It’s My Party And I’ll Sing If I Want To, Sing If I Want To

Welcome to my blog party!

Let me show you around. For ambiance we need some music and no party is complete without some food so, just click on my recipe page.

Now, we’re ready for some great conversation. Here my friendly readers and I talk about God, organizing our homes, we share household tips, we have fun with holidays all through the year (even Chinese New Year and Leap Year), we share recipes. Just yesterday, one of my readers gave me her first place award winning recipe for Peanut Butter Brownie Torte.

I love photography, books and adventures so you’ll find those too.

I participate in Works For Me Wednesday, Thursday Thirteen and Word-Filled Wednesday and the links will take you to just a sample of my entries for these carnivals.

I won some awards, have repeatedly earned Fastest Growing WordPress Blog and Top Post too, if you don’t mind me bragging just a bit.

My grand-mother used to say “show me your friends and I will tell you who you are,” so to help you mingle in this party, let me introduce you to just a few of the people who visit me and those I visit. When you come back, you’ll meet a lot more, but for today, here’s just a few:

• 4urpets is a friend in real life and her humorous blog is about her 3 Chihuahuas;
• Tad Cronn is a newspaper editor who writes about conservative news not often published in the liberal media;
• Texas Tanya is a mom who adopted two wonderful boys, has great ideas and likes photography;
• Amy Deanne is the new bloggy friend who hosts Word-Filled Wednesday;
• Gina has a fun public diary, participates at Works For Me Wednesday and you’ll see her at 4urpets too;
• Erin Craig is a newlywed with a Weimaraner (dog) and she also loves photography;
• Look over at my right sidebar and you’ll see more people who link to me and people I visit.

Make yourselves at home, enjoy the party, and be sure to sign the guest book so I can visit you in return. I hope we will become friends and visit each other often.

Please Advise :-)

This Works For Me Wednesday Backwards Edition came at just the perfect time because I happen to need advise on several issues.  Please help me out and thanks for all your comments.

• Which blog reader do you prefer and why?  (I’ve been using and loving WordPress Blog Surfer, but it only works for WordPress blogs.)
• What is your favorite, easy to make/serve dessert for your family?  I often serve ice cream as it’s real easy, tasty and in hot Southern California it also cools us down, but I’d love your ideas or recipes for some more variety.
• Our son is doing a poll for school and would like me to ask which presidential candidate do you DISLIKE the most and why?
• Life is getting outrageously expensive.  The price of everything is going up except for paychecks.  What are your best ways of saving money and stretching your shrinking dollar?
• It’s time to change cell phones, so which company are you happy with?  Which plan gets the most minutes for the least amount of money?
• Can you recommend digital scrapbooking sites?

For more participants, be sure to visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Don’t miss my other Works For Me Wednesday posts on my Household Tips page and Organizing Tips page.

Thursday Thirteen #16: Books I Want To Read

For more participants visit Thursday Thirteen.

Let me know if you’ve read any of these and how you liked them, or let me know what you would highly recommend as don’t-miss-books. Wishing you all a Happy St. Valentine’s Day Thursday!

1. The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs (non-fiction) I love adventure, but the best I can do is Adventures in Barbecuing and an occasional camping trip so I live vicariously through books in the comfort and safety of my armchair. Childs will take me to Alaska, Washington, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico to discover beautiful creatures like the Great Blue Heron, ravens, owls, coyotes, mountain lions and jaguars. Some of these animals are in my own backyard and I often watch them through my windows so it won’t take much imagination for me to be transported to the great wildernesses of our American West.

2. Paris Review Interviews edited by Philip Gourevitch (Non-Fiction — the 3rd volume in a series is to be released soon) I’m a journalist and a writer so interviews, authors and writing are always of interest to me. Here writers have interviewed other writers like Steven King, T. S. Eliot, Jorge Luis Borges, John Gardner and Alice Munro.

3. The Folded World by Amity Paige (Fiction) I’m not so much interested in the basic plot, but in the subplot dealing with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, as I once worked for a crisis helpline with more than our fair share of schizophrenics which always made me think that some local doctors must have been giving our phone number to patients. The book is about a young social worker torn between the needs of his clients and of his own family.

4. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan (Non-Fiction) It has history, travel and according to the reviews I’ve read, superb, award-winning journalistic talent, so how can I possibly resist?

5. My Life In France by Julia Child (Non-Fiction) My husband and I were at the bookstore recently, a favorite pastime of ours, and I became completely engrossed by this book. In this memoir, she recalls her years in “La Belle France” as she calls her adopted home during the 1950s. She describes my native country as only a lover of France and its people could. It is a consummate love affair with everything French and she transports us to a time where she finally finds her self and her calling while in the arms of her other amour, her husband Paul Child. I don’t know how I could possibly have missed this book for the last two years. Julia is my favorite chef because her recipes are well-tested. She is the only chef I would trust enough for me to cook a recipe for the 1st time and serve it to company or even to a stereotypical evil mother-in-law. I know without even the shadow of a doubt that she will guide me right down to the last grain of salt and will not only tell me what to do, but much more importantly, what pitfalls to not fall into. Julia doesn’t just give us recipes, she teaches us how to cook.

6. Reading For Writers: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose (Non-Fiction) In other words, a guide written for yours truly. 😉

7. House Calls: Reflections of a Family Physician by Thomas L. Stern, M.D. (Non-Fiction) Medicine is another field of interest for me. Dr. Stern was the role model and technical adviser for the Marcus Welby, M.D. television show, and in this book he tells us the story of his life. This quote on the back cover particularly caught my eye: “I’ll tell you stories of the warmth of patients’ feelings toward me as their doctor; but especially, I’ll tell you about how I loved each of them, the people who trusted me enough to refer to me as ‘my doctor.'” Having worked with doctors and having had a few doctors I call ‘my doctor,’ I can tell you that the ones who care are the ones who make all the difference in the world.

8. Rumpole And The Primrose Path by John Mortimer (Fiction) I have read all previous Rumpole books — several times — and it is high time I read this one. Rumpole makes me laugh out loud and heartily, and let me tell you, we adults need to laugh a whole lot more often. I also love the Rumpole PBS series with Leo McLeod also of The Prisoner.

9. The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian by Phil Doran (Non-Fiction) From the writer and producer of The Wonder Years and Who’s The Boss, this travel memoir is reminiscent of A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle and the cover promises another laugh-out-loud adventure.

10. Gerald’s Game by Stephen King (Fiction) I was recently given this book I had never read from the early 1990s. I hope it’s one of King’s really-scary-in-a-great-sort-of-way books and not one of his books describing evil because I don’t like those. But his truly scary ones are the work of a tremendously talented writer

11. Summer of Night by Dan Simmons (Fiction) From the library of the same person who gave me Gerald’s Game. I never read horror except for Stephen King, but since King says “one of those rare must-read books. I am in awe of Dan Simmons,” then I must have been missing something good all these years.

12. The Tomb of Tutankhamen by Howard Carter (Non-Fiction) Another adventure in my armchair to help me experience the greatest archaeological discovery and excavation of all time. Tut has fascinated the world since 1922 and I too have fallen prey to his magical hypnosis from beyond the sarcophagus.

13. The Best Cat Ever by Cleveland Armory (Non-Fiction) If you too have ever been owned by a cat, you might also want to read about Polar Bear and his curmudgeon author.

Don’t forget to leave a comment so we can all visit you too. 😉

Lovely Valentine Dessert: Sprinkles’ Strawberry Cupcakes

Sprinkles is a fancy Beverly Hills bakery specializing in cupcakes and nothing but cupcakes. What works for me is when, today, owner Candace Nelson gave Martha Stewart the recipe for the Strawberry Cupcakes just in time for St. Valentine’s Day and Martha even gave her blessing to spread the news via the Internet. Just click here to be taken to the scrumptious recipe. It’s their only cupcake recipe ever published.

If you haven’t heard, everyone is raving about Sprinkles including Oprah Winfrey, and people are waiting in line all the way down the street to get their $3.25 all-natural cupcake. The bakery will have other stores opening soon across the country.

For more Works For Me Wednesday participants, THIS WEEK ONLY, please visit Don’t Try This At Home. Otherwise, it’s regular home is at Rocks In My Dryer.

Don’t miss my other Works For Me Wednesday post about Valentines.

And here’s another fast and easy Valentine dessert recipe.

Here are my other Household Tips and Organizing Tips.

Fast, Easy Valentine Hearts For Breakfast or Anytime

This Valentine’s Day falls on a weekday so a special breakfast for your family might seem impossible, but not if you follow these quick and easy tips. Armed with my heart shaped cookie cutters of varying sizes I can show my heartfelt sentiments with morning canapes which are some of the easiest and fastest things you can possibly make.

These ideas can also be easily adapted into sandwiches for the lunch boxes (children LOVE them) or appetizers for your romantic dinner for two or even include all your children to celebrate your family’s love.

Here’s just a sampling of the variations you can make in little more time than it takes for your toaster to pop up.

Cut your favorite brand of store-bought waffles, English muffins or sliced bread with your heart-shaped cookie cutters. Toast, and add your favorite savory or sweet toppings. If your topping is not spreadable, use your cookie cutters again!

• Sweet:
• Jelly/Jam especially red ones to keep with the Valentine theme such as strawberry, cherry, or plum;
• Sugar and cinnamon;
• Lemon curd;
• Peanut butter or peanut butter and jelly;
• Butter;
• Apple sauce or apple butter;
• Cream cheese;
• Whipped cream and red sugar sprinkles;
• Nuttela (chocolate and hazelnut spread);
• Or to be totally decadent, an ice cream Sunday with a heart waffle or two on the side.

• Savory:
• Pate or braunschweiger;
• Canadian bacon;
• Ham;
• Shredded or sliced cheese; (shredded will melt faster in your toaster over)
• Minced sun-dried tomatoes;
• Turkey;
• Pastrami or any other deli meats;
• Egg (such as scrambled or over easy, etc.)
• Roasted bell peppers (they come right out of a jar these days);
• Herb cheese spread such as Rondele or Alouette;
• Lox (smoked salmon);
• Marinated mushrooms;
• Marinated artichoke hearts.

I’m sure I missed lots of great toppings, so let us know your great ideas too.

And for the scraps left over from those heart cutouts, some very lucky dogs will love you, or you can save them for your next turkey stuffing.

13 Inexpensive Ways To Show Your Love

Let romance work for you on Valentine’s Day and year-round. It’s not always the expensive gifts that will show you care. Quite often, it’s the little ways. What’s a big diamond if you don’t even pay attention to each other? Here are 13 tested and approved ways to show your loved ones you truly care about them. They will work for you too.

1. Write a love letter (see this wonderful sample at Pensieve — it got him the girl and 20+ years later, it’s still her favorite valentine of all time);
2. Write a poem;
3. Take your loved one to a picnic on the beach, park or some pleasant, but secluded spot;
4. Rent romantic movies, make a fire in the fireplace, dim the lights, make or buy a tiny cake for two or dip some strawberries in chocolate, serve some sparkling apple cider in crystal flutes; (Here’s a lovely Valentine dessert recipe!)
5. Read or recite poetry while you massage your loved one’s feet. Shelley and Tennyson are very romantic! Get a tiny book edition to make it easy to hold in one hand.
6. Make a special dinner for two. Think small portions and ingredients you don’t use everyday. Don’t go out to a crowded, noisy, expensive restaurant. Where’s the romance in that?
7. Tuck a heart-shaped cookie and an “I love you” in your loved one’s lunch bag;
8. Also for the lunch bag or briefcase or even the front seat of the car, place a few Hugs and Kisses chocolates in a decorative cellophane bag or other pretty container with a promise for more at home. More chocolates for a child or more … for a spouse — that’s up to you;
9. Do a chore your loved one would normally have to do (Do it well!! Don’t make your loved one have to redo it or clean up your mess. The thought only counts so far in this case.);
10. Remember the phrase “As you wish” from “The Princess Bride”? It meant “I love you.” Use it or come up with your own phrase and see how quickly your bride or prince charming figures out what you truly mean.
11. Pick out a novel with a romantic love story or subplot and read it to your loved one or to each other before bedtime;
12. Give a vase or box full of 365 heart-shaped slips of paper. On each heart write a reason why you are in love, a compliment, an “I love you,” a promise for a kiss, etc. and fold in half. Each day, for an entire year, your loved one gets to open a heart. You can make it as platonic or as explicit as your relationship allows.
13. Make the decision to make your loved one happy year-round. Base all your actions on whether it would make your loved one happy. It will do wonders for your relationship and soon, without even realizing it, your loved one will reciprocate. 🙂

What are some of your ideas for showing your love on Valentine’s Day?
For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer and for more lists of lucky thirteens, visit Thursday Thirteen.

If you’ve missed any of my other household tips, just click below.

• Our Purpose Driven Lives
• Lovely Valentine Dessert Recipe
• Hit The Road, Junk!
• Cleaning Supplies In Every Room
• Large desk calendar inside guest closet
• How Do You Organize Your Home?
• Thank You Note How-To And Samples
• New Year Resolution And Thank You Notes
• Organizing Household Resources In An Address Book
• Organized In The New Year
• Put Used Christmas Cards To Good Use
• Bookcases at the Breaking Point?
• Organizing Household Binder
• Trading Card Storage
• Freezer Solution
• Child’s haircut without tears
• Homemade bread stuffing
• Plastic colander bath toy drainer/holder
• Reuse plastic grocery bags in the car
• How to increase Web site traffic?
• 16 Blog/Web site tips
• Toy storage
• Every Cookie Recipe Imaginable
• Egg Tip
• Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas

Lovely Valentine Dessert Recipe

I was visiting some of my commenters’ blogs and I came across this lovely heart-shaped Valentine dessert recipe posted by Melanie at Monday Through Sunday.

The picture looks good enough to eat and Melanie says it’s real simple to make, so if you’re in need of just that this Valentine’s Day, go take a look at the recipe.

Do you have any simple but special recipes fit for your Valentine?

Adopt The Tradition of the Feast Of The Magi And The French Galette Des Rois Recipe

French families have an Epiphany tradition to celebrate the Magi each January 6. Even non-religious families celebrate because they have such fond childhood memories and the galette, a covered almond tart or pie, is so good that they just can’t leave it only to the Christians.

I think you should adopt it too because your children will love the game (adults enjoy it too) and all your taste buds will rejoice. The recipe is easy and fast too if you don’t have a French bakery near you.

You’ll have to “draw a king.” After a fancy holiday dinner, everyone eats the Galette Des Rois (Mages). Inside the covered pie is a “feve” or a small ceramic figure or even just a fava bean or button. The figures are traditionally of the Baby Jesus, but can be of any of the nativity pieces, of a champagne bottle, a lucky clover, a horseshoe or anything symbolizing good luck for the New Year.

The mother or hostess cuts and serves the pie pieces while the youngest child gets under the table or simply closes his eyes to tell the server to whom each piece should go to without being able to peek at the little hidden figure.

When someone finds the figure, they are crowned King or Queen and everyone toasts to them with Champagne or non-alcoholic sparkling apple cider, and none will prevent you from drinking soda or milk if you prefer. Each time the King drinks everyone says “The King drinks!”

Then that person discretely places the figure in the glass of someone of the opposite sex so that the King has a Queen or vice versa. Everyone waits for the Queen to find her figure in her glass and when she drinks, everyone says “The Queen drinks!” The King and Queen wear their crowns all evening.

When children are participating, the mother strategically makes sure that one of the children gets the treasured figure. Should a parent accidentally become King, that parent should make a child the Queen (or King or Prince), NOT his spouse.

The game is rigged, but the gullible children have no idea and believe that each year they are just the luckiest kids in the whole wide world and it makes them quite happy and excited. It also boosts their self-esteem in a safe manner. You could crown all the children or even everyone present too.

When the game is played only among adults, it is often agreed upon that the King or Queen will host the Feast of the Magi the following year or bring next year’s galette or pie to the party, and everyone looks forward to more good times among good friends or family.

Whether children or adults, the King and the Queen are supposed to have good luck all year long!

You will need 2 crowns. Your children can easily make them out of paper and decorate them by drawing jewels or using stickers or gluing plastic jewels or sequins. It’s an easy and fun craft. Otherwise you can find crowns from the most basic paper to fancy gold plastic or even velvet ones at a party or costume store.

For the figure you can use a bean or a button. Be sure to warn everyone so there is no tragic chocking! If you decide to play each year, you can even buy tiny figures on-line like the ones in the photo or even outside France at some French bakeries. E-Bay also auctions them as they have become collectibles.

Here’s the recipe:

Galette Des Rois
For 4-6 people

• 2 circles of store-bought puff pastry
• 1 1/2 cup of powdered almonds
• 1 1/2 stick of butter (melted)
• 3 eggs
• 1 heaping cup of granulated sugar
• Natural flavoring to taste such as orange flower water, rose water, pure vanilla extract, rum, Amaretto or Grand Marnier

Mix the sugar, butter, 2 eggs, almonds and your chosen flavoring. Evenly spread the mixture on one of the puff pastry circles. Insert your “feve” or a button or bean, and cover with the second circle. Make a pleasant design on the top with the tip of a knife and paint with 1 egg yolk. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden at 325-350 degrees F. depending on your oven.

It is best served warm. You can also serve at room temperature.

Bon Appetit and Bonne Fete Des Rois!!

Growing Blog, Top Post And Blog Forecast For 2008

I’m amazed and also quite pleased to see that I continue to make the Growing Blog list on WordPress despite the exponential factor which should make it progressively more difficult to be on this list.

To remain a growing blog, you not only have to grow, but you have to outdo your own growing rate and the rate of others each time, and I’ve started the new year with a bang not only being one of the WordPress Growing Blogs, but also having one of the Top Posts on WordPress.

At last count my post Organizing Household Resources In An Address Book was the 99th Top Post on WordPress out of more than 2 million blogs and an unknown bazillion posts.

I’ve said it before, but I have to say it again that I thank my readers.  I’m so glad that you find my blog to be interesting and useful.  I’m so glad when I look at my statistics and see that you came to my site from a link which was e-mailed to you or when I read my own e-mail and there’s a note from you telling me that you are putting me on your reader so you won’t miss a post.

As you saw with yesterday’s post, I don’t like to make New Year Resolutions because so few people can keep them and if I’m going to have a resolution or a goal, why wait for January 1, but here are just a few of the directions I see my blog going in the coming months.  I have other plans too that I’ll let you know about as the year unfolds.

If you’ve made the resolution to be organized, this blog is quickly becoming the place to find easy tips and solutions.  I’ve even created pages at the top of this blog for Household Tips and for Organizing so that you can easily find my posts at any time.  To help you with that there are also a search feature and a calendar in the sidebar.

I’ve noticed that you are also especially interested in my posts on healthy eating and cookies (not so healthy but yummy) as well as other recipes.  So I’ll give you a bit more in these areas too in the coming months.

I’ll continue to post about religion, God and my opinions on the topic.  The Lenten season is approaching quickly.  For the past two years I have used the book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren to prepare for Easter by reading his book and reflecting on his 40-day spiritual journey.  I found different insights each year as I have grown and changed, and for 2008 I hope you’ll join me on-line.  I highly recommend this book which according to Publishers Weekly has become “the bestselling nonfiction hardback book in history.”  So come find out why with me and my other readers.  If you don’t already own it, you can check it out from your local library when the time comes, or you can purchase it.

Today and anytime, feel free to leave me comments.  Comments help us get to know each other and to build a community.

In the meantime, thanks a million to all of you for reading my blog, and I wish you and your loved ones a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year 2008!!!

Thursday Thirteen #13 — 13 Resolutions And Why They Will Fail

Wow, 13 Thursday 13s already.

I never make New Year’s Resolutions other than resolving NOT to make resolutions! Here’s 13 reasons why the top 13 resolutions around the world fail.

1. Lose weight: Doomed from the start because it’s almost impossible to escape corn syrup. It’s in everything! Statistics show that weight gain in the United States has gone up 4000 percent since the 1970s and it correlates exactly with the 4000% increase in manufacturers’ use of corn syrup since the 1970s. Corn syrup also increases cravings!!
2. Exercise: Most people are too tired all day to exercise and when you add to the equation that you have to drive both to and from the gym (in my case it would be a 25 mile round trip to the nearest gym) it makes the whole thing futile unless you can give all of us a few more hours in the day.
3. Diet: We all have the best intentions until our ALREADY STARVED stomachs get tempted by the aroma of pizza or warm chocolate chip cookies.
4. Write to far away relatives: Tomorrow I’ll write to my aunt, but when tomorrow comes, well my dear, Scarlett said it best, “Tomorrow is another day!”
5. Be a better spouse/child/friend: If we couldn’t do it on Thanksgiving or on Christmas Day, what makes you think that we can miraculously do it by procrastinating waiting until January 1.
6. Stop procrastinating: Some people do procrastinate because they just don’t want to do something, but most of the time, people just don’t have enough hours in the day to accomplish everything on the TO DO list. Give all of us another few more hours in the day AND the energy to do it, and I guarantee you we’ll all procrastinate a whole lot less. Until then, that resolution is guaranteed to be broken quickly.
7. Get more sleep: If you live in the city, be sure to pass a law forbidding garbage trucks to stagnate under your window and beep when they back out with a 13-point turn. While you’re at it, pass a law to forbid all traffic, all honking, all loud neighbors, all barking dogs until after you have woken up on your own and are well-rested. If you live in the country, make sure the rooster is blind and your neighbor has agreed to milk the cows and do all your morning chores. And above all, regardless of where you live, be absolutely sure that you do not have any children under the age of 50.
8. Keep a clean home: Unless you want to get rid of the dirt-tracking, slobbering dog, get rid of the germ-carrying, toy-scattering kids, maybe even the food-eating, clothe-wearing spouse, that’s going to be a tough one. Even at the Carlsbad caves in New Mexico, they have to spend thousands of volunteer hours dusting and picking dirt and lint out of the stalagmites each year and nobody even lives there. You do LIVE in your house, don’t you?
9. Quite smoking/drinking/and God-forbid taking drugs: These are all substances which affect your brain receptors. You not only have to get rid of a nasty habit, but you have to get your brain and your physiology to stop reacting. With very hard work and lots of will-power you might be able to quit, but your body will always be addicted. It would be much easier to resolve to never use and abuse these substances in the first place.
10. Reduce stress overall: LOL! LOL! When I hear people say that it reduces MY stress because it makes me laugh so much. Of course this is probably the easiest resolution to achieve. All you have to do is die and go to Heaven. That’s all. Now, be careful! Make sure you DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, commit suicide under any circumstance, because then you’ll die and go to hell!
11. Reduce stress at work: If you work with people, it’s impossible. Unless maybe if you work with French people, because I seem to recall Napoleon saying “Impossible is not French.” You can’t work with machines or robots because they are designed and programed by people. Now maybe if you want to follow in Jane Goodall’s footsteps and go to the jungle to live with animals. They say animals reduce stress — as long as they’re not trying to eat you!
12. Get out of debt: First thing is to sell your house because a mortgage is a 30-year debt. Sell your car too since you don’t want car payments. Cut up your credit cards which will of course wreck your credit score, but that’s OK since you don’t want any debt.
13. Save money: That is another way of saying join the rat race, because to save money you have to earn money with a job and you have to work your little rat wheel faster than INFLATION. Also, don’t believe all those commercials that say you can save money if you go to their stores, because what they conveniently forget to tell you is that to save that money, you have to spend money first, so you’ll have to stat in that giant rat race.

If I didn’t deter you from making resolutions, just remember that it takes at least three weeks to form a good habit, so don’t give up before then, and best of luck and Happy New Year to you and yours!

If you want to see the list of Thursday 13 participants, just click here.