Recipe Site

http://www.southernliving.com/

My dentist tells me I have big roots on my teeth. I can swear it's true of my sweet tooth. I must have a sweet tooth that goes all the way down to my big toe.....
 I went to this site looking for recipes for chicken salad. They do have several good ones, by the way. My sweet tooth wrestled me to the floor, as usual, and I had to check out the recipes involving sugar and calories. LOOK at what I found -

Praline-Pecan Brownies

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Caramel-Coconut-Pecan Brownies

Pavlova With Lemon Cream and Berries
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Yum, yum, yum.  The pictures are from their site, so please check it out and get the recipes from there.

Writing Exercise - 2

I'm giving you another five elements. Use three or more to write something.

- an open window

- a pair of dice

- a goldfish

- three candles

- something yellow

have fun writing.  

Art - Free Clip Art

For the last few days I've been exploring the exciting world of Clip Art. In particular, Free Clip Art. Someone suggested I could "pretty up" my blog with clip art instead of drawing my own art all the time. I've been looking at some of what is out there. To be honest, a lot of it is sad. I've seen better artwork fluttering in a tiny first grader fist at the end of the day. On the other side, I have found a couple of sites where the work is very interesting. One if them is -

http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/


The Graphics Fairy has some beautiful work. She posts often with great clips of antique postcards, interesting font types, and some very colorful clips of assorted things. It's a great site.

Some of the work is from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's. Before any of you young whipper-snappers out there make the comment, I was not around when this was brand new. That is not why I like it. <smile>.

I do have a picture, very similar to this one, of my Great-grandmother and a group of ladies.


This is only a tiny sample of what she has. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Recipe Blog

I have been playing with two recipe blogs that I found very interesting. Lots of recipes and pictures. Both of them were created by Rosie. On another blog, linked to hers,  I saw a notice that Rosie had passed away in May. Please check these two out - in case they are taken off the Web. It would be a crying shame to miss out on these great recipes and mouth-watering pictures. Please visit. It will be worth your while.

http://bakingcakesgalore.blogspot.com/

"Jammie Bodgers" - look for these. I thought they looked yummy. 


http://rosiebakesapeaceofcake.blogspot.com/

"Halloween Rattlin' Bones Gingerbread" - look for these. Too cute.

Genealogy Sites

I have discovered two sites that are new to me. I hope you will check them out, if you are interested.

1 - http://members.tripod.com/~L_Alfano/immig.htm  

- it's called The Immigration Experience  - This isn't a page for someone just searching for names and dates. It's a site for someone looking for a more complete picture of what your Immigrant Ancestors went through. It is a very good page at painting a picture of their experiences as they entered this country. Be sure and click on all the red words to get a more complete picture -  with other articles linked to the main page. This includes articles of other places the immigrants came in, a fire at Ellis Island, and articles about Angel Island in California where they came into, too. Relax, take a little while, and get a better picture of the past. This is an old site and a few of the links are no longer working, but most do. There is even a link to a page of old post cards of Ellis Island. Did you know they sold food to the immigrants at Ellis Island? They include a list of what they sold and how much it cost.

2- For anyone who has played with genealogy for long, the name "Dear Myrtle" is familiar. She writes a column about genealogy and teaches all kinds of things in them. I found a site where all her old messages are kept - starting from 1999. Once again, these are old emails, so some of the links are broken. Weed through the pile and a lot of them are still interesting and useful. I found them very educational when I was just starting out. Looking at them now, there are still sites and info in there I can use. Find the old stuff at -

 http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEARMYRTLE

Have fun with these. I am.

Writing Exercise

I have been learning to write for around five years now. I currently have about ten books in the works . I seem to be drawn to writing books for children. My books are not ready to share or publish but I am very pleased with their progress.

 In my journey, I've learned it takes an average of 10 years, from the time you decide to write, until you are ready to be published. I'm around the middle of my journey. I own around 200 books and roughly 200 magazines on the subject of writing  . I learn something new from each one I read.

One of the things I've learned is the value of a writing exercise. I like creating them so I'll share one with you today.

I'll give you 5 story elements. You take at least 3 and write something. You can use more but use at least 3.

- a boat
- a flower
- the color green
- a table
- something seen from a distance.

Happy writing.

Recipe Site

I found a recipe site today that I really like. It has a big group of recipes with pictures to show how it should look, which I think makes the recipe much more interesting. I hope you will explore it, too.

http://www.landolakes.com/

These are a couple of the recipes I downloaded into my MasterCook program. If anyone tries one of them, please let me know how they turned out. The pictures are from the Land 'O Lakes web site. Please check the site for these recipes and many more.

Cheesy Ham 'n Corn Chowder

S'Mashed Potatoes with Stir-Ins

Lemon Pecan Pastry Slices












Don't these look delicious??

Gardening

Yesterday I bought a bag of second-hand books. Since I buy so many books, I do like getting books that have been lovingly used.

The first three book I am going to play with are :

1- Perennials - from Sunset (thin, paperback book, publ 2000)  121 pages plus index and climate zone info.
        Table of Contents -  Perennials in the Garden, Planting and Caring for Perennials, Encyclopedia of Perennials
      My thoughts - It's a nice book. Not a large book but lots of pretty pictures. Sometimes my books do double duty and this would be a great book for an artist looking for samples of flowers to paint. Not big pictures with details but great for getting the color and general shape of the flower.  Each entry in the encyclopedia part has a picture and a nice paragraph about information about the plant.

2- Yard and Garden Projects - from Time/Life How To Books  (spiral bound, thick, publ 1998) 309 pages plus index/glossary
    Table of Contents - Getting Started, Planting and Transplanting, Propagating Techniques, Maintaining Your Garden, Creating a Healthy Lawn, Alternative to a Lawn, Creating a Beautiful Landscape,  Designing for All Seasons, Designing with Color, Designing Around Features, Designing for a Special Style, Basic Landscape Projects, Designing to Conceal, Enhancing Difficult Terrain, Tackling the Elements, Improving Important Spaces, Accenting Your Landscape (lots of sub-categories but I've listed the big titles)
    My thoughts - a nice, big book. Lots of info. Lots of pretty pictures. Lots of series of pictures showing you step by step how to do something. Just looking through it, I saw several sections on how to prune assorted plants, how to build a walkway, and one on mulching. I think this would be one of those great books to read, study, and plan a spring garden during those long, dark winter days and nights. It would cheer you up with the bright colors and interesting ideas.

3- Gardening Color Guide - easy mix and match to annuals and perennials - by Graham Strong and Alan Toogood  (big hardbound/spiral inside book, publ 2008) 215 pages including index and glossary
    Table of Contents - The Perfect Planning Scheme, Introduction, Practical Gardening, Effective Planting, Plant Projects, Mix and Match, Shrubs, Plant Index, General Index, Acknowledgements, Gardens to Visit, Seed Suppliers, Glossary, Zone Map (lots of sub-categories but I listed the big titles)
     My thoughts - interesting book. lots of pretty pictures. Main section is the mix and match. They took a page and cut it into 4 horizontal rectangles. Each is a picture of a certain type of flower. It's a group shot so you get the effect of a large planting. The top section is the tallest plants, the second section is the slightly shorter ones, the third section is the next shortest plants, and the last/bottom section is the shortest plants. It gives you a visual sense of what the plants would look like put together in your garden. There are many to choose from and you can flip them back and forth to arrange to your liking. On the back of the rectangle is the kind of info you get on a seed package - Latin name, short paragraph about the plant, when it blooms, what conditions it likes and how tall it grows.
    The front part of the book is interesting, too. It has info about several things. Lots of pictures - with series of pictures included to show you how to do something step by step. Another great book for winter reading. Another great reference book for a plant artist.

First Time Doing This

One of my personal aims in life is to be smarter today than I was yesterday. I was allowed to take part in a wonderful class at Newsplex these last two weeks and had a great time. I have learned so much and feel so intelligent now... I may not have to learn anything else until after Christmas !!!!