without being an utter failure, of course

Well. Today is the last day for a year that I can take a day off from blogging.
Hmm.Wait......

Not your gramma's vegetable soup!

Cookies, candy, cheesy potatoes, dips, chips in the dips, cookies, chinese food, cookies, candy, cookies.
The Season of Eating. Thankfully, it's over! There is only so many cookies one can eat and still respect oneself in the morning!
Right around this time of year it starts. Craving vegetables. Lovely carrots, delectable green beans, delicious squash!
It's time for Veggie Soup! A way to get plenty of veggies in and still have a tastebud delight!

And because I want YOU to eat your veggies too, I share with you now, my Veggie Soup Recipe, such as it is.

Good for your Soul and your body Veggie Soup
onion
carrots
yellow squash
zucchini
green beans
edited to add what I forgot:
celery (reach in the middle and get the ones with the leaves, flavor, my friend)
minced garlic clove or two
Dice all of these up into small pieces. Small is good in a soup, in my opinion. And this is my soup so I dice em how I see em.
In a large stock pan with a wee bit of olive oil, saute veggies adding thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper (I love my veggies to kick me around),paprika and fresh parsley. No measurements here, people. This is cooking at it's best. Just throw a generous amount into the pot. It will taste delicious, I guarantee it! If you have a favorite herb, throw it in!
Saute the vegs until soft and edible.
Now, if I don't have homemade chicken stock (if the chicken stock still resembles frozen chicken bones like mine often do) then use a good chicken broth/stock. I always use Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth, no substitutes for me, but your own soup is your own choice. The broth will make or break the soup, though, so choose wisely.
Then add 1 can diced tomatoes
1 can stewed tomatoes (I like the flavor) breaking them up a bit as I add them.
1 can tomato paste.
Bring to a simmer and then add 1/2 of a small cabbage chopped (don't turn your nose up a the cabbage! It is good for you and in this soup give a sweetness that you will love)
Simmer for 10 minutes and enjoy with or without a slice of crusty bread.

~~~~
There you have it! The recipe you did not even know you wanted on this New Years Eve Eve...Eve.
Bon Appetit!
p.s. Thanks for your support about doing the 365 blog thing. It will be a wild ride, that is for sure!

daft? You decide

Phew. Is it over?

This now concludes* Christmas, 2007. Please resume your nap time.
* I had mistakenly used the word "commences" instead of concludes. In all fairness, I am a cat. And I was tired.
Fig.

May your days be merry and bright

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. ~Dr. Seuss

Our tree is a bit minimalistic this year. Only lights and garland. Not an ornament in sight. And? I love it!
Then there is this:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1716091069

I wish for you, joy. And for the world? Peace.
Merry Christmas.
If not? Well, then, Merry Tuesday Eve.

Snow and cookies

Lots of snow. Lots of cookies. It's Christmas, after all.


molasses crinkles. I ate not one of them but they are gone so they must have been edible.

Peanut Butter kiss cookies. See recipe at end.

shortbread jam thumbprint cookies, recipe by Ina Garten.
Snow

Hollywood style snowflakes:

and more:

and a pair of fetching handwarmers:

Gifted and well received. Malabrigo makes a wonderful gift, don't you agree?
Wanna play?
Tell me what you think of me. Finally, at long last. Go to my Johari window
~~~~
I was just about comatose by the end of the week but I am now on a week long vacation from work and my energy level has increased considerably. That says something but I'm not energetic enough to figure it all out yet.
~~~~
2 more shopping days.
2 more wrapping days.
Oy.
~~~
THE best peanut butter kiss cookie you will ever eat. Or your money back:

18 ounces creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
48 chocolate kisses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix all ingredients by hand
Roll 1 level tablespoon into a ball
Bake 12 -14 minutes until dry and cracked looking
Take cookies out of oven and press kiss into center.
Get yourself a huge glass of milk and enjoy them in Bethany's favorite way: While the kiss is still melty.

It takes a village..

Every year I have a bit of fun populating our Christmas village, Hurleyville to the fam!

What town can be complete without a jump roping Priest? He goes along with the bird feeding Nun.

I then concentrated on animals.
Bunnies:

Squirrels and sheep:

A couple of moooooose:

You know, with all of the building up, the wildlife is coming into the cities. It's no different here in the Village.
A village gnome?

Got you covered!
~~
Tonight I am continuing to nurture my inner Christmas spirit (not the scroogey one, the Christmasy one) when I bake some cookies for my annual cookie tray for work, hang some baubles on the tree (it stands with it's lights and no adornment as we speak) and start my annual reading of A Christmas Carol.
Because honestly, it's not Christmas until you eat a cookie or two, read the Christmas Carol and light up a village.
Or at least in my world it's not!

Fig's got mail OR: Thank you, Cookie!

Thank you, Cookie! She is a champion knitter of Cats and bloggers, I tell ya!
When the mail came yesterday, Fig was sleeping. I placed the envelope on the stairs, standing up between the spindles. When I came home from grocery shopping (where I was hard pressed to find many of the things on my list because everyone had panic shopped earlier because of the forecasted snowstorm), Fig came down the stairs to snoop out what was for him in those bags, as he often does. But he KNEW there was catnip nearby. He kept walking the hall and kitchen back and forth, nose working like crazy. Kooky cat. No fooling him!
Right now there is a wonderful snowstorm going on outside (watching it from my living room window = bliss)

Today will be a good day to find that Christmas spirit. I know I left it here somewhere. Perhaps it's in the baking sheets. Cookie baking is on tap for today!
I hope you can hunker down today, no matter what your weather. Hunkering is good.
~~
Click on any photo to go to flickr land, the place where Sandy's photos live~

My Marshmallow World

It's a marshmallow world in the winter,
When the snow comes to cover the ground,
It's the time for play, it's a whipped-cream day,
I wait for it the whole year round.

~Dean Martin
Unfortunately for most of the NorthEast, the snow came at an inconvenient time.*
*That would be an understatement*
When the flakes fell, apparently every single person that lives in this area and a couple more for good measure, got in their cars and drove. Well, "DROVE" may be a generous term for the parking that we all did on the main roads. I have never had a more frustrating time. For instance, it took me 45 minutes to get home. That would be a 3 minute ride, 4 if the light is red. I could have indeed walked faster.
And then.
(Luckily for us bloggers, there is always an "AND THEN")
Derek and Bethany had gone to the mall earlier in the day to buy their Salvation Army Angel gifts and unfortunately did not think ahead and drove Derek's car which is as ineffective in the snow as...well..as a pair of water wings. (you know, water wings being a summertime swimming activity?) So then I had to get in the car and drive to the mall to rescue 2 stranded loved ones. 3 1/2 nailbiting hours later, we arrived at home. Stressed but very happy to see the homestead. (that would be normally be a 1/2 hour ride, maybe 40 minutes tops)
The memories are behind us now and we are left with the beauty of a Christmas snow. Because honestly? There is nothing as beautiful as a December snowstorm viewed from your living room window.
Am I right?
Who's with me here?

Bird tracks in the snow make me ridiculously happy. Fig too!
One of the millions of things demanding my attention today?

THE tree. For some reason, I'm having some trouble finding my Christmas spirit this year. My inner Scrooge is showing. You know what does not help? When I finally get the lights on the poor dark tree? And despite testing each strand of lights before using them? The top of that tree is DARK. No working lights, even though they worked a couple of minutes previous. Very funny, right? I KNOW, RIGHT? I have wiggled and checked each dark bulb. Pfft.
And?
While I'm on the Christmas stuff?
~Why is it so hard to shop for a 19 and a 21 year old?
~WHY am I just as exhausted after a marathon online shopping excursion as when I'm schlepping the mall lugging all the packages? It shouldn't be, but it is.
~Why can't I be rich?
~Why will there still be kids with cold hands?
Just wondering.

Ice, birds, mitten and bread, not necessarily in that order

Ready for a bunch of random? Tied together only by the single thread of being included here, directly from my head!

There was lots of ice the other night but thankfully it's gone now. There really are no beautiful songs about ice storms. As well it should be.

I arrived home tonight to find 4 calling birds on my house. It appears I am living the 12 days of Christmas! I can't wait to see the Lords a Leaping!

Snacks are being left on our porch again. This time balancing on the railing with the snow brush as the tripod base. At least the squirrel is eating whole grains. A squirrel needs to keep up his strength!

And a mitten to go to Miss Rachael and her wonderful Soaring Eagles Project. Almost done the first one and steaming towards the second. Remember that you can win a pair of hand knit (by ME) mittens if you hurry up and knit a pair for the wonderful, freezing children in Oklahoma. They had a horrible ice storm too this week and those kids hands are not getting any warmer by themselves.
What are you doing here still? Go knit a mitten!
(see previous entry for the mitten winning details)

I didn't take today off after all, but there are kids with COLD HANDS! How can I let this go on??

The sky is blue and so am I.
I happened to read Norma's post yesterday about mittens. Not just any mittens, but the Soaring Eagles Project mittens (click here to read about it). I went over to read up on the specifics and then I couldn't sleep last night. I keep thinking of kids with no mittens. How can I let this happen?
So, I'm here to beg you to knit mittens along with me. If we all knit one pair of mittens, that makes a lot of warm hands this winter for those kids.
Imagine, here I am on the comment drought day of Saturday begging your help.
Here's the thing. If you knit at least one pair of mittens for the Soaring Eagle Project by December 17th and get them into the mail, I will enter your name into a drawing. The winner of that drawing will get a handknit pair of mittens, knit by me after the New Year. If you knit more than one pair, you will have your name put into the drawing as many times as you finish mittens.
There is not much time, but these are kid sized mittens. WE can do this.
I'm getting started right now.
You with me?

Sweets for the eyes, because it is Friday and that is what bloggers do

Candles in the windows
and

A wreath on the door!
I'd call these Friday Christmas Eye Candy.
I'm taking the weekend off from blogging. I am going to take some time to catch up on my blog reading and commenting. I am woefully behind.
See you in the comments!

I ♥ silk garden

The start of a Noro Silk Garden Stripey scarf ala BrooklynTweed style. The love for a stripey scarf grows and grows row by row!

Things that make me go HMMMMM....*

*entry title yoinked directly from Miss Carole.
During this time of home renovation, we keep a ladder on the porch, you know for when you need to get out there and paint really quick? Never mind that the weather has turned frigid and the snow, as we speak flies. Painting happens. We're the kind of family that keeps on the ready. You never know.

But on the top rung of the ladder sits something weird.

Yes, that's right. A cookie. Not just ANY cookie. A jamprint cookie. Someone is saving it for later. I suspect the neighborhood squirrel but anyone could be the culprit.
And on the desk?
I find this today:

Yes. A list of names. Santa?? I suspect so until I read a bit closer and it dawns on me that it is a list of the characters on the Simpsons.
Someone, in my family, who is near and dear to me, most likely did an internet search to learn and list the Simpson's Characters.
Hmmmm. Interesting.
Yes?

A glimpse of some happy

happy camper –noun Slang. a person who is cheerful and satisfied

Festive porch (with snow flying may I add)

Snow on my jacket

Santa Gnome standing on my porch
and

Noro Silk Garden just dying to be knit into some stripes!
~~~
Yes. Today I am a happy camper indeed~

High noon came and a winner was left standing

The new lights for our new porch. New porch deserves New Christmas lights, right?
Thanks to all who entered the little NaNoKnitWithFreeYarnMo give away! There were 57 wonderful people who commented and through a very very technical, complicated method, the number 37 is the winner. Number 37 please come forward to collect your prize~
LOOK! It's Kathy the Knitigator~ She's the WINNER~ Kathy, you're always a winner to me. But now, you have yarn to boot!
The rest of my day will be spent putting up some Christmas lights and strings of garland on the porch followed by a date with a mug of hot chocolate and perhaps even some online Christmas shopping.
Yeah, I know. I'm living the life, huh?

Same picture as above only not in focus!

Mix it up Saturday

Mixing it up (a Thanksgiving photo to symbolize my Saturday post, entirely voluntary I might add)
Hmm.
It just doesn't feel right if I don't post today!
:D
~I don't even have anything to say. I wanted to show you a picture of my new Santa gnome but he is already standing on the porch and honestly? That wind is whipping us into minus degree (F) wind chills. Brr. Too cold to even take blog pictures. Imagine?
~I am rooting for a bit of a snowstorm on Sunday night.
If you live around here and are not a snow fan, send it on over to me. I don't mind.
~And this:

found here, saved to my own server but of course.
Psst. Don't tell Fig that there is a picture of a dog around here. It won't be pretty
~And finally, don't forget about the contest in yesterday's post. Do it. You need yarn, I need comments, it's a win win.