Box Identification

 I was in a thrift store looking for something to "display" the various teas I had for a tea party I was going to have for my Aunts. This is what I ended up using, because it was lined with felt and the bags stayed up.

However, along with the above item, I had purchased the wooden box below for the same purpose.  I didn't know what it was, nor did any of the employees or customers.
Any guesses as to what this is or what it might have been used for?

(It's a cutting board for bread with a "crumb catcher.")

Struffoli- Italian Christmas Tradition

Old memories came flooding back after recently seeing a picture of  this Italian Christmas Treat.  I decided to try the recipe.  It wasn't as difficult as I imagined! And not as sweet as I expected, but certainly looked exactly like I remembered, many years ago as a child at an old Italian relative's house in Bloomfield, NJ!  I am looking forward to mixing up a big batch to bring to our Christmas Eve dinner at my Uncle's house to see if he remembers this too!

Little Blue Heron

Pretty Little Blue Heron

Ongoing Cookie Adventures...

I do love making cookies! I bake up several kinds at this time of year, usually staying with the old reliable favorites that my family enjoys.  However, this year I wanted to try some new ones.
I cleared a spot on the coffee table and proceeded to collect all of my cookie magazines, cookie cookbooks, and piles of loose recipes torn out of magazines or on packages of baking products.  I sat down and sorted out piles, looked through just a few of the many books and magazines and finally picked out several interesting recipes.  I wanted to get a jump start on the process so I mixed up a few batches of different kinds of dough and halved them, putting half in the fridge (for trying out now), and half in the freezer (for Christmas).
I couldn't wait to get something in the oven to try, so I decided on a small batch of Pecan Florentines.  I had made these many years ago, and remembered how fragile and delicious they were. 
Off we go.....

There are very few ingredients in them and you can only cook five or so at a time because the teaspoon full you place on the tray, bubbles and expands into a lacy, flat circle.  (PS- don't try this recipe without a silpat! Been there, done that!)

After they cool for a few minutes, you carefully curl them over the end of a wooden spoon....

They were great!

The next morning, I went in the fridge to pull out a one of the other kinds of cookie doughs and I was completely mystified.  I looked at the dough, and looked at it, and for the life of me I could not remember what cookie it was supposed to be... was it a shortbread, biscotti, drop cookie, cutout cookie....?  It was as if I made the dough in my sleep!  I had no idea how to cook it, not having labeled the darn thing! I looked around for the recipe and couldn't find it because I had cleaned up all the loose papers and books before I went to bed!

(It took me hours before I was able to figure out what it was- I realized it had mini chips in it and I remembered that I used mini's for a reason.  Looking though the recipes, I finally found one that said to use the mini chips.  As it turned out, it was a chocolate chip shortbread

.........and they were great too!)

Where's the Limpkin?

This limpkin thought he could escape my lens, as he hid away in one of the "floating islands" in the pond in our back yard....

There you are..!

Attack Frogs! Public Service Announcement

These frogs camped out in our entry way, often hitch-hiking in on the dog or waiting to jump on me at night when I walk her. They collected in a watering can by the front door.  It looked like a lot were in there, so I tried to film them one at a time coming out of the watering can.......

Mr. Sticky Fingers

Maybe he'll eat the spiders......?

Orchard Spider

I wish we didn't have so many spiders around here!  Here's a new one for me:

He was really colorful, and gave me a chance to use the macro lens on my camera. Later when I identified what kind it was (Orchard Spider), I learned they are easily irritated and will give a nasty bite!

Here he is hanging upside down and this picture shows the red "smiley" face on his abdomen.
 

What's in your mouth?

My dog was as interested as I was, in what this squirrel was carrying. I couldn't quite figure it out until I played back the video!

This Year's Thanksgiving "KID's DESSERT"

I get super excited about baking this time of year!  It starts with an invitation from my cousin to bring a “kid dessert” to Thanksgiving dinner at her house.

This has been an annual tradition for the past several years. My cousin takes on the Thanksgiving Dinner for the entire clan (20 or so, plus dates, if applicable).  She and her husband do an amazing job and the family looks forward to it every year.

In the past I have enlisted my now college age children to help with the “kid” dessert.  I find some fun Thanksgiving theme cookies or cupcakes and bake them up, then have the “kids” (plus dates), do the decorating!  So much fun!

College daughter, who is out having her own cooking adventures at college, (http://domesticsundays.wordpress.com ) will be coming home to help and I’m counting down to her arrival! But I will attempt these cookies without her.

This year I’m trying a Kraft Foods recipe called “OREO-Pumpkin Cookie Balls”.  They look like pumpkins and will fit nicely with the Thanksgiving theme. As with pumpkins, the cookies can be various sizes. This is a simple, no bake recipe that is super kid friendly.

-Soften 6oz cream cheese

- Finely crush in a food processor a package Oreo Peanut butter cream cookies (I used regular oreos)

-Mix together until well blended and forms a large, soft ball.

-Pinch off dough and roll into about 40 one inch balls

- Freeze 10 minutes

-Melt 2pkgs Baker’s White Chocolate

-Press a pretzel stick into each cookie

-Dip into white chocolate

- Roll in 1 cup orange colored sugar

-Set on wax paper lined pain

-Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm

Well, those are the directions.  I did not have much success, as usual, with the coating with chocolate. (Too thick a coating, so added hot whipping cream- good news, bad news = I didn't seise the chocolate, but now it's too runny!)

 Even after dipping in sugar- Yucky!

Decided not to put a coating on them. Just rolled in sugar...

Now I will have to call them "FROST ON PUMPKINS".
(College daughter saw them this morning and said to take out the pretzels and call them an early Christmas cookie - "Santa's Coal Balls".....
These may show up next month..........

Camouflage Lizard

Ugly, camouflaged lizard, with blue eyes, hiding in the bird house.

I hate big, fat spiders!

Interesting that they can "walk" on the water's surface, but --   UGGGH!

Take your babies and GET OUT OF MY POOL!



FYI: This is a WOLF Spider walking on the water in my pool.. They carry their babies on their backs while they hunt. I call them "speedy spiders" because you have to be really quick if you want to "eliminate" them- they are frightfully fast at getting away!

Gray Gator

Alligator swimming in the pond behind our house on a windy, fall day in Florida.  (It looks like I used black and white photography, but these are the actual colors!)

Fall flowers of Florida

The weather turned brisk in south west Florida this morning,  and my plants held on tightly to their blooms....

Creamy yellow plumeria

Pink plumeria

Desert Rose

Dinner with an alligator

Lately I've been fortunate to see our fairly elusive alligator. I've been able to sneak some shots of him as he sleeps on the banks of the lake behind our house.  However, I never catch him "doing" anything other than sleeping or swimming away.... until today!

I couldn't believe I caught him on video having his dinner of tilapia!

(So that none of you worry about me, I often film through our screened-in porch.  Because of that, please forgive the quality of this video.  Also, I am fairly afraid of these pre-historic creatures, so I shoot with a 70x zoom- which accounts for some of the shaking.  Also, no audio on this one- speaks for itself!)

Great White Heron Ballet

White Heron walking daintily on a hedge.

 White Heron pre-flight

Gator at the door!

 

At three o’clock in the morning I was awakened by a banging sound coming from the front of our house. I jumped out of bed to look out our glass front doors, thinking maybe someone’s tampering with our car in the driveway. Our dog usually barks when someone is around, but I noticed she’s looking (but not barking) out the dining room window towards the driveway too. It was a full moon and it is fairly bright outside but I didn’t see anyone, and apparently, neither did the dog, when all of a sudden the glass doors- right in front of me- shook hard as if someone WAS standing there and trying to get in!

I ran to the bedroom.

“There’s something trying to get in our house!” I screamed at my husband.

“Something or someone?” he skeptically replied.

“I don’t know! There’s no one there! But something banged on the front door and I was standing right there and there’s no one there!” I stammered.

(Footnote: My husband is painfully aware that I leave room for the possibility that ghosts exist, so I am sure that he was quite amused and was not in any hurry to investigate at this point.)

I ran back to the door and a movement caught my eye.

“Don’t open the door and don’t turn the light on...!” I call out to my husband. “I’m getting the kids!”

In a flash, I was across the house, grabbed my two sleeping teenagers by the scruffs of their necks, and quickly dragged them back to the front door.

“Look!!” I tell them and turn on the porch light.

What my kids did next nearly amazed me as much as what we saw! (now remember, both kids- sound asleep, abruptly awakened and quickly dragged across the house half asleep)

Both kids immediately pulled out their cell phones!! ....... and that’s how we were able to get the picture “gator at the door”!

 

 

 

This photo was taken a few years ago. It is possible that this is the same gator that I have been photographing lately.

Say "CHEESE!"

Show me those pearly whites!!

I love it when they smile for my camera!

This guy certainly is enjoying his afternoon nap in my backyard!

Hoki Poki Hawk

This little guy is really determined to learn this dance and even takes a bow at the end!

Heron vs. Gator

and the answer to your question is......."nope!"

How to use money

“Money is a tool,” my husband has always said.  I tell the kids, “don’t use money to buy ‘stuff’ – use it to buy experiences”.

Recently, Collegeboy has taken this to heart.  When we asked if he needed new “stuff’ for his 2^nd year at college (bedding, towels, clothes, etc) he said he would like to take used “stuff” back with him and if we could deposit some money into his savings account because he had decided to save for a small trip he’d like to take with his girlfriend – an experience!

Collegedaughter, who is now in her senior year at college, has also taken my advice.  When an opportunity presented itself in an unpaid internship in London this summer, she withdrew all of the money she had saved since she was a little girl and made the very carefully thoughtout choice to use it all for that adventure.  I couldn’t be prouder.

Money is merely a tool. “Stuff” can break, get lost, or stolen.  Experiences last forever.

For all you creature lovers...

I was lying in bed this morning, waiting for the alarm to go off, on my side looking through the window in the bathroom at the sky. “Red sky in morning, sailor take warning,” I thought as I could see the sky filling with dark pinks. Then I noticed the dog on the floor in between me and the bathroom window, also looking at the sky. As I watched her, I noticed she was especially interested in something outside that window. She got up and walked closer to the bathroom and sat down, but did not go in. Was she also looking at the clouds? She was clearly looking up at the window. Then she got up again, and this time, went in the bathroom and stood in front of the tub which was under the window, all the while looking up out the window. I sat there thinking, “can’t be a bird, no branches near the house were strong enough to hold a bird worthy of this much attention. Snake? Maybe one slithering across the upper window sill.” But I didn’t see anything. I sat and watched some more. Then I saw her head drop down towards the tub and twitched left, then right, then left again-following .....

Something's in the tub!!!

Gorilla in GA mountains!

Collegeboy texted his sister this picture of a loose gorilla.  It is in the back yard of where he is staying with friends in the Georgia Mountains.  I can only guess it has escaped from a local zoo.  He said they watched as it lumbered back into the woods.  Hope they can figure out who to notify so they can enjoy the rest of their trip- safely! But what an experience for our "nature boy!"

Sandhill Cranes

Battle of the Bugs

Spiders in the garage, mites on my plumerias, ants in the lanai, and fire ants in the pool.  When will it end?  My empty nest is filling up with bugs and it’s all I can do to keep them out!

Sprayed with Raid in garage, several days later swept down the webs.  Now they're back again.  Picked up some yellow sticky traps for windows.  Will install this weekend to see if they work.

Can't swim in my pool at night -that’s when the fishing or raft spiders come out from where ever they live and monopolize the surface of my pool.  The occasional snake may venture into the pool at night but "I’m not asnade of frakes, but I am aspade of fiders.” (Say that one out loud!) 

A coarse spray from the hose has controlled the spider mites on the plants, for now, so I am left to deal with the ants.  I was actually getting bit by the fire ants while swimming.  I watched in utter surprise as they moseyed along submerged under a raft. Apparently, if they fall into the pool they don't drown!   Now we have a problem!

So off to the pool store to see about some Jack’s Magic Surface cleaner.  The guy at the store raved about it but said it won’t kill live ants in the water, but might help with the spiders by eliminating their food sources. So back out with a bug spray and sprayed around the hot tub and created a perimeter around the outside of the pool cage. 

Sat and waited.

Still activity in and around the potted plumerias.  Watched for 30 minutes.  Think that's where the problem is.  Put some different bug granules in the pots. Hope I don't kill my plants! 

Tomorrow is another day.

What is the Soul?

I believe the soul is energy made from memories of people, places, and things we have had an emotional connection to and we take a little bit of everyone or everything we influence and who influence us, with us through life making us who we are. 

 As I was having my morning cup of coffee on our lanai, gazing over my many potted plumeria, I wondered, “If something happened to me today and I was gone forever, what would my husband do with my precious plants? Would he move to a smaller house and leave them here? Would he plant them in the ground here or take them with him and plant them some where else? Would they bring him comfort or sadness?”

I was raised Catholic, but no longer practice or believe in a heaven or hell. I believe the soul is energy and is can’t be destroyed. Way back in college, I studied Physiology and Psychology. I have always believed that body and soul are separate.

 I recently watched an episode of Through the Worm Hole - Is There Life After Death?. One theory discussed on the show was that anyone who has ever influenced you has effected who you are, and therefore, has become part of your soul. The more emotion involved in the experience, the stronger the impression on your soul.

So, because I love these plants and because they have affected me, then pieces of them are "imprinted" on my soul. When the plant dies or I die, that energy which had influenced, remains within what was emotionally connected with.

 When someone close to us dies, perhaps there is some comfort in believing that the soul of the person you loved is still here; some of their energy remains in us and in those they influenced and loved.

Rocks and Violets

I'm a simple girl.  Not into jewelry, fancy clothes or fancy cars.  I like "pretty smelly things" like soaps and candles.  So when college boy came back from a flea market with a small vial of Violet fragrance oil, I was thrilled! Violet is my favorite scent and I had been looking for this hard to find oil to make some home made bath products.  It's not that he found it, but that he thought to look for it for me, that really touched my heart.  College daughter also couldn't wait to suprise me and called to say, she, too, had landed some ellusive Violet soap for me from her London Internship.

I like rocks. The kids must have remembered from their childhood that when we traveled up to N.J. to see the grandparents, we would go to a special diner that had medians in the parking lot filled with round river rocks. I would covertly collect and bring home the most beauiful and enchanted ones.   I think this small quirk has remained with the kids. College daughter excitedly SKPYed that she had "souvenired" some rocks from a castle in Europe. College boy recently returned from a trip to the Georgia mountains  and proudly presented me with a large, round, smooth white river rock  he hand picked for me from the river he had rafted down.

Simple things for a simple life.

Appliances are coming! Appliances are coming!

 I dropped the lid of a ceramic bowl from the microwave straight down onto my smooth top range!  There has been a gi-normous hole with exposed wires on my range since Christmas.   I've refused to shop for a new one.  After all, who really needs a stovetop anyway.  I hardly ever use it.  (I like to bake and the oven worked perfectly fine.)  I thought about what I really used the stove for- eggs, pasta, that's really all.  I have a microwave egg poacher and went out and bought the Pasta Boat.  (To anyone who has a college student who only has a microwave for cooking-- THIS is a great gift).  Any how, I can live without it.  Even when my mother-in-law came to visit and was horrified that I hadn't replaced the stove yet, I was able to deal.  UNTIL......

the dishwasher broke!  NOW WE HAVE A PROBLEM!  NOW we need to do something.  So husband and I shopped and appliances came today.  Husband just installed dishwasher after several hours of frustration with tubing and electrical cords not being long enough.
I can walk thru the kitchen now and not have to stop at the sink to wash dishes and I have yeast rolls rising to break in the new range!

New "Neighbor"

Web Abduction and the "Free Association" Game

My husband asked me if I had been abducted again.  Yes, I was gone for hours.  Started out in one place, hours later ended up somewhere else, way off course as to where I started, have no idea how I got there. Web Abduction.  It's the new "Free Association" game.  (Oh, I know that game-PICK ME!!! PICK ME!!!)  Started out on the computer with a general search for spiders, then Florida spiders, then spider traps and control (did you know "spiders" are something in your computer, too), sticky traps, how to make homemade sticky traps, where is there a local hardware store, google earth to see where exactly that store is, look up old neighborhoods to see the houses where we used to live, look up the old delapitated house on the hill from my childhood(- the one used as the setting for the paranormal book I wrote several years ago and never tried to get published).
 Took a nap and dreamt about the house, except it was being renovated and sort of was like the Winchester house- several stairways that ended at the top, weird rooms, hallways leading no where. 
The "Free Association"game is always fun.  I'll bet you are playing it right now and that's how you got here!!  Hope to see you again!

Spiders in the Garage

I am DONE with cleaning the garage.  Good news/bad news- lots of lizards, no snakes or snake skins FOUND this time.  However, each window on the garage door had it's own spider complete with web and egg sacks.  Took the college boy out to help identify them (I had never seen a spider like these - not hairy, but round shinny black bodies, orangy heads, tiny.  We looked them up and came up with a RED WIDOW, similar to the Black widow.  FREAKED ME OUT!!!!  Until later that night the boy happened upon another kind it might be, so I feel slightly better with the "dwarf spider" which is not poisionous.  Anyway, that was my day yesterday!  Not feeling so well today, up at 5am, dreaming about Cake Boss serving me a Philly Cheese Steak sandwiche! The boy was watching that strange Bizzare Food show yesterday and I'm guessing that that's where the dream came from!