Get Ready!
It’s Coming soon so Get Ready!
New Store
Getting Set to Take Off This Week!
Keep Your Eyes Out!
Make your home a Haven
More Details to come!
Somethings Coming!
Coming Soon
I told you there’d be more info coming. There’s so much to do to get ready. I keep thinking of more and more details that have to be addressed before I can make the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. But I am really excited and , truth time, kind of scared. I’ve dabbled with self employment in the past. The biggest attempt was 7 years with my own Arthur Murray Dance Studio. That was both the best and worst of times as the saying goes. In the end I had to sell at a loss. Long story and one I don’t feel like sharing today.
I’ve tried other things too from selling Mary Kay Cosmetics to candles, most recently Door Dash, with varying degrees of success.
A year or so before I was laid off at Redfin I took a e-commerce course online. It was expensive but it went into a lot of detail and I felt I got my money’s worth until I got to the last unit. The question for that chapter was What are you going to sell? But it didn’t give any guidance as to how to find a product. So after all the time effort and expense, that course didn’t get me where I wanted to go.
E-Commerce
Since I’ve been retired I’ve kept hearing about e-commerce so I’ve been digging into that. How can your average Joe make money online? One way is to order a bunch of products, lets say T-Shirts with sayings. Have a bunch printed and send them to Amazon who will warehouse them and fill your orders. That had me wondering how much do I order, how many different sayings and what sizes? I’ve met people that have done it but it’s a lot of work and when starting up a lot of it is guesswork.
An Online Store
Recently I came across several testimonials from people that were running online businesses without having to purchase their product stock up front. So I started researching. Now I’m finally ready to share what I’ve been working on even if I’m not ready for the BIG REVEAL.
I’m planning an online store. I’m working on the web design now and selecting the products I want to offer. I bit the bullet and hired and advertising company to put together a small (its all I could afford) campaign for the grand opening. After all, if no one can find my store I won’t get any sales.
I’m planning a Home Goods store to start out. I expect the store will evolve as we go along. I have a name and I think we’re headed into the home stretch. A couple more weeks and I can unveil the site and open my doors. So stay tuned for more info as I get closer to launch.
Banner’s Another Year Older
Banner’s Birthday
Well my, my, my. Hard to believe my orange baby is 5 years old already. Happy Birthday Banner! Actually his birthday was June 6 but as usual I’m a little behind.
Roadkill
This is Banner’s imitation of road kill. He’s as flat to the floor as he can get. Look at his little legs all squished down.
Bag Boy
“Bag Boy, Bag Boy, what you going to do? And what you going to do when they come for you?”
All Banner wanted for his birthday was a paper bag so he could hide. Right? You really can’t see him at all! Please don’t tell him different. I’m sure he’d be crushed. If so Chewy sent him a 30% off discount coupon for a new toy. I’m sure that will help offset any disappointment that his bag isn’t really hiding him.
In Other News
I mentioned that I was a bit delayed with this post. That’s because I’ve been working on a new project. Yes once again I am trying to stretch my entrepreneurial muscles and we all know how that’s gone in the past. Still hope springs eternal so at my advanced age I am going to give it one more try. I want to have the project a little more along before I make the GRAND ANNOUNCEMENT. But you will hear it soon if all goes well. Stay tuned!
I’m very excited and hope you will be too!
Popovers
Popovers
The first Popover I ever ate was at Anthony’s Pier 4 restaurant.
Anthony’s Pier 4
Once I had one of these piping hot pastries I was hooked. I’d go to lunch at Anthony’s any time I could get an invitation. Served piping hot from the oven theses tender puffed pastries are heaven. Sadly Anthony’s closed in 2013 so if I want to indulge I have no choice but to learn to make them myself!
What are These Tasty Treats
A popover is a light American pastry made from an egg batter similar to that of Yorkshire pudding, typically baked in muffin tins or dedicated popover pans, which have straight-walled sides rather than angled. Now I suppose you’ll ask me what a Yorkshire Pudding is. I can tell you it is not a pudding.
A Yorkshire Pudding is an English side dish that is made from a simple 4 ingredient batter and cooked in hot beef drippings (or oil) in the oven until puffed and crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It’s basically the English equivalent of a dinner roll in North America. Extremely similar to a popover
Where there’s smoke …
The first thing I did was order 2 popover pans from Amazon.
The 2nd thing was to research Popover recipes. They are all pretty similar and simple. Basically eggs, milk and flour.
The thing that gave me issues was that you need to put a pat of butter in the pan and then put the pan in a 400 degree oven. Butter has a low smoking point and I set off the smoke alarms every time. The popovers tasted great but the noise level was unacceptable. Maybe you can only make popovers in a commercial oven? Sadly I decided to retire my Popover pans.
A New Recipe
Then one day I stumbled over a new Popover Recipe. It even came with a video. The main difference is that you add the butter to the popover pan after they are hot so the butter melts but doesn’t sit in a hot oven so no smoke.
Ingredients
- 3 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 Cup Milk ( room temperature)
- 3 Tbsps. Oil ( Canola oil recommended)
- 1 Cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- While preparing batter spray popover pan with non-stick cooking spray and place in oven to heat.
- Whisk eggs, milk and oil together. Sift flour and add to egg mixture. Add Salt and beat mixture until smooth and free of any lumps.
- Remove Popover pan from oven and place a small bit of butter in each popover cup.
- Pour batter 3/4 of the way full in to each Popover Cup.
- Place filled pan into the 400 degree oven and bake for 30 minutes
- Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for additional 5-15 minutes (Keep an eye on your popovers)
- Popovers are done when they are a nice, golden brown.
- Serve hot with butter or jam or whatever you desire
Success!
I’m happy to report my Popovers were a complete success. I think I’ll be making them often now.
Popovers- photo by Deb Neumann
My Life is Ruled by Tiny Furry Overlords
My Furry Overlords
My cats are weird, You probably remember
they are named Banner (Orange cat) and Balboa ( Black Cat)
Banner & Balboa, Furry Overlords
They are much more dependent on me than I expected. Maybe because I adopted both as kittens they learned to rely on me for fun and play. They can’t seem to amuse themselves at all and worse, they hate when I am busy doing anything that does not include them! I have time for this post only because they are both sleeping right now
Last night I had to attend a condo meeting. It ran from 7 pm to close to 9pm. I don’t go out much at night but I was quite surprised to have both tiny terrors frantically running around my feet when I came in. Day trips for shopping and errands are hardly noticed I guess they don’t like being alone when its dark.
Banner hates to go to bed. He will be a quiet little gentleman all day but the minute I get in bed he starts to sing the song of his people…loudly. I have to get up and hold him, pet him and cuddle him or he doesn’t calm down. Balboa just wants to sleep with me. After frantically making biscuits on me for an hour. Is it any wonder I’m always tired?
Aside from keeping my “masters” Happy and content I’ve been following the news about Kilauea.
AP News-Kilauea Eruption
Photo from FB feed
She’s putting on quite the show these days. I wish I could take a trip to Hawaii to see it in person but I’m not sure I’d want to fly anywhere even if I could justify the expense. Seems like there is a plane crash or incident every week!
Well Balboa just got up and per usual he is trying to climb my leg. Man that hurts. Its amazing that he doesn’t draw blood! That means my writing time is over. so until I get another break, adios!