Brrr...Baby, It's Cold Outside...

It's dropped down to low single digits and I've stepped up my procrastination mode... I'd planned on shopping yesterday... I revised that to first thing this morning... I will be eating some very creative concoctions if I don't go out for groceries soon... Bored... that's really what I am... deeply entrenched in the proverbial rut... buying and cooking the same food over and over... lately, I've even caught myself eyeing other shoppers' carts to gain a little inspiration... price check on register 5... stalker on aisle 8... wish me luck...

Where's Waldo...Kitchen Edition...

This is merely a taste...
of the sophisticated entertainment one should expect
when invited to dine en famille

a bit stuffy and rather highbrow... I know.
...just wait for the fruit juggling competition.

Timber...

My beautiful blue spruce came down this morning. I started plucking ornaments off not long after dawn before I could relent ...and leave it up a few days weeks longer... It made its exit out the door in a yin and yang trail of weeping sap and three dustpans full of fallen needles... (Did you know that cars actually slow down as they pass a house with a tree at the curb in February? I won't bore you with how I happen to know this.)

Sisters...

I'm the one in the cute dress...

you're the one with the bad perm... ha ha...

don't tell Mom... okay? okay?

hey... I'm too old to ground right? ...right?

She Said...He Said...

the grapevine... the backyard fence... nothing more, for the most part, than harmless bits of sophisticated note passing... until you stumble across a malicious gossip... flitting from person to person... gathering, embellishing and dispensing whatever juicy morsel she comes across... should you patiently wait for karma to intervene... or just silently root for her clueless victims to suddenly compare notes and rise up in a united rage... in the end, you invariably curse the fact that you were raised to behave like a lady and that violence (even on the behalf of others and for a just cause) never really solves anything... (it's a shame though... because you suspect you just might possess a mean right hook.)

Just Nod Your Head...I'm Hopeless...

I hate to put away Christmas...

I was thinking if I knit some bunny ear cozies

for a few of these things...

it might make for a rather festive Easter...yes?

Seriously.

Stevie Meet Cake...Cake Meet Stevie...

At last, flavor has re-entered my life! I think this cold of mine is surrendering to the vitamin and chicken soup onslaught... I could almost taste my lunch today.

Years ago, I read an interview... Stevie Nicks and food... two topics guaranteed to garner my attention...

...The miniature cheesecake sat in front of Stevie Nicks like a cruel temptation, crowned with a glaze of mandarin oranges and skirted with puddles of chocolate sauce. She took a bite, just to test it. Then she put down her fork, deciding the pleasure was not worth the penance. "I'll eat a dessert if it's really good...but I won't waste a carbohydrate." ~ excerpt from New York Times article (Frank Bruni/November 25, 1997)

Finally! ...an approach to eating a foodie like me could wholeheartedly get behind. (Let's face it people... celery stalks and apple slices are rather feeble substitutions for their bake shop big sisters). So, on those occasions when an apple slice just won't suffice... I offer up my recipe for carrot cake... which I cobbled together after months of trial and error and I think is worth EVERY single solitary carbohydrate it possesses. Give it a try and see if you agree.

Old-Fashioned Carrot Cake

2 cups flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup vegetable oil

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

1 cup raisins

1 cup walnuts (chopped)

3 cups carrots (grated)

In a large bowl, and by hand, mix together dry ingredients. Stir in oil and vanilla. Add eggs. Fold in raisins, walnuts and carrots. Pour mixture into 3 ungreased 8" round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes; cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese (softened)

1 stick butter (softened)

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

16 ounces powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter with mixer. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and mix well. Frost cooled cake between each layer, then sides and top.

Feed a Cold...

starve a fever... or the other way around? I'll opt for the feed theory... always... in any situation... a little pigging out is always preferable... So, please excuse me for a short while as I tend to this plague (aka common cold) that I've somehow managed to contract.

Sunday Night Blues...

Tomorrow it's back in the saddle again... after sixteen glorious days off... this current case of the blues descended early, on Friday evening at around six... when my vacation turned into traditional weekend off time... oh well, once I locate my office keys... a decent pair of hose... slap on a little lipstick and stuff these slippered feet into an unyielding pair of heels... I should be good to go... sniffle ...oh, and tissues... lots of... sob ...tissues...