Valentines Day 2012

We love Valentines Day at the Mullis home! We like to celebrate together, the four of us, and try to plan something fun for dinner. We've never gone out to dinner on Valentines Day, and always fix something special for the whole family. When the boys were little I'd make heart shaped pasta, but now that they're grown we tried something fancier.

When Stan was in college he worked in an Italian restaurant in San Luis Obispo, California. He eventually worked his way up to being a chef, and learned some amazing recipes. Tonight he made for us Shrimp Scampi! It's a special recipe, the sauce is a cream sauce, and it's served over a bed of brown and wild rice. We roasted some asparagus to have with it. It was a big time taste festival!

For dessert I found this super easy recipe that turned out to be off-the-charts incredible! Take a cheesecake (you can purchase a frozen one or make one, it doesn't really matter). sprinkle some toasted pecans over the top. We had caramalized pecans (get them at Honey Baked Ham) that our neighbor gave us at Christmas. Then drizzle caramel sauce and chocolate sauce over the top and -- Voila! -- turtle cheesecake! Sooooo good!

As Stan says, why do we only do this once a year?? Now to digest. Happy Valentines Day!

Just for Valentine's Day

Since February is the month of Valentine's Day, my romance novel Finding Normal will be available until the 15th for 99 cents on Amazon.com http://amzn.to/xSqyH8

Summary: Cassidy Maguire is a world famous actress and singer who longs for the normal life she knew as a child. Deciding to take a break from her hectic life in Hollywood, she moves to the small town of Aspen Grove, Colorado to try to find some peace and quiet. When she meets the town’s veterinarian Seth Walters sparks fly almost immediately. Seth likes his life as it is, but his heart is drawn to Cassidy. Can they make their relationship work? And as rich and famous as she is, will Cassidy be able to gain the love she seeks and find normal?

Happy Valentine's Day ..... and happy reading!

A Promise

My best friend gave this card to me on our 40th birthays. I've kept it because ... well, because she has kept her promise....

Wake Up!

I saw something interesting the other day that has me thinking about the state of things in our modern rush-rush of a life. My husband and I were shopping at a local department store and I lost him. I decided to wait by the front doors and relax on the bench until he showed up.

As I sat there I saw a lot of people go in and out through those doors. But the thing that was so interesting to me was that a couple of times someone was leaving the store with their bags and the alarm was triggered. And absolutely no one reacted.

Now, I can understand perhaps the clerk that had checked that customer out not getting upset; after all they had just served them and knew they'd paid for their purchases. But no one else? The customer wasn't startled, no other customers were bothered by the ringing alarm, neither were any of the workers there.

Aside from the fact that it looked as if you might be able to walk out the door with merchandise without raising an eyebrow, I wondered about the impact our alarm ridden society has had on us. We have alarms, ring tones, honking and dinging going off around us all day long! Cell phones, car alarms, computers, MP3 players, stereos -- it's constant! To the point, I think, that we are numb to it.

Car alarms rarely alarm us. Most people react with "why don't they shut that thing off?" Obviously the store alarm had no affect. I know on my computer I usually have it muted so I don't have to listen to the beeps and dings coming from it. Cell phones annoy the living daylights out of most of us as well.

So my question is this? How do you raise the alarm? And what would get your attention these days? Anything?