner I've started working from. The plan is to work from the front driver's side corner back and over.

The passenger side is a good example of how filthy the whole thing was to begin with.

Even the radiator needs cleaned, look at those deposits. Good sign.

I have a lot of work left to do.

But it's a start, and at this point that's all I can ask for.

And that I follow through with it.

4th of July Rice Krispie Treats

I can't believe it's already July! But it is, and the 4th has come and gone, and now it's the following weekend already!

I made these star Rice Krispie Treats for the holiday, and apparently my junk food junkie doesn't want to try Rice Krispie Treats. He doesn't know what he's missing.

There seems to be some kind of malfunction with my camera. Repeatedly I've uploaded photos only to find that several are missing. The scary part is that if it weren't for blogging and knowing that I took photos of certain steps, I wouldn't know the photos were missing. So what photos of the kids and life have gone missing that I don't know about? I'm thinking the malfunction has something to do with having a toddler in the house, but I'll have to pay closer attention to the button pressing and see.

Although Rice Krispie Treats are fairly simple and I've already posted about them before, I took photos of all the steps I took. The following is what remains of my photos, most are gone.

I melted the marshmallows and added the 6 cups of Rice Krispie Cereal.

Then stirred it together. I love this texture, but it is fleeting. The gooey marshmallow strings between the cereal. It's soft and pliable and delicious.

Here, for some extra patriotism I added red and blue sprinkles to the mix. I used what I had on hand which were the sugar frosting type ones, not the big ones which would have likely been more visible. Then, I greased a pan with butter and pressed the mixture into it, trying to make it level.

A regular ol' star shaped cookie cutter helped me with the stars. I ended up with weird left over shapes, perfect for "testing".

I hope you had a great 4th, we did! The summer is flying by!!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

In preparation for an upcoming field trip in my Geology course, I've made some yummy cookies!

Unforunately for us, the yummy ones are the chocolate chip ones, not these particular oatmeal cookies tonight.

You see, I forgot my leavening agent. At least that's the best I can figure.

It happens to all of us sometimes.

More often here than it used to...I can't seem to get my head on straight when following a recipe anymore.

Anyway, a few months back I found this recipe, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen, and bookmarked it. I've just now gotten around to photographing (some of) the process.

Dry ingredients. Mix 'em up...

I used Penzeys Vietnamese Cinnamon. It has an intense scent to it. Delicious, more than just regular Cinnamon.

The following is why I decided not to double the recipe:

Butter. I doubled the chocolate chip recipe, which originally called for a stick of butter itself. I couldn't accept using 4 sticks of butter in one evening for cookies. (Now that I know I ended up with granola bars instead of cookies, I'm glad I didn't double!)

Then an egg. I'm skipping a few steps.

Mixin' mixin'.

Here's my little secret: extra sugar. I added about 1/6 of a cup of plain white sugar, always do and probably always will. It's a family tradition.

But the real stars of the show:

Another secret: I think oats are beautiful. Anyone else? They're gorgeous. I guess it's because of their life-giving abilities. Energy. Yum.

One-and-one-half cups.

Stir 'em in...but I only stirred a little bit here, saving energy for the raisins.

Aidan's favorite!

But, without baking soda, they're just chewy pancakes.

The last few times I've made these I've used self-rising flour and omitted the soda. They turned out beautifully. They also freeze well. According to SK the colder they are the thicker they are...haven't made them enough to test that yet though.


By the way, the intense photos, that's thanks to the Pioneer Woman's Photoshop Actions. I finally messed around with them enough to get things working. After learning a few useful Photoshop tricks myself.