One more time with feeling

This is it.

The last day of the year.  It also happens to be my birthday.  Lately, I've been saying I always wait for the last possible day to get a year older.  It might have something to do with turning 57 and a few months ago I might have had a bigger problem with that number.  Not so much lately and definitely not today. 
I could go back through this past year and tick off some of the things I've managed.  I could make a small list of things I've done.  Everyone does, don't they? 
I ran over 700 miles this year which is the most miles I've run in a year - ever.
I completed the first draft of a fiction novel.
I baked approximately 1400 cookies for profit making just short of $900.00.

I'm not going to sit here and keep talking about what I've done.  Yea!  Good for me, but looky here.  Today might be the end of the year but tomorrow is the start of a new one.  I still have those same things to do.  I have that new future to look forward to with a clean slate.  Everyone does no matter how old or young they might be.
So here I am, Ms. 57, and here I go.  This is it.

One more time with feeling!
TT

Being sensible

It's another cold day in the neighborhood.  It has certainly given me a great excuse for staying holed up in my home and not venturing out.  I did manage to get out yesterday when I was able to make an appointment to get my hair trimmed.  It was something I had put off when I cancelled my appointment on October 3rd.  When I looked back I found my last trim had been on August 14th and that is just too long. 
So weather or not...I braved the outdoors for the first time in days and got a multitude of compliments on how healthy my hair is and how little they would actually have to take off to keep it that way.  That is always a good thing.
I came straight home and found I was chilled for the first time this year.  It's amazing I had made it this far into the season without it happening sooner.  So I did the only thing I knew that was sensible and put on my fuzzy socks. 

So another cold day but I'm sensibly prepared.
TT

Down to business

I probably should get down to some kind of business today.  You couldn't wipe the smile off my face from the sheer thought of not having an agenda but maybe I should actually do something?  I've gotten so chill and relaxed this week that I didn't even blink when I dropped and broke my favorite chocolate brown coffee mug.  Now that is pretty chill.  I mean, really, it's the only mug that is... well it's the only mug that I...  Ah, well, shrug and I picked up the broken pieces.
The fact is there are things I can do and maybe I will but then again I'll have to see how it all goes.  I've left the stress and pressures behind and I'm not thinking too much about having to get anything done.  I might actually have a clearer head when I decide to do the things I'm thinking about doing.  Like going out to buy a new coffee mug. 
Such big responsibilities. 
TT  

No words

Lazy.
That would be a word I would use to describe my behavior the past two days.  It would be the word that would be going around in my head.  I haven't done much of anything.  The weather is cold.  I have no reason to go out.  The house is clean and I am staying holed up.  I've taken it easy, read a bit, laid around.

But I don't think I've felt that way.  I haven't felt lazy.  It's been more of a stay-cation.  So I have to take that word off the table.  It's not the word.  So what would the word be?

I don't need a word.  I am perfectly happy being able to do whatever it is I've been doing even if it's nothing at all.  It's not being lazy but there is another word.
Content.
TT

Christmas Dinner 2012

Christmas Menu - 2012

 

Appetizers

 

Boiled Shrimp with Horseradish Cocktail Sauce

Crab Cakes

Fried Artichoke Hearts

Crab Bisque

 

Main Course

 

Herb Crusted Crown Roast of Pork

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Green Beans with Pancetta

Cauliflower Au Gratin

Cinnamon Sautéed Apples

 

Dessert

 

Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

Whipped Cream

 

Merry Christmas to all!

TT

 



Happy Holidays

Christmas Eve - 2012
I have already been to the grocery store and back.  I have a kitchen full of single ingredients that I need to put together.  It's a large range of items from sweet to savory and my mind is already organizing what I should start first to have the best results for tomorrow.  I have a pretty good idea of how to start and how it will go.
 
It has been a good holiday this year.  The extra time to prepare was well worth it.  There hasn't been any of the rush and hurry from years past and the appreciation of every moment along the way has been more enjoyable.  The comings and goings, the phone conversations about plans, the getting together with everyone, sitting and being together has continually lifted the moods of everyone.  It has been wonderful to hear the laughing and joking and asking on the phone, "is it supposed to be this small amount and how do I know if I put enough?"
 
I have a house full of single ingredients.  Not all of them are things to eat but there can be no denying that there is something magical about the way it all comes together.
TT

Menu options

Christmas is getting close and menu options are swirling through my mind.  The only thing I know for certain is that we are having Crown Roast of Pork.  How do I know that?  Easy answer...because I already ordered it through the butcher and I am scheduled to pick it up at 6:00am 12/24.  What I need to do now is figure out what I will make to go with it.  DON'T even mention what I will have to do if the butcher doesn't come through with my protein order!

Actually, I've been letting ideas brew since I placed the order and I have an outline.  I am thinking around the lines of fresh green beans, cauliflower, potatoes, applesauce, bread.  It's not going to be volumes of food like Thanksgiving but some well put-together components.

I'm looking for inspiration for fresh green beans.  Do I add the slivered almonds or find another way to dress them?  Do I use my own cheese sauce with the cauliflower or do I roast or au gratin them instead?  What about potatoes?  Do I go with sliced red, fingerlings, or do I need a smooth texture on the plate?  No question on the applesauce since that will need to be made fresh and possibly not broken down.  I am thinking peeled, sliced, sautéed in brown sugar until caramelized with a dash of cinnamon.  Leave it a little chunky.  I love the sweet with the pork.  And the bread has to be home-made so fresh yeast will be used and it will rise to a wonderful fluffiness.

The meal would need to start with appetizers and I am thinking classic boiled shrimp with horseradish sauce.  I would like to make some crab cakes and try to make some breaded artichoke hearts with aioli.  I am thinking I need something more but I am struggling to edit.  I want each item to taste fantastic and not get caught up in a rush to fix plenty. 

That leaves dessert.  I'm still thinking about it.  No decision has been made there yet and I know there are multitudes of cookies already prepared but this meal needs a good finish.  I will see what I can come up with.  I still have a day left.
TT

Better pace

This is only my third day of vacation that extends through the end of this year.  I was feeling a little antsy about how I would fill my time but I'm finding I'm not really having that much of a problem.  Yesterday, I thought I had an enormous list of things to do.  It turns out once I knew what I had to do I got most of it done. 
Maybe that is why I was thinking I might have trouble today with a lacking for things to do.  Not the case.  There are plenty of things that I can do and I'm really looking forward to sorting through all of them.  More than sorting...more like actually having the time to get started on them and work on them and even getting some of them completed.  But at a better pace.
Excuse me, but I have a few things to do.
TT

A few things

I guess today is the time to moan and groan.  It's too cold outside, I haven't done my gift shopping, I haven't figured out the menu for Christmas dinner, I've put on a few pounds, I haven't had a run in too, too long, I am behind on my writing assignment for week two, I haven't reworked my next chapter...

Okay.  I could go on and on but I think that's about it.  That will do it for now.  But now that I've cleared the air, I can go on and start knocking these things off my list and turn them around.  You know, come to think of it, I guess I'm not really in the mood to moan and groan.  It can sure cut into my free time.  So, let me take that back.  There are a few things I think I can use my time for today.
I like that much better.
TT 

Packed and ready!

I've got 500 cookies all packaged up and ready to go! 

The work is all done, the kitchen is all cleaned up, and I'm on VACATION~!  What better way to start off this enormous amount of time off than having this project wrapped up and completed.  I can think of more than a few fabulous adjectives to use but I'll save them up to use and dispense in small doses during MY TIME OFF!

And today is Mr. L's first birthday...so...the fun begins.
TT

Not bread

Don't be confused by the picture above.  It is not unbaked loaves of bread.  They are not dinner rolls ready to be popped into the oven.  No.  Oh, no.  Do not confuse these carefully wrapped and hastily prepared batches of white you see above.  
They are at least 13 dozen sugar cookies.  What?  Can't you see them?  There.  Up above.  All fancy cut outs, sparkling in colored sugar?  Flaky morsels of sweet pastries that melt in your mouth and awaken the holiday warmth inside you?

Well, in all fairness, I understand that isn't their current state.  They are headed in that direction and the only problem that might pass through my head right now is trying to finish them all in time.  I have much more than the 13 dozen you see above to conquer.  It's more like 42 dozen or 500 cookies.

Yes!  Another order for cookies came in yesterday for 42 dozen cookies.  Another corporate order to be delivered Thursday morning!  Yikes!  And I'm working all day today and tomorrow...so baking every spare moment after that.  Luckily, they don't all need to be the rolled out, cookie cutter sugar cookies.  That would take some time!  I was also able to talk them into some of my signature 5 chocolate cookies and some PC (Pistachio Cranberry) to make the holiday theme complete.  (And give the needed taste variety).

So - If I have a moment, I might emerge somewhere in the next two days.  But then...I can't make any promises.
TT

Cake Pops and Birthday dinner

My oldest Sons' birthday was Friday, 12/14 and we celebrated that evening.  I made his favorite chocolate chip cookies with walnuts but I wanted to experiment with something new.  What better way than trying to make these new Cake Pops?

They might not fit too many candles but they were something different and in individual servings.

Here is how simple they are to make.  You bake your regular layer cake and let it cool.  Then you crumble it into fine morsels.  Yes.  You take that perfectly good cake and crumble it up.  Then you add a dollop of the frosting.  Not too much.  You might think more is better but it isn't.  It doesn't take much frosting to bind the cake together and no matter how much you like cake frosting this can become too much very easily.
Mix the cake and frosting together.  You might have to get your hands into it.

Then form them into balls.  Yes.  Like the size of mini-meatballs except they are cake and frosting. 
Take some melted chocolate and dip the tip of your stick into the chocolate and then put it into your cake ball about half way through.  The chocolate on the tip is supposed to help keep the stick in the pop.  Once you have all the sticks in pops, place them all into the freezer for 20 minutes. 
Take them out and dip them all in melted chocolate to coat and then you can decorate with sprinkles.
That's about it.  Individual bites of cake on a stick! 

But I did all that before going over for the Birthday Dinner.  Once we where there we cooked up what Sonny picked for his menu.  We started with Artichoke, cheese and capocollo and a glass of wine.

Dinner was simply Marinated Sirloin, Stuffed Potatoes, and Asparagus.  Simply delicious.

Not a bad evening.  Happy Birthday, Sonny!

TT

Sonny holiday

12/14/12
It's Sonny's birthday today!  We have already shopped for the birthday dinner and we will head over to his house to put it all together.  He picked the menu since it is his birthday. That is our custom with birthday's that you get to pick whatever you want to eat.  It's something we have done since both boys were very small.  We have kept the tradition all this time even though the boys aren't really boys any longer but something much more grown up.   We have another set of boys that now fill those slots.
I have already made Sonny's favorite walnut chocolate chip cookies.  They are baked, cooled, packaged and ready to go.  I am experimenting with cake pops.  I baked the cake this morning and will attempt the procedure this afternoon when I get off of work.  Since nobody is expecting them I can leave them at home if they don't turn out but I had to try.  It was just one of those things that got stuck in my head so, fail or success, I had to go forward.  We will see.
And so, this marks the holiday for me.  Sonny's birthday was always the marker...so ready or not, here we are.
TT  

Figuring out how

It was 2009.  Then 2010, 2011, 2012...

I started even before that on June 26, 2008 to be exact.  I stopped on 10/19/2008 with 34 posts.  But that was slightly different from the present because back in 2008 I was actually posting a fiction story.  Each post was a continuance of the story.  It went along fairly consistently for those months until I stopped and pulled the site down.  I hard copied it and have it in a binder.

Then I started here.  On a Saturday, April 11, 2009 with the intention of using it as a way to write every day because everyone said that is what you have to do to get better.  Write.  It kept me accountable.  So, as of today I have 296 posts for this year.  I have 1206 posts total. 

It's a lot of numbers that somehow just circled back to the very same spot.  I re-read my very first post...the one from 4/11/09.  Not much has changed since then.  It should have.  The same things I wanted then are the same things I want now.  And I've been doing them but I need to shake things up and I'm not exactly sure how to do that. 

I will try.  I'm thinking about it or I wouldn't be putting it down.  I've been working on it already but I've got to get down to the details of how.  I'll figure out when.  I have the discipline.  I have the drive.  It's not going away. 
TT

December arrived

The Christmas tree went up and the weather came in.  Harsh, bold and blustery woke me early Monday morning.  Actually, what woke me up was the printer re-booting after the electricity sparked back on.  It must have been lost silently sometime during the night and made a noisy re-entrance.  It was enough to startle me out of my dream-state and had me frozen under covers trying to register where I was.  Once my location in the dark, in my bed, was established my mind searched for the odd noise that prompted my sudden awakening.  It took me a while to realize it was the printer in the other room.  It made sense when I turned my head to glance at the clock on the nightstand.  It was manically blinking at me but no matter how it flashed 12:00 I knew that wasn't the time.  So I checked my phone and it told another story that started with 5:18 am.  I would have to start there.
Monday morning, 5:18am, blustery cold weather.  The Christmas tree is up and the month of December has blown it's way in.
TT

Cookie article

One of my cookies was mentioned in this magazine and I finally found a copy. 

 

 I guess I need to mention the fact that I was featured in this issue on my cookie website.  I'm not expecting any rush of sales nor am I doing anything different to boost sales but it's nice to see.
 
TT

Subject lines

What do you think about when you are bombarded with the advertising that appears in your email inbox?  Subject lines describing percentages off, hurry, only two days for this offer.  New releases, opening day, start now, hurry, hurry!  As if the person in front of the computer screen will actually jump up and run to the stores.  Hurry!  If it was only that easy to motivate people to move.  It doesn't seem so likely.
There are, of course, the humor that can be found in certain bits of information that gets circulated.  I found a recent e-mail from work that I found interesting.  It described a list of events coming up in the café.  The first was a Lunch and Learn session on Low-Fat options for the holidays.  Second was the offering of Krispy Kreme Donuts for breakfast a few days after.  I wasn't sure what their message was and I thought the proximity of Low-Fat and Krispy Kreme much too close to figure out.  I thought they should be reported to the Wellness Coaches at work only because I thought it funny.
The best so far, I have to say, was an email I received at home with the subject line The Angry Elephant/Ballet Classes.  It was offers for coupons from Amazon local.  My imagination took hold as I dreamed up the large grey animal standing upright on two legs.  It had a tutu on, of course, and a wooden staff that it pounded heavily on the dance studio floor much to the dismay of the pink clad ballerinas huddled together.  How fun that situation might be and where could that idea go?  As I opened the e-mail I found that wasn't the case.  It was actually two separate coupons.  One was for an eatery called The Angry Elephant which, as far as I could tell, did not serve elephant so I'm not sure why it's angry.  The other was for something as simple as Ballet classes - ten of them - because I guess that's all you need before you realize you can't learn much from a tutu clad elephant.
So, as you are going through you inbox and deleting those pesky ads, what goes through your mind?  Leave it to me to find something funny in mine.
TT

Stop playing by the numbers

I wasn't trying to but I think I spent the bulk of yesterday realizing how old I have been feeling lately.  It's a funny thing.  I don't know that I have been physically feeling old.  I don't have creaky bones, aches or pains that I can complain about.  I have no health issues, don't have a prescription to my name, and passed every physical exam given me.  I do have the occasional bout of memory loss but that could also be chalked up to all the things going on and not just old age.  But I think the numbers themselves have been playing around in my head.  The years themselves can't be denied and I have been letting that stop me from doing things that I had a notion I should be holding up on.
I have been thinking why should I take on anything new at this point?  I'm old and why keep pursuing anything.
And then at some point yesterday I realized I had been doing that.  Holding up.  Holding back and stopping.  And then I had all these thoughts about what I still want to keep doing.  And I let myself think about it.
It's the worst time weather-wise for me to start training again but really the weather has been great.  I want to start small and start running again.  I need to get those notions that were put into my head out.  The ones that I shouldn't be doing it (at my age).  I'm gonna, hopefully, get myself into some kind of endurance running shape again. 
I want to write, damn it.  If that means I need to register myself into a class where someone sends me an assignment and I get an email back once a week, I'll do it.  This business of writing with no direction isn't working.  I need some feedback that I'm not getting now so an email from a stranger is more than I have now.  At least I will be able to count on that email every week and possibly find other resources by getting involved.
At least it's some kind of plan.  Or at least it's a decision to stop muddling.  I've never been good at slowing down to the rate of what other peoples perceptions want to hold me at.  It's probably because I don't perceive myself the same way.  And I just can't do that.  I'm mean, yeah, I know, I'm old.  The numbers are there to prove it.  And.  So.  I can't keep feeling old just because of the numbers.  I mean, really, if that's the only reason - it doesn't add up.
TT       

A normal hour

I have no idea why I am up, awake, and ready to go at 4:19am on a Saturday morning.  I guess I could have stayed in bed longer.  Most people, from what I understand, would take advantage of the extra time to snooze.  But then isn't that mostly hearsay and when did I ever fit into the 'most people' category?
I guess sleep isn't one of the things that I am deprived of and need to take advantage of on weekends.  Actually, what I was thinking as I awoke and glanced at the clock was that I could use the quiet time to write.  What better time?  There isn't much else I can do when the world is catching it's extra snooze time.   
So it will be another cup of coffee and an open word document for me.  I'm headed into Chapter 5 (which is now 8) and into someone else's life for a while.  They happen to get up at normal hours.
TT