Monthly Archives: October 2011

Baked sweet potatoes and green peppers fresh from the garden. We didn’t grow the rice :) Nothing too complicated about this meal! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, place washed sweet potatoes in a pan, prick them with a fork, and put them in the oven for about an hour (or until they’re soft to the touch). For the rice: pick your favorite and follow the directions! We like Lundberg’s Brown Basmati. Once the potatoes are done, slice them open and put a little butter on top. Perfection! Continue reading →

Caves fascinate me. I think that there is something about caves that attract human beings at an instinctive level. If you watch any young child for a day you’ll see them build forts that they can crawl into to hide or find little spaces in the closets or cupboards to squirm into. Caving starts as a fun place to hide (perhaps, subconsciously a safe place?) and grows into the desire to explore spectacular new worlds. I have visited Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, walked through lava tubes in Hawaii’s Volcano National Park, and visited ancient cliff dwellings carved into the rocks of New Mexico. I cannot call myself a caver by any means, but I think I might like to be. Perhaps this is how caves worked their way into my first novel. I thoroughly enjoyed researching the different types of caves, cave formations, and most of all taking virtual tours of caves around the world. Continue reading →

For my first installment of “Foodie Friday” I’m going to share one of my favorite recipes for Homemade Ice Cream. Ready?

3 cups of cream
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
top with or mix in chocolate shavings

Easy right? It is, and it’s so delicious. I have a cuisinart ice cream and yogurt maker with a freezer bowl that spins automatically and a paddle attachment, so I simply mix the ingredients, pour them in, and turn it on. It usually takes 25 minutes to get to the thickness that my family prefers. If you want to mix in the chocolate shavings, do so in the last five minutes. (If you add them at the beginning with this type of mixer, they may all end up at the bottom or frozen to the edges). You can substitute maple syrup for the sugar if you prefer, and to thicken things up you could add three egg yolks to the ingredients. And if you really want to get homemade, start with cream that you’ve skimmed from the milk of your very own dairy cow!

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Today is the first post on what I hope to become my regular Wednesday topic- hobbies. Since there are hundreds of different hobbies that I’m aware of, and likely hundreds more that I’ve never heard of, I think that this will provide enough material to keep me going for quite a while.

For the first post I did a bit of research into the origins of one of my favorite hobbies, which is scrapbooking. I was surprised to discover that, according to Wikipedia, the art of creating scrapbooks began around the 16th century in Europe. Individuals during that time would put together what they called friendship albums which might include signatures from various acquaintances, hand-written messages from friends, watercolor or pencil sketches, silhouette portraits, and even locks of hair. Continue reading →

I have been on a green smoothie kick lately, and I have to admit, I am feeling pretty good. I usually try to have one for breakfast, but I still have to eat my share of the farm fresh eggs, so sometimes I have one for lunch instead. Here’s my most recent creation.
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