I’m always amazed at some of the “gifts”one can find at the local Walmart.
Adult-sized footed pajamas. A seriously bad idea. Tweedy Bird print or Jolly Roger in pink? Yep. Look closely. That’s a skull and crossbones design on pink fleece. That’s awesome. Does anyone ask for this?
I can totally see someone in a mad panic because they didn’t plan ahead at all, so now he/she is in Walmart at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve reaching for this in desperation. Goes along well with the footed pajamas, maybe the same person thought these concepts up. Now if they only came in Jolly Roger pink! But really can’t you just wrap up in a blanket to achieve the same effect? Or put a bathrobe on backwards?
Are they jeans or pajamas? Can you wear them to bed then out the next morning, avoiding the whole getting dressed ritual? If so, this might be really good for a college kid. (Ball cap to hide bedhead not included.)
Less than two weeks until Christmas, Y’all. Happy shopping!
How many U. S. presidents can you name? On our way home from the big city tonight I was quizzing myself with an iPhone app. I have long thought it pathetic that I can’t name all the presidents. That’s why I downloaded the app, at least a year ago, and I find myself still, tonight not having it memorized—but almost. My husband did manage to get them memorized by the end of our drive. He’s better at that than I am – I’m good at synthesizing info, not memorizing it.
My husband and I started talking about how ridiculous it is that there are only 44 U.S. presidents, yet most Americans can’t name more than 10, maybe. If you are older than 45 you can probably name a few more because of the number of leaders you’ve lived through in your lifetime.
We [as Americans] can probably name 44 C-list celebrities, how many people know the Jersey Shore characters, all the men of the Kardashian girls, and the American Idols. But the 44 most important leaders of our nation? Not even close. The ones in the middle are the hardest. But these are the most simple of our nation’s facts, we should know more.
So I commit to making amends for this and will have all the presidents memorized by the end of the week. After that, I’ll start working on learning about what major events happened during each presidency. If you want to know more visit these sites:
We just got in from a wedding where the bride and groom had a flair for the dramatic. There were echoes of tradition—there was a wedding party with girls on one side and boys on the other. But that’s about where tradition ends. There was a groom’s cookie and a bride’s cake made of cookies, no real cake.
The color theme was black and white, which makes for simple elegance. The decorations were very creative yet inexpensive, but somehow really cool and fitting for a winter wedding. There weren’t any fresh flowers. The bridesmaids carried purses.
The groom wore a white suit, black shirt and tie and black and white wingtips. All he needed was a white Fedora to have the “zoot suit.” The bridesmaids wore black and/or white dresses of various sorts, nothing screamed bridesmaid. The men wore black suits and ties.
And the bride said “to hell” with tradition and wore a black dress—no white here. She also wore Corral vintage inlay boots in black and white, of course. LOVE IT! ( I can relate, I wore a black and red flower print dress for my own wedding.)
The bride in a black wedding dress.
I was very impressed with the innovative ways to use sticks and plow discs. Most of the decorations utilized something we have in abundant supply in Arcadia. Mesquite wood– painted black, silver, white and some with a touch of bling.
Mesquite branches used in creative ways.
Antlers, the common ones you find in the back pasture where the carcass is long since decayed, with a black wash on them to accentuate the crevasses. There were shot glasses. I poorly assumed that they were for shots, right? Nope. It’s for a shot of milk to go with your cookie. Jdubs did about 10 milk shooters and wanted to save the glasses for later. It was awesome. The antlers were really cool.
Focus on the awesomeness of this antler--painted silver with a black wash.Pretty bride in black ... tired, fat lady in red.
The bride, in black, looking fresh as a flower and me (gawd, I need a vacation and a binge diet).
The bug in a Rudolf tie.
Jdubs wore his Rudolf tie – he insisted on wearing a tie like his daddy.
Head table with creative decorations of mesquite branches.How many of us have a candelabra in the attic? Whip that bad boy out and spray paint it black and string some bling-- then BOOM.This center piece really was the coolest. None of those typical arches with garland strung on it. No little white lights. Mesquite branches and bling.
The bride and groom exchanged vows in front of this arrangement. It was huge and beautiful. The photo doesn’t do it justice—it was about 10 feet tall and made of …. You guessed it, mesquite branches. There were crystals, beads and sparkles. It was not traditional, but really pretty, classy and most of all, creative.
This is a gem of a cookie recipe. And the best part is that it’s a “light” recipe. I very first found this recipe in one of my Cooking Light magazines. Cayenne is the secret ingredient, which adds a great punch of complexity that you can’t place, but know it’s what makes it all work. I don’t know what it is, but chocolate and red pepper go so well together.
The key to making this a wonderfully scrumptious recipe is to use really good chocolate. It needs to be bittersweet with 60% cacao minimum. Good brands that are easily available are Ghirardelli, Lindt and Baker’s. Don’t forget to look in the “candy” aisle for the good chocolate.
If you can get to a luxury grocery store, like Central Market, you can find tons of good chocolate. Scharffenberger is the very best American chocolate (HSO). Valharona is overpriced and overrated (another HSO). (HSO=Hot Sports Opinion).
If chocolate is the star of the recipe, use the good stuff. Life is too short for crappy chocolate regardless. For other recipes with Scharffenberger see Chocolate Covered Strawberries.
Just remember mediocre chocolate = mediocre results.
Very respectable American Chocolate from San Francisco.30-second intervals will keep you from scortching the chocolate.Satin-smooth chocolate.
This is perfectly melted chocolate. Look how shiny and smooth it is.
Cayenne is the perfect complement to chocolate.
You don’t want to pinch cayenne pepper with your fingers. The oils adhere to your skin and God forgive you if you accidentally rub your eye or nose (or any other precious body part with tender skin!). This is the dandiest trick to adding just the right amount of cayenne. Stick your knife into the spice bottle and get a dab on the tip of the knife and add to the dry ingredients. If you would rather use measuring spoons, it will be equivalent to about 1/8 of a tsp.
Butter, sugar and a farm fresh egg.
It’s hard to believe this recipe only has a ¼ stick of butter in it. Just for reference, traditional chocolate chip cookies have 1 cup of butter (4x the butter in this recipe). Believe me, the two greatest flavor-adding ingredients are butter and bacon grease.
Sous chef Jean-Guilliam.
I had my favorite sous chef in the kitchen today. I love cooking with my little boy. Hopefully he will know a few recipes by the time he’s 12 or 13 and can be responsible for cooking a meal a week (totally ripped this trick off from Dr. Jen.)
We drank a keg of this and I still love it. (It took us a few weeks to drink the keg, BTW)
It is Friday night, after all. And the best way to keep from eating all the dough is to drink a beer while you work. Beer and cookie dough is a no go.
Tasting the product. Always a good sign in an aspiring chef.Payoff. Licking the beaters.
If the dough is good the cookie will be even better.
After 10 minutes in the oven, this is the outcome!
The cookies will have a slight crackling to them. This is perfect. When you break them open, the outer shell should be crispy.
Chocolate awesomeness! Crispy on the outside and chewy, moist greatness inside..Powdered sugar makes it pretty.
A little dusting of powdered sugar for a festive look … and voíla. Chocolate cookie awesomeness.
Mexican Chocolate Cookies
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate
3.4 oz. all-purpose flour (3/4 cup)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
Dash of pepper
Dash of cayenne
1 ¼ c. sugar
¼ c. butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put chocolate in glass bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until just melted. Set aside to cool.
Weigh or measure the flour and put in a small bowl. Add cinnamon, baking powder, salt, pepper and cayenne. Give all the dry ingredients a stir.
In a separate (and larger bowl), beat the [soft] butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and continue to beat until just combined. Add the cooled chocolate. Beat for a few more seconds, then add the dry ingredients by stirring it in until just mixed. Use a tablespoon or scoop to drop uniform dollops of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes, until cookies are just set. When cooked, remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
I’ve been shopping around our downtown and online and at Walmart in search of gift greatness. And I’ve found a few items I love.
Electric kettle – this rocks. The best $11 I spent at a hardware store. I use it every day sometimes more. I make pressed coffee in the morning and in the evenings I have a little hot cocoa or a decaf coffee. This kettle works great – heats up very quickly, faster than the microwave.
Starbucks Via is a great stocking stuffer. And it goes well with the electric kettle … It is great for that single cup.
Subscriptions to awesome magazines. I love Cook’s Illustrated. (OK Williams-Sonoma isn’t a magazine, but the stuff in it is way cool).
These are awesome little gifts for your kids’ teachers or work colleagues. They are little covers for travel packages of tissues. Boaz has them in our little town. They even gave me three little gift sacks to package all my teacher nick-knack gifts together.
I took this yesterday while out taking pictures of the snow. Do you see the lady in this picture? A good friend pointed it out to me. It’s a good exercise in “vision.”
My parents were out of town for a few days at a conference, so we had to take care of “the critters.” Today we woke up to snow and hit the high temperature for the day before noon. It was a wet snow that mostly melted by the afternoon, perfect for snowball fights and snowman building. The ground was too warm for it to stick, but it should be interesting tomorrow.
It wasn't as cold as it looks. Pretty all the same.
My husband went this morning to check on things and feed. I took the afternoon shift.
On my way out to the ranch I saw this pretty oak tree. (this was a southern-facing tree, so no snow).
Oak trees are awesome. I think this one is a post oak. Can't be sure and I wasn't going to find out for sure in my fancy pretty boots.
When I drove up, two of the four horses greeted me. The sun was going down, the wind was blowing and it was starting to get really cold.
Sugar and Bucky. I've always been partial to red roans.
They had to get a closer look …
Bucky (aka McCool) had to see for himself.Then Sugar had to go and stick her nose in it.I think this is such a cool photo.
Before anything can happen, I had to change my boots. Pretty, fashion boots to working-hard-rubber boots.
Taking Kelly's advice ... changed my boots before tromping around in wet manure.
My husband said he ran out of feed after the morning rounds. Before I went to the ranch I stopped and got a couple bags of feed (this was when Kelly, at the feed story, passed on friendly advice to change boots. check.). Once I opened the saddle house (aka the tack room) to get the cat food, I found, hmmm curiously, three more bags of feed.
Feed.
The barn cats are almost feral. Most can be persuaded into a little petting, but a few are very skittish around people except for my dad. He can woo almost any animal into trusting him.
Barn cats are awesome critters. The keep the mice and snakes away.
Although this fluffy Tom cat crawled on top of the saddle house and stared down at me.
Snake-killing Tom Cat says: "I'm not coming down and you can't make me."
The weaning calves were looking for a bite to eat too. They saw me and starting coming briskly to the barn. I gave them an extra dab since the cold was coming on. With an expected low in the lower 20s, a few extra cubes couldn’t hurt.
Sore thumb? Who sticks out like a sore thumb?
This corriente calf looks out of place among the black baldy/Angus calves. We’re currently eating a corriente hybrid out of our freezer—good eats!
Happy critters.
Then I went in the house to feed the indoor cats, only to find that they opted out of the litter box 😦
I was sorting through a few photos I’ve taken over the last couple months, and our pets keep coming up as a subject of my photos. Our animals are a large part of our lives, but I also take their photo because I find them funny or picturesque in a particular moment, or I’m trying to learn something with the settings on my camera and they are the most willing subject given my options.
Jack (aka Jack Attack) on a hunt, just waiting for the birds to fly.Pussums the cat with green eyes.Nanny's dog, Sade Mae, the barky dog who is a lover, but hates it when others kiss goodnight in front of her.Good old Ruby on the feed truck. Doesn't get much better than that for a dog.This is what I think of when I think of Jack Attack.
I’m looking forward to Sunday—a day of rest. It’s just over two hours away as I write this. I’m weary, tired. It’s been a really exhausting week—two major events, three days apart, thousands of people. Showing up to help is one thing but being responsible and accountable for everything at an event is draining. Both of these major events require an army of volunteers to pull off. I’m in charge of one event and my husband is in charge of the other. And we are both involved with each others events.
Downtown, hometown parade.Rotary Club feeding about 1200 people.
I feel like I’ve hardly seen my kid this weekend. I got home tonight to relieve the babysitter. Our sweet little sitter drew Christmas pictures with our kid. That was today’s precious gift.
The sweet little Christmas pictures from Jdubs and Korey.
Tomorrow is Sunday—blessed Sunday. We will be resting. I’ve already talked to my Pastor to tell him I won’t be at church because I’ll be resting. He gave me his blessings 🙂
The Arcadian Experience 