So. Catching up on other's blogs. And avatar-ing.

I am trying to catch up on blog reading, since I am... rather limited on what I can do, at the moment.  

So, when all of you read blogs, how do you go about it?  I try and read as many as I can, (which you can see on the right, I try and read most all of them, even if I don't always put a note in...), and I usually do so by reading the most recent 'additions' when I log on.  I don't ALWAYS do this, when I was so busy recently with running about, I mostly jotted my blog, and skimmed, but I try to check... 

How about leaving comments?  I tend to leave comments if there isn't a lot (hey, after fifty or sixty comments, I figure the topic is pretty well covered...), and if I am not going to leave just a "yes, I agree" type comment.  It's probably just me, but I feel silly if that's all I can say.  

Yeah, it's probably just me.

I love reading other's blogs on... well, I guess it would be just 'everyday' things.  Finding out that one of you had a bobcat in the yard.  Another had ice during the night, and was not too worried because they have prepared.  One was commenting on the generation gap.  Yet another is getting ready for a funeral. 

 Life.  It is not always the grand, glorious things... Sometimes, just the everyday, where you realize that we have so much in common, and it makes me feel good that I can be part of it.  To enjoy, to share, to send a virtual hug in grief. 

And of course, everyone can share the wonders of Hobble Bum the Broken Legged here...  (I could try out for Tiny Tim this year!  Well, if I was a "Tim", not Timothina... And was actually tiny... Meh. Details...)

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So, on to the Avatar.  BTK won, but I received an interesting idea from Mom (see, I do listen, every once in a while...) that I change the avatar occasionally.  Like, BTK for Christmas, but February might have Lupe holding a Valentine.  I thought this might be fun, so you will see both of this feline front men (front cats?) this year... 

Which might mean that I am creative, and want a unique outlet.  

Or that I just have way too much time on my hands.  

No need to comment on that... Heh...

Tossing my oven mitt in the ring...

This is a long, picture heavy post, folks!

I read "Mason-Dixon Knitting" blog. Since the most interesting things I had to talk about today was my llama wearing a fashionable blackberry bramble behind her ear, and the fact I cleaned out the chicken house again, I figured this HAD to be an improvement, blog fodder wise...

So, they have a contest. (That, of course, encouraged me, too...) To fulfill the qualifying part, here is a picture of my recipe box:

It will not win any awards for beauty, it has that certain Soviet Efficiency Box look. I just haven't done anything with it. I keep thinking I will decorate it later. Yep, later. Will definitely get to it then.

Maybe I should put my Soviet Boy Scout pin on top. But that is a story for later, too...

And a 'recipe' that I love from said box...


In case you have trouble reading it, it says: "When your hubby wants a cookie, and you are tired- go to Roth's or Big Cookie (local stores) and get some delicious treats he will love."

This was one of many cookie recipes I received at my shower, Husband LOVES cookies. To the extent I rarely make a batch of cookies. No. I make double or triple, minimum. (My fraction skills are improving a lot, thank you for asking...)

My mixer is a powerful one, but when it goes to the big kitchen in the sky, I am aiming my sights on a commercial grade mixer. Six cups of chocolate chips plus dough are just a bit on the waaay too much side for my old gal.

It's a trip down memory lane, too, old friends wrote most of them. Some have moved, some have died, some I still see regularly. And still occasionally trade recipes with!

Now for another, which is a real recipe, with an ironic twist.

See the name? Mom's Zucchini Bread? You know the little green harbingers of "How can I hide this in my neighbor's mailbox, because I am freakishly SICK of zucchini?" You know...

Since I have had this recipe, I have not been able to grow enough zukes to MAKE THE RECIPE! I grow them, and I might get 3. If I am lucky. There is just enough zukies that I won't give them the Darwinian Gardener's shove, but there is just not much in the Thrive department. God bless the supermarket, I guess. But just WAIT until next year. (Yes, hope springs eternal. Hush...)

Now as for books that are special to me:

It's a book I have had from early high school, and I don't get it out all the time, but this has "Oh, crap, what is a replacement for buttermilk?" type info. It's all in one place, covers most of my cooking, and actually has some fairly nice food ideas.


Ok, yes, I AM a geek, hush. There is a recipe for Romulan cookies (big surprise, more cookie recipes), that is quite good. And for any other geeks, yes, it does have a recipe for Plomeek Soup. I don't have the stomach to try the Haggis, however.

Klingon recipes aren't bad either. And yes, they do involve cooking, it's not just... Ok, never mind, Non-Trekkies, just realize, Klingon cuisine is... an acquired taste.

This book has lots of family stuff in it, it's from where Grandma S. and Dad used to live, so I know most of the names, (Dad has a recipe for Gingerbread in it.)

It isn't exactly edited as well as it could be, I have twice found recipes that go "add 2 teaspoons of", you turn the page, and it's another recipe... But it's still fun to go through.


Haven't made anything from this book. Let's categorize it under "Chocolate Porn." But it is fabulous to leaf through, if you aren't hungry.


This is my very own collecting style cook book. These are the recipes I know work, I like, (or Husband does), and make on a very regular basis.

It has these special printable pages if you follow the directions for running through the printer:

"Insert sheet. Present smoked offering of caviar, foie gras and exactly 3 and 1/4 ounces of Brut champagne to the printer gods, Shake boa (your choice of feather or snake) over computer while singing 'Aquarius', and wait 10 seconds before touching finished printing or it will dissolve like the tape on Mission Impossible".

Or something like that. So I usually type or write it out long hand, tape it to a sheet of typing paper, and put it in. Involves much less hassle on my end. And things actually even get put in!



This. This is my crown jewel. Published in 1935, it was my Biological Grandma M.'s (she died when my Dad was 2), and was Grandma S.'s, until recently, when it was given to me. This book has Grandma M.'s handwriting. Grandma M's handwriting would be an advanced course in Eloquence in Writing.

Both Grandmas put thoughts about the recipes, (too much salt, add extra sugar, and one with a cryptic NO! above it), and added some of thier own. Family history, and ideas of where some of my family came from, cooking wise.

Now isn't this better than chicken house cleaning?

Hmph. Lessee...

Well. I was going to go to my spinning group today. The illustrious weather guessers were yodelling about a winter wind storm. So due to circumstances that were somewhat out of my control, I didn't go.

So, I made a loaf of bread. (I was informed by an older friend of mine that making bread is an art form, not just 'throwing stuff into a machine.' And so, my I introduce myself, the Bread Machinist...)

And continued reading a book I'd started. I knit on a Christmas project, (pictures and mentioning of item not here, as I don't know if said recipient might actually read my blog...)

I made lunch for us, Husband and I. Or is it me? Anyway, we had lunch. And then we worked for a mite getting the 'travel gate' open from the back field to the front. I hope to start feeding my llamas down front again... If they will cooperate. I think a rattling feed bucket might convince them, however. It seems to most of the time.

I read other blogs to see if I could steal anything for blog fodder. Let's see, Relationship troubles, no, thank goodness. Canadian Animal fair, nope. Getting home from a book tour. I wish... Talking Sheep and yarn balls... Plagiarism is frowned on. It is funny, however.
( http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/)

Last chance, the last blog I check...

"My Inner Lesbian High Priestess"

Whoooookaaaaaaay, never mind. OK, so much for hijacking someone else's blog. (Especially since the last one was written by a guy...)

Sometimes I guess that the Muse that I have heard inspires one to write, sits down, crosses its arms like a two year old, and gives me a humongous raspberry. Sometimes it's like that.

I was in a writing group for a while, and I loved writing fiction. According to the group, it wasn't good fiction, as I would make really bad mistakes that were usually, most of the time, oh, the MAIN PLOT POINT. But they liked the humor of the stories, even if I had married priests, or Stud horses that didn't want to have sex because they couldn't afford child support, (excuse me, people, it's FICTION, how many ding dong talking horses, besides Mr. Ed, have you SEEN???), or slaves, that were slaves after the emancipation proclamation. Well, fine. So, I wrote little ditties about my personal life, and people think they are just lovely.

That's great. Except, I don't really think the group would have wanted a 500 word article on cleaning out a chicken house, or the shed, or helping Husband rebuild an engine, every time. I suppose if I did what my one high school English teacher said, is just write. Give yourself x amount of words and just force yourself to write that much each day, then you will learn to be a writer.

Uh huh. I note said teacher never said I would be a GOOD writer.

I do know, like exercising, the more you make an effort, the easier it gets. With the exception of the dial up crashing, but at least I do make an effort to save my work regularly...

Ya know, I think, if I were a bear, this is the part where I would have my nice cave, curled up on a rock, and snoring while dreaming of trash cans and honey bee hives. So, I guess, I will call this a blog, and see if I can come out of literary hibernation tomorrow...

Grr. Zzzz.