Add this game to your holiday wish list right now

This is our new favorite game and we think it could be your new favorite game too. Pandemic isn't only topical (Swine what?), but it's challenging, variable and, best of all, cooperative.

In Pandemic, you play CDC workers in a race to save the planet from four heinous disease. There are several unique roles for players to choose from. For instance, you could be the Medic who specializes in removing disease or you could be the Operations Specialist in charge of building research facilities. Players must coordinate a strategy using each of their strengths and try to find cures for the four diseases before time runs out.

While the base game is great, adding the expansion makes it oh-so-much cooler. For one thing, they add petri dishes to hold your disease cubes. A tiny thing, yes, but props like this enhance the feel of the game. The expansion also adds additional roles, special events and (insert villain music here) an optional bio-terrorist role for the player who wants to work against the team. The expansion includes new ways to make the game harder (just in case you find the basic game too easy) by adding virulent and mutated strains of the diseases.

Everyone from my 11-year-old niece up to my 70-year-old father loves this game and I highly recommend it as Good Family Fun. With the players working together as a team, everyone can share in the triumph of a victory or add their two-cents on what strategy might beat the game next time. We have found that even the base game is very replayable since the roles change from game to game and the pattern of the diseases is different each time.

Although the game is marketed for 2 to 4 players, we have played with a team of 5 (and lost by the skin of our teeth! Grr!) and noticed no breakdown in gameplay. Since it's cooperative, players younger than the suggested 10 can join in the fun, even if they're only moving their pieces around the board. You'll learn your geography with this one!

Pandemic Rundown

Number of Players: 2-4 for the base game, 2-5 with the expansion
Time To Play: 1 hour
Age Range: 10+
Theme: Science Disaster
Style: Cooperative resource management
Interesting mechanics: Cooperative play, Variable player powers, Multiple game variations, Action points
Expansions: Pandemic: On The Brink
Price tag: $35 for the base game and $30 for the expansion
Luck Factor: Moderate
Learning Curve: Easy to Moderate
Useful Links: Z-man Games, Boardgame Geek

Leftovers

15 people ate at my house last Thursday and even with everyone taking food home, we still have plenty of fixings for interesting leftovers. Leftovers are what make Thanksgiving extra fun.

My favorites include Turkey Croquettes, Leftover Pot Pie, Turkey Soup and Thanksgiving Sandwiches. This year there's a new dish to vie for a share in the leftovers - Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza. I wish I had grabbed a photo as it was coming out of the oven but, at the time, it was just too mouthwatering to wait a moment longer.

Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza
Your ingredients may vary depending on what you cooked for T-day.

• pizza dough (store bought or your favorite recipe, thicker crust is better)
• olive oil
  
• gravy
• tomato sauce
• mozzarella cheese
• turkey, cut into cubes
• stuffing
• mashed potato
• dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 400. Form your pizza dough into whatever shape pleases you and brush lightly with olive oil. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce and gravy onto the dough and top with cheese, turkey, crumbled stuffing, crumbled mashed potato, and dried cranberries. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Devour.

I guess I'm cleaning today

Buttercup was here.

Apple Butter & Jelly

I have a new favorite topping for my Cream of Wheat - homemade apple butter.

Mom and I got together last week and made a batch using her favorite recipe. Man, is it good. I'd love to make beautiful labels for the jars, but I don't think it's going to be around for very long.

Growing up, everyone liked the apple butter better than the jelly. Part of it was a texture thing but part of it was the spices. See, award-winning jelly is crystal clear, like a good consume. Once you add spices to the mix, it gets a little murky. Since I don't plan to enter it in any competitions, I say forget crystal clear! Go for taste.

You can't make apple butter without making jelly. Well, you could, but it would be terribly wasteful. I am not an expert canner by any means, but this is pretty easy to do and with all the sugar involved, it is one of the safer canning projects for the newbie. I recommend doing this project with a partner because it's much more fun to can when there are two and the yield from this recipe is so big that there is plenty to share.

Apple Jelly & Butter
Yields about 8 cups of jelly and 9.5 cups of butter

• 4 lbs fully ripe apples (I think the good old Macintosh is still the best choice for this)
• 6 1/2 lbs sugar
• 1 bottle fruit pectin (we use Certo which comes in foil bpouches these days. Use one pouch.)
• cinnamon
• allspice

Start by cleaning & sterilizing your canning jars. From the Ball website:

"There are specific instructions for selecting, cleaning, and preheating jars, lids and bands prior to use. Always refer to the manufacturer’s instructions. If they are not available, this general information will help. Select home canning jars that have no visible scratches, nicks, chips, or uneven rims. Examine lids to assure they are not scratched, have even and complete compound, and have not been used. Bands should be easy to slide on the jar, without any signs of warping or corrosion.

Wash jars, lids and bands in hot soapy water. Rinse well. Dry bands; set aside. Jars and lids must be preheated and kept hot until they are used. To preheat jars and lids, completely submerge them in water that has been brought to a simmer (about 180°F). They should remain at this temperature until they are used, removing one at a time as needed. DO NOT boil lids. If jars are used for any recipe that is processed less than 10 minutes, the jar must be sterilized. To sterilize jars, submerge jars in water and boil 10 minutes. (For altitudes higher than 1,000 feet above seal level, refer to Canning Basics.) Allow sterilized jars to remain at a simmering temperature until they are used."

Remove the blossom and stem ends from the apples. Cut into quarters. Do not peal or seed. If your apples are soft and very sweet, add 2 tbs lemon juice. Add 6-1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Mash the apples (a potato masher works fine) and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes.

Place pulp and liquid in a large sieve lined with a double thickness of cheesecloth (Mom actually uses a China cap with a muslin liner). Drain into a clean bowl and use 5 cups of juice to make the jelly. Use the remaining apple pulp and juice to make apple butter.

To Make Jelly: Combine 5 cups juice, 7-1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 tsp allspice and 1 tsp cinnamon in a very large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in a pouch of Certo (or your fruit pectin of choice). Bring to a full rolling boil and let boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, skim off foam with a metal spoon and pour into prepared jars. Cover with 1/8 inch of melted canning paraffin.

To Make Butter: Put fruit pulp through a fine mesh sieve or a food mill to remove skin and seeds. If you had juice remaining from making the jelly, add it to the strained pulp. Combine 5 cups of pulp, 7 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 tsp allspice and 1 tsp cinnamon into a large saucepan. Stir well to combine. Place over high heat and bring to a rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add 1 pouch of Certo. Skim off foam with a metal spoon. Stir and skim for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Ladle into prepared jars. Immediately cover with 1/8 inch melted canning paraffin.

A few notes
This recipe is a couple decades old at least and there have been updates and changes to the world of canning in that time. This jelly and butter hasn't killed any of us yet, but you may want to consider the following note on a current recipe for jam:

"Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with 2-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. (Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.) Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 10 minutes. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. (If lid springs back, lid is not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.)"

I am still a n00b canner, so if using paraffin instead of the boiling water method makes you nervous, you could give your local Extension Office a call and see if they can put you in touch with someone in the know. If I understand correctly, as long as the wax is at least 1/8" thick and it touches all sides of the glass, your jelly should be fine.

I'd love to give this recipe a try with fresh Bosc or Comice pears. Their flavor is so sweet and the flesh is buttery smooth, I bet it would be quite tasty.

Finally, Ball (one of the big canning jar manufacturers) has a line of jars called Collection Elite Jars which have a wider mouth and a lower profile than the traditional jars. I really like the styling and I think I'll switch over next year.

Sparkling Acorn Napkin Ties

Thanksgiving gets a bit of a raw deal when it comes to crafts and decorations. Falling between Halloween and Christmas, it never really had much of a chance at my house anyway. Besides, T-day is all about the food and the family.

I did manage to squeak out one new project before the feast begins. I made napkin ties for 17 from stuff found in the yard and down in my Lair (They set me up with this gorgeous lair!)

This project is a tutorial hack based on the Harvest Napkin Ties that Martha has on her site. I tweaked them a little with gold paint, glitter and beads and there are a lot of variations that could be created by changing the embellishments.

Tools & Bits for 1 Tie

• 2 whole acorns with caps
• metallic gold spray paint (I used Krylon General Purpose Metallic, Gold)
• needle nose pliers
  
• craft knife
  
• Dremel or pin vice and drill bit
• white craft glue
• gold glitter (I used Martha's Fine Glitter, Gold)
• 12" piece of 1/8" satin ribbon, brown or a fall color of your choice
• 12" piece of 1/8" satin ribbon, gold or a fall color of your choice
• package of crimp covers (I used Beadalon's Gold Crimp Cover Variety Pack)
• 2 small gold beads (I used Blue Moon's Gold Rondel Spacer Beads)
  
• hot glue gun
  

Start by making sure your acorns are clean and completely dry. If the caps are attached, leave them attached. Following the directions for your paint, spray paint the acorns gold. This may take two or three passes as the paint dries and the acorn gets turned. When the paint is dry, carefully remove the cap. It is worth noting that painting extra caps just in case one breaks is not a bad idea. Some caps will just pop off. Others need gentle encouragement from pliers or a craft knife.

Special Note: Keep your caps with your acorns! It's not hard to figure out which cap goes with which acorn when there are only two. It's much harder if you're trying to match 30 loose caps with their acorns. If you need to make a bunch of these I suggest using a muffin tin and some paper cup liners to keep each pair of acorns with their respective caps. The paper liners are also great for catching glitter and returning the excess to the jar.

Using the pliers, break off any remaining stem on the cap. Drill a hole in the top of the acorn caps just large enough to get a ribbon through. A pin vice is a great tool for drilling holes in small or delicate things, but if you're doing a bunch, go with the Dremel. I held the acorn cap with the pliers when drilling with the Dremel so that I didn't accidentally mangle my fingers.

Brush a thin layer of white glue over the top of the cap and sprinkle liberally with glitter. When the glue is dried, shake off the excess glitter.

Put the two strands of satin ribbon together and fold them in half to find the center. Use a small (3mm) crimp cover to hold the two ribbons together at the center point. This keeps your guests from misplacing the non-embellished ribbon.

String a gold bead onto one end of your ribbon and then thread the ribbon through a glittered acorn cap. Use hot glue to attach the cap back on the acorn. Repeat this process for the other side. Trim any ribbon that sticks out from under the cap with your craft knife.

Finish off the napkin tie by taking two of the 4mm crimp covers and squeezing them shut over the ribbon in such a way that the bead stays snug to the acorn cap. Tie around your rolled up napkins and enjoy!

Variations to consider:

• Separate the caps from the acorns. Paint the caps a metallic brown and the acorns a metallic green.
• Use glitter on the tops and the acorns. If doing brown tops with green acorns, use the appropriate color glitter.
• Paint your acorns black or white. Paint tiny pictures on them or write the name of someone on your guest list and use the acorns as seating cards.
• Use microbeads instead of glitter.
• Use glass beads instead of metallic beads. String more than one onto the ribbon.
• Decorate the second ribbon with extra beads.
  

Cranberry Ginger Punch

There's a sad phenomena that happens in November - all my favorite blogs go dark. Gardening begins to wind down across the country. Crafters are busy working on their projects for the holidays. Everyone else seems to be involved with NaNoWriMo.

While I'm not doing NaNo this year, my garden has been put to bed (may next year be bountiful) and I am spending all of my free time getting my gifts ready for Christmas. The projects are fun but they don't make it easy to keep up with my blogging. I'm one of those sickies that love every moment of holiday prep but sometimes I just need a brief pause. For me, this break usually comes around the fourth time I've pulled out a seam or a row of knitting because I've done it wrong once again.

Time for a cocktail.

Now, I'm not much of a drinker - a glass of wine for my anniversary, a beer on my birthday, some Port with a good friend who's home on leave from Iraq - is about the extent of my alcohol consumption. I'm just fascinated with cocktails though. I love the tools and the glasswear and the accessories and the combinations of ingredients that make a fancy drink... well, fancy. Mixed drinks have become one of my new loves and even though I rarely use any alcohol, I get all of the flair with none of the hangovers.

My current favorite is Cider, Cranberry, and Ginger Punch from Martha. She adds gin to hers but I love this combination without it. It's very fall and I'm now on the lookout at my local thrift stores for the perfect punch cups to serve it in.

Cider, Cranberry, & Ginger Punch

• 1/3 cup fresh cranberries
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 cups fresh apple cider
• 2/3 cup chilled ginger beer
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Muddle cranberries with sugar in a pitcher. Add apple cider, ginger beer, and lemon juice. Serve chilled.

I had to do some research into muddling. Basically, its the process of smashing up ingredients (in this case the sugar and cranberries) before adding the liquid. It helps disolve the sugar and release the juice from the cranberries.

Ginger beer can be tricky to find unless you know where to look. I've seen it in the soda aisle at my local grocery store but more frequently I find it in the natural foods section. I used ginger ale in a pinch, but have found that the flavor has a bit more zip with the ginger beer. I don't recommend substituting unless you have no other option.

Halloween Roundup

Well, we managed to survive Halloween and enjoy ourselves. Of course, it helps that I love making stuff so what seemed like stressed out insanity to some folks was actually a cracking good time to me.

We had an unknown problem with the camera, so I'm afraid my photos are slightly blurry. We were supposed to dress up and retake pictures yesterday. Instead, we finished stacking the rest of the green wood and called it a day. Maybe next week. I'd like to put up some costume hack pages to help people come up with their own Hogwarts-inspired costumes.

Since Husband was working on Saturday, I managed to talk my sister into wearing a costume. I gave her a choice and she opted for Hagrid. I'm so glad she did because she looked great. Totally unrecognizable. Vindication for my work came from the 4 or 5 trick-or-treating kids that said "Look Mommy! Hagrid!" Oh yeah. That made my day.

My niece, Athena, looked great in her dragonkeeper costume, which fit. No small feat considering she hadn't tried any of it on beforehand. My one regret for her costume was that I opted for goggles and an aviator hat design. I was thinking, "Well, you may have to fly on a dragon, so you need gear for that". What I didn't anticipate was Hillary Swank's new movie Amelia. Everywhere we went, we heard "Oooh! It's Amelia Earhart!" Athena got a little cranky by the end. Gone are the days when you can wear a custom content costume, I suppose.

In all the rush to get costumes finished, I couldn't help but add a trick-or-treat bag to the mix. The pattern came from The Sometimes Crafter which I altered slightly to make it my own. The inside is a fabulous orange/green/purple/black stripe - very Tim Burton - and the bottom fabric with the bats has glitter. Despite looking small (especially compared to the pillowcases some of the older kids were lugging around), it holds a surprising amount of candy. Thank you Christina!

Every year at the store, we hold a costume party and pinata bashing. Every year, I take a poll for what next year's pinata should be. This year, they told me to bring them the head of Jar Jar Binks. For those of you not in touch with the geek community, Jar Jar Binks is the much loathed oaf from Episode 1 of Star Wars. I think he came out rather nicely, don't you?

Now that I've had a few days to rest, it's time to start the crafting machine back up to get ready for Christmas. Since family members occasionally read this blog (hi Mom!), I'll have to share those projects with you after the holiday. In the meantime, November is all about food for me. I adore Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for recipes and (in the spirit of the much hated "reality" TV) news about my two current love affairs. Not at all sordid, but very delicious!