Grocery Trip - Nani's Liberat-yum!

Black Bean Soup

Good morning on a bright and gorgeous Saturday! Yes, wake-up temperature was 36° but it’s SUNNY!!! Besides, tomorrow, Easter Sunday, it’s going to be 70-ish degrees and still sunny; perfect for a pastel dress and a new hat at church or coffee on the patio while munching the ears off a chocolate bunny.

Yeah, okay, sunshine just makes me happy. Moving right along…

At the end of last week I went grocery shopping! That may not sound like a big deal but I went grocery shopping by myself. I had my list, my coupons and three reusable shopping bags. The reusable shopping bags hold more than the little plastic grocery bags and there is a two-bag limit on the bus. I can put one bag around the head rest on the back of my chair in order to have three bags of groceries but only use floor space for two bags. I chose a time day when it would be a little less crowded at the store and was happy to find people were so helpful. A store employee swapped out full handbaskets for empty ones so I could get my shopping done – I can’t push a shopping cart from a wheelchair. I had no trouble finding employees that would grab things on the top shelves for me and in one instance a fellow shopper seemed almost honored when I asked if she would get a can of beans off a shelf that was out of my reach when there wasn’t an employee in that aisle. It was a good day. I got my three bags of groceries home and got them all put away before a well-earned cup of coffee and a donut.

At the beginning of this week I made a crock pot of black bean soup with the fruits from my shopping trip. I haven’t made black bean soup in a long time and golly it was SO GOOD! A 1 pound bag of black beans makes six servings. I have three left; one of the fringe and two in the freezer. I’m going to try not to thaw the container in the freezer for a couple of weeks but I haven’t made it in years and years and years and it’s really hard not to have it every day right now.

I use a slight variation of a recipe from “Fabulous Beans” by Barb Bloomfield, one of my favorite cookbooks, printed in 1994. It’s a great cookbook and in looking up the Amazon link I found “More Fabulous Beans” which is now on my Amazon Wish List!

Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb dry black beans
8 cups water
1 chopped green pepper

1 TBS oregano
2 TBS cumin
1 TBS salt
6 TBS lemon juice

Soak the beans overnight with 2 TBS baking soda. (The soda will make the beans kinder to your stomach, sort of like adding preemptive Beano to the soup!)

Drain and rinse the beans and put in a crock pot with 8 cups of water and the chopped green pepper. Cook on high for a few hours until the beans are soft. Turning the crock pot on in the morning will make the beans ready for the finish when you get home from work.

To finish the soup, add the oregano, salt, cumin and lemon juice to the beans and cook in the crock pot for another 30 minutes. Purée a couple cups in a blender and return it to the beans to give the soup a creamy texture. Serve with a tablespoon of sour cream.

The recipe with the sour cream is only 6 WW points. :)

The “bookmark” made me smile. This recipe has been a favorite of mine for a long time. We used to do one “vegetarian night” a week when I worked at Omnicom cable just after trade school. I remember when I wrote the note to Mom because I was working until 6:30 and she got home around 5:30. She was adding the finishing ingredients so the soup would be ready when Pop got home. Back in the mid-90s my printing was legible too! I loved this soup and was excited to share it with my parents. I was pleased that they both liked it. When we did vegetarian night, Mom and I used to go vegetarian all day. Pop made sure he had lots of meat with lunch.

2013 projects and goals

I did some refining and completing on the original goals post I’d written on New Year’s Eve. I guess I’d like to make my first goal to stay out of the hospital except for lab work! That could also be something out of my control, so I’m not making it a goal. One thing I was sad to learn when I was in “the joint” was that there are some bad levels showing on my liver panel. What that means is it may be a side effect of Gilenya, what I call my miracle drug that I’d knock off a liquor store to keep taking. I’ll be getting full blood work, including liver panel, done at the end of this week or beginning of next and my regular doctor and my neurologist in Cleveland will get the results, They said if the abnormalities weren’t just caused by the virus I had, I’ll need to switch my MS meds. I’ll deal, but it’ll mean I have to take shots instead of pills and pray it makes me feel as good. Shoot me a good thought or prayer that it was just the virus!

But let’s get on to things I can control.


Projects and Goals for 2013

"There is no happiness except in the realization 

that we have accomplished something."
Henry Ford

Organizing project:

One thing that blue end of 2012 taught me is that I need to redefine realistic in my planning! My biggest failure was the White Tornado Project. I accept that the project failed, not me. I am just not capable of doing the physical moving to reclaim storage areas in the house as livable rooms. And the truth is we weren’t using them as rooms so we weren’t missing anything.

For 2013 I am NOT putting that project back in the plan. David and I agreed that we need to reorganize some space in the kitchen/annex areas to make it more usable and free up space and that is the only organizing and fix-up project I have planned for the year. We have 2 very full and unused storage rooms and we’ll continue to have 2 storage rooms. I’m okay with that; I’m giving up one idea to help insure the success of a better one!


Blog goals:

I did well in committing myself to comments on other blogs and not having too many long stretches of time that I didn’t blog on Chronicles of Nani. I did not do so well with my desire to offer a scrapbook freebie every month and because I have a growing backlog of scrapbooking to catch up, I won't repeat that goal for this year either. I’ll offer a freebie when I can and I am inspired to do so. I am planning on offering a small non-scrapbook giveaway when I reach 100 blogger followers. I’m not going to make a huge deal about that until it happens. I want “my regulars” to visit because they enjoy my content and style, not just to try to win a prize. Besides, if I reach a number and then people unfollow me, well, what was I celebrating anyway, right?

I’m also going to commit some time early in the year to restoring Davlicious Recipes. I haven’t replaced the lost photos from the great Google Plus error and I want to bring it back to life and start adding new recipes. In keeping up with the “January Detox” that will include some simple and healthy recipes that offer great flavor, a good nutritional balance and fit in comfortable with Weight Watchers points system.

I also want to be more disciplined in keeping up content, even if it’s a short entry, on my MS bog and the cats’ blogs.


Reading Goals:

This is an easy goal, but I have to have some balance and I need to make some me time in my goals too. I was originally thinking a book a week, but there are some times and some books that make that rough, I read The Black Dahlia when I was in the hospital, It’s pretty long and actually not a book I enjoyed. I read the very end as fast as I could to get it done with. Now I’m half way through my second book of the year and the second week is almost over. It’s the book club book for the month at Ginger Scraps. So far it’s a cute book. Still, with other things to do now that I’m back to non-hospitalized life, I can’t see me finishing it in 2 days and I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself for something I do strictly for fun. So, my actual goal is 2 books a month. I’m going to make a point of writing a brief, non-spoiler, review for Good Reads as I finish books this year and I’ll repost those reviews here at The Chronicles too.


January Detox/Health and Wellness:

January detox is simply recovering from December. My plan there is to lose the weight I’ve gained through the holidays and really since August when I allowed myself to feel defeated for the year. That in itself is a daunting task, or could be. In the past and going forward I’ve had my best periods of wellness allowing myself to become food obsessed. If I am really concentrating on my food, how to make it balanced and how to make it taste great and look good on my plate, I stay more committed to being balanced and portion controlled. I also know that my chocolate cravings are best controlled if I make a point to include 25-100 calories of chocolate in my diet every day. Sound weird? In keeping track of that I found that there were days I didn’t meet that goal and “had” to have a Hershey’s kiss with my evening tea or decaf coffee. That's why I call Kisses “supplements.” Treating chocolate like a vitamin really has worked in the past.

Of course, any health and wellness plan must be custom-designed for the person living it. Read up and put the right plan together for yourself, or ask a nutritionist to help, but remember to never let someone else put together a “healthy” eating plan for you that you can’t stick with. If you don’t like the food and don’t eat it, it’s not healthy for you. Strive to find the right balance that will taste good and make you feel good; that’s the healthy plan for you! The way of eating that works best for me incudes lots of soup and a big bowl of crunchy veggies to munch on in the afternoon. And a little taste of chocolate every day.


Scrapbooking:

In May I presented Tori and Rina with the scrapbooks I’d been working on since early 2008 as their high school graduation gifts from me. Especially at the end with the editing and preparation for printing process I was pretty much doing nothing but those books. Then I had a smidge of burn out where I took a bit of a scrapping break, a slowdown. Now I look at my “to be scrapped” folders. I have the majority of 2008, from April on, all of 2009 (which includes our wedding reception and honeymoon) September to the end of 2011 and all of 2012. No, 2010 because I met my goal of having all of 2010 done by the end of February 2011.

What I’ve organized my folders to do for this year is that I am sticking to each current month. In January, I can scrap any pages from any year, as long as they are January pages. If in any current month I complete that month for all four years I have folders for, I can go back to work on open fielders from the previous month, but when that month is over, I move to pages for the next month. This way when I look out the window and see snow, I’m not trying to get myself in the groove of beach photos. The pages I’m scrapping fit my current world and surroundings. I think that will get my natural creativity working better.

I’m going to try to have a tally at the end of each month with how many layouts I got done, and how many folders I’ve closed. So far this month I’ve done the last week of Journal 366, the one allowable from last month and the week that just finished will always be okay to do from the last month to keep up with the year’s project. I’ve also done the first week on 20134 52 topix, 5 layouts completing 3 folders from 2009 with 5 to go and 2 layouts completing 2 folders for 2012 with 5 to go. 2008 and 2001 don’t have January folders. I only have one folder for 2013 right now. Since this is a smaller month as far as undone folders go, I might finish January this year!


Project 365/52:

I’m kinda pumped for this year after actually completing last year’s Journal 366! For this year I’m going to have a weekly theme and my layout will include photos and journaling about my week and how it relates to the week’s theme. I already posted my 2-pager for the first week’s theme; “healthy.” I’ll write and scrap this week’s theme tomorrow or Tuesday. The theme is “fresh fruit.” Tuesday starts “scrapbook” week.


Employment Goal:

Perhaps the most disheartening goal I completely blew off last year was the job search goal. I have always been a person whose external area reflects the internal balance. When my rooms were in order in my suite at my parents’ house, I was mentally in order and could tackle anything. I tidied my office before I went to Chamber of Commerce meetings with my business because if the office was straight, I had more power, more confidence at meet and greets. It enabled someone on the shy side to be more professional and aggressive. I’m trying to redirect that concentration to my computer now and it does make sense because so much in the job seeking process is done through online applications and email now. If my hard drive is organized and my desktop is clean, the confidence level should be up, no matter how many dirty dishes are in the sink.

With a change in insurance, the power chair process is on hold. I’m not going to wait for someday when I have a power chair to get to work on this very important part of my world. I’ll use the manual chair to go to appointments at the Vocational Rehabilitation Bureau and get started on evaluating my abilities. I have the determination and resourcefulness that can fit many places. Plus, hey I’m a disabled woman, a double click on the minority scale! I learned in one of my trade school classes some 20+ years ago that it was foolish to be “too proud” to take an opportunity offered to you because an employer needs to fill a quota you fit. It’s your opportunity to prove that there were even better reasons you were a perfect fit! With a decent job I can save up to get the power chair outright, to heck with insurance. I’d love to tell the insurance companies I don’t need them.


So there are my 2013 goals and projects. They are slowed down and toned down a little for me than in years past. I also have a few outs to accept a smaller accomplishment on occasion; as an example, while I have 2 folders that have January pages in them in the scrapbooking project, completing just one of them is a job accomplished As always and especially now, if a preferable goal can be met, I have the right to change a goal to better suit my needs. I feel cautiously optimist about 2013. I have many smaller goals that are parts of larger ideas, but no large goals will go totally unmet. Perhaps that meets the biggest goal of all; keep my own attitude positive and strive to always make meaningful contributions, no matter how small, to the world.

All of this, or something better.

And by the way, that goal to have these posted by midnight tonight? NAILED IT!

Crunch Day

So, today is it, huh? End of the world. It’s gray and windy and 34 degrees, which is almost the predicted high for today, but it just doesn’t seem apocalypsy. So I am going to continue as if the world won’t end today. There’s just too much to cram in tomorrow if it doesn’t end.

Nothing makes me quite as crazy as things being behind and I am behind. After this post I’ll probably have another cup of coffee, no schnapps before noon, but by noon I might be tempted! Today will be crostadas and cleanup for tomorrow night. I’m not overly worried about that. I’ll get it done on time. Just right now out tree has half the lights on it and no ornaments. If the tree is only partially done, I’ll live with that. No one really sees anything but the glow of the lights while we’re enjoying each other’s company anyway. What’s making me unravel is that our Christmas Cards aren’t out yet and while they may get put in the mailbox before, they won’t get anywhere by Christmas. So, if you usually see a card from us, you still will, it’ll just be a “Hope you’re still enjoying the holidays” wish rather than a “Have a happy holiday.”

Still, I grumble inside for what I can’t do to help keep us on schedule for the holidays. I’m considering toning things down for next year. Oh, I’ll still bake and still do the fabulous dessert bar, but I’m pondering asking someone else to host the venue. Maybe do the party in Michigan next year instead of here. It’s the combination of baking and cleaning/getting the house ready for guests that’s making me nuts. So maybe I need to outsource the location.

Our Christmas Bat under the mistletoe

I have officially composed the Friendly Beasts verse for the Christmas Bat. I was mistaken about his eating mosquitos at the First Christmas. I created the story of the Christmas Bat; I can change it if it works better. This does!

I said the bat that flies at night.
I outstretched my wings so he could sleep tight
I shadowed his eyes ‘cause that star was so bright.
I said the bat that flies at night.

There ya go; the Christmas Bat got between the star and the Baby so he could sleep, but everyone else knew where he was.


Davinities

I sent out some Davinities boxes in the mail this year. I promised that I’d tell about this year’s offerings on my blog, so here are the Davinities gift-box treats for 2012:

Krisp Kringles

The Original Davinity

This year’s Kringles are crunchy peanut butter and butterscotch rice squares. The compressed and cut preparation holds it shape better, therefore ships and travels better.

Mr. Goodcookies

This is the traveling Davinity and the one that I make for other occasions through the year, including that it’s the one I packaged for the Paws and Whiskers bake sale in September. They are crushed Mr. Goodbar, milk chocolate with peanuts, in a traditional tollhouse cookie base.

Chocolate Chunk Hazelnut Cookies

I created these especially for David. Well, you know, he’s going to put the Nani Bakery in his train layout, complete with a water tower! These are crushed hazelnuts and dark chocolate chunk cookies, each one garnished with a whole roasted hazelnut.

Pecan Pie Cookies

Back when my friend, Marie, had her baking business, Celebration Generation, up and running, I ordered cookies to augment my Davinities at Christmastime for the parties. When she closed Celebration Generation, she posted the recipes to her cookies on her Celebration Generation blog over time and I’ve been adding a different Celebration Generation recipe as one of the Davinities each year. Last Year it was the Black Forest Cookies and this Year it’s Pecan Pie cookies. They were one of my favorites of her cookies and I’m with the way they turned out from my oven too! There’s really not much to say that isn’t in the name. They are pecan pie filling in a brown sugar-based crust.

Ginger Bats and Bells (and Birds)

These ones are my favorite! I tried many different gingerbread recipes and finally found the right one. This is a semi-soft gingerbread cookie with cream cheese frosting. My opinion, it’s just the right balance of sweet and spicy and crunch and chewy. The ones that break between cooling and frosting get frosted too. I have to be able to taste to be sure they’re good right? Gingerbread is my favorite holiday cookie and while I pretty much like all gingerbread, I wanted mine to be my favorite; I succeeded.

Loaded Loaf

Back again from last year, loaded loaf is a great breakfast cake. The loaf is pumpkin-based with chocolate chips, walnuts and raisins. Experience from Christmas morning last year – a slice of loaf given a little time to toast up in a toaster oven with cinnamon butter is heaven!

And there’s the 2012 Davinities gift-box lineup. You can see the Celebration Generation Pecan Pie Cookie recipe here: Pecan Pie Cookies. Recipes for many of the regular Davinities are available at Simply Davlicious. Simply Davlicious will be getting an update with pictures and new recipes in 2013.

Happy Summer First!

I know, I know, I have been a little scarce. I was really busy at the beginning of the week a couple weeks back getting ready for last week. Last week was our (late) spring vacation! Last year and this year David’s vacation time was later than it had been when we went to Florida in 2010. Of course we melted last year in record end of May/beginning of July heat in Iowa and especially in St. Louis, so this year, with vacation time in June…we went farther south!

It sounds quite insane considering that, while I like the heat, David unequivocally does NOT! But there were free room and family opportunities that prompted the decision. Baby brother was planning a trip after his girls graduated from high school to take the whole family, including his step daughter’s family and Dad and Aunt Judy to Italy. As a planner I guess I’m a little harsh, but I’ve commented before about my brother and paper bags and being trapped inside one without GPS.  He probably wouldn’t have planned ahead and brought batteries for the GPS anyway. Four months before the trip, he discovered the prices for flights to Italy were just a TON pricier than he expected. So, the family trip to Italy became a beach vacation in North Carolina.

The planned beach vacation was his family with Dad and Aunt Judy to the Outer Banks. David had planned his vacation time around his birthday and concert tickets in Washington DC the day before. We asked little bro if he might have room in his beach rental for guests a couple of nights and he was ecstatic that we wanted to join them. So our vacation week included 2 days and three nights in their sound-side rental in Duck, North Carolina, in between trains, 3 baseball games, a Marillion concert and a fun evening car-camping by the railroad tracks. For our two days, we visited The Wright Brothers museum and memorial in Kill Devil Hills, Jenette’s Pier, where my family was fishing, 4 light houses and we ate lots of seafood!

My main issue with the 3 nights at the beachouse was the steps. There was a full flight of stairs into the main level of the house. That’s hurricane protection, but it’s definitely not handicap-friendly at all. Every time I used the steps, someone had to run the walker in front of me so I could grab it when I reached the end and walk in front of me going down or behind me going up with instructions to push hard if I started falling down because I’d rather break a few teeth on the wood steps than my skull on the concrete floor below. Good news is, as nerve-racking as it was doing the steps, I experienced the victorious feeling of accomplishment every time. But next time I go to the beach, we’ll do a hotel with an elevator. I’ve never understood vacation rentals; what kind of vacation is it where you cook, clean and make your own bed? (And do more steps than home!)

My highlight of the beach time was seeing the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras. My parents had traveled to The Outer Banks together and Mom was in her glory seeing the lighthouses. She had brought home a replica of every one of them that were displayed in their bedroom. She was a huge lighthouse fan and Cape Hatteras was her favorite. We shared many lighthouse trips on the Great Lakes, but seeing Hatteras was special for me since she loved it so and that was one we hadn’t seen together. Mom’s lighthouses are on a shelf in our nautical-themed bathroom. I’d been with her to some of them, but it’s neat to have seen a few of the other ones now.


I’ll tell a little more about what we did on vacation in the next week or so. For now, It’s Wednesday and I’m back to my normal week, so, how about a little Hodge Podge?

1. Summer officially rolls in with the Hodgepodge this week, for those of us in the Northern hemisphere anyway. What song says summer 2012 to you?

I can’t think of a specifically 2012. When I was in my 20s and 30s, Summer was always official when I could drive the Camaro with the windows down and Motley Crue’s “Wild Side” blasting in the cassette player. More recently, I think Kati Perry’s “California Girls” makes me think of summer. I’ll probably think of a bunch more after I hit “post.”




2. What's your favorite quintessential summer food?

Gazpacho, A Midsummer Evening’s Pasta and Baseball Nut Ice Cream from Baskin Robbins

Recipe is my random thought

3. I've spent a lot of time traipsing up and down the NJ Turnpike in recent weeks. Did you know the rest areas on the turnpike are named after people who lived or worked in NJ? Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper, Molly Pitcher, Joyce Kilmer, Thomas Edison, and Gover Clevland just to name a few. Of those I listed, who would you most like to have known and why?

Thomas Edison – he was an old fashioned Steve Jobs!

A little tongue in cheek there, but Edison said “why not?” to so many things that became necessities. Think about it; in the timeline of discovery, without the development of the phonograph to record and replay data, voice, and without a power grid to transmit electricity, would the iPhone or iPad have ever been developed? I just find the historical roots of modern day normal to be fascinating.


4. At what age did you move out of your parent's house and what prompted the move?

I left my parents’ house when I was 40. I was there for the same reason I left; money. I was fine to stay there and drive my sports car while hoping to get to Atlanta, but mergers in the communication production field and the fall of the economy left me really grateful to still be with my parents! I don’t imagine it would have been easy to have to come back after I’d been out!

The economy was challenging Dad’s income and Aunt Judy’s bills and they chose to combine assets. I was already an hour away from my boyfriend and moving with them would put me farther away. Boyfriend offered to let me move in and I thought that was a better choice for me. It ends up that I’m married and still living with that boyfriend now, so it worked out well.


5. What's more satisfying to you-saving time or saving money?

Saving money is wonderful, but I hate wasting time more than anything! I’ll spend more in gas to drive around construction than be stuck in traffic. I need to feel occupied more than I need to see my wallet full.


6. Name something you think brings out the good in people.

Wheelchairs! No, really, people are incredibly kind and want to be helpful to people in wheelchairs.


7. This last question comes to you courtesy of Kathy over at Reflections...Will you be taking a vacation or a staycation this summer? If so where will you go? If a staycation is on the calendar have you made any special plans to fill the time?

If ‘va” is the part that makes it “go someplace,” then “cation” is the part that means “take a break.” That being said, I don’t believe in the word “staycation.” Taking a break to me is seeing something new and NOT being at work or home. It’s also having housekeeping making the bed and the staff at a restaurant serving the food and doing the dishes!

We just got back from 11 days in Virginia and the Carolinas.



8. Insert your own random thought here.

Here’s my recipe for A Midsummer Evening’s Pasta, one of my favorite dishes I cook in the summer.

***Recipe***

A Midsummer Evening's Pasta

 serves 2

2 cups of dry Farfalle pasta

2 Roma tomatoes

1 cup of fresh basil leaves torn into bite-sized pieces

1 TBS. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

3/4 cup of freshly shredded Asiago cheese.

Boil pasta in water with an extra drop of olive oil to keep it from sticking. Cook pasta until it is al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, dice the tomatoes and mix them with the fresh basil and olive oil. Adjust taste with salt and pepper.

When pasta is done cooking, drain it and put it in a serving bowl, immediately adding the tomato and basil mixture and the Asiago cheese. Mix it to warm the additional ingredients and melt the cheese.

Serve warm.

Thursday Thoughts

Good gloomy Thursday! All right, it’s gloomy in Toledo, but the sun always shines in Cyberspace, right? I guess it’s not so sunny if you have a cyber-nightclub, but in this cyber coffee shop, it’s always sunny.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by a flash of light and a breeze coming in the open window. It’s not a vivid memory, I sleep soundly, but I recalled it when I looked outside and saw wet pavement this morning. I remember hearing the rain start and saying to David that he should probably close the window. The window is on his side of the bed. Only, David wasn’t there. He’d gotten up for some reason and was coming back into the room and made a comment about “fat raindrops.” I said it sounded like hail. He looked out the window and studied the downpour. He confirmed it was hail and it was coming down hard, making a lot of noise on the metal roof on the enclosed porch off the bedroom. I asked him where Carla was because she gets scared from the sound of rain on the metal roof and the hail was very loud. He said she was downstairs…and that’s the last I remember. I suspect if there was any more conversation, I was talking in my sleep.

Remembering dreams from the middle of the night is much more interesting than remembering reality when the weather wakes me.


Yesterday was Pi Day, 3-14! To celebrate, for lunch I made a perfectly round, and perfectly fat-free, pizza Pi!

A full Pizza Fit ‘n Free is a perfect fit for my new 8” plates!

Pizza Fit ‘n Free  is fat free pizza that tastes just fabulous! The pizzas are shipped with very tasty sauce and the fat free cheese. I added a strip of turkey bacon and a couple spoons of sautéed onions and bell pepper. There is just a trace of fat in the toppings and it adds just enough to make the cheesy gooey. A plain cheese pizza if still great, but the cheese doesn’t get so gooey without the trace of fat the sautéed veggies and turkey bacon added. It was fantastic and a whole pizza id s just 6 WW points!


Since I was going to be preparing the toppings for my pizza, I went ahead and chopped the whole onion and bell pepper, as well as cooking three more slices of turkey bacon to make Quichettes. They turned out great!

Real simple recipe too!

Ingredients

3 strips of turkey bacon cooked medium crisp and cut into squares
1 diced bell pepper
1 diced medium onion
1 tsp. margarine
1 piece string cheese, diced.
1 cup Egg Beaters
2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

Sauté onion and pepper in margarine. Mix cooled bacon, onions and pepper with string cheese cubes and Egg Beaters. Add Parmesan cheese and stir until blended. Pour evenly into sprayed 12-cupcake tin. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes 12 Quichettes



Remember my mug cake recipe?  I made a very tasty variation. I omitted the cocoa and used 2 Tablespoons of raspberry jam in place of half the Splenda.

I admit it’s unquestionably uglier. I suspect the raspberry and almond flour combination is what made it turn grayish teal. But for the taste, I accept it as a yummy blue raspberry cake!  Next time I'll add a drop of blue food coloring so I can know I meant to do that!


Okay, so there’s the new “what’s cookin’” stuff. How about something old?


Here’s a neat little piece.

It’s a pin that looks like it was never taken off the paper it was displayed on. It says “souvenir of Newfoundland" and on the back of the British Flag the hand is holding has Great Britain engraved on the back.

detail

Newfoundland was originally part of Great Britain and became the tenth province to join Canada on March 31, 1949. So, this pin is at the very least that old. It was in the box with the trinkets Papa bought back from WW2 and Newfoundland was one of the places he was stationed for a while in the early 40s. I read several postcards he sent grandma in 1941 and 1942 which would have been when he was 18, shortly after he enlisted and when Grandma was still in high school. So my best guess is that it is from the very early 40s.

See more unusual and common vintage pieces at Vintage Thingie Thursday, hosted by Suzanne at The Coloradolady.

Links

Pizza Fit N’ Free

The Coloradolady

Sunday Sharing

We’re on break from the White Tornado now. David is helping me with some of the liftables that are more than I can handle and the David-specific stuff that I refuse to be the one who decides if it goes or stays. That and I want us both to know where his stuff goes!

David was at what I lovingly call a “grownups play date” yesterday, a model train operating session at a friend’s in Michigan, so he was gone all day. That gave me nothing but uninterrupted scrap time! I got the last three pages done for the major project I’ve been working on for over four years. Now starts the proofreading. That’s a David thing. He’s the pro and I’m, especially bad at seeing my own typos because I know what I meant to say and often, that’s what I see. Plus, I like having a second pair of eyes check out the layouts before I get them printed. Once the printing is done, it’s done. It’s just too expensive to do it twice. If David asks why I laid something out the way I did, or tells me it looks cluttered or not balanced, I can make adjustments. Still, editing is most to proofread my typos!

Part of scrapbooking, for me anyway, is that I often create templates of special elements in separate files to use in my layouts. Those separate file often end up being freebies. Since the project is a gift, I can’t show the page just yet, but I can show and share a word art I did for one of the pages.  This is a special book to me and sharing little pieces of my creative heart only make the whole project more special.  I’d like to share this word art with fellow digiscrappers and anyone who might enjoy the sentiment to enhance a photo or add to their blog!

Click preview to download at 4-Shared.


We had brunch around 11:30, so in lieu of lunch, for our afternoon break we had cake! I was inspired by a blog I read yesterday morning. I don’t really remember how I got there, but I think I followed links from Pinterest. Of all things, recipes are the greatest thing I get out of Pinterest. Well, that and an organized place I can keep my White Tornado links, but I have been inspired by so many wonderful recipes! So I found myself in the archives at GFE, Gluten Free Easily, and a few different gluten free versions of Mug Cakes. I never realized how many types of Mug Cake recipes there were! So, as I was looking at the vast variety of recipes, I started wondering if there was a Weight Watchers friendly version. I found a couple “healthier” recipes, but they all ended in a whole regular egg and 3 tablespoons of oil. I got out my little points calculator and came up with 10-15 points for one mug cake. No thanks. The oil was way too abundant for my mind for just a mug of cake. So, on to recipe building.

I analyzed a total of 7 recipes from different places boasting benefits for different reasons. There are some things you swap out and some things you don’t. I wanted a cake that was fluffier than the gluten free recipe and lower in oil than, well, lower in oil than any of them. I came up with a combination of ingredients that seemed like it should be good and the total was only 6 points! YAY!! But the big question after all that – does it taste good? Because what is it worth if it’s within my dietary guidelines but it tastes bad, right?


So I combined it, nuked it and WOW! Warm and tasty chocolate cake!

Ugly, but tasty!

My rule for posting a recipe that I put together is that I have to have all the accurate measurements, and I have to recreate the recipe with the same results at least twice after the measurements are finalizes. Well, with this one, I wrote and used the exact measurements the first time. I just remade the recipe, plus the regular sugar variation and even my finicky Hubby says he’ll eat it again!

So here’s my version of the 3-minute Mug Cake:

Nani-style Mug Cake

¼ cup almond flour
6 packets Splenda
1 TBS cocoa
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ c milk
¼ c egg substitute
1 tsp. vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients in a coffee mug, microwave on high for 3 minutes.

Serve warm. It's not a pretty cake, but it's tasty!


(I made David’s substituting 2 tablespoons of sugar for the 6 packets of Splenda.)

Links

GFE - Gluten Free Easily

Outstanding Lunch!

Cream of Italy Soup
2½ cups for under 100 calories!

I just posted this fabulous recipe at Davlicious Recipes. OMG!

If you’re wondering what about this cup of soup is worth teenage text-slang from me, all my recipes are tested multiple times for consistency of flavor and accuracy of measurements before I post them at Davlicious. The measurements on Cream of Italy Soup are sound, so they pass for accuracy.

The consistency of flavor changes depending on the sauce you use. When I created the soup, we had a jar of Ragu meat sauce open in the refrigerator. It made for a tasty soup that was quick to make a and low calorie. Today was the final test. The sauce that’s open in the fridge is a container of my homemade sauce. That’s where the text slang comes in. My homemade sauce Italied up the flavor of the soup and … OMG!

The key here is pick a spaghetti sauce you really like the flavor of, because it definitely makes the soup’s flavor. Whichever sauce you use, it’s still low calorie, still fast and still delicious!

Link: See the recipe at Davlicious!
Cream of Italy Soup

Nani's Food Roots

Yesterday I cooked a bit of my roots and David and I enjoyed the fruits of that labor for lunch before he went to wo0rk today. David and I are the opposite side of the Green Acres coin from the old TV show. I grew up knowing what a McDonald’s hamburger tasted like, that restaurant by the bowling alley was where the family splurged for a good steak and fish was perch or trout that we caught ourselves when we were camping. Also, growing up a 20-minute drive away from my Noni, I had never ever thought about spaghetti sauce in a jar!

Mom had taken advantage of learning some cooking tricks from her Mother-in-law early on. Those tricks included tips for spaghetti sauce. Noni’s sauce was excellent, prepared different ways with different meats. She used ground or chopped beef, sometimes pork and during lent, tuna. She also often used peas and always mushrooms in her sauce. Noni’s “cheat” was sometimes a sprinkle of chicken base with the spices. Mom’s was always ground beef and while she used the mushrooms, never peas! Mom always picked the peas out of Noni’s sauce when we ate there. Her cheat was using Lawry’s packaged seasonings as her base and adding frm there. And yes, authentic homemade sauce simmers for a few hours to properly blend the flavors! That’s why “from a jar” is unthinkable!

For this past Christmas, my brother, Dave, canned a bunch of his sauce and gave it as gifts. Dave’s sauce is a little bit of Noni, Mom and Dad with his own touch. The biggest difference between Mom’s sauce and Dad’s is wine and Dad isn’t brand-loyal like Mom was to Lawry’s. Pop uses a bottle of wine when he makes sauce, about a third in the sauce and the rest in the cook! Dave’s sauce is more wine in the sauce and rest in the cook and his wife. Dave's sauce also has a little less ground beef than Mom’s did and he uses the peas. My brother’s sauce was good, but for my taste the wine was a little overkill. But it did make me think about Mom’s sauce and it gave me the bug to make my own.

David is not from that Italian background. He always made spaghetti with sauce from a jar with added ground beef. He uses a decent Eye-talian sauce, which is fine for a quick American spaghetti dinner and we do eat that at home. Note the distinction. Eye-talian is a common heard American mispronunciation of Italian and how I distinguish Italian influenced from actual Italian food. Yesterday, I made a pot of real Italian spaghetti sauce!


My sauce is a ground beef sauce and I used McCormick seasonings as a spice base for my cheat because I couldn’t find Lawry’s at the Kroger where I bought everything else. I added additional garlic powder, oregano and basil too. My signature in the prep comes at the very beginning; I start with a tablespoon of olive oil and brown two tablespoons of minced garlic and a chopped red onion before adding the ground beef to brown. Then I drain the grease off all of it to add with the tomato products and seasonings for cooking.

It turned out pretty good. Nah, forget the humble on this one; I was VERY pleased! There are a couple of small spice tweaks I want to do next time and I want to find the Lawry’s seasoning to put a little more of Mom in my sauce! The most important test was lunch. I like this sauce and prefer homemade to jar anyway. I can start the sauce at six and let it simmer until bedtime. It doesn't take hours of prep, just hours of simmer! The judgement from David was favorable, as long as I don't spice it up any more than it was today. YAY!

Now my brother has ideas that his sauce recipe should be kept a family secret and just passed down. I think that's mean - it puts pressure on people to make babies whether or not they want to so the recipe doesn't fade away. Besides, the cats don’t cook, although Baggle, our red-sauce nut, cleaned a plate after lunch and seemed to really like it!

So after some fine-tuning, I’ll be posting the recipe for my sauce at Davlicious Recipes. After all, nothing great will be remembered unless it’s shared!

Turkey Soup For The Soul

Star from Christmas Evening by Jodiann Cates

I’m taking a break in this busy Saturday to check-in. Oh, I’m, really just giving myself a break because my head isn’t in the school zone right now. I’m not in panic mode. The project isn’t due until a week from Monday. I’m really in okay shape if I take the rest of the weekend off and get to finishing my rough draft Monday morning. My study goal is to have everything done and turned in Friday night.

Dinner tonight is planned to be easy – Thanksgiving in review! We split the leftovers with Pop and Aunt Judy, so it gives us a great (and easy) dinner for tonight. Of course, I’ll get to wash all the dishes the leftovers came in, but dinner will be worth it!

David is out railfanning without me today. To be honest, I felt just awful this morning and that awful stayed with me into the afternoon. Around noon I took a couple of Advil and a B12. Golly B12 is wonderful stuff. It helps the brain and nervous system and in the formation of healthy blood. It really does help reenergize me and it clears my head, helps me focus. It just helps make everything feel better. I have a pretty full plate of life right now with the challenges and responsibilities I’ve had added with Grandma and losing John, which I wasn’t prepared for. I’m hoping that once my project is complete and thus, school is done for the semester, it will help. Of course the cat adjustment situation weighs heavy on me.

Carla is better from the respiratory infection, just a little weeping from her eyes still, but a lot less than she had! She goes in for a check-up Monday. She’s adjusting to the house and other cats now, although she is balanced by extremes. She either walks slowly and tentatively near either of them afraid to get them agitated or she is having so much fun playing she runs right into them and a hissing fit and fight ensues.

Baggle seems to be adjusting the best of the incumbent cats, but he adjusted to Kaline better than Chester did when they all first met too. He still will hiss or swipe a paw at her when she is being rambunctious too near to him, but he tolerant. Last night Carla was sitting on David’s lap and Baggle was next to him with no growling!

Kaline is really the last holdout. This is breaking my heart. She hasn’t been coming in to sleep with us and seems a little mistrusting, even of me. I just can’t stand that! She does sit next to me during the day and often plops down on the table behind the laptop, but she’s just not comfortable a lot of the time. She spends a lot of her awake hours watching or looking out for Carla. Now, that being said, earlier today she was sitting up on my desk upstairs and Carla jumped up onto the scanner, just a couple feet away. She growled at Carla. I growled at her. I matched her moan for moan and growl for growl that she gave Carla and she calmed down. I know that sounds silly, but it’s always worked with Kaline. If I “speak” to her as an angry Momma cat, she stops whatever she’s doing and gives me that “I’m growling at you in my mind” look. It helped get her through growling at Azreal when they met and through hissing at both Chester and Baggle when the girls met them.

Kaline has to revisit the vet about her tummy problems. To be honest, we really haven’t been able to administer the medicine for it, but she hasn’t been throwing up any more since the shot she got at the vet. The medicine is supposed to help her calm down and help her tummy. If she goes nuts and gets all worked up when we try to give her the medicine, how is that helping her? So David and I decided that the medicine would be there if she started having issues again, but we wouldn’t add to her problems by hogtieing her and shoving icky tasting liquid in her throat.

I want to share a link to a website/blog, I discovered! Simple Scrapper just started a six-week program yesterday that is fabulous for scrapping the holidays! I’ve downloaded the workbook and first template. The program is called Capture The Season and this week’s layout is about the things you’re thankful for. You’ll get prompts, ideas, templates and tips to make your pages better and quicker! There’s even a link for journaling tips too. I know a lot of people say they would like tips on doing that! I’ll definitely be showing off my first layout when it’s done, so if you don’t download the free workbook and template for week one today, be prepared to be tempted again!

::Deep Breath:: Mmmmm!

One of the best gifts I get from Thanksgiving is the turkey carcass! We used to have Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s and Mom would get the turkey carcass in the soup pot and make the stock Thanksgiving night. On Black Friday, instead of the outlet malls, Mom and I would go holiday shopping in Tawas, MI. Black Friday in a small lakeshore town is like being there in the summer. Small town means, just enough people for it to feel festive, but few enough fellow shoppers to talk to people and be greeted sincerely by shop owners. I loved that!

Now, there is a Walmart that’s killed a number of the businesses and what Walmart didn’t destroy the economy has really pressured. I don’t make a secret out of my dislike for “The Evil Empire.” Walmart is bad for local economies. It’s nice to save a little money, but I don’t think it’s worth seeing my next door neighbor stocking shelves at Walmart for minimum wage after his store was driven out of business. Kinda kills the Christmas spirit for me.

But back in the pre-Walmart invasion in that area, it was a wonderful day free from the sales hounds to really get in the holiday spirit. It was usually cold, sometimes gently snowing, but always fun in a classic Christmas way. When we got back to Grandma’s for dinner, we set up the turkey congee with that homemade broth and leftovers. It was just ambrosia, food of the gods! Now tomorrow, I’ll try a congee light-style for us. David isn’t a fan of the heavy veggie and meat soups I do. He likes a simpler brothy noodle soup. Cool thing is, congee can easily be both, so that’s the plan for tomorrow!

Okay, need to go stir the soup and adjust the seasoning. I do know the smell of that soup just washes over me with the holiday spirit and makes me feel good! Whatever part of the holiday season you partake in, in the face of the economical woes and the state of so much of the world, let the joy and peace of this season consume you. Happiness is contagious and we should do all we can to make it spread!

Links:

Simple Scrapper

Turkey Congee Recipe

Crunch Time!

The birthday-girl with her Happy Sock

I’m just stopping in to say a quick hello today. Busy, busy week!

Yesterday was Kaline’s 4th birthday! Hard to believe our baby is FOUR! She wrote about it in her blog last night before bed. Something about Meow Mix Surf and Turf that made her very purry all night! Make sure you stop by Behind Orange Eyes to read the couple of new entries there!

Also, for recipe fans, there is a new recipe for low-cal crispy crackers at Simply Davlicious Recipes!

I just finished my contribution to the September Mega it at Scrap Bird, my “rent.” Also, the I Wanna Talk About Me challenge is up. This month is an easy one since I started late, all you have to do is have yourself in a photo on your layout. It can be a group photo, family picture, you just have to be in there somewhere. Pretty easy, huh? The posting bonus is a new mini kit called stones.


Now I need to get our laundry finished for the honeymoon packing. David has everything set with our cat-sitter. It’s their usual sitter, who refers to them as her “grandcats,” so they’ll be happy with that. They really like her. I still don’t expect them to be helping us pack. I think they’d be happier if we ALL stayed with them for 2 weeks!

This afternoon I have to go out to get my passport photos done and I need to pick up the thank you cards from the reception. Being at Grandma;s last week ut us a bit behind in that, but we’re bringing everything with us so we can do the thank you cards while we’re waiting n trains! The passport photos are for our trip in October. We’re going to ride behind a steam engine in Michigan. Our first steam trip riding together! Then, David says we might go to Canada for a bit. With a grumble, I’ll get a passport so I can go to Canada. I was born a half hour away from Canada and have never needed a passport to go there. Grrr...

Then I have baseball stadium directions to print and the schedule of the teams we;ll be near. David was thinking 3 or 4 games, I was thinking 4 or 5, so we’re pretty sure we’ll see 4...but I’ll hope for more too! ;)

Keep your fingerers crossed for me! My text book is on backorder! I ordered it from Amazon and canceled the school bookstore order to get it faster, and I will get it faster, but I just pray it comes in Friday! The confirmation I got said between Friday and the 20th. We leave on Saturday and the semester starts on the 17th! Cross your fingers for me!

Okay, have to get on with a shower then laundry! I’ll check back in later!

Apples and Wine and a Davlicious Event!

“Apples and Wine” is the new color kit from Digitalegacies Designs. It’s the kit I did for Boo’s Color Challenge at SAS and the first time I’ve ever created a mini kit for the purpose of doing a particular layout!

Sorry, this link is expired.

Please leave comments here rather than jumping through the hoops to leave them at 4-Shared. Besides, if they are here, you know I’ll read them!

Apples and Wine is an old family cold remedy that actually tastes better than the old world remedies usually do! I remember Mom told a story about Nono’s cure for morning sickness that she never tried! It was something like milk, honey and whiskey. EW! Not sure how that STOPS nausea!

But apples and wine is a sweet and spicy mulled wine that tastes good and does a remarkable job of rushing that cold out of your system!

Here is the layout the kit was designed to make!


What is this? ANOTHER recipe page??

Today is the day! For about the past month, I’ve been slowly transferring the old archived recipes from Simply Davine and adding some new ones to a new blog, Simply Davlicious Recipes! I’d like to invite everyone to take a look at the new blog! Bring a napkin for the drool!


Some of the recipes at Simply Davlicious Recipes have links. Those links are for the SDR Cook Book Pages. They’re not hard to spot! That recipe will have the a cookbook page at the top of the entry and the link will take you to a download page were you can have the full resolution page, 12X12 in 300 dpi. You can print them out, add them to your own cookbook, they are my gift to you! As part of the grand launch of the blog, you’ll find Cook Book Pages for 8 recipes, including 5 that have never been offered before!

All downloadable CBPs are offered with permission of the individual designers of the kits used for each page. The blog URLs are available in the download package, so if you like the kit, stop by the designer’s bog and leave some love!!

I hope you enjoy the new recipe blog. I loved being able to use tags to make everything cross referenced. You can browse them all or see your favorite topics. if you’re still looking for some ideas for Thanksgiving, click the holidays tag on the side bar!


So, click the Davlicious logo and come on over to my blog-warming party!

Who Has “Indian Summer” Now?

Diana of " Amberpony Creates" did this layout using elements from “Heart of Glass” by Digitalegacies Designs.

Spaceship Tow by Amberpony Creates

I still get a chuckle every time I look at it!


Here’s one from Edna, of Miss Edna’s Place done with Digitalegacies Designs’ template, “Photo Train!”

credits - Kit, "Bits and Bobs 2" by Snow Raven

See?? It has SO many more possibilities than trains! Downloads on this template have been slow, if you’re thinking what you can do with it now after getting somme inspiration from Edna’s creation, you can still download it!

Download "Photo Train" template
password - choo-choo

Show me your layout using Digitalegacies products and I'll send you this!

Both Diana and Edna did these layouts for challenges at scrapbook sites. That means showing it to me, got them DOUBLE posting bonuses! Pretty cool, huh? You can double up the freebies too, well, even triple them up! Download the Digitalegacies Designs freebie of your choice, or purchase it from the Dollar and Dime, create a challenge layout at your favorite scrapbooking site using it and make sure you send me a copy too! That’s THREE freebies, 2 for a layout you did using a freebie! What a deal!


Premier Templates


While we’re on the subject of templates and challenges, I’ve added the templates that I did for the template swap at SAS to the Dollar and Dime. They are bundled as one item, giving you “All Tucked In” and my favorite, “25-Patch Variation.” When I originally did 25-Patch Variation from a quilt pattern, it took just forever to separate out the different sections into usable layers for scrapbooking. This is one where it probably would have been faster as a paper page! But the effort was worth it! A few papers applied to the template layers and you have a gorgeous quilty-patchwork effect! You can have that effect wit a LOT less work now! I was pretty pleased to offer that one in the swap. It really is a very pretty pattern, but a lot of work that I’m glad to be able to save others!

credits - "Plum Pudding" by Jan Hosford

This is the original layout I made 25-Patch Variation for. Jan Hosford’s patterned papers in her Plum Pudding kit gave such a warm, rich feel to the quilt pattern when it was dne! It took me about 5 hours to separate all the sections in the pattern and make a scrapbook template from it and now you can have it with another template for $1.10...which makes me pretty cheap, but in a good way! If this seems to be a popular template, maybe I’ll pass on some more quilt inspired creations!

All Tucked In has less going on in the background, using white space or journaling to showcase a couple of photos.

credits - "Dinner at 7" by Darlene Haughin

This cookbook page was done with All Tucked In and Darlene’s Haughin’s Dinner at 7, which is not yet available for sale! It’s actually the posting bonus at SAS for the My SAS-y Self challenge this month. If you like what you see, why not come over and show your layout about your family? Darlene will give you the mini kit for free!

Doesn’t that page look like it just belongs in a family cookbook? Wouldn’t it be a neat page to swap or even have for free? What a Davlicious idea! More coming VERY soon!

Election Day!

The polls in Toledo opened at 6:30 AM. How do I know this? I was in line at 6:20 AM! My honey volunteered to check out the opening of the polls, numbers of people there first thing, talk to a few people, for work and I tagged along, jokingly calling it “Take your girlfriend to work day.”

Since I was planning on the day off for jury duty and didn't have jury duty and David is working late, we did his extra mini-shift at our own polling pace right at the start of the day and spent the rest of it chasing a few trains.

So now, if you are in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio or the United States, did you vote too or are you leaving it up to me? I voted on candidates and issues for all four. This democracy thing only works for both of us if we both vote. Take it easy on me and do your share!

Voter turnout is expected to set records this year, so I know there probably aren’t a lot of US readers here who aren't voting, but the more people there are, the more important every vote is. If there are more people, there are naturally more voting the way you DON’T want things to go as well as people who do. EVERY vote counts!

And there’s my Tuesday soap box! :)

votevotevotevotevotevotevotevotevotevotevotevote

There are some great things going on in my world right now. I completely finished the first draft on my enormous scrapping project for this year Sunday! YAY me! I did over 145 pages for a gift I’m planning to give for Christmas. Now it’s the proofreading stage. Sorry, but I can’t say anymore than that, since “Joe” might read this blog! I’ll certainly be able to tell, and even show more at the end of next month, but I am really excited to give this gift!

I worry that I could be found because I work very hard to promote The Chronicles of Nani, so I’m not hard to find! Still it's not easy enough to find me! I’m working on raising my Google Rating.

Google Rating is figured by the number of other blogs that link to you, number of hits you get, as well as the number of hits they get. There is a formula for figuring it and the pay post sites use that rating to figure what opportunities you can accept to blog about. My Google rating is “2,” so there are some more interesting and better paying jobs I can’t accept. I did find out that according to the TOU I can’t use a tag to let you know when I’m doing a paid post. I think, the ones I’ve done have been obvious that they were paid posts, but I’ve put an effort in to making them both interesting for my regular readers and still able to meet the sponsor’s needs. I figure they are kinda like TV ads. They might be interesting or give you a chuckle, even if you don’t have an interest in the product. If you are interested, great, I’ve done you and “my client” service. I encourage much link clicking if it interests you to know more! If the product or site isn't for you, just wait until the ad is over and enjoy the next part of the blog. I’m not going to put so many ads or the type of ads that would make you click the window closed!

Now, since I’ve done okay with the couple I’ve done, I want to be able to continue to do them, but of course for quality products and concepts. Credit card offers and things where you have to share personal information are not within the strict Chronicles of Nani Code of Ethics, so you won’t see them here. But in order to open up more opportunities, I need to raise that Google bar! So, now I’m asking for your help!

The blinkies and logos in my “Friends Sites” section are all blinkie swappers with me! That is, I have their blinkie and a link to their blog or website in exchange for my blinkie and a link on theirs. It’s great networking and will bring potentially more hits to your blog or website too. Remember everyone that follows a link to The Chronicles of Nani, also has access to a simple click to every site in that column! If you are in my reader, at the bottom of the column, you’ll have a better chance to get a click with your blinkie up higher! Also, if I get a lot of offers for swapping, I may need to change some things on that side bar. A blinkie swap guarantees you a spot there!

I know from monitoring my stats that plenty of readers come from those blinkies and out click TO those sites as well. The blinkie swap really does work and it’s free promotion!

If you’d like to do the swap, snag my blinkie and either send me yours or direct me to your site. If you don’t have a blinkie, I can still post a logo made from your blog’s header. If you’d prefer not to have blinkies on your page, there is also a blinkie sized logo that doesn't move!

Coming soon!

I hope to have everything moved over and ready to launch Simply Davlicious Recipes soon! You can get a sneak peek through my profile. I decided to do it as a blog with each recipe having a single entry for ease of cross referencing. I’m going to do a grand launch when it’s ready!



Even in this time zone, there is still time to vote! If you’re a US registered voter and haven't voted yet, VOTE! If you aren’t a US voter, make sure your friends who are have voted! We all have to practice what privileges we have in our governments to keep our global friendships available and free!