Every child on earth is holy
Every crib is a managaer lowly,
Every home is a stable dim
Every town is a Bethlehem,
Every star is God's own Gem &
every kind word is a hymn,
For Christ is born, born again,
When God's love lives in the hearts of men.
Author unknown
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Too true . . . !
"Everybody hates me because I'm so universally liked."
-- Peter de Vries
"As a matter of principle, I never attend the first annual anything."
-- George Carlin
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
-- Douglas Adams
"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B."
-- Fats Domino
-- Peter de Vries
"As a matter of principle, I never attend the first annual anything."
-- George Carlin
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
-- Douglas Adams
"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B."
-- Fats Domino
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Sugar rush . . .
After a day of candy making, I'm surprised I can even thing sugar much less be eating a piece of said product even as I type. What can I say? I make quick recoveries! I usually go with baking for Christmas (as I did recently), but decided to try a few interesting candy recipes I ran across. For the most part, they were pretty successful. I found out, however, that trusting my instincts still works best!
I found an easy recipe for chocolate truffles. I elaborated on the basic chocolate ingredients with orange zest and extract. The vanilla extract enhanced the flavors nicely. A quick test taste promised a good outcome. The recipe said to put the mixture into the refrigerator for at least three hours then form into small balls and roll in ground nuts and such. Great! I made this one first and went about my other recipes.
At the designated time, I got my bowl of truffle mixture out of the refrigerator and it was ROCK solid. Okay, I thought, I'll let it reach room temperature. Two hours later, it was ROCK solid. I finished off my other candy projects and took to the bowl of chocolate with a wooden spoon. It WAS my favorite wooden spoon and will be sorely missed!
Giving up on a seemingly hopeless mess, I ran hot water into the bowl and let it set while I cleaned up the kitchen. Guess what? It was still ROCK solid. I left it soaking overnight and it has now been over 18 hours later and it still resides in the sink with no intention of going away. I hate truffles!
On the bright side, I ended up with a great assortment of candy to gift. Even better, I managed to find all but one recipient at home to gift with the candy. Anyone interested in some easy but tasty candy recipes, I can post them here or on my other Blog - College Cusine.
Successful reciped enacted yesterday were:
Crispy Peanut Butter balls dipped in chocolate.
White Peppermint Cups
White Almond Cups
Cookie Dough Filled Chocolates
Walnut/Date/Cherry Filled Chocolates
White Chocolate Crispy Cups
I found an easy recipe for chocolate truffles. I elaborated on the basic chocolate ingredients with orange zest and extract. The vanilla extract enhanced the flavors nicely. A quick test taste promised a good outcome. The recipe said to put the mixture into the refrigerator for at least three hours then form into small balls and roll in ground nuts and such. Great! I made this one first and went about my other recipes.
At the designated time, I got my bowl of truffle mixture out of the refrigerator and it was ROCK solid. Okay, I thought, I'll let it reach room temperature. Two hours later, it was ROCK solid. I finished off my other candy projects and took to the bowl of chocolate with a wooden spoon. It WAS my favorite wooden spoon and will be sorely missed!
Giving up on a seemingly hopeless mess, I ran hot water into the bowl and let it set while I cleaned up the kitchen. Guess what? It was still ROCK solid. I left it soaking overnight and it has now been over 18 hours later and it still resides in the sink with no intention of going away. I hate truffles!
On the bright side, I ended up with a great assortment of candy to gift. Even better, I managed to find all but one recipient at home to gift with the candy. Anyone interested in some easy but tasty candy recipes, I can post them here or on my other Blog - College Cusine.
Successful reciped enacted yesterday were:
Crispy Peanut Butter balls dipped in chocolate.
White Peppermint Cups
White Almond Cups
Cookie Dough Filled Chocolates
Walnut/Date/Cherry Filled Chocolates
White Chocolate Crispy Cups
Friday, December 11, 2009
Man, that global warming is sure cold and wet . . .
According to REAL scientific facts and not the made up, forced conclusions of Al Gore and company, the last time there was a temperature change out of the ordinary was in 1998 and it was minimal. I always enjoy rainy, cold weather as it makes all the global summits on this 'warming' trend a bit amusing. Besides, what kind of carbon footprint did they all leave by flying into the current one in their private jets, etc.? If they let God be in charge, more would be right with the world.
Lots of sunny, California rain today. I promised myself during the last rain storm earlier in the week that I would remember to find that tin pan under the eaves that makes a delightful noise during the rain . . . in the middle of the night . . . when I would like to sleep!
Not complaining as my older daughter has taken up ice slipping for a hobby this week. The storm that hit California went on to Kansas and surrounding areas leaving them with snow and icy paths. Her record, yesterday, was five falls on the black ice and she added another one when she was talking to me on her way back to the dorm.
In spite of the dark, rainy forecast, I'm thinking about making dinner that requires long and hot use of the oven today, probably vegetable cheese pizza on a whole wheat crust. We don't use our central air so savor any activity that includes the use of the oven these days!
Just to brighten the gloomy day, here are some quotes that hit a bit too close to the truth!
"Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff."
-- Frank Zappa
"Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago."
-- Bernard Berenson
"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing."
-- Redd Foxx
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
-- Mark Twain
Lots of sunny, California rain today. I promised myself during the last rain storm earlier in the week that I would remember to find that tin pan under the eaves that makes a delightful noise during the rain . . . in the middle of the night . . . when I would like to sleep!
Not complaining as my older daughter has taken up ice slipping for a hobby this week. The storm that hit California went on to Kansas and surrounding areas leaving them with snow and icy paths. Her record, yesterday, was five falls on the black ice and she added another one when she was talking to me on her way back to the dorm.
In spite of the dark, rainy forecast, I'm thinking about making dinner that requires long and hot use of the oven today, probably vegetable cheese pizza on a whole wheat crust. We don't use our central air so savor any activity that includes the use of the oven these days!
Just to brighten the gloomy day, here are some quotes that hit a bit too close to the truth!
"Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff."
-- Frank Zappa
"Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago."
-- Bernard Berenson
"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing."
-- Redd Foxx
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
-- Mark Twain
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Christmas is coming . . .!
Rain, rain, and then some more rain yesterday! Our dogs took the rain as a personal affront but I decided it would make a great day for Christmas baking.
My early baking days (way back in the stone age of my youth!), often left the kitchen in complete shambles. The product result of those days was quite good but my baking time seeped into fixing dinner time and some of the ho, ho, ho went out of the holidays when hungry children and husband wanted something more than another cookie for dinner.
Old age has a few compensations! I've discovered organization and my baking shows the improvement. I actually got seven batches of cookies baked, iced, and packed away with time to spare. My one secret to getting a jump on the baking is to bake the brownies first. They take one pan and while they are doing their 20-minute time in the oven, I have time to mix up another batch of bar cookies. After that, comes the molded cookies likes snow ball cookies. Once the bulk of the baking is either under way or done, I get to think about more labor intensive types. At the close of baking, yesterday, I just has a few dishes left to wash (no dishwasher at our house) and an hour to work on some crocheting projects. Dinner was on time and it was definitely a nice beginning of the season. The end results of my cookie baking was white and chocolate chip cookies, almond snowball cookies, chocolate/cherry/nut cocoa snowball cookies, Snickerdoodles, brownies, date bars, Amish Sugar cookies.
Plates of cookies were distributed to friends today and the exclamation from one friend, "Oh, I'm so happy! Snowball cookies, my favorite!" made it all worthwhile.
Anyone interested in any of my recipes, please let me know and I'll post it. Anyone having a family favorite to share, please let us know and share.
A word to the wise . . . For the best (in my opinion!) spices, flavorings, and extracts, check out, on-line, Cook's Vanilla, Penzy Spices, and Spices, Etc. Did you know there is more than one kind of vanilla? Or, that cinnamon comes in different strengths and flavors?
My early baking days (way back in the stone age of my youth!), often left the kitchen in complete shambles. The product result of those days was quite good but my baking time seeped into fixing dinner time and some of the ho, ho, ho went out of the holidays when hungry children and husband wanted something more than another cookie for dinner.
Old age has a few compensations! I've discovered organization and my baking shows the improvement. I actually got seven batches of cookies baked, iced, and packed away with time to spare. My one secret to getting a jump on the baking is to bake the brownies first. They take one pan and while they are doing their 20-minute time in the oven, I have time to mix up another batch of bar cookies. After that, comes the molded cookies likes snow ball cookies. Once the bulk of the baking is either under way or done, I get to think about more labor intensive types. At the close of baking, yesterday, I just has a few dishes left to wash (no dishwasher at our house) and an hour to work on some crocheting projects. Dinner was on time and it was definitely a nice beginning of the season. The end results of my cookie baking was white and chocolate chip cookies, almond snowball cookies, chocolate/cherry/nut cocoa snowball cookies, Snickerdoodles, brownies, date bars, Amish Sugar cookies.
Plates of cookies were distributed to friends today and the exclamation from one friend, "Oh, I'm so happy! Snowball cookies, my favorite!" made it all worthwhile.
Anyone interested in any of my recipes, please let me know and I'll post it. Anyone having a family favorite to share, please let us know and share.
A word to the wise . . . For the best (in my opinion!) spices, flavorings, and extracts, check out, on-line, Cook's Vanilla, Penzy Spices, and Spices, Etc. Did you know there is more than one kind of vanilla? Or, that cinnamon comes in different strengths and flavors?
Friday, December 4, 2009
Words of Wisdom . . .!
"Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know."
-- Cullen Hightower
"Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others."
-- Samuel Johnson
"An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today."
-- Laurence J. Peter
"The trouble with America is that there are far too many wide-open spaces surrounded by teeth."
-- Charles Luckman
-- Cullen Hightower
"Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others."
-- Samuel Johnson
"An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today."
-- Laurence J. Peter
"The trouble with America is that there are far too many wide-open spaces surrounded by teeth."
-- Charles Luckman
Saturday, November 28, 2009
What's so hard with 'yes' or 'no' . . .?
I think our society has come to such a level of wanting to be nice and tolerant, they have lost sight of being practical and straight forward in their approach and social interaction with their fellow human beings. Things might improve if people had a mandatory class in good manners in their formative years.
Thanksgiving always reminds me of this. One year, we invited a friend to share Thanksgiving dinner with us. We asked a month ahead of time so he had time to figure out his schedule. We waited and waited for his response. Finally, a day or two before Thanksgiving, we asked this person directly if he was accepting our invitation or not. He said, "Oh, I decided to accept another invitation last week." I often wondered if he was afraid of hurting our feelings and thought that just not responding would be a better course of action.
Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be an isolated incident and I have heard from other people who has experienced this. Two years in a row, we felt sorry for a student unable to get home for the holiday and offered an invitation. Should have learned our lesson the first time. The first year, she didn't bother to turn us down until almost the day before and we found out later, she 'got a better invitation'. This year, she never got back to us and we discovered she had accepted an invitation a week prior to ours. She KNEW at the time we extended our invitation that she already had other plans! Makes you wonder if we were a 'just in case' invitation, she didn't want to say no, or she just has horrible manners.
My children have always moaned and groaned when I insisted they send thank you notes or immediate replies to invitations. I'm hoping the early training makes them appreciative and well-mannered as they go on in life.
My favorite non-response concerned a niece. She had turned eleven or twelve and we decided to send her a 'grown up' Christmas gift - her own hair dryer. About five years later, it came up in the conversation with her mother who said that her daughter had been SO thrilled with the gift and wore it out using it. She absolutely loved it!
Not to worry, however. We are getting better at selecting out holiday guests these days. Two years in a row, we invited a family with six delightful young adults who promptly accepted our invitation and showed up for Thanksgiving! We felt very blessed with the company! And those other people? Well, they don't know what they missed and we can only pray they get more blessings out of life than they are currently extending!
Thanksgiving always reminds me of this. One year, we invited a friend to share Thanksgiving dinner with us. We asked a month ahead of time so he had time to figure out his schedule. We waited and waited for his response. Finally, a day or two before Thanksgiving, we asked this person directly if he was accepting our invitation or not. He said, "Oh, I decided to accept another invitation last week." I often wondered if he was afraid of hurting our feelings and thought that just not responding would be a better course of action.
Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be an isolated incident and I have heard from other people who has experienced this. Two years in a row, we felt sorry for a student unable to get home for the holiday and offered an invitation. Should have learned our lesson the first time. The first year, she didn't bother to turn us down until almost the day before and we found out later, she 'got a better invitation'. This year, she never got back to us and we discovered she had accepted an invitation a week prior to ours. She KNEW at the time we extended our invitation that she already had other plans! Makes you wonder if we were a 'just in case' invitation, she didn't want to say no, or she just has horrible manners.
My children have always moaned and groaned when I insisted they send thank you notes or immediate replies to invitations. I'm hoping the early training makes them appreciative and well-mannered as they go on in life.
My favorite non-response concerned a niece. She had turned eleven or twelve and we decided to send her a 'grown up' Christmas gift - her own hair dryer. About five years later, it came up in the conversation with her mother who said that her daughter had been SO thrilled with the gift and wore it out using it. She absolutely loved it!
Not to worry, however. We are getting better at selecting out holiday guests these days. Two years in a row, we invited a family with six delightful young adults who promptly accepted our invitation and showed up for Thanksgiving! We felt very blessed with the company! And those other people? Well, they don't know what they missed and we can only pray they get more blessings out of life than they are currently extending!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)