Birthday Tea

My two Bethany's took me into Seattle this week for a surprise early Birthday Tea at the incredible Queen Mary's Tea Room! The decor was opulent and the food was a delicious treat for the palette! 

Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea is served anytime, includes a pot of

Queen Mary Tea and each of the following:

Fruit sorbet trio

Queen Mum’s gingerbread cookie

English crumpet

Cranberry orange scone

Gingerbread

Pecan pie bar

Snickerdoodle

Cherry chocolate shortbread

White chocolate candy cane mousse

Assorted fresh fruit

Bacon, mushroom, scallion quiche

English cucumber and radish tea sandwich

Chicken almond with mustard butter tea sandwich

Q.M. smoked salmon tea sandwich

Pork sausage roll

Served with whipped cream, butter, jam and marmalade.

Thanks Ladies :-)  I totally enjoyed the experience and the company!

Christmas Foods

We ate like Kings and Queens while daughter Bethany was home for the Christmas Holidays!

Christmas Breakfast.....

Christmas Dinner.....

.....and Christmas Dessert!

Merry Christmas 2011

 Zeke in his new dapper sweater.       Annabelle with a looooong bone           Chewing antlers

Darrell, Bethany and I went to Seattle and saw a funny yet heart warming play and ate at Guanacos Tacos and Pupuseria.  I LOVED the pupusas!

Healthy Dog Biscuits

It's not too late to make Fido that last minute Christmas gift to put under the tree tonight!

 Healthy Dog Biscuits

 

1 3/4 cup beef or chicken broth

1 package dry yeast

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup safflower oil

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint

1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tsp water

 To make the dough, heat broth in small saucepan to 105 degrees.  Sprinkle yeast over water and stir to dissolve.  Let mixture proof at room temperature for 5 minutes.  Pour yeast mixture into bowl of a standing mixer with a paddle attachment.  Add flours, wheat germ, cornmeal salt, oil and mint.  Mix on medium speed until a soft dough is formed.  Remove to well-floured surface.  Knead 10-12 times until texture is smooth.  Cover dough with a kitchen towel and let rest for 20 minutes.

 Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters that are bone shapes, cut out the biscuits.

 Place 1/2 inch apart on parchment lined baking sheets.

Brush the biscuits with the beaten egg and water mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30-50 minutes, depending on the size of cookie cutters you used, until lightly browned. Turn oven off and keep biscuits inside for another 30 minutes to crisp. Remove, cool and store in plastic bags.

Your dog will not only love you for these treats, but he will also have fresh, minty breath!



Birthday Breakfast and Concert

Anna Lyn's birthday is actually Dec. 20, but Joy and I celebrated it a bit early with a birthday breakfast in early December.

Joy made the cutest, most delicious individual omelets, full of vegetables and meat!

On her actual birthday, Reba and I went with her to the beautiful Covington Library to hear erwilian, a Renaissance Musical group that plays a wonderful assortment of instruments!

There are 5 musicians.  One man plays a variety of percussion instruments, two men play different stringed instruments such as the guitars, mandolin, viola and the mountain dulcimer, as well as the bodhran.   The woman plays a recorder, the mountain dulcimer, and the larger hammer dulcimer.  The young man plays the other smaller hammer dulcimer, the xylophone, the celesta (the instrument that plays the Sugar Plum Fairy dance in the Nutcracker Suite), the marimba, the melodica and the recorder.  Not only ONE recorder, but TWO recorders at the same time!  He was absolutely amazing!  They all were! Someone played an auto harp as well.  Very beautiful music! 

It made for a great evening out to celebrate the birthday of a great friend :-}

 

Happy Birthday, Anna Lyn!

Family Christmas

This past Sunday brought us all together for a time of Christmas Cheer!

Love these times together :-}

Santa: The Early Years

This very short video (since the last one was sooooo long) is one that I made from http://www.animoto.com/  They offer free 30 second videos, or a cheap annual basic subscription or more expensive annual professional one, both for unlimited videos.   I have the middle one.

Thanksgiving 2011

I am truly posting another SmileBox........ not a scam, though family may be the only ones interested in it :-}

This free photo slideshow created with Smilebox

Candy Cane Brownie Trifle

Over Thanksgiving, my niece, Molly, whipped up this incredibly delicious dessert! 

First, make up a batch of brownies, from a box or homemade, as well as this rich, decadent chocolate sauce (recipe posted at the conclusion of the blog).  Crush your candy canes as well.  Whip the cream.

Layering the ingredients

 Pouring  the yummy chocolate sauce over the layers

 Peppermint whipped cream

Sprinkling on the crushed candy canes 

Dig in and take a bit!!!  Such a taste sensory delight!

Micah couldn't wait to try it out :-}

Molly with her amazing dessert!

Candy Cane Brownie Trifle

Serves 16

1 19-20 oz brownie mix

1 recipe chocolate sauce

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1-2 drops red food coloring

1 cup crushed candy canes

Chocolate Sauce

6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

3 Tbsp butter

1 1/4 cup 1/2 & 1/2

3/4 cup sugar

3 Tbsp corn syrup

1/4 tsp peppermint extract

Prepare and bake brownies according to package instructions.  Cool completely. Cut into bite-sized chunks and set aside.

For whipping cream, in chilled bowl combine whipping cream, powdered sugar, peppermint extract and food coloring. Beat with chilled beaters on medium speed until soft peaks form.

For chocolate sauce, in medium sauce pan combine chocolate and butter.  Cook and stir on low heat until melted.  Stie in 1/2 & 1/2, sugar and corn syrup.  Bring to gentle boil over medium heat.  Boil gently, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes or until reduced to about 2 1/3 cups.  Remove from heat.  Stir in peppermint extract.  Cool to room temp (will thicken as it cools).

Place 1/3 brownie chunks into a serving bowl.  Drizzle with 1/4 of chocolate sauce and sprinkle with 1/4 of crushed candy canes.  Top with 1/3 of whipping cream.  Repeat twice.  Drizzle with remaining sauce and candy canes. 

Serve immediately and ENJOY!

Smilebox

My niece Melissa introduced me to a fun new format to present photos!  There is a free version that may be upgraded to a $40/year version if you want more options.  I am trying out the free version with this Smilebox of our dogs and cats.  Please turn your speakers on and feel safe to view this type of  slide show from me.  Also, any Animoto slide shows will be safe as well.  Just remember to never open the slide show from YouTube that gives my name and says it is for natural disasters.  It is spam, but pops up on my blog seemingly every other Friday.  Enjoy!

This digital scrapbook made with Smilebox

Chicken Garlic Zucchini Basil Pizza

Darrell made another great pizza this last weekend!  You'll have to ask him, though, how it is made........

Happy Trio

The COLD weather has arrived and this happy threesome are contented to huddle around the fire!

My Sunny Sunshine :-}

Sunshine

 Sunny.  Her name is Sunny.  Because she is my little sunshine :-)

 He might look like a grumpy old fart, but he is a softy underneath it all !

Sunny is such a cuddly little fur ball.  Hard to escape her, though! My sidekick :-)

'Nother One!

Meet the newest member of our (supposedly shrinking) family

Crummy pictures, but so be it.  I have always had a weak spot for orange and white kitties.  Always.  We were not able to keep cats alive on the busy country road that we lived on growing up, so we stuck to dogs after awhile.  But I loved kittens.  So not long after I was married, a 3 week old abandoned orange and white kittie found its way into my purse and snuck into our little rental house in Southern CA.  Tigger was the first of many Orange and whites over the years.  In the last maybe 10 years I have opted to not have male cats, as no matter when we get them neutered, they tend to spray their foul smell at the most inappropriate places.  Which means any place at all, in my thoughts.  I haven't had an o&w cat for a long time, so have been keeping my eye out for a female one.  Every time I find one, it is a male.  Unbeknownst to me until recently, almost all orange cats are male! Last Thursday I was at the pet store buying crickets for my Leo the Leopard gecko and I happened to glance at the big cage near the counter where they keep their kittens.  "Oh!  You have an orange and white little kittie!", I exclaimed to the cashier who was busy counting out 30 crickets for me.  "Yes!", she responded, "And the neat thing about this one is that it is a female!".  That had my name written all over it!  But I did not want to buy her impulsively, so I ripped myself away from her and told the woman that I would go to the library, and I might be back in a bit.  From the parking lot of the library, I called Darrell at work, and asked him to talk me out of something.  Instead, he named half a dozen reasons why I should buy the kittie.  I listed a few reasons why it was a bad idea, so after making sure I wanted talking out of this, he agreed, but said it was up to me.  Sooooo........

What a cutie pie she is!  Purrs, cuddles and likes to be right by me :-}  As always, the big question for me is what to name a new pet?  I am leaning towards Sammi or Josie.  Any thoughts?  Or suggestions? (I've had a couple of Pumpkins already).

Corn Triplets

I rarely grow a good crop of corn anymore, but his summer, cool as it was, produced one of my best harvests of the vegetable!  An odd thing, many of the stalks produced 2-3 ears with some of the separate ears having 'extra' ears attached to them!  A phenomenon that I have never seen before! It was some of the tastiest corn we have ever eaten :-}