Stan's Birthday!

Yesterday was Stan's birthday.  We all decided to take the opportunity to sleep in and enjoy not having to be anywhere.  Stan took the night off from work.  We went to one of his favorite places, Taco Express, for burritos and nachos for lunch.  Then Stan and the boys went to see the new Green Hornet movie.  They let me beg off, and I went home and made cupcakes.

That evening for dinner we had a bunch of Stan's favorites.  Shrimp cocktail, Kevin's famous garlic bread, salad, baked potatoes (with all the fixin's) and AJ even braved the snowy weather to BBQ some steaks!  It felt like winter, but it sure did smell like summer!

Afterwards we had cake and ice cream (chocolate cake and bordeaux cherry ice cream) and Stan opened a huge stack of cards and our birthday present:  a Belgian waffle maker!

We had a fun celebration.  Although I didn't get pictures of everything we did, Here are a few:

 Kevin made a Swiss chocolate cake for his dad.  I frosted it.  Okay, I'll admit it... I put waaay too much frosting on it.  But dang! It was good!

 When we were on staycation last summer and on our Christmas trip, the hotels would have Belgian waffle makers with their free breakfasts.  Stan loved to make himself waffles.  For his birthday we got him one of those flip around waffle makers.  He made waffles for us this morning and holy moly, were they good!

 There's something about family breakfasts that I just love.  I don't think it's necessarily the food as much as the relaxed, lazy feeling about just hanging out together in the morning.

 Jasper waits patiently behind Stan hoping for something to fall off the table!

The final product!

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it?

Our friends the Eddingtons brought Stan a birthday card and a plate of homemade cookies!

I'm not sure how many of these he's actually going to get .....

And I made some cupcakes for him to take to work tonight to celebrate there.

All in all, it was a great celebration!

A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND

Nobody trips over mountains.  It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.  Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.

That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles!

Right off the bat I'm going to say, this is a nit picky post, but I'm going to do it anyway.  Yesterday was a cold day.  I mean, bitingly, bone crushing COLD.  The high was -4.  So I made a crock pot full of bean soup and two loaves of homemade bread for dinner.  It was a good day for that.  So, along with my domestic brainstorm for dinner, homemade cookies sounded good. 

The problem with homemade cookies, however, is that one batch makes way more than we can usually eat.  I've taken to buying those "scoop and bake" tubs at the warehouse stores.  They're freshly baked, and are really good.  Normally I buy them at the store closest to home, but last week I bought a tub at the other store because I was there that day.  A different brand, but a nationally known and good brand.

And here's the problem: these cookies crumble all over the place!  They taste good, but the texture is not the same as the ones I normally buy and bake.  Now maybe a crumbly cookie isn't a big deal; no one is going to have their lives irrevocably altered by a cookie that crumbles too much, but I was disappointed.  And, if you are like me, thought you might want to know!

Book Review: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Jamie Ford’s debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, brings to life a collection of characters that will stay with you long after you close the book. Switching between 1986 and the war-torn years of the 1940s, this is the story of Henry Lee and the relationships in his life

As the story opens, Henry has recently lost his wife. Finding himself at loose ends he happens by a hotel from his youth where items stored by Japanese Americans who were interred during World War II have been discovered. This is the trigger that sends Henry back in time to when he was 12-years-old and fell in love with a Japanese girl who was sent away.

Searching through the items looking for a trace of the girl who once figured so prominently in his life has him reflecting on those times and the changes that happened in him and the bonds that were such a huge part of his life.

His father, who wants so much for his son to be American, and yet holds to his memories of and conflicts from his life in China; Henry’s parents who refuse to let him speak in their native tongue, yet cannot understand when he tries to speak English to them; Sheldon, the black jazz musician who understands Henry in ways his family never could and introduces him to the music scene of 1940s Seattle; Mrs. Beatty, the cafeteria worker at the white school where Henry is “scholarshipped” who empathizes with young Henry and offers him help when he needs it most; Henry’s son Marty who learns about his father’s life along with us, and begins to see his father as a person besides being his parent--all these relationships help form Henry into the man we see in 1986.

But most important is his relationship with Keiko Okabe. The only other Asian student at the school Henry is forced to attend, Keiko becomes first his ally, then his friend, then his true love. She is the motivation behind Henry’s taking his first steps into adulthood. Watching the fear and bigotry as it races through the Japanese community, forcing his friend and her family to make unreasonably difficult choices to prove their loyalty, Henry must decide where he stands.

This book touched me deeply. I wept, laughed, and found myself wishing I too could spend time with Henry. This is a heart wrenching period in history, and reading about it on such a personal level was profoundly moving. I highly recommend Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It is a well titled book, and I hope it is not the last we hear from Mr. Ford.

Release Day for New Book!

My latest novel, In the Company of Women, has been released and is now for sale on Amazon  http://amzn.to/hUG51v and Smashwords  http://bit.ly/fMjeLt . The cover was designed by Tara Kelley-Cruz (tara@thunderbaby.com).

When a group of women come together in a critical year in their lives, they learn that gratitude for what life does or doesn’t bring you, and friends both old and new can carry you through no matter what is thrown at you. Gillian faces a life threatening surgery; Nancy and her husband must deal with the hardest trial of their lives together; Joyce is forced to give up her most precious dream and take up a new and more powerful one; Emma discovers she has something that can change not only her life but her community’s; and Nancy’s daughter Jane is given a chance to share a long held secret and learns, along with the others, how forgiveness’ embrace can give you a new life. They are stories all women can relate to.

Ultimately they all discover that when things do not turn out the way you want they can turn out to be what you need. These women take life head on and know as long as they have each other it is possible to triumph over it all.

In the Company of Women explores the strength of friendship, the gift of gratitude, the power of forgiveness and how a group of women can change themselves and those around them.

Please feel free to go to one of the above mentioned websites and check it out.  Smashwords will allow you to download the first 20% of the book for a free preview.  And let me know what you think!

A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND

A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.

Patricia Neal
1926-2010

Book Cover

I'm showcasing the cover for my new book which will be published later this week. Designed by the very talented Tara-Kelley Cruz, this cover is exactly what I was hoping for. I'm so pleased with it, and hope she will work with me on future projects.

Tara is a graphic artist who is very talented. If you are an author looking for an artist to design a cover for your next project, feel free to contact her at tara@thunderbaby.com and let her know you got her name from me.

A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
Douglas Adams
1952-2001

Grandma's Yorkshire Pudding

I had some requests, after the posting earlier this week, for the recipe for my Grandma Hillyard's Yorkshire Pudding.  It's quite wonderful, and hope some of you will try it!

Yorkshire Pudding

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch pepper

4 eggs

3 to 3-1/2 cups whole milk

6-8 Tablespoons drippings from roasting pan, or vegetable oil, or lard

In large bowl, combine flour salt and pepper.  Add eggs and 1 cup of milk, mix with the flour.  Continue mixing until you get a stiff batter.  Cover, and let sit at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Start stirring in milk until you get it so it's the consistency of heavy cream. (Note: You may not use all the milk.)

Using 12 large muffin tins (my grandmother used a large pan, or cast iron frying pan to make one large pudding.  This has never worked for me, so I use muffin tins) place 1 to 2 teaspoons of fat in each muffin tin (I usually use the drippings for gravy, so I use vegetable oil.  I spray the tins with Pam first, and use 1 teaspoon oil in each tin.)

If not using hot drippings, place tins into oven for 5-10 minutes until very hot.  Pour batter into the muffin tins, filling them about 1/3 full; the batter should sizzle in the hot drippings or heated oil.

Return to oven and bake until puffed, browned and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes. 

Yorkshire pudding is best served hot from the oven, but can be kept warm in a low oven for 15-30 minutes.

Hope Springs Eternal

AJ was gnawing on one of the bones from last night's roast, and Jasper sat at his feet quietly watching.  You could almost hear his thoughts churning, "Please give it to me when you're done! Please please pleeeeeeease!"  Too cute!