Tuesday, November 29, 2011

In the dryer

Long ago, when I was in elementary school, our male orange tabby cat, Chippy, got into the dryer while Mom was doing the laundry. Luckily she heard him yowling after only a few seconds of tumbling.

Over the succeeding decades, none of my cats had a propensity for dryer habitation. Not the Maine Coon, not the white/orange gal, neither of the grey tabbies (one male and one female), and neither of the calicoes.

This is Grizzly, son #1's male orange tabby, helping me with the laundry today. I'm wondering if the desire to sleep in the dryer is a function of his orange-ness.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Glorious fruitcake

I love fruitcake. I always have. To me the holidays wouldn't be correct without certain foods. Shortbread cookies and fruitcake are the most important.

Mincemeat, the real stuff, made with real ground beef, apples and raisins, is almost required. I feel bereft if I go an entire year without tasting mincemeat, but it doesn't spoil the season if I don't make some.

Store bought mincemeat is foul.

Just thought I'd get that out there.

If all you've ever tried is the store bought version, and you say you don't like mincemeat, then I must challenge you to try the REAL mincemeat before you can claim to not like it.

That is all I have to say about mincemeat. Except now I really want some.

Back to the fruitcake. Last evening I assembled all the fruits in a large bowl and poured on the brandy. Brandy makes the fruit happy. This morning I mixed up the batter, combined all the good stuff, and baked it for four hours. Yes, four hours of the gorgeous smell of baking fruitcake.

My mouth watered.

I might be dehydrated now.

Once the cake cooled completely, I poked holes all over the surface and dribbled on more brandy. This is called feeding the cake. Now the cake will sit all wrapped up snugly in its tin, maturing. And getting fed regularly.

I love fruitcake.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Good morning, everybody. I'm hanging out today with Rachel Brimble at http://rachelbrimble.blogspot.com answering probing questions, and
Sarah Grimm at http://www.authorsarahgrimm.blogspot.com talking about tooting my horn.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Coming Undone is here!



Happy dance. My novella, Coming Undone, is available from The Wild Rose Press.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Book Release Eve

Today I'm guest blogging at the lovely internet home of fellow Wild Rose Press author, Nancy Jardine. And I'm giving away a copy of the book that releases tomorrow, Coming Undone.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Time flies


I remember as a kid, probably age 12 or 13, finding out that we were still using some of the stuff my parents got as wedding gifts. And I thought it was weird. All kinds of stuff that wasn’t broken or worn out even though it was so old!

Fast forward a bit.

Yesterday I had to buy a new coffee maker, the old one went kaput. And no, the old one wasn’t a wedding gift. The new one works fine, and is even programmable so once I figure out how that part works I’ll be able to wake up to coffee that’s ready and waiting.

This morning I discovered another feature of the new coffee maker – it turns itself off after two hours. I take longer than two hours to get through a pot of coffee (minus the cup hubby put in his travel mug). I like my coffee to be hot. I needed a receptacle that would keep my coffee hot. So I opened the cupboard over the fridge and pulled out the insulated carafe, the one we got for our wedding, all those years ago. It still works fine.