Tag: Chocolate

An Easter Surprise!

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Bob’s sister Kathee and her husband John have started a tradition of sending us See’s Chocolates, from California.  It is a much appreciated and anticipated event at Easter time!

This year we opened the box to find that it had apparently been too closely guarded by a fire-breathing dragon!  It was melted, bubbled, and then re-cooled into a congealed and unappetizing mass.  (Don’t worry Kathee and John!  I called and See’s replaced it with BRAND NEW and sent it OVERNIGHT to us!!!)

😀 😀 😀

So, I picked through the carnage of the first order and placed the least damaged on the dining room table.  Hey, we don’t waste minimally damaged See’s candy in this house!  It is simply too delicious!

Later that evening we were preparing for bed and I realized something was amiss…

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“Hey!  What happened to those two chocolate eggs and the bag of jelly beans?”

~*~

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BAD DOG TUCKER!  VERY BAD DOG!!!

Yes, he got sick!

Bloated, bad gas, and threw up.

SICK!  

Did he learn his lesson?

Unfortunately, NO.

😦

He has done it before and will likely do it again, but in my own defense, I honestly did not expect the little circus dog to get up onto the dining room table.  Next time?

TOP SHELF IN THE PANTRY!

~*~

Sunday Shorts ~ Absent Minded

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I found this prompt, a 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups, on Julia’s Place   and sadly didn’t notice the date.    The idea is to only write 100 words on the picture prompt, and it is deviously harder than you think. 

Having spent more time on this than I should I nevertheless decided to post it!

😉

~*~

last piece

On opening her Christmas package Louisa instantly knew its contents.   Breaking the cellophane wrapper, she carefully slid out the chocolate covered nougat, and holding it to her nose, she inhaled along the length of it like some cigar snob.  She smiled.

Not wanting to eat the whole thing at once she picked up her sharpest knife to begin meticulously measuring and slicing the bar into bite sized increments.  Grabbing the plate,  she sat down to watch television.   At the first commercial she was shocked to look down and see only one bite left.   Shrugging her shoulders she ate it too.

~*~

 

Nostalgia and a Birthday!

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It goes without saying that if you are living with a gluten intolerant or Celiac person that real birthday cake is kinda rare.  Now it has been known to happen (twice maybe?) that the lady of the Farmlet went to the bakery and purchased a small real birthday cake with real flour and real gluten goodness in it for the man of the Farmlet,  but again, it is rare.

This year she tried to get the man to tell her what he wanted for his birthday and he finally said,

“Really, all the things I want I just go and buy for myself… so I don’t really want or need anything.”

WAIT A MINUTE!

Birthdays are supposed to be all about surprises, friends, family and fun!

(Yeah, I know, but it goes perfectly with the mixer…  OK, I heard that, you’re saying “What mixer?”  Wait for it it’s coming.)  🙂

It’s about getting that one little thing you just really wanted but couldn’t bring yourself to buy… (well ok, mine this year wasn’t so little, but it was what I really wanted and although we could really live without it, we really can use it.)

I digress.

Anyway, I couldn’t find a decent bakery in time for the big day, so I went out and bought a mix and some new cake pans to do the baking.  The new cake pans were necessary so as not to contaminate my bake ware.

I can hear you shouting:  “BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BEATERS ON THE MIXER!!!”

Not to worry.  I had a backup!

Way back in 1945 the man of the Farmlet’s Mother got married and she got a hand mixer which she used at least once a week for making cakes, cookies, custards, mashed potatoes, etc. for her family, and she continued to use it right up until she moved in with the Big Guy Upstairs…

Now as it happens, we moved into her home and inherited most of the stuff she left behind.  Much later, when we packed up to move to the Farmlet,  we took the most important stuff with us.   So how did I know  that a mixer over 65 years old was important, you ask?  The answer is simply that I liked that it still worked, although I have to admit I never imagined I’d actually use it!

And so it was that I put down dish towels, got out the old Pyrex bowls from the 50s, and got to work!

Yeah,  I used a box mix…  OK so I cheated!  What’s a gluten-free woman to do on such short notice…  I ask you?

But the box mix was covered in real, homemade, chocolate buttercream frosting!

No, your eyes do not deceive you.  That cake is most certainly lopsided.  I’m out of practice after all, but I have it on good authority it was a GREAT birthday cake.  Now I am certainly not bragging.  Honestly, if you have not had real cake for years, well then, this one was pretty much going to be well received now wasn’t it?  😉

~*~

Using Mom’s old mixer and bowls somehow made it seem as if she was right there with me, and I could imagine her smiling as I worked.

~*~

Photo Friday: the invasion has begun

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Like aliens from some unknown realm

they dig their way to the surface

climb the nearest building, tree,

or truck tire.

There they latch on tightly,

and begin to split down the middle…

emerging as

Cicadas.

For most of the summer they will buzz

in the heat of the day,

singing in waves across pastures

and through forest stands

calling, calling, calling,*

till they find the response

they were looking for.

~*~

Cicadas lie in the ground for 13 years and then emerge en masse.  Apparently, 2011 is the year!  This year marks the Magicicada XIX!

Just for fun:

A recent news story out of Tennessee about Chocolate covered Cicadas

AND, possibly more info, and videos, than you ever wanted to know about the curious little creatures  can be found… HERE!

*I took a drive to Collinsville, Alabama on a two lane highway (Hwy. 11) through the country.  Radio on, windows up, I think, “What is that noise?”   Turning off the radio and rolling down the windows I hear it…  Imagine multiplying  the call (linked in ‘calling’ above) by hundreds of thousands and you will know what I heard!  Amazing sound for a little one inch flying bug!