More Candles

My  birthday is tomorrow and I wear a size 6. Oh wait...there is a slightly different version in red and I REALLY love red. I always feel jipped on my birthday. Everyone has over spent their budget on Christmas. They are worn out from Christmas cards and remembering to get gifts for everyone on their list. They are partied out from the holidays, food, friends and family and the weather is a big encourager of vegging out in flannel pants in front of the fire. The grunge of reality and school is bringing everyone down that I seldom receive the excitement for the day of my birth as I wish.

I do have some very good memories of birthdays in the past, of sleepovers, laughter, angel food cakes, and many times not having school to attend. However, because this is my blog and I have had a headache all day, I can focus on the negativity of my day. I can focus on the fact that important people have failed to call me on my birthday. I can vent about how people take the easy way out and give me $20 because they can't think of anything that I didn't get for Christmas that I would like. Way lame. I can post about how I never got to take cupcakes to school on my birthday and about how working from home sucks in that I won't have coworkers to take me out to lunch tomorrow or surprise me with a cake. I can vent about how my husband gives me a hard time because I'm hardcore birthday and I like balloons, singing, breakfast in bed, and not having dishes, laundry, floors or poop to scoop and special surprises that don't break the bank because yes, I over spent on the holidays as well.  I can vent about how I miss my college bars which would provide at least 3 new shirts for the next year. I can vent about how all my gifts are received within a month (Christmas, Birthday, Anniversary).  I get greedy.

Unfortunately I'm terribly blessed. Because the people who call me far outweighs those who just text or forget. Because I have a husband who will sing the birthday song for the 42nd time and take me wherever I want for my birthday dinner even if I end up only wanting to sit at home with a bottomless glass of wine and solve crimes. Because I have wonderful parents who birthed me out less than 30 yrs ago on a cold night with a full moon and provided a wonderful life molding whom I am today.

I can't party at this pity party for too long. Besides I just remembered that I forgot to pick up the cake and icing mixes for my birthday cake while at the market today. Kroeger is calling!

Cheers!

What a stupid question

Two Buck Chuck is a love of my life. No kidding. During my, approximately 16 months of living in the Land of Port, we became good friends. And I have to give props to Pautz as the person whom introduced us. After all of her fond stories tasty glass fulls I was thrilled to finally live in a location where there was a Trader Joe's. Which brings me to a point: the nearest Trader Joe's is in Nashville. A glass of wine at the end of the day is one life's most delightful pleasures.

Cheap wine isn't like cheap liquor. It won't make you sick from cheap production or products. If the bottle of Two Buck Chuck didn't flip my bic I could have always used it in cooking, but that was never the case, and I've never felt bad from purchasing the low price wines. I can taste the difference in the good stuff but my wallet doesn't allow for that anymore. I drank a lot of wine in Hawaii, a lot more than I should have, a lot more liquor than we should have but I digress. Costco was allowed to sell liquor in the stores in that state therefore liquor and wine was ridiculously cheap and we could afford to buy really nice wines for sunsets on the lanai.

But the point of this blog is in response to this article on Slashfood. Most wines have the same alcohol content so that can't really be a factor. One can judge wine on the label or the vineyard reputation, which are noteworthy, but it really leaves the taste, and everyone's taste buds are different. Everyone interprets the smell and taste from wine differently despite an attempt to add smokiness, berries, wood, etc in the wine during production. I can't wait to visit a local Whole Foods and try a bottle from Three Wishes Vineyards.

What are your thoughts? Can a $3 bottle of wine taste good?

Cheers!

Just like Martha

Over the past few days as we were putting up our Christmas decorations, the Captain came across an older issue of Martha Stewart Living that had cups of hot cocoa with homemade marshmallow snowflakes on the cover. He made a comment and I took notice and yesterday Callie and I made him heart marshmallows for our hot cocoa. Snowflakes were not an option among my cookie cutters and since all I have is love...well..gag.

Upon his arrival home today, he was greeted with a delicious cup of hot cocoa with heart marshmallows. I think he was surprised. I was surprised. Why don't you be surprised also! They are surprisingly easy to make-check out this recipe!





Items needed:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 cups of sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
Dash of salt
Lots of Pam cooking spray
1/3 cup of water
Cornstarch

Spray a 12x17 inch pan generously with cooking spray, line with parchment paper, spray with cooking spray again. Set aside.

Pour half of 1/3 cup of water in mixing bowl, sprinkle gelatin on top, let set while you prepare the rest.

Combine sugar, corn syrup, salt, vanilla, and rest of the water in medium saucepan. Stir well. Cover and bring to a boil. Remove lid, stirring occasionally until syrup reaches 238 degrees, apparently this is the "soft ball stage" of candy making.

Pour syrup mixture into gelatin mixture and start mixer on low. Slowly increase to high. Mix on high for about 12 minutes. Product should at least double in size.

Pour mixture on to slippery pan. Smooth down with a spatula which you have also generously sprayed with cooking spray. Trust me, this marshmallow mixture is sticky. After you have spread the mixture out to your depth preference, set aside for at least 2 hours. I let mine set nearly 24. My life gets busy peoples.

Coat your preferred cookie cutter shape with plenty of, yep you guessed it, cooking spray and cut out as many individual marshmallows as possible. After each marshmallow is cut, lightly dust it with cornstarch. This will prevent it from sticking with the others in the container. Sidenote: the cornstarch doesn't prevent perfect melting in the beverage nor does it affect taste. Storing these in an airtight container for a week will lead to many yummy cups of hot cocoa, and it's the perfect season for that!

Cheers

Not a picnic for me with the skunks

Late summer I had a dream where to put it without great detail, a skunk had sprayed our area at the docks and I was about to throw up. If you didn't know, I dream in great detail. Extreme detail. The Captain made the mistake of once asking me about my dream and I spent an hour, no kidding might have been longer, telling him about my dream that I'm sure only last 15 minutes in real time. Everything from what people were wearing, to where things were on a counter, to what the post its on the fridge said. It's ridiculous. I've wanted to have my dreams analyzed because I think I'm special. Or just because it might be fun.

Anyhoo, back to the initial dream. I was about to throw up in my dream and I woke up. Our house stunk like a skunk had sprayed in our bedroom. It was gross and I was about to throw up in real life. Wouldn't that have been great! We slept with our windows open so I can see how smells can filter in but the potenice was extreme. The Captain of course was still sleeping. I woke him up, freaked out, shut the windows, lite some candles, turned on the fans, and got terribly upset. Our alarm was supposed to go off 15 minutes later as we were catching an early morning flight and had to be out the door by 5:30AM. I hate it when I get woke up. And now my house smelt like a skunk.

Fast forward, the house smelt fine when we returned and the animals seemed to not have been bothered by it. We never did find a skunk and since our neighborhood is somewhat surrounded by nature, we assumed they had wondered through. It has happened a couple of times since then and we no longer sleep with our windows open, it is nearly Thanksgiving after all, but it happened again last night. I woke to this rancid smell filtrating through my nostrils. The windows were shut and everyone else was asleep. There was no skunk in my dream.

Then we saw a fresh one on the side of the road on our way to church this morning, thinking that might have been him or her. However, tonight I smelt skunk in my office. The windows were closed and the smell was no where else in the house. The Captain couldn't smell anything and it wasn't Callie. I now think I'm paranoid.

Cheers!

Turn on the Oven

The Christmas music has started at our house. I couldn't wait any longer. Don't alert the authorities yet, there aren't any decorations out of their boxes, bags, or down from the attic yet and the Captain is defending the fall and Thanksgiving, laying on a slight guilt trip for me wanting to put out the Snow Village so we could enjoy it longer.

This past weekend I made perhaps the most delicious pumpkin chiffon pie for a dinner we had with some friends. Seriously delicious, and I am a pumpkin pie fan. It was light, flavorful, with every spice jumping out. It didn't require baking (huge plus) but does require refrigeration. It was however, super, super, terribly simple to make. And our house smelt festive afterwards. I'm making a couple for a church function next week and then one to take to my Grandparent's for Thanksgiving. Try the recipe out if you get a chance-I assure you there won't be disappointment!

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Graham Cracker Crust

If you don't buy one from the store, finely crush 1 pkg of 9 whole crackers
Mix with 6 tbsp of melted butter and
1/4 cup sugar

Disperse evenly throughout the 9-inch pie pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Filling

In a small sauce pan combine the following:
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 nutmeg
1 envelope of plain gelatin
3/4 cups of milk
3 egg yolks (beaten)

Heat till it gets thick, stirring frequently, you don't want the gelatin to get lumpy. Using a whisk is wise.

Remove from heat and stir in:
1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin (do not use pumpkin pie filling as you are adding in spices separately)

Place in a bowl and put in the refrigerator to chill.

Meanwhile:

Mix the 3 egg whites with
1/4 cup sugar till tall peaks are formed

After pumpkin mixture is chilled, it doesn't take long, fold in the egg white mixture. Don't stir, fold. Then pour in the graham cracker crust. Refrigerator for at least an hour so it can firm up.

The Captain said it needed whip cream as it is apparently, always a requirement on pumpkin pies. I thought it was perfect without.

Because I don't take pictures of food, i.e. the afore mentioned pie, here is a picture of some friends with us during our tour of the Jack Daniels Distillery which is located in a dry county last Spring. Yes, they still have those, hence the Lynchburg Lemonade. Behind is the spring of which all the water is for the whiskey is acquired, aka the secret ingredient.

 For further clarification this was during Mustache March. Dirty Staches...ugh!

Cheers!

Resolutions Already

My New Year's resolution for 2011 should be a certain # of posts per 7-day week. I've been terrible and I spend overloads of time on the internet. Thank you Al Gore for my addiction.

A couple of months ago I drove up to North West-Tennessee to pick up my Dad. My Grandpa, Uncles and Father all participate in a fishing trip every fall, a get-away. 

 With our current location, it works out that I can drive a couple of hours to pick him up, he stays with us for and extended weekend, and then flies from MEM to HRO where my Mom picks him up to drive back home. It's not complicated in our minds I promise.

 Well, a perk this year were the cotton fields, they were gorgeous. Rows and rows of brown sticks and white balls. It's so Southern, or Mid-Southern in my case.

And the most wonderful thing was that when you picked a ball of cotton and smelt it, it was the most wonderful, most clean, fresh, scent your (or my nose in the case) had every experienced. Put a smile on my face.













Cheers!