More Icy Goodness

This is my back yard just this last summer

Same back yard - slightly different angle

The tree that bends, does not break

I still had some greenery left.

I just liked this -

I've smacked my head on this branch every morning since the freeze.

I hope you're staying warm where ever you are.

A much deserved rest.

For the last post of the year (until Jan. 5) I thought I'd let you all in on why this is called Totally Tattoo'd Mother.

This is blurry, but it's my wedding ring.

This is my "Pain in the neck" ;-)

Lower back area - Soon to be a family tree for my daughter.

The top half of the above picture. It might have helped if I had had help taking the pics. but you're stuck with what I could accomplish myself.

There is a phoenix on my calf, and a really poor shot of the flower with my name on my foot. See below for better shots.

What kind of tattoos, if any, do you have?

Also - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Winter is GREAT!

We are having a small ice storm here, and between the power lines and the trees falling down, our county has lost 50% power. Yay!

The trees and grasses are beautiful. The cars, not so much. While I was scraping my winshield this morning, I put a hairline crack all the way across it. Go me!

So That is my post for today. Hope your winter isn't so exciting. I'm going back to work now. Have Fun.

Oil Love

Yeah, don't get excited. I'm gonna tell you how to make the most yummy oil to cook with or give away as a gift (or both like me).

1st - get some clear bottles with a good lid - maybe like this with this

Once you have your bottles you'll need to sanitize them. This can be done with your dishwasher. If you don't have a dishwasher pour boiling water down into the bottle, while it is sitting in a sink of hot water (this way the bottle won't break from the shock). Then dry well (a hair drier will work well for this).

Now you'll need different herbs and spices for a variety of oils - here are a couple of options. (Feel free to substitute or add extras)

Herb Oil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Thyme - 3-4 stalks
Rosemary - 1 nice stalk (6-10 inches long)
Garlic - 5-6 cloves sliced
Whole Pepper Corns (black or various colors is fine) - 2 Tbs
Salt - 1 Tbs for a large-ish bottle (16 oz or more) less for a smaller bottle.

OR

Hot Oil
Any kind of Vegetable Oil (the flavor of the oil won't matter too much)
Dried Chiles - 10-15 whole chiles - or - 1/2 cup crushed
Pepper Corns - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 8-10 cloves sliced
Salt - 1 Tbs for a large-ish bottle (16 oz or more) less for a smaller bottle
Sun Dried Tomatoes - 3-4 pieces (dry packed)
Thyme - 2-3 stalks

For either of these you'll need enough oil to fill the bottle you've chosen.

Okay now for the part that makes your house smell good...

For either of the oils, pour the oil into a pan that will hold everything. Heat the oil until it starts to shimmer. Put the herbs and garlic in first and let those fry? for 2 minutes or so, until the garlic gets a small amount of color (maybe kind of yellowish?). Then pull out the herbs and garlic and add everything else. Tongs work much better than fingers for this step. This step is where the oils differ, for the Herb Oil let the pepper corns go for maybe 2 minutes. But let the Hot Oil go for about 8-10 minutes. This way it will have a good heat.

Now strain these into your bottle and cork the hole (with whatever you have chosen). Once the bottle has cooled (wouldn't want to burn your fingers), wash the outside so there is no oily residue.

You can use these for a number of things. The Herb Oil is really nice to put on a pizza crust before you bake it, or use with some balsamic for your salad dressing. And the Hot Oil does really nice things for soup. Just sear your meat in the oil and go from there.

Note - If you give these away, make sure you label them. Wouldn't want anyone to get a hot mouth from their salad or anything like that. *evil laugh here*

This says it all

I don't know how she got this so right, but this is me...



Here are the lyrics:

I say I'll move the mountains
And I'll move the mountains
If he wants them out of the way
Crazy, he calls me
Sure, I'm crazy
Crazy in love, I say

I say I'll go through fire
And I'll go through fire
How he wants it, so it will be
Crazy, he calls me
Sure, I'm crazy
Crazy in love, you see

Like the leaf that shakes the bough
He moves me with just a little smile
The difficult I'm gonna do right now
Oh, but the impossible that's gonna take a little while
I say I'll care forever
And I mean forever
If I have to hold up the sky
Crazy, he calls me
Sure, I'm crazy
But crazy in love am I

Like the leaf that shakes the bough
He moves me with a smile
The difficult I'm gonna do right now
But the impossible that's gonna take a little while
I say I'll care forever
And I mean forever
If I have to hold up the sky
Crazy, he calls me
Sure, I'm crazy
But crazy in love am I

This isn't quite the version I wanted but I can't find Billie Holiday's version. And the only difference, really is that the wind should shake the bough, but this wonderful version is the closest to Billie's I can find.

Yay, it's Thurdsday!

Let's get down to it. I had a wrong side of the bed day yesterday and I'm ready to drink. So, what do you say we pull a chair up to the bar and hit that good lookin' bartender up for a drink?!?



I'm not even in the mood for a book so we'll just skip right to the drinking!



Since it's cold up here, we'll go for my favorite evening warm up: Godiva Cocoa



You'll need your favorite cocoa mix (just one packet)
3/4 cup Water (maybe)
1/2 cup Milk
2 oz Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
1 tsp Vanilla
Ginger
All Spice
Mini Marshmallows



I know it looks like a lot of ingredients for some cocoa, but it's really worth it. We're doing all of this in the pan, so don't pour into a cup till I say. So you'll need to follow the directions on your cocoa, but only use 3/4 of the liquid it calls for (for some cocoas you might not need water at all). Now, most cocoas are going to make 8 oz so we'll add 1/2 cup milk and 2 oz Liqueur, sprinkle a little ginger & all spice. Whisk these together and let simmer for a moment. Get your favorite mug and drop a handful of marshmallows in. Pour the cocoa mixture over the top of these.

This is so delicious. Also, I guess it would work with any steamy romance novel. That way you'll warm up in all kinds of ways.

Enjoy!

Missing you...

Thirsty Thursday

Okay, I'm sure this is already out there on some other blog, but dude, I swear I just thought about using it last night. If some one has already trade marked it, I'm sorry. If not... Yay me!

So, here goes. If I can remember, I'll be putting up drink recipes that may or may not go along nicely with a book. Since I am very blonde and also a woman I reserve the right to change this as I go along to suit my own whims. *grins*

We're going to start with Patricia Cornwell and any of the Kay Scarpetta books;

It's my recommendation that when you read one of these books, you should be drinking wine. Now my own personal choice would be a White Zinfandale (I like Beringer's), but I think a full bodied red would be more along Ms. Cornwell's taste.

Holy Crap!!!

I'd like to say I had a really relaxing and pleasant holiday weekend (4 whole days!) I would, however, sort of be lying. It has been a tradition in Jonez's family to go out and shop on Black Friday since before I was adopted in. Now, I'll admit the first year I was intrigued... What is this Black Friday, and how does one go about it??? Yeah. Just in case anyone out there is as naive as I was way back when (11 years ago). Unless you are well prepared, prepare to go down.

I have never witnessed any tragedies (for this I am VERY grateful), however, I have witnessed many acts of rudeness (I'm talkin to you line cutters, pushers & shovers) complete & outright Bitchery (yeah, that's you, stealer out of cart lady), and strangely enough some real kindness (thanks for the use of your phone, unknown lady, when forgot mine).

But this year has to take the cake... instead of going out all early on Friday, we decided to be really stupid and go out on Thursday night. Um... can I just say Holy Crap again?!? So we all (there was 6 of us) piled into a mini van at 11pm on Thursday to go to the outlet mall 70 miles North of us for their Midnight Sale. Kripes! That was nuts. We almost managed to run this guy over in a parking lot cause he just ran right out in front of us. Then we had to wait in line out side The Children's Place because they were too full. There was a woman out shopping who thought it was a wonderful idea to bring her 2 month old along. And some really grumpy pizzeria owners (to be fair we did go in just to use the restroom). And that was just the first place we went.

We spent enough time up there and driving that when we got back to town we were right on time to get to all the 4 o'clock openings (yeah, we didn't really have a plan, totally flying by the seat and all that stuff). So like some geniuses we went to Kohl's (don't do this without a map, list & several friends) and got stuck in line for like an hour (probably only 20 minutes but still - Time Is Money People!) Then we went to Meijer and shopped like we had all the time in the world (by this time it was like 7 and we still had loads more places to go). We left Meijer and decided to break for breakfast... mmm... Then we thought Menard's would be a good spot cause they had been open for a while and should be quieter... yeah I think everyone else had that same idea. That was the idea from hell I tell you. We almost wrecked into like three different people who wouldn't stop long enough to let us get out of their way. Aghhhhh. So we left and went to the South (insert your own scary sound effect here) side of town - also where we were all from anyway (duh some times we can be so slow) and poof... every one was nicer, and dude it was way calmer. So we hit Menard's, Walmart & K-Mart all in like 3? hours, maybe? I don't remember, by then we were laughing at shadows, at one point we almost hit a racoon, a deer & a bear (yeah, the bear was a bush & mailbox but that doesn't mean we didn't see a bear) all in like a mile long stretch of road.

Then we went for the big finish at Darlington Farms (no website, but they're a place where you can get all of those things in the fundraisers your kids bring home for $1.39 each). We finally got home at 1pm on Friday, tired & happy. with a whole bunch of crap!

Also for anyone who read this all the way through, go see this, it's a super fun game (all four chapters).